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Activist investor Guy Wyser-Pratte said he is seeking board seats at French phone directories company PagesJaunes ( id="symbol_PAJ.PA_0"> PAJ.PA ) to force its biggest shareholder - U.S. private equity firm Cerberus - to cut the group's debt. PagesJaunes has been struggling with big debts since a private equity buyout of the company in 2006. The firm has also had to cope with the impact of the Internet on its printed directories businesses. Wyser-Pratte, a U.S. investor who focuses on European companies, has built up a 0.85 percent stake in PagesJaunes, which he said was enough to mount a challenge to Cerberus CBS.UL.   Cerberus became PagesJaunes' biggest shareholder, with 28 percent of voting rights, via the purchase of debt from Mediannuaire, a holding company controlled by Goldman Sachs Group ( id="symbol_GS.N_2"> GS.N ) and private equity firm KKR & Co ( id="symbol_KKR.N_3"> KKR.N ). A restructuring earlier this year has cu

Retail sales unexpectedly rose in April, pointing to underlying strength in the economy and leading forecasters to bump up second-quarter growth estimates. The surprise gain in retail sales, which account for about 30 percent of consumer spending, was the latest sign of resilience in an economy that has been hit by belt-tightening in Washington as the government tries to cut its budget deficit. "It's more indication that our economy is growing. It's not growing as rapidly as a lot of people would like, but things are improving," said Tom Hall, an economics professor at Miami University's Farmer School of Business in Oxford, Ohio.   Retail sales edged up 0.1 percent after a 0.5 percent drop in March as households bought automobiles, building materials and a range of other goods, the Commerce Department said on Monday. Economists had expected a decrease of 0.3 percent. So-called core sales, which strip out automobiles, gasoline and building materials and corr

Matthew Winkler, editor-in-chief of Bloomberg News, apologized on Monday for allowing journalists "limited" access to sensitive data about how clients used Bloomberg terminals, saying it was "inexcusable", but that important customer data had always been protected. _0"> His statement came as the European Central Bank said it was in "close contact with Bloomberg" about any possible breaches in the confidentiality of data usage. The U.S. Federal Reserve and the Bundesbank, Germany's central bank, said they were examining whether there could have been leaks. A source briefed on the situation said the U.S. Treasury Department was looking into the question as well.   The practice of giving reporters access to some data considered proprietary - including when a customer looked into broad categories such as equities or bonds - came to light in media reports last week. In response, the parent company, Bloomberg LP, said it had restricted such acce

Wall Street ended little changed on Monday as investors took a breather after indexes hit more record highs last week, but stronger-than-expected retail sales data kept declines in check. _0"> The Dow Jones industrial average .DJI was down 26.73 points, or 0.18 percent, at 15,091.76. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index .SPX was up 0.07 points, or 0.00 percent, at 1,633.77. The Nasdaq Composite Index .IXIC was up 2.21 points, or 0.06 percent, at 3,438.79.   (Reporting by Angela Moon; Editing by Nick Zieminski)

Transocean Ltd ( id="symbol_RIG.N_0"> RIG.N ) said on Monday that Chairman Michael Talbert will step down later this year, in a move that comes just days before the culmination of a fight between the offshore driller and investor Carl Icahn in which Talbert was a target. Talbert, a director since 1994 who was also chief executive from 1994 to 2002, told the board that if re-elected at the upcoming shareholder meeting on May 17, he will step down as chairman by November and leave the board no later than the 2014 annual meeting, Transocean said. Icahn, who owns 5.6 percent of Transocean, has opposed Talbert's re-election. The activist investor has been campaigning for a higher dividend payout for months and is calling for major changes to the Switzerland-based company's board ahead of the annual meeting. "We find it to be utterly absurd that a Chairman facing the prospect of losing his directorship would be so brazen as to ask shareholders to return him as

