British billionaire Eva Rausing died as a result of drug abuse: coroner

LONDON — Eva Rausing, one of Britain's richest women, died in a squalid corner of her luxury home as a result of her "dependent abuse" of drugs, a coroner ruled Friday.

Rausing's decomposed body was found by police in July in the London house she shared with her husband Hans Kristian Rausing, whose family founded the Tetra Pak drinks carton empire.

She had been dead for two months. Her body was discovered — lying under a pile of bedding and garbage bags inside a sealed-up room littered with drug paraphernalia — after Hans Kristian Rausing was stopped for driving erratically on July 9. Officers found drugs in his car and decided to search his house.

AP

Eva Rausing and her husband Hans Kristian Rausing in 1996

Police said Eva Rausing was found with an aluminum-foil pipe, used for smoking crack cocaine, in her hand.

Deputy coroner Shirley Radcliffe said Friday that 48-year-old Eva Rausing had died as a result of cocaine intoxication and a heart condition that was likely caused by drug use. Radcliffe ruled the death "a result of the dependent abuse of drugs."

Toxicology tests found cocaine, opiates and amphetamines in Rausing's blood, and a pacemaker she was fitted with after heart surgery in 2006 revealed she had suffered a "non-survivable" heart rhythm on the morning of May 7.

Hans Kristian Rausing told the inquest in a written statement that he had concealed his wife's body because "I could not cope with her dying or confront the reality of her death." In August he was given a 10-month suspended sentence for preventing the lawful burial of a body. He is being treated for drug addiction.

Eva Rausing came from an affluent American family, and Hans Kristian is a scion of one of Europe's richest families. His father has a net worth estimated at 4.3 billion pounds ($6.7 billion) from the sale of his stake in the Tetra Pak milk-carton packaging company.

The couple met at a drug rehabilitation center in 1989, married in 1992 and had four children. They battled drug addiction for years and donated millions to rehab charities.

Their struggle became public in 2008, when Eva Rausing was caught trying to bring heroin and crack cocaine into the U.S. Embassy in London.

Ending the inquest at Westminster Coroner's Court in London, Radcliffe offered "condolences to the family for the loss of a 48-year-old mother, wife, sister and daughter."

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Wynwood co-working center funded by Knight Foundation, angel investors

The LAB Miami announced Thursday it will open a 10,000-square-foot co-working center in Miami’s Wynwood neighborhood and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and local angel investors are investing $650,000.

As Miami’s startup community continues to grow, The LAB Miami said its “work-learn campus” will offer an in-house mentor network that will include investors and serial entrepreneurs, said Wifredo Fernandez, co-founder of The LAB Miami with Danny Lafuente and Elisa Rodriguez-Vila.

The LAB Miami, now in a 720-square-foot space in the same neighborhood, turned a Goldman building at 400 NW 26th Street into an artsy, modern space that can support 300 members, including tech startups, programmers, designers, investors, nonprofits, artists and academics.

In addition to offering space to work, the new co-working space plans to offer courses and workshops in business and technology — including a startup school and code school — as well as art, design and education, Fernandez said. It will be a welcoming space for traveling Latin Americans, too. “We want this to be a community center for entrepreneurs,” said Fernandez, explaining that the mix of activities and workshops will be structured by the needs of the LAB’s members.

While the Knight Foundation’s Miami office has sponsored many entrepreneurship events in the past four months, this is the foundation’s largest investment announced so far in its efforts to help accelerate entrepreneurship in Miami, said the Knight Foundation’s Miami program director, Matt Haggman. The Knight Foundation’s Miami office, which made accelerating entrepreneurship one of its key areas of focus this year, is investing $250,000 with the rest of the funding coming from a group of investors lead by Marco Giberti, Faquiry Diaz-Cala, Boris Hirmas Said and Daniel Echavarria.

“This is an important part of our strategy,” said Haggman. “Entrepreneurs need places to gather, connect and learn.”

