The list is compiled using data from independent and chain bookstores, book wholesalers and independent distributors nationwide.

Hardcover Fiction Last Week

1. "The 12th of Never" by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro (Little, Brown,

$27.99) 18

2. "The Hit" by David Baldacci (Grand Central, $27.99) 1

3. "Whiskey Beach" by Nora Roberts (Putnam, $27.95) 2

4. "Daddy's Gone a Hunting" by Mary Higgins Clark (Simon & Schuster, $26.99) 4

5. "Fly Away" by Kristin Hannah (St. Martin's, $27.99) 3

6. "NOS4A2" by Joe Hill (William Morrow, $28.99) -

7. "Best Kept Secret" by Jeffrey Archer (St. Martin's, $27.99) -

8. "Paris: The Novel" by Edward Rutherfurd (Doubleday, $32.50) 5

9. "Gone Girl" by Gillian Flynn (Crown, $25.00) 9

10. "Life After Life" by Kate Atkinson (L,B/Reagan Arthur, 27.99) 10

Hardcover Non-fiction

1. "Waiting to Be Heard" by Amanda Knox (Harper, $28.99) -

2. "Lean In" bySheryl Sandberg (Knopf, $24.95) 4

3. "Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls" by David Sedaris (Little Brown, $27.00) 1

4. "The Duck Commander Family" by Willie & Korie Robertson (Howard Books, $23.99) 7

5. "Cooked" by Michael Pollan (Penguin, $27.95) 6

6. "It's All Good" by Gwyneth Paltrow (Grand Central, $32.00) 9

7. "Life Code" by Dr. Phil McGraw (Bird Street Books, $26.00) 11

8. "Jumpstart to Skinny" by Bob Harper (Ballantine, $25.00) 5

9. "Bunker Hill" by Nathaniel Philbrick (Viking, $32.95) -

10. "The Reality-Based Rules of the Workplace" by Cy Wakeman (Jossey-Bass, $27.95) -

Week ended May 5, 2013, powered by Nielsen BookScan (c) 2013 The Nielsen Company.

(Editing by Chris Michaud and Eric Beech)

Republican Rep. Mike Turner of Ohio and Democratic Rep. Niki Tsongas of Massachusetts plan to introduce the bill on Wednesday. A version of the measure is likely to be included in the sweeping defense policy bill that the House considers this summer.

The legislation comes just a day after the Pentagon estimated that up to 26,000 military members may have been sexually assaulted last year but fewer than 3,400 reported the incident.

Lawmakers have been outraged after an Air Force officer overturned the conviction in a sexual assault case.

The Associated Press obtained an advance copy of the legislation.

The first stage is an 81-mile leg that will follow a circuit in downtown Naples.

''It would be a dream to take the pink jersey in the first stage,'' Cavendish said. ''It's just incredible to ride the Giro. It's one of maybe two races I insist on doing each year. I also have a place in Italy, so it's kind of like my home tour.''

Cavendish has won 10 stages in the Giro and worn the leader's pink jersey twice, including when his former team Columbia won the opening team time trial in 2009. But taking the lead with an individual win would be different.

The last time the Giro opened with a regular-length sprint stage came 10 years ago, when Alessandro Petacchi edged out Mario Cipollini in Lecce. The last time there was a sprint in Naples was when Cipollini won before 200,000 fans in 1996.

Other contenders include Matthew Goss of Australia, John Degenkolb of Germany and Italian trio Daniele Bennati, Manuel Belletti and Sacha Modolo.

''Straight out the door and we're into a 130-kilometer road race,'' Goss said. ''Sometimes it's nice to have a prologue, because you get yourself in the rhythm, you get your body used to racing that intensely. Saturday is going to be a straight into it. But I look forward to it. You get a good opportunity to take the jersey.''

Cavendish is also aiming for the red-points jersey.

''My goal is to win at least a stage,'' Cavendish said. ''Hopefully a jersey comes from that. The riders who go in to hunt for jerseys are more the attacking riders like (Peter) Sagan. For me, I have to rely on winning stages to get jerseys.''

However, Sagan isn't riding the Giro.

The Naples course features two mild climbs in the Posillipo neighborhood and several loops down the finishing straight alongside the bay.

''It's quite straight forward and it's going to be a sprint,'' Cavendish said. ''Of course, there are a lot of corners and cobblestones that can make it a little more challenging. But I think it should be OK.''

