Recovery slow but sure

New York — Illusionist Roy Horn of “Siegfried & Roy” is slowly recovering from a tiger attack that has kept him hospitalized since October, his partner said Monday.

“He is moving now, little by little,” Siegfried Fischbacher said in an interview on NBC’s “Today” show. “(He’s) speaking a few words … but this develops also every day.”

Roy had been off his respirator for two weeks, Fischbacher said, and has recovered enough to spend Christmas in Las Vegas, where the duo were performing at the time of the attack. He is currently a patient at UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles.

Horn, 59, was mauled by one of the white tigers featured in the duo’s show at The Mirage hotel-casino in Las Vegas.

Lynch to christen cruise ship

Miami — Former Army Pfc. Jessica Lynch will christen Carnival Cruise Lines’ newest ship at Feb. 27 ceremonies in Jacksonville, the Miami-based line announced Monday.

Lynch will break a traditional bottle of champagne against the Carnival Miracle before it begins its three-day inaugural cruise from the Port of Jacksonville. She’ll be named the ship’s “godmother.”

The former supply clerk from West Virginia suffered broken bones and other injuries when her 507th Maintenance Company was ambushed March 23 in Nasiriyah, Iraq. Her April 1 rescue from a hospital made her an instant celebrity, although she has disputed some of the more dramatic elements of her capture, including reports that she engaged in a fire fight with Iraqi soldiers.

Carnival will make an undisclosed contribution to the Jessica Lynch Foundation, which helps children of soldiers who have either served in the military or been killed on duty.

Cultural exchanges urged

Shanghai, China — Making his first trip to China, Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli on Monday called for more cultural exchanges as a way of boosting understanding among people.

Events such as his Shanghai visit are “good for music, good for culture and good for people,” said Bocelli, who is to perform Wednesday night at Shanghai’s landmark Grand Theater.

“Especially at this time, when the world is so tense and things are so unstable, increasing these sorts of exchanges has special significance for better mutual understanding among people,” Bocelli, 45, said at a news conference.

Bocelli, blinded by illness at age 12, donned a black silk Chinese tunic for the news conference but said he would probably stick to formal Western dress while performing.

Punk icon honored

New York — Joey Ramone and his bandmates helped put CBGB on the cultural map, and his friends and fans from the legendary punk rock club have now returned the favor.

The Manhattan corner where the Bowery meets Second Street was renamed Joey Ramone Place on Sunday, 2 1/2 years after his death from cancer at age 49.

Although many Ramones songs — like “Beat on the Brat,” “I Wanna Be Sedated,” and “Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue” — reflect their twisted teen years in Queens, they are most closely associated with the East Village and CBGB, widely considered the birthplace of American punk.