| | May 30, 2012 | | NEW ROLE Kristen Stewart has won a BAFTA, appeared in films by David Fincher and Sean Penn, and is one of the most bankable actresses in Hollywood. She’s also impressive in Snow White and the Huntsman, in theaters June 1. So why is the Twilight star so hated? The Daily Beast’s Marlow Stern investigates. DEBT CRISIS As of last Friday, Spain is now the biggest threat to the euro zone, which has offered the country an extra year to reduce its budget deficit on conditions that it installs further financial-sector reforms and recapitalizes its downgraded banks. Italy will not be given the same extension, since its economy is forecast to begin growing again next year. The EU also called for a banking union to help break the cycle of indebted states’ bailing each other out. Meanwhile, the U.S. Treasury sent a top official to discuss plans for managing the debt crisis in Germany, Spain, France, and Greece, which would face an economic catastrophe if it were forced out of the euro. INTERVENTION Russia and China both opposed a United Nations–sponsored intervention on Wednesday, one day after special envoy Kofi Annan returned from Damascus and said that Syria is at a “tipping point.” Russia’s deputy foreign minister said Wednesday that the country is “categorically against” foreign intervention in Syria and that any new steps by the Security Council—on which both Russia and China hold important veto power—would be “premature.” Annan arrived in Damascus earlier this week to meet with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, although those talks have reportedly gone nowhere. Meanwhile, Turkey—neighboring Syria—expelled Syrian diplomats, becoming the 13th country since Tuesday to order diplomats to leave. The U.N. misison said on Wednesday that 13 dead bodies were found with their hands tied behind their backs in Deir ez Zor, in the eastern part of the country. ARMED AND DANGEROUS Police are frantically searching for a suspect who shot dead three people and wounded three others at a café in two separate shootings in Seattle's University District, in the north part of the city. Cops are investigating to see if the two shootings were related. Two men were killed at a coffeehouse and a woman died in an apparent carjacking. Another three were shot; those surviving victims were rushed to the hospital, one of them fighting for his life and the others sustaining serious injuries. The suspect is believed to be a white male between 30 and 40 years old. Witnesses said he fled the café shooting scene on foot. OUCH Hopefully his new bride didn’t marry him for the money. Mark Zuckerberg was knocked off the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, which ranks the top 40 billionaires in the world. When Facebook went public on May 18 and its share price fell nearly 10 percent in 10 days, the social network’s founder’s value dropped on paper from $16.2 billion to $14.7 billion. Zuckerberg’s wealth is now $800 million below the last person on the list, Colombian banker Luis Carlos Sarmiento. Zuckerberg, who has been away on his honeymoon after his surprise wedding to longtime girlfriend Priscilla Chan, has not commented publicly about the stock’s debut. | |
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