Britney charged with hit-and-run

LOS ANGELES – Pop star Britney Spears was charged on Friday with hit and run and driving without a valid licence, a spokesman with the Los Angeles City Attorney’s Office said.

The 25-year-old singer was charged with one count of hit and run causing property damage and one count of driving without a valid California driver’s licence, both misdemeanors. The charges, which each carry a maximum penalty of six months in jail and a $1 000 fine, stem from an incident in a private parking lot in the San Fernando Valley on August 6.Spears is accused of hitting a parked car and driving away.The victim filed an accident report on August 9 at the North Hollywood Community Police Station.The city attorney’s office did not know whether Spears’ car had been damaged, nor did he know the extent of damage to the other car, spokesman Frank Mateljan said.He also did not know who else, if anyone, was in the car with Spears.Representatives for the singer were not immediately available for comment.Spears was sent a letter on Friday, notifying her of the charges.A hearing, which Spears does not have to attend because the charges are misdemeanors, is set for October 10, Mateljan said.Earlier this month, the singer, who shot to stardom in the late 1990s as a pop princess, delivered what was considered a disappointing performance of her new single ‘Gimme More’ at the MTV Video Music Awards.Spears’ professional life has been overshadowed by her personal crises, which have become constant fodder for supermarket tabloids.-Nampa-Reuters’Time for action’ * UNITED NATIONS – Rising global temperatures that are melting the Arctic and expanding the oceans have now drawn more than 80 world leaders to the UN podium for an unprecedented summit yesterday on how to combat climate change.Protesters arrested * ISLAMABAD – Riot police arrested dozens of opposition activists protesting against President General Pervez Musharraf as Pakistan’s Supreme Court dismissed three legal challenges to his re-election bid.Somali sackings * MOGADISHU – Somalia’s attorney general ordered the firing of the head of the country’s Supreme Court, and the prime minister responded by firing the attorney general, revealing further divisions in a government struggling to assert control and put down an insurgency.Nampa-APThe charges, which each carry a maximum penalty of six months in jail and a $1 000 fine, stem from an incident in a private parking lot in the San Fernando Valley on August 6.Spears is accused of hitting a parked car and driving away.The victim filed an accident report on August 9 at the North Hollywood Community Police Station.The city attorney’s office did not know whether Spears’ car had been damaged, nor did he know the extent of damage to the other car, spokesman Frank Mateljan said.He also did not know who else, if anyone, was in the car with Spears.Representatives for the singer were not immediately available for comment.Spears was sent a letter on Friday, notifying her of the charges.A hearing, which Spears does not have to attend because the charges are misdemeanors, is set for October 10, Mateljan said.Earlier this month, the singer, who shot to stardom in the late 1990s as a pop princess, delivered what was considered a disappointing performance of her new single ‘Gimme More’ at the MTV Video Music Awards.Spears’ professional life has been overshadowed by her personal crises, which have become constant fodder for supermarket tabloids. -Nampa-Reuters’Time for action’ * UNITED NATIONS – Rising global temperatures that are melting the Arctic and expanding the oceans have now drawn more than 80 world leaders to the UN podium for an unprecedented summit yesterday on how to combat climate change.Protesters arrested * ISLAMABAD – Riot police arrested dozens of opposition activists protesting against President General Pervez Musharraf as Pakistan’s Supreme Court dismissed three legal challenges to his re-election bid. Somali sackings * MOGADISHU – Somalia’s attorney general ordered the firing of the head of the country’s Supreme Court, and the prime minister responded by firing the attorney general, revealing further divisions in a government struggling to assert control and put down an insurgency.Nampa-AP