Lenny Kravitz accepts French honour
Rock star Lenny Kravitz has been presented with one France's highest cultural awards.
Culture minister Frederic Mitterrand made the musician an Officer of the Order of Arts and Letters at a ceremony in Paris.
He told Kravitz, whose hits include Let Love Rule and Are You Gonna Go My Way, "you freed yourself of the barriers between black and white sound".
The star said he got his first break at a French music festival in 1989.
The Trans Musicales festival in Rennes transformed his career "overnight", he told the Associated Press news agency.
"I know it sounds like a fairy tale but it's true," he said.
He added that he was "particularly touched" to be decorated in France, a country that believed in him when he was misunderstood at home.
"In my early days, it didn't work at all in the United States but that night triggered everything, as if all the good energy was concentrated here."
Inter-racial issues
The star has a long association with France, living in the country several months of the year and recording tracks at the Chateau des Condes, a castle located abut 100km from Paris.
He also wrote and produced French star Vanessa Paradis' self-titled 1992 album, which spawned the international hit single Be My Baby.
Kravitz's albums regularly chart in upper reaches of the country's top 100, his latest album peaking at number seven - much higher than it managed in either the US or UK.
Called Black and White America, the record tackles inter-racial issues - in particular those faced by his black father and white mother in 1960s New York.
Other people to be inducted into l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres include Paradis, Martin Scorsese, Bob Dylan, George Clooney and Super Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto.
Bob Marley's granddaughter charged for ganja
A case involving the granddaughter of reggae legend Bob Marley was brought before the Corporate Area Resident Magistrate's Court yesterday.
She is 26-year-old Donisha Prendergast who has been charged with possession of ganja.
On the day, Prendergast did not appear but her lawyer asked that a warrant be issued and execution stayed until December 13, as Prendergast is currently overseas.
The crown is alleging that on Monday November 21, about 3:17 p.m., officers were conducting search duties along Water Lane in downtown Kingston when a red BMW X5 being driven by the accused was signalled to stop.
It is alleged that when the vehicle was searched, three clear plastic bags containing vegetable matter resembling ganja was found.
Further allegations are that a white cigar item resembling a ganja spliff burnt at one end was also found.
High drama among Kartel’s fans
CHANTS of ‘World Boss’ permeated the air outside the Corporate Area Resident Magistrate’s Court in Half-Way-Tree yesterday, in anticipation of dancehall deejay Vybz Kartel.
Kartel, whose real name is Adidja Palmer, is facing two murder charges, conspiracy to murder, illegal possession of a firearm, and possession of ganja charges.
From early morning a small gathering of mostly women held vigil at the back gates of the court to catch even a glimpse of the deejay.
While the matter was before the court the gathering, which grew to at least 20 persons, found ways to amuse themselves as well as curious onlookers.
Minutes after 11:00 am, word filtered that the matter was rescheduled for February 23. The group surged forward as it was understood that Kartel was in the prisoners’ holding area. And, this sent a wave of excitement through the group.
The women began dancing and singing lines from Kartel’s Jail for Me.
“Babylon say jail for me, then the judge set bail for me. Smaddy tell the jury, Jah control mi destiny,” they sang in unison.
An onlooker, with a tattoo across her lower back reading ‘Shawdy’ (no relation to the artiste), boldly declared: “Mi nah move till me see Kartel, the real World Boss!”
Another stated: Me have to see Kartel today. Mi waan see if him still brown.”
It would be another hour-and-a-half before they got a quick look at the deejay.
During this time, Kartel’s supporters entertained themselves — there were headstands and handstands.
And, as the midday sun grew hotter so too was the comedy. One member of the group opened her umbrella to shield herself from the direct sunlight. She was soon joined by another. This did not go down well with the owner of the umbrella who promptly shifted and stated: “Since you a bleacher like me, you mus’ walk wid yuh own umbrella.” This sent pals of laughter through the crowd.
At 12:55 pm, Kartel’s partner — 'Shorty' — arrived with lunch for the incarcerated deejay. At this point, the women went quiet.
By 1:15 pm, excitement peaked as the prisoners being returned to the Horizon Remand Centre began boarding the police vehicle. The crowd rushed the gates to catch a glimpse of Kartel. 'Shorty' stood anxiously in front, fidgeting with her car keys.
At 1:22 pm, their moment arrived. Greeted with deafening screams, Vybz Kartel emerged from the ‘bull pen’. He grinned widely and their cheers went up, then in a second he was out of sight in the heavily tinted vehicle.
The women waved, running behind the speeding vehicle, as their ‘world boss’ was whisked away.
