MasterChef sets ratings record

July 19th, 2009

Michael Idato
July 20, 2009 – 9:24AM

We all knew MasterChef was big. But this morning, the television industry is coming to terms with just how big.

The final episode of the reality TV cooking competition set a new record with a staggering 3.7 million Australians tuned in to see Julie Goodwin defeat Poh Ling Yeow in the grand final.

That puts it in esteemed company – ahead of the record-setting Australian Idol finales of 2003 (3.3 million) and 2004 (3.35 million) and the 2003 auction of The Block (3.11 million).

The two-hour telecast was broken up into two programs – a 90-minute episode, which was watched by 3.3 million viewers, and the 30- minute announcement, which had 3.7 million tuned in.

The windfall for Ten pushed its rivals down significantly – Nine’s 60 Minutes and Seven’s Castle and Bones all dropped below the one-million viewer mark.

Only Nine’s Random Acts of Kindness (1.2 million) and Seven’s Dancing With The Stars (1.1 million) managed to put their heads above the waterline, and even then only by a slim margin.

The win makes the MasterChef finale the highest rating non-sport program since 2001. Including sports telecasts, it still comes in third place, beaten only by the Hewitt v Safin Australian Open match in 2005 (4.04 million) and the 2003 Rugby World Cup final (4.01 million).

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Tensions mount as UN hits North Korean nuclear chief with sanctions

July 16th, 2009

From The Times
July 17, 2009

James Bone and Richard Lloyd Parry

The United Nations hit North Korea’s nuclear chief and four other key officials with sanctions yesterday in the growing conflict with the reclusive Communist regime.

The decision was the first time that the UN’s North Korea sanctions committee had blacklisted individuals. The action risked provoking a strong reaction from Pyongyang.

The announcement came amid heightened speculation about the health of the country’s supreme leader, Kim Jong Il. Pyongyang’s statecontrolled media reported yesterday that a documentary was being made about the “Dear Leader’s” life.

The epic propaganda series will tell the official story of Mr Kim’s life from his supposed birth on the slopes of Paektu, Korea’s sacred mountain, to his succession to the leadership of the world’s most isolated communist dictatorship.

Cheong Seong Chang, of South Korea’s Sejong Institute, compared the documentary to memoirs written by Mr Kim’s father, the country’s founding President, Kim Il Sung, before his death in 1994.

“I see a lot of similarities here,” he told the Yonhap news agency in Seoul. “I believe Kim Jong Il also has come to a point where he has to look back on his life.”

The United Nations Security Council has been tightening the screws on North Korea since Pyongyang fired a ballistic missile on April 5 in an early test of the Obama Administration.

The UN imposed sanctions on three North Korean companies, but Pyongyang responded with a nuclear test on May 25, only increasing the tension.

The Security Council then adopted a new resolution authorising cargo inspections on aircraft and ships heading in and out of North Korea and imposing a wider arms embargo.

The tougher inspection regime has already succeeded in forcing a North Korean freighter, suspected of carrying missile parts, to turn back to port after being shadowed by US warships.

“We understand it went back. That is good news,” Yukio Takasu, Japan’s UN Ambassador, confirmed. The 15 Security Council members also agreed to add individuals and more companies to the UN blacklist — the decision announced yesterday.

“It’s significant that we have put names of individuals on the list. That is the first time. This shows that the sanctions are going to a higher level,” Fazli Corman, Turkey’s UN Ambassador and chairman of the sanctions committee, said.

The sanctions committee clamped an asset freeze and travel ban on Ri Je Son, the director of the country’s General Bureau of Atomic Energy.

Similar sanctions were imposed on Hwang Sok Hwa, the head of the agency’s Scientific Guidance Bureau and Ri Hong Sop, the former director of the Yongbyon nuclear research centre.

Also targeted were Yun Ho Jin and Han Yu Ro, the heads of two North Korean trading companies dealing in nuclear and missile parts.

The UN also added the General Bureau of Atomic Energy and four more North Korean companies, including an offshore entity based in Iran, to the three already on a UN blacklist.

The growing confrontration comes against the backdrop of an apparent succession struggle in North Korea.

Last week Mr Kim appeared at an auditorium in Pyongyang looking haggard, emaciated and slow on his feet. He is reported to have suffered serious illness, apparently a stroke, last summer.

According to South Korea’s Yonhap Television News, he had pancreatic cancer diagnosed last summer, around the same time that he disappeared from public view for three months, and has only a short time to live.

