Apple has been accused by Whitney Houston fans of exploiting the late singer’s death by increasing the cost of her in-demand albums on iTunes.
Whitney Houston’s Ultimate Collection album, released in 2007, has increased by $4.70 to $12.60, according to Digital Spy.
It comes after Whitney Houston, whose most famous hits include I Will Always Love You and I Wanna Dance With Somebody, was found dead in her Los Angeles hotel room on Saturday afternoon at the age of 48.
Users reportedly complained they were unable to download the Ultimate Collection while it was given the new price.
Some music fans accused Apple of “cashing in” on the singer’s death, while others said the company should be “ashamed”, Digital Spy reported.
One customer said: “To say I am angry is an understatement and I feel it is just a case of iTunes cashing in on the singer’s death, which in my opinion is totally parasitic.
“The album itself is great so please don’t be put off purchasing it, just [know] that you will merely be lining some fatcat’s pocket before Whitney’s lifeless body is cold.”
Whitney Houston’s Ultimate Collection album, released in 2007, has increased by $4.70 to $12.60 on iTunes after the singer’s death, according to Digital Spy
Despite the increase in cost of her albums, Whitney Houston is expected to dominate the singles and album charts next week.
Whitney Houston is currently top of the iTunes’ chart, with her 1992 smash hit I Will Always Love You.
The spring release was a massive worldwide success, and a tie in with her hugely successful film with Kevin Costner, The Bodyguard.
Whitney Houston’s albums also dominated Amazon’s CD best seller chart on Sunday, with The Greatest Hits at No. 1 and seven other Houston-related albums – including the soundtracks to The Bodyguard and Waiting to Exhale – in the top ten.
The Greatest Hits’ also topped Amazon’s MP3 sales chart, and several of Whitney Houston’s other releases filled the digital top 40.
On iTunes, eight of Whitney Houston’s albums were listed on the top 100 album sales chart, with The Greatest Hits once again taking the No. 1 slot and both the original and deluxe versions of her eponymous 1985 debut charting.
Whitney Houston sold more than 170 million albums and singles worldwide over the course of her career, winning two Emmy Awards, six Grammy Awards, 30 Billboard Music Awards and 22 American Music Awards along the way.
According to the latest reports, Whitney Houston’s body was found in the bathtub at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Los Angeles.
Whitney Houston was allegedly in possession of prescription pills such as Xanax.
German health experts have been left baffled by a small village in their country where cancer has hit almost every household.
Wewelsfleth, the German village which has a population of 1,500, has been labeled the “village of the damned” as new cancer cases are 50% above average.
Researchers from the University of Lubeck who investigated the phenomenon, which includes breast, lung, oesophageal, womb and stomach cancers, could find no defining cause – although residents are blaming three nearby nuclear power plants and a shipyard where vessels used to be sprayed with highly toxic paint.
The villagers in Wewelsfleth are now demanding a government inquiry. They think authorities over the years have remained silent as wind and rain blew in cancer-causing particles into their homes.
But experts say this is not the case. Research by academics at the University of Lübeck probed the various cancers that had struck down the villagers.
Wewelsfleth, the German village which has a population of 1,500, has been labeled the “village of the damned” as new cancer cases are 50 per cent above average
As well as probing the nuclear plants it also looked into the nearby shipyard, asbestos sheeting used on garage roofs, electro-smog from power lines and the lifestyle of those who fell victim to the cancers.
The study could find no defining link to any one cause. The villagers are now asking health authorities in Berlin to commission another study to get to the bottom of the “plague of cancers”, as they call it.
Wewelsfleth mayor Ingo Karstens, who lost both of his wives to cancer, said: “It feels like a curse.”
Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport has been evacuated after Dutch police has arrested a man who locked himself in a toilet and claimed to have a bomb.
Schiphol’s two main international terminals were evacuated at about 11:30, as the bomb squad and scores of police arrived at the scene.
The terminals reopened about four hours later, after officers said the man posed no threat to the public.
However, delays continued to affect the airport – one of Europe’s busiest.
Dutch border police were investigating whether the suspect had explosives in his luggage.
Live television streams had shown police with guns, dogs and balaclavas outside the building, she added.
Amsterdam's Schiphol airport has been evacuated after Dutch police has arrested a man who locked himself in a toilet and claimed to have a bomb
By 16:00 local time, Schiphol’s website was showing 16 cancellations to inbound flights and 11 to departures. Dozens of flights were delayed.
A Schiphol spokesman said: “Things are not back to normal yet. The evacuation is over and we are busy getting operations back on track but there will be some delays and cancellations for the rest of the day.”
On 25 December 2009, a Nigerian student smuggled explosives on to a flight from Schiphol to Detroit in the US after flying into Amsterdam from Lagos.
He has pleaded guilty to trying to blow up the Northwest Airlines jet he boarded and is due to be sentenced on Thursday. He faces life imprisonment.
By the end of her life, Whitney Houston had thrown away every last scrap of the poise and beauty that had made her the ultimate diva of her generation.
Leaving a Hollywood nightclub two days before her death, Whitney Houston was drenched in sweat and disoriented a wad of mint chewing gum visible in her gaping mouth.
Blood from a cut trickled down her leg, but the singer herself, surrounded by party-loving hangers-on, didn’t seem to notice.
Alternately waving and cursing, this was not the Whitney Houston who conquered the world – a church-going supermodel with a once-in-a-generation voice of exceptional power and sweetness.
This was a woman who, despite at least three attempts at rehab in the past eight years, appeared fully in the grip of drug addiction: wired, wrecked and out of control. Inside the club, it is claimed, Whitney Houston nearly came to blows with a partygoer who she felt had “got into her face”.
So why could nobody save Whitney Houston? In truth, having spent almost two decades destroying herself, she was past saving.
Her voice, with her signature, high-octave power note, had been pitifully diminished by years of abuse, particularly the smoking of crack cocaine. The soaring vocals had become a soft, whispery falsetto.
“She doesn’t want to come, my soprano friend,” Whitney Houston told a booing concert audience in London in 2010.
The years of material plenty were behind her, too. Whitney Houston was reportedly once again “flat broke”, even though she should have had a fortune well in excess of $160 million.
Indeed, despite earning up to $30 million with a colossal 50-date global tour only two years ago, she was reportedly this month reduced to asking her great benefactor, Clive Davis, the music mogul who “discovered” her, for hand-outs yet again.
Whitney Houston’s home in New Jersey was said to be in danger of being repossessed. Another home in Atlanta already had been.
The legendary singer was partying at the Beverly Hilton only because she was on someone else’s tab: the record label was paying for her to be with them in the run-up to last night’s Grammy awards.
There were hopes of yet another album from Whitney Houston, despite the relatively poor performance of her comeback in 2009, and she had recently been in the studio. She had also finished making a film, Sparkle, a showbiz saga about a trio of singers, which Sony has announced will still be released in August.
Whitney Houston’s most recent romantic partner was a 31-year-old rapper, Ray J, who is chiefly famous for being the man in a homemade sex tape shot in 2003, which made reality star Kim Kardashian famous.
Ray-J is also the cousin of rapper and drug advocate Snoop Dogg, so he was not the kind who might have been counted on to keep her on the straight and narrow.
Whitney Houston and Ray-J had an on-and-off four-year liaison, which her fans felt had depressing echoes of her mutually destructive marriage to “bad boy” rapper Bobby Brown, who she divorced in 2007.
Whitney Houston pictured in 2006, sick and haggard
Whitney Elizabeth Houston was born in 1963 in Newark, New Jersey, and her mother was the successful gospel singer, Cissy Houston. Her cousin was Dionne Warwick and Aretha Franklin was her godmother.
Known as Nippy as a child, Whitney Houston was the youngest of three children. Her mother divorced John Houston, an Army serviceman, but Whitney remained close to both parents.
They supported her in her dreams of stardom – a fact she later said accounted for her enormous self-confidence.
From the age of five Whitney Houston would sing in the choir at the All Hope Baptist church in Newark, where the family worshipped.
As a teenager, Whitney Houston started to get involved in the music business. Aged 15, she sang backing vocals on the Chaka Khan hit I’m Every Woman.
Clive Davis of Arista records first laid eyes on her in 1983, when she was 20, and was bowled over.
Her first album, Whitney Houston, was released two years later, yielding the No 1 hits The Greatest Love Of All, How Will I Know and Saving All My Love For You. It remains the best-selling debut album by a female artist in music history.
Her second album, Whitney, released in 1987, included the hits I Wanna Dance With Somebody and Where Do Broken Hearts Go. It sold 25 million copies worldwide.
Whitney Houston would often travel with her mother. Also always present was her “executive assistant” Robyn Conway, her best friend at school, who she said was “like a sister” to her. She put Robyn Conway on her payroll, but was she something more?
