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J.K. Rowling tops survey on inspiring entrepreneurs

LONDON (Reuters) – "Harry Potter" author J.K. Rowling topped a survey of female celebrities who inspire Britons to become their own boss.

Rowling beat U.S. talk show queen Oprah Winfrey and U.S. first lady Michelle Obama in the poll commissioned by website OfficeCavalry.com, which caters for the self-employed.

Nearly one fifth of respondents voted for Rowling, dubbed the world's first billionaire author for her hugely popular boy wizard series and the movies it inspired.

In the men's category, more than one quarter of those questioned voted for Alan Sugar, the British businessman and star of the UK version of TV show "The Apprentice".

Sugar was ahead of music producer and TV entrepreneur Simon Cowell, creator of "The X Factor" and "Britain's Got Talent", and Microsoft founder Bill Gates.

Following are the top-10 female and male lists, based on a poll of more than 2,000 self-employed Britons carried out by OnePoll in October.

Female celebrities inspiring Britons to become own boss:

1. J.K. Rowling

2. Katie Price

3. Karren Brady

4. Cheryl Cole

5. Oprah Winfrey

6. Victoria Beckham

7. Michelle Obama

8. Denise van Outen

9. Dannii Minogue

10. Kylie Minogue

Male celebrities inspiring Britons to become own boss:

1. Alan Sugar

2. Simon Cowell

3. Richard Branson

4. Peter Jones

5. Jamie Oliver

6. Bill Gates

7. Gordon Ramsay

8. Theo Paphitis

9. Jonathan Ross

10. David Beckham

(Reporting by Mike Collett-White, editing by Paul Casciato)

Kagame set for landslide in Rwandan presidential vote

KIGALI (AFP) – Rwandan President Paul Kagame headed for a landslide victory Tuesday after early results of a presidential election gave him a seemingly unassailable lead, sparking wild celebrations in the capital.

An unregistered opposition party alleged irregularities in Monday's vote and observers from the Commonwealth deplored a "lack of critical opposition voices" during a campaign marred by arrests and killings.

Tens of thousands of Kagame supporters packed Kigali's main football stadium for raucous festivities combining fireworks with reggae that lasted all night.

Rwanda's poll chief Chrysologue Karangwa announced overnight that Kagame won 92.9 percent of the votes cast in 11 out of Rwanda's 30 polling districts counted so far.

Supporters of Kagame's Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) walked home at daybreak and final results confirming the incumbent's victory were still not forthcoming more than 24 hours after polling stations closed.

Kagame's nearest challenger, Jean Damascene Ntawukuriryayo of the Social Democratic Party (PSD), was running a distant second with 4.9 percent. The other two candidates had 1.5 and 0.7 percent respectively.

A triumphant Kagame thanked the crowd for "making the right choice" and handing him another seven-year term, which is also supposed to be his last.

"We will continue to work for our country to be always first," he said at the stadium. "This is your victory and the victory of all Rwandan people."

Earlier in the rally officials announced Kagame had won 96.7 percent of the votes of Rwandans living abroad, sending the tens of thousands of fans in attendance into a frenzy.

Rwanda's poll chief had initially said results for all 30 districts would be available early Tuesday.

The former rebel's supporters credit him with ending Rwanda's 1994 genocide, which claimed some 800,000 lives, and ushering in stability and growth, but critics accuse him of undermining democracy and muzzling opponents.

Kagame insisted Monday that the election had been democratic and dismissed allegations the real opposition was de facto excluded from the vote.

Observers from the Commonwealth, of which Rwanda became a member last year, said the campaign was marked by "a lack of critical opposition voices."

"A number of opposition parties had earlier stated their intention to stand, but faced either legal or administrative problems, which resulted in their non-participation. Each case appears to be different, but the overall impact is a concern," the observers said in a statement.

Three new parties set up to challenge his rule were excluded from the election. They denounced the poll as a sham.

One of them, Unified Democratic Forces (UDF), claimed irregularities, saying that in some areas of the north and west voters had their voting cards "seized by the local authorities" on the eve of the poll. The cards were handed back just before the vote with "Voted" marked on them, UDF alleged.

Electoral commission officials have reported no major incidents.

Kagame, 52, has been the de facto leader of this central African nation since his Tutsi-dominated rebel group turned political party, the RPF, routed Hutu extremists after the genocide.

Kagame's government, thanks partly to generous international funding, has turned around the economy despite few natural resources, focusing on services and new technology as well as modernising agriculture.

But critics say that is just a facade for a repressive regime.

