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 ...
Twitter CEO Dick Costolo sought to calm the global outrage over the company’s new country-by-country censorship policy on Monday, complaining in part that the issue is being treated with the same kind of shorthand that has made Twitter popular. Speaking at the All Things D conference, Costolo repeated the company’s justification for the policy change it announced last week: By taking down tweets only in the country where Twitter... [more]
The eurozone financial crisis has had only a limited impact on Asia, and in fact has created opportunities for Asian banks, according to a top IMF official. Anoop Singh, the International Monetary Fund’s Asia director, said that if the eurozone plunged into recession, it would definitely hurt Asia, where exports to Europe are an important driver of growth. “In India as in other economies demand for exports would certainly be... [more]
Some of the euro zone’s biggest banks have told the Financial Times that they are preparing to tap the European Central Bank’s emergency funding scheme for up to twice as much as the ECB supplied in its December auction. The banks told the FT that they may double or triple their request for funds in the ECB’s three-year money auction on Feb 29, a further sign of the liquidity squeeze faced by the banks, the paper... [more]
A severe and snowy cold snap acrosscentral and eastern Europe has left at least 36 people dead, cut off power to towns, and snarled traffic. Officials are responding with measures ranging from opening shelters to dispensing hot tea, with particular concern for the homeless and elderly. This part of Europe is not unused to cold, but the current freeze, which spread to most of the region last week, came after a period of relatively mild weather.... [more]
The ECB all but halted its purchases of government bonds last week despite fresh financial market pressure on Portugal and as calls intensified for the bank to take losses on its Greek debt. Controversy surrounding the ECB’s bond buying programme has escalated in recent weeks. The IMF and private sector have urged it to write down its holdings of Greek bonds, or at least forgo profits, as part of a deal to stabilise the country’s... [more]
EU leaders reached agreement at a summit on Monday on the introduction of a permanent euro zone bailout mechanism from July 2012, with a treaty governing the fund to be signed at a later date, three EU officials told Reuters. The European Stability Mechanism, which will have a lending capacity of 500 billion euros, will take over from the European Financial Stability Facility, a temporary mechanism that has so far been used to bail out Ireland... [more]
An Oslo court on Monday jailed two men for planning to bomb the Danish newspaper that published cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed, in Norway’s first-ever guilty verdict for plotting terrorism. Norwegian national Mikael Davud, a member of China’s Uighur minority considered the mastermind behind the plot against the Jyllands-Posten daily, was sentenced to seven years behind bars. Shawan Sadek Saeed Bujak, an Iraqi Kurd residing... [more]
European leaders faced a damaging split Monday as a German plan to strip Greece of budget sovereignty overshadowed EU plans to focus on a deal on deficits and talk about jobs. The idea, floated by Berlin, to strip the government in Athens of its sovereignty and give the power to make decisions on finances to a special EU commissioner, opened up clear fault-lines both within and outside the eurozone. It could ultimately place in doubt... [more]
European leaders bid Monday to move away from the debt crisis and focus on much-needed growth as a new battle erupted over putting the eurozone’s Achilles heel, Greece, under EU supervision. European Union heads of state and government hold their first summit of the year from 1400 GMT to finalise a new German-driven pact to toughen budget discipline. They do so amid a general strike in Belgium over deepening austerity in their own... [more]
Chancellor Angela Merkel sought Monday to placate critics of a German proposal to put Greece under the supervision of an EU budget tsar, saying Europe must help Athens enact economic reforms. The debate must be on “how Europe can help Greece accomplish the tasks given to it,” Merkel said on arrival at an EU summit after Greek officials and some European leaders rejected the proposal. “But all of this will only work if Greece... [more]
