International News

As Shireen Baratheon, actress Kerry Ingram has captivated audiences during Game of Thrones' third season. Now, the young multi-talent wraps her airy voice over the unsettling melody "It's Always Summer Under the Sea." Barathon, daughter of King Stannis Baratheon, lets the delicate lullaby resonate with a eerie sonic emptiness.

'Game of Thrones': Rolling Stone's Complete Coverage

"It's Always Summer Under the Sea" will be on Game of Thrones (Music from the HBO Series) Season 3, out June 4th digitally and July 9th physically. It will feature 19 songs, including the Hold Steady's rowdy drinking song "The Bear and the Maiden Fair."

LOS ANGELES (AP) U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer wants the Justice Department to investigate if California utility executives deceived federal regulators about an equipment swap at the San Onofre nuclear power plant that eventually led to a radiation leak, The Associated Press has learned.

The California Democrat obtained a 2004 internal letter written by a senior Southern California Edison executive that she said "leads me to believe that Edison intentionally misled the public and regulators" to avoid a potentially long and costly review of four replacement steam generators before they went into service.

The twin-domed plant between Los Angeles and San Diego hasn't produced electricity since January 2012, after a small radiation leak led to the discovery of unusually rapid wear inside hundreds of tubes that carry radioactive water in the nearly new generators.

The letter was written to Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, which manufactured the generators that now sit idle in a plant that once produced power for 1.4 million households.

Boxer, who chairs the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, said in a statement Monday that she is providing the correspondence to the Justice Department and other federal and state officials to determine if Edison "engaged in willful wrongdoing."

Nuclear Regulatory Commission spokesman Eliot Brenner declined comment.

An Edison statement said the letter reflected part of the company's effort to ensure flaws were not inadvertently introduced into the generator design. It said Edison took numerous steps to ensure that Mitsubishi addressed the concerns.

"These documents demonstrate the type of careful oversight that SCE exercised during the replacement steam generator project and also served to establish our expectations of MHI," said Pete Dietrich, SCE senior vice president and chief nuclear officer.

"SCE's own oversight ... complied with industry standards and best practices," Dietrich added. "SCE would never, and did not, install steam generators that it believed would impact public safety or impair reliability."

Mitsubishi did not immediately respond to requests for comment Monday evening.

The letter goes to a central issue at San Onofre, where Edison is seeking federal permission to restart the Unit 2 reactor and run it at reduced power in an effort to halt tube damage.

The replacement generators were different than the originals they were far heavier and hundreds of additional tubes were added as part of design changes, for example. Edison installed the equipment in a $670 million overhaul in 2009 and 2010 without an extended NRC review after concluding the new machines met a federal test to qualify as largely the same as the ones they replaced, requiring little or no changes to safety systems or components in the plant.

Such equipment swaps, sometimes referred to as "like-for-like" replacements, are common in the industry.

But the Nov. 30, 2004 letter from SCE Vice President Dwight E. Nunn states that "although the old and new steam generators will be similar in many respects they aren't like-for-like replacements."

Boxer's office said the letter, a copy of which was provided to The Associated Press, reveals "evidence of misrepresentation" since it suggests the company knew the replacements didn't meet the "like-for-like" benchmark Edison used to put them in use.

Anti-nuclear activists trying to block the restart have long argued that Edison duped the NRC about extensive design changes to avoid a lengthy, trial-like review, known as a license amendment, that in some cases can take up to two years to complete.

Boxer said the letter shows "Edison knew they were not proceeding with a simple 'like-for-like' replacement as they later claimed."

It's not clear is what, if any, design changes were made after Nunn's 2004 letter.

The Edison statement Monday said the differences between the original and replacement generators "were determined as being insufficient" to trigger a longer license amendment proceeding.

The letter notes the generators will be among the largest ever built for operation in the U.S., and it also provides an eerie warning about the very problems that later sidelined the plant.

Gradual wear is common in steam generator tubing, but the rate of erosion at San Onofre alarmed officials since the equipment is relatively new. Federal investigators last year concluded that a botched computer analysis resulted in design flaws that were largely to blame for the unusual tube wear.

"Success in developing a new and larger steam generator design requires a full understanding of the risks inherent in this process," Nunn said in the letter.

Nunn said designing supports for the tubes would be tricky since larger generators appear more susceptible to tube wear, and added that he was "concerned that there is the potential that design flaws could be inadvertently introduced into the steam generator design that will lead to unacceptable consequences," including tube damage.

"This would be a disastrous outcome for both of us," he said.

Costs for the long-running shutdown have topped $553 million.

As Edison pushes for a restart, the company is facing a thicket of regulatory obstacles that include a separate state investigation into who should pay for the trouble customers or shareholders. Separately, an NRC licensing board has sided with environmentalists who have called for a license-amendment hearing on the plan to restart the plant, a decision that could be appealed.

The NRC has previously disclosed that its Office of Investigations and Office of the Inspector General are conducting probes into "allegations of willful wrongdoing," but provided no details.

Last month, SCE's parent, Edison International, raised the possibility of retiring the plant if it can't get one reactor running later this year. With questions about whether the plant can restart and who picks up the tab, "there is a practical limit to how much we can absorb of that risk," Edison Chairman Ted Craver told Wall Street analysts.

The four steam generators at San Onofre two per reactor, each with 9,727 alloy tubes function something like a car radiator, which controls heat in the vehicle's engine. The generator tubes circulate hot, radioactive water from the reactors, which is used to make steam to turn turbines that produce electricity.

Overall, investigators found wear from friction and vibration in 15,000 places, in varying degrees, in 3,401 tubes inside the four replacement generators.

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Follow Michael R. Blood at http://twitter.com/MichaelRBloodAP

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) Chelsea Clinton said Tuesday she plans to become increasingly involved in the international health projects of her father's foundation and to speak out for gay rights.

The only child of former U.S. President Bill Clinton told The Associated Press during a visit to Malaysia that her focus will be on the Clinton Foundation's work, especially "related to health, not just in the United States but also around the world."

Clinton said on the sidelines of a women's conference in Malaysia's main city that she hopes to return to Southeast Asia, specifically Myanmar, where the foundation will work with authorities to distribute medicine and health products, including HIV drugs and child vaccines, at cheaper prices.

Clinton visited Myanmar earlier this week at the start of initiative to provide water purification packets to areas with unsafe water supplies. Her mother, former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, made a groundbreaking visit to Myanmar in 2011 and helped nudge an elected government toward democratic reforms.

