Rapper Jay-Z played a tribute concert in New York on Friday to remember all those who lost their lives in the September 11 terrorist attacks.

Beyonce, Mary J Blige and Rihanna also took part in the Madison Square Garden gig to mark the eight-year anniversary.

“Make some noise for everybody that lost their lives so we can live ours,” the 39-year-old said to the crowd.

All proceeds made from the Answer The Call gig is being donated to funds that help families affected by the attack.

The New York Police and Fire Widows’ and Children’s Benefit Fund will benefit from the concert.

“We stand here tonight eight years later even stronger, even stronger,” Jay-Z said on stage.

Most of the performers, who also included Diddy, Kanye West and John Mayer, wore mainly black and grey onstage.

Halfway through the show, Jay Z held a moment of silence to remember all those who had lost their lives during the terror attacks.

The Pledge of Allegiance kicked off the show, followed by a two-hour set that included Jay-Z hits such as 99 Problems and I Just Wanna Love U (Give It 2 Me).

The New Village Leadership Academy, located in the city of

Like many modern celebrity power couples, Will Smith and Jada Pinkett-Smith are not satisfied with just being actors.

The New Village Leadership Academy, located in the city of Calabasas, just outside of Los Angeles,…

The New Village Leadership Academy, located in the city of Calabasas, just outside of Los Angeles, Calif., is seen in this April 2009 file photo. NVLA opened its doors Sept. 3, 2008, after Will and Jada Pinkett-Smith paid nearly $1 million to lease the Indian Hills High School campus in the Las Virgines Unified School District for three years.

(INF/Getty Images)

The couple, who met on the set of “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” in 1995, have had a lot of different roles over the years, most recently founding the New Village Leadership Academy (NVLA), a private elementary school in Calabasas, Calif., which opened its doors this week for the start of the 2009-10 school year.

But as Oprah Winfrey famously discovered when she started The Leadership Academy School for Girls, for celebrities, getting involved in an educational venture can be a road fraught with controversy.

Coupled with the long-time “secretly Scientologist” rumors that have surrounded the Smiths, the school’s opening has attracted curiosity.

While they’re close friends with actors Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes, arguably the world’s most famous Scientology couple, Smith has said that he is a not a member of the church.

“I’ve talked to Tom about it. [There's] lots of incredible, wonderful concepts [but my wife] Jada and I don’t necessarily believe in organized religion. I was raised in a Baptist household, and my grandmother would get up out of her casket [if I became a Scientologist],” Smith told the World Entertainment News Network, a news wire, in 2006.

Also creating questions are reports that tax returns for 2008 from the Smith’s charitable foundation show that the couple gave a combined $122,500 in donations to groups affiliated with the Church of Scientology. The Smiths reportedly donated a total of $1.3 million to a variety of religious, civic and arts groups that year. Smith’s biggest single contribution was to Yesha Ministries of Philadelphia. He gave the Christian-based organization run by the Rev. James Robinson $250,000. Another $200,000 went to a Christian ministry in Los Angeles called “Living Waters.” The foundation also donated to a Los Angeles mosque, as well as the Yitzhak Rabin Memorial Center and other religious groups. When asked about the donations, Will Smith’s publicist, Pat Kinsley, told ABC News.com that her client doesn’t comment on his philanthropic work.

In an interview with Ebony magazine earlier this year, Pinkett-Smith said that the NVLA was not tied to Scientology: “All I can say is it is not a Scientology school,” she told the magazine. “Now, If you don’t trust me, and you are questioning my integrity, that’s a whole different matter. That is straight evil to think that I would bring families into that educational institution and then try to get them to convert into some religion.”

Despite such statements, skeptics continue to raise questions about whether the Smiths have ties to Scientology, especially when it comes to the NVLA.

President Robert Mugabe says Zimbabwe’s first high-level talks with top EU officials in seven years went well.

After the talks, in Harare, he again called for international sanctions imposed since disputed presidential election in 2002 to be lifted.

The EU team also praised the meeting but indicated it was not appropriate yet for sanctions to end and complained about the slow pace of reforms.

The EU team later met PM Morgan Tsvangirai.

‘Good rapport’

Before going into the talks with the EU team, Mr Mugabe said: “We welcome you with open arms. We hope our talks will be fruitful with a positive outcome.”

When he reappeared after they ended, he told the BBC the talks had gone well.

He said: “We established a good rapport, it was a friendly meeting. Obviously they thought the Global Political Agreement was not working well.”

The General Political Agreement is the power-sharing deal that was sealed a year ago, most importantly with Mr Tsvangirai.

Mr Mugabe said that “everything we were asked to do under GPA we have done”.

The EU team, led by Development Commissioner Karel De Gucht, expressed satisfaction with the talks, saying there had been “progress” in a “very open atmosphere”.

But the BBC’s Andrew Harding, in Harare, says the EU team also pointed out the problems it had with the current situation.

The team, which has described the visit as an attempt to reopen political dialogue with Zimbabwe, said it was not appropriate to lift sanctions at the moment or for major aid to start.

Mr de Gucht said he hoped the president realised the need for “more understanding between the three principals - himself, the prime minister and the vice-prime minister”.