His intense schedule this year, during which he has made 82 visits to military units and factories, suggests that he is not yet mortally ill.

Photographs published by the Korean Central News Agency, a mouthpiece of the regime, showed him on Tuesday, smiling with apparent energy as he visited a tile factory.

KCNA news agency, a mouthpiece of the regime, reported yesterday that the documentary was entitled The Sun of Songun [North Korea’s “army first” policy] Shedding Its Rays All over the World. The first episode is to be called I Will Add Glory to Korea.

“The multi-part documentary film will comprehensively deal with the immortal songun revolutionary exploits performed by Kim Jong Il for the country and the revolution, the times and humankind with his extraordinary wisdom and distinguished leadership art, political calibre and noble personality,” KCNA said.

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General Sir Richard Dannatt told to keep out of helicopter politics

July 15th, 2009

From The Times
July 16, 2009

The head of the Army was accused of playing politics after he flew around Afghanistan in an American helicopter and demanded more equipment for British troops.

General Sir Richard Dannatt made clear that he would have flown in a British helicopter if one had been available and called for greater urgency over the supply of new equipment.

Hours later David Cameron confronted Gordon Brown in the Commons about the provision of helicopters. In furious exchanges, Mr Brown was forced to reject accusations that the shortage of RAF Chinook or Sea King helicopters had contributed to soldiers’ deaths.

General Dannatt, who retires on August 28 as Chief of the General Staff, travelled by Black Hawk helicopter to visit troops in Sangin. Operation Panther’s Claw has claimed 17 British lives, and troops taking part have been ferried by American helicopters.

When asked why he flew in a Black Hawk General Dannatt replied: “Self-evidently . . . if I moved in an American helicopter it’s because I haven’t got a British helicopter.”

He said that Britain and America shared assets in Helmand. “But we’ve got to put as much into the pool as we need to take out of it,” he told Radio 4’s Today programme: “I would like to get more energy behind it if we possibly can.”

Labour seized on his remarks as a deliberate political comment on the shortage of British helicopters in Afghanistan. One senior Labour MP said: “The Army has a proud record of keeping out of party politics and the Chief of the General Staff should be very careful about his interventions.” A junior minister went farther, accusing General Dannatt of “playing politics” and saying: “This is a very difficult time and he should know better.”

Ministers fear that General Dannatt will launch an all-out attack on government policy when he retires as head of the Army next month. As a senior civil servant leaving a sensitive post he will receive a formal reminder of the rules limiting what he can disclose.

Downing Street said that the Prime Minister had “full confidence” in General Dannatt. Asked whether his remarks were “purely military”, Mr Brown’s spokesman said: “Yes.”

Ministers, however, made clear that they were angry that General Dannatt briefed Tory MPs about the request — rejected by Mr Brown — for an additional 2,000 troops for Afghanistan.

Earlier, Mr Cameron confronted Mr Brown during Prime Minister’s Questions. He said: “Isn’t the reason why we don’t have enough helicopters that we didn’t plan to have enough helicopters? When [Mr Brown] looks back to 2004 and his decision to reduce the helicopter budget by £1.4 billion, does he remember that the National Audit Office said that year there was a considerable deficit in the availability of helicopter lift? Does he now recognise that decision was a bad mistake?”

The Prime Minister replied: “I believe we are making the provision that is necessary both for helicopters and equipment on the ground. We will do everything we can . . . to support our brave and courageous Armed Forces, who are professional and determined and will have our full support.”

He said that the number of helicopters had risen by 60 per cent in the past two years. He added: “I ask the Conservative Party to look at the statements being made by those who speak for our Armed Forces on the ground. They have made it absolutely clear that in this particular instance, while the loss of life is tragic and sad, it is not to do with helicopters.”

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HP offers guarantee for managed print customers

July 14th, 2009

Hewlett-Packard is trying to woo managed print customers with a payback guarantee that promises customers savings or the company will pay the difference.

It’s part of HP’s ambitions to become the top player in managed print. Managed print is an $18.7 billion market that is growing at about 4 percent, fueled by companies wanting to cut costs or complexity out of their print operations.

HP is telling customers that if they sign up to have HP assess their current printing operation and allow HP to implement a cost-saving plan, they can come back a year later and see if the company made good on its promised savings. If HP falls short, they’ll pay the difference in the form of credits.

