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LONDON: Pop singer Michael Jackson has converted to Islam and changed his name to Mikaeel. The 50-year-old star, pledged his allegiance to the Koran in a ceremony at a friend's mansion in Los Angeles, the Sun reported. Jackson sat on the floor wearing a tiny hat after an Imam was summoned to officiate -- days before the singer is due to appear at London's High Court where he is being sued by an Arab Sheik, the paper said. The star decided to adopt the new religion while he was recording a song at the home of his friend where a Jehovah's witness was brought up to help him through the ceremony. Apparently the star of hits like 'the Way You Make Me Feel-was convinced by his producer and songwriter friends David Wharnsby and Phillip Bubal. "They began talking to him about their beliefs, and how they thought they had become better people after they converted. Michael soon began warming to the idea. "An Imam was summoned from the mosque and Michael went through the

HARARE: An outbreak of cholera in Zimbabwe over the last month has now claimed at least 90 lives, including three deaths of Zimbabweans across the border in South Africa, officials have said. At least 37 people have died in Beitbridge, a town on the border with South Africa, Health Minister David Parirenyatwa said on national radio on Thursday. Three Zimbabweans have died across the border in the South African town of Musina, officials there said. Another 37 people have died in the capital Harare, while a new outbreak in the central town of Gweru has killed 13 people, state media said on Thursday. Doctors Without Borders warned on Tuesday that 1.4 million people are at risk of the disease in Harare alone, and cases of cholera have been detected as far away as Durban, on South Africa's southeastern coast. A South African truck driver was found with cholera in Durban, after he returned from Zimbabwe at the weekend, provincial health official Leon Mbangwa said. Zimbabwe's health s

WASHINGTON: US President-elect Barack Obama on Wednesday named Indian-American policy wonk Sonal Shah as a leader of a key policy working group, ignoring charges from the so-called leftist-secular Indian groups in the U.S about her alleged links with radical Hindu groups. Shah is one of nine leaders who will head seven Policy Working Groups tasked with ''developing priority policy proposals and plans from the Obama Campaign for action during the Obama-Biden Administration,'' the transition team announced on Wednesday. Shah will co-chair the Technology, Innovation and Government Reform panel along with Julius Genachowski and Blair Levin. Other panels, all of which will be headed by a single person, are as follows: Economic: Daniel K. Tarullo, Education: Linda Darling-Hammond, Energy and Environment: Carol M. Browner, Health Care: Senator Tom Daschle, Immigration: T. Alexander Aleinikoff, Mariano-Florentino (Tino) Cuéllar National Security: James B. Steinberg, Dr. Susan E

BEIJING: More than 19,000 schoolchildren died in a massive earthquake that struck Sichuan province in May, China acknowledged Friday for the first time. The earthquake left nearly 90,000 people dead or missing, but the government has never before said how many of the casualties were students. Most of them perished when their shoddily built schools collapsed. Their deaths become a sensitive political issue for the government, with parents of dead children staging protests demanding investigations. Many parents says they have been subjected to intimidation and financial inducements to keep them silent. The student death toll of 19,065 was presented by Wei Hong, the executive vice governor of Sichuan, at a news conference on preparations for the winter in the quake zone. Wei said millions of those displaced in the earthquake still need quilts and repairs to their homes if they are to survive the coming winter, which is expected to be unusually cold. The earthquake, which was centered in t

NAGPUR: The untimely rains that brought relief to several parts of Vidarbha on Wednesday proved to be a bane for seven people of a family in Katol. All seven of them were burnt alive in the thatched house after lightning, which accompanied the rains, caused a short circuit, triggering sparks and the subsequent fire reducing the house to ashes. Sources say Ramesh Raut (40) lived in Godi Mohagaon village in Katol with his wife Kalawati (35) and three children Praful (15), Prashant (13) and Pradeep (11). On Wednesday night, Ramesh’s brother Haridas (32) and his daughter Durga (8) had come to visit. The fire is believed to have started at 2 am on early Thursday and by the time Rauts’ neighbours could realise, the house was engulfed in flames. Even the rains could not stop the fire and it burnt the entire house to mere cinders killing all seven. By then, the neighbours became active and while some were busy trying to douse the fire or contain it so that it does not spreads to other nearby t