LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Breast cancer survivor Christina Applegate made the cover of People magazine’s 100 most beautiful people issue on Wednesday in a list that welcomed newcomers U.S. first lady Michelle Obama and "Twilight" heart-throb Robert Pattinson.

Pattinson’s vampire-loving co-star Kristen Stewart, teen music idols Nick and Joe Jonas and "Slumdog Millionaire" star Dev Patel also made the coveted list for the first time, in the celebrity magazine’s annual issue that hits newsstands on Friday.

Applegate, 37, the star of the U.S. TV show "Samantha Who?," won admiration for going public last year about her breast diagnosis and later underwent a double mastectomy.

The actress, who has since undergone reconstructive breast surgery, told People in an interview it was hard to look at herself naked.

"You don’t look the same anymore and you never will. A part of you is gone. … It’s a decision that you made to save your life," she said. It was Applegate’s third appearance on the People list.

Michelle Obama, who has achieved celebrity status and has wowed the world as a fashion icon, made the list for the first time.

"I had a father and a brother who thought I was beautiful, and they made me feel that way every single day," Obama told the magazine.

"I grew up with very strong male role models who thought I was smart and fast and funny, so I heard that a lot. I know that there are many young girls who don’t hear it. But I was fortunate," she added.

Also included in a "Barack’s Beauties" section were White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and others.

Pattinson, 22, who has a huge teen girl following after appearing in the "Twilight" movie blockbuster, said he didn’t quite understand his heartthrob status.

"I don’t get it. It’s funny, you look the same for years and no one ever mentions it. Then suddenly it’s a big deal," he told People.

The 100 list also included old favorites George Clooney, Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt and Halle Berry. Some of the celebrities, including actress Eva Mendes and supermodel Cindy Crawford appeared in a "Stars Without Makeup" section in which they were photographed wearing no make-up for their close-ups.

The leftist rag SFGate

The Dalai Lama told a standing room only crowd of some 7,000 at UC Berkeley’s Greek Theatre on Saturday that peace and nuclear disarmament can be accomplished if only the world’s leaders could talk to one another in a compassionate and understanding way.

The exiled spiritual leader of Buddhist Tibet chose the university where the Free Speech Movement began more than 40 years ago to endorse President Obama’s philosophy of establishing dialogue, even with reviled world leaders.

"We must promote dialogue with full respect and consideration of others’ interests," said the world’s best known Buddhist as he sat cross-legged in a maroon robe on a cushy chair placed atop a platform covered by a rug, presumably Tibetan.

"We should have a very clear vision that the whole world will demilitarize," he said, near the end of his speech, which lasted close to an hour. "There should be some restrictions on selling arms."

It was the third time that the Dalai Lama has spoken at the campus. The last time was a decade ago.

But his talk Saturday wasn’t all about love and war. His mostly philosophical discussion was interspersed with little cracks about his lack of proficiency in English, as he regaled the crowd with amusing stories. At one point, talking about the beauty of nature, he told the students of one of his biggest fears when he was a boy.

"In my childhood, I always afraid of caterpillar," he said. "A scorpion, I could touch. But caterpillar, never." Nonetheless, he said, he expects to be reincarnated some day as a caterpillar.

He also revealed that he never flies first class because it is "too much luxury."

At one point he told the crowd that he loves George W. Bush even though he doesn’t agree with his politics.

"As a human being, very nice person," the Dalai Lama said, "but not, like, a great leader or good politician."

The visit Saturday came during a momentous time in the history of Tibet and the Dalai Lama’s personal journey. It was half a century ago after a 1959 uprising – and resulting crackdown – that he was sent into exile. The anniversary has provoked a renewed focus on the plight of Tibetans, particularly exiles.

Most of the Dalai Lama’s talk focused on how to make the world a better place by achieving inner peace, compassion, loving kindness and genuine affection.

"The beginning of the 21st century, not a very happy one," he said to the mostly college-age crowd. "You are the source of hope."

"Everybody, including animals, want peace. It is clear," he said. "Our long-term goal should be a more compassionate humanity."

