Music

CHICAGO – Jury selection began Friday in R. Kelly's long-delayed child pornography trial.

The 41-year-old R&B singer is accused of having sex with a girl as young as 13 on videotape. Mr. Kelly, who has pleaded not guilty, faces up to 15 years in prison if convicted.

Cook County Circuit Court Judge Vincent Gaughan refused to allow reporters to view the proceedings. A court official said there weren't enough seats. Earlier Friday, he denied a defense motion to again postpone the trial that already has been delayed for six years.

Prosecutors will have to surmount several hurdles if they hope to prevail. Chief among them is that the alleged victim, now 23, says it wasn't her. And Mr. Kelly's lawyers, including prominent Chicago attorney Ed Genson, haven't admitted it's him in the video.

The Associated Press

BAYREUTH, Germany – Wolfgang Wagner, the longtime director of the annual festival of Richard Wagner's operas, has announced that he will step down by Aug. 31, after leading the event for nearly six decades. The festival board of directors had no immediate comment on a possible replacement for Mr. Wagner, although his daughters have handed in a proposal for their joint directorship.

The Associated Press

NEW YORK – Gary Snyder, a poet known for his verse about nature and spirituality and a former member of the "beat movement" along with Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac, has won the $100,000 Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize, awarded annually by the Chicago-based Poetry Foundation. Mr. Snyder, who turns 78 in May, has published such collections as Regarding Wave, No Nature and Turtle Island. He was the winner of the Pulitzer Prize in 1975.

The Associated Press

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