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Richard jensen

Wish you were here… this year's celebrity summer hotspots

celebrities are sunning themselves in lavish locations around europe as the summer holiday season hots up. from kate moss to george clooney and leonardo dicaprio, here’s mailonline’s round-up of the a-list’s top tourism destinations, what they’re up to and who they’re doing it with.

Madonna Was Once All Ga-Ga Over Joe DiMaggio

Mindy cohn

seems that a-rod isn’t the only yankee madonna has had her eyes on. the brand-new york post’s page six reveals what other well-known bronx bomber the figures girl dream was the, um, bomb. derek jeter? jason giambi? mariano rivera? take a shot joe dimaggio. share out this
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Tropical storm’s course helps oil slide

NEW YORK (AP) — Oil prices plunged in a massive sell-off Monday, briefly falling below $120 a barrel for the first time since early May after Tropical Storm Edouard appeared unlikely to threaten oil and natural gas facilities in the Gulf of Mexico.

Also weighing on prices was a report by the U.S. Commerce Department that consumer spending fell in June as shoppers dealt with higher prices for gasoline, food and other items. That fed investors’ beliefs that a U.S. economic slowdown is forcing Americans to cut back on energy use.

Light, sweet crude for September delivery fell more than $5 at one point to $119.50 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, its lowest level since May 6.

The contract later recovered slightly, trading $3.56 lower, or 2.85 percent, at $121.54 a barrel. Crude has now fallen in six of the last nine sessions and has shaved 18 percent off its trading record of $147.27 reached July 11.

Natural gas futures also fell sharply, dropping 60.9 cents, or 6.49 percent, to $8.78 per 1,000 cubic feet. And gasoline futures fell 8.43 cents, or 2.73 percent, to $3 a gallon.

The dramatic dive in oil came shortly after traders learned that Edouard, aiming for the coasts of Texas and Louisiana, likely would not damage offshore oil and natural gas drilling platforms that sit in the storm’s path.

That has taken a lot of pressure off the market. It looks like the thinking is that we dodged another bullet, said Phil Flynn, analyst at Alaron Trading Corp. in Chicago.

Still, oil market traders expressed surprise that a potential hurricane in the Gulf coupled with escalating tensions with Iran didn’t send prices higher — an almost certainty just a few weeks ago.

Any market that really doesn’t respond to seemingly bullish news is often a tip-off that we’re going lower, said Jim Ritterbusch, president of energy consultancy Ritterbusch and Associates in Galena, Illinois.

found here.

First images published of ‘Brangelina’ twins

(CNN) — Pictures of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie’s newborn twins have been published for the first time after a magazine bidding war which news agencies claim topped $14 million.

Hello! magazine, which won international rights to the images, and People magazine, which took U.S. rights, published the photographs in their latest editions, which hit newsstands Monday.

The two publications, which have previously secured image rights to the couple’s elder children, are believed to have shared the costs, The Associated Press reported over the weekend. The agency quoted an unnamed source, not authorized to speak about the deal, as saying the pictures had fetched $14 million.

The images show the couple, newborns Knox Leon and Vivienne Marcheline and the rest of the Jolie-Pitt family — Maddox, 7, Pax, 4, Zahara, 3, and Shiloh, 2.

The twins were born by Cesarian section at the Lenval hospital in the French Riviera resort of Nice on July 12.

Hello! magazine, which heralds its coverage as the biggest exclusive of the year, devotes 17 pages of coverage to the twins’ arrival.

In an interview published in the magazine, Jolie says: Wanting a big family is one of the things that brought Brad and I together.

Pitt adds: When Ange and I were told we were having twins we burst into hysterics… We didn’t see this one coming. Watch why the photos went for so much money

found here.

BA talks to American Airlines about merger

LONDON, England (AP) — British Airways, which is already in talks with Spain’s Iberia SA over a merger, said Monday it hopes to seal an alliance with its U.S. partner American Airlines within weeks.

BA spokesman Euan Fordyce said that the carrier expected final preparations for a deal to be completed within two weeks, and an application to U.S. regulators for antitrust immunity to be filed shortly afterward.

BA and AMR Corp.’s American, the world’s largest carrier, have failed in the past to win an exemption from U.S. competition laws to work more closely together because of their dominance at London’s Heathrow, where the pair have more than half the capacity to and from the United States.

However, they are expected to argue that the competitive situation has changed since the open skies agreement between the U.S. and the European Union came into force in March, allowing airlines to fly to and from any point in the U.S. and any point in the EU.

Fordyce said that talks with American were running concurrently with BA’s discussions with Iberia over an all-share merger, a potential deal that could also form the basis of a three-way trans-Atlantic combination.

BA and Iberia, which are long-term partners in the oneworld alliance, have said agreeing on terms of a deal could take several months but have added they are confident of gaining European regulatory approval.

Strict airline ownership laws in the U.S. all but rule out a full merger between BA and American Airlines. However, an exemption from the anti-competition laws could allow the pair to run their trans-Atlantic operations as a single company, with cooperation on pricing and schedules — adding to the flight capacity and airline facilities they already share.

The round of talks is being held against the backdrop of soaring oil prices and falling passenger demand because of the global economic slowdown, conditions that BA chief executive officer Willie Walsh last week said presented the worst trading environment the industry has ever faced.

The impact on BA was revealed by an 88 percent plunge in first quarter pretax profit, prompting the carrier to cut its winter flight schedule and trim its full-year forecast for revenue growth to 3 percent, instead of 4 percent.

Some 25 airlines around the world have ceased flying this year, while the International Air Transport Association has forecast US$2.3 billion in industry losses this year.

U.S. airlines have been scrambling to combine or form new alliances since Delta Air Lines Inc. announced plans to purchase Northwest Airlines Corp. earlier this month, and analysts believe that consolidation could spread to Europe.

found here.

Skip caray

Speaker Nancy Pelosi wants Chet Edwards to be Obama’s running mate

Nancy Pelosi is evidently using her position as Speaker of the House to push her favorite for Vice-President on the Democratic ticket.

CNN is reporting that Speaker Pelosi wants 9-term Texas Congressman Chet Edwards to join the ticket. Edwards represents a district in central Texas that includes President Bush’s ranch in Crawford.

“I didn’t want to see a discussion of candidates for vice president without showing the House of Representatives,” Pelosi said on Sunday. “I just wanted people to be aware of the extraordinary credentials of Chet Edwards. And I hope he will be the nominee.”

Man with a million

Pelosi did also give a list of other viable candidates with whom she would place her stamp of approval.

“Senator Dodd, Senator Biden, Senator Hillary Clinton ? there’s such a great array of people from whom Senator Obama can choose. So, anyone of them, I’m fine with.”

I’m still hoping for a dream ticket with Senator Clinton.

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