What women really think...about their Facebook friends

A new survey conducted in the name of market research by daily deal company Eversave revealed some surprising and some not so surprising statistics about what women really think about their Facebook friends.

The results of the survey, which was conducted among 400 women in the USA, were published on technology blog Mashable on March 30.

While 400 is not a large sample size of the female population on Facebook, the survey found that the majority of women were annoyed by some common personality types and traits shared by their friends.

The most annoying habit of Facebook friends, according to 63 percent of women surveyed, was "complaining all the time."

Other annoying traits of Facebook friends included posting political opinions, which annoyed 41 percent of women, and "bragging [boasting] about their perfect lives," for 32 percent, while 16 percent got peeved at Facebook friends who were "always posting updates about their precious kids."

The women surveyed were also asked to indentify personality types they were friends with on Facebook. The results are as follows:

65 % were friends with a "documentarian" - someone who constantly documents his or her life
61 % said they were friends with "a drama queen"
57 % were friends with '"a proud mama"
46 % were friends with "a liker" - someone who constantly "likes" Facebook posts
40 % were friends with "a poser"
35 % were friends with a "frenemy - an enemy whom both parties pretend is a friend
30 % were friends with a "one upper" - someone who constantly tries to do things better than others.
26 % were friends with an "airbrusher" - a person who alters photos to appear more attractive
Also, worryingly, 25 percent of the women surveyed were friends with a "stalker" - a person who follows their posts and activities through Facebook.

Earth Hour 2011

Over 1,700 likely dead,missing in Japan quake - Kyodo

Over 1,700 likely dead,missing in Japan quake - Kyodo

Horoscope Hang-Up: Earth Rotation Changes Zodiac Signs

By MEGAN FREIDMAN – Thu Jan 13, 6:25 pm ET

If you're the type of person who relies on mysterious-sounding locations of stars to determine your personality and outcome in life, get ready to be shocked.

The field of astrology, which is concerned with horoscopes and the like, felt a major disruption from astronomers, who are concerned with actual stars and planets. The astronomers from the Minnesota Planetarium Society found that because of the moon's gravitational pull on Earth, the alignment of the stars was pushed by about a month. See the Best Portraits from TIME 2010.

"When [astrologers] say that the sun is in Pisces, it's really not in Pisces," noted Parke Kunkle, a member of the group's board. Your astrological sign is determined by the position of the sun on the day you were born, so that means everything you thought you knew about your horoscope is wrong.

It turns out that astrology has had issues from its inception. (Aside from the fact that it tries to link personality traits with positions of the stars.) Ancient Babylonians had 13 constellations, but wanted only 12, so threw out Ophuchicus, the snake holder. Libra didn't even enter the picture until the era of Julius Caesar.

According to the Minnesota Planetarium Society, here is where the real signs of the Zodiac should fall. Get ready for your world to change forever.

Capricorn: Jan. 20-Feb. 16.

Aquarius: Feb. 16-March 11.

Pisces: March 11-April 18.

Aries: April 18-May 13.

Taurus: May 13-June 21.

Gemini: June 21-July 20.

Cancer: July 20-Aug. 10.

Leo: Aug. 10-Sept. 16.

Virgo: Sept. 16-Oct. 30.

Libra: Oct. 30-Nov. 23.

Scorpio: Nov. 23-29.

Ophiuchus: Nov. 29-Dec. 17.

Sagittarius: Dec. 17-Jan. 20.

http://www.time.com/

FACEBOOK WILL END ON MARCH 15th!

PALO ALTO, CA –Mark Zuckerberg announced that Facebook will be shut down in March. Managing the site has become too stressful.

“Facebook has gotten out of control,” said Zuckerberg in a press conference outside his Palo Alto office, “and the stress of managing this company has ruined

my life. I need to put an end to all the madness.”

Zuckerberg went on to explain that starting March 15th, users will no longer be able to access their Facebook accounts.

“After March 15th the whole website shuts down,” said Avrat Humarthi, Vice President of Technical Affairs at Facebook. “So if you ever want to see your pictures again, I recommend you take them off the internet. You won’t be able to get them back once Facebook goes out of business.”

