Cuba tourism gets 16pc boost with better US ties |
- Cuba tourism gets 16pc boost with better US ties
- Two Broadway musical imports make it into London theatre award nominee list
- Mali vows to punish jihadists behind deadly nightclub attack
- Verstappen too young for Formula 1, says Massa
- Doggie murder mystery: UK’s Crufts plays down ‘rumours’ of five more poisonings
- US teens throng protest after black teen’s killing in Wisconsin
| Cuba tourism gets 16pc boost with better US ties Posted: 09 Mar 2015 05:51 PM PDT
Visits from Canadians, who made up nearly half of the 371,160 people who travelled here as tourists, were up 15.5 per cent, according to Cuba's National Statistics Office (ONE). Americans — the majority of whom are still unable to visit the picturesque island under the rapprochement — arrived in greater numbers as well, with 75,435 visiting the island in January, compared to 66,195 one year earlier. German, British, French and Italian tourists also led the swell of visitors, ONE said. In a surprise agreement, US President Barack Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro announced in December that they would normalise ties between their countries after a half-century embargo and diplomatic relations ruptured in 1961. Under the normalisation process, Obama has eased travel restrictions, allowing Americans in 12 categories, including family visits, research, journalism, education, religion or cultural exchange, to visit Cuba without seeking permission first. Tourism is the second-largest source of income for Cubans following professional services, particularly doctors. According to ONE, the island passed the three million tourist mark for the first time in 2014, bringing in some US$1.89 billion (RM6.98b). To help handle an expected crush of new visitors in coming years, Cuba soon will begin work on expanding the international airport in Havana, state-run media reported. Online magazine Cuba Contemporanea quoted an official from Brazilian construction conglomerate Odebrecht who said work on renovating the airport will begin later this month. The same firm has already begun work on modernizing the port at Mariel, some 45 kilometres from Havana. — AFP  |
| Two Broadway musical imports make it into London theatre award nominee list Posted: 09 Mar 2015 05:43 PM PDT
Mark Strong and Richard Armitage both received best actor nominations for roles on the London stage in revivals of Arthur Miller plays — Strong for "A View from the Bridge" and Armitage for "The Crucible". They are competing with James McAvoy for his performance in "The Ruling Class" and Tim Pigott-Smith in "King Charles III". Nominees for best actress in a play are Gillian Anderson for "A Streetcar Named Desire", Kristin Scott Thomas for "Electra", Imelda Staunton for "Good People" and Penelope Wilson in "Taken at Midnight". The best director nominees are Rupert Goold for "King Charles III", Jeremy Herrin for "Wolf Hall" and "Bring Up the Bodies", Josie Rourke for "City of Angels" and Ivo Van Hove for "A View from the Bridge". Caro Newling, president of the Society of London Theatre, which runs the awards, said it had been "an absolutely wonderful year" for British theatre and she was not at all concerned that two American imports were leading the nominations list. "There's nothing wrong with imports and I think actually given how many British plays are on the other side of the Atlantic it feels great that we're welcoming American musicals," she said. "People talk all the time about the future of new musicals and I think what we have this year is representatives on both sides of the Atlantic alive and kicking." "Memphis" and "Beautiful" were both nominated in the categories of best sound design, best costume design, best theater choreographer, best achievement in music, best actress in a musical and best new musical. "Memphis" got a nod for best actor in a musical and "Beautiful" was nominated for best actress in a supporting role in a musical but "Memphis" edged out "Beautiful" with two nominations to one for "Beautiful" in best actor in a supporting role in a musical. — Reuters |
| Mali vows to punish jihadists behind deadly nightclub attack Posted: 09 Mar 2015 05:40 PM PDT
