One of the best known black personalities on British TV said yesterday that 'gangsta' street culture was a 'deadly virus' that was destroying a generation of African-Caribbean boys.

Two homophobic reggae stars have been booted off off the British Mobo Awards because of their inflammatory anti-gay lyrics.

Reggae artists are often stereotyped as a bunch of dirty, mop-headed Rastas, smoking on herb while they waste their lives away in the slums of Jamaica.

Speaking with candour a few days before the Champions Trophy, Brian Lara admitted that West Indies had a long way to go even though all the signs of a team in the making were there. While his outlook was cautiously positive, he revealed that the team would not take even Bangladesh lightly; the last time they met, West Indies scraped through with a few close victories.

Nobel Prize winner author VS Naipaul has condemned terrorism and blamed Saudi Arabia for funding it. He has also attacked multiculturalism in Britain and said immigrants must integrate into their host country instead of demanding special privileges.

When MTV dropped Jamaican deejay Beenie Man from its pre-awards concert last month after gay-rights groups threatened to protest over his anti-gay lyrics, it may have seemed as if the dancehall reggae artist had simply run afoul of Miami's strong gay lobby.

Jamaican reggae has sprung a nasty little offshoot called, by its detractors, "murder music". It has been allowed to flourish in a blind spot of white middle-class liberalism. And it has taken gays, who are the prime targets of this new breed of Jamaican dancehall music (reggae with a rock bass beat), to blow the whistle.

A concert by a controversial reggae star has been cancelled at a Birmingham nightclub following claims that he incites violence against homosexuals.

International reggae artist Shaggy will sing at two major concerts in India in October. The concerts will be held Oct 1 in New Delhi and Oct 3 in Mumbai and feature THE STAR's new tracks like "Hotshot", "Luv Me" and "Get My Party On".

Shannelle County is in her own world. Leaning over the wide steel basin with her eyes barely open, the 18-year-old from Valley Stream beats at its dents with her rubber-tipped drumsticks in a gentle calypso that's eclipsed by the room's loud clanking pandemonium.