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LOS ANGELES (AFP) - - Pop icon Michael Jackson died Thursday after suffering a cardiac arrest, the entertainment website TMZ.com reported.

The website reported that Jackson, 50, suffered a heart attack just after 12:00 pm (1900 GMT) local time and paramedics were unable to revive him.

Jackson’s manager Tohme E. Tohme was not immediately available for comment when contacted by AFP. Officials at UCLA Medical Center where Jackson was treated also could not be reached for comment.

Los Angeles Fire Department spokesman Devin Gales would not confirm Jackson’s identity but said paramedics went to an address corresponding to the star’s home at 12:21 pm (1921 GMT) and the person was taken to UCLA Medical Center.

Iran’s ‘Angel of Freedom’ Neda Soltan Vowed to Protest Against Injustice

Relatives and friends of Neda Soltan, the 26-year-old protester who’s become an international symbol of Iranian resistance, wanted her to be remembered for her love of music and passion for travel.

“She was a person full of joy,” the Los Angeles Times quotes her music teacher and close friend Hamid Panahi, who was among mourners at her family home. “She was a beam of light. I’m so sorry. I was so hopeful for this woman.”

Details continue to emerge Tuesday about the murdered protester nickamed “Angel of Freedom,” after graphic videos of her apparent murder at a Tehran protest hit the Internet.

Images of Soltan’s bloody death on Saturday have galvanized the country and many insist on speaking out about this young woman and who she was, despite authorities banning anyone from mourning her.

Neda was reportedly gunned down during protests in the capital city. Videos posted on YouTube, Facebook and Twitter show her bleeding from the nose and mouth as a crowd tries unsuccessfully to stanch the flow and save her life.

The video also shows a moving clip of a man identified as Panahi cradling her head and yelling out, “Neda, don’t be afraid. Neda, stay with me. Neda stay with me!”

WASHINGTON (AFP) - - President Barack Obama hinted at the lethal force he will bring to bear on intruders who float past his security detail when he squashed a fly during an interview at the White House.

Midway through answering a question during an interview filmed Tuesday with financial news network CNBC, the commander-in-chief found himself the focus of a particularly pesky critter buzzing around his head.

“Hey, get out of here!” he said, cutting short an answer about the US financial system to wave the fly away.

When the bug alit on Obama’s left wrist, the most powerful man in the world steadied himself, stiffened his lower lip in concentration, and killed it with a swift — and loud — slap of his right hand.

“Now, where were we?” a grinning Obama asked as the fly lay motionless on the carpet.

“That was pretty impressive, wasn’t it?” he quipped, before encouraging the cameraman to zoom in on the president’s victim.

“I got the sucker.”

Almost immediately, comedy mashups of the presidential swat popped up on the Internet and cable television, while People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, an animal protection group, said it sent Obama its “Katcha Bug Humane Bug Catcher” for the next time he is pestered by an insect.

LOS ANGELES - U.S. gay activists are worried that comedian Sacha Baron Cohen’s new film, “Bruno,” could reinforce negative stereotypes about homosexuals just as they are making gains in the fight for rights such as same-sex marriage.

Cohen, who scored a surprise hit in 2006 with “Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan,” portrays a flamboyant gay Austrian fashion reporter in the new film that premieres on Wednesday in London and opens in the United States on July 10.

The studio releasing “Bruno” says the film’s intent is to satirize homophobia, but some gay advocates are wary.

“We do feel the intentions of the filmmakers are in the right place — satire of this form can unmask homophobia — but at the same time it can heighten people’s discomfort with our community,” said Rashad Robinson, senior director of media programs for the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation.

With that in mind, GLAAD asked in vain for Universal Pictures, the studio behind “Bruno,” to add a message from Cohen addressing the importance of gay rights and tolerance.

Universal says in a statement it believes most moviegoers will understand the film’s “positive intentions.”

“‘Bruno’ uses provocative comedy to powerfully shed light on the absurdity of many kinds of intolerance and ignorance, including homophobia,” the studio said.

The movie comes out as U.S. same-sex couples have won the right to wed in six states amid a fierce debate on gay marriage that has seen California voters approve a ban on such marriages.

HIT? OR MISS

“Bruno” is expected to be a hit, although there remains a big question about whether the young men who make up a core Hollywood audience will turn out for a movie about a gay man.

“It’s going to be interesting to see if a bunch of teenage boys actually care to go”, said gay activist Cathy Renna.