"I hope to go back soon" to Myanmar, Clinton said. "My father and my husband are quite jealous now because my mother and I both have been to the country, and they have not."

From Malaysia, Clinton travels to Cambodia to launch an effort to slash HIV-related infections and deaths.

"My goal is always to do as much as I can in whatever area I'm working in," she said.

She added that besides the Clinton Foundation's initiatives, she was committed to supporting gay rights, including marriage equality.

"It just seems so fundamental to me. I'm able to marry the person I wanted to marry," Clinton said. "That's the fundamental human imperative. Those of us who have been lucky enough should expand these rights to others."

Clinton often tweets messages supportive of gay rights. Earlier this month, she called it "progress" when France's new gay marriage law came into force and urged her followers to help build "an equitable world for all" while marking International Day Against Homophobia.

Clinton laughed off a question about whether all the work would leave her time to start a family with her husband.

"My mother asks me that all the time, and anything my mother asks me is fair game," she said.

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Associated Press writer Sean Yoong contributed to this report.

CANNES, France (AP) "Look at these people, this wildlife."

As the partying journalist of Paolo Sorrentino's "The Great Beauty," Toni Servillo was surveying Rome's colorful nightlife, but he might as well have been contemplating the Cannes Film Festival. The 66th edition of the Cote d'Azur extravaganza drew to a close Sunday, awarding the sensual, heartbreaking lesbian romance "Blue is the Warmest Color: The Life of Adele" the festival's top honor, the Palme d'Or.

The Cannes Film Festivale is a 12-day circus of perpetual red-carpet flashbulbs, beachside soirees and, yes, a feast of some of the finest, wildest movies the world has to offer. The most exotic creatures weren't the high-heeled ones parading the Croisette, they were the ones gracing Cannes' pristine movie screens.

This year, the festival was a particularly captivating coterie of rare birds. There was Tilda Swinton as a white-haired, centuries-old vampire (Jim Jarmusch's "Only Lovers Left Alive"); Joaquin Phoenix as a 1920s pimp, sticking out his jaw like Marlon Brando (James Gray's "The Immigrant"); a sequin-covered Michael Douglas as Liberace (Steven Soderbergh's "Behind the Candelabra"); a battered and bloodied, but still cool Ryan Gosling (Nicolas Winding Refn's "Only God Forgives"); and the disabled but acrobatic dancer Souleymane Deme (Mahamat-Saleh Harouns "Grigris").

There was literal wildlife, too, including a cat named Hercules (the Coen brothers' "Inside Llewyn Davis"), a vanishing giraffe ("The Great Beauty") and an unfortunate pooch caught up in Mexico's brutal drug war (Amat Escalante's "Heli"). Cannes, alas, is a dog eat dog world.

A strong, deep slate of films in competition left some mystery before Steven Spielberg's jury named "The Life of Adele" tops of the festival. The three-hour coming-of-age tale, by Tunisian-born director Abdellatif Kechiche, emerged as a landmark film not for its lengthy, graphic sex scenes, but for its tender intimacy. It won the Palme on the same day thousands marched in Paris protesting France's recent legalization of gay marriage.

The global stage of Cannes immediately catapults Kechiche to greater international renown, inducting him into the prestigious group of Palme d'Or winners, from Francis Ford Coppola to Terrence Malick.

But this year's festival boasted many breakout stars, including the two daring actresses of "Life of Adele," Adele Exarchopoulos and Lea Seydoux, who, in a twist, also shared in the Palme d'Or. As a bitter, sarcastic 1960s folk singer in "Llewyn Davis," newcomer Oscar Isaac also shined in Cannes' spotlight.

Familiar faces turned in some of their best work including Berenice Bejo, as a single mother juggling a new man and an old one in Asghar Farhadi's shifting domestic drama "The Past"; Kristin Stewart Thomas, as Lady Macbeth meets Donatella Versace in the stylish Bangkok noir "Only God Forgives"; and Bruce Dern, as a gruff, aging father in Alexander Payne's black-and-white Midwest road trip "Nebraska."

Screenings at Cannes begin with the festival intro of red steps ascending from the sea up to the heavens, but for the first half of Cannes, it felt as though the festival was stuck underwater. Constant rains dampened the French Riviera atmosphere in the early days, and the films though full of intriguing entries didn't quite catch until the Coens premiered their melancholy story of a frustrated artist passed over by history.

Reality also threatened to overshadow the movies. On the same night as the premiere of Sofia Coppola's "The Bling Ring," a film about Los Angeles teenagers who rob the houses of celebrities, news broke that $1 million worth of jewelry had been stolen in a Cannes hotel. Never mind that its value turned out to be significantly less: The world had already conjured cinematic images of Cary Grant nimbly tiptoeing on Riviera rooftops.

Hollywood's noisiest intruder was "Catching Fire," the "Hunger Games" sequel that used Cannes' platform to stir up worldwide fervor for the next installment of the Jennifer Lawrence blockbuster.

American films including those by the Coens, Payne, Jarmusch, Soderbergh and Gray were among some of the best entries at the festival. "Inside Llewyn Davis," ''Nebraska" and perhaps the Ellis Island melodrama "The Immigrant" will likely be players in this fall's Oscar season.

Soderbergh's "Behind the Candelabra" marks the director's final film, at least for a time, as he's withdrawing from filmmaking. Soderbergh, whose film was broadcast on HBO, is planning to work more in television an arena many directors discussed in Cannes, claiming its quality and cultural relevance now equals or even surpasses movies.

While that may be true in many parts of the world, it isn't in Cannes. At the annual glamour fest, the big screen and all its varied vitality still reigns supreme.

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Follow AP Entertainment Writer Jake Coyle on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/jake_coyle

BALTIMORE (AP) For the second time this year, a fire at sea has aborted a cruise ship. This time, aboard Royal Caribbean's Grandeur of the Seas and the ship's 2,200 passengers were expected back in Baltimore on Tuesday after being flown on charter flights from the Bahamas.

The fire that began at 2:50 a.m. Monday was extinguished about two hours later with no injuries reported. A cause wasn't immediately known but the U.S. Coast Guard and the National Transportation Safety Board planned to investigate.

The ship, which left Baltimore on Friday for a seven-night cruise, was headed originally to CocoCay, Bahamas. Royal Caribbean said the ship never lost power and was able to sail into port in Freeport, Bahamas, Monday afternoon. The ship launched in 1996 and was refurbished last year.

