Whitney Houston’s godmother Aretha Franklin and Stevie Wonder will sing at the singer’s funeral, to be held in New Jersey on Saturday.
Clive Davis, her musical mentor, will speak at the ceremony, which will include contributions from Whitney Houston’s cousin Dionne Warwick and singer Alicia Keys.
Whitney Houston’s ex-husband Bobby Brown and Kevin Costner, with whom she starred in The Bodyguard, are among those who have been invited to the private service.
Police plan to block off streets around the New Hope Baptist Church in Newark.
No one without an invitation will be allowed near the building and fans have been urged to stay home.
The funeral will be shown live on US television after the Houston family agreed to have a single video camera inside the church.
Whitney Houston’s funeral will also be streamed on the BBC News website at 12:00 EST.
Various media crews are already in place outside the church, hoping to capture footage of the guests arriving and leaving.
Whitney Houston was one of the world's best-selling artists from the mid-1980’s to the late 1990’s, selling 170 million records worldwide
Songwriter Valerie Simpson, whose I’m Every Woman was covered by Whitney Houston in 1992, will also be attending the funeral.
Valerie Simpson told CNN she hoped the day would be a celebration of Whitney Houston’s talent.
“Her personal trials and tribulations have nothing to do with her artistry,” she told Piers Morgan.
“Her record is her music. That incredible voice.”
“It had everything – it was elastic, it had meaning, it had range, it had soul, it had pop sensibility and an ability to interpret a lyric in a way that made you feel it.”
The funeral comes one week after Whitney Houston was found in her hotel bathroom in Los Angeles.
Officials are waiting for the results of toxicology tests that will help them ascertain how the singer died.
Reginald Dowdley, the late singer’s make-up artist, spent three hours with her on the day before her death and said he saw “no signs of stress”.
“She was warm and inviting and welcoming,” he said.
“She didn’t seem erratic. I didn’t get any of that from her at all.”
Whitney Houston was one of the world’s best-selling artists from the mid-1980’s to the late 1990’s, selling 170 million records worldwide.
Sales of Whitney Houston records have soared since her death was announced last Saturday.
A privately-owned Cessna aircraft was intercepted by two fighter jets yesterday entering the same Los Angeles airspace as Marine One while the helicopter was ferrying President Barack Obama.
After the small plane landed at Long Beach Airport, police then discovered it contained about 40 pounds of marijuana, a law enforcement official said.
The Secret Service said President Obama was never in any danger, despite the emergency procedure to remove the unauthorized aircraft from “restricted airspace”.
The North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) said it scrambled two F-16 fighters from March Air Reserve Base in Riverside County, California, to intercept a Cessna 182 over Los Angeles at 2:30 p.m. local time.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesman Virginia Kice said the department’s Homeland Security Investigations unit questioned the pilot, who has been turned over to Long Beach police and remains in custody.
The pilot will now face local prosecution, Virginia Kice said.
The Secret Service said President Obama was never in any danger, despite the emergency procedure to remove the unauthorized aircraft from “restricted airspace”
NORAD spokesman Michael Kucharek declined to disclose how close the Cessna came to Marine One.
The Federal Aviation Administration had notified pilots that there was an eight-mile radius around Los Angeles International Airport that was off-limits to air traffic yesterday.
It was that radius that the Cessna violated, spokesman Brie Sachse said.
Brie Sachse declined to release the Cessna’s tail number, saying the agency does not identify planes involved in security incidents.
After a short wait at LAX, Barack Obama took off aboard Air Force One to San Francisco – the flight was delayed by the appearance of the Cessna.
Barack Obama made it safely to San Francisco, where he was travelling to three fundraisers.
When he landed he met Jodi Fisher, a 44-year-old cancer patient who recently made headlines by handing out free ice cream in her hometown, which was on her “bucket list”.
Meeting Barack Obama was also on the list, so White House staff arranged for her to greet him at San Francisco airport.
Air Force One is the name for any U.S. Air Force aircraft which is carrying the President.
Carlos “Halfy” Rodriguez, a bad boy from Miami, Florida, who was left with half a head following a dramatic accident has spoken out for the first time – blaming his astonishing appearance on a drink and drugs binge.
Carlos “Halfy” Rodriguez, who also goes by the name Sosa, lost a large portion of his brain and skull in a crash after flying through his car’s windscreen and landing head-first on the road.
In a new video Carlos Rodriguez has used his appearance and story to warn others not to drink and take drugs.
Doctors were forced to cut away large amounts of flesh and bone to help Halfy survive and he has since been able to continue his life.
“I was barred out on drugs. I was driving and I hit a pole and flew out the front window and landed on my head,” Carlos Rodriguez said in a new warning message on You Tube.
Showing his head to camera the man added: “And this is how the old boy has come out. That is why it is not good drinking and driving or drugness (sic) and driving. It is no good kids.”
According to the German tabloid Bild, Carlos Rodriguez had the accident aged 14.
Carlos “Halfy” Rodriguez lost a large portion of his brain and skull in a crash after flying through his car's windscreen and landing head-first on the road
“I was with a cousin and a friend stole the car, there was a near-fatal car accident. As the speed was too fast we lost control of the car and crashed,” Carlos Rodriguez said.
He shot to fame two years ago after he was arrested for allegedly soliciting prostitution.
Miami Police had problems with their paperwork and his forms contained no name and simply the description “half a head”.
Carlos Rodriguez’s mugshots, showing his missing forehead and battered skull, spread across the world online but many thought that it was a hoax.
However this new video has proved that he and his extreme injuries exist.
But despite his serious message to stay away from narcotics, it appears that Carlos Rodriguez is yet to change his ways after admitting he still smokes a lot of drugs.
In a bizarre tirade, Carlos Rodriguez also accuses American President Barrack Obama of doing the same.
“This is what I do daily: burn a stake,” which is slang for a joint.
