Ozzy Osbourne sues in NYC over Black Sabbath name Associated Press - May 29, 2009 8:47 PM PDT celebs: Ozzy Osbourne

FILE - This Sept. 25, 2007 file photo shows Ozzy Osbourne as he arrives at the Elton John AIDS Foundation's sixth annual benefit 'An Enduring Vision' at The Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York. Ozzy Osbourne has accused former Black Sabbath band mate Tony Iommi in a New York City court of taking over the heavy metal titans' name and costing him royalties from merchandise sales. (AP Photo/Evan Agostini, file)Associated Press
NEW YORK - Ozzy Osbourne has accused former Black Sabbath band mate Tony Iommi of taking over the heavy metal titans' name and costing him royalties from merchandise sales.
Osbourne, who sued the guitarist earlier this week, issued a statement Friday imploring him to "do the right thing."
"Tony, I am so sorry it's had to get to this point by me having to take this action against you," the singer-turned-reality show star said.
But, he added, "we've all worked too hard and long in our careers to allow you to sell merchandise that features all our faces, old Black Sabbath album covers and band logos, and then you tell us that you own the copyright."
Osbourne, who lives in California, filed suit Tuesday in a federal court in New York, saying Iommi falsely claimed to have sole rights to Black Sabbath's trademark in negotiations over the last year with a company that sells the band's merchandise. As a result, the lawsuit says, Osbourne has lost royalties formerly split 50/50.
The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages, lost profits and a declaration that Osbourne is a half-owner of the trademark.
Iommi's representative and lawyers who have represented him didn't immediately respond to telephone and e-mail messages late Friday.
Osbourne's lawsuit reads at times like liner notes to a greatest-hits album, describing the case as "a dispute concerning one of the most famous and valuable names in the history of rock and roll."
The band, known for its apocalyptic bent and such hits as "Iron Man" and "Paranoid," has sold more than 100 million albums worldwide and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. It made a star and a spectacle of Osbourne and his from-the-crypt howl before he was fired in 1979.
"To fans of heavy metal music," Osbourne's lawsuit says, "Ozzy has become synonymous with Black Sabbath."
But Iommi, considered one of heavy metal's guitar greats, noted in a separate lawsuit filed against the merchandise firm in December that he has been the only constant member in the English band's 41-year history. Court records show that lawsuit, which doesn't involve Osbourne, was settled Wednesday on undisclosed terms.
Iommi, who registered the Black Sabbath trademark in the U.S. in 2000, also said in the lawsuit that co-founders Osbourne, bassist Geezer Butler and drummer Bill Ward legally relinquished rights to the band's name in the 1980s.
Osbourne's lawyer disputed that in a January letter included with his lawsuit, saying that even if the singer did make such an agreement he took a major role in the band's direction and success after rejoining it in 1997.
Osbourne, who in recent years has appeared as the paterfamilias of an erratic clan on MTV's "The Osbournes," said in Friday's statement that he believes all four original members should share Black Sabbath's name equally.
"I hope," he said, "that by me taking this first step that it will ultimately end up that way."

A majority of General Motors bondholders have agreed to a debt for equity exchange

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A majority of General Motors bondholders have agreed to a debt-for-equity exchange, a source familiar with the voting said on Sunday, helping pave the way for a bankruptcy filing expected on Monday.
The bondholders completed voting on Saturday and slightly more that 50 percent agreed to the swap that would give them up to 25 percent ownership of a reorganized GM in exchange for $27 billion in debt, said the source.
A bankruptcy filing by GM would rank as the third-largest bankruptcy in U.S. history and the largest and most complex manufacturing bankruptcy ever.
GM has been losing market share since the early 1980s when it commanded 45 percent of the U.S. market. It has been hurt by its reliance on a truck-dominated vehicle line-up and by a deep plunge in demand as credit tightened in 2008.
Since last week, GM has been racing to complete a series of last-minute deals intended to help speed its way through a fast-track bankruptcy that would see it emerge under the majority ownership of the U.S. government.
Those deals have included a new contract for the United Auto Workers union and an agreement to spare GM's Opel brand from collapse in a deal brokered by the German government.
Bondholders have been one of the last pieces to fall into GM's complicated bankruptcy puzzle under the direction of the autos task force appointed by the White House and headed by former investment banker Steve Rattner.
In late March, the Obama administration put the automaker on 60-day notice to restructure and clinch concessionary deals with its union and bondholders.
The U.S. government has already pumped $19.4 billion in emergency funds into the Detroit-based automaker since the start of the year.
(Reporting by John Crawley, additional reporting by Poornima Gupta and Kevin Krolicki in Detroit; Editing by Tim Dobbyn)

