Pop star Michael Jackson was pronounced dead today after paramedics found him in a coma at his Bel-Air mansion, city and law enforcement sources told The Times.

Los Angeles Fire Department Capt. Steve Ruda told The Times that paramedics responded to a 911 call from the home. When they arrived, Jackson was not breathing.

The paramedics performed CPR and took Jackson to UCLA Medical Center, Ruda said. Hundreds of reporters gathered at the hospital awaiting word on his condition. The sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said family members rushed to Jackson’s bedside, where he was in a deep coma.

The circumstances of Jackson’s death remain unclear. Law enforcement sources said that Los Angeles Police Department robbery-homicide detectives have opened an investigation into the death, though they stressed that there is no evidence of criminal wrongdoing.

The detectives plan to interview relatives, friends and Jackson’s doctors to try to figure out what happened. The L.A. County coroner’s office will determine a cause of death. A Los Angeles Fire Department source told The Times that Jackson was in full cardiac arrest when rescue units arrived.

A doctor was in the house performing CPR on Jackson, said the source who asked not to be identified because he was not authorized to speak to the media. Paramedics were called to a home in the 100 block of Carolwood Drive off Sunset Boulevard.

Jackson rented the Bel-Air home -- described as a French chateau built in 2002 with seven bedrooms, 13 bathrooms, 12 fireplaces and a theater -- for $100,000 a month. The home is about a six-minute drive from UCLA Medical Center. Jackson has three children -- sons Prince Michael 7, and Michael Joseph Jackson Jr., 12, and daughter Paris Michael Katherine, 11.

Jackson, 50, died as he was attempting a comeback after years of tabloid headlines, most notably his trial and acquittal on child molestation charges.

In May, The Times reported that Jackson had rented the Bel-Air residence and was rehearsing for a series of 50 sold-out shows in London's O2 Arena. Jackson had won the backing of two billionaires to get the so-called "King of Pop" back on stage.

His backers envisioned the shows at AEG's O2 as an audition for a career rebirth that could have ultimately encompassed a three-year world tour, a new album, movies, a Graceland-like museum, musical revues in Las Vegas and Macau, and even a "Thriller" casino. Such a rebound could have wiped out Jackson's massive debt.

Since news hit on Thursday afternoon that pop legend Michael Jackson passed away fans have been in complete shock. Internet search engines have been overloaded with Jackson related searches and television shows have paid him tribute. One of our favorite reality television shows, "American Idol" reran Michael Jackson week from Season 8 and BET's "106 and Park" cancelled their top 10 countdown to honor MJ. I will also be tuning into the BET Awards on Sunday to catch any possible MJ tributes.

So, what's the latest news on Jackson? His autopsy results will be revealed in the coming days. Doctors suspect that he may have had an underlying heart condition. However, rumors have also surfaced saying that Jackson was given Demerol before he was rushed to the hospital. Demerol is a narcotic pain reliever and extremely habit forming. Taken incorrectly it could very well lead to cardiac arrest.

Aside from trying to figure out what took the King of Pop at the young age of 50, fans also want to see pictures of his death. It seems a bit morbid, but perhaps they're just in disbelief. No pictures from the autopsy have surfaced, but "Entertainment Tonight" did have one exclusive photo of Jackson being rushed into hospital. Jackson's death is a part of a trio of Hollywood deaths this week following Ed McMahon and Farrah Fawcett. My prayers go out to the Jackson family.

Shortly after the news of Michael Jackson's shocking death Thursday, fans began arriving by the dozens to the family's 22-room estate in Encino, Calif. They left teddy bears, notes, flowers and candles outside the mansion, which Jackson is said to have adored.

The singer's death was palpable across the world. Hundreds left scrap books, flowers and candles outside his childhood home in Gary, Ind.

Outside the UCLA Medical Center after Jackson's passing, hundreds began chanting, "Michael! Michael!" as another fan blasted "Man in the Mirror" from an iPod dock.

