Ben Stiller has paid tribute to his mother, actress Anne Meara, who has died on May 23 at the age of 85.
On May 24, Ben Stiller thanked fans on Twitter for the “kind words” about his mother.
Calling his mom “an extraordinary person”, Ben Stiller said the family felt “so lucky” to have had her in their lives.
Anne Meara launched a standup career with her husband Jerry Stiller in the 1950s.
A family statement at the weekend said: “The two were married for 61 years and worked together almost as long.”
The statement said Anne Meara’s memory would live on “in the hearts” of her family and “the millions she entertained as an actress, writer and comedienne”.
Anne Meara is survived by her husband Jerry Stiller, daughter Amy, son Ben, and her grandchildren, her family said.
Omar Sharif has been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, the actor’s agent Steve Kenis confirmed to the Associated Press.
Omar Sharif, now 83, is best known for his roles in the 1960’s movies Lawrence of Arabia and Doctor Zhivago.
The news come after Omar Sharif’s son Tarek gave an interview to Spain’s El Mundo newspaper at the weekend.
Tarek El-Sharif told the paper: “It’s difficult to determine what stage it is at. It’s obvious he’ll never improve and it will get worse.”
Egypt-born Omar Sharif won two Golden Globe awards and an Oscar nomination for his role as Sherif Ali in David Lean’s 1962 epic Lawrence of Arabia.
Omar Sharif won a further Golden Globe three years later for Doctor Zhivago.
“He still knows he’s a famous actor. The loss of memory affects above all specific things, details like when he was in a specific place or who he acted with in a specific film,” Tarek El-Sharif told El Mundo.
“He remembers, for example, that it was Doctor Zhivago but he’s forgotten when it was filmed.
“He can talk about the film but he forgets its name or he calls it something else instead like Lawrence of Arabia.”
Meanwhile, a murder investigation has been launched into BB King’s death after two of his daughters claimed the blues legend was poisoned.
Karen Williams and Patty King said BB King was given “foreign substances to induce his premature death” by his business manager Laverne Toney.
Lawyers for BB King’s estate said the claims are unfounded and disrespectful.
However, the possibility of homicide will now be investigated by the coroner and police in Nevada.
BB King was born on September 16, 1925, to sharecroppers and worked in the cotton fields as a child before picking up the guitar.
Considered one of the world’s greatest players, BB King was known for his sharp single notes and vibrato on the electric guitar he christened Lucille.
Known for songs such as The Thrill Is Gone, Three O’Clock Blues and Darlin’ You Know I Love You, he influenced generations of guitar players, and was inducted to both the Blues Foundation Hall of Fame and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
BB King was married twice and had 15 natural and adopted children, 11 of whom are still alive.
BB King’s death is being investigated as murder after two of his daughters claimed the blues legend was poisoned.
Karen Williams and Patty King said BB King was given “foreign substances to induce his premature death” by his business manager Laverne Toney.
Lawyers for BB King’s estate said the claims are unfounded and disrespectful.
However, the possibility of homicide will now be investigated by the coroner and police in Nevada.
The Clark County Coroner’s office wrote on Twitter: “Our coroner takes jurisdiction over #BBKing body, performs autopsy.”
Coroner John Fudenberg told CNN that the initial autopsy results found “no evidence to substantiate the allegations” made by BB King’s daughters.
However, he added that full forensic results would take six to eight weeks to arrive.
BB King died in his sleep at his Las Vegas home on May 14, aged 89.
At the time, the musician’s doctor and the coroner said he had died of a series of small strokes connected to his Type 2 diabetes.
BB King’s daughters alleged that his personal assistant Myron Johnson and Laverne Toney gave him medication to induce diabetic shock.
The women added that “King was sequestered from all family members” in the week before his death, and that Laverne Toney and Myron Johnson were the only people with him.
Laverne Toney, who is the executor of BB King’s estate, shrugged off the daughters’ claims.
“They’ve been making allegations all along. What’s new?” she told the Associated Press.
A lawyer for BB King’s estate also dismissed the accusations as “ridiculous”.
Earlier this year, Patty King, Karen Williams and a third daughter, Rita Washington, went to court accusing Laverne Toney of neglect, but the case was dismissed because of a lack of evidence.
BB King’s funeral is scheduled to be held on Friday, May 29, in Mississippi.
The Clark County coroner said his investigation would not delay the service.