Traffic will be banned in the car-clogged Naples city center, with the only exception for wedding brides.

The second stage Sunday is a team time trial on the nearby island of Ischia.

The race ends May 26 in Brescia.

Cooper has written an emotionally layered story about the frustrating effects of the disease on both patient and caregiver, which opened Tuesday night off-Broadway, in a well-done Transport Group production at the Duke on 42nd Street.

Joe Calarco's direction keeps the two actors moving naturally around the stage, and helps the audience figure out what year the Alzheimer's patient may think it is. Calarco also connects the audience to the dark humor that Cooper finds even in despairing moments.

The book and lyrics by Cooper are enveloped in moodily dissonant music by Zach Redler that reflects the mental confusion of dementia. That dissonance, combined with the way the lyrics are often spoken rather than sung, also mirrors how frequently upset the pair of characters can become with each other.Vadim Feichtner, who conducts a trio of musicians while playing the piano, provides subtle and effective musical direction.

The patient known only as Mother, (a brave performance by Catherine Cox) opens with a comical number about how annoying doctors can be, constantly asking her who the president is. Then Daughter (Leslie Kritzer) lists the contents of her suitcase for the audience mostly clothing but concludes with, "and a sense of impending doom." At age 31, she's put her life on hold to move back home to care for her mother, and soon they're arguing about who's made the greater sacrifice.

The characters are contentious, and both try to persuade the audience to take their side, when they're not arguing and getting on each other's nerves in the way that only family can.Cox is slightly manic as Mother, who knows she's forgetting things and often confused, but attributes it to "a calcium deficiency." Yet Cox wears a hint of melancholy behind her gleeful smile, creating a complex portrayal of a woman who's always been emotionally "difficult" and now finds her past disappearing during a very confusing present.

Kritzer is grounded and wry as the Daughter who patiently at first navigates the difficulties of caring for her confused yet combative mother. Kritzer becomes more openly irritable as her character wearies of her mother's impaired thought processes and prickly barbs.

Aside from a humorous but unnecessary number that Kritzer sings to the toilet she's cleaning, Cooper is strikingly accurate and sensitive in her depiction of words and actions that will be familiar to anyone who's seen the effects of Alzheimer's disease in a friend or relative. In the affecting song, "Memory Like an Elephant,"Cox sings "I can't remember half the things I know I used to know." At another time, Mother says reflectively, "It's full of emptiness, this place."

Brian Prather's scenic design and Chris Lee's lighting work harmoniously, especially when family photos lining a hallway light up, then fade away like Mother's disappearing memories. In the metaphor-laden number "Apple and Tree," Cooper provides a wrenching examination of how even a loving mother and daughter can remain embattled, with lines like, "The closer two are/The more unforgiving/So we fight and we spar/That's the cost of living."

___

Online: http://transportgroup.org

In the Syrian civil war's latest alleged mass killing, activists said Friday that regime troops and gunmen from nearby Alawite areas beat, stabbed and shot at least 50 people in the Sunni Muslim village of Bayda.

The slayings highlighted in the starkest terms the sectarian overtones of a conflict that has already killed more than 70,000 people. Details of the killings came to light as the Obama administration said it was again weighing whether to arm the rebels.

Syria's 2-year-old crisis has largely broken along sectarian lines: the Sunni majority forms the backbone of the rebellion, while President Bashar Assad's minority Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shiite Islam, anchors the regime's security services and military officer corps. Other minorities, such as Christians, largely support Assad or stand on the sidelines, worried that the regime's fall would bring about a more Islamist rule.

The killings in Bayda fall against this backdrop. Tucked in the mountains outside the Mediterranean coastal city of Banias, the village is predominantly Sunni but is located in the Alawite ancestral heartland centered in the rugged region along the sea.

Activists say fighting broke out in Bayda early Thursday and that at least six government troops were killed. Syrian forces backed by Alawite gunmen known as shabiha from the surrounding area returned in the afternoon and stormed the village, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The gunmen torched homes and used knives, guns and blunt objects to kill people in the streets, the group said. It added that it has documented the names of at least 50 dead in Bayda, but that dozens of villagers are still missing and the death toll could rise to as high as 100.

Amateur video showed the bodies of at least seven men and boys lying in pools of blood on the pavement in front of a house as women wept around them.

