or a complete listing o PartnerRe Groups and PartnerRe Ltd

(Reuters) - Rock band Coldplay and Welsh singer Du y head the ield at the 2009 BRITs, Britain's top pop music awards, with our nominations apiece. Entertainment? ? ? ? Music ollowing are the ull nominations or the main categories. The winners are announced on ebruary 18.MasterCard British album- Coldplay ( i a La ida or Death and All His riends)- Du y (Rock erry)- Elbow (The Seldom Seen Kid)- Radiohead (In Rainbows)- The Ting Tings (We Started Nothing)British group- Coldplay- Elbow- Girls Aloud- Radiohead- Take ThatBritish single- Adele (Chasing Pa ements)- Alexandra Burke (Hallelujah)- Coldplay ( i a La ida)- Dizzee Rascal (Dance Wi Me)- Du y (Mercy)- Estelle (American Boy)- Girls Aloud (The Promise)- Leona Lewis (Better in Time)- Scouting or Girls (Heartbeat)- The X actor inalists (Hero)British male solo artist- Ian Brown- James Morrison- Paul Weller- The Streets- Will YoungBritish emale solo artist- Adele- Beth Rowley- Du y- Estelle- M.I.A.British breakthrough act- Adele- Du y- The Last Shadow Puppets- Scouting or Girls- The Ting TingsBritish li e act- Coldplay- Elbow- Iron Maiden- Scouting or Girls- The er eInternational album- AC/DC- leet oxes- The Killers- Kings o Leon- MGMTInternational group- AC/DC- leet oxes- The Killers- Kings o Leon- MGMT Entertainment Music. Oddly EnoughBranson was a guest speaker at an Amsterdam congress on Tuesday, and participants were able to ask questions by sending text messages rom their mobile phones, which were shown on a large screen."Will you take along two poor students to Obama" the students' text message read, to which Branson immediately said yes, ANP agency reported.It was not immediately clear i they would make the actual inauguration o the president-elect Tuesday, but a spokeswoman or the congress said: "As we speak, they are sitting in the pri ate jet o Richard Branson."(Reporting by Niclas Mika) Oddly Enough. OLDWICK, N.J.(Business Wire)A.M Best Co. has a irmed the inancial strength rating ( SR) o A (Superior)and issuer credit ratings o "aa-" o PartnerRe Group (PartnerRe) (Hamilton,Bermuda) and its members Concurrently, A.M.

Best has a irmed the ICR o "a-"and debt ratings o PartnerRes parent, PartnerRe Ltd (Hamilton, Bermuda) NYSE:PRE The outlook or all ratings is stable. (See link below or a detailedlisting o the companies and ratings.) The ratings re lect PartnerRes excellent business pro ile, strong risk-adjustedcapitalization and strong enterprise risk management practices. Despite anacti e natural catastrophe year o loss e ents including Hurricanes Ike andGusta , PartnerRe reported a solid nine-month combined ratio o 91.4. Additionally, PartnerRes in estment losses as well ascommon share repurchases led to a decline in shareholders equity o 5.5through nine months 2008 results. Nonetheless, PartnerRe maintains aconser ati e in estment port olio with greater than 95 o ixed income holdingsrated in estment grade or better, which together with strong operating cash lows, increases the positi e e ect o net in estment income on earnings.Somewhat o setting these rating strengths are PartnerRes moderately abo ea erage risk pro ile and the inancial le erage o PartnerRe Ltd., which is atthe upper end o the acceptable range or its rating. As an assumer o risk, PartnerRes earnings and capitalization are subject tolarge shock losses including natural catastrophes.

In order to mitigate o erallexposure to large losses, PartnerRe manages catastrophe exposure on a zonalaggregate basis and limits its exposure as a percentage o total capital withinidenti ied zones. urthermore, as part o its strong enterprise risk managementprocess, PartnerRe continually assesses its o erall risk position, includingloss reser e risk, in estment risk and credit risk and runs arious scenarios tohighlight any potential correlation exposure A.M. Best belie es that PartnerRes long standing strategy o cycle managementthrough di ersi ication should allow it to success ully manage through thecurrent underwriting cycle Moreo er, A.M. Best will monitor the growth in thecompanys li e and capital market segments as these product o erings di er rom PartnerRes traditional property/casualty reinsurance operations and areexpected to be areas o growth or the company At September 30, 2008, PartnerRe Ltd. maintained unadjusted total debt,pre erred and hybrid securities to total capital o approximately 28 prior tothe partial equity credit pro ided under A.M Bests debt rating criteria A.M.Best expects that PartnerRe Ltd. will maintain its current le el o inancialle erage while maintaining a ixed charge co erage in the mid to uppersingle-digit range. or a complete listing o PartnerRe Groups and PartnerRe Ltd.s SRs, ICRs anddebt ratings, please isit ounded in 1899, A.M.