The fate of the man accused of killing Academy Award winner Jennifer Hudson's mother, brother and young nephew was handed to a jury Wednesday after prosecutors said a "tsunami" of evidence pointed to his guilt.

William Balfour, the estranged husband of Hudson's sister, is accused of slaughtering his in-laws in October 2008 and then hiding his 7-year-old stepson's body to try to cover his crimes.

Fans in Japan of boy wizard Harry Potter will soon be able to explore the magical world of Hogwarts when Universal Studios Japan expands its theme park with a half-billion dollar investment.

The company is going to boost the footprint of its park in Osaka, western Japan, by one fifth, with an area devoted to the Harry Potter phenomenon that is slated for opening in 2014, a spokesman said Thursday.

A hardline Islamic group warned Wednesday it would not let Lady Gaga set foot in Indonesia, challenging an army of fans awaiting a concert in the nation with the world's largest Muslim population.

The Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) vowed to mobilize 30,000 demonstrators to protest the U.S. artist's June 3 performance in Jakarta and to intercept her at the airport.

New York's Metropolitan Museum opened its latest homage to the ultra-expensive, glamorous world of high fashion Tuesday with an "Impossible Conversations" exhibition of Elsa Schiaparelli and Miuccia Prada.

The exhibit follows a star-studded opening gala on Monday that saw Hollywood starlets, top models, sporting champions and the extremely wealthy flock to the Met's Art Costume Institute.

Maurice Sendak, the author who introduced millions of children worldwide to mischievous Max and his monsters in "Where the Wild Things Are," died Tuesday, his publisher said. He was 83.

"He died on Tuesday in Danbury, Connecticut. The cause was complication from a recent stroke," Erin Crum, at HarperCollins in New York, told Agence France Presse.

Nude photos from what is said to have been Marilyn Monroe's last formal photo shoot, just six weeks before her 1962 death, failed to sell at auction Tuesday in New York.

The collection on sale as "Marilyn Monroe -- Last Sitting" had an estimated value of between $18,000 and $25,000 at the Bonhams auction. However, the lot "failed to meet its reserve price," spokeswoman Julie Saunders Guinta said.

Italian maestro Riccardo Muti will lead the Chicago Symphony Orchestra on tours of Mexico and Asia in the upcoming season, the orchestra said Tuesday.

The award-winning orchestra is widely regarded as one of the best in the world and received critical acclaim for its tour of Russia earlier this year.

Acclaimed Chinese-American cellist Yo-Yo Ma and "world-class songwriter" Paul Simon, also of the United States, have won this year's Polar Music prize, organizers said in Stockholm Tuesday.

Born in Paris to Chinese parents and having grown up in the United States, "Yo-Yo Ma has dedicated his virtuosity and his heart to journeys of musical exploration and discovery around the world," the jury said in its citation.

Former supermodel Linda Evangelista's five-year-old son Augustin is unlikely to lack pocket money after his billionaire father made an out-of-court settlement for child support Monday.

There was no word on how much Francois-Henri Pinault, 49, agreed to pay his ex to end the court case in New York, which had been due to go into its third day of testimony.

John Travolta dismissed as a "baseless lie" Monday a lawsuit seeking $2 million for alleged assault and sexual battery of a masseur, during a massage session at a Beverly Hills hotel.

The lawsuit filed in Los Angeles claims Travolta tried to have sex with the male masseur, whom he had allegedly hired for a $200-an-hour massage in January. Travolta's statement said the actor was not even in Los Angeles.