World

TV colleague witnessed abuse: court

A former colleague of television identity Gavan Disney has testified that he watched him fondle and abuse a junior colleague.
Read more [World from UnFox News]

Green Power Takes Root in the Chinese Desert

Using carrots and sticks, Beijing is steering an immense push toward wind and solar power, while the U.S. is just starting.
Read more [World from UnFox News]

U.S. Job Losses Rise and Unemployment Reaches 9.5%

The pace of job losses quickened last month with the American economy shedding 467,000 jobs, as unemployment rose to its highest level in 26 years.
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French: Air France plane hit the sea belly first (AP)

AP - Air France Flight 447 slammed into the Atlantic Ocean, intact and belly first, at such a high speed that the 228 people aboard probably had no time to even inflate their life jackets, French investigators said Thursday in their first report into the June 1 accident.

FBI notes: Saddam Hussein sought familiar refuge (AP)

AP - After the 2003 invasion of Iraq, Saddam Hussein stayed in Baghdad until he saw "the city was about to fall." Months later, he was caught hiding at the same farm where he had fled in 1959 after taking part in an attempt to kill the country's prime minister.

Marines suffer first casualties in Afghan campaign (AP)

AP - U.S. Marines suffered their first casualties of a massive new military campaign Thursday as they engaged in sporadic gunbattles along 55 miles of Taliban-controlled heartland in southern Afghanistan.

Peru bus collision kills 23 near Lake Titicaca (AP)

AP - Two buses crashed head-on Thursday on a mountainous road near Lake Titicaca in Peru, killing at least 23 people and injuring 50 more, police said.
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Biden Visits Iraq, Underscoring Fragile Sovereignty

Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. began a two-day mission that he said was intended to “reestablish contact” with Iraqi leaders.
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US forces target Taliban stronghold

Offensive involving 4,000 marines and Afghan soldiers aims to wrest Helmand province.
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Roddick, a one-slam wonder?

Having not won a grand slam since 2003 Andy Roddick must hope his work with coach Larry Stefanki will lead to success

When Andy Murray was on his way to the US Open junior title, his mum, Judy, bought up a pile of pin-on badges at Flushing Meadows bearing the words "Go Andy" and handed them out to those supporting him. Those badges, of course, had been manufactured for the fans of Andy Roddick, at the time the reigning US Open champion, but as Judy said: "Nobody will know." How things have changed in the intervening five years. Roddick, the 2003 US Open champion, is still searching for his second slam title, while Murray, surfing a tidal surge of national expectation, is two wins away from his first. And the rest.

Roddick has previously reached two Wimbledon finals (2004 and 2005) and one semi-final (2003). In all three Roger Federer beat him. If ever a tennis player has suffered at the hands of one man it is Roddick. When he burst on to the tennis scene in the new millennium with his ringmaster's whip-crack serve, and colossal forehand, it seemed he might have the undiluted power to rule the world. Since then he has played Federer 20 times, and won only twice.

To his great credit Roddick has not given up believing in himself, even though Rafael Nadal and Murray have now joined Federer in the "let's beat Andy for fun" line-up. Nadal has won five of their seven encounters, Murray six out of eight. Australia's Lleyton Hewitt, beaten by Roddick over five sets in the quarter‑finals, was asked what chance he thought the American had against Murray today. His reply was unequivocal. "Roddick's gonna have to play a hell of match to beat him."

Enter Larry Stefanki, the Californian coach who worked with John McEnroe, Tim Henman, Marcelo Ríos, Yevgeny Kafelnikov and Fernando González. It was in December last year that Roddick turned to his fellow American in an attempt to rid himself of the "one-slam wonder" tag. Wimbledon is the 23rd major since Roddick won in New York, the longest gap between grand slam titles for US men in the open era. Stefanki's first question was direct and simple. "How much did you weigh when you won the US Open title?' Between them they then set about getting him back into his 2003 shape, thereby improving his movement considerably.

Then came a few technical and strategic changes, the result being that Roddick, who will be 27 years old in August, is hitting his forehand much flatter, as he did in his younger days, while Stefanki has also adjusted the way he approaches the net. Roddick has often lunged at his volleys; now he is getting into position much quicker, and hitting them from a slightly different position. Jimmy Connors, his previous coach (aside from his brother, John), did his level best to make Roddick's double-fisted backhand a more potent stroke, though it remains not a thing of beauty and one which Federer et al attack unmercifully.

Roddick had won only two of his last 13 matches against top-five players, though when he teamed up with Stefanki the talk was not simply about getting the best out of his game, rather specifically how he could win another slam. At this year's Australian Open Roddick also reached the semi-finals, his first for two years in a major, only for Federer to demolish him in straight sets. With Murray having beaten the Swiss player in their last four matches, the obvious conclusion is that the American's chances of making his third Wimbledon final do not appear good. Stefanki admires Murray: "Physically and mentally he's gotten much stronger. He absorbs speed very well, has a very good court sense, and picks the right shot. But if there were no weaknesses he would be No1 already. Maybe he becomes a little too passive at times. Usually defensive players have a hard time closing the deal."

