From Shining to the Cuban

Beginning of article

Byline: LIZ KENNEDY

ONE of the top Belfast Festival artistes, Cuban music star Ibrahim Ferrer, was refused entry to the US this February.

Ferrer is appearing in a sold-out show at the Waterfront Hall in Belfast tonight, but the Buena Vista Social Club member and Grammy Award winner did not get an American visa to travel to Los Angeles from Cuba for the 2004 Grammy Award ceremony. The musician who is now in his late 70s told Havana press: "I am not a terrorist, I couldn't be one. I am a musician.''

US diplomats said that American administration could suspend the entry of people deemed to be ''detrimental to the interest of the United States.''

…