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A US judge has rejected a request from pop star Michael Jackson to stop an auction of the singer's possessions from taking place later this month.
In March Mr Jackson filed legal action in Los Angeles claiming that Julien's Auction House had "effectively stolen" his property.
"We have to proceed because we have no choice, said auctioneer Darren Julien, who claimed a contract was agreed.
A further court motion to stop the sale will be heard on 15 April.
North Korea launched a rocket in defiance of a United Nations resolution, prompting condemnation from the U.S., Japan and South Korea. The UN Security Council will meet later today.
President Barack Obama said the firing of the Taepodong 2 missile was “provocative” and “clear violation” of a Security Council resolution. The rocket failed to put its payload, which North Korea stated was a communications satellite, into orbit, the White House said.
The launch represents an early test for Obama’s young presidency and may complicate efforts to get North Korean leader Kim Jong Il to return to six-nation talks aimed at eliminating his nation’s nuclear weapons program. The U.S., Japan and South Korea have accused the reclusive country of developing long- range missile technology to carry a nuclear device.
“They are first of all trying to get the attention of the Obama administration, which has not said much about its North Korea policy,” said Bruce Cumings, author of “ North Korea : Another Country,” and a history professor at the University of Chicago. “They hope to show the prowess of their medium-range missiles to various buyers around the world.”
While North Korea said it successfully launched the Kwangmyongsong-2 satellite, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said it did not.
Slovak President Ivan Gasparovic won a second five-year term in a run-off election with the support of Prime Minister Robert Fico.
Gasparovic, 68, defeated Iveta Radicova, a 52-year-old sociologist and a lawmaker for the largest opposition party, in a second round of elections yesterday, according to results released today by the Central Election Commission in Bratislava, Slovakia . Gasparovic took 55.5 percent of votes, while his challenger had 44.5 percent.
The election was a test of Fico’s popularity after he led the country into the euro region in January and seeks to sustain policies to spend more on the welfare system as the economy slows. His Smer party has backed Gasparovic and billboards around the country show the two politicians under a “Together for Slovakia ” banner.
Gasparovic isn’t a member of Smer, though he thought a “loss would be a failure of Smer and the coalition,” according to a recording by SITA news agency on Sme newspaper’s Web site.
Radicova was minister of social affairs in the Cabinet of Fico’s predecessor Mikulas Dzurinda.
Gasparovic was a parliamentary speaker under former Prime Minister Vladimir Meciar between 1994 and 1998, when the country was criticized for democratic shortcomings. He won his first presidential term five years ago, beating Meciar.
The job of the Slovak president is largely ceremonial though its powers include appointing constitutional judges and vetoing legislation approved by parliament. A presidential veto can be overruled by a majority of all 150 lawmakers.
British driver Jenson Button secured back-to-back victories for the first time in his career by winning the Malaysian Grand Prix after the race was cut short because of torrential rain.
Button was leading Toyota’s Timo Glock on the 33rd of 56 laps when stewards at the Sepang International Circuit stopped the race just after 6 p.m. local time. BMW Sauber’s Nick Heidfeld was awarded second place, with Glock dropping to third.
Button handed Brawn GP a second straight win since Ross Brawn took over the former Honda team pre-season and as some of the sport’s marquee teams continued to struggle. Button will collect just five points this time as drivers get half points when less than 75 percent of a race is completed.
Officials called the Grand Prix off amid fading light about an hour after the action was halted. The race had been pushed back to a late start at the request of Formula One chief Bernie Ecclestone to attract bigger television audiences in Europe.
“What a crazy race,” Button said at a televised news conference.
Button, who had won just once before this season, surrendered the lead on the first turn as he dropped to fourth place in dry conditions before pulling ahead again as drivers went into the pits for multiple stops as the rain arrived.
Standings
Button, on 15 points, leads teammate Rubens Barrichello by 5, with Toyota’s Jarno Trulli 1 1/2 points further behind. Glock is fourth, another 1/2 point back. Record champion Ferrari failed to gain a point for the second straight race, while world champion Lewis Hamilton finished in seventh place.
Hamilton was reported in the Sunday Times to be considering his future at McLaren after being stripped of third place at last week’s Australian Grand Prix for lying to stewards under team instructions.
The race demonstrated how many teams are grappling to adapt to new technical rules, with Button lapping at least two seconds faster than all but those placed in the top seven. The next race takes place April 19 in China.