Russian air forces have begun a large exercise involving around 250 aircraft and 12,000 service personnel.
The Russian defense ministry described the four-day drill as a “massive surprise inspection”, to check combat readiness.
The tests began on the same day as NATO and some of its partners started an Arctic training exercise.
Russia’s actions in Ukraine and incursions into Western airspace have led to rising tensions with the West.
According to reports on the Russian agencies Interfax and Tass, the inspection of the aviation group and air defense forces in the central military district involves almost 700 weapons and pieces of military hardware.
During the exercise, Russia’s long-range aircraft are due to carry out cruise missile strikes on practice targets in the Komi republic.
The current drills are in preparation for a larger exercise known as Center-2015 in the next few months.
Asked about Russia’s assertiveness in a TV interview, Deputy PM Dmitry Rogozin joked that “tanks don’t need visas”.
Dmitry Rogozin is himself on EU and US blacklists as part of sanctions following Russia’s annexation of Crimea last year, limiting his travel options.
Russia has been heavily criticized in recent months over increased air activity around the Nordic countries, including several airspace violations by military aircraft.
NATO’s two-week training exercise in the region – which began on the same day as Russia’s tests – will be based in the north of Norway, Sweden and Finland.
It will involve 115 fighter planes and 3,600 troops from nine countries.
NATO’s Arctic Challenge Exercise will also involve troops and planes from the US, Britain, Germany, France and the Netherlands as well as neutral Switzerland.
The exercise is the second of its kind, following similar tests in 2013.
Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian’s trial has begun in Tehran, Iran, behind closed doors.
Jason Rezaian, a US-Iranian citizen, was detained in Iran for almost 10 months on charges that include “espionage”.
He has been accused of passing information to “hostile governments”.
Washington Post‘s editor Martin Baron described the trial as “shameful” and criticized the decision to hold it in private.
Jason Rezaian could face up to 20 years in prison if convicted.
Iran has not recently commented on the case, but the Washington Post has spoken out forcefully.
“The shameful acts of injustice continue without end in the treatment of [Jason] Rezaian,” a statement by the newspaper’s Executive Editor Martin Baron says.
“Now we learn his trial will be closed to the world. And so it will be closed to the scrutiny it fully deserves.
“There is no justice in this system, not an ounce of it, and yet the fate of a good, innocent man hangs in the balance.”
The newspaper points out that Jason Rezaian was arrested without charge and imprisoned in Iran’s notorious Evin prison – placed in isolation for many months and denied medical care he needed.
It says that Jason Rezaian was given only an hour-and-a-half to meet a lawyer approved by the court and “no evidence has ever been produced by prosecutors or the court to support these absurd charges”.
US officials have repeatedly raised Jason Rezaian’s case during months of nuclear negotiations with Iran, but have declined to link the two.
Jason Rezaian’s family has taken heart from recent comments by President Barack Obama, who said that the White House would not rest until the journalist was brought home safely.
The case is all the more sensitive because it has unfolded during nuclear negotiations between Iran and the West.
Some analysts have suggested the arrest was related to internal power struggles in Iran over the outcome of the nuclear talks.
Iran and six major world powers, including the US, have set a June 30 deadline for a conclusive nuclear deal to end a 10-year impasse.
Jason Rezaian had been the Washington Post‘s Tehran bureau chief since 2012.
The journalist’s wife, Yeganeh Salehi, who was arrested alongside him in July but later bailed, and a third person have also been summoned to appear in court.
According to new reports, former child star Terry Sue-Patt may have been dead for up to a month before his body was found.
Terry Sue-Patt played Benny Green in BBC’s children’s TV series Grange Hill.
His body was discovered by police who forced their way into the actor’s home on May 22 after a worried friend raised the alarm.
Terry Sue-Patt, 50, who had been battling a drink problem, was lying face down in bed in his housing association flat in Walthamstow, East London.
The actor’s death was not being treated as suspicious.
Tributes poured in on Twitter and Facebook from shocked Grange Hillco-stars to Terry Sue-Patt.
Todd Carty, who played Benny Green’s pal Tucker Jenkins, posted a photo of them together as children.
As friends remembered Terry Sue-Patt, details also began to emerge of the sad decline of the talented actor and artist.
Terry Sue-Patt had been battling personal demons since the death of his younger brother, Michael, in a car crash in Leyton in 1989, his father told the Sunday Mirror.
