Protesters occupy Mali's presidential palace in the capital Bamako, May 21, 2012. REUTERS/Adama Diarra

A spokesman for the soldiers behind a March 22 coup said Traore’s close-protection officers had killed three people in the attack, in which protesters entered parts of the palace compound unopposed and tore up pictures of Traore.

Mali is struggling to cope with the aftermath of the coup and a subsequent rebellion in its desert north. Sanogo agreed at the weekend to drop objections to Traore remaining in charge but crowds took to the streets on Monday calling for him to quit.

Resolving the political crisis in the capital Bamako is a pre-requisite for foreign help in efforts to retake control of the north, now in the hands of separatist and Islamist rebels, including some al Qaeda fighters.

“He (Traore) has just been rushed to hospital … They beat him seriously and tore his clothes,” Bakary Mariko, spokesman for the CNRDRE body of soldiers who last month agreed to allow a transition back to civilian rule, said by telephone.

Sekou Sidibe, a witness, said that Traore had received injuries to the face and had been escorted to hospital by the country’s interim prime minister and his bodyguards.

Soldiers at the palace stood by as the civilians entered buildings on the compound while others clambered over armoured vehicles parked nearby. Some protesters parked their motorbikes and bicycles in rooms in the palace.

“This is a spontaneous crowd. There were three dead and some injured by gunshot amongst the demonstrators. Dioncounda’s security shot at people,” Mariko said.

By mid-afternoon, the protesters had left, he said.

“DOWN WITH ECOWAS”

The protest, reflecting longstanding popular frustrations with Mali’s political class, came despite Sanogo agreeing at the weekend to let Traore remain in charge for a year to oversee the full transition to civilian rule in return for securing the status and privileges accorded to former heads of state.

The coup was launched by soldiers complaining about conditions they were sent to fight northern rebels in but unintentionally emboldened the insurgents, including Islamists linked to al Qaeda, to seize two-thirds of the country.

The occupation of the presidential palace came after protesters also paralysed traffic and blocked bridges with burning tyres in the capital Bamako.

“There is no question of Dioncounda staying as president of Mali,” said Daouda Diallo, one demonstrator amongst the group that marched up the hill to the presidential palace.

Demonstrators chanted slogans hostile to the 15-state West African regional bloc ECOWAS, which had threatened sanctions against Sanogo unless he allows Traore to remain in charge.

Traore is a labour activist turned political grandee who before his appointment last month as caretaker president was national parliament speaker. He held various ministerial jobs in the 1990s and is seen by his critics as part of a self-serving political elite that has misruled the country for years.

“We don’t want Dioncounda” and “Down with ECOWAS” chanted some in the crowd.

“I am here because I am against Dioncounda. We don’t want him in charge,” said Bourama Sidy Coulibaly, another protester.

“ECOWAS should not be meddling in Malian affairs.”

ECOWAS has pledged to send a 3,000-strong force to Mali to help it restore its authority in the north, but it has not made any commitment to actually send troops to fight in the north and its precise mandate remains under discussion.

Greensteds International School finished second with 180 points during the two-day championship at the weekend.

In the Under-18 boy’s category, which was played on a round robin, Ricky Omondi of Victoria Academy won in Pool A after posting three wins, followed by Remi Tuyaerts of Greensteds with two and Dennis Mabiria with one.

Adrian Van of Greensted led Pool ‘B’ with three victories followed by Nerville Omondi with two, while Dickens Wanyonyi and Abdi Kafar tied after winning one match a piece.

Won title

Ricky won the Under-18 championships title after he beat  Van 6-3 and 6-1 in the finals.

Ricky defeated Nerville 4-3 in the semis as Van beat Tuyaerts 4-1.  Ricky also won the Under-14 title followed by Collins Odhiambo and Dickens Wanyonyi.

In the Under-16 category, Stephen Mizero won the title followed by Kevin Vana and Kafar.

In the Under-12 category, David Kituko was the winner followed by Edward Rogers and Sammy Nyakiamo of Greensteds.

Austin Otieno won the Under-10 category title followed by Steve Powell and Hesbon Muyeya.
In the Under-18 doubles, the pair of Ricky and Nerville defeated Tuyaerts and Van 6-4 in the finals.

Runner up

The pair of Mabiria and Dickens Wanyonyi defeated Gershom Erup and Stephan Mizero 6-2 and 6-2.

In the girls’ Under-14 doubles, the pair of Linda Janet and Maureen Makhungu of Victoria defeated Esther Lyatuu and Sanam Shah 6-0.

