US Navy vessels leave Myanmar coast

YANGON, Myanmar (AP) — U.S. Navy ships laden with relief supplies steamed away from Myanmar’s coast Thursday, their helicopters barred by the ruling junta though millions of cyclone survivors need food, shelter or medical care, a Navy spokesman said.

The USS Essex group, which includes four ships, 22 helicopters and 5,000 U.S. military personnel, had been positioned off the Myanmar coast for more than three weeks hoping for a green light to deliver aid to the survivors.

“The ruling military junta in Burma have done nothing to convince us that they intend to reverse their deliberate decision to deny much needed aid to the people of Burma. Based on this, the decision was made to continue with previous operational commitments,” Lt. Denver Applehans said in an e-mail from the flotilla.

More than a month after the storm, many people in stricken areas still have received no aid at all and the military regime continued to impose constraints on international rescue efforts, humanitarian groups said Wednesday.

Movies premiere on iTunes Canada

Apple Inc. announced Wednesday that it was bringing movies to iTunes Canada, almost two years after their launch in the United States.

The iTunes Store in Canada now offers more than 1,200 films available for rent or purchase, the company said in a press release Wednesday. Titles will be available for purchase on the same day as their DVD release, including recent movies such as Juno, I Am Legend, The Bourne Ultimatum and Cloverfield.

About 200 titles are also available in high definition.

Apple (AAPL/Nasdaq) first announced movies were coming to iTunes in the United States in September, 2006. At the time chief executive Steve Jobs said the company hoped to take the service international by 2007.

Free fallin’ for Petty

As rock pairings go, Rock and Roll Hall of Famers Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers and Steve Winwood is a pretty good matchup.

So it went last night at the Air Canada Centre as the respected southern countrified rocker Petty, who originally hails from Florida, headlined alongside the British blue-eyed soul-funk-rock journeyman Winwood as opener.

Both men are just three years apart in age, if vastly different artists in terms of sound and history.

Petty and The Heartbreakers — rounded out by lead guitarist Mike Campbell, keyboardist Benmont Tench, drummer Steve Ferrone, bassist Ron Blair and guitarist Scott Thurston — have an album, Highway Companion, that’s now two years old, and was only represented last night by the first single, Saving Grace, which vastly improved in a live setting.

No matter, their arena-friendly hits from the last 30 years, big full sound, and a souped-up production consisting of an amusement park ride-worthy backdrop and circular and box-shaped video screens floating above them, made for two hours of memorable music in the hockey hangar.

Germany’s top literary prize goes to visual artist

The winner of Germany’s top literary prize, the Frankfurt Peace Prize, was announced Wednesday, and the surprise was that he is not a writer.

German artist Anselm Kiefer was named the winner by the board of trustees of the Peace Prize for his paintings and sculptures, which often have a strong anti-war message.

Kiefer’s works contain imagery that makes the viewer feel like a reader, the jury said.

Kiefer, 63, is “a world-renowned artist, who confronts his times with the disturbing moral message of the ruinous and transitory,” the jury said.

Books are often key shapes in his paintings and sculptures, and he also makes references to literature.