newsmakers

newsmakers

Country singer Shaver acquitted in shooting

WACO, Texas

Texas country singer-songwriter Billy Joe Shaver has been acquitted of aggravated assault in the 2007 shooting of a man in a bar parking lot.

Jurors took two hours Friday to decide. Shaver had testified that he acted in self-defense when he shot Billy Coker outside Waco on March 31, 2007. But prosecutors said no other witnesses had described Coker as “violent or mean.”

Shaver lives in Waco. He rose to country music stardom in the 1970s. Shaver recorded more than 20 albums and wrote “Georgia on a Fast Train” and “I’m Just an Old Chunk of Coal [But I’m Gonna Be a Diamond Someday].”

He helped launch country’s outlaw movement, which defined the careers of singers Willie Nelson and the late Waylon Jennings.

Obama to appoint boxer Ali’s wife to commission

LOUISVILLE, Ky.

President Barack Obama has announced he will appoint the wife of boxer Muhammad Ali to a panel that will advise him on bioethical issues.

The White House said in a news release that Lonnie Ali will be one of 10 people Obama will appoint to the Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues.

The panel will advise the president on issues related to advances in biomedicine and similar areas of science and technology.

Lonnie Ali has been an advocate to raise awareness of Parkinson’s disease, which her husband battles.

Shakira visits Haitians living in tent camps

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti

Hip-shaking Colombian pop star Shakira is meeting with Haitian earthquake survivors living in makeshift camps and she says she is searching for suitable land to build a school for needy children.

Arriving Sunday, the singer waved to onlookers and greeted infants living on a Haitian golf course that has turned into a sprawling makeshift camp for 50,000 quake survivors.

Her Barefoot foundation provides nutrition to more than 6,000 children in Colombia, and she is member of the ALAS foundation that advocates for children across Latin America.

Shakira was greeted by actor Sean Penn, who is providing humanitarian aid at Haitian refugee camps. The two stars spoke about challenges confronting Haiti since the Jan. 12 disaster.