The Dalai Lama has advocated peaceful resistance to Chinese occupation, but he has also forcefully spoken out against the Chinese government’s violent suppression of Tibetan natives. He used the March 10 anniversary of the 1959 uprising to describe life in Tibet as "hell on Earth."

Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and other groups say the Chinese government has tortured Tibetan dissidents.

The Chinese government not only denies the allegations, but it has also criticized the fact that Bay Area institutions are hosting the Dalai Lama, whom they have called a terrorist.

"The words and deeds of the Dalai Lama over past decades are self-evident that he’s not just a religious figure but a political exile bent on separatist activities under the disguise of religion," Yunliang Zhou, a spokesman for the Chinese consulate in San Francisco, said in a statement.

Chinese officials have accused the Western press of distorting facts about the "Dalai clique," which they claim orchestrated the violent protest in Lhasa on March 14, 2008 in an attempt to disrupt the Summer Olympics in Beijing. The Chinese crackdown set off worldwide demonstrations and disruptions of the Olympic torch relay in 19 cities, including London, Paris and San Francisco.

"The Chinese government firmly opposes the Dalai Lama and his followers’ engagement in separatist activities in any country under whatever name," Zhou said.

An estimated 1,000 Tibetans live in the Bay Area, most in the East Bay.

Dechen Tsering, president of the Tibetan Association of Northern California, said the Chinese government’s criticism of the Dalai Lama is only intended to ignore the human rights violations going on inside the country.

"For them to write statements that say American institutions should not make facilities available to the Dalai Lama goes against all the grains of a democratic society," Tsering said.

The Dalai Lama’s biggest cheer Saturday came at the end of the talk when he donned a cap with the Cal insignia on it. As for what Cal students should do upon graduation?

"You should prepare in your mind that life is not easy," he said. "Hope for the best, but prepare for the worst."

 By Neil Sears

British soldiers tortured and murdered up to 20 Iraqis in cold blood, the High Court was told yesterday.

It happened after a three-hour gun battle at an Army checkpoint near Basra, a lawyer claimed.

Rabinder Singh said a group of local men were taken prisoner and transported to an Army camp where they were beaten with a rusty tent pole, punched, slammed against walls, denied water, blasted with loud music and forced to strip naked in the presence of a woman – a humiliation for Muslim men.

Camp Abu Naji: MP Ann Clwyd at the base where abuse allegedly happened

The next day, he said, only nine were still alive – and 20 corpses were returned to their families. One was teenager Hamid Al-Sweady.

The Army claims the men all died in the initial gun battle, but Hamid’s uncle Khuder Al-Sweady and five survivors of the incident yesterday began a court battle in London to win an independent inquiry.

The clash in May 2004 came after insurgents launched a heavy attack on a checkpoint known as Danny Boy in Al Majar-al-Kabir – the town north of Basra where six military policeman had been murdered the previous year.

According to Army accounts, the soldiers were heavily outnumbered but fought back heroically, mounting a bayonet charge at one point, until the attackers were defeated. The Army says only nine Iraqis were taken away alive for questioning.

But Mr Singh said that when the shooting was over, the British troops took bloody revenge. He said: ‘It is the claimants’ case that at least some of those captured were tortured and killed by British troops between 14 and 15 May 2004, and that there has been no effective investigation into what happened to them in that 24-hour period.

‘This constitutes a substantive and procedural breach of the European Convention on Human Rights.’

He added: ‘There is a lot of evidence from soldiers at the battlefield that there were more than nine that were taken alive.

‘Many of the bodies of the Iraqis returned on 15 May 2004 were severely disfigured and some appeared to show marks of torture and mutilation.’

The Ministry of Defence says a tenmonth Royal Military Police investigation showed the 20 dead were killed in the initial battle. The corpses were taken to be identified before being returned to their families, with no evidence of torture. The hearing continues

TEHRAN, Iran (CNN) — A U.S. journalist in Iran was sentenced to eight years in prison for espionage, her father, lawyer and news reports said Saturday — a sentence that prompted denunciation from the United States.

