Arts

Afghanistan defeated Pakistan Sunday, winning their first under-19 cricket Asia Cup final in Kuala Lumpur, offering a rare opportunity for celebrations in a country desperate for a break from relentless rounds of deadly violence.

Batting first, the Afghan team scored 248 runs in their allotted 50 overs. The opposition Pakistani side while chasing the target was dismissed within 23 overs for just 63 runs, enabling Afghans to win the match by a massive margin of 185 runs to lift the championship trophy.

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani tweeted his pride in the team, posting to his official Twitter account: “Indeed, our young colts showed that our future in cricket is bright.”

And Afghanistan Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah tweeted, though he is out of Afghanistan on an official trip, “I feel proud to congratulate our nation on this very unique, rare and prideful occasion of our country’s cricket as Afghanistan’s U19 clinches historic win over Pakistan at the ACC U-19 Asia Cup and lifts the trophy for the first time in the history.”

The win demonstrated significant improvement in Afghan cricket, which spread in the war-torn country from refugee camps in neighboring Pakistan and has become one of Afghanistan’s most popular sports in recent years.

The International Cricket Council in this year inducted Afghanistan as its 12th full member, recognizing the strides the Afghan national side has made in the game.

The other full ICC members, are traditional cricket-playing nations: England, Australia, Bangladesh, South Africa, New Zealand, Pakistan, the West Indies, India, Ireland, Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe.
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A group dedicated to preserving and promoting the Pacific Crest National Scenic Trail has purchased private land in western Washington state to prevent a break in the path.

The Pacific Crest Trail Association bought more than 400 acres (162 hectares) in the Stevens Pass area this week from a private landowner for $1.6 million, The Seattle Times reported.

The association says the landowner had considered putting up a fence and cutting off public access to the trail.

“Given the topography, we found it very difficult to loop around that piece of private property,” said Megan Wargo, the group’s director of land protection. “There’s only a short window you can be out there building trail. It would have meant several years of access to the PCT as a through-hike would have been closed.”

The 2,600-mile (4,200-kilometer) trail from Mexico to Canada generally follows the crests of several mountain ranges, including the Cascades in Washington state and Oregon.

Wargo said the U.S. Forest Service manages the trail and has easements where it crosses private land. However, no one got an easement for the private land on the section of trail at the Stevens Pass Trailhead, she said.

“In most likelihood, it was just an oversight,” Wargo said. “Somebody thought there was an easement there, but the easement was not recorded.”

In 2015, the property owner was looking to sell and fence off the trail, so the association borrowed money to buy the land. It says the next step is to sell the land to the Forest Service at market value so it can repay the loan.
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Malcolm Young, the co-founder of rock band AC/DC, has died at the age of 64, according to a statement on the group’s website. 

Ailing for several years with dementia, Young created the Australian heavy metal band with his brother Angus Young in 1972.

He was the group’s guitar player until April 2014 when he took leave of the band. It was later announced he had been suffering with dementia, according to Rolling Stone magazine.

AC/DC was known for its bold guitar riffs and declarative, howling vocals, characterized by such songs as Back in Black and Highway to Hell.

“Today, it is with deep heartfelt sadness that AC/DC has to announce the passing of Malcolm Young,” a statement read on the band’s website.

“With enormous dedication and commitment, he was the driving force behind the band. As a guitarist, songwriter and visionary, he was a perfectionist and a unique man,” Angus Young said in a

statement.

 
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In the weeks since dozens of women have accused movie mogul Harvey Weinstein of rape or sexual, unleashing an avalanche of similar charges against other prominent men across American life, women and men of color have been largely absent from the national furor.

The stories of abuse have roiled the entertainment industry, politics, tech and more, raising the possibility that this could be a watershed moment to end tolerance of such behavior. But some observers fear minority women may miss the moment, as they often are more reticent to speak up about sexual harassment.

“The stakes are higher in a lot of instances for us than they are for a lot of other women,” said Tarana Burke, a black activist who founded the #MeToo movement on Twitter in 2006 to raise awareness around sexual violence. “That creates a dynamic where you have women of color who have to think a little bit differently about what it means for them to come forward in cases of sexual harassment.”

A few high-profile minority actresses have come forward. New York authorities are investigating claims from actress Paz de la Huerta that Weinstein raped her twice in 2010; he has denied charges of non-consensual sex with any woman.

When Oscar-winning actress Lupita Nyong’o wrote in a New York Times op-ed last month that she had an unsettling encounter with the producer in 2011 at his home, Weinstein quickly denied doing anything inappropriate with Nyong’o, after days of silence following similar accusations by famous white accusers.

Author and activist Feminista Jones said that Weinstein’s denial of Nyong’o’s allegations sent the message to black women that they can’t be harassed, they can’t be assaulted.”

For black women, that is a message that dates back to slavery, when black women’s bodies were not their own and racist stereotypes were used to justify abuse, said Rutgers University historian Deborah Gray White.

