everything livia

China has said it had evidence proving detained Rio Tinto staff stole state secrets, as the affair threatened to boil over into a diplomatic row with Australia summoning the Chinese ambassador.

Stern Hu, the Australian national in charge of the Anglo-Australian mining giant’s Shanghai office, faces criminal charges for stealing state secrets for foreign countries, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang said.

“Competent authorities have sufficient evidence to prove that they have stolen state secrets and have caused huge loss to China’s economic interest and security,” Qin told reporters.

Chinese authorities collected evidence against Hu before arresting him and other Rio Tinto staff on Sunday, Qin said. Shanghai authorities earlier confirmed the others were three of Hu’s Chinese colleagues.

Qin said Hu’s issue should be treated as an isolated incident and that China did not want it to affect trade relations between China and Australia.

“It’s improper to exaggerate this individual case or even politicise it, which will be no good to Australia,” Qin said.

Australia’s Mandarin-speaking Prime Minister Kevin Rudd rejected opposition calls on Thursday for him to discuss the case with Chinese President Hu Jintao.

“The key thing is not for politicians … to begin trying to politicise issues like this but rather let’s get on with the practical business of working with the very difficult case on the ground,” Rudd told reporters in Rome.

However the Australian foreign ministry announced that the acting Chinese ambassador had been called in to discuss the issue, with a lack of consular access to Hu one of the issues raised.

Following the meeting, Chinese authorities said Australian consular officials would be able to meet Hu on Friday, the foreign ministry said in a statement.

Foreign Minister Stephen Smith earlier said there was no suggestion that Australian passport-holder Hu’s detention was linked to Rio’s fraught iron ore talks with Beijing or its recent decision to snub a massive Chinese cash injection.

“I’ve seen nothing which would cause me to in any way believe or form the conclusion… that the events associated with Mr Hu are in any way related to Rio Tinto’s commercial activities,” he said.

Smith said the spying claims came as a “surprise.”

The four Rio Tinto executives are being held by China’s secretive state security ministry, which handles counter-espionage operations.

A Rio spokesman told AFP it was not giving out any more information on the case due to its “sensitive” nature, but the company also indicated it had been taken by surprise.

“We are not aware of any evidence that would support such an investigation,” the company said in a statement.

The incident has cast a shadow over Australia’s relations with one of its largest trading partners, in which Rio Tinto plays a key role as a major supplier of iron ore and other raw materials to China’s growing economy.

Last month, the debt-laden miner rejected a 19.5-billion-dollar cash offer from China’s Chinalco after deciding that rising commodity prices made a rights issue and joint venture with BHP Billiton more attractive.

The miner has also spearheaded difficult talks with China over new iron ore contracts, which missed a key deadline at the end of June.

Australian media have reported speculation that the detentions were linked to alleged manipulation of the iron ore market, while the Chinese press has accused Rio of withholding products to drive up prices.

China’s state-controlled Securities Times also quoted unnamed “industry insiders” as speculating the detentions may have been over suspected involvement in bribery.

“I will be fascinated to hear what evidence they have that Mr. Hu is a spy,” opposition senator Barnaby Joyce told Sky News.

“It sounds awfully like a trumped-up charge to me.”

Riot police and soldiers kept a strong presence in China’s Urumqi city after days of bloodshed, as taxis hit the streets and some businesses re-opened in tentative signs of normality.

In one of the most striking examples of a city trying to heal following unrest that began on Sunday and left 156 people dead, security forces ended their main partition of Han Chinese and Muslim Uighur districts.

Urumqi’s mayor said late Wednesday the city was back under control, after thousands of Han Chinese roamed the streets vowing vengeance and to defend themselves in response to initial violence authorities blamed on Uighurs.

There were no signs of the vigilantes, many of whom had been carrying poles, shovels and other makeshift weapons, and public buses as well as taxis were again plying the city’s main thoroughfares.

But even though more shops had also re-opened after a three-day government-mandated business closure, many were still shuttered and residents remained extremely doubtful that life would return to normal any time soon.

“How can it return to normal with so many soldiers,” said a Han woman surnamed Li in central Urumqi. “I’ve counted 42 military trucks so far and more trucks just came by.”

And the big bazaar in the main Uighur district remained shut, with Uighurs saying the closure was another example of the different rules they have to live by compared with the Han Chinese.

“They said we could re-open after three days. But today is the fourth day and they are not letting us open,” said a clothing shop owner.

Meanwhile, although the number of security forces on the streets were not nearly as earlier in the week, riot police armed with batons and soldiers were still very visible throughout the city of 2.3 million people.

Urumqi is the capital of Xinjiang, whose eight million Uighurs have long complained about discrimination and repression under Chinese rule — accusations the government denies.

Those feelings of repression led to Sunday’s protests, according to exiled Uighur leader Rebiya Kadeer, who the government blames for orchestrating the unrest.

Kadeer denies instigating the protests and also said Wednesday the death toll from the unrest was far higher than the figure of 156 given by Chinese authorities.

The vice-president of the Uighur World Congress, Asgar Can, put the death toll from the unrest at between 600 and 800, saying the estimate was based on eyewitness accounts of the violence.

Chinese President Hu Jintao abandoned a Group of Eight summit in Italy and returned to China on Wednesday to deal with the crisis, in what observers said was an unprecedented move.

However by Thursday neither he, nor any other senior leader from the Chinese government in Beijing, had commented publicly on the crisis.

The situation in Xinjiang continued to raise concern abroad, particularly in Muslim countries.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan called on China Wednesday to secure a quick end to the “atrocity” in Xinjiang and said his nation would bring the matter to the agenda of the UN Security Council.

“We expect a swift end to the events amounting to atrocity, the prevalence of common sense… and the immediate implementation of the necessary measures in line with universal human rights,” Erdogan said.

Turkey, a non-permanent member of the council, will ask the body to discuss ways of ending the violence, he added. China is one of the five permanent, veto-wielding members of the council.