Zuckerberg said that the decision to shut down Facebook was difficult, but that he does not think people will be upset.

“I personally don’t think it’s a big deal,” he said in a private phone interview. “And to be honest, I think it’s for the better. Without Facebook, people will have to go outside and make real friends. That’s always a good thing.”

Some Facebook users were furious upon hearing the shocking news.

“What am I going to do without Facebook?” said Denise Bradshaw, a high school student from Indiana. “My life revolves around it. I’m on Facebook at least 10 hours a day. Now what am I going to do with all that free time?”

However, parents across the country have been experiencing a long anticipated sense of relief.

“I’m glad the Facebook nightmare is over,” said Jon Guttari, a single parent from Detroit. “Now my teenager’s face won’t be glued to a computer screen all day. Maybe I can even have a conversation with her.”

Those in the financial circuit are criticizing Zuckerberg for walking away from a multibillion dollar franchise. Facebook is currently ranked as one of the wealthiest businesses in the world, with economists estimating its value at around 7.9 billion.

But Zuckerberg remains unruffled by these accusations. He says he will stand by his decision to give Facebook the axe.

“I don’t care about the money,” said Zuckerberg. “I just want my old life back.”

The Facebook Corporation suggests that users remove all of their personal information from the website before March 15th. After that date, all photos, notes, links, and videos will be permanently erased.

By J.B. Smitts

http://weeklyworldnews.com/headlines/27321/facebook-will-end-on-march-15th/

M'sian youths still tuned in to mass media

Petaling Jaya - Most single youngsters in Malaysia aged 15 to 24 years have not yet abandoned mass media, despite the image of them as being glued to the Internet.

A GroupM Malaysia 3D survey found that four out of 10 top weekday activities among them are watching television, reading the newspaper, listening to the radio and using the phone.

GroupM's latest monthly newsletter MediaMatters revealed the results of the poll which covered 3,000 respondents aged 15 to 49 years. The survey period was end-March to early June.

The media communications group said reading newspapers was more of a daytime activity while watching TV got more popular from 7pm and tapered off from 12 midnight.

During the weekends, the four communication-based activities remained among their top 10 activities.

"In fact, watching television starts earlier and listening to radio moves up a few levels to 6th ranking on weekends from 9th on weekdays," it said.

Shopping and visiting malls were the popular weekend activities between 12 noon and 10pm for these so-called "fledglings", MediaMatters said.

Young Malaysian men spend their weekends differently from the women.

"Among the top 10 activities that young men are most likely to engage in are riding their motorbikes and chilling out at mamak stalls.

"Reading the newspaper is ranked third," the report said.

Among the young women, socialising occurs during shopping and visiting the malls.

Watching television remains popular, but reading the newspaper is ranked after shopping.

"Activation and disseminating information on brands in shopping malls would be more ideal to reach these young women while increasing presence in mamak stalls may attract the male fledglings," the newsletter said.

Surprisingly, using the computer is not on the top 10 activities list.

However, working or using the computer seems more significant on weekdays among fledglings in market centres.

Ownership of computers and notebooks are higher among them compared to other urban and rural fledglings.

The report concluded: "Mass media like television, newspaper, radio and mobile phone are still a big part of the fledglings in Malaysia. It is how they use media and at what part of the day that matters."

http://malaysia.news.yahoo.com/ann/20101229/tmy-m-sian-youths-still-tuned-in-to-mass-d2ec26b.html

CROCODILE SHOCK AT TELUK CHEMPEDAK BEACH

KUANTAN, Dec 14 (Bernama) -- A stray estuarine crocodile shocked people at the popular Teluk Chempedak beach here last night.

The three-metre-long reptile, weighing about 200 kg, was promptly caught by eight personnel of the Civil Defence Department from Kuantan after they were summoned at 8 pm.

Kuantan Civil Defence assistant officer Mohamad Irwanis Seni said the crocodile was handed over to the Pahang Wildlife and National Parks Department at midnight.

