NTSB to probe problems on other Airbus flightsStory Highlights

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- United States accident investigators are probing two recent failures of airspeed and altitude indications aboard Airbus A330s -- the same type of plane that crashed into the Atlantic nearly a month ago.

Investigators are looking into incidents aboard two other Airbus A330s.

The planes landed safely and there were no injuries or damage, the National Transportation Safety Board said Thursday. One flight was between the United States and Brazil in May and the other between Hong Kong and Japan in June.
The probes were launched in the aftermath of the June 1 crash in the Atlantic Ocean -- when Air France Flight 447 was flying to Paris, France, from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. All 228 people on board the plane, an A330, were killed.
Investigators are looking at the possible role of airspeed sensors known as pitot tubes, among other factors, as a possible cause of the Flight 447 crash.
That flight sent 24 automated error messages in the four minutes before it crashed, the head of the French accident investigation board, Paul-Louis Arslanian, has said. The error messages all indicate there were problems with on-board information about the plane's speed, which can cause some of the plane's instruments to stop functioning, Arslanian said.
Search teams are looking for the bulk of the plane's wreckage and for its flight data recorders.
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The first of the two incidents being investigated by the NTSB happened May 21, when a TAM Airlines flight from Miami, Florida, to Sao Paulo, Brazil, experienced a loss of primary speed and altitude information while in flight, the NTSB said.
"Initial reports indicate that the flight crew noted an abrupt drop in indicated outside air temperature, followed by the loss of the Air Data Reference System and disconnections of the autopilot and autothrust, along with the loss of speed and altitude information," the NTSB said.
The flight crew used backup instruments and the primary data was restored in about five minutes, the NTSB said.
Another "possibly similar" incident happened June 23 on a Northwest Airlines flight between Hong Kong and Tokyo, Japan, the NTSB said.
Investigators from the NTSB are gathering data recorder information, monitoring system messages, crew statements and weather information, the NTSB said.

Fans, promoters count cost of canceled Jackson concerts

LONDON, England (CNN) -- For almost four months, fans of Michael Jackson were holding what were deemed by concert promoters AEG Live as the "Hottest Tickets on the Planet."

Queues for tickets to Michael Jackson's concert wind outside the O2 Arena in London on March 13, 2009.

Now some 750,000 would-be concert-goers have been left with slips of paper that, while steeped in sentimentality, won't entitle them to see the hyped spectacular that was promised to be Jackson's farewell concerts.
It's unclear whether all fans will receive a full refund. Early Friday morning, AEG Live's Web site was still promoting the concerts, announcing there were just "17 days until show time." After midday, all reference to the shows had been removed.
Late Friday afternoon, the O2 Arena was still saying that ticketing information would be available "in due course." And callers to Ticketmaster's customer service number were still being greeted the message, "Ticketmaster is aware of the news relating to Michael Jackson. We have no official information at this stage. As soon as we have any information we will immediately contact all customers who have booked tickets through Ticketmaster."
Seatwave, Europe's biggest online market for fan-to-fan ticket sales, told CNN that customers who bought tickets via its Web site would receive a full refund, the cost of which would be covered by an insurance claim which could top £2 million ($3.2 million).
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"This is what you buy insurance for. Unfortunately it's always for these kind of terrible circumstances," Joe Cohen, Founder and CEO of Seatwave told CNN.
The official secondary ticketing partner for the shows, Viagogo, also promised fans a full refund.
Consumer rights group Which? warned fans who bought tickets from third parties, including auction Web sites such as eBay, may have more difficulty getting their money back.
Michael Jackson was scheduled to play 50 shows at the O2 Arena in London, a grueling schedule for even the fittest pop star, according to celebrity media advisor, Simon Astaire.
"He needed money, there is no question about that, hence his 50 dates at the O2. It's easy to say today and I think one has to be respectful today, but it was a stretch to do 50 concerts in the way he wanted to do in that time frame. Even for the fittest, most grounded individual it's very, very difficult," he told CNN.
According to estimates by "Billboard," unconfirmed by the promoters, Jackson's concerts would have netted the singer $50 million in ticket and merchandise sales.
Back in March, tickets for an initial run of ten concerts sold out at the astonishing rate of 11 tickets per second, a feat Chris Edmonds, the Managing Director of Ticketmaster UK called a "live entertainment phenomenon."
Demand for the tickets prompted organizers to add another 40 dates to the schedule. The London shows were to be the first step in a multi-phase package with Jackson, including plans for a 3-D live concert film and a 3-D movie based on Jackson's "Thriller" music video.
It's not known at this stage how much of the cost of Jackson's canceled concerts will be shouldered by promoters AEG Live. The company is yet to issue a statement on the matter.
It is thought only part of Jackson's 50-date London engagement was covered by insurers. One of those was Lloyds of London, whose spokesman Louise Shields told CNN "any losses are not likely to be significant."
Mary Craig Calkins, partner at Howrey law firm in Los Angeles told CNN it was likely Jackson was covered by essential element insurance, a common form of cover in the entertainment industry to guard against losses associated with the main act.
The policy would normally cover ticket sales and production-related expenses. "He was hiring dancers for the production, there's pyrotechnics, there's the music, there's the equipment, there's the venue, " Calkins told CNN.
"It's a bigger than life tour so you would expect the expenses to be huge... You would expect the insurance company to conduct a very thorough investigation. It's a lot of money at stake," she said.
AEG Live's partner in Jackson's stage comeback, Tom Barrack, Chairman of Colony Capital, posted a statement on the company's Web site, saying they were "deeply saddened" by Jackson's death. A spokesman for Barrack declined to comment on the financial implications, saying "they're not even focused on that, it's a personal loss."

