LONDON: Lawyers for Michael Jackson have reached a settlement with a Bahraini sheik who claimed the singer owed him $7m after breaching a signed contract, the pop star's spokeswoman said Sunday. Celena Aponte said the out-of-court settlement means Jackson will not be giving evidence at London's High Court as scheduled on Monday. Scores of journalists and fans had been expected to cram the courtroom for the appearance by the always-unpredictable King of Pop. Aponte said Jackson was informed of the deal as he was about to board a flight to London. "As Mr. Jackson was about to board his plane to London, he was advised by his legal team to postpone his travels since the parties had concluded a settlement in principle," Aponte said. "Therefore, he will not be attending court on Monday." A representative for the sheik could not immediately be reached for comment late Sunday. Sheik Abdulla bin Hamad Al Khalifa said he gave the singer millions of dollars and planned a series of collaborations following Jackson's acquittal on child molestation charges in June 2005 in California. Al Khalifa, 33, invited Jackson to the small, oil-rich Gulf state to escape the media spotlight. The sheik, the second son of the king of Bahrain, said he believed he had formed "a close personal relationship'' with the star, whom he referred to affectionately as "my brother." Al Khalifa said he gave Jackson the money to help shore up his finances and subsidize the pop star's lifestyle in Bahrain, including more than $300,000 for a "motivational guru." Al Khalifa, an amateur songwriter, said the pair even moved into the same palace to work on music together. But Jackson dropped the project in 2006, leaving Bahrain and pulling out of the contract. Jackson's lawyers have maintained the money was a gift and argued that the musician was not bound by the deal because the contract was signed on behalf of 2 Seas Records, a venture which never got off the ground. The singer originally wanted to avoid coming to London to respond to the lawsuit in person, seeking instead to give evidence by video link from the United States. His lawyer, Robert Englehart, had claimed that Jackson should be spared the trans-Atlantic trip due to an unspecified illness, but on Thursday the lawyer said the 50-year-old star had been cleared for travel. The lawsuit is being heard in London by mutual agreement. Jackson's purported medical problems, and his sometimes bizarre demeanor, have been a regular feature of previous court appearances. His 2005 trial was punctuated by complaints of back problems, an apparent bout with the flu and visits to the hospital. At one point, the judge had to order the pajama-clad star into court from the emergency room. His most notorious appearance came in 2002, when a wide-eyed Jackson testified in a California courtroom with what appeared to be a bandage hanging from his hollowed-out nose.
Friday, August 14, 2009 MUMBAI: A 26-year-old woman died Thursday of H1N1 swine flu in the southern city of Bangalore, raising India's death toll from the virus to 20, authorities said.The death was the first reported in India's information technology capital, the Press Trust of India reported.Meanwhile in Pune, the worst-affected in India, two more victims of the virus died Thursday, raising the death toll in that western city near Mumbai to 12, the report said. The victims were an 11-month-old boy and a 75-year-old old woman.US media reported movie halls, schools and colleges were ordered closed Thursday for three days to a week in Mumbai, the commercial and financial capital of the country, as fear of the pandemic spread.Prajakata Lavangare, a spokeswoman for the government of Maharashtra state of which Mumbai is the capital, said similar orders were issued in Pune, which is also located in the state.The woman who died in Bangalore was identified only as Roopa, a teacher in
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