• Rihanna smiled under her mask as she heard her name called in the pre-dawn hours of Tuesday, but hesitated before she stood up. Before her, top Barbadian government officials encouraged her to join them at a crucial moment in her nation's history. "You can come, my dear," Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley told the multi-Grammy winner. The 33-year-old Rihanna had just been declared a national hero by the Barbadian government and bestowed with a title, "the right excellent," as the island bade farewell to Queen Elizabeth II as head of state and celebrated becoming a republic for the first time in its history. As Mottley presented Rihanna, she noted that the pop star came from humble origins and was born less than a mile from where the ceremony was taking place. "On behalf of a grateful nation, but an even prouder people, we therefore present to you the designee for national hero of Barbados, Ambassador Robyn Rihanna Fenty," the prime minister said. "May you continue to shine like a diamond and bring honor to your nation by your words, by your actions, and to do credit wherever you shall go. God bless you, my dear." Rihanna has won nine Grammys in various categories, including rap, dance and R&B, and is working on a new album. She also owns a lingerie line called Savage X Fenty and has been praised for being inclusive, hiring women of all shapes, sizes and colors for her fashion shows. The ceremony marked the first time in more than 20 years that Barbados has bestowed the honor.
• Author Alice Sebold apologized Tuesday to the man who was exonerated last week in the 1981 rape that was the basis for her memoir "Lucky" and said she was struggling with the role she played "within a system that sent an innocent man to jail." Anthony Broadwater, 61, was convicted in 1982 of raping Sebold when she was a student at Syracuse University. He served 16 years in prison. His conviction was overturned on Nov. 22 after prosecutors re-examined the case and determined there were serious flaws in his arrest and trial. Sebold, now 58, wrote in 1999's "Lucky" of being raped and then spotting a Black man in the street several months later who she believed was her attacker. In a statement released to The Associated Press and later posted on Medium, Sebold, the author of the novels "The Lovely Bones" and "The Almost Moon," said that as a "traumatized 18-year-old rape victim" she chose to put her faith in the American legal system. "My goal in 1982 was justice -- not to perpetuate injustice," Sebold said. "And certainly not to forever, and irreparably, alter a young man's life by the very crime that had altered mine." Melissa Swartz, an attorney for Broadwater, who was released from prison in 1998, said he had no comment on Sebold's statement.