“Obama is the President of ya’ll United States and he smokes. (Expletive) has the whole White House growing.
An armed robbery took place at a museum in Ancient Olympia, the birthplace of the Olympics, from where dozens of artefacts have been stolen, Greek officials say.
Local mayor Thymios Kotzias told media two masked men had broken into the museum after overpowering the sole guard, a woman.
Thymios Kotzias said items of “incalculable” value had been stolen, but gave no details.
Culture Minister Pavlos Geroulanos has tendered his resignation, state television reported.
An armed robbery took place at a museum in Ancient Olympia, the birthplace of the Olympics, from where dozens of artefacts have been stolen
Officials say the thieves broke into the museum early on Friday, smashed glass displays and took about 60 items – mostly bronze and clay statuettes.
Ancient Olympia, in Western Greece, is regarded as one of the most important cultural sites in the country.
Thymios Kotzias was quoted by AFP as saying: “There were two of them, and they had a gun.
“They immobilized the guard as the shift changed at 7:00 a.m., having previously knocked out the alarm.”
“We must wait and see what the local archaeology supervisor will say, but the items were of incalculable value,” Thymios Kotzias added.
Amanda Knox finally has a book deal after months of tense battling between 20 publishers desperate for a big money windfall.
Amanda Knox, 24, of Seattle, Washington, has signed for a reported $4 million with publisher HarperCollins to write about her murder conviction and acquittal in Italy.
While the deal will be respite for her family who spent $1 million just dealing with her trial, it will provoke anger from her alleged victim’s relatives.
The deal is expected to distress the family of Meredith Kercher, 21, the British student who lived with Amanda Knox in Perugia, Italy, found in a pool of blood.
Amanda Knox, who was jailed for four years in Perugia, has only spoken publically once when she arrived back in the U.S. following her release last October.
Her family spent more than $1 million in legal, travel and living costs to be near her during the murder trial in Italy – and even more on her appeal.
Amanda Knox’s parents, Edda Mellas and Curt Knox, who divorced when she was aged just two, have put on a united front and took out second mortgages.
“Knox will give a full and unflinching account of the events that led to her arrest in Perugia,” a HarperCollins spokesman said on Thursday.
Amanda Knox has signed for a reported $4 million with publisher HarperCollins to write about her murder conviction and acquittal in Italy
The spokesman added that Amanda Knox will talk about her “struggles with the complexities of the Italian judicial system” and read back journals she kept in prison.
“Knox will talk about her harrowing experience at the hands of the Italian police and later prison guards and inmates,” he said.
HarperCollins is promising Amanda Knox will “reveal never before-told details surrounding her case” about “the most challenging time of her young life”.
The book, currently untitled, is tentatively scheduled for early 2013. The mammoth financial agreement was disclosed by the New York Times.
It was negotiated by Washington attorney Robert Barnett, who has worked for President Barack Obama and former President George W. Bush.
Some 20 publishers were interested in the book and Amanda Knox met with seven, all of whom submitted bids during a recent auction.
HarperCollins publisher Jonathan Burnham said that Amanda Knox, who studied creative writing, would work with a collaborator.
The company should be able to recoup some of its investment by selling TV interview rights on the back of the book.
Broadcasters are banned from paying for interviews but they routinely get around it by buying the rights to the interviewee’s book instead.
Amanda Knox’s editor will be Claire Wachtel, whose other authors have included crime novelist Dennis Lehane and journalist Cokie Roberts.
Publishers in recent years have shied from controversial defendants, especially since the fiasco of O.J. Simpson’s “If I Did It”.
That was a fictionalized account of Nicole Brown Simpson’s murder that was cancelled in 2006 by HarperCollins in response to public outrage.
After Casey Anthony was cleared last year of killing her two-year-old daughter, several publishers said they would not consider a book by her.
“I think it’s a huge gamble for somebody,” a publisher who had no intention of bidding on the story told the New York Times earlier this month.
“It’s not like she has been exonerated in a clear and definitive way.”
The value of her story has been compared to that of Jaycee Dugard, who was kidnapped and held captive for almost two decades.
Casey Anthony had a book published last July that has sold 1.2 million copies. But while the deal is good news for Amanda Knox, her legal issues are not over.
Earlier this week, Italian prosecutors asked the top court to reinstate the murder convictions of Amanda Knox and her former boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito.
Raffaele Sollecito, who had reportedly been considering seeing Amanda Knox at Christmas, has since been pictured kissing and cuddling Annie Achille.
Annie Achille is an Italian volleyball player who is also his distant cousin.
Amanda Knox meanwhile has been seen hand-in-hand in Seattle with her new boyfriend, guitarist James Terrano.
Prosecutor Giovanni Galati said he is “very convinced” that Raffaele Sollecito and Amanda Knox were responsible for Meredith Kercher’s death in November 2007.
But the Italian appeals court in October said the guilty verdicts against Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito were not corroborated by any evidence.
It added that the court hadn’t proven they were in the house when Meredith Kercher was killed.
A third defendant, Ivory Coast-born drifter Rudy Guede, was convicted in a separate trial of sexually assaulting and stabbing Meredith Kercher.
Rudy Guede’s 16-year sentence, reduced in appeal from an initial 30 years, was upheld by Italy’s highest court in 2010.
Meanwhile, a lawyer for Amanda Knox recently filed an appeal of her slander conviction in Italy.
The same court that overturned her murder conviction upheld the charges for slander – for falsely accusing bar owner Diya “Patrick” Lumumba of involvement in the slaying.
Diya Lumumba was freed after two weeks in prison for lack of evidence. Amanda Knox later said she was “manipulated” during her lengthy police interrogation.
A judge set Amanda Knox’s sentence for slander at three years, less than the time she spent in prison. That meant she could leave Italy and return to Seattle.
Convicted Marin Stroia collapsed and had to be wheeled out of a Fort Lauderdale, Florida, courtroom on a stretcher Thursday morning after he drank a liquid he claimed was poison when a jury found him guilty of armed trespass.