“Historically, African-American women have been perceived as promiscuous,” said White, author of the book, “Ar’n’t I a Woman?: Female Slaves in the Plantation South.”

“Black women’s bodies, from Day One, have been available to all men,” she said.

As a result, White said, black women have had a hard time proving sexual exploitation. In response, many chose to remain silent as a form of self-preservation.

“Somehow talking about it is admitting , ’I walk the land unprotected,’” White said. “They were damned if they did and damned if they didn’t.”

For Asian-American women, speaking up after sexual assault can be daunting for a variety of cultural reasons, said Anna Bang, education coordinator at KAN-WIN, a Chicago-based domestic violence and sexual assault services group that frequently helps Asian-American and immigrant women. Bang said she has noticed the absence of Asian-American women from the Weinstein conversation and, as a Korean immigrant, doubts that she would tell her family if she were ever assaulted.

“It’s such a shame and guilt,” she said. “You don’t want your parents to be worried about you … When we are growing up, your parents teach you, ‘Don’t share your family problems with people.’ We’re trying to break that silence by educating our community members.”

Many of the women who seek help from KAN-WIN do so a decade or more after the abuse took place, she said.

“In our culture, women … they teach you how to suck it up,” she said. “They teach you to swallow your anger, your fear. It’s tough.”

Women of Latin American descent also weigh economic and cultural issues when deciding whether to speak out about sexual abuse.

Women of Latin American descent have been stereotyped as being submissive and sexually available, according to Monica Russel y Rodriguez, a Northwestern University ethnographer whose research includes sexuality, race and class in Latino communities. She said that undocumented immigrants in the United States would be even less likely to report an assault or harassment, fearing anything from job loss to blackmail or deportation.

“Even for white women, there’s not going to be any guarantee of an equitable resolution, so it’s a lot to expect women in a more highly vulnerable situation to be willing to speak out at the same rate,” Russel y Rodriguez said. “There’s no reason to expect that Latinas aren’t being sexually harassed or raped at the same degree or more.”

While most of the recent spate of sexual abuse allegations have been against white men, men of color have not been immune to such charges. Before the Weinstein scandal upended Hollywood, Bill Cosby’s name became synonymous with sexual abuse, as more than 50 women came forward and said the pioneering black actor once known as “America’s Dad” forced sexual contact with them over decades. Last June, Cosby went to trial on charges that he drugged and molested a woman in 2004. The case ended in a mistrial and Cosby is expected to be retried next year.

Since the Weinstein scandal, a writer for The Root, a website geared toward the black audience, said both Jesse Jackson and John Singleton sexually harassed her. Jackson and Singleton declined comment when contacted by The Associated Press, as did the Root writer.

George Takei, best known for his role in the original “Star Trek,” was recently accused of groping a man decades earlier; he denied the allegations. Actor Terry Crews went public with a claim that a Hollywood agent groped him, and that agent was later fired.

And an actress, Demi Mann, filed a lawsuit Thursday in which she alleged agent Cameron Mitchell sexually assaulted her. Mitchell, who is black, was fired by Creative Arts Agency, LLC.; he called Mann’s claims false.

But compared to the dozens of well-known white men named and white women who have made allegations, people of color have not played a prominent role in this evolving scandal.

Nearly three decades ago, an African-American attorney started the conversation on the topic. Anita Hill detailed allegations of sexual harassment by her former boss, then-Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas, during the 1991 congressional hearings held ahead of his confirmation. Thomas, also African-American, framed the hearings as a “high-tech lynching” and went on to be confirmed to the high court.

Hill was treated as a pariah by some for coming forward, but she was hailed by others and has spent the decades since as an advocate for women’s equality.

Burke, whose online #MeToo campaign was resurrected by actress Alyssa Milano in the wake of the Weinstein charges, doesn’t want minority women to miss the moment. She is launching a series of webinars to help women understand sexual violence and is encouraging women of color around the world to speak out.

“At some point, we have to confront this as a community,” Burke said. “This is a great place for this to happen.”
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Naim Suleymanoglu, the Turkish weightlifter who won three Olympic gold medals and was known as “Pocket Hercules,” died Saturday. He was 50.

Suleymanoglu was considered one of the sport’s greatest athletes and earned his nickname for his strength and diminutive size. He died at an Istanbul hospital where he was receiving treatment for cirrhosis of the liver. He had been in intensive care since Sept. 28 and received a liver transplant in October, according to Turkey’s official Anadolu news agency.

The weightlifter – 1.47 meters (4-foot-10) tall – won three straight Olympic gold medals for Turkey between 1988 and 1996. The Bulgarian-born Suleymanoglu could lift three times his weight.

He came out of retirement to try for a fourth gold at the Sydney Olympics in 2000 but missed all three of his lifts.

“I know only gold,” Suleymanoglu had said as he returned to competition. “I do not know about silver or bronze.”

Suleymanoglu also won seven world and six European championships.

He was born to an ethnic Turkish family in Bulgaria, and defected to Turkey in 1986 while training in Australia.

