Jackson was pronounced dead at about 2:26 p.m. PDT (2126 GMT) after arriving at a Los Angeles hospital in full cardiac arrest, said Fred Corral of the Los Angeles County Coroner’s office. The cause of death was not known and an autopsy would likely take place on Friday, he said.

Jackson’s sudden death had been reported earlier by U.S. media, which said he was taken ill at his home and rushed to the hospital by paramedics who found him not breathing when they arrived.

Known as the “King of Pop,” for hits that included “Thriller” and “Billie Jean,” Jackson’s dramatic, one-gloved stage presence and innovative dance moves were imitated by legions of fans around the world.

He transformed music videos and his lifetime record sales tally is believed to be around 750 million, which, added to the 13 Grammy Awards he received, made him one of the most successful entertainers of all time.

But Jackson’s belief that “I am Peter Pan in my heart”, his preference for the company of children, his friendship with a chimp, his high-pitched voice and numerous plastic surgeries also earned him critics and the nickname “Wacko Jacko.”

Jackson, who had lived as a virtual recluse since his acquittal in 2005 on charges of child molestation, had been scheduled to launch a comeback tour from London next month.

Quincy Jones, who helped arrange the music on the album “Thriller” and produced the “Off the Wall” album, told MSNBC: “I am absolutely devastated at this tragic and unexpected news.”

“For Michael to be taken away from us so suddenly at such a young age, I just don’t have the words. I’ve lost my little brother today, and part of my soul has gone with him.”

SOLD-OUT SHOWS

Jackson had been due to start a series of concerts in London on July 13 running until March 2010. The singer had been rehearsing in the Los Angeles area for the past two months. The shows for the 50 London concerts sold out within minutes of going on sale in March.

“Rarely has the world received a gift with the magnitude of artistry, talent, and vision as Michael Jackson,” said Neil Portnow, president and CEO of The Recording Academy in a statement.

“He was a true musical icon whose identifiable voice, innovative dance moves, stunning musical versatility, and sheer star power carried him from childhood to worldwide acclaim.”

There were concerns about Jackson’s health in recent years but the promoters of the London shows, AEG Live, said in March that Jackson had passed a 4-1/2 hour physical examination with independent doctors.

Outside the hospital in Los Angeles about 200 fans and reporters gathered on Thursday, waiting for confirmation of Jackson’s death or condition.

Some fans were crying and hugging each other, and others were climbing atop fences to get a better look at a microphone stand where a news conference was supposed to take place.

“I hope he’s gone to God, and I hope that he’s free of all the troubles he’s been plagued with,” Tonya Blazer, 50, who said she had been a fan going back more than four decades to his days as a child star.

“I just feel like I’m paying tribute to him,” said Dawn Burgess, 42, a fan who said she had posters of Michael pinned to her bedroom wall when she was a child.

CHILD STAR TO MEGASTAR

Jackson was born on Aug. 29, 1958, in Gary, Indiana, the seventh of nine children. Five Jackson boys — Jackie, Tito, Jermaine, Marlon and Michael — first performed together at a talent show when Michael was 6. They walked off with first prize and went on to become a best-selling band, The Jackson Five, and then The Jackson 5.

Jackson made his first solo album in 1972, and released “Thriller” in 1982, which became a smash hit that yielded seven top-10 singles. The album sold 21 million copies in the United States and at least 27 million worldwide.

The next year, he unveiled his signature “moonwalk” dance move while performing “Billie Jean” during an NBC special.

In 1994, Jackson married Elvis Presley’s only child, Lisa Marie, but the marriage ended in divorce in 1996. Jackson married Debbie Rowe the same year and had two children, before splitting in 1999. The couple never lived together.

Jackson has three children named Prince Michael I, Paris Michael and Prince Michael II, known for his brief public appearance when his father held him over the railing of a hotel balcony, causing widespread criticism.

New Yorkers and tourists in the city’s Times Square were shocked at the news of Jackson’s death.

“I don’t know what to say. It’s sad, it’s really, really sad,” said Nicole Smith, an 18-year-old student from Brooklyn, New York, in Times Square. “My mother was a fan. I listened to his music.”

