"Selma" actors lead re-enactment of 1965 march of eve of MLK holiday

Jan. 18, 2015: Oprah Winfrey locks arms with David Oyelowo, left, who portrays Martin Luther King Jr. in the movie “Selma,” Ava DuVernay, the director of “Selma” and rapper Common, far left, as they march to the Edmund Pettus Bridge in honor of Martin Luther King Jr., in Selma, Ala. (AP)

Jan. 18, 2015: Marchers hold up a their cellular phones to record the rapper Common and singer song writer John Legend at the foot of the Edmund Pettus Bridge in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. in Selma, Ala. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)

SELMA, Ala. –  Oprah Winfrey and fellow actors from the movie “Selma” marched with hundreds in a tribute to Martin Luther King Jr., one of many events around the nation ushering in Monday’s federal holiday for the slain civil rights leader.

Remembrances of the King legacy come amid somber reflection by many on incidents in which unarmed black men were killed by police in recent months, spurring protests and heightening tensions in the U.S. In Ferguson, Mo., where one fatal shooting caused weeks of violent protests, leaders urged reforms to the criminal justice system in the name of equality.

“We need to be outraged when local law enforcement and the justice system repeatedly allow young, unarmed black men to encounter police and then wind up dead with no consequences,” said U.S. Rep. William Clay, a St. Louis Democrat. “Not just in Ferguson, but over and over again across this country.”

The King holiday, meanwhile, was being met with activities nationwide, including plans for a wreath-laying in Maryland, a tribute breakfast in Boston and volunteer service activities by churches and community groups in Illinois. In South Carolina, civil rights leaders readied for their biggest rally of the year.

Winfrey helped lead a march by hundreds on Sunday with “Selma” director Ava DuVernay and actor David Oyelowo, who played King in the movie.

“Selma” chronicled turbulent events leading up to the historic march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, and the subsequent passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. Winfrey played activist Annie Lee Cooper in the movie, which was nominated for two Oscars, in categories of best picture and best original song.

A producer on the film, Winfrey praised the 1965 marchers for their courage in meeting fierce opposition on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma — scene of Sunday’s remembrance march.

“Look at what they were able to do with so little, and look at how we now have so much,” Winfrey said. “If they could do that, imagine what now can be accomplished with the opportunity through social media and connection, the opportunity through understanding that absolutely we are more alike than we are different.”

White officers used clubs and tear gas on March 7, 1965 — “Bloody Sunday” — to rout marchers intent on walking some 50 miles to Montgomery, the Alabama capital, to seek the right for blacks to register to vote. King led a new march later that month that reached Montgomery, with the crowd swelling to 25,000.

Elsewhere, King’s legacy was being celebrated with days of events in Atlanta, especially at the church he once pastored. The current pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church, the Rev. Raphael Warnock, said the annual King holiday is a time when “all of God’s children are busy spreading the message of freedom and justice.”

On Monday, Oyelowo planned to deliver a holiday tribute to King at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, where church members over the weekend sang the civil rights anthem, “We Shall Overcome.”

Calls for unity were heard during the events surrounding the King holiday.

During Sunday’s march in Selma, Common and John Legend performed their Oscar-nominated song “Glory” from the film as marchers crested the top of the bridge as the sun set. Common had a part in the movie and said that song sought to show the link between the struggle of the past and today’s injustices.

“We are the ones that can change the world,” Common said afterward. “It is up to us, and it takes all us — black, white, Latino, Asian, native-American, whatever nationality or religious background. There is a certain togetherness that we’ve got to have.”

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"Selma" actors lead re-enactment of 1965 march of eve of MLK holiday

Hundreds march in London against Iraq air strikes

Saturday, October 04, 2014 | 10:28 AM    

LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP) – Several hundred people marched in central London on Saturday to protest Britain’s involvement in US-led air strikes against Islamic State (IS) group targets in Iraq.

Demonstrators chanted slogans including “Hands off the Middle East, no justice, no peace” and held up placards with slogans such as “Stop bombing Iraq”.

The protest was due to end outside Prime Minister David Cameron’s Downing Street office, with addresses by speakers including British comedian Russell Brand.

The march came the day after a video was released showing the execution-style murder of British aid worker Alan Henning, who had been kidnapped by the Islamic State group. The London protest had been organised prior to the news.