Royal Caribbean said on its website and through social media that executives met with passengers in port and that the cruise line was arranging flights for all 2,224 guests. Also, passengers will get a full refund of their fare and a certificate for a future cruise.

Aboard ship, the captain announced that passengers needed to go to their muster stations, said passenger Mark J. Ormesher in an email to The Associated Press. Immediately after, his room attendant knocked on the door and told him and his girlfriend to grab their flotation devices. The attendant said it wasn't a drill.

Ormesher, a native of England, who lives in Manassas, Va., said he and his girlfriend smelled acrid smoke as they went to their muster station, the ship's casino. The crew quickly provided instruction.

"This encouraged calm amongst the passengers," he said. Passengers were required to remain at their stations for four hours, he said, and the captain "provided us as much information as we needed to stay safe."

Ormesher, who is 25 and on his first cruise, said the air conditioner had been shut off, and as the hours passed and the ship got hot, bottled water was distributed. The crew and passengers remained calm, and helped those who needed it. Crying babies were given formula and held while their parents used the bathrooms.

Photos show a substantial area of the stern burned on several decks of the ship the length of about three football fields.

Royal Caribbean said all guests and 796 crew were safe and accounted for. Royal Caribbean spokeswoman Cynthia Martinez said in an email that the company was arranging 11 different charter flights.

The company in a statement on its website said it is "deeply sorry for this unexpected development in our guests' vacation. We understand that this may have been a very stressful time for them. We appreciate their patience and cooperation in dealing with this unfortunate situation."

Carnival Corp. also had trouble with fire aboard ship earlier this year.

The 900-foot Triumph was disabled during a February cruise by an engine room fire in the Gulf of Mexico, leaving thousands of passengers to endure cold food, unsanitary conditions and power outages while the ship was towed to Mobile, Ala. It remained there for repairs until early May when it headed back to sea under its own power.

On the Royal Caribbean ship, after passengers were allowed to leave their stations, Ormesher said he saw water on the outside of deck 5 and in the hallways. The mooring lines were destroyed he said; crew members brought new lines from storage.

The damage at the rear of the ship "looks bad," Ormesher said; burned out equipment was visible.

Martinez said in a news release that a cruise scheduled aboard the Grandeur of the Seas for May 31 has been canceled so the ship can be repaired.

NEW YORK (AP) Daft Punk has set another record on Spotify.

The music service said Monday that the electronic duo's new album, "Random Access Memories," had the biggest number of streams in its first week in the United States. Spotify wouldn't release the number of streams, but Daft Punk beat the 8 million streams Mumford & Sons set with "Babel" last year.

"Random Access Memories" was released last week and is the fourth album from the Grammy-winning French group.

Daft Punk also set a Spotify record last month when its song "Get Lucky" had the biggest streaming day for a single track in the U.S. and the United Kingdom. Since its debut, "Get Lucky" has been streamed more than 27 million times.

Spotify launched in 2008.

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Online:

Daft Punk: http://www.daftpunk.com/

Spotify: http://www.spotify.com/

ESCONDIDO, Calif. (AP) Less than two weeks after Angelina Jolie revealed she'd had a double mastectomy to avoid breast cancer, her aunt died from the disease Sunday.

Debbie Martin died at age 61 at a hospital in Escondido, Calif., near San Diego, her husband, Ron Martin, told The Associated Press.

Debbie Martin was the younger sister of Jolie's mother, Marcheline Bertrand, whose own death from ovarian cancer in 2007 inspired the surgery that Jolie described in a May 14 op-ed in the New York Times.

According to her husband, Debbie Martin had the same defective BRCA1 gene that Jolie does, but didn't know it until after her 2004 cancer diagnosis.

"Had we known, we certainly would have done exactly what Angelina did," Ron Martin said in a phone interview.

Debbie Martin's death was first reported by E! News.

Ron Martin said after getting breast cancer, Debbie Martin had her ovaries removed preventively because she was also at very high genetic risk for ovarian cancer, which has killed several women in her family.

The 37-year-old Jolie said in her op-ed that her doctors estimated that she had a 50 percent risk of getting ovarian cancer but an 87 percent risk of breast cancer.

She had her breasts removed first, reducing her likelihood to a mere 5 percent.

She described the three-step surgical process in detail in the op-ed "because I hope that other women can benefit from my experience."

The story, a surprise to most save those closest to Jolie, spurred a broad discussion of genetic testing and pre-emptive surgery.

A message left with representatives seeking comment from Jolie was not immediately returned.

By Christiaan Hetzner and Andreas Cremer

BERLIN (Reuters) - Chancellor Angela Merkel reaffirmed her target to bring one million electric cars on to German roads by the end of the decade, despite evidence of dwindling consumer interest.

"You have a chancellor who believes in electromobility," she told a conference to promote electric car technology, less than 24 hours after the collapse of an Israeli electric car company.

Fewer than 3,000 electric cars were sold in Germany last year out of a total market that exceeded 3 million.

The German auto industry plans to invest roughly 12 billion euros ($15.5 billion) in the next three to four years in alternative powertrains, including battery-powered electric cars, according to the president of industry association VDA.

"Driving electrically is no vision anymore, it's a reality," said VDA's Matthias Wissmann.

Yet economy Minister Philipp Roesler refused to adopt the approach of China, France and the United States, which subsidize purchases of electric cars to boost demand.

Once hyped as a technology that would crowd out conventionally-powered cars, electric auto sales have flopped due to high costs and range limitations.

A survey by Germany's motoring club ADAC said drivers are much more skeptical about the technology than two years ago and nearly half are unwilling to pay extra for an electric car.

TESLA RARE SUCCESS

"We actually lose money with each Ampera we sell, because the technology is too expensive," said Karl-Thomas Neumann, chief executive of General Motors' unprofitable unit Opel.

Last year, the GM brand sold 5,300 Amperas out of 1 million cars, making it the best-selling passenger car running on electricity in Europe, according to the company.

The low interest in Germany is echoed by problems elsewhere.

U.S. electric car battery maker A123 filed for bankruptcy and cash-strapped Fisker Automotive is in talks to sell itself to a new owner.

On Sunday, Israeli charging station provider Better Place filed a court motion to liquidate.

Renault, which partnered with Better Place to set up a battery swapping network in Israel and Denmark, said the move did not call into question its own electric vehicle strategy, one of the most aggressive.

Upstart electric car maker Tesla has been a rare success story, posting its first-ever quarterly profit.