The LAB Miami has already hosted several events, including HackDay and Wayra DemoDay earlier this week, and the co-working space plans to open for membership in January.

Co-working space will start at $200 a month to use the communal tables, and private offices that will accommodate up to six are also available. The LAB will also offer “Connect” memberships for $40 a month, which allows members who do not need co-working space to participate in events. In addition, there will be phone booths, classrooms, flexible meeting spaces, a lounge area, a kitchen, a “pop-up shop” for local fashion, art or technology products, a shower for those who bike to work and an outside garden with native landscaping.

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Miami city Commission considers hiring attorney to defend mayor against commissioner

The Miami City Commission will convene its final meeting of the year on Thursday.

The agenda is long, but few of the proposals are expected to be controversial except for an item from Mayor Tomás Regalado.

Regalado is asking the commission for an outside attorney to defend him in a lawsuit filed by Commissioner Michelle Spence-Jones. The suit accuses the mayor and Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernández Rundle of plotting to destroy Spence-Jones’s political career. Spence-Jones successfully fought a pair of political corruption charges last year.

Regalado says that City Attorney Julie O. Bru cannot defend him because she was a player in some of the alleged activities outlined in the lawsuit.

“The city attorney is totally conflicted out,” he said.

He believes the city should foot the bill because he was sued for actions he took in his capacity as mayor.

Regalado would like to be represented by attorney José Quiñón, according to the meeting agenda.

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iPad mini deemed a ‘game changer,’ outgrew Kindle Fire by nearly 50%

Smaller tablets in the 7-inch range have been on the market for more than two years now, but it looks like it took Apple (AAPL) just one month to vault to the top of the category. Mobile advertising firm Millennial Media recently published the findings of a study pitting the iPad mini against Amazon’s (AMZN) popular Kindle Fire, which has been an extremely popular iPad alternative since it first launched last year. According to Millennial, iPad mini usage grew about 50% faster during early November than the Kindle Fire did immediately following its successful launch last year, as measured by ad impressions served by the firm’s network.

Millennial found that impressions served to the iPad mini in early November grew at an average daily rate of 28%. In the weeks following the Kindle Fire’s launch last year, usage of Amazon’s tablet grew roughly 19% each day.

“In the first weeks after the iPad mini went on sale, we saw an average daily growth in impressions of 28 percent. Last holiday season, Amazon launched the Kindle Fire to much anticipation, Millennial Media’s Matt Mills wrote on the company’s blog. “As a comparison, we saw Kindle Fire impressions grow at an average daily rate of 19 percent in the first two weeks after it went on sale last year. So, by our math it looks like Apple could have itself another massive holiday season.”

Mills called the iPad mini a “game changer” and said he expects “a massive amount” of iPad mini tablets to be given as gifts this holiday season.

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Gadgets News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Taylor Swift Turns 23!

23 On the Dot

The 22 singer turns 23 today and if we know anything about Taylor
Swift's style it's that she loves to rock the dots! Though the
girly-girl has been known to wear lots of stripes and florals, her true
affection seems to lie with polka dots. Click the pics to see a few of
Swift's spotty style statements, and leave her a few birthday wishes!

First up, some dots were spotted on Swift as she was seen leaving Studio 59 in New York City on Dec. 4, 2012. 

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US retail sales up 0.3 percent in November

WASHINGTON — Americans spent more online in November to the start of the holiday season and began to replace cars and rebuild in the Northeast after Superstorm Sandy.

US retail sales rose 0.3 percent in November from October, the Commerce Department said Thursday. That offset a 0.3 percent decline in October from September.

The figures were much stronger after factoring out gas prices, which have fallen sharply in recent months. When excluding gas station sales, retail sales increased a solid 0.8 percent.

The gains were widespread, although much of the strength reflected a rebound from the storm. Auto sales jumped 1.5 percent, as many people sought to replace damaged vehicles. Sales at home improvement stores increased 1.6 percent.