The actor was the front-seat passenger in a car being driven by Michael when it left the road and slammed into railings while apparently racing another car.
Alston Sue-Patt, 79 claimed Terry had blamed himself and turned to alcohol after the tragedy in November 1989.
He also bailed Terry out with £1,500 ($2,300) just weeks before his death so he could pay his rent.
Terry Sue-Patt left Grange Hill in 1982 and turned down the chance to appear with his friend Todd Carty in the spin-off series Tucker’s Luck.
He developed a career as a graffiti artist but continued acting, starring alongside Gary Oldman and Steve McFadden in the 1989 soccer hooligan film The Firm and appearing in Channel 4 comedy show Desmonds.
Terry Sue-Patt made his acting comeback this year playing a priest in Amar Akbar & Tony.
Greece will keep repaying its debt as long as possible, government spokesman Gabriel Sakellaridis has said.
The government’s statement comes days after Interior Minister Nikos Voutsis warned Greece had run out of funds.
Gabriel Sakellaridis said Greece would maintain repayments to its EU-IMF creditors for as long as possible.
He also rejected the idea of possible capital controls that would restrict money transfers and access to savings.
Greece and its creditors must reach a deal within weeks to unlock bailout funds needed to honor debt repayments.
The leftist government was elected in January on a pledge to end austerity measures imposed as a condition of its €240 billion ($263 billion) bailout.
It has spent the past four months trying to reach a deal with creditors in the IMF, the European Union and the European Central Bank to release the final bailout tranche, worth €7.2 billion.
However, they have failed to agree over economic reforms being demanded by the creditors.
In a Greek TV interview over the weekend, Nikos Voutsis said the repayment money owed in June “will not be given and is not there to be given”.
However, Gabriel Sakellaridis said the government wanted to meet its obligations. He also said a deal would soon be reached in talks with creditors.
“That is the government’s intention and the target we have set,” he said.
“By the end of May, the start of June, to be able to have a mutually beneficial agreement.”
Gabriel Sakellaridis also dismissed the possibility of imposing capital controls if repayments were not met, as has recently been suggested by some experts and an opposition lawmakers.
Greece’s last cash injection from its international creditors was in August and the final installment of its bailout is now seen as vital.
First Greece has to meet the June 5 repayment deadline. If it fails to come to a deal with its partners, there is a fear it could default on its loans.
That could push the Greek government towards leaving the single currency, otherwise known as Grexit.
Greece has been shut out of bond markets, and has been struggling to meet debt obligations and to pay public sector wages and pensions.
A tornado struck Ciudad Acuna in northern Mexico, near the Texas border, killing at least 13 people.
Cidad Acuna is just two miles from Texas’ Laughlin Air Force base, the largest pilot training base in the US.
About 300 homes have been damaged or destroyed in Ciudad Acuna, in Coahuila state, according to a press statement from the Coahuila Government.
Images from the scene showed cars upended and leaning against buildings.
Dozens of people have been injured and officials warned that the death toll could rise.
Coahuila Governor Ruben Moreira, on a visit to the stricken area, said 10 adults and three children had died and a baby was missing. Another 150 people had been taken to hospital, he said.
Photo Twitter
“Most of the dead are people who were outside, not people who were inside their homes,” said Ciudad Acuna Mayor Evaristo Lenin Perez.
Rescuers were searching the 750 damaged properties for more casualties.
Witnesses said a bus had been flipped over by the tornado.
“There are cars on top of houses, there are dead people lying in the street, it is total chaos,” said local resident Maria del Rosario Ramirez, quoted by Mexican newspaper La Jornada.
Victor Zamora, Coahuila’s interior secretary, said an area of about seven blocks had been “devastated” by the tornado, which struck at about 06:10.
The interior department said state officials were coordinating a response.
Severe weather is also affecting southern US states including Texas.
A dozen people are missing after flash floods struck the Blanco River in central Texas on May 24. The floods also damaged hundreds of homes, some of them swept off their foundations.
A tornado damaged a block of flats in Houston over the weekend.
A severe heat wave that has driven daytime temperatures as high as 118°F (48°C) in parts of India has claimed over 500 lives.
Most deaths have taken place in the southern states of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, where more than 140 people have died since May 23.
Allahabad in Uttar Pradesh recorded 118°F while temperatures rose to above 111°F in the capital, Delhi.