Troops hunt Taliban as Pakistan says Victory near

Troops hunt Taliban as Pakistan says victory near
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AFP/File – Pakistani soldiers alight from a vehicle as they patrol Mingora in northwest Pakistan, May 27. Pakistan's …
by Lehaz Ali Lehaz Ali – 1 hr 43 mins ago
PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AFP) – Pakistan's defence secretary said Sunday that a month-long offensive to crush Taliban fighters in the northwest could end within days, as fierce fighting spilled into a nearby tribal area.
Swat valley's main town Mingora is back in government hands, the military announced late Saturday, and security officials said they were now pursuing the top leadership of the hardline Taliban movement into the nearby mountains.
Secretary of Defence Syed Athar Ali told a security forum in Singapore that three targeted northwest districts were almost clear of Taliban rebels.
"Operations in Swat, Buner and adjoining areas have almost met complete success," he said.
"Only five to ten percent of the job is remaining and hopefully within the next two to three days these pockets of resistance will be cleared."
The army remains locked in battle in some areas, but the fall of Mingora was a critical milestone in an offensive launched after the Taliban thrust to within 100 kilometres (60 miles) of Islamabad in April.
Pakistan's military also reported that 25 militants and seven soldiers were killed in clashes in South Waziristan near the Afghan border, a bolt-hole for Taliban and Al-Qaeda-linked militants south of the current army bombardment.
"Miscreants attacked a security forces checkpost last night (Saturday) in Spinkai Raghzai, South Waziristan agency. The attack was repulsed successfully, inflicting heavy casualties on militants," it said in a statement.
Fifteen militants and three soldiers died in the clash in Spinkai Raghzai, while elsewhere in the semi-autonomous tribal area 10 insurgents and four troops including a lieutenant died when rebels attacked a military convoy.
Civilians have started fleeing the area fearing a fresh military onslaught, but the army has denied an imminent assault on Waziristan, where militants branded by Washington as the greatest terror threat to the West are holed up.
The United States, which is firmly backing the current military drive, had warned that the rebels threaten Pakistan's very existence.
Officials have said that lower-ranking Taliban leaders had been killed but it was harder to get to the top leaders, who had a network of hardcore militants around them and had slipped into the rugged mountain terrain.
"They will be eliminated wherever we find them," said one military official, who did not wish to be named as he was not authorised to speak to the media, adding: "We believe that they are somewhere in the mountains."
Pakistan has slapped a 600,000-dollar price on the head of firebrand Swat Taliban commander Maulana Fazlullah for masterminding the nearly two-year uprising in the valley to enforce sharia law.
Fazlullah led thousands of supporters in a campaign that has beheaded opponents, burned schools and fought government troops since November 2007.
The government has also offered rewards for 21 rebel chiefs -- wanted dead or alive -- from Swat. The military claims to have killed 1,244 militants since the offensive began, although the numbers are impossible to verify.
As the government ups its campaign to stamp out the militants, fears are growing of a wave of revenge attacks.
The northwestern capital Peshawar and the eastern cultural centre of Lahore have both been rocked by deadly explosions in the last five days, killing a total of 39 people and wounding hundreds more.
A spokesman for Pakistan Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud -- who has a five-million-dollar bounty on his head posted by the United States -- has claimed Wednesday's suicide bombing on a police building in Lahore.
Hakimullah Mehsud also warned of more "massive attacks" to avenge the Swat military operation and in protest at Islamabad's ties with Washington.
Nearly 2.4 million people have fled the current offensive, and the military relaxed a curfew Sunday in most parts of the northwest including Mingora to allow people trapped on the roads to return home or leave the region.
Also Sunday, Taliban militants attacked a school in Hangu town south of Peshawar, killing one administrator and kidnapping three other people, local policeman Shoukat Hussain said.
In North Waziristan, meanwhile, a former government doctor and an Afghan national were killed by suspected militants, officials said.