Giorgio Armani fashion house has paid 270 million euros ($374 million) to the Italian authorities to settle a tax bill.
An Armani spokesman confirmed reports that the payment concerned the group’s subsidiaries abroad but declined to comment further.
Giorgio Armani fashion house has paid 270 million euros to the Italian authorities to settle a tax bill
Last year the designers Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana were convicted of concealing millions of euros in tax.
Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana have appealed against a 20-month jail sentence.
All tax claims against Armani, which saw sales rise to more than 2 billion euros in 2012 according to Reuters news agency, are now closed, the Italian newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore reports.
Lara Spencer has been promoted to co-host status on Good Morning America, ABC has announced.
Lifestyle anchor since returning to the show in 2011, Lara Spencer now has billing parity with Robin Roberts and George Stephanopoulos.
Lara Spencer was GMA‘s national correspondent from 1999 to 2004. Then, for seven years, she was a host of The Insider.
Lara Spencer has been promoted to co-host status on Good Morning America
Her promotion comes as GMA continues to beat NBC’s Today show in the ratings, but after it recently lost two members of its team, Sam Champion and Josh Elliott.
The other current members of the GMA family are Ginger Zee and Amy Robach.
Also this week, Good Morning America welcomed Michael Strahan, a co-host of the daily Live with Kelly and Michael, as a contributor.
Gwen Stefani is to sign a deal to join NBC’s The Voice for the upcoming seventh season.
Gwen Stefani, 44, will replace pregnant Christina Aguilera on the upcoming fall season with a one-season deal.
Gwen Stefani is to sign a deal to join NBC’s The Voice for the upcoming seventh season (photo Getty Images)
Christina Aguilera is set to return for the following spring season.
Gwen Stefani will join Pharrell Williams, who replaced CeeLo Green, on the upcoming season. Adam Levine and Blake Shelton are expected to return as well.
An Ohio couple, who had 70 years of marriage, have died 15 hours apart.
Helen Felumlee, of Nashport, died at 92 on April 12. Her husband, Kenneth Felumlee, died at the age of 91 the next morning.
Helen and Kenneth Felumlee’s eight children say the two had been inseparable since meeting as teenagers, once sharing the bottom of a bunk bed on a ferry rather than sleeping one night apart, the Zanesville Times Recorder reported.
They remained deeply in love until the very end, even eating breakfast together while holding hands, said their daughter, Linda Cody.
“We knew when one went, the other was going to go,” she said.
According to Linda Cody, about 12 hours after Helen Felumlee died, Kenneth looked at his children and said: “Mom’s dead.”
Helen Felumlee died at 92 on April 12 and her husband Kenneth died at the age of 91 the next morning
Kenneth Felumlee quickly began to fade and was surrounded by 24 of his closest family members and friends when he died the next morning.
“He was ready,” Linda Cody said.
“He just didn’t want to leave her here by herself.”
Helen and Kenneth had known each other for several years when they eloped in Newport, Kentucky, across the Ohio River from Cincinnati, on February 20, 1944. At two days shy of his 21st birthday, Kenneth Felumlee was too young to marry in Ohio.
“He couldn’t wait,” son Jim Felumlee said.
Kenneth Felumlee worked as a railroad car inspector and mechanic before becoming a mail carrier for the Nashport Post Office. He was active in his Nashport-Irville United Methodist Church as a Sunday school teacher.
Helen Felumlee stayed at home, not only cooking and cleaning for her own family but also for other families in need in the area. She taught Sunday school, too, but was known more for her greeting card ministry, sending cards for birthdays, sympathy and the holidays to everyone in her community, each with a personal note inside.
“She kept Hallmark in business,” daughter-in-law Debbie Felumlee joked.
When Kenneth Felumlee retired in 1983 and the children began to leave the house, the Felumlees began to explore their love of travel, visiting almost all 50 states by bus.
“He didn’t want to fly anywhere because you couldn’t see anything as you were going,” Jim Felumlee said.
Although Helen and Kenneth Felumlee experienced declining health in recent years, each tried to stay strong for the other, their daughter said.
In a recent interview, living doll Valeria Lukyanova said she believes the world’s looks are deteriorating because ethnicities are mixing.
Ukrainian-horn Human Barbie has been an object of fascination for several years for her extreme proportions and features.
For GQ Russia’s April issue, editor-in-chief Michael Idov traveled overseas to meet the 28-year-old living doll in the flesh and discovered that “her world is far more bizarre” than any photo online can capture.
“I realize that just like everyone reading about Human Barbie, I had had a simple narrative prepared in my head: A small-town girl grows up obsessed with dolls, etc.,” Michael Idov wrote.
