Bravo network’s hit show Project Runway and the independent film Quinceanera won honours at the gay media watchdog Gladd’s annual awards on Monday, but it was singer Patti LaBelle and Oscar-winning Dreamgirl Jennifer Hudson who stole the show.
Iran rejected a repeated demand by the United Nations Security Council to suspend uranium enrichment work after the 15-nation body imposed arms and financial sanctions on Tehran. At the same time major powers, who drafted the resolution, immediately offered new talks on Saturday and renewed their offer of an economic and technological incentive package.
The United Nations Security Council voted unanimously on Saturday to impose new sanctions on Iran for its nuclear ambitions by targeting Tehran’s arms exports, state-owned bank and elite Revolutionary Guards. The new measures are a follow-up to a resolution adopted on December 23 banning trade in sensitive nuclear materials and ballistic missiles.
When planes flew into the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon on September 11 2001, it was the culmination of cunning plans by Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.
A wide array of United States broadcasters and online companies on Monday challenged a ruling from a panel of copyright judges that they say could cripple the emerging business of offering music broadcasts over the internet. They are asking the Copyright Royalty Board to reconsider key parts of its March 2 ruling.
Software giant Microsoft on Wednesday launched a string of lawsuits in the United States and Britain against ”cybersquatters” who register internet site names in the hope of a quick buck. The US company said it had filed or amended four civil suits in the US and launched five new cases in Britain.
South Africa pushed on Monday for a 90-day freeze of Iran’s uranium enrichment in exchange for a simultaneous suspension of United Nations sanctions that the Security Council is looking to toughen. The 90-day, simultaneous suspension was contained in a series of South African amendments to a draft resolution agreed by six major powers last week.
Supermodel Naomi Campbell began a week of cleaning bathrooms and mopping floors at the New York City Sanitation Department on Monday as part of a community service order for throwing a cellphone at her maid last year. "She will be sweeping, cleaning, mopping. We have windows that need to be cleaned," said Sanitation Department deputy chief Albert Durrell.
George Bush will be remembered as the worst US President ever, real-estate mogul Donald Trump said on Friday, adding that US Senator Hillary Clinton could be Bush’s White House successor. ”Bush is probably the worst president in the history of the United States,” Trump told CNN.
Forget free toppings. A New York restaurant has started offering a $1 000 (about R7 400) pizza covered with caviar and lobster that the owner says is the most expensive pizza on Earth. The Bellissima Luxury Pizza is piled with lashings of caviar, fresh lobster, wasabi and crème fraiche.
United States entertainment giant Viacom on Tuesday launched a billion-dollar lawsuit against Google and its affiliate YouTube, accusing the video-sharing website of "massive" copyright infringement. The suit seeks more than $1-billion in damages, as well as an injunction prohibiting Google and YouTube from further infringements.
Internet music broadcasters worry that a new ruling could put many of them out of business by drastically increasing the royalty payments they have to make to record labels and artists. The new rates, which are retroactive to last year, were decided last Friday by the United States Copyright Royalty Board.
An extended family of Malian immigrants, trapped in their burning New York City home, screamed for help in the night, and one woman tossed children from a second-floor window to try to save them before jumping out herself, witnesses said. Nine people, including eight children, died in the city’s deadliest fire in 17 years.
Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates is still the richest man in the world, but his lead over other entrepreneurs is narrowing, according to <i>Forbes</i> magazine’s list of billionaires published on Thursday. United States investment guru Warren Buffett’s personal fortune climbed to $52-billion, halving the software mogul’s lead.
Rape is weapon of war and the world fails to treat it as a crime, two United Nations agencies said on Wednesday as the Security Council called for justice for women and girls who are victims of violence. To mark International Women’s Day on Thursday, Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said that violence against women and girls continued in every continent, country and culture.
At least two people will share a -million (R2,7-billion) lottery jackpot in the United States, officials said on Wednesday after the record prize drew in millions of players across the country. ”Right now we know there are two winning tickets: one in the state of New Jersey, one in the state of Georgia,” an Ohio Lottery Commission spokesperson said.
Software giant Microsoft on Tuesday launched a stinging attack on Google, accusing its internet rival of riding roughshod over copyright in a rush to grab content for its own commercial benefit. The attack by top Microsoft lawyer Tom Rubin came as the two corporate titans step up their competition in both software and online content.