Regarded as a national hero in his adopted country, Suleymanoglu captured the hearts of Turks after winning his first gold at Seoul, South Korea, in 1988. Whenever Suleymanoglu returned home from a tournament, he would be greeted by thousands of fans who would lift him up on their shoulders.

Suleymanoglu missed the 1984 Games at Los Angeles because of a Soviet-led boycott. Although only 17, he was the favorite to win the bantamweight gold.

He was an outspoken critic of the Bulgarian government’s treatment of the Turkish minority in his homeland, and was forced by the authorities to change his surname to the more Slavic-sounding Shalamanov.

When the Bulgarian weightlifting team went to a training camp at Melbourne, Australia, in 1986, he slipped away from the group while pretending to visit the restroom at a hotel.

Suleymanoglu hid in Australia for several days before he went to the Turkish consulate to seek asylum. Eventually the Bulgarians allowed him to switch nationalities and he kissed the airport tarmac on arrival in Turkey. In 1986 he changed his name to the more Turkic-sounding Suleymanoglu.

He went to the Seoul Olympics as a Turk and twice broke the world record in the snatch on the way to winning the gold medal.

He competed unsuccessfully for a seat in Turkish parliamentary elections in 1999 and 2007.
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It was a historic moment in the art auction world: Da Vinci’s “Salvador Mundi” or “Savior of the World” sold to the highest bidder at $450 million. VOA’s Evgeny Maslov was among the 1,000 collectors, consultants and journalists at Christie’s Auction House for the recent record sale.
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A larger than life entrance greets visitors at the new Museum of the Bible in Washington — dramatic 12-meter-tall doors containing text from Genesis 1, the biblical creation of the world.

The gateway allows entry to all things about the Bible, spanning several floors in the large building, which is located near the National Mall, Smithsonian museums and the U.S. Capitol. Not surprisingly there is a section filled with Bibles, many of them replicas of Bibles the museum was unable to obtain, and various versions from over the centuries that have been adopted by varying religious groups.

WATCH: New, Controversial Bible Museum Opens in Washington

Executive Director Tony Zeiss said the Bible is significant because “it helps people navigate through life,” and he would like people “to commit to being more engaged in this amazing book.”

The Bible is the world’s best-selling book, and the $500 million, privately funded museum has displays ranging from pro- and anti-slavery themes found in the holy book, to Hebrew texts, and even biblically themed contemporary women’s fashions.

What’s missing, some people say, is that there is not enough of the star of the New Testament, Jesus.

Zeiss said the museum is nonsectarian, and more than 100 scholars, who represent a variety of views, designed the exhibits, which also include $42 million in state-of-the-art interactive displays for education and entertainment — even in the elevators.

You can also stroll through a serene recreation of Nazareth, the town where Jesus grew up, amid hand-painted trees and the sound of chirping birds.

“It’s meant to create a setting where when you walk in, you feel like you’re in a different place that you would find 2,000 years ago,” said Seth Pollinger, the museum’s director of content.

​Family behind museum

The museum was founded by Steve Green, a member of the conservative evangelical family that owns Hobby Lobby, the world’s largest privately owned arts and crafts retailer. In 2014, Hobby Lobby won a Supreme Court case, concerning religious objections, to deny workers at family-owned corporations contraception coverage.

“It would be hard for us as a family to try to hide what we believe,” Green said. “We believe this book is what it claims to be, but our role here is to present the facts of the Bible more in a journalistic look.”

“As much as they want to stay neutral and objective on the Bible, it’s going to be very, very hard to present the Bible in that way,” said John Fea, a liberal evangelical who chairs the history department at Messiah College in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania. The Bible is “connected to a particular religious tradition and their way of interpreting it,” he added.

Jacques Berlinerbrau, who is Jewish and a professor at Georgetown University, agrees. 

“It is really problematic to ever say that one has a nonsectarian view of the Holy Scriptures,” he said.

Berlinerbrau also thinks the museum has an agenda. 

“The idea that the museum doesn’t have any intent to convert people to a particular reading of God, of Jesus Christ, of the Scripture is absurd,” he said.

And even though museum officials say the location had nothing to do with being near the seat of the U.S. government, Fea is not buying it.

“It’s hard to see this as anything than other an attempt to try to bring Christian values in the Bible’s teachings as understood by evangelical protestants, like the Greens, into the center of American political life and American cultural life,” Fea said.

​Texts and artifacts

The museum contains impressive rare biblical texts and ancient artifacts, some on loan from outside the U.S.; others from the Greens’ massive collection of antiquities. Some antiquities were smuggled out of Iraq, and purchased, inadvertently, by the family, they said. The Greens forfeited the items and paid a $3 million fine.

Green told VOA the museum is willing to return artifacts to their home countries “if there’s any artifact that we have that they would have a claim.”

