Thousands of People Evacuated in China

In China, 200,000 people were evacuated by early Saturday to safer places due to a lake formed by the recent earthquake threatening to breach its dam. Hundred of Chinese troops have been working to drain Tangjashan Lake in Sichuan province. The lake was formed when a hillside plunged into a river valley during the earthquake on May 12^th that killed 68,977 people and left 17,974 missing, according to most recent updates.

A runoff channel has been recently completed and water is expected to be discharged between Sunday and Tuesday. Another 1.3 million people in the area will be evacuated if the barrier of the lake fully opens and floods the area.

Evacuation Warnings in China

It is possible that more than one million people might have to evacuate dozens of villages in a Sichuan province if the lake bursts and floods the area due to the recent earthquake. The lake has a wall of debris that is clogging a river. On Saturday, officials will start a three-day drill that will test the government communications systems to make sure that residents in the valley can hear future evacuation orders.

So far, it is estimated that 68,858 people were killed in the earthquake and there are 18,618 people that are missing. The earthquake left 5 million people homeless and many people were separated from their families.

Angelina Jolie Gives Birth to Twins

The actress Angelina Jolie has given birth to twins in France. The twins are the fifth and sixth children for Jolie and Brad Pitt. They have 6 year old Maddox, 4 year old Pax, 3 year old Zahara, and 2 year old Shiloh.

Coroner Finds Cause of Singer Sean’s Levert’s Death

A coroner has ruled that the singer Sean Levert died of natural causes. He died soon after getting sick in jail. Attorneys for Levert’s widow found in sheriff’s department records that he wasn’t given his anti-anxiety medicine while he was in jail and he wasn’t being seen by a doctor, which could have possibly prevented his death. He died on March 30^th at the age of 39 at a hospital nearly an hour after he was taken from the Cuyahoga County jail. He was sentenced to serve 22 months in jail for failing to pay child support.

Levert had supposedly been acting strange and was restrained before getting sick. The coroner states that he died from complications of sarcoidosis, which is an inflammatory lung disease that produces small lumps of cells in the body’s organs. He also had heart disease, high blood sugar, and withdrawal symptoms from the drug alprazolam, which is commonly used to treat anxiety disorders and panic attacks.

Sean Levert was a member of the 1980s group called Levert. He was also the son of O’Jays singer Eddie Levert.

Employee Arrested at 50 Cent’s Mansion

An employee, named Dwayne McKenzie, was arrested at the rapper 50 Cent’s mansion for attacking a woman. McKenzie was charged with assault, strangulation, breach of peace, and unlawful restraint. He supposedly choked the woman and hit her with a belt during an argument on 50 Cent’s property. He was released after posting the $10,000 bond. McKenzie was already on conditional discharge after an arrest in Hartford for supposedly pistol-whipping a club promoter.

Singer Ashlee Simpson Pregnant

The singer Ashlee Simpson-Wentz has announced that she and her husband Pete Wentz are expecting their first child together. She stated on a blog that she wanted to wait until after the first trimester to announce the pregnancy.

The couple had gotten married earlier this month at her parent’s Los Angeles home. Her sister, singer Jessica Simpson, was the maid of honor. Pregnancy rumors started after the couple announced their engagement last month.

Model Naomi Campbell Charged In London Airport Assault

The model Naomi Campbell has been charged with assaulting two police officers during an incident that happened at Heathrow Airport on April 3rd. She was charged when she reported to Heathrow police station to answer bail. She faces three counts of assaulting a constable, two counts of using threatening abusive words or behavior towards the cabin crew, and one count of disorderly conduct. The assault was against two officers. She has been ordered to appear at a west London magistrates’ court on June 20^th and she could possibly receive six months in prison and/or a fine of up to $10,000.

On April 3^rd, Campbell was on a British Airways plane ready to go to Los Angeles when she got into a dispute over her luggage. She was removed from the plane and held for eight hours at the airport police station before she was released on bail.

China Changes One-Child Policy Due to Earthquake

China has decided to change its one-child policy to exempt the families with a child killed, severely injured, or disabled in the country’s recent earthquake. The families can get a certificate to have another child.

On May 12th of this year, there was a devastating earthquake that killed 65,000 people and left more than 23,000 people missing. There were many children that were killed and injured in the disaster. Usually, having more than one child is illegal in China and families that have more than one child are punished by having to pay fines. If the families’ legally born child is killed and the family only has an illegally born child under the age of 18, then that child can be registered as a legal child. This is a positive thing because it gives the child that was once illegal the same rights as a legal citizen and nine years of compulsory education.

