Erykah Badu angered by Flaming Lips nude video
Singer Erykah Badu has said she feels "disgusted" and "violated" after rock band The Flaming Lips posted a music video showing her and her sister naked.
Badu recorded a song with the band, who asked the singer and her sister Nayrok to sit in a bath full of blood, glitter and creamy liquid for the video.
Badu said she was not shown the edited version, which she called a "tasteless, meaningless, shock motivated video".
The band apologised after releasing the explicit video without approval.
The alternative rockers teamed up with the Grammy-winning soul singer to record a version of The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face for their latest album.
The singer said she thought the concept for the accompanying video was "disturbing" but went along with it "out of respect for you and the artist you 'appear' to be".
Badu refused to sit in anything but water so asked Nayrok, "who is much more liberal", to act as a body double for the scenes featuring glitter, a blood-like liquid and a sticky white liquid made from corn starch.
After the video appeared on music websites at the weekend, however, Badu accused the band of "desperately releasing a poor excuse for shock and nudity that sends a convoluted message that passes as art (to some)".
Badu stripped naked in the video for her single Window Seat in 2010, but said The Flaming Lips' video was different because the band were out to shock and there was no "method and thought process" involved.
"You obviously have a misconception of who I am artistically," she told them in an online message.
Not consulting her about the final video was "equivalent to putting out a security camera's images of me changing in the fitting room", she said.
"As a director I am unimpressed," she added. "As a sociologist I understand your type. As your fellow artist I am uninspired. As a woman I feel violated and underestimated."
The band issued a statement saying the video on music website Pitchfork was "unedited and unapproved.. Sorry!!"
"We, the Flaming Lips, accept full responsibility for prematurely having Pitchfork post it," it continued.
"It has outraged and upset a segment of fans and we apologise if we offended any viewers!!! This is a Flaming Lips video which features Erykah Badu and her sister Nayrok and is not meant to be considered an Erykah Badu or Nayrok statement, creation, or approved version."
Lead singer Wayne Coyne later told Badu via Twitter: "You really know how to do it!!!! You hatin on me has gotten the video 100,000 more views !!!"
Fleetwood Mac's Bob Welch found dead in Nashville
Former Fleetwood Mac guitarist and vocalist Bob Welch has been found dead with a self-inflicted gunshot wound at his home in Nashville in the US.
Police said Welch, who was aged 66 and also had a solo career, is understood to have had health issues recently.
Welch was part of Fleetwood Mac in their early years from 1971 to 1974 before forming hard rock group Paris.
Three years later came the platinum solo album French Kiss with the hits Sentimental Lady and Ebony Eyes.
Nashville police spokesman Don Aaron said: "Officers discovered Mr Welch with a single gunshot wound to the chest.
"There was a suicide note found at the residence. Mr Welch had health issues. The police are investigating it as a suicide and there was no evidence of foul play."
Welch was found dead by his wife.
He worked on early 70s Fleetwood Mac albums such as Future Games and Bare Trees.
Welch left the band before their biggest selling period, with albums such as 1977's Rumours coming after Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks joined the group.
Lauryn Hill charged over income tax returns
Hip-hop star Lauryn Hill has been charged with willfully failing to file income tax returns in the US.
Authorities say the singer earned more than $1.6 million (£1.03m) during the three years that she failed to file returns.
US prosecutors said her main source of income during the period 2005 - 2007 was royalties from her music and films.
Hill, who has not yet commented on the charges, is scheduled to appear in court on 29 June.
According to court papers, the 37-year-old owns and operates four corporations - Creations Music, Boogie Tours, LH Productions 2001, and Studio 22.
Hill was the only female member of rap group The Fugees, whose album The Score achieved worldwide success in 1996.
Two years later, she released her debut solo album - The Miseducation Of Lauryn Hill - to wide critical acclaim. It remains her only studio album to date.
The singer also appeared alongside Whoopi Goldberg in Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit.
She has six children and now rarely makes public appearances.
Beenie Man mourns dad's death
Dancehall artiste Moses 'Beenie Man' Davis and his manager/brother Rohan Smith, aka 'Blue', are mourning the loss of their father who is more affectionately known as 'Bragga'.
