WASHINGTON (Reuters) – George Jones, a classic country singer with a voice full of raw honky-tonk emotion and a life full of honky-tonk turmoil, died on Friday at the age of 81, his spokesman said.

Jones, whose career spanned more than six decades and included hits such as “He Stopped Loving Her Today” and “Window Up Above,” died at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

WASHINGTON, April 26 (Reuters) – George Jones, a classic
country singer with a voice full of raw honky-tonk emotion and a
life full of honky-tonk turmoil, died on Friday at the age of
81, his spokesman said.

Jones, whose career spanned more than six decades and
included hits such as “He Stopped Loving Her Today” and “Window
Up Above,” died at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Dennis Rodman, the former NBA star known more for his body piercings and tattoos than international diplomacy skills, said on Sunday he returned from North Korea with a message from its leader Kim Jong-un for President Barack Obama – “call me.”

Rodman appeared on ABC’s “This Week” program a few days after an unlikely meeting with Kim in the North Korea capital Pyongyang, where Rodman was working on a documentary about basketball.

Nov 23 (Reuters) – Larry Hagman, who created one of American
television’s most supreme villains in the conniving, amoral
oilman J.R. Ewing of “Dallas,” died on Friday, the Dallas
Morning News reported. He was 81.

Hagman died at a Dallas hospital of complications from his
battle with throat cancer, the newspaper said, quoting a
statement from his family. He had suffered from liver cancer and
cirrhosis of the liver in the 1990s after decades of drinking.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Twinkie is as American as apple pie.

The quintessential junk food treat – a cream-filled, 150-calorie sponge cake – has been called the “cream puff of the proletariat” and the “snack with a snack in the middle.” It faces extinction now that its maker, Hostess Brands, announced plans to liquidate amid a dispute with striking bakers.

Here are some facts about Twinkies:

* James A. Dewar, a manager for the Continental Baking Co, came up with the idea in 1930 after seeing the machines that made shortcakes with strawberry filling sit idle at the bakery when strawberries were out of season. He injected the elongated sponge cake with banana filling – vanilla would be used later – and called it a Twinkie after seeing a billboard for the Twinkle Toe Shoe Company. Dewar, who died in 1985 at age 88, said he ate at least two packets of Twinkies a week.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The sex scandal that forced CIA Director David Petraeus to resign has generated bizarre plot twists. Another top general exchanged what have been described as “inappropriate emails” with a key figure in the scandal; both generals were drawn into an ugly child custody battle; and a shirtless FBI agent leaked a report to a congressman. Here are the key players in the story:

DAVID PETRAEUS

Petraeus, 60, had an affair with his biographer Paula Broadwell, that started in late 2011 and ended about four months ago, according to those close to Petraeus. Ambitious, intellectual and possessor of a steel will, he ended a 37-year Army career in 2011 as a four-star general and one of the most highly regarded soldiers of his time. As commander of multi-national forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, he was credited with turning around U.S. fortunes in both wars. He was chosen to head the Central Intelligence Agency despite previous tactical disagreements with President Barack Obama. He survived prostate cancer, being shot in a training accident and a parachute malfunction that resulted in a broken pelvis. Media savvy and articulate, he was seen by some as a possible presidential candidate.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The sex scandal that forced CIA Director David Petraeus to resign has generated bizarre plot twists. Another top general exchanged what have been described as “inappropriate emails” with a key figure in the scandal; both generals were drawn into an ugly child custody battle; and a shirtless FBI agent leaked a report to a congressman. Here are the key players in the story:

DAVID PETRAEUS

Petraeus, 60, had an affair with his biographer Paula Broadwell, that started in late 2011 and ended about four months ago, according to those close to Petraeus. Ambitious, intellectual and possessor of a steel will, he ended a 37-year Army career in 2011 as a four-star general and one of the most highly regarded soldiers of his time. As commander of multi-national forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, he was credited with turning around U.S. fortunes in both wars. He was chosen to head the Central Intelligence Agency despite previous tactical disagreements with President Barack Obama. He survived prostate cancer, being shot in a training accident and a parachute malfunction that resulted in a broken pelvis. Media savvy and articulate, he was seen by some as a possible presidential candidate.

WASHINGTON, Oct 10 (Reuters) – Alex Karras, a hulking giant
with a puckish personality who starred on the football field for
the Detroit Lions and later in the television sitcom “Webster,”
died on Wednesday at the age of 77, his attorney said.

Karras had been suffering from kidney failure and dementia.

Earlier this year, Karras joined a class-action suit by
former National Football League players who said the NFL did not
do enough to protect them from head injuries. The suit said he
had sustained repeated head trauma.

July 31 (Reuters) – Writer Gore Vidal, who filled his
intellectual works with acerbic observations on politics, sex
and American culture while carrying on feuds with his big-name
literary rivals, died on Tuesday at the age of 86, Los Angeles
Times reported.

“Vidal died Tuesday at his home in the Hollywood Hills of
complications of pneumonia,” the newspaper said, quoting the
author’s nephew Burr Steers.

By Bill Trott and Jane Sutton

(Reuters) – Actor Andy Griffith, whose portrayal of a small-town sheriff made “The Andy Griffith Show” one of television’s most enduring programs, died on Tuesday at his North Carolina home at age 86.

Griffith died at about 7 a.m. at his home on Roanoke Island, Dare County Sheriff J.D. Doughtie said.