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Venezuelan-born academic named president of MIT

admin99 — Fri, 18 May 2012 08:00:09 +0000

CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts (Reuters) – The Massachusetts Institute of Technology on Wednesday named Rafael Reif, an electrical engineer born in Venezuela who has been the university’s provost since 2005, as its 17th president. Reif, 61, replaces Susan Hockfield, the first female president of MIT, who announced in mid-February that she was stepping down after almost eight years leading one of the most prestigious universities in the United States. Reif will take up his post at the Cambridge, Massachusetts, university on July 2, the first MIT president not to be a native English speaker. …

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Britney is back – and so are the brickbats

admin99 — Fri, 18 May 2012 08:00:07 +0000

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Britney Spears hasn’t even taken her seat as the new judge of “The X Factor,” but the pop icon is already getting a lesson in the media glare of live, talent show television. Spears had barely wrapped up an appearance in New York confirming she is joining the singing contest before the celebrity knives were out, raising the question of how well the singer, who went through a public meltdown in 2007, can handle all the newfound attention. …

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Mexico pays tribute to Carlos Fuentes before French burial

admin99 — Fri, 18 May 2012 08:00:04 +0000

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Mexicans bid farewell to renowned author Carlos Fuentes on Wednesday in an emotional tribute attended by the president and the country’s most prominent intellectuals before a planned burial in France. Fuentes, who died suddenly on Tuesday at 83 after an internal hemorrhage, was one of Latin America’s best-known novelists and was still active until the very end of his life working on books and participating in events. …

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Peter Berg discusses bringing "Battleship" to film

admin99 — Thu, 17 May 2012 20:36:56 +0000

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Peter Berg parlayed successful acting work on TV shows like medical drama “Chicago Hope” to an even greater directing career of movies such as “Friday Night Lights,” which later became a TV series, and the Will Smith action flick “Hancock.” On Friday, Berg’s latest film, alien-invasion actioner “Battleship,” steams into theaters. It takes its title from the Hasbro board game in which two players engage in a guessing game to see who can sink the other’s naval ships. …
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Second Travolta accuser drops suit, hires celebrity attorney

admin99 — Thu, 17 May 2012 18:45:13 +0000

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – The second masseur who accused John Travolta of sexual battery dropped his lawsuit against the Hollywood star on Thursday and hired celebrity attorney Gloria Allred, who said she may file a new complaint in a different court. Allred now represents the Atlanta-based man, known as John Doe No. 2, as well as the original Travolta sexual battery accuser, a Texas masseur known as John Doe No. 1. “We believe that the lawsuit should be filed in another court and, therefore, the lawsuit was dismissed without prejudice,” Allred said in a statement. …

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Booker T. & the MGs bassist Donald "Duck" Dunn dies at 70

admin99 — Wed, 16 May 2012 08:00:07 +0000

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Bassist Donald “Duck” Dunn, a member of Booker T. & the MGs whose thick bottom grooves anchored many of the classic soul hits from the 1960s, has died on tour in Japan, his friend and bandmate Steve Cropper said on Sunday. Dunn was 70. Dunn, an integral part of the Memphis soul sound as bassist for the MGs, the house band for Stax and Volt records, died Sunday morning after finishing two shows at the Blue Note Night Club in Tokyo, Cropper said in a posting on his Facebook page. …
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Venezuela challenger woos Chavez’s rural heartland

admin99 — Wed, 16 May 2012 08:00:04 +0000

SOCOPO, Venezuela (Reuters) – Deep in the rural home state of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez that has for years been off limits for opposition politicians, rival candidate Henrique Capriles struggled to push through a throng of screaming supporters. Small-time ranchers and farmers swarmed the muddy streets of Socopo, where the Venezuelan plains meet the Andes mountains, jostling to catch a glimpse of the candidate in a chaotic tumult reminiscent of the cattle herding typical of the region. …

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Lawyer says John Travolta vindicated by dropped sex lawsuit

admin99 — Wed, 16 May 2012 01:15:02 +0000

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – One of the two male masseurs who accused actor John Travolta of sexual assault dropped his $2 million lawsuit on Tuesday, but the lawyer for the second man said he was going ahead with that case and was confident of success. The unidentified man, referred to as John Doe No. 1, who claimed that the Hollywood star groped him during a massage session in Beverly Hills in January, filed a notice dismissing his lawsuit with federal court in Los Angeles. …

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Okada bets to win with fine dining and casinos

admin99 — Tue, 15 May 2012 21:43:51 +0000

HONG KONG (Reuters) – Kazuo Okada, the Japanese billionaire engaged in a fierce legal battle with Las Vegas casino tycoon Steve Wynn, is diversifying his pachinko company with a string of his own restaurants and is negotiating to build a casino resort in South Korea. On Tuesday, Okada opened a 25,000-square-foot fine dining complex in Hong Kong, the first step in an expansion plan that includes an Okada restaurant in Shanghai scheduled to open in September, and a dining complex in Tokyo due to open in December. …

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Second masseur accuses John Travolta of sexual battery

admin99 — Sat, 12 May 2012 08:00:05 +0000

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – A second unidentified masseur has joined a $2 million lawsuit against John Travolta claiming the actor sexually assaulted the men in two separate incidents during private massages, according to amended court documents filed on Tuesday. The second unnamed man, a resident of Georgia referred to as John Doe No. 2 in court papers obtained by Reuters, claimed that Travolta rubbed his legs, touched his genitals and tried to initiate sex at a private appointment at the actor’s room inside an Atlanta hotel on January 28. The allegations echo those of John Doe No. …

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