"Don't sleep, don't move," one woman sobbed, leaning over to touch one of the men, who appeared already dead. A woman also is heard wailing, "Where are you, people of the village?"

The video appears genuine and consistent with reporting by The Associated Press from the area.

Syria's state news agency said late Thursday that the army conducted a raid in Bayda, killing several "terrorists" the term it uses for those trying to oust Assad and seizing machine guns, automatic rifles and other weapons.

Syrian troops were still in Bayda on Friday, conducting house-to-house searches, according to the Observatory's director, Rami Abdul-Rahman. He added that phone and Internet service to the village was cut, making it impossible to verify the final death toll or pin down more details on what happened.

The Observatory also reported clashes and government shelling of Sunni areas of Banias on Friday.

If confirmed, the bloodshed in Bayda would be the latest in a series of alleged mass killings in the civil war. Last month, activists said government troops killed more than 100 people as they seized two rebel-held suburbs of Damascus.

The violence in Bayda bears a closer resemblance to two reported mass killings last year in Houla and Qubeir, Sunni villages surrounded by Alawite towns. Some activists said the Houla and Qubeir carnage, which they blame on regime forces and shabiha, was aimed at driving Sunnis from areas near main routes to the coast to ensure Alawite control.

Months of bloodshed have sharpened the divide and unleashed sectarian hatred. The violence has ripped apart communities and brought a bloody end to decades of coexistence. Retaliatory kidnappings and killings have surged.

That raises the prospect of Syria taking the same path as neighboring Iraq, where violence in 2006 and 2007 effectively turned into a kind of sectarian cleansing as Sunnis and Shiites fled the bloodletting by rival militias to the relative safety of their own communities. Lingering animosity has helped fuel renewed violence along those fault lines in recent weeks between Sunnis and Shiites in Iraq.

In what amounted to little more than a symbolic protest, rebels in Syria fired rockets at the village of Qardaha, the hometown of Assad's father, the Observatory said. There were no reports of casualties.

The main Western-backed opposition group, the Syrian National Coalition, condemned what it called "a large-scale massacre in Bayda," and urged the international community to act to protect Syrian civilians.

"It is time for the world to intervene and put an end to the grievous crimes of the Assad regime," the Cairo-based group said in a statement.

While the U.S. and its European allies have backed the opposition, they have been reluctant to provide those fighting Assad's troops with weapons that could challenge the regime's superior firepower. They fear the arms could end up in the hands of radical Islamic groups, such as the al-Qaida-affiliated Jabhat al-Nusra, that in the past year have become the most effective fighting force on the opposition's side.

On Thursday, U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said Washington is rethinking its opposition to arming the rebels amid growing indications that the Assad regime has used chemical weapons something President Barack Obama has called a "red line."

The U.S. has said intelligence indicates Syria has used the nerve agent sarin on at least two occasions, but Obama has stressed that he needs more definitive proof before making a decision about how to respond and whether to take military action. Damascus denies using chemical arms, and says the opposition is trying to frame it.

Obama said Thursday his administration was proceeding cautiously as it looked at options to ensure that what it does is helpful to the situation rather than making it more deadly or complex.

The Syrian crisis started with largely peaceful protests of Assad's rule in March 2011, but shifted into an armed insurgency as opposition supporters took up weapons to fight a harsh regime crackdown on dissent.

The conflict has laid waste to cities and towns, forced more than 1 million Syrians to seek refuge in neighboring countries such as Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey, and displaced millions more inside Syria.

Syria's state news agency said mortars fired at the Damascus International Airport struck a kerosene tank and a commercial aircraft, causing significant material damage. It said the airport was functioning normally, although many airlines no longer fly into the Syrian capital because of the conflict.

___

Associated Press writer Barbara Surk contributed to this report.

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain said it expects to appoint lead bank advisers for a possible stock market listing of Royal Mail Group by the end of May, as it pushes on with plans to privatise the firm.

In what would be one of the most significant privatisations of a British asset since John Major's Conservative government sold the railways in the 1990s, Business Minister Michael Fallon said on Monday a listing is the preferred method of sale for government and that investor feedback so far had been positive.

An initial public offering (IPO) of the group, which has around 150,000 staff and sales of 9.5 billion pounds, is expected to take place this autumn, with British media reports valuing it at between 2 and 3 billion pounds.

