Michael Jackson’s doctor denies manslaughter charge

Michael Jackson’s former doctor has denied a charge of involuntary manslaughter over the singer’s death, at a court in Los Angeles.

Dr Conrad Murray was bailed for $75,000 (£48,000) after pleading not guilty to “unlawfully, and without malice, killing Michael Joseph Jackson”.

A judge must decide whether to proceed to trial. A conviction could bring a jail term of up to four years.

Jackson died at his home on 25 June last year at the age of 50.

His death was ruled as homicide, mainly caused by the anaesthetic Propofol.

‘Not enough’

A cocktail of drugs – including sedatives Midazolam and Diazepam, the painkiller Lidocaine and the stimulant Ephedrine – were also detected in his body, a coroner confirmed.
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Coming to Milwaukee: A Chinese mega-mall?

Beijing, China (CNN) — A Beijing-based company will soon open a Chinese-style mega shopping mall in the most unlikely of places: Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

“The cost of doing business there is very low,” said Wu Li, president of Toward Group. “The people are friendly, the environment is peaceful and the pace of living is slow. It is a good place for Chinese enterprises to go abroad.”

Loaded with cash, credit and encouraged by the government to expand overseas, Chinese companies have been investing in property abroad at an increasingly rapid clip. While most are purchasing properties in traditional commercials centers like New York, few have ventured into the Rust Belt — until now.

“Americans should be prepared that more Chinese investors will buy up commercial real estate in the United States in 2010 to take advantage of low valuations in an improving economy,” said Shaun Rein, managing director of China Market Research Group, a Shanghai-based market intelligence firm. “It could be a huge trend.”
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Last speaker of ancient language of Bo dies in India

The last speaker of an ancient language in India’s Andaman Islands has died at the age of about 85, a leading linguist has told the BBC.

Professor Anvita Abbi said that the death of Boa Sr was highly significant because one of the world’s oldest languages – Bo – had come to an end.

She said that India had lost an irreplaceable part of its heritage.

Languages in the Andamans are thought to originate from Africa. Some may be 70,000 years old.

The islands are often called an “anthropologist’s dream” and are one of the most linguistically diverse areas of the world.

‘Infectious’

Professor Abbi – who runs the Vanishing Voices of the Great Andamanese (Voga) website – explained: “After the death of her parents, Boa was the last Bo speaker for 30 to 40 years.

“She was often very lonely and had to learn an Adamanese version of Hindi in order to communicate with people.
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US to probe Toyota Prius brake problems

The US Transportation Department has opened an investigation into brake problems in the 2010 Toyota Prius.

The move follows an admission from Toyota that it had had a problem with the brake system in the hybrid, which the carmaker said was fixed in January.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has received 124 reports from drivers about the issue, including four of crashes.

There have been no reports of any such accidents in the UK.

The investigation will look into allegations of momentary loss of braking capability while travelling over uneven road surfaces, potholes or bumps. However it will not suspend sales.

This latest alarm for the beleaguered carmaker – the world’s number one – follows worldwide recalls of almost eight million cars due to separate floor mat and pedal problems.

No Prius recall
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Obama vows ‘much tougher’ stance on US-China trade

President Barack Obama says he will be much tougher with China to make sure it opens its markets to trade with the US.

Mr Obama told Democratic Party senators that he would put “constant pressure” on China and other countries to stick to their side of trade agreements.

But he said he did not intend to take a protectionist stance towards China, warning that “to close ourselves off from that market would be a mistake”.

Tension between the US and China has increased over arms sales to Taiwan.

Relations have also been strained by reports of Chinese cyber attacks on US-run websites and a planned visit to the US by the Dalai Lama.
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Google mystery server runs 13% of active websites

The Google Web Server – custom-built server software used only by Google – now runs nearly 13 per cent of all active web sites, according to the latest survey data from the web-server-tracking UK research outfit Netcraft.

Netcraft data has the Google Web Server (GWS) running nearly 11 million active sites – i.e., sites with recently updated content. This total includes not only sites run solely by Google, but also sites the company operates on behalf of third parties via services like Blogger, Google Docs, and Google App Engine.

