Headlines News

By Dean Goodman LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Prolific television producer Aaron Spelling, whose shows such as "Beverly Hills 90210" and "Dynasty" helped shape U.S. prime-time television, died on Friday, days after suffering a stroke, his publicist said. He was 83. Spokesman Kevin Sasaki said Spelling died at his home in Los hospitalisedAngeles about 6:25 p.m. local time. He had been hospitalized briefly after a stroke over the weekend. Among Spelling's other television shows were "Fantasy Island," ...

A County Armagh man has appeared in court accused of being second-in-command of the Real IRA. Paul McCaugherty, 39, from Beech Court, Lurgan, was arrested in connection with what police believe was an international gun-smuggling operation. He is also charged with conspiring to murder members of the security forces in Northern Ireland between 24 May 2005 and 19 June 2006. He made no reply to a total of six charges and was remanded in custody. Mr McCaugherty appeared at a special sitting of Cr ...

DALLAS, Texas (AP) -- E. Pierce Marshall, who feuded for years with former Playboy Playmate Anna Nicole Smith over his father's oil fortune, has died, his spokesman said Friday. He was 67. Marshall died Tuesday evening in the Dallas area from a brief but aggressive infection, the family said in a written statement released through spokesman David Margulies. He declined to provide additional details. Smith married Texas oil tycoon J. Howard Marshall II in 1994, when she was 26 and he was 89. He ...

Police in India have filed charges against nine people including a senior police officer in connection with a sex scandal in Indian-administered Kashmir. Among those charged by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is the Deputy Inspector-General of the Border Security Force, KS Padhi. A woman alleged to be a prostitution "kingpin" has also been charged. Two senior politicians were arrested on Tuesday in connection with the scandal, which has led to widespread protests. Pornographic Off ...

ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- The children of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. will receive an undisclosed amount of money from an anonymous group of people for about 10,000 manuscripts and books belonging to the civil rights icon, Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin's office said Friday. A planned June 30 auction will be canceled. Sotheby's auction house had expected to command between $15 million and $30 million for the documents. The papers include drafts of King's "I Have a Dream" speech, ...

KABUL, Afghanistan (CNN) -- In an ongoing battle to extend Kabul's control of Afghanistan's southern provinces, Afghan soldiers and coalition forces engaged with Taliban fighters in Uruzgan and Kandahar provinces Friday, killing 65, according to a U.S. military news release. Of those, 40 were killed when the joint forces responded to enemy fire from gunmen hiding outside the village of Mirabad in Uruzgan, northeast of Tarin Kowt. The gunbattle lasted for over five hours and no civilians were k ...

Post-mortem examinations are due to take place on two bodies found after a 53-year-old man walked into a police station and revealed their locations. The man, who was arrested on suspicion of murder, told officers at Luton police station on Friday there was a body in a van parked outside. A woman's body was found in the van and a man's body was found at an address 20 miles away in Aylesbury, Buc ...

By Mussab Al-Khairalla BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki is expected to present a national reconciliation plan to parliament on Sunday aimed at defusing the Sunni insurgency and tackling sectarian violence, political sources said. The plan, which could be Maliki's boldest political move yet, sets out to remove powerful militias from the streets, open a dialogue with rebels and review the status of purged members of Saddam Hussein's Baath party. Political sources said a k ...

JAKARTA, Indonesia (CNN) -- The death toll from this week's flooding and landslides in central Indonesia has risen to 216, with 67 people still missing, the national disaster task force reported Saturday. Nearly all of those dead or missing are from the Sinjai district of Sulawesi island, where over 100 homes were destroyed or severely damaged. While heavy rains and landslides are common in the tropical country, one Indonesian official suggested that a rapid rate of deforestation has made it e ...

By Trevor Huggins BADEN BADEN, Germany (Reuters) - England may toil against South American teams but they will go into Sunday's World Cup second round match with Ecuador knowing they have nearly always won such games under Sven-Goran Eriksson. Though England's quarter-final exit to Brazil at the 2002 World Cup had keeper David Seaman in tears, they have won their six other matches against South Americans since Eriksson took effective charge in February 2001. It has very rarely been easy, with ...