HP believes it can save companies a good deal by modernizing their fleet of printing machines. The savings can come from better power usage, utilizing duplex printers that print on two sides, consolidation of devices and lower maintenance costs. Of course, it would entail a capital outlay for new hardware but HP is assuming this is part of a company’s replacement cycle.

Posted By: Ryan Kim (Email) | July 13 2009 at 03:23 PM

Listed Under: Hewlett-Packard

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Charles Taylor on trial for murder, rape, slavery, pillage and conscripting children

July 13th, 2009
From The Times
July 14, 2009

A terrifying image has come to symbolise the dark heart of Africa: glazed-eyed, ten-year-old boys in football shirts with grenade launchers on their shoulders, ready to kill their elders on command.

The child soldier, confused cannon fodder in the scramble for diamonds, power and territory, has become a central figure in the prosecution of Charles Taylor, the former Liberian President, as he faces a war crimes tribunal in The Hague.

Courtenay Griffiths, a British QC, laid out the defence of the former head of state, setting him up as the peace-maker and peace-broker of West Africa with not a drop of blood on his hands. “Child soldiers were not a Charles Taylor invention,” said Mr Griffiths, opening what will be several weeks of testimony aimed at rescuing his client’s place in history.

Sitting behind his QC Mr Taylor, wearing tinted glasses, stroked the sleeves of his expensive suit; today he will break his silence and try to distance himself from the atrocities that occurred during the savage 11-year civil and ethnic war in Sierra Leone, across the border from Liberia.

For more than five of those years, between 1997 and 2003, Mr Taylor was Liberia’s President and, according to the chief prosecutor Stephen Rapp, made common cause with the Revolutionary United Front rebels of Sierra Leone with a view to plundering the country’s diamonds.

The charge sheet, presented to the Special Court — set up as a joint institution by the Government of Sierra Leone and the UN — accuses Mr Taylor of terrorism, murder, rape, sexual slavery, pillage and conscripting children under the age of 15. Mr Taylor swears that he is innocent and Mr Griffiths emphasised that the burden of proof is with the prosecution to establish that he was ordering the atrocities, and that there was a chain of communication and command.

Witnesses for the prosecution, multiple rape victims and amputees have been testifying in The Hague — deemed more secure than Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone — to the sheer magnitude of the violence. Human intestines were stretched out like rope at checkpoints, heads were stuck on stakes like totem poles.

Joseph “Zig Zag” Marzah, a key witness, claimed that he personally delivered diamonds to Mr Taylor in exchange for weapons that were then sent to Sierra Leone. Mr Marzah said in testimony last year that he was part of a select unit organised by Mr Taylor. In one incident, Mr Marzah said, Mr Taylor’s unit had cut open the wombs of pregnant women and killed the babies. Under cross-examination Mr Marzah said he and Mr Taylor were part of a secret religious society and that Mr Taylor had himself eaten human hearts on several occasions.

The defence team will be calling about 240 witnesses — in an attempt to discredit those Liberians and Sierra Leoneans who have claimed to link Mr Taylor with the bloodshed.

“We have never questioned the fact that atrocities took place,” said Mr Griffiths. The key point, he said, was how much credibility could be attached to the low-level rebels who allegedly reported back to Mr Taylor and transmitted his orders. “What Mr Taylor says is: how could I have been micromanaging the crisis in Sierra Leone when I was running a country besieged on many sides?”

Mr Rapp, however, told reporters that the vicious turmoil in the neighbouring state was indeed being run by remote control.

“He had reason to fear his diamonds could be pilfered,” said Mr Rapp. “He had to have his eyes and ears on the ground.” It was not necessary for a conviction, said the prosecutor, to prove that there was a direct order to rape, murder and pillage — though there was witness testimony to that effect. It would be sufficient to show that Mr Taylor knew what was going on, that he accepted the use of criminal methods to reach his goals. If Mr Taylor is found guilty he will be the first African head of state to be brought to book for war crimes.

Mr Taylor takes to the stand today determined to show that if things were sometimes bad, they were not done with his approval. The prosecution says it is a matter of record that he set up the “Small Boys’ Unit” — made up of children under 11 — and that one of his election slogans in his presidential campaign was: “He killed my Ma, he killed my Pa, but I will vote for him.” That is one promise that could come back to haunt him

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Google-Microsoft war may bring down PC prices

July 12th, 2009

By Gabriel Madway
Jul 13, 2009 5:24 AM

Microsoft expected to counter with price cuts.

