Lady Gaga, Bono to play Clinton Foundation concert (Reuters)

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Lady Gaga, Bono and Usher will pay tribute to the work of the Bill Clinton Foundation in a one-night concert at the Hollywood Bowl in October, the organization and Yahoo said on Tuesday.

Other "socially responsible artists" in music, film and television also will take part in the event, which is aimed at celebrating 10 years of the former U.S. president's foundation and raising awareness of its work on issues such as AIDS and the environment.

The October 15 "A Decade of Difference" concert will be broadcast live exclusively on Yahoo with all proceeds going to the Clinton Foundation, organizers said.

"I am proud that some of today's most influential performers are coming together to raise awareness about the work of my foundation," Clinton said in a statement.

He said the commitments to the Clinton Global Initiative over the past 10 years had helped to improve the lives of 300 million people around the world.

Additional performers are yet to be announced. Tickets for the concert go on general sale on September 19.

(Reporting by Jill Serjeant; Editing by Bob Tourtellotte)

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$5,000 guitar stolen in Memphis from Clinton band (AP)

MEMPHIS, Tenn. – A guitar valued at $5,000 has been stolen from the tour bus of George Clinton and his P-Funk band.

Shelby County Sheriff spokesman Chip Washington said Monday that the guitar was taken Saturday while the group was in town performing at Shelby Farms.

He said the instrument, brand name XOX Audio Tools, was designed for a member of Clinton's band.

Washington said the theft is under investigation, and it's not clear if the bus was broken into.

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Bill Clinton, Stiller to co-chair Haiti benefit (AP)

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One dies, 3 wounded in shooting near George Clinton concert (Reuters)

CLEVELAND, Ohio (Reuters) – A fistfight that began near a family unity festival headlined by funk musician George Clinton ended in gunfire, killing one and injuring three, Cleveland police said on Sunday.

During the fight in a parking lot near the concert venue on Saturday, one teenager produced a handgun and shot four people. One victim, a 16-year-old male, died from a wound to the head Sunday morning, Cleveland police spokesman Sammy Morris said.

A 20-year-old female wounded in the neck was reported as stable on Sunday, while two males who received gunshot wounds in the leg are expected to be released shortly from hospital, Morris said.

The names of the victims have not yet been released, he said.

The shooting occurred about three quarters of a mile from the Luke Easter Park locale where the annual "Family Unity In the Park" festival headlined by George Clinton & the Parliament Funkadelic was held. Authorities believe the incident is unrelated to the event.

"George Clinton and the other bands are basically from back in the 80s, that's when they were at the height of their popularity," said Morris, saying that over 75 percent of the crowd was likely over 40. "It's not like it was a Little Wayne concert or something when you have a bunch of 16-, 17-, 18-year-olds."

Initial reports on the incident put the time of the shooting at 9:55 p.m., according to an official of the Cleveland investigative unit for homicide, which is handling the investigation.

George Clinton and his band were due to take the stage at the free family event just after 8 p.m., according to an announcement for the concert.

Luke Easter in eastern Cleveland is the largest urban park in the state of Ohio, according to the Family Unity in the Park website. The park has also hosted political leaders such as Jesse Jackson and John Kerry.

"Bring your family, your blankets, your lawn chairs, your picnic baskets, and your grills for this family celebration. There will be a kiddie park for kids, health screenings, voter registration, information booths and more," the promotional website for Saturday's event stated.

No one has been arrested and investigators are asking for anyone with information about the incident or suspect to contact Cleveland Police.

"It's still ongoing, still an open investigation," Morris said. "It started with a fistfight, that's the one consistency; a fistfight that ended with the discharge of a weapon."

(Writing by Molly O'Toole; Editing by Jerry Norton)

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4 shot after George Clinton show in Ohio; 1 dies (AP)

CLEVELAND – A man fired several shots from a handgun during a large fight near an outdoor concert venue featuring funk music artist George Clinton, killing one person and wounding three others, police said Sunday.

The fight erupted before 10 p.m. Saturday at an intersection near Luke East Park, the venue for the eighth annual Unity in the Park festival. Police didn't have a description of the shooter, and no arrests had been made by midmorning Sunday, Sgt. Sammy Morris told The Associated Press.

It wasn't immediately clear how long after Clinton or the other musicians performed that the shooting erupted or what prompted it. Police didn't know if those involved in the fight were among concertgoers leaving the area.

"These were younger people, so we're not sure," Morris said. "George Clinton is an older (artist). We're not going to speculate."

