8 theSun | MONDAY OCTOBER 12 2009

news without borders

Boyzone singer Nobel committee head defends award of peace prize

Gately dies
in Spain at 33
MADRID: Boyzone singer Stephen Gately
(pix), 33, died on Saturday while on holiday
in Majorca off the coast of Spain, the Irish
band with a string of hits in the 1990s said
on its website.
“Stephen tragically died whilst on holiday
OSLO: The head of the Nobel Peace Prize
committee on Saturday defended its con-
troversial decision to give the award to US
President Barack Obama, saying his work
so far justified the honour. “He could have
also had it too late,” Thorbjoern Jagland told
reporters.
“Can someone tell me who did more than
him this year? It is difficult to name a winner
of the peace prize who is more in line with
Alfred Nobel’s will.”
Jagland, a former Norwegian prime min-
ister, said “we are capturing the spirit of the
times, the needs of the era.”
He and the committee’s four other
members caused shockwaves on Friday by
announcing that Obama had won the Nobel,
praising his “extraordinary efforts to strength-
en international diplomacy and cooperation
between peoples.”
The committee attached “special impor-
tance to Obama’s vision and work for a world
without nuclear weapons.”
The award for the first black US president
sparked both praise and criticism, with many
saying he has not yet done enough to deserve
it. – AFP

Obama vows to end

with his partner Andrew in Majorca,” the
site said yesterday.
The Boyzone mem-
bers, including lead
singer Ronan Keating,
were heading to Ma-
jorca following news of

restrictions on gays in forces

the death.
The circumstances
surrounding the death
remained unclear but
(Britain’s) News of the
World reported he died after a night out.
“We’re all absolutely devastated,” Boyzone
manager Louis Walsh told the tabloid.
“I’m in complete shock. I was only with
him on Monday at an awards ceremony. We
don’t know much about what’s happened
yet ... He was a great man.”
Speaking to the newspaper late Saturday,
band member Shane Lynch said: “Me and
the boys are flying out in the morning. We
just need to get over to where he’s passed
and work out what we need to do.”
Gately, who married his partner Andrew
Cowles in a civil union in 2006, sent ripples
through the pop music world 10 years ago
when he announced that he was gay.
He joined Boyzone in 1993 after an-
swering an advert in Dublin to audition for
Ireland’s first boyband.
The band went on to enjoy huge success
with six number one singles in Britain, but
split up in 2000. They reunited seven years
later, but their recent 19-date Better tour
failed to fill stadiums. – AFP
Making
Sens: WASHINGTON: President
Rubber Barack Obama, speaking on the
regains its eve of a major gay-rights march,
told gay supporters on Saturday
bounce he would fight for their causes
pg 11 and renewed a pledge to end
restrictions on their service in
the US military. To a standing
ovation at a dinner held by the
Human Rights Campaign, a gay
advocacy group, Obama said
he would “end ‘don’t ask, don’t
tell,’ That’s my commitment to
you.”
Obama, who was referring
to the policy prohibiting openly
gay people from serving in the
US military, was seeking to
shore up his support among
gays and lesbians who backed
him strongly during last year’s
presidential campaign.
Many gay activists are frus-
trated he has not moved more
quickly to carry out promises,
such as overturning the “don’t
ask, don’t tell” policy and re-
pealing the Defence of Marriage
Act, which bars the federal
government from forcing states
to recognise gay marriage.
Activists plan to march in
Washington to urge action on
those issues. At the dinner,
Obama acknowledged that
work on those issues was “tak-
ing longer than you’d like” as
the push to overhaul healthcare
and dealing with the economic
crisis dominate his domestic
agenda.
But he promised “unwaver-
ing” support for broadening the
rights of gays and lesbians and
said he would not allow the is-
sue to be sidetracked.
“Do not doubt the direction
we are heading and the destina-
tion we will reach,” said Obama,
who made history as the first
African American president
and compared the push for gay
rights to the struggles in the
1960s to end discrimination
against blacks.
“My expectation is that
when you look back on these
years, you will see a time when
we put a stop to discrimina-
tion against gays and lesbians,
whether in the office or on the
battlefield.”
Obama touted his decision
to extend some benefits to part-
ners of gay federal employees
and said he hopes to soon sign
a bill that would broaden the
definition of hate crimes to in-
clude attacks on people because
of their sexual orientation.
The House of Representa-
tives passed the bill last week
and the Senate is expected to act
soon. Obama last week nomi-
nated an openly gay lawyer,
David Huebner, to serve as his
ambassador to New Zealand and
Samoa. Lane Hudson, a blogger
and activist who attended the
Human Rights Campaign event,
said while Obama’s speech
was well-received, it probably
would not erase doubts about
his commitment to fulfilling his
campaign promises.
“It was the kind of feel-good
speech we are used to from the
president,” Hudson said. “It
lacked any specific details on
fulfilling his promises and he
failed to say anything new at
all.” – Reuters