Whitney Houston always denied the persistent rumors she was bisexual, and claimed people got the wrong impression only because she didn’t start dating until she was in her late 20’s.
In 1989, Whitney Houston met Bobby Brown at a music awards show, and they married in 1992. Daughter Bobbi Kristina was born a year later.
Whitney Houston was at the peak of her fame, thanks to the film The Bodyguard and the colossal cover version I Will Always Love You.
But outside the spotlight, her life was far from perfect. Whitney Houston and Bobby Brown had settled in a huge mansion in New Jersey, complete with a pool and recording studio, but the marriage was not happy. He was accused of domestic violence against her in 1993. Whitney Houston said he had slapped her during a jealous argument.
In his autobiography, Bobby Brown hints she deceived him about her true sexual orientation and that their marriage was designed to cover up her bisexuality.
“I realize Whitney had a different agenda than I did when we got married,” Bobby Brown said in his book. “I believe her agenda was to clean up her image; mine was to be loved and to have children.”
Talk of her impossible behavior began to circulate as Whitney Houston started failing to turn up to events, including a celebration of the career of her mentor, Clive Davis.
Whitney Houston admitted in a recent interview that she would take cocaine “every day” in the mid-Nineties.
The singer became skeletally thin and appeared disoriented at times. She was fired from a slot on the Oscars ceremony in 2000 after singing the wrong song at rehearsals.
Later that year, Whitney Houston and Bobby Brown were found to be carrying marijuana on a trip to Hawaii.
In 2002, Whitney Houston gave a notorious interview in which she denied taking crack, on the grounds that it was “too cheap” a drug for her.
“We don’t take crack. Crack is whack,” Whitney Houston said. Nobody was very convinced by her denial.
Clive Davis tried to get her into rehab in 2004, with an ultimatum that they could not work together again if she didn’t clean up.
In 2005, Whitney Houston’ sister-in-law leaked pictures to the Press of her bathroom in Atlanta – a sordid, dirty space covered with crack pipes and other drug paraphernalia – to try to shock her into sobriety.
In 2005, Whitney Houston’ sister-in-law leaked pictures to the Press of her bathroom in Atlanta, a sordid, dirty space covered with crack pipes and other drug paraphernalia
In 2006, Clive Davis tried again. Whitney Houston recalled in an interview: “Clive called me one day and said: <<OK, are you ready now? I’m tired of seeing what I’m seeing. I want you back.>>”
In denial about her problems, Whitney Houston said she resisted because she was happy being a mum to Bobbi Kristina. Finally, though, Clive Davis persuaded her that she needed to conquer her addictions and attempt a professional comeback.
The singer Courtney Love had told Clive Davis that the one person who could help Whitney Houston was a former addict named Warren Boyd.
Fabled in Hollywood as the person who got actor Robert Downey Jr. off drugs, his view is that addicts need to have a sober coach to live with them 24/7.
After residential rehab for several months in Pennsylvania, Warren Boyd “secured the perimeter” around Whitney Houston, relocating her to a rented beachside shack in Laguna, Los Angeles, and keeping her away from family and friends – and dealers – in New Jersey for months at a time.
Eventually, Whitney Houston felt strong enough to end her marriage to Bobby Brown. It had been the unhappiest of unions, raven by jealousy and drug use. They were divorced in 2007.
Whitney Houston said she and Bobby Brown started doing drugs together daily around the time of The Bodyguard film, and that Brown couldn’t handle her stardom.
“I think somewhere inside, something happens to a man when a woman has that much control or that much fame.”
Whitney Houston also said that he was unfaithful. “The only thing I did was the drugs. He was too promiscuous, dragging dirt into my home. It disturbed me.”
Getting her off drugs cost more than $1,300 a day for three years – the bill being picked up by Clive Davis. He also paid off a $1.2 million debt on her home.
The debt was pretty extraordinary given that Whitney Houston had sold more than 140 million albums worldwide by then. In the event, the subsequent album, I Look To You, was a damp squib. Released in 2009, her five-octave vocal register was gone thanks to smoking and crack use.
And when she launched the album at a hotel in London, it appeared that without the help of Warren Boyd she had fallen back into her old ways. A nugget of what seemed to be crack cocaine fell from one of her pockets.
There were repeated problems on the tour. Whitney Houston couldn’t hit the high notes and seemed to struggle even to chat with the audience. High-profile promotional gigs – singing on TV chat shows – revealed her ragged form.
And there were still plenty of signs of her infamous temperament. She wouldn’t film in the mornings, and refused all offers of live televised interviews. Clive Davis called her “the most impossible person” he had ever worked with.
Whitney Houston said repeatedly that her teenage daughter Bobbi Kristina helped her to sobriety. In 2009, she said: “She was with me every step of the way.” But the truth seems rather darker.
Her daughter, Bobbi Kristina Brown, now 19, was pictured last year snorting lines of cocaine at a party, smoking joints and drinking beer.
A former boyfriend told the National Enquirer magazine: “Krissi is addicted to cocaine. I’ve tried to stop her, but all she said was: <<I’m just like my mother!>>
“It was difficult to stop her from buying alcohol and drugs because her mother gave her $1,000 a week.”
Last May, Whitney Houston entered rehab for one final time. Sadly, it appears not to have worked. She was out of control on an airplane to Houston in the autumn, when she narrowly avoided arrest after refusing to buckle her seatbelt.
It seems that despite global fame and a constantly supportive family, nothing was enough to keep her clean.
“I have a mother who is very strong and a family that surround me and constantly tell me they love me. And my daughter is my greatest inspiration. She loves me,” Whitney Houston said in an interview earlier this year.
There were no signs of foul play surrounding the death of legendary singer and actress Whitney Houston, according to a Los Angeles coroner.
After a post mortem examination, the coroner said there were no visible signs of trauma on Whitney Houston’s body and that foul play was “not suspected at this time”.
The coroner added officials were not ruling out any causes of death until they had the results of toxicology tests.
Whitney Houston was found dead in the bath in her Beverly Hilton hotel room in Los Angeles on Saturday afternoon.
The coroner said he would not release any more details on the post mortem performed on Sunday at the request of police detectives investigating Whitney Houston’s death.
There were no signs of foul play surrounding the death of legendary singer and actress Whitney Houston, according to a Los Angeles coroner
Meanwhile, the music world has been remembering Whitney Houston’s life and career at the Grammy Awards.
Host LL Cool J opened the event with a prayer for Whitney Houston, who won six Grammys during her career.
“There is no way around this. We’ve had a death in our family,” he said.
“The only thing that feels right is to begin with a prayer for a woman who we loved – for our fallen sister, Whitney Houston.”
The audience then gave a standing ovation after watching a clip of Whitney Houston’s hit I Will Always Love You.
Dressed in black and with a simple piano accompaniment, singer Jennifer Hudson later gave a moving rendition of the same song, ending with the line: “Whitney, we will always love you.”
Others paying tribute during the ceremony included singer Bruno Mars, who told the crowd: “Tonight we’re celebrating the beautiful Miss Whitney Houston.”
“To Whitney up in heaven, we all love you,” echoed Stevie Wonder.
Melanie Fiona, who won best traditional R&B vocal performance and best R&B song, said: “Whitney Houston, I would not be standing up here if it were not for you.”
Reactions to Whitney Houston’s death dominated the ceremony of the Grammy Awards, the most high-profile event in the US music calendar.
Before the show, Jimmy Jam, a friend and producer of Houston’s, said it was “a bitter-sweet occasion”.
“Anytime someone passes away, the thing you do is you gather your family together [and] tell stories,” he said.
“A little bit of mourning, little bit of celebrating – this is our family tonight and we’re going to do it the best that we can do it.”
Earlier on Sunday, the Reverend Al Sharpton paid tribute to Whitney Houston while preaching at the Second Baptist Church in Los Angeles.
“Yes, she had an outstanding range,” he said.
“Yes, she could hit notes no one else could reach.
“But what made her different was she was born and bred in the bosom of the black church.”
Meanwhile, Whitney Houston’s 18-year-old daughter Bobbi Kristina Brown has been released from hospital after being treated for stress and anxiety following her mother’s death.
Whitney Houston holds the record for having the most consecutive chart-topping singles in the US, reaching number one seven times between 1985 and 1988.
But her later career was overshadowed by substance abuse and her turbulent marriage to singer Bobby Brown.
In recent years drug use had taken its toll on Whitney Houston and her voice – once acknowledged as one of the finest in pop music – was badly damaged.
A man from Essex, UK, who stripped down to his underwear and crawled across a frozen river to rescue his trapped dog, has been condemned by firefighters.