Pahang Wildlife and National Parks Director Khairiah Mohd Shariff said the animal was released into its natural habitat at 1.30 am today.

She said the crocodile had most probably strayed from its natural habitat along the Kuantan River during high tide and was unable to return when the tide ebbed.

She also said that the Teluk Chempedak beach was not a playground of crocodiles and the people should not fear going there.

-- BERNAMA

SHAHIDAN CALLS FOR BLOCKING FACEBOOK IF CONTENTS POSE SECURITY THREAT

KANGAR, Dec 6 (Bernama) -- Umno Supreme Council member Datuk Seri Dr Shahidan Kassim today called for the blocking of the Facebook social networking website if its contents continue to pose a threat to national security.

He said a Facebook account holder was found to have taken advantage of the technology to insult Islam and leaders of Malaysia.

"If the website content poses a threat to national security and insults Islam, then it is unnecessary to have Facebook," he told reporters after accompanying Perlis Facebook Association committee members to lodge a report at the Kangar police station on the insults hurled at Prime Minister Seri Najib Tun Razak and former Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad on a Facebook account.

The report was lodged by the association''s deputy president, Mohd Faizuddin Ismail, at about 5.30 pm.

Shahidan said a report would also be lodged at the State Islamic Religious Department as the holder of the Facebook account had also insulted Islam, and added that the insults hurled at Najib and Mahathir were discovered by a member of the association on Nov 29.

Shahidan, who is Tambun Tulang assemblyman, said the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC), the Malaysian Islamic Development Department and the National Fatwa Council should act against the holder of the Facebook account.

Bernama

Malaysian hacked into US Fed

AFP - Friday, November 19

NEW YORK (AFP) - – A sophisticated Malaysian cyber bandit hacked into the US Federal Reserve's computers and also stole nearly half a million credit and debit card numbers, US prosecutors in New York said.

Lin Mun Poo, a Malaysian resident and citizen, was arrested on October 21 soon after entering the United States and was indicted by grand jury Thursday, the US attorney's office in Brooklyn said.

He allegedly hacked into the Cleveland, Ohio branch of the Fed, the US central bank, and in separate attacks also stole more than 400,000 card numbers, as well as breaching the defenses of numerous other systems.

Poo, who is being held in pre-trial detention, "made a career of compromising computer servers belonging to financial institutions, defense contractors, and major corporations, among others, and selling or trading the information," the US attorney's office said.

The US Secret Service arrested the 32-year-old a few hours after he flew to John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York.

"Secret Service agents seized his heavily encrypted laptop computer, which contained a massive quantity of financial account data and personal identifying information that he had allegedly obtained by hacking," the prosecutor's office said.

Brian Parr, the head of the Secret Service's New York office, said cyber crimes "not only affect our nation's financial infrastructure, but are also an ongoing threat to our national security."

Among the other alleged hacking by Poo, the Secret Service said he entered a Pentagon contractor's system "potentially compromising highly sensitive military logistics information."

Earlier this week, US Defense Secretary Robert Gates warned that cyber attacks pose a "huge" threat.

IT IS REAL AND VERIFIABLE ...

Vander Hoven, a psychologist from Netherlands, announced his new discovery about the effect of reading the Qur'aan and repeating the word ALLAH both on patients and on normal persons. The Dutch professor confirms his discovery with studies and research applied on many patients over a period of three years. Some of his patients were non-Muslims, others do not speak Arabic and were trained to pronounce the word 'ALLAH' clearly; the result was great, particularly on those who suffer from dejection and tension. Al Watan, a Saudi daily reported that the psychologist was quoted to say that Muslims who can read Arabic and who read the Quran regularly could protect themselves from psychological diseases.

The psychologist explained how each letter in the word 'ALLAH' affects healing of psychological diseases. He pointed out in his research that pronouncing the first letter in the word 'ALLAH' which is the letter (A), released from the respiratory system, controls breathing. He added that pronouncing the velar consonant (L) in the Arabic way, with the tongue touching slightly the upper part of the jaw producing a short pause and then repeating the same pause constantly, relaxes the aspiration.