Apache is still the most prevalent web server, with nearly 44m active sites, and Microsoft servers are second with nearly 14m. But the Google Web Server tops all others and trails Microsoft by a mere 3m sites – despite being unavailable for use outside what Mountain View has called “the Google Network,” a worldwide proprietary infrastructure that amounts to a private internet.

Apache and Microsoft servers are available to anyone.

Google does not discuss GWS. In the past, some reports have indicated that it’s based on Apache. But in a 2007 web post, über Googler Matt Cutts indicated otherwise. “That’s not correct,” he wrote. “I believe GWS is a custom web server, not a modified version of Apache.”
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Microsoft’s IE 8 misses Windows 7 updraft

Internet Explorer has continued its gentle drift southwards, having missed any boost from last year’s release of IE 8 and the sales onslaught behind Windows 7.

Meanwhile, rival Firefox saw its forward market-share march apparently halted by continued uptake of Google’s Chrome for the month of January.

Netmarketshare numbers for January 2009 reveal that Microsoft’s browser has lost more than seven per cent market share compared a year ago, taking it to a new low of 62.12 per cent for all versions of IE. The browser is also down from 62.69 per cent in December 2009.

IE 8, released in March 2009, has 22.37 per cent market share, just inching past the browser-that-won’t die, IE 6, on 20 per cent. While it was crowing about IE’s growth and overlooking the market share decline, Microsoft repeated past calls for customers to abandon IE 6.
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Japan Orders Toyota to Investigate Complaints Over Prius Brakes

NAGOYA, JAPAN — The Japanese government said Wednesday that it has ordered Toyota to investigate a possible defect in its new Prius hybrid model after receiving 14 reports of brake trouble, another blow for an automaker already embroiled in its biggest-ever recall.

Drivers complained that the brakes on Toyota’s newest Prius momentarily stopped working at low speeds, especially on slippery surfaces, said Kenji Sato, a Transport Ministry official in charge of recall policy.

In one incident in July 2009, a new Prius crashed head on into another vehicle at an intersection, hurting two people in that car. Ten of the 14 complaints about the new Prius, which went on sale in Japan in May, came in January.

A Toyota spokesman, Takanori Yokoi, said dealers in North America and Japan had received “several tens” of reports from customers who said their Priuses had “braked insufficiently” on bumpy or frozen roads.

The automaker is still investigating and is not in a position to release more details, including whether a recall will be necessary, Mr. Yokoi said.
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Oscars could see David vs. Goliath battle

(CNN) — “Avatar,” watch your back. You too, Jeff Bridges and Meryl Streep.

Though Oscar watchers say there were few surprises among the nominations for the 82nd Academy Awards, some of the selections indicate a growing respect among Oscar voters for certain films and nominees, making them odds-on favorites (or at least galloping dark horses) when the winners are announced March 7.

Chief among them is “The Blind Side,” the film about a homeless African-American teen taken in by an upscale white family. Sandra Bullock’s nomination for best actress was expected — she’s already won a Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild Award for her performance — but the film’s inclusion among the best picture nominees was not, said longtime Oscar pundit Tom O’Neil, writer for the Los Angeles Times’ TheEnvelope.com.

“The only real shockeroo in the nominations was the inclusion of ‘The Blind Side’ for best picture,” he said. “That literally blindsided the pundits, who thought that would go to ‘Invictus’ or ‘The Hangover’ or ‘Star Trek.’ ”
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‘Internet addiction’ linked to depression, says study

There is a strong link between heavy internet use and depression, UK psychologists have said.

The study, reported in the journal Psychopathology, found 1.2% of people surveyed were “internet addicts”, and many of these were depressed.

The Leeds University team stressed they could not say one necessarily caused the other, and that most internet users did not suffer mental health problems.

The conclusions were based on 1,319 responses to an on-line questionnaire.

Recruitment was via links on social networking sites. People were asked how much they used the internet and for what purposes.

They were also asked a series of questions to assess whether they suffered from depression.
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