Singer to undergo brain surgery

Stockholm, Sweden Roxette singer Marie Fredriksson will undergo surgery to remove a brain tumor next week, forcing the Swedish duo to cancel its European tour, a spokeswoman said Friday.

Doctors found the small tumor after Fredriksson fainted and hit her head against a sink two weeks ago at her Stockholm home.

The 44-year-old singer has recovered from the concussion she suffered, but doctors at Karolinska Hospital in the Swedish capital have decided to take her in for brain surgery within 10 days, Roxette spokeswoman Li Eriksson said.

The duo, which also includes Per Gessle, is known for hits including “It Must Have Been Love” from the “Pretty Woman” soundtrack, and “The Look.”

Zeffirelli film celebrates diva

Athens, Greece If Italian director Franco Zeffirelli could highlight one facet of opera diva Maria Callas, it would simply be her Greek heritage.

“Above all Maria Callas was Greek,” he said at a news conference on Friday. “Her rules were of the Greek culture.”

Zeffirelli traveled to Athens for the premiere of his movie, “Callas Forever,” about the late New York-born, Greek-American opera star. Zeffirelli also accepted a plaque naming him “a good friend of Greece” from Culture Minister Evangelos Venizelos.

The director compared Callas to Mother Theresa and Margaret Thatcher.

The movie’s Sept. 16 opening in Paris marked the 25th anniversary of Callas’ death at 54 in the city where she lived the last years of her life.

Cheney toasts American women

New York Lynne Cheney, wife of Vice President Dick Cheney, is writing a second children’s book.

“A Is for Abigail Adams,” scheduled for publication next fall, is a follow-up to her best-selling “America: A Patriotic Primer.”

Her new book will highlight the achievements of women in American history.

“One of the noteworthy scholarly achievements of the last quarter-century has been the recovery of women’s history,” Cheney said in a statement issued this week by her publisher, Simon & Schuster.

“We are now aware of female accomplishment in a way we have not been before, and this book will be a way to introduce the stories of many women from Abigail Adams to Babe Didrickson Zaharias to elementary school children and their families.”

Soul singer Barry White needs a kidney transplant

Los Angeles Deep-voiced soul singer Barry White needs a kidney transplant because of complications from years of chronic high blood pressure, his record label said.

White, 58, is undergoing dialysis treatment to stabilize his condition, Island Def Jam Music Group said in a statement Friday.

The singer’s family refused to say whether he is hospitalized or is undergoing treatment at his Los Angeles home.