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Beyonce to star in Super Bowl show

Written By Unknown on Selasa, 16 Oktober 2012 | 23.59

ALL the single ladies will be watching the upcoming Super Bowl along with football lovers.

That's because Beyonce is the halftime show performer.

A source familiar with Super Bowl XLVII said the Grammy-winning diva will take the stage at the halftime show on Feb. 3, 2013, at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome in New Orleans.

The source spoke on condition of anonymity because that person wasn't authorised to publicly reveal the information.

The official announcement is expected today, the source said.

Beyonce, whose pop and R&B hits include Crazy in Love, Irreplaceable and Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It), has won 16 Grammy Awards.

The 31-year-old sang the national anthem at Super Bowl XXXVIII in 2004 in her hometown of Houston, Texas when the New England Patriots defeated the Carolina Panthers.

Madonna performed at halftime at this year's Super Bowl in February with guests CeeLo Green, Nicki Minaj, LMFAO and M.I.A. The New York Giants beat the New England Patriots in a thrilling rematch of the contest four years earlier. Her performance was seen by 114 million people, a higher average than the game itself, which was seen by an estimated 111.3 million people, according to Nielsen.

If Beyonce's performance at the Pepsi NFL Halftime Show features collaborations, it could likely include husband-rapper Jay-Z and her Destiny's Child bandmates Kelly Rowland and Michelle Williams.

New Orleans last hosted a Super Bowl in 2002, making next year's game the first NFL championship in the city since Hurricane Katrina devastated parts of the Louisiana Superdome in 2005. Pepsi is returning as the sponsor for the halftime show since doing so in 2007 when Prince performed.
 


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Citigroup CEO Pandit steps down

Vikram Pandit has stepped down as CEO of Citigroup, saying it was time for someone else to take the helm of the banking giant. Source: AFP

VIKRAM Pandit has abruptly stepped down as CEO of Citigroup, surprising Wall Street, after steering the bank through the 2008 financial crisis and the choppy years that followed.

Mr Pandit's replacement, effective immediately, is Michael Corbat, the current CEO of Citigroup's Europe, Middle East and Africa division, the bank said. Mr Corbat has worked at Citi and its predecessors since he graduated from Harvard in 1983, it said.

Mr Pandit will also relinquish his seat on Citi's board of directors. And a second top executive also resigned as part of the shake-up: President and Chief Operating Officer John Havens, who also served as CEO of Citi's Institutional Client Group.

The news shocked Wall Street, a day after the bank reported strong third-quarter earnings. Mr Pandit is credited with slimming the bank by selling businesses, removing it from government ownership after a bailout in 2008 and righting its balance sheet after billions in losses on bad mortgage investments made before he took the helm.

Today, Citi is the US' third-largest bank, with $US1.9 trillion ($1.85 trillion) in assets, according to the US Federal Reserve. It trails only JPMorgan Chase, with $US2.3 trillion, and Bank of America, with $US2.1 trillion.

But Mr Pandit's massive pay packages have raised the ire of investors. Some in government believed the bank was too slow to address its problems as they emerged in the months before the crisis in September 2008.

Citigroup offered no explanation for the sudden departure of its two top executives. On Monday, the bank announced earnings that beat analysts' expectations, after stripping out one-time items like a big write-down it had to take because it got less money than it had hoped when it negotiated to sell its stake in its retail brokerage.

Investors were pleased with the results and sent the stock up more than 5 per cent Monday, rising $US1.91 to close at $US36.66.

"He's done pretty much all he can do to turn the bank around," said Daniel Alpert, managing partner at the New York investment bank Westwood Capital Partners LLC. It will be hard for big banks to boost their share prices because of intense pressure from regulators to simplify their businesses, he said.

"There is some meaning to quit while you're ahead," Mr Alpert said, noting that it's harder for executives to win massive pay packages when a company's stock is flat-lining.

In April, Citigroup shareholders rejected the bank's proposed pay deals for executives including Mr Pandit. It was the first time shareholders dinged a Wall Street bank under a provision of the 2010 financial overhaul law that gives them a non-binding vote on executive pay.