In the Under-12 girls’ category, Makhungu won followed by Teresa Anyango and Hellen Atieno.

Janet won the Under-14 category with Makhungu being the runner up.

This is the first event sponsored by Safaricom, which Victoria Tennis Academy in partnership with Amani Na Upendo Development Group organised in Nakuru and will spread to Kisumu, Eldoret, Kakamega and Mumias.

Victoria Academy Director Collins Agwanda thanked mobile telephone service provider Safaricom Limited for their continued support to tennis development since 2009 when Victoria  Academy and Amani Na Upendo started their tennis partnership.

The two groups are currently running tennis programmes for 2,000 less fortunate children across Western Kenya in public primary and secondary schools.

By Ben Ahenda, The Standard

Elliot Turner strangled Emily Longley in his bed in Bournemouth, Dorset, after going 'absolutely nuts' over his suspicions she was 'twisting his heart' by seeing other men. His parents Leigh, 54, and Anita, 51, helped cover up the crime

Elliot Turner, 20, strangled 17-year-old Emily Longley in his bed after going “absolutely nuts”.

The murder was the culmination of a month of anger and upset over his suspicions she was “twisting his heart” by seeing other men.

His parents Leigh, 54, and Anita, 51, helped cover up the crime by destroying a confession letter from their son.

Police bugged the couple’s home and found they had taken away vital evidence after the killing at their home in Bournemouth, Dorset in May last year.

The pair were convicted by a majority of 10 to 2 of perverting the course of justice – a charge that Elliot Turner had admitted during the four-week trial at Winchester Crown Court.

Turner mouthed the word “f***” after the jury foreman gave the verdict following nine hours of deliberations.

There were cries from the public gallery where Emily’s family were sitting. Turner will be told the minimum term he will serve of his life sentence on Tuesday.

His parents were bailed for sentence at a date to be fixed but told they were likely to face jail.

Turner was well known in the local bar and club scene in the Bournemouth and Poole areas and was part of a gang of rich young men called The Firm.

Called by his friends All-Talk Turner because of his boasting, he met Emily in December 2010.

The pair enjoyed the high-life around the resort, partying late in to the night and drinking £180 bottles of Grey Goose vodka often with other members of The Firm.

But Turner, who had a history of obsession with women, soon showed signs of jealousy and the short volatile relationship quickly descended into violent arguments with Turner threatening to kill his girlfriend on an almost daily basis.

He was described in court by the prosecution as showing himself to be “threatening, aggressive, violent, controlling and possessive towards Emily Longley”.

Emily went back to Auckland, New Zealand, to see her parents in April and Turner was incensed by Facebook pictures of her with ex-boyfriends and other men.

She had suffered from abusive relationships back home in New Zealand and had emotional problems and was vulnerable.

When Emily returned she wanted out of the relationship and she slept with his best friend Luke Ashford after an argument triggered by Turner’s obsession.

In the days before her death, Turner accessed her phone and Facebook accounts and learnt she was arranging to meet men.

He went to one club in Bournemouth and armed himself with a lump hammer to confront them when he learned she was out with another man.

He had driven there in his black Mini Cooper and was hitting the steering wheel in anger witnesses said.

This was even though he admitted he had slept with three women during the relationship.

That night he didn’t find Emily but he warned the other suitor, Louis Powell, that she was his girlfriend and to back off.

Crying, he then told friends he had killed Emily with the hammer and dumped her in bushes before then saying it was a joke.

The day before he murdered her he asked his impressionable friend Tom Crowe how he should kill Emily as his obsession started to reach a crescendo.

They even discussed setting her on fire in his bedroom using petrol and strangling her and the pair even practised strangle holds.

On the night of May 6 Turner thought he had patched up his relationship with Emily and they were boyfriend and girlfriend again.

But she wanted out and Turner was angry when he met up with her and saw she was dressed in very short shorts, a leopard print bra and small waist coat.

He said she was dressed like a “whore” and he continued to argue with her in a bar called Cafe Shore.

Emily, centre, poses with the Cheeky Buff Butlers, which upset her boyfriend Turner

Finally a fed up Emily threw drinks over him and he attacked her before later that night she fatally agreed to go back to his house in the affluent Queen’s Park area of Bournemouth to talk things over.

This was despite Emily texting Turner to say: “Hit me with a mallet? Do what ever you want to me – I will never get back with you. I actually hate you.”

Tom Crowe was the last person to see her alive other than her killer. He told the court that Turner asked him to kill Emily using the lump hammer but he told him to f*** off.

