Reuters.com
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Hugh Jackman on Friday slashes his way back to his starmaking role as a razor-clawed mutant in "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" after his glitzy turn hosting the Oscars and starring in romance "Australia" that flopped at U.S. box offices.
The change is good for the Aussie star because of the exposure it brings, but despite the box office appeal of the "X-Men" movies, Jackman said these days he leans more toward starring on Broadway, where he won a Tony.
It's Jackman's fourth turn as tough-talking Wolverine, a role he won in the 2000 film "X-Men," fresh from starring in a London stage production of the musical "Oklahoma!"
"There's no doubt that as soon as this movie came out, that my career was like a Great Dane dragging me down the street," Jackman told Reuters about the last nine years of his career.
The 2000 "X-Men" made $296 million at worldwide box offices and helped usher in the latest wave of comic book movies. The 2003 "X2" topped that with $408 million, and the 2006 "X-Men: The Last Stand" burst past it at $459 million.
Paul Dergarabedian, president of box office tracker Media by Numbers reckons "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" could fetch from $85 million to $100 million at U.S. box offices on its debut weekend -- the first weekend of Hollywood's summer season.
Jackman, 40, said playing Wolverine has been a challenge because of the "sustained energy" he needs while shooting.
"Underneath you've got to feel he's ready to explode all the time," he said of the character.
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photo: Actor Hugh Jackman gestures as he attends the premiere of the movie "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" in Tempe, Arizona, April 27, 2009 (REUTERS/Joshua Lott).
Chief operating officer, Tim Cook, will take over Jobs' responsibilities
AP
January 15, MSNBC
Apple Inc. co-founder and Chief Executive Steve Jobs said Wednesday he is taking a medical leave until the end of June — just a week after the cancer survivor tried to assure investors and employees his recent weight loss was caused by an easily treatable hormone deficiency.
Apple’s stock plunged 7 percent.
Jobs, 53, said in a letter last week that he would remain at Apple’s helm despite the hormone problem, and that he had already begun a “relatively simple and straightforward” treatment. But in an e-mail to employees Wednesday, Jobs backtracked.
“During the past week I have learned that my health-related issues are more complex than I originally thought,” he wrote.
Apple’s shares have surged and crashed over the last year in step with rumors or news about the CEO’s health and his gaunt appearance. While the top executive’s health is an issue for investors in any company, at Apple the level of concern reaches fever pitch because Jobs has a hand in everything from ideas for new products to the way they’re marketed. Investors fear that without Jobs, Apple will not be able to sustain its growth of the last decade, which has seen Apple branch out from its Mac computers into the iPod and the iPhone.
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photo: Apple CEO Steve Jobs is shown in this combination of file photographs. Top row, from left, shows Jobs in July 2000, November 2003 and September 2005. Bottom row, from left, shows September 2006, January 2007 and September 2008. Jobs said Wednesday he will take a medical leave of absence until the end of June because his health problems are "more complex" than he had thought (Reuters File)
November 5, CNN
Barack Obama told supporters that "change has come to America" as he claimed victory in a historic presidential election.
"The road ahead will be long. Our climb will be steep. We may not get there in one year or even one term, but America -- I have never been more hopeful than I am tonight that we will get there. I promise you -- we as a people will get there," Obama said in Chicago, Illinois, before an estimated crowd of up to 240,000 people.
With Obama's projected win, he will become the first African-American to win the White House.
Obama had an overwhelming victory over Sen. John McCain, who pledged Tuesday night to help Obama lead.
"Today, I was a candidate for the highest office in the country I love so much, and tonight, I remain her servant," McCain said.
McCain called Obama to congratulate him, and Obama told the Arizona senator he was eager to sit down and talk about how the two of them can work together.
President Bush also called Obama to offer his congratulations.
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photo: Sen. Barack Obama addresses a crowd of 125,000 people in Chicago, Illinois. (CNN)
By Brian Orloff
September 8, People
It was Britney's night!
The pop star made a triumphant return to MTV's Video Music Awards, winning three Moonmen, including the night's big honor, video of the year, for her hit "Piece of Me."
"I'm in shock," the grateful singer said after accepting her third award of the night from NBA star Kobe Bryant.
