Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's re-election has dashed hopes for high-profile opposition figures who have been jailed during his rule, where a crackdown on dissent intensified following a failed 2016 coup.. More than a thousand university academics were also targeted in the purge of institutions that followed the 2016 coup attempt.
The sons of Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay Sherpa led celebrations in Nepal on Monday to mark the 70th anniversary of the historic first ascent of Everest.. Butter lamps were lit in front of a photograph of Hillary and Tenzing, and their sons, Peter Hillary and Jamling Norgay, cut a red ribbon to open the doors to the centre.
Disney's live-action version of "The Little Mermaid" netted the top spot at North American box offices on its opening weekend, over the United States' Memorial Day holiday, industry watcher Exhibitor Relations reported Sunday.. The remake of the 1989 animated tale of an underwater princess who gives up her voice in pursuit of true love on land, starring pop singer Halle Bailey and Melissa McCarthy, raked in $117.5 million in US and Canadian box offices and another $68 million internationally, Exhibitor Relations said.
Nonagenarian Kanchha Sherpa is the last surviving member of the 1953 expedition that saw Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay Sherpa become the first humans to summit the world's highest mountain.. Now 90, he was tired and not available to speak to AFP ahead of Monday's anniversary, but his grandson quoted him as saying: "The happiest part was when Tenzing and Hillary summited."
Recep Tayyip Erdogan has cemented his status as the most important figure in modern Turkish history, after victory in Sunday's presidential runoff extended his transformative two-decade rule to 2028.. - Rewriting the rules - Although the runoff provided his rule with a fresh mandate, the nation of 85 million is likely to remain sharply polarised.
Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari defended his political record on Sunday, the day before he steps down, saying he leaves the country in a better state than when he took power in 2015.. "I am confident that I am leaving office with Nigeria better in 2023 than in 2015," the 80-year-old Buhari said in a televised address.
In a working-class Istanbul harbour where Recep Tayyip Erdogan grew up playing football, Hasan Karakaya had only one description for Turkey's president after voting on Sunday: "He's the best.". Ege, 65, grew up in the neighbourhood and remembers Erdogan as a "hard-working" and "intelligent" teenager, predicting he will win with 60 percent of the national vote.
China's recent punishment of a comedy studio has sent a chill through the country's cultural sphere -- a striking reminder of the increasingly limited public space for artistic expression under President Xi Jinping.. - Public nationalism - The new boundaries are an extension of the muscular, hardline nationalism Xi has personally promoted since coming to power.
Crime thriller "Drishyam 2" was crowned best picture as Bollywood glossed over its recent struggles with a high-octane International Indian Film Academy Awards show in Abu Dhabi on Saturday.. The IIFA awards, intended to reach an international audience, were held for the second year running in Abu Dhabi, capital of the United Arab Emirates where more than a third of the 10 million population is Indian.
She may not have won an award, but many will agree that the big winner at Cannes this year was German actress Sandra Hueller, who starred in the festival's top two films. . She gained international acclaim for "Requiem" (2006), playing a woman with epilepsy in a religious community that believes she is possessed, which won her the best actress award at the Berlin Film Festival.