According to an eyewitness, the man fell into the River Stour, in Dedham, Essex, at about 10:00 GMT on Sunday but managed to climb out with the animal.
Fellow dog walker Paul Wenborne, who witnessed the incident, described it as a “foolish act of bravery”.
An Essex Fire Service spokesman said: “This was extremely dangerous.”
According to an eyewitness, the man fell into the River Stour, in Dedham, Essex, on Sunday, but managed to climb out with the animal
Fish porter Paul Wenborne, 52, of Rayleigh, Essex, said he was amazed at the man’s actions.
“I was with two friends and we couldn’t believe what we were seeing,” he said.
“He stripped down to his pants and started crawling across the ice.
“About a yard or so from the dog, he fell in but managed to get hold of the dog and put it on the ice.
“He then had to swim two or three yards and then crawl back on the ice to dry land.
“He put his clothes back on and carried on. It was a foolish act of bravery.”
Essex Fire Service confirmed it was not called to the incident.
Last week, Essex assistant divisional officer Stuart McMillan issued a warning about icy lakes and ponds.
“Even though this ice appears to be strong it can be eggshell thin and anyone who falls through into the water below could get trapped under the ice and would only be able to survive for minutes in the freezing water,” he said.
“The most common cause is people chasing their dogs out on to the ice, and I urge people not to do this.
“It isn’t worth the risk. Dogs will normally make it safely off the ice and back to the shore – the same cannot be said for people.”
An explosion has hit an Israeli diplomat’s car outside the country’s embassy in Delhi, India, injuring one diplomat.
Police in Delhi said they were investigating “an incident” but could not confirm an attack had taken place.
The Israeli embassy in London said there had also been an attempted attack on a diplomat in Tbilisi, Georgia, but an explosive device had not gone off.
Israel’s Delhi embassy is defended by several layers of security.
David Goldfarb, the spokesman for Israel’s Delhi embassy, said the diplomat’s car was outside the embassy on Aurangzeb Road in central Delhi when the explosion went off.
He said they had no details as to who could have been behind it and the police have not given them any further information.
Indian TV showed pictures of a burning car outside Israel’s Delhi embassy.
In later images, the fire was extinguished and the car could be seen burnt out.
An explosion has hit an Israeli diplomat's car outside the country's embassy in Delhi, India, injuring one diplomat
The embassy is guarded by several layers of security and is in a well-defended area of central Delhi close to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s official residence.
Israel’s foreign ministry has condemned the attack and said that Israel had the ability to track down those who carried it out.
Police had cordoned off the scene. Forensic experts and members of the bomb disposal unit were examining the car.
Officials in Georgia said an explosive device was attached to the bottom of a diplomat’s car in the capital, Tbilisi, but was found and defused before it detonated.
Best Pop Solo Performance –Someone Like You, Adele
Best Pop Duo/Group Performance – Body And Soul , Tony Bennett & Amy Winehouse
Best Pop Vocal Album – 21, Adele
Adele won six Grammy Awards, including the big categories like Record of the Year and Song of the Year for Rolling In the Deep and Album of the Year for her smash hit 21
Best Dance Recording ¬- Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites, Skrillex
Best Dance/ Electronica Album – Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites, Skrillex
Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album – Duets II, Tony Bennett & Various Artists
Best Rock Performance – Walk, Foo Fighters
Best Rock Song – Walk, Foo Fighters
Best Rock Album – Waiting Light, Foo Fighters
Best R&B Performance – Is This Love, Corinne Bailey Rae
Best R&B Song – Fool For You
Best R&B Album – F.A.M.E., Chris Brown
Best Rap Performance – Otis, Jay-Z and Kanye West
Best Country Solo Performance – Mean, Taylor Swift
British singer Adele was the big winner at the Grammy Awards 2012 in Los Angeles, winning six prizes including record, song and album of the year.
Adele also made her live comeback at the ceremony, performing for the first time since having throat surgery last year.
Rock band Foo Fighters won five prizes, while rapper Kanye West scooped four.
The 54th edition of Grammy Awards ceremony saw heartfelt tributes to pop star Whitney Houston, who died on Saturday, while Amy Winehouse received a posthumous award.
Amy Winehouse’s parents accepted her prize for best pop duo/group performance for Body and Soul, her duet with Tony Bennett, which was the last recording the artist made before she died in July.
Adele won every award she was nominated for, including record of the year, song of the year and best short form music video for Rolling in the Deep. Her second album, 21, was named album of the year.
“This record is inspired by something that is really normal and everyone’s been through it, just a rubbish relationship,” Adele said.
“It’s gone on to do things I can’t tell you how I feel about it, it’s been the most life-changing year.”
British singer Adele was the big winner at the Grammy Awards 2012 in Los Angeles, winning six prizes including record, song and album of the year
Adele was forced to cancel all live dates last year but earned a standing ovation after her return to the stage with Rolling in the Deep.
Accepting the trophy for best pop solo performance for her song Someone Like You, Adele said: “Seeing as it’s a vocal performance, I need to thank my doctors, I suppose, who brought my voice back.”
The British artist’s producer Paul Epworth, who also worked with Foster the People, Florence and the Machine and Cee Lo Green, was named best non-classical producer.
Foo Fighters’ awards included best rock album, best rock song, best rock performance and best hard rock/metal performance.
“This is a great honour because this record was a special record for our band,” frontman Dave Grohl told the crowd.
“Rather than go to the best studio, we made this one in my garage with some microphones and a tape machine. It shows that the human element of making music is what’s most important.”
Kanye West’s solo album My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy earned three awards, including best rap song and best rap album.
The track Otis – from Watch the Throne, his collaboration with Jay-Z – was named best rap performance.
The prize takes West’s total Grammy haul to 18. Neither he nor Jay-Z were present to pick up their awards.
Bon Iver, fronted by US singer-songwriter Justin Vernon, were named best new act, five years after their acclaimed debut album was released.
Their self-titled second LP also won best alternative album.
Other British victors included soul singer Corinne Bailey Rae, who scooped best R&B performance for Is This Love.
There was also success for Sir Paul McCartney, whose deluxe reissue of Wings’ Band on the Run was named best historial album.
US dance DJ Skrillex won three prizes, while double winners included folk duo The Civil Wars, country star Taylor Swift and gospel singer Kirk Franklin.
Chris Brown – returning to the event for the first time since 2009 – won the trophy for best R&B album for F.A.M.E.
Chris Brown was returning to the event for the first time since assaulting his then-girlfriend Rihanna before the 2009 ceremony.
Rihanna – the ex-girlfriend Chris Brown assaulted before the ceremony three years ago – was also present, taking to the stage with British band Coldplay.
Also playing live were Bruce Springsteen, McCartney, the Beach Boys and Kelly Clarkson.
Jennifer Hudson gave a rendition of Whitney Houston’s I Will Always Love You in a tribute to the late singer.
The ceremony also saw Alicia Keys and Bonnie Raitt sang a duet of A Sunday Kind of Love in tribute to Etta James, who died last month.
Bobby Brown broke down in tears onstage during a Mississippi concert just hours after hearing of his ex-wife Whitney Houston’s death.
Bobby Brown, 43, who was said to be “in and out of crying fits” after hearing about Whitney Houston’s death, wept during his performance, saying “I love you, Whitney”, as he blew kisses to the sky.
A relative of Bobby Brown said that he is “shattered and beyond devastated” at the news and had flown to be with his and Whitney Houston’s daughter Bobbi Kristina, who has reportedly checked herself into hospital after downing alcohol on hearing of her mother’s death.
Bobby Brown was spotted at Nashville airport yesterday with an entourage of people.
He is undoubtedly desperate to get to the bedside of his daughter after the teen was rushed to hospital earlier today.
Bobbi Kristina Brown’s initial trip to the hospital came after learning of the devastating news, when the teenager reportedly consumed alcoholic drinks and was then given a sedative to calm her down by one of her mother’s entourage. She ended up passing out, according to RadarOnline.
Bobby Brown arrived at LAX last night to take care of daughter Bobbi Kristina after Whitney Houston’s death
It is understood that Bobbi Kristina Brown was admitted to hospital again Sunday morning to be treated for anxiety and stress, before being released later in the day.
After he learned about his ex-wife’s death, Bobby Brown decided the show must go on and still took to the stage to perform with his band New Edition, just hours after the iconic singer’s sudden and tragic passing.
A video posted by an audience member to YouTube showed Bobby Brown struggling to perform and nervously pacing around the stage as he attempted to sing songs with his band.
According to Us Weekly, Bobby Brown received huge applause as he came onstage late, after apparently breaking down just before the show was due to begin.
A source told Us Weekly that Bobby Brown broke down during his performance of the ballad Tenderoni, and asked the audience to sing along as he sobbed.
