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Known for his lightning-fast riffs, Paul performed with some of early pop's biggest names and produced a slew of hits, many with wife Mary Ford. But it was his inventive streak that made him universally revered by guitar gods as their original ancestor and earned his induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as one of the most important forces in popular music.

Paul, who died in White Plains, N.Y., of complications from pneumonia, was a tireless tinkerer, whose quest for a particular sound led him to create the first solid-body electric guitar, a departure from the hollow-body guitars of the time. His invention paved the way for modern rock 'n' roll and became the standard instrument for legends like Pete Townshend and Jimmy Page.

He also developed technology that would become hallmarks of rock and pop recordings, from multitrack recording that allowed for layers and layers of "overdubs" to guitar reverb and other sound effects.

"He was truly the cornerstone of popular music," said Henry Juskiewicz, chairman and CEO of Gibson Guitar, which mass produced Paul's original invention. "He was a futurist, and unlike some futurists who write about it and predict things, he was a guy who actually did things."

Paul remained an active performer until his last months: He put out his very first rock album just four years ago, and up until recently played every week at a New York jazz club.

The news of his death prompted an outpouring of tributes from the music world.

"Les lived a very long life and he got to a lot of his goals, so I'm happy for him in that respect. ... At least he realized that he was a legend in his own time while he was alive," said Richie Sambora, Bon Jovi's guitarist and a friend of Paul's, on Thursday. "He was revolutionary in the music business."

Said Kiss' Paul Stanley: "The name Les Paul is iconic and is known by aspiring and virtuoso guitar players worldwide. That guitar is the cornerstone of a lot of great music that has been made in the last 50 years."

A musician since childhood, he experimented with guitar amplification for years before coming up in 1941 with what he called "The Log," a 4-by-4 piece of wood strung with steel strings.

"I went into a nightclub and played it. Of course, everybody had me labeled as a nut." He later put the wooden wings onto the body to give it a traditional guitar shape.

The use of electric guitar gained popularity in the mid-to-late 1940s.

Leo Fender's Broadcaster was the first mass-produced solid body electric on the market in the late 1940s.

Gibson solicited Paul to create a prototype for a guitar, and began production on the Les Paul guitar in 1952. Townshend of the Who, Steve Howe of Yes, jazz great Al DiMeola and Led Zeppelin's Page all made the Gibson Les Paul their trademark six-string.

The Les Paul series has become one of the most widely used guitars in the music industry. In 2005, Christie's auction house sold a 1955 Gibson Les Paul for $45,600.

Paul was born Lester William Polfuss, in Waukesha, Wis., on June 9, 1915. He began his career as a musician, billing himself as Red Hot Red or Rhubarb Red. He toured with the popular Chicago band Rube Tronson and His Texas Cowboys and led the house band on WJJD radio in Chicago.

In the mid-1930s he joined Fred Waring's Pennsylvanians and soon moved to New York to form the Les Paul Trio, with Jim Atkins and bassist Ernie Newton.

Paul started out as an accompanist, working with key artists until he struck out on his own. His first records were released in 1944 on Decca Records. Later, with Ford, his wife from 1949 to 1962, he earned 36 gold records for hits including "Vaya Con Dios" and "How High the Moon," which both hit No. 1.

He had met Ford, then known as Colleen Summers, in the 1940s while working as a studio musician in Los Angeles. For seven years in the 1950s, Paul and Ford broadcast a TV show from their home in Mahwah, N.J. (Ford died in 1977, 15 years after they divorced).

Paul had made his first attempt at audio amplification at age 13. Unhappy with the amount of volume produced by his acoustic guitar, he tried placing a telephone receiver under the strings. Although this worked to some extent, only two strings were amplified and the volume level was still too low.

By placing a phonograph needle in the guitar, all six strings were amplified, which proved to be much louder. Paul was playing a working prototype of the electric guitar in 1929.

His work on recording techniques began in the years after World War II, when Bing Crosby gave him a tape recorder. Drawing on his earlier experimentation with his homemade recording machine, Paul added an additional playback head to the recorder. The result was a delayed effect that became known as tape echo.

Tape echo gave the recording a more "live" feel and enabled the user to simulate different playing environments.

Paul's next "crazy idea" was to stack together eight mono tape machines and send their outputs to one piece of tape, stacking the recording heads on top of each other. The resulting machine served as the forerunner to today's multitrack recorders. Many of his songs with Ford used overdubbing techniques that Paul had helped develop.

"I could take my Mary and make her three, six, nine, 12, as many voices as I wished," he recalled. "This is quite an asset." The overdubbing technique was highly influential on later recording artists such as the Carpenters.

