Entertainment

A Jewish art dealer's estate has been granted $19 million from an Austrian museum for a painting that the Nazis took from her during World Ward II.

Litigation began when Egon Schiele's Portrait of Wally was loaned to the Museum of Modern Art in New York by the Leopold Museum in 1997.

American Officials seized the work in 1998 after raised suspicions that it had been stolen from Lea Bondi Jaray, who passed away in 1969.

The settlement is appropriate for the value of the painting, the Bondi estate said.

"Justice has been served," the statement said.

"Finally, after more than 70 years, the wrongs suffered by Lea Bondi Jaray are at least being acknowledged and, to some degree, corrected."

Pretty Bharara, the US lawyer, said the settlement "marks another small step toward justice for victims of property crimes during World War II".

Manhattan's District attorney's office began looking into claims in 1998 that the painting was taken when Jaray was forced to sell it, way below its value, to a Nazi art collector.

US District Judge Loretta Preska rejected the Leopold Museum's stance that the painting was legitimately acquired.

The museum has always been adamant that they received the painting from a legitimate source, its postwar owners.

It was with more than 100 pieces lent to MoMA by the Leopold Foundation in Austria. The estimated cost at the time was about $2 million.

A bank in Zurich has found some safe deposit boxes that thought to contain manuscripts and drawings by the late writer Franz Kafka.

This is the latest twist in a long legal battle over who owns the papers.

Two sisters from Israel say they inherited the documents from their late mother, but the Israely state claims them as part of the country's cultural heritage.

The contents will be examined by an expert, who will then discuss the matter with a judge overseeing the case.

Archives in libraries around the world say the manuscripts, locked away for decades, must at least be made public.

Kafka was one of the most influential and enigmatic authors of the 20^th Century.

He died at the age of 40 from tuberculosis in 1924. If his last wishes had been honored, novels like The Trial and The Castle would never have been seen by the public.

Kafka requested to his friend and fellow writer, Max Brod, to burn his writings after his death. Brod refused and published the novels and took letters and other writings to Israel where he left them to his secretary Esther Hoffe, who left them to her daughters.

Somewhere in the past half century, the documents were taken to bank vaults in Tel Aviv and Zurich.

When the two daughters, now in their 70s, tried to sell some of the writings, the legal battle began.

Israel claims the documents are part of its cultural heritage arguing that because Kafka was Jewish, his work belongs there.

The sisters claim the works are their rightful inheritance to treat as they wish. Germany's literary archive has put in an offer to buy the papers.

Today, a Tel Aviv judge ordered the four vaults in Zurich to be opened, but only for the eyes of one Kafka specialist who will itemize the contents and relay his findings to the judge.

The public will still be left in the dark in the mystery of Kafka's unpublished works.

Inception has topped the North American box office with $60.4 million, on opening weekend, say studio estimates.

Christopher Nolan's thriller about thieves who steal information from dreams, toppled animated 3D film Despicable Me off of the top spot.

It marked Leonardo DiCaprio's most lucrative opening weekend, beating $41.1 million taken for Shutter Island in February. It is gathering a lot of Oscar buzz already.

Disney's The Sorcerer's Apprentice opened in third place with $17.4 million.

DiCaprio, 35, stars in inception as the leader of a team of thieves that break into people's dreams.

Head of distribution for Warner Bros, Dan Fellman, said, "We let all of the sequels and popcorn films come out and get the summer rolling, then we come in here with this original concept.

"We're in a good place to run now for the rest of the summer."

Speaking on the film, DiCaprio said the film doesn't rely on “regurgitated plot structures” or standard summer blockbusters.

"It's nice to see films like this and other films which come out that take a gamble a little bit, and don't underestimate their audience, and challenge them."

A Michigan couple has been convicting in court of attempting to blackmail John Stamos for $680,000, claiming that they had photos of the actor with cocaine and strippers.

Allison Coss, 24, and Scott Sippola, 31, or Marquette Michigan, were found guilty of attempting to sell the photos to the tabloids unless he paid them.

The former Full House and ER star, Stamos, 46, said there were no such photos and that the couple had "lied about everything".

The defense claims that the photos disappeared after the FBI executed a raid on their home.

The couple are due to a sentencing hearing on October 8, and face up for five years in prison.

During the four-day trial, the jury heard that Mr. Stamos me Coss, who was then 17, in Orlando, FL, in 2004 after he had separated from his ex-wife, Ugly Bettu star Rebecca Romijn.

Coss claimed that during the meeting, at a party in his hotel room, Mr. Stamos snorted cocaine, sat nude with her in a hot tub and made advances towards her.

After the verdict, Stamos released a statement saying, "There was no hot tub, no drugs, no nudity and nothing sexual in nature involved in my friendship with this woman."

Mr. Stamos kept in touch with Coss after the party via email.

The extortion plot was thought up when Sippola saw photos of his girlfriend with Mr. Stamos in Florida.

Coss and Sippola then posed as a man named “Brian L”, emailing Mr. Stamos to inform him that they had been offered $780,000 for incriminating photos of the actor after a tabloid bidding war.

They told the actor, who starred on sitcom Full House from 1987 to 1995, that he could purchase the pictures for $680,000.

Mr. Stamos got into contact with the police and the couple was then arrested in December.

FBI agents let the court know that the searches of their homes, vehicles and computers were unsuccessfuly in turning up any evidence of the pictures.

The couple's defense claimed that it was not a crime to offer the images to Mr. Stamos before taking them to the media.