The duo stepped up a notch from last week to No. 1 for their first win on the chart, pushing back previous winner "I’m a Guy Like This" by DJ DOC to second place while BoA’s latest single "Hurricane Venus" also made its way to the top tier during the week of August 8 to 14.

The Homme collaboration, produced by hitman bang, features the powerful vocals of boy band 2AM member Changmin and three-person group 8eight member Lee Hyun. It has fared well on various web-based and offline music charts since its release on July 28.

On album charts, Korean pop princess BoA grabbed her second consecutive win with her sixth full-length record "Hurricane Venus."

Korean balladeer Hwanhee’s new release "H-hour" entered the chart at No. 2 and Jo Sung-mo’s latest album "Sung-mo, Meet Brave" rounded out the top three spots.

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The six-member band broke the news to Asia Economic Daily before going on stage of music cable channel Mnet’s "M! CountDown" where they will give their first performance for their second album "Time to Shine" released yesterday.

Supernova said the live show will take place at the 15,000-seat Saitama Super Arena in Tokyo in December, following their live tour in the country which starts October 2 in Nagoya.

After debuting in Korea in 2007 through album "The Beautiful Stardust," Supernova went on to release a mini-album in Korea while gaining popularity in the country through collaboration projects "TTL (Time to Love)" and "TTL Listen 2" with girl group T-ara last year.

The boys have led a particularly successful career in Japan, placing all of their singles in the country within the top ten slots of the prestigious Oricon charts. Their latest ninth single, which went on sale yesterday, is currently ranked fifth on the daily chart.

They will be making a comeback to the local music scene for the first time in three years today.

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TYPE announced in a press release that Japanese rappers Zeebra, Simon and Dabo will be performing along Korean artists such as LeeSSang and Jung-in, Supreme Team, Double K and SOUL DIVE for the "What’s Up Summer Hiphop Festival" to be held at the Walker Hill Theater on August 28.

The music fest will also feature the performances by Korean DJs DJ R2 and DJ Freekay.

"We hope that this concert which features the best artists in Korean and Japanese hip-hop, will create a place for our music festival in the long run," an official from TYPE explained.

Zeebra is one of the most popular rappers in Japan since his first appearance in 1995. He has also performed live with various rappers in the United States.

Dabo first appeared in the Japanese hip-hop scene in the 1990s and has released three albums since 2002. His lyrics are hard-edged and represent a tough Japanese street culture.

LeeSSang is Korean hip-hop duo composed of Gary and Gil. They formed in 2002, collaborating with Drunken Tiger, T and Big Mama King.

Jung-in released her first album "From Andromeda" earlier this year which features the title track "I Hate You."

Supreme Team is another hip-hop duo featuring members E-Sens and Simon D. They have two albums titled "Supremier" and "Spin Off."

Double K, whose real name is Sohn Chang-il, is a rapper who is a member of the Korean hip hop music collective Movement Crew.

SOUL DIVE, a hip-hop trio, made their debut in 2009 with their first album "Mad Scientist & Sweet Monsters."

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The official Xinhua News Agency reported that the deaths came on Monday from flooding in Longnan city near Zhouqu.

Zhouqu is where at least 1,254 people were killed as a mudslide triggered by heavy rain crashed through the city on Aug. 8.

The government says another 490 people are still missing from that disaster.

Since Aug. 11, heavy rains have pelted several counties in Longnan city, triggering landslides, Xinhua said.

It said the latest flooding left 295 people injured and more than 6,000 homes collapsed. Flooding has cut off electricity and damaged roads.

In Zhouqu on Tuesday, workers used bulldozers and cranes to dig and search for the missing as rains threatened to hinder rescue efforts, Xinhua reported.

Up to 3 inches (8 centimetres) of rain is expected in the area through Thursday, it said.

China regularly suffers devastating summer floods, but this year has been unusually severe.

Storms killed at least 1,500 people nationwide before the Zhouqu landslide and caused tens of billions of dollars in damage.

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The massive blast took place around 7:30 a.m. just outside the former Iraqi Ministry of Defense building that now houses the army’s 11th division headquarters. The site receives about 250 new recruits each week as Iraqi security forces try to bolster their ranks to prepare for the U.S. military’s looming withdrawal after seven years of war.

