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 ...
Ten years after the introduction of the euro, and in the midst of its biggest crisis to date, the AFP’s Celine Le Prioux says there are many reasons Europe’s biggest economy has benefited from the single currency. Chancellor Angela Merkel has made no bones about the advantages for Germany of the euro, which went into circulation as banknotes and coins on January 1, 2002, and whose future she has been grimly racing to shore up. “As... [more]
Serbia’s folk diva Svetlana Raznatovic on Monday denied charges of violent behavior she and another defendant are facing for allegedly insulting and beating up the manager of a football club. Raznatovic claimed at a court hearing that it was she who was insulted. “He (the manager) even wanted to attack me,” she told the court. “I have never caused any incidents.” The hearing was briefly interrupted when the... [more]
The same problems that plagued “La Vie en Rose,” starring Marion Cotillard as Edith Piaf, exist in “The Iron Lady,” a biopic about Margaret Thatcher starring Meryl Streep as the former British prime minister. While both films feature strong performances from strong actresses playing strong, real-life women, the scripts are weakened by going strictly by the numbers. Sure, Streep reliably nails her impression of Thatcher... [more]
Spain’s economy shrank in the last quarter and faces a bleak outlook for the coming months, its new economy minister said on Monday, heightening fears of a fresh recession. Luis de Guindos dampened already gloomy expectations for the economy as the new conservative government got to work on its programme of tough spending cuts. “This quarter the Spanish economy will surely see a downturn and we will return to negative growth,”... [more]
A leading anti-Kremlin Russian activist has been handed a new 10-day jail sentence just after a mass opposition protest in Moscow, his lawyer said. Sergei Udaltsov, who leads the extreme-left wing Left Front Movement, had already served 15 days for taking part in a protest in Moscow against the conduct of December 4 parliamentary elections won by Vladimir Putin’s party. But a Moscow court has now ordered him to serve 10 more days in... [more]
Brazil has overtaken Britain as the world’s sixth largest economy, a London-based research group said Monday. In its latest World Economic League Table, the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) said Asian countries were moving up while European countries were slipping down. CEBR chief executive Douglas McWilliams told BBC radio that Brazil’s advance was part of a wider trend. “I think it’s part of the... [more]
The chief of Russia’s military intelligence (GRU), Lt. Gen. Alexander Shlyakhturov, resigned from his post on Saturday, the Kommersant business daily reported. According to the newspaper, Shlyakhturov, 64, will in the near future head the board of directors of the Moscow Institute of Heat Engineering (MIT), the developer of the Bulava ballistic missile and other strategic missile systems. Now it is led by the head of Russia’s Federal... [more]
Majority of Norwegians are still satisfied with the performance of Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg. 57 per cent say he is doing a good job, according to a survey made by Synovate for Dagbladet. 33 per cent say he is doing an average job, while only eight per cent say he is doing a poor job as prime minster. In June, only 35 per cent said Stoltenberg was doing a good job as prime minister. Right after the terrorist massacre at youth camp... [more]
Dutch mosques are beginning to phase out Arabic-only sermons. Research at Utrecht University has shown that Surinamese Muslims are leading in this respect. Researcher Nico Landman told the ANP agency that such a development is logical, seeing that Dutch is the language that the Surinamese commonly speak in the Netherlands. There are approximately 20 Surinamese mosques in the Netherlands. In the Moroccan-Dutch community preaching in Dutch... [more]
US President Barack Obama has arrived in Hawaii, embarking on his year-end holiday after the political maelstrom of Washington – where he just earned a bruising tax victory. Air Force One touched down at Hickham Air Force Base in Honolulu at 5.52pm Friday (2.52pm today AEDT) after a flight of nearly nine hours. The president came to the press cabin with Christmas wishes early in the flight. Obama had delayed plans to join his wife... [more]
