Fans Gather at Prince’s Home One Year After His Death

Fans are marking the anniversary of U.S. musician Prince’s sudden death from an accidental drug overdose with visits to his Paisley Park home, which has been turned into a museum.

The museum is hosting a four-day event that includes concert performances by Prince’s former band-mates and panel discussions.

It was a year ago Friday that the pop legend was found dead at Paisley Park, a recording complex outside Minneapolis, Minnesota, where Prince lived and created his music.

Fans come to grieve

Fans who came to the complex Friday included Mary Adams, who drove six hours from Kansas City, Missouri, with her 10-year-old daughter.

“I needed to come here. This is where it began. I needed to pay homage to the star,” she said.

Adams said Prince had a profound impact on her life.

“Prince is the person that helped me decide that is was OK to be me, because that’s who he was. And he did it his way, his music, his style,” she added.

Minneapolis landmarks in purple

Fans are also holding a street party Saturday outside First Avenue, the club Prince made famous in Purple Rain, the title track of his breakthrough 1984 album and movie.

Landmarks around Minneapolis are being lighted in purple for two nights in tribute to Prince, while the Minnesota History Center is holding a special exhibit of Prince memorabilia.

The anniversary was supposed to be celebrated by the release of new Prince music. However, a Minnesota district court this week issued a temporary injunction barring the release of the six-song EP Deliverance after Prince’s estate filed a lawsuit claiming the works were stolen by his former sound engineer.

Prince’s commercial legacy continues to be surrounded in controversy. The pop star died without a will or children, and dozens of people came forward after his death, claiming they were heirs.

Musical legacy

Prince died at 57 from an accidental overdose of powerful painkillers he was secretly using to ease the pain of hip surgery.

Prince was 19 when he released his first album, For You, in 1978. In the decades that followed, the multi-talented musician released 1999, Little Red Corvette and Purple Rain.

He sold more than 100 million albums worldwide, won seven Grammys and picked up an Oscar for Best Original Song score for Purple Rain. He was also inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2004.

Rhonda Soso said Friday that she came from California to Paisley Park “just to be a part of the purple family, the purple army, just be a part of just his spirit, just his energy.”

“It’s just still so difficult accepting that he’s no longer here,” she added.

(Photo courtesy of Bobak Ha'Eri.)

American Music Legend Prince Dead at 57

American pop icon Prince has died at the age of 57.

Media reports said he was found dead early Thursday at his home in Minneapolis, Minnesota.  Details have not been released.

​​Born Prince Rogers Nelson, the multi-talented and influential musician is known for such songs as "1999," "Little Red Corvette," and "Purple Rain," the title track of his breakthrough 1984 album and movie.

He sold more than 100 million albums worldwide, won seven Grammys and picked up an Oscar for Best Original Song score for "Purple Rain."

Prince was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2004. 

"He rewrote the rulebook, forging a synthesis of black funk and white rock that served as a blueprint for cutting-edge music in the Eighties," said a posting on the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame website. "Prince made dance music that rocked and rock music that had a bristling, funky backbone."

Musicians, artists and fans took to Twitter express their shock and sadness at the news of Prince's death. "Numb. Stunned. This can't be real," Pop star Justin Timberlake wrote. 

Televison footage has been showing a small group of fans gathering outside his Paisley Park studio.

Who was Prince?

Born: Prince Rogers Nelson, named after Prince Roger Trio, a jazz band his father performed with

When: June 7, 1958

Where: Minneapolis, Minnesota

Died: April 21, at his home in Paisley Park, a Minneapolis suburb

Aliases: Briefly used others names, including an unpronounceable symbol O(+>, which led to him often being referred to as "the artist formerly known as Prince"

Debut album: For You, 1978

Several hit albums and songs, including: albums 1999 and Purple Rain, which was later made into a movie, Sign O' the Times, The Black Album; songs Little Red Corvette, Kiss, Raspberry Beret, Emancipation and When Doves Cry

Career: Sold more than 100 million records, won seven Grammy awards, inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2004, performed during 2007 Super Bowl XLI halftime show

Known for: His songs and albums often created controversy for their sexually charged lyrics

Photo by Penner: Prince at Coachella 2008

Mikhail Lesin, Russian Media Tycoon, Ex-Putin Aide, Found Dead in DC Hotel

A Russian media magnate and former aide to Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin has been found dead in a hotel room in the U.S. capital.

