Cuban cigar sales jump 8% in 2013
Sales of Cuba's famous cigars jumped 8% in 2013, helped by strong demand from the island's smokers and China, said Habanos SA.
Total sales reached $447m (£269m) up from $416m in 2012, according to the firm, which is co-owned by Cubatabaco and British firm Altadis.
Europe remains the biggest market, but demand from China and the Middle East has helped boost sales.
Cuban cigars are still banned from the US market.
The results were announced at the start of the annual Cuban cigar festival, held in Havana.
The event draws visitors and participants from the around the world.
The US is the biggest cigar market, but is off-limits to the industry due to an economic embargo imposed on communist Cuba by Washington more than half a century ago.
Source-BBC
Lego Movie blocks out US box office rivals
The Lego Movie is still towering over its rivals on the North American box office chart, after spending a third week at number one.
The film earned $31.5m (£18.9m) over the weekend, according to early estimates.
Kevin Costner crime drama 3 Days to Kill debuted in second place with $12.3m (£7.3m).
A sequel of the Lego Movie has just been announced, with a release date set for May 2017.
The Lego Movie is the highest-grossing film of the year so far.
"It's been really tough for any of the newcomers to displace Lego," said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst for box-office tracker Rentrak.
"For Lego to earn $31m (£18.5m) in its third weekend, that would be impressive in its first weekend for any film in the first quarter."
Gladiator drama Pompeii, starring Game of Thrones actor Kit Harington, took third place with $10m (£5.9m), despite a mauling from many film critics.
The RoboCop reboot dropped from third to fourth place in its second week of release, taking $9.4m (£5.6m) while George Clooney's war movie, The Monuments Men, also dropped a place, from fourth to fifth.
Two Kevin Hart movies, About Last Night and Ride Along, took sixth and seventh place respectively.
Ride Along has also secured a sequel off the back of the first film's successful run.
Next week's releases include Liam Neeson's Non-Stop, which stars Lupita Nyong'o - she is up for a best supporting actress Oscar for 12 Years A Slave.
Meanwhile, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll, only a third of Americans have seen any of the films nominated for best picture at this year's Academy Awards.
The poll questioned 1,433 Americans in an online survey - Somali piracy film Captain Phillips was the most watched by 15% of those questioned.
Gravity was second with 14% followed, on 12%, by both American Hustle and The Wolf of Wall Street.
A total of 67% of those surveyed said they had yet to see any of the 11 films in the poll.
The Academy Awards will be hosted by comedian Ellen DeGeneres on 2 March.
Best picture Oscar nominees
Gravity
Captain Phillips
12 Years a Slave
American Hustle
Dallas Buyers Club
Her
Nebraska
Philomena
The Wolf of Wall Street
Ghostbusters star Harold Ramis dies aged 69
Actor and director Harold Ramis, best known for the films Ghostbusters and Groundhog Day, has died aged 69.
He died of autoimmune inflammatory vasculitis, a rare disease that involves swelling of the blood vessels, his agent told the BBC.
The star found fame as bespectacled ghost-hunter Egon Spengler in the Ghostbusters franchise in 1984.
But he was also a talented writer and director, whose credits included Caddyshack and Animal House.
"His creativity, compassion, intelligence, humour and spirit will be missed by all who knew and loved him," said his family in a statement.
The star had reportedly been quiet about his illness, which dated back to 2010.
But several friends are said to have visited him recently, including Bill Murray from whom he had been estranged for years, the Chicago Tribune said.
Ramis' death prompted an outpouring of tributes on Twitter.
Billy Crystal, who starred in the director's mobster comedies Analyze This and Analyze That, wrote: "Sad to hear my friend Harold Ramis passed away.
"A brilliant, funny actor and director. A wonderful husband and dad. Big loss to us all."
Iron Man director Jon Favreau added: "No, no, not Harold Ramis. Worked for him years ago. He was the real deal. Growing up, his work changed my life. He will be missed."
He is survived by his wife, Erica, sons Julian and Daniel, daughter Violet and two grandchildren.
Source-BBC
Jermaine Dupri Hit With $1 Million Lawsuit
So So Def Recordings founder Jermaine Dupri Mauldin is facing a $1 million lawsuit. Radar Online reports that Dupri is being sued by his former business partner Eddie Weathers for failing to turn over profits on a merger deal involving Dieniahmar Music LLC.
Weathers claims that he and the Atlanta-based producer created the company together in 2005, and he owns 50% of the copyright interests in the Dieniahmar catalogue. Weathers also says when Dupri signed a co-publishing deal with EMI Music the following year he was not named as a co-owner.