Paul's use of multitrack recording was unique: Before he did it, most recordings were made on a single tape. By recording each element separately, from the vocals to instrumentation on different tracks, they could be mixed and layered, adding to the richness in sound.

"In the old days, if you only had one track, you put a microphone in the middle of the music and hope for the best," Juskiewicz said.

In 1954, Paul commissioned the first eight-track tape recorder, later known as "Sel-Sync," in which a recording head could simultaneously record a new track and play back previous ones.

In the late 1960s, Paul retired from music to concentrate on his inventions. His interest in country music was rekindled in the mid-'70s and he teamed with Chet Atkins for two albums. The duo were awarded a Grammy for best country instrumental performance of 1976 for their "Chester and Lester" album.

In 2005, he released the Grammy-winning "Les Paul & Friends: American Made, World Played," his first album of new material since those 1970s recordings and his first official rock CD. Among those playing with him: Peter Frampton, Jeff Beck, Eric Clapton and Richie Sambora.

"They're not only my friends, but they're great players," Paul told The Associated Press. "I never stop being amazed by all the different ways of playing the guitar and making it deliver a message."

Paul was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2005.

Court Public Information Officer Allan Parachini says Katherine Jackson has arrived at a courthouse in downtown Los Angeles. Mrs. Jackson and her son's ex-wife Deborah Rowe struck an agreement last week that calls for Mrs. Jackson to receive custody of the singer's children.

A hearing on guardianship of the children, who range in age from 7 to 12, is scheduled Monday. A judge could grant Mrs. Jackson permanent custody of the children, who have been living at her home north of Los Angeles since her son's death on June 25.

Over the past 18 months work to build an extension to house historic cars has been carried out at Bexhill Museum.

Visitors to the attraction will be able to see a world-record holding battery-powered car and a replica of a record breaking steam vehicle.

The first British car races are said to have been held in the town in 1902.

The museum says each of its motoring exhibits has links to Bexhill and its motoring history.

'Does heritage justice'

The collection features the battery-powered Project Volta car, which was built by local school children and set a world record for its weight class of almost 107mph in 1993.

Also on display is a replica of the 1902 Serpollet vehicle that set a set a world land speed record at the turn of the 20th century, just weeks before winning the Bexhill speed trials.

The new extension also features a Elva MKIII car that was built in the town in 1958 and recently restored after being found in Yorkshire.

Peter Fairhurst, of the Society of Bexhill Museums', said: "This project has been 10 years and £2million in the making. Finally Bexhill has a museum that does its heritage justice."

The work was funded by Rother District Council, the Heritage Lottery Fund and the Society of Bexhill Museums.

Councillor Deirdre Williams said: "We are thrilled after so much hard work the museum is finally about to open.

"Residents and visitors will be given unrivalled access to the town's history in a stunning new environment."

Not only Philippines, Afghanistan and other danger countries have bomb problems. Here in Spain a police officers died in the explosion of bomb where around 60 people were wounded. They blame the ETA group who is responsible of bombing in Spain. The report said that this is the second attack of the ETA in less than 36 hours. But it needs and investegation since there said that it cause of a bomb attack an or someone inside the police station made the explosion.

An explosion on the Spanish resort island of Mallorca killed two police officers Thursday and authorities blocked all outgoing flights and ships from leaving as part of a manhunt.

The bombing, blamed on Basque separatist group ETA, targeted a police vehicle. It was the second attack linked to ETA in less than 36 hours. A powerful car bomb Wednesday destroyed a police barracks in the northern Spanish city of Burgos, injuring about 60 people.

If confirmed as ETA attacks, the blasts would conflict with government assertions that the group is seriously weakened after major police crackdowns in Spain and France in recent years.

The 50th anniversary of ETA's founding is Friday and the group may be trying to demonstrate with attacks on the two consecutive days before the milestone that it was not in any danger of breaking up.

Thursday's victims belonged to the paramilitary Civil Guard, which is chiefly in charge of policing rural areas and guarding official buildings. Mallorca is one of Spain's top tourist destinations and the explosion occurred at the height of the summer holiday season.

Television images showed the charred and mangled remains of a vehicle that had been parked on a street in the Palmanova beach resort area, southwest of the island's capital, Palma de Mallorca.

The cause of the explosion was under investigation. News reports said the explosion may have been caused by a bomb attached to the underside of a police patrol vehicle.

"State security forces have sealed off the island to avoid the escape of the terrorists," a regional Interior Ministry statement said.

