Even Brits who were ambivalent about the much-ballyhooed royal wedding still hold Prince William and Kate Middleton in relatively high regard. Guest host Linda Wertheimer talks with Simon Hoggart, a political columnist with The Guardian newspaper in London.
Source: NPR : National Public Radio
AMAZON.COM disclosed yesterday a detailed mea culpa on last week's Web services outage in which it apologized for the shutdown and offered a service credit to customers who were affected by the glitch.
Amazon, which rents web services and storage to companies, provided a nearly 5,700-word account on the causes of last week's glitch that took down a slew of websites. The company explained a network configuration change caused the shutdown and described what it is planning to do to prevent similar technical problems from happening again.
Amazon said it will provide a 10-day service credit to customers who were affected by the outage that will be automatically applied to their accounts.
"We want to apologize," the company said on its website. "We know how critical our services are to our customers'
Illustration by Thomas Fuchs
America has a way of elevating its heroes beyond the realm of mere mortals. This has not been an issue on Wall Street, where heroes do not exist. Warren Buffett has been the glaring exception. An Omahan who was not of Wall Street so much as above it and who spoke in cracker-barrel English derived more from Twain than from J. P. Morgan, he fulfilled (I once wrote) America's secular myth. He was the man from the Plains whose virtue offered an antidote to the corrupt Northeast and to Wall Street in particular. It is a measure of his reputation that a radio interviewer asked me whether Buffett had, until late, behaved in a "near perfect" manner. No flesh and blood, examined up close, can meet such a standard. As the saying goes, "No man is a hero to his valet." The David Sokol affair, in which an executive of Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway was caught in a serious ethical trespass, and in which Buffett failed to deliver a rebuke, has shown us a bit of the great man's undergarments. The question for the 40,000 shareholders converging on Omaha for Saturday's annual meeting (a.k.a. Buffett's "capitalist Woodstock") is whether the Sokol business tells us anything new, and perhaps dispiriting, about Buffett.
When I was writing a biography on Buffett, in the early '90s, the trait that most distinguished him was his searing independence. Buffett was a brilliant, socially responsible investor, who engaged with the world only on his terms. He refused to be co-opted or recruited, whether with regard to stocks, philanthropy, or politics. His aloofness often caused associates to suffer disappointment. He zealously protected his time and his money; even his children suffered from the billionaire's reserve. In a not atypical incident, he could barely lower his newspaper to listen to his teenage daughter's tearful rendition of how she crashed his car. Friends described how Warren had rebuffed their requests
Manuel Neuer would be the perfect replacement for Edwin van der Sar at Manchester United, according to Peter Schmeichel.
The Schalke goalkeeper, who excelled in last night's UEFA Champions League semi-final first leg, is expected to move to Bayern Munich in the summer, but negotiations between the clubs have yet to begin.
Bayern president Uli Hoeness insisted today his club would not pay through the nose for the Germany international.
Ferguson, who hailed Neuer's display as United won the first leg in Gelsenkirchen 2-0 as the best goalkeeping performance against the club since he became manager, is looking for a
The law firm hired by House Republicans to defend the Defense of Marriage Act has resigned the case. The Atlanta firm King & Spalding was under pressure from gay rights advocates. One of its partners, former U.S. Solicitor General Paul Clement, is leaving the firm to defend DOMA himself.
Source: NPR : National Public Radio
© WENN / A. Miller
Joseph Gordon-Levitt has revealed that Metallica allowed their music to be featured in his latest film after watching clips of his performance.
© WENN / A. Miller
Joseph Gordon-Levitt has revealed that Metallica allowed their music to be featured in his latest film after watching clips of his performance.A prominent Syrian human rights group says at least 49 people have been killed during pro-democracy protests – making Friday the deadliest day of the uprising.
Syrian security forces fired live bullets and tear gas Friday on rallies across the country.
Protesters flooded into the streets after Muslim prayers in at least nine major areas across the country.
The demonstrations are a sign that President Bashar Assad's attempts to quell the monthlong protests with a deadly crackdown and promises of reform have all but failed.
Ammar Qurabi, head of Syria's National Organization for Human Rights, said the death toll had reached 49. He said at least 20 people were missing.
Protesters flooded into the streets after Muslim prayers in at least nine major areas across the country, a sign that Mr. Assad's attempts to quell the month-long protests with a deadly crackdown and promises of reform have all
China touted on Thursday progress in its campaign to ensure government offices do not use pirated software, but a senior official said that still less than half was properly copyrighted, underscoring the challenge ahead.
Two-fifths of central government offices were using legal software and another two fifths were in the buying process, said National Copyright Administration Vice Minister Yan Xiaohong.
Yan promised that all central government bodies would be using registered copyrighted software by the end of May and that by the end of October “all local government offices at various levels” would be in compliance.
