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51 Beauties Compete for the Title of Miss USA in Las Vegas

Miss USA in Las Vegas

Sin City was the site for Sunday night’s broadcast of The Miss USA pageant in Vegas.  With fifty-one beautiful young ladies from around the USA competing for the title, the pageant was filled with struts and smiles for the judges and the live audience.

The new Miss USA replaces 2010’s Miss USA Rima Fakih and will represent America in the Miss Universe pageant in September in Brazil

Last year Fakih, who is an Arab-American from Michigan and was born in Lebanon, had a near-stumble in her evening gown before winning the coveted crown. Contestants for this year’s crown hope to avoid stumbles and instead shine in swimwear, evening gowns and nailing interviews at the Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino which is on the Las Vegas Strip.

Las Vegas odds maker Johnny Avello said the auburn-haired Alyssa Campanella who represents California is the 8 to 1 favorite in the competition during just-for-fun odds.

This year is the 60^th anniversary for the pageant.  It has grown from being a bathing revue in Long Beach in 1952 to it’s now made-for-TV venture which is partly owned by tycoon Donald Trump and NBC.  NBC airs the pageant live to viewers on the East Coast.

Miss USA recently has been critiqued as judges at times have asked sticky questions and challenged the beauty queens to reveal their opinions more strongly than they might have wanted to do in the past pageants.

This year’s judges include several well-known celebrities, including Chef Rocco DiSpirito, actress Mariel Hemingway, Dallas Maverick center Tyson Chandler, magician Penn Jillette, and rapper and producer Lil Jon.

The show will be co-hosted by E! News Anchor Giuliana Rancic and Bravo’s Andy Cohen.

A stage performance by British rapper Tinie Tempah and Eric Turner is planned during the evening gown competition.

The Best Overwater Hut Resorts

Beach Hut Resorts

While beachfront resorts are common throughout the world, overwater bungalows offer something a little more specialized and exotic to your vacation.  With around two-thirds of the 90 overwater bungalow resorts in the world located in the Maldives, shallow lagoons and peaceful waters are abundant.

Check out some of the top Overwater Hut Resorts we’ve found:

Constance Moofushi Resort, Maldives

Not only home to some of the best dive sites in the world, there are many water villas located on this picturesque South Ari Atoll.  After deplaning at Maldives International Airport, take in the amazing views of the Indian Ocean from your chosen bungalow. The resort also offers many activities including night fishing, snorkeling and scuba diving. The resort’s “Robinson Crusoe” experience affords couples either a half or full day on a deserted island for an extra fee. Meals, drinks and other amenities are all-inclusive and start at $705 a night for single occupancy water villas.  During the holidays, the rates go up to $1,700 per night.

Four Seasons Bora Bora

The Four Seasons in Bora Bora offers 100 overwater villas which sit on stilts over the blue lagoon.  The roofs are thatched with pandanus leaves and the interiors are furnished in teak wood.  A 2011 TripAdvisor Travelers’ Choice award winner as one of the top hotels for romance and luxury in the South Pacific, the Four Seasons Bora Bora have villas with views of Mount Otemanu and some with private plunge pools for about $2,700 per night.

Bora Bora Nui Resort & Spa, Bora Bora

Another TripAdvisor 2011 Travelers’ Choice winner, Bora Bora Nui is on Motu Toopua.  Dozens of overwater bungalows are featured in the resort which features the only two-story overwater villas in French Polynesia.  The huts which provide unparalleled luxury encourage privacy throughout the resort.  During the summer with an advance purchase, a king overwater deluxe villa is around $1,170 per night.

DNA Match For Dominique Strauss-Kahn

DNA Match For Dominique

The DNA taken voluntarily from International Monetary Fund head Dominique Struss-Kahn matches material taken from the shirt portion of the uniform on the hotel maid who claims he assaulted her.

While Strauss-Kahn voluntarily submitted to the DNA testing after his arrest, he vehemently denies the maids allegations.  According to The Associated Press, testing is being performed on other items in addition to the maid’s uniform.  During the forensic evidence investigation, it is reported that authorities removed carpeting and took swabs under sinks and other surfaces from Dominique Strauss-Kahn’s hotel room.

This is the first scientific evidence recovered and provides the link between Strauss-Kahn and the maid.  There was no comment about the evidence from Strauss-Kahn’s lawyer Benjamin Brafman.  Although there is speculation that Brafman may present a defense consistent with a consensual act as he told a judge that any scientific evidence that may be gleaned from the investigation “will not be consistent with a forcible encounter.”

Strauss-Kahn has been charged with a criminal sex act, attempted rape and sexual abuse for the alleged attack on a 32-year-old maid which occurred in his luxury suite at the Sofitel hotel near Manhattan’s Times Square in the early morning of May 14. His lawyers proclaim his innocence.

