Kanye West sues insurer over canceled tour

Kanye West filed a lawsuit Tuesday against Lloyd’s for $10 million, alleging the insurer is refusing to pay claims stemming from the cancellation of his tour following a reported mental breakdown.
The 40-year-old rap superstar filed a claim with Lloyd’s shortly after cutting short the second leg of his “Saint Pablo Tour” in November and checking himself into a Los Angeles clinic, according to the suit, lodged in Los Angeles federal court.
West says he and his company Very Good Touring Inc. still haven’t been paid and that the insurance giant is intentionally stalling.
 
“Nor have they provided anything approaching a coherent explanation about why they have not paid... implying that Kanye’s use of marijuana may provide them with a basis to deny the claim and retain the hundreds of thousands of dollars in insurance premiums paid by Very Good,” the complaint reads.
The “Saint Pablo Tour” was set to run through December 31 before the last 21 shows were shelved, but West had taken out insurance in case cancellations were needed, the lawsuit states.
“The stalling is emblematic of a broader modus operandi of the insurers of never-ending post-claim underwriting where the insurers hunt for some contrived excuse not to pay,” the suit alleges.
West stunned an audience in California in November last year with a lengthy speech in which he said he did not vote but would have backed then President-elect Donald Trump as he appreciated the businessman’s outspokenness.
 
West was soon hospitalized after a series of erratic comments on stage, including alleging that his sometime collaborator Jay Z was sending hitmen to kill him and lashing out at Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg for not paying the rapper’s $53 million in debts.
The celebrity news website TMZ said West’s doctor feared he had suffered a mental breakdown.
The rapper ended up meeting Trump in December, marking the artist’s first appearance since his breakdown, with his celebrity wife Kim Kardashian absent.
West, a rare artist and even rarer African American celebrity to voice support for Trump, said he went to discuss issues of concern to minorities with the populist leader.

Neymar tells teammates ‘he is leaving’

    

Neymar’s potential world record move to Paris Saint-Germain moved a step closer on Wednesday as the Brazilian informed his Barcelona teammates he is leaving the club, a Barca spokesperson told AFP.
“The player came to train as scheduled and announced to his teammates that he is leaving,” said the source.
“The coach has given him permission to not train and to manage resolving his future.”
Speculation over the 25-year-old’s future has dominated the first few weeks of new Barca boss Ernesto Valverde’s reign with PSG reportedly willing to pay Neymar’s 222 million euro ($260 million) buyout clause.
Such a fee would smash the current record £89.3 million ($111 million, 105.2 million euros) Manchester United paid for Paul Pogba last year.
Neymar arrived back in Barcelona on Tuesday from a fleeting promotional tour to China after playing in all three of Barca’s glamour pre-season fixtures in the United States against Juventus, Manchester United and Real Madrid.
He arrived for training at 9am local time (0700GMT), but left left less than an hour later.
Presuming both clubs don’t come to a late agreement, the buyout clause would have to be paid to Barcelona via Spain’s La Liga to free the player from the contract he signed last year and runs until 2021.
However, La Liga president Javier Tebas has threatened not to accept PSG’s money over what he perceives as a failure on the French side’s part to comply with UEFA’s financial fair play rules (FFP).
“We will not accept this money from a club like PSG,” Tebas told Madrid sports daily AS on Wednesday.
“Especially when this club is infringing rules and laws.”
Barcelona have also threatened to report PSG to UEFA over any potential breach of FFP.
Clubs can be sanctioned by UEFA for making a loss of more than 30 million euros over a three-year period.
PSG have already been fined and saw their Champions League squad limited by UEFA for breaches of FFP in 2014.