The last thing he saw was Emily trying to lock Turner out of his own house, but the 13-stone man overpowered her and they went inside.

A neighbour had walked by and Mr Crowe presciently told him he thought Turner would kill Emily.

The prosecution said that Turner used a pillow to smother Emily and then he strangled her using a sleeper hold.

Forensics found the teenager’s “face mask” of make up on the pillow and Emily’s make up was also on Turner’s shirt.

But Turner stuck to the story he told police and paramedics when they were called to the house on the morning of May 8 that Emily had repeatedly attacked him and he defended himself.

In the witness box, Turner said that he grabbed Emily by the neck for five or six seconds and then pressed down on her as she lay on the bed to stop the attack.

He then stormed out of the bedroom and came back, got in to bed and woke up to find her dead.

He said he had loved her and she had loved him and had only wanted the best for her and he denied murdering her.

When arrested at the scene he had his passport in his pocket and his bags packed, the court heard.

Police were suspicious from the start because of Turner’s threats to Emily but there was no conclusive cause of death except for tell-tale haemorrhages under her eyelids that were consistent with neck compression.

Detectives decided to bug the family’s £350,000 home and discovered that his doting parents had helped cover up their son’s crime.

Highly incriminating tapes played to the jury told how Leigh Turner had destroyed his son’s “confession”.

During one discussion when Anita Turner refused to believe her son had done anything wrong, an exasperated Leigh Turner said “He (Elliot) f****** strangled her”.

Turner himself was heard to say: “I just flipped. I went absolutely nuts…I just lost it. I grabbed her as hard as I could. I pushed her like that.”

He was heard calling Emily a “f****** bitch” and talking about the “f****** anger” that had built up in him over her.

Leigh Turner said: “We have perverted the course of justice by destroying evidence.”

But Anita Turner was heard to say they had been right to do it. They also discussed changing Anita’s story about the delay in calling the ambulance.

Anita had called Leigh first and there had been an hour delay in calling paramedics while calls went to and fro between the family.

Anita admitted that she took a jacket from Elliot Turner’s bedroom but that she didn’t think it was wrong. The prosecution said police were distracted by her husband and the confession letter was in the coat.

Police also examined Turner’s computer and found searches about death by strangulation.

Emily had been born in Britain but her family had emigrated when she was nine.

She had returned to live with her grandparents Ronald and Zosia Longley in a large detached cottage near the seafront in Southbourne, near Bournemouth, to study for a business national diploma at Brockenhurst College in Hampshire.

She also worked part-time at Top Shop in Bournemouth.

Her divorced parents Mark and Caroline flew over from New Zealand and attended court every day to find out what happened to their daughter.

Source SkyNews

KIM Kardashian knows how to promote a TV show — posting this underwear snap online ahead of the launch of the seventh season of Keeping Up With The Kardashians.

Stunning trio ... Khloe, Kim and Kourtney Kardashian pose in underwear

The reality star, 31, posed in sexy cream and pink lingerie and was joined by her sisters Khloe and Kourtney in equally skimpy ensembles.

The snap, which was taken before Kourtney announced she was pregnant, saw the sisters photographed in a regal-looking room with gilded mirrors and plush curtains.

The set-up wouldn’t look out of place on stage at Kanye West’s Watch the Throne gigs.

Kim went to watch her lover in action with Jay-Z at London’s O2 at the weekend.

Before the concert Kim and Kanye, 34, were seen going out for a bite to eat.

But the start of her TV show must have still been on her mind, later tweeting: “It trips me out that we are about to premiere our season 7 of Keeping Up With the Kardashians tonight! Thanks to everyone who has supported!”

Source The Sun

President of the African Development Bank, Donald Kaberuka

WASHINGTON, May 21, 2012/ – African Development Bank President Donald Kaberuka (http://www.afdb.org) capped a visit to Washington with a landmark meeting at the Group of Eight (G8) Summit on Saturday.

The special session focused on agriculture policy in Africa, and in particular, a fresh initiative called the New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition.

The meeting was hosted by U.S. President Barack Obama at Camp David near Washington, where this year’s G8 Summit of the world’s largest economies took place.

Participants included the G8 leaders, four African heads of state and executives from the private sector.

“With so much for the G8 leaders to discuss,” said AfDB President Kaberuka, “I commend President Obama for putting agriculture investment in Africa on the agenda.”

One of the main objectives of the new initiative is to encourage the private sector to invest more in the continent’s agriculture sector.