"This means that all exit routes via the port, the airport and the sports marinas of Mallorca are closed." Incoming flights and ferries were not affected.

The blast occurred shortly before 2 p.m. (1200 GMT, 8 a.m. EDT). The Interior Ministry said several people were injured but none was in serious condition.

ETA is now blamed for nine attacks this year. The group has killed more than 825 people since it launched a violent campaign in 1968 for an independent homeland in Basque region of northern Spain. The group was founded July 31, 1959.

ETA did not phone in a warning before the Burgos attack as it typically does before most attacks, so authorities had no time to evacuate the 14-story building.

There were around 120 people in the barracks and surrounding buildings, a third of them children, at the time of the early morning blast.

The interior minister said the van had false license plates and had probably been stolen in France.

Spain has vowed to crush the separatist group since ETA ended what it had said was a permanent cease-fire with a bombing that destroyed a Madrid airport parking garage and killed two people in 2006.

Top seed and Wimbledon champion Serena was made to work hard by China's Li Na before progressing 6-3 7-6.

Second seed Venus had a more comfortable passage through, cruising past Canadian Stephanie Dubois 6-2 6-3.

"It was a great match to get my rhythm, hit a lot of balls and work on my shots," Venus, who won here in 2000 and 2002, told reporters. "It's all about the mentality. I usually adjust pretty quickly. I do want to try new and different things."

The older Williams sister has a superb record in the tournament, reaching the final in six of her seven appearances in the Stanford University hard-court event.

Meanwhile, defending champion Aleksandra Wozniak has gone out, losing 6-4 4-6 7-5 to Daniela Hantuchova of Slovakia in a marathon match that lasted two hours and 33 minutes.

A BBC reporter in the city says the Islamists, known locally as the "Taliban", are shooting at anyone approaching their stronghold.

The military says it has killed three militants trying to join the group.

The security forces have been told to use all necessary means to end the unrest, which has killed at least 100.

Sporadic fighting has been reported throughout the day in Maiduguri, with gunshots being heard and plumes of smoke rising from buildings.

"Fighting is still raging on in the heart of the city, where these men are burning places," a police officer told the AFP news agency.

Witnesses said dozens of corpses - mostly of militants - were still strewn around the city's police headquarters, which was the target of Monday's attacks.

Nigeria's 'Taliban' enigma Eyewitness: Nigeria attacks Fear and tension after attack

The militants are occupying an area near Maiduguri's railway station which includes shops, schools and the home of their leader Mohammed Yusuf.

Also in the area are the mosque where he preaches and the headquarters of his group, known as Boko Haram, which translates as "Western education is prohibited".

Mr Yusuf says young people in the region are being corrupted by the West.

Although the group is also known locally as the "Taliban", they are not thought to have any links to the Afghan group.

It is not known how many people are inside the barricaded area.

The BBC's Caroline Duffield in Nigeria says armoured vehicles and soldiers are pouring into the city.

She says the militants are shooting indiscriminately at civilians and hundreds are fleeing the district.

Bodies piled up

The military has stepped up security in the north of the country following the clashes.

Soldiers set up road blocks and imposed dusk-to-dawn curfews in the worst affected areas of Yobe, Kano and Borno States.

Earlier the military said it had killed three members of Boko Haram, who they said were coming from Kano State to join the group in Maiduguri.

One of those killed is believed to be a senior member of Boko Haram in Kano.

In two days of violence, the militants staged attacks on police and government offices.

There have been reports of youths armed with machetes and guns killing police officers and civilians at random.

Eyewitnesses told the BBC that police stations were attacked and civilians pulled from their cars and shot dead.

Maiduguri, in Borno State, has seen the worst violence. The bodies of residents and militants have been piled outside the police station and in the streets.

A BBC reporter said there were about 100 corpses on Monday, and other witnesses said at least 30 bodies remained there on Tuesday.

Maiduguri police said 103 had died in the violence in the city, including 90 members of the Boko Haram, eight police officers, three prison officials and two soldiers.

Sharia law is in place across northern Nigeria, but there is no history of al-Qaeda-linked violence in the country.

The country's 150 million people are split almost equally between Muslims in the north and Christians in the south.

The industrial action will see more than 160,000 people stop work in claims for higher wages.

This is the latest in a series of challenges for South Africa's new President Jacob Zuma, who has called for understanding from workers.

There were violent demonstrations in several townships last week, during which some 200 people were arrested.

It is proving to be a cold and difficult winter for Jacob Zuma.

Just two months after taking power, he is facing South Africa's first recession since the end of apartheid.