Also, pronouncing the last letter which is the letter (H) makes a contact between the lungs and the heart and in turn this contact controls the heartbeat. What is exciting in the study is that this psychologist is a non-Muslim, but interested in Islamic sciences and searching for the secrets of the Holy Quran Allah, The Great and Glorious, says, We will show them Our signs in the universe and in their ownselves, until it becomes manifest to (remember me in your Dua) ALLAHU AKBAR Allah is great Allah keeps me going day and night. Without Allah, I am no one. But with Allah, I can do everything. Allah is my strength.' This is a simple test. If you love Allah and you are not ashamed of all the great things that He has done for you, let everyone knows this, May Allah help u to succeed...Ameen

World Cup 2010 Final

Spain Crowned Champions

World Cup 2010 Kicks Off Today

7 Things to Stop Doing Now on Facebook

Using a Weak Password

Avoid simple names or words you can find in a dictionary, even with numbers tacked on the end. Instead, mix upper- and lower-case letters, numbers, and symbols. A password should have at least eight characters. One good technique is to insert numbers or symbols in the middle of a word, such as this variant on the word "houses": hO27usEs!

Leaving Your Full Birth Date in Your Profile

It's an ideal target for identity thieves, who could use it to obtain more information about you and potentially gain access to your bank or credit card account. If you've already entered a birth date, go to your profile page and click on the Info tab, then on Edit Information. Under the Basic Information section, choose to show only the month and day or no birthday at all.

Overlooking Useful Privacy Controls

For almost everything in your Facebook profile, you can limit access to only your friends, friends of friends, or yourself. Restrict access to photos, birth date, religious views, and family information, among other things. You can give only certain people or groups access to items such as photos, or block particular people from seeing them. Consider leaving out contact info, such as phone number and address, since you probably don't want anyone to have access to that information anyway.

Posting Your Child's Name in a Caption

Don't use a child's name in photo tags or captions. If someone else does, delete it by clicking on Remove Tag. If your child isn't on Facebook and someone includes his or her name in a caption, ask that person to remove the name.

Mentioning That You'll Be Away From Home

That's like putting a "no one's home" sign on your door. Wait until you get home to tell everyone how awesome your vacation was and be vague about the date of any trip.

Letting Search Engines Find You

To help prevent strangers from accessing your page, go to the Search section of Facebook's privacy controls and select Only Friends for Facebook search results. Be sure the box for public search results isn't checked.

Permitting Youngsters to Use Facebook Unsupervised

Facebook limits its members to ages 13 and over, but children younger than that do use it. If you have a young child or teenager on Facebook, the best way to provide oversight is to become one of their online friends. Use your e-mail address as the contact for their account so that you receive their notifications and monitor their activities. "What they think is nothing can actually be pretty serious," says Charles Pavelites, a supervisory special agent at the Internet Crime Complaint Center. For example, a child who posts the comment "Mom will be home soon, I need to do the dishes" every day at the same time is revealing too much about the parents' regular comings and goings.

http://blogs.consumerreports.org/

Naked in the airport: Are full-body security scanners really something to blush about?

Posted by Chris Leadbeater, Travel Writer, TravelMail

The thorny issue of whether body scanners should be used at airports has taken another lurch onto the news pages today – with the warning that passengers who refuse to submit themselves to this security check will be barred from taking flight.

Actually, ‘thorny’ is probably the wrong word to use here, because if you are carrying anything vaguely sharp and pointy as you attempt to board a plane, these scrutinising devices will spot it. Along with anything else you may have on your person – birthmarks, that bruise where you bashed your thigh on the kitchen counter, that small bulge at the waist where you shovelled down an extra croissant 20 minutes earlier. Oh, and any bomb you have sewn into your underwear, if you happen to be a terrorist. The lot, basically. It will all be on display, because these scanners see everything.

