Did ‘Thelma & Louise’ move the needle for female-led films?

Author:  AP Fri, 2017-09-01 03:00 ID:  1504212294487327100 NEW YORK: When Geena Davis and Susan Sarandon clasped hands, stepped on the gas and flew over the canyon ridge in that memorable ending to “Thelma & Louise,” many in Hollywood believed they were launching more than that turquoise Thunderbird. It was 1991, and the expectation — or at least the hope — was that they were also launching a new era for women in movies,...

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Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation gives $1m to Harvey relief

Author:  AP Fri, 2017-09-01 03:00 ID:  1504212294527327400 ALEXANDRIA: The Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation has donated $1 million to the newly established United Way Harvey Recovery Fund which will go toward short and long term relief and recovery efforts. United Way Worldwide said Wednesday that the national fund will distribute 100 percent of donations to recovery efforts for those affected by Hurricane Harvey. “We are incredibly...

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Bun B, Scooter Braun planning Houston benefit for Sept. 12

Author:  AP Fri, 2017-09-01 03:00 ID:  1504212294557327700 NEW YORK: Houston rapper Bun B and music manager Scooter Braun are planning a benefit concert to help those affected by Tropical Storm Harvey. A representative for Bun B told The Associated Press on Wednesday that the rapper is working with Braun, who manages Justin Bieber and produced Ariana Grande’s massive benefit show in June in Manchester, England. The rep said...

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Floral tributes laid at the palace for Diana anniversary

Author:  AP Fri, 2017-09-01 03:00 ID:  1504212294417326800 LONDON: People placed floral tributes, photos and personal messages at the gates of Kensington Palace on Thursday as Britain observed the 20th anniversary of the death of Princess Diana. Royal fans marked two decades since Diana died in a car crash in Paris, triggering a flood of grief across Britain and beyond. Her admirers began paying tribute to Diana at the time...

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US clears breakthrough gene therapy for childhood leukemia

Author:  AP Wed, 2017-08-30 03:00 ID:  1504173002783319000 WASHINGTON: Opening a new era in cancer care, US health officials on Wednesday approved a breakthrough treatment that genetically engineers patients’ own blood cells into an army of assassins to seek and destroy childhood leukemia. The Food and Drug Administration called the approval historic, the first gene therapy to hit the US market. Made from scratch for every...

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Largest asteroid in a century to whiz by Sept 1

Author:  AFP Wed, 2017-08-30 19:59 ID:  1504118022648192800 MIAMI: The largest asteroid in more than a century will whiz safely past Earth on Sept. 1 at a safe but unusually close distance of about 7 million km, NASA said. The asteroid was discovered in 1981, and is named Florence after the famed 19th century founder of modern nursing, Florence Nightingale. “Florence is the largest asteroid to pass this close to our planet...

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After revisions, U2 ready with new album

Author:  AFP Wed, 2017-08-30 16:32 ID:  1504100526336484700 NEW YORK: U2 was set Wednesday to start releasing music from its latest album, months after deciding to go back to the studio and rethink its tone following Donald Trump’s shock election. The Irish rock legends said that “The Blackout,” a track off their 14th studio album “Songs of Experience,” would come out later Wednesday. The track, however, will not be considered...

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John Steinbeck’s relatives by marriage in copyright dispute

Author:  AP Wed, 2017-08-30 03:00 ID:  1504086305975145500 LOS ANGELES: Film remakes of “The Grapes of Wrath” and “East of Eden” fell apart because John Steinbeck’s son and daughter-in-law impeded the projects, the writer’s stepdaughter told jurors in federal court Tuesday. Waverly Scott Kaffaga alleges that long-running litigation over the author’s estate has prevented her from making the most of Steinbeck’s copyrights at...

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Contestant flies herself to Miss America competition

Author:  AP Wed, 2017-08-30 03:00 ID:  1504086305865145300 ATLANTIC CITY, USA: For a while at least, Miss Vermont was far above the competition to become the next Miss America. A licensed pilot, Erin Connor flew herself from Burlington, Vermont, to an airport just outside Atlantic City on Sunday, three days before the contestants were to meet the public in the annual welcoming ceremony on the famous Boardwalk. "I like to...

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Wax museum revels in ridicule as critics lampoon its statues

Author:  AP Wed, 2017-08-30 03:00 ID:  1504086305755145100 BOSTON: A good roasting hasn't caused a meltdown at Boston's new wax museum. Officials at the Dreamland Wax Museum say they're embracing the extra attention brought by waves of online hecklers who have lampooned some of its less-than-flattering likenesses. "It's absolutely been a blessing to have all of that controversy," said Michael Pelletz, the museum's vice president...

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Former sex slave finds freedom in her one-room Mumbai flat

Author:  Reuters Wed, 2017-08-30 11:30 ID:  1504087320485233600 MUMBAI: On a workday morning in her one-room apartment on Mumbai’s outskirts, Sonika packed her lunch box, got dressed in a black shirt and blue jeans, ate a sago snack for breakfast and took a hurried selfie before rushing to catch the 8.45 am bus to work. Her morning routine seems little different to that of other working girls. But Sonika, 19, appreciates...

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Private companies drive ‘new space race’ at NASA center

Author:  AP Wed, 2017-08-30 03:00 ID:  1504086305615144800 CAPE CANAVERAL, USA: For the first time since the retirement of the space shuttle in 2011, NASA says it may soon have the capability to send astronauts to the International Space Station from US soil. Critical milestones are on the horizon for Boeing and SpaceX, the space agency’s commercial crew partners: Flight tests of their spacecraft, including crewed missions,...