Happy Birthday MTV
Spears, of course, was the subject of much speculation and excitement after word spread that she would be opening the ceremony.
She looked a little nervous at first, but proved to be in fighting form in a vintage silver Versace mini-dress. After being escorted from her dressing room, Spears took center stage, clutched the microphone tight, and announced, "I'm here tonight to celebrate a very important birthday." Continued Spears: "This is the 25th Video Music Awards – and it starts right now."
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photo:Britney Spears at the MTV VMAs Photo by: Kevin Mazur / WireImage
Arjun Ramachandran
August 6, The Sydney Morning Herald
As he resolutely made his way down the world's second largest mountain after an avalanche swept away ropes needed to make the descent, Wilco van Rooijen discovered three fellow climbers in dire circumstances.
Van Rooijen, 40, was fighting his way to base camp - in what is being lauded as an epic survival story - when he came came upon the three Koreans amid K2's knife-edged ridges and steep, icy slopes.
"There was a Korean guy hanging upside down. There was a second Korean guy who held him with a rope but he was also in shock and then a third guy was there also, and they were trying to survive but I had also to survive," he said.
Three Koreans died in last weekend's mountain tragedy, although it's not clear if it was the same trio that van Rooijen encountered.
Speaking from his hospital bed in Pakistan where he is battling severe frostbite, the Dutchman - who led expedition team Norit - has recounted how tragedy unfolded on K2 after the avalanche last weekend.
The omens were bad early on.
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photo: K2 and, inset, Wilco van Rooijen after his epic climb down to base camp, where he was flown to a military hospital (SMH)
We may not always like him, but we've always been fascinated by him
By Allison Linn
Senior writer
June 24, MSNBC
You may love or you may hate him, but you’d have to be living under a rock — without an Internet connection — not to know who Bill Gates is.
Gates was for years the world’s richest man, even if it wasn’t a mantle he wore gladly. He earned his billions by co-founding Microsoft Corp., a company whose technology — again — may be loved or may be hated but almost can’t be avoided in modern society.
Now he’s poised to leave his full-time work at Microsoft to spend most of his energy on another endeavor that fuels the public’s fascination with him: the world's biggest philanthropy, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, funded largely by his own fortune.
(Msnbc.com is a joint venture of Microsoft and NBC Universal.)
Chances are, his new job won’t do much to diminish the world’s obsession with him. For many, the mystique starts with one simple fact: all that money.
“If he was the third-richest man in the world, I don’t think there would be anything near the mystique around Bill Gates that there is,” said Gary Rivlin, a journalist and author of “The Plot to Get Bill Gates.”
In fact, Gates did fall to the No. 3 spot this year, according to Forbes magazine. Still, Forbes estimated that his fortune stands at about $58 billion, and his name is forever associated with the many years he ranked as the world’s richest person.
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photo: A photographic look back at Bill Gates’ illustrious career at Microsoft, from his arrest photo in 1977 to his last CES keynote with guitarist Slash (MSNBC)
June 17, BBC News
The oldest surviving veteran of World War I's trench warfare is celebrating his 110th birthday.
Harry Patch, who was born in Combe Down, Somerset, was a plumber by trade before being called up. He was a private at the Battle of Passchendaele.
A party is planned at the care home in Wells, where he now lives.
Mr Patch attributes his long life to clean living, avoiding what he describes as the "three sins" of smoking, drinking and gambling.
"For many years in Shropshire, I lived quite close to the Welsh mountains," he said.
"Fresh air, no petrol and no cars, that's the secret."
'Not warlike'
After the war, Mr Patch was married in Wellington, Shropshire, in 1919.
He returned to work as a plumber and was a key player in the construction of the Wills Memorial Building in Bristol.
In 1999 he received the Legion D'Honneur medal awarded by the French government to some 350 surviving WWI veterans who fought on the Western Front.
His life as a "Tommy" has been well-documented in books and films.
He is the second oldest UK survivor from World War I. The oldest is 112-year-old Henry Allingham, who fought in the Battle of Jutland rather than in the trenches like Mr Patch.
