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Whitney Houston death tops shock celeb moments so far in 2012: poll


LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Whitney Houston's accidental death in February was voted as the biggest "Oh My Gosh" (OMG!) celebrity headline in the first half of 2012, according to a poll released on Thursday.

Parade Magazine and Yahoo! celebrity gossip site omg! teamed up for a 2012 summer pop culture poll and found that Houston's drowning in a Beverly Hills hotel bathtub was the biggest headline of the year so far, earning 50 percent of votes.

The runner-up headline was "Twilight" actress Kristen Stewart's confession that she cheated on co-star Robert Pattinson, which got 21 percent of the votes. The couple edged out another big break-up - the divorce of Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes - which scored 14 percent of votes in the shock factor stakes.

Rounding out the list was "Jersey Shore" star Snooki announcing her pregnancy (6 percent) while CNN anchor Anderson Cooper's declaration that he is gay, actress Demi Moore seeking treatment in rehab, and Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie finally getting engaged, each earned 3 percent each.

The poll also asked readers to rate their sexiest man, favorite book series, and most anticipated celebrity weddings.

There were few shocks there, with "Drive" star Ryan Gosling, erotic fantasy novel "50 Shades of Grey," and the union of movie stars Jennifer Aniston and Justin Theroux coming top of those respective categories.

The poll was conducted for Parade and omg! in August and had 56,000 respondents.

Hmmm?

London Fashion Week runs last leg in Great British relay


LONDON (Reuters) - London fashion designers take up the baton for Britain on Friday, strutting the global stage in a capital city that has already captivated millions around the world with the Olympics, Queen Elizabeth's diamond jubilee and last year's royal wedding.

Just a few short weeks after a closing Olympic ceremony which put fashion at the heart of a glittering show celebrating the best of Britain in front of the world, buyers, journalists celebrities and models have begun to descend on London fresh from New York and on the way to collections in Milan and Paris.

"London is like the epicenter of the world for everything and I think it really showed in the closing ceremony of the Olympics how influential and important British fashion is," stylist and TV presenter Brix Smith-Start told Reuters.

Leading UK designers Christopher Kane, Vivienne Westwood, Paul Smith and Burberry's Christopher Bailey will present their spring/summer 2013 collections to fashion buyers from home and abroad in a year of continued austerity across Europe.

"I always love the diverse representation of collections showcased in London. It is great to see leading favorites such as Christopher Kane, Erdem and Burberry Prorsum alongside emerging designers and I am looking forward to seeing Rag & Bone in the lineup this season," said Harrods Head of Womenswear Helen David.

An estimated £100m ($158.9m) of orders are expected to be placed during London Fashion Week, according to the British Fashion Council.

More than 80 designers are expected to show their latest collections in London, with cutting edge labels PPQ, Meadham Kirchoff, Louise Gray and Erdem touted as the hottest tickets.

"Meadham Kirchoff are just completely creative, you never know what they are going to do next, they stage some of the most theatrical, mesmerizing and moving shows. They're completely original, one-off, beyond. They're fabulous," Smith-Start said.

The stylist, who runs luxury boutique Start London in East London, also names Richard Nicoll and Fashion East among her favorite shows to watch.

SILKS, LACE AND GREAT GATSBY

The twice-a-year event runs from September 14 to September 18, for an expected audience of 5,000 buyers, journalists and celebrities.

David expects to see a more pared down aesthetic with clean lines and subtle details for Spring/Summer 2013.

"Summer is always great for mood lifting colors, so it will be interesting to see which brights stand out," David said.

"I think we'll see more attention placed on beautiful woven materials, silks and lace. With the new (Great) Gatsby movie, now set to be released next summer, designers are sure to take inspiration from the delicate feminine theme," she added.

New designers Vita Gottlieb, Teija Eilola and Haizhen Wang have been preparing their debut collections for their first showcase at London Fashion Week.

"I think they expect new ideas. A kind of vibrant creativity which London is so famous for and especially in the fashion industry, we do churn out the most fantastic designers in the world, I think," said Gottlieb.

