NEWSMAKERS
NEWSMAKERS
N.C. gets ready for ‘Hunger Games’ fans
RALEIGH, N.C.
Fans of “The Hunger Games” are already turning up in North Carolina, seeking out places where the movie was shot, from old-growth forests to an abandoned mill town.
And the tourism industry is prepared to cash in on them, with everything from hotel packages and zip-lines tours, to re-enactments of scenes from the film and lessons in survival skills.
The movie, which opens this weekend and is expected to be a box- office smash, is based on a best-selling book about a post-apocalyptic world where teenagers compete to the death in fighting games.
It was filmed entirely in North Carolina.
Report: North Korea orchestra coming to US
ATLANTA
An Atlanta-based non-profit group is working to bring North Korea’s national orchestra to the U.S.
Robert Springs of Global Resource Services told The Associated Press on Wednesday that the North Korean National Symphony Orchestra is planning a concert in Atlanta and a tour of several cities.
He said he’s hoping the visit will happen in the spring but that details are being worked out. Springs said the visit awaits government approval.
Springs is president of Global Resource Services, a humanitarian group that works in North Korea.
The tour would take place four years after the New York Philharmonic performed in Pyongyang in January 2008 — a historic exchange between musicians from two nations that are enemy states.
One Direction hits top spot with debut
NEW YORK
One Direction’s first album, “Up All Night,” debuted at the top of the latest Billboard Top 200 albums chart.
The British boy band sold more than 176,000 copies of the album in its first week of release to reach No. 1. It makes them the first British act to debut at No. 1 with their first album.
The group also said Wednesday that they will headline their first North American tour beginning May 24 in Fairfax, Va.
Vindicator wire services