But one thing is certain — Cohen has a huge fan base. Men and women flocked to “Borat,” a fake documentary about a Kazakh journalist traveling across the United States that used comedy to expose bigotry. It earned $128 million at U.S. and Canadian box offices and $133 million in other countries.

Like its predecessor, “Bruno” is a mock documentary that covers the fashion reporter after he loses his job in Austria and goes to America looking to become a celebrity. Bruno wears mesh shirts, talks with a lisp and has a penchant for dropping his pants.

His unscripted encounters with everyday Americans and prominent figures, who think he is real, often devolve into people’s disgusted reaction to Bruno’s in-your-face sexuality.

In one scene, for instance, a martial arts teacher shows Bruno how to guard against gays. GLAAD’s Robinson said another scene worried him that shows Bruno appearing to have sex with a man in a tub, while his adopted baby sits nearby.

“That wasn’t really unmasking homophobia, and especially in a country where same-sex couples can still be denied the ability to adopt children that they’ve raised since birth. Trivializing gay families isn’t a joke,” Robinson said.

But gay groups also see potential from the film. “Bigotry and homophobia still today get cloaked in many different nuanced ways, so a movie like this has the potential to let everyone in on the joke and to really change the way homophobia is viewed,” said Brad Luna, a spokesman for the Human Rights Campaign.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - - The harmful effects of global warming are being felt “here and now and in your backyard,” a groundbreaking US government report on climate change has warned.

“Climate change is happening now, it is not something that will happen decades or centuries in the future,” Jerry Melillo of the Marine Biological Laboratory in Massachusetts, one of the lead authors of the report, told AFP.

Climate change, which the report blames largely on human-induced emissions of heat-trapping gases, “is under way in the United States and projected to grow,” said the report by the US Global Change Research Program, a grouping of a dozen government agencies and the White House.

The report is the first on climate change since President Barack Obama took office and outlines in plain, non-scientific terms how global warming has resulted in an increase of extreme weather such as the powerful heatwave that swept Europe in 2003, claiming tens of thousands of lives.

Hurricanes have become fiercer as they gather greater strength over oceans warmed by climate change.

Global warming impacts everything from water supplies to energy, farming to health. And those impacts are expected to increase, according to the report titled “Global Change Impacts in the United States.”

Areas of the country that already had high levels of rain or snowfall have seen increases in precipitation because of climate change, says the report, which focuses on the United States but also tackles global climate change issues.

“We focused on regions of the US because another big message we wanted to get across is that not only is climate change happening now, but it’s happening in your backyard,” said Melillo.

“You care a great deal more about a tornado in your own backyard than one half a world away,” said David Doniger, senior policy director at the National Resources Defense Council (NRDC).

Arid areas, such as the largely desert US Southwest, are experiencing more droughts.

On the US Gulf Coast, sea level rise is particularly pressing; in the Northwest, how long snowpack sits on the mountains might be an issue, and farmers in the Midwest are concerned because winters have become milder, allowing more pests to survive the season.

But climate change also operates in a global nexus and the United States cannot be viewed in isolation, the 196-page report says.

Climate change-related food production problems in one part of the world can affect food prices and production decisions in the United States, he added.

“There is a whole host of connections when you discuss climate change; the US cannot be viewed as an island,” Melillo said.

The chief aim of the report is to help US policymakers and the general public make decisions on how to act to halt climate change, Melillo said.

The report’s release comes just six months before countries from around the world meet in the Danish capital Copenhagen for a UN conference that aims to produce an ambitious, new climate pact aimed at rolling back global warming.

Experts have been thrashing out a draft of a negotiating text for the new pact meant to take effect from the end of 2012, spelling out curbs on emissions by 2020 that will be deepened by 2050.

Reports issued by the previous administration of president George W. Bush — who famously rejected the Kyoto Protocol, the previous UN framework on climate change — were highly technical and did not cover as many issues as the sweeping first report issued by the Obama White House, said Melillo.

The report stresses the need for immediate action against global warming, saying: “Future climate change and its impacts depend on choices made today.”

“We have the power to determine how bad this could be and to avoid the worst impacts of global warming,” said Doniger.

“It’s like Charles Dickens’ ‘A Christmas Carol,’ where the ghosts come and show Scrooge the way the future could unfold into either a happy future or a disastrous future.

“This shows us that the future is in our hands, just as it was in Scrooge’s hands,” said Doniger.

YALA, Thailand (AFP) - - A Buddhist female teacher has been shot dead and two policemen have been killed by a bomb in Thailand’s south as suspected Muslim separatists step up an anti-government insurgency, police have said.

