Asteroid named after Queen singer Mercury

Asteroid named after Queen singer Mercury

LONDON

Queen guitarist Brian May says an asteroid in Jupiter’s orbit has been named after the band’s late frontman Freddie Mercury on what would have been his 70th birthday.

May says the International Astronomical Union’s Minor Planet Centre has designated an asteroid discovered in 1991, the year of Mercury’s death, as “Asteroid 17473 Freddiemercury.”

May, who has a doctorate in astrophysics from Imperial College, London, says the newly named asteroid is “just a dot of light, but it’s a very special dot of light” and recognizes Mercury’s musical and performing talents.

Mercury, born Sept. 5, 1946, wrote and performed hits including “Bohemian Rhapsody” and “We Are The Champions” with Queen, releasing over a dozen studio albums between 1973 and 1991.

Cosby may get trial date at evidence hearing

PHILADELPHIA

The shape of Bill Cosby’s felony sexual assault trial could become clearer at a hearing today when his lawyers fight to keep out key evidence, including nearly 1,000 pages of damaging testimony he gave in the accuser’s lawsuit.

Cosby, 79, is charged with drugging and molesting a woman he mentored at Temple University in 2004.

His lawyers will ask a suburban Philadelphia judge to suppress testimony from the 2005 lawsuit, when accuser Andrea Constand said she was left semi-conscious and Cosby said he was “not stopped.”

And they want to bar jurors from hearing a taped phone call between Cosby and Constand’s mother, when the long-beloved celebrity and morals champion fears he will sound like “a dirty old man with a young girl.”

The criminal charges were filed in December, months after Cosby’s testimony in the woman’s lawsuit was unsealed and a new prosecutor reopened the case.

Defense lawyers argue that Cosby was promised he would never be charged, so he felt free to testify in Constand’s lawsuit.

Hugh O’Brian, TV’s Wyatt Earp, dies at 91

LOS ANGELES

Hugh O’Brian, who shot to fame as Sheriff Wyatt Earp in what was hailed as television’s first adult Western, has died. He was 91.

A representative from HOBY, a philanthropic organization O’Brian founded, says he died at home Monday in Beverly Hills.

“Wyatt Earp” was based on a real-life Western hero, and some of its stories were authentic. It made O’Brian a star.

After that show left the air in 1961, O’Brian continued to work in movies, television and theater through the 1990s.

He also made his mark in philanthropy in 1958 as founder of the Hugh O’Brian Youth Leadership organization, which continues to bring together promising high school students for leadership seminars.

Associated Press