Blown-off hands and legs could be seen among pools of blood at the scene, which Iraqi soldiers closed off. U.S. helicopters hovered overhead as frantic Iraqis showed up to search for relatives.

At least two recruits who witnessed that attack raised the possibility that a car had also exploded at the scene, which could account for the high death toll. But a military spokesman blamed the deaths on a single suicide bomber.

"We were sitting there, and somebody began shouting about a parked car," said one of the recruits, Ali Ibrahim, 21, who suffered minor shrapnel wounds in the blast. Ibrahim said he had been waiting to get into the headquarters to secure a job since around 3 a.m.

"Then the explosion happened and I was thrown on my back," he said after his release from the hospital. "It was a tragic scene."

The recruits were gathered in an open area next to Maidan Square in central Baghdad as they waited to be let through the main gates in small groups, according to two Iraqi police officials who spoke on condition of anonymity. At least three soldiers were among the dead and eight among the wounded, the police officials said.

Officials at four Baghdad hospitals confirmed the casualties. All spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.

Iraqi Maj. Gen. Qassim al-Moussawi, a military spokesman, told The Associated Press that the blast was caused by a single suicide bomber who detonated his vest among the packed crowd. He put the casualty count at 39 killed and 57 wounded. Varying casualty counts are common in the chaotic aftermath of massive attacks.

Al-Moussawi blamed al-Qaida for enlisting the bomber, whose upper body was found at the scene, he said.

As many as 1,000 army recruits were gathered at the division headquarters, he added, because Tuesday was to be the last day for soldiers to sign up at the unit.

"We couldn’t get another place for the recruits," al-Moussawi said. "It was difficult to control the area because it’s an open area and because of the large number of recruits."

Iraqi security forces have been trying to boost their numbers as the U.S. military begins to leave the country. All but 50,000 U.S. troops will go home by the end of August, with the rest to follow by the end of 2011 under a security agreement between Baghdad and Washington.

But insurgents determined to highlight the Iraqi government’s struggle to protect the nation have been stepping up attacks in recent weeks.

Iraqi army, police and other security forces have been targeted, but civilians also have been killed by the hundreds.

This summer has seen a spike in violence in Iraq. Data from the Iraqi defense, interior and ministry officials show that July marked the bloodiest month since May 2008, with more than 500 killed, although tallies compiled by The Associated Press and the U.S. military were lower.

August, which saw the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, has also been deadly. Two bombs that set off a power generator and ignited a fuel tank on Aug. 7. killed 43 people in a downtown market in Basra, Iraq’s second-largest city.

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The crowd at the off-road race was almost close enough to touch the trucks as they hurtled and bounced over the desert sand — close enough for one mistake to end eight lives.

Hundreds of thrill-seeking fans watched in horror Saturday night as one racer took a jump at high speed, hit his brakes on landing and rolled his truck sideways into spectators, sending bodies flying on a section of track that had no guardrails or anything else to keep the crowd back.

Eight people were killed and 12 were injured at the California 200, a race in the Mojave Desert about 100 miles northeast of Los Angeles.

“You could touch it if you wanted to. It’s part of the excitement,” said 19-year-old Niky Carmikle, who stood sobbing over a makeshift memorial on the spot of the crash Sunday. Her boyfriend, 24-year-old Zachary Freeman of Fillmore, was killed in the crash. “There’s always that risk factor, but you just don’t expect that it will happen to you.”

CHP officer Joaquin Zubieta said Brett M. Sloppy, 28, of San Marcos, was behind the wheel of truck involved in the crash near the city of Lucerne Valley. Zubieta said alcohol was not a factor in the crash and there were no plans to arrest Sloppy.

Zubieta said state vehicle codes don’t apply because it was a sanctioned racing event held with the approval of the federal Bureau of Land Management, which owns the land used for the race.
Tens of thousands of people were spread out along the 50-mile track, but the site of the crash, a stretch known as the “rockpile,” is one of the most popular areas to gather, witnesses said.

Some witnesses said they got within 4 feet of the unmarked track, watching trucks fly through the air over a series of jumps.

The driver “hit the rock and just lost control and tumbled,” said Matt March, 24, of Wildomar, who was standing next to the jump. “Bodies went everywhere.”

