US Air Force official faces action for posing in Playboy

An air force drill sergeant and former Iowa National Guard member who posed nude for Playboy magazine has been removed from active duty, she said on Wednesday.

8226; SAN ANTONIO: An air force drill sergeant and former Iowa National Guard member who posed nude for Playboy magazine has been removed from active duty, she said on Wednesday. Whether that amounts to an honourable discharge, as Michelle Manhart also says, is unclear. Manhart, who appeared in a six-page spread in Playboy8217;s February issue, said she got word on Friday that she was removed from 8220;extended active duty8221; and was also told that she was demoted in rank from staff sergeant to senior airman.

Jennifer Lopez honoured

8226; BERLIN: Jennifer Lopez has been honoured by human rights group Amnesty International for producing and starring in Bordertown, a new film examining the murders of women in a Mexican border city. Lopez said she felt 8220;very humbled8221; to receive the group8217;s 8220;Artists for Amnesty8221; award from East Timor8217;s Prime Minister Jose Ramos-Horta, a Nobel peace laureate. Lopez plays an investigative journalist reporting on the serial killings of women in Ciudad Juarez, on Mexico8217;s border with the US. The film also stars Antonio Banderas and Martin Sheen.

Arctic Monkeys tops awards

8226; LONDON: The Arctic Monkeys led the field with two awards at the Brits, the annual British pop music awards ceremony, while boy band Take That emphatically completed their comeback by winning one of their own. The awards, organised by the British Phonographic Industry, were a disappointment for pop singer Lily Allen, however, as she finished the night without a single award despite having been nominated in four categories. The Arctic Monkeys were named Best British Group and their album Whatever people say I am, that8217;s what I8217;m not won the Best British Album award on Wednesday.

Sharapova UN8217;s envoy

8226; UNITED NATIONS: Top-ranked Russian tennis player Maria Sharapova has been named a goodwill ambassador for the United Nations Development Programme. Her work for the UN poverty-fighting agency will have a special focus on helping the areas affected by 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster. Sharapova announced that she and her newly created private foundation would donate 100,000 dollars to eight UNDP projects in Belarus, Russia and Ukraine that try to assist those areas still reeling under the impact of the Chernobyl accident.

YSL stripped bare in film

8226; BERLIN: A biting documentary about the twilight years of Yves Saint Laurent8217;s haute couture fashion house screened at the Berlin Film Festival after a court blocked its release in France. The French designer bid a graceful 8220;adieu8221; to fashion after 44 years in 2002. Celebration by Olivier Meyrou goes behind the scenes to show a much less elegant world in which Saint Laurent walks around in a daze. The designer is losing his sharp eye and depends on his helpers who treat him like a child.