Top Stories –
Anybody bring a torch? –
A solar eclipse plunges parts of Africa and Asia into semi-darkness. According to NASA this was the longest annular eclipse of the third Millennium.
Swooner –
Author Jackie Collins has revealed that screen legend Marlon Brando had sex with her at a party when she was only 15, days after she had been expelled from a school in England.
Jackie Collins
Top List –
Top 100 films of the Noughties (2000-2009)
List from Daily Telegraph By David Gritten, Tim Robey and Sukhdev Sandhu
Part 7 – 40-31
- 40 Moulin Rouge!
Baz Luhrmann, 2001: Wildly ambitious attempt to reinvigorate movie musicals. Nicole Kidman’s singing dis-appoints, the plot falters, but its visual flair set the bar high.
- 39 Casino Royale
Martin Campbell, 2006: Daniel Craig sizzled opposite Eva Green and proved the sceptics wrong in this muscular and intense reworking of the first Bond novel.
- 38 Pan’s Labyrinth
Guillermo del Toro, 2006: The Spanish Civil War re-imagined as a child’s supernatural dream. Del Toro became the third Mexican director of the decade to receive global plaudits.
- 37 Billy Elliot
Stephen Daldry, 2000: A Durham miner’s young son dreams of dancing ballet. This hit feel-good tear-jerker launched Jamie Bell and his debutant director.
- 36 An Inconvenient Truth
Davis Guggenheim, 2006: Essentially a well-delivered PowerPoint lecture, Al Gore’s wake-up call to Americans about impending eco-catastrophe helped win him a Nobel prize.
- 35 Knocked Up
Judd Apatow, 2007: Foul-mouthed frat-boy humour retooled for the sensitive Noughties is Apatow’s forte; this made Seth Rogen an unlikely star.
- 34 Moolaadé
Ousmane Sembene, 2004: The Senegalese director, a giant of African cinema, capped a glorious career with this stirring drama about a woman who revolts against ritualised brutality.
- 33 Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
Ang Lee, 2000 Lee married his trademark fascination for the complexities of family life with classic Chinese swordplay to visually bewitching,emotionally penetrating effect.
- 32 Oldboy
Park Chan-wook, 2003 Korean cinema exploded after Park Chan-Wook’s visceral vendetta flick, like Titus Andronicus with octopus-chomping.
- 31 Pirates of the Caribbean
Gore Verbinski, 2003: Relentless high-seas action-adventure that made Johnny Depp big box-office. So successful that its sequels essentially repeated its incoherent plot.
Top News –
- Johnson & Johnson recalls more than 53 million bottles of over-the-counter products, including Tylenol, Motrin andRolaids, from the Americas, the United Arab Emirates and Fiji. (Reuters)
- President Faure Gnassingbé and national team captain Emmanuel Adebayor are among dignitaries to attend a funeral ceremony held in Lomé for the two football officials killed during the Togo national football team attack in Angola. (BBC)
- At least five people die and dozens are injured in Nairobi, Kenya, when police clash with protesters demanding the release of Jamaican Muslim cleric Abdullah al-Faisal. (Xinhua) (Al Jazeera)
- President of Tunisia Zine El Abidine Ben Ali reshuffles his government, making 11 ministerial changes including the appointment of new finance, defence, tourism and foreign affairs ministers, and sends his condolences to Haiti. (IOL)(Reuters Africa) (Middle East Online) (Xinhua)
- Muslim fundamentalists kill two people, an army colonel and the military commander of Béjaïa in northern Algeria. (IOL)
- 23 security guards are detained after clashing over the care of a taxi rank in Sundumbili, KwaZulu-Natal. (IOL)
- Spain‘s government sees a video showing three aid workers who have been held hostage by Al-Qaeda in Mali since November 2009. (IOL)
- In the Kamsar area, north of Muzaffarabad, Kashmir, a Chinese road-building firm digs up a van containing 17 decomposed corpses which went missing during a 2005 earthquake. (BBC)
- Mr Gay China, said to be the first gay Chinese pageant, is shut down by police an hour before opening. (BBC) (The Times) (Philippine Daily Inquirer)
- Russia ratifies key European Court of Human Rights reform. Russia was the last of the 47 Council of Europe member-states to ratify Protocol 14. (Al Jazeera) (RT) (NY Times) (BBC) (ITAR-TASS) (FT) (RFERL)
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