Sir Paul McCartney has said his concerts are a way of helping him “revisit” other Beatles members and his late wife Linda.

Launching his new live CD and DVD in London, the singer admitted he could get “emotional” on stage.

“If I’m doing songs by The Beatles, I obviously remember the sessions when we recorded,” Sir Paul said.

“There’s a song I do called Here Today which is specifically written for John, and that sometimes catches me out.”

At an intimate press conference, Sir Paul described how other songs would bring back memories of George Harrison, John Lennon and Linda McCartney.

“If I’m doing something like Something - the song - obviously I’m thinking of George and I’m thinking of him playing the ukulele…

“It’s great actually. I really like it. In a way you’re revisiting them.”

He added: “Similarly with John and Linda - in a way you’re kind of in contact them again and it’s sad, it’s emotional.”

Beatles spirit

Sir Paul said that on his concert DVD, Good Evening New York City, he can be seen getting emotional in the song for Lennon.

“It catches me out in this film version where I realise I’m telling this man that I love him, and it’s like, ‘Oh my God!’. It’s like I’m publicly declaring this in front of all these people I know well. What am I doing?

“I couldn’t have done it when I was 18 because I would not have allowed myself to cry or go anywhere near that as an 18-year-old guy - now it’s okay. I’m used to it.”

Asked if he felt the spirit of the Beatles while he was performing, Sir Paul said: “Yeah. I still think I’m in the Beatles. It’s something you don’t want to lose.

“For a while there with Wings I didn’t do Beatles songs on purpose because I wanted to create a new thing…

“But once we’d done Wings, and once I’d got beyond that phase, I started to think it’d be nice - and I know the audience would like to hear the Beatles’ songs, so I started to enjoy doing that.”

Sir Paul will embark on his first European tour for five years in December.

The tour opens on 2 December in Hamburg, where the Beatles honed their sound with live performances in clubs between 1960 and 1962.

It concludes at London’s O2 Arena on 22 December.

The live album Good Evening New York City was recorded during Sir Paul’s concerts in New York’s Citi Field, formerly the site of the Shea Stadium where The Beatles played to a record-breaking audience in 1965.

R&B singer Rihanna has said the “humiliating” leak of naked photographs of her was “the worst thing that could possibly ever happen to me”.

The star told US radio station Hot 97 she had originally sent the pictures, which appeared online earlier this year, to an ex-boyfriend.

But she defended the initial decision to take the photographs, which she described as “hot”.

“If you don’t send your boyfriend naked pictures, then I feel bad for him.”

The 21-year-old singer has had a rough year, after being assaulted by former boyfriend Chris Brown in February.

Brown, himself an R&B singer, was sentenced to five years’ probation for assaulting Rihanna in August.

He has since apologised to fans for his actions.

‘Embarrassing’

The naked pictures of Rihanna appeared on the internet in May.

“I just felt like my whole privacy was taken before that and then, when that came out, I thought, ‘oh great, so now there’s nothing they don’t know about me and my private life’,” Rihanna told Hot 97.

“It was humiliating and it was embarrassing - especially my mum having to see that. It was two days before Mother’s Day, so I was nervous.

“I sent her flowers first before I called and then she texted me - when the world is against me she’s always there supporting.”

The singer added: “If it’s wrong, she will still let me know but she wouldn’t come down on me like, ‘oh my God, what were you thinking?’

Earlier this month, Rihanna opened up about her assault, telling ABC’s Good Morning America programme “it could happen to anybody”.

She said she now found her brief reconciliation with Brown “embarrassing”.

“I realised that my selfish decision for love could result in some young girl getting killed,” she added.

NEW YORK - Macy’s annual Thanksgiving Day Parade is sporting a new look this year as it bypasses Broadway for the first time in its 82-year history.

Parts of Broadway are closed to vehicular traffic, making it off limits to floats.

The new route includes 7th Ave, instead of Broadway, and also involves turns around five corners.

That means a change in physics, especially for the big balloons.

City University physics professor Brian Schwartz says the handlers are “going to have to be really careful” going around corners.

The good news for balloon handlers is winds are forecast to be light this year, around 5 mph. There might be a sprinkle but temperatures should be fairly pleasant.

The balloons, featuring Buzz Lightyear, Spider-Man, and Ronald McDonald, among others, measure several stories tall and wide and are filled with thousands of cubic feet of helium.

President Obama’s decision to attend the UN climate talks in Copenhagen has been welcomed by European leaders.