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photo: A big party is planned for Mr Patch at the care home where he lives (BBC News)
June 11, The Guardian
The Google co-founder Sergey Brin has invested in a US space tourism company and hopes to go into orbit himself within three years, according to a report today.
The 34-year-old president of the web search giant has put £2.5m into Space Adventures, which has already sent five space tourists into orbit, the New York Times said.
The investment also serves as a deposit on a future flight, most likely in 2011, the paper said.
"I am a big believer in the exploration and commercial development of the space frontier, and am looking forward to the possibility of going into space," Brin said in a statement.
Space Adventures clients travel to the International Space Station (ISS) on Russian Soyuz flights, occupying one of three seats on the craft.
The Russian space agency has warned that berths for tourists could disappear from 2010, when the ISS crew expands from three to six, requiring all the seats on the Soyuz.
Russian space officials are reportedly not keen on space tourism and carry paying passengers reluctantly as a means of raising revenue.
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photo: Sergey Brin, left, with fellow Google co-founder Larry Page. (Photograph: John MacDougall/AFP/Getty)
By Crispian Balmer
June 2, Reuters
PARIS (Reuters) - French fashion king Yves Saint Laurent has died at the age of 71, hailed as a 20th century cultural icon who revolutionized the way women dressed.
The reclusive Saint Laurent's couture creations won global fine art status and he was widely considered to be one of an elite club of designers including Christian Dior and Coco Chanel who made Paris the fashion capital of the world.
From Princess Grace of Monaco to the actress Catherine Deneuve, Saint Laurent's creations adorned many famous women but he was also the first designer to make luxury labels accessible to a wider audience through innovative read-to-wear collections.
He exploded on to the world stage at just 21 and built up a clothes, perfumes and accessories empire that resulted in a 1989 stock market flotation -- the first by a fashion house.
But Saint Laurent, whose death on Sunday was announced without any details of the cause, was plagued by health problems -- he suffered from severe depression and underwent treatment for alcohol abuse.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy praised Saint Laurent as a creative genius. "He was convinced that beauty was a luxury that every man and woman needed," Sarkozy said in a statement.
"(Coco) Chanel gave women freedom. Yves Saint Laurent gave them power," Saint Laurent's long-time friend and business partner Pierre Berge told France Info radio.
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photo: Yves Saint Laurent seen with lipstick marks on his right cheek, acknowledges applause at the end of his Spring-Summer 2001 high fashion collection presentation in Paris January 24, 2001. (REUTERS/Jack Dabaghian)
May 27, Yahoo
By Sandra Sobieraj Westfall, Darla Atlas and Anne Lang
May 11, People
As tiny Crawford, Texas, and surrounding towns emptied of wedding guests on Sunday, President Bush pronounced the weekend an "awfully special" one. And, by all accounts, an emotional one for the First Family.
"Our little girl, Jenna, married a really good guy," the president told reporters on the tarmac before boarding Air Force One with First Lady Laura Bush and his parents for the return trip to Washington, D.C.
The ultra-private wedding on Bush's gated ranch was the president's first turn at playing Father of the Bride. In a suit and tie (Jenna, aiming for a more "natural" and casual affair, didn't want black-tie), Bush walked his 26-year-old daughter down the aisle to a limestone altar topped by a 4-ft. cross where she and Henry Hager, 30, exchanged vows just as the sun set. The bride's twin sister and maid of honor, Barbara, did a reading during the ceremony, as did their grandfather, George H.W. Bush.
The former president later joked that he'd had a whole speech planned. "It was supposed to be 40 minutes but they cut me back to 20," he kidded reporters aboard Air Force One before stopping himself, noting that he had been told not to talk about the wedding.
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photo: President Bush poses with daughter Jenna (Photo by: Shealah Craighead / White House)
Troubled football idol Paul Gascoigne is being treated in the Priory after another bout of bizarre behaviour during which he threatened to kill himself.
By Nick Allen
May 6, The Telegraph
The former England legend checked himself into the rehabilitation clinic in Roehampton, south-west London after having suicidal thoughts.
On Sunday he had asked staff at a luxury London hotel to bring him a steak knife and then said he was going to drown himself in a bath.
Gascoigne, 40, has struggled for years with alcoholism and depression and was detained under the Mental Health Act in February.
