Luxembourg has announced it would ease the secrecy surrounding its banks by implementing rules on the automatic exchange of bank account information with its European Union partners from 2015.
PM Jean-Claude Juncker said Luxembourg would introduce the reforms in two years, in line with the EU Savings Directive.
The rules of the Directive are aimed at creating greater transparency and minimizing tax evasion.
Luxembourg would ease bank secrecy by implementing EU rules on the automatic exchange of bank account information from 2015
Calls for a crackdown on bank secrecy have been increasing, as governments seek to raise more taxes to support their finances.
“We can introduce [the rules] without any danger from January 2015,” Jean-Claude Juncker said.
Luxembourg is a country of only 500,000 people, but its banks and other financial institutions have assets worth more than 20 times the country’s economic output.
Luxembourg’s foreign minister, Luc Frieden, said at the weekend that he wanted to “strengthen co-operation with foreign tax authorities”.
Last week, Germany signed a tax evasion treaty with Switzerland – another European banking centre known for its secrecy.
The treaty is designed to give the German tax authorities the ability to claw back taxes from their citizens who may be hiding money in Swiss banks.
Luxembourg’s announcement leaves Austria as the only European Union country not signed up to the EU Savings Directive.
Austria’s finance minister, Maria Fekter, said recently that she would “fight like a lion” to defend the country’s banking secrecy regime.
However, Austrian Chancellor Werner Faymann indicated on Tuesday that change may have to come.
Ellen Kardashian, widow of Kim Kardashian’s late father, Robert, isn’t letting the family’s lawsuit stop her from moving forward with more sensational allegations about the family.
Days after it was revealed Kris Jenner and Kardashian siblings had filed a lawsuit against Ellen Kardashian for copyright infringement new details allegedly taken from the late lawyer’s personal diary have emerged.
Robert Kardashian accused Kris Jenner of passing out drunk, having an affair and abandoning their children
In Touch magazine has reportedly put together a “Collector’s Special”, including painful notes in which Robert Kardashian accuses Kris Jenner of passing out drunk, having an affair and abandoning their children.
The New York Postreports the collection documents in further detail Kris Jenner’s alleged affair with former soccer star Todd Waterman.
In diary entries Ellen Kardashian claims were penned by her late husband between 1989 and 1990, he writes that Kris Jenner “slept on floor b/c she was so drunk” and later that he “kicked her out”.
“Caught K at Todd’s apt,” he reportedly continued.
“Told her I wanted a divorce.”
Other notes include: “11th anniv. – what a joke,” and, “Kris slept out again – never home at all. Kids don’t even ask where she is.”
Also included in 100-page publication are family photos of Kim, Kourtney, Khloe and Rob Kardashian.
The reality stars filed a lawsuit in Federal Court in Los Angeles last Thursday against Ellen Kardashian.
Kate Upton was apparently spotted kissing P Diddy at Miami Beach nightspot Club LIV late last month, where they partied in the VIP section at a bash being held by the rapper.
The Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue model confirmed she had split from Detroit Tigers pitcher Justin Verlander in February.
A source told the New York Daily News: “They were kissing, they weren’t hiding it.”
Kate Upton was apparently spotted kissing P Diddy at Miami Beach nightspot Club LIV
The kiss was reportedly followed by a night out in New York last Thursday, with the 43-year-old rapper sharing an intimate meal with the 20-year-old model at Gemma in the Bowery Hotel.
An onlooker said: “They were having dinner together.”
P Diddy, real name Sean Combs, was most recently romantically linked with singer Cassie, and though they were seen house-hunting together in Beverly Hills in January, it is believed they are no longer together.
The rapper previously dated Jennifer Lopez and was rumored to have spent time with Cameron Diaz last year.
A spokesperson for Kate Upton insisted the model and P Diddy are not romantically involved, saying: “They met once a year ago and there’s no further relationship at this point.”
Glee star Naya Rivera and her new boyfriend Big Sean made their official debut as a couple at the premiere of new movie 42 in Los Angeles on Tuesday night.
Naya Rivera and Big Sean strolled onto the red carpet hand-in-hand, before posing up with their arms around each other.
Naya Rivera and her new boyfriend Big Sean made their official debut as a couple at the premiere of new movie 42 in Los Angeles
While they had been spotted together on various occasion over the past few months, Naya Rivera and Big Sean looked thrilled to finally be making their romance official as they attended the event at the TCL Chinese Theatre.
Naya Rivera, 26, smoldered for the waiting photographers, showing off her slim figure in a grey snakeskin dress and white pointed heels, leaving her dark brown hair loose in tumbling curls for the occasion.
Big Sean, 25, meanwhile, appeared to find the red carpet event slightly more amusing – grinning with delight he joked around pulling faces and funny poses behind his girlfriend’s back.
They first sparked romance rumors when Naya Rivera was see at the rapper’s surprise 25th birthday party in Las Vegas earlier this month.
Big Sean, whose real name is Sean Michael Anderson, tweeted at the time: “@nayarivera was in on it too, lookin good… I really had no idea about this…”
Naya Rivera then tweeted a picture of them together at the celebration, writing: “Such a good picture from last night. Best surprise ever!”
Prior to her romance with Big Sean, Naya Rivera has been linked to stars including Douglas Booth, as well as her Glee co-stars Mark Salling and Kevin McHale.
The Louvre Museum in Paris did not open on Wednesday due to a strike organized by staff protesting over pickpockets.
Staff at one of the world’s most visited museums said thieves, some of them children, were targeting both employees and tourists.
Two hundred workers took part in a strike organized by the SUD union, according to AFP news agency.
The Louvre Museum in Paris did not open on Wednesday due to a strike organized by staff protesting over pickpockets
The museum’s management said it had already asked for more assistance from police to deal with the problem.
A spokesman said that “business meetings” would take place to try to find a solution, according to French news website The Local.
About 100 employees gathered in front of Paris’ Ministry of Culture at lunchtime where a delegation from the museum was received.
Christelle Guyader of SUD told AFP that staff were coming to work “afraid”.
“They find themselves confronted with organized groups of pickpockets who are increasingly aggressive and who include children.”
Christelle Guyader added that many of the thieves were getting into the museum, which is home to the Mona Lisa, for free and would return even after being questioned by police.
The Louvre claims to be the most visited art museum in the world with almost 10 million visitors in 2012.
“There have always been pickpockets at the Louvre and in tourist locations in Paris, but for the last year-and-a-half the gangs have become increasingly violent,” said museum supervisor Sophie Aguirre.
“Their modus operandi has become more complex. Nothing can stop them.”
Officials have been unable to say when the museum will reopen.
Prof. Sir Robert Edwards, the pioneer of IVF, has died in his sleep after a long illness at the age of 87.
Robert Edwards was knighted in 2011, five decades after he began experimenting with IVF.
IVF is used worldwide and has resulted in more than five million babies.
