At 13 he was selling crack. By 30 he was a hip-hop legend — having gone, in his words, “from grams to Grammys.”

Jay-Z tells Oprah Winfrey a conversation with his father freed him “one hundred percent.”

Now Jay-Z charts his escape from the hard-knock life, describes the reunion that healed the wounds of his childhood — and even reveals his personal creed.

The rapper, now 39, was born Shawn Carter in Brooklyn, New York. His albums include “Reasonable Doubt,” “The Black Album” and the just-released “The Blueprint 3.” Jay-Z also owns a portion of the NBA’s New Jersey Nets and founded, with Damon Dash, the clothing line Rocawear.

Jay-Z spoke with Oprah Winfrey about his father, his anger and his old life. The following is an edited version of the interview.

Oprah Winfrey: When you were 5, your family moved to the Marcy projects — and then your father left when you were 11. When you look back at that, what did your 11-year-old self feel?

Jay-Z: Anger. At the whole situation. Because when you’re growing up, your dad is your superhero. Once you’ve let yourself fall that in love with someone, once you put him on such a high pedestal and he lets you down, you never want to experience that pain again.

So I remember just being really quiet and really cold. Never wanting to let myself get close to someone like that again. I carried that feeling throughout my life, until my father and I met up before he died.

Oprah: Wow. I’ve never heard a man phrase it that way. You know, I’ve done many shows about divorce, and the real crime is when the kids aren’t told. They just wake up one day and their dad is gone. Did that happen to you?

Jay-Z: We were told our parents would separate, but the reasons weren’t explained. My mom prepared us more than he did. I don’t think he was ready for that level of discussion and emotion. He was a guy who was pretty detached from his feelings.

Oprah: Did you wonder why he left?

Jay-Z: I summed it up that they weren’t getting along. There was a lot of arguing.

Oprah: And did you know you were angry?

Jay-Z: Yeah. I also felt protective of my mom. I remember telling her, “Don’t worry, when I get big, I’m going to take care of this.” I felt like I had to step up. I was 11 years old, right? But I felt I had to make the situation better.

Oprah: How did that change you?

Jay-Z: It made me not express my feelings as much. I was already a shy kid, and it made me a little reclusive. But it also made me independent. And stronger. It was a weird juxtaposition.

Oprah: I’ve read that when you were 12, you shot your brother in the shoulder. Did your father’s leaving have anything to do with that? Did it turn you into the kind of angry kid who would end up shooting his brother?

Jay-Z: Yes — and my brother was dealing with a lot of demons.

Oprah: How old was he?

Jay-Z: About 16. He was doing a lot of drugs. He was taking stuff from our family. I was the youngest, but I felt like I needed to protect everybody.

Oprah: So how did you get back in touch with your father?

Jay-Z: My mom set up a meeting. And now I realize why — it makes all the sense in the world. I remember very distinctly that I had a conversation with her in my kitchen. I was saying, “You know, Ma, I’ve really been trying to look inward, and maybe I’m just not meant to fall in love like other people do.” She just looked at me like, “Hush up, boy.”

Oprah: Wow.

Jay-Z: And I guess from that point, she figured out what was wrong with me, and she planned a meeting between me and my father. I was like, “Ma, I’m a grown man. I don’t need a dad now.”

Oprah: You didn’t feel a hole in your soul?

Jay-Z: I never looked at that. I guess I didn’t want to deal with it. Because, you know, once I looked, I’d have to do something about it. And I guess I still had too much resentment and anger.

Oprah: In one of your songs, you wrote that you weren’t sure if your father even remembered your birthday is in December.

Jay-Z: I believed that. When I was a kid, I once waited for him on a bench. He never showed up. Even as an adult, that affected me. So when my mom set up this meeting, I told her he wouldn’t come — and the first time, he didn’t. At that point, I was really done, but Mom pushed for another meeting, because she’s just a beautiful soul.

Oprah: The second time, your father showed up.

Jay-Z: He showed up. And I gave him the real conversation. I told him how I felt the day he left. He was saying stuff like “Man, you knew where I was.” I’m like, “I was a kid! Do you realize how wrong you were? It was your responsibility to see me.” He finally accepted that.