JA.OBSERVER
HIV infections rate fall by 20 percent – Ban Ki-Moon
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon, in his message for World AIDS Day, which is celebrated the world over today, said that the number of new HIV infections has fallen by more than 20 per cent since 1997.
He is also urging all concerned to act on the investment framework put forward by UNAIDS and to fully fund the global investment target of up to $24 billion, annually.
“Heading into the fourth decade of AIDS, we are finally in a position to end the epidemic,” Ban said in his message.
He added that the progress indicates that the vision of zero new HIV infections, zero discrimination and zero AIDS-related deaths could be realized.
“The number of new HIV infections has fallen by more than 20 per cent since 1997. New infections are continuing to decline in most parts of the world.
In sub-Saharan Africa, the region most affected by the AIDS epidemic, HIV incidence has decreased in 22 countries,” the UN secretary general mentioned.
According to him, treatment has averted 2.5 million AIDS-related deaths since 1985.
“Last year alone, 700,000 lives were saved. Some 6.6 million people, nearly half those who need treatment in low and middle income countries, are now receiving it.”
Nevertheless, Ban stressed that to end AIDS, greater results are needed to be delivered.
“This year in June, the United Nations General Assembly’s High-Level Meeting on AIDS adopted bold targets for 2015: reduce the sexual transmission of HIV by half, eliminate new infections in children, provide treatment for 15 million people living with HIV, end stigma and discrimination, and close the AIDS funding gap”, he said in his message.
“With strong political will, reasonable financial resources and a firm human rights-based approach, we can achieve all of these targets.”
Ban urged all concerned to act on the investment framework put forward by UNAIDS and to fully fund the global investment target of up to $24 billion annually.
“The results would offset the upfront costs in less than one generation,” he said.
“We must build on the political commitments, investments, energy, activism and determination that have brought us to this turning point. “Momentum is on our side. Let us use it to end AIDS – once and for all,” Ban concluded.
KNEWS
Ruling party leading in Guyana vote count
The ruling People's Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) has taken the lead for control of the 65 member National Assembly after more than 35 per cent of the ballots cast in Monday's regional and general elections had been counted.
Preliminary figures released by the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) to date show that the PPP/C, which has ruled Guyana for the past 19 years, has obtained 77,998 votes as compared to 70,833 for the main challenger, A Partnership for National Unity (APNU).
The GECOM said that of the 166 304 valid votes counted to date, the Alliance for Change (AFC) had received 17, 470, while the United front (TUF) had accumulated a mere 503 votes.
A total of 475,496 voters were eligible to cast ballots to elect members to the National Assembly and so far 35.08 per cent of the votes cast had been counted.
The APNU, which includes the main opposition People's National Congress Reform (PNCR) has complained of voter irregularities and the intimidatory presence of a number of PPPC candidates at a number of polling stations.
The grouping has requests calls by the PPPC for ballots cast at several polling places to be recounted. Both APNU and AFC have said that they would not participate in the recount
CMC
Jamaica PM: I will not cover up corruption
PRIME Minister Andrew Holness said he will not seek to cover up any form of corruption in his Government, but will instead take firm and decisive action.
Holness, who was addressing supporters in Alligator Pond yesterday during the party’s Manchester road tour, said as a leader he is never afraid to make firm decisions.
“If there are things wrong in our Government, we are not hiding it because we don’t stand for corruption,” Holness said. You have a leader who takes firm decisions when it comes to that, and that is what the Jamaican people want; it means as your leader, that is what you will get, strong and decisive leadership,” he added.
The prime minister’s pronouncement comes a day after his transport and works minister Mike Henry stepped aside following the damning auditor general’s report into the controversial US$400-million Jamaica Development Infrastructure Programme.
Following the report, the prime minister relieved Henry of the responsibility of the Chinese-funded JDIP and transferred it to the Office of the Prime Minister. Also, head of the National Work Agency Patrick Wong was sacked from his job, and today the permanent secretary, Dr Alwin Hales will be going on vacation leave.
Yesterday, Holness made it clear that the party which he leads would not be covering up the issues. “So when they ask me who is responsible, I don’t tell them to go ask the PNP (People’s National Party), I say I am responsible; I take responsibility. I deal with the matters,” the prime minister said.
The prime minister, who declared the JLP as a party of truth and transparency, said there has been a lot of talking going on. “One man, as him hear a little rumour, him run and make a big thing [of it], then it is proved there is nothing in it at all. You call those people mischief makers and rumour mongerers,” he said.
In what was a definite shot at the Opposition People’s National Party, Holness said his party does not seek to hide information from the public. “We don’t go to court and beg the court not to put our business in public. When they have Trafigura, they go and plead and beg the court not to put their business in public,” he said.
