Business Travel & Lifestyle

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - “Family Guy’s” henpecked husband Cleveland Brown might be getting his own show.

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NEW YORK (Billboard) - Carly Simon has joined former husband James Taylor, Paul McCartney and Joni Mitchell on the roster of Starbucks’ Hear Music label. Her first release for the company, “This Kind of Love,” will be available April 29.

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NEW YORK (Hollywood Reporter) - The trailer for Universal’s upcoming movie “Wanted” features many of the hallmarks of a studio summer movie: Quick cuts, effects-heavy action, Angelina Jolie on the hood of a vintage red Viper.

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SAO PAULO (Reuters) - British supermodel Naomi Campbell left a Brazilian hospital on Friday, five days after she was rushed in for surgery, the hospital said.

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LONDON (Reuters) - Soul singer Amy Winehouse will face no further action in connection with an investigation into obstruction of justice charges against her husband, British police said on Friday.

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LONDON (Reuters) - The architects of British punk have been quietly passing on the baton to a new generation in a tiny London bar, but the secret is out and about to hit America.

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LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - CBS is bringing mixed martial arts, the bone-crunching combat sport popularly known as “cage fighting,” to prime-time television this spring, the U.S. network said on Thursday.

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Feb 29 - Santa Claus should relocate from his traditional home in Lapland and relocate to the central Asian republic of Kyrgyzstan, says a Swedish logistics firm.

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NEW YORK (Reuters) - Coty Inc said on Friday that it struck a licensing deal with Playboy Enterprises Inc to develop a new Playboy men’s fragrance line.

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NEW YORK (Billboard) - Rod Stewart will kick off a North American tour at a state fair in the central California city of Paso Robles on July 30. The veteran crooner will wrap the 18-city trek in Tampa on August 28.

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LONDON (Reuters) - Sheffield rockers the Arctic Monkeys dominated the NME music awards on Thursday by scooping the best British band, best track and best video prizes.

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Feb. 28 - The French urban climber known as Spiderman is arrested after his latest building climb.

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Feb. 28 - Groovin’ to the ‘Papaya’, grande computers hit Starbucks, and an umbrella from the future takes Times Square by storm.

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NEW YORK (Reuters) - It is billed as the best pop culture collection ever assembled — ranging from the gun used to kill the assassin of U.S. President John F. Kennedy to the Wicked Witch of the West’s hat from “The Wizard of Oz.”

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LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Just a few weeks before the return of “The Hills,” MTV is giving fans a sneak peek at the hit reality series’ eight upcoming bonus episodes.

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TORONTO (Hollywood Reporter) - Any film awards show overlooks good movies. But among the glaring omissions at next Monday’s Genies, Canada’s version of the Oscars, is “Juno.” The box office smash was shot in Vancouver by a Canadian director, Jason Reitman.

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PARIS (Reuters) - A body found in the river Seine is believed to be that of former top model Katoucha who disappeared near her houseboat in Paris earlier this month, French police said on Thursday.

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LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - “Quarterlife,” the first Web-based drama to air on network television, has been canceled by NBC after a dismally rated first episode but will move to sister cable channel Bravo, people close to the show said on Thursday.

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TORONTO (Billboard) - Now that the Spice Girls reunion tour has ended, Melanie “Sporty Spice” Chisholm is getting ready to release her fourth solo album in April.

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LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Mike Smith, the lead singer of the 1960s British band the Dave Clark Five, died on Thursday of pneumonia at an English hospital, his U.S. agent said.

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NEW YORK (Reuters) - Billionaire Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling would feel “exploited” if a fan’s unofficial encyclopedic companion to the boy wizard series was published, she said in court papers made public on Thursday.

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LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - The first oddity (but certainly not the last) about the eight-week Oprah Winfrey infomercial “Oprah’s Big Give” is that there is nary a single genuine giving moment to be found during the opening hour.

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Everyone knows life insurance policies are for the survivors rather than the person the policy is for. However, the individual carrying a policy also pays for it and as a result has control over what they choose to do with the policy. One of these options is a senior life settlement. This may sound greedy, and it is in a sort, but that is the way life has become and parents make children feel as if they will be taken care of through the life insurance policy. And, while life insurance settlements are great options for many older individuals they may cause some family strife. The reason why is because many children anticipate their parents’ health insurance policy payout upon their death. But, life sometimes has other plans and individuals may find themselves in debt or short on cash during their final years. They may be in good health and want to enjoy their final days doing things they love. If this is the case then older individuals should simply contact a life settlement company and find out there options. Then, they should simply tell their heirs they have chosen to sell their insurance policy to finance their final days.

With the large amount of people writing bank checks nowadays, banks needed a better way streamline their handling. In order to automate the process, a standard electronic handling and reading system was established. This system is what we now call Magnetic Ink Character Recognition, or MICR. The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) states that MICR is the accepted machine language specification for use in payment transactions on paper bank checks. In a special HP MICR printing process, a magnetic ink called MICR toner is applied to each check so they can be quickly read by the high speed magnetic equipment designed to perform the readings. This printing follows an agreed pattern that, besides authenticating the check, provides the bank with the necessary information like the account number, check number, bank routing number and even the amount requested.Printed with either an E-13B or CMC-7 font, these characters are required to be arranged in a certain pattern of numbers and symbols. To deter tampering there are often pre-determined prefixes and suffixes attached to each line that serve as codes for the reading and sorting machines. Other safeguards in the printing process include exact positioning of the printed lines in relation to the Clear Band Area of the check paper.

