Pop legend Jackson laid to rest

America: Michael Jackson, the iconic singer who died from a drug overdose more than two months ago, has been laid to rest at a ceremony in Los Angeles attended by family and celebrities.
Tight security kept fans, reporters and even aircraft away from Friday's private burial service held at Glendale's Forest Lawn cemetery.
Jackson joins a long list of famous stars including Hollywood icons Walt Disney, Humphrey Bogart, Errol Flynn and Clark Gablewho have also been buried there.
The service had been due to begin at 02:00GMT but was delayed by an hour as his family, travelling in a procession of 31 limousines and cars, arrived late.
Among about 200 guests present at the funeral were actress Elizabeth Taylor, child star Macaulay Culkin and Jackson's ex-wife Lisa Marie Presley, the daughter of Elvis Presley.
Final farewell
Jackson's final resting place is a crypt in Forest Lawn's Great Mausoleum, a vast, mock-Renaissance building on the stately property.
The late pop star's coffin was driven to the ceremony shortly after his family arrived for the private event.
The singer - who sold millions of albums worldwide with hits such as "Thriller" and "Billie Jean" - died of a drug overdose on June 25 in what the Los Angeles county coroner later said was a homicide.
Officials said a cocktail of prescription medication, including the powerful anaesthetic propofol and sedative lorazepam, were the primary causes of his death.
Police have investigated several doctors who treated Jackson, focusing on Conrad Murray, his personal physician, who was at his bedside when he suffered a heart attack in a rented Los Angeles mansion.
Murray was hired by concert promoter AEG Live in the weeks before Jackson's death to watch over him as he rehearsed for a series of comeback concerts in London, scheduled to start in July.
Police have said they will seek criminal charges in the case but so far officials have not filed any.
The Jackson estate has said it will reimburse the Glendale Police Department for its expenses, estimated at up to $150,000.
The cost of the memorial service, estimated $1.4m, was absorbed by the city of Los Angeles.

Swine flu kills 2,837, virus not mutated: WHO

GENEVA : H1N1 flu has killed at least 2,837 people but is not causing more severe illness than previously and the virus has not mutated, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday.
The WHO is carefully monitoring the virus to detect any mutation which might signal that it has become more deadly.
"There is no sense that the virus has mutated or changed in any sense," WHO spokesman Gregory Hartl told a news briefing. "We are continuing to see increased number of deaths because we are seeing many, many more cases."
About a quarter of a million cases have been laboratory-confirmed worldwide, but this is far fewer than the true number according to the United Nations agency which has stopped requiring countries to report individual cases.
One-dose vaccine
A WHO weekly statement on the latest strain, commonly known as swine flu, is expected later on Friday. The agency's previous update of Aug. 28 showed at least 2,185 deaths.
In the meantime, a Swiss drug maker may be able to provide a one-dose H1N1 vaccine instead of the two-dose inoculation required previously, the company said Thursday.
Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corp. of Basel, Switzerland, said, based on studies conducted through the University of Leicester, it may be able to protect people from A(H1N1) infections within two weeks following administration of a one-time vaccine.
Further clinical experimentation on more than 6,000 children and adults was being conducted worldwide, the company said.
"The study suggests that while two doses seem to provide better protection, one dose of our adjuvant Celtura vaccine may be sufficient to protect adults against the swine flu. This is important information for public health authorities who prepare for vaccination in the coming months with limited vaccine supply," said Dr. Andrin Oswald, chief executive officer of Novartis Vaccines and Diagnostics.

Egyptian film on women's role draws ire, praise

Scheherazade' filmmakers say facing personal criticism
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VENICE : The makers of an Egyptian film exploring the subjugation of women across the Middle East say they have won widespread praise as well as deeply personal criticism since the movie was released.
"Scheherazade: Tell Me a Story", screened at the Venice film festival outside the main competition, tells the story of Hebba, a successful talk-show host whose husband urges her to steer clear of politics in order to forward his own career.
As the deputy editor of a state-run newspaper in Cairo, Karim has been told by officials he is in line for the top job as long as his wife tones down the provocative content of her popular television slot.
But by inviting women to tell their personal, tragic stories, she unwittingly exposes fundamental flaws in Egyptian society where, the film argues, women are treated as sexual trophies and used and abused as men see fit.
When a man who tricks one of the women in order to extort money turns out to be a senior party figure, Hebba's comfortable life and seemingly perfect marriage begin to fall apart.
Conservative trends
Director Yousry Nasrallah told reporters in Venice that the backlash to Scheherazade, named after the fictional storyteller in "One Thousand and One Nights" had come not from the censors but from "fundamentalist and conservative trends in society."
"The only thing the censors object to was the last shot of the abortion scene which we had to cut out," he said. "The problems didn't come from censorship."
Lead actress Mona Zaki, as Hebba, has borne the brunt of the criticism, some of which she said was unjustifiably personal.
"It shocked me, although I did know that I would be attacked," she said.
"It was too harsh, it was too judgmental, it was more on my personal relationship (with my husband) than on my work. It was more to do with Egyptian culture than the movie."
Zaki is married to Egyptian superstar Ahmed Helmi.
Zaki added that she drew comfort from the many positive responses to the movie, which she said carried an important message about how women were treated in the Middle East.
Reaction in Venice has been broadly positive, with Screen International's review saying: "Surprisingly, if there are any objects of desire in this film, they are male rather than female which throws an unexpected light on sexual relations in Egypt."
In Egypt, Joseph Fahim of the Daily News Egypt called it one of the country's most important movies of the decade.
"Scheherazade is a film that Egypt thoroughly needs; a wake-up call to the sordid world our leaders, religious guides and fathers have created," he wrote.
In production notes for the movie, Nasrallah said that as well as addressing "the misogyny prevailing in Egyptian society", his aim was to put women back at the center of Egyptian cinema which marginalized them for more than 20 years.