“This is a humanitarian task that falls on our shoulders,” the prime minister said

New Zealand’s national airline has come up with an imaginative way of encouraging passengers to pay attention to the pre-flight safety video — showing cabin crew in the nude.

The Air New Zealand video for domestic flights features staff covered in body paint mimicking their uniforms, their modesty concealed by careful camera angles and strategically placed seat belts and other equipment.

“We wanted to find a way to deliver these important pre-flight messages to our domestic travellers in a way that was genuine, engaging and fun,” said Air New Zealand general manager for marketing, Steve Bayliss.

The safety video follows a domestic advertising campaign using the same eye-catching stunt. Even chief executive Rob Fyfe had a brief cameo role as a baggage handler.

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger formally declared a fiscal emergency in the largest US state and called state legislators back into a special session to close a budget deficit expected to reach 24 billion dollars over the next two years.

The move came as California, which has a 2.8-billion-dollar cash shortage, said it would not be able to pay some of its bills starting Thursday.

Schwarzenegger said in his proclamation that the cash shortage will grow to 6.5 billion dollars by September unless the state legislature makes huge cuts in services ranging from education to poverty programs.

If the state is unable to pay its bills, the governor said: “Californians will be placed at serious risk because essential public assistance services are no longer being provided.”

Schwarzenegger also issued an executive order mandating that many state offices close the first, second and third Friday each month through June 2010.

Employees at those offices, which issue everything from drivers’ licenses to building permits, will have their pay reduced by those three days each month.

State hospitals, prisons and the California Highway Patrol will not be subjected to such cuts.

The state, whose economy would rank eighth in the world if California was a country, has been struggling with fiscal problems throughout 2009. Schwarzenegger and legislators thought they had averted the worst of the crisis when they devised a package of potential solutions in mid-February, but voters rejected all of those proposals in mid-May.

The cash shortage has become more acute due to dwindling tax revenues. California has been hit harder than most states during the national economic crisis, with unemployment of 11.5 percent and a high rate of house foreclosures. The national unemployment rate is 9.4 percent.

The governor had given legislators until Tuesday night, the end of the state’s fiscal year, to come up with a comprehensive plan for solving the budget crisis.

“Though the legislature failed to solve our budget problem yesterday, rest assured that solving the entire deficit remains my first and only priority, and I will not rest until we get it done. I will not be a part of pushing this crisis down the road – the road stops here,” Schwarzenegger said.

The family of Michael Jackson ruled out holding a poignant funeral at the star’s Neverland estate on Wednesday as the details of the tragic pop icon’s will were made public for the first time.

An army of journalists and crowds of fans had flocked to Jackson’s sprawling Neverland Ranch estate on Tuesday after reports the King of Pop’s body would be placed on display for a public viewing before a private service on Sunday.

However the Jackson family dispelled frenzied speculation that the funeral could see Neverland evolve into a permanent resting place for the singer similar to Elvis Presley’s Graceland in Memphis.

“Contrary to previous news reports, the Jackson family is officially stating that there will be no public or private viewing at Neverland,” a statement released by the family’s public relations firm said.

“Plans are underway regarding a public memorial for Michael Jackson, and we will announce those plans shortly.”

Local media reported a public memorial for Jackson may now be held at the Staples Center or the bigger Los Angeles Coliseum, venue for the 1984 Olympic Games. Reports suggested a ceremony could be held Tuesday.

The Jackson family’s representatives declined to comment.

The confusion over Jackson’s funeral arrangements came as the picture surrounding the star’s estate appeared to clear with the emergence of a 2002 will filed at Los Angeles Superior Court.

In yet another surprising twist to the aftermath of Jackson’s death, it was revealed that soul legend Diana Ross had been named as a back-up guardian to the singer’s children in the event of his mother Katherine’s death.

The five-page document also revealed the singer’s assets were to be left in the Michael Jackson Family Trust but the terms of the trust were not disclosed.

Documents filed in addition to the will valued Jackson’s estate at more than 500 million dollars, although it was not clear how that figure had been reached. Jackson was believed to be heavily in debt at the time of his death.

While Katherine Jackson was named as carer for her son’s children, the 65-year-old Ross was named as guardian if the singer’s mother died before him.

Three associates for Jackson — attorney John Branca, music executive John McClain and accountant Barry Siegel — were named co-executors of the will.

There was no mention anywhere of Jackson’s father Joe in the will while the document also confirmed no provisions had been made for ex-wife Debbie Rowe.

On Monday a court granted Katherine Jackson temporary guardianship of the singer’s children, Prince Michael, 12, Paris, 11, and Prince Michael II, 7, and appointed her as temporary administrator of her son’s estate.

A judge rejected a move by Branca and McClain to have Katherine Jackson removed as administrator of the estate. A hearing has been set for July 6.

Jackson died from an apparent cardiac arrest on Thursday aged 50. A cause of death has not yet been determined pending the results of toxicology tests.

However there was renewed speculation linking the singer to powerful prescription drugs Wednesday amid reports that the sedative Propofol — often used as an anesthetic in hospitals — was found at his home.

“There is no conceivable way this drug can be properly prescribed for home use,” a source told TMZ.com, which described the drug as an “extremely dangerous and potent” substance only available to medical personnel.

Earlier, a former nurse who cared for Jackson told CNN the star pleaded with her to provide him with Diprivan — the brand name for Propofol — in the last months of his life.

Police detectives are reportedly seeking to identify and interview “multiple doctors” who treated Jackson in the years before his death.

Later Wednesday, the federal Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) declined to confirm reports it had joined the probe as investigators sought help in pinning down the source of prescription medications.

“We routinely offer assistance to any agency regarding the Federal Controlled Substance Act, however, at this time we have nothing further to comment about the death of Michael Jackson,” a DEA statement said.

Meanwhile Jackson had shot to the top of the charts in the United States on Wednesday with Billboard revealing that the singer’s music occupied nine of the top 10 spots on the Top Pop Catalog Album chart.