“Instead, I get a racist space alien.”
Valeria Lukyanova said she believes the world’s looks are deteriorating because ethnicities are mixing
Valeria Lukyanova’s look has been debated fiercely online, with many people saying she uses Photoshop to achieve her anime-like appearance. Others chalk up her image to plastic surgery, though Valeria Lukyanova said she’s only undergone breast augmentation. Instead, she claims the rest is done with “sport massage, healthy living and professional makeup.”
In her interview with GQ magazine, the “Human Barbie” addressed topics she’s never explored with reporters before: race and procreation.
According to Valeria Lukyanova, everyone wants to be beautiful, but because of race-mixing, many have had to resort to plastic surgery.
“Everyone wants a slim figure. Everyone gets breasts done. Everyone fixes up their face if it’s not ideal, you know? Everyone strives for the golden mean. It’s global now,” she said.
The living doll explained further that because of the melting pot that is the world today, there’s been an increase in demand for plastic surgery.
“Ethnicities are mixing now, so there’s degeneration, and it didn’t used to be like that. Remember how many beautiful women there were in the 1950s and 1960s, without any surgery? And now, thanks to degeneration, we have this,” she said.
“For example, a Russian marries an Armenian, they have a kid, a cute girl, but she has her dad’s nose. She goes and files it down a little, and it’s all good.”
For this reason, Valeria Lukyanova said, she is not open to the idea of having children.
“It’s unacceptable to me. The very idea of having children brings out this deep revulsion in me,” she said.
“I’d rather die from torture, because the worst thing in the world is to have a family lifestyle.”
Saturday Night Live will celebrate its 40th birthday with a three-hour live special that will air on Sunday, February 15, 2015.
The show will include a huge reunion of former cast members.
The list of returning Not Ready for Primetime Players, as well as special and musical guests from the show’s run, will be announced in the coming months.
“Saturday Night Live is an institution unlike anything else in television history,” said Robert Greenblatt, chairman of NBC Entertainment.
Saturday Night Live will celebrate its 40th birthday with a three-hour live special that will air on February 15, 2015
“The many brilliant <<Not Ready for Primetime Players>> over the years is a who’s who of film and television comedy for the last two generations. The roster includes everyone from the iconic first cast in 1975 to household names ranging from Eddie Murphy, Billy Crystal, Dana Carvey, Mike Myers, Will Ferrell, and Adam Sandler, to Kristen Wiig, Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, Jimmy Fallon, and Seth Meyers – to name only a few. This brand, which is still one of the highest-rated comedies on television, was the brainchild of Lorne Michaels, who still presides over the whole enterprise today. This special is just one of the many ways we plan to celebrate ‘SNL’s’ historic 40th season next year.”
SNL has won 40 Emmy Awards, the most in television history.
The show also holds the title for the most-nominated TV show in Emmy history with 171 nods. It has been honored twice, in 1990 and 2009, with the prestigious George Foster Peabody Award and cited as “truly a national institution”.
Saturday Night Live, which has also been inducted into the Broadcasting Hall of Fame by the National Association of Broadcaster, remains television’s highest-rated late-night show.
Broadcast live from NBC’s famed Studio 8H in New York City’s Rockefeller Center, Saturday Night Live premiered October 11, 1975.
Saturday Night Live airs Saturdays at 11:30 p.m. ET/PT on NBC.
Michelle Obama and American Idol alum Kellie Pickler will guest star one episode of ABC’s Nashville.
FLOTUS and Kellie Pickler are to appear on the May 7 episode of the ABC drama, titled All or Nothing With Me.
Michelle Obama and American Idol alum Kellie Pickler will guest star one episode of ABC’s Nashville
They will play as themselves during a charity event held by Rayna (Connie Britton) at Fort Campbell after she finds out that Luke (Will Chase) has been injured in Afghanistan.
Michelle Obama has made numerous appearances on news and talk shows, but she’s only guested once before on a scripted show playing herself on Nickelodeon’s iCarly.
Kellie Pickler, a country singer who placed sixth on the fifth season of Fox’s American Idol and won the 16th season of ABC’s Dancing With the Stars, has appeared on a couple scripted shows, including the CW’s 90210 and the syndicated The Bonnie Hunt Show.
Chinese artist Ai Weiwei has chosen a former chapel in Yorkshire as the venue for his next month’s exhibition in the UK.
Ai Weiwei will send 45 antique Chinese chairs to be laid out in the 18th Century chapel at Yorkshire Sculpture Park.
