Domingo concert opens New Orleans Arena

Domingo concert opensNew Orleans Arena
Placido Domingo, Frederica von Stade and Denyce Graves sang before an enthusiastic audience of more than 7,000 at the post-Katrina reopening of the New Orleans Arena.
"A Night for New Orleans," a benefit concert held Saturday night, also included Richard Leech and Nathan Gunn. It was the first opera performance in New Orleans since Hurricane Katrina hit Aug. 29.
Performers occasionally poked fun at the city's hazardous condition following Katrina, while expressing their best wishes and confidence in the future.
Domingo, whose recent struggles with an inflamed windpipe caused him to step down from several performances at the New York Metropolitan Opera, said his first appearance in New Orleans 44 years ago had brought him good luck early in his career.
The arena was the pre-Katrina home of the NBA's New Orleans Hornets, who return to the city for the first time Wednesday for a game against the Los Angeles Lakers, part of a three-game home series. The Hornets are playing the rest of their home games this season in Oklahoma City.
Diana crash probefinds no foul play
An official British inquiry into the 1997 death of Princess Diana in a high-speed car crash has found no evidence of foul play, a newspaper has reported.
The Daily Mail said Monday the interim report, to be published in May by former Metropolitan Police Commissioner John Stevens, will dismiss conspiracy theories about the deaths of Diana, her boyfriend, Dodi Fayed, and their chauffeur, Henri Paul, in a Paris tunnel.
Those theories include an allegation that Prince Charles was plotting to kill his former wife by staging a car accident. Fayed's father, Mohammed al Fayed, who owns Harrods department store in London, has said he suspects not only Charles, but also his father, Prince Philip.
The two-year investigation by 10 detectives will say that even a skilled racing driver would have had difficulty controlling the Mercedes carrying Diana as it hurtled through the Pont d'Alma tunnel in Paris, the Daily Mail reported. The newspaper cited "French judicial sources" at one point in its story but did not identify them further.
An official French inquiry concluded that Paul was drunk when he left the Ritz hotel with the couple and bodyguard Trevor Rees-Jones, who was seriously injured in the crash.
France's highest court dropped manslaughter charges in 2002 against nine photographers who pursued Diana's car before it crashed or who took photos at the site.
French officials have said all traffic cameras on the road that Diana's car took, and within the tunnel, were not working the night of the crash.
But Monday's Daily Express newspaper challenged that finding, saying a woman was caught speeding by a camera in the Pont d'Alma tunnel moments before Diana's crash.
A Metropolitan Police spokesman declined to comment about the Daily Mail report, saying the investigation was still under way and no date has been set for the interim report to be completed and given to the coroner. The official spoke on condition of anonymity, as the police officials always do as a matter of policy.
Today's birthdays
Comedian Alan Sues is 80. Photographer Lord Snowdon is 76. TV personality Willard Scott is 72. Auto racer Janet Guthrie is 68. Actor Daniel J. Travanti is 66. Former Walt Disney Company chief executive officer Michael Eisner is 64. Rock musician Chris White (The Zombies) is 63. Actor John Heard is 60. Rock singer Peter Wolf is 60. Rock musician Matthew Fisher (Procol Harum) is 60. Football Hall-of-Famer Franco Harris is 56. Football Hall-of-Famer Lynn Swann is 54. Rhythm-and-blues singer-musician Ernie Isley (The Isley Brothers) is 54. Actor Bryan Cranston is 50. Actress Donna Murphy is 47. Tennis Hall-of-Famer Ivan Lendl is 46. Actor Bill Brochtrup is 43. Opera singer Denyce Graves is 42. Comedian Wanda Sykes is 42. Singer-actress Taylor Dayne is 41. Rock musician Randy Guss (Toad the Wet Sprocket) is 39. Actor Peter Sarsgaard is 35. Actress Rachel Weisz is 35. Classical singer Sebastien Izambard (Il Divo) is 33. Rock singer Hugo Ferreira (Tantric) is 32. Actress Laura Prepon is 26.
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