Mr Clark, who was aged 82, died after a heart attack yesterday. He both produced and presented a string of programmes that included the likes of American Bandstand and the annual special on New Year’s Eve that he was perhaps most famous for.

Ryan Seacrest, who assumed the duties of the host of the New Year’s Eve special after Dick became ill, called his predecessor one of the biggest influences in his life. In 2004, Clark suffered a stroke, which led to Seacrest becoming host of the much celebrated Dick Clark’s Rockin’ New Year’s Eve.

Seacrest told of how he idolised Dick from the very start of his own interest in entertainment and was graced by the veteran’s advice and counsel when he was just starting out in television. Seacrest explained that when he joined Dick’s show in 2006, a dream-come-true was finally realised.

Clark was the host and producer of the music programme American Bandstand over a 30 year period that spanned from 1957 to 1987. In each episode, groups of teenagers could be seen dancing to top 40 tracks, with a star guest performer singing their latest hit at some point of the broadcast.

Due to his youthful appearance, the astute businessman and producer was commonly referred to as “the world’s oldest teenager”. President Obama told of his sadness over Clark’s passing, adding that American Bandstand had seen the introduction of several decades’ worth of music to America viewers.

The Casual Vacancy will be released in hardback on 27 September while e-books and audio downloads will also be available. Rowling commented at a press conference that the freedom to venture into new territory has been a product of the success of the Harry Potter series she created.

The Casual Vacancy centres on the passing of Barry Fairweather, an event which shocks the villagers of Pagford. Rowling’s publisher, Little, Brown & Co said in a press release that Pagford seems like a typical English idyll with its cobbled market square and ancient abbey yet what lies behind its pretty facade is a village at war.

The tale as been described as blackly comic and thought-provoking yet also constantly surprising. Speaking at the red carper premiere of the last Potter movie in 2011, Rowling told reporters that the release of the movie marked the beginning of a completely new writing direction for her before adding that she had numerous projects in the pipeline.

As over 450 million copies of the seven Potter books were sold worldwide, author Rowling is among the richest novelists of all time. When the final novel of the series went on sale almost five years ago, thousands of copies were snapped up in minutes.

Laura Johnson, aged 20 and of Orpington in south-east London, previously denied her charges and claimed that she had been acting under duress. While at Inner London Crown Court, Miss Johnson, a student, also had herself convicted of handling a TV looted from Currys – although she did not steal it herself.

The judge warned Johnson, who was cleared of a charge of stealing and handling both cigarettes and alcohol from a BP garage, to expect jail time. Her co-defendant, who is a 17-year-old male who can’t be named yet for legal reasons, may have been cleared of one burglary but was convicted of another.

Addressing the two defendants, Judge Patricia Lees commented that they had been convicts of incredibly serious offences that appear worse than usual considering they were committed during a time of civil unrest in the UK capital London during last summer. The court was told that University of Exeter student Johnson is extremely intelligent and well-educated by solicitors representing her.

The millionaire’s daughter explained her fear of refusing to join Emmanuel Okubote – aged 20 and a convicted dealer of the harmful drug crack cocaine dealer referred to by his nickname, T-Man – on a cross-city mission of theft.

The former Saturday Night Live star made an appearance on talk show Conan as 1970’s character Ron Burgundy, a San Diego newscaster, to make the announcement. Steve Carrell will feature in the sequel too, which will be released this year. The original film took £57.2m overall at box offices worldwide and saw Christina Applegate star as a female challenger to Burgundy’s position as a ruler of a male-dominated newsroom.

Thus far plot details of Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy’s sequel are yet to be written. What is known though is that Ferrell will again co-write with the original’s director.

Ferrel said during his in-costume appearance on Wednesday night that he wished to announce to everyone in the Americas, Spain, Turkey and Britain – including England – that Paramount Pictures and himself have managed to come to terms on making an Anchorman sequel.

Ferrel also gave a performance on a jazz flute as the outlandish character, Burgundy. In the eight years following the release of the original film, Anchorman stars such as Carell have had their careers blossom through the success of a string of box office hits.

Aged 23, Mohammed Merah, who claimed to have received al-Qaeda training, started opening fire on police commandos as they stormed their way into his apartment at around 09:30 GMT. French prosecutors say that the young man, of Algerian origin, was killed by a single shot to the head upon attempting to flee.

Merah was the man behind three separate attacks, in total killing four Jewish citizens at a Hebrew school as well as three soldiers. The main factors behind Merah’s attacks were “avenging Palestinian children” and protesting against French army intervention overseas.

Prosecutor Francois Molins spoke at a news conference to confirm that a trained marksman employed by Toulouse’s police force had killed Merah when the suspect tried to make his way out of his apartment via a bathroom window. An official examination of Merah’s corpse revealed that he had a bullet-proof vest under his clothing and was carrying a gun on his person while another firearm was found next to his dead body.

On the 23-year-old’s balcony, Molis explained, the materials needed to put together Molotov cocktails were discovered.  Callously, Merah filmed each one of the three attacks he carried out. While the French government wanted Merah to be captured alive so that he could face prosecution for his crimes, it was decided that too many lives had already been put at risk.