Roddick has only met Murray once since appointing Stefanki, losing 6-4, 6-2 in the Doha final just before the Australian Open. The plan then had been to attack Murray as hard as possible, all the top players believing the best way to trouble him is by being as aggressive as possible. "But it didn't work too well on that occasion," admitted Stefanki. "Andy [Roddick] is in a better space now, though it's a big match for both of them."

Roddick, who married in April, has never disguised his admiration for Murray's talents. "Listen, I know how hard the game is, so anybody near the top has my respect. I know what it takes on a daily basis. I think it will be a game to remember.

"The crowd is going to be electric, even if it's not for me. I'm just going to pretend when they shout 'Come on Andy' that they mean me." Much like those badges Judy Murray bought five years ago, but in reverse.

• Wimbledon
• Andy Murray
• Tennis

India's Historic Ruling on Gay Rights (Time.com)

Time.com - India's High Court decriminalizes homosexuality, winning applause from activists, the ire of conservatives, and possibly opening the way for gay rights groups in neighboring countries
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March of the turkeys

Each summer, the multiplexes spew out a succession of schlockbusters. These films take years to make, and cost millions - so why are they so dire? Top-level Hollywood insiders spill the beans to Ravi Somaiya

By now, we're immune to blockbusters with flabby expository dialogue, lumpen performances and a CGI budget that should have been spent on a script. It's expected. When a good one comes along - the first Spiderman, for example - critics and viewers are taken aback.

But, for the most part, the multiplexes show rubbish - directed by the likes of Michael Bay, whose films (Transformers, The Island, Armageddon) score an 8% average rating on the online reviews aggregator Rottentomatoes, or Roland Emmerich (10,000BC, The Day After Tomorrow; he scores 20% on Rottentomatoes), or Brett Ratner (X-Men: The Last Stand; he scores 15%). That these men get paid between $5m and $10m per film makes it more mysterious, because they can presumably afford the £16.98 Amazon asks for a 14-movie Hitchcock box set to see what a good Hollywood blockbuster looks like.

All three have new movies out this year; Bay and Emmerich both had budgets of $200m for theirs. But even if the reviews live up to past form (and those for Bay's Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen haven't exactly been glowing), we must be fair to the directors: they shouldn't have to shoulder the blame alone. It takes a team of talented financiers, writers, producers, directors, gaffers, film processors and editors a long time, a lot of thought and roughly the GDP of Tonga to make an idea into a turkey. So how does it all go wrong? Here - anonymously, for fear of jeopardising their careers - are some of Hollywood's finest explaining why films, including some of theirs, go bad.

One multi-Oscar-winning writer and director is a cynic. "These people just don't know what good is," he says of his experience with studios and blockbuster producers. A screenwriter who recently worked on a big studio film panned by reviewers - one called it "preposterous" - doesn't agree, but says there are pitfalls built in to the process. His movie starred a marquee name not perhaps renowned for expressive acting. "A lot of people say it might have been better without him," says the writer, "but there just is no movie unless he's in it. The studio wanted a vehicle.

"The dialogue and what was in the scenes changed 95%, so it was kind of like watching my movie in Japanese or something. What I wrote was - I hesitate to use the phrase 'more sophisticated', but it had a lot more character, whereas the final film had a lot more action. Everything was just on a platter for viewers. A lot of writers don't mind leaving one or two people out of 10 behind. But directors are pressured from above to dumb it down."

That, he thinks, is why dreadful expository dialogue is credited to ostensibly good writers who no doubt cringe like the rest of us when they hear it. Such as Hollywood royalty Akiva Goldsman and David Koepp, who wrote the $150m Dan Brown adaptation Angels and Demons, which was widely critiqued, by Xan Brooks in this paper among others, for characters who provided a "running commentary" on the action for viewers.

The test-screening process - in which studios show their most expensive films to focus groups and then change them accordingly - also has to take some of the blame for the artistic failure of his movie, says the screenwriter. "They're going for the widest possible audience. So you end up having a movie that doesn't offend anyone and which everyone doesn't mind, instead of a movie some people love. But I never lost sight of the fact that I was happy to see it made."

Would he be as happy to see, say, Brett Ratner attached to his next project, if it would guarantee a green light? He sighs. "I've reached the point where I'm lucky enough to say I'd be sad. The buck always stops with the director, in my experience. It's a director's medium."

A producer responsible for what he admits were some less-than-stellar big-budget films is pragmatic about the process: "Films are not easy to get made. And a producer is constantly trying to get them off the ground. If there's a director whose films show a profit, such as Michael Bay or Brett Ratner, and you can present that director as attached, then you may get the money to make your film." And Bay and Ratner do make money, as both producers and directors: they have grossed almost a billion dollars each for films they've been attached to.