Google’s bid to compete with Microsoft’s Windows operating system may help lower the cost of personal computers at a time when prices are already being pinched by inexpensive netbooks.

Analysts expect Google to offer its just-announced Chrome Operating System for a small fee or for free when it is launched in the second half of 2010, a move that could force Microsoft into a price war.

Although Windows is the dominant operating system — installed on 90 per cent of the world’s PCs, Microsoft won’t take Google’s challenge lightly, analysts said. Its new Windows 7 operating system will be available in October.

“Microsoft’s strategy is likely to be to compete on price,” said Brent Williams, an analyst with the Benchmark Company. “Now there’s a competitor with the muscle and the brand recognition. Google is that company.”

Google said Chrome OS, which is based on the open-source Linux code, is being designed for all PCs but will debut on netbooks. It makes sense for Google to initially target the stripped-down, Web-centric netbooks, one of the only segments showing any growth in a PC market that is contracting.

Netbooks generally sell for US$300 to $400, but prices are dropping as new offerings flood the market and wireless carriers offer subsidies with the purchase of a data plan.

Kaufman Bros analyst Shaw Wu noted that while the prices on nearly all PC components have been falling, “the one thing that has not been coming down is the cost of the operating system. This is going to put some pressure on Microsoft.”

Microsoft doesn’t say how much it charges PC brands for Windows, but analysts estimate it gets US$20 to $40 for the older XP system used in the vast majority of netbooks, and at least US$150 for the current Vista system.

Wu said price competition could ultimately give a bump to PC makers’ margins.

“I think overall it should improve the profitability for PC vendors. It’s really a question of how much they pass on to the customers,” he said.

REWRITING THE RULES

Between 20 million and 30 million netbooks are expected to be shipped this year, and the devices continue to rewrite the rules for the PC industry.

Even as heavyweights such as Hewlett-Packard and Dell roll out new netbooks, analysts expect new players, including Taiwan-based equipment manufacturers and carriers such as AT&T, to release branded netbooks running on either Intel’s x86 chip platform or ARM chips.

Google said Chrome will work on either architecture.

HP said it is studying the Chrome operating system. Dell did not return a call seeking comment. Microsoft has not commented on Google’s move.

Collins Stewart analyst Ashok Kumar was skeptical that Chrome poses any near-term threat to Microsoft, but he expects the company to react nonetheless. “I think Microsoft will be flexible in pricing to respond to any challenge,” he said.

“Over time I think that Linux will gain traction, and as more carriers jump on this netbook opportunity, Google might provide them a way to differentiate their platform. But this is just the first stage of a marathon,” he added.

Gartner analyst Michael Silver said Google’s move does present some risk to Microsoft, but he was doubtful the software giant would cut the price of Windows any time soon.

“Microsoft is a bit limited because what they do for one they have to do for everybody …. If they see it as a threat they’ll respond. But netbooks have been shipping with Windows XP for a while and have actually been doing quite well compared with Linux, even though they’re more expensive.”

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Tehran: army of police and militiamen attack unarmed protesters

July 9th, 2009

From The Times
July 10, 2009

The Iranian regime warned that any demonstrations would be mercilessly crushed, and meant it. As darkness fell on baking, dust-shrouded Tehran last night an army of riot police and hardline basiji militiamen used batons, gun butts and tear gas to beat back thousands of Iranians converging on the city centre.

“The security presence was massive. It was like a military occupation,” one witness told The Times. “They were clubbing the hell out of people.”

The greater victory belonged to the demonstrators, however. Male and female, some quite old, they came armed with nothing more than a burning sense of injustice. They defied the risk of serious physical injury, and the very real possibility of arrest, incarceration and torture. They did this to show the world that their resistance to Iran’s brutal and illegitimate government has not been extinguished.

“We went today to show them that we are still here and are not going away and they can’t talk or scare us away. And we’ll be back every time there is an occasion to commemorate or when we’re asked to,” said Maryam, a young female office worker nursing an arm injured by a baton blow. “We want to be heard. We are not going to let the regime ignore us,” said Ahmad, a young man in his twenties.

The demonstrations were the first since the massive street protests that followed Iran’s hotly-dispute presidential election were finally suppressed nearly two weeks ago.