(Reporting By Christiaan Hetzner and Andreas Cremer; Editing by Noah Barkin and David Cowell)

LAS VEGAS (AP) The junked signs that attracted throngs to old Las Vegas have for years gathered dust in a neon boneyard just a few miles from the sleek mega-casinos on the Strip.

This Memorial Day weekend, the hulking metal come-ons are once again glinting and shimmering at night.

The Neon Museum, where Sin City's most iconic signs go to retire, has begun aiming more than 100 multicolored spotlights on its outdoor collection of 150 signs. It's also extending hours for nighttime tours, and a handful of signs have been fully restored with new bulbs.

Since October, visitors have been able to meander past the Silver Slipper, Aladdin's lamp, the Stardust marquee and dozens of other signs saved from the wrecking ball. But the museum closed at 5:30 p.m., meaning that tourists had to squint through the desert sun to glimpse the old guardians of this nighttime city.

For the first time Friday, visitors were able to behold the fully restored signs in all their luminescent glory. The dozens of other markers were bathed in custom-designed spotlights, like true Vegas showgirls.

"The skyline of Las Vegas is a nighttime skyline," said executive director Danielle Kelly, moments before the first afterhours tour came through.

"We stand among the architecture of this city. The notable architecture of this city is its signage. And their illumination is when they came alive," Kelly said.

In a town known for detonating buildings that are beyond their prime, Las Vegas' Neon Museum stands apart in its zeal for salvaging the blinking, glowing memories of the past.

Kelly says time has transformed the signs from commercial emissaries into objects of art.

The hour-long guided tours bend through the artfully cluttered 1.5-acre lot. The excursion offers an alternative to the mega-mall homogeny along the desert metropolis' revamped main drag.

Worn by the beating sun and twisted by desert winds, most of the marquees have lost their flash, some of their bulbs and much of their paint. They tilt toward each other like tombstones in an ancient cemetery. But taken together, they tell a story about the town's glitziest days.

There's the nouveau graveyard's oldest sign: a green and white 1930s relic that marked a restaurant where Hoover Dam construction workers bought fried chicken and bootleg whiskey.

One of the signs with working bulbs a vintage arrow pointing lovebirds to "Marriage Information" alludes to the town's role as the nation's elopement, and divorce, capital.

And the giant marquee that once sat astride the Stardust casino featuring a space-age, deep-red font and cascade of stylized diamonds recalls Nevada's embrace of its role as a test site for nuclear weapons

While only four of the kitschy relics are illuminated, the spotlights play up each sign's attributes and create a feel of pulsating energy.

On Friday, the flashing red lights and blue and purple shadows along with the errant stray cat gave the attraction the surreal, slightly creepy feel of a shuttered theme park.

The museum plans to turn on a few more signs, but facilities director Sam Reza said full wattage would be too dazzling.

"The purpose of the museum is never to have all of the signs fully illumined. We wanted to keep them in the state that they were taken down. To have all of these signs fully lighted up would be overwhelming," she said.

Funding is also a factor; it can cost $100,000 to bring back a single sign.

Art lovers founded the museum in 1996 in a sandy lot outside downtown Las Vegas a few miles north of the Strip as a way to rescue old signs when buildings were demolished or remodeled.

In 2012, curators had the bright idea to open it to the public and began working on a plan to light up the night once again.

Casino bosses began abandoning curlicues of neon in the desert several decades ago, beginning with Steve Wynn's remodel of the Golden Nugget.

Today, major hotel-casinos are built to advertise themselves. The facades and exterior entertainment do the heavy lifting, from the glossy, brown obelisk that is the Wynn Las Vegas, to the fountains that dance outside the Bellagio, to the condensed New York City skyline that frames New York New York.

When signs do crop up, neon has all but surrendered to computerized LED signs.

But most visitors still feel a connection to the town's glittery glory. Most anyone can visualize Vegas Vic, with his checked shirt, perpetually lit cigarette and extended thumb, in their mind's eye.

Sandra Chervinsky, who snapped dozens of pictures during the Neon Museum's inaugural twilight tour, demonstrated her love of vintage Vegas signage by getting full-color tattoo of the iconic "Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas" sign on her calf.

"When I saw the night tours, I was like, 'I got to do it,'" said Chervinsky, of Montreal. "The light is so perfect, and you're surrounded by all these different eras."

The new tours will run every half hour through 10 p.m., leaving visitors enough time to catch a late show or hit up one of the town's 24-hour bars before heading hotelward.

With the changes and expanded tour capacity, the museum hopes to welcome more than 50,000 visitors this year.

The lot can feel a bit macabre in this youth and novelty-obsessed town, but Kelly said the museum's latest iteration shows that the signs have become key players in a new kind of escapist vision.

"It's not a graveyard," Kelly said. "The signs haven't died. They're just in a new space. And they perform a new function. It's still a fantasy they're selling: the idea of a place."

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Hannah Dreier can be reached at http://twitter.com/hannahdreier

TORONTO (Reuters) - SNC Lavalin Group is offering amnesty to employees who report corrupt activity to the Canadian construction and engineering company, which is engulfed in a far-reaching scandal that includes allegations of bribery and fraud.

The program, which excludes top executives and anyone who directly profited from misconduct, marks a bigger push for information from staff at SNC, which hired a compliance officer in February as it attempts to restore its tarnished reputation.

The scandal-mired company is trying to get out from under a series of cases in which former top executives have been charged with bribery and corruption for activities in Canada, Libya and Bangladesh.

Current employees will have 90 days between June and August to request amnesty for information on potential corruption or anti-competition matters said SNC, which said it believes the program marks a first for a Canadian company. Amnesty does not extend to executives in the office of the president or management committee groups.

The Montreal-based company guarantees that it will not fire or make claims for damages against any staff who voluntarily report violations of its code of ethics.

"While the vast majority of SNC Lavalin's employees will have nothing to report, this offer of amnesty will allow us to uncover and quickly deal with any remaining issues," said chief compliance officer Andreas Pohlmann in a statement.

"Our goal is to turn the page on a challenging chapter in the company's history, so we can focus all of our attention on creating value for our stakeholders."

Last week, Standard & Poor's Ratings Services cut its long-term corporate credit and senior unsecured ratings on SNC to BBB from BBB-plus. The agency said it expects high administration costs from SNC's ethics scandal will hurt profitability.

Last May, SNC vowed to get to the bottom of any misconduct, saying it encouraged employees to come forward with any information that would help with police investigations.

Shares of SNC were up 46 Canadian cents, or 1.1 percent, at C$41.25 on the Toronto Stock Exchange in early trade on Monday.