China started the one-child policy in the late 1970s to control China’s very large population and to provide better education and health care. There were already certain exceptions for ethnic groups, rural families, and families where both parents are only children. In some parts of rural China, most families are allowed to have a second child, especially if the first child is a girl.

Many people in China have shown interest in adopting children that have become orphans due to the earthquake. There are not any limitations to the number of orphans that a family can adopt. The adoptions and the future birth to a family that adopts an orphan is exempt from the one-child policy as the earthquake left 4,000 children to become orphans. Most of the orphans will be sent to live with other family members.

Wesley Snipes Gets to Remain Free For Now

The actor Wesley Snipes is being allowed to remain free on bail as he appeals three federal tax convictions. Judge William Terrell Hodges doesn’t see Snipes as a flight risk and says he is not a threat to the community. The judge granted Snipes’ motion for bail on Thursday pending the appeal of his case. Snipes’ attorneys plan on arguing before the 11^th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that the trial judge erred in several ways before and after the recent conviction where Snipes was sentenced to three years in prison on three misdemeanor counts of willful failure to file his income tax returns.

Rapper Slick Rick Receives Pardon

The New York governor David Paterson is granting the rapper Slick Rick a full and unconditional pardon for the murders of two men that took place in 1991. The pardon will stop the deportation of the rapper back to the United Kingdom, the country Slick Rick left when he was a young child.

Slick Rick had previously served five years in prison for shooting his cousin and another man. Both of the people survived the shooting. The governor says that the rapper has not had any criminal problems since he was released in 1997. He is also a landlord in the Bronx and has volunteered to counsel children against violence.

Singer Jermaine Jackson Finalizes Divorce

The singer Jermaine Jackson, the brother of singer Michael Jackson, has finalized the divorce from his wife, Alejandra. He agreed to pay $50,000 for her attorney fees and $50,000 for back child support payments. Alejandra waived all spousal support and any rights to his jewelry, furniture, and Jackson Entertainment Inc. The couple had gotten married in 1995 and filed for divorce in 2007.

The two children they have will live with their mother and Jermaine Jackson will have visitation rights. He agreed to pay $3,000 each month in child support payments.

Senator Edward “Ted” Kennedy has Cancerous Brain Tumor

The senator Edward “Ted” Kennedy was diagnosed with a cancerous brain tumor on Tuesday. It is expected that he has less than a year to live. Doctors discovered the tumor while doing tests after he had a seizure this past weekend and had to be hospitalized. Doctors say that he has a malignant glioma in the left parietal lobe, which is the part of the brain that controls sensation, movement, and language.

Doctors say that he will stay in the hospital for a couple more days while they consider chemotherapy and radiation treatment. The possibility of surgery was not mentioned. Experts say that he will have three years to live at the most but it is very likely at his age of 76 that he has less than a year to live. He didn’t have any more seizures while in the hospital and was released from the hospital today.

Actress Jessica Alba Gets Married

The actress Jessica Alba married the father of her unborn child, Cash Warren, in a Beverly Hills courthouse ceremony on Monday. The couple also applied for a marriage license on Monday and had to wait for 40 minutes for the paperwork to be processed before they were married. They met while filming the movie “Fantastic Four” and are expecting a daughter this summer.

Senator Edward Kennedy Suffers From Seizure

Senator Edward M. Kennedy, the brother of the late President John F. Kennedy, has been hospitalized after suffering from a seizure. He was taken to Massachusetts General Hospital where doctors worked hard to try to find the cause of the seizure. He was flown to the Massachusetts General on Saturday after becoming sick and being treated in the emergency room of Cape Cod Hospital.

Luckily, he did not suffer from a stroke, as the physicians first thought and he is currently doing well. Over the next couple of days he will have more evaluations done on him to find the cause and what should be done to treat him.

Rapper T.I. and Wife Tiny Have New Baby

The rapper T.I. and his wife Tameka “Tiny” Cottle has just welcomed a new baby boy named Major Harris into the world. The baby was born weighing 5 pounds and is doing fine.

Rapper DMX Pleads Not Guilty

The rapper DMX has pleaded not guilty in court to charges of felony drug possession and misdemeanor animal cruelty charges on Thursday. He was indicted last week on 11 counts that included felony marijuana and paraphernalia possession and seven counts of misdemeanor animal cruelty.

The charges come from a raid that was done on his property last August where he was accused of neglecting to take proper care of 12 pit bull dogs at his Phoenix, Arizona property. Some of the dogs were found to be dehydrated and underfed. Three dogs were found buried in his back yard.