Reports that a 5-year-old boy survived a jetliner crash in the Indian Ocean are now in question.

Rachida Abdullah is an immigrations officer in the Comoros, where the plane went down. She says there were early reports that a 5-year-old boy had survived the crash and was found floating at sea. Now, she says, it appears the survivor is a 14-year-old girl.

Neither report could be independently confirmed.

A Yemenia Airbus jet with 153 people on board crashed into the Indian Ocean on Tuesday as it tried to land during strong winds on the island nation of Comoros. There was no word on other survivors.

At least three bodies were recovered, authorities said.

Reports that a 5-year-old boy survived a jetliner crash in the Indian Ocean are now in question.

A Yemeni aviation official says a young boy who was plucked alive from the Indian Ocean after a passenger jet crashed was found floating 10 miles (15 kilometers) out to sea.

Mohammed Abdul Qader, the Yemeni civil aviation deputy chief, says the boy is 5 years old and has been hospitalized in the Comoros. He had no further details.

A Yemenia Airbus jet with 153 people on board crashed into the Indian Ocean on Tuesday as it tried to land during strong winds on the island nation of Comoros. There was no word on other survivors.

At least three bodies were recovered, authorities said.

who will emerge the winner in the reverse takeover?

A war of wills between Volkswagen and Porsche escalated on Monday as the stricken luxury sportscar maker spurned an offer from VW for a stake in its auto business.

“There is an offer by Volkswagen. For us it is not a practical solution,” a Porsche spokesman told AFP.

Only a few months ago, it was the other way round as Porsche, having audaciously built up a 51-percent stake in VW, sought full control of the much larger firm.

Buying up the interest in VW, which is Europe’s biggest carmaker, partly through risky stock market instruments, left Porsche crushed under some nine billion euros (12.7 billion dollars) in debt.

Porsche threw in the towel in its attempt to take over VW in late May as the two firms announced instead that they would seek a merger.

But relations have since deteriorated between the Porsche and the Piech clans who control the two companies, and in particular between the cousins who head the firms’ respective boards, Ferdinand Piech and Wolfgang Porsche.

In a humiliating turnaround for formerly high-flying Porsche, once the biggest success story of the German car industry, the firm has even gone cap-in-hand to the government seeking a 1.75-billion-euro emergency loan.

The request looks set to be rejected because Porsche’s woes are not the result of the financial crisis, meaning it fails to qualify for government help to firms hit by the global recession and through no fault of their own.

Porsche has also turned to Qatar for help — talks which are now “in the final stretch,” the Porsche spokesman said on Monday, although it was unclear what form an investment by the Gulf state might take.

Piech and Wolfgang Porsche disagree on how to get Porsche out of its current predicament.

Piech would like to merge the two companies, while Wolfgang Porsche backs Wendelin Wiedeking, the flamboyant head of Porsche who rescued the company from oblivion and turned it into one of the world’s most profitable firms.

Wiedeking, one of the key architects of the attempted VW takeover, wants to keep his company independent — and save his job.

The latest twist came at the weekend with Spiegel magazine reporting that VW had presented a merger proposition that involved VW taking a stake of 49.9 percent in Porsche’s car business for three to four billion euros.

Wolfgang Porsche issued a statement describing an ultimatum reportedly set by VW to accept its offer on Monday as “blackmail.”

“We will not give in to such pressure or blackmail…. The 21st century is not the time for ultimatums. We wonder what the whole matter is really about and whether the focus is still on our common cause at all,” he said.

VW denied setting any ultimatum and declined to comment further.

Porsche, meanwhile, said that the offer had been put to Wolfgang Porsche but not to the firm’s board, according to the spokesman.

He added that a loan for 10.75 billion euros negotiated with a group of banks would have to be renegotiated “immediately” if it had accepted VW’s offer.

Tim Urquhart, auto analyst at IHS Global Insight, said that the power struggle had “plumbed new depths” and that the infighting “is starting to look somewhat ridiculous.”

“At the very least it appears that developments over the weekend suggest that relations and communication between the respective management teams of VW and Porsche have hit an all-time low,” Urquhart said.

“What was already a difficult negotiation is rapidly descending into farce and serious harm is being done to the reputations of Porsche and VW as a result.”

Christian Wulff, premier of the state of Lower Saxony, which owns a 20 percent stake in VW, said he was “a bit annoyed” and called on firms to “stop playing ‘Dynasty’ and ‘Dallas’,” referring to the 1980s soap operas.

In the brief, electric prime of Michael Jackson, millions danced to “Billie Jean,” “Beat It” and other songs so propulsive it almost didn’t matter what they actually said.

But the lyrics _ whether Jackson’s or others’ _ could be as disturbing as the music was liberating. Sealed in the grooves were tales of deceit, paranoia, violence and victimization. Even before his life broke apart and the tabloids bore down, Jackson sang like a boy-man under attack.

“You try to scream but terror takes the sound before you make it,” he warns on “Thriller,” the title track to his all-time selling album and written by Rod Temperton. “You start to freeze as horror looks you right between the eyes/You’re paralyzed.”

Jackson was almost 21 when his first “adult” record, “Off the Wall,” came out in 1979. He had survived the childhood beatings and insults by his father and had already lived at least one life in show business, as the smiling, spinning prodigy fronting his brothers in the Jackson Five.

“Off the Wall” sold millions and shed the catchy, but impersonal persona of his child star youth. The title track, written by Temperton, was a lighthearted introduction to what would become Jackson’s truest subjects: his strange life and the stolen innocence he wanted back. “The world is on your shoulder,” the song advises, but “life ain’t so bad it all/If you live it off the wall.”

He would soon fire his father as his manager and vow that his next record, “Thriller,” would make him the biggest star in the business _ a promise met like few others. “Thriller” sold more than 20 million copies initially and sales now top 50 million. It earned him the title he bestowed on himself, “The King of Pop,” and offered the first full take from the throne.

