T.I. to Celebrate Freedom With Welcome Home

T.I. is coming home at last, and ready to throw it down fo sho.

But the recently-released rapper, now serving out the remainder of his prison term in a halfway house, isn't throwing himself a nightclub bash a la Lil Wayne.

He's having a $100,000 welcome-home brunch in Atlanta!

T.I.'s friend Diddy is personally shipping in 150 bottles of Ciroc, ONE FOR EACH PERSON in attendance. Hey, gotta welcome the man back to society in style.

Additionally, reps from AKOO, T.I.'s clothing line, sales of which have spiked since his incarceration, will measure the VIP guests for custom-made clothing gifts.

It's set for October 2, two days after T.I. gets out of the halfway house. Hopefully he takes a cab instead of a pimp-ass tour bus. You know how that can turn out.

2 die in U.S. Embassy shooting incident in Kabul

Kabul, Afghanistan (CNN) -- An Afghan employee killed a U.S. citizen and wounded another at an annex of the American Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan, a spokesman said Monday.

The Afghan employee was the lone gunman and was killed, according to Gavin Sundwall, a U.S. Embassy spokesman.

"The motivation of the attack is still under investigation," he said. The shootings took place Sunday evening.

The wounded American was evacuated to a military hospital with non-life threatening injuries.

The annex area is known as a place where embassy personnel both live and work, some in intelligence operations. A CIA spokeswoman declined to comment on the attack.

Afghanistan has been the site of several high-profile attacks of late, including strikes at the NATO headquarters and the U.S. Embassy in Kabul and the assassination of former Afghan President Burhanuddin Rabbani. Rabbani had been leading efforts for reconciliation talks.

U.S. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta contended Thursday that such attacks represent a strategy shift by the Taliban, the conservative and militant group that has been waging a years-long fight in the war-torn nation.

"We judge this change in tactics to be a result of a shift in momentum in our favor and a sign of weakness in the insurgency," Panetta said at a Senate Armed Service Committee hearing.

He added that "the insurgency has been turned back in much of the country, including its heartland in the south, and Afghan National Security Forces are increasingly strong and capable."

Mike Mullen, the outgoing chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, testified then that he felt Pakistan is "exporting" violence to Afghanistan. He described the Haqqani terrorist network as "a veritable arm of Pakistan's intelligence" -- an assertion that Pakistani officials later strongly denied, even as it admitted the country does have contacts with the group.

August was the deadliest month for U.S. forces in Afghanistan since the conflict began. Seventy-one American troops died that month, including 30 killed when insurgents shot down a helicopter August 6 in the eastern central province of Wardak.

The surge in U.S. deaths comes as NATO is drawing down and handing over security control to national forces. Some 10,000 U.S. troops are scheduled to depart by year's end, with all U.S. military personnel out of Afghanistan by the end of 2014.

Rooney could miss 'weeks'

Sir Alex Ferguson has revealed that Wayne Rooney could miss "a few weeks" of Manchester United's season.United served up a surprise at Stoke on Saturday, as they arrived at the Britannia Stadium without their star man. Ferguson told ESPN after the 1-1 draw that the club had endured a "nightmare" training session on Friday. And it appears Rooney was one of the casualties with a hamstring injury.

"Rooney's is not a serious injury, but it was enough to keep him out today, and I think maybe for a few weeks," Ferguson said.

United lost Jonny Evans in the warm-up, while Javier Hernandez lasted less than 10 minutes before limping off.

If Rooney's problem is as bad as feared, he could miss United's Champions League match with Basel at Old Trafford on Tuesday and possibly England's Euro 2012 qualifier in Montenegro on October 7. United also have Premier League games with Liverpool and Manchester City on the horizon.

Meanwhile, Ferguson labelled Stoke's Peter Crouch a persistent fouler after the striker netted in the 1-1 draw between the clubs as he darted between Rio Ferdinand and Phil Jones to nod home a second half equaliser.

"He fouls all the time," Ferguson said. "He gets off with it because of his height, but he jumps on top of defenders all the time. He has been doing that for a long time. Referees know that. Even with the goal he has maybe caught Phil Jones. He's a handful in the air, no doubt about that."

With 'real-time' apps, Facebook is always watching

(CNN) -- A couple years ago, a Microsoft researcher named Gordon Bell embarked on a personal experiment: He would wear a video camera around his neck all the time and keep this "life recorder" always turned on, so it would record everything he did.

It was like an external memory drive for his brain, he wrote in a book called "Total Recall."