He was then unable to finish the song and walked off, with the concert finishing shortly afterwards.
A source has said: “He wanted to tell everyone about it before it hit the news. He didn’t want any of us to hear about it on television.
“He could hardly get the words out when he called me. He was sobbing, and by the end of the call, I was sobbing too. He’s beside himself right now.”
Whitney Houston died Saturday afternoon at the Beverly Hilton hotel in Los Angeles, aged 48.
Bobby Brown and Whitney Houston had a notoriously turbulent relationship that was riddled with drug use and marital problems.
Whitney Houston admitted that she and Bobby Brown took cocaine and marijuana together through their 14 years of marriage.
During this tumultuous time, Bobby Brown was arrested for drugs and alcohol and Whitney Houston entered drug rehabilitation programs twice.
They wed in July 1992 and eventually separated in September 2006, before their divorce was finalized in April 2007.
WHITNEY HOUSTON: THE LIFE OF AN ICON
* Sold over 200 million albums worldwide
* First female artist to debut an album at No1 on the Billboard 200 Albums Chart
* Guinness World Records cited her as the most awarded female artist of all time
* Won six Grammy Awards and was nominated twenty-six times
* Only artist to chart seven consecutive No1 Billboard Hot 100 hits
* Appeared in four films, including 2012′s Sparkle with Jordin Sparks
Whitney Houston sang her last ever song when she joined Kelly Price on stage on Thursday night – just two days before her untimely death.
Whitney Houston, who died on Saturday at the age of 48, gave an impromptu performance at the Kelly Price & Friends Unplugged: For The Love of R&B fete at Tru Hollywood earlier this week.
The star was not expected to perform at the event, but was captured on camera as she sang the song Yes, Jesus Loves Me.
Before the duet, Kelly Price, 38, was caught on video discussing how Whitney Houston had influenced her career with the audience.
Kelly Price said: “[Whitney] pushed me to sing to my limit’ before addressing the recently deceased songbird directly.”
“You are a class act, you are an icon,” she added.
Kelly Price was overcome with emotion when Whitney Houston then joined her on stage. They shared a tight embrace before Whitney Houston began belting out the soulful tune.
Whitney Houston managed to get through the performance successfully, though it has been reported that she was acting erratically in the days leading up to her death.
Whitney Houston sang her last ever song when she joined Kelly Price on stage on Thursday night, just two days before her untimely death
Though she was meant to attend Clive Davis’ pre-Grammy bash at the Beverly Hilton Hotel last night, she was found dead in the same hotel Saturday afternoon.
An emergency crew tried to resuscitate the singer in her room, but she was pronounced dead at 3:55 p.m.
Kelly Price, who attended last night’s Grammy Awards ceremony, broke down on the red carpet while discussing Whitney Houston’s final performance.
She said: “I was having a pre-Grammy party for the nominations [sic].
“I invited Whitney to come…
“We had a great time Thursday night. She came out. We hung out. We danced…
“I wasn’t expecting her to sing….She just walked up on the stage. We embraced each other and she said: <<Give me the mike…>>”
Kelly Price added: “Singing with Whitney has always been to me just an honor.”
The artist also talked about the moment she found out Whitney Houston was dead.
Kelly Price said: “In my heart I was praying it was an internet hoax…and to realize it wasn’t I just don’t know how to explain it.”
Countless other musicians and celebrities have come out last night to celebrate Whitney Houston’s life.
Jennifer Hudson sang a medley of Whitney Houston’s favorite hits in her honor.
One person who wasn’t at last night’s ceremony was Whitney Houston’s daughter, Bobbi Kristina Brown.
Bobbi Kristina Brown, 18, was rushed to the hospital once last night and again this morning.
According to TMZ.com, her family members fear that Bobbi Kristina is suicidal.
The site has been told that Bobbi Kristina was “hysterical, exhausted and inconsolable” and that “the family believes she might try and take her own life”.
Her loved ones are reportedly considering rehab as an option.
Bobbi Kristina got into an altercation with police officers last night when she wasn’t allowed to see her mother’s body.
A shocking picture of Whitney Houston’s bathroom took at her home in Atlanta, Georgia, shows how the star’s life spiraled into chaos at the height of her crack addiction.
The deplorable image, shot in 2006, shows a room littered with drug paraphernalia, including a crack-smoking pipe and spoons covered in white powder.
Despite her fame and wealth, Whitney Houston had descended into squalor, her sister in law Tina Brown, who took the photo, revealed at the time.
Drug paraphernalia can be seen in the room, where Whitney Houston holed up for days, according to Tina Brown, the sister of the singer’s husband Bobby Brown.
Whitney Houston, 48, smoked as much as an “eight-ball” (1/8 of an ounce) of crack at a go, blending it with marijuana inside in a cigar wrapper, Tina Brown, also a self-confessed former addict, told the National Enquirer.
Tina Brown said: “The truth needs to come out. Whitney won’t stay off the drugs. It’s every single day. It’s so ugly. Everyone is so scared she is going to overdose.”
A shocking picture of Whitney Houston's bathroom took at her home in Atlanta, Georgia, shows how the star's life spiraled into chaos at the height of her crack addiction
The drugs made Whitney Houston so paranoid she saw evil apparitions and once drilled a spy hole in her bathroom to keep an eye out for demons, Tina Brown claimed.
Whitney Houston at one time claimed she didn’t do crack, telling Diane Sawyer in 2002 that she made too much money to ever take the street drug. “Crack is whack,” she famously declared.
But her stunning looks later seemed to be ravaged by her habit.
And although Whitney Houston subsequently got clean, recording a comeback album in 2009, the years of abusing her body also took their toll on her voice.
At her comeback tour in Australia in 2010, Whitney Houston shocked fans when she had to take a 20 minute break to rest her voice.
Whitney Houston was set to make a return to the big screen later this year having filmed Sparkle, due to hit cinemas August 10. But the pressure to succeed was overwhelming.
“Her voice was ruined, and her comeback wasn’t what it was supposed to be, because her voice wasn’t what it used to be,” a friend told People.
Whitney Houston “was in pain from all the pressure she was facing”, the source said.
“I know from when she was recording her most recent album – her comeback album (I Look to You in 2009) – her voice was shot. That bothered her.”
“In the music industry, you’re only as good as your last hit, even if you are Whitney Houston. Then she had people gossiping about her … It was a lot to deal with.”
Whitney Houston had blown a massive fortune, earned over decades of royalties and concert tours on her drug habit and was “broke as a joke”, it was last week claimed.
“Whitney’s fortune is gone,” a source told Radar last week.
“Music industry heavy hitters are supporting her and her label is fronting her cash against her next album, but no one knows when that will be released.”
“She might be homeless if not for people saving her. She is broke as a joke.”
The legendary singer had been reduced to begging friends for help.
“She called someone to ask for $100,” the source said.
“It is so sad. She should have Mariah Carey money, and she’s flat broke.”
Osama Bin Laden told his children not to follow him on the path of terrorism and to live peacefully in the West where they would get a good education, his brother-in-law has revealed.
Zakaria al-Sadah, whose sister is the fifth wife of the Al-Qaeda leader, said Bin Laden did not want his children and grandchildren following in the same path of terrorism like him.
“He told his own children and grandchildren, go to Europe and America and get a good education,” said Zakaria al-Sadah, according to an interview in The Sunday Times.
Pakistani officials are refusing to release three of Osama Bin Laden’s wives and nine of his children who are being held in a tight security compound in Islamabad.
Osama Bin Laden told his children not to follow him on the path of terrorism and to live peacefully in the West where they would get a good education, his brother-in-law has revealed
According to Zakaria al-Sadah, who was recently reunited with his sister, Osama Bin Laden’s children have been left traumatized by the raid carried out by US Navy Seals on May 2 last year.
The children were discovered hiding in Osama Bin Laden’s compound in the Pakistan city of Abbottabad.
Zakaria al-Sadah, a 24-year-old journalism student, says the children will not eat and have not seen the sun for nine months.
He said the worst affected was his 12-year-old daughter Safiyah, who held the head of her injured mother during the attack.
Amal, a 29-year-old Yemeni, and the two other wives, Khairiah and Siham, have gone on hunger strike to protest against their imprisonment, according to Zakaria al-Sadah.
Zakaria al-Sadah, who fears his sister could be charged with committing crimes against Pakistan, thought he would be given permission to take the children back to Yemen when he was asked to visit last November.
But Pakistani officials believe they could be hiding information and have so far refused to issue them with passports.
Zakaria al-Sadah said: “These children have seen their father killed and they need a caring environment, not a prison – whatever you think of their father and what he has done.”