“Michael Jackson wrote songs for one great artist _ which was himself,” says Diane Warren, the Grammy-winning songwriter who has written for Whitney Houston, Celine Dion, Kelly Clarkson and Mary J. Blige.

Warren says Jackson also picked great songs by other writers _ see “Thriller” _ and “was an amazing interpreter” of them. Among his songbook, she spots a theme of defiance and toughness that perhaps acted as protective armor.

Music producer Glen Ballard was in the studio with Jackson and Quincy Jones for the making of “Thriller,” and worked on the later “Bad” and “Dangerous” albums, co-writing the songs “Man in the Mirror” and “Keep the Faith.”

“As he grew up and matured as an artist, his lyric writing had this sort of air of mystery about it,” Ballard says. “He still knew how to write hooks _ he just knew how to communicate that way _ but he sort of created this vocabulary” that was darker, surreal and futuristic.

The bouncy duet with Paul McCartney, “The Girl Is Mine,” is an interracial love triangle. The hard rock “Beat It,” set to the switchblade guitar runs of Eddie Van Halen, is an anthem of pacifism, or passivity, with Jackson pleading to stop a gang war _ and perhaps all wars _ because “It doesn’t matter who’s wrong or right.”

The singer in “Billie Jean” has been taken by a girl he meets on the dance floor and later claims has borne him a child. “Billie Jean is not my lover,” he chants, teeth clenched. “She’s just a girl who claims that I am the one/But the kid is not my son.”

Jackson’s “Billie Jean” lyrics are paranoid, defiant and “cool,” Warren says.

“Maybe in a way he wanted to be left alone,” she suggests, noting the trauma of his missing childhood.

If so, Jackson did not give that impression in the recording studio, according to Ballard. He remembers Jackson as “very shy” around people he’d just met, but when he felt comfortable, he was funny and fun to be around. He was collaborative yet focused on his larger musical vision. He moved and grooved, feeling the music. When Ballard and others hosed him with water guns on his birthday, Jackson grabbed a water gun and joined in.

Ballard had no idea about Jackson’s life outside the studio. As for “Billie Jean,” he can’t point to any real-life experience or demons within the pop legend’s psyche.

“It’s just this incomplete portrait that you can fill in however you want and you can see it as this huge, mysterious, sort of tragic story or something,” he says of the 1983 chart topper.

The same woman, or at least another named “Billie Jean,” turns up in the equally besieged “Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’,” in which Billie Jean is another exploiter “always talkin’/when nobody else is talkin’/tellin’ lies and rubbin’ shoulders.” Again, there’s a child and Jackson, the alleged Peter Pan of popular music, doesn’t want to know:

___

If you can’t feed your baby

Then don’t have a baby

And don’t think maybe

If you can’t feed your baby

___

Jackson was a cultural radical who broke the color line on MTV and shattered the old rock clique of white men with guitars. But his politics were more personal than collective, avoiding confrontation as surely as the guy in “Beat It.” In “Man in the Mirror,” from the 1987 “Bad” album, he worries about “the kids in the street/with not enough to eat,” and concludes that the answer is to “take a look at yourself and then make a change.” He would later call to “Heal the World,” although doesn’t say how beyond making sure that “you care enough.”

Scandal and chaos only made him look harder, at himself, and at others: The boasts of “Invincible” and “Untouchable,” the rage of “Tabloid Junkie” and the taunts of “Threatened.” In the self-evident “Privacy,” the world is a trespasser peeking through his window: “Ain’t the pictures enough, why do you go through so much,” he asks. “To get the story you need, so you can bury me.”

Ballard, who has written for Alanis Morissette and George Strait, among others, says the passionate performer was a “remarkable songwriter” who “absolutely” felt his songs’ lyrics.

“I don’t think there’s any question that that was just falling out of his creative, unpremeditated self. … He tapped into his `whatever’ and he was using it like an artist should and sort of creating these characters _ maybe they’re him, maybe they’re not,” he says. “You get distance from it. (The lyrics) just really have this kind of compelling, mysterious, very cool air about them, in addition to being really hot at the center with these grooves.”

You could heat a country on all the energy spent wondering what happened to Jackson in the second half of his life and what eventually killed him. But he explained himself well in the trembling “Childhood,” set to Hollywood strings and to a melody lost and forlorn as an orphaned boy.

That song “was probably the most autobiographical of all his amazing lyrics,” says Grammy-winning songwriter Carole Bayer Sager, who co-wrote “That’s What Friends Are For” with Burt Bacharach.

“Have you seen my Childhood?” Jackson wonders, his voice light and high. “Before you judge me, try hard to love me/The painful youth I’ve had.”

Jun 28, 209

Singapore has confirmed 89 new cases of H1N1, bringing the total tally to 454 confirmed cases.

The Health Ministry said in addition to these 89 new cases, 53 other cases were pending investigation on Friday.

Of these 142 cases, 65 have been investigated. They comprise 34 local cases, 31 imported cases, while the remaining 77 cases are still being investigated.

The 34 new local cases include 10 new cases in the Republic Polytechnic cluster and seven new cases in the Maju Camp cluster.

There are also two new cases in the Tekong cluster and both are full—time national servicemen.

In addition, there is a new cluster from an NUS Orientation Camp comprising three new cases and one previously unlinked case.

The family of Michael Jackson is to hold an independent autopsy, it has emerged, as associates told of mounting anger over “unanswered questions” surrounding the tragic pop icon’s death.

Jackson’s family members were huddled at their compound in the northern Los Angeles suburb of Encino, where they have been based since the most famous member of their clan died suddenly on Thursday at age 50.

The Los Angeles Coroner’s office said Friday a preliminary autopsy on Jackson was inconclusive and a final cause of death would not be known until exhaustive toxicology tests are completed in “six to eight weeks.”

Jackson’s body was released to his family under cover of darkness late Friday, and was being kept at an undisclosed location, officials said.

Coroner’s investigator Steve Elias confirmed Saturday the family had informed officials they would hold a second autopsy. The TMZ.com celebrity news website said the examination was already underway.