"It's a business," says the producer. "They're not art films. We do sometimes employ brilliant screenwriters to do passes on things; some of the blockbuster scripts are actually great. But studio films are, for better or worse, made by a committee - it's not the vision of one person. People you call 'bad' directors are good at working on big movies. They end up sitting in a room with a dozen people and they have to catch the ideas flying around and place them in the film. There's not much you can do about it. It's a complicated process."

One director, responsible for well-received and Oscar-nominated films budgeted between $20m and $50m, sees such blockbuster-managers as failures, regardless of what the balance sheet shows."They don't really direct at all. A script is only a ticket for the journey; it's not necessarily a map. If you have a director without any vision or understanding of the way film works, it's going to be bad, no matter how good the script was."

This particular director once asked for his name to be removed from a film after a clash of egos with a star, so unhappy was he with the finished product. But he now says he has learned to balance the urge to resist pressure from above with the fact that it's futile to fight the star system. "The main character, played by the star, is the film," he says. "If the director really gets on with the actor, has a shared vision, knows deep down that their job is to get the best possible performance out of that actor and they have respect for each other, then the collective efforts of those two minds goes a long way to making a good film. You can see it on the screen when that hasn't happened."

"It's narcissism and power that ruin movies," agrees one veteran publicist. Over three decades, she has seen plenty of those ego clashes between producers, directors and stars. "A lot of producers really want to direct. And if the director is someone who's malleable, for whatever reason - maybe because he couldn't get the thing greenlit for 10 years - the power of the producer can corrupt."

She has seen stories and scripts and characters and performances - the very heart of the movie, in short - change beyond recognition on set. "Anything can prompt a rewrite or a reshoot," she says. "It could be the director or producer's wife calling to say, 'I just read this new draft and you cut out that girl I thought was great,' or, 'You said my sister-in-law was going to have a part in the movie and you cut her scene out.' It could be that the star felt the power had shifted to the co-star and wanted it back."

When scripts are revised on set, they are colour-coded to avoid confusion. The first draft is white, the second blue, then pink, yellow, green, gold, salmon, cherry and then back to white again, referred to as double white. "I've seen scripts get to triple gold," the publicist says. "They look like rainbows. The original screenplay? God only knows what that was.

"And once you're finished shooting, there's more. The stars put in their two cents in during the edit, the director puts in his two cents, the producers do the same. A bad editor can ruin a film. A great editor can take a movie and say, 'You know what? The third act is the first act. Or the second half of that act is pointless.' They can rescue it.

"There are so many variables. Making a good movie is like getting an ice sculpture out of a block of ice. There's something beautiful in there, but it's fragile and you have to find it."

This publicist has worked with Michael Bay, and has seen him interact with those who pay his wages. So why does she think he gets hired despite the merit or otherwise of his movies? She thinks for a moment. "Michael is a good salesman," she says. "He's great in meetings. And he has great hair."

Bear that in mind if you find yourself sitting through Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, wondering how the hell it got made.

• Action and adventure

Queens of New York

A new behind-the-scenes film about US Vogue offers a compelling portrait of its all-powerful editor, Anna Wintour - and also her extraordinary relationship with stylist Grace Coddington. By Jess Cartner-Morley

If there is one thing more painful and offensive than having Sacha Baron Cohen send you up it is, of course, having Sacha Baron Cohen ignore you when you were expecting him to send you up. That is what has happened to us in the fashion industry. "Brüno" was unavoidable at Paris fashion week: staging flouncy rows with bouncers outside show venues, shooting tampons on to the catwalk from the second row at Stella McCartney. Naturally, we were all thrilled at the prospect of impending stardom - but it didn't quite work out like that. There is a brief scene in which a young Californian catwalk model is made to look a bit daft, and another in an American army barracks, where an officer demands to know why the new recruit has added a silk scarf to his uniform and Bruno patiently explains that without it the camo print is "too matchy-matchy", but it amounts to little more than a cameo role for fashion.

There is, however, another new film that painstakingly unpicks the industry from its inner seams. The September Issue, directed and produced by RJ Cutler, follows Anna Wintour and her team through much of 2007 as they put together the September issue of Vogue. (September is the fashion world's January, the month the new year starts; the September issue of any magazine is the biggest of the year.)

The September Issue is utterly riveting. A starker contrast to the high-volume antics of Brüno is hard to imagine: this is a film in which the dramatic action centres on photographs being shuffled around on a lightbox. Audiences who assumed The Devil Wears Prada exaggerated Wintour's chilliness for effect will discover from The September Issue that the opposite is true: even Vogue's publisher agrees that Wintour doesn't do warmth ("We'll leave warm to me.") There is an excruciating scene in which a stylist presents an idea for a story about pink clothes:

Wintour: "So it's all pinks. Do you really feel this is the most important message to put in our September issue?"

Long pause.

Stylist: "I thought it was pretty."

Long pause.