Human Rights Watch noted that in the six months ahead of the election campaign "a worrying pattern of intimidation, harassment and other abuses" emerged.

Several senior army officers have been arrested in recent months and one general, Faust Kayumba Nyamwasa, narrowly survived an assassination attempt in exile in South Africa.

An opposition journalist who claimed to have uncovered evidence of the regime's involvement in the attempted murder was shot dead days later.

Singer Cheryl Cole gets divorce from footballer

LONDON – Singer Cheryl Cole and her footballer husband Ashley Cole have been granted a divorce.

The celebrity couple did not attend the London court hearing Friday where a judge approved the split. The divorce becomes final after six weeks and a day, with the granting of a second decree.

The glittery pair are British tabloid favorites. They married in 2006 and announced their separation in February.

The case was listed only by initials — CAC v. AC. But a clerk read out "Cole v. Cole" to a courtroom empty except for media.

Cheryl Cole is a member of the pop group "Girls Aloud" and a judge on the TV talent show "The X Factor." Ashley Cole plays for Chelsea and England's national football (soccer) team.

UK wants GSK's Avandia pulled as EU reviews safety

LONDON (Reuters) – GlaxoSmithKline's diabetes drug Avandia should be pulled from sale because of concerns about heart risks, British drug regulators said on Monday ahead of a special European meeting on the drug's safety.

The strong line from safety experts in the drugmaker's home market is a fresh blow to a medicine that was once Glaxo's second biggest seller but has become a liability since being linked to increased heart attack risk in 2007.

The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) said it believed the risks of Avandia, known generically as rosiglitazone, outweighed its benefits and that "it no longer has a place on the UK market."

Spokesman Stephen Hallworth said the MHRA had put forward its position "robustly" to the European Medicines Agency (EMA) and would highlight its concerns again at a special meeting on the drug's future this week.

The EMA -- the decentralised European body responsible for licensing Avandia in 2000 -- will hold an extraordinary expert meeting on September 8 to review the drug's safety before finalizing its position at its next scheduled meeting on September 20 to 23.

London-based EMA said the additional meeting was necessary because of the complexity of the data being assessed.

The British Medical Journal (BMJ) and some leading doctors attacked the tardy response, calling for Avandia to be pulled off the market immediately and saying it should never have been licensed in the first place.

CALL FOR WITHDRAWAL IN JULY

British regulators' concerns about Avandia came to light following a BMJ investigation that found out the Commission on Human Medicines -- an independent working group advising UK ministers -- had recommended the withdrawal of Avandia in July.

A MHRA letter sent to doctors on July 26 merely advised them to "consider alternative treatments where appropriate."

Dr Deborah Cohen, who led the BMJ investigation, said letter was not clear enough, and the MHRA should have informed doctors of the commission's full opinion.

"Medicine is all about benefits versus risks," she said in a telephone interview. "And if a group of experts in drug safety believes the risks outweigh the benefits, that's an important message that would inform doctors when they're prescribing."

The BMJ's editor, Dr Fiona Godlee, told Reuters: "The time has now come for this drug to be withdrawn from the market."

Avandia used to be Glaxo's second-biggest drug, selling $3 billion in 2006 until health concerns emerged. Its sales plunged to $1.2 billion in 2009, or some 2.7 percent of group sales, as many doctors switched to Takeda's rival drug Actos.

John Yudkin of University College London said the problems with Avandia, which will also be the subject of a BBC Panorama programme on Monday, highlighted clear shortfalls in the regulatory system.

"Ten years after the release of rosiglitazone, we still cannot accurately quantify the harm to which we were exposing our patients," he said. "If the regulatory bodies do not insist on clear evidence of greater benefit than harm, they are failing in their basic purpose."

FDA DECISION

In the United States, health advisers recommended to regulators on July 14 that Avandia should be allowed to stay on the market but with additional warnings.

The Food and Drug Administration is expected to make a final decision on Avandia later this month and the agency usually follows recommendations from its advisory committees.

Glaxo said an extensive research programme showed Avandia was safe and effective when used appropriately according to its labeling.

The drugmaker has faced a slew of lawsuits in the U.S. but tried to put the issue behind it in July by taking a record legal charge of 1.57 billion pounds ($2.4 billion), partly to settle the bulk of the Avandia claims.

Britain's Department of Health said in a statement it was aware of concerns about Avandia, but advised patients not to stop taking their medication without talking to a doctor.

"MHRA has issued guidance to all healthcare professionals with clear warnings about the associated risks for some patients," it said. "Ministers have not been asked to make any decisions about the license of Avandia in the UK."

(Editing by Karen Foster)