Meanwhile, Holness told the jubilant supporters that a big event [general election] is coming up and a number of people are nervous and anxious because they know “when the day comes, them going to lose them shirt”.
Said the prime minister: “Of all the people who have already made up their minds that the Labour Party has done well despite all the problems and challenges, when you take stock and count up what the PNP has done and what the Labour Party has done, the answer is clear, there is only one way and that is the Labour Party way. I know when the time is set, whichever day it is, you all will be ready to put the argument to rest,” Holness said.
Deputy JLP leader Desmond McKenzie urged the labourites to turn out for a mass meeting in Mandeville this Sunday, when the election date is likely to be announced.
The JLP held the road tour in the parish in a bid to shore up support for newcomers Danville Walker, Colin Virgo and Timothy Scarlett who are hoping to wrestle the seats in traditional PNP strongholds.
Source: jamaicaobserver
US cleric: American jailed in Cuba in good spirits
A US government subcontractor jailed for nearly two years for bringing restricted communications equipment to Cuba has lost a lot of weight but seems in good humour, a prominent US religious leader said after visiting the prisoner yesterday.
The Reverend Michael Kinnamon, the general secretary of the National Council of Churches who is leading a 15-person delegation to the island, gave few details of his interview with Alan Gross.
"Two of us went to see him today. ... We had a good conversation, and we're grateful for the government for enabling us to have that visit," Kinnamon told reporters.
Kinnamon echoed reports from previous visitors who said Gross, 62, had dropped more than 100 pounds (45 kilograms) and suffered from other ailments.
"We have concerns for his health, but he's in good spirits," Kinnamon said. He said he hoped Gross may be freed on humanitarian grounds, but had no knowledge of when or whether that may happen.
Gross, a native of Maryland, was arrested December 4, 2009, while working as a subcontractor on a democracy-building project funded by the US Agency for International Development.
Cuba considers such programmes an affront to its national security, and last March he was sentenced to 15 years under a statute governing crimes against the state.
Gross has said he was working to help the island's small Jewish community improve its Internet access and was not a threat to the Cuban government.
On Monday, his wife, Judy, said Gross had sought reassurance that what he was doing was legal, but was told by his company not to ask Cuban officials.
Kinnamon is the latest in a string of visitors allowed to meet with Gross this year, including former US President Jimmy Carter, a delegation of US women leaders and a Washington-area rabbi.
Judy Gross visited her husband earlier this month for the third time since his arrest, and officials at the US Interests Section in Havana have also had periodic consular access to the man.
Kinnamon said he would meet today with Interests Section diplomats to report on his group's trip. He said he would also note the National Council of Churches' view that US-Cuban relations should be normalised and lobby for change in US policy toward Cuba.
"It's very clear there are issues we have to discuss between our countries," Kinnamon said. "But the way to address those issues is in the context of mutual respect between nations, and 50 years of animosity and embargo simply must stop."
The New York-based National Council of Churches, an umbrella group of US Protestant and Orthodox Christian denominations, has long been a critic of the US economic and financial embargo against Cuba.
Supporters of the embargo argue that it pressures for democratic opening on the communist-run island by choking off revenue to the government led for decades by Fidel Castro and more recently by his younger brother Raul.
Aruba suspect Gary Giordano freed
A US businessman held since August over the presumed death of an American woman in Aruba has been released.
Gary Giordano, who is now free to leave the Dutch Caribbean island, says 35-year-old Robyn Gardner was swept out to sea while snorkelling.
Prosecutors still consider the 50-year-old Maryland man a suspect, but they have no body or murder weapon.
Police said there were inconsistencies in his story and it emerged he took out a life insurance policy on Ms Gardner.
Mr Giordano left jail with his lawyers on Tuesday.
The employment agency owner and Ms Gardner reportedly met on a swingers' website.
Family's agony
Ms Gardner's boyfriend, Richard Forester, said last week he hoped the FBI would pursue the case.
If he returns to the US, Mr Giordano could still face a grand jury indictment.
Ms Gardner's family spoke of their unhappiness in a statement to ABC News on Tuesday.
"Needless to say, our family is very disappointed that even after all this time, we are no closer to finding out what happened to our Robyn," it said.
"We trust that the FBI and the Aruban authorities will continue their fervent efforts to investigate her disappearance."
Mr Giordano was detained at the airport on 5 August as he was about to leave Aruba.
His detention was extended several times, but an Aruban judge last week refused prosecutors' requests to hold him for another 30 days.
US to reward further Burma reform
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has pledged to improve ties with Burma if current reforms continue.
After meeting Burmese President Thein Sein, Mrs Clinton said the US would reward Burma's leaders if they kept "moving in the right direction".