According to court documents, this omission cost Weathers hundreds of thousands of dollars in royalties. He was supposedly expected to get 50% of the profits but alleges all the money from EMI went to Dupri and his business manager.
After Dupri hired his new business manager, Willie Carter, in 2011, Weathers states he contacted Carter and EMI about his unpaid royalties. The docs state over the course of several years, Weathers attempted to get his cut of the money from Carter, but he had yet to get all his back royalties.
The suit also claims that he never received his portion of the sale of Dieniahmar to EMI in 2013. Weathers alleges he was owed $238,000 from the sale, but he was only given $10,000 from Dupri.
The civil case was filed in Fulton County, Georgia. Dupri, EMI/Sony/ATV, Dieniahmar, and Carter are all named as defendants.
Source-Allhiphop
Tommy Lee hospitalised in Dominica, due to be deported later Monday
Jamaican dancehall artiste, Tommy Lee Sparta, was undergoing medical treatment at a hospital in Marigot, in Dominica, prior to being deported later on Monday, his lawyer, Tehani Behanzin has said.
Behanzin told reporters that the singer, who was denied entry when he arrived on Sunday night to perform in a show in Portsmouth, had been taken to the hospital after feeling unwell.
Police detained the singer and two other members of his group when they arrived on a private jet. Neither the Dominica government nor the immigration department has issued a statement on the matter.
Behanzin, who accompanied the singer to hospital, said that on arrival “everybody was escorted out and they locked down the hospital. The windows were closed, the doors were closed and they had him in there for an hour and a bit.
“We are waiting to see what happens. He has been complaining of pain in his leg, because he has some kind of metal in his leg because of an accident some years ago and he was made to sleep on the cold concrete last night.
‘We tried our best to negotiate some cardboard for him to sleep on but that wasn’t very successful and the cold has affected his legs and now he is …suffering from muscle spasm and blood clotting in the legs”.
Behanzin said that the deportation issue would not be challenged here, but that the matter could go before the Trinidad-based Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) that last year ruled Barbados had been in violation of the rights of a Jamaican woman when it denied her entry into that island in defiance of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Single Market and Economy (CSME) that allows for the free movement of goods, services, labour and skills.
“They are going to deport him, I think this afternoon, we are not going to fight the deportation. We will proceed to the other aspects of our legal challenge to this unlawful act of the police,” he said, adding, “these are treaty rights that he was simply attending to express here and he was stopped and considered to be a national risk.
“That will be determined at the CCJ,” he said, adding that another constitutional motion would be filed at the High Court.
In a statement posted on his Facebook page, Sparta said he is a CARICOM citizen and questioned the move by the Dominican immigration authorities
Source-CMC
Alec Balwin retires from public life
Actor Alec Baldwin has announced he is retiring from public life blaming the “Gay Department of Justice”.
Baldwin made his announcement via a lengthy article in the New York Magazine titled ‘I Give Up’, following a scandal-plagued 12 months.
According to News.com, Baldwin’s troubles began after fellow actor James Gandolfini’s funeral last June, when a reporter accused his wife, Hilaria, of live-tweeting the funeral. Baldwin responded by calling the reporter a “toxic little queen”.
After that, Baldwin was reportedly involved in a scuffle with a photographer, whom he allegedly called a homophobic slur.
These two incidents led to a string of accusations of homophobia from members of the gay community.
The controversy surrounding Baldwin’s clashes with the media last year also led to the cancellation of his talk show ‘Up Late with Alec Baldwin’. Now, he says he’s done with all of the appearances — interviews, talk shows, red carpets — that are a part of a professional actor’s life.
“It’s goodbye to public life in the way that you try to communicate with an audience playfully like we’re friends, beyond the work you are actually paid for. Letterman. Saturday Night Live. That kind of thing. I want to go make a movie and be very present for that and give it everything I have, and after we’re done, then the rest of the time is mine,” he said.
Smith, Powell set up Windies win
West Indies made use of a solid opening partnership between Dwayne Smith and Kieran Powell to beat Ireland by four wickets in their one-off One Day International at Sabina Park yesterday.
This was West Indies’ second victory on the trot following an 11-run win against the same opponent in a Twenty20 International match on Friday to draw the two-match series.
West Indies started in a hurry with Smith and Powell attacking the Irish bowlers and sharing 100 runs for the first wicket.
Smith, who was drafted in the team to replace an injured Chris Gayle, made good on this opportunity and raced to 55 off 53 balls.
Ireland brought themselves back into the match when Kirk Edwards and Darren Bravo went in quick succession. But Powell stayed around for a well played 57 off 72 balls.
Captain Dwayne Bravo had a quickfire 35 to bring the West Indies closer to their target.
