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 ...
Prince Charles’ wife, Camilla, plans to keep up all her scheduled engagements despite breaking a leg while hillwalking in Scotland, a royal spokeswoman said Thursday. “While hillwalking in slippery conditions in Scotland, the Duchess of Cornwall took a tumble and hurt her leg,” a spokeswoman for Clarence House said, noting that the mishap occurred on Wednesday. Following doctor’s advice on Thursday, Camilla —... [more]
Markets pounded Greek bonds and banking stocks on Thursday, driving the debt-stricken euro zone member’s borrowing costs to new highs and pushing it closer to tapping a last resort EU/IMF safety net. The government struggled to reassure markets it can stay solvent after the premium investors demand to buy Greek rather than the benchmark German government debt surged for the third day in a row to a record high since Greece joined the... [more]
British Airways and Spanish carrier Iberia signed a merger agreement on Thursday, sealing a long-awaited deal to create Europe’s second largest airline by passenger kilometres. The deal, which creates a group with a combined market value of around $7.8 billion (5 billion pounds), ends the flag carrier’s long pursuit of Iberia, and will allow it to emulate rivals Lufthansa and Air France who have successfully acquired smaller... [more]
Manchester United have been knocked out of the Champions League by Bayern Munich despite winning 3-2 at Old Trafford. Bayern advance to the semis on the away goals rule. They will meet Lyon Wayne Rooney was sensationally named in Manchester United’s starting line-up to face Bayern Munich in the Champions League quarter-finals at Old Trafford tonight. Rooney’s fitness has been the subject of intense speculation ever since he limped... [more]
Anti-Facebook feelings in Germany grew Wednesday as a major consumer group urged people to abandon the social networking website unless it scraps planned changes to its privacy policy. “If protection of your personal data is important to you, we can only advise users to oppose the planned changes, and together with their friends to choose another provider,” said the Federation of German Consumer Organisations (VZBZ), an... [more]
Carla Bruni-Sarkozy has dismissed rumors of infidelity by her or her husband, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, as “insignificant” and brushed off theories that lies were planted in a plot to bring down the glamorous couple. She says that she and Sarkozy “have turned the page” and suggested the media to do the same. A close Sarkozy aide and the president’s lawyer have both held out the possibility the rumors... [more]
German prosecutors said on Wednesday they have charged two men for exporting equipment to Iran intended for use in making long-range missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads. Iranian citizen Mohsen A., 52, and German-Iranian engineer Behzad S., 49, teamed up to buy a furnace used in making warheads and missile guidance systems from an unnamed German firm, federal prosecutors said. Both men, who were formally charged on March 24 with... [more]
U.S. climate scientist James Hansen won a $100,000 environmental prize on Wednesday for decades of work trying to alert politicians to what he called an unsolved emergency of global warming. Hansen, born in 1941, will visit Oslo in June to collect the Sophie Prize, set up in 1997 by Norwegian Jostein Gaarder, the author of the 1991 best-selling novel and teenagers’ guide to philosophy “Sophie’s World.” “Hansen... [more]
Bank of England policy makers have begun their last monthly meeting to determine the level of interest rates and money supply before an anticipated tight general election that will likely hinge on the fragile state of the British economy. Amid cautious optimism about a sluggish recovery, they are widely expected to extend a yearlong record low in interest rates and leave the bank’s billion-pound asset purchasing program on hold... [more]
The Kyrgyzstan Health Ministry says at least 180 people have been wounded in clashes between police and anti-government protesters in this Central Asian nation. Health Ministry spokeswoman Elena Bayalinova gave the figure without specifying whether it included both police and civilians. She would not confirm any deaths. Protests are spiraling in Kyrgyzstan, where anti-government demonstrators stormed the main government building and... [more]
