Shakira lavished praise on British Prime Minister Gordon Brown after holding a conference call with the politician in London on Monday.

The Colombian performer spoke with the leader by telephone to bounce around ideas as part of a week of action for the Global Campaign for Education. The group is pressuring world leaders to provide funding for education to 72 million young children who miss out on schooling due to poverty.

“He is a man with wonderful intentions, he is very pro-active, he is working very hard for the issue of education,” Shakira said. “I could feel how passionate and enthusiastic he was about it.”

Brown praised Shakira for her tireless efforts to help improve access to education around the world.

“She is inspiring people all over the world,” Brown was quoted as saying.

Shakira is to hold a “virtual meeting” with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown on Monday to discuss way to improve access to education in the third world.

The Colombian will speak with the leader by telephone to bounce around ideas as part of a week of action for the Global Campaign for Education.

Brown has caused controversy in his own country recently by doubling the 10% tax rate for families on lower incomes in the UK, hitting the poorest people in the country - all the while giving a 2% tax cut to the richest. So some might find it a little difficult to take the Prime Minister seriously on matters of poverty. But good luck Shaki!

Shakira is set to return to Argentina to play the Buenos Aires Live 8 Latino concert next month.

The Live 8 Latino concerts are being staged by the ALAS foundation, of which Shakira is a member, to bring attention to poverty throughout Latin America.

The concerts are expected to be staged around May 17th next month in big Latin American cities. However, nothing is official yet as ALAS are still negotiating with mayors to bring the concerts into reality.

It is not yet known whether all the concerts will be staged on May 17th, or if they will take place over several days separately.

Shakira will perform live before the start of the inaugural Volvo Ocean Race in Alicante it has been reported.

The Colombian will get proceedings off to an electrifying start by performing one of her hits live next September.

With the timing of the event more than a year away, that should mean those in attendance get to hear one of Shaki’s new songs off her upcoming album.

So a bit more information has apparently leaked about Shakira’s return to the studio to record material for her new album.

We hear that Shakira and her band mates Brendan Buckley, Albert Menendez and Tim Mitchell have all been together some weeks ago in Uruguay working on the composition of the new tracks. This is the team that worked together on the hit albums Laundry Service and Oral Fixation 2 (the English language albums) - and very successfully!

I’m sure whatever they are working on is destined for greatness again. But we may have to wait a long time to finally hear the new music, as the new album is not expected to be released until at least early next year.

We’ll keep you posted when more news drops.

Shakira has been nominated for two awards at this year’s “Premio Nuestra Terra” awards ceremony in Bogota.

The event gives prizes to the best-achieving Colombian artists every year.

Shaki has been nominated in the category for best website and best video for her performance in “Las de la Intuición”.

The prizes will be handed out on April 13th. To cast your votes for Shakira, click here!

Adriana has just posted several high-quality pictures of Shakira hanging around in Miami this past weekend.

Shaki still looks fabulous even after a few months away from touring and just hanging around with Antonio, friends and family! ;)

Shakira has just started work on recording a new album to follow her hugely successful release Oral Fixation.

She touched down in Miami yesterday to hang out in the city with friends for a few days, and spoke briefly of plans to get back to the studio and continue laying down new material.

Shaki also told reporters she soon planned on taking a trip to China, but declined to elaborate further on the reasons.

It is expected Shakira’s latest album will drop sometime in 2009.

Shakira has been nominated for a Golden Globe Award in the category of Best Original Song for a motion picture.

The song “Despedida” was written  by Shakira herself and is featured in the movie “Love In The Time of Cholera” with musical arrangements by Antonio Pinto.

The other nominations in the category are:

Grace Is Gone (Grace Is Gone) -  Clint Eastwood/Carole Bayer Sager
Guaranteed (Into The Wild) - EddieVedder
That’s How You Know (Enchanted) - Alan Menken/Stephen Schwartz
Walk Hard (Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story) - Judd Apatow, Kasdan, John C. Reilly and Marshall Grenshaw.

Shakira will not be making be her movie debut anytime soon after abandoning plans to appear in LOVE IN THE TIME OF CHOLERA - because the role required her to get naked in front of the camera.

The film was released last Friday without Shakira playing a role in the adaption.

WENN quoted Shakira as explaining: “The script, the character, the director, it all has to come together to assure me that I’ll be protected.

“I have a responsibility to my public, so I don’t want to get into something that could fail.”

But the movie’s producer Scott Steindorff told the Los Angeles Times that an uncomfortable Shakira backed out after discovering some of the scenes required her to shoot without clothes.

The Colombian did still write and produce the soundtrack for the movie.