Salman Rushdie lost sight in one eye and the use of one hand following an attack on stage at a literary event in western New York in August, his agent said. Andrew Wylie, who represents literary giants such as Saul Bellow and Roberto Bolano, described the extent of the injuries Rushdie suffered in the “brutal”…

Many preparations go into the celebration of Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights, which starts Monday. There’s cleaning and decorating the house, buying new clothes, visiting friends and family — and of course preparing and sharing food. And although the foods associated with Diwali vary from culture to culture, one central theme is snacks and…

Joanna Simon, an acclaimed mezzo-soprano, Emmy-winning TV correspondent and one of the three singing Simon sisters who include pop star Carly, has died at age 85. Simon, the eldest of four, died Wednesday, just a day before her sister Lucy died, according to Lucy’s daughter, Julie Simon. Their brother Peter, a photographer, died in 2018…

Days after Iranian climber Elnaz Rekabi caused an international incident by not wearing her country’s mandatory headscarf while competing abroad, her fate is top of mind for the world’s best climbers. “It has made me ill — nauseous,” said American Brooke Raboutou, speaking to The Associated Press on Friday at a World Cup climbing event…

Works by Ukrainian artists will be the highlight of the world’s largest outdoor sculpture exhibition, starting Friday in Sydney. The annual Sculpture by the Sea exhibition, near Bondi beach in Sydney, will raise money for the Australian-Ukrainian community’s humanitarian aid charity. The seaside gallery will show more than 100 exhibits from 16 countries from Oct.…

The popular National Air and Space Museum in Washington on the National Mall has partially reopened, after being closed for almost seven months, with a new look and new exhibits. Among them, a historical look at The Wright Brothers and the Invention of the Aerial Age, and Exploring the Planets. Rather than an assortment of…

A jury sided with Kevin Spacey on Thursday in one of the lawsuits that derailed the film star’s career, finding he did not sexually abuse Anthony Rapp, then 14, while both were relatively unknown actors in Broadway plays in 1980s. The verdict in the civil trial came with lightning speed. Jurors at a federal court…

Sri Lankan writer Shehan Karunatilaka won the Booker Prize on Monday for his second novel The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida, about a dead war photographer on a mission in the afterlife. Karunatilaka received a trophy from Queen Consort Camilla at the English language literary award’s first in-person ceremony since 2019. He also gets a…

Karim Benzema won the men’s Ballon d’Or for the first time on Monday after a brilliant season with Real Madrid capped by the Champions League and Spanish league titles. The 34-year-old Benzema had his best season ever at Madrid, being the top scorer in both leagues. He scored 44 times with Madrid, including 15 in…

The rapper formerly known as Kanye West is offering to buy right-wing friendly social network Parler shortly after being booted off Twitter and Instagram for antisemitic posts. Parlement Technologies, which owns the platform, and West, legally known as Ye, said the acquisition should be completed in the fourth quarter, but details like price were not…

The members of K-pop band BTS will serve their mandatory military duties under South Korean law, their management company said Monday, effectively ending a debate on exempting them because of their artistic accomplishments. Big Hit Music said the band’s oldest member, Jin, will revoke his request to delay his conscription at the end of the…

Basketball Hall of Famer Dikembe Mutombo is undergoing treatment in Atlanta for a brain tumor, the NBA announced Saturday.  Mutombo has been one of the NBA’s global ambassadors for years, and recently appeared at Hall of Fame enshrinement events in Springfield, Massachusetts, and a pair of preseason games in Saitama, Japan.  He also appeared with…

Two women have been charged with criminal damage after climate change protesters threw soup on Vincent van Gogh’s painting “Sunflowers” at London’s National Gallery, British police said Saturday. A video posted by the Just Stop Oil campaign group, which has been holding protests for the last two weeks in the British capital, showed two of…

An Iranian filmmaker said the Islamic republic barred him from travelling to the London Film Festival over his support for the protest movement sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini that he called a “great moment in history.” “I was prevented by the Iranian authorities from boarding my flight to London on Friday,” Mani Haghighi…

