Janet Jackson to Pay Tribute to Michael Jackson at 2009 MOBO Awards

Organizers for 2009 MOBO Awards have confirmed that Janet Jackson will make an appearance at the event as a part of Michael Jackson tribute. "Janet is a music icon in her own right and a previous MOBO presenter. We loved her past involvement with the show and MOBO will continue to support her music and champion her career," a spokesperson for the show told The Sunday Mail. Furthermore, it is revealed that the tribute will have a positive, celebratory tone, rather than putting a dampener on the proceedings. "We hope it will be an opportunity to celebrate his legacy and show that his music lives on not only in the heart of his millions of fans worldwide but also in his music and in the music of his contemporaries," the spokesperson explained. This year's The Music of Black Origin Awards will be .....more

Taliban 'very aggressive,' top U.S. general says

WASHINGTON - Taliban militants are moving beyond their traditional strongholds, forcing a shift in U.S. troop deployments, the top U.S. general in Afghanistan said in an interview published Monday in The Wall Street Journal.
"We've got to stop their momentum, stop their initiative," Gen. Stanley McChrystal, speaking from his office in Kabul, told the Journal.
The Taliban is "a very aggressive enemy right now ," he said.McChrystal is preparing an interim assessment that is expected to be a sober accounting of the difficulties of fighting......more

Hajj draw today

ISLAMABAD: Ballot for government applications for Hajj 2009 will be held today in which names of 80,000 successful applicants will be announced.Applicant declared successful after the balloting will have to submit their Machine Readable International Passport within five days of the hajj draw in their respective banks. Applicants who remained unsuccessful for consecutive two previous years shall be declared successful this year without balloting.Unsuccessful applicants of this year will be declared successful in the next year, if they choose not to withdraw Haj dues deposited by them. At least 16,000 Pakistani pilgrims will perform hajj this year.

Teen gets Britain's first eyelash transplant: surgeons

LONDON: One of Britain's biggest comestic surgery clinics claimed Sunday to have carried out the nation's first-ever eyelash transplant on a 19-year-old with a hair-pulling disorder.During a four-hour procedure -- pioneered in the United States -- that cost 3,500 pounds (5,850 dollars, 4,100 euros), hairs were removed from the back of the teenager's head, then replanted into cuts in the eyelid.

The lashes should gradually thicken between four and six months after surgery, said Transform, a network of 22 cosmetic surgery clinics that also claims to be Britain's leading .....Full Story

US to target ‘Afghan drug lords’

The US has put 50 Afghans suspected to be drug traffickers with Taliban links on a list of people to be "captured or killed", the New York Times reports.

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Two American generals have told the US Congress that the policy is legal under the military's rules of engagement and international law, the paper says.
In a report, yet to be released, it was described as a key strategy to disrupt the flow of drug money to the Taliban.
The move is a major shift in America's counter-narcotics drive in Afghanistan...Full Story