Marlon Samuels and Darren Sammy were left unbeaten at the end left to carry the West Indies home.
Earlier, Ireland recovered from 78 for 4 to reach 202 all out, thanks mainly to a 45-run stand between Gary Wilson (62) and Kevin O’Brien (22).
Stuart Thompson also frustrated the West Indies’ bowlers with a stubborn 33.
Jason Holder (3-34), Dwayne Bravo (3-36) and Nikita Miller (2-30) were the pick of the bowlers.
Ireland, with one win from three matches on tour of the Caribbean, will switch attention to the International Cricket Council (ICC) World Twenty20 Tournament in Bangladesh.
West Indies will engage in England in a three-match ODI series in Antigua followed by three T20s in Barbados.
Source-CMC
Costly, Political, Successful ... Sochi Olympics End
Flushed with pride after its athletes' spectacular showing at the costliest Olympics ever, Russia celebrated last night with a visually stunning finale that handed off a smooth, but politically charged Winter Games to their next host, Pyeongchang in South Korea.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, these Olympics' political architect and booster-in-chief, watched and smiled as Sochi gave itself a giant pat on the back for a Winter Games that IOC President Thomas Bach declared an "extraordinary success".
The crowd that partied in Fisht Olympic Stadium, in high spirits after the high-security Games passed safely without feared terrorist attacks, hooted with delight when Bach said Russia delivered on promises of "excellent" venues, "outstanding" accommodation for the 2,856 athletes and "impeccable organisation". The spectators let out an audibly sad moan when Bach declared the 17-day Winter Games closed.
"We leave as friends of the Russian people," Bach said.
The nation's $51 billion investment - topping even Beijing's estimated $40 billion layout for the 2008 Summer Games - transformed a decaying resort town on the Black Sea into a household name. All-new facilities, unthinkable in the Soviet era of drab shoddiness, showcased how far Russia has come in the two decades since it turned its back on communism. But the Olympic show didn't win over critics of Russia's backsliding on democracy and human rights under Putin and its institutionalised intolerance of gays.
unrelentingly upbeat
Despite the bumps along the way, Bach was unrelentingly upbeat about his first Games as IOC president and the nation that hosted it. One of Sochi's big successes was security. Feared attacks by Islamic militants who threatened to target the Games didn't materialise.
"It's amazing what has happened here," Bach said a few hours before the ceremony. He recalled that Sochi was an "old, Stalinist-style sanatorium city" when he visited for the IOC in the 1990s.
During the closing ceremony, performers in smart tails and puffy white wigs performed a ballet of grand pianos, pushing 62 of them around the stadium floor, while soloist Denis Matsuev played thunderous bars from Sergei Rachmaninoff's Concerto No.2.
here was, of course, also ballet, with dancers from the Bolshoi and the Mariinsky, among the world's oldest ballet companies. The faces of Russian authors through the ages were projected on to enormous screens and a pile of books transformed into a swirling tornado of loose pages.
There was pomp and there was kitsch. The Games' polar bear mascot - standing tall as a tree - shed a fake tear as he blew out a cauldron of flames, extinguishing the Olympic torch that burned outside the stadium. Day and night, the flame had become a favourite backdrop for "Sochi selfies", a buzzword born at these Games for the fad of athletes and spectators taking DIY souvenir photos of themselves.
"Now we can see our country is very friendly," said Boris Kozikov of St Petersburg, Russia. "This is very important for other countries around the world to see."
rivals-turned-friends
Athletes said goodbye to rivals-turned-friends from far off places, savouring their achievements or lamenting what might have been - and, for some, looking ahead to 2018. The city where they will compete, Pyeongchang, offered in its segment of the show a teaser of what to expect in four years with video of venues, Korean music and delightful dancers in glowing bird suits.
Winners of Russia's record 13 gold medals marched into the stadium carrying the country's white, blue and red flag. With a 3-0 victory over Sweden in the men's hockey final yesterday, Canada claimed the last gold from the 98 medal events.
Absent were six competitors caught by what was the most extensive anti-doping programme in Winter Olympic history, with the IOC conducting a record 2,631 tests - nearly 200 more than originally planned.
Russia's last gold came Sunday in four-man bobsled. The Games' signature moment for home fans was Adelina Sotnikova, cool as ice at 17, becoming Russia's first gold medallist in women's Olympic figure skating.
Not every headline out of Sochi was about sport. Going in, organisers faced criticism about Russia's strict policies toward gays, though once they started sliding and skiing and skating, most every athlete chose not to use the Olympic spotlight to campaign for the cause. An activist musical group and movement, Pussy Riot, appeared in public and was horsewhipped by Cossack militiamen, drawing international scrutiny.