In a speech to the Policy Exchange, Fallon said Royal Mail would also soon begin exploring access to debt market capital.

Momentum behind privatising Royal Mail has increased since government took on its hefty pension deficit last year and the firm received regulatory approval to rise some stamp prices. It says it needs access to external capital for future investment.

The group posted half-year operating profit of 144 million pounds in November, up from 12 million pounds a year before, after reshaping the company towards a growing parcels market and away from declining letter volumes.

Included in a sale will be a 10 percent stake reserved for Royal Mail workers, in what would be the largest employee share scheme for 25 years, the government said. It has yet to clarify if shares would be free or at a discounted price.

The Communication Workers Union (CWU), which represents 120,000 Royal Mail workers, has fiercely opposed government's privatisation plans, fearing it would lead to a break-up of the company, job losses and worse terms and conditions.

Last December Royal Mail, which has shed around 50,000 staff in the last decade, enlisted Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Goldman Sachs to work alongside Barclays as its financial advisers. UBS has been advising the government.

(Editing by Louise Heavens)

(Reuters) - Times are changing for gays in American sports and National Basketball Association (NBA) player Jason Collins' decision to come out will encourage others in the top leagues to be open about their sexuality.

Two years ago, NBA great Kobe Bryant was fined $100,000 for using an anti-gay slur against a referee and on Monday the five-time NBA champion applauded Collins for coming out as the first gay man in a major North American professional sports league.

Bryant's reaction illustrates, at the very least, the shift in what is considered acceptable language and behavior in U.S. professional sports, the days when insulting others by using a reference to homosexuality are coming to a close.

Indeed Collins's very public coming out via the front cover of Sports Illustrated magazine was greeted with a stream of supportive comments from within professional sports in the United States with only the slightest hint of any dissent.

Mike Wallace, a wide receiver with the National Football League's Miami Dolphins, tweeted his incomprehension that any male could prefer to be in a relationship with a man rather than a woman but was soon on the back foot.

"All these beautiful women in the world and guys wanna mess with other guys, SMH (Shaking My Head)," Wallace tweeted before deleting the message and apologizing for any offense caused.

Wallace's reaction was not dissimilar to that of San Francisco 49ers quarterback Chris Culliver who made headlines before this year's Super Bowl by saying he would not welcome a gay player into the team's locker room.

Culliver spent a pre-Super Bowl media session with scores of television cameras pointed in his face as he repeated his apology for an hour.

Whether it is a genuine change of attitude towards gays, reflected in several surveys of U.S. public attitudes, or a an understanding that homophobia is no longer acceptable, there is no doubt that professional sports are turning away from intolerance of gays.

In many ways, sports are simply catching up with so much of American society where homophobic comments are unacceptable in the workplace and no one would even think to ask if gays would be accepted in the office.

'MOVEMENT COMING'

The question now is whether Collins's move - and the widespread support for him - will lead to athletes from other leagues following suit.

"I feel a movement coming," Robbie Rogers, the former U.S. national team soccer player who came out in February, tweeted on Monday shortly after Collins's announcement.

Gay rights and anti-discrimination groups certainly believe that Collins is making things easier for those who will come.

"All of us have huge admiration for what Jason is doing," said Patrick Burke, co-founder of equal rights advocacy group You Can Play.

"Jason's courage in stepping forward with his personal story will provide athletes and fans with a new role model."

Campaigners hope that Collins's move will help break down any fear that non-open gays may still have.

"We hope his actions inspire confidence in others who might have been afraid to live their lives openly until now - both on and off the court," said NOH8 Campaign co-founders Adam Bouska and Jeff Parshley.

Collins, in his Sports Illustrated article on Monday, cited his frustration at not being able to participate openly in the debate about same-sex marriage and that is a reminder that the issue of homosexuality in the sports arena does not exist in a vacuum.

Sociologist Brian Powell at Indiana University Bloomington believes that what follows in sport now may follow a similar pattern to how the debate on marriage has unfolded.

"I don't think there will be a huge number of people coming out but there will be a probably a steady stream of people coming out, not unlike what happened last month when politicians came out in favor of same-sex marriage," he told Reuters.

"One day one person did and the next day another. I think the same will happen - it will be slower but there will be an increased number of players coming out."

The next generation of professional athletes in the United States are currently playing in college sports and Powell believes they will bring with them a fresh attitude.