The sport’s ruling body is hearing an appeal in Paris this month over Brawn GP’s use of diffusers at the first two races, with other teams including Ferrari claiming they are illegal.
NEW YORK. General Motors Corp. Chief Executive Officer Fritz Henderson said the company and its stakeholders still need to do more as the automaker strives to meet a deadline for restructuring, in or out of bankruptcy.
“The company still needs to pull together our people, our suppliers, our dealers, management executives, everyone, bondholders, retirees,” Henderson said in a recorded interview for CNN’s “State of the Union” program.
“We need to go further and I think at this point it would be inappropriate for me to try to guess what that might be,” Henderson, 50, said, according to a transcript of the program released by CNN. “If the conclusion is you’ve got to go deeper and you’ve got to go faster, you can’t really afford to take anything off the table.”
Henderson said he still favors restructuring the company outside of bankruptcy. In a separate interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press” program, he said bankruptcy isn’t inevitable.
”It would only be prudent” to be prepared for all contingencies, he added, so “we can move fast.”
New Plan
GM, the largest U.S. carmaker, is trying to craft a new strategy for financial viability that cuts debt and boosts cash flow, probably by eliminating more jobs and closing additional plants. The U.S. government ordered the company to come up with a plan by June 1 to justify taxpayer aid that is keeping GM alive.
David Axelrod, a senior adviser to President Barack Obama, said GM workers shouldn’t have to make “disproportionate” concessions. Speaking on “Fox News Sunday,” Axelrod said the United Auto Workers union has taken “huge concessions” already and that creditors and company executives must do the same.
“What we shouldn’t do is ask that sacrifices of the workers be disproportionate,” he said.
Henderson was chosen by the Obama administration to run GM after officials asked CEO Rick Wagoner to step down March 27. The administration also wants a majority of the 11-member board changed. The automaker’s acting chairman, Kent Kresa, said March 31 he wants to present six new candidates by August.
GM Debt
GM must shrink $27.5 billion in debt that bondholders have been reluctant to exchange for equity, and $20.4 billion in obligations to a union-run health-care fund. Henderson also has said GM needs to cut more deeply than its planned 22 percent reduction in so-called structural costs in North America to $26.3 billion from 2007’s level.
Current GM plans, before any overhaul, call for eliminating 47,000 jobs globally, idling 5 assembly plants in the U.S. and shedding thousands of dealers.
GM has received $13.4 billion in U.S. loans and asked for as much as $16.6 billion more when it submitted the Feb. 17 viability plan the government rejected.
Chrysler LLC borrowed $4 billion and the administration is considering as much as $6 billion in additional aid for the Auburn Hills, Michigan-based automaker, if it forms an alliance with Italy’s Fiat SpA. In 1980, then-Chrysler Corp. borrowed $1.2 billion in government-backed loans it repaid in 1983.
Ford Motor Co., the second-largest U.S. automaker, is not seeking government support.
A softening U.S. economy that is shedding jobs amid low consumer confidence adds to GM’s difficulties. U.S. auto sales tumbled 37 percent in March, and GM’s slid 45 percent.
New autos sold in March at an annual rate of 9.86 million units, according to sales tracker Autodata Corp. of Woodcliff Lake, New Jersey. The rate averaged 16.8 million this decade through 2007.
US pop star Madonna has left Malawi on a private jet after failing to adopt a second child from the country.
Last week a Malawian court rejected the adoption over residency rules but the singer's lawyer has said that she will appeal against the ruling.
The 50-year-old singer applied to adopt Chifundo James, whose name translates into English as Mercy, on Monday.
Chifundo is in the same orphanage that previously housed David Banda, Madonna's first adopted child.
BOSTON -Boston's NBC affiliate says it will air a local newscast instead of Jay Leno's new 10 p.m. talk show.
The move by WHDH has prompted a threat from NBC to strip the TV station of its network affiliation.
Leno is leaving "The Tonight Show" in June, and his new prime-time program on NBC is scheduled to begin in September.
Ed Ansin, who owns WHDH's parent company, told The Boston Globe he did not believe Leno's new show would be successful. He said the station would do better financially with a news show that competes with Fox-affiliated WFXT-TV's highly rated 10 p.m. newscast.
NBC TV Network president John Eck said in a statement that WHDH's move is a "flagrant violation" of its contract with the network.
© 2009 Asnycnow15 News.
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