Swedish Environment Minister Andreas Carlgren said Mr Obama’s presence next month would raise expectations.

The US earlier announced that President Obama would pledge to cut greenhouse gas emissions in several stages, beginning with a 17% cut by 2020.

However, BBC North America editor Mark Mardell says many environmentalists regard the US targets as disappointing.

‘Ambitious global deal’

UN climate chief Yvo de Boer said Mr Obama’s presence in Copenhagen would “be critical to a good outcome”.

Danish Prime Minister Lars Loekke Rasmussen said that Mr Obama’s visit “emphasises the president’s will to contribute to an ambitious global deal in Copenhagen”.

President Obama will arrive at the summit on 9 December, two days after it opens.

But he will not stay for the end of the 12-day meeting, when delegates are hoping to pull together a deal.

While in Europe he will travel to Oslo to collect his Nobel Peace Prize, officials said.

The UN summit aims to draw up a new treaty to supplant the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, although observers say this is unlikely.

US officials said Washington would pledge a 17% cut in emissions from 2005 levels by 2020, 30% by 2025, 42% by 2030 and 83% by 2050.

However, most other countries’ targets are given in comparison with 1990 figures.

BBC environment correspondent Richard Black says that on that basis the US figure amounts to just a few percentage points, as its emissions have risen by about 15% since 1990.

This is much less than the EU’s pledge of a 20% cut over the same period, or a 30% cut if there is a global deal; and much less than the 25-40% figure that developing countries are demanding.

Mr Carlgren, whose country holds the rotating EU presidency, said he was pleased the US would deliver an emissions reduction target, but added: “It needs to be sufficiently ambitious.

“An agreement in Copenhagen will stand or fall on sufficiently ambitious targets by the US and China.”

Delegations from 192 countries will be attending the summit.

Leaders saying they will attend include UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Brazilian President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva.

European Commission President Jose Manual Barroso said it was essential for as many world leaders as possible to attend.

Hu Jintao, president of the world’s largest polluter, China, is yet to commit to attending.

The US is the second largest polluter after China.

Pollution Brings Worrying Signs for Fish Populations; Worse, Most U.S. Drinking Water Comes from the Same Sources

• Chemical pollution seems to be disrupting the hormones of fish in the United States’ rivers, lakes and ponds. Dean Reynolds reports that the sex of the fish is being blurred.

Something strange is happening to the fish in America’s rivers, lakes and ponds. Chemical pollution seems to be disrupting their hormones, blurring the line between male and female.

And as national correspondent Dean Reynolds reports, those fish swim where millions get their drinking water.

The fish are biting on Lake Pepin this fall, and that’s good news for Minnesota fishing guide Loren Waalkens.

Many of Waalkens’ customers catch small mouth bass, which, along with their large-mouth cousins, are big business for fishermen and fishing guides. They’ve hooked anglers at tournaments as hyped as the Super Bowl.

The small mouth is also a fish of special value to researchers who suspect it may tell us something alarming about our water.

In Columbia, Mo., the U.S. Geological Survey is keeping smallies in some artificial ponds, investigating why so many males are showing female characteristics.

“Because it’s male, you’re seeing sperm here and here,” said USGS Dianna Papoulias while examining a fish. “But oddly, you’re also seeing eggs. Small, undeveloped eggs.”

“It is an abnormality,” she said. “In bass we would not expect to see eggs in a male.”

Abnormal - but increasingly common. In the upper Mississippi River where Loren Waalkens fishes, more than 70 percent of the male smallmouth bass had female characteristics.

In South Carolina’s Peedee River, the ratio was even higher - 9 out of 10.

And in one section of the Potomac River near Washington, every smallmouth bass had the same condition.

In fact, a recent USGS study found the phenomenon in virtually every watershed in the country. And it’s and not just bass. Some carp, catfish and sturgeon have the same odd make-up.

The suspicion is that hormone-disrupting chemicals in the water - pesticides, pharmaceuticals including birth control pills, or even household detergents - may be prompting the feminization of the fish.

And that matters because in controlled experiments like those in Columbia, which duplicated the chemicals found in U.S. rivers, entire populations of fish simply collapsed, unable to spawn.

What’s more, tens of millions of Americans get their drinking water from rivers - an estimated 18 million from the Mississippi river alone.

Waalkens wonders if his beloved bass could be the proverbial canary in the coal mine.

“Are there other species and other types of animals that this may be occurring in?” he said. “You know, there’s a lot of unanswered questions.”