"What I hear, with college athletes, is the real question for them is whether or not their team mates do their job. Competence and ability to play comes before anything else," he said.

"The more athletes publicly come out, the more other athletes are going to be comfortable with this, simply because they can then stop thinking of it in terms of the person's sexuality and focus on their performance."

(Reporting by Simon Evans in Miami; Editing by Frank Pingue)

Northern Irishman McDowell sealed the win with a regulation two-putt par at the first extra hole, the 18th, where Simpson three-putted for bogey after missing the green to the right with his approach.

Using a putter for his third shot from 33 feet, Simpson narrowly missed the left edge of the cup with his birdie attempt, his ball ending up six feet beyond the hole after being blown by a sudden gust.

After former U.S. Open champion McDowell left his birdie putt from 13 feet inches short and right before tapping in for a four, Simpson missed his par putt and sank to his knees in anguish.

"I'm just disappointed for Webb," a gracious McDowell told CBS television in a greenside interview after emerging triumphant on a day when ocean winds gusted up to 40 mph across Harbour Town Golf Links.

"He hit a great first putt there on this playoff hole and he got a terrible gust of wind. That's kind of the way it was today. It was really tricky and gusty. I am just really happy to get my first official (regular) PGA Tour win across the line."

McDowell clinched his maiden PGA Tour victory at the 2010 U.S. Open, maintaining his composure in tough scoring conditions at a wind-buffeted Pebble Beach to end a 40-year title drought by Europeans in the year's second major.

"I played nicely, I played nicely all week," said the 33-year-old McDowell, a seven-times winner on the European Tour. "It's a great golf course here.

"I sat down with (2010 Heritage champion) Jim Furyk on Tuesday ... and he said, 'You're never out of this tournament. You've just got to hang around and hang around.'

"And I did that. I played great Friday. The putter was cold most of the week but I really got it going today."

The pair had finished the 72 regulation holes on nine-under-par 275, McDowell three-putting to bogey the last for a two-under 69 and Simpson closing with a 71.

SIZZLING START

English world number six Luke Donald, who made a sizzling start with four birdies in the first six holes, lost momentum after the turn on the way to a 69, finishing joint third at seven under with American Kevin Streelman (72).

Overnight leader Charley Hoffman limped home in five-over 40, a closing 77 dropping him back into a three-way tie for sixth at five under.

The final round was always going to be difficult as strong winds gusted through the tree-lined layout but Simpson made a fast start with two early birdies, a 10-footer at the par-four third putting him a tie for the lead with Hoffman at 11 under.

American Hoffman briefly dropped back with a bogey at the fourth, where he missed the green with his approach, but then benefited from a two-shot swing at the par-five fifth.

While Simpson bogeyed the hole after finding a fairway bunker off the tee and the right rough with his second shot, Hoffman rolled in a 12-foot birdie putt there to edge a stroke in front at 11 under.

As howling winds swept across the course, the long-haired Hoffman bogeyed the sixth after driving into trees but he reached the turn with a one-shot lead, Simpson having missed a six-foot par putt at the eighth.

Within the space of a few minutes early on the back nine, three players ended up in a tie at the top of the leaderboard.

McDowell, who had drained a 28-foot birdie putt at the 11th, coolly sank a 20-footer for par at the 13th to remain at nine under and bogey-free for the round.

Level with the Northern Irishman were Hoffman, who bogeyed the par-four 12th after finding a bunker with his approach and splashing out 16 feet beyond the hole, and Simpson, who sank a four-footer there for birdie.

Hoffman's title challenge effectively ended when he double-bogeyed the par-three 14th after dumping his tee shot into water before McDowell went ahead for the first time with his birdie at the 16th.

Though McDowell made his only bogey of the day at the par-four 18th, where he ran his approach putt from just off the back of the green 12 feet past the cup, he coolly clinched the title on the first extra hole.

(Reporting by Mark Lamport-Stokes in Los Angeles; Editing by Steve Keating and Gene Cherry)

The rusted landing gear piece is believed to be from one of two hijacked airliners that decimated the twin towers in 2001, exploding with fiery debris and killing thousands of people.

On Saturday, yellow police tape blocked access to a metal door that leads to the hidden alley behind 51 Park Place.

