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 White House is praising the European Union and its member countries for acting aggressively to contain a spreadinggovernment debt crisis on the continent. The White House comments Monday came after the EU announced a $1 trillion package to support the euro and prop up troubled governments amid fears the crisis would spread from heavily indebted Greece to other financially weak countries such as Spain and Portugal. In a statement,... [more]
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Monday that an emergency trillion-dollar rescue package for crisis-hit eurozone countries would serve as bulwark for the beleaguered euro. “This package serves to strengthen and protect the common currency,” she told reporters, hours after the European Union announced an unprecedented intervention worth more than €750 billion backed by the International Monetary Fund and central banks... [more]
President Barack Obama will nominate Solicitor General Elena Kagan to the Supreme Court, a person familiar with the president’s thinking said Sunday night. The move positions the court to have three female justices for the first time in history. The source spoke on condition of anonymity because the decision had not been made public. Obama will announce his choice at 10 a.m. Monday in the East Room of the White House. Known as... [more]
Greek President Carolos Papoulias called crisis talks with political leaders on Monday in a bid to rein in social tensionsas the EU moved to limit the fallout from Greece’s debt crunch on world markets. The talks are being boycotted by representatives of the Communist and left-wing Syriza parties, who have helped mount protests in recent weeks against drastic austerity measures aimed at slashing Greece’s budget deficit. More... [more]
A prominent Chinese AIDS activist has fled China for the United States with his wife and 4-year-old daughter to escape increasing government harassment of him and his organization, he said Monday. Wan Yanhai’s departure highlights the pressure that nongovernmental groups and activists face when operating in China, where theCommunist Party leadership remains suspicious of independent groups or individuals as possible threats to their... [more]
The Netherlands will contribute €26bn to the €500bn guarantee fund being set up by eurozone members to shore up the euro, acting finance minister Jan Kees de Jager said on Sunday evening. The EU effort is part of a global effort to stabilise the world financial markets in the wake of the Greek debt crisis, worth an estimated $1 trillion, according to Reuters news agency. De Jager emphasised the Dutch contribution is in the form a of... [more]
Serbia has uncovered a mass grave believed to contain the bodies of some 250 ethnic Albanians killed during the 1998-1999 conflict in Kosovo, its war crimes prosecutor told AFP on Monday. “Serbia’s war crimes prosecution office and EULEX (the EU’s law and police mission in Kosovo) together uncovered the mass grave with presumably 250 bodies of Kosovo Albanians,” prosecutor Vladimir Vukcevic said. The grave was found... [more]
Sweden’s finance minister Anders Borg was on Sunday unwilling to rule out that Sweden would assist in underwriting a bailout fund for troubled euro economies. “I would not rule out anything,” Anders Borg told reporters as he arrived for crunch talks in Brussels. “I would be willing to consider any option,” he said when asked if Sweden could help to guarantee borrowings in the EU’s name despite not... [more]
Europe has agreed a 500bn euro (£433bn) emergency package to stabilise the eurozone and stop the panic from the Greece crisis spreading further. It is made up of 440bn euro (£381bn) from eurozone members, and a 60bn euro (£52bn) top up of an existing EU budget fund for helping struggling economies. An additional 250bn euro package has also been offered by the International Monetary Fund. The monster bail-out came after 11 hours of talks... [more]
A Dutch report published ahead of a global conference on child labour in The Hague calls for a more comprehensive approach to eradicate the scourge. The report – compiled by the FNV Dutch union federation – is based on research in seven countries. According to the study, the current approach focuses on eradicating the worst excesses of child labour, such as child prostitution, child soldiers and other dangerous work. The FNV... [more]