When Green was asked if he would like to see people who come to the museum become more Christian, he smiled and said, “We want them to know the Bible better.”
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The world’s best-selling book is the Bible, but the holy manuscript has been interpreted in different ways by different religions. In Washington, a new, privately funded Museum of the Bible opens to the public this weekend. Located near the U.S. Capitol, the $500 million museum features ancient artifacts, interactive displays and Bibles over the centuries. But as we hear from VOA’s Deborah Block, the museum is also controversial.
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A U.S. senator from Minnesota is the latest in a string of well-known personalities from entertainment and politics to be accused of sexual harassment. Democrat Al Franken is under fire after a radio newscaster said he kissed and groped her without consent during a tour to entertain U.S. troops in the Middle East in 2006. Meanwhile, a Republican candidate for U.S. Senate from Alabama is battling charges of sexual abuse of underage girls. VOA’s Zlatica Hoke reports.
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The global hit “Despacito” was the big winner at Thursday’s Latin Grammy Awards, making good on all four of its nominations, including record and song of the year.

Singer-songwriter Luis Fonsi dedicated his awards to his native Puerto Rico, as did several other artists throughout the three-hour show, which opened with a moment of silence for the storm-ravaged island.

“I’m here because of Puerto Rico, and this song is a hymn to Puerto Rico,” Fonsi said backstage. “Everything I do, and everything I will do, now more than ever, is to continue celebrating my island, my culture, my homeland and my music, and to make sure the public knows that Puerto Rico needs help.”

President’s Merit Award

Lin-Manuel Miranda received the President’s Merit Award at the ceremony, held at the MGM Grand Garden Arena and broadcast live on Univision. After giving an acceptance speech in Spanish and English, Miranda dedicated the award again and again to Puerto Rico.

He thanked his wife, parents and many collaborators, and paid homage to his Puerto Rican roots. Miranda said he intended to remind the U.S. government that the residents of its island territory “are human beings, too.”

Rapper Residente, who topped all nominees with nine nods, opened the show with a tribute to his homeland, wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with the Puerto Rican flag as he performed his song “Hijos del Canaveral” (“Sons of Canaveral”). He also won two awards: urban album for his self-titled solo debut and urban song for “Somos Anormales” (“We Are Abnormal”).

Ruben Blades won the top prize, album of the year, for “Salsa Big Band.” Other winners included Shakira, who won for contemporary pop album, Juanes, who claimed the pop-rock album prize, and Vicente Garcia, who was named best new artist.

​Person of the year

Alejandro Sanz also received a special award. Juan Luis Guerra described him as “one of the most important composers in the Spanish-speaking world” as he presented Sanz with a golden gramophone statuette. As the Latin Recording Academy’s 2017 Person of the Year, Sanz was feted during a starry ceremony earlier this week. On Thursday, he dedicated his award to the “dreamers” affected by President Donald Trump’s suspension of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.

“These are our children,” Sanz said, “the children of our community.”

He followed by performing a medley of his hits, closing with a group of young people onstage wearing T-shirts that read, “We have one dream.”

Most of the awards were presented during a pre-telecast ceremony, while the live broadcast is dominated by performances. Performers included Natalia Lafourcade, Maluma, Juanes, J Balvin, Lila Downs, CNCO, Mon Laferte, Nicky Jam and Carlos Vives.
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The movies have tended to skip from slavery to the Civil Rights movement, but Dee Rees’ Mudbound plunges into the complex tragedies of the in-between era of Jim Crow.

The film, which Netflix hopes will be its first feature-film Oscar contender, follows two neighboring families — one black, one white — on a hardscrabble farm in 1940s Mississippi.

“I was interested with exploring the idea of who gets to be in possession of the land — how it’s sometimes impossible to go back home, how family can be the thing that drags you down,” Rees said. “It’s not just about race. It’s not just about oppression. It’s about how our histories are intertwined, how we’re connected to be the people who came before us.”

For Rees and many of those involved, making Mudbound was itself an experience interwoven with heritage. Rees, the Nashville-native filmmaker of 2011’s Pariah, drew heavily from the journals of her grandmother, whose Louisiana parents picked cotton. Her grandfathers — one who fought in World War II and one who fought in Korea — also informed the script, which Rees co-wrote with Virgil Williams.

“For me, it was a chance to delve into my own history,” Rees said. One young character was given Rees’ grandmother’s humble ambition: to be a stenographer.

After the debut of Mudbound at the Sundance Film Festival, Netflix plunked down $12.5 million for it; streaming begins Friday, as does a small theatrical release. Should it find Academy Awards attention, Mudbound could be not just Netflix’s first best picture nominee but potentially make Rees the first black woman nominated for best director.

Reverberations for today

In its biracial dichotomy, Mudbound — grippingly dense, expansively empathetic — stands apart from most previous period films. As a rich, earthy moral tale, it has clear reverberations for today’s racial injustices.

Based on the novel by Hillary Jordan, it details the McAllan family, who are white, and the Jackson family, who are black. Swindled out of his family’s savings, Henry McAllan (Jason Clarke) brings his wife (Carey Mulligan) and daughters to his family’s swampy Delta farm, where the Jacksons — a family of six led by Hap (Rob Morgan) and Florence (Mary J. Blige) — are their tenants.

