Pop superstar Madonna kicked off a new world tour on Thursday wishing peace on the Middle East even as she showcased grim dance routines depicting violence and bloody gunmen among her more colorful numbers.

Madonna, 53, mixed hit songs over three decades in music with tunes from her recent album, "MDNA," before a packed audience, and she took a sly dig at younger diva, Lady Gaga.

"She's not me!" Madonna sang at the end of "Express Yourself," which she had reworked to include a sampling of Lady Gaga's recent "Born This Way."

That song from Lady Gaga, who emerged on the pop music scene about four years ago and has enjoyed a huge following in recent years, has been cited by many music fans and critics as being very similar to Madonna's late 1980s dance club smash.

Since Lady Gaga, 26, released "Born This Way," fans and music lovers have speculated that a generational challenge was in the works between the two women and comedians have poked fun at any imagined rivalry between the two.

Despite occasional lighthearted touches such as a baton-twirling routine in cheerleader formation and a psychedelic homage to Indian philosophy, the dominant mood at Thursday's concert in Tel Aviv seemed more grim with a stage shrouded in black and red and costumes that often appeared ominous.

Created in the late 1990s in Colombia by fitness instructor Alberto Perez, Zumba is a high-energy aerobic workout based on dance steps borrowed from salsa, meringue and other dances.

Wang's father, a retired photographer from Nanjing Film Studio, and his mother, a teacher, gave him lots of support.

"My mother dances with neighbors in a park near our house every morning," Wang said.

In 2011, the female lead singer of Phoenix Legend, Ling Hua, contacted Wang and invited him to be their instructor. The duo has also cooperated with Wang to produce an album, which contains 10 remixed songs for fitness dance classes. Wang said he plans to bring the album, to be released next month, to the US.

"His remix took our music to a wider audience and created a new possibility for promoting pop songs," Ling said.

Now, Wang flies between Beijing and the US, giving classes and learning more traditional Chinese dance moves.

"My dream is to have my own dance studio and include more original Chinese music in my classes," Wang said.

Going Home was the first Kenny G song Li heard. It's perhaps the saxophonist's most popular song in China and is often played in public places, such as schools and shopping malls.

"I even spent several thousand yuan to buy a soprano saxophone when I was in college and dreamed I could someday also play romantic melodies like Kenny G onstage," Li recalls.

Li became a businessman and is too busy to play the sax. But he relishes the memories of his youthful dreams.

Kenny G doesn't need to change to appeal to Chinese fans. They want more of the same - the same as what they fell in love with years ago, including Kenny G's curly long hairstyle.

Kenny G emphasizes his music is "romantic" in an exclusive interview with China Daily before his Shenzhen concert.

Chinese audience members at the show closed their eyes and opened their ears. There was no whistling. Nobody did the wave. Many reclined in their seats and put their feet up.

The most crowd action came from those who bobbed their heads and swayed while sitting.

I must admit, that's what I did.

A new format for TV singing competitions forbids judges from viewing contestants, ensuring assessments are based solely
on singers' skills. Sun Li reports in Beijing.

New programs are offering twists on singing competition reality shows - blind auditions are ensuring judges' decisions are based on vocal skills alone. Guangxi Satellite TV recently launched Sound of Love, a folk program based on the concept of selecting the singer with the best voice, regardless of appearance and style.

Liu Xichen, president of Shixi Media - the country's leading TV content provider, which produced the show - says it's adapted from True Talent, a singing competition program created by Paris-headquartered Zodiak Media.

"A new folk singing show is high on Guangxi Satellite TV's agenda," Liu says.

"The broadcaster hopes to use the project to promote the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region's annual Nanning International Folk Song Art Festival. It also wants to borrow the packaging of an already-successful foreign program," Liu continues.

"That's why we bought Zodiak's entertainment format. It's high-ratings, and its concept of focusing solely on voices is fresh in China."

Cavanagh, who had frequently found herself in the show's danger zone of being voted off, wowed the judges on Wednesday with her soaring energy and Tina Turner-like dance moves in her take on "River Deep Mountain High."

Contestants sang hits from the 1960s, followed by songs by British artists on Wednesday, and "Idol" got a visit from one it most famous past winners, country songstress Carrie Underwood on Thursday elimination episode.

Now a top country star, Underwood performed the title track from her album "Blown Away," which was released earlier this week. Coldplay sang their song "Paradise," and came back later in the show for an encore performance.

Four contestants remain on "Idol" heading toward the show's finale later this month.