OK. Hang on. That previous paragraph isn’t entirely true. The scanners produce pale, mildly blurry photostats of your body that reveal any hidden objects, but can’t detect if you’ve waxed your legs. And yet people are understandably concerned that the naked truth of their existence will be beamed into a computer as they file through the shoes-off-please queue on their way to the gate. Not a truth that everyone else in the line will be able to ogle, admittedly – but a truth visible to security staff nonetheless.

Nor will these concerns be assuaged by yesterday’s somewhat hectoring comments from Transport Secretary Lord (Andrew) Adonis, who told Parliament: “If a passenger is selected [for scanning] and declines, they will not be permitted to fly.” That he also said: “In the immediate future, only a small proportion of passengers will be selected for scanning,” is unlikely to calm these choppy waters. The message is quite clear: ‘Get your bits out before you get on the plane – or you don’t get on the plane’. Well, after you Andy. With a name like that, you shouldn’t have any fear of lumps and bumps.

This development comes, of course, in the wake of the attempted Christmas Day plane bombing, where al-Qaeda operative Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab smuggled explosives onto a Detroit-bound service by stitching them into his nether-garments – exploiting the fact that, well, your pants are the one place that the airport body pat-down never ventures. So, as of this week, scanners will be deployed at Heathrow and Manchester, with Birmingham joining the Peek-A-Boo Club before February is out.

That near-miss over Michigan is the key detail here. Because ultimately – and leaving aside the nanny-state lecturing from the Transport Secretary, who could surely have phrased his announcement in less daddy-knows-best terms – this issue boils down to a choice. Do you want to avoid embarrassment? Or do you want to be safe? And personally, I’m quite happy to have my body parts slapped onto a screen if it means the same body parts won’t be strewn across an American cityscape just because I had the misfortune to board a plane with Mr Tick-Tick-Boom. It seems an easy call.

But I’ll be particularly in favour of the scanners if they achieve something beyond safety – if they manage to speed up the current farce that is getting through airport security. On Sunday morning, I caught a flight from Geneva to London. The process – from wearily joining the back of the snaking line to finally putting my footwear back on after I’d half-undressed in the name of making it past the metal detector without there being a chorus of bleeps and burbles – took a good half hour. This isn’t to single out Geneva Airport for special criticism (it’s a perfectly good airport, and the Alpine view from its windows is certainly more appealing than the Hounslow vista at Heathrow) – it’s the same scenario at every airport these days. Coat off. Belt off. Can we have your shoes, sir? Do you have any potentially dangerous spring-water or shampoo products, madam? If the introduction of full-body scanners shortens this dreary ordeal by even a third, it will be achieving something in addition to theoretically safer flights.

I suspect, sadly, that this won’t be the case – that body scans will become yet another facet of security checks – another five minutes rolling around on the Wasted Time Clock – rather than a simplification of the convoluted system now in place. And I understand people’s privacy concerns – the idea that a random stranger can see almost to the core of your being is an unnerving one. But equally, spare a thought for the airport employees who will have to monitor these delightful snapshots. After a five-hour shift perusing nude outlines of all creatures great and small, nothing is going to seem less exotic than the human body. Salacious? Sexy? More like just another tear-jerkingly boring element of life at the decidedly dull sharp end of the travel industry.

Are you in favour of airport scanners, or do you consider them to be an invasion of your privacy? Do you think they will make flying more secure? Have your say…

Investors put off by Malaysia’s high-cost, low-speed broadband

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 26 — Consumers in Malaysia pay some of the highest prices for broadband in the region, one major reason being the monopoly which state-owned Telekom Malaysia (TM) holds on submarine cable landing rights, a senior executive at a multinational company has asserted.

There is no shortage of gateway service providers seeking landing rights because of the pent-up demand for quality bandwidth, but the government must deregulate or liberalise gateways in order to improve competitiveness by providing larger broadband at lower costs, said Ryaz Patel, Intel Electronics country manager for Malaysia and Brunei.

Patel’s comments that the lacklustre quality and high cost of broadband is hurting the country’s knowledge aspirations come on the heels of warnings by Australian businesses that slow Internet speeds were putting them off investing in Malaysia.

Malaysia Australia Business Council vice-chairman Michael Halpin said large technical documents from Australia had difficulty getting sent over because of the poor quality broadband.

