MJ's doc to be charged with manslaughter

Michael Jackson’s personal physician, who allegedly administered strong anaesthetic to the star before his death, will be charged with

MJ's personal doctor Conrad Murray (AP Photo)

manslaughter, according to recent reports.

Dr Conrad Murray, who apparently admitted giving the sedative Propofol via an IV drip to help the singer sleep, will purportedly be taken into custody within two weeks.

According to Fox News, which quoted an anonymous police source, investigators may not go for a more serious charge of second-degree murder unless new “smoking gun” evidence emerges, reports Times Online .

Murray recently uploaded a video on YouTube , saying, “I have done all I can do [to help the police]. I told the truth, and I have faith the truth will prevail.”

The medic has not been the only one at the centre of Jackson’s death probe. The music legend’s dermatologist, Dr Arnold Klein, has also been under the police scanner after he confessed giving the singer Demerol, a painkiller.

Meanwhile, Jackson, who died on June 25 at his rented LA mansion, is to be laid to rest at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California, on August 29, on what would have been his 51st birthday.

Michael Jackson won't fade from limelight soon

AP

LOS ANGELES – The public mourning of Michael Jackson may be done, but the saga that was his personal life is far from over.

Nothing made that more clear than the one surprise of Tuesday's memorial service, watched by millions around the world: the emotional speech by Jackson's 11-year-old daughter, Paris-Michael.

"Ever since I was born, Daddy has been the best father I could imagine," she said, dissolving into tears and turning into the arms of her aunt Janet. "I just want to say I love him so much."

Custody of Jackson's three children is one of the biggest legal issues still in play. In his 2002 will, Jackson made his wishes clear — his three children should remain under the care of his mother, Katherine.

Debbie Rowe, the biological mother of Paris and her 12-year-old brother, Prince Michael, has indicated she may seek custody. The surrogate mother of Jackson's youngest child, 7-year-old Prince Michael II, is unknown. A custody hearing was scheduled for Monday.

As the world paused to remember Jackson, authorities released his death certificate, which did not list a cause of death. The official determination will likely wait until toxicology results are completed, which could be weeks away.

Assistant Chief Coroner Ed Winter said Jackson's brain, or at least part of it, was still being held by investigators and would be returned to the family for interment once neuropathology tests were completed.

Investigators have honed in on drugs that were administered to the insomniac Jackson. The powerful sedative Diprivan, which is usually administered by anesthesiologists in hospitals, was found in his home, according to a law enforcement official.

Jackson's final resting place was another unknown. Some have suggested burying him at his former home Neverland Ranch but special permission is needed. A private memorial was held at a cemetery in the Hollywood Hills that is the resting place of many stars, but it does not appear Jackson will be buried among them.

No plans have been announced for Neverland, but it's already drawn comparisons as a potential West Coast version of Graceland.

Then there's Jackson's money. He died deeply in debt, but with tremendous star power, earning potential and an estate potentially worth $500 million.

Former Sony Music chairman and CEO Tommy Mottola has said Jackson left dozens of songs that included newer material and leftover works from some of his biggest albums. Mottola predicted the potential playlist was bigger than the one left behind by Elvis.

The singer also left behind an elaborate production dubbed "The Dome Project," which could be Jackson's last complete video piece. Little is publicly known about the production, but its existence has been confirmed by two knowledgeable sources who spoke to The Associated Press on condition they not be identified because they signed confidentiality agreements.

There also is more than 100 hours of footage of preparations for his London concerts, which were canceled because of his death. Randy Phillips, president and CEO of concert promoter AEG Live, said last week that the company also has enough material for two live albums.

On Tuesday, about 20,000 people gathered inside the Staples Center on Tuesday for a somber, spiritual ceremony, watched by untold millions more around the world.

Crowds gathered outside Harlem's Apollo Theater in New York to soak it in. In Santiago, Chile, national police band played "We Are the World" during the traditional guard change at the presidential palace. About 50 fans lit candles and laid flowers in the main square in Stockholm, as "Billie Jean" and "Earth Song" poured out of a small stereo.