Wintour: "Maybe you want to develop it a little bit more."

Ouch.

Wintour's influence in fashion extends far beyond the Vogue offices: she wields power in every corner of the industry, from advising Gap on the right young designers with whom to collaborate to having Miuccia Prada "reinterpret" elements of a collection she doesn't think will sell. She conducts herself like an old-school mafia godfather: meticulously courteous (she is, famously, never one minute late for any appointment) but with the power to end a career with a clipped word or a tiny frown. The film serves only to reinforce Wintour's icy reputation - as the publisher puts it, "she isn't available to people she doesn't need to be available to" - but it humanises her nonetheless. She is not cold and demanding just for fashionable effect; she is entirely focused on producing the best possible product and entirely unconcerned about who she might offend along the way.

But even Wintour cannot eclipse the star of The September Issue, stylist Grace Coddington. Coddington joined American Vogue 21 years ago, on the same day as Wintour; she appears to be the only Vogue staffer uncowed by her boss. On screen, Wintour and Coddington are a double act in the mould of Bogart and Bacall: all spiky exchanges, pithy asides and deep but grudging admiration. Coddington is as fiery and emotional as Wintour is cool and reserved: to watch them do battle over whether or not to shoot a rubber dress is to see the great fashion battle of creativity versus commerciality acted out in an urbane New York office: a Punch and Judy show scripted by Woody Allen.

It is often noted that the qualities that have made Wintour so infamous - the unwillingness to cede control, the emotional coolness - would hardly raise an eyebrow in a similarly successful man. Another fashion-based film shortly to be released focuses on the same qualities in another female fashion legend, Coco Chanel.

Coco Avant Chanel tells the story of Chanel's early life, from her arrival in a rural convent as a small child up to 1919, when she was just finding recognition as a designer.

The narrative may lack thrills - strange, really, to do a biopic of Chanel and leave out the later, more controversial years - but where the film triumphs is in showing how the Chanel aesthetic - now synonymous with classicism, femininity and elegance - was in its day truly transgressive and shocking. Coco's wardrobe of flat straw boaters, men's silk pyjamas, starched collars, simple Breton tops and stark monochrome is depicted as a direct affront and challenge to the romantic Edwardian aesthetic. (Later, in 1932, Colette was to describe her as "a little black bull".) Her boyish, sleek silhouette runs in complete contrast to the society belles around her, upholstered cream puffs in their lace and silk ribbon.

Fashion is often dismissed as a world populated by airheads. But getting dressed in the morning is - or can be - an act of creativity, of rebellion, of expression and ambition. Chanel knew that; Wintour understands that. And the blonde in the yellow hotpants? I'm still hoping we'll make it into his next film.

• The September Issue will be in cinemas around the country from 11 September

• Fashion
• Sacha Baron Cohen
• New York
• Magazines
• Paris fashion week

U.N.'s Ban to urge Myanmar leader to free prisoners (Reuters)

Reuters - U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has a rare meeting with Myanmar's top general on Friday where he will urge the secretive leader to free all political prisoners and ensure next year's elections are credible.

NSW animal testing 'a policy failure'

The Greens say the deaths of nearly 9,000 animals in experiments in one year in NSW indicate a failure of regulation by the state government.
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Afghan war is 'winnable': Turnbull

Federal Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull says Australia and its allies can win the war against the Taliban in Afghanistan.
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U.S. Marines Try to Retake Afghan Valley

Almost 4,000 Marines moved to clear Taliban fighters from the hotly contested Helmand River valley.
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Pakistan desperately short of money to resettle Swat residents (McClatchy Newspapers)

McClatchy Newspapers - PESHAWAR, Pakistan — Major Western countries, after applauding Pakistan's military crackdown on Islamic extremists in the Swat valley in the country's northwest, haven't pledged the money needed to resettle the population now that the fighting is mostly over, and humanitarian organizations fear that 2 million people will be sent back home before it's safe to go.
Read more [World from UnFox News]

Top officer among soldiers killed in Afghanistan (AFP)

AFP - Two soldiers have been killed in an explosion in southern Afghanistan, including the first commanding officer to die in operations since 1991, the Ministry of Defence said Thursday.

Obama: Putin has 'one foot' in the past

• Hopes fade for 'reset' in US-Russian relations
• Remarks follow praise for successor Medvedev

Barack Obama has chided Vladimir Putin, the Russian prime minister, for "cold war approaches" to relations with the US, saying Putin had "one foot in the old ways of doing business and one foot in the new", just days before the two men meet in Moscow.

In an interview with the Associated Press, Obama said the US was developing a "very good relationship" with Putin's successor as president, Dmitry Medvedev, over issues such as nuclear arms reduction. But the American president acknowledged the balance of power in Russia by saying that he would also meet Putin, because he "still has sway".

"I think that it's important that, even as we move forward with President Medvedev, that Putin understand that the old cold war approaches to US-Russian relations is outdated – that it's time to move forward in a different direction", said Obama. "I think Medvedev understands that.

