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 ...
NATO has reiterated its calls for Dutch troops to say in Afghanistan despite the government’s collapse over Labour’s refusal to extend the military mission there. A spokesperson for NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen stressed that it is for the Netherlands itself to make a decision. But he added that the Secretary General “continues to believe that the best way forward for the overall mission could be a new smaller... [more]
The internet social network Facebook can now face prosecution in Germany in the case of privacy violations, Germany’s data protection commissioner Peter Schaar confirmed Saturday. Since Facebook had opened an office in Hamburg on February 11, Schaar said that the company was now subject to Germany’s data protection laws. The federal data protection commissioner was speaking to the broadcaster Deutchlandradio on Saturday. Facebook... [more]
North Korea has vowed to bolster its nuclear force unless the United States drops its hostile policy and removes nuclear threats to the North, adding that its nuclear program could not be traded for economic aid. The reclusive communist nation also designated eight new naval firing zones near its eastern and western sea borders with South Korea in a move that could raise tensions. North Korea quit the disarmament-for-aid negotiations... [more]
Experts, educators also dismiss reports of schools’ involvement Senior Chinese military experts and educators on Friday dismissed new reports of investigations that suggest previous cyber attacks on Internet search giant Google were linked to Chinese schools and the military. In a Thursday report, The New York Times (NYT) linked two Chinese educational institutions – Lanxiang Vocational School based in Jinan, Shandong province... [more]
UN Secretary-general Ban Ki-moon on Friday condemned the military coup that took place in Niger on Thursday and called for a peaceful solution to the country’s political and constitutional crisis. “He reiterates his disapproval of unconstitutional changes of government as well as attempts to remain in power through unconstitutional means,” Ban’s press office said in a statement. A group of soldiers, self-claimed the... [more]
OSCAR-winning actor Sean Penn has been slapped with criminal charges after allegedly attacking a photographer in Los Angeles last year, city prosecutors said. Penn, 49, was charged with misdemeanour battery and vandalism following the incident involving the photographer in the upmarket district of Brentwood on October 2 last year, the Los Angeles City Attorneys Office confirmed. Penn, who is alleged to have kicked his victim in the leg,... [more]
A decision on whether to release two Americans charged with kidnapping in Haiti could come within a week, their lawyers said Friday after the judge presiding over the case questioned them. Eight of 10 Americans charged in the case were released on Wednesday and returned to the United States, but Judge Bernard Saint-Vil ordered the other two to remain for further investigation. The remaining two are Laura Silsby, the head of the group of... [more]
Pressure is growing on the Government to reveal when it was told that cloned UK passports had been used in the Hamas assassination plot. Shadow foreign secretary William Hague said he wanted “fuller” answers about when the Foreign Office was aware that fake British passports had been used. And there are reports that MI6 and the Government received tip-offs about the killing of Hamas leader Mahmoud al Mabhouh in a Dubai hotel. The... [more]
Today is Friday, Feb. 19, the 50th day of 2010. There are 315 days left in the year. Today’s Highlight in History: On Feb. 19, 1945, during World War II, some 30,000 U.S. Marines began landing on Iwo Jima, where they commenced a successful month-long battle to seize control of the island from Japanese forces. On this date: In 1473, astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus was born in Torun, Poland. In 1803, Congress voted to accept Ohio’s... [more]
North Korea has raised the possibility of a further show of force in the East and Yellow seas by temporarily designating six regions along its maritime border with South Korea as “naval firing zones,” a government Web site said Friday. North Korea has unilaterally notified to the South it will conduct artillery fire drills in four areas in the Yellow Sea and two areas in the East Sea for three days from Saturday, Seoul’s... [more]