His work led to the birth of world’s first test-tube baby Louise Brown at Oldham General Hospital in 1978.
Robert Edwards was knighted in 2011, five decades after he began experimenting with IVF
Paying tribute to Prof. Robert Edwards, Louise Brown said he had brought “happiness and joy” to millions of people.
She said: “I have always regarded Robert Edwards as like a grandfather to me.
“His work, along with Patrick Steptoe, has brought happiness and joy to millions of people all over the world by enabling them to have children.
“I am glad that he lived long enough to be recognized with a Nobel prize for his work, and his legacy will live on with all the IVF work being carried out throughout the world.”
The University of Cambridge, where Prof. Robert Edwards was a fellow, said his work “had an immense impact”.
Born in Yorkshire in 1925 into a working-class family, Robert Edwards served in the British army during World War II before returning home to study first agricultural sciences and then animal genetics.
Building on earlier research, which showed that egg cells from rabbits could be fertilized in test tubes when sperm was added, Robert Edwards developed the same technique for humans.
In a laboratory at Cambridge in 1968, Robert Edwards first saw life created outside the womb in the form of a human blastocyst, an embryo that has developed for five to six days after fertilization.
“I’ll never forget the day I looked down the microscope and saw something funny in the cultures,” he once recalled.
“I looked down the microscope and what I saw was a human blastocyst gazing up at me. I thought, <<We’ve done it>>.”
“Bob Edwards is one of our greatest scientists,” said Mike Macnamee, chief executive of Bourn Hall, the IVF clinic founded by Prof. Robert Edwards with his fellow IVF pioneer Patrick Steptoe, a gynaecological surgeon.
Robert Edwards was too frail to pick up his Nobel prize in Stockholm in 2010, leaving that job to his wife Ruth, with whom he had five daughters.
He remained a fellow of Churchill College, Cambridge, until his death.
Robert Edwards’ work was motivated by his belief, as he once described it, that “the most important thing in life is having a child.”
It isn’t easy to ascertain when Margaret Thatcher first referred to her minimal sleep schedule, but the figure of four hours has passed into lore
Part of Margaret Thatcher’s fearsome reputation came from how little she slept; she could get by on four hours a night, it has often been said.
Former British PM Margaret Thatcher would keep her officials up working on a speech until two or three in the morning and then be up by five in time to listen to Farming Today (a BBC Radio 4 programme running every day from 5.45 a.m.).
“She slept four hours a night on weekdays,” said Sir Bernard Ingham, her Downing Street press secretary.
“I wasn’t with her at weekends. I guess she got a bit more then.”
It isn’t easy to ascertain when Margaret Thatcher first referred to her minimal sleep schedule, but the figure of four hours has passed into lore.
People use it as a benchmark of endurance, often jokingly referring to those who need much more.
Margaret Thatcher’s close friend and former Conservative Party treasurer Lord McAlpine stayed with her at Chequers during the holidays.
“She worked right through Christmas. When everyone else went off to bed she went off to work.”
Baroness Thatcher’s biographer John Campbell, author of The Iron Lady, said her late-to-bed, early-to-rise routine made her the “best informed person in the room”. Occasionally husband Denis Thatcher would snap. “Woman – bed!” he is reputed to have shouted on one occasion.
Margaret Thatcher’s frugal sleep pattern created a problem for her successor John Major.
“He found it difficult coming after her because the civil service had got used to a prime minister who never slept, and he used to sleep eight hours a night,” John Campbell said.
Sleep comes to be seen as part of a leader’s character. When Napoleon Bonaparte was asked how many hours sleep people need, he is said to have replied: “Six for a man, seven for a woman, eight for a fool.”
For the Iron Lady four hours was a badge of almost superhuman strength.
Winston Churchill survived on four hours a night during the war. But what is less often noted is that he had regular afternoon naps in his pyjamas.
Margaret Thatcher was not one for these afternoon sleeps.
“No, she wasn’t a napper,” Bernard Ingham said.
But is the four-hour measure something ordinary people should aspire to?
In the world of business it is certainly something people strive for. High-profile chief executives from Marissa Mayer at Yahoo! to Pepsi’s Indra Nooyi get by on four hours a night, while Donald Trump claims to survive on three.
Geraint Anderson, author of City Boy, who worked as an analyst and stockbroker for 12 years, recognizes the phenomenon.
“There was a real macho competition in the City about sleep. One of the ways of getting respect was bragging about how little you got.”
The hours were long – from 6.30 in the morning to seven at night. Socializing might mean staying out till three in the morning. And this was just the analysts. The corporate financiers were the real hard workers.
“They’d work into the early hours, get a couple of hours’ kip at the office and start again.”
To admit needing sleep was a sign of weakness: “After the Christmas or summer party you’d make sure you stayed the latest and came in a little earlier than normal the next morning.”
Lady Thatcher was not the cause but her name was regularly invoked by his bosses.
“They’d say she can get by on four hours to run the country. And she’s an old lady.”
As well as business, there have been military leaders who eschewed the eight hours and opted for the Spartan Thatcher credo.
General David Petraeus ate one meal a day and slept only four hours a night, it was reported.
There’s no correct amount of sleep, said Prof. Kevin Morgan, of Loughborough University’s sleep research centre.
The only rule is to sleep long enough to feel refreshed when you wake up.
For about 1% of people – probably including Margaret Thatcher – this will be as little as four hours a night, said Kevin Morgan.
“You can’t just suddenly become someone who sleeps this little,” he argued. It’s likely to have been a pattern common to her life before becoming prime minister.
It is a big advantage for visionary or creative people to be part of this so-called sleep elite. And for a statesman attending all-night summits it might be a huge advantage.
“The people around you are flagging. When people get tired the quality of their decision-making is compromised.”
Prof. James Horne, also at Loughborough’s sleep research centre, says that mood is critical. Soldiers high on adrenalin can function on little sleep: “It all depends if one gets a buzz out of what one’s doing. If you’re despondent, you tend to sleep more; if you’re excited you need less. Margaret Thatcher was someone who felt on top of things.”
The average adult sleeps seven hours a night but many sleep considerably less than this, especially people over 50. So it’s possible that Margaret Thatcher fell within the range of normality rather than the 1%, James Horne argued.
“She may have sometimes slept four hours and made up for her deficit by sleeping a little longer on other nights.
“You tend to attribute great things to great people, that they need no sleep or no food and have superhuman qualities.”
Matthew Parris, who was a fellow Conservative MP of Margaret Thatcher’s during the 1970s and 1980s, says it was probably more like four to five hours rather than the three to four that some have suggested. It took its toll and may have led to poor decisions, he believes.
Despite her toughness, Margaret Thatcher was often tired out, he remembers.
“When we were jammed into the lobby I would be looking at her from six inches away. I would often see the eyes of an exhausted woman.”