Microsoft To Acquire Skype

Microsoft To Acquire Skype

Microsoft (MSFT) has announced that it had plans to pay $8.5 billion in cash and assumed debt to acquire Skype. The company, founded in 2003 by software writers Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friiswhose, former owners of the file sharing startup Kazaa, has been on the bidding block many times in its short life.

Skype has accumulated $686 million in debt since its inception yet its value has continued to grow.  In 2005, eBay (EBAY) bought Skype for $2.6 billion. The founders of the internet auction service had a vision of using the Skype interface for their buyers and sellers to communication with each other.  But eBay developers never integrated the Skype service into their auction format and eBay ended up selling 70 percent of Skype to a group of private investors for $2.75 billion.

Those investors included Silver Lake Partners, Index Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board. Skype’s popularity and profits continued to grow under that company’s ownership, and there was a fiercely competitive bidding in term. The only actual competing offer in August of 2009 came from Elevation Partners, a private equity firm co-founded by Bono, singer for the rock band U2.

In August of 2010, Skype filed to go public, announcing that it hoped to raise $1 billion. The rumors began that both Cisco and Google were considering offers for the company. Google was said to have pulled out over antitrust concerns.

The offer from Microsoft seems to be the only serious offer for Skype and their plans seem concrete for its use of the service as Redmond has said that Microsoft plans to integrate Skype’s service into everything the company does.  Microsoft’s inflated acquisition price for a company that doesn’t seem to turn much of a profit notwithstanding, it seems the rocky road has ended for Skype.

Sammy Wanjiru Leaps To Death

Champion Sammy Wanjiru Dies

Olympic champion Sammy Wanjiru, once described by London Marathon race direct David Bedford as the greatest male marathon runner the world has ever seen, leapt from a first-floor balcony at his home in the Rift Valley town of Nyahururu and died.

Three years ago in Beijing, the 24 year-old runner was the first Kenyan to win an Olympic marathon.  But the marathon winner has faced turbulent times and drama in his personal life which possibly contributed to his death.

According to the regional police chief, Wanjiru’s wife, Triza Njeri, discovered Sammy Wanjiru in bed with another woman after returning home unexpectedly.  She told authorities she locked Wanjiru and the woman in the room together and left the home.  It is said that Wanjiru jumped from the balcony moments later, dropping six meters and hitting his head on the concrete floor.  Police chief Jaspher Ombati said, “It is not yet clear whether it was a suicide or if he jumped out of rage, or what caused him to fall to the ground.”   He went on to describe Wanjiru’s injuries by saying, “He jumped from his first-floor balcony to the ground. He was bleeding from the nose and the mouth, and may have suffered internal injuries.”

Investigations into the death continue as interviews are being conducted by the police of Njeri and the unnamed female companion that Wanjiru was locked in his room with.  But Wanjiru’s agent, Frederico Rosa, said that he is “100 per cent certain” that Sammy Wanjiru did not commit suicide.

Wanjiru was charged with attempted murder of Triza Njeri in December after allegedly threatening to kill her with an assault rifle and assaulting her.  Wanjiru and Njeri later reconciled and the charges were withdrawn, however he was still charged with illegal possession of an assault rifle, having threatened Njeri with an AK-47, and the charges were said to be heard in the coming weeks.

Most Major US Cities’ Home Rates Decline

U.S Home Rates Decline

In almost all notable cities in the United States, home prices are dropping and a minimum of 10 major markets are already at their bottommost point since the housing fizz popped.

Housing prices weakened in 19 metro zones from January to February then 11 markets underwent more rapid charge declines in comparison with the preceding month, as shown by The Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller 20-city index.

On Tuesday, the index that was released chopped down for the seventh consecutive month. It is faintly exceeding the level hit in April 2009 which is the bottom point since the bubble burst. Market analysts anticipate the March index will drop preceding the low point.

Among the whys and wherefores of insufficient number of people buying and selling homes are stringent loaning rulebooks, elevated idleness and uncertainties that costs will diminish more. BNP Paribas analyst Bricklin Dwyer said, “There is evidence that potential sellers are holding their properties off the market, waiting for housing prices to stop falling.”

Even though the Motor City is one of five cities where home rates are, at the moment, lower than their January 2000 levels, Detroit was the single market to display a monthly gain.

Since 2006 or 2007, at the peak of the housing boom, rates in Atlanta, Charlotte, Chicago, Las Vegas, Miami, New York, Ore., Phoenix, Portland, Seattle and Tampa are totally at their lowest point. Meanwhile, the cities with the sharpest falloffs from January were Chicago, Miami, Minneapolis and San Francisco.

Jonathan Basile, an economist at Credit Suisse Securities, said, “It’s hard to sell when buyers have the leverage and foreclosures continue to create a gap between distressed sale prices and non-distressed sale prices.”

As stated by the Reuters/University of Michigan Survey of Consumers, over and above 90 percent of homeowners say that it’s not yet the right time to sell their homes.