With the stakes so high, designers could be forgiven for playing it safe in order to survive the tough economic times. But London's burgeoning fashion scene is not one to shy away from a challenge.

"London is really where groundbreaking stuff happens and people take risks. You're constantly surprised," said blogger Emily Johnston, who runs the successful fashion news blog, Fashion Foie Gras.

"There's a real buzz as you leaving the building because everybody is talking about what they've just seen."

India tackles fuel subsidies to ward off downgrade


NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India raised the price of heavily subsidized diesel on Thursday to rein in its fiscal deficit and counter the threat of becoming the first of the big emerging economies to be downgraded to junk.

The long-awaited decision follows intense pressure on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to plug one of the biggest drains on the treasury. It was greeted with elation by investors and raised expectations of more reforms to reverse an investment slump and revive a sluggish economy.

But the fuel price increase caused an instant political backlash. A leading partner in the ruling coalition announced a protest march at the weekend and the main opposition party called the move "financial terror".

Protests earlier this year over petrol price and railway fare hikes prompted Singh to partially roll them back.

"Nobody wants to put pressure on people but the subsidy bill had risen so high that this became inevitable," Pawan Kumar Bansal, minister for parliamentary affairs, told Reuters. "This is an essential step to revive the economy and the investors' confidence."

A cabinet committee increased diesel prices by 5 rupees per liter from Friday. That translates as a 14 percent rise, including taxes. The hike is the first in 15 months.

The committee also decided to limit the number of subsidized cooking gas cylinders per household to six per year, a move seen as hitting the poor hard. Any LPG cylinders bought over this ceiling will be at market rates, which could almost double the price.

Ratings agencies Standard & Poor's and Fitch said earlier this year that a widening deficit had put India on the brink of losing the investment grade status enjoyed by fellow "BRICS" Brazil, Russia, China and South Africa.

The government hopes the move will help avert a sovereign credit downgrade, the prime minister's chief economic advisor, C. Rangarajan, said. "The government has shown it can take hard decisions, very difficult decisions."

Diesel is one of the main contributors to a subsidy bill that economists warn could push the country's fiscal deficit above a target of 5.1 percent of gross domestic product.

"It is the first credible step towards fiscal consolidation that the government has taken, something for which the market has been waiting for long. It also gives some hope for a rate cut by the Reserve Bank of India," said Manish Wadhawan, managing director and head of rates, HSBC, Mumbai.

The central bank holds a monetary policy meeting on Monday to look at interest rates, some of the highest among large economies.

Higher diesel prices means higher inflation in the short term, but the central bank has been clear it wants the government to slash the fiscal deficit, a structural inflation driver, before it will tackle rates.

SHIFTING GEAR

After months of policy drift that critics derided as dithering, Singh's government suddenly shifted gear this week, by looking afresh at a number of policies stalled by a lack of consensus within the Congress party and among its allies.

The cabinet's economic panel is due to meet on Friday to discuss a plan to invite foreign airlines to invest in domestic carriers and a proposal to sell shares of large state-run firms.

With the first in a series of state elections due within weeks, Singh is seen as having a narrow window of opportunity to act on the economy before electoral politics takes over.

Singh's biggest coalition ally, Mamata Banerjee, who last year forced the government to roll back a policy to allow foreign supermarket investment in India, said her party was not consulted and vowed to lead a protest in Kolkata on Saturday.

The opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which is likely to exploit the price hike ahead of elections, also condemned the move.

"This is financial terror unleashed on the common man by the government," Rajiv Pratap Rudy, a leader of the main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader, told Reuters. "The economy has collapsed and the government is passing on that burden to the people."

Diesel accounts for more than 40 percent of India's refined fuel consumption. It is subsidized mainly to benefit farmers but the wide gap with petrol prices has caused the 'dieselization' of the economy, with car companies launching diesel versions of popular models aimed at price-conscious middle class consumers.

Even after the price hike diesel is considerably cheaper than petrol, meaning demand is unlikely to drop off.