(Reporting By Susan Taylor; Editing by Nick Zieminski)

GENEVA (AP) The U.S., Turkey and Qatar persuaded the U.N.'s top human rights body to hold another urgent debate on the civil war in Syria, the first such session in more than a year, as diplomats pushed Monday for more international pressure to hold accountable those responsible for killing thousands of civilians.

U.N. Human Rights Council President Remigiusz Henczel said the debate will be held on Wednesday, and officials said negotiations have already begun on a resolution focused on the violence in the Syrian town of Qusair, near Lebanon.

It would be the council's second urgent debate since March 2012, but the council also held four special sessions focused on Syria between the start of the crisis in March 2011 and June 2012.

In addition, there has been talk of another resolution that could be taken up toward the end of the council's three-week session involving a possible attempt to curtail Syria's participation in meetings of the 47-nation council, where it is not a formal member.

The council has passed nine previous resolutions on Syria seeking to bring an end to, and impose accountability for, the waves of killings, rapes, torture, shelling of civilians and other horrific abuses from Syria's escalating catastrophe.

Diplomats exchanged sharp words moments after the opening of the council's latest three-week session, which immediately focused on the more than 70,000 people killed in Syria and millions displaced since the uprising against its president, Bashar Assad, began in March 2011 and became a civil war.

Ambassador Oguz Demiralp of Turkey said the Assad regime is "attacking its own citizens with heavy weapons" in Qusair, which has been under attack by government forces and members of Lebanon's Hezbollah group since last week.

"This time the Syrian regime is blatantly hand-in-hand with foreign culprits," he said. "Those who cling to power in Syria seem to have lost sense of reality and humanity."

Syrian Ambassador Faysal Khabbaz Hamoui lashed back, saying the council's focus on his nation violates principles of impartiality because it comes from nations that support the rebels battling the government troops.

He took particular aim at the U.N.'s top human rights official, Navi Pillay, and the office she oversees after she said that both sides in Syria's conflict are blatantly disregarding international law.

"We challenge them to provide one single proof of these allegations," Hamoui told the council. Her office has shown an "irresponsible and biased attitude," he added, and singled out Turkey and Qatar for sharing in that bias.

But many others, such as British Ambassador Karen Pierce, supported Pillay and what Pierce called her "vital words."

Pillay, the U.N.'s high commissioner for human rights, said civilians are bearing the brunt of a crisis "in which human rights violations have reached horrific dimensions."

Pillay said she is concerned at reports suggesting hundreds of civilians have been killed or wounded, and thousands trapped, by indiscriminate shelling and aerial attacks by government forces in Qusair.

Refugees streaming into neighboring countries from the war, she said, are suggesting that "the Syrian government continues to use indiscriminate and disproportionate force in residential areas, and that the Syrian armed forces have directly targeted schools and hospitals."

"Wanton human rights violations are also being committed by anti-government groups," Pillay said. She urged the Security Council, the U.N.'s most powerful arm, to refer the Syrian crisis for prosecution before the International Criminal Court, based in the Netherlands.

Though it cannot make such a referral itself, the Human Rights Council has what officials call an ever-growing body of evidence of appalling violations of basic human rights that should lead to mounting calls for action to end the civil war that is also threatening the region.

Next week, officials say, a U.N. panel investigating war crimes in Syria is due to deliver its latest report including an update on the suspected use of chemical weapons to the Geneva-based Human Rights Council.

The U.N. General Assembly approved an Arab-backed resolution two weeks ago calling for a political transition in Syria. But many nations refused to vote "yes" to the non-legally binding, U.S.-backed resolution because of its support for the main opposition group.

Key Syrian ally Russia urged a "no" vote, saying a transition would promote a one-sided resolution that could sink a new U.S.-Russia effort to end the escalating conflict.

The Assad regime has agreed in principle to participate in peace talks in Geneva next month. The United States and Russia hope to bring together the government and opposition for direct talks, but the exact date, agenda and list of participants for the conference remains unclear.

The new resolution demands that all parties work with U.N.-Arab League envoy Lakhdar Brahimi to rapidly implement a roadmap for a Syrian political transition adopted on June 30, 2012, in Geneva, by key nations including the five Security Council powers the U.S., Russia, China, Britain and France.

CANNES, France (AP) Tilda Swinton injects her own brand of otherworldly-cool into Jim Jarmusch's latest movie "Only Lovers Left Alive," an unusual comedy that puts a spin on the age-old vampire genre.

The film, the last English-language entry competing for the Cannes Film Festival's Palme d'Or, sees Swinton play Eve, a grungy but erudite vampire who's married to a forlorn vampire musician, Adam, played by Tom Hiddlestone. Several-hundred-year-old Adam of Biblical fame has been living quite happily ever since being expelled from the Garden of Eden.

That is, until the 21st century came along with its excesses and greed and pushed him into a full-flung existential crisis. He cracks, and orders a wooden bullet to kill himself.

With such a wacky plot, it's no surprise the film nearly didn't get made. It took seven years to find a backer which Jarmusch says is because producers won't take creative risks anymore.

"I wanted to make a vampire love-story...The reason it took so long was that no one wanted to give us the money. It's getting more and more and more difficult for films that are maybe a little unusual or not predictable or not satisfying the expectations of everybody which is the beauty of cinema, discovering new films of all forms."

He added: "But look, now we're here at Cannes."

Lovers of independent cinema and vampire fans should certainly be pleased the film saw the light of day, or perhaps, night. It quirkily spruces up vampire lore. Adam and Eve are not about blood-sucking and murder but refined lovers of literature, science, music and learning in general.

When Eve's estranged sister "drinks Ian," a friend, to death, Eve tells her off, saying that in the 21st century people just won't understand such barbarity. (The verb "drink," instead of "blood-sucking," was one of the many moments that provoked raucous laughter from spectators.)

It's not like they can just dump the bodies in the Thames with the tuberculosis sufferers like in old times, she says. Now, in the 21st century, they get their blood from the blood-transfusion section of a hospital. Alongside this, John Hurt plays a vampire Christopher Marlowe, who's still bitter that Shakespeare became more famous.

Swinton said the film provided a unique opportunity to reinvent the vampire genre.

"There's a feeling of beautiful luxury about approaching this kind of portrait, because you can come with a Martian's-eye view... We were able to create our own lexicon," she said. For instance, in the film the vampires elegantly cover their mouths and have a strange ritual with gloves that goes unexplained.

