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 ...
The director of Madonna’s Raising Malawi foundation is denying that there is a land dispute over the charity’s planned $15 million girls academy, calling reports that some villagers feel the project is displacing them “erroneous.” The Associated Press has reported that the village headman took the villagers’ complaints to the local government, and that local officials have visited the area several times. However,... [more]
Japan stayed ahead of China as the world’s number two economy in 2009 but came close to losing the position it has held for more than 40 years, official data showed Monday. Japan posted nominal gross domestic product of about 5.1 trillion dollars last year, the government announced. China reported last month nominal GDP of about 4.9 trillion dollars for 2009. But with China expected to enjoy another year of strong growth in 2010,... [more]
In Latvia’s largest ever leak of confidential info, a total of 7.4 million of tax documents were stolen from the server of the country’s state revenue service, the country’s media said. The LTV1 channel said in its De Facto program on Sunday evening that unidentified people received access to documents on incomes of the country’s top officials, including the presidential administration and other state structures. A... [more]
Najaf’s airport was meant to be a symbol of Iraq getting back to business, and in many ways it’s been a success, creating jobs and spurring a construction craze in the Shiite shrine city. But an increasingly bitter dispute between local authorities and the Kuwaiti contractor brought in to run the facility is casting a cloud over one of Iraq’s proudest postwar accomplishments and prompting accusations of political meddling. The... [more]
A majority of Swiss people remain in favour of retaining the country’s long-cherished tradition of bank secrecy despite growing international pressure for greater transparency, a poll showed Sunday. “The Swiss are not ready to give up their banking secrecy,” the Matin Dimanche newspaper said as it published a survey showing 62 percent opposed to any change. In the 15-34 age group, those opposed rose to 68 percent, the newspaper... [more]
Gareth Wigan, a London-born talent agent, film producer and studio executive credited with steering the success of such films as “Star Wars,” died on Saturday in his home at Los Angeles at the age of 78 after a brief illness. Tributes from Hollywood heavyweights from Barbra Streisand to George Lucas and Martin Scorsese poured in for the Oxford graduate, who began his career as an agent in the United Kingdom in the late 1950s... [more]
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said on Saturday his government was in talks with French retailer Casino to buy 80 percent of the company’s assets in the country. Share this: {lang: 'en-US'} function open_win(url,id) { var win = window.open(url, 'popup','width=600,height=300,status=0,toolbar=0'); var tpopup = setInterval(function() { if(win.closed) { reload_to(); } }, 1000); return false; } function... [more]
Polish President Lech Kaczynski congratulated Viktor Yanukovych on winning Ukraine’s presidential election and invited him to Poland, his aide, Mariusz Handzlik, has said. “In a telephone conversation, President Kaczynski stressed that Poland would support Ukraine on its path of reforms and Ukraine’s European and Euro-Atlantic aspirations,” Handzlik said. He also said that elections in Ukraine were in line with the... [more]
Russia has imposed temporary restrictions on meat and dairy imports from a number of U.S., Brazilian, Finnish and Czech companies starting from Friday, the country’s agricultural regulator said. Tests revealed that some products contained harmful substances, while others were infected with salmonella, bacteria that cause a potentially lethal disease, salmonellosis, Rosselkhoznadzor said in a statement. Shipments from U.S. and Brazil,... [more]
Priest thought to have handed over 50,000 euros. Suspects obtained jobs and luxury cars ROME – The “jelly-like system” set up to manage major events is the focus of the charges brought by Florence magistrates against the head of the civil protection agency, Guido Bertolaso. Benefits the influential junior minister is alleged to have obtained for awarding contracts to Diego Anemone’s group include “cash and sexual services”.... [more]
