Hip hop star will.i.am, whose Internet videos for US presidential hopeful Barack Obama have attracted millions of hits, is one of the big winners in this year’s Webby Awards, organizers said on Tuesday.
Will.i.am, frontman of the Black Eyed Peas, joined satirical comedian Stephen Colbert and French director Michel Gondry among the top winners being recognized for online excellence with the so-called “Oscars of the Internet.”
The Webbys, now in their 12th year, are considered the leading international awards for Web sites, interactive advertising and online video.
Colbert, host of the cable comedy/talk show The Colbert Report, picked up the Webby Person of the Year award for “the innovative way he has used the Internet … to make him the top search result for ‘greatest living American,’” the organizers said.
The comedian’s presidential campaign on the social networking Web site Facebook attracted more than 78 members per minute in its first week, they said.
Gondry, meanwhile, was recognized for his film Be Kind Rewind, which the organizers said inspired filmmakers to follow his lead in recreating scenes from their favorite films and sharing them online.
The judges singled out will.i.am out for Artist of the Year in recognition of his “Yes We Can” video in support of Democratic hopeful Obama, viewed more than 17 million times since it came out in February.
The New York Times Web site picked up eight awards for its online and mobile news services as well as its online film service, while The Onion picked up seven for its online film and podcasts.
In the sweltering streets of Jakarta, buskers carry towering, hollow puppets and pass around a bucket for donations. Now, they fear becoming outlaws. City authorities said they would crack down on use of the sacred ondel-ondel puppets, which can stand as tall as a truck, and they are drafting legislation to remove what they view as a street nuisance. Performances featuring the puppets — originally used by Jakarta’s Betawi people to ward off evil spirits — would be allowed only at set events. The ban could leave many ondel-ondel buskers in Jakarta jobless. “I am confused and anxious. I fear getting raided or even
Eleven people, including a former minister, were arrested in Serbia on Friday over a train station disaster in which 16 people died. The concrete canopy of the newly renovated station in the northern city of Novi Sad collapsed on Nov. 1, 2024 in a disaster widely blamed on corruption and poor oversight. It sparked a wave of student-led protests and led to the resignation of then-Serbian prime minister Milos Vucevic and the fall of his government. The public prosecutor’s office in Novi Sad opened an investigation into the accident and deaths. In February, the public prosecutor’s office for organized crime opened another probe into
RISING RACISM: A Japanese group called on China to assure safety in the country, while the Chinese embassy in Tokyo urged action against a ‘surge in xenophobia’ A Japanese woman living in China was attacked and injured by a man in a subway station in Suzhou, China, Japanese media said, hours after two Chinese men were seriously injured in violence in Tokyo. The attacks on Thursday raised concern about xenophobic sentiment in China and Japan that have been blamed for assaults in both countries. It was the third attack involving Japanese living in China since last year. In the two previous cases in China, Chinese authorities have insisted they were isolated incidents. Japanese broadcaster NHK did not identify the woman injured in Suzhou by name, but, citing the Japanese
RESTRUCTURE: Myanmar’s military has ended emergency rule and announced plans for elections in December, but critics said the move aims to entrench junta control Myanmar’s military government announced on Thursday that it was ending the state of emergency declared after it seized power in 2021 and would restructure administrative bodies to prepare for the new election at the end of the year. However, the polls planned for an unspecified date in December face serious obstacles, including a civil war raging over most of the country and pledges by opponents of the military rule to derail the election because they believe it can be neither free nor fair. Under the restructuring, Myanmar’s junta chief Min Aung Hlaing is giving up two posts, but would stay at the
RSS