Indeed President Obama has announced that more than $3 billion has already been pledged in private sector investments. African and G8 governments will also commit funds to spur growth.

“This is a win-win proposition,” said Kaberuka. “A prosperous, growing Africa is good for the global economy.”

He went on to say: “This is a collective endeavour involving governments, the private sector and public investment to spur economic growth on the continent.

The African Development Bank is ready to play its part by ensuring conditions such as reliable infrastructure are in place.”

In a statement released on the eve of the Camp David meeting, the White House said that it would work with the people and leaders of Africa to “Increase responsible domestic and foreign private investments in African agriculture, take innovations that can enhance agricultural productivity to scale, and reduce the risk borne by vulnerable economies and communities.”

The White House statement went on to welcome the support of the African Development Bank and other development agencies.

In the last few days there has been an intense focus on ways to encourage greater innovation and private sector investment in the agriculture sector across Africa.

The New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition was launched at a symposium in Washington on Friday, bringing hundreds of individuals and organizations together to discuss the way forward.

In a nod to the high-level support for the initiative, speakers at the symposium included President Obama, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the leaders of Benin, Ethiopia, Ghana and Tanzania, and AfDB President, Donald Kaberuka.

They spoke about the opportunities that exist in Africa and the yields that greater agricultural output could bring, not just in the food sector.

“This is not only a moral imperative, but an economic and security imperative as well,” said President Obama.

He added that the overall goal is to bring 50 million people out of poverty. This, he said, would improve lives, economies and security around the world.

AfDB President Kaberuka told the audience that although African agriculture has underperformed for many years, that’s beginning to change as many governments put market policies and conditions in place.”

Through improved infrastructure, transportation and trade, Africa can make significant headway, he said.

The African Development Bank Group’s mission is to help reduce poverty, improve living conditions for Africans and mobilize resources for the continent’s economic and social development.

Current and future projects and priorities will be discussed at the organization’s Annual Meetings in Arusha, Tanzania from May 28th to June 1st.

The theme of the meetings will be “Africa and the Emerging Global Landscape: Challenges and Opportunities.”

Distributed by the African Press Organization on behalf of the African Development Bank.

Security guards detain a demonstrating activist from women's rights organisation Femen near the Euro 2012 trophy during its unveiling to the public in central Kiev May 12, 2012. REUTERS/Gleb Garanich

“This is going to be our training room for our Euro strikes,” she says.

“That’s for the girls to get fit on for when they scrap with the police or have to run away from them,” she says, pointing to a set of wall-bars and an overhead muscle-tone pulley-bar by the front door.

The topless activists of the Femen women’s rights group, whose eye-catching antics have made them the cover girls of international feminist protest, are shouting loud and clear that their attendance at next month’s Euro-2012 soccer tournament – welcome or not – can be counted on.

Bare-breast public appearances – flash-mob-style – by the neo-feminist group are guaranteed throughout a month-long Euro soccer feast expected to draw a million or so foreign visitors.

Indeed, Anna Hutsol, a small 27-year-old with close-cut, flame-dyed hair and the group’s main ideologue, is warning of a blitz of stunts to dramatize Femen’s view that Euro-2012 will only fuel prostitution and the former Soviet republic’s sex industry which it says demeans women.

Ukraine‘s police, gearing themselves to control hundreds of thousands of rowdy visiting fans, might find themselves just as busy with the small army of activists that Femen plans to field.

“We are going to do everything we can to interrupt and disrupt, to break up these (Euro) events,” Anna said.

She says she has 40 or so Femen activists on stand-by for action in Kiev with two or three in each of the other Euro cities — Lviv, Kharkiv and Donetsk.

“We’ve got people coming from abroad too – a Brazilian woman and someone from France,” she said.

So what do they plan for the tournament, which opens in Ukraine on June 9 and runs for the whole month? Will they “streak” onto a pitch? Will they raid a VIP box? Will they pull off an en masse Femen spectacular at the July 1 final in Kiev ?

“I can’t give you concrete details. But we’ll be staging all sorts of strikes – at stadiums and alongside, at press conferences and at cup ceremonies, everywhere,” she said.

“Of course, we’ll be going to Poland, too,” she said. Neighboring Poland is co-host of the tournament.

For Femen, Euro-2012 is both a target to be disrupted and a platform for protest. Far from being a showcase for a modern European state as the authorities envisage, the Euros will only hurt Ukraine’s future by boosting prostitution and making it a sex tourism destination in Europe, Femen says.