March said he and several other fans lifted the truck, which came to rest with its oversized wheels pointing toward the sky, and found four people lying unconscious underneath.

John Payne, 20, of Anaheim, said he was among the first people to reach the truck. He said the victims included one person who was decapitated.
“It was complete chaos,” Payne said.

Carmikle had gone to the bathroom when the crash happened. When she came back, Freeman and his best friend, 24-year-old Dustin Malson of Ventura, were dead.

“Bodies all over the ground, people screaming, and all I wanted to do was find my boyfriend and my friends,” Carmikle said.

It took rescue vehicles and helicopters more than half an hour to reach the remote location, though spectators said off-duty police and firefighters in the crowd joined paramedics hired by the race organizer to help the injured and place blankets over the dead.

Six people died at the scene and two others died after being taken to a hospital, authorities said. Seven ambulances and 10 emergency aircraft responded, airlifting most of the 12 injured people from the area to hospitals.

Paramedics brought six people — five adults and a child — to Loma Linda University Medical Center, spokesman Herbert Atienza said Sunday. He had no information on their condition.

Officials said Sloppy, the driver, wasn’t hurt. It was not clear why he lost control of the truck, a white modified Ford Ranger with “Misery Motorsports” painted on the doors.

A Facebook page that appeared to belong to Sloppy and included a picture of his truck was updated Sunday with a note: “Soo incredibly lost and devistated my thoughts and prayers go out to all the familys and friends involved.. Thank you too all my friends for sticking with me even thru these tragic times I love you all.”

Nearly 40 friends responded with messages of support by Sunday afternoon.

Jeff Talbott, inland division chief for the California Highway Patrol, told the Riverside Press-Enterprise that the driver was forced to run from the scene when the crowd grew unruly and some began throwing rocks at him. Several witnesses, however, said they didn’t see anyone throwing rocks at the driver.

Phone and e-mail messages left for the race organizer, South El Monte-based Mojave Desert Racing, were not immediately returned. The race is part of a series held in the Mojave Desert’s Soggy Dry Lake Bed.

A small cross and a circle of rocks were placed Sunday near the ruts in the ground left by the truck. Bags of victims’ clothing, some of it bloody, sat nearby.

There were no barriers at the site of the crash. Fans said these races rarely have any kind of safety guards.

“That’s desert racing for you,” Payne said. “You’re at your own risk out here. You are in the middle off the desert. People were way too close and they should have known. You can’t really hold anyone at fault. It’s just a horrible, horrible accident.”

The CHP does not normally investigate crashes at organized events, but took the lead on this probe because of its scope. It set up a command center at the starting line of the race. The federal Bureau of Land Management was assisting in the investigation.

Aside from Freeman and Malson, those killed included Brian Wolfin, 27, Anthony Sanchez, 23, and Aaron Farkas, 25, all of Escondido; Danica Frantzich, 20, of Las Vegas; and Andrew Therrin, 22, of Riverside. The name of the eighth victim had not been released Sunday afternoon.

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Officials in Colombia called it a “miracle” that the plane crash on a Colombian island early Monday morning resulted in just one death.

Even as authorities work to determine what caused the Boeing 737 to go down, deft piloting is being pointed to as a key factor in saving the lives of the 130 other people aboard, including at least five American citizens.

“The pilot’s professionalism prevented the plane from going off the runway,” Gen. Orlando Paez of Colombia’s national police told Caracol Radio.

Officials are investigating whether the plane, which belonged to Colombian carrier Aires and was on its way from the capital, Bogotá, had been hit by lightning as it neared San Andres, a Caribbean resort island off the east coast of Nicaragua. A downdraft could have also caused the crash, officials speculated.

Colombian national police, in a statement, said the plane broke into three parts as it landed. There were at least 121 passengers aboard, including four children, plus six crew members.

The state government sent an e-mail to the Associated Press that said passengers included eight US citizens and four Brazilians. An airline representative later told the Associated Press that only five US citizens were aboard.

The sole death could have been caused by a heart attack, a doctor treating the patients has said.

The damage could have been far worse, according to Robert Sanchez, director of the hospital Amor de Patria, which was treating many of the injured. "It’s incredible. For the dimension [of the accident], there should be more," he told the Associated Press.

