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 ...
Greece said Tuesday it could call on loan backup from the EU and the IMF by next month as its bond yields hit a record high and it was forced to once again pay steep rates to borrow money. The Greek finance minister insisted that the recession-plagued economy would not be “left hanging” whilst seeking to raise fresh loans in May and that it “will find funds” through an EU-IMF loan guarantee mechanism if necessary. The... [more]
Emergency loans for debt-stricken Greece could run up to 90 billion euros (123 billion dollars), the German financial daily Handelsblatt reported on Wednesday, citing European sources. “A volume of credit going up to 90 billion euros is not excluded,” the newspaper added, citing sources close to the European Commission. Greece hopes it will not have to resort to the loans but many analysts warn it may be forced to because of... [more]
Many German cities and municipalities will go broke if the federal government does not help pay for social benefits programmes, the head of the German Association of Cities and Towns (DST) said on Friday. “The government must help with this,” DST head Stephan Articus told dailyStuttgarter Zeitung. “Otherwise many cities will really face financial ruin.” According to Articus, community expenses for social benefits have almost... [more]
Markets pounded Greek bonds and banking stocks on Thursday, driving the debt-stricken euro zone member’s borrowing costs to new highs and pushing it closer to tapping a last resort EU/IMF safety net. The government struggled to reassure markets it can stay solvent after the premium investors demand to buy Greek rather than the benchmark German government debt surged for the third day in a row to a record high since Greece joined the... [more]
Markets pushed Greece’s risk premium to a euro lifetime high on Tuesday amid growing doubts over the country’s capacity to resolve its debt crisis and fresh scepticism about a European Union-International Monetary Fund aid mechanism. “The crisis is far from over,” said Diego Iscaro, economist at IHS Global Insight. “The economy is still contracting, the structural reforms will still need to be implemented,... [more]
Europe moved within striking distance late on Tuesday of a deal to allow debt-laden Greece to send for IMF aid, with leaders due to announce an agreement within 36 hours. Greece’s partners in the 16-nation eurozone were “close” to concluding an accord giving the IMF the “central” role in granting Athens loans, in exchange for tough sanctions for eurozone budget transgressors, a European diplomatic source told... [more]
The European Union accused its major powers on Wednesday of running away from bulging government deficits, after Germany warned that repeat eurozone offenders deserve expulsion from the bloc. EU budgetary watchdogs attacked overly “optimistic” growth assumptions masking bloated national budgets, with Britain firmly in the firing line over “uncertainty” in its spending plans. Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Spain... [more]
The countries using the euro currency will together provide aid worth between 20 billion and 25 billion euros ($27.2 billion and $34 billion ) for Greece, according to Germany’s Finance Ministry, a magazine reported on Saturday. Citing “initial considerations” by the ministry, German weekly Der Spiegel said the share of financial aid for Greece would be calculated according to the proportion of capital each country... [more]
A New Zealand teenager who says she auctioned her virginity online for $32,000 to raise tuition money did not break any laws but it might be risky for her to follow through on the deal, police warned Wednesday. The anonymous 19-year-old student offered her virginity to the highest bidder on the Web site http://www.ineed.co.nz under the name “Unigirl,” saying she would use the money to pay for her tuition. She said in a post... [more]
TALLAHASSEE – Florida has OK’d McCarty said the intent of the increase is to get Citizens’ rates closer to an actuarially sound level sought by the Legislature, which capped Citizens’ annual rate increases at 10 percent. rate increases for the state-backed Citizens Property Insurance Corp.Florida Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty signed an order Thursday establishing rates for Citizens’ high-risk accounts.... [more]
