Fernando Alonso’s surprise victory in Singapore has put Renault in pole position to retain the double world champion’s services next season, even if he said afterwards that it had changed nothing. “I didn’t say that,” the Spaniard replied when asked whether it could now be assumed he would be staying with the French manufacturer. “This [...]
Britain is set to nationalize troubled bank Bradford & Bingley on Monday after Spanish bank Santander agreed to buy its retail deposits and branch network. B&B would be the second British bank nationalized this year and the latest in a string of high-profile banks in Europe and the United States to fall victim to the [...]
Legendary film star Paul Newman, whose brilliant blue eyes, good looks and talent made him one of Hollywood’s top actors over six decades has died after a long battle with cancer, a spokesman said on Saturday. He was 83, and he died on Friday night, said his Los Angeles-based spokesman Jeff Sanderson. Newman appeared in [...]
Chinese provinces have reported nearly 10,000 additional cases of children who have developed kidney illnesses after drinking toxic milk formula in recent days, local media reported on Friday. Attention on the growing scandal in China was at least temporarily overshadowed by the launch late on Thursday of China’s third manned space mission, which is set [...]
Paul McCartney gave his first concert in Israel on Thursday before tens of thousands of cheering fans, 43 years after the Beatles were barred from singing there because of fears they could corrupt youngsters. Security was tight at Yarkon Park in Tel Aviv and media reports in Britain said an Islamist militant had threatened the [...]
A political stalemate that threatened to boot the United States off the International Space Station eased on Thursday after U.S. lawmakers passed an exemption allowing NASA to buy rides from the Russians, agency officials said. Without authorization to spend tax dollars on Russian Soyuz spacecraft and other space services, NASA would have been forced off [...]
Two period dramas set 200 years apart in American history — "Mad Men" and "John Adams" — claimed a place in the Emmy record books on Sunday while a satire of network TV itself, "30 Rock," dominated the comedy side of the awards. "Mad Men," the critically acclaimed new AMC series set in New York’s [...]
With their 2005 debut album, the Pussycat Dolls showed they can deliver a successful album. "PCD" (Interscope ) has sold 2.9 million copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan, and spawned such chart-topping hits as "Don’t Cha" and "Buttons" featuring Snoop Dogg. But when lead singer Nicole Scherzinger tried to go solo last [...]
As falling travel rates and rising fuel prices wallop the U.S. car-rental industry, companies such as Hertz Global , Avis Budget and Dollar Thrifty Automotive are pulling out all the stops to steer clear of a quagmire. They are looking to better manage their car fleets, operate more fuel-efficient vehicles, tie up with airlines and [...]
A large study is to examine near-death experiences in cardiac arrest patients. Doctors at 25 UK and US hospitals will study 1,500 survivors to see if people with no heartbeat or brain activity can have "out of body" experiences. Some people report seeing a tunnel or bright light, others recall looking down from the ceiling [...]
The Spice Girls have beaten Led Zeppelin to an award for the best music reunion of the last 12 months. The girl group won best live return at the Vodafone Live Music Awards after getting back together for a world tour. It was judged to have been better than the one-off comeback by rock legends [...]
Plants facing stressful conditions like drought produce their own aspirin-like chemical, US researchers say. The chemicals are produced as a gas to boost the plant’s biochemical defences, say scientists from the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Colorado. They suggest that monitoring this could give farmers early warning of possible crop failures. However, they also [...]