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CDs of the week: Rihanna, Lady Gaga and 50 Cent

2009-11-20T11:29:14Z

What our critics made of Rihanna, Lady Gaga and 50 Cent's new album.

Mayra Andrade is a star that shines brightly

2009-11-16T11:21:25Z

Cape Verdean singer Mayra Andrade is not only an olive-skinned beauty but has a caressing, husky voice and a real songwriting talent.

Travel round-up

2009-11-04T13:44:13Z

In this week's travel round-up - Beirut is fast becoming the focus of high-end hotels and why you don't have to rough it at next summer's World Cup

JFK hijack suspect seized 40 years on

2009-10-12T10:57:12Z

A man wanted for hijacking a flight out of New York 41 years ago has been arrested after flying back into the city from Cuba.

Tired Carlos Acosta can make the heart leap

2009-07-23T23:00:00Z

Carlos Acosta arrived on the dance scene a decade ago, and there�s been unreserved raving ever since.

Why art is the social lubricant of our great city

2009-07-10T07:08:43Z

At last night�s annual Serpentine Summer party, London shoulders its way to the front of the queue when it comes to sexing up the art world

I'm glad I left him, says the ex-wife of sex row diplomat

2009-07-10T09:19:03Z

Former wife of a British diplomat told of her disgust after he was caught on film having sex with two prostitutes in Russia

Top headteacher held over �500,000 Cuba trip expenses

2009-06-11T08:21:02Z

One of London's leading headteachers has been arrested over allegations of a �500,000 expenses fraud linked to a Cuban exchange programme

Check out late deals for the summer

2009-05-21T11:22:21Z

Kristy Gray takes a look at the best bargain breaks, from Devon to Brittany, St Lucia, Mauritius or the Galapagos Islands

New Orleans spirit burns bright for Terence Blanchard

2009-05-11T23:00:00Z

Trumpeter Terence Blanchard is making a dignified transition from youthful firebrand to elder statesman.

Cubans kick their heels in Havana Rakatan

2009-05-06T23:00:00Z

Every now and then a dance show comes along that has such runaway enthusiasm that you bin the criticism. Havana Rakatan is such a show.

Singing with your supper

2009-04-15T14:10:42Z

Combine dining out with a live music set at some of London's top restaurants.

What else is new: Los Van Van

2009-03-09T00:00:00Z

It�s not easy to sing, to really belt it out, while dancing as if on castors. But Los Van Van�s four lead vocalists deliver their epic Spanish-language songs with instinctive dexterity, backed by a crew of musicians with some cool moves of their own

It's payback time for the City's greedy freeloaders

2008-10-15T08:36:47Z

We are living through days comparable to the atrocities of September 2001 or the fall of communism in November 1989. Historians will look back at the autumn of 2008 as another moment of crisis when conventional assumptions were shattered almost overnight.

Eastern treats in the buzzy West End

2008-09-10T23:00:00Z

Get new contemporary Japanese, Habuka, on your radar, because next time you're feeling clueless and hungry round Tottenham Court Road, you could do worse

Cuban memories make fine film

2008-07-09T23:00:00Z

Sixties classic of the Cuban cinema, Memories of Under-Development, is one of the most audacious and sophisticated movies of its time.

Oil brings Cuba closer to USA

2008-06-12T13:38:31Z

Trade between the US and Cuba may recommence as a major oil drill entices America

Lack of stars

2007-11-09T00:00:00Z

Though enticingly billed as "the best of this year's Cubadisco", many had expected a bigger picture at the Cuban Music Awards.

Smokers discover the great outdoors

2007-06-29T10:43:03Z

The smoking ban is now in force, but some enterprising bar owners in the capital have ensured there will still be places to spark up in.

The Last Gasp

2007-06-26T14:18:08Z

The smoking ban comes into force on July 1. See how London's bars are bidding their fond farewells to the humble cigarette.

Not Havana fabulous time

2007-05-24T23:00:00Z

Havana Rakatan contains a strong African flavour and a feelgood display of Cuban grooves, says Sarah Frater. But it doesn't really work.

London's Latin lesson

2007-04-13T10:21:31Z

As London's appetite for things Latin grows, so La Linea assumes a growing importance in the capital's musical calendar.

The queen and I

2007-02-08T15:23:39Z

He took home an Evening Standard film award this week and is up for 10 Oscars, yet Stephen Frears isn't sure why his royal drama is such a hit. Maybe because it's about British dottiness, he says.

Crockett? Johnson is more Tubs as main Guy

2007-01-19T00:00:00Z

Casting Don Johnson, best remembered as smoothie detective Sonny Crockett in Miami Vice, as Nathan Detroit in spiv musical Guys And Dolls was always going to be a high-risk gamble.

Cuban joins the Latino revolution

2006-12-13T00:00:00Z

La Bodeguita del Medio takes its name from a restaurant in old Havana of which Ernest Hemingway was a regular and where "everything but unhappiness is permitted".

A spirit-soaked rumba party

2006-10-30T00:00:00Z

Having shaken its collective derriere all the way from Havana, The Best of Cuban Music Awards exploded into London amid cigar smoke, to the clink of several hundred mojitos.

Give this Cuban menu a miss

2006-10-22T23:00:00Z

Toby Young didn't have a great dining experience when he visited Floridita, and he suggests people arrive after midnight, having already eaten somewhere else.

Farewell to Cuba

2006-08-11T16:12:08Z

Andy Garcia's new film The Lost City is about the country he loved, and left, as a child and the star says he won't return to Cuba until its current leader Castro has gone.

Debut lacks song and dance

2006-08-07T23:00:00Z

Patrick Swayze's legions of fans will no doubt have the time of their lives seeing him in the flesh in Guys and Dolls, but lovers of musical theatre are unlikely to be impressed.

Billy Elliot, Cuban-style

2006-08-02T23:00:00Z

Dance review: Cuban ballet star Carlos Acosta stars in this coming-of-age/rite-of-passage show, a sort of Billy Elliot with salsa that taps the popularity of all things Latin and the considerable charms of Acosta himself.