Singer comforts redwood dwellers

Freshwater, Calif. Folk singer Joan Baez delivered a surprise serenade to two environmental activists who’ve spent months perched in towering redwoods owned by Pacific Lumber Co.

“Air a little thin up there?” Baez shouted to the protesters, who were more than 150 feet above the ground. She then began singing, “Ain’t going to let nobody push me around, gonna build a brand-new world.”

The two activists are protesting Pacific Lumber’s plans to harvest timber in the area. They complain the logging plans threaten old-growth redwood trees and the health of forest ecosystems.

The 61-year-old singer dropped by Monday to offer her support. She made a similar visit to Humboldt County in 1999 to meet Julia “Butterfly” Hill, who spent two years in a redwood she dubbed “Luna.”

Mills settles with newspaper

London Heather Mills, wife of former Beatle Paul McCartney, has agreed to accept $76,000 in damages from a newspaper that said she was investigated for charity irregularities.

Her lawyer, Stephen Taylor, said Mills would donate the money from the Sunday Mirror newspaper to Adopt-a-Minefield, an anti-land mine charity.

Mills took libel action against the newspaper after it reported in May that a charity watchdog was investigating her over money raised for victims of India’s Gujarat earthquake last year.

Sunday Mirror spokesman Chris Wade said the newspaper had published the article in good faith.

Brits pick favorite fellow citizens

London Princess Diana is in, Prince Charles is out.

Beatles John Lennon, Paul McCartney and George Harrison are on the list of the 100 greatest Britons of all time, but Ringo Starr is not.

The British Broadcasting Corp. polled more than 30,000 people to come up with the list, released Wednesday, in which John Lydon (better known as Sex Pistol Johnny Rotten) and Boy George mingle with Winston Churchill, Isaac Newton and Tim Berners-Lee, the father of the Internet.

Stretching eligibility to all the British Isles, the list also includes two Irish rockers, Bono of U2 and Bob Geldof.

The BBC2 television channel plans a series of programs later in the year to choose a top 10.

Other names on the list: Julie Andrews, Jane Austen, David Beckham, Richard Burton, J.K. Rowling, Ernest Shackleton, J.R.R. Tolkien and Queen Victoria.

Spears happy parents splitting

New York Britney Spears is far from upset over her parents’ recent divorce.

“It’s the best thing that’s ever happened to my family,” the singer told People magazine for the cover story of its Sept. 2 issue. “My mom and dad, bottom line, do not get along. When I was a baby, they argued. I wanted this to happen 10 years ago.”

Spears’ parents Lynne, 47, and Jamie, 50 divorced in May after 30 years of marriage.

But the singer, 20, describes her own breakup with ‘N Sync’s Justin Timberlake five months ago as “horrible.”