Information reaching The Jamaican STAR is that he died at the University Hospital of The West Indies yesterday while undergoing treatment for a health complaint.
According to sources close to the family, the death came as a shock to them and the general mood is one of sadness.
Beenie Man's ex-wife D'Angel, who also went to the hospital, described 'Bragga' as a jovial individual.
Condolence
"Moses dad is somebody that I have met. He is a jovial and fun person. Condolence goes out to the family and we definitely lost a man that produced a legend. Moses just be strong and hold up your head. When I heard I went straight to the hospital to give my support because he is my child's grandfather and the father of my son's father," D'Angel said.
Since news broke of the death, several entertainers have shown support to the entertainer via tweets, sending their condolences.
Spain downgraded as bailout estimates mount
Spain's credit rating has been downgraded as estimates on the size of the bailout it needs begin to mount up.
Fitch cut its rating on Spanish government debt by three notches to "BBB", a sign it thinks Spain's ability to honour its debts has weakened.
Earlier, there was strong demand for Spanish bonds at an auction on Thursday, seen as a key test of the country's ability to raise funds.
However, it did have to pay a higher interest rate than before.
The rate on the 10-year Spanish bonds was 6.044%, up from the 5.743% from the last auction in April.
Spain sold 2.1bn euros ($2.6bn; £1.7bn) in medium and long-term bonds.
The result showed Spain was not locked out of credit markets, although its finance minister said on Tuesday that these were "effectively shut" to his country.
The higher rate, though, is a sign of weakening confidence in Madrid's ability to repay its debts, a view underlined by the Fitch downgrade.
Fitch put Spain's creditworthiness at BBB, two notches above junk in its ranking scheme.
It also estimated the country's banks would need at least 60bn euros (£49bn, $75bn), or as much as 100bn euros.
An International Monetary Fund (IMF) report due out on Monday is expected to show Spanish banks need at least 40bn euros.
It is the first of a number of reports for which the Spanish government is waiting before it decides how to recapitalise its banks.
Ratings agency Standard and Poor's earlier said Spain's financial system could absorb up to 60bn euros of losses on bad loans.
But if it needs to find 80-112bn euros, then the banks would need government or EU aid, it said.
Help
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who held a meeting with UK Prime Minister David Cameron, said the EU stood ready to act.
But she has called for Europe to take a gradual path towards political union.
For his part, Mr Cameron urged immediate action,calling for measures to calm nervous markets.
European authorities are said to be working on a way to help Spain's troubled banking sector.
UK Chancellor George Osborne said: "I know they are working very hard on an imminent solution."
"I am optimistic that people are working hard on a solution, and a solution, I think, is coming," he told the BBC.
Borrowing costs had not been as high as feared due to these efforts in Brussels to try to find a way to help Spain, analysts suggested.
Spain remains the focus of international concerns.
US Fed chairman Bernanke 'ready to act' on economy
The chairman of the US Federal Reserve Bank said he is monitoring risks to the economy and is prepared to take action.
Ben Bernanke was giving testimony to the US Congress, something which has been closely watched by investors looking for signs the bank plans to introduce additional stimulus measures.
Mr Bernanke warned that international pressures, such as the eurozone crisis, posed risks for the US economy.
But he gave few hints of any change to policy soon.
His tone stood in contrast to remarks made in a speech late on Wednesday by his vice chairman, who pointed to a list of weaknesses in the US economy and appeared to lay out the case for further central bank support.
Janet Yellen's list included continuing housing problems and a weak jobs market.
Mr Bernanke told Congress the Fed was closely monitoring "significant risks" to the US from Europe's debt crisis, but said that "despite economic difficulties in Europe, the demand for US exports has held up well".
Jobs
On Wednesday, the Fed's Beige Book, which takes survey evidence from businesses across the country, concluded that overall economic activity had quickened in the period between early April to late May.
But there have been worries about the weakness of the US recovery, underlined by news last week of lower-than-expected jobs growth.
He said employment growth was one of the key issues he and the rest of the Fed's Open Markets' Committee (FOMC), which meets regularly to decide on monetary policy, would be looking at in the next meeting.
He also said he expected inflation to stay at or slightly below the 2% target set by the Federal Reserve.
