Reuters: McCartney & Mills settle divorce 18 March

News from Reuters

Former Beatle Paul McCartney is expected to find out on Monday (March 17) how much of his fortune he must hand over to estranged wife Heather Mills when a judge rules on their acrimonious and highly public divorce. It's not yet known whether Judge Hugh Bennett will make public all or part of his decision.

Mills is believed by some legal experts to be asking for a payout equivalent to 100 million dollars and that he may be prepared to offer only about half that sum in what has become the most high-profile showbusiness marriage split since Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman went their separate ways.

Forty-three years after the Beatles gave a series of concerts at the Olympia in Paris, Paul McCartney is back to play at the prestigious concert hall. Four decades after playing Paris's legendary L'Olympia concert hall with the Beatles, Paul McCartney returns to the venue Monday saying "it's still exciting." Commenting on his decision to quit the EMI label for Starbucks' Hear Music, McCartney said that as the music industry changed through Internet use and downloads, "I started to think that the record companies don't know how to deal with it (the change)." Extract from press conference prior to McCartney's concert.

Nicolas Sarkozy's ex-wife married her Moroccan-born lover at New York's glitzy Rainbow Room on Sunday, just over a month after the French president wed former model and singer Carla Bruni. According to a program of the celebrations seen by AFP, Sarkozy's ex-wife, who goes by the name Cecilia Ciganer-Albeniz, married Richard Attias, a multi-millionaire events organizer, at a black tie ceremony at 7 pm (2300 GMT). Around 150 guests, many of whom flew in from Europe for the nuptials, were to celebrate with the couple at the 65th-floor Rainbow Room, one of the best-known private venues in New York.

European plane maker Airbus made an operating loss of more than a billion dollars last year despite record orders for its aircraft, forcing parent company EADS into the red, according to company results released on Tuesday. Airbus, struggling with cost overruns on its star A380 superjumbo project and delays with its A400M military plane, made an operating loss of 881 million euros (1.4 billion dollars), worse than the loss of 572 million euros in 2006. EADS itself reported a net loss of 446 million euros for 2007, following a collapse in its profits in 2006, but the giant aerospace and defence group forecast a return to profitability this year. Images and soundbites from EADS chief executive Louis Gallois.

Some 35.2 million euros ($54.5 million USD ) will be paid to victims to compensate for the theft of possessions during World War Two, a government-sponsored commission said on Tuesday (March 11). A further 75.4 million euros ($116 million) has been set aside for a Belgian foundation to honour the victims of the Holocaust and for its social, religious and cultural projects for Belgium's Jewish community.

Seating was limited to 2000 for the one-off concert in the French capital. Some fans camped outside the venue to ensure their place in the queue.

The latest celebrity news including Paul McCartney and estranged wife Heather Mills facing off in one of showbiz's bitterest and biggest divorce battles, plus a big night for Amy Winehouse and praise for Madonna. John Russell reports.