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 ...
In Spain, thousands of people have taken to the streets to protest against the raising of the retirement age. There were demonstrations in several cities, including Madrid, Barcelona and Valencia. Raising the retirement age from 65 to 67 is just one of the measures Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero hopes will reduce his country’s budget shortfall of 11 percent. The Spanish economy, the fifth largest in Europe, has been... [more]
The ban on smoking in cafes and bars also applies to one-man operations without staff, the high court ruled on Tuesday. Lower courts had decided earlier that the ban did not apply to bars without staff, because the aim of the ban is to protect workers from second-hand smoke. The case revolved around the cafe Victoria in Breda which faces a fine of €1,200 and closure of a month for persistently allowing smoking on the premises, and the... [more]
The general election will take place on June 9, slightly later than most pundits had expected, the state information service said on Tuesday afternoon. The Christian Democrats and ChristenUnie will continue to run the country as a caretaker cabinet and the portfolios of the six Labour cabinet ministers have been reassigned to other ministers. Justice minister Ernst Hirsch Ballin will take responsibility for home affairs, family minister... [more]
A Turkish court on Wednesday formally charged and ordered jailed seven senior Turkish military officers for allegedly plotting several years ago to overthrow the Islamic-leaning government. The wiretap evidence and discovery of alleged military plans drafted in 2003 to overthrow the government led to the detention of about 50 commanders Monday in the highest profile crackdown ever on the military which has ousted four governments since 1960. The... [more]
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on Wednesday launched Unit 6 of Siberia’s Sayano-Shushenskaya hydropower plant, damaged in a deadly accident last August. The August 17 disaster at the plant on Siberia’s Yenisei River killed 75 people and destroyed a turbine hall. The accident completely destroyed three hydropower units and damaged the remaining seven. Hydropower units 5 and 6 have been operating in the test mode since... [more]
Germany’s federal data protection commissioner Peter Schaar on Tuesday called for a review of internet search engine company Google’s market dominance. The US company isn’t far from being a monopoly, Schaar said. “A company increasingly controls the virtual world. We’ve never seen such a thing in the real world,” he said, calling on politicians to “limit and control the power.” Schaar also referred to an Economy Ministry... [more]
Officials say Britain’s culture minister has officially declared The Beatles’ Abbey Road Studios a historic building. Tuesday’s announcement ensures that the venerable — but money-losing — music studios cannot be significantly altered without government permission. The north London town house once hosted one of the world’s most sophisticated recording studios, used by artists including The Beatles,Pink Floyd, Jeff... [more]
In the name of art, an Austrian landmark is encouraging visitors to confront their sexual inhibitions by having them walk through a swingers club to reach one of Gustav Klimt’s masterpieces. The Secession — a world-renowned venue for contemporary art in downtown Vienna — has temporarily incorporated a sex club named “Element6″ as part of a project by Swiss artist Christoph Buechel. The swingers are not there during... [more]
Iraq plans to sue the British company that sold it bomb detectors widely panned as ineffective after they failed to prevent a series of massive bombings in Baghdad, a spokesman said Tuesday. Government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh told AFP that Baghdad wanted financial compensation for the devices, which are used at checkpoints across the country to detect explosives. “More than 50 percent are good, and the rest we will change,”... [more]
German airline Lufthansa and pilots agreed Monday to resume talks, ending a one-day strike that grounded almost half of all flights at Europe’s biggest airline. The strike will be lifted at midnight (2300 GMT on Monday), and talks would resume “immediately and without conditions” a joint statement said. The renewed negotiations avert a potentially disastrous planned four-day strike by about 4,000 members of the Cockpit pilots... [more]