He was released after two weeks of treatment but the latest incident will raise further fears over his fragile state of mind.
Many senior figures in the game have compared his downward spiral to that of George Best and have voiced regret that more has not been done to help him.
His latest problems occurred while he was staying at the four-star Millennium Hotel in Knightsbridge.
He ordered a steak from room service but then cancelled the request and told staff just to bring him the knife. Fearing he planned to harm himself the hotel’s staff called in police.
But when two officers arrived at the room they found him holding his own head under the water in the bathtub and trying to keep it there.
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photo: Paul Gascoigne has struggled for years with alcoholism (By AP)
By Stephen M. Silverman
April 27, People
Miley Cyrus issued a statement exclusively to PEOPLE on Sunday, apologizing for a series of playfully provocative photos that circulated on the Internet last week, as well as those from a racy, as-yet unreleased Vanity Fair photo shoot in which she appears to be nude.
The singer, 15, tells PEOPLE: "My goal in my music and my acting is always to make people happy. For Vanity Fair, I was so honored and thrilled to work with Annie [Leibovitz]. I took part in a photo shoot that was supposed to be 'artistic' and now, seeing the photographs and reading the story, I feel so embarrassed."
A source close to the singer tells PEOPLE that Cyrus is clothed but shown by renowned photographer Annie Leibovitz in such a way that that the teen appears to be topless.
In the photos that circulated on the Internet, Cyrus, her midriff exposed, is shown draped over the lap of her then-boyfriend, her producer's son. In another image, a hint of a green bra is evident. (Those photos alone prompted criticism from conservative TV commentator Bill O'Reilly, as well as words of support from the Jonas Brothers and a fellow Disney star.)
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photo: Miley Cyrus (by Michael Anthony / INF)
By Thomas Fuller
April 14, International Herald Tribune
KUALA LUMPUR: When he emerged from prison four years ago, Anwar Ibrahim was a weakened and gaunt figure all but written off by the Malaysian political elite.
On Monday, Anwar, resurgent and confident after leading opposition parties to their strongest gains in a half-century, will celebrate his political rehabilitation in front of an expected crowd of thousands of supporters at a soccer stadium in Kuala Lumpur.
During his nearly four decades in politics, Anwar, 60, has gone from being a radical Islamic student leader to deputy prime minister and then Malaysia's dissident-in-chief, imprisoned after a highly politicized trial. A ban on holding political office, imposed by the judge who in 1999 sentenced him to six years in prison for abuse of power, expires Monday, allowing Anwar to pursue the job he has coveted: prime minister.
"There's no rush," Anwar said in an interview at his office. "I don't need to be prime minister tomorrow."
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photo: Anwar Ibrahim, Malaysian opposition leader (Palani Mohan/Reportage-Getty Images, for The NYT)
By Douglas Martin
March 31, International Herald Tribune
Dith Pran, a photojournalist for The New York Times whose gruesome ordeal in the killing fields of Cambodia was re-created in a 1984 movie that gave him an eminence he tenaciously used to press for his people's rights, died in New Brunswick, New Jersey on Sunday. He was 65 and lived in Woodbridge, New Jersey
The cause was pancreatic cancer, which had spread, said his friend Sydney Schanberg.
Dith saw his country descend into a living hell as he scraped and scrambled to survive the barbarous revolutionary regime of the Khmer Rouge from 1975 to 1979, when as many as two million Cambodians — a third of the population — were killed, experts estimate. Dith survived through nimbleness, guile and sheer desperation.
He had been a journalistic partner of Schanberg, a Times correspondent assigned to Southeast Asia. He translated, took notes and pictures, and helped Schanberg maneuver in a fast-changing milieu. With the fall of Phnom Penh in 1975, Schanberg was forced from the country, and Dith became a prisoner of the Khmer Rouge, the Cambodian Communists.
Schanberg wrote about Dith in newspaper articles and in The New York Times Magazine, in a 1980 cover article titled "The Death and Life of Dith Pran." (A book by the same title appeared in 1985.) The story became the basis of the movie "The Killing Fields."The film, directed by Roland Joffé, portrayed Schanberg, played by Sam Waterston, arranging for Dith's wife and children to be evacuated from Phnom Penh as danger mounted. Dith, portrayed by Dr. Haing S. Ngor (who won an Academy Award as best supporting actor), insisted on staying in Cambodia with Schanberg to keep reporting the news.
