newsmakers

newsmakers

Fergie launches training to help abused women

WASHINGTON

Songstress Fergie says the number of women who are abused by their partners “is totally unacceptable” and should be protected by existing laws that are often not enforced.

The Black Eyed Peas singer was at the State Department on Thursday to announce a new Justice Institute on Gender-Based Violence initiative to launch training programs in India, Nepal, South Africa and Mexico.

The training will bring together law enforcement, service providers and advocacy groups to ensure that abused women can rely on laws that too often are not understood by local authorities or ignored.

Avon Products Inc. is funding the four training centers for $650,000. Fergie is a global ambassador for the Avon Foundation for Women.

One in three women worldwide will be abused by their partners during their lives.

Firing upheld in sharing of Rihanna pic

LOS ANGELES

A judge has upheld the firing of a former Los Angeles police officer who improperly took a photo of Rihanna’s battered face that eventually ended up on celebrity website TMZ.

Superior Court Judge Luis Lavin issued a ruling Thursday saying that the firing of former officer Rebecca Reyes was proper and her conduct should preclude her from being a peace officer.

Reyes acknowledged she used her personal cellphone to take a picture of an evidence photo that depicted Rihanna’s injuries after she was beaten by then-boyfriend Chris Brown in 2009. She also acknowledged sharing it with other officers, but denied leaking it to TMZ.

Johnson, Wolff to enter arts academy

NEW YORK

Fiction writers Denis Johnson, Ha Jin and Tobias Wolff are among this year’s inductees into the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

Others voted in include fiction writer-essayist Wendell Berry, composers David Lang and Alvin Singleton, photographer Robert Adams and artists Ann Hamilton and Bill Jensen.

Cookbook author and restaurateur Alice Waters will become an American honorary member, the academy said Thursday. Foreign honorary members include novelists Haruki Murakami, Colm Toibin and John Banville, architect Toyo Ito, expressionist painter Leon Kossoff and composer-pianist Magnus Lindberg.

The academy, founded in 1898, is an honor society with a core membership of 250 writers, musicians and artists.

Associated Press