This isn’t the first time Marin Stroia has caused commotion at the Broward County Courthouse. When the 60-year-old man was taken to the hospital, he was on trial for sneaking a gun into court last year, sitting down and threatening to shoot himself over child support issues.
It’s unclear from Thursday’s incident whether Marin Stroia really tried to take his own life. He was seen drinking a clear liquid from an aspirin bottle, though before he collapsed, he told a court guard the drink was not actually poison.
Marin Stroia collapsed and had to be wheeled out of a Fort Lauderdale, Florida, courtroom on a stretcher Thursday morning after he drank a liquid he claimed was poison when a jury found him guilty of armed trespass
Marin Stroia was listed in good condition at a local hospital Thursday afternoon.
While the jury was deliberating on Marin Stroia’s charges of armed trespass and criminal display of a weapon, he took out a photograph of his son and showed it to defense attorney Maury Halperin, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reported.
When the jury returned with a guilty verdict, as his fate was being read out in court, he drank from a large aspirin bottle. He told a courtroom bailiff it was poison.
Marin Stroia later recanted the story and told the deputy he had not quaffed poison.
However, when he was being led away from his lawyer, Marin Stroia stumbled and fell to the floor.
The judge summoned paramedics who took him from the courtroom in a stretcher.
In January 2011, Marin Stroia brought a gun into the Broward County Courthouse, sat down on the floor in the lobby and put a gun beneath his chin.
The courthouse was evacuated as Judge Joel T. Lazarus talked Marin Stroia out of killing himself.
The former security guard faces five years in prison.
New reports are claiming that Whitney Houston visited a doctor three times in the eight day period before she was found dead in a bath tub at the Beverly Hilton Hotel.
According to Star magazine and Radar claim that Whitney Houston, who passed away aged 48, saw a Beverly Hills doctor on February 2, 7 and 8.
This was a day before Whitney Houston was photographed in public for the last time, looking sweaty and disheveled as she emerged from a Hollywood night club.
Whitney Houston then made a visit to a Beverly Hills medical building on February 10, about 48 hours before her death.
The visit, to a throat doctor, was witnessed by X Factor winner Melanie Amaro, who bumped into the idol.
“I was at the doctor’s office and she was there,” Melanie Amaro told CNN last week.
“I had a chance to meet her and talk to her.”
It’s not known if it was the same physician or whether any drugs were prescribed at each of the appointments, if anything.
Whitney Houston was found dead in a bath tub at the Beverly Hilton Hotel
It has already been reported by Radar that the Los Angeles County coroner’s office has issued subpoenas for medical and pharmacy records from Whitney Houston’s doctors and medical providers.
Los Angeles County assistant chief coroner Ed Winter said that Whitney Houston’s medical records could shed additional light on why she died and whether she had any serious medical conditions.
“We’ve already contacted a number of doctors with requests for records,” Ed Winter told Radar yesterday.
“I know there are reports that she maybe was drowned or did she overdose, but we won’t make a final determination until all the tests are in.”
It is also being reported today that Whitney Houston failed a routine medical check two weeks before she was found dead.
Star Magazine are alleging that Whitney Houston had sought a facelift to be performed by a Beverly Hills surgeon.
But Dr. Marc Mani, a board certified plastic surgeon, is alleged to have refused to perform the procedure on Whitney Houston after she didn’t pass the medical clearance exam that tests a patient’s heart, lung and liver, according to a source.
“She was concerned about her appearance and wanted a facelift,” the insider said.
Dr. Marc Mani refused to confirm to Radar Online whether Whitney Houston had attended his clinic, citing federal medical privacy laws.
Radar Online claims that preliminary results have revealed sedatives were found in Whitney Houston’s system.
Speculation has grown over Whitney Houston’s cause of death, which has yet to be determined pending the outcome of toxicology tests that could take up to six weeks.
The extraordinary story of Appalachia’s “Blue Family” began back to the early 1800’s, when an isolated family from eastern Kentucky – who can trace their roots back to a French orphan – started producing children who were blue.
As a result of a coincidental meeting of recessive genes, intermarriage and inbreeding, members of the Fugate family were born with a rare condition that made them visibly discolored.
The mystery behind the astonishing picture of the Fugates, which has been baffling people for years, appears to have finally been solved.
The story began when Martin Fugate, a French orphan, settled on the banks of eastern Kentucky’s Troublesome Creek to claim a land grant in the early 19th century.
Martin Fugate married a red-haired American named Elizabeth Smith – who had a very pale complexion – and their union formed a genetic mutation that resulted in their descendants being born with blue skin.
Looking at the portrait, they appear to have been either Photoshopped or made up to mimic characters from children’s cartoon The Smurfs, but science proves that the condition is in fact real.
Fugate family developed a rare skin discoloration as a result of a coincidental meeting of recessive genes, intermarriage and inbreeding
Called methaemoglobinaemia (commonly known as met-H), the condition reduces the individual’s ability to carry oxygen in their blood. As a result, their blood is darker than the color typically found running through people’s veins.
Because the Fugate family lived in such an isolated part of the Kentucky, they intermarried with a neighboring family for generations which led to a relatively “pure” gene pool where the met-H gene appeared much more frequently.
The family was first discovered in 1958 when one of the blue men, Luke Combs, who was a descendant of another branch of the Fugate family, took his white wife to the University of Kentucky Hospital and doctors paid more attention to him than his wife.
“Luke was just as blue as Lake Louise on a cool summer day,” Dr. Charles H. Behlen II told the Tri-City Herald in 1974.
Aside from the stark discoloration of the carrier’s skin, there are no serious problems associated with the disease.
In 1980, a counter-intuitive solution was discovered where the blue person drinks a chemical-filled solution that is itself blue. This then turns the carrier’s blood into a “normal” red hue which is then reflected in a change in skin tone.
