Singer Zykina Dead at 80

Lyudmila Zykina, a folk singer whose fans included Leonid Brezhnev and Charlie Chaplin, died of heart failure in Moscow on Wednesday, RIA-Novosti reported. She was 80.

Zykina, who turned 80 on June 10, suffered a heart attack on June 25 and was in the hospital, the report said.

Zykina's career began when she joined the well-known Pyatnitsky Choir in 1947. She started performing solo in 1960 and was said to be a favorite of Brezhnev. Her admirers also included Charlie Chaplin, Indira Gandhi, Charles de Gaulle and Marc Chagall, RIA-Novosti said. She toured the Soviet Union four times and sang in 92 countries.

Zykina was fond of saying, "I am the happiest person because I have experienced everything in my life." (MT)

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2 Narcotics Officers Die

The bodies of two drug enforcement officers were discovered Wednesday in the basement of a Federal Drug Control Service office in western Moscow, Interfax reported.

It said the two men, aged 24 and 30, might have died of an overdose. (MT)

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Boy Named Michael Jackson

A Novosibirsk mother has decided to name her son Michael Jackson in memory of the pop star, Life.ru reported Wednesday.

Yevgenia Shalenko, 29, gave birth to Michael Shalenko-Jackson last Thursday, the day of Jackson's death.

"My son's birthday is both the happiest and the saddest day of my life, because the first thing I learned after recovering from labor was that Jackson had died," Shalenko told Life.ru. (MT)