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 ...
Lindsay Lohan has begun a 90-day prison sentence that she will probably serve in isolation. Wearing dark denim jeans, a grey top, black corset belt and black jacket, the 24-year-old actress had arrived at a Beverly Hills court about 10 minutes late. After a short hearing, she was handcuffed behind her back to serve her time for a probation violation. Lohan was accompanied to court by her mother Dina and younger sister Ali, who wiped away... [more]
Two of the three persons apprehended by the police last Thursday, suspected of having prepared terrorist acts, were Monday jailed for four weeks in police custody by an Oslo Court. David Jakobsen, age 31 from Uzbekistan, and Mikael Davud, age 39 of Uighur background will be held in compllete isolation for the first two weeks. The Norway Security Police (PST) prosecutors had asked for them to be remanded in custody for eight weeks. The third... [more]
Both Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg and Justice Minister Knut Storberget interrupted their vacation and returned to Oslo, following the arrest of three terrorist suspects early Thursday morning. “Terrorism creates fear and insecurity, and must be combated. We shall maintain and consolidate public security in Norway,” said Prime Minister Stoltenberg at a hastily called press conference. “No one shall be able to steal our security,... [more]
The attorney for Lindsay Lohan resigned on Thursday even as she issued a statement calling the jail sentence imposed on the troubled actress this week for violating probation, “harsh and unfair.” A spokeswoman for attorney Shawn Chapman Holley confirmed the lawyer had left Lohan’s case, but she did not have any details on a reason why or who had replaced Holley. Earlier Thursday, Holley issued a statement saying she and... [more]
Mel Gibson’s ex-girlfriend Oksana Grigorieva has testified under oath about her troubled relationship with the Hollywood actor as part of a bitter custody battle over their baby daughter. The Braveheart star split from Grigorieva earlier this year and the former couple is now embroiled in a battle over visitation rights to seven-month-old Lucia. The Russian singer sat for the deposition in Los Angeles on Friday. Gibson and Grigorieva’s... [more]
Supermodel Naomi Campbell can be called to give evidence over a “blood diamond” prosecutors say she was given by former Liberian president Charles Taylor, the Sierra Leone war crimes court has ruled. Prosecutors at the Special Court for Sierra Leone sought in May to call Campbell, who has so far refused to testify, saying she can provide “material evidence” to rebut Taylor’s claims that he never possessed rough... [more]
French prosecutors on Wednesday demanded the maximum 10-year jail sentence for Panama’s ageing former dictator Manuel Noriega on charges of laundering drug money. The 76-year-old general has denied taking payments from Colombian drug lords in the 1980s, dismissing the accusations that he laundered drug money in France as a scheme concocted by the United States. “I call on God’s divine providence to give wisdom to you and... [more]
In February this year 711 asylum seekers arrived in Norway. This is 40 per cent fewer than in February last year, according to fresh figures from the Immigration Directorate (UDI). So far this year 1552 applications for asylum in Norway have been registered, a decline of 39 per cent compared with the same period last year. Most asylum seekers come from Eritrea, Afghanistan and Somalia. Four out of ten asylum seekers come from one of these... [more]
Angelina Jolie travelled on rutted jungle roads to a village on Ecuador’s border with Colombia to highlight the abuses suffered by women and children refugees. The actress and UN human rights goodwill ambassador returned for the first time in eight years to a turbulent region where thousands of Colombian refugees live. She ended her two-day visit with a meeting in Shushufindi with President Rafael Correa and other senior government... [more]
Swiss businessman Max Goeldi will leave Libya on Sunday for home, three days after being freed from a Libyan jail for visa offences, Swiss Foreign Minister Micheline Calmy-Rey told reporters. “Goeldi will leave Libya today,” Calmy-Rey told reporters after a meeting with Libyan officials. She also said that Libya and Switzerland have signed an “action plan” to solve a bitter diplomatic row that saw Goeldi stuck in... [more]