A 16-year-old boy with a gunshot wound to the head died of his injuries early Sunday, Morris said. He didn't know the conditions of the other three who were wounded: a 20-year-old woman shot in the neck, and a 14-year-old boy and a 23-year-old man each hospitalized with leg wounds.

The Cleveland Plain Dealer reported earlier that the two most seriously wounded were in critical condition, and the other two were stable.

The newspaper said thousands of people had gathered for the festival, which featured George Clinton & Parliament Funkadelic as the headline act.

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Janet Jackson, Bill Clinton at Austrian AIDS bash (AP)

VIENNA – Janet Jackson, former U.S. President Bill Clinton and Brooke Shields joined thousands of revelers in risque attire Saturday at the Life Ball, a flamboyant Austrian fundraiser for people with HIV and AIDS.

The trio was among a slew of celebrities who participated in a flashy opening ceremony outside Vienna's city hall that included a fashion show and live acts by Natasha Bedingfield, Holly Johnson and Natalia Kills.

Clinton reminded partygoers — many covering private body parts with nothing more than paint, feathers or G-strings — that a large number of those infected with the virus still aren't getting access to lifesaving treatment.

"We are here tonight because 10 million people in poor countries still need to be on the medicine and if you want to cut the infection rate, if you want to cut the death rate, we have to finish the job," he said.

In 2002, Clinton established an initiative to facilitate access to antiretroviral treatment and improve national health care systems in developing countries.

Jackson recalled how in 1998, a South African AIDS activist was beaten to death by her neighbors after announcing on television that she was HIV positive.

Earlier, she told reporters that every little bit helps when it comes to fighting AIDS.

"We can't continue to let this happen," said Jackson, who is a representative of amfAR, the Foundation for AIDS Research.

Brooke Shields, meanwhile, presented a euro100,000 Crystal of Hope award to Anya Sarang, CEO of the Andrey Rylkov Foundation for Health and Social Justice that runs projects in Russia, where those who are HIV positive are often stigmatized.

"She is definitely an angel," Shields said of Sarang.

In a video address, former United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan called for continued action to ensure progress.

"We need to constantly renew our commitment and measure our success not in terms of resolutions past but in the lives of future generations saved," he said. "We all have a role to play."

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Online:

Life Ball: http://www.lifeball.org/

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Clinton, Jackson bring star power to Vienna Life Ball (AFP)

VIENNA (AFP) – Vienna is gearing up to welcome tens of thousands of revellers to its world famous Life Ball this weekend, one of the world's biggest AIDS charity events, with Janet Jackson and Bill Clinton in the star line-up.

While last year's mega-party in front of the Austrian capital's neo-Gothic City Hall was drenched by an unexpected cloudburst, the weather this weekend looks set to smile on the thousands lucky enough to have a ticket to the most colourful event in Vienna's social calendar.

The glittering Opera Ball may be the most exclusive and elegant of the hundreds of balls held every year in Vienna, but the Life Ball is by far the most extravagant, with guests dressing up in the campest and most outrageous of costumes.

This year's party will the 19th edition of the Life Ball and will also mark 30 years since the discovery of the AIDS virus, HIV.

Alongside former US president Clinton, long a regular guest, will be UNAIDS chief Michel Sidibe and US actress Brooke Shields, with musical interludes by singers Jackson and Natasha Bedingfield, and violinist Nigel Kennedy.

The evening will begin with a gala dinner at the Imperial Palace sponsored by Austrian President Heinz Fischer, with tickets priced at up to 2,500 euros ($3,575) apiece.

Those who choose to attend only the extravagant red carpet fashion show and party at the City Hall afterwards have to fork out a more affordable 150 euros per ticket.

Last year's Life Ball raised over 1.5 million euros ($1.9 million) for international and national HIV and AIDS projects.

The fashion show -- which has memorably been held on a red-ribbon catwalk in past years -- will be by the Canadian designer duo Dsquared2, Dean and Dan Caten.

The ball is broadcast live on public television, but not everyone in a conservative and Catholic country such as Austria feels comfortable about the event.

According to a recent poll by the Humaninstitut in Klagenfurt, 69 percent of the population view the Life Ball as decadent, only 16 percent see it as a sign of tolerance.

Thirty years after the discovery of the HI-virus, and despite enormous progress in treatment, "AIDS still represents a menace," said Life Ball co-founder and organiser Gery Keszler. Infection rates remain high in Austria and "are exploding" in neighbouring countries in eastern Europe, as well as in Asia.

Past guests of the Life Ball have included singer Katy Perry and actresses Sharon Stone and Whoopi Goldberg.

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