Look back at Michael Jackson's life

"He was the first concert I ever went to! It was my birthday present when I was 6-years old," Missy Traubhill, 29, told Usmagazine.com. "My mom took me and my cousin in a limo, and we went to go see Thriller. I bought a blue muscle T-shirt with him on the front. He was in his little black pants, his skinny little black pants and white socks and black shoes. It was my best birthday memory of my life."

Dionica Bel, 25, recalled that Jackson's HIStory was her first album.

"I wanted to dance like him, to sing like him," she said. "I, to this day, have not stopped trying to moonwalk. He will always be one of the premiere reasons I fell in love with the kind of music I listen to today. He is his own genre. There would be no Justin Timberlake, there would be no Usher, there would be none of those pop artists today, if not for the ground work that Michael Jackson laid out for them."

See Us' photo tribute to stars who have died too soon

Outside NYC's Apollo Theater late Thursday, fans remembered Jackson as well.

"What really touched everybody so much out here is knowing that we lost a great person," Conway Murray, 39, told Us. "It's sad, but it's a great moment to see everybody out here together as one, to share the legacy of Michael Jackson."

Wearing a bright yellow Michael Jackson T-shirt featuring four printed pictures of the singer's face, Latifa Salaam, 54, told Us she was "horrified" when she heard the news of his passing.

"I jumped up. I said, 'No!' But it was true," she said. "So I grabbed the phone and called my daughter, everybody. Everybody heard. I called my sister, called my cousin. They were crying on the phone."

Added Jasmine Watson, 19: "I came out here because I heard the commotion and wanted to be a part of the memorial. It's beautiful. Here we get to see everyone come together and be together to remember him. I don't think there will ever be another King of Pop."

See Us' photo tribute to stars who have died too soon

In NYC's Times Square, a crowd gathered on Broadway and 44th Street outside the MTV studios. An ABC News banner read, "Michael Jackson, King of Pop, Dead at 50." At one point, a bus drove down Seventh Avenue blasting "Billie Jean." Crowds cheered.

Stephanie Defeo, 34, told Us: "I'm heartbroken. You can say Michael Jackson anywhere in the world and people will understand. I can't believe he’s dead. Today was a huge loss in pop culture."

Pop star Michael Jackson barred his ex-wife Debbie Rowe from seeing their children or from talking about his alleged drug use or sex life when the couple divorced, court documents obtained by a website showed today.

In return for a multi-million-dollar financial settlement, Rowe agreed to keep silent about the intimate details of the eccentric Jackson's life, the star is now on trial for child molestation, according to thesmokinggun.com.

The website published a legal document that cited the confidentiality pact.

The pact bans Rowe from talking publicly about "paternity, Michael's mental or physical condition, purported drug use, sexual behaviour" or the lifestyle of her children, according to the document filed by Rowe's lawyer.

Former nurse Rowe met Jackson when she worked for his plastic surgeon and married him in 1996, and bore two children with him in 1997 and 1998 whom she agreed not to contact following their divorce.

"There is a reference that (the) mother is not allowed to communicate with the children, Michael, or his agents, except to make travel arrangements or to send Christmas, birthday cards and letters to the children," Rowe's lawyer Iris Finsilver said in a document dated December 23 last year.

Under their divorce settlement, Rowe, gave up custody of the children -- son Prince Michael Jr and daughter Paris -- to Jackson and agreed not to communicate with them.

In October 2001, she even asked a judge to completely terminate her parental rights, a request that was granted.

But in February last year, shortly after Jackson's November 2003 arrest on charges that he allegedly molested a 13-year-old boy, Rowe began legal moves to regain custody of the two children.

Rowe's lawyer filed the papers containing references to the confidentiality pact as part of the child custody dispute between Rowe and Jackson, who is also trying to keep the confidentiality agreement secret.

Finsilver said Jackson's actions in the custody dispute left Rowe "wondering what kind of a man would fight so long, so hard, so expensive and so gut-wrenching a legal battle just so two minor children are prevented from even knowing their own mother!"