YouTube, the video social-networking website owned by Google, is building a vast network of content providers, a company spokesperson said. YouTube has concluded "more than 1 000 partnerships" with content providers both big and small, YouTube spokesperson David Song said late on Friday.
Brazil, the United States, China and the European Commission launched a joint initiative in New York on Friday to promote development of an international market for biofuels which are seen as a viable alternative to fossil fuels. Joined by India and South Africa, they announced at a press conference here the launch of a mechanism to create a world market to spur production
Many young men could use a bit more instruction on proper condom use, according to lead author of a new study that found nearly one in three experienced recent condom breakage. ”We give condoms away all the time, and unfortunately that’s often all that we do,” said Dr RA Crosby of the University of Kentucky in Lexington.
The 15-member United Nations Security Council expects to have a draft resolution next week on additional sanctions to curb Iran’s nuclear ambitions, the council’s president said. South Africa’s UN ambassador, Dumisani Kumalo, said major powers were trying to include all members in discussions.
Arthur M Schlesinger Jr, the Pulitzer Prize-winning historian and Kennedy insider who helped define mainstream liberalism during the Cold War and remained an eminent public thinker into the 21st century, has died, his son said. He was 89. Schlesinger suffered a heart attack while dining out with family members on February 28 in Manhattan.
Releasing a new study entitled Confronting Climate Change: Avoiding the Unmanageable and Managing the Unavoidable, researchers said at United Nations headquarters on Tuesday that policymakers should get their act together before it is too late to avoid a doomsday scenario.
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/ 28 February 2007
The United Nations drug control watchdog is hindering efforts to fight the global HIV/Aids pandemic and the agency should be reviewed. Stephen Lewis, a former UN special envoy for Aids in Africa, accused the International Narcotics Control Board of enforcing drug policies that ignore public health.
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/ 28 February 2007
The United Nations Security Council favours a rapid deployment of UN peacekeepers in eastern Chad and north-eastern Central African Republic to protect civilians caught in the spillover of fighting in Sudan’s Darfur region, diplomats said on Tuesday.
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/ 27 February 2007
Wall Street fell sharply in early trading on Tuesday, joining a global stock decline on growing concerns about slowing economies in the United States and China. Worries that US stocks are about to embark on a major correction fed the drop, which took the Dow Jones industrials down more than 120 points.
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/ 27 February 2007
A South African teenager had a message for government ministers and officials attending a high-level United Nations meeting on ending discrimination and violence against girls: ”It’s time to listen to us!” Quilinta Nepaul (17) said participants at annual meeting should read a report reflecting the views of over 1 300 young people from 59 countries.
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/ 21 February 2007
United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon recommended on Tuesday peacekeeping operations of up to 11 000 personnel for Chad and the Central African Republic to stanch the spillover from the Darfur conflict in Sudan. Eastern Chad is marked by ”uncertainty, vulnerability and victimisation of the local communities”, Ban said.
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/ 20 February 2007
Police called to a Long Island man’s house discovered the mummified remains of the resident, dead for more than a year, sitting in front of a blaring television set. The 70-year-old Hampton Bays, New York, resident, identified as Vincenzo Ricardo, appeared to have died of natural causes.
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/ 17 February 2007
Oil jumped more than 2% on Friday to above a barrel after the United States warned that Nigerian militants are planning to expand attacks in Africa’s top oil producer. US crude settled ,40 higher at ,39 a barrel, reversing earlier losses caused by milder US weather.
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/ 14 February 2007
You might ignore your cellphone if your ringtone is Beethoven’s Fur Elise, but what if it’s a gruff voice that yells ”Pick up the damn phone?” Now that musical ringtones have become commonplace, Time Warner’s Cartoon Network is planning to use the voices and personalities of its cartoon characters to alert cellphone users to incoming calls.
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/ 7 February 2007
Chubby Checker removes his overcoat, bends his knees slightly and slowly swivels his hips. The big guy is getting into it, lightly snapping his fingers, pointing his toes. ”The twist is putting out a cigarette with both feet, coming out of the shower, wiping off your bottom with a towel to the beat of the music,” he explains.