It is an event the group has spent at least two years sharpening its knives for.

Some critics question the sincerity of their beliefs and dismiss the young women, all in their 20s, as attention-seekers.

Don’t their topless antics only provide images for a prurient, sex-obsessed media and re-inforce the stereotype of Ukrainian women that Femen is fighting against? Do their tactics help or hurt their cause?

Eccentric and contradictory though it might seem to some, stripping down to the waist publicly is the only effective weapon the group has found to get attention, Femen says.

“Euro-2012 will not help Ukraine develop. The only thing that will develop is the sex industry here. Euro-2012 will help make Ukraine one big Euro brothel,” says Sasha Shevchenko, a tall, blonde 24-year-old and a regular participant in topless actions.

SEX TOURISM

Other Femen core activists are Oksana Shachko, 25, a waif-like icon painter who handles design for the group, and Inna Shevchenko, 21, a blonde, former journalist who has the same surname as Sasha but is no relation.

Since the group set itself up in 2008 – then using a downtown cafe as its operational base – it has gone on to establish itself as a global reputation.

There is something to Femen’s complaints about sex tourism.

Any online ‘Ukraine’ search on the Internet soon throws up a dating ad for Ukrainian girls “looking for” foreign men.

Though prostitution is illegal in Ukraine, pimps regularly work central Kiev streets, such as the Khreshchatyk boulevard, handing out visiting cards for erotic massage parlors or walking up to foreign men to direct them to apartments for sex.

Equally, young women often complain they are approached on the streets and propositioned for sex by foreigners.

Prostitution parlors have sprung up in many apartment blocks in advance of the Euros, Femen says.

Femen’s argument is that Ukraine’s authorities and UEFA, Europe’s governing soccer body, have turned a blind eye to the directors of the sex trade who have set up shop well in advance.

“UEFA has social programs like, for instance, ‘football without racism’. Why can’t it set up the program ‘football without prostitution or sex tourism’?,” asked Anna.

She is echoed by fellow activist Sasha Shevchenko.

“At the start we had high hopes that UEFA would speak out against prostitution. But after several protests we realized that UEFA and the Euro organizers have an interest in Ukraine becoming one big bordello,” she said.

FIRST SHOTS

With a new operational base close to Kiev city centre, Femen has already fired its first shots.

On a sunny Saturday afternoon in the Kiev this month, 23-year-old Yulia Kovpachyk loped up the ramp of an open-air exhibition where the Euro soccer trophy was on public display, ostensibly to be photographed alongside it like hundreds of other sightseers.

She then pulled down her T-shirt to reveal the words “Fuck Euro 2012″ – Femen’s current slogan – etched in black paint across her torso.

She was seized by security guards, but not before she had grabbed hold of the 60 centimeters (two feet) high cup with both hands.

“Yulia got the usual fine of 119 hryvnias (nearly $15) for the administrative offence of hooliganism,” said Anna. “But, of course, we don’t pay these fines.”

The group has started going further afield too.

For a protest last year outside the Paris apartment of the former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn, three activists provocatively dressed up as hotel chamber maids – an allusion to his arrest in New York on accusations of attempted rape. He was later cleared and released.

In Switzerland on a bitter cold day in January, Femen activists took off their tops and scaled a security fence at the Davos economic summit.

And in March they went topless at a Moscow polling station against Putin’s certain re-election. Oksana’s breasts were emblazoned with: “I steal for Putin!”

Their actions typically end with them being bundled away – often physically carried off kicking and screaming – by local police.

But a bare-breast action in the former Soviet republic of Belarus against the country’s hardline leadership turned into something far more serious.

Inna, Oksana and a third activist were seized, apparently by members of Belarus’s KGB state security agency. Inna says they were driven off to woodlands away from the capital where they were interrogated and made to undress and dress again several times.

Green dye was poured on their heads and, before being abandoned in woodlands, they were told never to return to Belarus.

“It was the very worst experience we have had. Thank God we have not reached the stage of being like Belarus,” Inna said.

CAMPAIGN VICTORIES

Anna herself does not take part in topless protests, but reels off recent successes with the pride of a general listing his campaign victories.

“We grabbed the UEFA cup of course. We had our ‘sex bomb’ action on the metro. There was the protest in the bell tower of St Sophia’s cathedral. We staged an action in Turkey in March, then there was Putin and we carried out our action at the Indian embassy,” she said.

There are unanswered questions about the group – notably about the funding which allows Anna, Sasha, Oksana and Inna to devote themselves full-time to Femen activities, and pays for travel abroad, legal counsel in numerous court actions and a stack of other overheads.