Because of the dispersion of fluids, the solution only lasts for about a day so the carrier would have to drink a serving every day.
As eastern Kentucky has become vastly more populated than the early 19th century, and as more genes are married into the Fugate family tree, there were far fewer children born with the condition.
That said, the recessive met-H gene lingers to this day, but it is statistically insignificant now.
“They weren’t sick; it was just the way they look,” said nurse Ruth Pendergrass in the Tri-City Herald article.
“They’re normal people – they’re good people.”
How Met-H darkens blood?
The methaemoglobinaemia condition, or “met-H”, reduces someone’s ability to carry oxygen in the blood, leaving it darker than the color typically found in veins.
The Fugate family intermarried with a neighboring family for generations, which led to a relatively “pure” gene pool, often including the met-H gene.
But as Kentucky became more populated and more genes came into the Fugate family tree, there were far fewer children born blue.
The gene is still around today but has now become statistically insignificant and there are no serious medical problems associated with it.
Giant technology company Apple has won a patent dispute against Motorola Mobility regarding a “slide-to-unlock” feature on smartphones.
The judgement marks Apple’s first patent victory over Motorola in any part of the world.
Patent consultant Florian Mueller said the ruling could affect patent disputes involving Android device makers worldwide.
Motorola said it planned to appeal and the judgement would have “no impact” on supply or future sales.
A spokeswoman for the Motorola said: “Today’s ruling in the patent litigation brought by Apple in Munich, Germany, concerns a software feature related to phone unlocking in select Motorola devices sold in Germany.
“Motorola has implemented a new design for the feature. Therefore, we expect no impact on current supply or future sales.”
Apple said it would not be commenting on the decision.
Apple was granted the sliding patent in March 2010
Motorola Mobility is in the process of being acquired by Google, and most of its handsets run on the search firm’s mobile operating system, Android.
The Android system is Apple’s closest rival in the mobile market.
Florian Mueller, a patent expert who has in the past consulted for Microsoft, described the ruling as a “very significant win for Apple against Android”.
“After Google closes the acquisition of Motorola Mobility, the Apple-Motorola Mobility dispute will soon gain importance transcending that of the global battle with Samsung,” Florian Mueller said.
While this decision relates solely to activity in the German market, the decision could potentially help Apple with other patent disputes in other parts of the world, Florian Mueller added.
“Apple is already asserting the slide-to-unlock patent in different jurisdictions against all three leading Android device makers and might use it against even more of them going forward.”
The patent in question – EP1964022 – relates to the process of unlocking a smartphone by simply swiping a finger from one area of the screen to another.
A second patent ruling, which covers a method of scrolling through pictures in a photo gallery on mobile device, was also due on Thursday but was postponed by the court.
Jellyfish Lake, based on the Pacific island of Palau, is the only place in the world where tourists can safely swim amongst millions of jellyfish because the sometimes deadly creatures have lost their sting.
The lake was once connected to the Pacific Ocean but when the sea level dropped jellyfish became isolated in the algae rich lake.
With no risk of being eaten by predators, the jellyfish population thrived and there is now estimated to be up to 8 million jellyfish living in the lake.
Over time their stings weakened and these amazing images show tourists can now swim alongside the jellyfish without fear of being stung.
Jellyfish Lake, based on the Pacific island of Palau, is the only place in the world where tourists can safely swim amongst millions of jellyfish
Photographer Kevin Davidson joined the brave tourists to capture the mesmerizing beauty of Jellyfish Lake on camera.
Kevin Davidson, 51, who runs a small camera shop in Palau, said: “People who have a fear of jellyfish freak out, some people just turn around and leave, but there are no dangers.
“The jellyfish have evolved into their own subspecies and have slowly lost their stinging cells, some snorkelers may feel a slight sting on more tender parts of the skin, but they’re harmless.
“Swimming in the lake is an experience of a lifetime.
“It’s hard to describe how it feels but it’s unusually quiet and you can just feel hundreds of soft blobs touching your skin as you move slowly through the water.
“Since first visiting the lake almost 15 years ago, it’s become a small obsession. I’ve been hundreds of times, each thinking of a new way to photograph the tourists and the jellies.”
A group of indomitable and infamous pageant moms have been given the beauty queen treatment, transforming them into adult-sized versions of their daughters on Anderson Cooper show.
Anderson Cooper and his team have taken TLC’s Toddlers and Tiaras’ four most famous mothers and given them pageant makeovers – even going as far as dressing them in copycat outfits to mimic their daughters’ favorite competition costumes.
The results, while hilarious, are an attempt by Anderson Cooper to encourage the controversial women to think differently about dressing their young girls up and asking them to perform in the revealing outfits and make-up.
Six-year-old Alana Thompson, aka Honey Boo Boo Child, looked like a miniature version of her mother, June Shannon, from McIntyre, Georgia.
June Shannon, the self-proclaimed “Coupon Queen”, said she found the corset a little tight, but apart from that she was determined to see the humorous side of the get-up, echoing the mothers’ attitudes towards the pageant world as a whole.
“We have had a blast,” June Shannon said of the day at the studio.
“This is something we’ll laugh about for years to come. This is fun, this is all about having fun.”
A group of indomitable and infamous pageant moms have been given the beauty queen treatment, transforming them into adult-sized versions of their daughters on Anderson Cooper show
When questioned ether the outfit may make her change her philosophy towards child beauty pageants, it became clear the embarrassing makeover experience had made no impact.
“I don’t rethink any decision that I’ve made for my daughter as far as pageants,” June Shannon said.
“This was all in fun for us today, yeah, the corset is a little tight. With her, she enjoys doing it, so we are going to continue doing it.”
June Shannon insists on the programme, airing Thursday, February 16, that the highly criticized pageant world is nothing more than a sport.
“To us women who do it everyday it is a sport. Alana, she loves doing it, she’s not into the basketball or the baseball or anything like that.”