More than 30 years ago in the south of France , the camera switched its focus to the celebrity-obsessed artist Andy Warhol, who became the reluctant subject of a photo study that was then relegated to a storage cabinet filed under "W." _0"> Sometime last year, a friend of photographer Steve Wood happened upon the trove of 35mm slides and persuaded wood that the "lost" images deserved their Warhol-allotted 15 minutes of fame. The resulting exhibition, "Lost Then Found," opens on May 3 for 10 days in New York, and features unusual shots such as Warhol posing with a giant sunflower and backpack, or shown winking, with eyes closed and in close-up head shots. "These photographs reveal a different Warhol than most of us have ever witnessed," said Christopher Bollen, editor of Interview magazine, which Warhol founded in 1969 and which is supporting the exhibition.   "It's a testament to the photographer and an opportunity to re-a

An artist who paints portraits of imaginary people joined a French-born filmmaker, a British-German performance artist and a British multimedia artist on the shortlist for modern art's most prestigious and controversial award on Thursday. _0"> The portraits of Lynette Yiadom-Boakye, the first black woman to be named a finalist for the annual 25,000-pound ($38,200) Turner Prize, appear traditional but are of imaginary people with invented histories, the Tate Britain museum said. Laure Prouvost's films employ quick cuts, montage and deliberate misuse of language to create "surprising and unpredictable work", said the Tate, which chairs the prize. British-German Tino Sehgal's "intimate works" consist purely of live encounters between people, and David Shrigley's "macabre" multimedia works dwell on black humor, it said.   The Turner Prize rewards British artists aged under 50 for an "outstanding exhibition or other presentat

In a closely watched case in the art world, American artist Richard Prince won a federal appeals court order Thursday holding that he did not infringe the copyrights of a photographer by incorporating his images into 25 paintings and collages. The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York reversed a lower court's finding that Prince must hand over artwork using the photos to Patrick Cariou, whose pictures of Rastafarians in Jamaica were incorporated into art, exhibited in 2007 and 2008.   "These twenty-five of Prince's artworks manifest an entirely different aesthetic from Cariou's photographs," U.S. Circuit Judge Barrington Parker wrote. The court battle has been considered a test to what extent the appropriation of artists' works is protected from claims of copyright infringement. The appeal drew friend-of-the-court briefs from a wide range of parties, from the Whitney Museum of American Art to Google Inc, which warned the lower court's ruling

Enlisting the drama of Prokofiev and the elegance of Tchaikovsky, St Petersburg's new Mariinsky theatre staged a gala opening on Thursday designed to silence critics of the starkly modernist building erected in the heart of Russia's imperial capital. The $700-million glass and limestone building, which critics have dubbed the "Mariinsky mall", glowed in the night sky, its glass and metal walkways humming with excited voices as the select crowd of 2,000 found their seats.   Just opposite, across a canal, the 19th century original opera house, one of the great showcases of Russian culture which became home to the Kirov opera and ballet companies in Soviet times, stood silent for the evening. "We need breathe life into the theatre. We want it to live, so that people are attracted and can feel the charm of modern technology. Then it will shine in all its glory," President Vladimir Putin told the guests, who included leading Russian businessmen. Calling th

With a billion dollars worth of art on offer at their spring auctions in New York, Christie's and Sotheby's are looking to the post-war and contemporary works to drive the market this month. The sales of the newer works are expected to exceed those of the once-dominant Impressionist and modern field by anywhere from 50 to 100 percent, according to estimates.   While both Christie's and Sotheby's have a pair of Impressionist or modern paintings valued at $20 million or $30 million-range, both houses' contemporary sales feature at least three works that are expected to fetch $30 million to $40 million, and possibly more. Records are likely to fall for artists such as Jean-Michel Basquiat and Gerhard Richter, who already holds the record price for a work by any living artist at auction. "The supply of $30-million-plus paintings and high-quality material is far greater than what you can find in the Impressionist and modern field," said Brett Gorvy, Chri