Authorities have urged people to stay indoors and drink plenty of fluids.
Heat wave conditions have been prevailing in the two worst-affected southern Indian states since mid-April, but most of the deaths have happened in the past week.
The worst-hit state has been Andhra Pradesh where 246 people have died from the high temperatures in the past week. State officials said 62 people died of sunstroke on May 24.
Residents of Nalgonda in newly-formed state of Telangana are used to high temperatures during the summer months.
The Press Trust of India (PTI) news agency said the heat wave had killed 186 people in 10 districts in neighboring Telangana state, with 58 people dying since May 23.
The north-western desert state of Rajasthan has also recorded several deaths due to the heat, the PTI reported, including a woman who collapsed and died on a roadside in Bundi city.
The meteorological department said the sweltering conditions were likely to continue for a few more days.
At least 10 people had died of the heat in the eastern state of West Bengal, reports say.
Non air-conditioned taxis will be taken off the road for five hours during the day in the main city in the state capital, Kolkata, after two drivers died from heat stroke.
David Letterman’s final show was one of the highest-rated shows of his career.
The final Late Show attracted nearly 13.8 million viewers on May 20.
The last time David Letterman had so many viewers was in February 1994, when his show aired after CBS’ coverage of the Winter Olympics.
David Letterman, now 68, began his late-night career on NBC in 1982, before moving to CBS’s Late Show in 1993.
The finale show, which ran 17 minutes over the usual hour, kicked off with a two-minute standing ovation.
David Letterman was joined by guests including Steve Martin, Peyton Manning, Chris Rock, Jerry Seinfeld, Tina Fey and Jim Carrey.
Foo Fighters performed David Letterman’s favorite song, Everlong. The rock band once performed the song, by request, after David Letterman’s open-heart surgery in 2000.
The finale also saw a rise in viewers for The Late Late Show, which followed directly after. Four million viewers tuned in to watch James Corden, the host’s highest rating over his first two months in the job.
However, David Letterman’s final show failed to draw in as many viewers as Jay Leno’s farewell from The Tonight Show in 2014, which averaged 14.6 million viewers.
Stephen Colbert, host of Comedy Central’s acclaimed late-night show The Colbert Report, will succeed David Letterman.
Frida Kahlo’s garden and studio have been recreated at the New York Botanical Garden.
Frida Kahlo: Art, Garden, Life is the first solo New York show dedicated to the Mexican artist for 25 years.
The exhibition includes original paintings by Frida Kahlo which reflect the use of botanical imagery in her work.
Frida Kahlo, who died 60 years ago, remains best known for her searing self-portraits and her use of intense, vibrant colors.
Curator Joanna Groarke: “We were inspired by Frida Kahlo’s art but also by the artistry of her garden in Mexico City.
“We knew from studying her paintings that she was a careful observer of nature and plants, but we learnt when we studied her more that she was also a very passionate plants person.”
Frida Kahlo: Art Garden Life exhibition, which runs to November 1, sees the Botanical Garden’s Enid A Haupt Conservatory transformed into Kahlo’s family home Casa Azul (The Blue House).
The exhibition recreates the blue courtyard walls, a scale version of a pyramid created to display pre-Columbian art collected by her husband, muralist Diego Rivera, and Frida Kahlo’s studio.
It follows a similar project at the New York Botanical Garden in 2012, which re-imagined Claude Monet’s flower and water gardens at Giverny.
Frida Kahlo lived her entire life, from 1907 to 1954, in the cobalt-blue house in Coyoacan, outside Mexico City.
She began to paint in 1925 while recovering from a bus accident that left her in constant pain and permanently disabled, leading to more than 30 operations.
Frida Kahlo’s inclusion of plants and nature in her work spans her entire career, but was most intensive during the 1940s and ’50s when her health declined and she was increasingly confined to her home.
Grange Hill star Terry Sue-Patt has been found dead at his home in Walthamstow, east London, on May 22.
Terry Sue-Patt played Benny Green in the BBC children’s TV series between 1978 and 1982.
Scotland Yard said officers forced their way into a Northcote Road flat in Walthamstow on May 22 where the body of a man in his 50s was found.
Former colleagues in Grange Hill and numerous others took to Twitter to pay tribute to the 50-year-old actor.
