'Family Guy' MacFarlane adds his voice to 'Simpsons' gig

  LOS ANGELES: Seth MacFarlane may already have three hit animated television shows, one hit raunchy comedy movie and the coveted Oscars hosting job for next year, but the comedian is adding another notch on his resume: guest voicing on "The Simpsons."
"Family Guy" creator MacFarlane will appear in the season premiere of the 25th season of "The Simpsons" in 2013, Fox Television, home to both shows, said on Friday.
MacFarlane will play a married man who pursues matriarch Marge Simpson after the two meet on a website and form a bond over their love of a "Downton Abbey-esque" show called "Upton Rectory," show producer Al Jean told Entertainment Weekly.
The episode, entitled "Dangers on a Train," will air in fall 2013.
MacFarlane's guest spot is a crossover for the actor, writer and director, who was inspired by "The Simpsons" when creating "Family Guy," an animated comedy following the dysfunctional Griffin family headed by dim-witted patriarch Peter, who bears similarities to Homer Simpson.
Both shows air on Fox, and the news comes after MacFarlane featured Dan Castellaneta, the voice of Homer Simpson, in a recent "Family Guy" episode.
MacFarlane, 39, also created and voices characters for animated comedies "American Dad" and "The Cleveland Show," and he had a box-office hit with R-rated comedy "Ted" this past summer.
He will be hosting the Oscars in February.
"The Simpsons" first aired in 1989 and is now the longest-running U.S. sitcom in history and is broadcast in more than 100 countries.
The show has seen a diverse range of guest stars across all spectrums of pop culture including Bill Clinton, Buzz Aldrin, Tony Blair, Julian Assange and Lady Gaga. (Reuters)
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Childhood dreams give birth to giant robot

TOKYO: Like many Japanese, Kogoro Kurata grew up watching futuristic robots in movies and animation, wishing that he could bring them to life and pilot one himself. Unlike most other Japanese, he has actually done it. His 4-tonne, 4-meter (13 feet) tall Kuratas robot is a grey behemoth with a built-in pilot's seat and hand-held controller that allows an operator to flex its massive arms, move it up and down and drive it at a speed of up to 10 kph (6 mph). "The robots we saw in our generation were always big and always had people riding them, and I don't think they have much meaning in the real world," said Kurata, a 39-year-old artist. "But it really was my dream to ride in one of them, and I also think it's one kind of Japanese culture. I kept thinking that it's something that Japanese had to do." His prototype robot comes equipped with an operating system that also allows remote control from an iPhone as well as optional "guns" that shoot plastic bottles or BB pellets and are powered by a lock-and-load system fired by the pilot's smile. The robot, which took two years to pull together from concept to construction, also comes with a range of customized options from paint scheme to cup holders. It isn't cheap. The sticker price for the most basic model alone is around 110 million yen ($1.3 million). Kurata said while he has received thousands of inquiries about buying a robot, he's also received a large number of cancellations and declined to specify how many people have actually bought one. But that's not so important. "By my building this, I hope that it'll sort of be the trailblazer for people who can do more than myself to make different things," he said. "They might be able to make a society that uses robots in a way I can't even imagine. I expect more from the implications of building it than from the robot itself." REUTERS

Childhood dreams give birth to giant robot

 
COTONOU: Tomb raiders have dug up more than 100 graves at a cemetery in Benin since Saturday for what authorities suspect is a black-market trade in human organs and skulls for voodoo ritual fetishes.
The incident is the most serious case of grave-robbing in the West African state, the world capital of voodoo where most of the country's 9 million residents practice a benign form of the official religion.
Authorities in Dangbo, a village 10 km (6 miles) from the capital Porto-Novo, began an investigation after a mason working at the cemetery said he spotted several masked men digging up the graves, from which organs and skulls were removed.
"The desecration of graves is about money in this region," said Joseph Afaton, director of the cemetery. "It is for sacrifices, or for bewitching."
Body parts of humans and rare animals are prized by some people in central Africa for their supposed supernatural powers, and are used in occult ceremonies. Traffickers often obtain human remains from grave robbers, but a recent spate of killings has also been linked to the gruesome trade.
Authorities in Cameroon in September arrested five people suspected of trafficking human body parts after they were discovered at a checkpoint carrying a severed human head. (Reuters)

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Kim Kardashian brings out fans, protestors, cops in Bahrain

 
MANAMA: Television celebrity Kim Kardashian brought out screaming fans, angry Muslim hardliners and police throwing stun grenades when she visited Bahrain to launch a milkshake franchise, witnesses said.
About 100 Sunni Salafists demonstrated with banners outside The Walk Bahrain, an upmarket mall in the capital Manama, after some MPs tried to block the visit over what they called her "bad reputation", according to a local newspaper.
Thousands of fans, who had paid up to 500 Bahrain dinars ($1,360) a ticket, broke into hysterical screams as the 32-year-old celebrity launched the Millions of Milkshakes franchise inside the mall.
Witnesses said police dispersed the demonstrators with stun grenades as the inauguration proceeded inside. There were no reports of casualties.
Kardashian stirred controversy even before she arrived in Bahrain from Kuwait, where she opened another store last week.
Hardline Sunni Muslim MPs presented a motion to parliament calling her "an actress with an extremely bad reputation", according to Bahrain's English language Gulf Daily News.
The assembly did not vote on the motion, the newspaper said.
Many Kardashian fans tweeted their displeasure, saying the "MPs should focus their time on solving key political, economic and social issues", the newspaper reported.
Bahrain, where the U.S. Fifth Fleet is based, is trying to overcome nearly two years of unrest among its majority Shi'ite Muslims demanding political reforms and equality with the Sunni Muslims who rule the kingdom. (Reuters)

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