Recently there has been a move away from ostentatious sleeplessness. Burning the midnight oil in Gordon Brown’s case was perceived as evidence of obsessive worrying and weakness.
The work-life balance has arrived, even in Number 10. Tony Blair slept longer than Margaret Thatcher and Gordon Brown but made an exception to get up at night for baby Leo. George W. Bush was in bed by 10, unlike his predecessor Bill Clinton, who worked late and got by on four or five hours.
For artists, sleep deprivation carries a whiff of creative drive and raucous hedonism. Keith Richards, the Rolling Stones guitarist, once stayed awake for nine days – when he fell asleep, he fell down so quickly that he broke his nose.
Prozac, an antidepressant introduced by Eli Lilly and Company more than 25 years ago, has entered the cultural lexicon and helped define how people think of mental illness.
In the 1990s Prozac achieved what few prescription drugs ever do. The drug, dubbed “happy pill”, was trendy.
It found fame among laymen, fuelled in part by Elizabeth Wurtzel’s bestselling book Prozac Nation. Now Prozac is part of the everyday lexicon.
Prozac was first introduced in Belgium in 1986 and in the US after two years. Since then, it has become a cipher for discussions about mental illness and whether it should be treated by the talking cure – therapy in which a patient works things out with the help of a professional – or with drugs.
“It was like bringing a meat cleaver down,” says British novelist Sarah Dunant, co-editor of an anthology of essays, The Age of Anxiety. She has a personal experience with antidepressants – saying they helped her through a tough time years ago.
Sarah Dunant believes Prozac has had far-reaching implications.
“Things are not the same now as they were before.”
However, not everybody is happy about that.
“What made Prozac good was not that it was potent, which it really was not, but that it had really good marketing,” says David Healy, a professor at Cardiff University and the author of Pharmageddon.
“They made us overcome the natural caution most of us have about pills and convince us that we absolutely had to have these things,” he said.
Prozac, an antidepressant introduced by Eli Lilly and Company more than 25 years ago, has entered the cultural lexicon and helped define how people think of mental illness
Prozac’s success key was the marketing plan.
Eli Lilly picked a name created by Interbrand that aimed to distance the drug “from everything typically associated with anti-depressants – strong chemicals, side effects”.
Prozac – as both a drug and a concept – caught on. Prozac Nation had a cult following. It was reissued in 2002, pegged to a movie starring Christina Ricci and sold more than 120,000 copies that year, according to Publishers Weekly.
Through books and movies, Prozac gave an almost chic gloss to mental illness in some people’s eyes.
After Prozac Nation was published, Elizabeth Wurtzel “went home with a different man every night and did heroin every day”, she wrote recently in New York Magazine.
Prozac, which now acts almost as shorthand for all anti-depressants, appears in the Oxford English Dictionary. People can have a “Prozac moment”, which means fleeting happiness – or forgetfulness. They can also have a Prozac shot (sambuca and schnapps).
Not surprisingly, Prozac has also become a source of material for film directors. In Steven Soderbergh’s psychological thriller Side Effects, a New Yorker takes pills for depression – and Prozac is inevitably mentioned.
Prozac has seeped into pop culture, and also the lives of ordinary people. Today, Europeans and Americans take antidepressants at roughly the same rate. In 2010, one in 10 people in Europe had taken them, according to the Institute for the Study of Labour in Bonn. In the US, 11% of people over the age of 12 take antidepressants, according to the US Centers for Disease Control research.
It’s easy to conclude that the public image of Prozac has helped fuel social acceptance of antidepressant use.
But plenty of those who have prescribed drugs can be critical of the way they have been used.
“There was this whole idea that Prozac made you better – well, I wasn’t sure,” says Joanna Moncrieff, now a senior clinical lecturer in neuroscience at University College London and author of forthcoming book The Bitterest Pills.
Joanna Moncrieff worked for years with patients in a 22-bed ward at a Brentwood mental hospital.
“I spent a lot of time in the ward reducing medication,” she said.
“The staff called me The Slasher.”
Not everybody should be taking medication, Joanna Moncrieff said.
“A hundred years ago if you didn’t feel good, you wouldn’t have expected it to be eliminated.”
Still, she knows people will continue to take antidepressants. Just as Viagra has changed lives – and provided fodder for late-night comedy skits – Prozac has altered the national discourse about mental illness.
Many experts believe antidepressants are useful. Manchester University’s Ian Anderson, a professor of psychiatry, said that people should not take a dogmatic approach to the drugs.
“In the end it’s about getting on with your life,” said Prof. Ian Anderson.
“I’ve seen enough people just struggling along with depression. That doesn’t seem fair.”
Sarah Dunant said antidepressants once got her through a bad breakup. She said she wished the drugs were around when her father, a manager in the airline industry, suffered a breakdown in the 1970s. He had to undergo electroshock therapy.
“It would have helped him through the most terrifying fall through the darkness,” she said.
Many people feel better when they are on the drugs. But the precise mechanism is still not apparent. Antidepressants have an effect on serotonin levels in the brain, which seem to be related to emotional well-being. Yet the relationship between serotonin and happiness remains unclear.
“We’re a bit blind about this,” said Stafford Lightman from University of Bristol.
Researchers do not have an animal model to study the effects of the drugs.
“There is no such thing as a depressed mouse.”
“Consequently, there are leaps of faith when you take these drugs,” he said.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York has received a $1 billion donation of Cubist art from Estee Lauder heir, Leonard Lauder.
Leonard Lauder, 80, has pledged 78 works – considered one of the foremost collections of Cubism in the world.
The collection includes pieces from Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque, Juan Gris and Fernand Leger, amassed over 37 years.
The Met’s director Thomas Campbell said the gift was “truly transformational”.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York has received a $1 billion donation of Cubist art from Estee Lauder heir, Leonard Lauder
In a statement, Leonard Lauder said his gift was for “the people who live and work in New York and those from around the world who come to visit our great arts institutions”.
The museum said it had previously “lacked” early 20th Century art, but with Leonard Lauder’s donation it would be at the forefront of world collections.
“We have long lacked this critical dimension in the story of modernism. Now, Cubism will be represented with some of its greatest masterpieces,” Thomas Campbell said.
The collection “distinguished by its quality, focus, and depth,” includes 33 Picassos, 17 works by Georges Braque and 14 by Juan Gris and Fernand Leger.
Leonard Lauder built it up over nearly four decades, telling the story of a movement that revolutionized modern art and paved the way for abstraction.
“I selected the Met as the way to share this collection because I feel that it’s essential that Cubism – and the art that follows it, for that matter – be seen and studied within the collections of one of the greatest encyclopaedic museums in the world,” he said.