They will be shown alongside three sculptures from May 24.
Ai Weiwei in the Chapel will be the artist’s first exhibition in a public British gallery since he filled Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall with thousands of porcelain sunflower seeds in 2010.
Ai Weiwei will not travel to the sculpture park, near Wakefield, for the occasion.
Ai Weiwei will send 45 antique Chinese chairs to be laid out in the 18th Century chapel at Yorkshire Sculpture Park
A strident opponent of the Chinese state, Ai Weiwei’s passport has been confiscated and his travel strictly limited.
The wooden chairs are part of his Fairytale-1001 Chairs series and date from the Qing Dynasty, which lasted from 1644 to 1911/12.
Visitors will be invited to “take a seat and consider freedom, refuge, sanctuary and their antonyms”.
A 6m- Iron Tree sculpture will also be on show, as will his porcelain sculpture Ruyi and the marble Lantern.
The exhibition will reopen the chapel after a $800,000 refurbishment.
As well as being an outspoken dissident, Ai Weiwei is one of the world’s most celebrated contemporary artists.
Ai Weiwei was the highest-placed artist on ArtReview magazine’s annual power list in 2013.
People who have accounts on the ObamaCare enrollment website are being told to change their passwords following an administration-wide review of the government’s vulnerability to the confounding Heartbleed computer virus.
Senior administration officials said there is no indication that the HealthCare.gov site has been compromised and the action is being taken out of an abundance of caution. The government’s Heartbleed review is ongoing, the officials said, and users of other websites may also be told to change their passwords in the coming days, including those with accounts on the popular WhiteHouse.gov petitions page.
The Heartbleed computer bug has caused major security concerns across the Internet and affected a widely used encryption technology that was designed to protect online accounts. Major Internet services have been working to insulate themselves against the bug and are also recommending that users change their website passwords.
Officials said the administration was prioritizing its analysis of websites with heavy traffic and the most sensitive user information. A message that will be posted on the health care website starting Saturday reads: “While there’s no indication that any personal information has ever been at risk, we have taken steps to address Heartbleed issues and reset consumers’ passwords out of an abundance of caution.”
The Heartbleed computer bug has caused major security concerns across the Internet
HealthCare.gov website became a prime target for critics of the ObamaCare law last fall when the opening of the insurance enrollment period revealed widespread flaws in the online system. Critics have also raised concerns about potential security vulnerabilities on a site where users input large amounts of personal data.
The website troubles were largely fixed during the second month of enrollment and sign-ups ultimately surpassed initial expectations. Obama announced this week that about 8 million people had enrolled in the insurance plans.
The full extent of the damage caused by the Heartbleed is unknown. The security hole exists on a vast number of the Internet’s Web servers and went undetected for more than two years. Although it’s conceivable that the flaw was never discovered by hackers, it’s difficult to tell.
The White House has said the federal government was not aware of the Heartbleed vulnerability until it was made public in a private sector cybersecurity report earlier this month. The federal government relies on the encryption technology that is impacted – OpenSSL – to protect the privacy of users of government websites and other online services.
The Homeland Security Department has been leading the review of the government’s potential vulnerabilities. The Internal Revenue Service, a widely used website with massive amounts of personal data on Americans, has already said it was not impacted by Heartbleed.
“We will continue to focus on this issue until government agencies have mitigated the vulnerability in their systems,” Phyllis Schneck, DHS deputy undersecretary for cybersecurity and communications, wrote in a blog post on the agenda website.
“And we will continue to adapt our response if we learn about additional issues created by the vulnerability.”
Officials wouldn’t say how government websites they expect to flag as part of the Heartbleed security review, but said it’s likely to be a limited number. The officials insisted on anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the security review by name.
Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs have reported contrasting results for the first quarter of 2014.
Goldman Sachs’ neat earnings fell to $2.03 billion from $2.26 billion after a drop in revenues from its bonds, currency and trading business.
However, Morgan Stanley’s profit rose to $1.45 billion, compared with $981 million a year ago.
Revenues rose in all of its three business segments.
Goldman Sachs makes most of its money from trading and investing in capital markets.
In the first quarter, its revenue from fixed income, currency and commodities trading fell 11% to $2.85 billion compared with a year earlier.
Morgan Stanley’s profit rose to $1.45 billion in 2014 Q1
“We are generally pleased with our performance for the quarter, given the operating environment,” said Goldman Sachs’ chief executive, Lloyd Blankfein.
“Market sentiment shifted throughout the quarter, constraining client activity in various parts of our franchise,” he said.
Investment banking and investment management “generated solid results”, he added.