Bamako has been on high alert since a heavily-armed gunman burst into La Terrasse, a popular venue among expatriates, early Saturday and killed five people, including a French national and a Belgian. A counter-terrorism team arrived from Paris overnight to join the investigation, with the assailant and a suspected accomplice still at large despite a huge manhunt and stepped-up vehicle checks across the capital. "We are still standing," President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita said in a defiant first public reaction after visiting La Terrasse and eight people wounded in the attack, including two Swiss nationals. "Those who dared claim this attack will pay dearly," he said, adding that they "have failed and will fail" to spread fear. Government spokesman Choguel Maiga said Malians "will not allow themselves to be affected or intimidated by terrorist acts". He urged the predominantly Tuareg rebellion in the restive north to rubber-stamp a peace agreement signed on March 1 by the government, to bring about "a real basis for the stabilisation of our country". His comments were echoed by the head of the UN's MINUSMA force, Mongi Hamdi, who said the rebels had "no other choice" but to "follow the logic of peace". The main Tuareg rebel alliance has asked for more time to consult its grassroots. 'Sabotage' Al-Murabitoun, a jihadist group run by leading Algerian militant Mokhtar Belmokhtar, has claimed responsibility for the nightclub assault. The group said it had struck partly to avenge Ahmed el Tilemsi, one of its commanders killed by the French army in Mali in December. But it added that the attack was mainly a response to recent cartoons of the Muslim prophet Mohammed, "whom the miscreant West insulted and mocked". The group was referring to images published by Paris satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, which lost 11 staff in a jihadist attack exactly two months before the Bamako killings. Fears over security mounted further on Sunday when a Chadian peacekeeper and two Malian children were killed as militants shelled a UN base in the northeastern rebel stronghold of Kidal. French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius condemned the weekend killings as "an attack on peace". "At a time when we are just metres from peace, hostile forces are trying to intervene to wreck this perspective," Fabius told a news conference in the Moroccan capital. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon also condemned the "intolerable" killings, calling them a "breach of international humanitarian law". It emerged after the Bamako attack that the Belgian victim, 44-year-old Lieutenant Colonel Ronny Piens, had been in charge of security for the European Union delegation in Bamako. Repatriation The body of Fabien Guyomard, the 30-year-old Frenchman who died at the nightclub, was due to be repatriated later yesterday. The anxiety gripping the expatriate community in the aftermath was underlined Sunday by the decision of the French Lycee of Bamako to delay its return from holidays for 48 hours to strengthen security. Troops and police from Mali and the UN are a permanent fixture in the city of 1.8 million people. Zakaria Maiga, a Malian friend of Guyomard who survived the attack, said he was "surprised" by the ease with which the assailants ― armed with automatic weapons and grenades ― were able to get downtown. French President Francois Hollande has led the international outcry, condemning the "cowardly attack" and vowing to meet Keita to offer Paris's help to its former colony. An anti-terrorist prosecutor from Paris arrived in Bamako late Sunday with 10 French police to "work on Saturday's incident hand-in-hand with their Malian colleagues" airport and security sources told AFP. The attack was the first to target Westerners in Bamako, although Mali's vast desert north is riven by ethnic rivalries and an Islamist insurgency, and has seen numerous militant attacks on security forces. Jihadists linked to Al-Qaeda controlled an area of desert the size of Texas for more than nine months until a French-led military intervention in 2013 that partly drove them from the region. ― AFP |
| Verstappen too young for Formula 1, says Massa Posted: 09 Mar 2015 05:38 PM PDT
"Despite all the talent he has... I think he's coming in too early," Massa told the Brazilian press amid preparations for Sunday's season-opener in Melbourne. "I came into Formula One at 20 — and I felt I lacked experience," said Massa, 33, who finished seventh last time out with Williams, giving his take on the Dutch-Belgian starlet who is on the verge of becoming the youngest racer in history with Toro Rosso. The teenager, son of former driver Jos, served his racing apprenticeship in karting and then won 10 races in European Formula 3 last year to earn himself a shot at the big time. Massa told Estado de S Paulo yesterday he believed Mercedes still looked to be "well out in front" of the chasing pack but that "based on what we've been showing, (Williams) are right there in the mix to be the second force in Formula One. The car is competitive and we're on the up." — AFP |
