Nutritionist: Jackson begged for sedatives for insomnia

Michael Jackson suffered from severe bouts of insomnia and pleaded for a powerful sedative despite knowing its harmful effects, a nutritionist who worked with the singer said Tuesday. Cherilyn Lee, a registered nurse who first met Jackson in January to treat his children for a common cold, said she rejected his requests for Diprivan and informed him of the side effects

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‘Last man standing’ at wake for a toxic town

Wearing powder blue pants and a plaid fedora, 84-year-old Orval "Hoppy" Ray arrived fashionably late to a celebration in Picher, Oklahoma, a vacated mining town at the center of one of the nation’s largest and most polluted toxic-waste sites. Former residents, bought out by the government because their town was deemed so dangerous, gathered in Picher’s elementary school to say farewell to a place where kids suffered lead poisoning, where homes built atop underground mines plunged into the Earth and where the local creek coughs up orange water, laced with heavy metals. A toothpick dangling out of the corner of his chapped mouth, Ray greeted several old friends as if he were in any other small town in America.

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U.N. to discuss Honduras coup as rival presidents seek power

The president of the U.N. General Assembly scheduled a noon session Monday to discuss the situation in Honduras, following a military-led coup that ousted the sitting president. Miguel d’Escoto Brockmann called the Honduran military’s intervention a “criminal action” and U.N.

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Filipino prisoners honor Jackson with ‘Thriller’ show

Amid the tropical heat of a Filipino prison, convicted murderers, rapists and drug dealers on Saturday paid tribute to Michael Jackson with a reprise of their YouTube dance hit, "Thriller." A rendition of Jackson’s 1980s smash hit by prisoners at the Cebu Detention and Rehabilitation Center in the central Philippines garnered more than 24 million views since 2007, when prison supervisor Byron Garcia first uploaded it to the video-sharing Web site.

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Commentary: Michael Jackson’s enemy was time

Seconds after the news first hit the airwaves, your own shock merged with everyone else’s in the immediate vicinity. And you could feel it rolling through the rest of the planet like a runaway diesel. (CNN) — Seconds after the news first hit the airwaves, your own shock merged with everyone else’s in the immediate vicinity.

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Iranian cleric urges firm punishment for protesters

Two weeks into turmoil, Iran’s leaders turned up the heat Friday as a high-ranking cleric warned protesters that they would be punished "firmly" and shown no mercy. “Rioters and those who mastermind the unrest must know the Iranian nation will not give in to pressure and accept the nullification of the election results,” said Ayatollah Ahmed Khatami during Friday prayers in Tehran, according to Iran’s state-run Press TV.

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Iran’s security council tells Moussavi to back off

Members of Iran’s influential National Security Council have told opposition leader Mir Hossein Moussavi that his repeated demands for the annulment of the June 12 election results are "illogical and unethical," state media reported. Esmaeel Kowsari told the government-run Iranian Labor News Agency in an interview Friday that the council met with Moussavi, former presidential candidates Mehdi Karrubi and Mohsen Rezaie, and former Iran President Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, who now chairs the Assembly of Experts

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