Thousands mourn U.S.-Mexican singer Jenni Rivera

Thousands of mourners on Wednesday packed a Los Angeles theater to pay their final respects to Mexican-American singer Jenni Rivera more than a week after her death in a plane crash. Rivera, 43, best known for her work in the Mexican folk Nortena and Banda genres, died after the small jet she was traveling in crashed in northern Mexico on December 9. Rivera's family, dressed in white, led the memorial service eulogizing the singer. A bank of white roses was displayed in front of Rivera's bright red coffin and a brass band performed musical interludes. More than 6,000 people crowded into the theater about 30 miles north of her childhood home in Long Beach, California. Tickets for the service at the Gibson Amphitheatre sold out within minutes, organizers said. The daughter of Mexican immigrants, Rivera was called the "Diva de la Banda." She sold about 15 million albums and earned a slew of Latin Grammy nominations during her 17-year career. "Jenni made it OK for women to be who they are," her manager Pete Salgado said at the service. "Jenni also made it OK to be from nothing, with the hopes of being something." Rivera had five children, the first at age 15, and was married three times. Her third husband was baseball pitcher Esteban Loaiza. Rivera's private life influenced her songs, which often referenced living through hardship. "She's a fighter and she knows it's in all of us," Rivera's son Michael said between video tributes. In recent years, Rivera branched out into television, appearing on a reality television show and serving as a judge on the Mexican version of the singing competition "The Voice." Television broadcaster ABC was reported to be developing a comedy pilot for the singer. Rivera's plane crashed in mountains south of Monterrey killing all seven on board. The singer was to perform in the city of Toluca, 40 miles southwest of Mexico City, in central Mexico after a concert in Monterrey. It is not clear what caused the crash.

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Putin offers French tax row actor Depardieu a Russian passport

President Vladimir Putin offered French actor Gerard Depardieu a Russian passport on Thursday, saying he would welcome the 63-year-old celebrity who is embroiled in a bitter tax row with France's socialist government. Weighing into a dispute over a hike in taxes, Putin heaped praise on Depardieu, making the offer of citizenship in response to a question during his annual televised press conference. "If Gerard really wants to have either a residency permit in Russia or a Russian passport, we will assume that this matter is settled and settled positively," Putin said. French daily Le Monde reported on Tuesday that Depardieu had told his close friends he was considering three options to escape France's new tax regime: moving to Belgium, where he owns a home, relocating to Montenegro, where he has a business, or fleeing to Russia. "Putin has already sent me a passport," Le Monde quoted the actor as jokingly saying. Depardieu is well-known in Russia where he has appeared in many advertising campaigns, and in 2012 he was one of several Western celebrities invited to celebrate the birthday of Ramzan Kadyrov, Chechnya's Kremlin-backed leader. He also worked in Russia last year on a film about the life and times of the eccentric Russian monk Grigory Rasputin. He has already inquired about how to obtain Belgian residency rights and said he plans to hand in his French passport and social security card. In what has become an ugly public dispute, France's Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault criticized Depardieu's announcement as "pathetic" and unpatriotic. The actor hit back, accusing France of punishing success and talent. But Putin said he thought the feud was the result of a "misunderstanding". The 60-year-old former KGB spy said he was very friendly with Depardieu, saying he thought the actor considered himself a Frenchman who loved the culture and history of his homeland. Belgian residents do not pay a wealth tax, which in France is now levied on those with assets over 1.3 million euros ($1.7 million). Nor do they pay capital gains tax on share sales. Hollande is also pressing ahead with plans to impose a 75-percent super tax on income over 1 million euros. Russia has a flat income tax rate of 13 percent.

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UK's Kate and William to spend Christmas Day with her parents

Britain's Prince William and his pregnant wife Kate will spend Christmas Day with her parents, their office said on Saturday, in a break with the tradition of royals joining Queen Elizabeth at her country estate at Sandringham. The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge will celebrate in private with Carole and Michael Middleton at their home in the village of Bucklebury, about 50 miles west of London. "The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge will spend Christmas Day privately with the Middleton family," a St James's Palace spokesman said. The couple's decision was taken with the approval of the Queen. They are expected to visit Sandringham, in eastern England, for part of the Christmas holiday. Kate, 30, who married the second-in-line to the throne in April 2011, spent four days in hospital this month with an acute form of morning sickness. Members of the British royal family usually spend Christmas at Sandringham and stay until February, following a custom set by Queen Elizabeth's father and grandfather. Kate and William spent Christmas there last year, meeting scores of wellwishers. The Middletons are likely to join millions of Britons in watching Queen Elizabeth's annual Christmas broadcast, a tradition that her grandfather George V started in 1932. For the first time, the monarch has recorded her television broadcast in 3D. It will be shown at 1500 GMT on December 25.

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South Africa's Mandela responding to treatment in hospital

Former South African president and anti-apartheid hero Nelson Mandela, who is 94, continues to respond to treatment two weeks after being taken to hospital, the government said on Saturday. The Nobel Peace laureate, who has been treated for a lung infection and gallstones after being hospitalized on December 8, was visited by South African President Jacob Zuma, presidency spokesman Mac Maharaj said in a statement. "Madiba has been in hospital since the 8th of December and continues to respond to treatment," Maharaj said, referring to Mandela by his clan name. "President Zuma assured him of the love and support of all South Africans, young and old, and the whole world." The country's first black president was admitted to hospital in Pretoria earlier this month after being flown from his home village of Qunu in a remote part of the Eastern Cape province. It seems likely that Mandela, admired at home and abroad as a global icon against injustice for his lifetime of struggle against minority white rule, will end up spending Christmas in the hospital. On Thursday, following his re-election as leader of the ruling African National Congress (ANC), Zuma reported Mandela had "steadily improved". Zuma said then the former president was receiving "the best care possible" but recalled that Mandela was "at an age where medical challenges require extraordinary care". He praised Mandela as an "unparalleled fighter". In an interview broadcast on Saturday but recorded a day earlier, the ANC's newly elected Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa said he believed Mandela was "on the mend". Mandela spent 27 years in apartheid prisons, including 18 years on the windswept Robben Island off Cape Town. He was released in 1990 and went on to use his prestige to push for reconciliation between whites and blacks as the bedrock of the post-apartheid "Rainbow Nation". He stepped down in 1999 after one term in office and has been largely removed from public life for the last decade. Mandela spent time in a Johannesburg hospital in 2011 with a respiratory condition, and again in February this year because of abdominal pains. He was released the following day after a keyhole examination showed there was nothing serious. He has since spent most of his time in Qunu. His fragile health prevents him from making any public appearances in South Africa, although he has continued to receive high-profile domestic and international visitors, including former U.S. president Bill Clinton in July.

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Pope visits jailed butler to grant pre-Christmas pardon

Pope Benedict made a surprise pre-Christmas visit to the jail holding his former butler on Saturday and pardoned him for stealing and leaking documents that alleged corruption in the Vatican. The pope and Paolo Gabriele spent about 15 minutes together before Gabriele was freed and allowed to return to his wife and children in their Vatican apartment, Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi said. "What they said to each other will remain a secret between them ... he knows he made a mistake," Gabriele's lawyer Cristiana Arru, who was in the apartment when he returned home, told Reuters. Gabriele was convicted of aggravated theft on October 6 in a case that shone unwelcome publicity on the Vatican. He had been serving an 18-month sentence in a jail cell in the city state's police headquarters. Lombardi called the pope's action "a paternal gesture towards a person with whom the pope shared his daily life for several years ... this is a happy ending in this Christmas season to this sad and painful episode." Both Lombardi and Arru described the encounter as "intense" because it was the first time the two had seen each other since last May, when Gabriele was arrested after Vatican police found many documents in his possession that had been stolen from the pope's office. The pope also pardoned a Vatican computer expert who had received a suspended sentence in a separate trial. VATILEAKS SAGA In a saga that became known as "Vatileaks", Gabriele leaked documents showing what appeared to be a power struggle at the highest ranks of the Church, and internal conflict about how transparent the Vatican's scandal-plagued bank should be with outside financial authorities. He told investigators he had acted because he saw "evil and corruption everywhere in the Church" and that information was being hidden from the pope. The Vatican said Gabriele would no longer be able to work there but would be helped to find a job and start a new life outside its walls together with his family. "When he came home, the kids jumped up and hung from his neck. It was a very tough time for them. I don't think the whole episode has sunk in for them yet," lawyer Arru said. Gabriele, 46, said at his trial - one of the most sensational in the recent history of the Holy See - that he did not consider himself a thief and that he was motivated by "visceral" love for the Church. The butler, who served the pope his meals and helped him dress, photocopied sensitive documents under the nose of his immediate superiors in a small office adjacent to the papal living quarters in the Apostolic Palace. He then hid more than 1,000 copies and original documents, including some the pope had marked "to be destroyed", among many thousands of other papers and old newspaper clippings in a huge armoire in the family apartment inside the Vatican walls. A former member of the small, select group known as "the papal family", Gabriele was one of fewer than 10 people who had a key to an elevator leading directly to the pope's apartments. He said at the trial that from his perch as papal butler he was able to see how easily a powerful man could be manipulated by aides and kept in the dark about things he should have known. The leaked papers revealed inner workings of an institution long renowned for its secrecy, and triggered one of the biggest crises of Pope Benedict's papacy when they emerged in a muckraking expose by an Italian journalist earlier this year. The case was all the more embarrassing at a time when the Church was trying to limit the fallout from a series of scandals involving sexual abuse of minors by clerics around the world, as well as from mismanagement at its bank. However, many people believe the butler could not have acted alone and was a fall-guy for others in the Vatican. Gabriele said during the trial that while he may have been influenced by others, he had no direct accomplices. The Vatican said the pope had also decided to pardon a second Vatican employee and friend of Gabriele's, Claudio Sciarpelletti, who was convicted separately of giving police conflicting testimony and given a two-month suspended sentence. Sciarpelletti, a computer expert, will be able to keep his job in the Vatican.

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Former President George H.W. Bush remains hospitalized

Former President George H.W. Bush, who has been hospitalized for a month undergoing treatment for bronchitis, may not be released from a Houston hospital in time to celebrate Christmas at home as doctors had hoped. Bush, 88, remained in stable condition and doctors were optimistic he would make a full recovery, George Kovacik, a spokesman at Methodist Hospital, said in an emailed statement on Sunday. But doctors were being "extra cautious" with his care and no discharge date had been set, the statement said. Earlier this month, Kovacik said doctors expected Bush would be able to spend Christmas at home with his family. "His doctors feel he should build up his energy before going home," the statement said. Bush, the 41st president and a Republican, took office in 1989 and served one term in the White House. The father of former President George W. Bush, he also is a former congressman, U.N. ambassador, CIA director and vice president for two terms under Ronald Reagan.

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