“They have never had a normal life. They do not know what it is like to see the sun and to run around the garden. It breaks my heart to see them.”
The wives are said to have remained loyal to their husband and were openly hostile to the U.S. officials who interviewed them after the raid.
None have been charged with any crime.
Amal, the youngest of the three widows, was shot in the leg as she lunged at Navy Seals to try to protect her husband during the raid.
She was reportedly given the chance years earlier to leave her marriage to the world’s most wanted terrorist but chose instead to be “martyred” by his side telling family and friends that she wanted to “go down in history”.
She lived in the Abbottabad compound with the two elder wives Khairiah Sabar, a child psychologist, and Siham Sabar, a teacher of Arabic.
Each wife and her children were allotted their own floor and Osama Bin Laden would spend time with each group.
Khairiah, who was reportedly the “spiritual mother” of the family, had slipped back into Pakistan to rejoin her husband after she had escaped to Iran and the Saudi Arabia.
Siham fled Afghanistan and went into hiding for several years, until she was called to return to the terror leader.
Under Islamic law, a man may have only four wives at one time. Osama Bin Laden married six times, but divorced his second wife in the 1990’s and annulled the fifth marriage within 48 hours.
Italian officials announced removal operation of more than 2,300 tons of fuel from the grounded Costa Concordia cruise ship has started.
The operation began on Sunday afternoon, nearly a month after the ship hit a reef and capsized off the island of Giglio.
The process had been delayed by both the search and rescue operation and bad weather, prompting fears of a leak into the protected waters off the island.
Seventeen people died when the ship capsized and 15 more are presumed dead.
Italian officials announced removal operation of more than 2,300 tons of fuel from the grounded Costa Concordia cruise ship has started
Captain Francesco Schettino has been accused in Italy of manslaughter, causing a shipwreck and abandoning ship before all those aboard were evacuated.
Prosecutors in France have also launched an investigation, given that four French nationals died and two others are among the missing.
Francesco Schettino, denies wrongdoing.
Dutch salvage company Smit is conducting the operation to pump out the fuel, which is expected to take about four weeks to complete.
It will concentrate on the first of 15 tanks that are believed to hold around 84% of the fuel on board, the AP news agency quoted Italy’s civil protection department as saying.
Valves will be fixed to the tanks, allowing oil to be pumped through a hose on to a crane barge alongside the vessel. From there the oil will be transferred to a waiting oil tanker.
As oil is removed, water will be forced in via a second hose to fill the vacuum.
Whitney Houston’s daughter, Bobbi Kristina, was reportedly taken to hospital today just hours after her mother was found dead in a hotel bathroom.
Bobbi Kristina, 18, was rushed out of the Beverly Hilton hotel on a stretcher at around 10:30 a.m. this morning. She was reportedly suffering from anxiety after learning of the devastating news.
It comes as the first picture emerged today of Whitney Houston’s on-off boyfriend Ray-J leaving the hotel with his head in his hands, completely distraught.
Whitney Houston's daughter, Bobbi Kristina, was reportedly taken to hospital today just hours after her mother was found dead in a hotel bathroom
Whitney Houston drowned alone in a bathtub having accidentally overdosed on a cocktail of prescription drugs and alcohol after two back-to-back evenings of out-of-control binges, it has been claimed.
The singer was found dead under the water by her bodyguard in a luxury hotel suite said to have been littered with bottles of prescription pills. She was 48.
Ray-J mentioned “missed calls” from Whitney Houston, according to the International Business Times, adding: “We all gotta live with that.”
Paramedics battled to revive the singer but she was pronounced dead at 3:55 p.m. yesterday afternoon, hours before she had been due to perform at a pre-Grammys party at the Beverly Hills Hilton in LA.
At first it was thought that Ray-J had found Whitney Houston’s body but a statement was later released by his spokesman saying “he was nowhere near the scene but no less distraught”.
According to reports on gather.com moments before the news broke, Ray-J was seen trying to console Bobbi Kristina, who was screaming, in the lobby of the hotel.
The singer/reality TV star and Whitney Houston dated between 2007 and 2009 but it was believed they had recently picked up their romance after being spotted at an LA restaurant.
Ray-J, 17 years younger than Whitney Houston, is the youngest brother of the singer Brandy and made a sex tape with Kim Kardashian in 2003 which was reportedly “leaked” on to the Internet.
Bottles of Lorazepam, Valium, Xanax and a sleeping medication were found in the hotel room, it has been claimed. The drugs were believed to have acted as sedatives, causing her to fall asleep in the bathtub once they had been mixed with alcohol from the previous evenings.
An autopsy is to be carried out today, according to TMZ, but the results will be delayed as toxicology tests must also be run.
Her frantic daughter Bobbi Kristina is understood to have got into a “furious screaming argument” with authorities who refused to let her into the hotel room to see the body of her dead mother. Friends of Whitney Houston’s cousin Dionne Warwick, who also went to the hotel to try to see the body, have said that she is “inconsolable”.
Police also turned away Ray-J from Whitney Houston’s suite on the fourth floor after he raced from his home following news of her death, reported TMZ.
Whitney Houston’s body remained at the hotel today where her family, including her daughter were paying their last respects, according to RadarOnline. Last night around 800 guests attended a pre-Grammys dinner at the hotel where Whitney Houston died.
Outside, fans gathered to mourn the star, leaving floral tributes and lighting candles.
The exact cause of death was not yet known. But on the Thursday evening before her death, Whitney Houston went on a wild binge in which she is said to have clashed with security guards. The next evening she “partied heavily, drank and chatted loudly” with friends at the hotel bar, claims TMZ.
According to Forbes, the night before Whitney Houston’s death, a hotel guest on the third floor beneath where the singer’s suite of rooms were located, had complained that water was pouring into his bathroom around 2:30 a.m.
Police have begun searching the hotel room for any signs of illegal drugs. The circumstances of the death are not thought to be suspicious but the authorities are investigating.
An international research team has shown how some cells in the body can repel attacks from HIV by starving the virus of the building blocks of life.
Viruses cannot replicate on their own; they must hijack other cells and turn them into virus production factories.
The study, published in Nature Immunology, showed how some parts of the immune system destroy their own raw materials, stopping HIV.
It is uncertain whether this could be used in therapy, experts caution.
HIV attacks the immune system and can weaken the body’s defenses to the point that everyday infections become fatal.
However, not all parts of the immune system become subverted to the virus’ cause. Macrophages and dendritic cells, which have important roles in orchestrating the immune response, seem to be more resistant.
In 2011, researchers identified the protein SAMHD1 as being a critical part of this resistance. Now scientists believe they know how it works.
The scientists have shown that SAMHD1 breaks down the building blocks of DNA. So if a cell needs to make a copy of itself it will have a pool of these building blocks – deoxynucleoside triphosphates or dNTPs – which make the new copies of the DNA. However, they can also be used by viruses.
The study, by an international team of researchers, showed that SAMHD1 lowered the levels of dNTPs below that needed to build viral DNA and prevented infection. When they removed SAMHD1 then those cells had higher levels of dNTPs and were infected by HIV.
The report said: “By depleting the pool of available dNTPs, SAMHD1 effectively starves the virus of a building block that is central to its replication strategy.”
HIV attacks the immune system and can weaken the body's defenses to the point that everyday infections become fatal
It is possible for macrophages and dendritic cells to produce SAMHD1 as they are “mature cells” which do not go on to produce new cells.
Prof. Baek Kim, one of the researchers from the University of Rochester Medical Center, said: “It makes sense that a mechanism like this is active in macrophages.
“Macrophages literally eat up dangerous organisms, and you don’t want those organisms to have available the cellular machinery needed to replicate and macrophages themselves don’t need it, because they don’t replicate.
“So macrophages have SAMHD1 to get rid of the raw material those organisms need to copy themselves. It’s a great host defense.”
Dr. Jonathan Stoye, virologist at the Medical Research Council National Institute of Medical Research, was part of the team which determined the chemical structure of SAMHD1 last year and predicted that it would attack the dNTPs.
“We hypothesized that it works in this fashion and the paper tells us we were right. It is depleting cells of these dNTPs, in cells which are not proliferating (dividing).”
However, some cells do need to divide to boost numbers as part of the immune defence. Such as CD4 cells which are the prime target for HIV infection.
“Cells which are proliferating would be in trouble if we took dNTPs away,” Dr. Jonathan Stoye said.
He added: “How we can use the anti-retroviral action of this protein is not clear to me.”
Whitney Houston drowned alone in a bathtub having accidentally overdosed on a cocktail of prescription drugs and alcohol after two back-to-back evenings of out-of-control binges, it has been claimed.
Whitney Houston, 48, was found dead by her bodyguard in the luxury Beverly Hilton hotel suite said to have been littered with bottles of prescription pills.