Oprah: Where had he been?

Jay-Z: At his mom’s house 10 minutes away from me. That was the sad part.

Oprah: Was there any explanation he could have offered that would have satisfied you?

Jay-Z: Yes — and that’s why we were able to mend our relationship.

Oprah: What was his reason?

Jay-Z: When I was 9, my dad’s brother got stabbed, and my dad went looking for the guy who did it. People would call in the middle of the night and tell him, “So-and-so is out here.” So my dad would get up, get his gun, and go outside to look for the guy. After a while, my mom was like, “Hey, this is your family now. You can’t do that.” But this was my dad’s baby brother. And my dad was in so much pain that he started using drugs and became a different person. So I understand that the trauma of the event, coupled with the drugs, caused him to lose his soul.

Oprah: When you saw him again, had he come back to himself?

Jay-Z: He was broken. He had a bad liver, and he knew that if he continued drinking, it would kill him. But he didn’t stop.

Oprah: How soon after you saw him did he die?

Jay-Z: A couple of months. I got him an apartment, I was buying furniture. And he passed away.

Oprah: Did you instantly make peace with him during that conversation?

Jay-Z: Pretty much. I felt lighter.

Oprah: The conversation freed you in ways that you hadn’t been free before?

Jay-Z: One hundred percent.

Oprah: Did it open the door for you to have a life with love in it?

Jay-Z: Absolutely.

Oprah: So what’s your personal creed?

Jay-Z: Be true to yourself — and keep things simple. People complicate things.

Oprah: My creed is that intention creates reality.

Jay-Z: Now I’m having an aha moment! That’s true.

Oprah: What’s the basis of your spiritual belief?

Jay-Z: I believe in karma: What you do to others comes back to you.

Oprah: But don’t you think we’re responsible only for what we know? Otherwise, you’d be facing karma for every person you sold drugs to.

Jay-Z: As a kid, I didn’t know any better. But now, if I were to act as if what I did wasn’t bad, that would be irresponsible. And I’d have to bear the weight of that.

Oprah: Maya Angelou always says, “When you know better, you do better.” Do you still think back on that time in your life?

Jay-Z: All the time. When you make music, you’re constantly on the psychiatrist’s couch, so to speak. That’s an outlet for me. Because I’m not normally a talkative person. I don’t have conversations like this for no reason.

Joy Behar says Ukranian officials are wrong to try to block Elton John from adopting a 14-month-old boy.

On a recent tour of a Ukrainian orphanage, Elton John and his partner met Lev, a 14-month old HIV-positive boy.

They immediately fell in love with the child, but their possible bid to adopt the adorable tiny dancer was rejected by Yuriy Pavlenko, Ukraine’s Family, Youth and Sports Minister.

Mr. Pavlenko, here are some tips about family, youth and sports. Family doesn’t mean a huddle of orphans sharing a few soiled mattresses, it’s not youth if you die of AIDS before you reach kindergarten, and wrestling over dinner scraps is not a sport.

But that could be Lev’s fate now, because the Ukrainian government said Elton and his beau David Furnish are too old to adopt the boy. It sounds like the real reason is they’re too gay.

John and Furnish tied the knot in 2005, becoming one of Britain’s first gay civil unions, but Ukraine doesn’t recognize gay unions.

Ukrainian Orthodox Church spokesman Father Georgy Gulyaev called Elton John a sinner and said, “thank God it’s impossible under Ukrainian law for [him] to adopt a child.” Apparently in the Ukraine, God’s No. 1 priority is preventing gay couples from giving sick kids a better life. God would never want something like that to happen.

Father Gulyaev said homosexuality “represents the dead end of human development.” That’s odd, I thought the dead end of human development was represented by 14th century thinking like his. This guy’s head is stuck in the Dark Ages. He hasn’t even progressed to the Middle Ages yet.

Some conservative religious leaders like to harp about the “damage” to families done by gay marriage, as if traditional marriage is so perfect. Since many of them have taken vows of celibacy, they’ve never witnessed firsthand the damage dinner with the in-laws can cause (one of the few advantages of the celibate life, I guess).