Detectives assigned to Operation Twist believe that the burglaries are linked and that thieves are travelling to rural Cambridgeshire as they believe they can commit offences without detection. Amazingly, 115 burglaries have been called in around the Huntingdonshire area since last November, while South Cambridgeshire is not too far behind with 113.

Jon McAdam, a Detective Inspector leading Cambridgeshire Police’s Operation Twist, was speaking at a media conference when he explained that, ever since November, rural villages in South Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire have been subjected to increased amounts of thefts, with investigators believing that each one of the crimes are linked.

Operation Twist is to see increased patrols across rural villages while Cambridgeshire Police’s investigators carry out forensic work to target whoever is responsible.

McAdam insisted that residents in these areas should not be alarmed when seeing policemen on foot in their villages, as the officers are there to guarantee the safety of householders and their homes only.

According to detectives, most homes have been robbed during the day as thieves break in through the rear. Anyone looking at which contents insurance can get a household insurance quote at www.contents-insurance.co.uk.

Her book is to be published across the map, although neither a date nor a title has been released thus far. Rowling pointed out that the huge success of the Harry Potter series gave her the gift of now being able to explore new territory.

In total, seven Potter books were published. Between them, they sold over 450 million copies worldwide. The novels, about a boy wizard, were a phenomenon and eight blockbuster films set on them took billions of pounds at the box office while making its actors, such as Daniel Radcliffe, into A-List celebrities.

When Rowling released the last installment of the fantasy series in 2007, hundreds of thousands of copies sold in a matter of minutes. While Bloomsbury published all of the Potter books, Rowling has decided to use a new publisher, Little Brown, for the debut she will make in adult fiction due to how different to wizardry the subject matter will be in her new novel.

Little Brown’s David Shelley commented that his company is thrilled, honoured, and incredibly proud to be the publisher of the Scot’s latest novel – even going as far to say that it is a dream come true for him to actually be working with such a big name as JK Rowling, an author whose work he and millions of others have admired so much over the years.

An official takedown notice now on the site warns visitors who have downloaded music from RnBXclusive.com that they could be slapped with 10 years in jail and an unlimited fine. The Serious Organised Crime Agency said that the music already posted up on the site was wrongfully stolen from the artists that created it and might have damaged promising careers.

A male has been arrested on fraud charges, police told the press. In its statement, Soca explained that it will continue to target any organised criminal enterprise that makes profits through exploiting the British public or legitimate businesses. The agency added that the music offered by the site for download was obtained from artists through illegal means, leading the music industry to incur losses of around £15m a year as a result of the site’s activity.

Some industry observers believe that the action comes as a fresh sign that UK authorities will be stepping up their efforts to eradicate online piracy. Loz Kaye, the leader of Pirate Party, voiced his concerns over how the site was closed down, calling the explicit threats made to the site’s visitors alarming.

RnBXclusive.com’s Twitter and Facebook accounts remain accessible although the links posted on the services are obviously now inactive due to the main site’s takedown. On Facebook, some of the website’s former users reacted angrily in response to the closure, with others telling of worries over possible jail time for the music they have downloaded.

A motorbike that was covered in explosives smashed into the police station, which is located in Tumaco city centre. Police officials say that Colombia’s left-wing Farc was behind the attack, which was meant to takeout General Jorge Nieto Rojas – the region’s police commander. Thankfully, he came out unscathed.

As drug trafficking gangs battle it out with leftist rebels in the fight for all-out control of lucrative Pacific Coast smuggling routes, Tumaco is a place of lawlessness and is regarded as one of the most dangerous places in Colombia. Last year, Farc guerrillas killed 10 soldiers in what was 2011’s deadliest attack. Before that, in July, over a dozen prisoners were able to get out of the main city jail as a result of Farc rebels blowing a hole in the perimeter wall.

Although active since the 1960s, the Marxist-inspired Farc movement has been weakened by successful military offensives and the murders of two top leaders. Despite this, the organisation continues to raise cash via the illegal drugs trade and can carry out attacks against the Colombian government at any given time.

The woman wasn’t aware of the fact that she was carrying such an amount of children and hadn’t received fertility treatment. Medical experts say that the mother turned up at her nearest hospital on Monday before giving birth to three of each sex in what was her first-ever pregnancy.

Doctors say that giving birth to six children without any fertility treatment is remarkably rare. As has been well documented, Afghanistan is near the top of the list of countries with the highest maternal and infant mortality rate. Known as Sharah, aged 24, the mother arrived at Mazar-e-Sharif hospital after having travelled a vast distance from her remote village in the heart of Balkh province.

Provincial Health Director Mr Mirwais Rabi spoke to foreign news reporters and told of how each one of the six babies are doing well but are under-weight. Mr Rabi said that the sextuplets are being kept inside incubators while a specially-appointed team of doctors and nurses are looking after them.

Sharah is reported to be healthy but exhausted. Doctors have insisted that had they already known the mother was carrying six babies, her presence at their hospital would have been requested several days in advance. Understandably, the story has been a media sensation in Afghanistan.