At heart, the film is the love story between Adam and Eve, who try to rekindle their love despite living in different places, he in Detroit and she in Tangiers. It is as touching as it is odd.

"We knew we needed to show a long love story ... that was so evolved that what they actually say to each other is the tip of the iceberg of a conversation they've been having for 500 years," Swinton said. "That was very interesting. We wanted to show a couple who are trying to stay together. Trying to live obviously, but also trying to live together."

In one comic moment, Eve looks at a grainy photo where they're both dressed in 19th century clothing. "Our third wedding," she sighs.

The love story between immortal beings also raised philosophical questions for leading man Hiddlestone, who said playing Adam was a "fascinating prospect" a chance of breaking away from the more conventional superhero roles, such as the villain Loki in 2011's Marvel Studios film "Thor," for which he is the most famous.

"The idea of exploring love in the context of immortality is (it) a blessing because it recurs, and what does that do to your commitments?" he said.

When news originally got out that Jarmusch, the director of 1999's dark samurai film "Ghostdog," which was also nominated for the Palme d'Or, was going to do a love film on vampires, many were left unconvinced. But Swinton was not one of them and backed the project from the start.

"I was never surprised," she said. "I felt like saying (Jim) you've been making vampire films for years."

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Thomas Adamson can be followed at Twitter.com/ThomasAdamsonAP

CANNES, France (AP) Steven Spielberg will close out the 66th Cannes Film Festival with a nail-biter of a finale.

The festival's top award, the prestigious Palme d'Or, will be handed out to one of 20 films in competition Sunday night in Cannes. Unlike in recent years, there's no obvious frontrunner for the Palme. Spielberg is presiding over the nine-member jury that will choose the winner of one of cinema's highest honors.

Critical polls have ranked Abdellatif Kechiche's lesbian coming-of-age tale "Blue is the Warmest Color" the highest. Prognosticators have also predicted Asghar Farhadi's domestic drama "The Past" will take the Palme. And others believe it will go to the Coen brothers' 1960s folk tale, "Inside Llewyn Davis." (The Coens won the Palme in 1991 for "Barton Fink.")

Other films are in the mix, too, including Paolo Sorrentino's rollicking Roman party "The Great Beauty," James Gray's 1920s Ellis Island melodrama "The Immigrant," and Kore-eda Hirokazu's switched-at-birth drama "Like Father, Like Son."

But it will ultimately come down to what Spielberg and his jury which includes Nicole Kidman and Ang Lee think was the top film at Cannes.

Last year, Michael Haneke's "Amour" was the far-and-away favorite, and went on to win best foreign language film at the Oscars and earn the rare best picture nomination for a non-English film. In 2011, Terrence Malick's cosmic rumination "The Tree of Life" won the Palme d'Or.

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Follow AP Entertainment Writer Jake Coyle on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/jake_coyle

BERLIN (AP) German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Sunday she would use her country's economic clout to prevent the European Union from imposing punitive tariffs on some Chinese products to avoid a trade war.

Germany will push for "very intense talks" between the EU and China to seek a negotiated solution as swiftly as possible, the leader of Europe's biggest economy told visiting Chinese Premier Li Keqiang.

The EU Commission, the 27-nation bloc's executive arm, accuses China of pricing its solar panels and some mobile telecom devices too cheaply, thereby flooding the European market, distorting competition and hurting European manufacturers. Brussels has therefore proposed imposing an average 47 percent special duty on Chinese solar panels, and it is continuing to look into the telecommunication sector.

Li sharply criticized the EU's approach, saying through a translator that "it sends a wrong signal because we want to fight protectionism together."

"We strongly oppose this decision," he insisted, referring to the proposed solar panel tariffs. "We hope that the EU won't use protectionist trade measures for such small a cause," he said.

The EU, the world's largest economy, is China's second-biggest business partner after the U.S., with a trade volume of about 430 billion euros in 2012. The solar panel exports stand for about 7 percent of China's total exports to the EU.

The EU Commission is expected to make a decision on the anti-dumping investigation after consulting all interested parties by the end of the year.

"Germany will work for this to be resolved as quickly as possible because we don't believe (tariffs) would help us very much," said Merkel. "And that's why we should very intensely use the next six months, and Germany will do everything to ensure that the talks will really advance," she added.

Li thanked Merkel, adding that China also hopes that talks between Beijing and Brussels will be able to avoid a trade standoff and yield "an amicable solution."

Germany was the only stop in an EU member nation on Li's inaugural trip abroad, in a sign that China seeks Berlin's clout to influence the EU's at times cumbersome decision making progress. Li, who took office in March, at one point even said during the news conference with Merkel that he was aware that German cannot replace the EU Commission.

China is the world's largest producer of solar panels, exporting more than half of its output to Europe, totaling 21 billion euros in 2011.

The global solar panel market is suffering from overcapacity, which has led to stiff competition that has forced several European manufacturers out of business.

Still, Germany's powerful industrial lobby groups oppose the discussed EU anti-dumping measures against China because they fear an escalating trade war that would dent the countries' buoying business ties.

Li said the EU's decision wouldn't serve its interests and would harm China and others. "It will put the (solar) sector's development in Europe in danger, harm the interest of the European companies, the European consumers and the European industry," he said.

China rejects the EU's price-dumping allegations, but the problem is no novelty for Beijing. The U.S. last year imposed punitive tariffs on solar panel imports after finding that China's government was subsidizing companies that were flooding the U.S. market.

Following Li's arrival at Berlin's Chancellery, he and Merkel met with students from both countries before overseeing the signing of a series of economic cooperation agreements. They also held closed-door talks and were set to have a dinner at a government guest house outside the capital later Sunday.

As part of his trip, Li visited Switzerland on Friday. In Zurich, he signed China's first free-trade agreement with a major Western economy. It had been negotiated for several years. .

On Monday, he will meet other officials and business leaders in Berlin. He also is scheduled to meet Merkel's challenger in September's national elections, the Social Democrats' candidate Peer Steinbrueck.

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Follow Juergen Baetz on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/jbaetz

REDMOND, Wash. (AP) Microsoft thinks it has the one.

The company revealed the Xbox One, its next-generation entertainment console, during a presentation Tuesday at its headquarters in Redmond, Wash.

Don Mattrick, Microsoft's president of interactive entertainment business, called it an "all-in-one home entertainment system." He said the company has spent the past four years working on the next-generation Xbox.