“We don’t like what’s going on,” family patriarch Joe Jackson told People magazine. The Jacksons later issued a statement to fans describing the death as “one of the darkest moments of our lives.”

Earlier veteran US politician and activist Reverend Jesse Jackson — who is not related to the family — told ABC television’s Good Morning America that he had spent Friday counseling the family at their estate.

And he revealed that family members were angered by questions surrounding Jackson’s death, and were focusing their attention on the role of the singer’s doctor identified as Conrad Murray.

The doctor is reported to have injected Jackson with the painkiller Demerol shortly before his death.

Reports said Los Angeles police were due to interview Murray on Saturday in the presence of a lawyer but detectives have said they do not view the physician as a criminal suspect.

A lawyer representing Murray, Matt Alford, said he had no knowledge of any treatments given to Jackson by the physician.

“It’s a human tragedy and he’s (Murray’s) upset about the death of Mr Jackson,” Alford told CNN. “He’s not a suspect in the death of Mr Jackson.”

However Jesse Jackson said the family had questions of their own.

“They (the family) are suspicious of this doctor and they have real reason to be because any other doctor would say ‘Here’s what happened in the last hour of his life and I was there. I gave him some medicine.’

“He owes it to the family and to the public to say, ‘These were the last hours of Michael’s life and here’s what happened.’ That’s a reasonable expectation.”

Friends and associates of Jackson took to the airwaves to voice anger over the role of advisers and physicians that surrounded the star.

New age guru and Jackson confidante Deepak Chopra — a qualified cardiologist — told CNN bluntly: “I think drugs killed him.”

Anger was also beginning to be seen amongst fans who have gathered around the globe in their thousands to pay tribute to Jackson.

On the Hollywood Walk of Fame in Los Angeles, fans queued again on Saturday for the right to file past Jackson’s star set in the sidewalk.

Deborah Canton, 46, sobbed inconsolably as she slammed the “evil people” who she accused of driving Jackson to his death.

“The guy would never hurt a fly but all of these evil people would do everything to destroy him just to get his money,” she said. “I don’t think he wanted to live anymore.”

In New York large crowds formed outside the legendary Apollo Theater in Harlem, where Jackson launched his career in 1969.

Meanwhile revelers at Britain’s Glastonbury music festival sported T-shirts with slogans like “Michael Jackson RIP” and “I was at Glasto when Jacko died”, while graffiti paying tribute to “The King of Pop” adorned tents.

Jackson’s death has sent fans scrambling to stock up on his music, and British chart officials said a compilation album was likely to go to the top of the charts on Sunday.

While Jackson ruled the charts and dazzled audiences with dance moves like the “moonwalk” in the 1980s, his once-stellar career was overshadowed by his startling physical transformation and multiple allegations of child abuse.

He lived as a virtual recluse following his 2005 acquittal on charges of child molestation and plotting to kidnap his young accuser.

The H1N1 virus continues its spread in Singapore.

The Health Ministry confirmed 95 new cases on Thursday, raising the total infected to 315.

About half of the new cases have been investigated and they comprise 25 local infections and 22 imported ones.

Of the 25 new local infections, 10 are Butter Factory nightspot patrons and staff, four are from the Maju Camp cluster and two caught the virus from close contact with imported cases.

Nine are linked to a new Republic Polytechnic cluster, which had three previous cases.

The remaining 48 new cases are still being investigated.

Meanwhile, a trainee working in MediaCorp who contracted the H1N1 virus has been cleared and discharged from hospital.

The Health Ministry says those who develop flu symptoms and have a recent travel history to affect countries should call 993 for an ambulance and should avoid taking public transport.

Those who have symptoms but no travel history should put on a mask, visit a general practitioner and avoid crowded areas.

oh robbie williams !  yummy !

Police in the Bahamas are investigating the robbery of two paparazzi a few hours after they snapped shots of British pop idol Robbie Williams lounging on an exclusive beach in Exuma and argued with his entourage.

Superintendent Ellsworth Moss, who heads the detective unit of the Royal Bahamas Police Force, said Wednesday that investigators had questioned Williams about the early Sunday robbery of the two celebrity photographers who traveled to Staniel Cay to sneak photos of the vacationing singer.

Moss stressed that Williams was not a suspect.

“We don’t think he was the one who actually committed the robbery, but it may have been a spinoff or may have been triggered by what reportedly happened with his party on the beach,” he said.

A phone call to Williams’ representative in London was not answered.

The paparazzi _ Matt Sanchez of Splash News & Picture Agency and freelancer Carlos Mendez _ told police they got into a shouting match with Williams’ entourage while they photographed the star with zoom lenses. Hours later, they alleged, four armed men broke into their rented room and stole $20,000 worth of cameras and other equipment.

Assistant Commissioner of Police Raymond Gibson said two men were in custody in connection with the case. He did not disclose further details, saying the investigation was continuing.

Williams has long been a singing star in Britain and is popular in other countries. But he hasn’t generated much appeal in the United States, receiving more publicity for entering rehab for dependency on prescription drug than for his music.

British energy giant BP has appointed Carl-Henric Svanberg, current chief executive of Swedish telecoms giant Ericsson, as the group’s new chairman from 2010.

“BP today announced that it has appointed Carl-Henric Svanberg, currently chief executive officer of the Swedish telecommunications company, Ericsson, to replace Peter Sutherland as chairman of BP,” the group said in a statement.

Svanberg, 57, will step down at the end of 2009 after a seven-year stint as Ericsson chief executive and chairman of joint venture Sony Ericsson. He will become BP chairman on January 1, 2010.

“BP is a recognised world leader in the energy sector and it’s a great privilege to be invited to lead its board,” Svanberg said in the release.

“Following such a distinguished predecessor is quite a challenge but I’m hugely excited about joining the energy industry which is so much at the heart of the global economy. I look forward to it with relish.”