They were called to mark the tenth anniversary of the student uprising which erupted in 1999 after hundreds of basiji stormed the University of Tehran following a demonstration by reformists. That uprising was the most serious challenge the regime had faced since the Islamic Republic was founded in 1979, but it is dwarfed by the turmoil that has engulfed Iran since President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad defeated Mir Hossein Mousavi in what the opposition insists was a rigged election.

The regime did its best to prevent fresh manifestions of public anger today. It took advantage of the dust storms that have smothered the capital this week to close universities, offices and businesses, and to encourage people to leave the city. It shut down the text messaging system, and Morteza Tamadon, Tehran’s governor, warned that demonstrations inspired by “anti-revolutionary networks” would be “trampled under the feet” of the security forces.

The demonstrators came anyway — not in the massive numbers of the earlier protests, and not with the banners or camera phones that would make them instant targets, but with even greater courage.

They were cowed neither by the regime’s brutality, nor by security agents filming them so they could be indentified later. They held their hands aloft in victory signs. They chanted “Death to the dictator” and “Ahmadi be ashamed and let go our the country” and “Don’t be afraid, we’re all together”. From all directions they sought to converge on Enghelab Square and the University of Tehran, but eyewitnesses said security forces on foot or motorbikes charged any group of more than a few hundred. The demonstrators would retreat, regroup elsewhere, and be attacked again.

Foreign journalists have been banned from Iran, but witnesses said that clashes continued after dark. Rubbish skips were set ablaze and the centre of Tehran reeked of tear gas. Police fired guns into the air. Basiji seized the number plates of cars that sounded their horns to show support for the opposition, or hit the vehicles with batons, but they could not silence the protest with physical force alone.

“The demonstrators made a moral point. They told the government in no uncertain terms that they’re still there and not going away,” said an Iranian analyst who witnessed the scenes of mayhem.

The millions of Iranians who no longer dare to demonstrate have not gone away either. They are channelling their anger into a campaign of civil disobedience. Apart from shouting “God is great” from their rooftops each night, they have started writing Mr Mousavi’s name on banknotes, boycotting government banks and goods advertised on state television, and turning on all their electrical appliances at the same time to try to overload the electrical grid.

Mr Mousavi is seeking to form a political movement to challenge the regime. Earlier this week the former president Mohammed Khatami, and Mehdi Karoubi, another defeated presidential candidate, issued their first joint statement demanding an end to the security crackdown and the release of all detainees.

Amnesty International condemned Wednesday’s violence. “Once again, the authorities have demonstrated their intolerance of dissent in a manner all too reminiscent of the ruthless methods they used in 1999,” it said. “It is high time that they stop using strong-arm tactics to crush protest and abide by their obligations under human rights law.”

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Facebook debuts ‘fan box’ tool

July 8th, 2009
The fan box for Coca-Cola.
(Credit: Facebook)

Here’s something new from Facebook: the “fan box,” which is a new tool for celebrities, brands, products, companies, and other entities with Facebook “fan pages” to effectively embed their Facebook presence into their Web sites.

That means that if you go to the Web site of a participating brand, like Coca-Cola or Lance Armstrong’s Livestrong nonprofit, you’ll see a widget that lets you add that brand as a “fan” on Facebook, which subscribes you to its updates, as well as a feed of updates and an array of profile photos from members who have already proclaimed themselves to be fans.

Facebook is hoping that people will find the “fan box” to be extremely easy to install, so that it’s a no-brainer for companies and sites that might not be quite up to speed on technical expertise.

This is a big deal as Facebook continues to expand its presence beyond its famed blue-and-white walls, and keeps pushing the message that its 200 million-plus user base is an invaluable resource for marketers–especially interesting since brand promotion is something that MySpace once had a lock on in the social-networking world. The Facebook Connect log-in product is now installed on over 10,000 sites, and one start-up executive told me Tuesday that it’s boosted their user registration numbers so much that he’s astonished the company doesn’t charge for it.

And last month, Facebook launched a tool called the “live stream box,” which embeds a stream of the social network’s Twitter-like “status updates” pertaining to a given event, much like the one that CNN and MTV used for this week’s memorial for the late pop legend Michael Jackson.

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Star-studded final farewell for Jackson

July 7th, 2009

Michael Jackson’s daughter Paris paid an emotional tribute to “the best father you could ever imagine” to cap a star-studded but sombre celebration of the singer’s turbulent life and times in Los Angeles this morning.