Erkan Mustafa, who played Roland Browning in Grange Hill, wrote on Twitter: “Rip terry sue patt aka #bennygreen#grangehill legend you will be missed by true friends.”
Lee MacDonald, who played Zammo Maguire, wrote: “R.I.P Terry Sue-Patt the memories of our times together will never be forgotten! Love you FOREVER Xxxxxxxxxxxx.”
According to police, it was called to the apartment at 13:45 BST after concerns had been raised about the welfare of its occupant and officers “forced entry”.
A spokesperson said the death was not believed to be suspicious and next of kin had been informed.
Grange Hill, created by Phil Redmond, ran for 30 years between 1978 and 2008.
Originally set in the fictional north London borough of Northam, it later moved to Liverpool.
Grange Hill was considered controversial by some parents who complained about storylines including teenage pregnancy and racism.
Former Israeli PM Ehud Olmert has been sentenced to eight months in jail for fraud and breach of trust, a Jerusalem court rules.
Ehud Olmert was convicted at a retrial in March of accepting illegal payments from an American businessman while he served as mayor of Jerusalem and trade minister.
In 2014, Ehud Olmert was sentenced to six years in prison for accepting bribes.
Ehud Olmert has denied any wrongdoing and will remain free until his appeals against both convictions are heard.
A Supreme Court decision on the first appeal is expected in the next couple of months.
If he is unsuccessful, Ehud Olmert will become the first former head of government in Israel to be jailed.
Ehud Olmert served as Israel’s prime minister from 2006 to 2009.
He was forced to resign amid a flurry corruption allegations, which ended his political career and disrupted the peace process with the Palestinians.
In 2012, Ehud Olmert was acquitted of fraud, concealing fraudulent earnings and breach of trust in connection with donations received from a New York-based financier, Morris Talansky between 1997 and 2005.
However, a retrial was ordered after a former aide, Shula Zaken, accepted a plea bargain and testified against Ehud Olmert. Shula Zaken gave prosecutors diary entries and tape recordings of conversations in which Ehud Olmert referred to receiving the money.
Ehud Olmert, 69, was found guilty of fraud and breach of trust in March and on May 25 was sentenced to eight months in jail. He was also given a suspended sentence of an additional eight months and fined 100,000 shekels ($25,000).
The Jerusalem District Court said the sentence recognized Ehud Olmert’s contributions to Israeli society, but noted that “a black flag hovers over his conduct”.
Ehud Olmert’s lawyer Eyal Rozovsky said they were “very disappointed” by the sentence.
The former prime minister has always insisted that he is innocent and has described the allegations against him as “a brutal, ruthless witch-hunt”.
He is also appealing against the six-year sentence he was given in May 2014 in connection with a real estate deal at took place when he was mayor of Jerusalem in the 1990s.
Ehud Olmert was convicted of accepting bribes in return for speeding up a controversial residential development, known as Holyland, in Jerusalem.
Flooding from record-setting rains swept away hundreds of homes and left at least three people dead in Texas and Oklahoma.
Two people died in weather-related accidents in Oklahoma and a man died in San Marcos, Texas.
Parts of Texas saw up to 10 inches of rain over a 24-hour period, with more predicted across the region.
There were numerous rescues on May 24 after banks burst, and hundreds of homes were destroyed in central Texas.
Warnings and alerts stretch from Colorado through to Arkansas, Louisiana, Missouri and eastern Kansas.
One of the worst hit rivers was the Blanco in Texas.
At one point it crested at 43ft – some 30ft above the designated flood stage and 7ft higher than the 1929 record.
A flash flood emergency – reserved for the most life-threatening situations – is in effect in the river basin area.
Some 1,000 people nearby were evacuated and parts of the Interstate 35 highway were flooded and closed.
San Marcos emergency management coordinator, Kenneth Bell, said the body of one man had been recovered but had no more details. Three more people are missing.
Kristi Wyatt, communications director for the town, said: “We have people on car tops and rooftops awaiting rescue. People in homes are going to higher levels.”
She said hundreds of people were now in evacuation centers and that floodwaters had washed away five police cars.
Several hundred houses were destroyed in the town of Wimberley.
A tornado hit Houston briefly on May 24, damaging buildings and injuring at least two people.
Warnings of more tornados have been issued for parts of Iowa, Kansas, Missouri and Illinois.
A mandatory evacuation was ordered at Lake Lewis, 50 miles north of Houston, which itself saw high winds bringing down trees and blowing out windows.
