Indian jeweller pulls ‘racist’, ‘slave-child’ ad with Bollywood actress

By Nita Bhalla NEW DELHI (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – A major Indian jewellery chain has withdrawn an advert featuring Bollywood actress Aishwarya Rai Bachchan with a dark-skinned boy holding a parasol over her after it was slammed by activists and on social media for being racist and promoting child slavery. Kalyan Jewellers, which employs about 4,000 people across India, said the advertisement featured in a national newspaper on April 17 was intended to present “royalty, timeless beauty and elegance”

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Online store merger prods luxury goods makers toward Internet

By Astrid Wendlandt and Pascale Denis PARIS (Reuters) – The merger of the world's two biggest online fashion stores, Net-a-Porter (NAP) and Yoox, sends a warning to luxury brands to embrace the Internet with more vim after years of resistance. “It looks like they are scared to try things out.” Sharma said many brands' websites mimicked the appearance of Net-a-Porter's black-and-white portal.

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As Amazon parties on, some large fund managers take their leave

The average large-cap fund that holds Amazon has 1.4 percent of its assets in the stock, down 23 percent from this time last year, according to the latest available Lipper data. They include such well-known names as Fidelity Contrafund, Washington Mutual Investors Fund, Touchstone Sands Select Growth fund and the T.

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Ryan Gosling dismisses ‘Hey Girl,’ discusses new film at SXSW

By Piya Sinha-Roy AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) – With a drop of a microphone, Ryan Gosling dispelled his Internet infamy, saying he had never once uttered the phrase, “Hey Girl,” which has made him a viral phenomenon. Gosling was the anticipated opening day guest at the annual South by Southwest (SXSW) Festival covering film, music and technology in Austin, Texas, being quizzed by Del Toro not on his Internet fame, rather his directorial debut, “Lost River.” But Del Toro threw in cheeky references to the infatuation with Gosling that has made him an online celebrity, such as his love for Disneyland, where he has been photographed on dates, riding rollercoasters. Gosling, 34, responded by blushing and hiding his face in embarrassment, and when Del Toro teased him for finally saying “Hey Girl” while telling a story about never having said the phrase, Gosling dropped the mic, joking he was done

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