| Doggie murder mystery: UK’s Crufts plays down ‘rumours’ of five more poisonings Posted: 09 Mar 2015 05:31 PM PDT
An investigation was launched after the owners of Thendara Satisfaction, or Jagger, claimed he was fed poisoned beef at the show, a British institution that has run since 1891 and that concluded on Sunday. Claims that as many as five more dogs were suspected to have been poisoned at Crufts were splashed across the front pages of today's editions of British newspapers. "We must stress that these are at this stage just rumours," a Crufts spokeswoman said, adding that no vets at the event had raised concerns and no official complaints received from owners. "There are any number of reasons why a dog may display symptoms such as sickness... As with any international competition rumours of sabotage do occasionally surface." The Daily Telegraph newspaper reported that a West Highland white terrier, an Afghan hound and a Shih Tzu became ill after the four-day event in the English city of Birmingham. Owner Mylee Thomas said her multi-award winning Shetland sheepdog Myter Eye to Eye was poisoned along with another top dog moments before they were due to enter the competition ring. "When I got back from the loo she had been violently sick in her cage. I got her out and she carried on being sick," Thomas told the Daily Telegraph. "The top dog and the top bitch were both taken ill minutes before they were due to compete... It can only be to knock them out of the competition. It's rivalry, people's desire to win." Thomas said she believed the incident was not linked to the death of Jagger, who she described as "randomly targeted". Jagger, who is co-owned by a British and Belgian team, collapsed and died after returning from Crufts to Belgium. The dog's British co-owner told reporters that she believed that her dog was the victim of a random attack and said urged for dog shows not to become "a ground of finger-pointing and suspicion". "I need you all to know that we can't and we won't think that this was the act of another exhibitor," Dee Milligan-Bott said yesterday. "If we thought this we couldn't go on, and the last 30 years of breeding and showing beautiful dogs would have been a complete waste." The Kennel Club, which runs Crufts, said it was awaiting the results of a toxicology report to shed light on Jagger's death. It has said that anyone caught attempting to sabotage the performance of a competitor would face "severe disciplinary action" that could include a ban. — AFP |
| US teens throng protest after black teen’s killing in Wisconsin Posted: 09 Mar 2015 05:31 PM PDT
A banner reading "Black Lives Matter" was slung over a railing in the heart of the legislative building, while students marched on the streets outside chanting "this is what democracy looks like!" according to images posted on Twitter using the hashtag #Justice4Tony. "Again, young people give me so much hope. Seeing such huge numbers turn out to demand #Justice4Tony was incredible," said Twitter user @jagerschnitzels. A member of slain teen Tony Robinson's multiracial family said that while Americans may have equal rights in theory, practice is something else. "I encourage everybody to show support regardless of race because this is truly a universal issue... We don't want to stop at just 'black lives matter,' because all lives matter," Robinson's uncle Turin Carter told reporters. Officer Matt Kenny shot Robinson on Friday, the latest in a series of police shootings of unarmed black men that have triggered nationwide protests. Robinson's death "highlights a universal problem with law enforcement and how its procedures have been carried out, specifically in regards to the systematic targeting of young black males," his uncle said. "Tony's racial ambiguity reinforces the fact that America's racial lines are completely, 100-per cent blurred... My sister is a white mother of black children who had black and white relatives." Police Chief Mike Koval said that Kenny was responding to a report of a battery and had forced his way into an apartment after hearing a disturbance inside. The officer then administered CPR, and the wounded youth was taken to a hospital where he died. He said an initial search found no gun or other weapon at the scene. Koval later told CBS television the boy was shot "multiple times." The shooting comes just days after the US Justice Department said it would not prosecute the white policeman who shot an unarmed black teenager in Ferguson, Missouri, whose death sparked riots and outrage. But the report did find that the St Louis suburb's local police force had systematically targeted African Americans. ― AFP |
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