Actors and directors have led tributes to the "extraordinary" influence of Marlon Brando, who died on Friday.

Brando, who starred in more than 40 movies, was perhaps best known for his role as mafia leader Don Corleone in the 1972 classic The Godfather.

He died of lung failiure on Friday 2nd July 2004.

An appeals court has ruled that Limp Bizkit and lead singer Fred Durst are not liable for the injuries a fan suffered at a 2000 concert.

The fan, a paramedic, was kicked in the head after Durst invited concertgoers to go down to the main floor.

Well here we are on our spangly fast new server, where we will hopefully get this place going for once. I have some volunteers for writing, so let's hope they keep their word! (You know who you are! )

A Chinese court has ordered an online video game company to return hard-won virtual property, including a make-believe stockpile of bio-chemical weapons, to a player whose game account was looted by a hacker.

Li Hongchen, 24, had spent two years, and 10,000 yuan (750 pounds) on pay-as-you-go cards to play, amassing weapons and victories in the popular online computer game Hongyue, or Red Moon, before his "weapons" were stolen in February, the Xinhua news agency said on Friday.

Attempts by the record industry to fight music piracy on the internet have suffered a double setback.
A US court said that the recording industry's methods to find music swappers are not allowed by the law.

In a separate ruling, the Dutch Supreme Court decided that the popular file-sharing program, Kazaa, is not breaking the law

The rulings are a blow to the record industry, which is trying to stop the illegal sharing of music online.

Internet media company RealNetworks Inc. said on Thursday it is suing longtime rival Microsoft Corp., accusing the software powerhouse of unfairly promoting its own software for playing audio and video on computers and over the Internet.

In an antitrust complaint filed in federal court in San Jose, California, RealNetworks claimed that Microsoft "pursued a broad course of predatory conduct over a period of years by abusing its monopoly power, resulting in substantial lost revenue and business for RealNetworks."

How on earth they managed it i do not know, after all the great tunes we have had this year from the likes of The Darkness, Black Eyed Peas and so many other artists, and Westlife win with a watered down rendition of 'Mandy'.

What a poor state of affairs we have in British pop.

Neil Fox is leaving the Hit 40 UK chart show after 11 years as host. The Sun recons it's because he is too cheesy, but he says its because of his wave of sucess from being a judge on Pop Idol.

Yes, hello, and welcome to long awaited Xaprief.com.

Things are still not quite as I would have liked them to open the site, but this process could go on for ever, so we're open, and hopefully this will get the ball rolling.

Have a poke around. There's not a _huge_ amount to see at the moment, but please give us feedback on what there is and (perhaps more importantly) what there isn't, on the forums.

Thank you, and welcome.

Hwulex

This year is looking to be one of the most competitive years for the christmas number one, with up to 10 artists competing for the number one spot. William Hill have the Darkness at 4/1 favorites, with Bo Selecta's celebrity loving Avid Merrion at 5/1. Other hopefuls include;

Unnamed Winner Of Pop Idol 2
Alex Parks
Cliff Richard
Blue/ Stevie Wonder/ Angie Stone
Sugar Babes
Robbie Williams
Justin Timberlake
Fast Food Rockers

ITV and BBC bosses are said to be somewhat worried by the prospect of their Flop Idol and Shame Academy efforts being pipped to the post by proper music. Even wrinkled hasbeen Sir Cliff is in wth a chance.

My view; Come On You Darkness