The bank’s net revenues from investment banking were $1.78 billion, 13% higher than the first quarter of 2013.
Its financial advisory service saw 41% higher net revenues, of $682 million.
Goldman Sachs’ results follow a big drop in profits in the fourth quarter last year.
Morgan Stanley’s trading, mergers and acquisition advisory and stock sales division grew the most during the first quarter.
The division, called institutional securities, earned $1.2 billion, compared with $1.1 billion last year.
Earnings for its wealth management division were $691 million, compared with $597 million a year ago, and investment management income jumped to $263 million from $187 million.
Morgan Stanley’s strong results come after a fourth-quarter reduction in bond trading revenue that more than halved its earnings.
Lee Joon-seok, the captain of South Korean ferry Sewol that sank this week, said he delayed giving evacuation orders because he feared passengers would “drift away”.
Lee Joon-seok, 69, was arrested with two crew members on Friday.
Divers saw three bodies in the ship on Saturday but were not able to retrieve them. The number of missing stands at 270 with 32 now confirmed dead, after three bodies were found in the water.
The official leading the rescue said it “may last one or two months.”
Some 174 passengers were rescued, but poor visibility and strong currents are making the search – now in its fourth day – difficult.
Captain Lee Joon-seok faces charges including negligence of duty and violation of maritime law after being criticized for not giving orders to evacuate soon enough.
Meanwhile relatives of the victims have begun providing DNA samples to help identify bodies recovered from the wreckage.
Investigations are focusing on a sharp turn the vessel took before it started listing and whether an evacuation order could have saved lives.
Sewol’s Captain Lee Joon-seok was arrested with two crew members (photo AP)
The ferry Sewol was sailing from Incheon, in the north-west, to the southern resort island of Jeju. It capsized and sank within two hours.
Lee Joon-seok, who had already been questioned by police, was shown on television on Saturday after his arrest.
“I am sorry to the people of South Korea for causing a disturbance and I bow my head in apology to the families of the victims,” he said.
“I gave instructions regarding the route, then I briefly went to the bedroom and then [the sinking] happened.
“The current was very strong, the temperature of the ocean water was cold, and I thought that if people left the ferry without proper judgement, if they were not wearing a life jacket, and even if they were, they would drift away and face many other difficulties,” he said.
He added that rescue boats had not arrived at the time of capsizing.
The helmsman at the time, Cho Joon-ki, was also among those arrested. He said that the ship reacted differently to what he had expected.
“There was a mistake on my behalf as well but the steering [gear of the ship] turned further than it was supposed to,” he told reporters.
According to documents seen by the Associated Press news agency, maritime safety officials recommended a full evacuation of the ship five minutes after a distress call was raised.
But a crew member told the agency that it took the captain 30 minutes to issue the order.
Some experts believe the ship’s tight turn could have dislodged heavy cargo and destabilized the vessel, while others suggest the sinking could have been caused by a collision with a rock.
Messages and phone calls from those inside painted a picture of people trapped in crowded corridors, unable to escape the sharply-listing ferry.
Officials say air has been pumped into the ship to aid any people trapped inside and to help refloat the vessel.
The South Korean coastguard said on Saturday that a civilian diver had seen three bodies through a window in the fourth floor of the ship.
The diver was not able to retrieve the bodies because of floating objects and time restrictions on diving, the coastguard said.
But three other bodies found in the water near the wreck were recovered, bringing the number of confirmed dead to 32.
Choi Sang-hwan, deputy director of the national coastguard, said nets would be placed around the sunken ferry to prevent any bodies drifting away.
Some 350 of those on board were students from Danwon High School in Ansan, a suburb of Seoul, who were on a school outing when the ferry sank.
Hundreds of relatives of those on board have been camping at a gymnasium on Jindo island near the scene of the disaster.
Asked how long the rescue operation was likely to continue, Shin Won-Nam, the head of the Emergency Management Centre, told reporters that it could take weeks, if not months.
Malaysia’s acting Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein has announced that the search area for the missing MH370 plane has narrowed and will be at “a critical juncture” in the next two days.
Hishammuddin Hussein said underwater drone Bluefin-21 would finish searching the area within the next week.
The Bluefin 21 mini-submarine has so far found nothing after six missions.
Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 went missing on March 8 as it flew from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing carrying 239 people.
The Bluefin is mapping the area of the sea bed within 6 miles radius of where acoustic signals were detected believed to have come from the aircraft’s flight recorder.
It is operating at a depth of more than 13,000 feet.