"I think Putin has one foot in the old ways of doing business and one foot in the new. To the extent that we can provide him and the Russian people a clear sense that the US is not seeking an antagonistic relationship, but wants co-operation on nuclear non-proliferation, fighting terrorism, energy issues, we'll end up having a stronger partner overall in this process."

In April, Obama met Medvedev and spoke of "the beginning of new progress" in relations, praising the Russian president as "critical" to that movement. After that meeting, the two men issued a statement saying they were ready "to move beyond cold war mentalities".

Obama's latest remarks clarify that he sees Putin standing in the way of progress, particularly on issues such as weapons reduction. His comments may in part be driven by a belief that Putin is behind Russian objections to US plans to place a missile system in eastern Europe.

However his remarks, likely to infuriate the Kremlin, come amid growing pessimism that next week's Moscow trip will lead to a genuine "reset" in relations.

Putin will discuss "tactical and strategic issues" with Obama, the prime minister's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said last night. He added: "Putin will want to share his vision of current Russian-US relations on the basis of his experience of intensive contacts at the highest level when he was president. He has tremendous experience of contact with US presidents and a brilliant knowledge of the agenda."

Peskov told Ekho Moskvy radio: "Of course, he will be interested to understand the new US head of state, in order to make his modest contribution to the vision of possible prospects of development."

Medvedev became president last year, when Putin took the job of prime minister. While Medvedev has adopted a more liberal-seeming rhetoric, differences with his predecessor are stylistic, rather than substantive. Few in Russia doubt that Putin is the supreme arbiter of foreign policy.

During his Moscow trip, Obama is likely to discuss Iran, Russian co-operation over transit supplies to Afghanistan and a new nuclear arms reduction agreement. Both sides have agreed in principle to reduce their nuclear arsenals to 1,500 warheads each, after Obama and Medvedev's meeting in April at the G8 summit in London.

In reality, there is little prospect of a swift arms reduction deal. The Kremlin wants the US to cancel its missile defence shield in eastern Europe in return for concessions in arms reduction – a demand Obama is unlikely to meet.

• Barack Obama
• Vladimir Putin
• Dmitry Medvedev
• US foreign policy
• Russia
• United States

Philip Morris to buy South Africa snuff maker (AP)

AP - Philip Morris International, maker of Marlboro and other cigarettes for sale overseas, has agreed to buy a Swedish company's South African snuff and pipe tobacco operations for 1.75 billion South African rand, or roughly $222 million.
Read more [World from UnFox News]

US vice president in Iraq (AP)

AP - U.S. Vice President Joe Biden arrived in Iraq on Thursday to visit U.S. soldiers, just two days after all American combat troops withdrew from Baghdad and all of Iraq's cities and towns.

Yemenia crash survivor returns home

Girl who clung to floating debris for 12 hours is reunited with family in Paris.
Read more [World from UnFox News]

OAS seeks Zelaya reinstatement

Pressure mounts on Honduras as deadline to restore ousted president nears.
Read more [World from UnFox News]

Jackson memorial set for Tuesday in LA

Plans for public event confirmed as more details about the pop singer's drug use emerge

The family of Michael Jackson has finally moved to end uncertainty about his memorial fully a week after his death by firming up plans for commemorative event in downtown Los Angeles next Tuesday.

The Hollywood Reporter said all systems were go for a memorial event on Tuesday at 10am at the Staples Centre, the auditorium owned by AEG, the company that was promoting Jackson's London run of shows at the O2 Arena.

The entertainment website TMZ, which broke the story of Jackson's death last Thursday, added that the memorial will begin with a motorcade from the Forest Lawn Mortuary where his body is being held.

The plans finally bring some semblance of order to a chaotic past seven days which have been marked by claim, counter-claim and wild speculation as interested parties vie for some of the action. Initial reports that a public viewing of Jackson's body was planned for his Neverland ranch were discounted by the family.

As speculation focused on the memorial, further lurid details began to emerge about the nature and extent of Jackson's drug addiction. TMZ reported that he used a raft of aliases to gain access to prescription drugs.

Jackson's close friend Uri Geller told the Associated Press that he had screamed at the star on several occasions to go easy on the medication. "I tried to drum sense into his brain. I told him, 'Michael you're going to die, Michael you're going to kill yourself.'"

Such is the complexity of Jackson's drug habit that the Drug Enforcement Administration has been asked to add its specialist firepower to the inquiry. The DEA will be looking into allegations that Propofol, an anaesthetic normally given intravenously to patients before major surgery, was found at Jackson's rented LA home.

Jermaine Jackson, the singer's brother, said he would be "hurt" if the results of autopsies confirmed that the late singer had abused prescription drugs. He told a TV network that: "In this business, the pressures and things that you go through, you never know what one turns to."