In London, dozens of fans sheltered under umbrellas against the rain as they watched the event on a big screen outside the 02 Arena, where Jackson was to have performed 50 comeback shows starting next week. Many more stayed dry at home after the BBC announced it would cancel scheduled programming and show the ceremony live.

"His whole life was a global broadcast in a way, so I suppose it's fitting that his death also is," said barista Robert Anderson, 26, in London.

Calculating just how many people in total watched the ceremony — around the world and across all platforms — will take several days and even then will likely have to resort to an approximation, given the huge variety of outlets.

In Los Angeles, a star-studded lineup of performers closely linked to Jackson's life and music remembered Jackson as an unparalleled singer, dancer and humanitarian whose music united people of all backgrounds.

"Don't focus on the scars, focus on the journey," said the Rev. Al Sharpton, whose fiery eulogy was one emotional high point of the service.

"There wasn't nothing strange about your daddy. It was strange what your daddy had to deal with!" he said to Jackson's three children in the front row, drawing the longest ovation of the service.

Unlike Jackson's life, the ceremony was not spectacular, extravagant or bizarre. Outside the arena, however, the celebrity-industrial complex that Jackson helped create was in full swing.

More than 3,000 police officers massed downtown to keep the ticketless at bay. Helicopters followed the golden casket as it was driven over blocked-off freeways from Forest Lawn cemetery to the Staples Center. A bazaar of T-shirts, buttons, photos and other memorabilia sprouted in the blocks around the memorial. Movie theaters played the service live and people paused around the world to watch.

Inside, however, the atmosphere was churchlike, assisted by an enormous video image of a stained-glass window with red-gold clouds blowing past that was projected behind the stage.

The Rev. Lucious W. Smith of the Friendship Baptist Church in Pasadena gave the greeting, standing on the same stage where Jackson had been rehearsing for a comeback concert before his death on June 25 at age 50.

The ceremony ended with Jackson's family on stage, amid a choir, singing "Heal the World."

"All around us are people of different cultures, different religions, different nationalities," Rev. Smith said as he closed the service. "And yet the music of Michael Jackson brings us together."

Deficit-ridden Los Angeles asked Jackson fans to help pay the bill for police and other public servants needed for the entertainer's memorial service.

A Web site was posted Tuesday seeking donations to cover the costs, estimated at between $1.5 million and $4 million, according to Matt Szabo, a spokesman for Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.

But Jack Kyser, founding economist of the Kyser Center for Economic Research of the Los Angeles Economic Development Corporation, estimates the city could rake in $4 million from the event, thanks to the throng of media and other visitors who stayed at hotels, ate at restaurants and shopped in Los Angeles.

Kyser believes the city also got a major image boost because the memorial service went off without any major problems. "This thing went off very smoothly," Kyser said. "I think you had some good exposure for downtown and for the entire city."

US endorses Indian role in Afghanistan

WASHINGTON: The United States has endorsed India's regional primacy, including the role it is playing in Afghanistan, against strenuous objections from Pakistan.

In the process, Washington also rubbished Islamabad's allegations that New Delhi was using Kabul to destabilize Pakistan, saying once again that Pakistan needs to worry about its own terrorists rather than Indian presence in Afghanistan.

Key American pronouncements in this regard came during an interview by US Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan (Af-Pak) Richard Holbrooke to a Pakistani television network, whose host asked him about India's locus standi vis-à-vis Afghanistan when "it does not have a common border or a Pashtun population."

"Of course...India will have a role. It is the second biggest country in the world! What India does matters to the world!" Holbrooke exclaimed.

When the host followed up by asking Holbrooke about what Pakistan claims are subversive actions carried out by over-staffed (by spies) Indian consulates in Afghanistan bordering Pakistan, Holbrooke simply laughed at the idea.

"Pakistan has told me India has hundreds of people in (the consulate) at Kandahar," he chortled. "I asked people...asked Americans and the UN...how big is the Indian consulate in Kandahar...and they said six to eight people."

"Pakistan does not have to worry about Indians in Afghanistan. It has to worry about miscreants in western Pakistan," Holbrooke advised.