The National Weather Service says Oklahoma City already has a new monthly rainfall record for May – at 18.19 inches.
In Colorado, El Paso and Pueblo counties and the city of Sterling were badly affected.
Ben Stiller’s mother and wife of Jerry Stiller – actress Anne Meara – has died at the age of 85.
Jerry Stiller and son Ben Stiller say Anne Meara died Saturday, May 23. No other details were provided.
The comedian launched a standup career with husband Jerry Stiller in the 1950s and found success as an actress in films, on TV and the stage.
Born in Brooklyn on September 20, 1929, Anne Meara was a red-haired, Irish-Catholic girl who struck a vivid contrast to Jerry Stiller, a Jewish guy from Manhattan’s Lower East Side who was two years older and four inches shorter.
They logged 36 appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show and were a successful team in Las Vegas, major nightclubs, on records and in commercials.
Their marriage lasted, but the act was dissolved in the 1970s as Anne Meara resumed the acting career she had originally sought.
The actress appeared in such films as The Out-of-Towners, Fame, Awakenings and Ben Stiller’s Reality Bites.
Anne Meara was twice nominated for an Emmy Award for her supporting role on Archie Bunker’s Place, along with two other Emmy nods, most recently in 1997 for her guest-starring role on Homicide. She won a Writers Guild Award for co-writing the 1983 TV movie The Other Woman.
She also appeared in dozens of films and TV shows, including a longtime role on All My Children and appearances on Rhoda, Alf and The King of Queens. She shared the screen with her son in 2006’s Night at the Museum.
Anne Meara made her off-Broadway debut in 1971 in John Guare’s award-winning play The House of Blue Leaves. A quarter-century later, she made her off-Broadway bow as a playwright with her comedy-drama, After-Play.
In 2010, Anne Meara and Jerry Stiller reunited on-screen for Stiller & Meara: A Show About Everything, a chatty Web series produced by their son Ben Stiller and shot in their longtime home on Manhattan’s Upper West Side.
Besides Jerry and Ben Stiller, Anne Meara is survived by her daughter, Amy, and several grandchildren.
Poland’s Incumbent President Bronislaw Komorowski has conceded election defeat to challenger Andrzej Duda following the release of exit polls.
The exit polls suggested conservative Andrzej Duda had taken the run-off vote by 53% to 47%.
Andrzej Duda had edged Bronislaw Komorowski, who had been the favorite, in the first round but did not gain the 50% needed to win outright.
Poland’s president has limited powers, but is head of the armed forces and can veto new laws.
The exit polls had been delayed after a woman died at a polling station on May 24.
Official results are expected on May 25.
Bronislaw Komorowski told voters at a gathering of his supporters: “I respect your choice.
“I wish my challenger a successful presidency.”
Speaking to supporters in Warsaw, Andrzej Duda said: “Thank you President Bronislaw Komorowski for the rivalry of this presidential campaign and for your congratulations.
“Those who voted for me voted for change. Together we can change Poland.”
The victory will be a wake-up call to PM Ewa Kopacz, an ally of Bronislaw Komorowski, ahead of parliamentary elections this autumn.
Bronislaw Komorowski, 62, took office five years ago after his predecessor, Lech Kaczynski, died in a plane crash.
He had been the favorite according to previous opinion polls and had been looking for a second term.
Andrzej Duda, 43, is from the right-wing opposition Law and Justice party, which is led by former President Lech Kaczynski’s twin brother, Jaroslaw.
In the first round Andrzej Duda attracted most support in the more conservative eastern regions of the country, near the border with Ukraine and Belarus.
Jacques Audiard’s Dheepan has won the Palme d’Or at this year’s Cannes Film Festival.
The refugee drama tells the story of people fleeing post-civil war Sri Lanka for a life in France.
Holocaust drama Son of Saul took the Grand Prix. Vincent Lindon won Best Actor while Rooney Mara and Emmanuelle Bercot shared Best Actress.
Dheepan tells of a former Tamil Tiger fighter who links up with two strangers to pretend to be a family and find a life of asylum in a tough, drug-infested housing estate on the edge of Paris.
Director Jacques Audiard, who previously made A Prophet and Rust and Bone, said: “To receive a prize from the Coen brothers is something pretty exceptional. I’m very touched. I’m thinking of my father.”