Pregnant with Prince: Debbie Rowe and Michael Jackson in 1996

Today, she bears little resemblance to the fresh-faced blonde who once posed smiling for glossy magazine 'family' photographs with Jackson and their babies. Her hair is still blonde but her body has bloated almost beyond all recognition. At 5ft 10in tall, she weighs around 15st and is clad in denim with a T-shirt which says 'Shut up and ride'.

Eyeliner has been tattooed under her eyes, a process she has topped up every five years. She is also planning on getting laser treatment for her failing eyesight.

She says: "I'm 50 in December. That's a big milestone. I want to lose weight. After someone snatched a photo of me, the newspapers wrote about how fat I'd become. That's so unfair because I've lost 20lb. There'll be saying I'm pregnant next."

Rowe pauses and adds: "As a child I didn't dream of marrying Michael Jackson or anyone else famous. I am not fazed by celebrity. I was born and bought up in LA, where I dreamed of having a ranch with horses. It's taken me a long time, but I am finally doing what I always wanted to do."

Despite Jackson's dire financial straits and rumours that a mortgage company will repossess his Neverland mansion, Rowe denies she is short of money. Every penny goes on her horses, which she sells for up to £15,000 each, and her beloved dogs.

"I can't be bought. I don't need money. I just like to be left alone," she insists.

Bizarrely, as she poses for photographs with her horses, her mind changes. Flushed with the excitement of attention, she announces: "I want a reality TV show. I reckon I'd be great. Can you pitch it for me? It would be me, the dogs and my horses. Do you think they'd go for that in Britain? I think it would be a scream."

But the sight of this middle-aged woman sweating in the heat, craving affection from her animals, is far from funny. One wonders if the children she gave away might have supplied the love she obviously needs, but there seems little chance of that while they remain with their itinerant father.

So does Rowe ever see herself marrying again after her union with a megastar? She says she is happiest living just with her animals. Then she sighs. "There are three stages in marriage. First it's puppy love, then it's for breeding purposes and then, if you can make it through all the bull***t, it's for companionship."

Rowe pauses, then waves a dismissive hand. "I've done the breeding stage. I don't need the rest."

Rowe was quoted as saying later: "I'd never seen Michael so happy and that's what made it so wonderful for me."

So wonderful, in fact, that months later, Rowe was artificially impregnated again. She recalls: "Of course it was artificial insemination. Paris was conceived in Paris, that's how she got her name. Michael wanted to call her Princess, but I thought that was stupid."

Paris Katherine Jackson was born on April 3, 1998, and this time, Jackson later claimed, he simply wrapped the baby in a towel and fled.

Incredibly, it is not the memory of the bloodied newborn being torn from her arms which moves Rowe to tears now - but the sudden admission that she couldn't bear Jackson any more children.

She bursts into tears and, sobbing loudly, says: "I had so many problems when I was pregnant with Paris. After that I couldn't have any more children. Michael was upset about that, he couldn't understand it. He wanted more babies."

Rowe, it appeared, had served her physical use and was simply put out to pasture. She filed for divorce six months later - accepting a pay-off worth £4.2million over nine years, in return for giving up her custodial rights to the children.

The original divorce settlement allowed her one visit every 45 days, though she later applied to the court herself to terminate her parental rights altogether, claiming it was in the children's best interests. Was she coerced? In the Alice in Wonderland world of Michael Jackson, we will probably never know.

He went on to 'sire' a third child - Prince Michael II, known as Blanket - by an unnamed surrogate.

Meanwhile, Rowe claims their relationship remained 'fine'.

She adds defiantly: "It always has been. Michael and I have always got on. I only divorced him because I wanted my life back. I couldn't cope with the constant pressure of fame. He's the genius, the famous one. Not me. I turned out two good-looking kids, but I can't sing, I can't dance."

Despite their divorce after a truly dysfunctional marriage, she still shows a surprising loyalty to the singer: when Jackson was accused of molesting a young boy three years ago, Rowe told the court he was a loving and caring father.

Under cross-examination, she admitted that she had not seen her ex-husband - or her own children - for some years, which rather undermines her claim to me that she still sees them regularly.

Jackson was cleared of sexual abuse, but moved with the children to the Middle East and then Ireland.