Paramedics battled to revive the singer but she was pronounced dead at 3:55 p.m. on Saturday afternoon, hours before she had been due to perform at a pre-Grammys party at the Beverly Hills Hilton in LA.
Bottles of Lorazepam, Valium, Xanax and a sleeping medication were found in the hotel room, it has been claimed. The drugs are believed to have acted as sedatives have caused her to fall asleep in the bathtub once they had been mixed with alcohol from the previous evenings.
Whitney Houston sweats profusely and appears disheveled as she leaves the Tru Hollywood nightclub on Thursday night
As police look into the possibility that Whitney Houston died from an accidental overdose, there are expected to be emotional scenes at the Grammy awards tonight with many of the singers inspired by the legendary star dedicating their awards to her.
Whitney Houston had battled ravaging addictions to crack cocaine over the years but the drug is not believed to have played a part in her death. Police searched the room for illegal substances after discovering the body.
Her frantic daughter Bobbi Kristina, 19, is understood to have got into a “furious screaming argument” with authorities who refused to let her into the hotel room to see the body of her dead mother. Friends of Whitney Houston’s cousin Dionne Warwick, who also went to the hotel to try to see the body, have said that she is “inconsolable”.
US reports claim Whitney Houston drowned alone in a bathtub having accidentally overdosed on a cocktail of prescription drugs and alcohol after two back-to-back evenings of out-of-control binges
Whitney Houston’s body was eventually covered up and wheeled later in the evening after Bobbi Kristina and Dionne Warwick had visited the room and broke down in tears as they were confronted with the tragic reality. Outside, fans gathered to mourn the star.
The exact cause of death is not yet known. But on the Thursday evening before her death, Whitney Houston went on a wild binge in which she is said to have clashed with security guards. The next evening she “partied heavily, drank and chatted loudly” with friends at the hotel bar, claims TMZ.
Members of Whitney Houston’s entourage were aware that she would take prescription pills, including the anti-anxiety drug Xanax, before big shows to calm her nerves, TMZ has also claimed.
It is not known if the destructive spiral played a part in death of Whitney Houston who had spent more than a decade battling an addiction to crack cocaine since rising to international stardom in the early 90’s.
Police have begun searching the hotel room for any signs of illegal drugs. The circumstances of the death are not thought to be suspicious but the authorities are investigating.
As Whitney Houston’s body was wheeled to an ambulance, just yards away stars including Britney Spears, Tony Bennett and Kim Kardashian were taking part in the pre-Grammy Awards party at the hotel.
Whitney Houston had been due to attend the event which was organized by her mentor Clive Davis.
The surreal scene inside the hotel event unfolded with Clive Davis paying tribute to the singer, before saying: “Now ladies and gentlemen, let the music begin.” Stars paid tribute to her throughout the evening.
Grammy president and CEO Neil Portnow, who called Whitney Houston a friend, said “canceling the party was never an option”. He announced that Jennifer Hudson would perform a tribute to Whitney Houston at Sunday’s Grammys.
What is Xanax?
Xanax, or Alprazolam, is a sedative used to treat anxiety and panic disorders.
It usually comes in tablet form and works by decreasing abnormal excitement in the brain.
Xanax can be addictive and drinking alcohol while taking the drug is ill-advised.
Michael Jackson was known to have been using the prescription drug at the time of his death in 2009 as was actor Heath Ledger when he accidentally overdosed in 2008.
No illegal drugs have been found in the Beverly Hilton hotel room where Whitney Houston died Saturday afternoon, at least not yet, but prescription drugs were present.
According to TMZ website, it’s possible the singer drowned in the bathtub.
Sources told TMZ that when EMTs arrived Whitney Houston’s body was already removed from the bathtub so it will take an autopsy to determine if she OD’d, drowned or died from some other cause.
According to TMZ website, it's possible Whitney Houston drowned in the bathtub in the Beverly Hilton hotel room
Informed sources told the celebrities website that Beverly Hills cops, who were still searching the room at this time, found various pill bottles. There was no evidence that Whitney Houston was drinking alcohol in the room.
Whitney Houston’s body was just removed from the room on a gurney. It will go to the morgue for an autopsy to determine cause of death.
A British man has become the first male mum in UK despite being born a woman and undergoing a sex change.
The man, who is in his thirties, gave birth last year, according to the Beaumont Society transgender support group.
Joanna Darrell of Beaumont Society said the man had approached the group asking for advice about having a baby.
She said: “We had a general inquiry to the Beaumont Society.
“The society, all it does is provide information and acts as an information hub for people to find data about specific things, and we are able to refer them to more specialist organizations.”
Joanna Darrell added: “We sometimes get people coming back to say thanks for our help. He got back in touch and said he had had the baby.”
She also said she had referred the man to the Gender Identity Research and Education Society, is a charity that provides education, based on research into gender identity and intersex issues, to help improve the lives of those affected by the issues.
Joanna Darrell said: “This is probably unique, in the two years that I have been a member of the society this is the only one that I have been able to refer on.”
It is possible for transgender men who were born women, who still have functioning ovaries and a uterus, to become pregnant while still identifying and living as men.
The man is thought to have had hormone treatment to reactivate his womb, which had not been removed during his original sex change operation.
The baby is believed to have been delivered by caesarean section but it is possible the man retained the ability to give birth naturally.
Joanna Darrell told The Sunday Times she believes he is the first British man to have given birth, and added: “As far as we know there is only him.”
American Thomas Beatie became the world's first pregnant man in 2007 and has since given birth to three children
The man is following in the footsteps of American Thomas Beatie, who became the world’s first pregnant man in 2007 and has since given birth to three children, Susan, Austin and Jensen.
Thomas Beatie, 38, who lives in Arizona with wife Nancy, was born a woman, Tracy Lagondino.
The transgender man began having testosterone injections when he was in his twenties, which lowered his voice, gave him facial hair and altered his reproductive organs.
In 2002, Thomas Beatie had his breasts removed and legally became a man but kept his vagina, uterus and other female sex organs so he could have children because Nancy had had a hysterectomy.
He stopped taking testosterone to become pregnant and the couple bought sperm from an anonymous donor.
Thomas Beatie underwent artificial insemination and reportedly gave birth naturally.
In 2011, Thomas Beatie revealed he was planning to have a hysterectomy after filing for bankruptcy.
Scott Moore, a transgender man, who lives in California with his husband, gave birth in March 2010.
Israeli transgender man Yuval Topper was reported to have given birth on December 28, 2011.
For this Valentine’s Day, a bakery in Pennsylvania is offering cupcakes decorated in eight carat engagement rings, delicately fitting each cake’s whipped icing with a surprising diamond sparkler.
The bakers say there’s no better way to showcase their store’s motto, “love tastes like this”, than this diamond-topped treat.
“What could be sweeter than asking your special someone to marry you than with a red velvet cupcake?” Maki Garcia-Evans, Cupcakes Gourmet owner and executive pastry chef told KSLA-TV.
The dazzling bobble provided by Pennsylvania-based Warwick Jewelers is offering the rings at a 15% discount when sold through the bakery’s Valentine’s day offer.
“We wanted to do a statement piece that when people see it they would say, <<wow, I can’t believe this is a $55,000 beautiful ring>>” Warwick Jewelers marketing manager Brittany Burkland told KSLA.
For this Valentine’s Day, a bakery in Pennsylvania is offering cupcakes decorated in eight carat engagement rings
Brittany Burland reasons no sweeter way to pop the question.
Named as one of the four best couture bake shops in the nation in 2011 by Brides magazine, the bakery takes great pride in each individual cupcake made from scratch and by hand.
“What I love most about it is when people eat them and they just feel loved you know,” Maki Garcia-Evans said, “and that’s what it’s really all about”.
With no two women being the same, Pizza Hut is also offering their own Valentine’s Day engagement promotion of a $10,010 dinner box with their own provided ring and meal.
The proposal package features a red ruby ring, limousine service, flowers, personal fireworks show, photographer and videographer, as well as a $10 pizza, breadsticks and cinnamon sticks dinner box.
Pizza Hut is also offering their own Valentine's Day engagement promotion of a $10,010 dinner box with their own provided ring and meal
As a courtesy-safety net to buyers provided by the pizza chain, if the package is not used before March 31 of this year, they say they’ll refund the entire cost.
Rumors that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was assassinated have been shot down by US officials.
The claim originated in China on Friday and rapidly circulated on Twitter and Chinese micro-blogging sites.
Due to the difficulty of verifying news from the ultra-secretive government of North Korea, news organizations were unable to debunk the rumor.
But U.S. officials said that they believed the claim to be untrue, and had seen no evidence of “abnormal activity” in North Korea.