“Australian and American investors see this as a nuisance and an impediment to them to do business successfully here,” he said.

In a press briefing on Intel’s roadmap for 2010, Patel observed Malaysian consumers pay significantly more for broadband, but even to buy broadband wholesale as a service provider was ‘“frighteningly expensive” compared to its neighbours.

His comparison of regional costs showed Malaysian broadband offers some of the lowest speeds in the region, but at the highest costs.

For the fastest bandwidth of 100 megabit per second, Singapore users pay nearly US$85 (RM286.56) or US$10.20 mbps.

For 4mbps in Malaysia, consumers pay US$76 or US$35 mbps. Vietnam’s 3mbps bandwidth — although a tad slower — costs users US$50.55, or US$16.85 mbps.

In the region, broadband costs in Indonesia and India also tend to be higher.

TM is likely to resist liberalisation as it has invested huge sums in infrastructure and now owns or leases capacity on more than 10 submarine cable networks which span more than 60,000 fibre-route miles.

But Patel said if Malaysia aspires to be a knowledge-based society, it needs to get more computers as well as quality and affordable broadband into more homes.

“(And) the single biggest link has to do with landing rights.”

Malaysia is aiming for 50 per cent household broadband penetration next year from about 30 per cent now. Broadband users can access 10MB speeds next year when TM rolls out high-speed broadband in selected suburbs in the Klang Valley in the first phase of its nationwide rollout.

Last month, Thailand broke a state-owned enterprise hold on submarine cable landing rights in the country by granting a licence to the first private operator, True Internet Gateway Co Ltd, which pointed out it would be able to source submarine bandwidth capacity from a wide range of providers directly, resulting in greater bandwidth being available at more competitive prices. — Business Times Singapore

Warning : Do Not Offer "DUIT KOPI" From Now On!

If you have ever paid or are thinking of paying ' Coffee Money' when stopped for traffic
or other offences, DON'T EVER Do This Again.

The traffic department (JPJ) has recently started a campaign to be rid of corruption. Every Officer on duty will be rewarded with RM100.00 if they report each case of bribery to the department.

This is how they do (trick you into) it. They will note down the details of your IC/MyKad, and ask you how you want to settle ( 'Macam mana nak selesai?')

If you indicate yes or even offer to give them any money, they will report the incident by rejecting your 'Kopi Money' and get the RM100.00 instead as an incentive for their integrity and 'Honest' pubicity.

This means that You will end up having a summon issued to you and perhaps a charge for bribery.

SO DON'T PAY "DUIT KOPI" again, especially if you hope to go free with a lesser amount of money compared to the fine. Even if you want to pay over RM200, the JPJ Officers would rather have a 'good' name than to take your kopi money.

Just beware of their trick because the cops are now accumulating 'cookies' points for their promotion and pay increment - with your help if possible.

They should have done this to stop corruption long time ago...but anyway it's better late than never, right?

SPREAD THIS MESSAGE TO EDUCATE OTHERS ON THIS NEW ANTI-RASUAH POLICY! AND DON'T YOU DARE TO CORRUPT ANY JPJ OR EVEN POLICE OFFICERS AGAIN!

Mobile Phone Gun

Most of us see airport security as a pain.. Some of us even feel violated. When you see the below pictures, you'll understand why they want our cell phones through the x-ray machine. If you get asked to test your cell phone at the airport, this is the reason. Cell phone guns have arrived.

And they are real!

Beneath the digital phone face is a .22 caliber handgun capable of firing four rounds in rapid succession using the standard telephone keypad. European law enforcement officials are stunned by the discovery of these deadly decoys. They say phone guns are changing the rules of engagement in Europe . Only when you have one in your hand do you realize that they are heavier than a regular cell phone.

Be patient if security asks to look at your cell phone or turn it on to show that it works. They have a good reason! Wake up to our NEW WORLD!! We shouldn't complain about airport security 'invading' your privacy.