Joel Coen said: “This isn’t a jury of film critics. This is a jury of artists who are looking at the work.”
The Grand Prix, essentially the runner-up prize, went to Hungarian newcomer Laszlo Nemes for Son of Saul and its depiction of the Auschwitz, gas chambers.
“This continent is still haunted by this subject,” Laszlo Nemes said.
Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos took the jury award, the third prize, for The Lobster, a dystopian comedy starring Colin Farrell and Rachel Weisz.
Best Director went to Taiwan’s Hou Hsiao-hsien for martial arts film The Assassin, his first movie in eight years.
Rooney Mara shared Best Actress for her role in Carol, but her co-star Cate Blanchett was overlooked and instead the jury decided to honor Emmanuelle Bercot for her role in My King.
Vincent Lindon’s Best Actor award was for his role in Stephane Brize’s movie The Measure of a Man.
There were 19 in-competition films this year, though several were aired out of competition, including Mad Max: Fury Road and Pixar’s Inside Out.
John Nash, the renowned mathematician who inspired the Oscar-winning movie A Beautiful Mind, has died in a car crash with his wife Alicia, police have said.
John Nash, 86, and his 82-year-old wife Alicia were killed when their taxi crashed in New Jersey, police say.
The mathematician is renowned for his work in game theory, winning the Nobel Prize for Economics in 1994.
John Nash’s breakthroughs in mathematics and and his struggles with schizophrenia were the focus of the 2001 A Beautiful Mind.
Russell Crowe, who played John Nash in the movie, tweeted: “Stunned… My heart goes out to John & Alicia & family. An amazing partnership. Beautiful minds, beautiful hearts.”
Photo Getty Images
Director Ron Howard, also tweeted his tribute to the “brilliant” John Nash and his “remarkable” wife.
Alicia Nash helped care for her husband, and the two later became prominent mental health advocates.
John Nash and Alicia Nash were thrown from their vehicle, police said. Media reports said the couple may not have been wearing seatbelts when they crashed.
Their taxi driver, and a passenger in another car, were also injured.
Born in Bluefield, West Virginia, John Nash first studied in Pittsburgh before moving to Princeton.
His recommendation letter contained just one line: “This man is a genius.”
John Nash married Alicia Larde in 1957, after publishing some of his breakthrough works.
He developed severe schizophrenia soon after, and Alicia had him committed for psychiatric care several times. The couple divorced in 1962.
John Nash said in an interview on the Nobel website: “I was disturbed in this way for a very long period of time, like 25 years.”
However, they stayed close, and John Nash’s condition had begun to improve by the 1980s. They remarried in 2001.
This week John Nash received the Abel Prize, another top honor in the field of mathematics.
A number of landslides have hit Nepal since the 7.8-magnitude earthquake on April 25 which killed more than 8,000 people and injured many more.
The tremor was followed by a 7-3 magnitude quake on May 12.
Thousands of people have fled to safety following a landslide in western Nepal which blocked the flow of Kali Gandaki River.
A massive landslide has blocked Kali Gandaki River at Baisari in Bhagwati VDC of Myagdi district early Sunday morning.
The Kali Gandaki River in Myagdi district, about 90 miles north-west of the capital, Kathmandu, has created a deep and growing new lake.
There are no reports of casualties. Army soldiers are being sent to help.
The landslide around midnight on May 24 has caused water levels to rise by about 600ft.
The landslip has buried 25 houses in Baisari. Panic-stricken locals in Baisari and areas including district headquarter Beni, Ghatan, Benibazar, Galeshwor, Pokharebagar have started to move to higher grounds after the river was blocked by the landslide.
“We have asked villagers along the riverside in these districts to move to safer places,” interior ministry official Laxmi Prasad Dhakal told Reuters news agency.
One of Nepal’s largest hydroelectric power plants in the area could be at risk, officials have warned.
Army helicopter were surveying the area with troops being sent to siphon off the water from the fast-growing lake.
Authorities say large areas could be at risk of flooding if the collected waters burst.
Kali Gandaki River flows into India where it eventually joins the Ganges.
Normally landslide is triggered by rain but in this case, the cracks triggered by earthquake led the debris to fall, according to experts. Rocks, boulders and mud are falling making huge sound.
Polish voters are going to the polls on May 24 to choose its new president in a run-off vote.