Sounds pretty sci-fi, right? Not so much. The "real-time sharing" updates Facebook announced Thursday aim to do something quite similar -- only for the Internet instead of in real life.

Before we get into the details and implications, here's a "real-time" example of how the updates, which are rolling out in the coming weeks, will work: As I write this, I'm listening to the band LCD Soundsystem on an Internet music service called Spotify. Because I've updated my Facebook page (here's a TechCrunch article on how to do that if you're interested) and because I've logged in to Spotify with my Facebook identity, every song I listen to is automatically shared to Facebook.

Wenger confident of Van Persie future

Arsene Wenger is confident captain Robin Van Persie will lead Arsenal well into the future, dismissing the notion the Dutchman will ultimately join Cesc Fabregas and Samir Nasri in exiting the Emirates.Van Persie ended a difficult week for the Gunners on a high on Saturday, as he registered his 100th Arsenal goal in a comprehensive 3-0 victory over 10-man Bolton. After the relieving win, Wenger confirmed his star striker sought assurances during the summer regarding the direction of the club.

"It's true that we had a meeting during the summer," Wenger said. "If you're in Robin's place and you see Nasri going, Fabregas going, then you can be worried of course."

The club faces a similar problem to the Nasri one if Van Persie does not sign an extension to his current contract, which expires in 2013, with the striker having stalled talks "because we are so busy".

"Maybe I'll leave it [holding immediate talks] because the main thing for me is the team and that we play well," Van Persie was reported as saying in a number of national newspapers.

"I do believe you have to look for a right moment to sit down and speak about your own stuff. It's not only about me, it's about the team. We are not talking now because we are so busy - we have games every three or four days.

"I don't think it's clever to do that during the season. I still have almost two years left here, so for the moment that's fine. But I don't know, we will have to look.

"I'm happy with my contract, I'm good. That's how it is, I can't say much more. I can't look into the future."

But Wenger is not concerned. "Now he [Van Persie] is out? No, I don't think that really. Robin is not from Barcelona," he quipped.

Meanwhile, the 28-year-old's goalscoring achievement is made all the more impressive by the fact he started his career at the club predominantly as a wide player. Wenger since moved Van Persie to become the focal point of the team's three-man attack, but he is far from the typical targetman, with Wenger comparing the style of his No. 10 to that of Barcelona's Lionel Messi.

"I see similarities positional-wise with Messi. He comes deep, he likes to turn up up front as well," Wenger said.

"Positional-wise he doesn't play like a real centre forward. But when you look at his movement around the box he's very intelligent, goes on diagonal runs. I always thought his first touch was so good that he can make a difference even in a tight space."

Van Persie took over the captain's armband from Fabregas after the Spaniard returned to Barcelona. Wenger praised the former Feyenoord front-man for the leadership he has shown since taking on the role.

Wenger said: "He has matured from the boy who was a little bit emotionally impulsive when he arrived to the guy who is here today.

"That was difficult to predict. But he is intelligent, speaks his mind and you can speak to him as well. He takes advice and overall he has developed very well."

Gower: Torres tackle 'needless'Fernando Torres GettyImages

Swansea City midfielder Mark Gower feels that Chelsea striker Fernando Torres deserved the red card he received at Stamford Bridge on Saturday.Torres opened scoring for Chelsea in their 4-1 win over Swansea but was sent off in the first half of the Premier League match for a two-footed tackle on Gower, who has branded the challenge as "needless".

"It was not a nice tackle and it was definitely a red card," Gower said. "Thankfully, I have managed to get most of my body out of the way. He has caught my ankle but you'll have to ask him why he has done it.

"It seemed like a needless tackle at the time. I had half a bad touch so I was stretching. He seemed to lunge in and I caught him out of the corner of my eye and tried to get out of the way.

"His feet came off the floor and there was intent. I've a graze but it won't affect me. I'll be fit for next week."

Look What Justin Bieber Did for Selena Gomez

Justin Bieber might be a keeper.

Sources confirm to TMZ that the singer set up a special date for girlfriend Selena Gomez last night. A VERY special date.

After seeing Demi Lovato in concert at the Nokia Theater, Justin reportedly took Selena through the underground tunnel that connects that locale with the Staples Center and surprised her with a completely empty arena in which the pair watched Titanic together.

Incredibly, Bieber didn't have to fork over a dime to rent out the 20,000-seat stadium. It was given to him for free because his concerts have sold out the venue three times. Seriously, Selena, you might wanna keep this guy around.