Reports in Iranian media, including an Iranian judiciary source quoted Saturday by the semi-official Iranian Students News Agency, confirmed the sentence of Roxana Saberi, a 31-year-old Iranian-American from North Dakota.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said she was "deeply disappointed" by the news. "We are working closely with the Swiss Protecting Presence to obtain details about the court’s decision, and to ensure her well-being," Clinton said in a statement.

The United States will "continue to vigorously raise our concerns to the Iranian government," Clinton said. "Ms. Saberi was born and raised in the United States, yet chose to travel to the Islamic Republic of Iran due to her desire to learn more about her cultural heritage. Our thoughts are with her parents and family during this difficult time."

Saberi’s lawyer confirmed the sentence and vowed an appeal would be launched within 20 days.

"I will definitely appeal the verdict within this period," Abdolsamad Khorramshahi said.

The case has unfolded as the Obama administration has signaled an inclination to engage diplomatically with Iran, America’s long-term adversary. The countries have been at odds for years over Iran’s nuclear program and Iranian actions and stances in the Middle East, such as the regime’s links to Hamas and Hezbollah and its alleged support of insurgents in Iraq.

Saberi has been living in Iran since 2003, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists, a journalists’ advocacy group.

She has freelanced for National Public Radio and other news organizations, and was writing a book about Iranian culture. NPR said she also reported for BBC, ABC and Fox.

Her media credentials were revoked in 2006 by the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance, which accredits reporters working for foreign news organizations, CPJ reported.

"According to NPR, Saberi continued to file short news items with government permission," CPJ said.

Saberi was first detained in January, CPJ said, although no formal charges were disclosed.

"She told her family that she was initially held for buying a bottle of wine," CPJ said on its Web site. "A spokesman for Iran’s Foreign Ministry said later that Saberi was being detained at Tehran’s Evin Prison for reporting without proper accreditation."

Political prisoners are often jailed at the prison, CPJ said.

Word that Saberi was charged with espionage emerged on April 8, CPJ said. Hassan Haddad, deputy public prosecutor, told the Iranian Students News Agency that "without press credentials and under the name of being a reporter, she was carrying out espionage activities."

She appeared before a Revolutionary Court on Monday for a one-day trial that was closed to the public, CPJ said, quoting an Iranian judiciary official.

Her father, Reza Saberi, told NPR on Saturday he believes his daughter was coerced into making damaging statements. He said the verdict was issued Wednesday.

The court, which didn’t meet Thursday and Friday, reconvened Saturday. Reza Saberi said his daughter was brought to the court, but he wasn’t allowed to enter.

A lawyer later told him she was sentenced to eight years in prison for espionage.

Reza Saberi said his daughter had earlier wanted to go on a hunger strike but she was persuaded not to. However, he said there is a chance she might do so now in light of the verdict.

Reza Saberi said his daughter is "very weak and frail."

"She is quite depressed about this matter and she wants to go on hunger strike. If she does, she’s so frail it can be very dangerous to her health."

Others also denounced the verdict.

"Roxana Saberi’s trial lacked transparency and we are concerned that she may not have been treated fairly," said Mohamed Abdel Dayem, the CPJ Middle East and North Africa program coordinator. "We call on the Iranian authorities to release her on bail pending her appeal."

Vivian Schiller, NPR’s president and chief executive officer, said the network is "deeply distressed by this harsh and unwarranted sentence."

"Saberi has already endured a three-month confinement in Evin Prison, and we are very concerned for her well-being. Through her work for NPR over several years, we know her as an established and respected professional journalist.

"We appeal to all of those who share our concerns to ask that the Iranian authorities show compassion and allow her to return home to the United States immediately with her parents."

North Dakota lawmakers slammed the conviction.

Democratic U.S. Sen. Kent Conrad called the ruling "preposterous," adding that the "charges against her are baseless."

"She was tried in a secret trial without her attorney even being present. That is a travesty of justice."

U.S. Sen. Byron Dorgan called the ruling "a shocking miscarriage of justice."

"The Iranian government has held a secret trial, will not make public any evidence, and sentenced an American citizen to eight years in prison for a crime she didn’t commit," the Democratic senator said.