The allegation that India is supporting separatist elements in Balochistan has become a part of the new Pakistani narrative. Some Pakistanis see a grand conspiracy involving New Delhi, Washington, and even Israel to divide Pakistan and divest it of its "nuclear assets." No less a person than Pakistan's interior secretary Rehman Malik offered "proof" of Indian involvement in Balochistan to Pakistani law-makers recently.

While even the liberal Pakistani media has scoffed at the idea of India's involvement in Balochistan, it has been advanced by some American experts in Washington who are seen as sympathetic to Islamabad. Christine Fair, an analyst with Rand Corporation, recently suggested darkly that New Delhi was not entirely above board, saying Indian personnel were doing more than just distributing visas at its consulates bordering Pakistan's western border.

But Holbrooke, who would have access to definitive intelligence, showed little patience for such conspiracy theories that appear aimed at manipulating domestic public opinion in Pakistan against India. He said there is "no evidence at all, that Indians are supporting miscreants" in Pakistan along its border with Afghanistan.

Further defending New Delhi's role in Afghanistan, Holbrooke said the United States did not tell India what to do in that country. India had given $ 1 billion to Afghanistan and "the assistance is very public." India had built Afghanistan’s parliament building, "a very useful road in the south west" linking Iran, trained agriculture experts and given scholarships.

"All of that is open. What India is doing is part of the international efforts. I don't think it should be of concern to Pakistan," Holbrooke said. It is the first time that any administration official has so bluntly told Pakistan that it was way out of league and out of line in objecting to India's presence in Afghanistan, with which New Delhi claims historical and millennial ties, and a contiguity that predates Islam. It appeared to be part of the many "painful, specific" conversations that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton recently said US officials were having with Pakistan to explain its place in the scheme of things.

Holbrooke also avoided the interviewer's effort to draw him into a discussion on Kashmir, saying "my job is only Afghanistan and Pakistan...and when I go to India it is only to consult them and keep them abreast and to let them know what is happening."

He joked that the media was constantly trying to get him "to say the K-word and I try not to say it."

NATO ships, helicopters hunt down 7 pirates

AP – This is a photo made available by NATO CC-MAR HQ Northwood, England, taken from the Dutch vessel, HNLMS …

NAIROBI, Kenya – NATO warships and helicopters pursued Somali pirates for seven hours after they attacked a Norwegian tanker, NATO spokesmen said Sunday, and the high-speed chase only ended when warning shots were fired at the pirates' skiff.

Seven pirates attempted to attack the Norwegian-flagged MV Front Ardenne late Saturday but fled after crew took evasive maneuvers and alerted warships in the area, said Portuguese Lt. Cmdr. Alexandre Santos Fernandes, aboard a warship in the Gulf of Aden, and Cmdr. Chris Davies, of NATO's maritime headquarters in England.

"How the attack was thwarted is unclear, it appears to have been the actions of the tanker," Davies said. Fernandes said no shots were fired at the tanker.

Davies said the pirates sailed into the path of the Canadian warship Winnipeg, which was escorting a World Food Program delivery ship through the Gulf of Aden. The American ship USS Halyburton was also in the area and joined the chase.

"There was a lengthy pursuit, over seven hours," Davies said.

The pirates hurled weapons into the dark seas as the Canadian and U.S. warships closed in. The ships are part of NATO's anti-piracy mission.

"The skiff abandoned the scene and tried to escape to Somali territory," Fernandes said. "It was heading toward Bossaso we managed to track them ... warning shots have been made after several attempts to stop the vessel."

Both ships deployed helicopters, and naval officers hailed the pirates over loudspeakers and finally fired warning shots to stop them, Fernandes said, but not before the pirates had dumped most of their weapons overboard. NATO forces boarded the skiff, where they found a rocket-propelled grenade, and interrogated, disarmed and released the pirates.

The pirates cannot be prosecuted under Canadian law because they did not attack Canadian citizens or interests and the crime was not committed on Canadian territory.