Rapper Remy Ma Sentenced to 8 Years in Prison

A judge sentenced the rapper Remy Ma to eight years in prison for the shooting of a woman outside of a Manhattan nightclub. She had the possibility of serving up to 25 years in prison for assault, weapon possession, and attempted coercion.

Scientists Make First Genetically Modified Embryo

For the first time, scientists have been able to genetically alter a human embryo. Researchers used an abnormal embryo that could never have developed into a baby to do the project.

The project raises the possibilities that people could be able to create designer babies in the future and scientists could insert certain genes into an embryo to produce babies with certain characteristics, such as higher intelligence and better athletic abilities. Some people think that this is wrong and turns children into designed objects and would create an unequal society where some people would be considered genetically superior while other people who are born without genetic injections would be inferior.

Scientists say that the main point of the project was to find out if a gene injected into an abnormal embryo could be traced in stem cells that are harvested from the embryo. The work could also explain why abnormal embryos don’t develop. Scientists found that abnormal embryos don’t develop well enough to produce stem cells.

Jackson’s Neverland Ranch Auction Canceled

The foreclosure auction for Michael Jackson’s Nerverland Ranch that was scheduled for this week was canceled after an investment company called Colony Capital LLC. bought the loan. Jackson hasn’t lived on the property for the past two years and is happy at the way things turned out. He recently had to go into default on the $24.5 million that he owes on the property and has struggled to pay his debts after his decline in finances after his arrest in 2003 on child molestation charges where he was later acquitted.

Singer Mary J. Blige Sets Up Foundation to Help Women with Careers

The singer Mary J. Blige has started a foundation to help women develop careers and increase self-confidence. Its charity will fund scholarships, grants, and programs to help women gain confidence and skills to succeed in their careers. The foundation will focus on the area of Yonkers, New York, first, the place where Blige grew up. It is expected to expand to the rest of New York and then the rest of America.

Rapper DMX Arrested for Drugs and Animal Cruelty

The rapper DMX was arrested for drugs and animal cruelty after a raid was done on his north Phoenix home. He tried to barricade himself in his bedroom but came out after a SWAT team went into his home during a raid a 3 a.m. in the morning. Drugs and weapons were seized from the property. The arrest and search warrants were based on indictments for felony drug possession and misdemeanor animal cruelty charges. DMX made his first court appearance on Friday and bail was set at $7,500.

Back in August, a search was done of the rapper’s home where 12 pit bull dogs were seized after reports were being made of him abusing dogs on his property. At the time detectives also dug up the bodies of three dead dogs and found marijuana on the property. DMX had not been home for weeks at that time.

Hulk Hogan’s Son Sentenced to Jail Time

The wrestler Hulk Hogan’s son, Nick Bollea, was sentenced to serve eight months in jail on Friday after he pleaded no contest to causing a car crash that seriously injured his friend. He was also ordered to serve five years of probation and surrender his driving privileges for three years. The family of the friend that was injured asked the judge to impose a sentence of up to a year in jail, which is less than the five years he could have received.

Nick Bollea was arrested last November and charged with felony reckless driving that caused a serious bodily injury after he was speed racing is father’s 1998 Toyota Supra and hit a curb. He then spun into traffic and hit a palm tree. His friend was in the car at that time and was seriously hurt. He wasn’t wearing a seat belt and suffered a broken skull and other severe injuries. Bollea was not seriously hurt, but he had alcohol in his system at the time of the accident. He was cited for being a driver under the age of 21, operating a vehicle with blood-alcohol level of 0.02 percent or higher, and having illegal window tinting. He will have to attend DUI classes and he can’t drink alcohol as terms of his probation.

Actor Gary Dourdan Charged with Felony Drug Possession

The actor Gary Dourdan, who is a star on the show “CSI,” has been charged with felony possession of heroin, cocaine, and ecstasy since his arrest last month where police found him asleep in his car in Palm Springs parked on the wrong side of the street with his car’s interior light on. He is scheduled to appear in court in Los Angeles on May 28^th.

Singer R. Kelly’s Trial Finally Ready to Begin

After six years of delays, the jury selection is set to begin in the singer R. Kelly’s trail on child pornography charges. The charges are based on a videotape showing him supposedly having sex with a 13 year old girl. The girl, who is now 23 years old, says that it wasn’t her on the tape and R. Kelly also claims that it wasn’t him on the tape either. He could face up to 15 years in prison if he is convicted. The trial may last several weeks and in previous years Kelly has already settled three lawsuits that accused him of having sex with underage girls.