Our correspondent says that one year on from the announcement of power-sharing, there remain serious doubts about human rights, the stalling of political reform and the good faith of President Mugabe and his supporters.

In a speech a day before meeting the delegation, Mr Mugabe had lashed out at the Western sanctions, accusing whites of wanting to “poke their nose into own our own affairs”.

“We have stood firm and we have refused to let go. Zimbabwe - sanctions or no sanctions, Zimbabwe remains ours,” he told a meeting of his Zanu-PF youth wing in Harare.

Conditional removal

Last week, African leaders had called for sanctions against the country to be lifted but Mr de Gucht said the measures had “no impact on the common population”.

The EU team will also be meeting Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai

Sweden’s Development Minister Gunilla Carlsson and Mr de Gucht will be in the country until Sunday.

Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt, whose country currently holds the EU presidency, said last week that the EU was not considering lifting sanctions.

Long-time opposition leader Mr Tsvangirai wants a removal of sanctions to be conditional on how well the power-sharing deal signed a year ago has been implemented.

But last week the leaders of the Southern African Development Community (Sadc) rejected that proposal.

South African President Jacob Zuma, who has criticised Mr Mugabe in the past and was expected to side with Mr Tsvangirai, said there should be no conditions placed on the removal of sanctions.

President Mugabe and his wife, Grace, arrive for a ZANU PF party youth conference on Friday.

A European Union delegation met Saturday with Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe, who said the parties had established a “good rapport.”

President Mugabe and his wife, Grace, arrive for a ZANU PF party youth conference on Friday.

“There was no animosity, it was quite friendly,” Mugabe said.

Gunilla Carlsson, the Swedish minister for International Development Cooperation, said the parties “definitely made some progress.”

“Of course we didn’t agree with everything Mr. Mugabe said, but it was a correct meeting and we exchanged views,” Carlsson, who is heading the mission, told CNN’s Rosemary Church.

The delegation met with Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai later on Saturday.

Carlsson spokesman Peter Larsson had said earlier that “there was no sense of any hostility from Mugabe.” Larsson was referring to remarks the Zimbabwean president made Friday, when he condemned “bloody whites” for meddling in his country’s affairs. Carlsson is heading the mission to Zimbabwe.

“Sanctions or no sanctions, Zimbabwe remains ours,” .Mugabe told his ZANU-PF party’s youth conference in Harare on Friday.

“Who said the British and the Americans should rule over others? That’s why we say, down with you. We have not invited these bloody whites. They want to poke their nose into our own affairs. Refuse that,” he said.

The European Union imposed travel bans on Mugabe and his representatives in 2002. The bans were imposed after accusations of human rights violations and election fraud.

In addition to travel restrictions, the European Union has frozen the assets of more than 200 Zimbabweans for allegedly violating human rights, according to Sweden, which holds the rotating presidency of the EU this year.

On Saturday, Mugabe again addressed “sanctions,” saying he was dismayed that they were not lifted after meeting with the EU delegation.

“I have always been disappointed with sanctions on Zimbabwe,” he said, adding that the EU delegation “thought things were not working, yet we did all the things we were asked to do” under a power-sharing agreement signed in September last year.

Larsson said there was no discussion about the restrictions at the meeting.

Under the agreement, which was to end months of turmoil and violence that followed the country’s March 2008 presidential elections, Mugabe retained his office, and opposition leader Tsvangirai became prime minister.

The agreement — the Global Political Agreement– spelled out a number of fundamental democratic reforms, but so far there has been no progress toward them, Carlsson said in a statement ahead of the meetings with Mugabe and Tsvangirai.

“There have not yet been clear positive developments in all areas. I am still concerned at the lack of democratic development,” she said then.

After meeting with Tsvangirai, Carlsson told CNN that “Tsvangirai’s government is working hard towards the implementation of the political agreement.”

She added, “After such a long time of oppression, it is of course hard to move forward and change will take some time. But the EU is committed to follow up on this progress and encourage change.”

Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez has announced that the country will soon take delivery of Russian missiles with a range of 300km (185 miles).

Returning from a 10-day tour of Africa, Asia and Europe, including Russia, Mr Chavez is also planning to buy Russian T-72 and T-90.

“Soon some little rockets are going to be arriving… and they don’t fail,” he announced at the presidential palace.

But he denied they would be used for offensive purposes.

“We are not going to attack anybody, these are just defence tools, because we are going to defend our country from any threat, wherever it may come from,” the president said.

Russian warships took part in exercises last November

Venezuela is involved in a long-running diplomatic stand-off with neighbouring Colombia, over the latter’s plans to allow US troops greater access to its military bases.

Colombia says the US forces will help in the war against drugs and left-wing guerrillas and will not destabilise the region.

Mr Chavez, a fierce opponent of US foreign policy, did not say how many missiles he had ordered.

Russia has been strengthening its ties with several Latin American countries, including Venezuela.

The two countries held joint naval exercises in Venezuelan waters last November.

Workers remove fuel rods from the Yongbyon nuclear reactor in North Korea in February 2008.