The pharmaceutical industry is one of the few sectors around that appears to be weathering these difficult times with relative ease. On Friday the European Commission suggested why that might be: it claims Big Pharma systematically rigged the market to squeeze out copycat medicines. By using patent lawsuits and other delaying tactics to prevent cheaper generic medicines from entering the market, the drug majors cost European consumers up to $4 billion over an eight-year period until 2007, ...

If you want a hotel in London this weekend, good luck. With the always-popular Chelsea Flower Show in full bloom , hotel availability was already at a premium. But on May 28, the final of the European Champions League soccer competition will be played at Wembley Stadium, and fans — and corporate hospitality departments — are taking over the town. London's never cheap, but the demand has pushed the rate for quite ordinary hotel rooms ...

The wrong people, the wrong drugs have taken over. English majors , fraternity boys and the down-and-outers who would have been bums anywhere are joining the culture. The aggressive psychotic drunk has sprung up now in the drug culture. Heroin and speed have replaced marijuana and LSD. Hippie violence against hippie has become commonplace. It is numbers: too many hippies. We can only afford so many people alienated from society. These are the words of Charlie Whitman, hippie lawyer from ...

Barclays have agreed a new three-year title sponsorship deal with the English Premier League which will be worth around $135million to top-flight clubs. The bank has sponsored the Premier League since 2004 and their current three-year contract, which expires next year, was worth $108m. Barclays' new deal will run from 2010/11 through to the end of the 2012/13 season and Premier League chief executive Richard Scudamore admitted he was pleased to continue the relationship with the bank. "We are extremely ...

Miss California USA officials want Carrie Prejean to repay $5,200 they say she borrowed to have her breasts augmented last year. The demand was a response to a lawsuit filed by Prejean in which she claimed pageant officials violated the former beauty queen's privacy by acknowledging to reporters that her breasts were fake. The truth about Prejean's breasts "ceased being private during the swimsuit competition of the nationally televised Miss USA pageant, in which Ms. Prejean walked the stage in ...

British singer Leona Lewis was "understandably shaken" after a man attacked her during a book signing in central London Wednesday afternoon, a spokeswoman for her record label said. A 29-year-old man was arrested after he punched Lewis at the Waterstones bookstore in Piccadilly Circus at 4:36 p.m. (10:36 a.m. ET), according to a Scotland Yard statement. She was signing copies of her new autobiography "Dreams" when the "unprovoked attack" happened, said Sarah Weinstein Dennison of the RCA Music Group. "The ...

David Beckham looks set to rejoin AC Milan on loan after the vice-president of the Serie A giants claimed it was "very probable" that a deal would be reached to secure the services of the soccer icon. Los Angeles Galaxy midfielder Beckham sparked controversy last season when he extended his loan with Milan until June and missed the start of the Major League Soccer season in the United States. When he returned to play for the Galaxy he received a ...

After bagging three gold medals and setting two world records at the Berlin world championships, Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt told CNN he didn't expect to be so successful. "I didn't see this coming," Bolt told CNN's Frederik Pleitgen. "I guess it's competition. I keep telling people competition is good for the sport. I had to be at my best, and I was at my best." During the championships, Bolt smashed his own 100 meter world record with a time of ...

Setting a world record, Joey Chestnut won Nathan's Famous Fourth of July International Hot Dog Eating Contest on Saturday, solidifying himself to many as the greatest gustatory athlete of all time. For the third straight year, Chestnut beat out his main rival, Takeru Kobayashi. The two lived up to their ravenous reputations. They made quick work of the 17 other eaters, and set personal best scores: Chestnut ate 68 dogs to Kobayashi's 64.5. The event lasts 10 minutes and the ...

Second seed Roger Federer is through to the last 16 of the men's singles at Wimbledon, despite dropping a set on his way to a Centre Court victory over Germany's Philipp Kohlschreiber. The Swiss, bidding for his sixth success at the grass-court grand slam, set-up a fourth round clash with Sweden's Robin Soderling -- his victim in last month's French Open final -- with a 6-3 6-2 6-7 6-1 win over the 27th seed. Federer, who now has the whole ...