The Bluefin 21 mini-submarine searching for missing Malaysia Airlines plane has so far found nothing after six missions
Hishammuddin Hussein said it was important to focus on the search on Saturday and Sunday.
“The narrowing of the search for today and tomorrow is at a critical juncture,” he said.
“I appeal to everyone around the world to pray and pray hard that we find something to work on in the next couple of days.”
Using satellite data, officials have concluded that the MH370 ended its journey in seas west of the Australian city of Perth.
They do not know why the plane flew so far off course and finding the plane’s flight recorders is seen as key to understanding what happened.
The Bluefin-21, operated by the US Navy off the Australian vessel Ocean Shield, is an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) that can identify objects by creating a sonar map of the sea floor.
It is searching in an area defined by four acoustic signals picked up by an Australian search team, and was deployed after officials concluded that the batteries on the plane’s flight recorders would likely have expired, given their one-month shelf life.
Submersible Bluefin-21 has an operating depth of 4,500m (15,000ft) and on its first mission a built-in safety device returned it to the surface after it exceeded that depth.
The authorities have now adjusted the device to allow it to go as deep as 4,695m.
The Joint Agency Co-ordination Centre (JACC) said on Thursday that the machine could operate deeper than 4,500m at “a small but acceptable level of risk”.
Kiev’s operations against pro-Russian militants in eastern Ukraine have been suspended over Easter, Foreign Minister Andriy Deshchytsia has announced.
However, Andriy Deshchytsia said, Ukraine’s security services would resume military action if the separatists continued to occupy government offices.
They are refusing to leave buildings in several cities, defying an agreement reached on Thursday to ease the crisis.
The US has threatened more sanctions if Russia fails to abide by the agreement.
The Kremlin responded by accusing the White House of treating Moscow like a “guilty schoolboy”.
Kiev’s operations against pro-Russian militants in eastern Ukraine have been suspended over Easter (photo AFP)
In a separate development, Russian President Vladimir Putin said he would award medals to Russians who took part in the seizure of Crimea from Ukraine last month.
The Ukrainian foreign minister added that the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) was willing to start a negotiation process with the separatists.
In response to separatist calls for pro-European protesters in Kiev to also vacate sites they were occupying, he said that those camped in the capital’s Maidan Square had “asked permission from the city council” and their camp was therefore not an “illegal occupation”.
Russia, Ukraine, the EU and US had agreed during talks in Geneva that illegal military groups in Ukraine must be dissolved, and that those occupying government premises must be disarmed and leave.
The sides also decided there would be an amnesty for all anti-government protesters.
But the separatists’ spokesman in the city of Donetsk said that the Kiev government was “illegal”, and vowed they would not go until it stepped down.
After cautiously welcoming the deal struck on Thursday, the White House stepped up pressure on Russia to use its influence over separatists occupying the buildings in nine cities and towns in eastern Ukraine.
On Friday, US National Security Adviser Susan Rice warned that if Moscow failed to uphold the deal a new round of sanctions would focus on what she called “very significant sectors of the Russian economy”.
Susan Rice added that the US had identified close associates of the Russian leadership as potential targets for new sanctions.
Russia responded by saying it was disappointed with the US assessment of the Geneva deal.
“You can’t treat Russia like a guilty schoolboy who has to… show he has done his homework,” President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said.
Chinese Twitter-like service Weibo’s shares rose by almost 20% on their first day of trading on the US stock market, after a lukewarm start.
Weibo’s flotation on the NASDAQ stock exchange had initially raised a less-than-expected $286 million.
However, investors flocked to the shares, and they ended the day at $20.24, after opening at $17.
The number of Weibo users fell after China’s censors strengthened control of online discussions last year.
Weibo’s flotation on the NASDAQ stock exchange had initially raised a less-than-expected $286 million
The China Internet Network Information Center said in its annual report that almost 28 million people abandoned Weibo in 2013.
It can only be used by Chinese citizens who verify their account with a mobile phone number.
The sale is a big test of demand for Chinese internet stocks ahead of an anticipated listing by Weibo’s co-owner, the Alibaba group.
China’s internet market has grown to become the world’s biggest with more than 500 million users.
With major global social networking firms such as Facebook and Twitter blocked in the country, domestic companies have benefited the most from this growth.
However, the growing popularity of social media platforms has also attracted the attention of authorities who have moved swiftly to silence voices online.
Easter’s Way of the Cross procession in Rome has been led by Pope Francis, with prayers for the poor and the abandoned.
Via Crucis ceremony marks Christians’ commemoration of Christ’s crucifixion on Good Friday. Tens of thousands of people lined the route near the 2,000-year-old Colosseum.
