In Brief

Bishop denounces U.S. abortion rights

BALTIMORE: The head of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, opening a national church meeting yesterday, said that continued support for abortion rights will undermine any advances in social justice that come from a new president and Congress. Chicago Cardinal Francis George said that "we must all rejoice" that an African-American will be in the White House for the first time in a country that "once enshrined slavery" in law. But he said the nation still violates what he called universal human rights by keeping abortion legal. In a later news conference, George said bishops are preparing to lobby the next administration on any policies that diverge from Catholic teaching on marriage, abortion and other issues. President-elect Barack Obama, who supports abortion rights, received about 55 percent of the Catholic vote, according to exit polls.

African singer Miriam Makeba dies in Italy

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa: Miriam Makeba, the South African singer who wooed the world with her sultry voice but was banned from her own country for 30 years under apartheid, died yesterday of a heart attack. Makeba, 76, collapsed late Sunday at the end of a benefit concert in Italy against organized crime. Makeba had performed with musical legends from around the world and had sung for world leaders such as President John F. Kennedy and Nelson Mandela. She was the first African woman to win a Grammy award. The South African government banned her records after she appeared before the U.N. Special Committee on Apartheid in 1963 to call for an international boycott of South Africa. She married black power activist Stokely Carmichael and moved to Guinea in the late 1960s. After three decades abroad, Makeba was invited back to South Africa by Mandela, shortly after his release from prison in 1990.