"Idol", which first aired in on Fox in 2002, has launched the careers Kelly Clarkson, Adam Lambert and Jennifer Husdon, among others. Now in its 11th season, the show continues to be the most watched reality TV show in America, though it has received stiff competition from "The Voice" this year.

Audiences vote for their favorite performers by phone and text message each week as contestants are challenged by a variety of musical styles. The winning contestant receives a recording contract.

Christian groups in South Korea called on Friday for pop icon Lady Gaga to cancel her concert here saying it was "pornographic" and promoted homosexuality.

South Korea's government has already bowed to public pressure and banned under-18s from attending the 26-year old's concert, but protesters gathered outside the venue said that was not enough.

"Some people can accept this as another culture but its impact is huge beyond art and debases religions. Even adults can't see her performance which is too homosexual and pornographic," said Yoon Jung-hoon, a reverend who organized the "Civilians Network against the Lady Gaga Concert".

The singer's hit song "Born This Way" celebrates the empowerment of gay men and women, something that many in South Korea, which is the second most Christian country in Asia after the Philippines, say is an immoral lifestyle.

Lady Gaga, whose real name is Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta, has been in Seoul for close on a week as she kicks off her Asian "Born this Way" tour.

"Nervous for tonight. Hope I make little monsters happy and proud," she Tweeted a few hours before the concert kicked off.

Lionel Richie keeps Jason Mraz off Billboard top spot

Lionel Richie staved off stiff competition to hold onto the top spot of the Billboard 200 album chart on Wednesday, beating out new entries from Jason Mraz and Train.

"Tuskegee," the country music-inspired 10th studio album from the 62-year-old soul singer, made the rare climb to No. 1 last week, three weeks after the album's release and continued to hold strong this week with 114,000 copies sold.

Grammy-winning pop singer Jason Mraz debuted at No. 2 with his fourth studio album "Love Is A Four Letter Word," a collection of laid-back, beach-inspired love songs selling 102,000 copies in its first week.

The album's lead single, "I Won't Give Up," went platinum this week after selling more than a million copies since its release in January.

Pop rockers Train returned last week with their sixth studio album "California 37," debuting at No. 4 after selling 75,000 copies, while newcomer rapper Future scored an impressive debut at No. 8 on the chart with his first album "Pluto," selling 41,000 copies.

California quintet Maroon 5 stormed the Digital Songs chart with "Payphone," their first single from their upcoming album "Overexposed."

Stars perform in Shanghai's music festival

SHANGHAI -- Music stars have gathered in Shanghai to perform at its Strawberry Music Festival.

Rock bands of Blond Redhead from the United States, Tahiti80 from the France, and Goose from Belgium are among the stars attending the festival held at the Shanghai Expo Park from Sunday to Tuesday.

Mandarin bands such as Sodagreen and singers such as Tanya Chua also performed at the festival.

Strawberry Festival, a festival mainly with rock music, is organized by the record company Mondern Sky and Shanghai-based SMG media corporation.

Wang Yong, an executive with the SMG, said China is transforming its economic development pattern, and cultural activities have started booming.

"Young people born in the 1980s and 90s prefer rock festivals as they are focusing on personalities at the era of Internet."

Adele sets a new record with '21'

Multi-award winning singer Adele returned to number one in the albums chart with "21", overtaking David Bowie and Dire Straits for the number of weeks spent in the top spot, the UK's Official Albums Chart said on Sunday.

The Brit and Grammy award winner moved up two places in her 64th week in the albums chart with "21".

During her career, she has notched up 23 weeks at number one, including one week for her debut album "19" and 22 weeks for "21".

Bowie and Dire Straits both managed 22 weeks.

Making way for Adele was Nicki Minaj with "Pink Friday - Roman Reloaded" which dropped one place to number two.

A new entrant at number three was Alabama Shakes with debut album "Boys & Girls".

In the singles chart, pop starlet Carly Rae Jepsen kept teen sensation Justin Bieber at bay, holding on to number one with "Call Me Maybe".

Draft copyright law enrages China's music industry

Chinese songwriters are enraged over a draft amendment to the copyright law as they believe it would diminish their professional rights if passed.

The National Copyright Administration published the draft amendment at its website on March 31 to seek public feedback.

Article 46 of the draft stipulates that sound recording producers may use a music work from another record product, which has already been published for more than three months, in their own records without having to obtain the consent from the music copyright holder, as long as they report to relevant government authorities and pay fair compensation.

Moreover, the draft provides that if the copyright holder does not state otherwise, the royalty for such use will be collected through copyright collective management organizations.