The president hailed a "new chapter" in relations during talks with Mrs Clinton - the most senior US official to visit Burma in half a century.
The US maintains tight sanctions on senior leaders in Burma's hierarchy.
But a series of reforms this year has led to speculation that decades of isolation could be about to end.
"The United States is prepared to walk the path of reform with you if you keep moving in the right direction," Mrs Clinton said.
"These are incremental steps and we are prepared to go further if reforms maintain momentum. In that spirit, we are discussing what it will take to upgrade diplomatic relations and exchange ambassadors," Mrs Clinton told reporters.
"Over time, this could become an important channel to air concerns, monitor and support progress and build trust on both sides," she said.
However, US officials have stressed that there is unlikely to be any major announcements on sanctions during Mrs Clinton's trip.
Analysts say the US is more likely to consider symbolic gestures such as upgrading its mission in Burma to a full embassy.
After talks with Thein Sein in the remote capital, Nay Pyi Taw, Mrs Clinton is due to head to the main city, Rangoon, to meet pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
Ms Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy recently re-registered as a political party, and she is expected to stand for parliament in forthcoming by-elections.
The NLD had operated outside the political system for two decades, and Ms Suu Kyi spent much of that time in detention. She was freed shortly after the current government came to power.
Mrs Clinton's talks with Burma's leadership got under way on Thursday when she met Foreign Minister Wunna Maung Lwin before the talks with President Thein Sein.
"I am here today because President Obama and myself are encouraged by the steps that you and your government have taken to provide for your people," Mrs Clinton told Thein Sein as the two sat down for talks.
Thein Sein said her visit would prove to be a "milestone".
"Your excellency's visit will be historic and a new chapter in relations," he said before the start of the closed-door meeting.
BBC state department correspondent Kim Ghattas, travelling with Mrs Clinton, says the top US diplomat's visit is both a reward for the reforms that have already taken place and an incentive for Burma's government to do more.
The US secretary of state said before the trip she was quite hopeful that "flickers of progress" could transform into a real movement for change.
'No resistance'
Mrs Clinton is the first secretary of state to visit Burma since John Foster Dulles in 1955.
The country was taken over by the military in 1962 and ruled by a brutal and unpredictable junta until last year, when the army ceded power to a nominally civilian government.
Although the government is still dominated by figures from the previous military regime, it has introduced several important reforms, and released groups of political prisoners.
The visit comes weeks after President Barack Obama toured Asia and made a series of announcements bolstering American commitments in the region.
Observers have portrayed the new US focus on Asia as an attempt to counter China's attempts to become the pre-eminent power in the area.
And Chinese state media has reacted furiously to Mrs Clinton's visit to Burma.
The Global Times, which often runs bombastic nationalistic editorials, warned the US not to impinge on China's interests.
"China has no resistance toward Myanmar [Burma] seeking improved relationship with the West, but it will not accept this while seeing its interests stamped on," said a comment piece in the paper.
China has invested heavily in Burma, particularly in the energy sector.
But big Chinese-funded projects such as a hydroelectric dam in the north have provoked resentment among Burmese and led to an upsurge in fighting between ethnic rebels and the army.
Source-BBC
Britain Ratcheting Up the Pressure on Iran
Britain wants to further isolate Iran's financial sector, accusing Tehran of suppressing human rights within its own borders and helping to suppress human rights in Syria.
British Foreign Secretary William Hague Thursday accused Iran of helping Syrian President Bashar al-Assad suppress anti-government protesters.
Speaking outside a meeting of European Union foreign ministers in Brussels, Hague said there is a link between Tehran's crackdown on opposition groups and Syria's violent crackdown on protesters. He said Britain is pushing for an EU agreement to intensify economic sanctions against Iran.
Britain on Wednesday expelled all Iranian diplomats from the country and shut its embassy in Tehran after it was attacked by an angry mob a day earlier.
The tense relations between Britain and Iran have been deteriorating in recent weeks. The Iranian parliament voted earlier this week to downgrade diplomatic relations with London. The vote followed Britain's decision to strengthen sanctions against Iran by cutting all links with its banks.
China on Thursday expressed concern about the potential for the situation to spiral out of control.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei told reporters Thursday all sides needed to “remain rational, calm and restrained, and avoid emotional moves to escalate the conflict.”
Hundreds of students gathered outside the British embassy in Tehran Tuesday, chanting “Death to Britain.” Several protesters scaled the fence before ransacking the compound. Embassy staff was forced to flee through a back door.
The United States and Canada also tightened sanctions in response to Iran's pursuit of a nuclear program that U.N. experts say appears intended to build weapons. Iran says its nuclear program is peaceful.