With their black leather, studded jackets, ripped jeans, bondage trousers and messages of rebellion and anarchy, punks from the 1970s probably never envisioned that a major museum would be celebrating their influence on fashion 40 years later. But the Costume Institute of The Metropolitan Museum of Art is doing just that with a new exhibition, "Punk: Chaos to Couture," that opens on May 9 and runs through August 14. It includes 100 punk styles and ranges from the mid-70s at Vivienne Westwood's and Malcolm McLaren's London boutique and images of The Sex Pistols to examples of punk's impact on haute couture and designers such as Alexander McQueen, Helmut Lang, Miuccia Prada and John Galliano.   Films and music from the era and a re-creation of the graffiti-covered toilet at New York's CBGB punk rock club, where Blondie, the Ramones and Talking Heads played, add to the gritty authenticity of the exhibit. "Punk was all about celebrating the individual,

The spring auctions got off to a strong start on Tuesday with Sotheby's solid sale of Impressionist and modern art which took in $230 million, led by a $42 million Cezanne still life and a $26 million Modigliani portrait. A year after Sotheby's set the world auction record for any work of art with its sale of Edvard Munch's "The Scream" for $120 million, it managed a sale of works by Picasso, Rodin and Monet that saw 85 percent of 71 lots on offer finding buyers and came in just under its high pre-sale estimate of $235 million.   Calling its offerings "an extraordinary group of material," Simon Shaw, New York head of Impressionist and modern art for Sotheby's, said "it's very satisfying to see that the market agreed with us." "If anyone needed a signal that the Impressionist market is not just alive but thriving, this sale provided the evidence," Shaw added. The once-dominant Impressionist market has been eclipsed in re

A record was set for French artist Chaim Soutine on Wednesday at Christie's auction of Impressionist and modern art, which met expectations with a total of just under $160 million. The tightly edited sale of 47 works exceeded Christie's auction a year ago by more than $40 million, but the earlier evening featured only 31 lots. Still, an impressive 94 percent of the works on offer found buyers which officials said was its best sell-through rate since 2006.   "We saw high demand for blue-chip names such as Picasso and Monet," said Brooke Lampley, Christie's New York head of Impressionist and modern art. "But we also saw an educated marketplace for rarities like the Soutine and Chagall," she added, referring to the evening's two top-priced works. Officials also pointed to global presence, saying more than 30 countries participated in the auction which totaled $158.5 million, near the middle of expectations of about $130 million to $190 million.

Actor Leonardo DiCaprio, the star of the new film "The Great Gatsby," and his foundation have teamed up with Christie's for a charity auction next week to benefit environmental causes. Thirty-three works, many created for and donated to the auction by some of the world's top artists, will go under the hammer on Monday in New York at The 11th Hour Auction, which aims to raise as much as $18 million to protect the last wild places on Earth and their endangered species.   "A lot of the works of this quality have never been at auction. We have what we believe are conservative estimates," Loic Gouzer, international specialist at Christie's and the head of the sale, said in an interview. "It is going to be the biggest one-time environmental fundraiser ever," he added. Zeng Fanzhi's "The Tiger," an oil on canvas, Bharti Kher's "The Skin Speaks a Language Not Its Own," a work on fiberglass, and Mark Grotjahn's &qu

New Orleans shooting, New Orleans police say that a dozen people have been shot during a Mother’s Day second-line parade. Police Superintendent Ronal Serpas told reporters at least 12 people were shot during the parade in the city’s 7th Ward. Police say the incident happened about 2 p.m. Sunday at the intersection of Frenchmen and Villere streets. The Times-Picayune reports there were about 200 people at the event when gunfire erupted. Serpas told reporters the victims include a 10-year-old who sustained a minor wound. WDSU-TV reports at least four people were in surgery and others had been taken to four area hospitals. Nobody has been arrested. It’s unclear what sparked the gunfire. Police are said to be looking for three people in connection with the attack.

New Orleans shooting: NOPD Superintendent Ronal Serpas says that at least 12 people were shot at a Mother's Day second-line parade in the 7th Ward. The youngest victim in the shooting was 10 years old. Police say there were 200 people at the corner where shots rang out, and 300 to 400 people at the second line in all. EMS took nine people to University Hospital; eight were suffering from gunshot wounds, while another was injured in a fall while escaping the shooting. Three of those victims who were shot are in critical condition. There were about 10 cops on the scene trying to control the second line when the shooting happened. There were reportedly two different guns involved. Police believe three suspects were involved. They were seen fleeing toward Claiborne Avenue. There was a shooting nearby just last week at Frenchmen and Claiborne. We have a reporter at the scene and will have the latest during the 5:30 p.m. newscast