The chief medical examiner's spokeswoman, Ellen Borakove, said the area first will be tested as part of a standard health and safety evaluation for possible toxicity. She said sifting for human remains is to begin Tuesday morning.

Retired fire department deputy chief Jim Riches, who lost his son in the terror attack, visited the site on Saturday. He said the latest news left him feeling "upset."

"The finding of this landing gear," he said, "just goes to show that we need federal people in here to do a comprehensive, full search of lower Manhattan to make sure that we don't get any more surprises," as happened in 2007 when body parts were discovered in nearby sewers and manhole covers.

Of the nearly 3,000 victims, Riches noted, about 1,000 families have never recovered any remains.

The New York Police Department has declared the alley, between the mosque site and a luxury loft rental building, a crime scene where nothing may be disturbed until the medical examiner's office completes its work. It's unclear how long that may take, Borakove said.

The piece of wreckage was discovered Wednesday by surveyors inspecting the planned Islamic community center, known as Park51, on behalf of the building's owner, police said.

The landing gear was wedged between the back walls of the apartment building and the mosque, which once prompted virulent national debate about Islam and free speech.

An inspector on the mosque site's roof noticed the debris, which includes a clearly visible Boeing Co. identification number, police spokesman Paul Browne said.

Chicago-based Boeing spokesman John Dern could not confirm whether the ID matched the American Airlines plane or the United Airlines plane hijacked by Islamic extremists on Sept. 11, 2001. He said Boeing has been asked to take part in the examination of images of the airplane part by the National Transportation Safety Board, which is providing assistance to New York authorities overseeing the probe.

The twisted metal part jammed in an 18-inch-wide, trash-laden passageway between the buildings has cables and levers on it and is about 5 feet high, 17 inches wide and 4 feet long, police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said Friday.

"It's a manifestation of a horrific terrorist act a block and a half away from where we stand," he said after visiting the alley.

The commissioner noted that a piece of rope intertwined with the part looks like a broken pulley that may have come down from the roof of the Islamic community center.

When plans for the center became public in 2010, opponents said they didn't want a mosque so close to where Islamic extremists attacked, but supporters said the center would promote harmony between Muslims and followers of other faiths.

The building includes a Muslim prayer space that has been open for three years. After protests died down, the center hosted its first exhibit last year. The space remains under renovation.

___

AP radio correspondent Julie Walker and AP reporter Jennifer Peltz contributed to this report.

After a monthlong search for a jury, six men and six women were seated to hear what could be an emotional three-month trial that will revisit the checkered life and 2009 death of the "King of Pop" on the cusp of a planned comeback.

Three alternate jurors still have to be chosen, clearing the way for opening statements to begin possibly later this week or early next week.

Jackson's elderly mother, Katherine, is suing AEG Live, the promoters of the never-realized series of 2009 London concerts, for the wrongful death of her son. The lawsuit alleges AEG Live was negligent in hiring Dr. Conrad Murray to care for the singer while he rehearsed for a series of 50 shows.

AEG Live contends that it did not hire or supervise Murray and claims that Jackson had prescription drug and addiction problems for years before entering into any agreement with it for the "This Is it" London concerts.

The concert promoters also argue that they could not have foreseen that Murray, who was convicted of Jackson's involuntary manslaughter in 2011, posed a danger to the singer.

Potential witnesses in the civil trial include Jackson's mother, his two oldest children Prince, 16, and Paris, 15, as well as Murray, singers Prince and Diana Ross, and Jackson's ex-wives, Lisa-Marie Presley and Debbie Rowe.

Katherine Jackson and her son's three children are seeking some $40 billion in damages from privately held AEG Live for loss of the singer's earnings and other damages. The final amount will be determined by the jury should it find AEG responsible for negligence.

Murray, who is not being sued, was convicted after a long trial that depicted the singer known for his spectacular public shows as an odd, sometimes slurring, drug-dependent shadow of his on-stage image.

Jackson, 50, died in Los Angeles on June 25, 2009, from a lethal dose of the surgical anesthetic propofol that Murray was administering for sleep problems. The day before he had been in final rehearsals for the concerts due to start on July 13.

A judge ruled last month that AEG Live could raise Jackson's 2005 trial and acquittal on child molestation charges as part of its defense as it may be relevant to the singer's history of drug abuse and despondency.

(Reporting By Jill Serjeant; Editing by Bill Trott)