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 ...
Sandra Bullock says she has filed for divorce from her husband Jesse James. The Oscar-winning actress has also revealed that she is adopting a baby boy, three-and-a-half-month-old Louis Bardo Bullock, as a single parent, reports People. The report on the magazine’s website says Sandra and Jesse began the adoption process four years ago and brought Louis home in January but decided to keep the news to themselves until after the Oscars,... [more]
Swiss authorities said Wednesday they had received official notice of last week’s US court ruling on Roman Polanski, clearing a technical hurdle for a decision on the film-maker’s extradition. “Yes we have received the ruling,” Folco Galli, a spokesman for the federal justice office, told AFP. But he stressed that the development did not automatically finalise a decision on whether or not Switzerland will deliver... [more]
The financial crisis engulfing Greece and Portugal — and fears it could spread to other eurozone countries — overshadowed an expected meeting Wednesday between German Chancellor Angela Merkel and the heads of the International Monetary Fund and theEuropean Central Bank. Worried markets are looking to Merkel, IMF managing director Dominique Strauss-Kahn and ECB President Jean-Claude Trichet and others to send a positive signal,... [more]
Russian prosecutors have not yet received information from Dresden, Germany, on corrupt practices at the high-tech corporation Hewlett-Packard, the Russian prosecutor general said on Wednesday. Hewlett-Packard’s executives are suspected of paying about $10.9 million in bribes approximately seven years ago to win a multi-million dollar contract. The company sold computer equipment through a German subsidiary to the Prosecutor General’s... [more]
Russia’s state archives posted documents Wednesday for the first time on the Internet about theSoviet Union’s World War II massacre of more than 20,000 Polish officers and other prominent citizens. The step was a gesture to Poland in a case that looms large in Polish history and has soured relations between the two countries for decades. President Dmitry Medvedev ordered the documents posted on the archives’ website,... [more]
Greece’s borrowing costs are spiralling and a debt payment deadline is looming a day after a credit ratings agency downgraded the nation’s debt to junk status. The euro dropped to a new one-year low against the dollar and stock markets in London, Lisbon, Paris, Frankfurt and Madrid all fell this morning amid fears of a widening European crisis. Greece urgently needs money within the next three weeks, as it has 8.5bn euros worth... [more]
Airline Flybe is to offer passengers the opportunity to buy separate volcanic ash insurance, it has been announced. The £6.99 per person policy will reimburse passengers for costs for delays of more than 24 hours caused by closure of airspace. Flybe said it stands by its commitment to reimbursement as laid out in EU regulations, but “wanted to make sure our passengers have insurance to help pay for any additional costs” from... [more]
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]
The Norwegian Ministry of Education and Research and representatives of the Russian Federation have signed agreements on cooperation in higher education and meteorology The agreements were completed in conjunction with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev’s state visit to Norway. - We have common challenges and interests in higher education and knowledge, especially in the northern areas regarding energy and environmental studies, marine... [more]