American and Russian authorities are both trying to determine what caused the death of 57-year-old Mikhail Lesin, a former Russian Cabinet minister and a founder of the international media company RT, originally known as Russia Today.

President Putin mourned Lesin Saturday, saying he made great contributions to "modern Russian mass media."

RT's English-language service said Lesin died of a heart attack.

The Russian embassy in Washington confirmed Lesin's identity.

Official roles

He had served as Russian press minister from 1999 to 2004 and was presidential media adviser from 2004 to 2009. He also was a senior executive at Gazprom-Media, Russia's largest media holding company, from 2013-2014.

Washington police declined to release any details beyond confirming that they were investigating a man's death in a hotel in the capital city's fashionable Dupont Circle neighborhood.

ABC News reported that U.S. Senator Robin Wicker, a Republican from Mississippi, had called last year for a probe of Lesin on suspicion of money laundering and corruption.

In a letter to the U.S. attorney general, Wicker accused Lesin of acquiring "multimillion-dollar assets" in Europe and the United States while serving as a Russian government minister.

Wicker said the assets included $28 million worth of real estate in Los Angeles.

Ethiopian Leader Meles Dies at 57

Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi has died at the age of 57, after months of speculation about his health.

State television announced his death Tuesday, saying he died from a sudden infection late Monday at a hospital abroad.

Government spokesman Bereket Simon would not say where Mr. Meles died, or disclose the illness that led to his hospitalization.

“The prime minister had been sick for quite a while,” he said. “And he was attending medical support in, somewhere in, ah, abroad. And he had some chance in recuperating. But ultimately some infection happened to him and doctors couldn't control that infection.”

Mr. Meles had not been seen in public for nearly two months before his death.

Spokesman Bereket said Deputy Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn will serve as acting prime minister.

He said Mr. Meles' body will arrive Tuesday in Ethiopia, and officials are making plans for the funeral.

Prime Minister Meles ruled his country for more than 20 years, after the rebel alliance he led, the EPRDF (Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front), seized power in 1991.

Mr. Meles earned praise abroad for improvements in the economy, education and health care. But human rights groups sharply criticized him for various abuses, including restrictions on independent media.

Under Mr. Meles, Ethiopia fought a border war with Eritrea and sent troops to Somalia to fight Islamist militants.

Ethiopia and Eritrea fought from 1998 to 2000 in a conflict that killed more than 70,000 people. Tension between the two countries remained high.

Mr. Meles was also known as an ally to the United States against terrorism.

In 2006, Ethiopian troops entered Somalia to fight Islamist militants allegedly armed and trained by the Eritrean government. Ethiopian forces returned to Somalia last year in a multi-nation offensive against militant group al-Shabab.

Mr. Meles' most serious political challenge came in the 2005 elections, when opposition parties said the government rigged to results to cheat them of victory. Nearly 200 people died in post-election violence and protests.

In the most recent elections in 2010, the EPRDF and its allies took all but one seat in parliament, sparking new accusations of fraud.

The criticism increased in recent years as Ethiopian courts jailed journalists and political activists under an anti-terrorism law that rights groups said was overly vague and broad.

Mr. Meles was born in the northern Ethiopian town of Adwa in 1955. He attended Addis Ababa University for two years before joining the Tigrayan Peoples' Liberation Front, or TPLF, one of several groups that was fighting the government of Mengistu Hailemariam. The TPLF later became the core group within the EPRDF.

After taking power in 1991, Mr. Meles served as president for four years before assuming the prime minister's post in 1995.

(Photo by Monika Flueckiger, 2012.)

Poland’s Former Deputy PM Lepper Dead at 57

Authorities in Poland say former deputy prime minister Andrzej Lepper has been found dead and that it appears he committed suicide. He was 57.

Police say Lepper's body was found in his Warsaw office Friday and that everything indicates he killed himself. A police spokesman is quoted as saying authorities have ruled out the involvement of third parties.

A former pig farmer, Lepper was a member of the populist Self-Defense Party, which became a junior partner in a conservative nationalist government that held power from 2006 until 2007. He served as deputy prime minister and agriculture minister in that government, which was led for most of its short tenure by then-Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski.

Lepper was removed from his posts after he was linked to a corruption investigation.

Last year, Lepper was found guilty of demanding sexual favors from female members of his party and was handed a jail sentence against which he appealed.

Photo: Leader of Samoobrona, Andrzej Lepper in 2002. (Photographer: Błażej Pajda)