In new allegations reported tonight by the news website the Daily Beast, an unnamed "confidant" to Jackson went so far as to suggest that Jackson had brought about his own death in an attempt to get out of the London series of concerts. According to the website, he was so desperate to find a way out of commitments to perform 50 concerts that he took a cocktail of pills in the hope of prompting a minor hospital visit.

A further area of speculation concerned Jackson's will and the future of his children and estate. A will drawn up in 2002 and lodged this week with the courts requests that custody for the children should go to his mother Katherine, or if she were unable, to the singer Diana Ross.

Jackson's former wife and mother of his first two children, Deborah Rowe, was cut out of the will. But today she vowed to fight for custody despite having renounced any legal claim to them several years ago.

She told an LA TV channel: "I want my children. I am stepping up. I have to."

• Michael Jackson
• Pop and rock
• United States

Jackson memorial set for Tuesday in LA

Plans for public event confirmed as more details about the pop singer's drug use emerge

The family of Michael Jackson has finally moved to end uncertainty about his memorial fully a week after his death by firming up plans for commemorative event in downtown Los Angeles next Tuesday.

The Hollywood Reporter said all systems were go for a memorial event on Tuesday at 10am at the Staples Centre, the auditorium owned by AEG, the company that was promoting Jackson's London run of shows at the O2 Arena.

The entertainment website TMZ, which broke the story of Jackson's death last Thursday, added that the memorial will begin with a motorcade from the Forest Lawn Mortuary where his body is being held.

The plans finally bring some semblance of order to a chaotic past seven days which have been marked by claim, counter-claim and wild speculation as interested parties vie for some of the action. Initial reports that a public viewing of Jackson's body was planned for his Neverland ranch were discounted by the family.

As speculation focused on the memorial, further lurid details began to emerge about the nature and extent of Jackson's drug addiction. TMZ reported that he used a raft of aliases to gain access to prescription drugs.

Jackson's close friend Uri Geller told the Associated Press that he had screamed at the star on several occasions to go easy on the medication. "I tried to drum sense into his brain. I told him, 'Michael you're going to die, Michael you're going to kill yourself.'"

Such is the complexity of Jackson's drug habit that the Drug Enforcement Administration has been asked to add its specialist firepower to the inquiry. The DEA will be looking into allegations that Propofol, an anaesthetic normally given intravenously to patients before major surgery, was found at Jackson's rented LA home.

Jermaine Jackson, the singer's brother, said he would be "hurt" if the results of autopsies confirmed that the late singer had abused prescription drugs. He told a TV network that: "In this business, the pressures and things that you go through, you never know what one turns to."

In new allegations reported tonight by the news website the Daily Beast, an unnamed "confidant" to Jackson went so far as to suggest that Jackson had brought about his own death in an attempt to get out of the London series of concerts. According to the website, he was so desperate to find a way out of commitments to perform 50 concerts that he took a cocktail of pills in the hope of prompting a minor hospital visit.

A further area of speculation concerned Jackson's will and the future of his children and estate. A will drawn up in 2002 and lodged this week with the courts requests that custody for the children should go to his mother Katherine, or if she were unable, to the singer Diana Ross.

Jackson's former wife and mother of his first two children, Deborah Rowe, was cut out of the will. But today she vowed to fight for custody despite having renounced any legal claim to them several years ago.

She told an LA TV channel: "I want my children. I am stepping up. I have to."

• Michael Jackson
• Pop and rock
• United States

George Bush to celebrate Independence Day among the cows

Woodward, Oklahoma in a frenzy after former president agrees to attend Fourth of July celebrations

When the middle-of-nowhere town of Woodward, Oklahoma invited George W Bush to its Fourth of July celebration, no one really expected the former president to accept. But he did.

Now this community of 12,000 is scurrying to get ready for what some locals are calling the biggest thing ever to happen to Woodward, a place where cattle outnumber people.

"To actually come to a small community like this, that shows his character," said Kelle Robinson, co-owner of the Sweet Surprises store, which has been turning out US flag cookies. "He's not too good for the common people."

Bush's paid speaking engagement at Woodward's Let Freedom Ring 2009 celebration will be his first Fourth of July since he left the Oval Office, and the latest in a series of small, under-the-radar events that he has dropped in on as ex-president.

Most of the rooms at the half-dozen or so hotels around town are booked. Woodward's police force, which numbers around 30 officers, including reserves, cancelled vacations and days off, and sheriff's deputies from the surrounding areas are being called in.

The event's promoter, 28-year-old Landon Laubhan, sent the invitation in April: "I was just inviting him as a person deeply in love with America sending an invitation to another person deeply in love with America."

At first, "I thought, 'President Bush, July 4, no way is he even available,'" Laubhan said. "I almost asked for an off day in October or November, because I felt it would even be a stupid question to ask for the Fourth."

The answer came back about two weeks later — absolutely, Bush would be there.

"You want to talk about a lot of mixed emotions at one time, there was extreme excitement and it was a scared feeling as well," said Laubhan, who has mainly staged bull riding events over the past few years. "You take a step back and say, 'Oh, what did I get myself into?'"