There are even a few married Bible-thumpers spending their time trying to keep sex out of our lives — yet they talk about sex more than anyone! Sex is usually the first and only factor they consider when judging — I mean, when “dispensing enlightenment upon” — others.

Sure, Elton John may be gay, but he’s also a renowned musician, a celebrated humanitarian, and has been knighted by the Queen of England. In fact, for some people he is the Queen of England.

Plus, there’s no downside to gay adoption. In the United States, organizations like the National Adoption Center, the American Psychological Association, and the American Academy of Pediatrics all agree that having homosexual parents does not negatively affect children.

But you know what does negatively affect children? Growing up with no parents. So now 14-month-old Lev is stuck in some depressing orphanage that makes Guantanamo Bay look like the presidential suite at the Waldorf.

He’ll likely end up in foster homes and — if he lives long enough — maybe he can turn into a bitter, vodka-swilling drunk. All because the Ukrainian government won’t let him be adopted by two loving gay parents who are fabulously rich and want to give him a home with the best healthcare available, dressed in Versace jammies and cashmere Huggies. Not to mention all the play dates with Brangelina’s kids.

Let’s hope Sir Elton finds a different, more tolerant country willing to let him be a poor child’s loving father.

Phedre, starring Dame Helen Mirren, was a success on stage and screen

The National Theatre in London has recorded its highest attendance for seven years with 817,000 visitors, according to its annual report.

Buoyed by popular productions including War Horse, the South Bank theatre’s box office achieved 93% capacity during the year from April 2008.

Sunday matinees have become a permanent feature at the NT, while performances live on cinema screens are to continue.

Shakespeare’s All’s Well That Ends Well will be screened on 1 October.

A matinee performance of Sir Terry Pratchett’s Nation will go out in cinemas in the UK and around the world on 30 January.

The first stage production to be relayed into cinemas was Phedre in June, which was seen by close to 50,000 people in 19 countries.

The year saw 17 new productions staged at the National, while War Horse made more than £2m at the box office.

The Sunday matinee season attracted some 34% of first-time bookers.

The theatre also said that profits of £465,000 would be invested in plans to modernise its building on London’s South Bank.

Actress Mackenzie Phillips reveals she had a long-term incestuous relationship with her famous father, musician John Philips, in a tell-all memoir, according to People.com, which obtained an advance copy of her book.

Actress Mackenzie Phillips reportedly reveals a family secret to Oprah Winfrey.

Phillips, the 49-year-old former child star and daughter of the Mamas and the Papas founder John Phillips, says she had sex with her father the night before she was to marry Jeff Sessler, a member of the Rolling Stones entourage, in 1979, according to People.com.

“On the eve of my wedding, my father showed up, determined to stop it,” writes Phillips, who was 19 at the time and a heavy drug user, according to People.com. “I had tons of pills, and Dad had tons of everything too. Eventually I passed out on Dad’s bed.”

Phillips, best known as Julie Cooper on the sitcom “One Day at a Time,” says the sexual relationship became consensual as her life began to spiral out of control.

During her time on the hit CBS comedy, which ran from 1975 to 1984, she battled drug addiction and underwent drug rehabilitation. She later was fired from the show in 1980 because of her drug abuse.

Eventually, she and her father went to rehab together and she later toured with him in a band called the New Mamas and the Papas, according to People.com.

“I was a fragment of a person, and my secret isolated me,” she writes, according to People.com. “One night Dad said, ‘We could just run away to a country where no one would look down on us. There are countries where this is an accepted practice. Maybe Fiji.’ ”

Phillips will reportedly unleash the secret she has kept to herself for 31 years in an interview on “The Oprah Winfrey Show” scheduled to air Wednesday. Phillips’ book, “High on Arrival,” comes out the same day.

Phillips has led a troubled life that has included substance abuse and a 2008 arrest at Los Angeles International Airport on suspicion of cocaine and heroin possession.

She later pleaded guilty to one count of cocaine possession and was ordered to a drug rehab program.