Anna ducks the question, speaking broadly of “charitable help” from inside the country and abroad and income raised from Femen‘s online shop which sells branded T-shirts, sweat shirts, handbags and hats.

“The biggest part of our supporters are people abroad. They understand what a woman’s movement is all about. Ukrainian society is less ready to help and sympathize. But now we can afford to go to McDonald’s whereas before it was a yoghurt and a stick of bread,” she said.

And the question remains over just what long-term effect their brash protests will have in improving women’s rights. Have they made a difference?

“I can see progress and I can’t help but be happy about it,” said Anna. “We have new supporters springing up in different countries and they are organizing themselves. This shows that our ideas are not being confined to our country and this city.”

“The Euro organizers now know who they have to be afraid of. They have to be afraid of us and they will have to get ready for us appearing at every Euro event,” says Inna.

As she leans forward to make her point, the black scrawl of a partly-visible Femen slogan shows at the neckline of her denim jacket.

(Writing By Richard Balmforth; editing by Ralph Boulton)

White hot ... Miley Cyrus

British Grammy-winning singer Adele won 12 awards from 18 nominations for her juggernaut album “21,” including top artist, top female artist and top album. Her awards were not presented during the live show and the singer was not present.

But LMFAO, the uncle-nephew duo Redfoo and SkyBlu, showed in trademark outrageous fashion and picked up two awards, song of the year for “Party Rock Anthem” and the top duo/group, along with four more honors.

Stunning ... Katy Perry

Rappers Wiz Khalifa, Lil Wayne and RB singer Chris Brown took honors for top new artist, male artist of the year and RB artist of the year, respectively.

LMFAO kicked off the show with an energetic medley of their hits “Party Rock Anthem” and “Sexy And I Know It.” They were followed later by a shirtless Chris Brown performing his dance single “Turn Up The Music” with BMX bikers doing stunts.

Katy Perry, clad in a white dress, hung above the stage in a swing to sing her latest “personal and intimate” heartbreak single “Wide Awake,” while Justin Bieber, one of last year’s big winners at the Billboard show, presented a grown up image this year after turning 18-years-old, singing “Boyfriend” with dancers dressed as clowns and neon geisha girls.

Triumph ... Adele scoops a dozen

Other performers included Kelly Clarkson, The Wanted, Carly Rae Jepsen, Usher, Carrie Underwood, Linkin Park, Nelly Furtado and Billboard Battle of the Bands winner, Patent Pending.

Taylor Swift was given the Billboard Woman of the Year honor for her success as a recording artist, and she picked up the award from “New Girl” TV star Zooey Deschanel and veteran artist Kris Kristofferson, who praised Swift for having “done it the old-fashioned way by speaking the truth beautifully.”

Bieber picked up the award for the most social artist, thanking his 22 million Twitter followers and 43 million Facebook fans, saying “the Internet is where I got my start.”

Perry was given the Spotlight award for being the only female artist in history to see five No. 1 singles from one album. Michael Jackson is the only artist to have received the award previously.

Veteran soul singer Stevie Wonder, 62, was honored with the Icon award this year and sang “Higher Ground” and “Overjoyed” with RB singer Alicia Keys, wrapping the set with his hit song “Superstition.”

TRIBUTES TO THE FALLEN

With some big losses in the music world already this year, the awards show featured numerous tributes to late artists.

Early in the show, hosts Julie Bowen and Ty Burrell paused to remember late Bee Gees singer Robin Gibb, who died on Sunday after a long battle with cancer, with a moment of silence.

New Zealand artist Natasha Bedingfield paid tribute to late ‘Disco Queen’ Donna Summer, who died earlier this week after fighting lung cancer, saying “if we can remember her through her music, this will never really be her last dance,” before kicking off into Summer’s hit, “Last Dance.”

Wiz Khalifa paid tribute to late Beastie Boy Adam “MCA” Yauch, who passed away earlier this month after battling cancer, while Cee Lo Green joined his hip hop band Goodie Mob to perform “Fight For Your Right” in Yauch’s memory.

The biggest tribute of the night was for Whitney Houston, who died suddenly aged 48 in February this year. The late singer was posthumously given the Millennium award, while singers John Legend and Jordin Sparks led heartfelt renditions of “The Greatest Love of All” and “I Will Always Love You” against a backdrop of photographs of Houston.