When asked whether she had indulged in any “GoGo Juice” – the caffeine-heavy mix of Red Bull and Mountain Dew she famously uses to energize her child – the larger-than-life June Shannon pointed out that Anderson Cooper and the audience had drunk it all. Indeed, at one point, the host takes a swig from a bottle and declares that the potent mix is “very sweet”.
“I don’t give her GoGo Juice everyday of the week,” explains June Shannon.
“Sometimes I don’t give it to her at pageants at all, we may use another remedy that day which may be pixie sticks or candy or just a regular caffeinated drink.”
The mother of eight-year-old Laci was a little less enamored with her Lady Gaga costume. The tiny electric blue spandex number was a touch on the revealing side for the mother-of-three Alicia, whose daughter’s verdict of the outfit was simply: “Weird.”
Anderson Cooper suggested that the audience had found the diminutive outfit “surprising” for such a young child, but the mom disagreed.
“Not at all. I mean, she doesn’t have anything, it’s different for children, it’s not showing anything, it’s a swimsuit for her.”
Happily for the mothers, there is another team of parents – namely, Lifetime’s Dance Moms – who are perhaps even more eyebrow-raising than they.
“They are worse than us, they make us look really good” said June Shannon, while Kayla, who famously encouraged her daughter to diet and lose 10 pounds, said of the Dance Moms: “I think they are mean, they seem mean-hearted.”
Speaking about eight-year-old EverRose’s diet, Kayla said she simply did not want her children to ever reach the weight of 300 pounds – as she once had.
“Obviously it does look like my child lost ten pounds in a couple of weeks,” the mother said of TLC’s editing.
“If I could do that I would bottle it, I would sell it and I would be a millionaire. Also, I would be skinny too.
“We watch what we eat all the time, not just a couple of weeks… Ten pounds she probably put on over the summer because she did not do as much activity. She takes dance, gymnastic and cheer. Over the summer that usually stops, so she was a little more sitting around. So she probably easily put that on over the summer.”
Kayla explains that she aims to teach her children to be as conscious of diet and exercise as they can be so that they do not have to deal with the bullying caused by obesity.
“I have four children and I want them all to not live the things that I have lived, as we all have experienced things in our lives that we don’t want our children to deal with,” Kayla emotionally revealed.
Following Whitney Houston’s death claims emerged stating that singer was disheveled and incoherent and that she interrupted an E! interview the Thursday before her death.
However, according to Radaronline, this is false and a source said: “Whitney waited until E! had finished filming to say hello. Clive, Brandy and Monica were doing interviews with multiple media outlets to promote their performance at the pre-Grammy party.
“The interview was finished, and the E! crew was off to the side taking their equipment down, and the trio was awaiting the next outlet to come in and set up. As soon as the E! crew saw Whitney enter the room, they started rolling their cameras. Whitney came over, and said hello to all three. She was completely sober, coherent, and absolutely respectful. She just wanted to wish Brandy and Monica good luck.”
Following Whitney Houston's death claims emerged stating that singer was disheveled and incoherent and that she interrupted an E! interview the Thursday before her death
The Beverly Hilton hotel room where Whitney Houston died in is said to be fully booked for the “foreseeable future” it has been reported.
Meanwhile, Whitney Houston’s death certificate has been released, but failed to determine the cause of death listing “pending investigation” as the manner of death and “deferred” is written for the immediate cause.
While it is known that Whitney Houston drank alcohol and had taken prescription drugs before her death it is still not clear what the exact cause is – and it has been reported it will be hard to get a clear picture of exactly what she was taking.
Aretha Franklin, Whitney Houston’s godmother, has been asked to sing at the singer’s funeral, Franklin’s spokeswoman said.
According to CNN.com other stars confirmed on the guest list are Chaka Khan, Bebe & CeCe Winans, songwriter Diane Warren, the Rev. Jesse Jackson, pop singer Darlene Love, Bishop T.D. Jakes, Antonio L.A. Reid, Ray J and Brandy.
One person expected not to attend the funeral, which will take place at 12:00 p.m. EST, in Newark’s New Hope Baptist Church, is Bobby Brown, who family members are said to have told that he is not welcome.
Aretha Franklin, Whitney Houston's godmother, has been asked to sing at the singer’s funeral
It has also been claimed that Whitney Houston’s mother Cissy is doing her best to stop the singer’s ex-husband Bobby Brown from getting closer to their daughter Bobbi Kristina, for fear it is a ploy to get his hands on Whitney’s fortune.
A source told TMZ.com that friends of the family have contacted Bobby Brown to tell him he’s not welcome at her funeral, and should not increase his part in Bobbi Kristina’s life.
However, a friend of Bobby Brown’s is said to have told TMZ that Bobby is keen to “bury the hatchet for the sake of his daughter”.
Whitney Houston’s death certificate has been released and failed to determine the singer’s cause of death.
The legendary singer’s death certificate is listing “pending investigation” as the manner of death and “deferred” is written for the immediate cause.
While it is known that Whitney Houston drank alcohol and had taken prescription drugs before her death it is still not clear what the exact cause is – and it has been reported it will be hard to get a clear picture of exactly what she was taking.
According to The LA Times: “The Los Angeles County coroner’s office said Wednesday investigators have asked <<a number>> of doctors to provide them with Houston’s medical information.”
L.A. County Sheriff’s Sgt. Steve Opferman told LA Times: “Celebrities often get their prescription drugs from doctors who are more than willing to give them what they want and sometimes using members of their entourage.”
Whitney Houston’s death certificate has been released and failed to determine the singer’s cause of death
Whitney Houston’s funeral will take place on Saturday at the Fairview Cemetery in Westfield, NJ, which is the same place her father is buried.
The funeral will be broadcast by The Associated Press and will allow fans to pay their own tributes from home on the television and web.
There will be no public memorial service and pastor Marvin L Winans, who will be giving a eulogy said the family didn’t want “a parade”.