UN probes Afghan tanker blasts

The United Nations has called for an investigation into a NATO air strike which killed up to 90 people in Afghanistan.
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Afghanistan: NATO aircraft bombed two fuel tankers which had been hijacked by the Taliban.
NATO says most of the dead were members of the Taliban, but local officials say 20 to 30 civilians were also killed and injured.
Local police and government leaders say dozens of civilians were gathered around the tanker, trying to scavenge fuel before it was hit.
Witnesses say the dead and injured were severely burnt.
The UN mission in Afghanistan is sending investigators to the scene near the northern city of Kunduz and NATO also says it will fully investigate the reports of civilian casualties.
NATO secretary general, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, says the leader of international troops in Afghanistan, General Stanley McChrystal, had spoken to Afghan President Hamid Karzai about the air strike.
"An investigation team has been sent already to the scene led by an Admiral from ISAF headquarters," he said.
"General McCrystal has already spoken to President Karzai to express his commitment to get to the bottom of what happened as soon as possible."
A spokeswoman for the Coalition forces, Captain Elizabeth Matthias, says in order to prevent the hijacked fuel from staying in Taliban hands, NATO attacked the tankers with aircraft.
"As I understand it the local ISAF commander actually decided to conduct the air strike," she said.
"It was the Afghan forces who had noted the insurgents activity earlier in the evening. So the ISAF commander has reached out to his Afghan counterparts this morning and they are indeed looking at the site followed by asking individuals in the area to what they witnessed having happened and what evidence they can find on the ground."
The UN says nearly two-thirds of 828 civilians allegedly killed by pro-government forces in Afghanistan's conflict last year died in air strikes.

Large thighs 'may protect heart'

Men and women with thighs over 60cm (23.6in) in circumference have a lower risk of heart disease and early death, a study of 3,000 people suggests.
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The relationship remains even when body fat, smoking and blood cholesterol are taken into account, a Danish team says.
Those with narrow thighs may not have enough muscle mass to deal with insulin properly, raising the risk of diabetes and, in turn, heart disease, they say.
Experts cautioned that the research needed corroborating.
Some said it was too early to change current advice on eating and exercise for heart health, but the researchers said thigh size could be used as a marker for at-risk patients.
The study, published in the British Medical Journal, followed men and women in Denmark for more than 10 years.
They were measured for height, weight and thigh, hip and waist circumference and their overall percentage of body fat was calculated.
The thigh measurement was taken just below the gluteal fold, which is the crease caused by your buttocks.
Researchers also looked at the activity levels of the participants, whether they smoked, their blood pressure and cholesterol levels.
They then monitored incidence of heart disease over 10 years and death rates over 12-and-a-half years.
'Crude measure'
During this time, 257 men and 155 women died, 263 men and 140 women developed cardiovascular disease and 103 men and 34 women suffered from heart disease.
The team at the Copenhagen University Hospital found that those with the smallest thighs - below 55cm - had twice the risk of early death or serious health problems.
Professor Berit Heitmann, who led the research, said: "The increased risk was independent of abdominal and general obesity and lifestyle and cardiovascular risk factors such as blood pressure.
"Additionally we found that the risk was more highly related to thigh circumference than to waist circumference.
"It's a very simple, very crude measure but it seems to have an individual effect. And it may be a way for doctors to assess risk.
"The nice thing is that if you have a small thigh you can do something about it through exercise."
Previous studies have suggested that a waist circumference of over 35in (88.9cm) for a woman and 40in (101.6cm) for a man indicated a high risk of developing diabetes and heart disease.
Professor Heitmann's team says the risk of narrow thighs could be associated with too little muscle mass.
They say this can lead to the body not responding to insulin properly, increasing the risk of type 2 diabetes and, in the long-run, heart disease.
Too little fat can also lead to adverse changes in the way the body breaks down food.
'Great news'
British Heart Foundation senior cardiac nurse Judy O'Sullivan said: "There is insufficient evidence to confirm that a low thigh circumference affects a person's risk of developing cardiovascular disease.
"However, low muscle mass is associated with low levels of physical activity which is an established risk factor for developing heart disease."
Tam Fry, of the National Obesity Forum, agreed that the research needed further corroboration, saying: "This is a very interesting and slightly counter-intuitive piece of work but it has to be respected because of the numbers looked at and the duration of the research.
"This must be great news for people with larger thighs. What I find fascinating is that researchers are now going back to the drawing board and looking for every possible way of mitigating obesity."