“It’s a time period that’s rarely touched in cinema, that sharecropper’s time period,” Morgan said. “For black America, they either see you as a slave or in jail. You don’t get to see that Jim Crow period where the underbelly is still ugly but it’s hidden.”

It’s a thin veil, though. When World War II begins, both families send a young man to war: Henry’s brother, Jamie (Garrett Hedlund), and the oldest Jackson son, Ronsel (Jason Mitchell).

When they return, having been exposed to both the horrors of war and, for Ronsel, the comparative freedoms of Europe, they strike up a friendship that provokes the small town’s violently racist elements, including the Ku Klux Klan. The movie opens ominously with the digging of a muddy grave.

 

Having starred in numerous recent period films (Suffragette, Far From the Madding Crowd, The Great Gatsby), Mulligan initially hesitated to join the film. But she was quickly convinced by Rees’ devotion to depiction of the myriad relationships among the families as each character individually responds to the era’s rigid and prejudiced social hierarchy.

‘There’s no hero’

“There are flaws in each character. There’s no hero. There’s no clear villain because of the social construct at the time,” said Mulligan. “Everyone’s just struggling within the same environment, and all kind of facing away from each other — at least at the start of the story, they are.”

Mudbound, shot over 28 days in New Orleans in the summer of 2016, is a big step into epic storytelling for Rees. She made 2007’s Pariah, about a Brooklyn teenager’s fraught sexual discovery, with $450,000 and followed that up with the 2015 HBO Bessie Smith biopic Bessie. Rees, who’s currently prepping a Gloria Steinem film with Mulligan set to star, has made films that are deeply personal and convincingly intimate without being autobiographical.

“With Pariah, at the time, I had just come out. I had a coming out experience and I was writing about it, transposing my experience as an adult: What would it have been like if I had been a teenager in Brooklyn?” said Rees. “The funny thing was people thought I was from Brooklyn. I had to be like, ‘No, I’m from Nashville.’ ”

Mudbound also holds particular meaning for Morgan, who co-starred in Pariah. A native New Yorker, Morgan spent his childhood summers working in North Carolina tobacco fields. Hap, he said, is his tribute to his grandfather — a strong and selfless man devoted to his family.

“Hap was my chance to give a voice to the voiceless of countless black men in America who would do for their family whatever it takes, who would be humiliated with dignity for his family to survive,” said Morgan. “Hap is a man who understands he’s in Mississippi. There doesn’t have to be a reason he could be hung. So he has to be smart enough to play dumb enough to survive.”

As Mudbound moves along, Rees intercuts scenes at the farm with snapshots of war. All are fighting their own front, but with varied levels of freedom.

“Each one of these families is striving. Each one wants to have a larger lot in life. They both aren’t there. They’re both stumbling,” said Rees. “The only reason to do this was the chance to tell two stories and the chance to talk about two families.”
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London’s Old Vic Theatre said Thursday it has received 20 allegations of inappropriate behavior by its former artistic director Kevin Spacey, and acknowledged that a “cult of personality” around the Hollywood star had made it difficult for the alleged victims to come forward.

The London theater launched an investigation into Spacey last month after claims of sexual harassment emerged in the United States. Spacey, 58, led the Old Vic between 2004 and 2015.

The Old Vic said it had received 20 allegations of “a range of inappropriate behavior,” from actions that made people feel uncomfortable to “sexually inappropriate” touching.

All the alleged victims are young men, none under 18 years old. The reported incidents took place between 1995 and 2013, many of them at the Old Vic, and all but four of the alleged victims are former staff of the theater.

In all but one case the complainants say they did not report them at the time. One man says he reported an incident to his manager, who did not act on the information.

The Old Vic said it had encouraged 14 of the complainants to go to police, but could not confirm whether any had done so.

The theater said Spacey’s “star power” contributed to an atmosphere in which staff “did not feel confident that the Old Vic would take those allegations seriously, given who he was.”

“During his tenure, The Old Vic was in a unique position of having a Hollywood star at the helm around whom existed a cult of personality,” the theater said in a statement. “The investigation found that his stardom and status at The Old Vic may have prevented people, and in particular junior staff or young actors, from feeling that they could speak up or raise a hand for help.”

A two-time Academy Award winner, Spacey is one of the biggest names to lose work and standing in Hollywood since The New York Times and The New Yorker detailed sexual harassment and abuse allegations against film mogul Harvey Weinstein earlier this year. The reports sparked a wave of abuse and harassment allegations to surface across the industry.

Spacey has been fired from the Netflix TV series “House of Cards,” dropped by his talent agency and publicist and is being cut out of Ridley Scott’s finished film “All the Money in the World,” replaced by Christopher Plummer.

The Old Vic appointed law firm Lewis Silkin to investigate in October, as reports and rumors circulated about Spacey’s behavior while he was at the helm of the 200-year-old theater company.

