Michael Jackson dies

Michael Jackson has died after suffering a suspected heart attack.

Emergency services were called to the 50-year-old singer's Holmby Hills home in Los Angeles and he was taken to the UCLA medical centre.

The King of Pop was pronounced dead at 2.26pm Pacific time (10.26pm BST) and a post-mortem examination is expected to take place later today, the Los Angeles Coroner's Office spokesman Fred Corral has said.

Jackson was about to embark on a comeback tour - This Is It, including 50 dates in London, which aimed to resurrect his fortunes.

Close friend Uri Geller said: "I guess the stress, the anticipation and the passion he was emitting from his heart, wanting to do this comeback so badly, maybe that got to him.

"That is all I can think, that maybe the stress killed him."

He described Jackson, who was best man when Geller renewed his wedding vows, as a "genius".

He said: "I'm shocked and devastated. I am hoping this is a dream I will wake up from, but it is not. Michael is dead.

"For him not to be around, that he's gone, is just surreal. It cannot sink into my psyche. He was a genius.

"I had my rows and up and downs with him because we were friends. I voiced my opinion about what he was doing wrong and found myself shouting at him at certain times, but when this person you were so close to is taken away, is gone, it's just unbelievable."

The Rev Al Sharpton, a leading US civil rights campaigner and friend of Jackson for 35 years, said the star was a "trailblazer" and a "historic figure".

"Michael Jackson made culture accept a person of colour way before Tiger Woods, way before Oprah Winfrey, way before Barack Obama," he said.

"Michael did with music what they did in sports, in politics, and in television

"No controversy will erase the historic impact.

"He learned how to sing and dance past unfair criticism, he learned how to sing and dance and be creative against his worst critics, he learned how to create even beyond his own shortcomings.

"He knew he had shortcomings, but he knew how to build his strengths and use his strengths to help people around the world.

"Michael Jackson was a trailblazer, to say an icon would only give these young people in Harlem a fraction of what he was.

"He was a historic figure that people will measure music and the industry by.

"He has sold more single products than any other artist and no one could drag him down for that."

Jackson last toured 12 years ago when he played 82 shows in 58 cities for the HIStory tour.

At the World Music Awards in London in November 2006 he performed just a few lines from We Are The World.

Jackson has three children, Michael Joseph Jackson Junior, Paris Michael Katherine Jackson and Prince "Blanket" Michael Jackson II.