Asia will witness 21st century's longest eclipse

Millions of people across Asia will witness the longest total solar eclipse that will happen this century, as vast swaths of India and China, the entire city of Shanghai and southern Japanese islands are plunged into darkness Wednesday for about five minutes.

Streams of amateur stargazers and scientists are traveling long distances to witness the once-in-a-lifetime event.

Astronomers hope the eclipse will unlock clues about the sun, while an astrologer in Myanmar predicts it could usher in chaos. Some in India are advising pregnant relatives to stay indoors to follow a centuries-old tradition of avoiding the sun's invisible rays.

The eclipse will appear first at dawn in India's Gulf of Khambhat just north of the metropolis of Mumbai.

It will move east across India, Nepal, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Bhutan and China before hitting the Pacific. The eclipse will cross some southern Japanese islands and be last visible from land at Nikumaroro Island in the South Pacific nation of Kiribati. Elsewhere, a partial eclipse will be visible in much of Asia.

For astronomers, it will be a chance for a prolonged view of the sun's corona, a white ring 600,000 miles (1 million kilometers) from the sun's surface. The previous total eclipse, in August 2008, was two minutes and 27 seconds. This one will last 6 minutes and 39 seconds at its maximum point.

By MICHAEL CASEY,AP Environmental Writer

Pop icon Michael Jackson dead at 50

Michael Jackson is dead after suffering a cardiac arrest, sending shockwaves sweeping across the world and tributes pouring in Friday for the tortured music icon revered as the "King of Pop."

Jackson, 50, collapsed at his rented mansion in the exclusive Los Angeles neighborhood of Holmby Hills and was rushed to hospital by paramedics before being pronounced dead at 2:26 pm (2126 GMT) on Thursday.

One of the most influential figures in pop history whose career included the highest-selling album of all-time, "Thriller," Jackson had been preparing for a concert comeback in London next month he had dubbed "the final curtain."

News of his death triggered an outpouring of grief as shocked celebrities, foreign governments and devoted fans from Beijing to Beverly Hills paid tribute to the troubled star.

Lieutenant Fred Corral, a spokesman for the Los Angeles County Coroner's office, said an autopsy would likely be carried out on Friday and would not speculate on the exact cause of death.

Jackson's brother Jermaine, the family's official spokesman, later revealed physicians had battled for more than an hour to revive the star after his arrival at the UCLA Medical Center before he was pronounced dead.

"Our family requests that the media please respect our privacy during this tough time," Jermaine Jackson said. "May Allah be with you, Michael, always."

Chubby people live longest: Japan study

Health experts have long warned of the risk of obesity, but a new Japanese study warns that being very skinny is even more dangerous, and that slightly chubby people live longer.

People who are a little overweight at age 40 live six to seven years longer than very thin people, whose average life expectancy was shorter by some five years than that of obese people, the study found.

"We found skinny people run the highest risk," said Shinichi Kuriyama, an associate professor at Tohoku University's Graduate School of Medicine who worked on the long-term study of middle-aged and elderly people.

"We had expected thin people would show the shortest life expectancy but didn't expect the difference to be this large," he told AFP by telephone.

The study was conducted by a health ministry team led by Tohoku University professor Ichiro Tsuji and covered 50,000 people between the ages of 40 and 79 over 12 years in the northern Japanese prefecture of Miyagi.

"There had been an argument that thin people's lives are short because many of them are sick or smoke. But the difference was almost unchanged even when we eliminated these factors," Kuriyama said.

Main reasons for the shorter lifespans of skinny people were believed to include their heightened vulnerability to diseases such as pneumonia and the fragility of their blood vessels, he said.

But Kuriyama warned he was not recommending people eat as much as they want.

"It's better that thin people try to gain normal weight, but we doubt it's good for people of normal physique to put on more fat," he said.

The study divided people into four weight classes at age 40 according to their body mass index, or BMI, calculated by dividing a person's weight in kilograms by their squared height in metres.

The normal range is 18.5 to 25, with thinness defined as under 18.5. A BMI of 25 to 30 was classed as slightly overweight and an index above 30 as obese.

Taken from : MSN NEWS