"When a ship is part of NATO, the detention of person is a matter for the national authorities," Fernandes said. "It stops being a NATO issue and starts being a national issue."

The pirates' release underscores the difficulties navies have in fighting rampant piracy off the coast of lawless Somalia. Most of the time foreign navies simply disarm and release the pirates they catch due to legal complications and logistical difficulties in transporting pirates and witnesses to court.

Pirates have attacked more than 80 boats this year alone, four times the number assaulted in 2003, according to the Kuala Lumpur-based International Maritime Bureau. They now hold at least 18 ships — including a Belgian tanker seized Saturday with 10 crew aboard — and over 310 crew hostage, according to an Associated Press count.

Tomb sweeping day in China

BEIJING: Millions of Chinese visited cemeteries across the country to clean tombs and offer flowers to their forefathers on Qingming, the traditional tomb sweeping day, which is akin to the Indian ceremony of sradha or tarpan. But the occasion also sparked a debate about the high costs of funerals and death related ceremonies.

"I will be going to Australia soon for study. I have come here to get the blessings of my forefathers so that I am successful," Liu Xu, a 19-year-old girl visiting Beijing’s biggest cemetery of Babaoshan told TNN on Saturday, which marked the All Souls Day in China.

The dead are being pandered with a wide range of goodies with family members leaving bottles of liquor, packets of cigarettes, sweets and an assortment of fruits and foods on the tombs. Most tombs are decorated with flowers, both real and paper ones, while some of them have been offered incense sticks and tiny bottles of perfume.

The vast cemetery, which holds the remains of more than 50,000 people, has turned into a sea of money-fake paper money given to the dead to make their life in the other world comfortable. Paper money resembling past and present Chinese currencies besides the US dollar carry prints for exaggerated sums like one million yuan or $10,000.

"I am here to pay respect to my parents. But the younger generation is no more keen about such traditions," Zhang Qing, 72, who had traveled 90 kms to a Beijing cemetery told TNN, while repainting the names of his parents on old tombstones.

Indeed, most visitors to the tombs in Beijing were either the elderly or middle-aged people. There were very few young people to be seen apart from some children accompanying grandparents. The young mostly pay their respects by burning paper money in street corners near their houses instead of taking the trouble of visiting cemeteries.

The Ministry of Railways said it was expecting about 22 million passengers to travel during the three-day tomb sweeping holidays that began Friday. But a lot of passengers would be making the best of the holidays and traveling for pleasure instead of visiting tombs.

Thousands of young people wrote or read complained voiced over the Internet about the high cost of maintaining tombs and traditions related to funerals. Many ranted against what they called malpractises of the funeral industry, which was charging abnormal sums for flower wreaths and things like urns that are used at the tombs.

Tombs usually contain the ashes of people cremated in electric crematoriums. Very few, if any, are actually buried because of the high cost of burials and official discouragement of the practise. In many cases, tombs are concrete boxes mounted on walls instead of being stand-alone pieces. In such cases, family members use gum tapes to paste flowers on them and leave wines and foods at the foot of the wall for the dead to partake.

Reality TV star Jade Goody laid to rest

LONDON: The British reality TV star Jade Goody, who lived a short but eventful life in the public eye, was buried on Saturday with thousands of Jade Goody's funeral at St John Baptist church at Buckhurst Hill in London. (Reuters Photo) More Pictures fans attending her last journey. The 27-year-old was laid to rest after a service at St John Baptist church in Buckhurst Hill in Essex, as per her last wishes. Her funeral attracted international media attention, with cameramen running along the vintage Rolls Royce carrying her coffin, to capture the one perfect shot of the star's last journey. The mother of two died on 22 March after losing her seven month long public battle with cervical cancer. Goody's funeral procession began its journey from her childhood home of Bermondsey in the morning and ended at the St John Baptist church. The TV star wanted her funeral to be "a celebration of her life" and true to her words, it was far from a solemn occasion as the crowd stood applauding in the rain when her cortege passed by. "She will have a big smile on her face when she sees what is going on today," Goody's publicist Clifford told reporters. "In life she loved being loved and it is pretty clear that this is the overwhelming feeling today," Clifford added.