Google to launch native ad-blocker for Chrome

    

Search engine giant Google could introduce a built-in ad blocker in the Chrome browser next year, the media reported.
The ad blocker has been spotted in ‘Chrome Canary’ app browser which gives an insight into what the product would be like.
Users can download the recent ‘Chrome Canary’ from Google Play Store to try it out, TechCrunch reported on Tuesday.
Google has made it clear that it wants to tackle what qualifies as ‘intrusive ads’. The content that is to be blocked would be determined by a group named the ‘Coalition for Better Ads’, of which Google is a member.
Other members of the group are News Corp, Facebook and The Washington Post.
Google could make the feature live sometime next year, the report added.
The addition of a built-in ad blocker in Chrome is likely to stir a debate as the company has been making a majority of its revenue through its own ad business.

Princess Diana's revelations about sex, sorrow to be aired on British TV

    

Recordings of Princess Diana speaking candidly about her sex life with Prince Charles and her sorrow at the spectacular collapse of her marriage will be broadcast on British television on Sunday.
Diana, first wife of the heir to the British throne, died aged 36 in Paris on Aug. 31, 1997, after the limousine carrying her and lover Dodi al-Fayed crashed in a tunnel as it tried to escape paparazzi who were chasing them on motorbikes.
Diana was just 19 when she was betrothed to Charles in 1981, but the marriage broke down. Diana blamed Camilla Parker Bowles, Charles’s lover who later became his wife, for the collapse of the marriage.
 
In a documentary planned to coincide with the 20th anniversary of Diana’s death, broadcaster Channel 4 will show footage of her speaking about her marriage during privately recorded sessions with an adviser on public speaking.
The footage includes Diana speaking about her sex life with Charles.
“It was just so odd. I don’t know there was no requirement for it from his case,” Diana says. “Sort of once every three weeks.”
“And then I followed a pattern, he used to see his lady once every three weeks before we got married,” she said.
Diana also relates how she approached Queen Elizabeth to discuss the failing marriage.
“She said, ‘I don’t know what you should do, Charles is hopeless’. And that was it,” Diana said. She also said Charles’s father, Prince Philip, had given him permission to have an affair if the marriage did not work.

The footage of Diana was filmed at Kensington Palace in 1992 and 1993 by speech coach Peter Settelen. After a lengthy court battle, the tapes were handed to Settelen.
Segments of the tapes were aired in the United States by channel NBC. In 2007, British broadcaster the BBC also tried to use the tapes for a documentary, but the film was scrapped.
Marcus Rutherford, Settelen’s lawyer, said his client had tried to keep the tapes private but that this privacy was broken during the court battle.
“Peter was not her priest, doctor, therapist or lawyer,” Rutherford said in an emailed statement, defending his subsequent decision to release them.
“It is very clear that Diana herself wanted the world at large to know about the causes of the problems in her marriage,” he said.
Friends of Diana have criticised Channel 4 for what they said was a violation of privacy.

Global stocks hit skids

    