New Orleans shooting, The NOPD is on the scene of a shooting near the intersection of Frenchmen and North Villere Streets where 12 people were shot during a Mother's Day second line. Chief Serpas announced in a press conference that the youngest victim is believed to be a 10-year-old girl. Police say she suffered a graze wound. Police say about 300 people were attending a second line when gun shots rang out. Police are looking for three suspects in this incident. Around 12:30 p.m., police responded to a separate shooting the 2400 block of South Saratoga Street in Central City where another man was shot. His condition is unknown at this time.

Seth Meyers replaces Jimmy Fallon on his late night show time slot. On May 12, ABC News reported that this is going to happen in the upcoming season. What do you think of this news? That doesn't mean that Jimmy Fallon won't still be on TV. He will just be in a different time slot and Seth Meyers will have a show at this normal time. Fall is moving up to replace Jay Leno on his show and will be in that time slot from now on. News already came out about Fallon moving in to fill the shoes of Jay Leno. The fact that they are giving Seth Meyers has been a rumor, but is just now coming out for sure. Seth has been on the show "Weekend Update" and he is also a writer for "Saturday Night Live." What do you think of the addition of Seth Meyer to late night? Do you plan to watch him?

Lamborghini Egoista: The Egoista was dramatically revealed by brand boss Stephan Winkelmann at a dinner held to mark the end of the week-long drive by 350 Lamborghinis through Italy, organized in celebration of the marquee’s 50th birthday. Lamborghini has confirmed that the Walter De Silva designed car takes its name from the fact that it has just one seat. The styling is said to be inspired by that of an Apache helicopter, and early reports suggest the lightweight car is extensively made of carbon fiber and that the cockpit canopy can be removed to save weight. Power comes from a 5.2-litre V10 engine. De Silva is quoted as saying: "This is a car made for a single person, to have fun and to express their own personality. It is designed for people who want the most extreme and most special things in the world. This car represents extremes of hedonism; it is a car without compromise. In a word, it is selfish." Few details of the Egoista concept are currently available,

Least-safe cities, A recent poll found that residents around Memphis, Tenn. were the least likely to feel safe walking alone at night, while Minneapolis-St. Paul residents said they were most likely to feel safe. Only around 55 percent of Memphis residents said they felt safe walking alone at nighttime, a poll from Gallup found. In New Orleans, around 59 percent of residents felt safe, while only 61 percent of Riverside-San Bernardino, Calif., residents said they felt safe, Gallup says. Sixty-three percent of Houston residents and 63 percent of Jacksonville, Fla., residents felt secure. In contrast, 80 percent of those who lived in the Minneapolis area said they felt secure. Regarding the most safe cities, 78 percent of Denver residents felt safe; 78 percent of Raleigh, North Carolina residents felt a sense of security; 77 percent of Boston residents felt the same; 77 percent of Salt Lake City residents said they felt safe; and 77 percent of Austin, Texas residents felt likewise, acco

Lamborghini Egoista, Supercar concept unveiled by Lamborghini at their 50th birthday party tonight has an official name: the Lamborghini Egoista, which literally means "selfish" in Italian. Seriously. I am not joking. A few of you commenters pointed out in the earlier story that the name was probably "Egoista", and you turned out to be right, contrary to early reports on Twitter and Facebook that called it "Ecosta" or "Ecosita." So why is it for selfish people? Because it only has one seat, that's why. You know how the McLaren F1 had three seats? This has two less than that. According to the Italian-only (for now) press release we were sent, the car has aviation-inspired styling with a ton of carbon fiber and a 5.2-liter V10 engine. Here's what designer Walter De Silva said, translated from Italian: "This is a car ... made for a single person, to have fun and to express own personality to the Nth degree. And designed just for an a