U.S. Rep. Earl Pomeroy, D-North Dakota, said he was "dismayed at the verdict from the secret trial of Roxana Saberi."

"We know Roxana to be a fine young woman of intelligence and integrity and I hope based on humanitarian considerations she will be allowed to return to the United States.

"I am humbled by the brave efforts of Roxana’s parents who traveled from Fargo to Tehran, and I will continue to work closely with them in an effort to secure her release."

Feature Story News, the stringer service that employed Roxana Saberi in Iran, also denounced the action.

Simon Marks, president and chief correspondent, called the conviction a "miscarriage of justice — or what passes for justice in modern Iran."

"Roxana moved to Iran in February 2003 to offer global audiences balanced, objective coverage of news developments in the Islamic Republic. Since then, she has always honored journalistic principles of the highest professional standard.

"We note that no evidence to support charges of espionage has ever been furnished by the authorities in Iran. We can only conclude that absolutely none exists."

More than 10,000 people signed a CPJ petition calling for due process and her release as soon as possible. CPJ said it handed the petition in March to Iran’s Permanent Mission to the the United Nations.

Saberi isn’t the only American in peril in Iran.

Earlier this month, at a conference on Afghanistan in Netherlands, Clinton sent a letter to the Iranian delegation asking for information on and the safe release of Saberi Esha Momeni, an Iranian-American student arrested in Iran last October.

Clinton also inquired about Robert Levinson, a former FBI agent who disappeared in Iran in March 2007.

One U.S. senator suggested earlier this year that Iran may be holding Levinson in a bid to exchange him for Iranian officials seized by U.S. troops in Iraq in 2007.

"On several diplomatic occasions when Bob Levinson’s name has been brought up to Iranian officials, the standard answer is, ‘We don’t know anything about that.’ But the next thing out of the Iranian officials’ mouths are to discuss the matter of the Iranians held by the Americans in Irbil, Iraq," Sen. Bill Nelson, a Florida Democrat, told reporters in February.

"You can draw your own conclusions," he said.

U.S. troops arrested five Iranians accused of being members of an elite Iranian military unit during a January 2007 raid in the Iraqi city of Irbil.

They were accused of supporting Shiite militias in Iraq, but Iran said they were diplomats and accused the United States of violating international law by raiding a consulate.

 By MATTHEW DALY Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration said Friday it will not appeal a federal court ruling that prohibits carrying loaded guns in national parks and wildlife refuges.

Instead, the Interior Department said it will conduct a full environmental review of an earlier policy that allowed concealed, loaded guns in parks and refuges.

U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly struck down the gun policy last month. She called the rule, issued in the waning days of the Bush administration, severely flawed and said officials failed to evaluate its possible environmental impacts, as required by law. The judge set an April 20 deadline for the Interior Department to indicate its likely response.

The Bush rule, which took effect in January, allowed visitors to carry a loaded gun into a park or wildlife refuge as long as the person had a permit for a concealed weapon and the state where the park or refuge was located allowed concealed firearms. Previously, guns in parks had been severely restricted.

Kendra Barkoff, a spokeswoman for Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, said Friday that the department is not completely discarding the Bush rule. Instead, she said that officials intend to complete a comprehensive environmental impact statement that analyzes the possible effects of the Bush rule, as well as a range of alternatives.

The review is expected to take several months at least. In the meantime, 26-year-old restrictions that had been in place before the rule change remain in effect.

Paul Helmke, president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, which filed a lawsuit to block the Bush rule, said he was pleased at the Obama administration’s decision.

"Semiautomatic weapons have no place in the valleys of Yellowstone, on the cliffs of Yosemite or under the torch of the Statue of Liberty," he said.

Helmke said the government should not spend any more resources analyzing the old Bush rule, but added: "We hope and expect that the Obama administration will conclude that the rule can only make our parks more dangerous and should not be implemented."

In her 44-page ruling last month, Kollar-Kotelly called the rule-making process used by the Bush Interior Department "astoundingly flawed." She noted that officials failed to perform an environmental assessment, which calls for the government to take into account such factors as public safety and the "human environment."

