OSCAR-winning director Barry Jenkins says he nearly turned down the chance to direct Disney’s new blockbuster, a prequel to “The Lion King”, before realising it contained many of the themes that helped make his name. Only when his agents insisted he read the script did he accept the role for
DAMASCUS: This time he was there by choice. Mohammed Darwish was back in a jail that was run by Syria’s feared intelligence services — and Bashar al-Assad was no longer president. Cell number nine reeks of putrefaction. It is an underground windowless room with blackened dripping walls where the 34-year-old
TBILISI: Georgia’s ruling party on Saturday voted for a far-right former footballer to become president in a controversial election process, amid a deepening constitutional crisis and weeks of mass pro-EU protests. The Black Sea nation has been in turmoil since the governing Georgian Dream party claimed victory in contested October
SUZHOU (China): Dominant in the electric car sector, Chinese companies have been quietly consolidating their position in the lesser-watched trucking scene — but foreign tariffs and a perceived quality gap could signal roadblocks ahead, experts warn. The domestic supply chain and low-price strategy that helped make China’s EV car industry
SYDNEY: The five remaining members of the Australian “Bali Nine” drug ring returned home Sunday after 19 years in jail in Indonesia, the Australian government said. Indonesian police arrested the nine Australians in 2005, convicting them of attempting to smuggle more than eight kilograms (18 pounds) of heroin off the
SEOUL: South Korea’s swift rebuke of martial law and removal of President Yoon Suk Yeol from office have been hailed in the country as evidence of the strength of its young democratic institutions. Yoon’s bid to suspend civilian rule and claims of a communist conspiracy harkened back to the dark
WASHINGTON: The US Federal Reserve is widely expected to announce a quarter point cut to its key lending rate on Wednesday despite a recent uptick in inflation, in the central bank’s last meeting of Joe Biden’s presidency. The Fed is also tipped to signal a slower path of cuts going
SAO PAULO: Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva declared he was “strong and steady” Friday, in a video of him walking around unassisted after emergency surgery earlier this week. “Please rest assured. I am strong and steady! I am walking the halls… talking a lot, eating well and, soon,
DAMASCUS: Jordan will host US, EU, Turkish and Arab diplomats on Saturday for high-level talks on Syria, a day after celebrations in Damascus and nationwide rejoicing at the ouster of president Bashar al-Assad. Syrians celebrated the day they called the “Friday of victory” with fireworks heralding the fall of the
DHAKA: Few in the Jahan family’s remote Bangladeshi village had seen a jackal up close before the morning one stalked Musqan through the paddy fields, pounced on her, and maimed the four-year-old for life. Violent and unprovoked attacks by rabid canines are rising around the South Asian nation due to