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 ...
New British leader David Cameron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel sought to play down sharp differences on how to shore up European financial stability Friday, in their first official talks. The Conservative premier said he backed a “strong and stable” eurozone, although Britain is not a member, but stressed his centre-right government had agreed it would never cede any new powers to the European Union. “There is no... [more]
A majority of 79 Dutch MPs have voted in favour of opting out of the Joint Strike Fighter jet project. A motion proposed by the Labour Party (PvdA) was supported by the Socialist Party, Green Left, the democrat party D66, the rightwing Freedom Party and the Party for the Animals. Yesterday, the Labour Party announced that it was dropping its support for the JSF project and would vote against Dutch involvement in the test phase. Last year,... [more]
A majority of MPs has called on the government to follow Germany and introduce a ban on the form of speculative share trading known as ‘naked short selling’. Naked short selling is the practice of selling shares without owning them, borrowing them, or ensuring that they can be borrowed in the future. Earlier this week, the Dutch financial services regulator AFM said it did not support a ban. Nor does acting finance minister... [more]
Germany’s governing coalition on Friday managed to push a billion-euro rescue package for the eurozone through parliament after warning the future of Europe’s single currency was at stake. Chancellor Angela Merkel’s centre-right coalition of Christian and Free Democrats backed controversial legislation approving Germany’s share of a €750-billion ($914-billion) emergency fund for troubled nations using the euro. Finance Minister... [more]
The United States has spent a fraction of the $1.1 billion it promised Mexico between 2008 and 2010 to make “an immediate and important impact” on surging drug cartel violence, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press. While President Barack Obama and Congress pledged strong, continued support to Mexican President Felipe Calderon in Washington this week, State Department spreadsheets provide the first definitive... [more]
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton kicked off a three-nation tour of Asia on Friday that was supposed to focus on U.S.-China economic issues but is being overshadowed by a crisis over North Korea’s sinking of a South Korean warship. Clinton landed in Japan for the first leg of the tour that will also take her to China and South Korea. At all three stops, her agenda will be dominated by heightened tensions stemming from... [more]
South Korea’s president said Friday his country was caught in a “perfect military ambush” when a NorthKorean torpedo sank a naval warship, but called for a cautious response to the disaster that left 46 sailors dead. President Lee Myung-bak made the comments at an emergency national security meeting convened one day after an official report concluded that North Korea was responsible for the deadly sinking of the South... [more]
Family Minister Kristina Schröder on Friday called for German companies to create more flexible work time models to allow parents better options for juggling career and family. “A 30-hour work week could be almost ideal for both partners,” the conservative Christian Democrat told news magazine Focus. “Forty hours of working time are too much for most parents of small children, but at 20 hours they cast themselves out of their careers.” In... [more]
A nationwide strike by Norwegian journalists has been avoided, after an agreement was reached between the Journalist Union and the media industry in the early hours of Friday morning. Agreement was reached after the National Arbitrator put forward a new wage proposal, which was accepted by the two sides. It means that journalists will on average get an annual increment of nearly NOK 10,000, or 3 per cent. Share this: ... [more]
A court in southern China upheld the death penalty Friday of a former police chief convicted of taking bribes from local gang leaders. The Chongqing Municipal Higher People’s Court rejected the appeal from Wen Qiang, 55, who was convicted of taking bribes worth millions from gang members while he was director of the Chongqing Municipal Judicial Bureau, a report on the court’s website said. Wen’s case has been the biggest... [more]
