Society

US music and screen legend Eartha Kitt dies at 81 - 01/01/2009

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Eartha Kitt, the versatile American singer and actress who died aged 81, mesmerized audiences worldwide for over six decades with her sultry voice and sensuality on stage and...

Norway prepares to punish sex purchasers, at home and abroad - 12/31/2008

OSLO (AFP) - As Norway rings in the new year it will introduce a new law making the purchase -- but not the sale -- of sex a criminal act, threatening even to put Norwegians who buy sex abroad...

Slum birthday for Carla Bruni in Brazil - 12/27/2008

RIO DE JANEIRO - Vanderlei Almeida - As birthdays go, it was a modest yet heartwarming celebration for Carla Bruni, the pop singer wife of French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who spent her 41st...

Hong Kong's controversial Catholic leader to retire early next year - 12/25/2008

HONG KONG (AFP) - The leader of Hong Kong's Catholic Church, Cardinal Joseph Zen, a staunch democracy campaigner and critic of China's rights record, said Wednesday he would retire early next...

Belgian 'Santa' gives half lottery win to the poor - 12/24/2008

BRUSSELS (AFP) - The Christmas spirit reigns in the Belgium village of Riemst, where a lottery winner is giving half his 7.5 million euro (10.5 million dollar) scoop to the poor, reports said...

Ex-hostage Betancourt to take break from public life - 12/22/2008

MEXICO CITY (AFP) - French-Colombian Ingrid Betancourt said she would step out of the limelight for a year to write up a memoir of her six-year hostage ordeal. "You won't see me for a while...

Ballet legend Lepeshinskaya dies at 92 - 12/22/2008

MOSCOW (AFP) - Legendary Russian ballerina Olga Lepeshinskaya, who performed with the Bolshoi Ballet for 30 years during the Soviet era, has died at age 92, Russian news agencies reported Saturday....

Let poor eat caviar: Milan authorities - 12/21/2008

MILAN, Italy (AFP) - Poor residents of Milan will receive an unlikely Christmas gift of contraband caviar this year from kindly prosecutors, a newspaper reported on Saturday. ...

Deep Throat, Watergate's secret informant, dies at 95 - 12/19/2008

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The man known as Deep Throat, the secret informant in the Watergate scandal that led to the downfall of president Richard Nixon in 1974, has died, his family said Friday. He was...

Texting drivers more dangerous than drunks-study - 12/06/2008

LONDON,(Reuters Life!) - Sending text messages from your mobile phone while driving is more dangerous than climbing behind the wheel under the influence of drink or drugs, a study by Britain's...

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