“This is a very
By Teja Yenamandra
Apr. 20 – Last month, the Chinese military released its national defense white paper – a report which is published every two years aimed at highlighting the goals of the People's Liberation Army as well as describing the disbursement of funds related to the country's military budget.
The paper, titled China's National Defense in 2010, attempts to celebrate the modernization efforts of the Chinese military while calming fears echoed by foreign governments who say that the PLA will be used for expansionist purposes.
The paper expectedly maintained the party line: it stressed repeatedly that the buildup was undertaken purely for defensive purposes, and highlighted the cooperative measures it has taken with foreign militaries.
Recently, China's dramatic military buildup and more assertive foreign policy have resulted in a sense of discomfort with some of its neighbors, as well in some American policy
By Linda Karadaku for Southeast European Times in Tirana -- 19/04/11
"…shots were heard at the Kiri River at 5 o'clock in the morning, the communists were executing people," remembers Klara Luli Shiroka. [Ana Pekmezi/SETimes]
Albania has no official figures of how many opponents of the communist regime were killed, persecuted, or sent to concentration camps and isolated areas.
But associations of former political prisoners, quoted by the Albanian daily Shqip, estimate that 5,577 men and 450 women were killed by the regime between 1946 and 1991. Families, even distant relatives of the "enemies", paid in other ways as well.
Many
GULF oil producers have assured consumers of sufficient crude supplies to help stem rises in oil prices fuelled by sweeping unrest in the Middle East and speculations.
"Certainly, Saudi Arabia's position in the world oil market is based on its commitment to maintaining spare capacity for the sake of price and market stability,'' Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi said.
Naimi told a roundtable meeting for Asian energy ministers that the kingdom had a spare capacity of more than 3.5 million barrels per day which Riyadh could use whenever the need arose.
On Sunday, Naimi said Saudi Arabia was ready to supply crude as demanded by customers, but he had acknowledged that the kingdom's oil output fell to 8.29 million barrels per day in March from as high as 9.1 million in February.
Energy ministers from 18 Asian nations,
Authorities say a 12-year-old girl covered her face with a bandanna and used a stolen, loaded handgun to try to rob a suburban Detroit grocery store.
The Oakland County Sheriff's Department says the three employees at Country Lake Market managed to overpower the girl Friday night and held her until deputies arrived.
Despite the bandanna, one employee says she recognized the girl. The store is in Highland Township, about 30 miles northwest of Detroit.
Sheriff Michael Bouchard tells WWJ-AM says the girl is being prosecuted as an adult. He says she broke into a neighbour's house to steal the gun
Michael Zumstein / Agence Vu for Newsweek
Gallery: Civil War in the Ivory Coast
While the world HAS been consumed with NATO's ongoing airstrikes in Libya and the merciless earthquakes in Japan, fierce fighting has paralyzed the West African country of Ivory Coast. The standoff in the financial capital, Abidjan—pitting troops loyal to the embattled incumbent president, Laurent Gbagbo, against forces allied with his challenger, Alassane Ouattara—marks what may be the final fight in a three-month string of battles across much of the country that has left some 1,500 people dead. More than 800 people were killed in Duékoué alone after that town fell to pro-Ouattara forces.
This nightmarish saga began with the contested November presidential election. After a charged but mostly peaceful campaign packed with memorable, impressive televised debates, the country's Electoral Commission declared Ouattara the winner. Gbagbo's party contested the results before the Constitutional Court, which has final authority, alleging massive fraud in northern provinces controlled by pro-Ouattara rebels. After deliberation, the Constitutional Council reversed the decision and declared Gbagbo victorious. Meanwhile, the United Nations, which had helped organize and monitor the elections, sided with the Electoral Commission and confirmed that Ouattara had won. Gbagbo rejected the verdict, swore an oath of
Rafael Nadal was rarely troubled as he saw off scattergun Ivan Ljubicic in straight sets to enter the semi-final of the Monte Carlo Rolex Masters.
The first three games all went against serve but Nadal restored order in the fourth and took it with a fantastic forehand passing shot after chasing down a lob to the backhand corner of his baseline.
He continued to decimate the Ljubicic serve with a break to love and repeated the dose to take the set 6-1. By that point Ljubicic had won just 12% of first serve points, two of 17 - including an
ALL eyes are on a City Hospital eye surgeon who is the presenter and co-producer of a new health show watched by thousands of people across Europe.
Dr Mandeep Singh Bindra is getting used to the limelight as the face of the Health Show on Sangat TV – a Birmingham based TV channel broadcasting on Sky Channel 847.
The hour long show is aimed at bringing health education, awareness and advice to the south east Asian and Punjabi community and so far has included programmes on diabetes, obesity and mental health.
The programme, which screens on a Tuesday evening, is the brainchild of Dr Bindra who for many years has recognised a need in the south east Asian and Punjabi community for accessible health education.
So when
When Japanese officials Tuesday raised their assessment of the disaster at the Fukushima nuclear power plant to the highest rating on the international scale, they put it nominally on par with the meltdown at Chernobyl 25 years ago.