Bush is scheduled to speak Saturday night for about 40 minutes at the two day event, which will also feature country music acts such as Tanya Tucker and Asleep at the Wheel. Laubhan declined to say how much Bush is getting paid.

About 9,200 tickets have been sold, which would be the biggest crowd for Bush since he left office in January.

Over the past five months, Bush has made about a half-dozen public appearances. He seems to especially enjoy rubbing elbows with regular folk. He paid a visit to a Dallas hardware store in February. Three days later, he dropped in on a political science class at Southern Methodist University.

Asked why Bush accepted Woodward's invitation, his spokesman in Dallas, Rob Saliterman, said only: "President Bush believes there is no place better than Woodward, Oklahoma, to celebrate the Fourth of July and looks forward to being part of this event."

Though Bush left office with a dismal 34% approval rating, he remains popular in Oklahoma. The state hasn't voted for a Democrat for president since Lyndon B Johnson in 1964 and was the only state in 2008 where every county voted for Republican John McCain. Bush carried 81% of the vote in Woodward in the 2004 elections.

"Maybe some young kids and old Democrats didn't vote for him, but I think the rest of us did," said Kris Day, who owns The Cowboy's Tack Shop with her husband.

Bush's stop in Woodward will be the first presidential visit to the town since the late 1950s, when Dwight Eisenhower landed at the airport outside town en route to view drought damage in the area, city manager Alan Riffel said. Bush stopped in Woodward once before, while campaigning for his father's presidential bid two decades ago.

Seats for the speech range from $25 to $500 for the Oval Office Ticket, situated in the first rows, close to Bush, VIP parking and complimentary beverages. Mayor Bill Fanning said tickets have been sold to people from as far away as Pennsylvania and Nevada.

"It basically has changed the mindset of the community," the city manager said. "Now we can step out on any stage, we can host whatever type of event we can dream of and make it happen here in Woodward. That's a huge step for a small town in north-western Oklahoma."

• George Bush
• United States

Comoros crash spotlights 3rd-world air travel risk (AP)

AP - First there was smoke, then flames burst out of the aircraft engine. But I was having difficulty communicating with the Mozambican flight attendant who was fussing with warm sodas and soggy sandwiches and did not speak English.

Lead found in White House garden

It was meant to be a show case for healthy living, with the first lady, Michelle Obama, personally putting hand to pitch fork in a crowd of school children to dig up the first White House vegetable garden in more than 50 years.

Instead, an embarrassed White House admitted today that the plot - whose lettuce, herbs and other produce have been consumed by the first family, visiting dignitaries, local school children and a women's homeless shelter - had tested positive for elevated levels of lead.

A spokeswoman for the White House said the soil in the garden had lead concentrations of 93 parts per million of lead. Health experts say it is safe to raise leafy vegetables in soil with concentrations of 10-50 parts per million, and urban gardens typically have raised lead levels. However, it is advised for young children to be tested for exposure to lead if they play in areas where lead concentrations exceed 100 parts per million. The Environmental Protection Agency puts the threshold for dangerous lead levels at 300 parts per million.

But even though lead levels in the first garden are far below that danger zone, the disclosure is awkward for a White House which has made prominent use of the vegetable garden to define Michelle Obama's role as First Lady,and to encourage sensible eating habits in children.

Children are expecially vulnerable to exposure to lead, which can cause neurological and kidney damage, and stunt their growth.

The vegetable garden was an important symbolic break with the George Bush presidency, and it became a cause for environmentalists and the organic food movement in America who had urged the Obamas to use the White House to set an example of healthy eating.

Michelle Obama invited dozens of 10- and 11-year olds from a state elementary school in a transitional neighbourhood of Washington to the White House last March to help her dig up a 1,100 square foot plot of land near her daughters' swing set. Photographers were let in to take pictures of her kneeling in the dirt and wielding garden tools.

The first lady gave interviews joking about how all the members of the first famly would be required to weed on occasion.

As the weeks went on, and the White House garden grew, it became central to Michelle Obama's efforts to rebrand herself, and banish any residual damage from the rightwing attacks of the election campaign when she was cast as the stereotypical angry black woman. The White House featured blog posts on the garden's progress.

The school children were invited back to tend the plot and just two weeks ago to bring in the first harvest: 73 lbs of lettuce, 12 lbs of snap peas and one cucumber. Obama and the children then trooped into the White House kitchen to wash lettuce and shell and cook the peas for lunch, which they ate outside on red and white checked tablecloths.

Sam Kass, who followed the Obamas from Chicago as their personal chef, gave a short speech praising the gardeners for getting their yeild without resort to fertiliser or herbicides, and for using green compost.