WordPerfect Office X3 offers users everything they have come to expect in an office suite. Thanks to enhanced compatibility, you can easily trade work with people who use Microsoft Office or other office suites. Every application in the bundle has received a stylish update with new buttons, toolbars, and more. The enhanced WordPerfect Mail application can find important emails in even the most cluttered of inboxes. Other groundbreaking features such as PDF import capability, combine to make this the most innovative WordPerfect Office yet.

The best way to get up to speed on the latest enhancements is with Wordperfect x3 training available at CBTPlanet.com. Their computer based training courses offer instruction within high quality video presentations. Expert instructors are featured in full motion video as they conduct actual classroom sessions. This means that you receive the benefits of in-class learning, without the hassles and commitment. With the Wordperfect x3 tutorial CD installed on your computer, you never need to worry about missing a class, or falling behind. You can watch the videos as often as you want, something that just isn’t possible in traditional classes. The included interactive content is designed to give you a complete learning experience, even if you haven’t yet installed WordPerfect. For the finest Corel Wordperfect x3 training, visit CBTPlanet.com.

Having enough money iscrucial for a comfortable retirement; having a lot of money isnot. This might be a goodtime to look at the other dimensions of retirement planning.

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LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Jay Leno has nearly two years left on the clock at “The Tonight Show” on NBC, but rival networks and at least one TV studio are said to be quietly, unofficially, courting the comedian with offers to keep him on the late-night circuit.

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LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Reese Witherspoon has won a best actress Oscar and is among Hollywood’s A-list actors, but for her latest film “Penelope,” the global star took a small supporting role so she could focus on a new job — producer.

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NEW YORK (Billboard) - Justin Timberlake, Lou Reed, Billy Joel and Ben Harper are among the big names who’ve signed up to induct members of the 2008 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame class next month in New York.

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LONDON (Reuters) - Former Beatle Paul McCartney is due to learn on March 17 how many of his millions he must hand over to Heather Mills as part of their divorce settlement.

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LONDON (Billboard) - British talent show winner Leona Lewis’ fast track to global stardom will not detour for a full-scale live outing until after a second album is wrapped next year.

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NEW YORK (Hollywood Reporter) - It took nearly 40 years, but the supergroup Blind Faith returned to Madison Square Garden on Monday night for the first of a three-night stand.

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LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The attorney who claims to represent troubled pop star Britney Spears in the legal wrangling over control of her affairs vowed on Wednesday to continue his fight, one day after a federal judge ruled he is not the singer’s lawyer.

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LOS ANGELES (Billboard) - Never has an expression of love been so public — or featured so many guys in cutoff jeans shorts — or been so damn sincere.

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LONDON (Reuters) - Luke stands on his seat and strums wildly on his copycat rock guitar. Isabel and Jasper pogo and body slam with the best of them in the mosh pit. Potential crowd surfers and stage divers are held back by minders.

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Feb. 26 - A 26-year-old American with a hip hop blues hit is No. 2 on Japanese charts, the world’s second biggest music market.

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LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Michael Jackson’s famed Neverland Valley Ranch in California will be foreclosed and sold on March 19 unless the pop star pays a balance of nearly $25 million, property records showed on Tuesday.

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LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - The fourth movie in the “Terminator” franchise will reach North American theaters on May 22, 2009, coinciding with the U.S. Memorial Day holiday weekend, distributor Warner Bros. said.

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Feb. 25 - Anchorage, Alaska hosts the first annual “Running of the Reindeer.”

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PYONGYANG (Reuters) - Cold War foes the United States and North Korea enjoyed a rare moment of harmony on Tuesday when the New York Philharmonic played an unprecedented concert in the hermit state.

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LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Film and television writers, whose recent strike crippled U.S. television production until it ended earlier this month, have overwhelmingly approved a new contract with major producers, the writers’ union said on Tuesday.

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NEW YORK (Reuters) - Comedian Jerry Seinfeld and his wife deny he defamed the author of a rival cookbook in a television appearance and have asked for the dismissal of a plagiarism suit filed over the book.

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SAO PAULO (Reuters) - British supermodel Naomi Campbell was recovering in a Sao Paulo hospital on Tuesday from emergency abdominal surgery to remove a cyst, according to hospital officials and her spokesman.

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LONDON (Reuters) - North Korea invited guitar legend Eric Clapton to play in its capital, the communist country’s embassy in London said on Tuesday as the New York Philharmonic gave a historic performance in the hermit state.

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LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - With the highly rated “Million Dollar Mission” episodes of “Deal or No Deal” having concluded Monday, NBC is brewing another stunt for its stalwart game show: an around-the-world tour.

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Feb. 26 - An Italian group spreads its gospel of “slow living” to fast-paced New Yorkers.

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CANBERRA (Reuters) - Australian actress Cate Blanchett may have missed out on a second Oscar, but she has been picked to head a think-tank on the future of arts in her home country as a consolation prize, the government said on Tuesday.

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