The interview features Phillips discussing the time she spent hiding in her home, compulsively purchasing items from a television shopping channel as well as the events surrounding her arrest.

In a promotional clip for “The Oprah Winfrey Show,” Phillips also says her father shot her up with drugs. John Phillips, who died in 2001, had a well-documented drug problem and was convicted of drug trafficking in 1981. He told many stories of his drug abuse in his memoir, “Papa John.”

Mackenzie Phillips also tells Winfrey about an encounter she purportedly had with rock ‘n’ roll legend Mick Jagger.

“One Day at a Time” co-star Valerie Bertinelli also appears on the Winfrey show in support of Phillips.

Phillips’ career as an actress took off when, as a teen, she performed the role of Carol Morrison in the 1973 film “American Graffiti.”

In the late 1990s, her career experienced a revival when she began co-starring on “So Weird,” a Disney Channel program.

Frida Kahlo, who died at the age of 47, was known for her bold style

A probe has been launched into claims that artworks featured in books about Mexican artist Frida Kahlo are fakes.

Mexican prosecutors are responding to a complaint by the artist’s trust that 1,000 items in two books are forgeries.

But the publishers of Finding Frida Kahlo have rejected calls for the book to be withdrawn, saying it states that some items are not 100% authenticated.

Kahlo, who died in 1954, was known for her stark self portraits and was played by Salma Hayek in a 2002 biopic.

The Frida Kahlo Trust and a number of art historians said at a press conference in Mexico City that it would be damaging for the books to remain on sale.

“We must stop the commercialisation of false works,” said Frida Kahlo Museum director Hilda Trujillo.

The second book in question is called The Labyrinth of Frida Kahlo: Death, Pain and Ambivalence.

“This will infect all the studies of Frida Kahlo with a virus and bad, inaccurate information,” said US art expert Professor James Oles.

He added that the art featured in the books are of poor quality, while other items including handwritten notes contain spelling mistakes.

Professor Oles said the owners of the items claim they came from five boxes given by Kahlo to a carpenter.

Kahlo was given special status in Mexico in 1984, affording protection to her works of art under the country’s law.

Scientists have discovered a protein that predicts survival from prostate cancer at diagnosis.

A University of Liverpool team found the presence of heat shock protein-27 (Hsp-27) was a key marker of how prostate cancer would progress.

Men who tested positive for Hsp-27 at diagnosis were almost twice as likely to die from the disease in the next 15 years than those who did not.

The study features in the British Journal of Cancer.

Aggressive prostate cancer can kill rapidly, and requires immediate treatment.

However, prostate tumours can also be very slow-growing, and people who develop them often end up dying of unrelated conditions.

It can be difficult to distinguish between the two forms of the disease, and consequently many men end up unnecessarily undergoing intensive treatment which carries a risk of side effects.

The Liverpool team analysed tissue samples taken from 553 men at the time they were diagnosed with prostate cancer.

Their findings suggest testing for Hsp-27 might be a more reliable way of determining whether a tumour is aggressive or not.

Lead researcher Professor Chris Foster said: “Our study shows that this protein marker can give us a reliable and accurate indication of whether individual cancers will become aggressive.

“Currently, we are working on developing this finding into a blood test to monitor men with prostate cancer in order to determine when their individual disease needs treatment.”

Hsp-27 is a key component of signalling pathways that control the movement of cells around the body.

The study also suggests that new drugs could be developed to block these signals and halt the spread of prostate cancer cells.

Important step

Dr Lesley Walker, director of cancer information at the charity Cancer Research UK, said: “These results are an important step towards tackling the long-standing question of how to treat men with prostate cancer once it has been diagnosed.

“The need for treatment varies greatly between patients - men with non-aggressive cancer can live with it for many years without needing therapy, while aggressive cancers require prompt treatment with combinations of surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy.

“A marker molecule which identifies aggressive prostate cancer would help us target active treatment to patients who need it - avoiding unnecessary therapy, which can have side effects, to those who don’t.”

Jon Neate, chief executive of the Prostate Cancer Charity, said much research was under way to try to develop a more accurate diagnostic test.

He said: “It is critically important to develop a test for prostate cancer which is able to distinguish reliably between aggressive and slow growing forms of the disease.”

Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men in the UK, with about 34,000 new cases diagnosed every year.

About 10,000 men die from the disease each year in the UK.

Several tests are currently used to diagnose prostate cancer, including testing for levels of a protein called prostate-specific antigen (PSA).

A high level of PSA can be a sign of cancer - but average levels tend to rise with age, and so the test can be unreliable.

Facebook highlights territorial disputes, such as one between Israel and Syria over Golan Heights.

“Where do you live?”

Seems like a simple question, doesn’t it?

But the answer is not clear-cut for everyone. Take people who live in Srinagar, the capital of Kashmir, which is wedged between India, Pakistan and China. India and Pakistan have gone to war repeatedly over the disputed territory.

Technically, it’s “Indian-administered.”

But on Facebook, it’s simply in India.

Shujaat Bukhari, a journalist in Srinagar, was slightly uncomfortable about the classification.

“As far as the traditions of the people are concerned, the political issues, it might not match with the people’s mindset,” he said, even while conceding it could be seen as accurate.

“It is administratively part of India, so as far as that is concerned, it is correct,” he said. “But it doesn’t gel with the mood of the people.”

The Indian government is very sensitive about how international media organizations characterize Kashmir, he said by phone from Srinagar.

“If the Economist (magazine) publishes a map which is related to India or Kashmir, if that map is not acceptable to the Indian government, they put a stamp when (the magazine) reaches India saying these maps should not be treated as as authentic,” he said.

Srinagar is just one of many examples of the diplomatic minefields social-networking sites can stray into when seeking basic information about their users.

Facebook recently changed its listing for the Golan Heights — which Israel captured from Syria in 1967 — so users there could choose to say whether they live in Israel or Syria.

It was responding to pressure from a pro-Israel group called HonestReporting — and from Facebook users who set up a group on the site itself called “Facebook, Golan Residents Live in Israel, not Syria.”

“It is not for Facebook to decide the national origin of Golan residents,” the group says on its page.

Facebook may have pleased pro-Israel users there by giving them the choice to say where they live, but not all Syrians were happy about the change.

“I think Facebook sort of shot itself in the foot to make it optional for the Golan to say this is part of Israel,” said Ammar Abdulhamid, a Syrian scholar based in the United States.

“This is against international law,” he said.

And the Golan is only the tip of the iceberg.

Jerusalem, which remains hotly disputed between Israel and the Palestinians, is simply in Israel as far as Facebook is concerned.

Tibet’s capital Lhasa is in China on Facebook, although many Tibetans and their supporters reject China’s rule of Tibet. The “Free Tibet” group on Facebook has nearly 188,000 members.

Russia and the former Soviet republic of Georgia briefly went to war last summer over the breakaway Georgian territories of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, but the Abkhaz capital Sukhumi is listed as being in Georgia on Facebook. Two pro-independence Abkhaz Facebook groups have about 1,200 members between them.

The social-networking site “deals with the listings for disputed territories on a case-by-case basis,” Facebook representative Debbie Frost told CNN by e-mail.

She said the site — which recently announced it has 300 million users — consults the International Organization for Standardization, the United Nations and other global organizations.

“We also may consider other factors when trying to determine if dual listings would make sense for a given city or region. For example, Srinagar — the example you gave — is in the Indian-administered region, and has been since 1947,” she said.

“We will continue to look at the listings we provide and may offer more dual listings in (the) future. We will also listen to requests from our users and in the cases of disputed territories we may try to come up with options that enable them to choose one of two countries,” she added.

Bukhari, the journalist in disputed Srinagar, suggests that Facebook “should have a separate section for disputed areas.”

That’s a solution that Yahoo appears to have embraced — up to a point.

It offers “disputed territory” as an option for users creating a new account, but won’t actually register a new account if users choose that option.

It does allow users to say they are from Taiwan — which China considers a renegade province and is not represented at the United Nations — and the “Occupied Palestinian Territories.” But it does not appear to allow users to create an account if they choose “Occupied Palestinian Territories.”

It does not offer Tibet, Kashmir or Abkhazia.

