Georgia sings Charles’ praises

Atlanta — Singer Ray Charles and music publisher-entrepreneur Bill Lowery will be honored Sept. 18 during a ceremony when the Georgia Music Hall of Fame inducts four new members.

The hall of fame honors musicians and music industry professionals who are Georgia natives or live in the state. Both Charles and Lowery were among the first group to be inducted into the hall of fame in 1979.

A group that includes radio pioneer Hugh Jarrett, keyboardist Chuck Leavell, composer Mary Lou Williams and opera singer Mattiwilda Dobbs will receive the GEORGY Award this year for their contributions to the state’s music heritage.

Princess victorious over press

Berlin — Germany has accepted a European court decision that Monaco’s Princess Caroline can stop the publication of photos of her and her family, despite complaints by news organizations.

The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France, ruled in June that three German magazines — Bunte, Freizeit Revue and Neue Post — violated Caroline’s privacy rights by publishing photos of her and her children in their private lives.

It rejected a 1999 ruling from Germany’s supreme court that allowed the photos on the grounds that Caroline, who is married to Prince Ernst August of Hanover, was a public figure.

The Association of German Newspaper Publishers urged the government to change its mind, decrying the decision as an “excuse for censorship.”

Everybody is kung-fu fighting

Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina — In Bosnia, where one man’s hero is often another man’s villain, some citizens have decided to honor a man that Serbs, Croats and Muslims can all look up to: kung fu great Bruce Lee.

Lee is best remembered for taking on dozens of bad guys in a series of kung fu films, including 1973’s “Enter the Dragon.”

But the statue of the Chinese action hero in the ethnically divided city of Mostar is intended to remind people of Lee’s lesser known values: “loyalty, friendship, skill and justice,” said Veselin Gatalo, a writer who helped come up with the idea.

“Lee is a true international hero and is a hero to all ethnicities in Bosnia and that’s why we picked him,” Gatalo said.

Hughes shuts books, dons skates

Los Angeles — Sarah Hughes, the 2002 Olympic figure skating gold medalist, will skate with the Stars on Ice tour this season.

Hughes will take a one-year leave from Yale, where she was a freshman last year, and will make her debut with the show Nov. 27 in Lake Placid, N.Y. She will skate the entire 60-city tour with Stars on Ice.

“It’s the one show that every skater dreams about becoming a part of … the one show that offers the chance to work with the world’s top skaters, directors, choreographers and designers,” Hughes said.