Fifty-five per cent of the shareholders objected to deals including the $US15 million that Pandit received last year, in addition to $US10 million in retention pay. He had accepted a token $US1 in compensation in 2010.

The retention pay was to vest in 2013, as an incentive for Mr Pandit to stay on as CEO. A bank spokeswoman could not comment immediately on whether he would receive any of that money.

In March, Citigroup surprised observers by failing its stress test, the Federal Reserve's annual checkup for banks. The Fed said Citi, unlike any of its peers, did not have enough capital to raise its stock dividend and still withstand a financial crisis worse than 2008.

Mr Pandit, 55, said in a statement that "now is the right time for someone else to take the helm at Citigroup" after the bank "emerged from the financial crisis as a strong institution."

Mr Pandit joined Citigroup in 2007 when the hedge fund he founded was acquired by the bank. He quickly rose to CEO in December 2007. Earlier, he had ascended to head of investment banking at Morgan Stanley before leaving in 2005 to form the hedge fund.

A native of India, Mr Pandit attended Columbia University at 16 and completed a bachelor's degree in three years. He earned a doctorate in finance in 1986.

Mr Pandit faced harsh criticism after Citigroup took $US45 billion in US government bailout money in the 2008 credit crisis. It is widely believed that other, stronger banks were forced to take billions in bailout money to divert attention from Citigroup, whose financial situation was more precarious.

The U.S. Treasury sold the last of its stake in the company in December 2010.

In October 2011 the company agreed to pay $US285 million to settle civil fraud charges that it misled buyers of a complex mortgage investment just as the housing market was starting to collapse.

The Securities and Exchange Commission said Citigroup bet against the investment in 2007 and made $US160 million in fees and profits. Investors lost millions.

Citigroup neither admitted nor denied the SEC's allegations in the settlement.

Goldman Sachs paid $US550 million to settle similar charges and JPMorgan Chase paid $US153.6 million. All the cases have involved complex investments called collateralised debt obligations. Those are securities that are backed by pools of other assets, such as mortgages.

In December 2011, Mr Pandit announced the company would eliminate 4500 jobs to cut costs. The cuts represented about 1.5 per cent of its global workforce of 267,000. When he was first hired in 2007, the company had 375,000 employees.

A naturalised US citizen, Mr Pandit lives in New York with his wife and two children.


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SAfrica hip hop star convicted of murder

A COURT in South Africa has found a hip hop star guilty of the murder of four schoolchildren in a case that raised emotions in the nation.

Molemo Maarohanye, best known by his stage name Jub Jub, faced charges of murder and attempted murder stemming from a March 8, 2010 drag race in which he and his co-accused drove cars that ploughed into a group of schoolchildren, killing four and seriously injuring two. The crash happened in Soweto, not far from the magistrate's court where they would be charged.

A magistrate ruled that the men had been driving under the influence of drugs, finding both guilty on four counts of murder and on two counts of attempted murder.

"The death of the deceased occurred as a result of the driving of those vehicles and as such the accused are convicted of driving their vehicles while under the influence of drugs," the magistrate said.

The case against Jub Jub, 32, was followed closely in South Africa, where many families worried the hip hop star and his co-accused, Themba Tshabalala, would not be convicted because of their wealth. Jub Jub is one of the most recognisable artists in South Africa. Thousands of high school students protested during his bail hearing in May and riots erupted when he was granted bail. Some family members of the victims threatened to assault him after the case was postponed.

Families of the victims were overwhelmed with emotion after the decision was delivered, with one woman losing consciousness and schoolchildren breaking into tears, according to the South African Press Association.

Jub Jub will be sentenced in November.


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Rio Tinto to cut Euro costs, jobs by 30%

GLOBAL mining giant Rio Tinto is planning to cut costs and jobs in Europe by 30 per cent by the end of 2013, a union official says after meeting with company executives.

"They told us that we have to reach a reduction of costs on the order of 30 per cent. This announcement will certainly worry employees," said Veronique Roche, a representative of the CFE-CGC union and the secretary of the European works council of Rio Tinto France.

Staff at Rio Tinto sites in London, Paris and in Voreppe in the French region of Isere should see job cuts "including the activities of Rio Tinto Aluminium on the order of 30 per cent on average by the end of 2013," she added.

