LOS ANGELES: British actress Jean Simmons, an Emmy Award winner whose career included roles in "Hamlet" and "Spartacus," died in California Friday, the Los Angeles Times reported. She was 80.
The Times said Simmons, who earned two Oscar nominations during a long career that spanned seven decades, died at her home in Santa Monica after losing a battle to lung cancer.
The movie star's manager could not immediately be reached for comment.
Although she worked mostly in television in her later years, appearing in the hit 1983 mini-series "The Thorn Birds," for which she obtained an Emmy Award, Simmons gained fame in the 1950s and 1960s after starring in several hit films.
Her career took off after she appeared as the doomed Ophelia opposite Laurence Olivier in the legendary actor's 1948 production of "Hamlet." Simmons's performance earned her the first of two Academy Award nominations.
Among her notable early roles were playing the young Estella in David Lean's classic 1946 adaptation of "Great Expectations."
Later films included "Guys and Dolls," "Spartacus" and 1969's "The Happy Ending," which earned her a second Oscar nod for her portrayal of an alcoholic wife.
Simmons married twice -- to actor Stewart Granger from 1950 to 1960 and to director Richard Brooks from 1960 to 1977. Both marriages ended in divorce.
UNITED NATIONS: Britain's Queen Elizabeth II will address the UN General Assembly for the first time in more than 50 years during a July visit to New York, according to the British mission to the world body.
The 83-year-old monarch and her husband, Prince Philip, will arrive in New York on July 6 after making a nine-day state visit to Canada and leave later the same day, it said in a statement.
The queen has addressed the United Nations General Assembly on only one previous occasion, in 1957.
She is addressing the body in her capacity as the head of state of the United Kingdom and 15 other UN member states: Antigua and Barbuda, Australia, the Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Canada, Grenada, Jamaica, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, the Solomon Islands and Tuvalu.
She is also head of the Commonwealth, an association of 54 countries, mostly former British colonies.
KUALA LUMPUR: The sultan of Malaysia's Johor state Iskandar Ismail, who served as the nation's king for five years, has died aged 77, state media reported.
Abdul Ghani Othman, chief minister of the southern state, announced the sultan's death late Friday after he was admitted to a local hospital the day before for an unspecified illness, a local news agency said.
"The sultan of Johor was very much respected and loved," Abdul Ghani said, reading a statement on TV, according to the news agency. He said the sultan died at 7:15 pm (1115 GMT).
A senior aide to the chief minister confirmed the sultan's death and that the sultan's eldest son, Tunku Ibrahim Ismail, had been appointed regent. He is expected to be named as sultan shortly.
Sultan Iskandar was born in 1932 and educated in Australia and Britain before joining the state civil service.
He took over as sultan of Johor in 1981, following the death of his father and served as Malaysia's king from 1984 to 1989.
Malaysia has a rotational monarchical system in which each state sultan takes turns to serve for five years as king.
Local papers were filled with tributes to Sultan Iskandar, calling him a "selfless ruler at heart" and "a ruler close to his subjects."
Premier Najib Razak cut short a state visit to India, returning to Malaysia early Saturday for the Sultan's funeral, the news agency reported.
SYDNEY: Australia said on Saturday it would deploy a specialist air traffic control team to quake-ravaged Haiti following a US request to help restore order at the nation's jammed airports.
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said a group of specially trained military air traffic marshals would leave next week for the devastated Caribbean nation in a bid to improve the flow of aid and supplies. There are over 1,400 flights waiting to get into the country as tens of thousands of desperate people struggle to meet even the most basic needs.
"Making Haiti's airspace and airports effective, safe and useable is crucial to the overall humanitarian effort," said Rudd.
"Overcoming logistical obstacles is one of the keys to making sure assistance that is being provided actually gets to the people of Haiti and making sure their airport and airports are operating effectively," he added.
WASHINGTON: An American astronaut sent the first "tweet" from space on Friday after getting a personal Web connection on the International Space Station.
Timothy "TJ" Creamer, a NASA flight engineer, sent the Twitter message from his @Astro_TJ account.
"Hello Twitterverse! We r now LIVE tweeting from the International Space Station -- the 1st live tweet from Space! :) More soon, send your’s," Creamer wrote.
NASA said Creamer was the first astronaut to send an "unassisted" Twitter message from space.
Previous "tweets" from space were actually sent by astronauts by email to the ground and support personnel posted them to their Twitter account.
The US space agency said Creamer was able to use Twitter directly because a software upgrade this week gave astronauts aboard the space station personal access to the Internet via what NASA called the "ultimate wireless connection."
The new communications system gives astronauts access to the Web and will provide them with "direct private communications to enhance their quality of life during long-duration missions," NASA said.
Two other astronauts aboard the space station, commander Jeff Williams and Soichi Noguchi of Japan, also have a Twitter account at @NASA_Astronauts
RAWALPINDI: The Rawalpindi High Court on Saturday has accused Raja Pervez Ashraf and Naheed Khan in case of quarrelling and misbehaving with the court staff in Lahore High Court.
According to sources federal Minister of Power and Water Raja Pervez Asharaf and PPP leader and senior PPP leader Naheed Khan appeared before the court in toady’s hearing where the court accused both over quarrelling and misbehaving with the court staff.
LAHORE: Three persons were killed and several others were injured in a traffic accident on Saturday morning due to lower visibility at fog blanketed Bhai Phero Bypass near Lahore.
The multiple crash of vehicles caused traffic jam at G.T. Road here. Four vehicles were collided at the bypass in which three persons were killed and dozens others wounded. Police and rescue teams reached at the scene and injured and bodies were shifted to hospital. Some of the wounded reported in a critical state.
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