“I don’t think knowing Cissy (Houston’s mother) and the Houston family … it was a matter of public or private as it was this is my daughter, this is my sister, this is my mother, this is my friend and we want to do this with dignity.”
At least 21 suspected militants have been killed in two separate attacks of an unmanned US drone aircraft in north-west Pakistan, according to Pakistani security officials.
The missiles struck targets in the North Waziristan tribal region near the Afghan border.
Pakistan has previously complained that such attacks violate its sovereignty.
Last month, President Barack Obama defended the use of drones to target militants in Pakistan’s tribal areas.
Security officials said that in the first attack two missiles killed at least five militants. Several others were wounded, although the exact number could not be established.
A second attack in the same area, near Miranshah, the main town of North Waziristan, killed 15 Uzbek fighters, officials said.
There is no way of getting independent confirmation of the figures as reporters are prevented by the authorities from travelling to the region.
The area is known as a sanctuary in Pakistan for the Taliban and al-Qaeda-linked militants.
Another drone attack last week hit a house in Spalga, killing at least nine people, including some Pakistani Taliban militants.
The US does not normally comment on drone operations, which have killed hundreds of people in recent years.
The recent attacks come a week after officials said one of the most senior al-Qaeda militants in Pakistan, Badar Mansoor, was killed in a US drone strike.
Islamabad is hosting talks on Thursday and Friday with leaders of Afghanistan and Iran to discuss counter-terrorism co-operation, and strengthening regional stability.
President Mahmoud Abbas has declared three days of mourning after at least eight Palestinian children have been killed in a collision between a school bus and an Israeli lorry on a road in the West Bank.
The school bus was carrying children as young as five or six on their way to Ramallah, just north of Jerusalem.
The vehicle overturned on impact and burst into flames. More than 30 children were injured, and there are fears the death toll may rise.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has expressed his sorrow and offered assistance.
The bus is believed to have been carrying up to 50 children at the time of the crash, which happened on a busy road junction.
At least one report said a teacher had also been killed.
At least eight Palestinian children have been killed in a collision between a school bus and an Israeli lorry on a road in the West Bank
In a broadcast, President Mahmoud Abbas described the accident as a horrific national disaster and said all flags would fly at half-mast.
“The toll so far shows that more than 10 children have died and scores of injured are receiving treatment in various medical centres in the West Bank,” he said.
The higher figure of the number of dead has not been confirmed.
The children were apparently travelling from their school in the West Bank village of Anata when the two vehicles collided, head-on, according to reports.
The lorry driver, an Israeli-Arab, was injured.
Dr. Ahmad Bitawi, director of Ramallah Hospital, said five children and a teacher had been pronounced dead at the hospital, while a further 54 people injured in the crash were treated there, Reuters news agency reported.
Some of the survivors were also taken to Jerusalem’s Hadassah University Hospital.
“It is an ugly, unbelievable, terrible accident; it shakes the feelings of the whole world because it includes babies,” Adham Al-Hindin, uncle of two injured children, told Reuters.
The road conditions in the area were “pretty treacherous” following heavy rain overnight and the accident had happened during morning rush hour.
Shalom Galil – an Israeli paramedic at the scene – also said the adverse weather conditions appeared to have been a factor.
He said the steep road where the crash happened had been affected by oil. “We assume that either the bus or the truck slipped and crashed into each other.”
Shalom Galil said Israeli and Palestinian emergency services had worked closely together at the scene.
“Palestinian firefighters were involved. As far as I could see, there was full co-operation between the firefighters of Judea and Samaria [West Bank] and the Palestinian firefighters.”
New claims have suggested Whitney Houston was seen “drinking considerably” for at least two mornings in the week before her death on Saturday.
It is claimed that Whitney Houston, who was just 48 when she died, was seen ordering drinks at the bar at the Beverly Hilton Hotel before 10:00 a.m. on both Wednesday and Thursday mornings.
A source revealed to CNN that guests in Beverly Hilton hotel had heard Whitney Houston complaining to the bartender about her drinks being “watered down” or containing “too much ice”.
The source added that some of the guests later complained about Whitney Houston’s “erratic” behavior, saying that her disheveled appearance and odd clothing choice led to her appearing intoxicated.
New claims have suggested Whitney Houston was seen “drinking considerably” for at least two mornings in the week before her death on Saturday
However, Whitney Houston’s close friend Kelly Price, with whom the singer was seen partying just two days before her death, insisted she noticed no erratic behavior when the pair spent time together at the Tru Hollywood nightclub on Thursday night.
Kelly Price said in an interview on ITV’s Daybreak this morning: “I don’t know anything about her not being in a great frame of mind. I’ve said so many times that she came and she was happy and she beat me to my own party.
“She was happy to pose for the press, she was waiting on me when I got there and we had a great time that night.
“She was so happy and so full of life and she brought so much joy into the building that night – she brought an energy into the entire event that I’m so glad we were all able to experience that.”
Kelly Price added that she was so shocked when she was first told of Whitney Houston’s passing that she had hoped it was a hoax.
Kelly Price said: “I was shocked, very hurt, I’m still very hurt. In my heart and in my mind I was hoping it was a crazy internet hoax. As much as I hate them, I would have given anything for it to be a hoax that time.
“I haven’t fully been able to accept it. I need to find a way to have some closure for myself.
“I think going through the process of the Grammy Awards, I had to push my way through it. But in the last 24 hours it has really hit me.”
Meanwhile, plans to broadcast Whitney Houston’s funeral live on television and online have been revealed.
After it was confirmed the funeral will take place on Saturday at the Fairview Cemetery in Westfield, NJ, Whitney Houston’s publicist Kristen Foster announced The AP are allowed to film the service and stream it on their website, with some other broadcasters also taking the footage via a satellite.