The White House said the garden would go on. "The garden recently underwent extensive soil testing that proved it is completely safe," Katie McCormick Lelyveld, the first lady's spokeswoman, said. A lead level of 92 parts per million is significantly better than the government standard for a garden like this. The White House kitchen garden team is committed to producing fresh, safe and healthy food as a learning opportunities (sic) about health eating, and they'll continue to do so," Lelyveld said.

The White House would not say whether the Obamas or the children who had helped tend the garden would be tested for lead exposure.

• Michelle Obama
• United States
• Gardens

Conspiracy Theories in Iran Flourish (Time.com)

Time.com - On a propaganda drive, Tehran blames foreigners for unrest after the disputed election. But millions of Iranians remain angry and unconvinced

U.S. taking cautious approach to Honduras political crisis (McClatchy Newspapers)

McClatchy Newspapers - WASHINGTON — When the ousted president of Honduras hit Washington this week demanding a return to power, he got meetings with a White House adviser and a top U.S. diplomat.
Read more [World from UnFox News]

OAS chief says sanctions likely in Honduras (AP)

AP - A top diplomat said Thursday he is heading to Honduras to demand the return of the president toppled at gunpoint — a mission he said is likely to meet rejection, bringing diplomatic and economic punishment for the impoverished Central American nation.

Not just pills and condoms

Messages on preventing pregnancy and disease have left better forms of contraception ignored

The vast majority of women in the UK spend more than 30 years of their lives trying to avoid becoming pregnant. Contraception has been available free from the NHS since 1974 and today there is a choice of 15 methods, so it would seem that avoiding pregnancy should be straightforward. Yet the evidence demonstrates otherwise, with about one in five conceptions ending in abortion.

An understandable preoccupation with the UK's high levels of teenage pregnancy has had the unfortunate consequence of diverting attention from the importance of contraceptive services for women throughout their reproductive years. Yet women in their 20s have the highest abortion rates and perimenopausal women are among those who are most likely to choose an abortion if they become pregnant.

Public health campaigns at national and local level have inadvertently given the message that condoms and emergency hormonal contraception alongside the pill are the main answers: EHC and the pill to prevent pregnancy, condoms to prevent the spread of sexually transmitted infections and to prevent pregnancy.

The information provided has often been simplistic and inadequate. EHC is a valuable fallback when continuing contraception has not been used or has failed, but it is much less effective than other methods of contraception. Similarly, the increase in STIs has led to an emphasis on the use of condoms to the exclusion of other much more effective contraceptive methods.

The lack of comprehensive national awareness-raising campaigns about contraception is compounded by the fragmented nature of the services that women are offered. Very few primary care trusts have undertaken a review of their services or made any assessment of hidden needs. The majority of women obtain their contraception from their doctor, and GPs mostly prescribe the combined pill, which again is not the most effective method. In 2005, guidance from the National Institute for Clinical Excellence recommended that long-acting reversible contraception – the implant, injection and inter-uterine methods, (LARC) – were more cost-effective, and since then LARC use has increased slowly. However, provision is still patchy, and many women are being denied these very effective methods.

Sadly, there is a complete lack of research evidence about women's contraceptive preferences and many women are unable to exercise an informed choice because they do not know what is available and where.

From 2001 women have been able to buy EHC in community pharmacies, and today they are the main source of this method. This provision has greatly increased access but it is not known whether women actually prefer to pay £25, or whether difficulty in accessing free NHS provision is forcing them to do so.

Last year the government announced three years' funding for PCTs to improve services. Unfortunately, the additional funding to trusts is not ring-fenced and at the end of the first year, little progress had been seen at local level.

While most of the money is to be spent by PCTs, there will be a national campaign aimed at young people to raise awareness of LARC. Alas, the vital needs of the majority of women are again being ignored, which is not only bad for them but very shortsighted. Young people get much of their information from their mothers, sisters, aunts and friends. If older women are ignored by the campaign, enduring myths about contraception may prove more powerful than the national campaign's messages.

Another significant change is that, since April this year, doctors receive payment for telling women seeking advice about contraception about all the methods. Some are already seeing an increased take-up of LARC.

This is a complex area and women need comprehensive and sophisticated information so that they can make the right choice for them, taking into account the pros and cons of different methods of contraception, their relative effectiveness and how best to reduce the risk of pregnancy and of contracting an STI. Strategic health authorities and PCTs must recognise that contraception is central to public health and wellbeing, and give it priority. The government needs to put in place a national workforce plan to ensure that the professionals are in place to provide the service when and where it is needed. Women in 2009 should expect no less.

• Women
• Sex education
• Sexual health
• Children
• Young people
• Health
• Healthcare industry
• Pregnancy
• Health policy

European Central Bank Leaves Rate Unchanged

Having lowered its main refinancing rate to 1 percent, the bank appears to have adopted a wait-and-see approach to additional stimulus.
Read more [World from UnFox News]

U.S. Faces Resentment in Afghan Region

A new American military operation in southern Afghanistan may ignite further tensions among a weary population, residents and local officials warn.
Read more [World from UnFox News]