China clouded in cigarette smoke
January 9, 2011
When I first came to China 39 years ago, airlines distributed cigarettes free of charge during flights. Hotel rooms were invariably furnished with free packs of cigarettes. At meetings and conferences, filter-tipped cigarettes were standard features on the podium alongside writing pads, pencils and ashtrays. Non-smoking cars were unheard of on trains.
Longoria’s Vegas restaurant goes bankrupt
January 9, 2011
The bosses of actress Eva Longoria’s Las Vegas restaurant and nightclub have filed for bankruptcy after racking up debts of almost $5.7 million.
The Desperate Housewives star launched the Sin City branch of Beso with business partner Todd English in December 2009 — a year after opening her flagship Hollywood restaurant with the same name.
The lawyers for Beso LLC filed legal papers in a Vegas court Thursday.
The lawyer said the company was expected to pile up losses of more than $76,000 a month, while Beso executives owed nearly $1.8 million in lease payments, contactmusic reports.
Longoria, who owns a third of Beso, had poured her own cash into the firm and recently boosted the business with a $1 million loan and covered $375,000 in legal fees.
Source: timesofindia.indiatimes.com
Look fresh and young
January 9, 2011
It’s that time of the year when it’s all about colouring up your lives. Everyone wants to look great and flaunt their best shades. And the look that’s in is that of those sinful treats called candies.
Colombia coal trains restart after derailment
January 9, 2011
Rail operations have restarted after 50 train cars carrying coal from Glencore’s Prodeco unit in Colombia derailed earlier this week, a private company in charge of the railway concession said on Saturday.
Colombia is the world’s fifth largest coal exporter and Glencore’s [GLEN.UL] Prodeco unit is one of the Andean nation’s top three exporters of the material.
Jets implicated in solar riddle
January 8, 2011
Scientists say they are closer to understanding why the Sun’s outer atmosphere is hotter than its surface.
The corona, as it is known, is millions of degrees hotter than the star’s visible surface layer, or photosphere.
Red Cross connects Yemeni families, Guantanamo detainees
December 29, 2010
Some families in Yemen have not seen their relatives imprisoned at the U.S. facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in almost a decade.
Now, for the first time, they are able to use video-conferencing technology made available by the International Committee of the Red Cross to change that.
Oklahoma man says wife’s death was sex fantasy accident
December 29, 2010
Arthur Sedille was up-front with police: He would often put a gun to his wife’s head during fantasy sex play at their Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, home.
But Sedille said he didn’t know the gun was loaded when he pressed it to his wife’s head and pulled the handgun’s slide back during sex on the night of December 21.
The future is fidgetal
December 28, 2010
Technology, and the hype that surrounds it, is changing the way we speak. But we don’t have to turn into drones, all spouting the latest i-word. Chris Bowlby says it’s time for the techno-bullied to fight back with their own subversive speak.
With the online Oxford English Dictionary recently re-launched and on the look-out for new language, maybe it’s time for a counter-revolution.
Israel says it will not apologize to Turkey over flotilla incident
December 26, 2010
(CNN) — Despite overtures from Turkey, Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman said Sunday that his country will not apologize to Turkey over the deaths of nine Turkish activists aboard an aid flotilla headed for Gaza in May.