Houston’s sister-in-law Patricia Houston and teenage daughter Bobbi Kristina Brown accepted the award, with the late singer’s emotional daughter saying “I’m just blessed to have been in such an incredible woman’s life, there will never be another one ever.”

(Reporting By Piya Sinha-Roy; Editing by Bob Tourtellotte)

Rogers Ddungu. Photo by Ismail Kezaala

Uganda will be on the agenda at this week’s International Olympic Committee Executive board meeting following months of wrangling among the national executive.

The IOC last week asked the wrangling parties not to go to court, and to use internal mechanisms to resolve the local committee disputes, but their pleas have been ignored.

Uganda Olympic Committee could be headed in the same direction as local amateur boxing that for three years had two parallel governing bodies.

The stalemate in local sport’s most powerful body follows the banning of the committee’s head Roger Dungu, a punitive measure, which the UOC president insists is unconstitutional and therefore can’t bar him from his position.

Battles in UOC hit a climax at the weekend where 13 of 19 federations met in an extra-ordinary assembly and voted to ban Ddungu.  They blamed him for taking Olympic matters to court, which is against the rules of the IOC.

Assistant Secretary Nicholas P’Minga was also suspended at the meeting that had vice president William Blick take charge.

The accusations

Ddungu, accused of gross misconduct and abuse of office,fell out with seven of the nine UOC executive members months ago and Saturday’s was the latest twist in the long-running battle for the soul of the Olympic body. An attempt by Ddungu to halt the Saturday meeting was thwarted on Friday, when court ruled the assembly should go ahead.

But Ddungu has scoffed at those who banned him describing the move as illegal. “Whatever they arrived at is not binding because that meeting was wrongly convened, constituted and conducted,” he argued.

Ddungu insists that as far as he is concerned, he is still UOC president. He argues that as per UOC constitution, he should have chaired the meeting that suspended him.

“But they thought they could by pass the constitution and usurp my powers. The only way Blick could proceed with whatever he is doing, would have been in either my absence or if I had delegated him.”

UOC’s constitution also stipulates that meetings are called by the chairman in concert with the secretary. The seven members of the executive also quoted the constitution that states that the vice-president takes charge if the president absconds from duty – an accusation they made against Ddungu.

Ddungu however wonders how Blick could have called the assembly with Peninah Kabenge who is still being queried. Quoting a 1994 High Court case where UOC’s authority was first put to test, Ddungu’s team argues that they are opting for court to stop desecration of the supreme document.

“If they are constitutionally right, why fear court.”

IOC pleads

The IOC had last week urged both parties not to go to court, but to settle matters at an extra-ordinary assembly. This plea has not been heeded as another court case awaits after Friday’s was dismissed.

Last Friday, The High dismissed an application from  Ddungu for an interim order seeking to stop Saturday’s Extra-Ordinary Assembly from taking place.

His Worship John Eudesi Keitirima of the High Court Civil Division in Kampala dismissed the application with costs, citing lack of merit and failure on the applicant’s part to prove that he will be injured and suffer non-repairable damages as alleged if the EOA took place as scheduled.

“The applicant doesn’t show how he will suffer un-repairable damages if the assembly took place. The UOC constitution provides mechanism of solving such matters and the assembly is one of them,” Keitirima explained.

“The Olympics is eminent and granting this interim order will injure the national interest and of the athletes and such individual bickering should not take priority. It is therefore on the basis of this that I dismiss the application with costs pending the disposal of the main suit,” the registrar ruled.

New team firm

But equally firm on their decisions, are Blick and his team that until Saturday was headed by Ddungu. “I hope we can work together to promote Olympism,” said Blick as he ended the meeting.

Blick, who will be at the helm on an interim basis until next year’s elections, has set preparations for the forthcoming London Olympics as top of his assignments.

General secretary Peninah Kabenge said a meeting on Monday (today) will kick-start the preparations.

She said the world body IOC, well aware of Uganda’s situation, was eagerly awaiting the outcome of the assembly. IOC has accordingly been informed of the developments.

The world body had asked UOC to use its internal mechanisms to sort out the squabbles.

IOC also meets this week for a pre-Games gathering.

By James Bakama and Charles Mutebi, The New Vision

On the up: Rafael Nadal has climbed back up to world No 2 with victory in Rome Photo: PA

Beaten surprisingly early on Madrid’s blue clay earlier this month, the 25-year-old Mallorcan was at his destructive best to claim the title in the Italian capital for the sixth time.

In doing so he will rise back to second in the world rankings after being overtaken by Roger Federer last week.

