Faith Hill tops US album chart

American country pop diva Faith Hill has knocked Elvis Presley from the number one spot in the US album charts with her new release Cry.

The album sold 472,000 copies in its first week, nearly double the number of Hill's record-breaking 1999 number one debut album Breathe.

Elvis Presley had held on to number one for three weeks with his compilation of 30 number ones, released to commemorate the 25th anniversary of his death.

A spokeswoman from Hill's record company, Warners, said of her success and that of fellow country pop stars: "These guys are crossing over in a big way. They're really not country records."

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Demi Moore makes movie comeback

Actress Demi Moore is to return to films, five years after she dropped out of the limelight to be a full-time mother.

Ghost and Striptease star Moore, the former wife of Bruce Willis, is currently shooting the sequel to hit action movie Charlie's Angels.

Moore will play a former Angel gone bad in Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle.

The film, starring Cameron Diaz, Lucy Liu and Drew Barrymore is due to be released in the US in June 2003.

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Rapper Combs joins Aids campaign

Singing stars, including Sean "P Diddy" Combs and Alicia Keys, are to join forces in the fight against Aids.

The pair will be among performers at a concert in South Africa on 23 November, to be shown on MTV to mark World Aids Day on 1 December.

Another concert is taking place in Seattle on 7 November, which will feature rap star Missy Elliott and singer Michelle Branch.

The event is being part-funded by the Bill Gates Foundation.

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Barbers demand Jackson apology

A group of barbers in Los Angeles has asked the Reverend Jesse Jackson to apologise for demanding an apology from the makers of hit movie Barbershop.

Members of the National Association of Cosmetologist said Jackson had been wrong to want the film's makers to say sorry for jokes made in the film about US civil rights icons such as Martin Luther King, Jr.

They said Reverend Jackson had not considered the negative effects on black film-makers and the barbersop business that his comments could cause.

The barbers added that they had shown the film - a comedy starring Ice Cube as the young owner of a community barbershop - to around 100 African Americans who had found nothing offensive about it.

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State-of-the art studio planned in China

Media giant AOL Time Warner has announced plans to invest $483m in building an outdoor movie studio in China.

Company executives toured Linan city in China's eastern province of Zhejiang and met its mayor during a trip aimed at finding a suitable location for the filming base.

The big-budget studio would be the largest foreign investment to date in China's film industry.

China promised it would allow more foreign investment in its movie production when it joined the World Trade Organisation last year.

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Ancient Zeus treasure goes on show

A 2,500-year-old statue of the Greek god Zeus will go on show on Sunday for the first time in the United States, at the Cleveland Museum of Art.

The statue will be part of exhibition of 81 objects, including many pieces of rare jewellery, from eight archaeological museums in the region colonised by the Greeks.

The Zeus is considered one of the finest examples of the craftmanship of the ancient civilisation, which was emulated across the Greek regions, particularly Italy.

"The Greek culture was infectious," said Michael Bennett of the Cleveland Museum of Art, co-curator of the exhibit, adding that most of the pieces in the display had never been outside Italy before.