Beyonce, Jay-Z visit OKed by US govt

A visit by American pop star Beyonce and rapper husband Jay-Z to Havana last week was a cultural trip that was fully licensed by the US Treasury Department, a source familiar with the itinerary said on Monday. The longstanding US trade embargo against Cuba prevents most Americans from travelling to the communist-led island without a license granted by the US government

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Yoko tweets Lennon’s stained glasses

On what might have been her 44th wedding anniversary with John Lennon, peace activist Yoko Ono has tweeted a graphic reminder about gun violence in the United States – her photograph of Lennon’s blood-stained glasses. The 80-year-old artist repeatedly posted the picture with the message that “over 1,057,000 people have been killed by guns in the USA since John Lennon was shot and killed on 8 Dec 1980”.

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THE HOLOCAUST: Never Forget, Never Forgive

A presidential commission journeys into the nightmare of the past Fulfilling a pledge made on the 30th anniversary of Israel's founding, Jimmy Carter last year appointed a 34-member presidential commission on the Holocaust to develop a memorial in the U.S. to the 6 million victims of the Nazis' “final solution.” Last week, as a first step in that effort, the commission toured the sites in Eastern Europe where the campaign of extermination of Jews took place in a search for historical material that could be included in American archives on the Holocaust

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Kevin Clash: The Man Behind Sesame Street’s Elmo

Kevin Clash is an Emmy-award-winning performer and producer with dozens of TV and film credits to his name, but he’s far better known as a furry red monster. Clash is the puppeteer and the voice behind Elmo, one of the most popular characters on the seminal children’s television show Sesame Street, which this week marks its 40th anniversary with a series of special episodes and a two-disc DVD set, Sesame Street: 40 Years of Sunny Days

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At the Polls, Britons Have Bad News for the Coalition

One year ago, British voters made history by forcing rival politicians into the first coalition government since the end of World War II. And they celebrated the first anniversary of that event on Friday by delivering verdicts in a series of elections that could yet tear that same coalition government apart.

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