Seth Meyers replaces Fallon, It’s official: Saturday Night Live’s Seth Meyers is NBC’s new late-night host. NBC will hand the reins of the Late Night franchise to the SNL head writer and Weekend Update anchor next year. Meyers will take over the 12:35 a.m. slot after current host Jimmy Fallon vacates the show to take over The Tonight Show from Jay Leno. Meyers has been the odds-on favorite to assume the post since March, as SNL executive producer Lorne Michaels is also the executive producer on Late Night. “We think Seth is one of the brightest, most insightful comedy writers and performers of his generation,” said NBC entertainment chairman Bob Greenblatt. “His years at SNL‘s Weekend Update desk, not to mention being head writer of the show for many seasons, helped him hone a topical brand of comedy that is perfect for the Late Night franchise.” “I only have to work for Lorne for five more years before I pay him back for the time I totaled his car,” Meyers said. “Twelve-thirty on NBC

LeBron James mocked: LeBron James took a dramatic flop against the Chicago Bulls on Friday night and now Chicago is going after the Heat star for what they call a badly choreographed acting job. Following the game Nate Robinson told Yahoo Sports: “You see LeBron in a lot of commercials, a lot of good acting.” NBA fans have long known that LeBron for all his skill on the court also loves to gain an edge wherever possible. Push him the wrong way and his giant frame goes flying, knock into him and suddenly its the worst offense in the history of professional basketball. On Friday night LeBron James threw Nazr Mohammed to the ground as he attempted to stop a fast break. In response to his obvious attack James was handed a technical foul. Not believing he got all he deserved Mohammed Nazr quickly threw LeBron to the ground. As James slide to the court he then appears to keep sliding backward for an infinite amount of time. On video the slide was an obvious embellishment but it wa

Kristen Wiig SNL, Kristen Wiig makes her much-anticipated first return to Saturday Night Live tonight after leaving at the end of last season. After a week of weird last time with Zach Galifianakis, Wiig’s fans are likely hoping the show goes two-for-two on the zany front, allowing Wiig to bring back some of her favorites such as Penelope or Target Lady. (Sorry, but in my opinion the Gilly drink with Justin Timberlake was more than enough of that character this season.) Much like Timberlake earlier this year, it’ll be interesting to see if the show plays like a DVD repeat of The Best of Kristen Wiig or if, together with the writers, Wiig creates some new crazy ladies to add to her diverse repertoire. Both the Jodi Arias trial and Charles Ramsey seem ready for the Saturday Night Live treatment. I can see her taking her standard silliness and battling against Nancy Grace (Kate McKinnon) for parking lot coverage of the trial or something like that. Wiig will be joined by musical guest Va

Castro brothers knew nothing, When Ariel Castro was arrested last week on charges of kidnapping and raping three women for more than a decade in his Cleveland home, police also detained his two brothers, showing their mugshots to the world. Police released Pedro and Onil Castro a few days later, saying neither man had anything to do with the alleged abductions and torture of Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight. The men, both in their 50s, are now in hiding in an undisclosed location, as are other family members, including their 71-year-old mother. The brothers say their homes have had rocks thrown through the windows -- one of them was broken into -- and they have been receiving death threats online. In an exclusive interview with CNN, which took place outside Cleveland, the Castro brothers say they are grateful the three girls are finally free and safe, but they are haunted by missing clues and hunted by the media. Unable to go home, they say they are trapped for something

Goat jumps on pig, on any ranking of cuteness, baby goats have to be right up there with puppies and kittens. The little kids – they’re usually born as twins and triplets – nuzzle one another, sniff your face and wobble about on knobby legs.  So it’s no surprise that Noreen O’Connell loves her baby goats, and recently there’s been a lot to love. Every other day in April it seemed baby goats were being born at her farm on Federal Hill Road. Noreen and her husband, Tim, have been farming here for 37 years, and at one time or another they raised pigs, cows and chickens. But she didn’t love them the way she loves her little kids. “I don’t know why we didn’t have goats 30 years ago,” Noreen said as she watched 2-day-old goats struggle to climb a step stool. Butternut Farm has long produced a wide range of vegetables on about six acres, “arugula to zucchini,” as Noreen likes to say, as well as cut-your-own flowers and Christmas trees. But it’s the goats Noreen is excited about now. The O’Co

