A Tunisian rapper was handed a two-year jail sentence on Thursday for insulting the police in a song, an Agence France Presse journalist reported, with the court ruling sparking clashes between his supporters and police.

Ala Yaacoub, better known by his rap name "Weld El 15", was being retried at the same court in a Tunis suburb that had convicted him in absentia in March, after he handed himself him in to face justice.

The head of AEG Live LLC told jurors Wednesday that he knew Michael Jackson as a sophisticated, forceful businessman and not the drugged-up performer who's been described throughout an ongoing civil trial filed over the singer's untimely death.

Jackson was a far more complex figure than has been portrayed during the trial of a case filed by the singer's mother against AEG Live over her son's death, said Randy Philips, the company's president and CEO.

Jennifer Lopez says Latinos in the United States are starting to realize their power in politics and media, and that makes the timing good for her latest undertaking: Lobbying for greater diversity in TV programming.

The entertainer spoke Wednesday at the Cable Show, a communications convention, ahead of new programming set to launch July 18 on the NUVOtv network. Lopez serves as chief creative officer of the English-language Latino channel.

The Duchess of Cambridge will officially name the new "Royal Princess" cruise liner at a gala ceremony.

The former Kate Middleton plans to board the vessel for the naming ceremony, which will include a blessing and the traditional smashing of a bottle across the hull.

He never cracked the U.S. and few outside the French-speaking world have heard of him, but at home rocker Johnny Hallyday is a national treasure whose 70th birthday on Saturday will be celebrated in front of 20,000 adoring fans.

Tickets for the concert, due to be broadcast live on national television, sold out in less than two hours. A second smaller concert scheduled for later the same day attracted 50,000 applications for just 800 seats.

When China's new first lady Peng Liyuan, a glamorous former folk singer famous in her own right, chose homegrown fashion label Exception de Mixmind for her husband's first overseas trip, speculation on Chinese social media went into overdrive.

Was this Exception's "Jason Wu moment"? people asked, referring to the young Taiwanese-Canadian designer who shot to fame after Michelle Obama dazzled at the first inaugural ball in an ivory one-shoulder Wu creation.

British officials are hoping that the impending royal birth will produce a bouncing baby buoy for the economy.

With the Duchess of Cambridge due to give birth to an heir to the throne next month, it's time for citizens and groups to consider how to best mark the moment.

A traditional Damascene bath comes to life in the Emirates, as a team of Syrian actors bustle around in wooden clogs on a film set built far away from war-torn Syria.

"Here's the rose water bucket ready with a mix of ginger, cinnamon and lemon," an actress in a traditional off-white dress and red headscarf tells Umm Sakher, wife of the owner of the hammam, or Turkish bath.

British singer Seal apologized Wednesday for a series of stinging tweets in which he said he "can't wait to go home", switching instead to profess his love for Australia.

Seal launched an attack on what he called Australia's "trash media" after his fellow judge on talent contest "The Voice Australia" Joel Madden was kicked out of his Sydney hotel over drugs.

Swedish fashion giant H&M has signed France's Isabel Marant as guest designer for an autumn collection that will draw on her influential take on Paris chic, the company said on Tuesday.

The collection for men and women, available from mid-November, will be the latest in H&M's guest designer program which began in 2004 with Karl Lagerfeld.