Four funeral services attended by pop stars, civil rights leaders and tens of thousands of fans gave James Brown a send-off in keeping with his status as one of the music world's greatest showmen.
But more than two weeks after his Christmas Day death from congestive heart failure, the Godfather of Soul still refuses to leave the stage quietly.
His body remains in a sealed coffin in a chilled room at his locked South Carolina mansion while his family tussle over a burial site, and his partner prepares a legal challenge for access to the couple's possessions.
The unseemly squabble over Brown's estate, between his children and the woman they claim is no more than an estranged former girlfriend, threatens to rumble on. Tomi Rae Hynie, 36, says she has been locked out of the mansion on Beech Island which she shared with Brown, who died aged 73, and the couple's five-year-old son, James Junior.
Hynie said she has also hired a bodyguard.
"I'm afraid that someone is gonna give me a hot shot, walking down the street. I have big fears of that," she said on the US celebrity TV show The Insider.
Buddy Dallas, the singer's friend and attorney, has challenged the validity of Brown's marriage to Hynie. He said the gates to the mansion were locked to protect Brown's possessions from souvenir hunters. The house would remain sealed until after Brown's will was read and his children, as trustees, could finally agree on where their father will be buried. Hynie would have no role in that decision.
Meanwhile, Jacque Hollander, who claims the singer raped her at gunpoint in 1988 while she was his publicist, has said she will pursue a US$106 million damages claim against his estate.
Meanwhile, in Atmore, Alabama, a man shot a friend after an argument over Brown's height, police said.
Dan Gulley Jr, 70, was charged with assault in connection with the shooting of David James Brooks Jr, 62, on Monday, police said.
Gulley shot Brooks twice in the abdomen, and Brooks went to his car, got a gun and shot at Gulley but missed, officers told the Press-Register newspaper.
Information on Brooks' condition was not available. Officers did not believe alcohol was a factor.
A ship that appears to be taking on the identity of a scrapped gas carrier exited the Strait of Hormuz on Friday, showing how strategies to get through the waterway are evolving as the Middle East war progresses. The vessel identifying as liquefied natural gas (LNG) carrier Jamal left the Strait on Friday morning, ship-tracking data show. However, the same tanker was also recorded as having beached at an Indian demolition yard in October last year, where it is being broken up, according to market participants and port agent’s reports. The ship claiming to be Jamal is likely a zombie vessel that
Japan is to downgrade its description of ties with China from “one of its most important” in an annual diplomatic report, according to a draft reviewed by Reuters, as relations with Beijing worsen. This year’s Diplomatic Bluebook, which Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s government is expected to approve next month, would instead describe China as an important neighbor and the relationship as “strategic” and “mutually beneficial.” The draft cites a series of confrontations with Beijing over the past year, including export controls on rare earths, radar lock-ons targeting Japanese military aircraft and increased pressure around Taiwan. The shift in tone underscores a deterioration
LAW CONSTRAINTS: The US has been pressing allies to send warships to open the Strait, but Tokyo’s military actions are limited under its postwar pacifist constitution Japan could consider deploying its military for minesweeping in the Strait of Hormuz if a ceasefire is reached in the war on Iran, Japanese Minister of Foreign Affairs Toshimitsu Motegi said yesterday. “If there were to be a complete ceasefire, hypothetically speaking, then things like minesweeping could come up,” Motegi said. “This is purely hypothetical, but if a ceasefire were established and naval mines were creating an obstacle, then I think that would be something to consider.” Japan’s military actions are limited under its postwar pacifist constitution, but 2015 security legislation allows Tokyo to use its Self-Defense Forces overseas if an attack,
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) yesterday faced a regional election battle in Rhineland-Palatinate, now held by the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD). Merz’s CDU has enjoyed a narrow poll lead over the SPD — their coalition partners at the national level — who have ruled the mid-sized state for 35 years. Polling third is the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), which spells a greater threat to the two centrist parties in several state elections in September in the country’s ex-communist east. The picturesque state of Rhineland-Palatinate, bordering France, Belgium and Luxembourg and with a population of about 4 million,
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