Gina Rinehart: Queen of the Pilbara

GINA Rinehart was revealed yesterday as the richest woman in the world, almost tripling her wealth by pulling off two big international deals in iron ore and coal.
The deals, which in the past year have lifted her wealth to $29.17 billion, according to the BRW Rich 200 List, make her the eighth-richest person in the world.
They also take her a step closer to fulfilling a lifelong family dream to have Hancock Prospecting, the family company, build and operate an iron ore mine in the Pilbara. The $18.87 billion increase in her wealth is equivalent to earning almost $600 a second, the average annual wage every 2½ minutes, or $51.7 million a day. Another ambition is to win two seats on the Fairfax Media board after becoming the largest single shareholder earlier this year. That was dealt a blow yesterday when the Fairfax board announced board changes that did not include Mrs Rinehart. The news of her estimated wealth will not go unnoticed by her three estranged children, John, Bianca and Hope, who have taken legal action to remove her as trustee of the family trust. Based on the BRW valuation, the children's shares in Hancock Prospecting are now worth more than $9 billion. But they cannot sell or leverage against them, due to a clause in the company constitution that says they can be sold only to lineal descendants of their grandfather, Lang Hancock.
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The mining boom has turned the BRW Rich List on its head, as traditional operators such as Westfield's Frank Lowy, the cardboard box making Pratt family, retailer Solomon Lew, James Packer and GerryHarvey have had to rub shoulders with mining entrepreneurs such as Andrew Forrest and Mrs Rinehart.
It has also had huge ramifications for the Australian economy, creating deep structural changes. BRW says if the resources boom continues, Mrs Rinehart's wealth could rise to $100 billion, which would make her the richest person in the world, unprecedented for any Australian.
Rich List editor Andrew Heathcote says: "The $18.87 billion increase in her wealth is unparalleled. It is a product of foreign investment in new projects, increased production and a recovery in the iron ore price over the past six months."
The BRW valuation is far higher than the valuation of Forbes, which in February estimated her wealth at $US18 billion. The difference between the two figures is due partly to a rise in iron ore prices over the past few months. But mostly it shows that valuations of private companies are subjective and based on numerous assumptions, including debt. Mrs Rinehart's $29.17 billion fortune leapfrogs her to the richest woman in the world, deposing Christy Walton ($26 billion), who as the widow of John Walton has a major stake in US retail giant Wal-Mart.
Mrs Rinehart's wealth makes her the eighth-richest person in the world, the three richest being Carlos Slim, Bill Gates and Warren Buffett.
Adele Ferguson's unauthorised biography of Gina Rinehart will be released on June 26.

Maria Sharapova wins French Open at Roland Garros

Maria Sharapova  defeats Sarah Errani 6-3 6-2 to win her first major since 2008 as she now joins M. Court, C. Evert, M. Navratilova, S. Graf & Serena Williams as players to have won all 4 Grand Slams in Open Era."

Infostrada Sports on Twitter: "Maria Sharapova can become the 3rd Russian to win the Women's Singles title at Roland Garros after Myskina (2004) & Kuznetsova (2009)."

A VERY Big Mac! World's biggest McDonald's with 1,500 seats to be built for games.

The biggest McDonald's restaurant in the world will open for six weeks during the London 2012 Olympic games. More than 50,000 Big Mac burgers and 180,000 portions of fries will be served from the outlet in Stratford, east London. The huge temporary branch will have seating for 1,500 customers and will employ more than 2,000 staff.

Dining: An artist impression of how the huge 1,500 seat McDonald's in east London will look

While the world's top athletes compete at the Olympics and Paralymics from July 27 to September 9 three million people are expected to visit the McDonald's branch. The 3,000 square-metre restaurant built from recyclable materials will stretch over two floors and is equivalent to half the length of an American football field. The 12,000 people who applied to work at the huge branch and three others planned for the Olympic site have been put through X Factor style auditions across the country.

Interior: The huge McDonald's branch will have a bright and colourful design featuring nutritional advice

They were judged on politeness and how well they flipped burgers, served ice cream and cooked the French fries. McDonald's began its involvement with the Olympics in 1968 when the company airlifted hamburgers to U.S. athletes competing in Grenoble, France. The firm first became an official sponsor at the 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal and in 1984 McDonald's footed the bill for the Olympic swimming stadium in Los Angeles. The London Olympics will be the ninth games where McDonald's has acted as the event's official restaurant and the only branded food retailer feeding the athletes. Usain Bolt, the world's fastest man who won gold at the 100 metres in Beijing in 2008, claimed that chicken McNuggets were key to his success.

Mike Tyson reveals he got a prison official pregnant while in jail,'

Shamed boxer Mike Tyson has claimed he got a prison worker pregnant while serving a jail sentence.The former world heavyweight champion also revealed the official in question never had the child, though he never divulged if this was because she had an abortion or miscarried.

The shocking revelation came during an interview with ESPN's Rick Reilly, who asked him what stories he had left out of his one man show Mike Tyson: Undisputed Truth. He said: 'I didn’t talk about getting a prison official pregnant.'Oh yeah. In prison, stuff happens. But she had no baby.' While he did not discuss when exactly the incident occurred, his longest stint behind bars was when he was convicted of raping 18-year-old beauty queen Desiree Washington in 1992.

Tyson was handed a 10 year sentence, six in jail and four on probation, though he was eventually released after serving just three. He served his sentence at the Indiana Youth Center, which later was named the North Plainfield Correctional Facility.

The hard-hitting athlete regained his WBC heavyweight title soon after being released, scoring an easy victory over champion Frank Bruno in March 1996, and added the WBA strap months later. However his comeback was short-lived as he was knocked out by unfancied former champion Evander Holyfield in November that year.A road rage conviction in 1998 sent him to the Montgomery County Detention Center in Maryland for nine months.