BP Chief Executive Tony Hayward paid tribute to the outgoing Sutherland, adding that Svanberg was picked because of his character and good track record.

“Peter Sutherland has been an outstanding chairman, guiding the company through one of the most successful periods in its history. He will be a hard act to follow,” Hayward said.

“But I am sure Carl-Henric will be a worthy successor. He is a businessman of international stature who is recognised for his transformation of Ericsson.

“Our shared views on many aspects of global business give me great confidence that we will work very effectively together on the next phase of BP’s progress.”

Nigeria’s main militant group said its fighters sabotaged a Royal Dutch Shell oil pipeline in the southern Niger Delta on Thursday, the latest in a string of attacks against Africa’s biggest energy producer.

The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta said in an e-mailed statement it had attacked the Billie/Krakama pipeline in Rivers state in the Niger Delta.

Attacks from MEND have forced foreign oil companies, including U.S. oil major Chevron and Italy’s Agip, to shut at least 133,000 barrels per day of oil production in the last month.

MEND said the damaged pipeline it attacked on Thursday fed into pumping stations connected to the Bonny crude oil terminal, one of Nigeria’s main export terminals.

“Cawthorne Channel 1, 2 and 3 flow stations feeding the Bonny export terminal have been effectively put out of service,” the group said.

Shell officials were not immediately available for comment. Independent verification of MEND’s statement was not possible.

On Sunday, MEND claimed responsibility for attacks on three Shell installations, including the Afremo offshore oilfields.

Shell has said it was investigating reports of attacks against its installations and was carrying out aerial inspections to try to assess any impact on output or the extent of any environmental damage from potential spillage.

Industry and security experts say it is virtually impossible to prevent opportunistic attacks on hundreds of kilometres of pipeline and equipment in the remote mangrove creeks of the Niger Delta, one of the world’s biggest wetlands.

The military last month launched its biggest offensive against Niger Delta gunmen in years, bombarding rebel camps from the air and sea and sending three battalions of troops to hunt them down.

CLEMENCY OFFER

But security forces have toned down their campaign in recent days ahead of a federal amnesty programme that is expected to be unveiled later on Thursday.

President Umaru Yar’Adua will offer clemency to militants over a 60-day period, starting on August 6, if they agree to lay down their weapons, a senior official said.

The government estimates as many as 20,000 militants could participate in the programme, but sceptics question whether an amnesty alone will be enough to halt widespread oil theft, pipeline bombings and kidnappings for ransom.

One militant leader, Ateke Tom, has indicated he would consider taking part in the amnesty programme if the military halts its offensive and withdraws its troops from the region, one of his lawyers said this month.

But MEND has criticised government efforts to provide an amnesty to gunmen, saying it has not been involved in any of the negotiations.

The subway train that plowed into another, causing a crash that killed seven and injured scores of others in the nation’s capital, was part of an aging fleet that federal officials had sought to phase out due to safety concerns, an investigator said Tuesday. But the Metrorail transit system “was not able to do what we asked them to do,” and the old trains kept running despite the 2006 warnings, said Debbie Hersman of the National Transportation Safety Board.

The rush-hour crashed sent more than 70 people to area hospitals and killed at least seven people. The three-decades-old Metro system, a pride of the District of Colombia tourism industry, shuttles tourists and local commuters from Washington to Maryland and Virginia suburbs.

Mayor Adrian Fenty announced Tuesday that seven had died in the crash. Earlier, the District of Columbia Fire Department Web site announced that three bodies had been found in addition to the six fatalities reported Monday.

Fenty said two victims were hospitalized in critical condition.

Hersman said investigators expect to recover recorders from the train was struck, providing valuable information that might help determine why the crash occurred. But the train triggered the collision was part of an old “thousand-series” fleet that was not equipped with the devices, she said at a news conference.

Earlier, Hersman told The Associated Press that the NTSB had warned in 2006 that there were safety problems related to trains rolling back on their tracks.

“When the train rolled back, the operator was not able to stop it,” she said. Hersman said the NTSB recommended that the thousand-series fleet be phased out or retrofitted to make them more crashworthy.

Neither was done, she said, adding that the NTSB considered the lack of action “unacceptable.”

Monday’s crash was the worst in the history of Metrorail, which has shuttled tourists and federal workers to and from the nation’s capital for more than three decades.

Maya Maroto recalls hearing the sound of “metal on metal” as the train she was riding rear-ended the other one.

“We were going full speed _ I didn’t hear any breaking. Everything was just going normally. Then there was a very loud impact. We all fell out of our seats. Then the train filled up with smoke. I was coughing,” the 31-year-old said. “It sounded like metal on metal. It felt like we hit a car. I couldn’t imagine it was another train.”

Maroto, of Burtonsville, Md., said there was confusion after the impact because no announcements were made immediately. She said some passengers wanted to climb out, but others were afraid of the electrified third rail.

Tijuana Cox, 21, was in the train that was hit. She had her arm in a sling Tuesday, saying she sprained it in the accident.

“Everybody just went forward and came back,” with people’s knees hitting the backs of the seats in front of them, said Cox, of Lanham, Md.

The only other fatal crash in the Metro subway system occurred on Jan. 13, 1982, when three people died as a result of a derailment beneath downtown. That was a day of disaster in the capital: Shortly before the subway crash, an Air Florida plane slammed into the 14th Street Bridge immediately after takeoff from Washington National Airport across the Potomac River. The plane crash, during a severe snowstorm, killed 78 people.

In January 2007, a subway train derailed in downtown Washington, sending 20 people to the hospital and prompting the rescue of 60 others from the tunnel. In November 2006, two Metro track workers were struck and killed by an out-of-service train. An investigation found that the train operator failed to follow safety procedures. Another Metro worker was struck and killed in May 2006.

London-based mining group Anglo American rejected a merger bid by its Swiss rival Xstrata on Monday, snubbing a move that could have forged the two into one of the world’s biggest miners.