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photo: In 1980, Dith became a photographer for The Times, where he was noted for his imaginative pictures of city scenes and news events (Barton Silverman/The New York Times)
By Pete Norman and Peter Mikelbank
March 27, People
Soccer star David Beckham represented the England national soccer team Wednesday night for the 100th time, becoming only the fifth player ever to reach the triple figure.
Beckham, 32, took to the field in Paris at the beginning of the game around 9 p.m. local time, making his 100th appearance for England. Beckham wore golden boots to mark the game, which was againt France.
"David was so excited to play," a close pal tells PEOPLE. "He is still enthusiastic and has a great passion for playing for his country."
Around 38 minutes into the match Beckham received a yellow card warning for an infraction against the French team. At 62 minutes, with France leading 1-0, Beckham and his golden boots were substituted by the team manager.
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photo by Landov
By DENISE LAVOIE,
March 26, Yahoo
BOSTON - This could make for one odd family reunion: Barack Obama is a distant cousin of actor Brad Pitt, and Hillary Rodham Clinton is related to Pitt's girlfriend, Angelina Jolie.
Researchers at the New England Historic Genealogical Society found some remarkable family connections for the three presidential candidates — Democratic rivals Obama and Clinton, and Republican John McCain.
Clinton, who is of French-Canadian descent on her mother's side, is also a distant cousin of singers Madonna, Celine Dion and Alanis Morissette. Obama, the son of a white woman from Kansas and a black man from Kenya, can call six U.S. presidents, including George W. Bush, his cousins. McCain is a sixth cousin of first lady Laura Bush.
"You'd think with all that singing talent in the family she'd be able to carry a tune," Clinton's senior adviser Philippe Reines said. "But now it makes much more sense how she snagged a Grammy."
Clinton won for best spoken word Grammy in 1997 for "It Takes a Village." Obama also won a Grammy in that category this year for the audio version of his book, "The Audacity Of Hope: Thoughts On Reclaiming The American Dream."
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photo: Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., left, is shown at a presidential primary debate in Orangeburg, SC., in this April 26, 2007, file photo, and actor Brad Pitt, right, arrives at the premiere of 'Ocean's Thirteen' in Los Angeles, Calif., in this Tuesday, June 5, 2007, file photo. Research conducted by the New England Historic Genealogical Society in Boston found that Obama and Pitt are distant relatives (AP Photos)
March 14, People
Victoria Beckham takes her band of brothers – sons Romeo, 5, Cruz, 3, and Brooklyn, 9, – to blow off some energy at a gym class Saturday in Los Angeles.
Buffett rises to top as Microsoft boss’ stock holdings are hit by Yahoo bid
By Matthew Miller
March 05, MSNBC
Warren Buffett is the richest man on the planet.
Riding the surging price of Berkshire Hathaway stock, America's most beloved investor has seen his fortune swell to an estimated $62 billion, up $10 billion from a year ago. That massive pile of scratch puts him ahead of Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, who was the richest man in the world for 13 straight years.
Gates is now worth $58 billion and is ranked third in the world. He is up $2 billion from a year ago, but would have been perhaps as rich — or richer — than Buffett had Microsoft not made an unsolicited bid for Yahoo! at the beginning of February.
Microsoft shares fell 15 percent between Jan. 31, the day before the company announced its bid for the search engine giant, and Feb. 11, the day we locked in stock prices for the 2008 World's Billionaires list. More than half of Gates' fortune is held outside of Microsoft shares.
Mexican telecom tycoon Carlos Slim Helú is the world's second-richest man, with an estimated net worth of $60 billion. His fortune has risen $11 billion since last March.
Buffett, whose fortune is estimated based on his stake in Berkshire Hathaway and assets he holds outside the company, refused to comment on his net worth.
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photo: Microsoft boss Bill Gates was the world's richest man for 13 years. Don't cry for him, he's still worth an estimated $58 billion according to Forbes (Ted S. Warren / AP file)