Over 90 dead in Italy earthquake

L'AQUILA: A powerful earthquake struck central Italy as residents slept on Monday morning, killing more than 90 people and making up to 50,000 homeless.

"Some towns in the area have been virtually destroyed in their entirety," a somber Gianfranco Fini, speaker of the lower house of parliament, said before the chamber observed a moment of silence.

The Italian news agency Ansa, quoting rescue workers, said the death toll had reached 92 nearly 12 hours after the quake struck.

Most of the dead were in L'Aquila, a 13th-century mountain city about 100 km (60 miles) east of Rome, and surrounding towns and villages in the Abruzzo region.

Houses, historic churches and other buildings were demolished in the worst quake to hit Italy in nearly 30 years. Hundreds of people were injured and some 15,000 buildings declared off limits.

"I woke up hearing what sounded like a bomb," said Angela Palumbo, 87, said as she walked on a street in L'Aquila.

"We managed to escape with things falling all around us. Everything was shaking, furniture falling. I don't remember ever seeing anything like this in my life," she said.

Interior Minister Roberto Maroni visited the area and said the death toll had surpassed 50.

Luca Spoletini, a Civil Protection Department spokesman, said the quake may have made up to 50,000 people homeless. Some 26 cities and towns were seriously damaged.

In the small town of Onna alone, 10 people were killed, said a photographer who saw a mother and her infant daughter being carried away in the same coffin.

Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi cancelled a trip to Moscow and declared a national emergency, which would free up funds for aid and rebuilding. Pope Benedict said he was saying a special prayer for the victims.

Older houses and buildings made of stone, particularly in outlying villages that have not seen much restoration, collapsed like straw houses.

Hospitals appealed for help from doctors and nurses throughout Italy. The stench of gas filled some parts of the mountain towns and villages as mains ruptured.

Residents of Rome, which is rarely hit by seismic activity, were woken by the quake, which rattled furniture and swayed lights in most of central Italy. It struck shortly after 3:30 a.m. (0130 GMT) and registered between 5.8 and 6.3 magnitude.

Pope decries African wars at Mass for 1 million

– Pope decries African wars at Mass with thousands

LUANDA, Angola – Pope Benedict XVI celebrated Mass for the largest gathering of his African pilgrimage Sunday, telling a crowd on the outskirts of this seaside capital that reconciliation on the war-ravaged continent would come only with a "change of heart, a new way of thinking."

The Vatican said as many as 1 million people turned out on the dusty field near a cement factory to hear the pope at the last major event of his seven-day trip, which began Tuesday in Cameroon.

Speaking from a tented pink altar, the pope said evils in Africa had "reduced the poor to slavery and deprived future generations of the resources needed to create a more solid and just society."

"How true it is that war can destroy everything of value," said Benedict, wearing a pink cape and mopping his sweaty brow with a white handkerchief kept inside his sleeve.

Later he was scheduled to meet with representatives of women's rights groups to praise the role of women in African society.

Angolans have been enslaved, subjugated and at war almost nonstop since Portuguese colonizers brought the first Catholic missionaries in 1491. Many of the slaves taken to Brazil, for example, came from Angola.

The Catholic Church was an ally of the colonizers who discriminated against the people until independence from Portugal in 1975, when civil war erupted, in part fueled by the country's oil and diamond wealth.

Some 15,000 died, including missionaries, before the war ended in 2002, and the scars still are evident among the many people who lost limbs in one of the most heavily mined countries in the world.

A Marxist revolution also has left scars, though the country's president for 30 years, Eduardo dos Santos, abandoned communism and improved relations with the church starting in the late 1980s.

Critics say last year's massive election victory was marred by fraud and corruption and that the pope must beware of allowing his visit, sponsored by the state, to be seen as legitimizing an authoritarian regime. The bishops in Angola twice have denounced the government for leaving its people mired in poverty while leaders enrich themselves off oil and diamonds.