Richard Miskella, a partner at Lewis Silkin who led the investigation, said the firm invited Spacey to participate in the investigation “and he didn’t respond.”

Miskella said he found no evidence that suspicion about Spacey’s behavior was common at the Old Vic. He said the company’s board of trustees was “completely shocked” by the allegations.

“There wasn’t widespread knowledge of this,” Miskella said. “Pockets of the business knew, and it didn’t get escalated.”

The Old Vic promised to improve, and said it would appoint “guardians” whom staff could contact with concerns.

Old Vic executive director Kate Varah said this was “a really dismaying time” for the theater and apologized to the victims.

“We have not slept since this came out,” she said.
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The United States admitted close to 100,000 refugees and asylees into the country in the last fiscal year. Compared with other immigrants, refugees and asylees often need more assistance making a fresh start in the country. In Brooklyn, New York, a local restaurant is lending a helping hand in a very practical and delicious way. VOA’s Ye Yuan has more.
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If he could travel back in time, Alejandro Sanz says he would stop and enjoy the moment when his career started taking off two decades ago.

 

“Maybe I would ask life for a little more consciousness during those years so I could have realized all the things that I was living without thinking about what was going to happen the next day, to live more in the moment,” Sanz said in a recent phone interview with The Associated Press.

 

“There is no way to stop time, but there’s a way for time to travel by your side and not always ahead of you.”

 

Sanz has a chance this week to savor a special moment: He’s being honored as Person of the Year at the Latin Grammys in Las Vegas. A concert was scheduled Wednesday night where David Bisbal, Camila Cabello, Luis Fonsi, Juan Luis Guerra, Jesse & Joy, Juanes, Mon Laferte and other Latin stars were to sing versions of his biggest hits.

On Thursday night at the 18th Latin Grammys, he was expected to go onstage to accept the honor. The show was to air on Univision (8 p.m.-11 p.m. Eastern).

 

Sanz, who is celebrating two decades since the “Mas” album launched him to international stardom, was named the Latin Recording Academy Person of the Year 2017 for his achievements in music and his philanthropic contributions to organizations such as Doctors Without Borders, Save the Children and Greenpeace.

 

“To me it is very nice to have this little milestone, because it recognizes the career but also the relevance and your commitment with society,” he said with evident excitement.

 

Sanz made his debut in 1991 with “Viviendo Deprisa.” He has sold more than 25 million records and has collaborated with stars such as Alicia Keys, Shakira, Destiny’s Child, Juanes, Marc Anthony and Tony Bennett. All 15 of his CDs have gone multiplatinum in Spain, Latin America or the United States. In December he’s releasing “+Es+,” a CD/DVD of the concert he gave last summer at the Vicente Calderon Stadium in Madrid for the 20th anniversary of “Mas.”

 

Sanz says he’s been receiving “a lot of love” since it was announced that he was selected Person of the Year.

 

Everybody insists that this is the most important Grammy … because it doesn’t go to one album or one song but to one artist, who is selected unanimously. So this is very beautiful, really,” he said.
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Pakistan unveiled the remains of a 1,700-year-old sleeping Buddha image on Wednesday, part of an initiative to encourage tourism and project religious harmony in a region roiled by Islamist militancy.

A reflection of the diverse history and culture of the South Asian country, the ancient Buddhist site in Bhamala province was first discovered in 1929. Eighty-eight years on, excavations resumed and the 14-metre-(48-foot)-high Kanjur stone Buddha image was unearthed, and opposition leader Imran Kahn presided over Wednesday’s presentation.

“This is from the 3rd century AD, making it the world’s oldest sleeping Buddha remains,” Abdul Samad, director of Bhamla’s archaeology and museums department, told Reuters.

“We have discovered over 500 Buddha objects and this 48-foot-long sleeping Buddha remains,” he added.

Khan said: “It’s a question of preserving these heritage sites which are an asset for our country.”

The region was once the center of Buddhist civilization that took root under the Mauryan king Ashoka 2,300 years ago.

The presentation of the Buddha image coincided with a lockdown of major highways around the nation’s capital to contain a rightist protest against a perceived slight to Islam by members of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N).

Minority communities in Pakistan are often targeted by right-wing groups and successive governments have in the past been reluctant to embrace the country’s non-Muslim heritage.

But recent attempts to improve Pakistan’s image have included overtures to minority communities by the PML-N.

In January, then-Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif inaugurated the restoration of Hindu temples at Katas Raj in Punjab province.

Considered a conservative figure, Khan has stressed dialogue with Islamist hardliners including the Taliban but on Wednesday said the preservation of sites like Bhamala could promote religious tourism.

“It’s a world heritage site (and) because of it people can come for religious tourism and see these places,” he said.

Khan dismissed the protesters in Islamabad, seeking to project a more tolerant image of Pakistan. “It’s a very small part of what is happening in Pakistan. The majority of the population wants to see such (Buddhist) sites restored.”