A glittering gold-plated casket carried Jackson on his final journey as a worldwide audience in the hundreds of millions paid an emotional farewell to the King of Pop.

Tears and tributes flowed as mourners gathered at Los Angeles’ Staples Centre, where Jackson’s children – Prince Michael, 12, Paris Katherine, 11, and Prince Michael II, seven – joined a host of stars on stage to sing along to We Are The World.

After tributes from Jackson’s brothers Jermaine and Marlon, Paris said she wanted to speak.

Fighting back tears, she said: “Ever since I was born, Daddy has been the best father you could ever imagine. And I just wanted to say I love him so much.”

“Speak up,” her aunt Janet Jackson said softly.

The day of sombre but star-studded ceremonies for the music superstar got underway shortly after 8:15am local time (1:15am AEST Wednesday) as Jackson’s family gathered for a private service at the picturesque Forest Lawn mortuary in the Hollywood Hills.

As the ceremony ended, pallbearers carrying Jackson’s golden casket swathed with red flowers emerged and loaded it into a black hearse.

A motorcade of luxury vehicles then made a stately procession to the 20,000-capacity Staples Centre, where family, friends and celebrities rubbed shoulders with fans who won their tickets via an online lottery.

The service got underway with soul legend Smokey Robinson reading letters of condolence from stars and world leaders unable to attend, which included a tribute from former South African president Nelson Mandela.

“Michael was a giant and a legend in the music industry. We mourn with the millions of fans worldwide,” Mr Mandela’s tribute read.

Meanwhile, Motown diva Diana Ross – named by Jackson in his will as an alternative guardian to his children – said she had chosen to mourn privately.

“Michael was a personal love of mine, a treasured part of my world, part of the fabric of my life,” Ross’s tribute said.

“Michael wanted me to be there for his children, and I will be there if they ever need me.”

Mariah Carey gave the opening performance at the memorial with a rendition of The Jackson 5 ballad I’ll Be There.

The duet with Trey Lorenz began after Jackson’s golden casket was placed on the Staples Centre stage while a church choir sang: “We are going to see the King, Hallelujah.”

Actress and singer Queen Latifah then read a poem from Maya Angelou, which the author had asked her to read at the ceremony, before Lionel Richie performed Jesus Is Love. Stevie Wonder, Jennifer Hudson and Usher also sang.

One of the biggest ovations came after remarks made by Berry Gordy, the founder of Motown records.

“The more I think and talk about Michael Jackson, I feel the King of Pop is not big enough for him. I think he is simply the greatest entertainer that ever lived,” he said.

‘Nothing strange about your daddy’

Meanwhile, Reverend Al Sharpton told Jackson’s children “there wasn’t nothing strange about your daddy” in a fiery speech at the memorial.

“It was strange what your daddy had to deal with but he dealt with it,” he said, before castigated those who “like to dig around”.

Reverend Sharpton said Jackson’s journey to superstardom was more significant that his occasional stumbles and “mess”.

“Michael rose to the top. He outsang and outdanced and outperformed the pessimists. Every time he got knocked down, he got back up. Every time you counted him out, he came back in. Michael never stopped.”

Reverend Sharpton also praised Jackson’s work in breaking down “the colour curtain” and eradicating barriers.

“It was Michael Jackson that brought blacks and whites and Asians and Latinos together,” he said.

“He created a comfort level where people that felt they were separate became interconnected with his music.

“Those young kids grew up from being teenage fans of Michael’s to being 40 years old and being comfortable to vote for a president of colour to be the president of the United States of America.

“Michael did that. Michael made us love each other. Michael taught us to stand with each other.”

Earlier, mourners arriving at the Staples Centre were greeted with a glossy commemorative brochure which chronicled Jackson’s life and times and carried heartfelt tributes to the star from his family.

“God has now called for you to come home, collect your wings and to fulfil your demands in heaven and continue your magic amongst the angels,” sister La Toya Jackson wrote.

“Keep the magic going!”

Jackson’s brothers all wore matching suits and their sibling’s signature solo sequined glove at the memorial.

Outside the Staples Centre an additional 1,400 police officers were on duty to provide security, while several city blocks surrounding the venue were sealed off for hours beforehand.

Organisers had appealed to ticketless fans to watch the event on television, fearing chaos if hundreds of thousands took to the streets. But huge crowds failed to materialise.

- ABC/AFP/Reuters

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