Mariah Carey surpasses Elvis in No. 1s; Beatles are now in range

LOS ANGELES: With her 18th chart-topper ``Touch My Body,''Mariah Carey has passed Elvis Presley for the most No. 1 singles on the Billboard Hot 100, and is now second only to the Beatles.
But while the diva was in full celebration mode after learning of her latest milestone, she was also quick to put her accomplishment in perspective.
``I really can never put myself in the category of people who have not only revolutionized music but also changed the world,'' Carey told a foreign news agency London .``That's a completely different era and time ... I'm just feelingreally happy and grateful.''
Carey's single is the new No. 1 single on Billboard's Hot 100singles chart: The song also is No. 1 on the trade magazine's digital download chart thanks to a precedent-setting 286,000 downloads in its debut week. She had been tied with Presley with 17 No. 1 singles; the Beatles are the all-time leaders with 20 (Madonna also beat a Presley record this week, surpassing the King for the most top 40 hits with her 37th for her hit ``4 Minutes.''
``Touch My Body'' is the first single off of Carey's upcomingalbum ``E=MC2,'' due out April 16. It is the follow-up to her Grammy-winning disc ``The Emancipation of Mimi,'' released in 2005, that year's best-selling album with five million copies sold.

Symbolic crossing in divided Nicosia to open Thursday

NICOSIA  ( 2008-04-02 11:50:51 ) : 

A symbolic crossing over the UN-controlled buffer zone in Nicosia, Europe's last divided capital, will open on Thursday, a diplomatic source told AFP on Wednesday.
"I can confirm that Ledra Street will open on Thursday at 9 am," the source told AFP.
The opening of the Ledra Street crossing, in the heart of a shopping district inside the walled old city, would signal a new climate of trust on Cyprus that has been divided for the past 34 years.
The move was agreed at a breakthrough meeting last month between Cyprus President Demetris Christofias and Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat who also agreed to resume reunification talks in three months.
Ledra Street, in a pedestrian area of Nicosia, would be the sixth such crossing on the divided eastern Mediterranean island to open since April 2003 when Turkish Cypriots for the first time lifted entry restrictions for Greek Cypriots.
The February election of Christofias, a Greek Cypriot, sparked a renewed drive for peace after several years of stalemate under his predecessor Tassos Papadopoulos.
The barricades on Ledra Street were among the first to be erected after intercommunal violence flared in the city in 1963, leading to the arrival the following year of UN peacekeeping troops who have remained ever since.
Cyprus has been divided along ethnic lines since 1974 when Turkey seized its northern third in response to an Athens-engineered Greek Cypriot coup in Nicosia aimed at uniting the island with Greece.
A UN bid to reunite the island failed in 2004 when the Greek Cypriots voted against the plan in a referendum, although the Turkish Cypriots voted overwhelmingly in favour.

Clinton leads Obama, McCain in key matchups: poll

WASHINGTON  ( 2008-04-02 14:40:09 ) : 

Democratic presidential contender Hillary Clinton holds a 9-point lead over rival Barack Obama among likely Pennsylvania Democratic primary voters ahead of the state's April 22 primary, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released on Wednesday.
Clinton, a New York senator who would be the first female president, leads the Illinois senator 50 percent to 41 percent, the poll found. She also runs better against the likely Republican nominee, Sen. John McCain, in Pennsylvania, Florida and Ohio -- all important swing states in the general election.
In a general election matchup in Florida, McCain closely trails Clinton 42 percent to 44 percent but McCain leads Obama, who would be the first black president, 46 percent to 37 percent, according to the poll.
"The difference between Clinton and Obama in Florida is the white vote," said Peter Brown of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute.
In Ohio, Clinton has a 48 to 39 percent lead over McCain after months of too-close-to-call results, the poll found. In an Obama-McCain matchup, Obama gets 43 percent against 42 percent for McCain.
In Pennsylvania, Clinton tops McCain 48 to 40 percent and Obama leads the Arizona senator 43 percent to 39 percent.
Among Pennsylvania Democrats, Clinton leads 54 to 37 percent with women and ties Obama with men at 46 percent support.
The primary vote between Clinton and Obama splits sharply along racial lines.
Clinton leads 59 to 34 percent among white Pennsylvania likely primary voters while Obama leads 73 to 11 percent among black Democrats, the poll found.
Roughly 44 percent of people in all three states said the economy was the most important issue in their vote, while about a quarter of respondents said the war in Iraq is most important.
"The economic concerns of voters make Ohio a tougher challenge for McCain than has traditionally been the case for Republicans, who have never won the White House without carrying Ohio," Brown said. "But Obama's weakness among white men is an indication that he has not yet closed the sale among the lunch bucket brigade."
The poll was conducted March 24 through 31. Quinnipiac surveyed 1,135 Florida voters with a margin of error of plus or minus 2.9 percent; 1,238 Ohio voters with a margin of error of plus or minus 2.8 percent; 3,484 Pennsylvania voters with a margin of error of plus or minus 1.7 percent including 1,549 Democratic likely voters with a margin of error of plus or minus 2.5 percent.