Legendary pop singer Whitney Houston was found dead Saturday at a Beverly Hills, California, hotel, officials said. She was 48. The entertainer, whose incredible talent was discovered at an early age, was pronounced dead at 3:55 p.m. (6:55 p.m. ET) at the Beverly Hilton hotel despite resuscitation efforts, a police spokesman said. Beverly Hills Police Lt. Mark Rosen said there were "no obvious signs of criminal intent" and that the cause of her death is being investigated. Houston's bodyguard found her body, said Courtney Barnes, publicist for hip-hop artist Ray J, who was dating the pop diva. According to her official website, Houston sold ...
Yahoo Inc Chairman Roy Bostock and three other directors will step down as the struggling company ploughs ahead with an internal overhaul, including discussions on dealing with its stakes in China's Alibaba Group and Yahoo Japan. The corporation - once a Web powerhouse but now agonizing over a range of options to revive flagging growth - on Tuesday said it appointed former Rovi Corp CEO and International Business Machines Corp veteran Alfred Amoroso and ex-eBay COO Maynard Webb as independent directors. Yahoo's board has come under fire from investors impatient with the company's persistent inability to effect a turnaround, and frustrated with the apparent indecisiveness of stakeholders over ...
Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne has vowed to fight an "anti-business culture" in Britain, warning that a row overexecutive pay and bonuses threatens the country's fragile economic recovery. "Let me say something about the row over bonuses and pay," Osborne said in a speech to the Federation of Small Businesses. "Of course rewards for failure are unacceptable -- and those who believe in the free market are the first to say so. But a strong, free market economy must be built on rewards for success." The Labour Party has heaped pressure on the ruling coalition to curb excessive pay for top executives, using a House of Commons debate to demand the return ...
Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda said on Tuesday he is resolved to settle a longstanding territorial dispute with Russia at an annual rally calling for the return of all four Russian-held islands off Hokkaido in northern Japan, the Kyodo news agency reported. "We'll continue to make steady and determined efforts to move ahead with negotiations," Noda said, stressing the need to sign a peace treaty with Russia. The four islands - which Russia calls the Southern Kurils and Japan calls the Northern Territories - has been the subject of a territorial dispute between the two nations since the end of World War ...
Amanda Knox's Italian lawyer has filed an appeal of her slander conviction in Italy, a Knox family spokesman inSeattle said Monday. In October, an Italian appeals court overturned the young Seattle woman's murder conviction in the 2007 death of her British roommate in Perugia. But the same court upheld Knox's conviction for slander — for falsely accusing bar owner Diya "Patrick" Lumumba of involvement in the slaying. Lumumba was freed after two weeks in prison for lack of evidence. Knox later said she was "manipulated" during her lengthy police interrogation. An appeal of the slander conviction was filed Monday, Knox family spokesman Dave Marriott confirmed. He doesn't know when the Italian ...
The Dutch railway will remain 'vulnerable' during wintry weather but Dutch Rail (NS) and track operator ProRail did not help matters during the current cold snap by the late introduction of schedule adjustments to cope with the conditions, transport minister Melanie Schultz van Haegen told parliament in a briefing on Tuesday. The NS and ProRail assumed on Thursday of last week that there would be three to five centimetres of snow. When the forecast was increased on Friday morning to between 10 and 15 centimetres, it was too late to change the timetables automatically, Schultz van Haegen told parliament. Drivers and conductors ...
Greece can leave the eurozone without damaging monetary union, European digital affairs commissioner Neelie Kroes says in an interview with the Volkskrant on Tuesday. Kroes, a member of the Dutch ruling right-wing Liberal party VVD, is not a supporter of Greece exchanging the euro for the drachma, but says: 'It is absolutely not a case of man overboard if someone leaves the eurozone.' The commissioner is very critical of the new Greek government and says they are not fulfilling their promises. 'Too few spending cuts, too little restructuring,' she says. She says the Greeks should follow the example of Italy where the new ...
Mitt Romney hopes his presidential campaign hasn't ignored Rick Santorum's aggressive attacks for too long, as caucuses in Colorado and Minnesota on Tuesday could reshuffle the race for the Republican presidential nomination. Santorum largely bypassed Florida and Nevada to blanket the two caucus states with criticism of Romney and lay the groundwork among conservatives who have great sway in the process. RivalNewt Gingrich praised Santorum's strategy as shrewd even as he signaled he had no interest in exiting the four-way race, which also includes Ron Paul. "I think that Santorum's going to have a pretty good day," Gingrich told reporters on the eve of the caucuses. "He targeted differently than I ...