The potential tie-up between Xstrata and British-South African firm Anglo American was the latest sign of consolidation pressure in the sector after the collapse of a deal by Rio Tinto with China.

The price of Anglo American shares had soared to close 4.62 percent higher in London trading on Monday after Xstrata said at the weekend that it had approached its rival about a merger.

Anglo American is worth 35 billion US dollars (25 billion euros) and Xstrata 33 billion dollars.

A merger could have created a company worth more than Rio Tinto, which earlier this month cancelled a controversial tie-up with China’s Chinalco in favour of a joint venture with the world’s biggest miner BHP Billiton.

On Sunday, Xstrata had said it was seeking a possible “merger of equals,” adding that such a move would be “highly compelling” and “significantly enhance shareholder returns.”

The activities of the two companies overlap in many areas. Both own coal assets in Australia and South Africa and there had been potential for savings across their copper mining operations.

But Anglo American said in its statement that “a combination with Xstrata would profoundly impact the nature of the Group’s portfolio.”

A merger risked “significantly diluting Anglo American’s unique exposure to the structurally attractive platinum, iron ore and diamond markets while increasing exposure to nickel and zinc,” the company said.

Anglo American is cutting 19,000 jobs this year after posting a 29-percent fall in 2008 net earnings because of sliding demand for raw materials amid the world’s worst economic downturn since the 1930s.

The group has also come in for much criticism from shareholders after chief executive Cynthia Carroll decided against paying a dividend for 2008.

Carroll, who has headed the Anglo-South African firm since March 2007, has also reduced Anglo American’s 2009 investment programme by half to 4.5 billion US dollars because of global economic uncertainty.

Earlier this month, Rio Tinto decided against allowing Chinese state-owned aluminium giant Chinalco to invest 19.5 billion dollars in the Anglo-Australian firm.

Rio has been searching for extra funds after its purchase last year of Canadian aluminium group Alcan, which saddled the company with some 38 billion dollars of debt.

But Chinalco’s emergence as a suitor sparked a political firestorm over ownership of Australian assets, leaving the Australian government with a difficult choice — to risk angering either its electorate or China, a key market.

Instead, Rio unveiled an iron ore joint venture with BHP Billiton and a rights issue worth 15.2 billion US dollars. BHP meanwhile abandoned a hostile takeover bid for Rio last November.

US aerospace giant Boeing is readying its 787 Dreamliner for first test flight in the coming days, banking on the new fuel-efficient plane to sail above stiff market headwinds.

Boeing expects the much-delayed Dreamliner to have its maiden flight by June 30 on a schedule that puts delivery of the plane to first customer, All Nippon Airways (ANA), in the first quarter of 2010.

“We’re very much looking forward to seeing our airplane take to the skies,” Marc Birtel, a Boeing spokesman, said in a phone interview with AFP Friday.

No specific date has been announced for the flight.

Nearly two years behind the initial schedule, the company has delayed the Dreamliner’s first flight four times since launching the program in 2004 because of production problems.

The Chicago-based company announced Wednesday final assembly had begun on the first aircraft destined for ANA, which has ordered 50 Dreamliners.

“This is a great day for the 787 team,” Scott Fancher, vice president and general manager of the Dreamliner program, said in a statement.

“In 2004, ANA demonstrated great faith in Boeing and the 787 by placing the largest launch order for any new airplane in Boeing history.”

Boeing has built six Dreamliners that will be used in the flight-test program to assure the plane’s safety for the company and for regulators, including the Federal Aviation Administration and foreign authorities, Birtel said.

“The main mantra is safety,” he said.

Boeing says it has 865 orders from 56 airlines for the cutting-edge plane, claiming it is the “fastest-selling all-new jetliner in aviation history.”

The 787 Dreamliner is the company’s first new model in more than a decade and features 50 percent plastic composites, compared with 12 percent on its 777s, helping lower fuel consumption.

According to Boeing, the 787 will use 20 percent less fuel than similarly sized airplanes, reducing emissions by a similar amount.

Plagued by problems from a complex international production system and a two-month machinists strike last year, the Dreamliner’s delays have irked customers and resulted in order cancellations.

The latest delay, announced last December, postponed first flight into the second quarter of 2009, from the fourth quarter of 2008. Launch customer ANA complained about the new delay for first delivery of the plane which initially was set for the third quarter of 2009.

In January, Russian carrier S7 Airlines announced the cancellation of an order for 15 Dreamliners. The next month Boeing said that Dubai-based aircraft leasing company LCAL had cancelled 16 of the 21 planes ordered.

The launch of the new plane comes amid turbulence in the aviation industry as the global economy slumps in the worst economic crisis in decades.

A plunge in passenger air travel has led to massive cancellations and deferrals of aircraft orders.

The International Air Transport Association projects that passenger traffic will fall eight percent this year and airlines could lose nine billion dollars, almost double the estimate three months ago.

That would be on top of 10.4 billion dollars lost in 2008, according to IATA.

Boeing earlier this month lowered its outlook for the world commercial airplane market over the next two decades because of the global economic downturn, slumping air traffic and volatile fuel prices.

But it forecast the growing Asia Pacific region will lead the commercial airplane market in both units and value.

Japanese carriers buy almost exclusively from the US aerospace giant, which is keeping a close eye on arch rival Airbus.

The France-based manufacturer, a unit of the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company, has begun working on a new long-range A350 plane aimed at competing with the Dreamliner, expected to fly in mid-2013.

Boeing’s financial losses have shaken investor confidence and the company has announced 10,000 job cuts for 2009, including 4,500 in the commercial aircraft division.

Medical examiners have identified the first 11 of 50 bodies recovered from the Air France flight that plunged into the Atlantic three weeks ago, officials said Sunday. Five bodies were identified as Brazilian men, five as Brazilian women and one as a “foreigner of the male sex,” the Public Safety Department of the northeastern state of Pernambuco said in a statement. The department did not reveal the nationality of the non-Brazilian victim.