Crowd-pleasing promises are proving hard to keep.

An early pledge to create 500,000 new jobs has already been retracted and demonstrations in the townships turned violent this month over long-held grievances about the delivery of services and housing.

As if that wasn't enough, this is strike season.

On Monday 150,000 municipal employees responsible for, among other things, rubbish collection and the city police will refuse to work after being denied a 15% wage increase.

A separate strike of transport workers will see most train and bus services grind to a halt.

Several other union say they're considering their options.

This is so sad, because of garbage which is very dry at the back try to build a small fire and then eat the house. Two places that have the same incident, A forensics officer starts to do search in order to gather mode evidence about the said situation. We should be very careful to our garbage. Since it maybe give a sad happenings when things go wrong, not easy to lost a house, no easy to start again. Not easy to feel that the product of our hard work will gone at a second.

Two houses in south Belfast have been damaged in separate suspected arson attacks, the police have said.

The kitchen of a house in Carmel Street was badly damaged after rubbish was set on fire near the back door on Saturday night.

The kitchen of another house on Rugby Avenue was also severely damaged in a fire on Sunday.

Both houses were unoccupied at the time of the fires.

Afghanistan will soon have democracy. Alexander help afghan fighting against Taliban so that people will have peace and have a democracy sooner. Douglas Alexander International Development Secretary head to the fight for Afghan peace and better life. Alexander see how pity is children and other family who do not have house and job as a source of income in order to live. Alexander said that the government in Afghanistan is strong while the Taliban are weak. This believe make him strong to fight for better Afghan future.

Mr Alexander is in Kabul where he announced £225m of backing for the Afghan government over four years.

Some of the money will be used to try to undermine the heroin trade by funding alternatives to poppy growing.

Mr Alexander said the UK was committed to securing a "stable and democratic future for the people of Afghanistan".

'Strong government'

The International Development Secretary said: "Tomorrow I will visit Helmand province to see for myself the amazing commitment of the British troops there. But overcoming the insurgency militarily is only part of the solution.

"A secure future for Afghanistan means a future free of poppy, with a self-sufficient agriculture sector and a strong government.

I represent a community... which has been severely damaged in the past by the effects of heroin Douglas Alexander International Development Secretary

"By putting a large proportion of our development support directly through Afghan government systems, we are ensuring that the results will be sustainable and driven by the needs of Afghans."

Opium poppies are grown in far fewer Afghan provinces than they were until only two years ago, and there have been successes in reducing the planting of poppies, even in Helmand.

BBC international development correspondent David Loyn in Kabul says much of the new British support will not go on traditional aid priorities such as schools and hospitals but on boosting the Afghan government's capacity to raise its own revenue.

'Vital work'

Mr Alexander said the importance of tackling poppy cultivation in Afghanistan came close to home.

"This is vital work. I represent a community in west-central Scotland which has been severely damaged in the past by the effects of heroin," he said.

"Either we confront opium production on the plains of Helmand or it will find its way onto the streets of Paisley, the community that I represent."

Mr Alexander added that building the Afghan government was as important as winning the war on the ground.

"Here in Afghanistan it is as vital that the government is strengthened as that the Taliban are weakened," he said.

Heavy gunfire and explosions were also heard near the main police station, attorney general's office, courts and a local bank branch, witnesses said.

There were reports of casualties, and the battle was said to be going on.

It comes amid a spike of violence ahead of elections on 20 August, and follows recent provincial attacks by Taliban.

City confusion

A senior security official at the Interior Ministry in Kabul told the BBC: ''Several suicide attackers have tried to enter the police chief's office in Khost province.

"Our forces are trying to stop them, there is a serious shoot-out between us and them."

Khost resident Mohammad Goal Jan described the confusion.

"I can hear a lot of gunshots and loud explosions from the police chief's office.

"Police and army have blocked the main roads. Khost city is empty. There is a lot of confusion at the moment.''

Rockets and guns

Defence Minister spokesman General Mohammed Zahir Azimi said the fighting was still going on.

"There are casualties but at this moment we don't know exactly how many people have been killed and injured," he was quoted by AFP news agency as saying.

"They are armed with AK-47s and rockets. They are surrounded in a building from where they resist."

In May, six people were killed when militants launched simultaneous assaults on government buildings in Khost.

Last week at least four security personnel were killed in attacks on Gardez, about 50 miles (80km) northwest of Khost, when militants attacked the police chief's office, a police station and the intelligence directorate, as well as the governor's compound.

Another security personnel died in an attack in eastern city of Jalalabad.