The console was demonstrated using voice control to switch back and forth between watching live TV, listening to music and browsing the Internet, as well as simultaneously running apps.

It's been eight years since the launch of the Xbox 360. The original Xbox debuted in 2001, and its high-definition successor premiered in 2005.

For the past two years, Microsoft has led the gaming industry in console sales with the Xbox 360.

In recent years, Microsoft expanded the scope of the Xbox 360 beyond just games, adding streaming media apps and the family-friendly Kinect system.

Xbox has been the exclusive home to such popular gaming franchises as sci-fi first-person shooter "Halo," racing simulator "Forza" and alien shoot-'em-up "Gears of War." In recent years, Microsoft expanded the scope of the Xbox 360 beyond just games, adding streaming media apps and the camera-based Kinect system.

Nintendo kicked off the next generation of gaming last November with the launch of the Wii U, the successor to the popular Wii system. The Wii U features an innovative tablet-like controller, though its graphics is on par with the previous-generation Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation 3. Nintendo said the console sold just 3.45 million units by the end of March, well below expectations.

Sony was next, teasing plans for its upcoming PlayStation 4 without showing the actual box at an event last February in New York. The reaction to that console, which featured richer graphics and more social features, was mixed.

Microsoft didn't waste any time showing off the Xbox One console, new Kinect sensor and Xbox controller at the beginning of Tuesday's presentation.

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Online:

http://www.xbox.com

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Follow AP Entertainment Writer Derrik J. Lang on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/derrikjlang.

By Chris Francescani

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. actress Amanda Bynes was arrested in New York City on Thursday after she allegedly threw a bong out the window of a midtown Manhattan apartment building, a police official said.

New York police received a call on Thursday night from an employee at the 47th Street high-rise building where Bynes lives, said NYPD spokesman Detective Brian Sessa.

The employee reported that someone was smoking marijuana in the lobby.

When police arrived, they were directed to Bynes' apartment, where the actress invited police in, Sessa said.

Officers detected a strong smell of marijuana in the apartment and observed the bong - a tube-shaped water pipe commonly used for smoking marijuana - in the apartment, according to Sessa.

Bynes grabbed the bong and threw it out the window, he said. The actress lives on the 36th floor, The New York Daily News reported.

Bynes, 27, a former child star who had her own TV comedy sketch show on Nickelodeon at age 13, was taken into custody and charged with tampering with physical evidence, reckless endangerment and criminal possession of marijuana.

She pleaded no contest earlier this month in California to driving with a suspended license, according to The Los Angeles Times, one of a number of recent run-ins with the law.

(Reporting By Chris Francescani; Editing by Xavier Briand)

MOUNT VERNON, Wash. (AP) A truck hauling a too-tall load of drilling equipment hit an overhead bridge girder on the major interstate between Seattle and Canada, sending a section of the span and two vehicles into the Skagit River. All three occupants suffered only minor injuries.

It happened about 7 p.m. Thursday on the north section of the four-lane Interstate 5 bridge near Mount Vernon, about 60 miles north of Seattle and 40 miles south of the Canada border, and disrupted travel in both directions.

Washington State Patrol Trooper Mark Francis told the Skagit Valley Herald (http://bit.ly/1afx3lU ) the driver works for Mullen Trucking in Alberta. The tractor-trailer, which was marked as an oversize load, was hauling a housing for drilling equipment Vancouver, Wash., he said. The top right front corner of the load struck several trusses on the north end of the bridge, Francis said.

An accident report said the driver was William Scott, of Spruce Grove, Alberta, near Edmonton. He voluntarily gave a blood sample for an alcohol test and was not arrested.

Initially, it wasn't clear if the bridge just gave way on its own. But at an overnight news conference, Washington State Patrol Chief John Batiste blamed it on the too-tall load. The vertical clearance from the roadway to the beam is 14.6 feet.

"For reasons unknown at this point in time, the semi struck the overhead of the bridge causing the collapse," Batiste said.

The truck made it off the bridge and the driver remained at the scene and cooperated with investigators.

Two other vehicles went into the water about 25 feet below as the structure crumbled. Three people were rescued and were recovering Friday.

Traffic could be affected for some time. The bridge is used by an average of 71,000 vehicles a day, so the roadblock will cause a major disruption in trade and tourism between Seattle and Vancouver, British Columbia.

The Washington Transportation Department has set up detours. The closest bridge nearby is mostly used for local traffic between Mount Vernon and Burlington. The department also is recommending detours using Highway 20 and Highway 9 that add tens of miles to a trip. Drivers are urged to avoid the area if possible, especially over the Memorial Day weekend.

Francisco Rodriguez, of Burlington, looked at the damage Thursday evening and realized the area has lost an important transportation link.

"Well, very important, I mean everybody goes through here, everybody goes to Canada, Canadian side. Myself, I drove it every day, twice a day," he said.

Dan Sligh and his wife were in their pickup on Interstate 5 heading to a camping trip when a bridge before them disappeared in a "big puff of dust."

"I hit the brakes and we went off," Sligh told reporters from a hospital, adding he "saw the water approaching ... you hold on as tight as you can."

Sligh, his wife and another man in a different vehicle were dumped into the chilly waters of the Skagit River.

Sligh and his wife were taken to Skagit Valley Hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. The other man was reported in stable condition at United General Hospital in Sedro-Woolley, hospital CEO Greg Reed said.

Sligh said his shoulder was dislocated in the drop into the water, and he found himself "belly deep in water in the truck." He said he popped his shoulder back in and called out to his wife, who he described as being in shock initially as they waited for rescuers to arrive in boats.

The bridge was inspected twice last year and repairs were made, Transportation Secretary Lynn Peterson said.

"It's an older bridge that needs a lot of work just like a good number of bridges around the state," she said.

Transportation officials are working on plans for either a temporary or permanent replacement, she said.

The National Transportation Safety Board was sending an investigative team.

Jeremiah Thomas, a volunteer firefighter, said he was driving nearby when he glimpsed something out of the corner of his eye and turned to look.

"The bridge just went down, it crashed through the water," he said. "It was really surreal."

Deyerin said the water depth was about 15 feet, and the vehicles half-visible in the water likely were resting on portions of the collapsed bridge.

Crowds of people lined the river to watch the scene unfold.

"It's not something you see every day," said Jimmy O'Connor, the owner of two local pizza restaurants who was driving on another bridge parallel to the one that collapsed. "People were starting to crawl out of their cars."

He said he and his girlfriend were about 400 yards away on the Burlington Bridge when they heard "just a loud bang."