Gunmen opened fire on the 56-year-old elementary school teacher in troubled Yala province as she rode to work on her motorcycle, in the latest attack against the education establishment in the region, they said.

Shortly afterwards, a bomb hidden in a motorcycle exploded outside a police station in neighbouring Pattani province, killing one policeman immediately, while a second died from his injuries later in hospital, police said.

Two other policemen were wounded in the explosion, they said.

The attacks come amid a recent surge in violence in the Muslim-majority region bordering Malaysia, where more than 3,700 people have been killed during a bitter five-year insurgency.

The female victim was the 117th teacher shot dead since the unrest began in the volatile provinces of Yala, Narathiwat and Pattani in January 2004, said Boonsom Thongsriplai, head of a southern teachers’ confederation.

Schools and teachers are frequent targets of attacks in the south because militants see the education system as an effort by Bangkok to impose Buddhist Thai culture on the mainly ethnic Malay region.

The insurgents also target other civilians — Buddhist and Muslim alike — as well as security forces.

Thailand’s government is struggling to curb the recent spike in violence, which included a bloody attack on a mosque in which gunmen shot dead 11 people during evening prayers last week.

Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva admitted he was concerned by the recent worsening of the unrest but said he was confident the right government policy was in place.

“I am worried over the ongoing violence,” Abhisit told reporters.

“It will take time to restore peace in the south and I don’t know how long… The government is going in the right direction and will not change its policy or resort to violent means,” he said.

On Sunday Abhisit raised the possibility of making the south a special administrative zone as a political solution to the unrest but he ruled out granting any form of autonomy.

The southern region was an autonomous Malay Muslim sultanate until Thailand annexed it in 1902, provoking decades of tension.

LOS ANGELES - The party kept rocking for “The Hangover,” the first big surprise hit at the North American box office this summer, while Eddie Murphy suffered a headache with his second consecutive flop.

According to studio estimates issued on Sunday, “The Hangover” led the field for a second weekend with ticket sales of $33.4 million across the United States and Canada. The raunchy comedy with a little-known cast becomes the first movie to retain its crown since “Madea Goes to Jail” in February.

The film also took just 10 days to hit the century mark — $105.4 million, to be exact — setting a new record for an R-rated comedy. The old mark of 11 days was set last year by “Sex and the City.”

Industry pundits expect “The Hangover” to hit $200 million — not bad for a movie that cost a reported $31 million to make. The action revolves around three guys struggling to remember what happened at a wild bachelor party in Las Vegas the night before. It stars Justin Bartha, Bradley Cooper and Ed Helms, and was directed by Todd Phillips of “Old School” fame.

The film, from Time Warner Inc’s Warner Bros. Pictures, easily fended off a pair of new entries boasting some major star power.

Columbia Pictures’ remake of the 1974 subway-hijacking thriller “The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3,” starring Denzel Washington and John Travolta, opened at No. 3 with $25 million, in line with expectations.

“It’s a solid opening for us,” said Rory Bruer, president of worldwide distribution at the Sony Corp unit.

Washington’s last major release was “American Gangster,” which opened to $44 million in late 2007. The last time Travolta headlined a drama was in 2004 when “Ladder 49″ opened to $26 million. Comparative data are not adjusted for ticket-price inflation.

Murphy, on the other hand, came in at No. 6 this weekend with the Paramount Pictures family comedy “Imagine That,” which tallied just $5.7 million.

“We’re really disappointed,” said Don Harris, executive vice-president of distribution at the Viacom Inc unit.

Murphy previously starred in “Meet Dave,” which opened to $5 million last July and finished with $12 million.

Walt Disney Pictures’ Pixar cartoon “Up” held at No. 2 with $30.5 million, taking its total to $187.2 million after three weekends. The previous Pixar release, “Wall-E,” had earned $163 million in the same span last summer.

Rounding out the top five were the Ben Stiller comedy hit sequel “Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian” , which fell two places to No. 5 with $5.6 million in its second weekend. Their respective totals stand at $143.4 million and $35 million.

Walt Disney Pictures is a unit of Walt Disney Co. 20th Century Fox is a unit of News Corp. Universal Pictures is a unit of General Electric Co’s NBC Universal.

In limited release, the feature debut of David Bowie’s 38-year-son Duncan Jones, opened strongly. “Moon,” starring Sam Rockwell as an astronaut who confronts a clone of himself while mining lunar helium, earned $145,000 from just eight theaters in New York and Los Angeles. The Sony Pictures Classics release expands across the United States throughout June and July.