Since he arrived on Friday from Cameroon, the pope has met with dos Santos and spoken out against corruption in Africa, the continent with the fastest-growing Catholic population in the world.

Before he said Mass on Sunday, Benedict clasped his hands, as if in prayer, and offered his condolences to the families of two 20-year-old women trampled to death in a stampede at a Luanda stadium before a youth event he addressed on Saturday.

He also wished a speedy recovery to some 40 people injured in the crush. Dozens of others collapsed and were treated at the site for heat exhaustion.

Later, the Vatican's No. 2 official, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, blessed the bodies of the two victims, laid out under white sheets at Josina Machel Hospital. Accompanied by Angola's Foreign Minister Assuncao Does Anjos, the cardinal visited with injured victims.

State radio appealed to people to take water and food to Sunday's Mass. People also carried parasols and stools amid the hooting cars and motorbikes making their way to see the pope. Some men hoisted children onto their shoulders and mothers strapped babies to their backs.

Even before he landed in Africa, the pope provoked protests after he told reporters on his chartered Alitalia jet that condoms were not the answer to Africa's severe AIDS epidemic, suggesting that sexual behavior was the issue.

He condemned sexual violence against women, but also chided the 45 African countries including Angola that have approved abortion in cases of rape or incest or when a mother's life is in danger.

Gunman kills 3 officers, wounds 4th in Oakland

OAKLAND, Calif. – Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has ordered flags at California's state capitol flown at half-staff for the three Oakland police officers killed by a gunman.

Police said a parolee with an "extensive criminal history" opened fire at a routine traffic stop Saturday in the city and hours later gunned down members of a SWAT team who were searching for him.

Schwarzenegger headed for a meeting with Oakland police on Sunday.

A fourth police officer who was wounded Saturday is hospitalized and battling for his life.

The gunman also was killed Saturday.

The Oakland Police Department says it was the worst day in its history. Never before had three police officers been killed in the line of duty on the same day.

Rapturous welcome awaits Indian Idol trio in Nepal

KATHMANDU: A rapturous welcome awaits the top trio of Indian Idol, who would be holding their first concert in the Himalayan republic next Saturday.

Sourabhee Debbarma, dubbed India’s Shakira by Nepal, who made history by becoming the first woman to win the title, and her biggest contenders army boy Kapil Thapa and Asansol’s Torsha Sarkar will be singing before a packed ground in Kathmandu valley and Pokhara city.

Kathmandu-based event management company DMI, that also represents Sony in Nepal, is flying over the trio on Friday, its chief Raju Singh told TNN. The first concert will be at the open ground in front of the zoo in Lalitpur, where a year ago Nepali youngsters had braved a downpour and slush to turn out in droves for a concert by the top contenders of Indian Idol’s third edition.

The second concert is at the Exhibition Grounds in Pokhara. Also appearing with the Idol finalists would be rising Nepali pop star Kranti Ale.

“It is going to be interesting this time,” said Singh. In 2008, Nepal was rooting for Prashant Tamang, who went on to win on the strength of votes pouring in from the Nepali diaspora who revelled in his Nepali ancestry.

This time too, there was considerable support for Kapil, whose ancestors hail from Nepal’s Baitadi district. His elder brother Keshav visited the Pashupatinath temple in Kathmandu on the eve of the grand finale to pray for Kapil’s success.

“This time, there was a lot of support for Sourabhee in Nepal,” Singh says. “Because of her oriental looks, she was not regarded as a foreigner by Nepal. However, she won support mostly due to her talent.”

Last year, Prashant’s progress was watched keenly by the Nepali Prime Minister’s Office as well and the then premier Girija Prasad Koirala invited Prashant to tea twice and plied him with gifts, including a traditional Nepali cap.

It remains to be seen this time if Sourabhee would receive a similar invite from the new Maoist Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda.

The former revolutionary is said to have been a hummer in his young days and even now finds time to pen lyrics, some of which have been used in films directed by Maoists and revolutionary plays. Though she lacks Nepali roots, perhaps Sourabhee would also be able to strike a chord of empathy coming as she does from a state that has been mostly under communist rule.