Jack Butler dies, Hall of famer helped revolutionize the way cornerbacks played in the NFL during his Hall of Fame career with the Pittsburgh Steelers, died Saturday after a lengthy battle with a staph infection. He was 85. Butler's son John said his father's heart stopped suddenly Saturday morning. The elder Butler had spent the last several months in the hospital dealing with a staph infection that plagued him since his career ended in 1959. "It had been a long road," John Butler said. "It wasn't completely out of the blue." Abcnews reports Unlike Butler's professional career. The Pittsburgh native played wide receiver at St. Bonaventure and was planning on returning to school to get his master's degree when he received a phone call from Steelers business manager Fran Fogarty in the summer of 1951. To be honest, Butler assumed Fogarty had the wrong number. "I didn't know anything about professional football," Butler said. I

Jack Butler dies, Hall of Famer who helped revolutionize the way cornerbacks played in the NFL during his Hall of Fame career with the Pittsburgh Steelers, died Saturday after a lengthy battle with a staph infection. He was 85. Butler's son John said his father's heart stopped suddenly Saturday morning. The elder Butler had spent the last several months in the hospital dealing with a staph infection that plagued him since his career ended in 1959. "It had been a long road," John Butler said. "It wasn't completely out of the blue." Unlike Butler's professional career. The Pittsburgh native played wide receiver at St. Bonaventure and was planning on returning to school to get his master's degree when he received a phone call from Steelers business manager Fran Fogarty in the summer of 1951. To be honest, Butler assumed Fogarty had the wrong number. "I didn't know anything about professional football," Butler said. It didn

Group of Seven finance officials agreed on Saturday to redouble efforts to deal with failing banks and gave a green light to Japan's drive to galvanize its economy. British finance minister George Osborne said the finance ministers and central bankers meeting 40 miles outside London focused on unfinished bank reforms, with signs that plans for a euro zone banking union are fraying. "It is important to complete swiftly our work to ensure that no banks are too big to fail," Osborne told reporters after hosting a two-day meeting in a stately home set in rolling countryside. "We must put regimes in place ... to deal with failing banks and to protect taxpayers and to do so in a globally consistent manner," he said. The emergency rescue of Cyprus after a near meltdown in March served as a reminder of the need to finish an overhaul of the banking sector, five years after the world financial crisis began. Germany has come under pressure to give more support t

Chrysler Group LLC is recalling about 469,000 SUVs worldwide to update software after some vehicles' circuit boards were found to be transmitting signals that trigger inadvertent gear shifts to neutral, the No. 3 U.S. automaker said Saturday. _0"> Included are 2006- to 2010-model-year Jeep Commanders and 2005 to 2010 Jeep Grand Cherokees, of which about 295,000 are in the United States, 28,500 are in Canada and 4,200 are in Mexico. The remaining 141,000 are outside of North America. Chrysler was aware of 26 accidents and 2 injuries related to the gearshift problem but no fatalities, a company spokesman said. It was Chrysler's largest recall since more than 900,000 Jeep Grand Cherokee and Liberty SUVs were recalled worldwide in November to fix a part that could cause airbags to deploy inadvertently. Chrysler, an affiliate of Italy's Fiat SpA ( id="symbol_FIA.MI_0"> FIA.MI ), also said it is recalling 532 2013-model-year Ram 1500 pickup trucks in t

Bloomberg LP customers, including the U.S. Federal Reserve and the U.S. Treasury, were examining on Saturday whether there could have been leaks of confidential information, even as the media company restricted its reporters' access to client data and created a position to oversee compliance in a bid to assuage privacy concerns. The financial data and news company, whose computer terminals are widely used on Wall Street, had allowed journalists to see some information about terminal usage, including when customers had last logged in, and how often they used messaging or looked up data on broad categories, such as equities or bonds. Bloomberg CEO Daniel Doctoroff said in a statement on Friday that the firm restricted reporters' access last month after a client complained. The client, Goldman Sachs Group Inc ( id="symbol_GS.N_0"> GS.N ), flagged the matter to Bloomberg after a news service reporter in Hong Kong asked the bank about a partner's employment st