"The draft is a possible deprivation of songwriters' copyright interests as well as our rights to dispose our own properties," Gao Xiaosong, a famous songwriter, wrote on Sina Weibo, a popular Chinese microblogging site on Wednesday.

Gao also posted online a petition signed by more than 20 popular songwriters and singers, including Xiao Ke, Zhang Chu, Han Geng and Sandee Chan, urging authorities to revise relevant provisions in the draft.

CCTV-MTV Music Awards nominees announced

The nominees of the 11th CCTV-MTV Music Awards were announced and the public voting started on Thursday.

Li Jian, a composer and singer, was nominated for Best Male Singer (mainland). The song Legend, written by Li, was performed by Asian pop diva Faye Wong at 2010 CCTV Spring Festival Gala and won Most Popular Song of the Awards last year.

Viewers can log on ent.cntv.cn and ammh.mtvchina.com to vote for their favorite performers and songs, or send their votes through cell phones to 10669999084.

The 11th CCTV-MTV Music Awards will be held on August 21 in Beijing. CCTV-3 has been airing highlights of past ceremonies at 7 pm since July 5.

Launched in 1999, the Awards are considered the most prestigious music awards in China.

Doctors checked the genes of several embryos created through IVF.

They then filtered out those passing on the parents' genetic disease, and chose the ones whose antigens matched those of the sick sister.

Next, the selected embryos were placed into the mother's womb. Immediately after birth the umbilical cord blood was collected and saved for future stem cell transplantation.

"Conducting this type of antigen typing enables couples carrying the beta-thalassemia virulence gene to have a baby. Not only a healthy baby but one also able to save the life of their other child," Zhou said. Therefore, "experts around the world tend to call such test-tube babies 'therapeutic'".

Professor Wang Lina at Peking University Third Hospital's center of reproductive medicine, however, pointed out that the procedure was controversial, especially because there was a lack of legislation covering it and it could be abused.

"Our hospital will not carry it out at least until health authorities issue the relative rules and regulations," she said.

Qiu Renzong, a leading bioethicist with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, had a different opinion."This is just a regular clinical practice and does no harm to anyone. So why not support it. It can help save lives," he said.

The service is only offered to particular parents, Zhou said.

"We offer the pre-implantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) service, including human leukocyte antigen typing, only to parents of a child who needs stem cell or bone marrow transplants and they should be legally allowed to have a second baby."

Ma got permission in 2008 from family planning authorities to have a second child.

The ethics committee of the hospital can supervise and veto the procedure to prevent possible abuse, Zhou said.

However, he conceded that risks, including possible side effects to the mother during the process and potential health problems for the test-tube baby, did exist.

The Chinese helicopter engine manufacturer, which is 60 percent owned by a closely held private entity, intends to expand its product lines in the general aviation industry through the transaction, Qian Chunyuan, assistant to chairman of Superior, said on Tuesday.

The company is 40 percent owned by a firm controlled by the Beijing municipal government.

Qian said the company is confident about the transaction, although the agreement would still be subject to a further competitive public auction process if the parties successfully negotiate an agreement, according to the US Bankruptcy Court's regulation.

"Other companies are also interested in Hawker Beechcraft, and it is possible that they would attend the public auction, but we have our advantages to meet their challenges," he said.

At least five other companies, including Embraer SA, Textron Inc and New United Group, might offer a higher price for Hawker Beechcraft, since Superior's price is already released, business insiders said.

But Qian said Superior does not depend only on the price to persuade Hawker Beechcraft to accept its offer, as its experience shows that Superior could help Hawker Beechcraft through the hard times.

The Chinese company acquired Superior Air Parts Inc in 2010, after the Texas-based helicopter engine maker filed for bankruptcy protection.

"Superior Air Parts is working very well and has started to make a profit again," Qian said. "That shows we know how to help the company."

On the other side, the huge potential of China's general aircraft market has caught the eye of Hawker Beechcraft.

"This combination would give Hawker Beechcraft greater access to the Chinese business and general aviation marketplace, which is forecast to grow more than 10 percent a year for the next 10 to 15 years," said Robert Miller, CEO of Hawker Beechcraft.

If the transaction is completed, Superior intends to maintain Hawker Beechcraft's existing operations while investing substantial capital in the company and its business and general aviation product line, saving thousands of US jobs, the US company said in a statement.

"The bid for the company was the most attractive we received during the strategic review process, and the going-forward plan offered the most continuity for our business, allowing us to preserve jobs, product lines and our ability to maintain our commitments to our customers," said Bill Boisture, chairman of Hawker Beechcraft.