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Sunday, December 29, 2013
Simon Cowell X-Factor judge and girlfriend Lauren Silverman expecting baby - pics
Simon Cowell goes shirtless as he takes a stroll with pregnant girlfriend Lauren Silverman in BarbadosCredit: Ramey Photo
Beach before baby! Simon Cowell and his pregnant girlfriend Lauren Silverman are taking full advantage of their downtime before their son arrives. The couple was spotted taking a relaxing stroll in Bridgetown, Barbados on Thursday, Dec. 26.
During the getaway, the 54-year-old X Factor judge and creator was photographed shirtless while wearing blue-patterned beach shorts. Meanwhile, Silverman, 36, stunned in a form-fitting navy one-piece bathing suit that showed off her toned legs and big baby bump.
In her last trimester, the lovebirds have been nothing but affectionate toward each another. The New York socialite often visited Cowell during tapings of the FOX reality series, and the British personality organized a baby shower for Silverman earlier this month.
On Dec. 8, Silverman enjoyed an intimate get together -- with Cowell's exes Mezhgan Hussainy and Terri Seymour in attendance -- at his Beverly Hills home. "She had her hand on her tummy a lot," an insider said of the second-time mom-to-be to Us Weekly. "She kept rubbing it, and she looked really proud."
"They seem to really be in love," another source added. "I've never seen him like that before."
Silverman is already a mom to son Adam, 7, with ex-husband Andrew Silverman.
Read more: http://www.usmagazine.com/celebrity-news/news/simon-cowell-goes-shirtless-in-barbados-with-pregnant-girlfriend-lauren-silverman-picture-20132812#ixzz2os5OpNIr
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Ibrahimovic to be taxed 75%!!! - France's 75% tax rate gains approval by top court
France's 75% tax rate gains approval by top court
Zlatan Ibrahimovic is one of the top players bought in by wealthy owners at Paris Saint-Germain, who are currently top of Ligue 1
France's highest court has approved a 75% tax on high earners that is one of President Francois Hollande's signature policies.
The initial proposal to tax individual incomes was ruled unconstitutional by the Constitutional Council almost exactly one year ago.
But the government modified it to make employers liable for the 75% tax on salaries exceeding 1m euros (£830,000).
The levy will last two years, affecting income earned this year and in 2014.
Football clubs in France went on strike earlier this year over the issue, saying many of France's clubs are financially fragile and say the plans could spark an exodus of top players who are paid huge salaries.
The Qatari-owned Paris Saint-Germain has more than 10 players whose pay exceeds 1m euros, including the Swedish striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic.
There has also been a chorus of protest from businesses and wealthy individuals who have condemned the tax - including film star Gerard Depardieu, who left the country in protest.
Polls suggest a large majority in France back the temporary tax.
Unlike many other countries in Europe, France aims to bring down its huge public deficit by raising taxes as well as some spending cuts.
The highest tax rate in the UK is 45% and is applied to individuals.
Michael Schumacher injured in skiing accident in France
Michael Schumacher injured in skiing accident in France
Seven-time world champion Michael Schumacher has been injured in a skiing accident in Meribel, France.
The German, 44, who retired from Formula 1 for the second time at the end of the 2012 season, was taken by helicopter to hospital in Moutiers.
Christophe Gernignon-Lecomte, director of the Meribel resort, told Radio Monte Carlo Sport: "He was shocked, a little shaken but conscious.
"It may be a head injury but it is not very serious."
He added: "He was wearing a helmet and banged [his head] against a rock."
Schumacher won seven world championships and secured 91 race victories during a 19-year career in Formula 1.
He won two titles with Benetton in 1994 and 1995 before switching to Ferrari in 1996 and going on to win five straight titles from 2000.
The German retired from the sport in 2006, but returned in 2010 with Mercedes. After three seasons which yielded just one podium, he quit the sport at the end of 2012.
