Fresh accusation of sexual assault have surfaced against Hollywood actor James Franco, a year after five women came up with similar accusations against the star. This week, two women took Franco to court for alleged sexual exploitation. According to the account, the star’s acting school had a culture of “widespread inappropriate and sexually charged behavior” as reported by the New …

LOS ANGELES: Dynamic actress Diahann Carroll, who won Golden Globe and Tony awards and was nominated for an Oscar, died Friday. She was 84 years old.  She starred in 1960s TV show Julia. She was  the first black woman to star in her own primetime show and who later gained international acclaim for her role in the 1980s series “Dynasty”. The …

LOS ANGELES: Oscar-winner Martin Scorsese touched off a firestorm among filmmakers Friday, claiming super-hero blockbusters like the ones Marvel makes were “not cinema.” “I don’t see them. I tried, you know? But that´s not cinema,” Scorsese told Britain’s Empire magazine about the Marvel movies. “Honestly, the closest I can think of them, as well-made as they are, with actors doing …

Classic Beatles album ‘Abbey Road’s back at number one in Britain half a century after its first release, with the band breaking their own record for the longest gap between stints at the top of the charts. The band’s final studio album with its instantly recognisable zebra-crossing cover came out in September 1969, six days after John Lennon told his …

UNITED NATIONS: UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres Friday  reiterated his concern over the situation in Indian occupied Kashmir, where people have been languishing under a tight lockdown for the past two months. This was stated by a UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric, while responding to a question during his regular briefing in New York, about the worsening humanitarian situation in the occupied …

BAGHDAD: At least 60 people have died over four days of bloody protest across Iraq, the Iraqi Human Rights Commission said late Friday, in figures that include 18 deaths registered at a single hospital in the capital Baghdad. The Commission did not specify how many were civilians or security forces. With more than 1,600 people wounded, the toll may rise …

WASHINGTON: Doctors confirmed on Friday that US Senator Bernie Sanders suffered a heart attack three days ago, as they announced that he had been released from the hospital in Las Vegas. Sanders, 78, said he felt “great,” according to a statement from his campaign for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination. “Sen. Sanders was diagnosed with a myocardial infarction,” his doctors …

LONDON: The Commonwealth on Friday launched an ideas-sharing network to tackle the effects of climate change through replicable regeneration projects. The 53-country bloc held a two-day brainstorming of indigenous groups, environmentalists, scientists and climate change experts at its headquarters in London. The Common Earth initiative will be a network of projects that can be copied and adapted to suit communities …

WASHINGTON: Democrats in Congress asked US Vice President Mike Pence on Friday for documents on his possible role in pressuring Ukraine as part of the impeachment investigation of President Donald Trump. “Recently, public reports have raised questions about any role you may have played in conveying or reinforcing the president´s stark message to the Ukrainian president,” three Democrats leading the …

SYDNEY: An Australian travel-blogging couple who were being detained in Iran on charges of spying have been released, Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne said Saturday. Perth-based Jolie King and Mark Firkin had been documenting their journey from Australia to Britain on social media for the past two years but went silent after posting updates from Kyrgyzstan and Pakistan about three …