Pope Francis heard the Vatican’s official preacher deliver a sermon denouncing greed and the love of money.
The procession is part of the Church’s Easter triduum festival.
Pope Francis urged the crowd to “remember all the abandoned people” and spoke of the “monstrosity of man” when he lets evil guide him.
Easter’s Way of the Cross procession in Rome has been led by Pope Francis, with prayers for the poor and the abandoned
“Evil won’t have the last word, but love, mercy and pardon will” he added at the end of the Way of the Cross.
The sermon, by Father Raniero Cantalamessa, spoke of the injustice of human trafficking and suffering caused by environmental damage.
“Money is behind every evil in our society” the preacher declared.
The procession route included 14 stages, known as Stations of the Cross, at which specially written meditations were recited.
One meditation touched on the plight of child soldiers, while another recalled the deaths of migrants trying to reach more prosperous countries.
Other meditations criticized overcrowding in prisons and the treatment of the elderly.
Immigrants, prisoners, former drug addicts and elderly people were among those who helped carry a large cross between the different stations.
On Saturday night, Pope Francis will celebrate an Easter vigil Mass in St Peter’s Basilica.
Easter services will then conclude on Sunday with a Mass celebrating Jesus’s resurrection.
Pope Francis will deliver his twice-yearly “Urbi et Orbi” (to the city and the world) message.
On Thursday, the Pope washed the feet of 12 disabled people in Rome as part of the Maundy Thursday service commemorating Christ’s Last Supper.
Pope Francis broke with tradition by washing the feet of several women and a Muslim man in a ceremony traditionally restricted to men only.
Prince has a signed a new deal with Warner Bros Records after 18 years.
Prince and Warner Bros split was so acrimonious that the singer called himself a slave and changed his stage name to a symbol.
Now he says the new deal will see a release of his classic album Purple Rain in time for its 30th anniversary.
Prince will also regain ownership of master recordings made during his previous deal with Warner Bros.
“A brand-new studio album is on the way and both Warner Bros Records and Eye (sic) are quite pleased with the results of the negotiations and look forward to a fruitful working relationship,” Prince said in a statement.
The Purple Rain album was released in 1984, as was the cult film of the same name.
Prince and Warner Bros split was so acrimonious that the singer called himself a slave and changed his stage name to a symbol (photo AP)
The album will be given a “deluxe reissue” to coincide with its milestone. More of his classic albums are expected to get the same treatment.
“Everyone at Warner Bros Records is delighted to be working with Prince once again; he is one of the world’s biggest stars and a truly unique talent,” said Warner Bros Records chairman and CEO, Cameron Strang.
Prince signed to Warner Brothers Records in 1977 and they released the biggest albums of his career – among them Purple Rain, Sign O The Times and the soundtrack to Tim Burton’s Batman movie in 1989.
But by the time of 1991’s Diamonds and Pearls, the relationship had soured.
“He didn’t want to be told what to do any more,” Prince’s publicist Chris Poole told his biographer, Matt Thorne.
Specifically, Prince wanted to be able to release more music, more often. Furthermore, he felt he should own the original master tapes for his hit albums.
When Warner Bros disagreed, on both counts, Prince began appearing in public with the word “Slave” written across his face, and changed his name to an unpronounceable symbol – leading the press to christen him The Artist Formerly Known As Prince.
“People think I’m a crazy fool for writing <<slave>> on my face,” Prince told Rolling Stone magazine in 1996.
“But if I can’t do what I want to do, what am I? When you stop a man from dreaming, he becomes a slave.
“That’s where I was. I don’t own Prince’s music. If you don’t own your masters, your master owns you.”
Prince eventually fulfilled his contract by delivering Warner Bros a series of albums packed with off-cuts and lacklustre material – including Chaos and Disorder and Old Friends 4 Sale.
Although they contained an occasional gem – such as 1996’s playful Dinner With Delores – the records damaged his reputation with casual fans, who were confused and disinterested by what amounted to an employment dispute.
By the time Prince released his first post-Warners album – the pointedly-titled Emancipation.
Prince’s latest album, PlectrumElectrum, was recorded with his all-female band 3rdEyeGirl.
President Barack Obama has signed into law a bill that would block the entry of any UN ambassador whom the US says has engaged in “terrorist activity”.
The law came as a response to Iran’s pick of Hamid Aboutalebi as UN envoy.
Hamid Aboutalebi was linked to the student militants who overran the US embassy in Tehran in 1979.
The US has already denied Hamid Aboutalebi a visa, and Barack Obama said he would treat the new law as “advisory”.