"This (price rise) will not allow gasoline demand to pick up in India. You will see stagnant growth in passenger vehicles and solid growth in diesel-based utility vehicles continue in India," said Praveen Kumar, analyst with FACTS Global Energy.

Three state-run fuel retailers -- Indian Oil Corp, Bharat Petroleum Corp and Hindustan Petroleum Corp -- have together racked up losses of 405.4 billion rupees ($7.3 billion) in their first fiscal quarter, four times the loss from a year ago.

Mike "I'm A Good Guy" Tyson dances to a new tune.

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Former heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson, once notorious for his bad boy antics, has a new goal: he'd like to dance and act in musicals.

"I've always been a bad guy who wanted to be a good guy," said Tyson, 46, on the sidelines of the CLSA Investor Forum in Hong Kong this week.

"I didn't know how to be a good guy because I was always concentrating on being bad, so I've learned how to be a good guy now and treat people the way I want to be treated. That's why I have a passion for life now."

The convicted rapist who spent three years in prison and was later declared bankrupt has found religion and mellowed. He spoke to financiers in Hong Kong about his life before and after boxing, his family and his acting career, which includes a recent one-man show on Broadway.

Tyson became the youngest world heavyweight champion in 1986 at age 20 and was undisputed world champion for several years. Convicted of rape in 1992, he later returned to the ring but added to his notoriety when he bit off a chunk of Evander Holyfield's ear in a 1997 bout.

But in Hong Kong, Tyson strutted into the room with the swagger of a boxing champion, looking dapper in a light colored suit and white shirt, working the crowd of financiers with a toothy grin.

"I'm not drinking, I'm not getting high, I'm not womanizing, I'm not doing a lot of things that I normally did," said Tyson, once nicknamed "The Baddest Man on the Planet".

"This is what I'm doing now - a responsible individual, raising a family, loving my wife."

Asked what else he wants to do in his life, Tyson paused briefly.

"I want to do some dancing thing, I want to do some musicals," he said, to loud laughter.

CLSA, an Asia-focused brokerage, likes to make a splash with its annual forum with a high-profile keynote speaker. Former Alaska governor Sarah Palin and actor George Clooney have both appeared at the event.

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Apple's aggressive launch plan boosts iPhone sales forecasts


(Reuters) - Sales of Apple Inc's new iPhone 5 could be double those of the previous model in its first week on the market, and up to 33 million iPhones may be sold this quarter as a result of an aggressive launch plan, analysts said.

Many analysts expressed surprise at how quickly Apple planned to roll out the new model around the world, saying this suggested it would be able to keep up with demand for the bigger, faster and slimmer iPhone.

The new model ships on September 21 in the United States, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore and Britain, and will hit 100 countries by the end of the year in the fastest international rollout for an iPhone so far.

"We are positively surprised that this iPhone rollout is Apple's fastest yet," Barclays Capital said in a client note, adding that it had previously thought supply constraints for sensors in the new screens would hold back initial sales.

"Given this pace it would seem Apple is very well positioned for upside in the December quarter."

Analysts raised forecasts for Apple's share price by as much as $125 to between $750 and $820.

Apple shares were up 0.7 percent at $674.74 before the start of regular trading on Thursday.

Apple will continue to win sales with older models, brokerage William Blair & Co added, putting more pressure on Research in Motion Ltd's BlackBerry, other offerings from Nokia Oyj and less-sophisticated smartphones that use Google Inc's Android software.

"The iPhone 4 will be sold for free after subsidies, replacing the 3GS and providing a strong product to compete in the high-growth, low-end smartphone market," William Blair said.

The brokerage raised its sales forecast for all iPhone models by 29 percent to 33 million for the July-September quarter, at the top of forecasts that ranged from about 20 million to about 30 million in brokerage notes seen by Reuters.

Janney Capital Markets said it expected the iPhone 5 to sell 7 million to 10 million units by the end of the month, while RBC Capital Markets said it expected 8 million to 10 million units to be shipped during the same period.

RBC Capital said sales of iPhone 5 this month could result in additional sales of $4 billion to $5 billion for the fourth quarter ending September 30. The brokerage increased its price target for the stock by $50 to $750.