Fairytale moment - Jennifer Lawrence - Best Actress Oscar for Silver Linings Playbook
The winner of the Best Actress Oscar for her role in Silver Linings Playbook, this year’s golden girl, Jennifer Lawrence went for the full-on fairytale look with a strapless, blush-coloured gown by Dior Haute Couture. The metallic box clutch and a touch of Chopard bling only added to the all-round princess aura. (Frazer Harrison/Getty Images)
Gambling explodes in Italy - 1 machine for every 100 residents - social breakdown - NY Times article
Fears of Social Breakdown as Gambling Explodes in Italy
Alessandro Grassani for The New York Times
THE WAGERING LIFE A man played a slot machine in a bar in Pavia.
By ELISABETTA POVOLEDO
Published: December 28, 2013
PAVIA, Italy — Renowned for its universities and a celebrated Renaissance monastery, this Lombardy town about 25 miles south of Milan has in recent years earned another, more dubious, distinction: the gambling capital of Italy.
Alessandro Grassani for The New York Times
A cafe owner who wants his gambling machines removed.
Slot machines and video lottery terminals, known as V.L.T.s, can be found all over in coffee bars and tobacco shops, gas stations, mom-and-pop shops and shopping malls, not to mention 13 dedicated gambling halls. By some counts, there is one slot machine or V.L.T. for every 104 of the city’s 68,300 residents.
Critics blame the concentration of the machines for an increase in chronic gambling — and debt, bankruptcies, depression, domestic violence and broken homes — recorded by social service workers in Pavia.
But in many ways, Pavia is merely the most extreme example of the spread of gambling throughout Italy since lawmakers significantly relaxed regulation of the gambling industry a decade ago.
In that time, Italy has become the largest gambling market in Europe, and the fourth largest in the world after the United States, Japan and Macau, according to Global Betting and Gaming Consultants, which tracks gambling.
Now, some Italians, in Pavia and elsewhere, say they have had enough. In October, Lombardy became the sixth region to pass legislation intended to curb gambling and help addicts. Dozens of municipalities have also drafted measures to limit gambling, such as reducing opening hours.
The explosion of gambling “is devastating the territory,” said Simon Feder, a psychologist who founded a “no slot” protest movement in Pavia that aims to ban the machines from public spaces. “It is an anti-economy that impoverishes because it doesn’t spread money around, it just gobbles it up.”
With the economy still weak, spending on gambling, like other consumer spending, shrank this year for the first time, but it was still projected to reach about $115 billion for 2013. On average, one in every eight dollars spent by an Italian family goes toward gambling, four times more than 15 years ago, said Maurizio Fiasco, a sociologist at a national commission that combats usury.
Residents of Pavia province, situated in a wealthy region, spend about $4,124 a year on gambling, more than double the national average of about $1,650, according to a report issued in December by the gambling news agency Agimeg.
Many blame the sheer availability of the machines for the rising trend.
“There’s no longer a distinction between gambling and life,” Mr. Fiasco said. “There is no separate space for gambling — it is everywhere.”
The new attempts to rein in the machines have put myriad municipal and regional governments, which deal more directly with the social costs of gambling addiction, on a collision course with the national government, which has come to depend on gambling revenue, to the tune of about $11 billion last year.
“The government gets the profits, the territory gets the problems,” said Angelo Ciocca, a regional lawmaker in Lombardy who supported the recent legislation to curb the industry.
In December, lawmakers in a body that can rarely agree on anything joined to pass a measure in the Senate that curtailed funds to regions and municipalities that enacted anti-gambling measures. The step provoked outrage, with Prime Minister Enrico Letta calling it “an error,” and the measure was revoked when the bill passed to the lower house.
“The dealers feel protected by the government. They know the government has their back,” Mr. Ciocca said of the buyers of state gambling concessions. “Interests are high.”
In 2001, gambling revenue in Italy — the total amount bet minus the players’ winnings — amounted to $5.6 billion. By 2012, the industry’s take had quadrupled to $22.4 billion, according to Global Betting and Gaming.
Gambling officials say significant deregulation of the industry a decade ago rooted out a vast illegal gambling market mostly controlled by organized crime.
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