“I’m shocked. I thought someone was lying to me when I first heard it. I was a fan from when he was a little boy and then he got weird,” said Sue Sheider, 51, a teacher from Long Island.

The guru, Sant Rama Nand, 56, one of two visiting the Austrian capital, died of his wounds in hospital after Sikh followers clashed with knives and at least one gun at a gurdwara in Vienna yesterday, a police spokesman said.

“The surgeon said at first he was satisfied with his patient’s condition after an emergency operation,” the spokesman said. “But the patient lost consciousness and died shortly after midnight (03:30 IST),” he added.

The condition of the second wounded guru, Sant Niranjan Dass, 66, was described as stable, the spokesman said. The two gurus belonged to the Shri Guru Ravidas Sabha movement.

The clash broke out around 1:30 pm (17:00 IST) and saw the perpetrators pull out knives and a gun as the gurus visiting from India gave a sermon at the temple, where some 200 people had gathered.

Others in the audience pounced on the attackers, whom a witness said were wearing yellow and blue turbans, and subdued them, according to police.

“Six people did not agree” with the sermon, police spokesman Michael Takacs told Austrian public radio. “One drew a firearm, the others knives. The six people were overpowered by members of the community and seriously injured.”

Punjab tense

Meanwhile, towns in Punjab remained tense on Monday following the clash in gurudwara in Vienna.

District authorities in Jalandhar, which saw the maximum violence, requisitioned the Army and the Border Security Force (BSF) late Sunday night even as the Punjab Police was out on the streets in full force to control the rampaging mobs belonging to the Sachh Khand sect, followers of Shri Guru Ravidas Sabha.

The entire Doaba belt (the area between rivers Sutlej and Beas) comprising Jalandhar, Phagwara, Nawanshahr and Hoshiarpur towns were tense throughout the night. Jalandhar and Phagwara were the worst hit areas. Unrest was also reported from the industrial city of Ludhiana, 60 km from here.

Although no one was injured in the clashes, scores of public and private vehicles were set ablaze by the protestors in Jalandhar and Phagwara. A State Bank of India ATM was also set ablaze in Jalandhar.

Many people were stranded on the roads after the violence broke out.

The security has been beefed up in several parts of Punjab after the protestors went on a rampage.

Curfew has been imposed in Jalandhar, which continued Monday morning, even though the police claimed the situation was brought under control.

“The situation turned bad and we have requisitioned the army, BSF and the Punjab Armed Police units to control the situation,” said Sanjiv Kalra, Inspector General of Police (IG), Jalandhar range.

The protestors also clashed with the police at some places in Jalandhar. The protestors blocked roads and highways around Jalandhar and in the nearby industrial town of Phagwara.

“It is a very serious situation. Curfew has been imposed in Jalandhar City following the violence. Road and rail traffic has been affected,” Kalra said.

Railway traffic through Jalandhar, including the New Delhi-Amritsar Shatabdi train, was affected as protestors blocked rail tracks.

Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal condemned the Vienna incident and urged people in Punjab to remain peaceful. He urged the Central government to take up the matter with the Austrian government so that the guilty were punished.

The government blacked out the television news channels in the state to ensure that the violence did not spread to other parts after seeing the images on TV.

Shiromani Gurudwara Prabandhak Committee (SGPC) president Avtar Singh Makkar also condemned the Vienna attack and urged people to maintain peace in Punjab.

It was a match where the spirit of the game was victorious. Two teams that were lying low at the bottom of the table last year set up a date for the finals in the IPL 2009.

Chargers, who had finished last on the points table last year, outclassed and outplayed their opposition Royal Challengers Bangalore in all aspects to lift the Trophy that was won by Rajasthan Royals in the first edition.

Defending a modest total of 143, the Chargers ‘charged’ with the ball from the word go and struck at crucial moments to keep RCB at bay and restricted them to 137 runs in their allotted 20 overs thus winning the Grand Finale by 6 runs.

Purple cap holder RP Singh (1-16) started it all when he dismissed Jacques Kallis (15) cheaply. Pragyan Ojha followed him up with two quick wickets dismissing Manish Pandey (4) and Roelof van der Merwe (32) in quick succession. He later dismissed Praveen Kumar in his last over to take his match tally to 3 wickets.

