■ INDIA. Brangelina chopper ride lands in trouble.

A helicopter ride has landed Hollywood star couple Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt in trouble after their hired aircraft landed at a palace hotel in western India without permission, a newspaper said on Friday. The celebrity couple are in India shooting for A Mighty Heart, a film about American reporter Daniel Pearl who was kidnapped and murdered in Pakistan in 2002. The couple?s chopper landed at a palace-turned hotel in Jodhpur city in the desert state of Rajasthan on October 20 after claiming it needed to make an emergency landing, the Times of India newspaper quoted a government official as saying. ?After speaking with the Umed Bhawan Palace (hotel) management, the district administration would now ask Jodhpur?s air traffic control for it?s report,? the Jodhpur official, Bhura Ram Delu, was quoted as saying by the daily. Delu said the helicopter, operated by an Indian firm, did not have permission to land at the luxury hotel?s private helipad. The penalty for the violation was not immediately known. The couple?s month-long visit to India ? which has sparked intense media coverage ? has been eventful with Jolie?s minders roughing up a persistent photographer, and on another occasion, a car in her convoy knocking down a motorcyclist.

■ CUBA. Fidel Castro shown on TV, walking, reading.

Cuban leader Fidel Castro defiantly dismissed rumors that he was dead on Saturday in television images showing him walking, talking on the telephone and reading the day?s newspapers. In the first images of him issued in six weeks, Castro said he was taking part in government decisions, following the news, and making regular phone calls as he recovers from emergency intestinal surgery in late July. ?Now that our enemies have prematurely declared me dying or dead, I am happy to send my compatriots and friends around the world this short film material,? Castro said. ?Now let?s see what they say. They will have to resurrect me,? the gray-bearded leftist firebrand said. The images showed a gaunt-looking Castro browsing through Saturday?s ruling Communist Party daily Granma, walking slowly out of a lift in a track-suit and talking on a telephone in a loud, clear voice.

■ USA. Gamemaker courts new controversy ? boys kissing.

The video game maker that sparked uproar over a hidden sex scene in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, is courting new controversy with its latest schoolyard title Bully ? featuring boys kissing. That sexual twist came to light only after Take-Two Interactive Software Inc. released the ?Teen?-rated game on October 17, having weathered protests from anti-violence advocates who tried unsuccessfully to block its sale to minors. Bully stars 15-year-old Jimmy Hopkins, who must navigate cliques, fights and young love at his new boarding school, along the way winning brawls, completing missions and plying girls with candy and flowers in exchange for kisses. But Jimmy can also use the same approach with boys. When Jimmy approaches a tall, blond boy with some flowers, the boy replies: ??m hot. You?re hot. Let?s make out.? Gay video game enthusiasts have embraced Bully which was was the US?s third top-selling game in the week ending October 27, according to figures from UBS. Others, however, were not so enthusiastic. ?I can?t have my kids playing this game. This is morally reprehensible. GTA (Grand Theft Auto) is a real man?s game, Bully is a disgrace,? wrote a poster on GameSpot.com. The inclusion of the explicit sex scene in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas also had some parents, along with regulators and lawmakers, fuming. Take-Two was forced to pull that game from store shelves at the cost of millions of dollars to the company because it had not disclosed the existence of the scene.

■ FRANCE. ?Cabaret? comes to the Folies Bergères.

Cabaret, the musical set in Weimar Germany that made Liza Minelli a star, has opened at France?s most famous nude revue in one of this year?s most heavily hyped theatrical productions. The French language version of the Broadway show transforms the Folies Bergere, a venue famous for its revealing numbers since the 19th century, into a heavily stylised version of a 1930s Berlin bar. Claire Perot, the young newcomer who stars as the nightclub singer Sally Bowles, has pouted at Paris commuters from the sides of buses for weeks in the run-up to opening night in moody shots by star photographer Ellen von Unwerth. ?It?s an honour to sing Cabaret because it?s an anthem within a show that is one of the most beautiful in the world,? Perot told Reuters at the premier on Thursday, attended by Liza Minelli. The production, designed by British theatre director Sam Mendes, relies more on suggestion than actual nudity to create its effect but there is a heavy emphasis on seduction and glitz.