The match, the 32nd between the pair, had been postponed by rain on Sunday, but both players came out firing in front of a healthy crowd in the Foro Italico as the sun returned.

Nadal went immediately on the attack, carving out two break points in Djokovic’s opening service game only for the elastic-limbed Serb’s defences to dig him out of trouble.

The Spaniard did draw first blood when he punished a dreadful Djokovic drop shot in the fifth game to move ahead but he immediately handed the service break back with a lacklustre game culminating in a forehand error.

Djokovic briefly switched up a gear and began to dominate the rallies but was broken again at 5-5 after a volleying exchange and Nadal served out a 76-minute opener.

Nadal made it five games in a row when he moved 2-0 ahead in the second set and although Djokovic hung on grimly, threatening to break back in the fourth game only to mess up an easy smash, he stayed in control.

Two bad bounces and a double-fault on match point helped Nadal close it out and improve his career head-to-head record over the Serb to 18-14.

A suicide bomber killed at least 50 soldiers and wounded many others when he blew himself up in central Sanaa (AFP, Mohammed Huwais)

The suicide attack was the deadliest in the country’s capital since newly-elected President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi pledged to oust Al-Qaeda militants from Yemen’s mostly lawless and restive southern and eastern provinces.

Medics, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the casualties were being treated in seven hospitals across Sanaa. All the dead and injured were soldiers, they added.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the massive blast which according to witnesses echoed loudly across the city, causing panic among residents.

Yemeni police officer Colonel Abdul Hamid Bajjash, in charge of security at the blast area, said the attack “bears the hallmark of Al-Qaeda.”

The unidentified bomber detonated his explosives as soldiers from the government’s central security forces, commanded by a nephew of former president Ali Abdullah Saleh, rehearsed for an army parade to mark the 22nd anniversary of the unification of north and south Yemen, according to the military official.

Yemen’s defence minister, Mohammed Nasser Ahmed, was present at the time of the explosion but escaped unharmed, the official added.

Witnesses said human remains were scattered across the site of the blast at Sanaa’s Sabeen Square, where the Yemeni government often holds large military parades.

An AFP correspondent said dozens of ambulances rushed to evacuate the dead and wounded, as security forces cordoned off the area.

Monday’s attack is Sanaa’s most deadly since Hadi took power in February with a pledge to fight Al-Qaeda’s growing presence in the county.

Hadi, who was elected in a single-candidate vote as stipulated by the Gulf-sponsored transition deal that forced Saleh’s ouster, was expected to give a speech at the military ceremony scheduled for Tuesday.

It remains unclear if the parade will take place as planned.

The suicide bombing comes 10 days into a massive army offensive against Al-Qaeda in Yemen’s restive southern Abyan province, where the jihadists have seized control of a string of towns and cities in attacks launched since May last year.

The offensive followed days after the White House announced that a plot by Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) to blow up a US airliner had been foiled.

Yemen military and tribal sources said Monday that 11 Al-Qaeda fighters and three Yemeni soldiers were killed in the latest fighting around the southern city of Jaar.

The clashes during the night took place mainly at the city’s western entrance, a military source said, adding that 17 soldiers were wounded in the clashes.

In a separate incident Monday, Al-Qaeda militants attacked a Yemeni military base in Wadi Hassan, east of Zinjibar, killing seven soldiers and wounding 23 others, military officials and medics said, adding that fierce fighting also erupted northeast of the city.

Since the offensive began, 234 people have been killed, according to a tally compiled by AFP, including 158 Al-Qaeda fighters, 41 military personnel, 18 local militiamen and 17 civilians.

Residents and tribes in the area surrounding Jaar have formed armed militias, Popular Resistance Committees, to back the army, similar to those formed in other Abyan towns — Loder and Mudia.

According to Western diplomats in Sanaa, US experts have been advising the Yemeni army in combat.

On Monday, Al-Qaeda militants claimed they raked with gunfire a convoy carrying four US military advisers in Hudaida, but American officials said they had no such personnel in the west Yemen port city.

The jihadists said in a statement that gunmen had opened fire on Sunday on two cars carrying four American military advisers who were in the Red Sea city on a training mission with the Yemeni Coast Guard.

The militants “opened fire on them as they left their hotel on their way to work,” the statement said, adding that the attackers were able to flee despite efforts by Yemeni security forces to cordon off the city.

The US embassy in Sanaa however denied the presence of American military advisers in Hudaida.

“Reports of US military trainers in Hudaida are false,” an embassy email said.

Copyright © 2012 AFP. All rights reserved.