World stock markets fell Friday as a rash of disappointing company results triggered profit-taking ahead of the weekend, although the Dow managed to hold on for its third straight record close.
Wall Street recovered from early losses, but still felt the impact of downbeat results at the end of the week.
“It was a pretty good week, obviously ending on a sour note,” Chris Low of FTN Financial told AFP.
“We started the week with better than expected earnings form the big banks. At the end of the week, we had Amazon.”
The online retail behemoth fell 2.5 percent after the company reported a dip in profits despite a big boost in sales.
Meanwhile, the oil supermajors were split, with ExxonMobil falling 1.5 percent as second quarter profits surged but missed expectations as output fell, while Chevron rose 1.8 percent after it reported better-than-expected profit.
Investors also were digesting the better but below-expectation GDP growth of 2.6 percent in the second quarter, as well as the political uncertainty after another failed attempt at healthcare reform in the US.
“The result has thrown cold water on the hopes for a pro-growth agenda,” economist Diane Swonk said in a research note.
“In fact, policy uncertainty, which places a drag on growth, is measurably on the rise.”
The dollar took a hit from US GDP data which cast further doubt on any early interest rate increase from the Federal Reserve.
Oil got a lift from the weaker dollar, this week’s US stockpile data and lingering expectations of more production cuts, or at least more discipline in implementing the current ones.
Tobacco smoked
Tobacco stocks plunged after the US Food and Drug Administration said it will look at ways for companies to cut nicotine levels in cigarettes to make them less addictive and reduce tobacco-related diseases and deaths.
This will “blow a hole in their earnings,” said Neil Wilson, senior market analyst at ETX Capital in London.
Shares in Altria, which markets brands such as Marlboro and Chesterfield, fell nearly 10 percent in New York, while in London British American Tobacco fell more than seven percent, and Imperial Brands dropped nearly five percent.
Mike van Dulken, at Accendo Markets, however, said that the reaction may have been overdone.
“It might not sound great, but it doesn’t read like the industry is destined to go up in smoke,” he said.
The mood also soured in Europe, where shares in Renault tumbled on a weak outlook for the French carmaker despite surging sales and record profits in the first half of 2017.
In Frankfurt, BMW, Daimler and Volkswagen shares also fell. The three were this week hit with lawsuits over their alleged collusion to drive up the prices of their cars.
London’s benchmark FTSE 100 index was down one percent at the closing bell, weighed down by poor results from troubled telecoms and television firm BT Group.
“The FTSE sell-off has intensified into the close, with the blue chip benchmark hitting its lowest level in over two weeks,” noted Josh Mahoney at IG.
BT shares slid after the group posted a 42 percent slump in first-quarter profits, rocked by fresh fallout from an Italian accounting scandal.
Barclays shares fell as the bank reported a first-half net loss of œ1.21 billion ($1.58 billion, 1.35 billion euros).
Key figures around 2100 GMT

New York - Dow: UP 0.15 percent at 21,830.31 (close)
New York - Nasdaq: DOWN 0.12 percent at 6,374.68 (close)
London - FTSE 100: DOWN 1.0 percent at 7,368.37 points (close)
Frankfurt - DAX 30: DOWN 0.4 percent at 12,126.70 (close)
Paris - CAC 40: DOWN 1.1 percent at 5,113.39 (close)
EURO STOXX 50: DOWN 0.7 percent at 3,467.73
Tokyo - Nikkei 225: DOWN 0.6 percent at 19,959.84 (close)
Hong Kong - Hang Seng: DOWN 0.6 percent at 26,979.39 (close)
Shanghai - Composite: UP 0.1 percent at 3,253.24 (close)
Euro/dollar: UP at $1.1755 from $1.1677 at 2100 GMT Thursday
Pound/dollar: UP at $1.3139 from $1.3066
Dollar/yen: DOWN at 110.71 yen from 111.28 yen
Oil - Brent North Sea: UP 55 cents at $52.07 per barrel
Oil - West Texas Intermediate: UP 67 cents at $49.71

29 killed in Afghan Shiite mosque attack

    

