Skip to main content

Jackson given posthumous award for charity

Saturday, July 25, 2009 VIENNA: Michael Jackson would have made more important achievements as a musician and philanthropist had his life not been cut short, his brother Jermaine said Friday, who was in Vienna to receive a posthumous award on behalf of the US pop star. At the Save the World Awards, which are given out for the first time this year, Michael Jackson was selected because of his charity work, the organizers said. Jermaine and his musical siblings were raised in the spirit of helping others, he said at a press conference: "Our message was to try to heal the world, to change the world."Michael Jackson's three children would now also brought up with a humanitarian philosophy in mind, and would not be pushed towards any specific career, Michael's older brother indicated. "We feel that it is more important for them to be raised in the right way" so that they would become "great human beings," he said. Their grandmother Katherine has temporary custody over Michael, 12, Paris, 11, and Prince Michael, born in 2002. The awards to be presented at Zwentendorf near Vienna are an offshoot of the World Awards initiated by public relations professional Georg Kindel, and financed by an Austria-based consumer fund, Superfund. Jermaine Jackson said he had a list of all the donations his brother made over the course of his career, but did not provide any details. He said Michael had donated proceeds from his tours. Other honourees include SOS Children's Villages for orphaned and disadvantaged children, the environmental group Greenpeace, and US athletics legend Carl Lewis, who has founded a charity for children. US actress and model Andie MacDowell was hired as the host of the evening. Michael Jackson died of cardiac arrest on June 25. Jermaine did not answer a question about current investigations of manslaughter against his brother's personal doctor.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

US troops in Iraq head to Afghanistan

BAGHDAD: Nearly 500 U.S. Army combat engineers who specialize in clearing roads of explosives started shifting to southern Afghanistan."We are probably going to be the beginning of the influx you are going to see to Afghanistan," Lt. Col. Kevin Landers, commander of the Fort Carson, Colo.-based 4th Engineer Battalion, said as crews packed crates and cleaned vehicles for the flight to Kandahar.Obama has ordered 17,000 more U.S. soldiers and Marines to Afghanistan to bolster the 38,000 American troops already battling the resurgent Taliban."We are going to take this footprint out of Iraq," said Landers, whose battalion received word of its reassignment last month just after taking command of clearing roads in Baghdad of bombs and debris.

Cuba's world-famous cigar festival closes in Havana

Sunday, February 28, 2010 HAVANA: Hundreds of wealthy merchants and cigar aficionados from all parts of the world gathered in Havana this week to bid high stakes for humidors full of premium cigars. Cuba's annual Habanos festival ended on Friday night with an auction of ornate humidors of cedar and mahogany stacked with hand-rolled stogies that raised 800,000 euros ($1.09 million dollars). Habanos S.A. executives this month said cigar sales fell 8 percent to $360 million in 2009, so they have created the Julieta, a smaller, milder version of the Romeo y Julieta cigar, aimed specifically at female smokers. Women now make up only 5 to 10 percent of customers for Habanos. But even with the creation of the Julieta, Garcia said Habanos has only modest hopes for 2010 sales, due largely to a weak economy in Spain, the biggest market for Cuban cigars. The flavor of premium tobacco relies on the soil and climate in which it is grown. The western province of Pinar Del Rio, famous fo...

Berlin Celebrates the Day the Wall Fell

Tuesday, November 10, 2009 BERLIN: World leaders and partying Germans are descending on Berlin Nov. 9 to mark the 20th anniversary of the day the Berlin Wall was breachedIt is a day for celebrations and commemorations, for festivities and sober reflection. Berlin is marking 20 years since the fall of the Wall on Monday with a series of events, big and small. Leaders from around the world are descending on the German capital to help celebrate the momentous events of Nov. 9, 1989, a date that has come to symbolize the end of communism in Eastern Europe. The main focus of events will be the historic Brandenburg Gate, where 20 years ago, joyful East and West Berliners gathered together to dance on top of the wall and celebrate the sudden opening up of the Iron Curtain. The iconic gateway had once stood in the midst of no man's land, surrounded by barbed wire and machine guns. Now 20 years on, a concert and fireworks display will recall those heady moments. A line of 1,000 foam dominoe...