The collection is thought to be worth around 13% of Leonard Lauders’ personal fortune according to Forbes magazine which it said “enshrines him in the pantheon of the most generous philanthropists of all time”.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art was founded in 1870 by a group of American citizens and opened on February 20, 1872. It is the largest art museum in the US, and one of the three largest in the world, with the most significant art collections. The museum’s permanent collection contains more than two million works, divided among seventeen curatorial departments.
Meanwhile, letters written by J. D. Salinger to a spiritual mentor have been donated to The Morgan Library and Museum in Manhattan.
J. D. Salinger wrote 28 letters to Swami Vivekananda, founder of the Ramakrishna-Vivekananda Centre, which donated the correspondence.
The author, who died in 2010 aged 91, was strongly influenced by Eastern religion and philosophy and mentioned Vivekananda in his story Hapworth 16, 1924.
The Morgan Museum now holds 52 letters written by J.D. Salinger in its collection.
South Korea is accusing North Korean spies of masterminding a series of high-profile cyber-attacks on its banks and television broadcasters in March.
Tens of thousands of computers were made to malfunction, disrupting work at banks and televisions in South Korea.
Investigators in Seoul said they had discovered some of the code involved was identical to that used in malware previously linked to Pyongyang.
The allegation adds to growing tension on the Korean peninsula.
South Korea is accusing North Korean spies of masterminding a series of high-profile cyber-attacks on its banks and television broadcasters in March
On Tuesday North Korea told foreigners in the South to “work out measures for evacuation” to avoid becoming involved in a “thermonuclear war”.
Seoul’s foreign minister subsequently said that there was a “considerably high” risk that North Korea might fire a ballistic missile at it over the coming days.
North Korea has not commented on the cyber-attack accusation.
About 48,000 PCs and servers in South Korea were struck on March 20.
The assault shut down computer networks at TV stations KBS, MBC and YTN, and halted operations at three banks – Shinhan, NongHyup and Jeju.
Investigators in Seoul reported their initial findings suggested North Korea’s military-run Reconnaissance General Bureau had been responsible.
A spokesman announced that 30 out of 76 programs recovered from affected computers were the same as those used in previous strikes.
In addition he said that 22 of the 49 internet protocol (IP) addresses involved in the incidents matched those used in attacks blamed on North Korea over the past five years.
The recent assaults shortly followed a South Korea-US joint military exercise, but it was suggested they had been long in the planning.
“The attackers gained control of personal computers or server computers within the target organizations at least eight months ago,” a government statement reported in the Korea Herald said.
“After maintaining monitoring activities [they] sent out the command to delete data stored in the server, and distributed malware to individual computers through the central server.”
South Korea’s Financial Services Commission added that no bank records or personal data had been compromised.
Previous cyber-intrusions blamed on Pyongyang include attempts to block access to the website of South Korea’s presidential office and other government departments, and hacks of computers at Nonghyup bank and the Joonang Ilbo newspaper.
In turn, North Korea has accused both South Korea and the US of preventing users from being able to visit its official media sites – the Rodong Sinmun newspaper and the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) – earlier this year.
It has led some commentators in the South to criticize the state of their cyber-defenses bearing in mind the public there is much more reliant on the internet than citizens in North Korea.
“South Korea cannot cope with unpredictable and sophisticated provocations from North Korea with a bureaucratic, rigid mindset,” wrote Chae In-taek in the Joonang Ilbo.
“National security cannot be assured through an outdated system. We must come up with an innovative security system fast.”
France’s President Francois Hollande has called for “eradication” of the world’s tax havens and told French banks they must declare all of their subsidiaries.
Francois Hollande was speaking after presenting a draft law aimed at “moralizing” French public life – a response to the tax scandal that has shaken his presidency.
France’s ex-Budget Minister Jerome Cahuzac has been charged with fraud over a secret Swiss bank account.
President Francois Hollande said a new central agency would fight fraud and corruption.
France’s President Francois Hollande has called for “eradication” of the world’s tax havens
Earlier the French Socialist government set a deadline of April 15 for ministers to declare their assets, as part of the new transparency drive.
Jerome Cahuzac admitted last week that he had hidden about 600,000 euros ($770,000) in a Swiss bank account, causing shock in France. He has now been expelled from the Socialist Party for lying about his financial affairs.
Addressing a news conference on Wednesday, Francois Hollande said “tax havens must be eradicated in Europe and worldwide”.
“I won’t hesitate to consider as a tax haven any country that refuses to co-operate fully with France.”
The presidentsaid French banks “will have to publish every year the full list of their subsidiaries in the world, country by country”.
They will also have to explain their business, Francois Hollande said.
“In other words it won’t be possible for a bank to hide transactions carried out in a tax haven.”
Beyoncé reveals a platinum blonde hairdo to rival the lightened legends of the past Farrah Fawcett and Brigitte Bardot in a teaser for her new music video Grown Woman.
Beyoncé’s weave is cut into a choppy style with oodles of volume and a chunky fringe to frame her famous face.
Beyoncé reveals a platinum blonde hairdo in a teaser for her new music video Grown Woman
The bright blonde color helped bring out the deep pink of her lips, as did the sixties style, cream polo-neck top, that altogether, recreated a retro image of Brigitte Bardot in her heyday.
The vintage feel was continued, with Beyoncé putting her hair up into a bountiful beehive updo.
Pepsi features throughout the 12 second video as Beyoncé is currently the public face of the drinks brand in a number of TV commercials.
The singer wears the red, blue and white logo of the fizzy drink on custom-made bracelets on her right arm.
The advertisements gave Beyoncé the chance to share with the world her new single that has yet to be given a release date.
But despite being the first track of her new album Mrs. Carter, the title has already been used by another Destiny’s Child member.
Rowland released her own version of Grown Woman three years ago, but the song only peaked at number 51 on Billboard’s Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs.
With all the hype and build up surrounding Beyoncé’s track release, one can assume it will enjoy more commercial success than her best buddy’s 2010 offering.
The Mrs. Carter Show World Tour will begin on April 15 in Europe.
Amanda Bynes complimented sisters Kim and Khloe Kardashian after they praised her appearance while hosting the E! show Chelsea Lately on Monday night.
During the show, Kim Kardashian, 32, revealed she is a huge fan of Amanda Bynes – who has sparked concern in recent months after dramatically altering her appearance and displaying a bizarre behavior.
Amanda Bynes complimented Kim and Khloe Kardashian after they praised her appearance while hosting the Chelsea Lately
Kim Kardashian said: “Am I the only one that is obsessed with her new makeover? I think she looks amazing. With the blonde hair and those nails?”
Khloe Kardashian also praised Amanda Bynes’ transformation, saying: “With all those extensions and makeup, you would think she looks hot. She does wear fishnets to the gym. I don’t think that’s abnormal. I love it.”
Amanda Bynes, who is a retired actress at 26, was grateful for the Kardashian sisters comments and later tweeted: “I love the beautiful Kardashian sisters!”
However, she admitted she was unhappy with the photos they used on the show.