The claim that Kim Jong Un, supreme leader of North Korea since the death of his father Kim Jong Il in December, had died apparently stemmed from a message sent out by a man who works near the country’s embassy in Beijing.
The man posted on Sina Weibo: “Downstairs from the office, the cars at the Korean embassy are increasing rapidly, now there are over 30 cars. It’s the first time I’ve seen this situation, did something happen in Korea?”
This seemingly innocuous question, bolstered by other witnesses who saw an unusual number of cars at the embassy, was magnified by the power of internet gossip into a rumor that Kim Jong Un had been assassinated by gunmen who burst in his bedroom and were subsequently killed by his bodyguards.
The claim that Kim Jong Un had died apparently stemmed from a message sent out by a man who works near the country's embassy in Beijing
Wilder commentators even spun the supposed assassination in to a broader claim that a coup was underway in North Korea which could depose the Kim dynasty, rulers of the country ever since it split with the south in 1948.
But when ABC News asked U.S. officials for confirmation of the assassination rumors, one simply told them: “There’s nothing to this.”
Another official said: “Our experts are monitoring the situation and we see no abnormal activity on the [Korean] peninsula and nothing that credits that tweet as accurate.”
It was thought that the death of the elder Kim would herald a period of instability, potentially leading to regime change, but those expectations have not been fulfilled.
A less dramatic but equally bizarre explanation for the large number of cars at the North Korean embassy was suggested by Gawker and Chinese news agency Phoenix.
They pointed out that this month would have been the 70th birthday of Kim Jong Il, and a large number of events including tours of China and North Korea are set to mark the anniversary.
So perhaps the increased activity at the embassy was not to do with the current leader, but with his dead father – in fact, it is not even clear whether or not Kim Jong Un is currently in China.
The escalating pace of rumors points to the speed at which false information can speed round the world via social networks and online news sources.
It also highlights the increasing importance of Chinese micro-blogs, known as weibo, which are more lightly regulated than other Chinese media.
Weibo and Twitter seem to have fed off each other in the case of the Kim Jong Un rumors, as most tweets about the claims pointed to weibo as their sources, while Chinese posts frequently mentioned Twitter to back up their own accuracy.
Whitney Houston was one of the world’s best-selling artists, wowing audiences with her powerful and effortless voice from the middle of the 80’s to the late 90’s.
But the showbiz world was rocked Saturday in the afternoon with the tragic news that one of music’s biggest legends Whitney Houston is dead.
Whitney Elizabeth Houston was born to a middle class family in Newark, New Jersey in 1963.
She was the third and youngest child of Army serviceman and entertainment executive John Russell Houston Jr., who passed away in 2003, and gospel singer Cissy Houston.
It was clear that natural talent in music ran through her family.
Whitney Houston’s cousins Dionne Warwick and the late Dee Dee Warwick, and also her godmother Aretha Franklin all made a huge mark on her gospel and R&B scene.
Whitney Houston first became interested in being in the music industry after frequently accompanying her mother Cissy who often performed in nightclubs.
Sometimes the teen would even take to the stage herself and perform.
Whitney Houston was offered her very first recording contract at the age of 14 by Michael Zanger, after she wowed him with her back-up singing on a record for his group, Michael Zanger band.
The singer was forced to turn it down as her mother determined that she should instead finish school.
However, in the years that followed Whitney Houston lent her voice to albums of both American soul, jazz, and blues singer Lou Rawls and Michael Jackson’s father Jermaine Jackson.
Naturally stunningly beautiful, Whitney Houston began dabbling in modelling after being spotted by a fashion photographer whilst she was performing with her mother.
Whitney Houston was one of the world's best-selling artists, wowing audiences with her powerful and effortless voice from the middle of the 80’s to the late 90’s
Whitney Houston went on to become the first ever woman of color to appear in a fashion magazine after gracing the pages of Seventeen magazine in the early 80’s.
Subsequently Whitney Houston appeared in Glamour, Cosmopolitan and Young Miss magazines, and also in a TV advertisement for Canada Dry soft drink.
It was around that time when music mogul Clive Davis first heard Whitney Houston perform.
“The time that I first saw her singing in her mother’s act in a club … it was such a stunning impact,” the record producer told Good Morning America.
“To hear this young girl breathe such fire into this song. I mean, it really sent the proverbial tingles up my spine.”
She made her album debut in 1985 with the self-titled record Whitney Houston.
It sold millions and spawned hit after hit including Saving All My Love for You, which won her first Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal.
Other tracks such as How Will I Know, You Give Good Love and The Greatest Love of All also went on to become giant hits.
Another multi-platinum album, Whitney, came out in 1987 and included hits like Where Do Broken Hearts Go and I Wanna Dance With Somebody.
The New York Times wrote that Whitney Houston “possesses one of her generation’s most powerful gospel-trained voices, but she eschews many of the churchier mannerisms of her forerunners”.
“She uses ornamental gospel phrasing only sparingly, and instead of projecting an earthy, tearful vulnerability, communicates cool self-assurance and strength, building pop ballads to majestic, sustained peaks of intensity.”
Whitney Houston’s decision not to follow the more soulful inflections of singers like Aretha Franklin drew criticism by some who saw her as playing down her black roots to go pop and reach white audiences.
The criticism would become a constant refrain through much of her career. She was even booed during the Soul Train Awards in 1989.
“Sometimes it gets down to that, you know?” Whitney Houston told Katie Couric in 1996.
“You’re not black enough for them. I don’t know. You’re not R&B enough. You’re very pop. The white audience has taken you away from them.”
Some saw Whitney Houston’s1992 marriage to former New Edition member and soul crooner Bobby Brown as an attempt to refute those critics.
It seemed to be an odd union, Whitney Houston was seen as pop’s pure princess while Bobby Brown had a bad-boy image, and already had children of his own.
The couple went on to have a daughter, Bobbi Kristina, in 1993.
Over the years, Bobby Brown was arrested several times on charges ranging from DUI to failure to pay child support.
But Whitney Houston said their true personalities were not as far apart as people may have believed.
“When you love, you love. I mean, do you stop loving somebody because you have different images? You know, Bobby and I basically come from the same place,” Whitney Houston told Rolling Stone in 1993.
“You see somebody, and you deal with their image, that’s their image. It’s part of them, it’s not the whole picture. I am not always in a sequined gown. I am nobody’s angel. I can get down and dirty. I can get raunchy.”
It would take several years, however, for the public to see that side of Whitney Houston.
Her moving 1991 rendition of The Star Spangled Banner at the Super Bowl, amid the first Gulf War, set a new standard and once again reaffirmed her as America’s sweetheart.
In 1992, Whitney Houston became a star in the acting world with The Bodyguard.
Despite mixed reviews, the story of a singer guarded by a former Secret Service agent, played by Kevin Costner was an international success.
It also gave her perhaps her most memorable hit: a searing, stunning rendition of Dolly Parton’s I Will Always Love You, which sat atop the charts for weeks.
It was Grammy’s Record Of The Year and Best Female Pop Vocal, and the Bodyguard soundtrack was named album of the year.
Whitney Houston returned to the big screen in 1995-96 with Waiting to Exhale and The Preacher’s Wife.
Both spawned soundtrack albums, and another hit studio album, My Love Is Your Love, in 1998, brought her a Grammy for best female R&B vocal for the cut It’s Not Right But It’s Okay.
But during these career and personal highs, Whitney Houston began using drugs.
In an interview with Oprah Winfrey in 2010, Whitney Houston said by the time The Preacher’s Wife was released: “(doing drugs) was an everyday thing. … I would do my work, but after I did my work, for a whole year or two, it was every day. … I wasn’t happy by that point in time. I was losing myself.”
In the interview, Whitney Houston blamed her rocky marriage to Bobby Brown, which included a charge of domestic abuse against Brown in 1993. They divorced in 2007.
Whitney Houston would go to rehab twice before she would declare herself drug-free to Oprah Winfrey in 2010.
But in the interim, there were missed concert dates, a stop at an airport due to drugs, and public meltdowns.
Whitney Houston was so startlingly thin during a 2001 Michael Jackson tribute concert that rumors spread she had died the next day.
Her crude behavior and jittery appearance on Brown’s reality show, Being Bobby Brown, was an example of her sad decline.
Whitney Houston’ Sawyer interview, where she declared “crack is whack”, was often parodied. She dropped out of the spotlight for a few years.
The singer staged what seemed to be a successful comeback with the 2009 album I Look To You. The album debuted on the top of the charts, and would eventually go platinum.
Things soon fell apart. A concert to promote the album on Good Morning America went awry as Whitney Houston’s voice sounded ragged and off-key. She blamed an interview with Oprah Winfrey for straining her voice.