Harmeet Singh and Andrew Symonds struck twice each to break the backbone of Bangalore’s batting and making them bite Johannesburg’s dust.

Put into bat first after RCB won the toss, the Men in Blue started off on a bad note with Anil Kumble striking gold off the second ball of the innings when he rattled Gilly’s timber. Jumbo went on to strike every time he brought himself on and finished with figures of 4 for 16 off four overs. He played a major role in restricting the Deccan Chargers to a modest 143.

The silver lining in the Chargers’ innings was the fifty run partnership between Herschelle Gibbs and Rohit Sharma who joined hands after Symonds departed cheaply. Gibbs went on to bring up his half century to save Deccan some pride and put up a modest total for Bangalore to chase.

Deccan Chargers: Adam Gilchrist(w/c), Herschelle Gibbs, Azhar Bilakhia, Tirumalsetti Suman, Andrew Symonds, Rohit Sharma, Venugopal Rao, Ryan Harris, Pragyan Ojha, Harmeet Singh, Rudra Pratap Singh

Bangalore Royal Challengers: Manish Pandey, Jacques Kallis, Roelof van der Merwe, Rahul Dravid, Ross Taylor, Virat Kohli, Robin Uthappa, Mark Boucher(w), Praveen Kumar, Vinay Kumar, Anil Kumble(c)

Wen will attend the China-EU summit in Prague
Wednesday, meeting with Czech President Vaclav
Klaus, European Commission president Jose Manuel
Barroso and EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana.

The summit was originally set for December last
year but China called it off to protest against a
meeting between the Tibetan spiritual leader and
French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who then headed
the European Union’s rotating presidency.

“All in all we would like to work with the EU and
seize this opportunity to jointly promote our
strategic partnership,” foreign ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu told journalists.

“Premier Wen Jiabao’s participation in this
meeting itself shows and displays China’s sincerity.”

Ma said a series of cooperative agreements would
be signed at the summit, which aims to address
the global economic crisis, but he refused to reveal any details.

He further reiterated China’s belief that the
Dalai Lama was aiming to establish an independent
Tibet, despite years of public statements by the
Buddhist leader denying any such intention.

“The true purpose of the Dalai in visiting other
countries is to promote Tibetan independence and
destroy the friendly relations between China and relevant countries,” Ma said.

“The Chinese government firmly opposes the Dalai
Lama’s engagement in separatist activities in any
country under whatever capacity,” he said in
response to a question about a scheduled June
visit to France by the Dalai Lama.

During the summit, Wen is expected to urge the EU
to relax limits on high-tech exports to China and
review its anti-dumping policies.

At high-level talks in Brussels earlier this
month, EU commissioners and a Chinese delegation
headed by Vice Premier Wang Qishan agreed that
trade and investment would lead the way to economic recovery.

Two-way trade has exploded in recent years making
the European Union the top destination worldwide
for exports of Chinese goods while China is
Europe’s biggest trade partner after only the United States.

Last year they traded 326 billion euros (441
billion dollars) in goods with Europe running a
169.4 billion euros deficit with China.

The scene at this park was much different Sunday when a group of four boys, throwing stones, launched an attack on one of the duck families populating this pond.

“The mother was gravely injured. One of the babies was dead and there were 11 of the other chicks left. We let it go at that, we thought, well maybe the mother will recover and the next morning, the mother was gone and we suspect, dead. And there was only ten left,” said Auburn City Manager Mark Palesh.

By the time the rescue effort was launched, nine ducklings were saved.

After the attack, the boys had ridden their bikes past a nearby school, one with a surveillance camera. Police are using that video in their investigation.

In the community, there was anger, but little of any sense of shock.

Honestly, it doesn’t surprise me,” Currier said. “People kind of let their kids run around and do whatever they want.”

Even as the attackers are sought, the survivors huddle in a pen inside one of the buildings at the park.

The city manager and his family will personally care for the ducklings for the next six to eight weeks. At that point, they’ll be teenagers and they’ll be reintroduced to the pond. The ducks already on the water will be reintroduced to some long lost relatives.

And while the episode was tragic, Palesh says there is a bright side to all of this.