Amanda Bynes added: “I wish E picked better photographs of me! I feel pregnant when I’m fat! I’m working out constantly!”
The troubled actress recently claimed she is suffering from an eating disorder and wants to weigh 100 pounds.
An emotional Lindsay Lohan who broke down in tears appeared on The Late Show With David Letterman on Tuesday night.
Lindsay Lohan, 26, welled up and had to dab her eyes with a tissue at one point, after being given a surprising compliment by David Letterman.
“We’d never thought we see you again honestly because of the jokes and stuff,” David Letterman told the actress, after several awkward minutes of her laughing along with his gags about her shoplifting charges and multiple court appearances.
“But yet you have enough spine, enough sense of yourself, enough poise to come out here and talk to me.”
Lindsay Lohan couldn’t contain her emotion, with tears welling in her eyes, prompting David Letterman to hand her a tissue.
“Oh thanks, that makes it obvious and all,” Lindsay Lohan said, holding the tissue up to the audience.
An emotional Lindsay Lohan who broke down in tears appeared on The Late Show With David Letterman on Tuesday night
“She’s tearing up a little bit. God bless you,” said David Letterman.
Lindsay Lohan then tries to introduce a clip featuring herself with Charlie Sheen in the forthcoming Scary Movie 5, but ended up being unable to get the words out, while trying to describe the excerpt.
“There’s a lot of things in the scene,” the actress said.
“I’m flustered right now because you made me tear up because you’re very sweet.”
Earlier, Lindsay Lohan confirmed to David Letterman she is heading to rehab on May 2, before being subjected to an uncomfortable grilling about her prospective treatment.
“I think it’s a blessing and not a curse,” she said about her treatment.
“To be honest, I’m the happiest when I’m working and the healthiest. I think this is an opportunity for me to focus on what I love in life.”
Sporting an orange and white floral dress with her hair in a loose updo, Lindsay Lohan tried her best to deflect David Letterman’s questions during the chat.
“Aren’t you supposed to be in rehab now?” David Letterman asked the star who last month struck a plea deal over charges relating to a car crash in June 2012.
“Don’t you watch anything that goes on? What are you a tabloid now?” Lindsay Lohan retorted, imploring the talk show host to concentrate on discussing her acting projects.
But David Letterman didn’t let her off the hook that easily, asking her how long she was going to be in rehab for and how many times she had been treated previously.
“Several,” Lindsay Lohan acknowledged about her forthcoming sixth time in rehab where she will spend three months.
“What are they rehabbing?” asked David Letterman, to audience laughter.
“What is on their list? What are they going to work on when you walk through the door?”
“We didn’t discuss this in the pre-interview,” Lindsay Lohan replied.
“Just saying to everyone.”
“Do you have addiction problems?” the host persisted.
“It is alcohol. Do you drink too much?”
“Now you sound like Dr Phil,” the actress said.
“We’ve discussed this in the past.”
At one point, Lindsay Lohan took David Letterman’s list of questions and read them out herself, ending with the one: “Why are you always in trouble?”
“I don’t know,” she declared.
“I couldn’t answer that. I’m a target. I’ve always been. I put myself in situations in the past where…I take full responsibility for it. And it wasn’t funny. I was being immature. I was going through a phase. And I had a lot of family things going on and things in life.
“You grow up and you mature and I’ve said that a million times, I know that,” she continued.
“But what else am I supposed to say when it’s a process of life and I’m not trying to deny any situation I’m put in.”
“You’re lucky that we have this rehab that you’re looking forward to, before you got hurt and someone else gets hurt,” said David Letterman.
“I’m looking forward to some time for myself. The next time I come on the show, that will be in my past.”
David Letterman then expressed surprise that the actress had actually turned up to be on the show.
“I showed up! Like I wasn’t going to!” she said.
“Who’s taking you to rehab?” the host then asked.
“Oh God. Jimmy Fallon, and you,” Lindsay Lohan responded before correcting herself.
“I don’t want people to think I’m making a joke of that. I’m not. It’s no joking matter.”
However, Lindsay Lohan sportingly laughed her way through several of David Letterman’s jokes about her woes, even cracking a few at her own expense.
Sipping from a mug on his desk, she declared: “Oh I thought this was going to be vodka. Shucks!”
David Letterman began the chat by showing the audience a photograph of Lindsay Lohan’s first appearance at 6-years-old in 1992.
He then proceeded to read out several jokes about her.
“Lindsay Lohan’s in court so often, the cafeteria has named a sandwich over her,” he declared.
The star joined in, revealing she had planned to appear on the show with the shop tags still on her dress.
“That would have been tremendous,” agreed David Letterman.
“What in life can’t we make light of?”
“I’m fine with making light of myself,” Lindsay Lohan agreed.
“That’s why I want to walk out with a tag on.”
Lindsay Lohan was also quizzed about her friendship with Charlie Sheen – she recently filmed a guest appearance on his sitcom Anger Management.
“I met Charlie when I was doing Scary Movie 5 in Atlanta,” she recalled.
“He told me about the show that he was starting to do and it all came together. It’s a really great set. Nice environment. Everyone’s so funny.”
David Letterman also alluded to Charlie Sheen’s claim that he wrote Lindsay Lohan a cheque for $100,000 to help pay her tax bill.
“Is it true that Charlie gave you money or is that not true?” he said.
“That’s something you’d have to ask Charlie,” Lindsay Lohan retorted.
Despite the rather testing interview, Lindsay Lohan looked in good spirits as she left the studios, having changed into a lather mini-shirt, black lace sleeveless top and strappy sandals.
South Korea has decided to raise its alert level to “vital threat” following reports that North Korea is preparing for a missile test.
At least one ballistic missile with an estimated 2,000-mile (3,000 km) range is fuelled and ready for launch, US and South Korean sources say.
Pyongyang has been making bellicose threats against South Korea, Japan and US bases in the region.
The threats follow tough new UN sanctions imposed on North Korea last month following its third nuclear test in February this year.
Separately, an initial investigation by South Korea into a major cyber attack last month that affected a number of banks and broadcasters has said North Korea is to blame.
affected a number of banks and broadcasters has said the North is to blame.
North Korea is believed to have completed preparations for a missile launch after it moved two Musudan missiles to its east coast, Yonhap news agency says.
In anticipation, the South Korea-US Combined Forces have raised their alert level to Watchcon 2 (Vital threat), to increase surveillance monitoring, Yonhap quoted a senior military official as saying.
North Korea unveiled the Musudan missile during a military parade in 2010 but has yet to test it. There are reports, however, that it may have been sold to Iran and tested there.
The launch could happen “anytime from now”, South Korean Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se told parliament.
A test launch would be a violation of UN Security Council Resolution 1718, passed in 2006, which states the North “must not conduct any further nuclear test or launch of a ballistic missile”.
North Korea has tested intermediate range missiles before and during periods of crisis and tension.