A world tour launched overseas, however, only confirmed suspicions that Whitney Houston had lost her treasured gift, as she failed to hit notes and left many fans unimpressed; some walked out.
Canceled concert dates raised speculation that Whitney Houston may have been abusing drugs, but she denied those claims and said she was in great shape, blaming illness for cancellations.
One of the Whitney Houston most recent pictures, taken two days before her death in a night club
Recently Whitney Houston appeared to be battling her demons once more.
She was spotted looking worse for wear earlier this week in Hollywood, California after enjoying a party with friends.
Whitney Houston had been a guest at the Kelly Price & Friends Unplugged: For The Love Of R&B Grammy Party at Tru Hollywood and had even performed during the night.
Bobby Brown is reportedly “in and out of crying fits” after the death of his ex-wife Whitney Houston.
Bobby Brown, 43, decided the show must go on and still took to the stage to perform with his band New Edition, just hours after Whitney Houston’s sudden and tragic passing.
During his concert in Mississippi, Bobby Brown tearfully shouted: “I love you, Whitney,” as he blew kisses to the sky.
Bobby Brown told the crowd: “I would like to say, <<I love you, Whitney>>. The hardest thing for me to do is to come on this stage.”
According to Us Weekly, Bobby Brown received huge applause as he came onstage late, after apparently breaking down just before the show was due to begin.
A source told the publication that Bobby Brown broke down during his performance of the ballad Tenderoni, and asked the audience to sing along as he sobbed.
Bobby Brown was then unable to finish the song and walked off, with the concert finishing shortly afterwards.
A relative of Bobby Brown has said that he is “shattered and beyond devastated” at the news.
The source has said: “He wanted to tell everyone about it before it hit the news. He didn’t want any of us to hear about it on television.”
The relative added: “He could hardly get the words out when he called me. He was sobbing, and by the end of the call, I was sobbing too. He’s beside himself right now.”
Whitney Houston died this afternoon at the Beverly Hilton hotel in Los Angeles, aged 48.
A spokesman for the local police department said that emergency services had been called to the hotel at 3:43 Saturday afternoon, arriving minutes later.
Officials rushed to the room on the fourth floor where Whitney Houston was staying as a guest, where they found security staff attempting to revive her.
Life-saving attempts were unsuccessful, and Whitney Houston was pronounced dead at 3:55 p.m.
The cause of death is as yet unknown.
TMZ also reports that, according to hotel staff, Whitney Houston “partied heavily” with friends last night, who were all drinking in the bar and making lots of noise.
Bobby Brown and Whitney Houston had a notoriously turbulent relationship that was riddled with drug use and marital problems
Bobby Brown and Whitney Houston had a notoriously turbulent relationship that was riddled with drug use and marital problems.
Whitney Houston admitted that she and Bobby Brown took cocaine and marijuana together through their 14 years of marriage.
During this tumultuous time, Bobby Brown was arrested for drugs and alcohol and Whitney Houston entered drug rehabilitation programs twice.
Whitney Houston and Bobby Brown wed in July 1992 and eventually separated in September 2006, before their divorce was finalized in April 2007.
Three years after their split, Whitney Houston described her troubled marriage to Bobby with the poignant words: “He was my drug”.
Whitney Houston and Bobby Brown have an 18-year-old daughter together, Bobbi Kristina.
Despite Bobby Brown and Whitney Houston’s rocky relationship, the trio were reunited last week for a slap-up meal together.
Whitney Houston looked happy as she left the Beverly Hills eatery after dinner, and was followed shortly after Bobby Brown and their daughter Bobbi Kristina, who held hands as they headed off together.
Whitney Houston won custody of Bobbi Kristina following her divorce from the R&B star, with Bobby Brown being allowed visitation rights.
However the pair’s last public outing together showed they seemed to have put their toxic past behind them.
Whitney Houston tragically died Saturday afternoon at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Los Angeles at the age of 48 after partied the night before.
While the star’s cause of death is as yet unknown, it has been reported that Whitney Houston “partied heavily” the night before.
Whitney Houston died at the Beverly Hilton Hotel, where she was staying in order to attend at perform at a pre-Grammys party hosted by Clive Davis.
According to TMZ, Whitney Houston was seen with a large group of friends at the hotel bar on the eve of her death.
Sources told TMZ that the group were drinking and being loud.
TMZ went on to allege that Whitney Houston and her friends stood out because of all the noise they were making, despite the fact that the hotel was abuzz with guests getting ready for the pre-Grammy festivities.
A spokesman for the local police department said that emergency services had been called to the hotel at 3:43 Saturday afternoon, arriving minutes later.
Officials rushed to the room on the fourth floor where Whitney Houston was staying as a guest, where they found security staff attempting to revive her.
Life-saving attempts were unsuccessful, and the singer was pronounced dead at 3:55 p.m.
According to TMZ, police have sealed off the hotel room where Whitney Houston died and will not be searching it until they have obtained a search warrant.
TMZ reports that their primary interest is to establish whether or not drugs were present in the room.
According to TMZ, Whitney Houston was seen with a large group of friends at the hotel bar on the eve of her death
Whitney Houston was spotted looking worse for wear on a night out with friends just two days before her death.
The singer had been a guest at the Kelly Price & Friends Unplugged: For The Love Of R&B Grammy Party at Tru Hollywood and had even performed during the night.
A witness told Us Weekly at the time that Whitney Houston had appeared “wasted” and “moody” as she exited the night club.
The source said: “She reacted angrily to the security guards trying to get her into her car…and started cussing them out.”
The observer went on to say that even though Whitney Houston was stopping and signing autographs for fans, “she would get moody again in a split second”.
The source added: “It was sad because her fans noticed that she was really shaky as she left the venue. She definitely was not in control of herself.”
Dressed all in black, Whitney Houston appeared angry and agitated as she left the venue and looked like she had partied a little hard.
Wearing a short black dress the star emerged with her hair messed up and gestured aggressively to the waiting photographers.
The release of the photos showing the star’s erratic behavior and disheveled look sparked concern over the singer’s health.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Whitney Houston had a run-in with former X Factor contestant Stacy Francis that evening, after the star failed to remember the aspiring singer after she once pulled her onstage during one of her concerts.
A source told the website that Whitney Houston was “cordial at first” but the scene soon changed after Whitney’s friend, R&B star Ray J, stepped in.
An eyewitness said: “Whitney just got belligerent. Ray was trying to defend Stacy, telling Whitney, <<Stacy’s family!>>, but Whitney was feeling crowded out and hands were raised.”
The source added: “You didn’t know which way it could go there for a minute.”
When contacted by The Hollywood Reporter following the alleged incident, Stacy Francis said: “I have the utmost respect for Whitney Houston and her talent.”
However, Us Weekly reports that Whitney Houston “was fine” the following day as she conducted a sound-check to gear up for her performance at the pre-Grammys party.
A source told the magazine: “She was present and ready…She had water to keep her vocals clear, and was trying to not smoke.”
Whitney Houston has previously battled an addiction to crack cocaine and admitted to taking drugs with Bobby Brown during their turbulent 14 years of marriage.
Saudi journalist Hamza Kashgari has been deported by Malaysian authorities over the accusations of insulting the Prophet Muhammad in a tweet.
Police confirmed that Hamza Kashgari, 23, was sent back to Saudi Arabia on Sunday despite protests from human rights groups.
Hamza Kashgari’s controversial tweet last week sparked more than 30,000 responses and several death threats.
Insulting the prophet is considered blasphemous in Islam and is punishable by death in Saudi Arabia.
Saudi journalist Hamza Kashgari has been deported by Malaysian authorities over the accusations of insulting the Prophet Muhammad in a tweet
Hamza Kashgari fled Saudi Arabia last week and was detained upon his arrival in the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur on Thursday.
The journalist had tweeted his doubts about Muhammad on the prophet’s birthday last week. Saudi clerics condemned his remarks as blasphemous.
Hamza Kashgari apologized and deleted the tweet, but when he continued to receive threats, he left for Malaysia.
The two countries do not have a formal extradition treaty but as fellow Muslim countries Malaysia has good relations with Saudi Arabia.
Malaysia’s home ministry issued a statement on Sunday saying Hamza Kashgari would be sent back, the AFP news agency reports.
“Malaysia has a long-standing arrangement by which individuals wanted by one country are extradited when detained by the other, and (Kashgari) will be repatriated under this arrangement,” AFP quotes the statement as saying.
Amnesty International has warned that Hamza Kashgari could be executed in Saudi Arabia if he is found guilty of apostasy.
“If the Malaysian authorities hand over Hamza Kashgari to Saudi Arabia, they could end up complicit in any violations he suffers,” said Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui of Amnesty’s Middle East division.