Even without an appeal by the Obama administration, the court case is likely to continue. The National Rifle Association has filed a separate appeal of the ruling. A spokesman has said the group will pursue all legal and legislative avenues "to defend the American people’s right to self-defense."

Meanwhile, lawmakers who support gun-owners’ rights have introduced legislation to reinstate the Bush rule. Bills introduced by Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, and Rep. Doc Hastings, R-Wash., would allow citizens to carry concealed firearms in national parks and wildlife refuges. Crapo’s bill is co-sponsored by Montana Democrats Max Baucus and Jon Tester, Democratic Arkansas Sen. Blanche Lincoln as well as Republican Sen. Robert Bennett of Utah. Two dozen House members — all but one Republican — have co-sponsored the House bill. Rep. Glenn Nye of Virginia is the sole Democrat to back the bill.

Source

——————————–

Helmke said the government should not spend any more resources analyzing the old Bush rule, but added: "We hope and expect that the Obama administration will conclude that the rule can only make our parks more dangerous and should not be implemented."

In her 44-page ruling last month, Kollar-Kotelly called the rule-making process used by the Bush Interior Department "astoundingly flawed." She noted that officials failed to perform an environmental assessment, which calls for the government to take into account such factors as public safety and the "human environment."

Law-abiding registered armed U.S. citizens in parks, No Fuckin’ Way! Armed violent Mexican drug cartels growing pot plantations and killing the plants and animals with dangerous pesticides in the parks, A-OK!

Mexican Drug Cartels Sully U.S. Forests, Parks

Mexican Marijuana Growers Use Pesticides, Herbicides that Pollute U.S. Parks, Forest Lands

PROVIDENCE, R.I.—Brown University is taking the "Columbus Day" out of Columbus Day weekend.

The faculty voted at a meeting Tuesday to establish a new academic holiday in October called "Fall Weekend." The long weekend coincides with Columbus Day.

Hundreds of Brown students had asked the Providence school to stop observing Columbus Day, citing the explorer’s violent treatment of Native Americans he encountered. Reiko (RAY’-koh) Koyama, a sophomore who led the effort, says celebrating Columbus Day seemed inconsistent with Brown’s values.

The change will take effect in in the fall. Brown will remain closed on Columbus Day, in part to avoid inconveniencing staff whose children might have the holiday off.

Many other colleges are open on Columbus Day but give students short breaks later in the semester.

Source

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger says services for illegal immigrants cost California taxpayers billions of dollars, but that’s not the reason for the state’s budget crisis.

Members of The Sikh Coalition speak out against the Army’s turban ban at a press conference Tuesday at The Marine Corps War Memorial in Arlington, Va.

Stars and Stripes

ARLINGTON, Va. – Seeing “Integrate the U.S. Army” on a protest sign recalls the civil rights struggles of African-Americans in the mid-20th Century.  But on Tuesday, under a cold wet spring sky, more than a dozen Americans of a different minority, the Sikh faith, stood in front of the iconic Iwo Jima memorial to World War II with one simple request: Let us serve.

The Pentagon has informed two Sikh personnel in the Army Reserves, a doctor and a dentist, that they must remove their turbans and cut their hair when they are called into their regular Army service later this year, according to a Sikh advocacy group.

Capt. Kamaljeet S. Kalsi said the Army recruiters who approached him during his first year of medical school in 2001 said they wanted him, and his beard, turban and long hair, to serve in the medical corps. 

Seven years later, Kalsi expects to begin the Officers’ Leadership Basic Course in July. But superiors in the Army’s Health Professions Scholarship Program told him last year that he may have a problem with these “articles of faith” and an Army medical advisor to the U.S. Surgeon General informed him he may face resistance over his turban and beard.

Kalsi wrote to commanders at the Army Graduate Medical Education Office in December 2008 asking for exemption, but was denied.

On Tuesday, the Sikh Coalition filed a formal complaint with the inspectors general of the Army and the Department of Defense on behalf of Kalsi and 2nd Lt. Tejdeep Singh Rattan, a Reservist since 2006.  The group was formed after two Sikhs were attacked in Queens, N.Y., on the night of 9/11 as reprisals for the attack.

