by Mesfin Fekadu

(AP)--Alicia Keys and Lady Gaga take charity work seriously, and they’re going offline to prove it.

Gaga, Justin Timberlake, Usher and other celebrities have joined a new campaign called Digital Life Sacrifice on behalf of Keys’ charity, Keep a Child Alive. The entertainers plan to sign off of social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter on Wednesday, which is World AIDS Day. The participants will sign back on when the charity raises $1 million.

DIGITAL DEATH—Alicia Keys performs on stage May 9 at the Festhalle in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. (AP Photo/Mario Vedder, file)

“It’s really important and super-cool to use mediums that we naturally are on,” Keys said in a phone interview from New York last week.

by Dorothy Rowley

Despite marginal success with his foreign policy, attempts to reduce unemployment and the recent loss of Democratic control of the House of Representatives, President Barack Obama still seems to be on the path for a successful 2012 campaign bid, according to a recent New York Times report written by Jeff Somner.

BARACK OBAMA

In addition, economists like Yale University professor Ray Fair predict that by 2011, the economy may have rebounded, and that Obama will likely face a weak opponent.

For the week of Dec. 3-9

December 3

1847—Frederick Douglas and Martin R. Delaney establish “The North Star” and it goes on to become a major anti-slavery newspaper.

THOMAS HEARNS

1922—Ralph Gardner is born in Cleveland, Ohio. He was a pioneer chemist whose research into plastics led to the development of so-called hard plastics and aided product developments in the petrochemical and pharmaceutical industries.

1982—Thomas “The Hit Man” Hearns defeats Wilfredo Benitez for the WBC Junior Middleweight boxing title. Hearns becomes the first person to win boxing titles in five different weight classes.

WASHINGTON (AP)—President Barack Obama was back on the basketball court, though this time with two players less likely to throw an elbow his way—his daughters. The White House says that Malia and Sasha Obama joined their father Sunday morning for some hoop time at the gym inside the building that houses the Interior Department.

HOOPSTER-IN-CHIEF—President Barack Obama waits as his daughter Sasha walks by after a basketball outing with both of his girls and some of their friends, Nov. 28. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

On Friday, Obama took an elbow to the mouth while playing a pickup basketball game with friends at Fort McNair. He received 12 stitches to close a cut to the left side of his lower lip.