The Anglo-Australian miner, which cut 220 jobs in Europe last year, plans to complete its review by the end of the year.

Rio Tinto employs nearly 2700 people in Europe, according to Roche.

The company posted a 22 per cent slump in first-half profit to $US5.9 billion ($A5.78 billion) due to commodity price falls, with a 15 per cent drop in revenues in Europe outside of Great Britain.

In Australia on Tuesday, Rio Tinto chief Tom Albanese said the company was performing strongly despite global volatility, affirmed annual targets and reported a quarterly record in Australian iron ore output.


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AMWU boss to tour Hunter factory

THE Australian Manufacturing Workers Union (AMWU) will visit a factory in the NSW Hunter Valley on Wednesday as part of a national tour aimed at boosting jobs in the embattled sector.

AMWU National Secretary Paul Bastian said with 125,000 jobs lost in manufacturing since 2009, the Hunter Valley visit was part of a push to bolster employment in the sector.

He said this was especially important given some 85,000 manufacturing jobs were still at risk across Australia.

The union would visit the Varley Engineering factory to discuss the issues facing manufacturing in the Hunter, he said.

Varley is one of the Hunter region's oldest manufacturing companies and supplies a range of engineering products, including defence, aerospace and transport equipment.


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Jeweller offers rifles with rings

HAVE you spent your life hunting for the perfect wife? Maybe you have met the one but are feeling gun shy?

An Iowa jeweler is offering free rifles for husbands-to-be who spend at least $US1999 ($1953) on an engagement ring at his store near Iowa City.

Jeweller Harold van Beek told KCRG near Cedar Rapids that he wanted to "do something for the boy who doesn't like to hunt for diamonds but likes to hunt for deer".

The deal at Jewelry By Harold in North Liberty starts on Thursday and will run through the end of October.

The rifle offer is subject to Iowa laws on gun ownership. Those barred include felons and addicts.


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Apple sets date for 'iPad mini launch'

APPLE is sending out invitations to reporters for an event next Tuesday, where it's expected to announce the release of a smaller iPad.

The invitation to the venue in San Jose, California, doesn't hint at what's will be revealed, but media and analyst have said for months that Apple has an "iPad mini" in the works.

The tablet is thought to be about half the size of the regular iPad and to start at $US249 ($243) or $US299.

Apple founder Steve Jobs derided the idea of a smaller tablet two years ago, but Amazon.com Inc. has had some success with its Kindle Fire, which is half the size of the iPad and starts at $US159. Analysts believe Apple wants to tackle that competition with its own similarly sized tablet.


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Half of all wetlands destroyed since 1900

AN alarming 50 per cent of the world's wetlands have been destroyed in the last 100 years, threatening human welfare at a time of increasing water scarcity, a new report says.

Wetlands serve as a source of drinking water and provide protection against floods and storms, yet they have been decimated to make space for housing, factories and farms or damaged by unsustainable water use and pollution.

"In just over 100 years we have managed to destroy 50 per cent of the world's wetlands," said Achim Steiner, executive director of the United Nations Environment Program.

"It is a startling figure," he said at a UN conference in Hyderabad.

The report, compiled by an ongoing research project entitled TEEB, or The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity, said coastal wetland losses in some regions, including Asia, have been happening at a rate of 1.6 per cent per year.

"Taking mangroves as an example, 20 per cent (3.6 million hectares) of total coverage has been lost since 1980, with recent rates of loss of up to one per cent per year," the report said.

"We need wetlands because our existence, our food and our water is at stake," said Ritesh Kumar of the environmental group Wetlands International.

Wetlands are known to cover about 13 million square kilometres of the Earth's surface, and are a natural sink for Earth-warming carbon dioxide, act as fish nurseries and are important tourist attractions.

In the United States alone, wetlands are estimated to provide $US23 billion ($A22.53 billion) worth of storm protection every year, the report said.

The report was released at a conference of the UN Convention on Biodiversity, where environment ministers will hold three days of talks from Wednesday to try to raise funds to stop the decline of Earth's natural resources.


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