Bruce Springsteen set for Sandy benefit Bruce Springsteen and Jon Bon Jovi are to perform at a benefit concert for victims of Hurricane Sandy on Friday.

The rock stars are natives of New Jersey, which was one of the areas hardest hit by the storm.

They will be joined by other stars including Billy Joel, Sting and Christina Aguilera on the live one-hour telethon to be broadcast on NBC.

Money raised from Hurricane Sandy: Coming Together will go to the American Red Cross relief efforts.

Hosted by Today show presenter Matt Lauer, the concert will be recorded from NBC's New York studios at Rockefeller Plaza.

It will be broadcast live across NBC's other cable networks including Bravo, CNBC, E!, Syfy and USA at 20:00 EST (00:00 GMT) and tape-delayed on the west coast.

The commercial-free telethon will also be streamed live on NBC's website.

Making the announcement on his morning programme, Lauer added more acts would be announced on Friday.

President Barack Obama visited New Jersey on Wednesday to see the worst affected areas after the storm hit on Monday.

More than 70 people were killed in the US, while some 20,000 people remain trapped in their homes by sewage-contaminated floodwater.

NBC organised a similar benefit after Hurricane Katrina in 2005 which raised $50m (£31m) for the Red Cross.

Danny Baker 'hosts last BBC London show' DJ Danny Baker has said he has hosted his last radio show for BBC London 94.9 after learning his daily programme was being axed.

The presenter hit out repeatedly at the BBC during his two-hour show, in which he called his bosses "weasels".

At the end of his show he said: "That's your lot. We don't want to leave but we're being told to by people we've never met who don't listen to [us]."

The BBC said Baker's show was due to finish at the end of the year.

A spokeswoman said she was not able to confirm whether Thursday's show was indeed the 55-year-old's last. The DJ's agent was also unable to confirm his departure.

A BBC spokeswoman said Baker would not be presenting the show on Friday.

"Danny's decided to take a day off. Gary Crowley will be standing in for him tomorrow," she said.

Baker's dramatic "exit" followed a series of tweets in which he revealed his show had been cancelled.

"Just been told the BBC London Show - the Treehouse - is to be shut down," he tweeted. "Saves BBC money apparently."

Earlier on Thursday, the BBC said Baker would be leaving his afternoon show "at the end of the year" and that he was "still very much part" of the corporation.

"We're currently in discussions with him about options for a weekly programme," its statement continued.

Baker quickly rejected this suggestion, saying he had not heard "a single word" about a new show.

Bruce Springsteen set for Sandy benefit Bruce Springsteen and Jon Bon Jovi are to perform at a benefit concert for victims of Hurricane Sandy on Friday.

The rock stars are natives of New Jersey, which was one of the areas hardest hit by the storm.

They will be joined by other stars including Billy Joel, Sting and Christina Aguilera on the live one-hour telethon to be broadcast on NBC.

Money raised from Hurricane Sandy: Coming Together will go to the American Red Cross relief efforts.

Hosted by Today show presenter Matt Lauer, the concert will be recorded from NBC's New York studios at Rockefeller Plaza.

It will be broadcast live across NBC's other cable networks including Bravo, CNBC, E!, Syfy and USA at 20:00 EST (00:00 GMT) and tape-delayed on the west coast.

The commercial-free telethon will also be streamed live on NBC's website.

Making the announcement on his morning programme, Lauer added more acts would be announced on Friday.

President Barack Obama visited New Jersey on Wednesday to see the worst affected areas after the storm hit on Monday.

More than 70 people were killed in the US, while some 20,000 people remain trapped in their homes by sewage-contaminated floodwater.

NBC organised a similar benefit after Hurricane Katrina in 2005 which raised $50m (£31m) for the Red Cross.

Britney Spears libel case is thrown out of court in US

A civil case brought against Britney Spears and her family by her former manager has been thrown out of court by a judge.

Osama 'Sam' Lutfi, who said he worked for the singer in 2007 and 2008, had sued for breach of contract.

He'd also tried to sue Britney's mother, Lynne Spears, for defamation, and her father, Jamie, for assault.

After two weeks of testimony judge Suzanne Bruguera said there was not enough evidence to continue.

She told Los Angeles' Superior Court that it was "the right thing to do".
Britney Spears Britney Spears is currently a judge on the latest series of The X Factor USA

She said Sam Lutfi hadn't proven any of the claims he'd made during the trial.

For the past fortnight, the court had been hearing about the public breakdown Britney had more than four years ago.

Then the singer temporarily lost custody of her children, was briefly hospitalised and became estranged from her family.

It was at that time she met Sam Lutfi. He said she'd hired him as her manager after meeting him in a club.

In her 2008 book Through The Storm, Lynne Spears claimed Sam Lutfi had controlled her daughter, crushed drugs into her food and cut off contact from her family.

Pakistan bomb kills politician in Buner

A bomb attack in the north-west Pakistani city of Buner has killed a local anti-Taliban politician and three of his guards, police sources say.

Fateh Khan, an ex-leader of the secular Awami National Party, was killed as his car left a petrol station.

It was not immediately clear if he was victim of a suicide attack or of a bomb placed on a motorcycle.

Security forces largely freed Buner from the control of Taliban militants three years ago.

District police chief Jehanzeb Khan told AFP news agency a suicide bomber had blown himself up in front of Mr Khan's vehicle, killing the politician and his guards.

Up to five people were also injured in the attack, he said.

According to Pakistan's Express Tribune, Mr Khan was a former ANP leader who had recently joined the Qaumi Watan Party.

Mr Khan was also the head of a local tribal anti-Taliban force.

Facebook flaw bypasses password protections

Facebook has moved quickly to shut down a loophole which made some accounts accessible without a password.

The bug was exposed in a message posted to the Hacker News website.

The message contained a search string that, when used on Google, returned a list of links to 1.32 million Facebook accounts.

In some cases clicking on a link logged in to that account without the need for a password. All the links exposed the email addresses of Facebook users.
Throwaway account

The message posted to Hacker News used a search syntax that exposed a system used by Facebook that lets users quickly log back in to their account.

Email alerts about status updates and notifications often contain a link that lets a user of the social network respond quickly by clicking it to log in in to their account.

In a comment added to the Hacker News message, Facebook security engineer Matt Jones said the links were typically only sent to the email addresses of account holders. Links sent in this way can only be clicked once.

Egyptian Copts await new pope to succeed Shenouda III

Egypt's Coptic Christians will learn the name of their new pope on Sunday, when a blindfolded child selects the name of one of three candidates.

Two bishops and a monk are on the shortlist to become the 118th leader of the largest Christian minority in the Middle East, about 8 million strong.

The individual chosen will succeed Pope Shenouda III, who died in March.

Attacks on Copts are on the increase, and many Copts say they are afraid of the governing Muslim Brotherhood party.

Pope Shenouda, who led the church for four decades, had urged officials to do more to address Copts' concerns.

The shortlisted candidates are Bishop Raphael, Bishop Tawadros and Father Raphael Ava Mina. They were chosen in a ballot by a council of some 2,400 Church and community officials in October.

Their names will be written on pieces of paper and placed in a box on the altar of St Mark's Cathedral in Cairo.

A blindfolded boy will then be asked to draw out one of the names. Copts say this process ensures the selection is in God's hands.