Dental records, fingerprints and DNA samples were used to identify the bodies, the statement said. Investigators are reviewing all remains, debris and baggage at a base set up in Recife, capital of Pernambuco.

The families of the Brazilian victims and the embassy in Brazil representing the foreigner’s home country have been notified, but the identities will not be publicized in keeping with the families’ wishes, the statement said.

Air France Flight 447 fell into the ocean off the northeast coast of Brazil on the night of May 31, killing all 228 people aboard.

Thus far, 50 bodies have been retrieved from the ocean.

Searchers from Brazil, France, the United States and other countries are methodically scanning the surface and depths of the Atlantic for signs of the Airbus A330, which crashed after running into thunderstorms en route from Rio de Janeiro to Paris.

Still missing are the plane’s flight data and voice recorders, thought to be deep under water. French-chartered ships are trolling a search area with a radius of 50 miles (80 kilometers), pulling U.S. Navy underwater listening devices attached to 19,700 feet (6,000 meters) of cable. The black boxes send out an electronic tapping sound that can be heard up to 1.25 miles (2 kilometers) away.

Brazilian and American officials said that as of Sunday evening no signals from the black boxes had been picked up.

Without the black boxes to help explain what went wrong, the investigation has focused on a flurry of automated messages sent by the plane minutes before it lost contact. One of the messages suggests external speed sensors had iced over, destabilizing the plane’s control systems.

Canadian telecommunications firm Nortel, in bankruptcy protection since January, will sell most of its wireless business to Nokia Siemens Networks for 650 million dollars.

Nortel also announced Friday it was making headway in discussions with other parties to sell its other businesses.

Nortel will apply to delist its common shares from trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange, the company said in a statement.

The agreement with Nokia also specifies that at least 2,500 Nortel employees can continue working with the new owner.

Nortel head Mike Zafirovski said the value of Nortel’s wireless business was recognized worldwide and the agreement with Nokia represented the best path forward.

“We have determined the best way to do this is to find buyers for our businesses who can carry Nortel innovation forward, while preserving employment to the greatest extent possible,” he said.

“This will ensure Nortel’s strong assets — technologies, customer relationships, and employees — continue to play an important role in driving the future of communications.

But the announcement foreshadows the liquidation of the struggling Canadian company that was once a pillar of the country’s telecoms industry.

The Nortel wireless business is the second largest supplier of Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) infrastructure in the world.

CDMA is a channel access method utilized by various radio communication technologies that allow several transmitters to send information simultaneously over a single communication channel.

Nortel wireless does business with three of the five top CDMA operators globally, including Verizon Wireless, which operates the largest wireless voice and data network in the United States, company officials said.

Nortel said it will file the asset sale agreement with the US Bankruptcy Court in Delaware. A similar motion for the bidding procedures will be filed with the Ontario Superior Court of Justice, the company said.

Once Canada’s largest company, Nortel has been struggling since the dot.com collapse.

When it filed for bankruptcy protection in both the United States and Canada in January, Nortel faced some 107 million dollars in interest on its debt alone.

The company lost 3.4 billion US dollars in the third quarter of 2008 as revenues fell 14 percent.

Last year, Nortel said it was slashing 2,100 jobs mostly in North America and would transfer another 1,000 jobs to lower-cost countries, following deep losses.

Nortel, which did business in 150 countries and had about 26,000 employees around the world in February, traces its history back to 1882 as the mechanical department of Bell Telephone Canada.

It was later known as Northern Electric and Northern Telecom before changing its name in 1999 to Nortel Networks Corporation.

June 20 – The CEO of Singapore Airlines <SIAL.SI>, the world’s biggest by market value, will take a 20 percent pay cut as the carrier looks to cut costs after seeing profits battered by weak travel demand and volatile oil prices. CEO Chew Choon Seng’s management will also see cuts of between 10 and 20 percent from July, while the directors have volunteered for a cut in fees of 20 percent.

The airline said in a statement it had also agreed with its more than 2,300 pilots to take one day of unpaid leave a month. The airline has cut capacity this year on a slump in business class passenger travel and cargo demand.

It said these measures would save S$21 million ($14.4 million) this financial year. Other Singapore firms have also cut pay instead of laying off workers, while government ministers have seen reduced performance-related pay in the city-state’s worst ever recession.

The global aviation industry is expected to lose $9 billion this year, the International Air Transport Association forecast this month. The CEO of British Airways <BA.L>, Willie Walsh, is working for no pay next month.

Health experts have long warned of the risk of obesity, but a new Japanese study warns that being very skinny is even more dangerous, and that slightly chubby people live longer.

People who are a little overweight at age 40 live six to seven years longer than very thin people, whose average life expectancy was shorter by some five years than that of obese people, the study found.

“We found skinny people run the highest risk,” said Shinichi Kuriyama, an associate professor at Tohoku University’s Graduate School of Medicine who worked on the long-term study of middle-aged and elderly people.

“We had expected thin people would show the shortest life expectancy but didn’t expect the difference to be this large,” he told AFP by telephone.

The study was conducted by a health ministry team led by Tohoku University professor Ichiro Tsuji and covered 50,000 people between the ages of 40 and 79 over 12 years in the northern Japanese prefecture of Miyagi.

“There had been an argument that thin people’s lives are short because many of them are sick or smoke. But the difference was almost unchanged even when we eliminated these factors,” Kuriyama said.

Main reasons for the shorter lifespans of skinny people were believed to include their heightened vulnerability to diseases such as pneumonia and the fragility of their blood vessels, he said.

But Kuriyama warned he was not recommending people eat as much as they want.

“It’s better that thin people try to gain normal weight, but we doubt it’s good for people of normal physique to put on more fat,” he said.

The study divided people into four weight classes at age 40 according to their body mass index, or BMI, calculated by dividing a person’s weight in kilograms by their squared height in metres.

The normal range is 18.5 to 25, with thinness defined as under 18.5. A BMI of 25 to 30 was classed as slightly overweight and an index above 30 as obese.