Outlook 2010 not winning fans. . .on Twitter

Outlook 2010, the next generation of Microsoft’s software for managing e-mail, appointments and other business functions, hasn’t launched to the public yet. But that hasn’t stopped a sudden chorus of complaints about Microsoft’s decision to use Word to format HTML e-mails, which some designers say will fail to properly display them.
Not surprisingly, the engine behind this online protest is Twitter. “Outlook 2010″ was a top trending topic on the micro-blogging site Wednesday, thanks to an organized campaign of protest tweets. Many of the tweets reference a site, http://fixoutlook.org, which appears to be simply a page containing the icons of Twitter users who have joined the campaign.
“It’s time to rally together and encourage Microsoft to embrace web standards before it’s too late,” states the site, which claims more than 17,000 Twitter followers. “Let’s use Twitter to send a clear message to Microsoft.” The site then steers visitors back to Twitter.
Is this “outrage” over Outlook 2010 real? Will it force Microsoft to change its plans? Or is this just another example of clever people using Twitter to advance a cause and manipulate public opinion?

Apple rejects soft-core porn iPhone app

False alarm: Apple is not — at least not yet — approving iPhone apps containing pictures of naked women.
The blogosphere lit up Thursday with reports that Hottest Girls had the distinguished privilege of being the first application approved for sale in the iTunes App Store that contains nudity. The Hottest Girls iPhone app is not new, but as of Thursday, it added photos of topless women to its gallery of “2200+ sexy bikini babes and lingerie models.”
Of course, porn has long been accessible on the iPhone through its Internet browser, but this appeared to mark the first time Apple has sanctioned images of naked women for the popular device.

An image from the ‘Hottest Girls’ application for sale in the iTunes App Store.
Some speculated the “change” in Apple’s porn policy was a result of expanded parental controls in the new iPhone 3.0 OS software. Age restrictions can now be set to prevent mature downloads from the App Store.
According to a Gizmodo article that seemed oddly excited by this news:
This is not just an application that downloads softcore content from the Web, bypassing Apple’s censorship. There is no censorship here, as this is truly an Apple approved app “rated 17+” for “frequent/intense sexual content or nudity” and “frequent/intense mature/suggestive theme.”
The editors at Wired.com took the Hottest Girls app for a test drive and were underwhelmed. “The application itself is terrible,” wrote Wired’s tester, “but you can be sure that there will be more, and better, very soon.”
Shortly afterwards, the Hottest Girls app, which claims to be the first officially sanctioned iTunes app to contain topless photos, disappeared from the iTunes store.
A website allegedly run by Hottest Girls app developers explained the disappearance:
The Hottest Girls app is temporarily sold out. The server usage is extremely high because of the popularity of this app. Thus, by not distributing the app, we can prevent our servers from crashing. Those who already have the app will still be able to use our app. To answer the question on everyone’s mind: Yes, the topless images will still be there when it is sold again.

Microsoft sets Windows 7 pricing, upgrade programsStory Highlights

(CNET) -- Microsoft recently announced retail pricing for Windows 7 that was at or below comparable Windows Vista prices, while also offering a chance for people to preorder the software at a substantial discount.

Microsoft confirmed that a program offering Vista PC buyers a free copy of Windows 7 will kick off on Friday.