"Then we looked over and saw the bridge was down in the water," he said.

He pulled over and saw three vehicles in the water, including the camping trailer that landed upside-down, he said.

The bridge was not classified as structurally deficient, but a Federal Highway Administration database listed it as being "functionally obsolete" a category meaning that the design is outdated, such as having narrow shoulders and low clearance underneath.

The bridge, which was inspected last August and November, was built in in 1955 and had a sufficiency rating of 47 out of 100 at its November 2012 inspection, Transportation Department spokesman Noel Brady said Friday. The state average is 80, according to an Associated Press analysis.

Washington state was given a C in the American Society of Civil Engineers' 2013 infrastructure report card and a C- when it came to the state's bridges. The group said more than a quarter of Washington's 7,840 bridges are considered structurally deficient or functionally obsolete.

The bridge was 1,112 feet long and 180 feet wide, with two lanes in each direction, Brady said. There are four spans, or sections, over the water supported by piers. The span on the north side is the one that collapsed. It's a steel truss bridge, meaning it has a boxy steel frame.

The mishap was reminiscent of the August 2007 collapse of an I-35W bridge in Minneapolis that killed 13 people and injured another 145 when it buckled and fell into the Mississippi River during rush-hour.

Sligh was thankful.

His wife was "doing OK" and he had "lots of cuts," he said. "You're kind of pinching yourself and realize you're lucky to be alive."

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Baker reported from Olympia, Wash. Associated Press writers Chris Grygiel in Seattle and Terry Tang in Phoenix also contributed to this report.

Call of DoggieCall of PoochieCall of ScoobyCall of SnoopyBall to FetchieElectric FencieBark of HuskieDrool of CollieCall of Duty: Black LabsCall of Duty: Black Lab's PooCall of Duty: Whippet at WarCall of Duty: Modern Woof-fareCall of Duty: The Snarl CollectionCall of Duty: Ghost DogsCall of Duty, Based on the Novel "Pup" by LassieCall of the Poky Little PuppyHomeward Bound 2

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) Few have explored the remote volcanic islands of the Galapagos archipelago, an otherworldly landscape inhabited by the world's largest tortoises and other fantastical creatures that inspired Charles Darwin's theory of evolution.

Soon it will take only the click of a mouse or finger swipe on a tablet to explore some of the Galapagos Islands' most remote areas, surrounding waters and unique creatures.

Google sent hikers to the Galapagos with Street View gear called "trekkers," 42-pound (19-kilogram) computer backpacks with large, soccer ball-like cameras mounted on a tower.

Each orb has 15 cameras inside it that have captured panoramic views of some of the most inaccessible places on the Galapagos. Crews from The Catlin Seaview Survey worked with Google to capture 360-degree views of selected underwater areas too.

"We spent 10 days there hiking over trails ... and even down the crater of an active volcano," Raleigh Seamster, the project's leader for Google Maps said. "And these are islands, so half of the life there is under the water surface. So (we brought) Street View underwater to swim with sea lions, sharks and other marine animals."

Google is processing the footage and is trying to stitch it together. It hopes to post it to Street View later this year.

The cameras captured the nesting sites of blue-footed boobies, the red-throated "magnificent frigatebirds," swimming hammerhead sharks and, of course, the island's giant tortoises.

Scientists working with Google are exploring the footage for other species and hope to update the pictures regularly throughout the years as they study the effects of invasive species, tourism and climate change on the island's ecosystems.

"We hope that children in classrooms around the world will be trying to discover what they can see in the images, even tiny creatures like insects," said Daniel Orellana, a scientist with the Charles Darwin Foundation.

"We can use this as an education experience for children, and there is a huge opportunity for rare discoveries."

Orellana and others supervised the Google trekkers and helped guide them to remote areas either off-limits to tourists or rarely visited because they are hard to reach.

They also captured images of the areas frequented by tourists so they can keep track of how this access is affecting the environment.

Since launching Street View in 2007, Google has expanded from urban neighborhoods accessed easily by its mapping cars to more hard-to-access sites like the ocean floor, the Amazon rain forest and the Arctic.

"This whole project was part of Google's ongoing effort to build the most comprehensive and accurate map of the world," Seamster said.

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Follow Jason Dearen on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/JHDearen .

CANNES, France (AP) One of the more buzzed-about films at the Cannes Film Festival, "Omar," is set in the West Bank, and the Palestinian conflict is a key part of the plot.

But the film's lead actor, Adam Bakri, says the location or political motif isn't that important.

"The fact is that it is an international story, it happens in the West Bank but it doesn't even say in the film that it happens in the West Bank," he explained.

"So everybody can identify with it. Everybody can really go with it. I think it has a very strong political message but it is underneath, it is not straightforward, which I think is the genius of the film."

"Omar," which is being shown in the "A Certain Regard" section of Cannes, is directed by Hany Abu-Assad, director of the 2005 film "Paradise Now," which won earned him an Oscar nomination and a Golden Globe for best foreign film.

In his latest film, the Israeli-born director of Palestinian descent uses the political upheaval between Palestinians and Israel as the backdrop to a love story between characters Omar and Nadia. Omar must climb the separation wall between the Palestinian territories and Israel to see his love, and during one attempt, he is brutally attacked by an Israeli soldier. Afterward, he and his friends band together to kill an Israeli soldier in revenge, and the plot takes more twists.

Despite the political threads in the film, Abu-Assad said the film's romantic plot is the key component.

"I don't know anybody in this world who didn't enter the experience of being madly in love with someone. Me too. And I am always fascinated by how people lose themselves in this subject and how they become insecure. Actual insecurity is the reason why people are in love, but also why this love ends up very badly," he said.

"All love stories in history end up tragic, 'Romeo and Juliet,' 'Othello,' but also like in our modern history, 'Casablanca,' even the 'Titanic' you know, it is a tragic ending. 'In the Mood for Love,' that is a great love story," Abu-Assad continued. "All of these examples gave me the inspiration to do something about my version of love and betrayal but involved in a political thriller because I love political thrillers. These two genres I tried to mix in a way that could become an exceptional movie."

American-born actor Waleed F. Zuaiter is among the actors in "Omar" and also helped Abu-Assad get financing for the film. Abu-Assad has said it is the first film to be completely financed by Palestinians.

"I jumped into it head first, asked as many questions as I possibly could to learn things on the producer's side, and here we are," Zuaiter said.

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Follow Sian Watson at http://www.twitter.com/nekeamumbi