Dolly Parton, who originally wrote and recorded the biggest hit I Will Always Love You, is set to earn millions of dollars since the Whitney Houston’s death.
Having already made a large amount of money from Whitney Houston’s smash hit version of I Will Always Love You, country singer Dolly Parton is set to earn millions more dollars since the death of the legendary singer last Saturday.
Originally co-written and recorded in 1973, the song was a modest success for Dolly Parton. The song was then revived by Whitney Houston in 1992 when it was included on the soundtrack of her romantic thriller The Bodyguard, in which she starred alongside Kevin Costner.
Dolly Parton, who originally wrote and recorded the biggest hit I Will Always Love You, is set to earn millions of dollars since the Whitney Houston’s death
I Will Always Love You soared straight to the top of the charts where it spent 10 weeks at number one – making Whitney Houston the record-holder for the longest time spent at the top spot by a solo female artist in Britain.
Dolly Parton has previously commented on the large amount of money she has made in royalties due to Whitney Houston’s version – joking in an interview with CNN last month that it had allowed her to buy “a lot of cheap wigs”.
According to figures from the Official Chart Company, I Will Always Love You is due to enter the charts at number 10 this Sunday. Its popularity has also been fuelled by actress Jennifer Hudson’s tribute performance of the track at the Grammy Awards on Sunday.
Whitney Houston’s other hits One Moment In Time, Saving All My Love For You, I Wanna Dance With Somebody, My Love Is Your Love, How Will I Know and I Have Nothing are also expected to appear in the Top 40, with a total of 27 singles by Houston appearing in the Top 200.
On Whitney Houston’s death, Dolly Parton commented: “Mine is only one of the millions of hearts broken over the death of Whitney Houston. I will always be grateful and in awe of the wonderful performance she did on my song and I can truly say from the bottom of my heart, <<Whitney, I will always love you. You will be missed.>>”
The private funeral of the legendary singer Whitney Houston will be streamed live on the internet, it was announced yesterday.
The revelation will please Whitney Houston’s grieving fans, who were disappointed to learn that the star’s funeral would be a private affair.
There will also be no public memorial service for Whitney Houston.
Members of the public wishing to pay their respects to the iconic singer will be able to do so by following online as she is laid to rest.
The private funeral of the legendary singer Whitney Houston will be streamed live on the internet by The Associated Press
The Associated Press has been granted the right to film the ceremony, which takes place on Saturday in Whitney Houston’s hometown of Newark, New Jersey.
The funeral will be streamed on the AP’s website, and will also be made available to broadcasters.
While the service at New Hope Baptist Church will be not be open to the public, that has not stopped Whitney Houston’s fans from bringing flowers as and other gifts as tributes to the singer.
The church, where Whitney Houston sang as a child, has become one of several sites where people have gathered to remember the singer since her death last Saturday night at the age of 48.
Whitney Houston is also being remembered by the New Jersey government, after governor Chris Christie ordered state buildings to lower their flags on the day of the funeral.
Whitney Houston decline from world-beating success into damaging drug addiction has been blamed by some on her turbulent marriage to singer Bobby Brown, and it has been reported that her family asked her ex-husband to stay away from her funeral.
However, Bobby Brown has insisted that those reports are false, and that he will attend the ceremony in order to support the couple’s 18-year-old daughter, Bobbi Kristina.
Whitney Houston may be buried alongside her father, army serviceman and entertainment executive John Russell Houston Jr., who died in 2003
There is believed to have been disagreement among the Houston family as to where Whitney Houston should be buried.
Whitney Houston’s mother Cissy and her cousin Dionne Warwick are said to have argued that the iconic singer should be laid to rest in Atlanta, but other relatives who argued for Newark won the day.
Whitney Houston may be buried alongside her father, army serviceman and entertainment executive John Russell Houston Jr., who died in 2003.
US researchers found that the speed of someone’s walking may predict the likelihood of developing dementia later in life.
The scientists also told a conference that grip strength in middle-age was linked to the chance of a stroke.
They said more studies were needed to understand what was happening.
Experts said the findings raised important questions, but more research was needed.
Suggestions of a link between slow walking speed and poor health have been made before.
A study, published in the British Medical Journal in 2009, said there was a “strong association” between slow walking speed and death from heart attacks and other heart problems. A Journal of the American Medical Association study suggested a link between walking faster over the age of 65 and a longer life.
Dr. Erica Camargo, who conducted the latest study at the Boston Medical Centre, said: “While frailty and lower physical performance in elderly people have been associated with an increased risk of dementia, we weren’t sure until now how it impacted people of middle age.”
US researchers found that the speed of someone’s walking may predict the likelihood of developing dementia later in life
Brain scans, walking speed and grip strength were recorded for 2,410 people who were, on average, 62 years old.
Results presented at the Academy of Neurology’s annual meeting said that 11 years later, 34 people had developed dementia and 79 had had a stroke.
The researchers said slower walking speeds were linked to a higher risk of dementia and stronger grip with a lower risk of stroke.
Dr. Erica Camargo said: “These are basic office tests which can provide insight into risk of dementia and stroke and can be easily performed by a neurologist or general practitioner.
“Further research is needed to understand why this is happening and whether preclinical disease could cause slow walking and decreased strength.”
The findings have not yet, however, been published in a peer-reviewed academic journal.
At least five Palestinian children have been killed and other 30 have been injured after a school bus has collided with a truck on a road in the West Bank, according to Israeli officials.
The collision happened on “a very steep and slippery road” near Jerusalem, according to Reuters.
An Israeli police spokesperson told AFP that an Israeli truck hit a Palestinian bus. The bus overturned and caught fire.
More than 30 children have been injured in the crash, which was “horrific,” according to the police spokesperson.
The legendary singer Whitney Houston will be always remembered as a master of “melisma”.
What is melisma and why did it influence a generation of singers and talent show aspirants?
According to Oxford English Dictionary, melisma means “a group of notes sung to one syllable of text”.