Rising inflation is the main issue for those arguing for no loosening in policy.
Mr Bernanke did warn that government tax policy could derail economic growth, pointing to so-called "fiscal cliff" legislation that could force a steep cut in government spending alongside higher taxes, a move some economists say could send the country back to recession.
His comments echo those from the European Central Bank (ECB) head, Mario Draghi, who declined to add any monetary stimulus following the ECB's regular meeting, saying that "it is not right for monetary policy to fill other institutions' lack of action".
In a seperate move, the ratings agency Fitch warned that if the US did not sort out its own budget deficit which Mr Bernanke said in his speech had been averaging 9% over the past three years, it risked a cut in its top AAA rating.
The US is one of only four countries rated at this level.
Japan raises growth figure on stronger capital spending
Japan's economy performed better than had previously been estimated in the first three months of the year.
The Cabinet Office revised upwards growth figures for the period from a preliminary 1.0% to 1.2%, compared with the previous three months.
That translates to annualised growth of 4.7%, instead of the 4.1% figure reported in May.
The positive revision reflects better capital spending and stronger private consumption.
The data underpins a recovery driven mainly by government spending and improving domestic spending, after Japan was hit by a devastating earthquake and tsunami in March last year.
The economy was also hit by flooding in Thailand in late 2011, which disrupted supply chains and the production capabilities of many Japanese manufacturers.Japanese exports have suffered after the Japanese yen rose to record highs against the US dollar, making Japanese products more expensive overseas.
UN Monitors Shot at Near Site of Syrian Killings
The United Nations says its unarmed monitors in Syria were shot at and blocked from investigating the site of a newly reported mass killing, fueling international condemnation of President Bashar al-Assad's government.
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told the U.N. General Assembly Thursday that international observers were denied access to the village of Mazraat al-Qubeir in central Hama province and “were shot at with small arms” while trying to get there.
While Mr. Ban did not directly blame Syrian forces for the latest reported atrocity, he harshly criticized what appeared to be a government effort to block monitors from visiting the site of Wednesday's massacre in which at least 78 people were killed, half of them women and children, including 35 members of one family. Some were stabbed and burned.
Kieran Dwyer, spokesman for the U.N. peacekeeping department, said the observers were forced to turn back and were not injured, although one vehicle was hit and slightly damaged.
International envoy Kofi Annan, whose peace plan brokered in April has not been implemented, warned against allowing “mass killings to become part of everyday reality in Syria.”
Annan urged the divided U.N. Security Council and the rest of the international community to unite and act immediately to intensify pressure, especially on Mr. Assad's government. If things do not change, he warned, Syria will likely face a future of “brutal repression, massacres, sectarian violence and even all-out civil war” in which “all Syrians will lose.”
U.N. diplomats said Annan proposed that world powers and key regional players, including Iran, come up with a new strategy to end the 15-month conflict at a closed meeting of the Security Council on Thursday. Annan is scheduled to meet with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton Friday in Washington.
If confirmed, the Qubeir massacre would be the fourth such mass slaying of civilians in Syria in the last two weeks.
The White House Thursday accused the Syrian government of orchestrating “the outrageous targeted killings of civilians, including women and children…as reported by multiple credible sources.”
Thousands of Syrians have died in attacks and clashes since the cease-fire was put in place, and the presence of hundreds of U.N. observers has not been able to stem the violence.
Speaking Thursday in Istanbul, Clinton said Mr. Assad has “doubled down on his brutality and duplicity,” and that the time has come for a post-Assad Syria.
“We have to unite the international community behind a plan that is achievable and keeps faith with those inside Syria who are protesting and demonstrating, suffering and dying for their universal human rights.”
Even as she criticized the Syrian leader, China – one of Mr. Assad's leading allies along with Russia – reiterated its opposition to any effort to oust him outside the existing Annan plan to end the fighting, seeming to limit prospects for any breakthrough.
Bob Moog, of North Carolina State University, said Russian interests will need to be taken into consideration for the peace plan to take hold.
“It's going to take a realization on the part of the Russians that they are essentially on the losing side, that the Assad regime is not going to survive a civil war in Syria, and that they are going to lose everything if they continue to hold out and fail to cooperate with much of the rest of the world.”