Iran has lodged a formal complaint with the UN over the rejection.
Hamid Aboutalebi was linked to the student militants who overran the US embassy in Tehran in 1979 (photo Iranian Presidency)
The bill that Barack Obama signed into law on Friday passed both houses of Congress handily following uproar over Hamid Aboutalebi’s links to the students who seized the US embassy in Tehran in 1979 and held the American diplomats hostage.
Hamid Aboutalebi has said that he acted merely as a translator on a couple of occasions for the hostage-takers, an account corroborated by some of the activists.
A senior political adviser to President Hassan Rouhani, he has previously served as the Iranian ambassador to Italy, Belgium and Australia.
In a statement on Friday upon signing the bill, Barack Obama said: “I share the Congress’ concern that individuals who have engaged in such activity may use the cover of diplomacy to gain access to our nation.”
However, Barack Obama said the law could effectively curtail his power under the US constitution to receive or reject ambassadors, and thus he said he would treat the law “as advisory in circumstances in which it would interfere with the exercise of this discretion”.
Under the 1947 Headquarters Agreement, the US is generally required to grant visas to persons invited to the UN in New York.
Iran’s deputy envoy at the UN, Hossein Dehghani, has asked Committee on Relations with the Host Country for a meeting over the decision, saying the US had violated its legal obligations under international law.
“This decision of the US government has indeed negative implications for multilateral diplomacy and will create a dangerous precedence and affect adversely the work of intergovernmental organizations and activities of their member states,” Hossein Dehghani warned.
A Pakistani library in Islamabad has been renamed after Osama bin Laden, the former al-Qaeda chief.
The Islamic seminary for women – Jamia Hafsa Madrassa – is linked to the Red Mosque, known for its alleged links with militants.
A paper sign on one of the doors proclaims Osama bin Laden a “Shahid” (martyr).
Osama bin Laden was killed in a raid by US commandos in 2011.
Pakistani troops raided the mosque in 2007. Dozens died later in clashes.
Jamia Hafsa Madrassa renamed its library after Osama Bin Laden
There are no chairs or any table in the library – just two computers on the floor.
The library is in a huge complex in the heart of Islamabad, part of which is still being built.
A spokesman for the madrassa said the new name was a tribute to Osama bin Laden, who was “a hero”.
The chief cleric there is Maulana Abdul Aziz. He warned that “if the government makes madrassas and mosques its target then Sharia (Islamic law) allows us to retaliate – if anyone will be harsh with us, they should not expect flowers in return”.
He also uses the library as his office. It has about 2,000 books – all of them related to Islam.
There are books about Sharia, Jihad and interpretations of the Koran in Arabic, Urdu and English.
Lee Joon-seok, the captain of South Korean ferry Sewol that capsized and sank earlier this week has been arrested, Yonhap news agency reports.
Captain Lee Joon-seok faced charges including negligence of duty and violation of maritime law.
Yonhap said a local court had issued arrest warrants for him and two other crew members on these charges.
Efforts to find the 268 people still missing have been hampered by low visibility and strong currents.
Twenty-eight people are now known to have died in the disaster, with 179 rescued.
The ferry Sewol was sailing from Incheon, in the north-west, to the southern resort island of Jeju. It capsized and sank within two hours.
Captain Lee Joon-seok faced charges including negligence of duty and violation of maritime law (photo Yonhap)
Lee Joon-seok, who had already been questioned by police, was shown on television on Thursday, his face partially obscured, apologizing to the victims and their relatives.
“I am really sorry and deeply ashamed. I don’t know what to say,” he said.
It has emerged that a junior officer – and not the captain – was at the helm of the ferry when it capsized.
Investigations are focusing on the sharp turn the vessel took before it started listing and whether an evacuation order could have saved lives.
Some experts believe such a tight turn could have dislodged heavy cargo and destabilized the vessel, while others suggest it could have been caused by a collision with a rock.
Survivors have accused the crew of instructing them to remain where they were rather than evacuate the ship.
Messages and phone calls from those inside painted a picture of people trapped in crowded corridors, unable to escape the sharply-listing ferry.
Earlier on Friday, coastguard officials said that two divers had managed to enter the cargo bay of the vessel, but could not identify or rescue anyone because of items obstructing their way.
Some 350 of those on board were students from Danwon High School in Ansan, a suburb of Seoul, who were on a school outing when the ferry sank.
The vice principal of Danwon High School, who was rescued from the ferry, was found dead on nearby Jindo island on Friday.
Kang Min-Kyu, 52, had been missing since Thursday and was discovered hanging from a tree near the gym on Jindo island – where many of the relatives of missing passengers have been staying.