In 2006, Rowe took him to court, petitioning for her parental rights to be restored - despite her previous insistence that they should be withheld - and complaining that Jackson had stopped paying her. He claimed she had breached their confidentiality agreement - but a new settlement was reached in secret.

Meanwhile, Rowe was apparently finding her 'celebrity' - or 'notoriety' - hard to come to terms with.

"I used to be an extrovert, but my marriage made me introverted. I was followed everywhere. I hated the fame. After I married Michael, it was hard to keep working. Staff at the clinic sold stories about me to the media. People were offered a million dollars for a picture of me pregnant. I even told my family to sell one; I thought they could do with the money. But they refused."

After her divorce, Rowe continued to live in the Beverly Hills mansion which Jackson gave her as part of their settlement, and studied at an online university to gain degrees in criminal law and psychology.

"I wanted to work in a prison," she explains. "I thought I could help because you can't mess up someone who is already in jail. In the end I loved horses more and I wanted to get away from LA. I was trailed everywhere by the paparazzi."

Three years ago, Rowe sold up and moved to a three-bedroom ranch-style house in Palmdale, an ugly, rundown desert town 60 miles from LA.

Here, in the heat and solitude, Rowe appears to have found some peace. She takes a deep breath and says: "Out here in the fresh air I feel much better. No one knows me here. I don't talk to anyone. I just get on with my life breeding horses. As soon as I saw this place I fell in love with it - for the land. I'm up at 6am with the animals and we have the most extraordinary sunrises.

"I have a boyfriend. He's a murder cop, we've dated on and off for 30 years. Until now, our timing was always out."

My life as the mother of Michael Jackson's children, by Debbie Rowe

Rowe studies the faces looking down at her and says fiercely: "I am possessive and protective of my babies. Their happiness means more to me than anything else on this world. I love them more than I would ever have thought was possible."

It is, one might think, perfectly normal for a mother to feel this way about her children. But the portraits adorning Rowe's walls show her menagerie of animals - not the two children she produced with, and then handed over to, Michael Jackson.

Indeed, there is not even a single, grainy snapshot of either Prince Michael, now ten, or Paris, nine, the children taken from her arms in the maternity ward in exchange for a multi-million-pound pay-off.

More than a decade after this plain dental nurse first joined the bizarre Michael Jackson roadshow, she lives alone breeding horses and dogs. There is little evidence in this impoverished and dusty backwater of the small fortune she is reputed to have received for effectively becoming America's most famous surrogate mother.

Her 'babies' now include 11 dogs, including one half-wolf, a parrot who shares her bedroom and drinks from her coffee cup, a pair of parakeets and 30 horses - many of them pregnant mares. She says, with no trace of irony, that she finds it hard to give away her foals. "I have to send them to a trainer so I can detach myself from them. It stops me becoming too involved."

Rowe worries more, it seems, about a young animal being led away from its mother than she does about the infants who were taken from her by the reclusive superstar. (Jackson later claimed that he was in such a rush to leave the hospital with daughter Paris in 1998 that he cut the cord and left with the baby covered in blood, taking the placenta with him in his haste.)

Since her second child by Jackson was removed, Rowe appears to have had scant dealings with her offspring - although she claims to see them sometimes. Certainly, though, the photograph of the children which made headline news this week - for once their faces not covered by the customary veils - offered Rowe a tantalising glimpse of the children she gave away.

This week, she invited the Mail into her home for an extraordinary, unsettling interview in which she broke the silence she has maintained for years about her infamous children. When asked about their appearance this week, she reacts with the grunt of a satisfied breeder, rather than a sigh of loss. "I turned out two pretty good-looking kids. For that I am proud."

Debbie Rowe blasts Michael Jackson for unmasking their kids

"The veils were my idea, not Michael's," she says in an extensive interview in which she details her sex-free marriage to Jackson (thank goodness for small miracles), her two pregnancies, and her struggles with notoriety. "I had kidnap threats when they were babies. I did not want them to be recognized."

Yes, because when they've got schmattes draped over their heads, they blend.