A suicide bomber and a gunman killed at least 29 people and wounded 63 at a packed Shiite mosque in Afghanistan’s main western city of Herat Tuesday, the latest attack to highlight the country’s deteriorating security situation.
The assault on the Jawadya mosque in Herat, which is close to Afghanistan’s border with Iran, came a day after the Islamic State group claimed a deadly attack on the Iraqi embassy in Kabul.
The Herat attack was the latest in a series of assaults on Afghanistan’s minority Shiite population.
“The death toll has risen to 29 killed and 63 wounded. Some wounded are in a critical condition so the toll may go up,” hospital spokesman Rafeeq Shirzai told AFP.
Herat police spokesman Abdul Ahad Walizada said the assault happened around 8:00 pm (1530 GMT) when “a terrorist attack was carried out on a (Shiite) mosque in the third security district of Herat city”.
“Based on our initial information two terrorists were involved, one of them wearing a suicide vest who detonated himself while the second one was armed with a rifle. They are both dead,” he added.
A reporter for AFP said he had seen a number of bodies brought out of the mosque, leading to fears of a heavy death toll.
He reported seeing a body torn to pieces at the entrance, possibly that of the attacker, while others were lying in pools of blood inside, some still crying and moving.
Photos posted on social media showed large crowds had gathered at the hospital.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility but IS has been targeting Shiite minority crowds and mosques in Afghanistan for around a year. The Taliban specifically denied that it was involved.
‘Anti-Islam act’
The attack comes a day after an assault on the Iraqi embassy in Kabul, which was claimed by the Islamic State group (IS), killed two people.
IS has been expanding its footprint in eastern Afghanistan and has recently claimed responsibility for several devastating attacks in the capital.
But experts have previously questioned whether there are direct links between the group’s local affiliate Islamic State Khorasan Province (IS-K) and the central IS command.
On Monday a suicide bomber blew himself up outside the embassy, allowing at least three other militants to breach the compound, unleashing an hours-long gun battle that killed two people.
A security source, who declined to be named, said IS could prove to be more dangerous than the Taliban in Afghanistan.
Unlike the Taliban which has friends and foes among the international community, IS considers everyone their enemy and will keep attacking soft targets, he said.
Shiites, of which there are around three million in Afghanistan, have regularly been targeted in recent years.
In June, IS claimed responsibility for a suicide attack on a crowded Shiite mosque in Kabul which killed four people.
November last year saw a massive suicide blast kill at least 27 people and wound 64 at a Shiite mosque, again in the Afghan capital.
In July 2016 IS jihadists claimed responsibility for twin explosions that ripped through crowds of Shiite Hazaras in Kabul, killing at least 85 people and wounding more than 400.
Afghanistan’s national unity government said it strongly condemned the Herat attack, describing it in a statement as an “anti-Islam act”.
It also called “on the Muslim people of Afghanistan, as well as on the religious scholars, to stand united against the barbaric actions of the terrorists”.
President Ashraf Ghani added that “terrorists cannot create sectarian divisions among our people”.

Dial 999 in case of emergency: Uber

    

Uber, the world's largest on-demand ride-sharing company, on Tuesday announced the integration of the nationwide emergency number 999 in its rider app to increase riders' safety, reports UNB.
In a reinforcement of Uber's commitment towards safety of riders, Uber integrated the government's helpline number in the app, which would prompt riders to dial 999 in case of an emergency, Uber said in a statement.
In the event of an emergency situation during a ride, riders in an Uber can now access an in-app card and press 'Call Now' to connect to the toll free national help desk run by the ICT division of Bangladesh.
Once pressed, the rider will be prompted with 999 in their phone dialler.
Calling 999 will connect the rider to the government's control room where depending on the nature of the emergency situation, a caller can select '1' for Ambulance; '2' for fire service; '3' for Police; or '0' to speak directly with a government agent.
Commenting on this development, Arpit Mundra, GM-Uber Dhaka, said, "The safety of our riders is a priority for us at Uber. We're committed to making rides as safe as possible by leveraging technology. Uber's integration of the emergency number 999 is one such step from us highlighting our absolute commitment to safety at every step - before, during and after every ride."
The introduction of this feature adds to the existing in-built repertoire of safety features in the Uber app.
Technologies like Uber provide an incredible opportunity to improve safety of riders and drivers in new and innovative ways- before, during and after every ride.
To ensure a relatively safe, reliable and convenient travel from point A to point B, the Uber app gives passengers the ability to see their driver's details in advance, including his name, photograph, make of car and the car registration number.
While on trip, riders can avail themselves of the benefit of GPS tracking and by using the share my status option, share their trip details with as many contacts on their phonebook as they want.
This allows people to receive the message to immediately track the route and location of the vehicle at any point during the trip.
In the case of an emergency situation, riders can now access the 999 helpline through the app and connect to the government's helpline representative.
Uber, launched in Dhaka in November 2016, has received an overwhelming response in Bangladesh both from riders and drivers.

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