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 ...
Oscar-nominated actress Helena Bonham Carter and golf prodigyRory McIlroy led the list of recipients of Britain’s New Year’s honours on Saturday. Bonham Carter received a CBE, or Commander of the Order of the British Empire award – one step below a knighthood — after the most successful year of her career, capped by her performance in “The King’s Speech”, the hit film about the stammering king... [more]
A New York City judge has ruled comic book publisher Marvel Entertainment owns the rights to the Ghost Rider character in the fiery form that originated in the early 1970s. Federal Judge Katherine Forrest made the finding Wednesday, tossing out the claims of a man who says he created the motorcycle-driving Ghost Rider with the skeletal head that sometimes had fire blazing from it. A Ghost Rider of the 1950s and ’60s was a Western character... [more]
An unholy row erupted between Greek Orthodox and Armenian clergy over the cleaning of the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, an AFP correspondent said. Following Christmas celebrations, dozens of black-clad clerics from both churches, armed with brooms and cleaning materials, began to work on different parts of the church, built over the site where Jesus Christ is believed to have been born. But an Armenian priest supervising the work... [more]
End of the year sales are still going strong, and in this environment it’s difficult to imagine not being able to find an excellent deal on the necessities. But sales end and economic trends change, and sometimes even minor shifts can spell big price hikes. It’s inevitable that as the new year creeps closer, we begin to muse about what’s to come in the next 12 months. So dealnews is taking a look at what price adjustments... [more]
Alibaba Group has hired Washington lobbying firmDuberstein Group Inc, in a sign that the Chinese company would be willing to make a bid for all of Yahoo Inc if talks for buying backYahoo’s Asian assets do not succeed. Japan’s Softbank Corp is also listed as an Alibaba affiliate in the lobbying firm’s disclosure. Alibaba declined to comment. Alibaba, which has been interested in buying back most of the 40 percent... [more]
Some 8 million people received emails from the New York Times on Thursday offering a special discount if they would reconsider their decision to cancel their subscriptions. The trouble is, the offer was supposed to go to only about 300 people who had decided to stop taking home delivery of the newspaper — it was erroneously sent by a New York Times employee to more than 8 million people on an email marketing list. The debacle lit up... [more]
ARGENTINE President Cristina Kirchner has thanked her Latin American peers for their support in her first public appearance since she was diagnosed with thyroid cancer. “I am going to continue working with the greatest commitment,” she said as she met the country’s governors at her presidential palace today, one day after her spokesman announced that she would have surgery next week. She said Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez,... [more]
Citigroup Inc. is selling its Belgian consumer business to Credit Mutuel Nord Europe as the bank continues to sell off operations it deems are outside its core business. The company didn’t disclose the deal’s terms. Citigroup and other banks hurt by 2008′s financial meltdown and the economic downturn have been selling off “non-core” divisions. For example, Citigroup sold a $1.7 billion private equity... [more]
Four years ago, Matthew McConaughey’s relationship with Brazilian model Camila Alves was revealed to PEOPLE in a 2007 cover story. “She likes roughing it,” a source said at the time. “She doesn’t complain when they go hiking for 10 days without clean clothes or a shower.” On Christmas Day, McConaughey’s longtime love — and mother of his two children, Levi, 3, and Vida, who turns 2 in January... [more]
The funeral of the North Korean leader Kim Jong Il unfolded across the snow-laden streets of Pyongyang on Wednesday, with the secretive regime displaying its ability to choreograph elaborate state ceremonies. A North Korean state television broadcast of the services showed a tearful Kim Jong Un, the son and chosen successor of Kim Jong Il, trudging through the snow alongside a black car, which carried a giant portrait of a smiling Kim. Other... [more]
