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 ...
Outside the Amsterdam office of Nestlé, the world’s largest food company, there is a lone orang utan in a nest 11 metres off the ground with a red and white banner which reads “Give me a break” and looks strangely like a KitKat bar except the name has been replaced by the word “Killer”. The orang utan is in fact a Greenpeace activist. The action is part of Greenpeace’s campaign against Nestlé’s... [more]
Switzerland is still considering whether to take Germany to court over the purchase of stolen bank data the country is using to root out tax dodgers,Swiss President Doris Leuthard said on Wednesday. “The government has not yet decided,” Leuthard told broadcasterDeutschlandfunk ahead of a meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel inBerlin. Some Swiss parliamentarians are demanding legal action, and there are lawyers who say... [more]
Thai security forces have opened fire on anti-government protesters in Bangkok. The military police and protesters faced off on a highway in the outskirts of the city as the authorities attempted to stop the Red Shirts expanding their demonstrations. At least five people have been wounded, including one soldier. Officers fired rubber bullets at the Red Shirts who responded by throwing stones. Soldiers also fired into the air with automatic... [more]
The top US envoy for Asia held talks in Japan Wednesday on a tricky row over an American airbase that has strained ties between the allies, sparked rallies and battered the government’s popularity. Kurt Campbell, the US assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, met senior officials in Tokyo a month ahead of Japan’s self imposed end-of-May deadline to resolve the long-simmering dispute. The row between... [more]
Attorney General Eric Holder says the federal government may challenge Arizona’s new law on immigration. The attorney general told reporters Tuesday that he fears Arizona’s new law is subject to abuse. At a news conference, Holder said that the Justice Department and theHomeland Security Department are in the midst of conducting a review of the state law. The Arizona law requires state law enforcement officials to ask... [more]
People celebrating Queen’s Day in the Dutch capital should take their own rubbish home with them, acting mayor Lodewijk Asscher says, in response to the decision of the city’s rubbish collectors to strike on April 30. But the city council has decided not to go to court in an effort to have the one-day strike ruled illegal, because the unions are taking steps to minimise the risks to public health and safety, the Telegraaf reports. The... [more]
European pharmaceutical firm AstraZeneca will pay a 520 million dollar fine to settle allegations it illegally marketed an anti-psychotic drug, the US Justice Department said Tuesday. “AstraZeneca has agreed to pay 520 million dollars to federal and state taxpayers to settle claims that it illegally marketed the anti-psychotic drug Seroquel for uses that were not approved as safe and effective by the Food and Drug Administration,”... [more]
An agreement has been reached between the Norwegian and the Russian negotiating delegations on the bilateral maritime delimitation in the Barents Sea and the Arctic Ocean. This was annouced by Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg at a joint press conference with Russian President Dimitrij Medvedev on Tuesday. “This is a historic day. We have reached a breakthrough in the most important outstanding issue between Norway and the Russian... [more]
The Portuguese government angrily denounced an “attack from the markets” on Tuesday after its credit rating was downgraded and rejected any comparison to the debt crisis in Greece. “It is a decisive moment. The country must respond to this attack from the markets,” Finance Minister Fernando Teixeira dos Santos said in a statement. “We must remain calm and bring serenity back to the markets,” he said. “As... [more]
Mexican police arrested five suspects in the killings of seven police officers and a bystander in the border city ofCiudad Juarez, authorities said Monday. The suspects are members of La Linea gang, the enforcement arm of the Juarez drug cartel, according to a statement from a joint anti-crime task force in Chihuahua state. The men confessed to Friday’s ambush of two police patrol trucks as they were flagged down for help by an unidentified... [more]