While another test launch would certainly be seen as provocative, it is unlikely to have any major, short-term military significance unless it goes wrong.
The raising of South Korea’s alert status comes as Japan deployed anti-missile defenses in Tokyo as a precaution.
“We are on high alert,” said Japan’s Defence Minister Itsunori Onodera.
A number of travel agencies in China have reported that tourist trips into North Korea have been suspended.
One travel agent in the north-eastern city of Dandong told Reuters news agency: “All [tourist] travel to North Korea has been stopped from today and I’ve no idea when it will restart.”
The border remains open to commercial traffic.
Meanwhile, an official investigation by South Korea into last month’s cyber attack traced the malicious codes used to six computers in North Korea.
“We’ve collected a lot of evidence to determine the North’s Reconnaissance General Bureau led the attack, which had been prepared for at least eight months,” a spokesman for the Korea Internet and Security Agency said.
The attack on March 20 severely affected the KBS, MBC and YTN broadcasters and operations at the Shinhan, NongHyup and Jeju banks.
Yesterday North Korea has warned foreigners in South Korea to take precautions in case of war and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon warned the crisis on the Korean peninsula may become “uncontrollable”.
Ban Ki-moon once again urged North Korea to tone down its “provocative rhetoric” and to keep open a joint North-South Korean industrial complex.
North Koreans failed to report for work at the Kaesong complex on Tuesday, suspending one of the few points of co-operation with South Korea.
Belgium has sent a complaint to the European Commission regarding low wages at some German firms, described by Belgium as unfair “social dumping”.
The Belgian government sent the letter alleging that Germany’s “mini-jobs” undermined EU competition rules.
Some workers get just 3 or 4 euro hourly in such jobs, without any social protection, Belgium says.
The Belgian government sent an EU complaint alleging that Germany’s mini-jobs undermined EU competition rules
Many are East Europeans working for meat processing firms in Germany. There has been criticism in Germany too.
The European Commission says some 7.5 million people are working under the “mini-job” regime in Germany.
It means they can earn up to 450 euros per month without paying tax or contributing to any pension system. They are also excluded from the employer’s social security contributions.
In Belgium, however, low-paid workers get a minimum of 12-13 euros per hour and all have to make social security contributions, a Belgian government spokeswoman has said.
“Belgium wants the Commission to stop this disloyal competition between countries,” Els Bruggeman said.
“The Commission can make Europe a more social union.”
She said the issue had also been raised by some firms in France and the Netherlands, especially ones near the German border.
The Belgian move was sparked by complaints from Belgian abattoirs, who said German low-wage competitors were threatening their survival. Some said they might have to relocate to Germany to survive.
The letter to the Commission was sent by Belgian Economy Minister Johan Vande Lanotte and Labour Minister Monica De Coninck.
Olaf Lies, economy minister in the German state of Lower Saxony, has voiced support for the Belgian complaint.
Germany’s economy is a rare success story in Europe at a time when most of its neighbors are struggling with massive debt burdens and record unemployment.
Many Poles, Bulgarians and Romanians have found jobs in Germany – especially in agriculture and food-processing – since their countries joined the EU in 2004 and 2007.
A German left-wing MEP, Thomas Haendel of the Linke party, said that only Germany and Malta had no statutory minimum wage in the 27-nation EU.
He said the Belgian complaint “is entirely justified – the Linke party has long been pointing out that Germany is practicing wage dumping in Europe”.
“It’s very unfair because Germany now has very high productivity, but gains a competitive advantage through these <<mini-jobs>>,” Thomas Haendel said.
In addition to Linke, the German Social Democrats (SPD) and Greens are also pushing for a statutory minimum wage in Germany, he said.
“About 30 per cent of workers in Germany get less than 8.5 euros per hour – that’s below the OECD poverty level,” he said, referring to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development.
A Belgian Socialist MEP, Frederic Daerden, said unfair wage competition could be tackled in the EU’s rules on posted workers – that is, workers posted to another EU country temporarily.
Reforms to the posted worker rulesare now being negotiated in the EU.
“Social dumping is bad because it affects the attitude of workers towards the EU,” said Frederic Daerden.
But he said the EU had no power to set a European minimum wage, and it would probably be futile to take Germany to court over the matter.
The European Commission now scrutinizes member states’ economic policies in detail, under the enhanced surveillance brought in because of the eurozone debt crisis. But it cannot dictate wage policy to individual states.
The Commission and Council – the grouping of EU governments – make country-specific recommendations for each member state. They are a way to exert peer pressure, but are not mandatory.
Last year those recommendations urged Germany to “create the conditions for wages to grow in line with productivity”.
“Extensive use of mini-jobs leads to low acquisition of pension rights. Therefore there is a need to improve the transition from mini-jobs to more stable forms of contracts,” Germany was told.
Some of Margaret Thatcher’s comments have been described as “unabashedly racist” by Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr in an interview with a local broadcaster.
In a conversation with Margaret Thatcher “in her retirement”, Bob Carr said the former British prime minister had warned Australia against Asian immigration.
Margaret Thatcher said “if we allowed too much of it we’d see the natives of the land, the European settlers, overtaken by migrants”, Bob Carr recalled.
Some of Margaret Thatcher’s comments have been described as “unabashedly racist” by Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr
Baroness Thatcher, 87, died on Monday after suffering a series of strokes.
Bob Carr made his comments on the Australian broadcaster ABC’s Lateline programme.
He said he had been “astonished” at the comments by Margaret Thatcher, which were made while his Malaysian-born wife Helena was “standing not far away” but was “fortunately out of earshot”.
But he said he retained respect for the “boldness of her political leadership”.
Bob Carr prefaced his comments by saying Margaret Thatcher had been “the most significant” leader since Winston Churchill, forcing social democratic parties to “think more deeply about the function of the state”. Lady Thatcher had been “right in joining [former US President Ronald] Reagan and denouncing the old Soviet Union as an evil dictatorship”, he said.
“On 100 other things I would pick arguments with her and I recall one conversation I had with her in her retirement where she said something that was unabashedly racist, where she warned Australia – talking to me with Helena standing not far away – against Asian immigration, saying that if we allowed too much of it we’d see the natives of the land, the European settlers, overtaken by migrants.
“I couldn’t believe it. It reminded me that despite, yes, her greatness on those big questions, the role of the state, the evil nature of the Communist totalitarianism, there was an old-fashioned quality to her that was entirely out of touch and probably explained why her party removed her in the early 90s.”
Bob Carr went on to recall: “I remember one thing she said as part of that conversation, she said: <<You will end up like Fiji>>. She said: <<I like Sydney but you can’t allow the migrants>> – and in context she meant Asian migration – <<to take over, otherwise you will end up like Fiji where the Indian migrants have taken over>>.
“I was so astonished I don’t think I could think of an appropriate reply.”