For Kalsi, whose family came to the U.S. in 1978, the issue is frustrating and confusing.  He is the fourth generation to serve in allied militaries. His father and grandfather were both Indian Air Force veterans. His great-grandfather served in the British army.

“I can’t understand why my Army would keep me from serving,” Kalsi said. 

Kalsi joined in 2001 after talking extensively about his religious beliefs with a recruiter. The recruiter told him, “Yeah, we have Sikhs in the military, don’t worry about it,” he said.

Kalsi jumpstarted his career with rotations in military hospitals at West Point and Travis Air Force Base, Calif., serving as active duty, in uniform with his turban, beard and long hair intact.

Sikhs point to a long military tradition in India, the U.S. and other allied countries. They are known as “the protectors of India,” Kalsi said, because they come from Punjab, a northern gateway border province of India and first line of defense against invaders. In World War II, 85,000 Sikhs died serving in Allied forces.

The Army banned turbans in the 1980s, but grandfathered those serving, and has made a few exceptions.

Today, there are a half-million Sikhs in the U.S., and the coalition’s executive director said U.S. policy seems hypocritical given that Sikh’s serve side-by-side with Americans abroad.

“The policy doesn’t make any sense because we have Sikh troops serving in Afghanistan and Iraq as we speak with the militaries of Great Britain and, in Afghanistan’s case, with Canada,” said Coalition spokesman Amardeep Singh.

Turbans, long hair and beards are considered a mandatory religious uniform for all Sikhs. Keeping uncut hair is required according to the Rehat Maryada, the Sikh instruction for living. In the 18th century, Muslims forced Sikhs to convert by cutting their hair and removing their turbans, the group noted.

Of the four taboos listed for Sikhs, adultery is as forbidden as cutting one’s hair.

“The fact that cutting one’s hair is a moral transgression as serious as committing adultery speaks to the immense significance of uncut hair in Sikhism,” lawyers for the Sikh Coalition wrote in a letter to the inspectors general.

“The Army places a high value on the rights of soldiers to observe their respective religious faiths; however, the Army does not accommodate the exceptions for personal grooming standards for religious reasons,” said Army spokesman Lt. Col. Nathan Banks. 

The restriction forces soldiers to meet “health, safety and mission requirements,” Banks said, and facial hair prevents an airtight seal on gas masks.

But lawyers representing the soldiers say the policy poses a “burden on their exercise of religion” under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993, and has been unevenly applied given some Sikhs in the U.S. Army were allowed exceptions and served for decades.

Col. Arjinderpal Singh Sekhon, a Sikh, retired in January, one day after his 60th birthday, due to Army age restrictions.

“My battalion right now, which I trained, is in Afghanistan as a combat support hospital,” he said. “I ran the best 68-whiskey program,” referring to combat medics.

“I did all this, and these two young people can do the same, maybe better than me,” he added, because they sought out the Army and are eager to join.

The coalition’s complaint added: “Shutting Sikhs and other devout citizens out of our armed forces not only reinforces the stereotype of these groups as the ‘other’ but also robs them of an opportunity to integrate into American society.  In addition, it is important that our nation’s armed forces reflect the diversity of its population.”

Rattan, who emigrated to the U.S., called the Army’s policy “deeply unfair” to ask him to choose between religion and country.

“I am willing to lay down my life for America.  In return, I ask only that my country respect my faith,” he said. “My turban and beard are not an option – they are in intrinsic part of me.”

 NY Post

She’s America’s top "model."

Michelle Obama is the nation’s first first lady to add a full-time makeup artist to her traveling entourage, according to stylists who have worked with presidential wives over the past 16 years.

Makeup artist Ingrid Grimes-Miles, 49, helped create Obama’s signature look on her inaugural trip to Europe last week.

Grimes-Miles, who has been working with the first lady for six years, now splits her time between DC and Chicago, where she dolls up morning-news anchors for WGN TV.

"No other first ladies have consistently traveled with a makeup artist," said hairdresser Bernard Portelli, who styled Hillary Rodham Clinton’s blond mane in 1993 and tracks trends in first-lady style.