At the foreign box office, “Terminator Salvation” was the top pick for a second weekend, earning $46.1 million; the overseas total for the Columbia-distributed apocalypse sequel rose to $165.5 million.

DETROIT, Michigan (AFP) - - A summit seeking a new economic agenda for America kicks off Monday, with debate among a broad array of leaders aiming to find ways to maintain US leadership and competitiveness.

The three-day summit “is a bold new initiative to help re-imagine, rebuild and revitalize our economy in an increasingly difficult global market,” said Beth Chappell, president and chief executive of the Detroit Economic Club, which convened the gathering.

“It will bring together the country’s top business, government, labor and academic leaders to create consensus recommendations for increasing America’s competitiveness in four critical disciplines — technology, energy, environment and manufacturing.”

The Detroit, Michigan meeting, billed as “Davos in Detroit,” aims to stimulate ideas in a manner similar to the World Economic Forum annual gathering in Switzerland.

Organizers say the world’s biggest economy needs a new vision to maintain leadership and competitiveness, and that they will seek consensus among leaders in the corporate, academic, labor and political sectors.

Tom Dekar, vice chairman at Deloitte LLC — one of four so-called “knowledge partners” defining the agenda — said the summit aims to produce a “to do list” for the American economy.

“This is a great opportunity for people who are significant players in the economy to come together and talk about their visions of the future and the policy implications,” Dekar said.

The summit, which may continue as an annual event, grew out of conversations at the Detroit Economic Club about the future of the US economy.

The speakers include chief executives Richard Anderson of Delta Air Lines, Steve Ballmer of Microsoft Corp., Vikram Pandit of Citigroup, Fritz Henderson of General Motors and Alan Mulally of Ford Motor Co.

From government, new US chief technology officer Aneesh Chopra and Commerce Secretary Gary Locke will appear among the 90-plus speakers.

Called in September, the summit has taken on new importance amid a recession that is the worst in decades, costing more than six million US jobs.

The meeting reflects growing momentum for the US to formalize an “industrial policy” similar to those used in Asia and elsewhere to help nurture businesses in a tough global environment.

Dow Chemical Co. chairman Andrew Liveris, who is a co-chair of this week’s summit, told the club last year that the US needs better policies to nurture growth in an increasingly competitive global economy.

“Today, the emerging economic powers like China and India understand that when you build an economy from the ground up — make a strong manufacturing base as its foundation — benefits flow to everyone,” he said.

“Those nations are our competitors and many of them are beating us at our own game.”

According to Liveris, “the truth is that in this country today we already have an industrial policy, except, in reality, it’s mostly an anti-industrial policy — a set of contradictory, ill-planned and ultimately self-defeating laws and regulations that are creating havoc at the manufacturing base.”

The notion of industrial policy is taboo for many free market economists, who say America’s strength is derived largely from the laissez-faire, freewheeling environment that lets firms innovate without government interference.

Joel Naroff of Naroff Economic Advisors said the role of government in the economy needs to be reassessed in the current environment, in which the United States can no longer count on being the global leader in every sector.

“I think what needs to be discussed now is what is the correct role of the government in a world economy where other governments take an active role in assisting their industries,” Naroff said.

The openness of the US economy, he added, “is both a strength and a weakness” and that a careful examination of the role of government is needed.

“Just like everything else in economics, there is no one answer,” said Naroff.

BANGKOK (AFP) - - Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva on Sunday urged the country not to panic about swine flu, after the number of cases grew ninefold in four days and a cluster emerged in a key tourist hub.

Health authorities reported that confirmed cases of the A(H1N1) virus soared to 150 on Sunday, compared with just 16 on Wednesday, including a number of foreigners.

Officials last week said 21 of the new infections were found among nightclub workers in the coastal city of Pattaya, who were tested after two Taiwanese tourists said on returning home they had contracted the disease there.

A Hong Kong visitor may also have contracted the virus on the southern resort island of Phuket.

“People should not panic. The death ratio for the new flu is probably lower than normal flu,” Abhisit said in his weekly television programme.

He said the government was taking extra measures whenever cases were reported to confine the disease.

The public health ministry on Sunday advised people to wear masks if they are suffering from fever.

The government has begun a mass disinfection programme in hundreds of Bangkok’s schools, while two private schools near each other in the capital were closed for a week after a student at one of them contracted the virus.

Thailand had its first reported case of swine flu on May 12 and its first domestic case in early June but there have been no fatalities.

The World Health Organization raised its global alert to a maximum six on Thursday, saying swine flu had reached pandemic status because of its geographical spread.