Margaret Thatcher will be buried with full military honors at London’s St Paul’s Cathedral on Wednesday April 17.
Student Dylan Quick has been charged with a stabbing rampage that left 14 wounded, many in the face and neck, at Lone Star College in Houston, Texas, police say.
Two people were critically injured in the attack at the campus of Lone Star College in the Houston city area.
Harris County Sheriff’s Office named the suspect in custody as 20-year-old Dylan Quick.
Student Dylan Quick has been charged with a stabbing rampage that left 14 wounded, many in the face and neck, at Lone Star College in Houston
Dylan Quick was wrestled to the ground by a student, then arrested by police, witnesses said.
The sheriff’s office said in a statement that Dylan Quick had been planning the attack at the campus in Cypress for some time.
Police said he had had fantasies of stabbing people to death since he was in primary school.
Dylan Quick, who was allegedly armed with a razor-type knife, has been charged with aggravated assault.
Police first received an emergency call from the college shortly after 11:00 local time on Tuesday.
Harris County spokesman Thomas Gilliland said the suspect went from “building to building” during the attack.
Diante Cotton, 20, said he saw half a dozen people with injuries to their faces and necks being loaded into ambulances and medical helicopters.
Of the 14 that were injured at the college, two refused medical attention and four were airlifted to hospital.
One student, Michael Chalfan, said the suspect was an “eccentric” type who often wore gloves and was known to carry stuffed animals.
“I’m surprised because he didn’t look like he was hateful to the world,” Michael Chalfan told the Associated Press news agency.
A different Lone Star campus was the site of a shooting in January that left two people wounded.
A 22-year-old man was charged with aggravated assault in that case.
Film critic Roger Ebert, who died last week at the age of 70, has been laid to rest in his native Chicago.
“He didn’t just dominate his profession, he defined it,” said Mayor Rahm Emanuel to mourners at Holy Name Cathedral on Monday.
Roger Ebert, who wrote reviews at the Chicago Sun-Times for 40 years, died of cancer on April 4.
“Roger spent a lot of time sitting through bad movies so we didn’t have to,” said Rahm Emanuel.
Roger Ebert’s widow, Chaz
In a 90-minute funeral Mass, speakers took turns talking about Roger Ebert’s career and the health problems that left him unable to speak.
He lost his voice and much of his lower jaw after suffering from thyroid cancer and complications from surgery.
“He realized that connecting to people was the main reason we’re all here and that’s what his life was all about,” said his stepdaughter Sonia Evans.
In his final blog entry, published just days before his death, Roger Ebert had addressed his illness saying: “It really stinks that the cancer has returned and that I have spent too many days in the hospital.
“So, on bad days I may write about the vulnerability that
accompanies illness. On good days, I may wax ecstatic about a movie so good it transports me beyond illness.”
Following his death last week, Hollywood lined up to pay tribute to Roger Ebert. Director Martin Scorsese, who is producing a documentary on the film critic and writer, called his death “an incalculable loss”.
Steven Spielberg added it was “the end of an era”.
Speaking at the funeral, the Rev Jesse Jackson praised Roger Ebert’s early support for the films of Spike Lee and other black filmmakers.
“He respected what we had to say about ourselves. It was not his story but he understood the value of an important film was authenticity and not the fact that it depicted your interests.”
Roger Ebert’s widow, Chaz, who received a standing ovation added: “It didn’t matter to him your race, creed, color – he had a big enough heart to accept and love all.”
He began his career at the Chicago Sun-Times, where he spent the next five decades penning biting, often funny reviews for movies.
It was there, in 1975, that Roger Ebert became the first film critic to win the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism, an award given to newspaper writers.
“Roger was 24-7 before anybody thought of that term,” said John Barron, Roger Ebert’s former boss at the Sun-Times, who said he was among the first reporters to use a computer or send emails.
Towards the end of the 1970s, Roger Ebert teamed up with fellow critic Gene Siskel for their TV review show, where they would give films a thumbs up or thumbs down gesture. They worked together until Gene Siskel’s death in 1999, following surgery for a brain tumor.
Roger Ebert also authored more than 15 books about the movies and co-wrote several movies with cult director Russ Meyer.
In 2007, Roger Ebert was named the most powerful critic in America by Forbes magazine.
Kourtney Kardashian kicked Kim out of their Miami mansion and threw her clothes into the street after it was revealed the pregnant star hired a private detective to spy on Scott Disick.
The drama unfolded on season finale on the Kardashian’s reality TV show Kim & Kourtney Take Miami.
Kim Kardashian hired the private detective to put a tracking device on Scott Disick’s car, check his phone records and take pictures of him partying and she thought he was “acting shady”.
Kourtney Kardashian kicked Kim out of their Miami mansion and threw her clothes into the street after it was revealed the pregnant star hired a private detective to spy on Scott Disick
But Kourtney Kardashian did not take Kim’s meddling well.
“Seriously how dare you get involved in my family and try to rake things up. Hiring a private investigator to follow Scott?” she said.
“It is not okay to come into my life and get involved.”
Scott Disick was left fuming at Kim Kardashian’s actions.
“Would Kim be happy if she broke up a family? That’s what I don’t get,” he said.
“It doesn’t surprise me that Kim hired a private investigator, she has done this before in her past relationships but for somebody that I love and trust have someone follow me? I have never felt more betrayed or upset.
“This is an all-time low.
“I feel like I have always been there for Kim but after this I do not want her around and obviously she does not want me around.”
Kourtney Kardashian had to eventually admit she understood some of Kim’s actions.
“Who knows what you are up to?” she asked Scott Disick.
“I do think it is invasive and wrong, but why can’t you be normal. If you want to get a drink with a friend then come home at a normal hour.”
But Scott Disick answered that if he went for a drink he would be out partying for two days.
“Do you think that is fun for me?” said Kourtney Kardashian.
Kim Kardashian realized she had upset her older sister but defended her actions.
“I did not want Kourtney to find out like this. I know she does not understand it now but I am just trying to protect her and her whole family,” she said.
The finale also saw Kim Kardashian reveal to her sisters that she is pregnant with boyfriend Kanye West’s baby.
At least 14 people have been wounded in a mass stabbing after a lone man dressed in black reportedly ran amok at a Texan community college – running up and down hallways randomly knifing students.
A student is in custody after the stabbing rampage at the Cypress campus of Lone Star College, northwest of Houston, according to police.
Two of the injured are in critical condition after the attack.
At least 14 people have been wounded in a mass stabbing after a man ran amok at Lone Star College in Houston
Harris County Sheriff Adrian Garcia said police first received an emergency call from the school shortly after 11:00 local time.
Based on video evidence, police said they were not looking for a second suspect.
The campus has been evacuated and will be closed for the rest of the day as police investigate.
Earlier, a county spokesman said there had been a report that the suspect was wrestled to the ground by a student, then arrested by police.
