
James Gandolfini, best known for his role as an anxiety-ridden mob boss on HBO’s “The Sopranos,” died after suffering a possible heart attack in Italy, an HBO spokeswoman and the actor’s managers said Wednesday. He was 51.

James Gandolfini, best known for his role as an anxiety-ridden mob boss on HBO’s “The Sopranos,” died after suffering a possible heart attack in Italy, an HBO spokeswoman and the actor’s managers said Wednesday. He was 51.

Singapore and Indonesia schedule an emergency meeting after haze in Singapore soars to hazardous levels, breaking all previous records.
Goldman Sachs lost out on an advisory role in one of the most significant deals this year—the sale of Smithfield Foods to China’s Shuanghui International Holdings—because of its investment in the Chinese company, according to people familiar with the matter.
China saw a fresh sign of economic weakness on Thursday, as an initial gauge of manufacturing health slumped to a nine-month low in June.
Asian markets were lower Thursday in the wake of Wednesday’s Federal Reserve policy meeting outcome and a weak China PMI reading. The Hang Seng fell 2.5%.

China’s second female astronaut, Wang Yaping, delivers the country’s first-ever video lecture from the Tiangong-1 space laboratory.

China has held its first classroom lecture from its orbiting space station as part of efforts to appeal to young people.

Brazilian authorities promise to reverse public transport fare rises that sparked unrest, but nationwide protests continue unabated.

The funeral of a teenager who was killed when a hen party’s minibus crashed will take place later.

Brussels says passengers going through the Channel Tunnel are paying over the odds, because Eurotunnel is overcharging the train companies for using the track.

A charity is advising people to cover their webcams when they are not in use because hackers could be using them to spy on you.

China’s seven day repo rate hit a record high of 12% according to Bloomberg, the biggest one-day increase since 2006. Meanwhile the overnight repo rate was quoted near 25%. The liquidity squeeze in China first began ahead of the Dragon Boat festival earlier this month. Spikes in interbank rates are common right before holidays. But Diana Choyleva at Lombard Street Research said this is symptomatic of a bigger problem. …
Will Jay-Z actually represent clients of his newly built sports agency Roc Nation Sports in contract negotiations? It sure looks like he’s ready to.

Author Mitchell Zuckoff tells the BBC about the remarkable series of rescue attempts after US planes crashed on a glacier in Greenland during WWII – and how some of the crew survived an Arctic winter on the ice.
The Spurs have never trailed in a Finals series, and this road Game 7 against the NBA’s best team in the regular season qualifies as their most perilous predicament, J.A. Adande writes.
LPL Financial has hired the former head of the SEC’s Boston office, as the brokerage-firm operator overhauls management in the wake of the biggest regulatory fine in its history.
The Heat eye a Game 7 at home against a Spurs franchise that has never lost a Finals.

England prop Alex Corbisiero is the surprise inclusion in the Lions team for the first Test against Australia on Saturday.
Mona’s first large-scale public art programme includes Rjoyi Ikeda’s Spectra – which creates a 15km tower of lightFrom the city, it looks like a great beacon; a shard of light breaking the darkness and beckoning Hobart towards the shores of the Derwent, slick and black in the evening gloom. From below, walking among the 48, military-grade searchlights arranged in a perfect grid, it is like being cocooned in a weightless protective cage; a vast light sculpture that rises 15km, cleaving through the Tasmanian sky.This is Spectra, Ryoki Ikeda’s installation that forms the central plank of Beam in Thine Own Eye, Mona’s first foray into large-scale public art in Hobart, the city some would say the museum is helping to rejuvenate. As an all-enveloping soundscape drifts across the park and darkness falls, strengthening the column’s display, people seemed pulled towards it, scooping up their dogs and deviating from their evening strolls – unable to resist its allure. It is a quite spectacular work: something to revisit close up multiple times, and also to gaze on from afar. Something I wish I’d stumbled upon without knowing anything about it – Hobartians caught unawares have been wondering what unearthly force they’re witnessing. …

Emmy season is in progress! Over the next two weeks, Emmy voters will be checking off names and shows they think are worthy of getting a nomination come July 18. We here at TVGuide.com have a few picks in mind ourselves. Next up: our dream ballot for Best Lead Actor in a Comedy Series. Read More > Other Links From TVGuide.com Arrested DevelopmentAlec BaldwinJason BatemanMatt LeBlancLouis C.K.Tina FeyJake JohnsonJim ParsonsMax Greenfield30 RockThe Big Bang TheoryEpisodesLouieNew Girl

“He wasn’t easy sometimes,” says David Chase. “But he was my partner, he was my brother”
Ahead of the Tape: The rally is “rite” on schedule for Rite Aid, with shares up sharply in 2013. Will the pharmacy chain be able to hang on to the gains this time?
A couple has filed a lawsuit against a South Florida sports bar where a deck collapsed into Biscayne Bay last week.