Moog also says expectations are low for what the U.N. can do to help the Syrian situation.
“I think many people in the world, rightly or wrongly, look to the U.S. as the final arbiter in this. And if the U.N. doesn't act, then there's going to be expectations from some quarters that the U.S. should act in a unilateral, or if not unilateral, than in a multilateral matter, but outside the confines of the U.N.”
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said pro-government 'shabiha' militiamen armed with guns and knives carried out the attack in Mazraat al-Qubeir after regular troops had shelled the area.
Qubeir, on the outskirts of Hama, is small and mostly Sunni Muslim. Residents said shabiha raided the settlement from two neighboring villages of Alawites, a minority Muslim sect to which the Assad family and high-ranking members of the military and security apparatus belong to.
The exiled opposition Syrian National Council called on the Free Syrian Army and other armed opposition groups to respond by escalating their resistance.
British Prime Minister David Cameron called the reported attack “brutal and sickening.” He said that if true, the international community must do more to condemn “absolutely” the government of President Assad.
The Syrian government blamed a terrorist group for the violence.
Niger President: Pakistanis, Afghans Train Islamists in Mali
Niger's President Mahamadou Issoufou says jihadi fighters from Pakistan and Afghanistan are training members of Islamist groups in northern Mali.
Mr. Issoufou told the “France 24″ news channel in the capital, Niamey, Thursday the government has information on the presence of Afghans and Pakistanis in northern Mali operating as trainers. He said the foreigners are training “those that have been recruited in West African countries.”
Mali, once considered a beacon of African democracy, has been in turmoil since March, when a group of soldiers ousted the government of President Amadou Toumani Toure, leaving a power vacuum in the country.
Since the military coup, Tuareg rebels, with the help of Islamist militants, seized control of a large area of northern Mali and proclaimed an independent state they call “Azawad.”
Also Thursday, African leaders met in Ivory Coast's financial capital, Abidjan, to hammer out details of a possible military intervention in Mali.
Ivory Coast Foreign Minister Daniel Kablan Duncan said participants from the United Nations, the African Union and the Economic Community of West African States will discuss whether to ask the U.N. Security Council to allow the use of force to reunite Mali if talks with armed groups failed to resolve the crisis.
ECOWAS has already pledged to help Mali fight the rebels.
Egypt parties end deadlock over constitutional panel
Political parties in Egypt have agreed on how to select the panel that will write the country's new constitution, ending weeks of deadlock.
The deal was reached after talks between representatives of 22 political parties and military ruler Hussein Tantawi, officials said.
Panel members from the parliament are expected to be elected next week.
The previous panel was dissolved after liberals and secularists walked out, saying it was dominated by Islamists.
The 100-member body will include a range of politicians, members of the army, the police, the judiciary and trade unions, as well as Muslim and Christian religious leaders.
The agreement came after the military council set a 48-hour deadline on Tuesday, threatening to propose an arrangement themselves if a deal was not reached.
Islamic law
According to delegates cited by AFP news agency, 39 seats will be allocated to representatives of parties in the lower house of parliament, which is dominated by Islamist parties.
Six members will be given to judges, while nine will go to experts in law, with one seat each for the armed forces, police and the justice ministry.
Thirteen seats will be given to unions, while 21 public figures chosen at a meeting on Tuesday will also be appointed.
The Cairo-based Sunni authority Al-Azhar will be given five seats and Christian churches will get four, delegates added.
The talks also concluded that any decision by the panel must be endorsed by 67% of members.
The old constitution was suspended after the former President Hosni Mubarak was overthrown last year.
Correspondents say one of the debates during the drafting process will be the extent to which it should follow the principles of Islamic law.
The new document will also determine the rights of Egypt's religious and ethnic minority groups and the balance of power between the president - previously the supreme authority - and parliament.
The last panel was suspended on 10 April amid a boycott by groups who claimed they were under-represented, including liberals, moderate Muslims and the Coptic church.
Egypt is to hold a presidential election runoff on 16-17 June, where voters will be asked to choose between Muslim Brotherhood candidate Mohammed Mursi and former Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq.