Adam Levine To Star In 'Can A Song Save Your Life?'

Maroon 5 frontman and 'Voice' judge set to star alongside Keira Knightley in the film, executive-produced by Judd Apatow.
By Kara Warner

Adam Levine
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Adam Levine is proving to be quite the multi-tasker. In addition to an already busy schedule that includes juggling Maroon 5 frontman duties and judging "The Voice," Levine is reportedly set to make his big-screen debut in the music-themed, possibly romantic drama "Can a Song Save Your Life?"

According to Deadline, Levine will star alongside Keira Knightley, Mark Ruffalo and Hailee Steinfeld. The film reportedly revolves around an aspiring singer (Knightley) who moves to New York with her boyfriend and fellow aspiring musician (Levine) so they can both pursue their music careers. Levine's character breaks up with Knightley soon after their arrival to pursue a solo recording contract, leaving Knightley on her own to be discovered by a "down-on-his-luck" record producer (Ruffalo) while singing at a local bar.

The film will be directed by John Carney ("Once") and executive-produced by Judd Apatow.

The role will be Levine's first in film, in addition to having already picked up a recurring role on FX's soapy and creepy noir "American Horror Story." Levine will play one-half of a couple known as "the Lovers," but that's about all we know.

"It is the truth," Levine confirmed to E! News recently about the "Horror" gig. "I mean, it's pretty much happening. I think it's happening. I don't know how much I can divulge, because [series co-creator] Ryan [Murphy] is very under wraps. It's going to be fun. And I told [Murphy] I really didn't know what I was doing, but he didn't seem to really care," Levine continued. "So I'm just going to go and try to [do] acting. I think I'm going to be kind of playing myself, so hopefully it will be easy."

No word yet on a production start date for "Can a Song Save Your Life?" or the second season of "Horror Story." Levine is currently on tour with Maroon 5 and will return to his judging duties on "The Voice" this fall.

For breaking news, celebrity columns, humor and more — updated around the clock — visit MTVMoviesBlog.com.

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Syrian troops plant mines inside Lebanon, security official says

Syrian troops on Wednesday crossed into Lebanon's eastern border region of Masharee Al-Qaa and planted mines around the home of a local resident before withdrawing, a security official told AFP.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the troops entered some 300 meters (yards) inside Lebanese territory and placed the mines outside the home of Mohammad Akeel.

It was unclear why Akeel was targeted.

The Syrian army has in the past planted mines along its side of the border but Wednesday's incursion marks the first time it has entered Lebanese territory to do so.

Earlier Wednesday, Syrian troops also briefly kidnapped a Lebanese man during a cross-border raid in the same region, the official said.

He said the troops abducted Khaled al-Hujairi in Aarsal, a remote area located along the border, and set fire to a shed belonging to the local mayor Ali al-Hujairi.

A family member contacted by AFP said Hujairi was later handed over to the Lebanese army.

The mainly Sunni Muslim regions of Aarsal and?Masharee Al-Qaa straddle both countries and are used as escape routes by Syrians fleeing the unrest in their country.

Syrian troops have carried out a number of cross-border raids into Lebanon since the outbreak of the revolt against the regime of Bashar al-Assad sparking fears of a spillover of the conflict.

Assad hails from the minority Alawite community, an offshoot of Shia Islam.

-AFP/NOW Lebanon

For the latest developments on Syria, follow @NOW_Syria on Twitter or click here.

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California foie gras ban ends farmer's 'American dream'

AFP - A looming foie gras ban in California is pitting animal rights protesters against high-end chefs. Squeezed in the middle is Guillermo Gonzalez, lamenting the end of his "American dream".

Gonzalez, the only foie gras producer in the famously liberal US state, claims ignorant activists and "special interests" are unfairly throttling the livelihood he has built since arriving from El Salvador in 1986.

"I feel that a big injustice has been committed. I feel that emotion and intimidation have prevailed over reason and science. But this is bigger than us, so I just have to comply," he told AFP.

"It is in a way an offense to honest work, and I don't lose the hope that reason will prevail," added the 60-year-old, packing up his business before the July 1 deadline.

Gonzalez founded Sonoma Artisan Foie Gras 26 years ago, after leaving his homeland and spending a year in France's southwestern Perigord region to learn the traditional culinary craft from the Gallic masters.

Based in the bucolic town of Sonoma, a few miles from the world-renowned Napa Valley wine-growing region north of San Francisco, the firm is one of only a handful of foie gras producers in the United States.

But its problems began in 2003 when trespassers began stealing ducks from the family's farm, and vandals targeted the homes of two of his partners in a restaurant in downtown Sonoma, causing over $50,000 in damage.

Then in 2004 Californian lawmakers passed a law to outlaw production and sale of foie gras -- fatty liver, made by force feeding ducks and geese -- although they gave him seven years to comply.

The following year was the firm's peak, when it processed 80,000 ducks at its farm, set in walnut orchards near Farmington, east of San Francisco. Since then it has processed an average 50,000 a year.

Gonzalez, who testified on animal welfare to a US House Agriculture subcommittee in 2007, said he has always hoped California would reconsider the ban -- hopes fueled by Chicago's 2008 repeal of a city ban approved in 2006.

In the run-up to the California ban, some of the Golden State's top chefs including Thomas Keller, the only US chef with two three Michelin-starred restaurants, redoubled efforts to persuade lawmakers to overturn the ban.

Calling themselves the Coalition for Humane and Ethical Farming Standards (CHEFS), they have staged a series of foie gras-rich evenings to raise money for the cause.

But John Burton, the former California legislator who drafted the law, dismissed their calls, likening the tradition of foie gras to waterboarding and female genital mutilation.

"They've had all this time to figure it out and come up with a more humane way," he lamented to the San Francisco Chronicle in April.

"I'd like to sit all 100 of them down and have duck and goose fat -- better yet, dry oatmeal -- shoved down their throats over and over and over again," he added.

Animal rights campaigners have, when they got wind of such events, been quick to stage protests outside restaurants, chanting slogans like "Helpless ducks are force fed, eat somewhere else instead."

But Mark Berkner, owner and chef at "Taste" in Plymouth, 40 minutes east of Sacramento where the bill was passed, said lawmakers should not be allowed to force their ethical choices on his restaurant's customers.

"We want to have choices here," he told AFP at one of the support-foie gras events, questioning the precedent it sets. "We don't want to be told down the road you can't serve chicken, you can't serve pork, you can't serve beef."

Back on his near-empty farm, Gonzalez said critics of foie gras often simply have misconceptions about the force-feeding process -- involving inserting a funnel into ducks' throats -- which he insists is not cruel.

"The big problem is the lack of education for the general public," he said, stressing the personal relationship between feeder and ducks, and the physiognomy which lets ducks hold and digest large amounts of food.

The process can harm them, if done wrongly, he said -- but compared it to a human baby being fed with milk.

"Even a mother of a baby, of a human being, .. if she doesn't have the skill to give her the bottle can harm the baby. It's as simple as that," he said. "You have to have the skill."

He said the fight to try to keep his business running, including defending lawsuits, has cost him $1.6 million over the last decade. "We essentially lost our retirement fund," he said.

But sitting next to his wife Junny -- who also turned 60 this year and is known locally as "The Foie Gras Lady" -- he insisted he is not angry.

"No, I don't feel angry. I think anger is a very negative feeling that only leads to bad results. I think that sadness and resignation is one that leads to a more constructive positive future," he said.

Gonzalez is considering various business options, including rearing a particular type of French duck commercially, although he will take some time to decide what to do next.

Reflecting on his American dream, he added: "I believe that what we have done as immigrants is what is expected of any immigrant, which is to work hard, create jobs, pay taxes, incorporate in society, do social service ..."

"The experience I'm feeling right now is that it's being by force taken away from us."

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Kidnapping by Mexican police caught on video

MEXICO CITY (AP) ? There it was on video: Five heavily armed policemen barge into a hotel in western Mexico before dawn and march out with three handcuffed men in underwear.

But police weren't making an arrest. Prosecutors say they apparently were taking orders from criminals. Just hours after the three were seized, they were found asphyxiated and beaten to death.

Mexicans have become inured to lurid tales of police collaboration with narcotics gangs during 5 ? years of a drug war that has cost more than 47,500 lives. But seldom can they actually see it occur, and the video broadcast on national television was a shocker.

"One assumes that in some cities ... the municipal police work for the drug cartels," said Jorge Chabat an expert on security and drug trafficking at the Center for Economic Research and Teaching. "But what is different here is that there is a video. It's not the same thing to imagine that this going on, and to see it."

While the kidnapping and murder occurred in January, and the faces of several officers were clearly seen on the videos, the officers were not detained until June 6, when soldiers and state police raided a local police station. And they still have not been formally charged with any crime.