Colombian Air Force Col. David Barrero told the wire service by telephone that "the skill of the pilot kept the plane from colliding with the airport."

The incident called to mind the US Airways flight that landed in the Hudson River in 2009, dubbed the “Miracle on the Hudson.” Captain Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger was credited then with saving the lives of all 150 passengers when the plane made an emergency landing on the river.

There are many more examples, says Robert Mann, president of R.W. Mann & Company, an aviation consultancy in Port Washington, N.Y. He says skilled pilots have managed to safely land despite structural failures on takeoff, malfunctioning controls, and cargo door failure. (Another example he cites is the 1989 crash in Honolulu that killed nine people, of 355 aboard.)

“Obviously skill goes into it, experience goes into it,” he says.

The experience of past crashes teaches pilots and the industry overall ways to deal with problems in the future. PBS has looked back at the lessons learned from some of the worst air accidents in history.

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With this in mind, Dunn is suing the Big O’s new creation for discrimination in the workplace.

So far, Oprah and her company has not commented on the lawsuit — and may choose to settle the matter privately before releasing a statement of any kind.

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Who should be the next Idol judge? Rolling Stone ranks the mentors.

While a judges’ panel of Randy Jackson, Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler and Jennifer Lopez had been rumored for the last month, it’s said that Lopez’s contract demands proved too much for Fox and producers. Producers insist that no one — other than Randy Jackson, who is in the midst of a multiyear deal — has signed a contract to appear on the upcoming season. Though no official announcements will come until later this month, Steven Tyler continues to hint that his potential Idol gig is a done deal, telling the New York Post why he’d make a good judge. "I’m very judgmental of the guys in the band. I know when to say, ‘Don’t bore us — get to the chorus!’ and I think I’d bring credibility to that forum if I was asked to do it," Tyler said.

Meanwhile, the fate of the two remaining American Idol judges, Randy Jackson and Kara DioGuardi, remains unclear. DioGuardi was rumored to have been let go after her two-year stint on Idol, but producers have yet to make that announcement. With less than a month to go before the judges are scheduled to oversee auditions, Kara’s father, New York senatorial candidate Joe DioGuardi, says that his daughter is disappointed by how Fox has handled the situation this summer. "Would you believe she did not hear — and still has not heard — anything," DioGuardi told Capital Tonight. ""She read [news of her firing] the way you did and I did…I think they’re trying to create a lot of buzz. Would she want to do it another year? I think so…I think at some point [she] will confront them on that."

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Some industry insiders say there hasn’t been such a frenzied casting search since the two-year hunt for Scarlett O’Hara in “Gone with the Wind” (1939), which propelled Vivien Leigh to stardom.

“There aren’t that many good parts out there these days,” one producer said of the adaptation of the best-selling novel. “Every chick wants to play it.”

But the plum will probably go to an unknown, now that director David Fincher has rejected such name stars as Natalie Portman, who’s almost too old at 29; Ellen Page, 23 (“Juno”), and Carey Mulligan, 25, (“An Education”), who were deemed to be too clean-cut; and Emma Watson, 20, of the “Harry Potter” movies, who denied she cut her hair short to audition for Fincher.

Among those in the running: Rooney Mara, 25, whom Fincher directed in the upcoming “The Social Network;” Léa Seydoux, 25, of “Robin Hood”; and two unknown Australians, Sophie Lowe, 20, and Sarah Snook, age unknown.

The novel by the late Swedish journalist Stieg Larsson has two sequels — “The Girl Who Played With Fire” and “The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest” — and whoever gets the Lisbeth role will be locked in for them, as well. Larsson’s trilogy has sold over 27 million copies in 40 countries.

Sony Pictures and producer Scott Rudin plan to start shooting “Dragon Tattoo” — not to be confused with a 2009 Swedish-language film of the same title — this fall for a December 2011 release. “Fincher will have to make a decision in the next week or two,” said an insider. Daniel Craig has been cast as fearless reporter Mikael Blomquist. Robin Wright will play his sometime lover, magazine editrix Erika Berger. “The whole process is very secretive,” the insider said. “Fincher wants an unknown, but it changes on a daily basis.”

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