From Friday through July 11, consumers in the U.S. will be able to buy an upgrade copy of Windows 7 Home premium for $49 or Windows 7 Professional for $99.
That offer is good for both XP and Windows Vista PCs, regardless of whether someone has been trying out the pre-release version of the operating system.
That matches the details in a memo from Best Buy that leaked earlier this month.
The offer, however, is limited in both duration and by the number of copies Microsoft is willing to sell, although Microsoft would not specify that figure. The upgrade will be available at Amazon, Best Buy, Microsoft's own store, Office Depot, OfficeMax, Costco, Staples, Wal-Mart and several other retailers.
"That truly is a price that we have never even come close to in terms of an operating system release," corporate vice president Brad Brooks said. "We've still got a business to run."
Of course, even at the preorder price, Microsoft still finds itself undercut by Apple, which has said it will only charge $29 for Leopard users moving to Snow Leopard (those on older versions of the Mac OS will have to buy a full-boxed copy combining Leopard and Snow Leopard).
Brooks, however, said that comparing the two upgrades is unfair.
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"Even their chief software architect called (Snow Leopard) an upgrade of Leopard," Brooks said. "The way I look at it, its a service pack and we don't charge for service packs."
Microsoft also confirmed, as expected, that a program offering Vista PC buyers a free copy of Windows 7 will kick off on Friday.
When boxed copies of Windows 7 go on sale on October 22, Microsoft plans to charge $119 for Home Premium, $199 for Professional and $219 for Ultimate.
The Home Premium upgrade is down $40 from the product's original price, although the Vista product had already gotten a price cut along the way. The Professional and Ultimate versions are priced similar to where Microsoft was with Vista.
The upgrade prices apply to those moving from a previous version of Windows to Windows 7, but only those from Windows Vista will be able to upgrade without doing a clean installation of the product.
The full versions of Windows 7--the editions for those without a copy of Windows -- will be priced at $199 for Home Premium, $299 for Professional and $319 for Ultimate. The Ultimate and Professional editions are again on par with their Vista counterparts, while Home Premium is down from the $239 that Microsoft had charged with Vista.
Microsoft also plans to offer the operating system in an easier-to-open box.
Things are trickier in Europe, where Microsoft has said it will only ship a special "E" version, which has the browser removed. Because of that, Microsoft is requiring all users to do a clean installation of the product. So there, Microsoft has said it will offer the full version of Windows 7 for the upgrade price.
Brooks said Microsoft made that move to avoid having to delay its launch in Europe and added that boxed copy sales make up only a fraction of its total Windows sales in Europe and throughout the world.
"It does not delay the introduction of Windows 7 into the market and it gives our European customers the best possible price."
The software maker is speeding up the pace of the international launch of Windows 7 compared with past launches. Computer makers will be able to ship new PCs in all languages on launch day.
As for the retail product, Microsoft plans to have 14 languages ready by October 22: English, Spanish, Japanese, German, French, Italian, Dutch, Russian, Polish, Brazilian Portuguese, Korean, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, and Hong Kong Chinese.
Then, on October 31, Windows 7 will be available in the remaining 21 languages -- Turkish, Czech, Portuguese, Hungarian, Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Finnish, Greek, Ukrainian, Romanian, Arabic, Lithuanian, Bulgarian, Estonian, Slovenian, Hebrew, Thai, Croatian, Serbian Latin, and Latvian.

Video of church's 'casting out' gay 'demon' in teen sparks anger

(CNN) -- The boy writhes uncontrollably on the floor, but the church members remain calm, if increasingly loud. They're trying to drive a "demon" out of him.

In the video, Manifested Glory Ministries members gather around a boy in Bridgeport, Connecticut.

"You homosexual demon, get up on outta here!" they say. "You demon, loose yourself!" "You sex demon ... you snake!"
The shouts, the convulsions, the references to homosexual spirits -- they are all captured on a video posted on YouTube by the Manifested Glory Ministries. The video has sparked anger among gay youth advocacy groups and put the small church from Bridgeport, Connecticut, in the middle of an ongoing national debate on gay issues.
Patricia McKinney, pastor of the nondenominational church who describes herself as a prophet, said she has even been receiving death threats as a result of the video, but doesn't understand the outrage.
"I believe in deliverance, I believe in anointing, I believe in the power of Jesus," she said in a phone interview with CNN. "I've been threatened already, I've been attacked, and it doesn't make any sense to us. Really, what they're doing, they're putting me out there on the mat."
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McKinney says she doesn't refer to the events of the video as an exorcism, but rather a "casting out of unclean spirits." She said this isn't the first time that an event like this has taken place at her church, but it is the first one centered around homosexuality.
McKinney said the boy approached the church and told her he wanted to be a pastor, but was struggling with his sexuality. "We allow [gay people] to come into our church. We just don't allow them to come in and continue to live that lifestyle," she said.
"God made Adam and Eve," she said. "He made a woman to be with a man, and a man to be with a woman."
Robin McHaelen, who worked with the 16-year-old boy at the center of the video in her position as executive director of True Colors Inc., a gay youth advocacy and mentoring program in Connecticut, said the video was taped in March. She would not identify the teen.
McHaelen said she doesn't think the church acted maliciously -- but that's part of her problem with the video.
"None of the people in this video were intending to hurt this kid," she said. "They performed this ritual in an attempt to rid him of feelings that he didn't want to have."
The boy is the fifth teen True Colors is aware of that has undergone an event like the one documented in the video. But unlike the boy, not all the teens approached a church or religious organization.
The event, McHaelen said, reflects a culture and society that doesn't believe a person can be both Christian and gay.
"That's what makes me so sad and so mad," she said.
McHaelen said she talked to the boy since the incident and said he's feeling very conflicted and confused in trying to reconcile who he is with his religion.

