Singing duo to make Rome debut

Rome — Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel will take the stage just outside the Colosseum this summer in what Rome officials say is their first concert together in Italy.

The July 31 concert will be free, officials said Wednesday. It will take place on the Via dei Fori Imperiali, the large boulevard that leads to the Colosseum.

Last year, a concert there by Paul McCartney drew hundreds of thousands of fans.

Simon and Garfunkel performed across the United States last year — their first concert tour in two decades, and will be touring the country in June and July, according to their Web site.

Oldest woman turns 116

Minsk, Belarus — A woman believed to be the oldest in the world celebrated her 116th birthday Wednesday in the former Soviet republic of Belarus.

“I’ll drink to my own health with pleasure,” said Hanna Barysevich, who lives in a house outside the Belarusian capital Minsk.

Barysevich was born on May 5, 1888, in the village of Buda, 37 miles east of Minsk, according to her passport. Her parents were poor, landless peasants.

“From my early childhood I didn’t know anything but physical labor,” said Barysevich. She worked on a collective farm until age 95, then moved to the house that she shares with her 78-year-old daughter Nina.

She attributes her longevity to genes: Her paternal grandmother was 113 when she died. As to diet, Barysevich prefers simple village food: homemade sausages, pork fat, milk and bread.

Williams supports legalized pot

Albany, N.Y. — Montel Williams threw his support behind legalizing medical marijuana in New York, saying pot helps him cope with multiple sclerosis.

Williams, 47, who was diagnosed with the neurological disease in 1999, said he used marijuana every night before bed to relieve the pain in his legs and feet.

“I’m breaking the law every day, and I will continue to break the law,” Williams, host of the syndicated “Montel Williams Show,” said Tuesday.

Selleck to portray Eisenhower

New York — Tom Selleck stars as Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower in the A&E original movie “Ike: Countdown to D-Day,” set to air May 31.

The June 6, 1944, Allied assault on the beaches of Normandy in northern France turned the tide of World War II, beginning the liberation of Europe.

Selleck, 59, starred as Thomas Magnum in the ’80s TV action-drama series “Magnum P.I.” His films include “Three Men and a Baby” and “In & Out.”