And during the last days of competition, Sochi competed for attention with violence in Ukraine, Russia's neighbour and considered a vital sphere of influence by the Kremlin.
In an Associated Press interview on Saturday, Bach singled out Ukraine's victory in women's biathlon relay as "really an emotional moment" of the Games, praising Ukrainian athletes for staying to compete despite the scores dead in protests back home.
"Mourning on the one hand, but knowing what really is going on in your country, seeing your capital burning, and feeling this responsibility, and then winning the gold medal," he said, "this really stands out for me."
Source-AP
Balotelli accused of kicking photographer
Police were called to a nightclub by a photographer late on Saturday after he was allegedly assaulted by AC Milan striker Mario Balotelli following an argument, according to reports.
Balotelli was ruled out of his side's away match at Sampdoria yesterday due to injury.
Domestic news agency ANSA said Balotelli travelled to Liguria, on Italy's north-west coast, to watch a football match on Saturday in which his brother Enoch Barwuah was playing.
Balotelli later reportedly refused a photographer's request for a photo when he showed up at a restaurant with his fiancee Fanny Neguesha and some friends.
The party moved on to a nightclub, where the same photographer was waiting.
According to witness testimony, after refusing another request Balotelli and the photographer argued before the latter was kicked by the Italy international.
The photographer called police and later accompanied them into the nightclub to identify the 23-year-old player.
Source-AFP
Euro 2016 qualifying draw: Top teams untroubled in new format
With more teams than ever playing at football's Euro 2016, the chances of a powerhouse not qualifying are even slimmer than before. But the expanded field -- from 16 to 24 -- means there could be a few debutants in France in two years.
Sunday's qualifying draw didn't produce a group of death, and the likes of two-time reigning champions Spain, the consistent Germans and always dangerous Italy shouldn't be sweating it out come the end of qualifying.
Spain landed in a group with Ukraine, Luxembourg, Belarus, Macedonia and Slovakia -- and of the latter quintet, only Ukraine features in the top 50 in the FIFA world rankings.
Instead of simply the group winner and best second-place finisher automatically qualifying, now the top two in the nine groups and best third-place finisher will automatically progress.
The playoffs decide the final four places.
Gibraltar, population 30,000 and about to embark on its first qualifying campaign, drew the mighty Germans along with Ireland, Poland, Scotland and Georgia.
England was paired with, among others, Switzerland -- the nation England boss Roy Hodgson used to guide.
As host, France is guaranteed a berth in the tournament but will be placed in a group where it will essentially play friendlies. In this case, Les Bleus can look forward to facing Cristiano Ronaldo's Portugal.
"Now we know the 10 games we have to play," France coach Didier Deschamps was quoted as saying by UEFA. "It's pretty good to play a team like Portugal, as they will be prestigious matches."
UEFA president Michel Platini said Germany and England were two of the three member associations who opposed increasing the Euro 2016 field but the Frenchman wasn't fussed. He didn't name the other member association against the move.
"In any democracy, when the vast majority are in favor, you go forward with it even if England or Germany aren't for it," he told reporters this week. "The five or six biggest teams don't have much to worry about, but for the others it will be very competitive.
"So 24 teams will be as good as 16 teams."
In another change, teams contesting two matches in one qualifying round will either play on a Thursday and Sunday, Friday and Monday or Saturday and Tuesday as part of UEFA's "week of football" initiative.
Currently, international matches are mostly played on Fridays and Tuesdays.
"It was a political decision," Platini, a former European footballer of the year, said. "We took it to try and promote the football of national teams.
"Clubs play on almost every day of the week and as a result, international football has been pushed out of the limelight and we would like to see it take that limelight again."
Qualifying starts in September, two months after the World Cup in Brazil concludes.
Full draw:
Group A: Netherlands, Czech Republic Turkey, Latvia, Iceland, Kazakhstan
Group B: Bosnia-Herzegovina, Belgium, Israel, Wales, Cyprus, Andorra
Group C: Spain, Ukraine, Slovakia, Belarus, FYR Macedonia, Luxembourg
Group D: Germany, Ireland, Poland, Scotland, Georgia, Gibraltar
Group E: England, Switzerland, Slovenia, Estonia, San Marino, Lithuania
Group F: Greece, Hungary, Romania, Finland, Northern Ireland, Faroe Islands
Group G: Russia, Sweden, Austria, Montenegro, Moldova, Liechtenstein
Group H: Italy, Croatia, Norway, Bulgaria, Azerbaijan, Malta
Group I: Portugal, Denmark, Serbia, Armenia, Albania, France (host)
Source-CNN