Khan’s opposition Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party is hoping to make big gains at the 2018 elections as the PML-N has been increasingly embroiled in corruption investigations.

Sharif resigned as prime minister in July after the Supreme Court disqualified him for not declaring a source of income and faces trial before an anti-corruption court.
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Egypt opened an exhibition on Wednesday to display previously unseen treasures from King Tutankhamun’s famed tomb.

At least 55 pieces of fabric decorated with gold that were found in the tomb of the pharaoh, better known as King Tut, will be exhibited in public for the first time since its discovery in 1922, said German conservator Christian Eckmann.

He said the pieces had been kept in storage at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo for some 95 years, without being restored or scientifically examined.

He said the artifacts attest to the network of social and cultural connections which have characterized the eastern Mediterranean going back to antiquity.

“Those pieces are connected to the chariots of Tutankhamun,” he said. “They were unfortunately in a very bad state of condition.”

Some depict traditional Egyptian motifs, while others feature designs that were widespread throughout the eastern Mediterranean in the second millennium B.C., he said.

Antiquities Minister Khaled el-Anani inaugurated the exhibition to mark the 115th anniversary of the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.

Howard Carter discovered Tutankhamun’s near-intact tomb in the Valley of the Kings. The king’s mummified body was in a golden coffin surrounded by precious goods.

Tutankhamun ruled Egypt more than 3,000 years ago. The discovery of the tomb made him Egypt’s most famous pharaoh, and inspired a wave of interest in the country’s ancient civilization.
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A painting thought by scholars to be one of only a few by Leonardo da Vinci to have survived the half-millennium since the artist’s death is set to be auctioned Wednesday in New York, where it is guaranteed to sell for at least $100 million.

 

Art lovers have lined up by the thousands at special presale exhibitions in Hong Kong, San Francisco, London and New York to see the only work by the Renaissance master in private hands.

 

The 500-year-old oil painting depicting Christ holding a crystal orb, called “Salvator Mundi” or “Savior of the World,” is one of fewer than 20 paintings by Leonardo da Vinci known to exist, according to Christie’s, the auction house conducting the sale.

 

“I can hardly convey how exciting it is for those of us directly involved in its sale,” said Christie’s specialist Alan Wintermute. “The word ‘masterpiece’ barely begins to convey the rarity, importance and sublime beauty of Leonardo’s painting.”

 

Wintermute called it “the Holy Grail of old master paintings.” A backer of the auction has guaranteed a bid of at least $100 million (85 million euros). Experts have said it might be worth more, except for its generally poor state of preservation and lingering questions about its authenticity.

 

The 26-inch (66-centimeter) painting dates from around 1500 and shows Christ dressed in Renaissance-style robes, his right hand raised in blessing as his left hand holds a crystal sphere.

 

The painting’s history is as mysterious as Jesus’ enigmatic gaze, which invites comparison to a better-known Leonardo work, the “Mona Lisa.”

 

“Salvator Mundi” was owned by King Charles I of England in the mid-1600s and was auctioned by the son of the Duke of Buckingham in 1763.

 

It then disappeared from view until 1900, when it resurfaced and was acquired by a British collector. At the time, it was thought to be a work of a Leonardo disciple, rather than the master himself.

 

The painting was sold again in 1958 and then acquired in 2005, badly damaged and partly painted-over, by a consortium of art dealers who paid less than $10,000.

 

They restored the painting extensively and documented its authenticity as a work by Leonardo. The work’s current owner is Russian billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev, who bought it in 2013 for $127.5 million in a private sale that became the subject of a continuing lawsuit.

 

Christie’s says a majority of scholars believe it is a work by Leonardo, though some have questioned that determination while others have said it was so extensively restored that it is probably more akin to a copy than an original.

 

In New York, where no museum owns a Leonardo, art lovers lined up outside Christie’s Rockefeller Center headquarters on Tuesday to view “Salvator Mundi.”

 

Inside, Christ’s face seemed to light up the darkened gallery.

 

Svetla Nikolova, who is from Bulgaria but lives in New York now, called the painting “spectacular.”

 

“It’s a once-in-a-lifetime experience,” she said. “It should be seen. It’s wonderful it’s in New York. I’m so lucky to be in New York at this time.”

 

Una Dora Copley, an artist herself, said “Salvator Mundi” was worth the hour-plus wait. “I won’t be thinking of the line,” Copley said. “I’ll just be thinking of the beautiful painting.”

 

The auction begins at 7 p.m. Wednesday.
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The Puerto Rican rapper, who leads nominations with nine nods for his first solo album post-Calle 13 — including album, record and song of the year — admits that he felt pressured to do “something huge and great” after spending a decade with the most decorated act in the history of the Latin Grammys.

 

“I was very precise with every sound, with every word, with the videos, with the page. I learned a lot with this (project) and now I just wanna do some music and be relaxed, and that’s what I’m making now,” Residente said in a recent interview in New York, where he lives.