In the first round on May 10, neither Conservative challenger Andrzej Duda nor incumbent Bronislaw Komorowski gained the 50% needed to win outright.
Andrzej Duda edged Bronislaw Komorowski, who had been the favorite and is looking for a second term, by 34.7% to 33.7%.
Poland’s president has limited powers, but is head of the armed forces and can veto new laws.
Bronislaw Komorowski, 62, took office five years ago after his predecessor, Lech Kaczynski, died in a plane crash.
The incumbent president is an independent allied with the centre-right Civic Platform, which has been in government since 2007.
Opinion polls before the first round had put him comfortably in the lead and Bronislaw Komorowski said the result was “a serious warning for the entire team in power”.
Andrezj Duda, 43, is from the right-wing opposition Law and Justice party, which is led by former President Lech Kaczynski’s twin brother, Jaroslaw.
He attracted most support in the more conservative eastern regions of the country, near the border with Ukraine and Belarus.
The presidential vote comes ahead of parliamentary elections this autumn.
President Vladimir Putin has signed a bill which allows foreign non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to be banned from operating in Russia.
The new law allows the Russian authorities to prosecute foreign NGOs or companies designated as “undesirable” on national security grounds.
Individuals working for NGOs could face fines or up to six years in prison.
Critics say it is a Kremlin move aimed at stifling dissent.
The definition of “undesirable” is open to interpretation, but the Interfax news agency said it would apply to organizations deemed to pose a threat to the “foundations of Russia’s constitutional order, defensive capacity and security”.
Organizations linked to politics in Russia already face restrictions under a 2012 law requiring them to register as “foreign agents”.
The new bill’s supporters say it is essential to prevent Russia from outside interference, amid ongoing tensions due to the country’s involvement in Ukraine.
There was concern from Western governments and NGOs about the implications.
The US State Separtment said it was “deeply troubled” by the law.
State Department’s spokeswoman Marie Harf said in a statement: “We are concerned this new power will further restrict the work of civil society in Russia and is a further example of the Russian government’s growing crackdown on independent voices and intentional steps to isolate the Russian people from the world.”
Amnesty International said the bill would “squeeze the life” from civil society, while Human Rights Watch (HRW) warned it would be locals who would be worst-hit.
Sweden’s Mans Zelmerlow has won this year’s Eurovision Song Contest in Vienna, beating Russia’s Polina Gagarina.
Mans Zelmerlow won with his upbeat pop track Heroes, which was accompanied by innovative animated visuals.
Italy came on the third place, followed by Belgium. Australia finished fifth in the country’s first Eurovision appearance.
A record number of countries – 27 – took part, including Australia – which was invited to compete for the first time to mark the event’s 60th anniversary.
Mans Zelmerlow was the bookmakers’ favorite throughout the build-up to this year’s contest.
“I’m so happy and I want to say thank you for voting for me,” he told the crowd.
“I want to say we are all Heroes, no matter who we love, who we are or what we believe in – we are all heroes.”
This is Sweden’s sixth Eurovision win – meaning they are now just one victory behind the contest’s record holders Ireland, who have won seven times.
The result also means the next year’s song contest will be held in Sweden – just three years after it last hosted the show.
This year’s contest was held in the Austrian capital’s Wiener Stadthalle following Conchita Wurst’s win last year.
But this year, the hosts, along with Germany, finished with zero points – the first time since 2003 that any country has drawn a blank.
Russian contestant Polina Gagarina was beaten by Mans Zelmerlow after being neck-and-neck for much of the voting.
Italian opera trio Il Volo who have enjoyed chart success around the world, finished third. Belgium’s 19-year-old Loic Nottet managed fourth.
And it was a respectable night for Guy Sebastian, one of Australia’s biggest pop stars, who came fifth after being sent to represent his country.
After the show, Eurovision organizers revealed there had been irregularities with the votes from the juries in Macedonia and Montenegro.
The points awarded by each country are normally determined by a combination of a jury and a public vote.
A statement said: “The jury results of FYR Macedonia and Montenegro for the grand final have been excluded after consultation of PricewaterhouseCoopers, the contest’s independent voting observer, and upon the decision of the executive supervisor and the chairman of the reference group.
“In both countries, televoting applied for 100%. The exclusion of two juries will be further discussed in the next reference group meeting in June.”
Around 200 million viewers were thought to have tuned in to the event on television, and it was screened live in China for the first time.
