Girl who called self 'Mrs. Bieber' dies of cancer

  Eyewitness NewsBOSTON -- The 6-year-old Massachusetts girl whose love for Justin Bieber encouraged hospital workers to organize a pretend wedding to the pop star as she battled a rare brain cancer has died.

The family of Avalanna Routh - who called herself Mrs. Bieber - said on their Twitter account that she died Wednesday.

Her pretend wedding to Bieber led to a social media campaign to help her meet the singer.

Bieber later arranged for girl to meet him in New York. He tweeted that the experience was inspiring and called it the best thing he's done.

Routh suffered from an atypical teratoid rhabdoid tumor. Only 30 new cases are diagnosed in the U.S. each year.

The Dana-Farber Cancer Institute says Routh raised awareness about the disease and the need for greater research.

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North Korean heir called "supreme leader"

  Eyewitness NewsPYONGYANG, North Korea -- North Korea on Saturday called Kim Jong Il's son "supreme leader" of the military, ramping up its campaign to install the young man as the next leader of the communist nation even as millions continued mourning his father.

In a late night dispatch, the official Korean Central News Agency said Kim Jong Un, the "supreme leader of the revolutionary armed forces" of the country, visited his father's bier with top military leaders and officials "and expressed profound condolences." It was a strong signal that the country will continue its policy of "songun," or military first.

North Korea earlier Saturday called Kim Jong Un "supreme commander" and continued emphasizing his bloodline and legacy in carrying out the Kim family's claim to lead and protect the North Korean people.

Kim Jong Un, who is in his late 20s and was unveiled last year as his father's choice as successor, will be the third generation Kim to rule the country since its inception in 1948.

The call to rally behind Kim Jong Un, dubbed the "Great Successor" on Monday, the day his father's death from a heart attack two days earlier was announced, comes amid a dramatic show of grief across North Korea. The country is to remain in an official state of mourning until after Kim's funeral Wednesday and a memorial Thursday.

Footage from Associated Press Television News in the capital, Pyongyang, showed a throng of North Koreans climbing stairs and placing flowers and wreaths neatly in a row below a portrait of Kim Jong Il as solemn music filled the air and young uniformed soldiers, their heads shaved, bowed to the portrait with their eyes closed.

North Korea's state TV has aired footage showing North Korean heir Kim Jong Un's uncle and key patron wearing a military uniform with a general's insignia.

It's a strong sign he'll play a greater role in moves meant to secure the young Kim Jong Un's rise to power after the death of his father Kim Jong Il a week ago.

The footage Sunday indicates Jang Song Thaek has been appointed to a new military job.

It shows Jang Song Thaek paying respects at Kim Jong Il's body as it lies in state at Kumsusan Memorial Palace.

Seoul's Unification Ministry says it's the first time for Jang Song Thaek to be shown wearing a military uniform on state TV.

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Man who called himself a Rockefeller due in court

  Eyewitness NewsALHAMBRA, Calif. -- A German immigrant who masqueraded as a member of the famous Rockefeller family will appear in court on charges that he murdered his Southern California landlord more than a quarter century ago and then fled the state.

Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter is scheduled to be arraigned Friday morning in Los Angeles Superior Court in Alhambra, east of Los Angeles.

Prosecutors believe he murdered Jonathan Sohus, who disappeared along with his wife Linda in 1985. Gerhartsreiter rented the couple's guesthouse in wealthy enclave of San Marino, northeast of Los Angeles, and left town soon after they vanished.

He plans to plead not guilty, his lawyers have said.

Gerhartsreiter was already serving a prison term in Massachusetts following a 2009 conviction in the kidnapping of his 7-year-old daughter.

At the time arrest in Baltimore in August 2008, Gerhartsreiter had been living under the Rockefeller name. He was convicted of snatching his daughter from a Boston street in an elaborately planned kidnapping in which he hired two people to drive them to New York.

Detectives in California had long considered Gerhartsreiter a person of interest in the death of 27-year-old Sohus, a former landlord who mysteriously disappeared with his wife, Linda, in 1985 at the same time a man using the name Christopher Chichester was staying in a guest house on their property.

The man who called himself Chichester had quickly ingratiated himself into the community and told people he was a British aristocrat. Over the years, Gerhartsreiter has morphed identities many times, telling people he was a physicist, an art collector, a ship captain and a financial adviser who renegotiated debt for small countries At his kidnapping trial, prosecutors said Gerhartsreiter used aliases to move in wealthy circles in Boston, New York and Los Angeles. His strange story has become the subject of a TV movie.

Skeletal remains were found in the backyard of the Sohus's home in 1994 when new owners were excavating for a swimming pool. Those bones were thought to belong to Jonathan Sohus. His wife is still missing Gerhartsreiter arrived in Los Angeles on Wednesday. Because of the notoriety of his case, he is being kept away from the general jail population.

Gerhartsreiter's lawyers claimed during the 2009 trial that he was suffering from a delusional disorder and was legally insane when he snatched his daughter during a supervised visit in Boston following a bitter divorce from his wife. Prosecutors portrayed him as a master manipulator who used multiple aliases and told elaborate lies about his past.

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