But Fukushima isn’t Chernobyl. At least not yet.
I have the little-sought-after distinction of having been to both places. The situation in Fukushima is dire – and terrifying for those who live in the region – but we’re not yet at the stage where an entire region of Japan needs to be written off for decades or centuries to come, as with Pripyat, the city closest to the Chernobyl reactor in what is now northern Ukraine.
Apr. 11 – Despite a recent downturn in FDI inflows, India has remained the second most popular investment destination in the world, riding closely on China's heels, according to Nomura India.
Attributing the temporary decline primarily to global factors, Nomura India Vice-President and economist Sonal Varma said other emerging markets also experienced a noticeably sharp fall in FDI inflows in the wake of the 2008 Global Financial Crisis. Unlike India, however, they were quick to recover.
"Of the US$12-billion decline in FDI inflows between 2008 and 2010, around 60 percent was due to weak inflows into service spaces like computer
Jimmer Fredette of BYU won the John R. Wooden Award as college basketball's player of the year Friday night, easily outpolling Kemba Walker of national champion Connecticut.
Maya Moore of Connecticut won the women's award for the second straight year.
Fredette received 3,761 votes in the poll of nearly 1,000 national media who cover the sport. Walker was second with 3,356 in voting that closed before the Final Four of the NCAA tournament.
Fredette accepted the 35th annual trophy from Jim Wooden, the son of the late UCLA coaching great during a ceremony at the Los Angeles Athletic Club.
“I definitely enjoyed the ride,” he told reporters. “I had a great time being with my coaches and my teammates. It was the most fun I ever had in my life.”
Jared Sullinger of Ohio State was third, followed
The Royal Canadian Mint has unveiled its latest collector coins commemorating the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton.
The two coins marking the planned April 29 royal nuptials — a $20 silver coin and a 25-cent piece — go on sale immediately.
The design of the $20 coin, created by portrait artist Laurie McGaw of Guelph, Ont., includes an engraving of William and Kate gazing lovingly into one another's eyes.
Embedded in the coin is a sapphire-coloured crystal, reminiscent of the 18-carat sapphire-and-diamond engagement ring worn by Kate.
The coin is also engraved along its edge with HRH Prince
Nicholas Eveleigh for Newsweek
Mirror, Mirror
The Invisible Shoe, a mirrored heel by Brazilian artist Andreia Chaves, is a disco party and an illusion in one. Not for hiking.
Price upon request; andreiachaves.com
Mario Guzman / EPA-Corbis
South of the Border
It's been four years in the making, but Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim's new museum, designed by Fernando Romero, is now open in Mexico City.
soumaya.com.mx
Tom Schierlitz for Newsweek
Checkered Past
For those nights you feel like staying in: a limited-edition calfskin checkerboard, part of Carolina Herrera's Men's Home collection.
CH Carolina Herrera, $1,055; 212-744-2076
Courtesy of Gordon and Macphail
Grandfather's Favorite
Glenlivet is offering 100 bottles of its 1940 Scotch on the market this year. Those
© WENN
Faye Dunaway has been unveiled as the poster star for the 2011 Cannes Film Festival.Anyone serious about cooking is serious about knives and in-the-know chef-y types know that Konosuke is behind some of the best blades in the world. Forged in Sakai in Osaka Prefecture, a region historically renowned for its high-quality samurai swords, these once hard-to-find Japanese carving tools are now readily available through Toronto’s Tosho Knife Arts, which carries the largest selection of Konosuke knives in the country.
Among the most beautiful are these sporting a cherry blossom pattern on the mirror-polished blades. The collection, which boasts octagonal cherrywood handles and black-horn bolsters, encompasses a variety of sizes. From $190 to $466
PRISTINA, Kosovo -- Parliament adopted the budget for 2011 on Thursday (March 31st) with the opposition strongly opposing the bill. The governing coalition -- the Democratic Party of Kosovo, the New Kosovo Alliance and the minorities -- managed to secure 66 votes, with the opposition either voting against, abstaining or boycotting the session. Vetevendosje Movement lawmakers abandoned the session in sign of dissatisfaction with the fact that the budget paves way for the privatization of the Kosovo Post and Telecom (PTK).
The adoption of the budget was followed by major protests and clashes between police and PTK unionists. The opposition
By Teja Yenamandra
Apr. 1 – For fans of Bollywood cinema and the country’s famous culinary prowess, India's latest census should bring cheers of joy. The figures, released on Thursday, revealed that the country had added 181 million new citizens over the last decade – roughly the number of people in Brazil, the fifth most populous country in the world. And that figure doesn't even consider the fairly large number of Indians born abroad, such as yours truly.
India is now home to 17 percent of the world's population. And although China is currently the world's most populated nation, India has been closing the gap fairly quickly. To put it into perspective, India's northern state of Uttar Pradesh alone has a population just shy of what's found