The iPhone 5 sports a 4-inch "retina" screen that displays a sharper image. It can run on high-speed 4G LTE wireless networks and is 20 percent lighter than the previous iPhone 4S.

Robert W. Baird & Co, which also raised its price target on the stock, now expects Apple to sell 24.4 million iPhones in the September quarter, up from its earlier estimate of 21.2 million.

Barclays, which raised its price target for Apple stock to $810 from $750, said Apple would have a "unique holiday season" as it would also benefit from a launch of a smaller iPad and new Mac computers.

Credit Suisse forecast 20 percent growth in high-end smartphone sales next year, with Apple seen grabbing a 47 percent share, topping archrival Samsung with 40 percent.

It picked the two companies to capture just over half of the overall smartphone market, including less-sophisticated models, putting "tremendous pressure" on RIM, HTC Corp, Nokia and the rest of the Android market.

(This story corrected first paragraph to "sold this quarter" instead of "sold between now and the rest of the month")

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MACHINE:
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AFRICA 13,900
Except: Egypt 6,600
Ethiopia 9,100
Nigeria 8,500

ASIA 2,350

EUROPE 7,000

NORTH AMERICA (BAHAMAS) 2

OCEANIA 400

SOUTH AMERICA, and the CARIBBEAN 500

Thannks

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Swazi virgins dance in unity, defy criticism


LUDZIDZINI ROYAL VILLAGE, Swaziland (Reuters) - Thousands of bare-breasted young Swazi women paraded in front of their king to celebrate chastity and unity, dismissing criticism of the lavish ceremony in one of Africa's poorest countries for its last absolute monarch.

Clad in beaded mini-skirts and clutching machetes and mobile phones, women and girls as young as five danced and sang tributes on Sunday and Monday to the king and queen mother, also known as the Great She-Elephant, in a traditional Umhlanga Reed Dance meant to celebrate womanhood and virginity.

"I'm proud to be Swazi and to be a virgin. We are here to show unity with the king and with each other," said 18-year-old Gcebine Dlamini, bracing the cold of the southern hemisphere's winter in her skimpy outfit as scores of tourists had photos taken next to the topless women.

King Mswati III, who has at least a dozen wives and a personal fortune estimated at $200 million, faced unprecedented protests last year when his appointed administration ran out of money after a 2009 recession in neighbouring South Africa.

Despite the straitened times, the royal household has shown few signs of wanting to tighten its belt. In July, South Africa's Mail and Guardian newspaper reported that three of Mswati's wives joined a 66-strong royal entourage heading to Las Vegas on a shopping spree. There was no comment from the palace.

But women at the annual event gathered behind the monarch in the week-long celebrations, even though police kept a close watch on what they might tell journalists and tourists roaming the grounds of the royal village, some 20 km (12 miles) outside the capital.

In the past, the king has used the ceremony to choose a new wife, and some girls still hoped to catch the king's eye.

"If chosen, I would be able to live a better life than what I have, have a lot of money, live a queen's life and travel overseas," said Fakazile Dlamini, 14, who arrived on a lorry from her village 60 km away to attend the ceremony.

New royal wives have often received a BMW and their own palace, fuelling criticism in a country where more than two-thirds of its 1.4 million people live in abject poverty.

Women's groups and political opponents also say Mswati's penchant for multiple young brides ill befits a country with the world's highest rate of HIV/AIDS, but the monarch says polygamy is part of Swazi tradition and helps cement national unity.

Maidens flocked in from across the country - some attend the ceremony every year until they marry - cut reeds from river beds, which they then presented to the queen mother in a mile-long singing and foot-stamping procession.

In the past, they would have been accommodated by families living close to the royal household but are now put up in camps and protected by police from other men.

Even though the girls refuse to criticise UK-educated Mswati who arrived at the event dressed in beads and lion cloth, not everyone supported his polygamous lifestyle.

"I don't want to be a queen, I don't want to share my man. Polygamy is not okay," Siphesihle Mdluli, 20, who hopes to go on to study medicine said while waving her bundle of reeds.

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