Robbie Coltrane, the baby-faced comedian and character actor whose hundreds of roles included a crime-solving psychologist on the TV series “Cracker” and the gentle half-giant Hagrid in the “Harry Potter” movies, has died. He was 72. Coltrane’s agent, Belinda Wright, said he died Friday at a hospital in his native Scotland, and but did not…

Qatar World Cup organizers on Wednesday warned fans to brace for “congestion” in the first two weeks of the tournament when the peak number of supporters will be packing the Gulf state’s capital.  Private cars will be banned from many streets and residents near some stadiums will need permits to get to their homes, organizers…

Angela Lansbury, the big-eyed, scene-stealing British actress who kicked up her heels in the Broadway musicals “Mame” and “Gypsy” and solved endless murders as crime novelist Jessica Fletcher in the long-running TV series “Murder, She Wrote,” has died. She was 96. Lansbury died Tuesday at her home in Los Angeles, according to a statement from…

As awareness grows around the world about the problem of food waste, one culprit in particular is drawing scrutiny: “best before” labels. Manufacturers have used the labels for decades to estimate peak freshness. Unlike “use by” labels, which are found on perishable foods like meat and dairy, “best before” labels have nothing to do with…

South Korea’s military appears to want to conscript members of the K-pop supergroup BTS for mandatory military duties, as the public remains sharply divided over whether they should be given exemptions. Lee Ki Sik, commissioner of the Military Manpower Administration, told lawmakers on Friday that it’s “desirable” for BTS members to fulfill their military duties…

This year’s Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to three recipients: Ales Bialiatski, one of the initiators of the democracy movement that emerged in Belarus in the mid-1980s; and two human rights groups – Memorial, a Russian organization, and the Center for Civil Liberties, a Ukrainian group. Last year’s Peace Prize was awarded to Maria Ressa…

Fleeing the Russian invasion of Ukraine, two mothers find themselves in an unusual place, Nu Boyana Film Studios, in Sofia, Bulgaria. Eastern Europe’s largest film company, it has participated in the production of over 400 Hollywood films. This moving work, Kyiv-Sofia-Hollywood, follows these two women as they rebuild their lives in a new country and…

French author Annie Ernaux has won this year’s Nobel Prize for literature. The Nobel committee said Thursday that Ernaux was chosen for “the courage and clinical acuity with which she uncovers the roots, estrangements and collective restraints of personal memory.” Her works include “La Place” (A Man’s Place), about her relationship with her father and…

A tender and touching letter that author John Steinbeck penned to his teenage son, offering fatherly advice after the young man confided that he was in love for the first time, is going up for auction. Boston-based RR Auction says the handwritten draft of a letter to his eldest son, Thomas — then 14 —…

Oscar-winning actors Marion Cotillard and Juliette Binoche, as well as other French stars of screen and music, filmed themselves chopping off locks of their hair in a video posted Wednesday in support of protesters in Iran. “For freedom,” Binoche said as she hacked a large handful of hair off the top of her head with…

Loretta Lynn, the Kentucky coal miner’s daughter whose frank songs about life and love as a woman in Appalachia pulled her out of poverty and made her a pillar of country music, has died. She was 90. In a statement provided to The Associated Press, Lynn’s family said she died Tuesday at her home in…

Native American actress and activist Sacheen Littlefeather, who declined the best-actor award on behalf of Marlon Brando during an Oscars protest in 1973, has died aged 75, the motion picture Academy said on Monday. Littlefeather, who the Hollywood Reporter said died at her home in California on Sunday surrounded by loved ones, was catapulted to…

Kim Kardashian has agreed to settle charges of unlawfully touting a crypto security and to pay $1.26 million in penalties, disgorgement and interest, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said on Monday. The SEC said in a statement that reality television star and influencer Kardashian failed to disclose that she was paid $250,000 to publish…

The remains of dozens of Indigenous Maori and Moriori people were officially received at New Zealand’s national museum in Wellington Sunday, completing a repatriation process from Austria, where the bones have resided for more than 130 years. The repatriation “powhiri,” or welcoming ceremony, in bitterly cold, wet conditions at Te Papa concluded when the remains…