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Scientists say warming makes storms, like Harvey, wetter

Author:  SETH BORENSTEIN | AP Wed, 2017-08-30 01:30 ID:  1504021680679352400 WASHINGTON: By the time the rain stops, Harvey will have dumped about 1 million gallons of water for every man, woman and child in southeastern Texas — a soggy, record-breaking glimpse of the wet and wild future global warming could bring, scientists say. While scientists are quick to say climate change didn’t cause Harvey and that they haven’t determined...

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Some birds smell to navigate, experiment shows

Author:  Marlowe Hood | AFP Tue, 2017-08-29 23:22 ID:  1504024192669554900 PARIS: At least one species of sea-faring bird uses its sense of smell to navigate over ocean waters, according to a novel experiment described in a study released Tuesday. Temporarily deprived of the ability to smell, Scopoli’s shearwaters had trouble finding their way home after embarking from the Spanish island of Menorca to forage, researchers...

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Never mind parking fines, just get a crane to lift problem vehicles onto the roof.

Author:  Arab News Tue, 2017-08-29 20:24 ID:  1504016986808963900 DUBAI: If you happen to be driving in China ever, be careful who you annoy. In a recent incident an angry woman annoyed a property owner so much that her vehicle ended up being lifted up onto the roof of a gate house. The bizarre incident apparently happened last week on Tuesday, when the woman left her car blocking the entrance to a residential community in...

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Volkswagen recalls 281K cars because engines can stall

Author:  AP Tue, 2017-08-29 03:00 ID:  1504012743868521500 DETROIT: Volkswagen is recalling almost 281,000 CC and Passat sedans and wagons in the US because the fuel pumps can fail and cause the cars to suddenly stall. The recall covers the CC from the 2009 through 2016 model years, as well as the Passat sedan and wagon from 2006 through 2010. All have four-cylinder gasoline engines. VW says in government documents that the...

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Scientists: Climate change could cause storms like Harvey

Author:  AP Tue, 2017-08-29 03:00 ID:  1504000610467532200 WASHINGTON: By the time the rain stops, Harvey will have dumped about 1 million gallons of water for every man, woman and child in southeastern Texas — a soggy, record-breaking glimpse of the wet and wild future global warming could bring, scientists say. While scientists are quick to say climate change didn’t cause Harvey and that they haven’t determined yet whether...

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Can child marriage be stopped? One girl did and wants others in Indonesia to follow

Author:  Reuters Tue, 2017-08-29 11:57 ID:  1504000610197531400 KUALA LUMPUR: In Sanita Rini’s village on the Indonesian island of Java, child brides were so common that girls who were not married by the time they turned 16 were labelled “old virgins.” Like other parents in the village, Rini’s tried to marry her off — to a motorbike driver seven years her senior — as soon as she celebrated her 13th birthday. “I was shocked....

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Venice Film Festival offers grit, glamor and George Clooney

Author:  Associated Press Tue, 2017-08-29 03:00 ID:  1504000610607532500 VENICE: The Venice Film Festival is kicking off the fall cinema season with searing drama, serious glamor and a crop of new movies vying for attention, awards and acclaim. The world’s oldest cinema festival is a key showcase for films hoping to dominate Hollywood’s awards season. In recent years, Venice has been a launch-pad for Oscar winners including...

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Kevin Kwan: Americans will embrace ‘Crazy Rich Asians’ movie

Author:  AP Tue, 2017-08-29 03:00 ID:  1504000832457555700 HONG KONG: Kevin Kwan believes that America will embrace the “Crazy Rich Asians” movie, which is based on his best-selling novel of the same name. The Singaporean novelist was in Hong Kong recently to promote “Rich People Problems,” the third and last book in his “Crazy Rich” trilogy. His first book, “Crazy Rich Asians,” released in 2013, is the story of an Asian-American...

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Perry delivers space-themed VMAs opening

Author:  AP Tue, 2017-08-29 03:00 ID:  1503951672483299200 LOS ANGELES: Katy Perry has arrived at MTV’s Video Music Awards straight from space — at least the space above the stage. Perry was lowered from the ceiling wearing a shiny silver spacesuit. The pop star is hosting from the Forum in Inglewood, California. She said that even though times have been “terrible,” music brings people together. Perry says, “Even in the apocalypse,...

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Tobe Hooper, ‘Texas Chain Saw Massacre’ director, dies at 74

Author:  AP Tue, 2017-08-29 03:00 ID:  1503951672513299500 LOS ANGELES: Tobe Hooper, the horror-movie pioneer whose low-budget sensation “The Texas Chain Saw Massacre” took a buzz saw to audiences with its brutally frightful vision, has died. He was 74. The Los Angeles County coroner’s office on Sunday said Hooper died Saturday in the Sherman Oaks area of Los Angeles. It was reported as a natural death. Along with contemporaries...

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Egyptian actresses trolled over niqab, bikini photos

Author:  SHOUNAZ MEKKY | Special to Arab News Tue, 2017-08-29 00:53 ID:  1503946501462869600 CAIRO: Egyptian actresses Nelly Karim and Hala Shiha have been criticized over pictures they posted on social media, slamming them for what they were wearing. Karim was trolled after she shared a picture of her wearing a bikini on a beach. While this week, former actress Shiha shared a picture on Facebook of her wearing a veil. “When...

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