REUTERS

A crowd of shoppers browse at Target on Thanksgiving.

There was also an indication that many Americans began shopping for the holidays, most likely taking advantage of promotions during the Thanksgiving Day weekend. Electronic and appliance sales rose 2.5 percent. Furniture sales increased 1 percent. And sales that reflect online shopping surged 3 percent — the biggest gain for that category in 13 months.

Still, there were also troubling signs for the holiday shopping season: Department stores sales dropped 0.8 percent. And sales at general merchandise stores, a broader category that includes Wal-Mart and Target, fell 0.9 percent.

Some economists worry that consumers might scale back on holiday shopping if they are concerned about the "fiscal cliff." That's the name for tax hikes and spending cuts that are scheduled to go into effect next year if Congress and President Barack Obama cannot reach a deal to avert them.

The retail sales report is the government's first look at consumer spending. Consumer spending is important because it drives nearly 70 percent of economic activity.

The economy grew at a solid 2.7 percent annual rate in the July-September quarter. But the gains were mostly because businesses stepped up restocking, which drove more factory production.

Consumer spending actually slowed over the summer from the previous quarter. And many economists worry that consumers have remained cautious in the final three months of the year, because of the storm and their fears about higher taxes next year. That should keep growth below an annual rate of 2 percent in the October-December quarter, they say.

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Lennar to borrow $1.7 billion from Chinese bank

Miami-based Lennar Corp. has gotten approval on $1.7 billion in loans from China Development Bank to fund the development and construction of two major projects in San Francisco, according to a person familiar with the transaction.

The contract, set to close by Dec. 31 subject to various conditions, would mark the first U.S. loan by the big state-owned Chinese bank. One condition — tagged the “Chinese component”— is that China Railway Construction Corp. be included as a general contracting partner in the project, the person said.

Closing by year’s end is crucial because of new tax rules set to take effect, the person added.

The agreement, first reported in The Wall Street Journal, would provide funding for the first six years of what is envisioned to be a 20-year project.

The loan agreement, reached Dec. 7 after Lennar officials met in China with bank officials, provides for $1 billion in financing to a partnership led by Lennar to redevelop Hunters Point Shipyard-Candlestick Point, a site in southeast San Francisco spanning more than 700 acres, the person said. Plans for the mixed-use community call for nearly 12,000 residential units on the site. Construction is expected to begin in the first quarter of 2013.

Under the pact, the Chinese bank would provide another $700 million to a partnership of Lennar, Stockbridge Capital Group and Wilson Meany, a real estate investment and development firm, to redevelop Treasure Island and Yerba Buena Islands in San Francisco Bay. Some 8,000 units of housing are planned for the mixed-use project on 535 acres. The U.S. Navy is set to turn over the first parcel of land to the development company in late 2013.

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Fla. board to select education chief

One finalist for Florida education commissioner conceded Tuesday that he can be caustic at times, while another said he resigned as Illinois’ top school official because of the political climate under a governor who later went to prison.

The remaining finalist acknowledged the federal No Child Left Behind Act that he helped draft and promote as a congressional staffer and U.S. Department of Education official was a compromise that needs to be revised.

The State Board of Education interviewed all three candidates in Tampa, where the panel is scheduled to make a decision Wednesday.

The finalists are outgoing Indiana School Superintendent Tony Bennett, Murray State University President Randy Dunn, who previously had been superintendent in Illinois, and Arlington, Va., consultant Charles Hokanson, who had been a deputy assistant U.S. secretary of education in President George W. Bush’s administration.

The new commissioner will replace Gerard Robinson who resigned in August after only about a year on the job. He cited separation from his family in Virginia where he previously had been secretary of education.

Bennett, a Republican who lost a bid for re-election last month, said if he has a fault it is being passionate, focused and looking to the end result as the only thing that matters when he was asked about his strengths and weaknesses.