 

“It means a lot,” he said of the nominations. “For any artist it’s difficult to go by himself after working with (a group like) Calle 13, … so in that sense it was great for me.”

 

“Residente,” which came out March 31, includes 13 songs that he wrote and recorded over two years traveling around to where his ancestors hailed according to a DNA test. He started in the Russian province of Siberia, and also visited China, the Caucasus and West Africa, among other regions. He also directed a self-titled documentary on the making of the album, as well as the music videos for “Somos Anormales,” “Guerra” and “Desencuentro,” the latter of which is also nominated.

 

“This project was something really personal,” said the artist, born Rene Perez. “I wanted to make something huge and great for me to feel good, you know. And now that I did it, I feel that I can do really whatever I feel. … I feel more free.”

 

As with the music he used to make with his brother Eduardo Cabra — Calle 13’s Visitante — the album “Residente” is so eclectic that it landed him nominations in genres that include urban, alternative and tropical music.

Asked if any of the nominated pieces had a special meaning to him, he mentioned “Hijos del Cañaveral,” a best tropical song contender he wrote for Puerto Rico. But he also confided that the most special song for him on the album is one that he wrote for his son Milo, a piece he decided not to submit.

 

“I didn’t want to nominate this song because is for my son; I don’t know, I didn’t wanna use it for that. But I think ‘Milo’ is one of the most special songs I have in the album,” he said. “Is a great song and the music is super nice. … I made it in Africa and you can feel that I’m feeling it also while I’m singing. I like that song.”

 

Residente is going to perform at the Latin Grammys in Las Vegas, but he didn’t want to reveal what he was doing.

 

“I just wanna do my best and I wanna enjoy it too. For me that’s the most important thing, to perform there and to bring something different to the table.”

 

The Latin Grammys air Thursday at 8 p.m. EST on Univision.
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A former Argentine lawyer for a government-run soccer television program ran in front of a Buenos Aires train and committed suicide late Tuesday, hours after being accused in a New York court of receiving bribes, police said.

Jorge Delhon, attorney for the Futbol Para Todos (Soccer for All) program, received bribes from the end of 2011 to 2014, according to testimony by the former head of sports marketing company Torneos y Competencias, Alejandro Burzaco, as recorded in a court transcript seen by Reuters.

The driver of the train told police a man later identified as Delhon, 50, ran along the tracks in Lanus, Buenos Aires, the local police department said in a statement that called the death a suicide. The driver honked and tried to brake but the man was run over, the statement said.

Reuters was unable to reach Delhon’s family for comment or to independently confirm the death was a suicide.

Javier Saldias, a fellow former lawyer for Futbol Para Todos who told Reuters he was a friend of Delhon, said Delhon was “a model father. He loved his family.”

Paid for TV rights

Burzaco testified during a U.S. corruption trial of three former soccer officials that major media companies had paid bribes to secure television rights for soccer matches. The testimony came during the first trial to emerge from the U.S. investigation of bribery surrounding FIFA, soccer’s world governing body.

In his testimony in a Brooklyn federal court, Burzaco described bribes paid to several international soccer officials, including Julio Humberto Grondona, a former Argentine Football Association president and FIFA executive, who died in 2014.

Soccer for All, a free-to-view program created by Argentina’s former President Cristina Fernandez, brought top-flight matches into the households of a soccer-obsessed country and was emblematic of her populist policymaking.

Center-right President Mauricio Macri, a former chairman of top club Boca Juniors who took office in December 2015, made a deal with the local soccer association to rescind the contract as he moved to cut government subsidies.

In March, divisions of U.S. media companies Twenty-First Century Fox and Time Warner won a joint contract to broadcast Argentine soccer matches for five years beginning next season.
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Blake Shelton was named Sexiest Man Alive by People magazine, a first for any country singer, prompting “The Voice” judge to shake off his shyness about his looks.

“I’ve been ugly my whole life,” Shelton, 41, said in a statement on Tuesday. “If I can be sexy for a year, I’m taking it!”

Oklahoma native Shelton spent a decade in country music before his popularity surged in 2011 as the wise-cracking judge and mentor to aspiring singers on NBC’s reality talent competition “The Voice.” His most recent album, “Texoma Shore,” was released earlier this month.

Shelton told People he could not wait to tease his fellow “Voice” judge and Maroon 5 frontman Adam Levine with his Sexiest Man title, which Levine won in 2013.

“I’m not going to treat this like Hugh Jackman or one of those guys who’s humble about it. People are going to hate me over this,” Shelton joked.

The singer told People that while he tries to stay in shape and eat healthy, he does have a weakness for snacks such as jalapeno poppers and pickles, especially when he is home in Oklahoma.

Shelton was formerly married to country singer Miranda Lambert and has been dating pop singer Gwen Stefani for the past two years. He told People that Stefani had encouraged him to accept the title of Sexiest Man Alive.

Previous title holders include Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Brad Pitt, George Clooney, Johnny Depp, Harrison Ford, Ryan Reynolds and David Beckham.
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