Restaurant Smoking Bans Decrease Teen Smoking

A recent study shows that restaurant smoking bans help to persuade teenagers not to become smokers. Teens who lived in towns with strict bans were 40 percent less likely to become regular smokers than teens that lived in communities without bans or that had weak bans. Smoking bans discourage tobacco use and sends out the message that smoking is not healthy. The ban also reduces the amount of smoke that teens are exposed to in public places.

Having a parent or close friend that smokes can be an influence as to whether or not a teenager experiments with cigarettes but strong bans in public places play a bigger role in whether a not the teen will develop a smoking habit. The study also found that the bans had a greater effect on younger teens than older teens.

Yahoo and McAfee Team Together to Bring Search Engine Security

Yahoo Inc. and McAfee Inc. are teaming up to offer alerts about possibly dangerous Web sites in search engine results generated at Yahoo’s search engine. The new search feature will allow people who search the Internet to see a red exclamation point and a warning next to links that McAfee finds as having dangerous downloads or using visitors’ e-mail addresses to send out spam. Dangerous downloads include adware, which shows unwanted advertisements, and spyware, which tracks users’ keystrokes and other actions secretly.

Yahoo and McAfee hopes that the new feature will help people feel more secure when searching on Yahoo’s search engine and visiting sites. Yahoo has chosen to delete the most dangerous sites from their search engine and currently has the second most popular search engine after Google.

This partnership could allow McAfee a way to expose more Internet users to its security software and encourage them to upgrade to the premium versions. McAfee can also use Yahoo’s search information to find sites to examine for security holes and use the information to upgrade its products. The McAfee technology that is used on Yahoo’s site is a lesser version of McAfee’s full SiteAdvisor technology that is free from McAfee.

Microsoft Withdraws Yahoo Bid

Microsoft Corp. has decided to withdraw its $42.3 billion bid on Saturday to buy Yahoo Inc. This came after an unsuccessful last try to negotiate a mutually acceptable sale price.

Microsoft was willing to pay as much as $47.5 billion, or $33 per share, but Yahoo’s board wanted at least $53 billion, or $37 per share. Microsoft could make a new bid later this year if Yahoo doesn’t recover after having more than two years of financial problems. Analysts feel that if things don’t change for Yahoo Inc. soon, their stock would decrease into the mid-teens and that would make it difficult for the company to turn down any future offers. Yahoo Inc. is considering an advertising partnership with Google and a merger with the Internet operations of Time Warner Inc.

Wesley Snipes to Appeal Tax Conviction Charge

The attorneys of the actor Wesley Snipes wants to appeal his recent tax conviction, where he was sentenced to three years in prison last week for three misdemeanor counts of willful failure to file income tax. Snipes will be free until he is ordered to turn himself in by the federal Bureau of Prisons. His attorneys filed the notice on Thursday for the 11^th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Mariah Carey and Nick Cannon Married

The actor Nick Cannon has supposedly gotten married to the pop singer Mariah Carey. It is said that the two got married on Wednesday and Carey was been wearing a huge diamond ring on her finger at the Tribeca Film Festival for the premiere of her movie, “Tennessee.” Cannon was with her at the event. They supposedly had gotten married at Carey’s home in the Bahamas. On Friday, Carey obtained a marriage license on the island of Eleuthera, which is in the Bahamas.

The ring that Cannon gave her is a in a platinum setting with a square emerald cut pink diamond as the center stone with 58 pink diamonds and two half moon diamonds on each side. The ring is 17 carats in total and valued at $2.5 million. This would be Carey’s second marriage and Cannon’s first. She was previously married to the music executive Tommy Mottola from 1993 to 1998.

Results of James Brown Paternity Test

A recent paternity test has shown that the singer James Brown fathered the 6 year old son of a woman who claimed to be his wife when he died. The woman, named Tomi Rae Hynie, was a former backup singer of James Brown. The boy was tested in April before a judge in South Carolina ordered to have it done. Tomi Rae Hynie and the boy are not mentioned in Brown’s will. James Brown died in December of 2006.

Rapper Vanilla Ice No Longer Being Charged for Assault

Prosecutors against the rapper Vanilla Ice have decided not to charge him with domestic battery since his wife changed her original statement. He was arrested on April 10^th at the couple’s home after his wife called 911 and said that he kicked and hit her during an argument. She later told police that he only pushed her. In an affidavit that was provided to prosecutors, she changed her version of what happened saying that the physical confrontation was accidental. Prosecutors closed the case on Tuesday.