Italian porn star Ilona Staller, known as ”La Cicciolina,” sued her ex-husband Jeff Koons on Wednesday, saying he failed to pay about €1,5-million (,3-million) in child support ordered by an Italian court. The couple divorced in 1994, and Staller took their son to Italy.
Disgraced American cyclist Floyd Landis will have to wait until June at the earliest for a ruling on an appeal to overturn his positive doping test at the 2006 Tour de France after a five-day hearing ended on Monday. Landis, who has denied wrongdoing, made his final appeal in closed-door sessions before the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
The internet has profoundly changed journalism, but not necessarily in ways that were predicted even a few years ago, a study on the United States media industry has found. It was believed at one point that the net would democratise the media, offering many new voices, stories and perspectives.
Some pundits are calling them the HillPublicans. They are hardcore Republicans who are going against their previous political beliefs and voting for Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton. The emergence of the HillPublicans now has many political observers poring over poll data and wondering what is going on.
More than 60 teams from nine countries have lined up to chase a -million prize for making a green supercar that smashes records for fuel efficiency, organisers of the competition said on Thursday. ”We’re not talking about concept cars,” said Peter Diamandis, chief executive of the X Prize Foundation.
The international community must overcome its reluctance to get involved in Somalia and help put an end to abuses there, a special United Nations envoy said on Thursday. ”While more people are talking about Somalia, there is still little action to stop the violence,” Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah told the Security Council during a debate on whether to send UN peacekeepers to the East African country.
JPMorgan Chase is offering bankers at Bear Stearns bonuses to stay and support the controversial takeover, a person familiar with the situation said on Thursday. Those employees who stay at the close of the deal would receive a bonus that will include JPMorgan shares.
Some words suffer horribly in translation; others change shape radically when they travel, and there are a few (emotional shortcuts to my home and my past) that have acquired an unnerving timbre and resonance through their Atlantic crossing. One of these words, madrasa, seems especially charged in New York, writes Nadia Davids.
Morocco and Western Sahara’s Polisario independence movement ended a fourth round of talks near New York City on Tuesday without narrowing differences on Africa’s longest-running territorial dispute. Morocco took control of most of Western Sahara in 1975 when colonial power Spain withdrew, prompting a guerrilla war for independence.
It may be the world’s oldest profession, but prostitution is using some 21st-century tricks. The prostitution scandal involving now former New York governor Eliot Spitzer lays bare some of the inner workings of modern-day sex work: SMSing to clock in the client, electronic fund transfers, a website featuring photos, prices and rankings.
JP Morgan Chase set a deal to buy stricken rival Bear Stearns for a rock-bottom price, while the United States Federal Reserve expanded lending to securities firms for the first time since the Great Depression to prop up the financial system. The shock news, the biggest sign yet of how devastating the credit crisis is for Wall Street, slammed the US dollar to a record low against the euro,
The global credit crunch claimed its biggest victim yet on Friday when the United States Federal Reserve orchestrated an emergency bail-out for Bear Stearns after a cash crisis prompted a run on the US’s fifth-biggest investment bank. President George Bush sought to calm fears of a deep recession in the world’s biggest economy.
Stocks tumbled on Thursday as investors recoiled following a further decline in the dollar, spikes in gold and oil prices and a warning that a Carlyle Group fund is near collapse. The major indexes each lost more than 1%; the Dow Jones industrial average at times fell more than 200 points.
Resigning over reports he paid for a 000-an-hour prostitute, New York Governor Eliot Spitzer leaves behind his political post but could face legal trouble from the stunning sex scandal. Spitzer now faces the possibility of federal criminal charges over how he may have paid for prostitution services.
Alpha Oumar Konare, chairperson of the African Union Commission, says it is "scandalous" to spend $2-billion annually on the upkeep of a proposed 26Â 000-strong joint AU-United Nations mission in Darfur when Africa’s urgent needs are elsewhere.
New York Governor Eliot Spitzer resigned from office on Wednesday, succumbing to threats of impeachment and mounting media pressure over his involvement in a career-ending prostitution scandal. Speaking to reporters in New York, Spitzer said he had failed to live up to the standards expected of public officials.
New York Governor Eliot Spitzer faces pressure to resign on Tuesday as well as questions about whether he will be prosecuted for any crime after a report linked him to a high-class prostitution ring. A New York Times report said the man who made his name fighting corruption hired a 000-an-hour sex worker
World number one Roger Federer enjoyed a special moment on Monday when he beat Pete Sampras in an electrifying exhibition match in New York’s Madison Square Garden. ”It was like a dream come true for me,” Federer said. ”Playing my childhood hero here at the Garden. I had never played here. It was great. We had lots of fun.”
Pop star Madonna, folk singer Leonard Cohen, rocker John Mellencamp, British pop band The Dave Clark Five and instrumental group The Ventures will be inducted into the Rock’n’Roll Hall of Fame on Monday. The five artists have been chosen by 600 music industry professionals.
The United States accused Libya on Thursday of preventing the Security Council from condemning as a ”terrorist attack” a deadly assault on a Jewish school in Jerusalem. The US delegation had hoped the council would unanimously support the text but Libya, backed by several other council members, prevented its adoption.
A small explosion caused minor damage to a United States military recruiting centre in New York’s Times Square area in the early hours of Thursday but there were no injuries, police said. The explosion, which authorities said appeared to have been directed at the recruiting centre, occurred in the early hours of the morning.
A United States teen who used vulgar slang in an internet blog to complain about school administrators should not have been punished by the school, her lawyer told a federal appeals court this week. But a lawyer for the school said administrators should be allowed to act if such comments are made on the web.
United States actress Drew Barrymore donated -million of her own money on Monday to the World Food Programme (WFP) that the United Nations agency said would be used to feed thousands of schoolchildren in Kenya. Barrymore (33) a WFP ambassador against hunger, announced her pledge on the Oprah Winfrey Show.
The United Nations Security Council is expected to adopt a third round of sanctions against Iran for its nuclear programme on Monday, but diplomats said this might be the first round that is not approved unanimously. Tehran denies Western charges it seeks nuclear weapons and has ignored three previous Security Council resolutions.
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/ 27 February 2008
By the end of the year half of the world’s population will be living in cities for the first time in history, the United Nations said in a report released on Tuesday. According to the report, by the year 2050 there will be 6,4-billion people living in cities, up from 3,3-billion now.
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/ 27 February 2008
Chad’s foreign minister said the government is holding secret discussions with rebel groups who support peace and national reconciliation following a coup attempt earlier this month. But Foreign Minister Ahmad Allam-Mi said on Tuesday that the government is not negotiating with any of the rebel leaders who attacked and destroyed much of the capital Ndjamena.
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/ 27 February 2008
Landscapes are the images that come to mind in the work of artist Richard Mayhew. The New York-born expressionist credits that to his part African-American, part Native-American roots. ”It’s a dual commitment to nature,” he says. ”The land is very important to both cultures in terms of stimulation and spiritual sensitivity, and it’s very important to me.”
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/ 24 February 2008
Even though Mike Huckabee is still battling for the Republican presidential nomination despite long odds, he said he won’t ”overstay his welcome”. Then he did precisely that on Saturday night, lingering on the set in a scripted gag on the comedy skit show Saturday Night Live despite repeated cues to leave the stage.
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/ 24 February 2008
International Boxing Federation heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko seized the World Boxing Organisation belt on Saturday with a unanimous decision over previously unbeaten Sultan Ibragimov. Ukraine’s Klitschko (31) improved to 50-3-3 with 44 knockouts as he jabbed his way to a clear, if unspectacular, victory.
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/ 22 February 2008
Wladimir Klitschko and Sultan Ibragimov bid to bring some clarity to the muddled heavyweight division on Saturday when they put their world titles on the line at Madison Square Garden. Trainer Emanuel Steward believes the fight could be Ukrainian Klitschko’s first step toward dominating the division.
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/ 21 February 2008
United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has urged the Sudanese government and all rebel groups to agree to a ceasefire in Darfur, saying deteriorating security is undermining efforts to help thousands of civilians caught in an upsurge in fighting.
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/ 21 February 2008
South Africa criticised the United Nations on Wednesday for lack of action to support the peace process in Somalia even though the UN Security Council renewed the mandate of an African peacekeeping mission there for another six months.