Brutal day for the Australian dollar. First it dived after the Fed’s hawkish press conference. Then just now it’s falling after that bad Chinese Flash PMI. This is the perfect storm: Weakening demand for commodities from China, and a strengthening US dollar thanks to an improving US economy and monetary tightening.Join the conversation about this story »

A genetic similarity between snail fossils found in Ireland and the Eastern Pyrenees suggests humans migrated from southern Europe to Ireland 8,000 years ago.
Smaller-jet makers Embraer and Bombardier have drawn attention with contrasting order books at the Paris Air Show, with Bombardier yet to snare any orders for its coming CSeries jets.

Too many mentally ill people are being held in police cells, say four watchdog bodies.

The Nikkei was down as much as 1.3% to 13,073, after the Fed signaled on Wednesday that it could begin to taper its bond buying program this year. The FOMC upwardly revised its economic forecasts and in prepared remarks Fed chairman Ben Bernanke said the bond buying could be completely finished by 2014 if economic conditions continue to be supportive. The Nikkei has since pared some of its losses and is down 0.7%. A look at the five-day shows the early sell-off in the Nikkei after the Fed announcement: Join the conversation about this story »

Jaime Pressly has a drastic new ‘do. The… Read More > Other Links From TVGuide.com Jaime PresslyMy Name Is Earl

Civilian staff at five RAF stations across England are striking in a dispute over their pay.

England’s NHS regulator is to review a decision not to name those behind a possible “cover-up” after a series of baby deaths at a Cumbria hospital.

Hollywood was stunned by the sudden loss of James Gandolfini on Wednesday. The Sopranos star — whose other man credits include The Mexican, True Romance, Zero Dark Thirty and Not Fade Away — died of an apparent heart attack while vacationing in Italy. Here’s what his co-stars and fellow celebrities had to say about his sudden passing: Read More > Other Links From TVGuide.com The SopranosTrue RomanceThe MexicanJames GandolfiniZero Dark ThirtyNot Fade Away

The artist Doug Aitken has organized a three-week journey from New York to San Francisco, with 10 stops in between, called “Station to Station: a Nomadic Happening,” which will include not only shows by visual artists but also music, poetry and food.

Men’s Wearhouse fired executive chairman and spokesman George Zimmer, The Associated Press reports. In addition to his role in helping the company become one of North America’s largest men’s clothier’s, Zimmer was also known for appearing in … Read More >

Netflix’s original series Hemlock Grove has been renewed for a second season, the company announced Wednesday. Charles Eglee (The Walking Dead. Dexter) will join the delightfully absurd supernatural drama as executive producer and showrunner. Read More > Other Links From TVGuide.com Eli RothDexterThe Walking DeadCharles EgleeHemlock Grove

A school librarian has discovered that a poem widely attributed to William Blake, including in official reading lists, was not really written by him.

Legendary musical Miss Saigon returns to London’s West End in 2014, its 25th anniversary year.

Austrian director Michael Haneke is well known for his reluctance to interpret his own work but now a documentary provides a close study of his work.

Yields on U.S. Treasuries have soared since May 3 as bonds have sold off and investors have yanked money out of bond funds, driven by fears that the Federal Reserve would begin to signal tapering back of the bond purchases it makes under its quantitative easing program of monetary stimulus sooner rather than later. Today, the Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke had the opportunity to push back against the rise in rates and allay market volatility, which is exactly what the market consensus expected of him. Bernanke ended up doing the opposite – he essentially encouraged the rise in yields, saying it was for good reasons – and investors began dumping bonds, sending the yield on the 10-year Treasury note to 2.35% at the close, up 14 basis points from where it was before the release of the FOMC monetary policy statement and subsequent Bernanke presser this afternoon. The natural question, as UBS economists led by Maury Harris put it, is this: How much more bond market damage? …
The plights of the world’s threatened birds show the value of investing in conservation, according to an international report.

A new movement is encouraging Brazilians in Sao Paulo to plant gardens up the walls of buildings as a solution to the city’s lack of affordable green space.
The Tuesday night interview between Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling and Byron Scott went very well, according to sources with knowledge of the meeting.
Discussions between the Los Angeles Clippers and Boston Celtics on a deal that would send Kevin Garnett and coach Doc Rivers to Los Angeles resumed on Wednesday just one day after they were declared “off” by both sides, sources told ESPN.

James Gandolfini, the US actor best known for his role as the mob boss in The Sopranos, has died, HBO television network tells the BBC.

UN head Ban Ki-moon expresses outrage over a “despicable” attack by Islamists on a UN office in Somalia which killed at least 15 people.
SandRidge Energy chief Tom Ward was ousted by the company’s board and given an about $90 million severance package following a probe of the oil-and-gas producer’s dealings with businesses controlled by members of his family.