Michael Jackson autopsy expected Friday

LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- An autopsy on entertainer Michael Jackson has been scheduled for Friday and results are expected by afternoon, according to the Los Angeles, California, coroner's office.

Autopsy results due out Friday may shed light into the death of pop star Michael Jackson.

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The "King of Pop," who was preparing for a comeback tour, died Thursday at age 50.
Jackson, under apparent cardiac arrest, was taken from his home by paramedics to Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, where a team of physicians tried to resuscitate him for more than an hour, said Jackson's brother Jermaine. He said the music idol was pronounced dead at 2:26 p.m. (5:26 p.m. ET).
Another one of Jackson's six siblings told CNN that he learned of Jackson's death through his manager, Frank Dileo.
"Frank told me that Michael last night was complaining about not feeling well. He called to tell him he wasn't feeling well," Marlon Jackson said. "Michael's doctor went over to see him, and Frank said, 'Marlon, from last night to this morning, I don't know what happened.' When they got to him this morning, he wasn't breathing."
Fire Capt. Steve Ruda told CNN that a 911 call came in from a west Los Angeles residence at 12:21 p.m. Jackson was treated and transferred to the UCLA Medical Center, Ruda said. Watch CNN's Sanjay Gupta discuss Jackson's death »
At the hospital, security guards blocked every entrance to the emergency room. Even hospital staffers were not permitted to enter. A few people stood inside the waiting area, some of them crying.
Detectives from the Los Angeles Police Department remained at Jackson's home late Thursday, with some officers providing crowd control outside as fans gathered in surrounding streets. iReport.com: Share your Michael Jackson memories
At one point, three tow trucks arrived at the residence and a silver BMW with Texas license plates was later removed. No reason was given by police.
During a career that began at age 5 singing with his brothers, Jackson had numerous No. 1 hits. "Thriller" is the best-selling album of all time, at an estimated 50 million copies worldwide.
But after dominating the popular music scene for years, Jackson became reclusive and mired in scandals that include molestation charges. He was acquitted after a well-publicized trial in Santa Maria, California, in March 2006.
Last year, Jackson announced a comeback tour that was to start in July. When some of the shows were postponed till next year, rumors spread that the entertainer was weak and suffering from skin cancer.
However, Marlon Jackson said he last saw his younger brother at a May 14 family gathering and he "looked great."
"He was looking well. He was getting ready to go into rehearsals for his tour. I don't know what happened," Marlon Jackson said.
"Janet Jackson is grief-stricken and devastated at the sudden loss of her brother," said her manager, Kenneth Crear. "She is ... flying immediately to California to be with her family."
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A large crowd gathered outside the hospital, according to video footage. Michael Jackson fans across the world reacted with sadness.
Some, including actress Elizabeth Taylor and musician Stevie Wonder, were too distraught to issue statements.
Producer Quincy Jones, who helped Jackson craft his hit albums "Off the Wall" and "Thriller," said, "I am absolutely devastated at this tragic and unexpected news."
"For Michael to be taken away from us so suddenly at such a young age, I just don't have the words," Jones added in a statement.
Jackson's music continues to be heard throughout the world "because he had it all -- talent, grace, professionalism and dedication," Jones said. He called Jackson a consummate entertainer, whose legacy will be felt around the world.
"I've lost my little brother today and part of my soul has gone with him," Jones said.
Berry Gordy, producer and founder of Motown Records, said Jackson's death was "like a bad dream."
"As a kid, Michael was always beyond his years. He was an innovator. He was a genius at what he did," Gordy said. "He had a knowingness about him. At 9 years old, when I first started working with him, he seemed to me like he had been here before. He was just so knowledgeable about life."
Lisa Marie Presley, Jackson's former wife, said she was "shocked and saddened" by his death.
"My heart goes out to his children and his family," she said.
Jackson is survived by his three children, Prince Michael I, Paris and Prince Michael II.