LOS ANGELES - T-Pain transformed the BET Awards into a circus Tuesday with a multi-artist medley that showed the rapper and singer’s wide-ranging influence on urban music, while best-selling rapper Lil Wayne and songstress Alicia Keys gave rousing performances of their own.

Wearing a spangled top hat, T-Pain — nominated for a leading five BET Awards — shared the stage with fellow nominees Flo Rida, Rick Ross, Ludacris and Big Boi, along with a bevy of big-top freaks, including fire eaters and acrobats.

“This industry is my circus,” said T-Pain. “Ride with the ringleader.”

Then T-Pain — whose nominations came not for his own hits but for his collaborations with others, and whose vocoder-assisted voice is among the most ubiquitous in urban music — gave a sample of his musical assists over the past year.

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written by Andrew

SAN FRANCISCO - In less than a day, an electrical storm unleashed nearly 8,000 lightning strikes that set more than 800 wildfires across Northern California — a rare example of “dry lightning” that brought little or no rain but plenty of sparks to the state’s parched forests and grasslands.

The weekend storm was unusual not only because it generated so many lightning strikes over a large geographical area, but also because it struck so early in the season and moved in from the Pacific Ocean. Such storms usually don’t arrive until late July or August and typically form southeast of California.

“You’re looking at a pattern that’s climatologically rare. We typically don’t see this happen at this time of summer,” said John Juskie, a science officer with the National Weather Service in Sacramento. “To see 8,000, that’s way up there on the scale.”

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PHOENIX (AP)—Shaquille O’Neal will lose his special deputy’s badge in Maricopa County because of language he used in a rap video that mocks former teammate Kobe Bryant.

Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio said the Phoenix Suns center’s use of a racially derogatory word and other foul language left him no choice. Arpaio made Shaq a special deputy in 2006 and promoted him to colonel of his largely ceremonial posse later that year.

“I want his two badges back,” Arpaio told The Associated Press on Tuesday. “Because if any one of my deputies did something like this, they’re fired. I don’t condone this type of racial conduct.”

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written by Andrew

Should you be uneasy about that refillable water bottle you’ve been using? Maybe. Health news headlines are yelping about bisphenol-A, a suddenly scary component of plastic that’s hiding in plain sight in polycarbonate water bottles, water pitchers, baby bottles and even liners in canned foods.

What’s so bad about BPA is that animal studies have linked it with cancer, miscarriage, infertility, obesity and immunity and sexual-development problems. But that doesn’t mean you have to toss half the contents of your kitchen into a toxic waste dump. Here’s our advice on staying safe. And sane.

1. How to recognize the real thing

Bisphenol-A is found in clear, hard, shatterproof plastics. Often, the letters PC (for polycarbonate) and/or the number 7 will be stamped in the little recycling triangle on or near the bottom of the container.

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Rescue divers found bodies but no survivors as they began searching a capsized ferry in the Philippines, navy personnel say.

The ferry, carrying more than 800 people, overturned on Saturday in high seas caused by Typhoon Fengshen.

Fewer than 40 passengers and crew have been found alive, and officials fear most were trapped inside the vessel.

Teams of divers who made their way inside the ship saw no signs of life, officials said.

The ship is resting on the sea floor with the tip of its bow above water, just off Sibuyan Island.

Divers said it was too dark inside to make out many details, navy spokesman Lt-Col Edgard Arevalo reported.

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LONDON (AP) — A discrepancy regarding the health of Amy Winehouse arose Monday after the Grammy-winning singer’s father said she had early stage emphysema brought on by smoking crack cocaine and cigarettes.

A publicist for Winehouse later said he had misspoken “out of his concern for her.”

“She is not diagnosed with full-blown emphysema, but instead has early signs of what could lead to emphysema,” Tracey Miller, her U.S.-based representative, told The Associated Press on Monday.

In an interview published Sunday by the Daily Mail of London, Mitch Winehouse said that his daughter’s crack and cigarette smoking had led to early-stage emphysema, and that the singer had an irregular heartbeat. He said she had been warned that she will have to wear an oxygen mask unless she stops smoking drugs.

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Nearly 40,000 travelers will remember U.S. President George W. Bush’s stopover in London. Their flights were canceled or delayed at Heathrow Airport to accommodate him, according to British Airways.

BAA, the airport owner, confirmed Tuesday that 32 arrivals and 36 departures, mostly British Airways flights, were canceled June 15, when Bush arrived, and the following day, when he left. BAA had no figures on delays related to the president’s visit.

The company said Heathrow typically handled 1,300 arrivals and departures per day.

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written by Andrew

BEIJING, China (CNN) – The death toll from last month’s massive earthquake in southwestern China is expected to exceed 80,000, state media reported Tuesday.

Officially 69,181 people are dead with another missing 18,498, according to authorities.

“Because it is presumed that the missing people are already dead, the total death toll of this disaster is likely to exceed 80,000,” said Vice Premier Hui Liangyu.

If all the missing are dead, then the death toll would top 87,000.

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(CNN) — Pirates took four European tourists hostage after their yacht ran out of fuel off the coast of northern Somalia in the Red Sea’s Gulf of Aden, according to a Somaliland official.

The pirates then took their hostages — a man, woman, their child and their yacht’s pilot — into hills around the fishing town of Las Qoray, said Ahmed Yusuf Yasin, vice president of the self-declared Republic of Somaliland.

Somaliland soldiers and local residents were searching for the pirates in an effort to free the hostages, Yasin said.

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Crestinii praznuiesc astazi nasterea Sfantului Ioan Botezatorul

Astazi crestinii praznuiesc nasterea Sfantului Ioan Botezatorul, cel care e considerat a fi inainte-mergatorul lui Iisus Hristos.

In zilele lui Irod, regele Iudeilor, traia un preot, Zaharia si sotia sa, Elisabeta, care nu aveau copii. Ei erau drepti inaintea lui Dumnezeu si se rugau zi si noapte Domnului sa le binecuvanteze casa cu un copil. Dumnezeu a trimis un inger, pe arhanghelul Gavriil, care i-a vestit preotului Zaharia ca sotia sa va naste prunc ce va avea numele Ioan. Zaharia s-a indoit, iar Dumnezeu l-a pedepsit, ramanand mut pana la nasterea pruncului. Sfanta Fecioara Maria a vizitat-o pe Elisabeta, care era insarcinata, prilej cu care pruncul Ioan a saltat in pantecele Elisabetei. La vremea cuvenita, Elisabeta a nascut un prunc.

Iar in ziua a opta dupa nastere, a fost taiat imprejur si i s-a pus numele Ioan. Elisabeta a insistat pentru numele Ioan, ceea ce a confirmat si preotul Zaharia care a scris pe o tablita acest nume. Si imediat, Zaharia si-a recapatat graiul si a proorocit catre Ioan “Iar tu, pruncule, prooroc al Celui Preainalt te vei chema, caci vei merge inaintea fetei Domnului, ca sa gatesti caile Lui, sa dai poporului tau constiinta mantuirii intru iertarea pacatelor”.

Citeste toata stirea pe infoportal.ro

written by Andrew