Amid a major search and rescue operation, officials say air has been pumped into the ship to help any people trapped inside and to help refloat the vessel. But officials say it is unlikely anyone has survived.
Three salvage cranes have reached the site and they may be used to raise the ship or move it to another area with weaker currents.
Challenging conditions have hampered the search for a third consecutive day.
Vertigo actress Kim Novak says that cruel jabs about how she looked during this year’s Oscar ceremony amounted to bullying that left her crushed at first, but then determined to speak out in protest.
Kim Novak, 81, has called the treatment she received following her Oscars appearance “bullying”.
Following her presenting stint at the Academy Awards, Kim Novak was subjected to jibes about her looks, including a tweet from Donald Trump.
“I will no longer hold myself back from speaking out against bullies. We can’t let people get away with affecting our lives,” the actress wrote in an open letter.
She admitted she had “fat injections” in her face.
Following her presenting stint at the Academy Awards, Kim Novak was subjected to jibes about her looks
“In my opinion, a person has a right to look as good as they can, and I feel better when I look better,” Kim Novak wrote in a Facebook post.
The actress added: “We need to stand up to them [bullies] in a healthy way by speaking out, working out and acting out. I am speaking out now because I don’t want to harbor unhealthy feelings inside me anymore.”
Kim Novak told the Associated Press that she did not leave her house for days after the ceremony, and the criticism she received “really did throw me into a tailspin and it hit me hard”.
She was also critical of the comments made about actress Liza Minnelli during the ceremony, when host Ellen DeGeneres jokingly mistook her for a male impersonator.
Kim Novak blamed her halting speech during the ceremony on taking medication to “relax”, which she regretted.
She said she had walked away from the Hollywood industry many years ago because of the immense pressure it had placed on her, but felt ready to return to the spotlight.
“When I was honored at the Cannes Film Festival last year, I received an overwhelming standing ovation,” she wrote.
“Yet, in Hollywood, after the Oscars, I was bullied by the press and the public on the internet and TV.”
Kim Novak said she felt the time was right to “address the elephant in the room” publically for the first time after appearing at a film festival and speaking about it openly.
“I realized that I had to stand up not only for myself but for other people that don’t have the courage to do so,” she said.
“I feel like I have a mission.”
Kim Novak presented the award for best animated feature at the Oscars 2014 on March 3.
Chelsea Clinton announced that she is pregnant during a speech in New York City with her mother, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, at her side.
“Marc and I are very excited that we have our first child arriving later this year,” Chelsea Clinton said at the Lower East Side Girls Club at the end of a Clinton Foundation event dedicated to empowering young girls.
Chelsea Clinton, 34, did not say if she and her husband, Marc Mezvinsky, are having a boy or a girl.
However, Chelsea Clinton later tweeted that her due date is sometime this fall.
Chelsea Clinton revealed that her due date is sometime this fall
“I certainly feel all the better whether it’s a girl or a boy that she or he will grow up in a world full of so many strong, young female leaders,” she told the audience full of young women.
“So thank you for inspiring me.”
Hillary Clinton connected the announcement to the focus of the day’s event, telling the crowd that she is not only excited for her family but for the future generations who may not have to face the same glass ceilings as she did.
“Obviously we are very excited about what’s happening in our family,” Hillary Clinton told the young women.
“But we’re also very excited because of what we’re doing that we hope gives confidence and support to so many of you across our country as you make decisions about the lives you want to lead and try to make sure there are no ceilings that are stopping you from going as far and as high and as fast as you can.”
Chelsea’s parents, Bill and Hillary Clinton, both responded on Twitter shortly after the announcement Thursday afternoon.
Former First Daughter Chelsea Clinton, 34, and husband Marc Mezvinsky will welcome the new addition to their family later this year.
The daughter of former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton currently serves as vice chair of the charitable Clinton Foundation, focusing on global health initiatives.
Chelsea Clinton and husband Marc Mezvinsky will welcome the new addition to their family later this year
Chelsea Clinton has told US media she has not ruled out a political run in the future.
She made the announcement at a public event with her mother in New York organized by a Clinton Foundation initiative to advance the cause of women and girls around the world.
“Mark and I are very excited that we have our first child arriving,” Chelsea Clinton said.
“I certainly feel all the better whether it’s a girl or a boy that she or he will grow up in a world full of so many strong young female leaders,” she added.
“I just hope that I will be as good a mom to my child… as my mother was to me.”
Hillary Clinton is currently considered a strong contender for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination, although she has yet to announce her intent to run.
