DHAKA: Britain’s Man Booker Prize announced on Wednesday that it was expanding to cover all novels written in the English language, saying it would welcome authors whether they come from ‘Chicago, Sheffield or Shanghai’.The 50,000 pound Booker has until now been awarded annually for

DHAKA: Trumpeter Alison Balsom has become the first British woman to win artist of the year at the prestigious Gramophone Classical Music Awards.‘I’m so thrilled. I could not think of a better way to end the best summer of my life,’ she said, reports the BBC.Balsom made her debut at

DHAKA: Nina Davuluri is not the first Miss America of colour. She is not even the first Asian-American to wear the crown. But her victory has clearly struck a chord in some quarters.At a news conference held after her name was announced on Sunday night, the first question was about a slew

DHAKA: Neon colours and geometric forms at Roksanda Ilincic and pastel-coloured lace and cashmere at Burberry Prorsum offered contrasting interpretations of femininity at London Fashion Week on Monday.Luxury brand Burberry is one of the biggest names here and did not disappoint with a

DHAKA: Pop singer Pink has been named Billboard’s Woman of the Year after scoring her first ever No. 1 album this year.The music industry trade magazine said on Monday, The Straits Times publishes this report on Tuesday.Pink, 34, who emerged on the pop scene in 2000 as a self-styled

DHAKA: Michael Jackson’s personal physician, convicted of manslaughter for administering a lethal dose of anaesthetic to the pop singer, was released from a Los Angeles prison on Monday after serving half of his four-year sentence.Conrad Murray was released to his representatives, Los

DHAKA: Ekushey Television will celebrate Eid-ul-Azha with a six-day programme featuring special dramas and telefilms.Special drama, ‘Goru Jokhon Guru’, written by Salauddin Selim and directed by Rishita Jahan, will be aired at 7:20pm on the Eid day.Sajal and Mehzabeen, among others,

DHAKA: Horror sequel ‘Insidious: Chapter 2’ has topped the US box office with takings of $41m.The weekend’s haul is triple that of its predecessor, released in 2010.‘Chapter 2’ arrived in cinemas on Friday the 13th, which analyst Paul Dergarabedian of Hollywood.com called ‘a

DHAKA: Music icon Sir Elton John will release ‘The Diving Board’, his first album since 2006’s ‘The Captain and the Kid’, on Monday and he revealed the folk pioneer’s record ‘Modern Times’ persuaded him to push on with his own career.He said, ‘It floored me, that someone

DHAKA: Nina Davuluri became the first contestant of Indian heritage and the second consecutive contestant from New York to win the Miss America pageant Sunday night.Davuluri, 24, won the title as the nationally televised pageant returned home to Atlantic City, reports The Straits

DHAKA: Steve McQueen’s ‘12 Years a Slave’ won the top prize at the 2013 Toronto Film Festival. The film, based on a memoir of a free black man sold into slavery from 1853, won the Blackberry People’s Choice award.The drama that stars British actors Benedict Cumberbatch and

DHAKA: Haifaa Al Mansour’s drama ‘Wadjda’, about a young girl determined to win money to buy a bicycle she’s forbidden to ride, has been selected as Saudi Arabia’s official submission for the Oscar’s foreign-language category.It marks the first time the country has submitted a

DHAKA: London Fashion Week got off to a colourful start on Friday with a sun-drenched trip to the Aegean Sea courtesy of Turkish designer Bora Aksu, who whisked trend-setters away from Britain’s dreary autumn drizzle.Aksu hunted through childhood memories for inspiration for his new

DHAKA: Ray Dolby, the US engineer who founded Dolby Laboratories and pioneered noise reduction in audio recordings, has died in San Francisco aged 80.Mr Dolby had suffered from Alzheimer`s disease for several years and was diagnosed with leukaemia this summer.His name became synonymous

DHAKA: Nicole Kidman was knocked over by a man who crashed into her on a bicycle as she left a fashion show in New York on Thursday.Kidman had just left the Calvin Klein show for New York’s Fashion Week and was returning to the Carlyle Hotel.As the actress walked toward the entrance,

DHAKA: With two bankruptcies and husbands under her ever-expanding ever-shrinking money belt, Kerry Katona finally has some good news she is pregnant again!Kerry, 33, and ex-rugby player George Kay, 33, got engaged in April, when George popped the question at the top of Blackpool Tower,

DHAKA: Bollywood megastar Amitabh Bachchan has been honoured with the Global Diversity Award 2013 at the State Room of Britain`s House of Commons. Speaker of the House of Commons, Rt Hon John Bercow MP presented the ornately sculpted glass Award to the 71-year-old actor describing him as

DHAKA: Country’s one of the influential filmmakers Mostofa Sorwar Farooki hoped that Bangladeshi movies would go abroad in near future. They would be screened for foreign viewers and would earn acclaim.Farooki, who took part at a banglanews24.com live adda Thursday evening, expressed

DHAKA: Harvey Weinstein revealed an interesting tidbit while promoting “12.12.12,” the Hurricane Sandy benefit concert film during the Toronto Film Festival Monday.According to the movie mogul, "Twilight" actress Kristen Stewart raised a whopping $500,000 for the Sandy relief effort

DHAKA: Star Cineplex will screen two recent American movies ‘The Lone Ranger’ and ‘OZ the Great and Powerful’ at its halls from Friday.The Cineplex will premiere ‘The Lone Ranger’, a 2013 western action movie Thursday evening.The movie, directed by Gore Verbinski, stars Johnny