Quote Originally Posted by Eugene-p View Post
Helen, you might want to look at this for a general description of how the Present Perfect tense works.
Let's imagine the situation. Let's call it "Eugene's holiday".

You've been off to a faraway island for a month's holiday. There is no TV, newspapers, internet, radio there and you know nothing about the latest events in the world. On the second day of your stay Michael Jackson dies (may he forgive me for the example. It was not me who brought up this story). Then, after a month, you come back and I'm meeting you at the airport. The first phrase I say to you is, "Can you imagine? Michael Jackson has died!"

Can you claim that my use of the tense would be not correct? That an American would never say that?