Daily News Channel
The future of thousands of car industry jobs in Europe remained uncertain Monday as General Motors prepared to file for bankruptcy after reaching a deal to sell off its European operations, including German automaker Opel and UK-based Vauxhall. GM will file a bankruptcy petition at 8 am ET (12 pm GMT), paving the way for a de facto government takeover, according to a source with direct knowledge of the bankruptcy proceedings.
It takes a powerful magic to keep Brits quiet on a Saturday night — just ask the nation’s beleaguered police. Yesterday evening pubs and clubs fell silent as 20 million people tuned into a TV show to see a question of global significance finally resolved. The final of Britain’s Got Talent wasn’t just about whether Susan Boyle — Scotland’s least processed export since steel-cut porridge oats — would triumph
Big Ben, arguably the world’s most famous clock, celebrates on Sunday 150 years of keeping London on time.
She may have finished second but Susan Boyle continued to make newspaper headlines in the UK Sunday following her shock defeat in the final of "Britain’s Got Talent." “Boyle Backlash” said the headline in the tabloid News of the World, suggesting that the Scottish 48-year-old’s alleged “four-letter tantrum” earlier this week had influenced millions of viewers to switch their votes to dance act Diversity. The build-up to Saturday night’s live final had been dominated by reports that Boyle lost her temper in a London hotel and had even considered pulling out of the talent show finale. The Mail on Sunday said she had been been “comforted by psychiatrists” ahead of Saturday’s final.
The future of Opel remained uncertain Friday after Italian car giant Fiat withdrew from talks in Berlin due to concerns over emergency funding demanded by the German government for the ailing automaker. Fiat had been one of two potential bidders, along with Canadian-Austrian supplier Magna, still in the running to take over Opel, which is currently owned by General Motors. Fiat said in a statement Friday it remained interested in taking control of Opel but said the German government’s demand for the potential suitors to provide $417 million in short-term funding would expose Fiat to “unnecessary and unwarranted risks.” “Fiat remains open and committed to continue discussions with all parties involved with a view to find a stable and lasting solution for the industrial activities of Opel,” Fiat said
More than 20,000 civilians were killed in the final months of Sri Lanka’s civil war — nearly three times previous estimates, The Times newspaper in Britain reported Friday. The Times said it had acquired confidential U.N. documents that record nearly 7,000 civilian deaths in the no-fire zone up to the end of April.
Attention aspiring princesses: Prince Harry has almost landed. On Friday, the 24-year-old prince begins a two-day tour of New York City, his first international trip as a representative of the British royal family. Among other things, he’ll meet with families who lost loved ones on September 11 and visit soldiers injured in Afghanistan and Iraq at Manhattan’s Veterans Affairs Medical Center
France and England have fought each other in the 100 Years’ War, the Seven Years’ War, the Napoleonic Wars and scads of less memorably named conflicts. And more recently, the French and English have treated the blood-and-tears clashes between their national rugby and soccer teams as fetishes for those battles of yore.
The elusive search for a Middle East peace will be center stage Thursday as President Obama sits down with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. The afternoon White House meeting comes one week after Obama met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and pressed the Israeli leader to halt West Bank settlement activity to create a better atmosphere for peace talks. It also comes only days before Obama is scheduled to meet with Saudi King Abdullah in Riyadh and deliver a long-awaited speech on relations between the United States and the Muslim world in Cairo, Egypt
Pakistan’s Supreme Court overturned its ban on opposition leader Nawaz Sharif and his brother, allowing both men to run for political office, a court representative told CNN Tuesday. British poet Ruth Padel resigned as the University of Oxford’s Professor of Poetry Monday, only days after being elected to the 300-year old title. But rival poet Derek Walcott, who won the Nobel prize for Literature in 1992, pulled out of the race earlier this month amid allegations about his private life.