Glencore and Xstrata agreed an all-share merger worth $90 billion (56 billion pounds) on Tuesday in the industry's largest ever deal, creating a commodities powerhouse spanning mining, agriculture and trading. Glencore, the world's largest diversified commodities tradinghouse, will issue 2.8 new shares for each Xstrata share in a deal they said was a "merger of equals." The ratio is a 15.2 percent premium to Xstrata shareholders compared with its share price last Wednesday before word leaked out about the merger talks, a joint statement said. "A merger between Glencore and Xstrata offers a unique opportunity to create a new business model in our industry to respond to ...
US White House hopeful Mitt Romney aims for another big caucus win in Colorado on Tuesday, as his well-oiled campaign machine works to cement his position as the Republican front runner in the US presidential race. Polls suggest he should triumph easily in the western US state -- where he scored 60 percent in 2008 -- although there is a tighter race in Minnesota, where last-placed Rick Santorum is hoping to snatch a win. Romney's main rival, former House speaker Newt Gingrich, is battling to stay in the race after two heavy losses in a row to the former Massachusetts governor, who ...
US talk-show queen Oprah Winfrey on Thursday moved to downplay comments in a new documentary-style show suggesting her high-profile tour of Australia in December was not a smooth ride. In Season 25: Oprah Behind the Scenes, Winfrey revealed concerns about the large crowds in Melbourne and on Queensland’s Hamilton island and that she was worried about flies and heat at Uluru, or Ayers Rock. She was also unsure how to pronounce Prime... [more]
French President Nicolas Sarkozy called on Thursday for the creation of new global nuclear regulations by the end of 2011 during a first visit by a foreign leader to Japan since the earthquake and tsunami that triggered its atomic disaster. Group of 20 chairman Sarkozy said France wanted to host a meeting of the bloc’s nuclear officials in May to fix new norms in the wake of the crisis at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi plant. “We... [more]
Microsoft Corp. on Thursday threw its weight behind an existing probe by European Union authorities into whether rival Google Inc. is abusing its dominant position in the online search market to thwart competition. Microsoft’s General Counsel Brad Smith said the company is filing its own complaint against Google with the European Commission, citing concern over “a broadening pattern of conduct aimed at stopping anyone else from... [more]
Prime Minister Julia Gillard urged China Thursday to allow consular access to an Australian writer and blogger feared detained by authorities after confirming he had been in touch with friends. Yang Hengjun, a former Chinese diplomat who is now based in Sydney and is an Australian citizen, disappeared on Sunday after ringing a colleague to say he was at Guangzhou in southern China and was being followed by three men. Rights group Amnesty... [more]
Nissan Motor on Thursday denied a report that France’s Renault SA and the Japanese automaker were considering a holding company to put the two firms and several of their interests under a single umbrella. The Japanese business daily Nikkei, citing an interview with Nissan president Carlos Ghosn, said Russia’s leading auto maker AvtoVaz, which is 25 percent owned by Renault, would be incorporated in the proposed company. Romania’s... [more]
British Prime Minister David Cameron Thursday warned the European Union that it could be “left behind” by emerging economies unless it reformed its business policies. “It is clear that there is a growing urgency and need for action to secure long term sustainable growth in Europe,” the British leader said in a pamphlet released Thursday. “We need to take collective action to unleash the forces of enterprise... [more]
US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner on Thursday called for more flexible exchange rate policies at a Group of 20 meeting in China, saying it was crucial to global monetary system reform. Geithner did not explicitly single out China in his remarks at a G20 seminar on international monetary reform attended by ministers and central bankers, but hinted that Beijing needed to loosen its grip on the yuan. He said that to better manage sweeping... [more]
Fiat and Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne told shareholders Wednesday that the two automakers potentially could generate combined revenues of euro100 billion ($141 billion) by 2014. Marchionne expects Fiat’s revenues alone to nearly double from euro35.8 billion 2010 to euro64 billion, a target previously announced. That would leave the once-bankrupt Chrysler to contribute more than euro36 billion. Fiat SpA, which took over Chrysler LCC... [more]
A 13-year-old Russian boy found a message in a bottle on a beach and was reunited with its German author, who wrote the note 24 years ago, tabloid Komsomolskaya Pravda reported Wednesday. Daniil Korotkikh found the beer bottle earlier this month when walking on the beach near Kaliningrad and his father translated the note inside, which was dated September 7, 1987, the paper said. “When I was walking along, I spotted a bottle in the... [more]
Labour leader Ed Miliband said on Wednesday he is to marry his partner Justine Thornton at a ceremony in May. “Justine and I are both very much looking forward to our wedding on May 27th,” Miliband wrote on Twitter. The MP for Doncaster North — who beat his older brother David to be elected Labour Party leader in September 2010 — told the Doncaster Free Press he would marry Thornton, an environmental lawyer, at a... [more]