An early “I” in Whitney Houston’s I Will Always Love You takes nearly six seconds to sing.
In those seconds, Whitney Houston, a former gospel singer-turned-pop star, packs a series of different notes into the single syllable. The technique is repeated throughout the song, most pronouncedly on every “I” and “you”.
The vocal technique melisma has inspired a host of imitators. Other artists may have used it before Whitney Houston, but it was her rendition of Dolly Parton’s love song that pushed the technique into the mainstream in the 90’s.
It can be heard in the songs of Beyonce, Christina Aguilera, Jennifer Hudson and others.
And anyone who has watched a talent show like X Factor or American Idol in recent years will have picked up on the trend among amateur singers.
The legendary singer Whitney Houston will be always remembered as a master of "melisma"
The style became so prominent that former Pop Idol judges Pete Waterman and Simon Cowell had to ban aspiring stars from attempting to tackle Whitney Houston’s hits on the show.
Pete Waterman says: “It got so bad in Pop Idol 1 that we literally did say to everybody that walked in, ‘Look there’s no point in you singing Whitney Houston, so if you’re going to sing Whitney Houston, don’t bother singing, because we’ve heard it so many times now we’re actually averse to it’.”
But the melisma craze isn’t limited to contestants. Fame Academy vocal coach and judge Carrie Grant says her eight- and nine-year-old students come to lessons attempting to belt out their own takes on Whitney Houston’s famous melisma.
“She started a whole generation of singers who wanted to riff on their records, and that includes all the Beyonces and the Rihannas and probably every American idol contestant,” Carrie Grant says.
But most fail – miserably, according to Pete Waterman.
In order to achieve Whitney Houston’s vocal acrobatics it takes a combination of arduous training and natural talent.
“You can’t do it without proper breath control, and that’s the one thing that Whitney Houston had bags of,” says professional opera singer Sarah-Jane Dale.
“Let’s face it, singers like that do not come along every week.”
Whitney Houston also selected vowel sounds that would conserve air so she could hold the mammoth notes. For example, singing “luv” instead of “love”, according to Sarah-Jane Dale.
And then there’s the smooth, effortless sound of Whitney Houston’s melisma – the result of using her body to control her voice.
“It’s not just from your neck up. Singing is your whole body, and if you’re not connected to that breath and where it comes from, down in your diaphragm area, you’re not going to manage it,” Sarah-Jane Dale says.
The vocal technique traces its roots back to Gregorian chants and the ragas of Indian classical music.
In the modern era singers such as Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles and Sam Cooke are credited with bringing melisma from the choirs of churches to mainstream audiences.
Mariah Carey’s Vision of Love was a notable use. But it was Whitney Houston who popularized it and stretched the standards by attaching complicated strings of notes to single syllables.
But the term “melisma” is still relatively obscure within the pop music industry, with the effect often described simply as “ad libbing” or “riffing”.
In less flattering terms, Rolling Stone’s David Browne dubbed it an “overpowering, Category 5 vocal style” in the New York Times.
Singers can use melisma as a way of imposing their own personality on a song, according to Pete Waterman.
“A part of this comes from the creative desire to do it your way and not the way the record company, the record producers and the writers are wanting you to do it,” he says.
“The writer has written you a tune, and you totally ignore it and do your own thing anyway.”
Whitney Houston’s shift from sticking to the song’s parameters in I Wanna Dance with Somebody to taking vocal liberties in I Will Always Love You showcases this artistic transformation.
“I call it vocal gymnastics, where suddenly she wants to show you she can take a tune wherever she wants to take it,” Pete Waterman says.
“The vocal performance on it is just mind-blowing, I mean everybody stands up and goes, <<My God, where did that come from?>>”
But perhaps what Whitney Houston nailed best was moderation. In a climate of reality shows ripe with “oversinging”, it’s easy to appreciate Whitney Houston’s ability to save melisma for just the right moment.
“She’s like a cook who never overused her spice. She was always very delicate about what she would use,” Carrie Grant says.
“She never oversang, and people, therefore, were touched and moved by the emotion and the story of that song. She’s the singer that would give you goosebumps.”
A preschool girl from North Carolina was told her homemade meal consisting of turkey and cheese sandwich wasn’t healthy enough – so West Hoke Elementary School cafeteria monitor made her eat chicken nuggets instead.
The rejected meal consisted of a turkey and cheese sandwich on whole wheat bread, with a side of a banana, potato chips, and apple juice.
“What got me so mad is, number one, don’t tell my kid I’m not packing her lunch box properly,” the girl’s mother, who wished to remain anonymous, told a local newspaper.
“I pack her lunchbox according to what she eats. It always consists of a fruit. It never consists of a vegetable. She eats vegetables at home because I have to watch her because she doesn’t really care for vegetables.”
A preschool girl from North Carolina was told her homemade meal consisting of turkey and cheese sandwich wasn't healthy enough
The Department of Health and Human Services requires students to eat lunches that consist of meat, milk, grain, and two servings of fruit or vegetables.
It isn’t clear what the entire meal that the cafeteria at West Hoke Elementary School consisted of, but all that the picky four-year-old girl ate were the chicken nuggets.
The mother still wonders what it was exactly that disqualified her meal, and she expects that the bag of potato chips were potentially the problem.
That said, Jani Kozlowski, the spokesperson from the DHHS children’s division said that the meal sounds like it would have passed the federal guidelines test.
“With a turkey sandwich, that covers your protein, your grain, and if it had cheese on it, that’s the dairy,” Jani Kozlowski told The Carolina Journal.
“It sounds like the lunch itself would’ve met all of the standards,” she said, not having worked with the school in question herself.
On top of the wasted food that was sent home with the little girl at the end of the day was a $1.25 bill for the “healthy” school lunch.
“I don’t feel that I should pay for a cafeteria lunch when I provide lunch for her from home,” the mother wrote in a letter to her state representative.