Parliament voted last week for British forces to join US-led raids on targets in Iraq but not Syria. Britain now has eight Tornado jets flying out of Cyprus in combat operations in Iraq.

One demonstrator, Francis O’Neill, 36, said he had “every sympathy” with Henning’s family but that he thought air strikes were not the solution.

“Whether you see someone being beheaded or being hit by a drone strike… it makes no difference,” he added.

Another, 55-year-old Carl Backland, said of the operations: “It’s just making the situation worse. It’s crazy that we’re spending billions to destroy weapons that we gave to the Iraqi army.”

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Hundreds march in London against Iraq air strikes

Thousands of Barbadians march in protest against solid waste tax

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, Thursday July 24, 2014, CMC - Thousands of Barbadians took to the streets on Thursday to protest against the imposition of the Municipal Solid Waste Tax.

The midday march, led by Mia Mottley – leader of the opposition Barbados Labour Party (BLP) ended outside the office of Prime Minister, Freundel Stuart, where she delivered a letter of protest on behalf of people across the island.

“Today is about sending a message to the government about this bad Solid Waste Tax that they need to repeal and rethink,” Mottley said before proceeding to Prime Minister Stuart’s office.

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“The people of Barbados have spoken across the length and breadth, that we’ve had 27 other taxes and fees imposed on us in the last six years. We can take no more.”

“This march is for the repeal of the Solid Waste Tax. This march is for a new government mechanism that allows us…as Bajans not to be surprised by a tax , not to be unfaired [sic] by a tax.

“But we say we know we are in trouble as a nation. Talk to your people Freundel, and let us work with you.

“And if you cannot talk to your people and let us work with you, do the decent thing and step one side.”

This new tax was announced last year with a sweeping .03 per cent charge on the site value of real estate property across the island, but there have been widespread complaints about the financial burden it places on residents.

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Thousands of Barbadians march in protest against solid waste tax

Lasco expects Pfizer face-off in high court by March

LASCO Distributors Limited (LDL) revealed that by next March it will battle pharmaceutical giant Pfizer in the UKbased Privy Council, in order to secure the $400 million in damages awarded to the company in the lower courts.

The amount represents the distribution company’s expected compensation for lost earnings over some seven years in which the sale of blood pressure drug Las Amlodipine was halted by a 2005 injunction issued to Pfizer, which had claimed that Lasco and Medimpex Jamaica used its patent-protected drug, Salts of Amlodipine, in their product.The Supreme Court ruled in favour of Lasco and Medimpex in 2009, and the Court of Appeal dismissed Pfizer’s objections in June last year.Pfizer is appealing the decision at the island’s highest court — the Privy Council.“It is anticipated that the matter should come before the Privy Council either by the end of this year or during the first quarter of next year,” indicated LDL in notes accompanying its annual report released this week to the Jamaica Stock Exchange (JSE).LDL reported year-end net profit of $506.8 million on $8.2 billion in revenues. The award, if maintained, would increase Lasco’s equity base by some 20 per cent from the $1.8 billion reported at its March 2013 year-end.“The attorneys are of the opinion that the company should be successful on this appeal and anticipate that the amount to be recovered by the company may be approximately $400 million,” stated LDL’s 2012 annual report.Jamaica Money Market Brokers, in a July 2013 market research, indicated that the payout could grow to $1billion from Pfizer: “The company stands to improve its results through the distribution of new products (baby formulas, pharmaceutical pills, juices, water, etc) into new markets and Jamaica. The company also stands to benefit from a lawsuit settlement of $1 billion from Pfizer. Following the ruling in the court of appeal, if successful, the company will pay a special dividend to shareholders and use the remainder to improve the overall operations of the company.”A loss at the Privy Council would cost Lasco $25 million plus damages arising from profiting of the sale, stated the LDL annual report.According to records submitted in court, total sales of Medimpex’s product, Normodipine, amounted to approximately $45.2 million between 2001 and 2005, while Lasco’s drug, Las Amlodipine, brought in $24.3 million in revenue between May 2002 and December 2005.Pfizer reportedly sold US$1.2 million of its own product, Norvasc, in Jamaica in 2001, but its revenue fell to US$481,000 in 2002 when the two local companies introduced their hypertension and heart treatment drugs. The exterior of Pfizer in Groton, Connecticut. (PHOTO: AP)

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Lasco expects Pfizer face-off in high court by March