"It took Laura Bush four years to finally look good. It’s taken Michelle Obama two months. She wears fake eyelashes that are beautiful. She can’t do those herself."

Style watchers suspect that Grimes-Miles is behind Obama’s most prominent beauty reinvention: Her eyebrows. After the first lady drew criticism for looking angry, her high-arched eyebrows were reshaped with a softer arc that gave her a friendlier appearance.

Grimes-Miles has described Obama’s makeup as "not an avant-garde look . . . We want her to [look] very natural and polished."

Last week, Grimes-Miles joined "First Hairstylist" Johnny Wright, 31, aboard Air Force One as official guests of the president, during their six-day trip across Europe.

The Obamas privately paid for the travel expenses of the styling team, according to a spokeswoman for the first lady. But the high-profile jobs don’t pay much, say former White House stylists.

"You do it because you know you will have some prestige and you will be able to make money later," Portelli said.

Wright, a former LA-based stylist for Frederic Fekkai, relocated to the capital for his position in January. But he wasn’t the first lady’s first choice.

Michael "Rahni" Flowers, 54, who has tamed Mrs. Obama’s locks since she was 18, said he couldn’t relocate from Chicago. "I thought it was better to help train someone to manage her in DC," Flowers told The Post.

Daily Mail:

Blonde on blonde: Sting and his wife Trudie have properties in London and New York as well as their Italian retreat

Sting and his wife Trudie Styler have invited a group of friends on an all-expenses-paid luxury holiday to Tuscany…so they can discuss ‘social consciousness’.

The couple are spending thousands of pounds flying a group of 20 friends to their five-star Italian retreat at the personal request of Miss Styler.

The trip includes business-class flights to and from Florence, airport transfers, all accommodation, food, wine, day trips, eating out and activities from horse riding to swimming in the villa’s outdoor pools.

The theme for the week according to Miss Styler, 55, who has sent out personal invitations by email, is ‘social consciousness and creativity’.

Pitched as a week of ‘sun, fun, food, wine, conversation, creativity and laughter’, Sting, 57, and Trudie will host the holiday at their 16th Century farmhouse, surrounded by olive groves and vineyards.

The couple – whose expansive property portfolio includes mansions in London and New York, where they have just refurbished a £5million penthouse – spend most of the summer in Italy and their open-house invitation to friends has become an annual event.

Trudie, who combines a career as a film director with environmental projects, came up with the idea of hosting the break so that ‘influential’ friends in the media and film worlds could discuss topics from saving the rainforest to protecting the British film industry.

A friend said: ‘Trudie’s invite is something everyone loves to receive because it’s always a great week away and no expense is spared. You never need to pay for a thing and everything from the accommodation to the food is five-star.

‘There’s always a bit of a giggle about the invite, which is meant with all the best intentions, but can come across as a little bit pretentious. This year it came via email and is typically Trudie.’

Sting and Trudie spend most of the summer at their Italian mansion. Their open house invitation has become an annual event

The invitation is also from Trudie and Sting’s friends Alison Owen, the film producer mother of pop star Lily Allen, and film director Steve Zaillian.

Featuring a picture of the villa, it reads: ‘We are gathering together some of the most creative writers, humanitarians, thinkers and film-makers we can find, people who care for humanity and the world we inhabit in a conscious and thoughtful way, and whose philosophy of life informs their creative passions.

‘Humanitarian activists will break bread with film directors. There will be speakers who, over a long lunch, might give an informal talk about the world they occupy, and put forward visions for the way art, culture and cinema can participate in social transformation.’

Trudie concludes: ‘I shall be clucking like a gorgeous mother hen, ensuring that we’ll be fed and wined to the max, sun-kissed and stimulated into oblivion/presence – you choose!’

The property is set in 700 acres, including a wood with six lakes and a barn converted into a recording studio.

Meals, prepared by the in-house chef, are ‘all the more enjoyable with the knowledge that everything is fresh, organic and hand-picked’.

A spokesman for Miss Styler was unavailable for comment.