"I do forget that the interpersonal touch, the human touch is so vitally important," Bennett said. "And I would tell you that probably some of my sharpest critics would tell you that sometimes I come off a little impersonal, that I can be a little caustic, and that’s not because I’m a mean spirited person."

Bennett said his strong suit is carrying out polices that are best for children. In Indiana those were similar to many that fellow Republicans, starting with former Gov. Jeb Bush, have instituted in Florida such as school grading and accountability and teacher evaluation programs.

Dunn said he took a sabbatical from his position as chairman of the Department of Educational Administration and Higher Education at Southern Illinois University to serve as superintendent on an interim basis. He said he found that job so rewarding that he agreed to stay on permanently but resigned in 2006 to accept the presidency at Murray State in neighboring Kentucky.

"One of the things that was particularly challenging in Illinois at the time was the political climate," Dunn said. "It was not a good environment politically to be working in."

Dunn was referring to former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, who years later was removed from office and imprisoned on multiple corruption charges including trying to sell President Barack Obama’s vacated Senate seat.

Hokanson, a lawyer and policy specialist rather than educator, worked on No Child Left Behind while a staffer for now-House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio.

"There are amazing strengths to that piece of legislation," Hokanson said. "It was the first time that the federal government was able to really put in some levels of accountability for the billions of federal dollars that they had been spending for decades and not seeing results."

Hokanson, however, blamed Congress and Obama for failing to make needed changes in the law that is well past its planned renewal date.

Bennett and Dunn both stressed that they see the commissioner’s role as implementing rather than setting policy, which they said is the job of the board, Legislature and Gov. Rick Scott.

In Tallahassee, Scott said he wants a commissioner who would carry out his agenda including adequate funding, accountability, treating teachers right and not teaching to standardized tests.

"I want someone who I can work with who believes in what I’m doing," Scott said.

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Here’s the Pope’s First Tweet

The long wait is over and we’ve finally got the first words of Twitter wisdom from Pope Benedict XVI. 

Dear friends, I am pleased to get in touch with you through Twitter. Thank you for your generous response. I bless all of you from my heart.

— Benedict XVI (@Pontifex) December 12, 2012

Ok, so not that funny, but it was all spelled right and we got blessed by a pope, so that’s a good start. And the Pope did actually send the message himself. Pope Benedict appeared on Wednesday morning for his regular weekly address in front of throngs of media and worshipers, and personally hit the tweet button himself on his iPad. Vatican officials say that before the end of the day he will be answering three questions that were submitted to the #askpontifex hashtag earlier this month. Here’s the first of those:

How can we celebrate the Year of Faith better in our daily lives?

— Benedict XVI (@Pontifex) December 12, 2012

By speaking with Jesus in prayer, listening to what he tells you in the Gospel and looking for him in those in need

— Benedict XVI (@Pontifex) December 12, 2012

He actually tweeted in Italian first and his other language accounts weren’t far behind. Follow @Pontifex for more 140 character sermons.

Social Media News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Drew Barrymore's Baby Daughter Olive Lands First Cover

Drew Barrymore introduces her baby daughter, Olive, to the world on the latest People magazine cover.

The nine-week old is seen in the arms of her actress mom who told the magazine that after giving birth, "I couldn't eat or sleep for two weeks, I was just so nervous!" She added, "You have the highest highs and yet you're facing the biggest fear of, 'How do I keep someone alive?' "

Barrymore, 37, was eager desire to have kids and is grateful to have met husband and art consultant Will Kopelman. "I really wanted a wonderful traditional home for my kid," she told People. "Will comes from a strong family, he provides a strong family ... It just makes me so emotional because it's like a miracle."

RELATED: Drew Barrymore Opens Up About Motherhood

So, how do these happy parents keep their baby smiling? They sing Good Morning from the musical Singin' in the Rain. The E.T. actress gushed, "It's like the biggest crush I've ever had in my life!"

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