Google, for its part, offers Taiwan and “Palestinian Territories,” as well as Western Sahara, a breakaway region of Morocco that is not recognized internationally.

It does not offer Tibet, Kashmir or Abkhazia.

Neither Yahoo nor Google responded to repeated CNN requests for comment.

But if Facebook’s experience with the Golan Heights is any indication, they may all be getting comments from users soon enough.

Why leave home when you can send out a sexy, stylish robot version of yourself to do anything you tell it?

In “Surrogates,” lifelike robots take the place of humans in day-to-day life.

That’s the world of “Surrogates,” a film starring Bruce Willis that opens Friday.

Willis plays an FBI agent who investigates the first murder to occur in years in a world where no one worries about crime or pain, because their robots self-heal with a quick reboot.

Far-fetched science fiction? Sure.

But scientists and the movie’s makers say the technology might not be as far away as most people think.

Armies use remote-controlled robots to attack enemies and destroy land mines. Emerging technology for the disabled allows users to operate robotic limbs and control computer cursors without touching a keyboard.

And emerging “telepresence” technology is letting people see, hear and, increasingly, walk, talk and gesture using human-sized robots a world away.

“There are a lot of real-world components to this,” said robotics expert and author Daniel H. Wilson, whose books like “Where’s My Jet Pack?” and “How to Survive a Robot Uprising” explore the intersections between science fiction and real science.

“Clearly, there are not fully functional humanoid robots … but there are a lot of components to telepresence that already exist.”

“Surrogates” director Jonathan Mostow, whose film credits include 2003’s “Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines,” said he was drawn to the concept of surrogate robots as an extension of current technology. And, he said, as he met with scientists, he became convinced that something approaching the concept could one day be a reality.

“To me, it’s not even a question of the technology. Technology always catches up,” he said. “The question is, is some universal human urge being met by this invention? It seems to me we have a fundamental human desire to be lazy, to sort of not have to do things in person and to do it remotely.

“That began with the telegraph and the telephone and has morphed into the Internet.”

The first steps down the road are being taken at Anybots, a Mountain View, California, company founded in 2001 by Trevor Blackwell.

The company offers, for about $30,000, a 5-foot-tall, 35-pound robot that allows the user to remotely travel, see, hear and talk. It hopes to release its latest version of the robot at a more affordable price.

The robot’s vaguely humanoid curves, roughly adult height and ability to move around using technology similar to that of the Segway are important steps up from current teleconferencing technology, Blackwell said.

Anybots in the development phase are being designed to run, jump and climb stairs, and they come equipped with fully articulated hands designed to perform increasingly human-like tasks.

Blackwell said he’s not sure the technology will ever advance to the level imagined in “Surrogates” — but that may have as much to do with desire as ability.

“I don’t know if we’ll ever get quite to that level, of being that realistic,” he said. “Most of the time, you’re not trying to fool people; you’re just trying to make something human enough so people can relate to it.”

Wilson, who said he appreciates “Surrogates” because it avoids sci-fi’s traditional “man vs. machine” dynamic, also imagines social reasons for not pursuing such technology.

“Would humans stand in line at the grocery store behind a robot? Would I let my children play outside if I knew there were robots outside walking dogs?” he said.

It’s more realistic, Wilson said, that a humanoid robot could be created to remotely perform tasks that would be too dangerous for the machine’s operator to do. although NASA employs robots in space, the highly technical work often required for space walks still requires a human touch — at least for now.

Plus, he said, making robots that look and act like us would help them function better, he said.

“Another major reason to create humanoid robots is, they can use all of our tools,” Wilson said. “Human beings have taken large chunks of the planet and completely transformed the environment to support our embodiment. Doorways are a certain width all over the world because human beings are about the same size. All our tools are similar because we’ve all got hands and thumbs.”

For Mostow, the movie also reflects technological advances that, for better or worse, exist as the world of online networking continues to grow.

“You can do your shopping. You can get your news. You can let everyone know what you’re up to,” he said. “For those who telecommute, you don’t even have to put your clothes on to go to work.

“This idea basically just takes that to its logical conclusion.