"It took time to obtain the video tapes, to do the investigation, and to get the arrest warrants," said Jalisco state prosecutor's spokesman Lino Gonzalez said Thursday. "We didn't have the information."

Police are investigating whether the gunmen who order the police throughout the tape belong to the New Generation cartel based in western Jalisco state where the kidnapping occurred. The gang is aligned with powerful fugitive drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman.

The delayed arrests came less than three weeks before national elections in which security and corruption are major issues. The municipality, Lagos de Moreno, is run by Mayor Jose Brizuela, a politician for the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, who is running for state office in the July 1 national elections. The PRI looks poised to regain the presidency in a race where all parties are trading accusations of corruption and collusion with organized crime.

Brizuela couldn't be reached for comment Monday. The rival National Action Party, which has touted previous cases of local PRI government officials accused of corruption, had no immediate comment, said Guillermo Quiroga, spokesman for the PAN state party in Jalisco state.

Local police corruption is rampant in local governments across political parties. Thousands of Mexico's 460,000 officers, including entire forces at times, have been fired, detained or placed under investigation for allegedly aiding drug gangs. President Felipe Calderon's plan to vet them has moved slowly, with only 8 percent passing background checks and tests as of the end of 2011.

The Jan. 20 video released by prosecutors late Wednesday shows a police truck pulling up to the hotel in the city of Lagos de Moreno, quickly followed by a pickup carrying four armed men in civilian clothing. A city policeman carrying an assault rifle runs over to their truck and is given what appears to be a list. Then he and his fellow officers trot into the hotel and present the list at the reception desk, apparently asking what rooms the men are staying in.

In the next segment of the video, the victims are trotted out of the hotel in their underwear with their hands cuffed behind their backs. One is being hustled along by a man in civilian dress, who stuffs him into a patrol car. The gunmen ? police are investigating whether they belong to the Jalisco New Generation drug gang ? appear to be calling the shots throughout, with the police officers serving as gofers.

The police then watch and wait in front of the hotel while the men's luggage and vehicle are stolen. Finally, the police truck carrying the victims follows the gunmen as they drive away in the own pickup and the stolen vehicle.

In any case, the release of the dramatic images comes less than three weeks before national and state elections in which security is a major issue. Critics accuse President Felipe Calderon of setting off a bloodbath with his strategy against gangs, while his party's presidential candidate, Josefina Vazquez, has suggested her opponents are ready to compromise with the cartels.

Jalisco is governed by Calderon's party. The man who was mayor of Lagos de Moreno when the video was shot is now a rival party's candidate for the state legislature.

Gonzalez said that so far, seven policemen and officials of the municipal police force of Lagos de Moreno have been detained pending charges. And state Attorney General Tomas Coronado said the four men in civilian clothing also have been detained separately in other cases. He declined to say what gang they might belong to.

There are still mysteries surrounding the case, including whether the gunmen thought the victims were members of a rival drug cartel. The victims were from the northern state of Coahuila, where the hyperviolent Zetas cartel has been battling the Sinaloa cartel, allies of the local Jalisco New Generation gang.

Gonzalez said the victims, before checking into the hotel, had been briefly detained by police at the local jail for a minor infraction. They paid a fine and were released. But while in custody, "They said something indiscrete," Gonzalez said. "Apparently they said something like 'We're from Coahuila, and we're part of the mafia.'"

It's not unusual in Mexico for detainees to boast about their connections, hoping to press corrupt police to release them.

This time, however, it backfired.

"Apparently, somebody at the jail heard the comment, and reported it to the real criminals," Gonzalez said.

Coronado told local media the men had claimed to be Zetas.

Gonzalez said it has never been proved the kidnapped men were gang members. They may have just been in Lagos de Moreno collecting the rent on a ranch, and they are being treated simply as victims.

Chabat noted that corruption has reached so deep that in 2010 in the northern state of Nuevo Leon, seven local police officers in the town of Santiago were arrested on allegations they were working for the Zetas drug gang and that they kidnapped and killed the town's Mayor, Edelmiro Cavazos, in retaliation for his attempts to cut corruption.

"There are police officers who kill the mayors they are supposed to protect," Chabat said. But this week's video "is cause for despair," he said. "It gives rise to the feeling that this is not going to be solved in the short term."

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Dutch on the brink, Portugal's hopes at Euro 2012 revived

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