The suspect is approximately 21 years old and a student at Lone Star, Sheriff Garcia said.
Harris County spokesman Thomas Gilliland said the suspect went from “building to building” during the attack.
Thomas Gilliland said the attacker was believed to have been armed with a knife or a pencil.
One student told local broadcaster KHOU another student had been stabbed in a hallway in the school’s health sciences building.
Of the 14 that were injured at the college, two refused medical attention and four were brought by helicopter to hospital.
A different Lone Star campus was the site of a shooting in January which left two people wounded.
A 22-year-old man was charged with aggravated assault in that case.
A statement attributed to North Korea’s Asia-Pacific Peace Committee on Tuesday warned the situation on the Korean peninsula is heading for a nuclear war.
The statement said: “The situation on the Korean peninsula is heading for a thermo-nuclear war.
“In the event of war, we don’t want foreigners living in South Korea to get hurt.”
A statement attributed to North Korea’s Asia-Pacific Peace Committee on Tuesday warned the situation on the Korean peninsula is heading for a nuclear war
North Korea’s statement urged “all foreign organizations, companies and tourists to work out measures for evacuation”.
Last Friday, Pyongyang warned it would not be able to guarantee the safety of embassy staff in the event of a war.
No foreign embassies immediately announced plans to evacuate, and the UK and Russian embassies have said they have no plans to shut their embassies.
The US, which has also been threatened by Pyongyang, has said there were no imminent signs of threats to American citizens.
Tuesday’s warning from Pyongyang to foreigners in South Korea came amid growing concern that North Korea may be about to launch a missile test.
Japan has deployed defensive anti-missile batteries at three locations in Tokyo, to protect the capital’s 30 million residents.
US-made Patriot anti-missile systems have been deployed at the defense ministry and at two other military bases.
The European Commission is investigating MasterCard over fees charged for card transactions made by people visiting Europe.
The Commission said some of MasterCard’s “inter-bank fees and related practices may be anti-competitive”.
Visa is already under investigation in Europe over similar practices.
The European Commission is investigating MasterCard over fees charged for card transactions made by people visiting Europe
MasterCard, which said it would “fully co-operate” with regulators, could be fined up to $740 million, or 10% of its 2012 revenue, if found guilty.
The credit card firm said that it always aimed “to balance the interests of both consumers and retailers”.
The investigation will examine payments made by people from outside the European Economic Authority (EEA) – the EU’s 27-member states as well as Norway, Liechtenstein and Iceland – who use their credit and debit cards when inside the area.
The EU said the main aim of its probe was to ensure consumers were not harmed.
“When a US tourist uses a Mastercard to make a purchase in [the European Economic Area], these fees can be quite high, generally much higher than those paid in Europe,” European Commission spokesman Antoine Colombani said.
In 2007, a similar probe led to the Commission banning MasterCard from charging cross-border fees within the European Economic Area.
The European Commission said payment cards were of “crucial importance” for cross-border and internet payments.
“It is therefore a priority for the European Commission to prevent competition distortions in inter-bank arrangements on fees,” it said.
As well as inter-bank fees paid by cardholders from non-EEA countries, the Commission said the probe would look at rules that obliged merchants to accept all types of MasterCard cards, even if some of them incur higher charges.
The probe will also look at MasterCard’s restrictions on merchants who wish to use banks outside their own country, which could be cheaper.
“Ultimately, such behavior is liable to slow down cross-border business and harm EU consumers,” it said.
The European Commission said it would submit proposed regulation by the middle of the year on inter-bank fees aimed at ensuring a level playing field for all card providers.
Tom Cruise has made his first comments about his divorce from Katie Holmes last year during an interview with a German television.
Tom Cruise, 50, admitted: “I did not expect that.”
The actor added: “Life is a challenge. You are 50 and you think you have everything in order and suddenly it hits you, that’s what life is all about.”
Tom Cruise has made his first comments about his divorce from Katie Holmes last year during an interview with a German television
Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes, 34, split last June just five days before the actor’s 50th birthday.
He said it gave him “an incredible amount of time to reflect” as he celebrated the milestone.
Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes entered negotiations almost straight away and last month a settlement was agreed with Katie being given primary custody of their 6-year-old daughter, Suri, and Tom getting extensive visitation rights.
Neither couple have ever given a reason for the split but rumors persist Katie Holmes was unhappy with the control the religion Scientology had over the family.
Tom Cruise said getting stuck into work helped him get over the heartbreaking split.
“Life is like a tragic comedy, you need a sense of humor,” he said.
The actor also spoke about doing his own action stunts in his latest $120 million sci-fi blockbuster Oblivion.
“I have done white water rafting, I dipped, with the snowmobile on the glaciers, drove around and climbed mountains.”
Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes married in a lavish ceremony in Italy in November 2006 after a starting a very public whirlwind romance in April 2005.
Suri Cruise was born in April 2006 and played a star role in their nuptials.
Tom Cruise was previously married to Mimi Rogers and Nicole Kidman, with whom he has two adopted children, Isabella, 19, and 17-year-old Connor.
Tom Cruise’s new movie, Oblivion, which also stars Olga Kurylenko and Morgan Freeman, opens across America on April 19.
Cher fans were confused yesterday after they misread a Twitter hashtag referring to the death of Margaret Thatcher.
Soon after news broke Margaret Thatcher had passed away from a stroke, critics of the conservative politician started spreading the hashtag #nowthatcherisdead on the micro-blogging site.
But Cher fans misinterpreted the hashtag, reading it as “Now that Cher is dead” rather than “Now Thatcher is dead”.
Cher fans were confused yesterday after they misread a Twitter hashtag referring to the death of Margaret Thatcher
The singer’s supporters took to Twitter to expressed their grief at the supposed passing of Cher.
Referring to their idol classic hits, they tweeted things like: “If only she COULD turn back time! #NowThatCherIsDead,” and “RIP Cher. At least now we’ll find out about life after love.”
Other fans expressed confusion and concern, tweeting: “Oh my god, Cher died?!? #nowthatcherisdead” and “So sad to hear that Cher is dead. #nowthatcherisdead.”
Some even thought both Cher and Margaret Thatcher had passed.
Cher, 66, who is usually very active on the micro-blogging site and has been known to go off on aggressive rants, kept quiet, which didn’t help shed light on the situation for her followers.
But it wasn’t long before Twitter users including comedian Ricky Gervais got in on the conversation.
Clearing up the confusion, Ricky Gervais tweeted: “Some people are in a frenzy over the hashtag #nowthatchersdead. It’s <<Now Thatcher’s dead>>. Not, <<Now that Cher’s dead>> JustSayin.”
Margaret Thatcher died Monday aged 87 in a luxury suite at the Ritz in London where she had spent months recuperating after an operation.
Baroness Thatcher was Britain’s first and only female prime minister and had many vehement critics.