“We’ve had such an outpouring of people donating food and time and expertise. Those who have licenses from fish and wildlife. People who are now teaching their children. See this article here? Or see this on television? Don’t you do that. It’s turned out very positive,” Palesh said.

The survivors will soon meet more young people in Auburn. Their next encounter much happier than the last.

At least 57 people were killed on Wednesday when an Indonesian military plane with more than 100 people on board crashed into a residential area in East Java province, a police official said.

Adjunct Senior Commissioner Yakob Prayogo, the Magetan district’s police chief, did not say whether the death toll included two people who television reports said were killed on the ground when the Hercules C-130 crashed.

“So far, 57 people were killed in the accident,” Prayogo told the MetroTV station.

Hundreds of air force and army troops were searching for and evacuating the wounded from the burned fuselage.

East Java’s military commander, Major General Suwarno, said the plane, carrying 98 passengers and 14 crew, was on a regular flight from the capital, Jakarta, to the East Java district of Madiun when it crashed in a rice field at about 6.20 am in Geplak village and burst into flames.

The bus, belonging top Akal Academy school, had picked up the students from their homes and was taking them to school Wednesday morning when the accident took place near Gumtala village in Jalandhar district. The bus driver was also killed.

Police said the injured children were being rushed to hospitals in Nurmahal town and Jalandhar, 150 km from state capital Chandigarh.

Such a statement from the Pentagon came a day after, the CIA Director Leon Panetta, said the US does not know where all the Pakistani nuclear weapons are being kept.

Defence Department spokesman, Geoff Morrell, told reporters at his daily press briefing they are “comfortable with the protocols the Pakistani military has in place to ensure the security of their nuclear arsenal.”

“I am sure that our planners take whatever requisite action is required to ensure the arsenal in a country that is obviously in the midst of a great deal — that finds itself with a great deal of challenges right now, that they have some visibility on where such weapons are located,” Morrell said.

When asked about news reports that the Special Operations forces have a contingency plan to go in and secure Pakistan’s nuclear weapons if the need be, Morrell said the US is comfortable with the security measures of the Pakistan.

“The last thing we want is to have the Taliban have access to the nuclear weapons in Pakistan. We’re fighting, obviously, that potential in Iran. The last thing we would want is to give Al Qaeda that potential. So we continue to watch that very closely.”

The world’s second-largest economy contracted by 4.0 percent in the three months to March compared with the previous quarter, logging an annualised drop of 15.2 percent, the Cabinet Office said.

It was the worst performance in the post-World War II era, eclipsing an annualised fall of 13.1 percent seen in the first quarter of 1974, when the economy was reeling from a global oil shock.

Following are key points of the the preliminary data for gross domestic product, the broadest measure of the economy, including details from a briefing by a Cabinet Office official.

- The 4.0 % contraction in real GDP for the January-March quarter was the biggest on record. It was the fourth consecutive quarter of contraction, marking the longest run of declines.

- The previous quarter’s revised 3.8% decline was the second biggest on record.

- The first quarter’s 2.9% drop in nominal terms was also the biggest on record.

- Big declines in exports and domestic demand were to blame for the contraction, a Cabinet Office official said. Capital spending and private consumption logged bigger falls compared with the previous quarter.

- The drop in private consumption was led by falls in spending on cars, restaurant services, personal computers, hotels and transport. Consumers cut back spending because of worries over jobs and income, the official said.

- The 1.1% drop in private consumption was the biggest since April-June 1997 when spending shrank after an increase in the consumption tax.

- The 10.4% decline in capital spending was the biggest on record.

- The 26.0% fall in exports was the biggest on record. The drop was led by cars, electronic communication machinery, equipment for making semiconductors and cargo transport. Shipments to US and European markets fell more than they did in the previous quarter.

The case has been filed on the orders of the district and sessions judge, The Daily Times reports.

According to the sources, one Ateequr Rehman, a resident of Abbottabad, disappeared mysteriously in June 2004.

Rehman’s father, Sadeeq had then filed a case against unidentified persons in this regard.

However, five years later, Sadiq filed a petition with the Abbotabad district and sessions judge in March 2009 for the registration of a case against Musharraf.