Author: Lilit Nahapetian

Photo: AP

 

Woody Allen’s latest work, Cafe Society, will open this year’s Cannes Film Festival, the BBC reports.

Starring Kristen Stewart, Jesse Eisenberg and Steve Carell, the movie centres on the buzzing cafe society of 1930s Hollywood.

It makes Allen the first director to present three opening-night films at Cannes.

Hollywood Ending opened the annual festival in 2002, and Midnight in Paris in 2011.

According to the festival organisers, Cafe Society tells the story “of a young man who arrives in Hollywood during the 1930s hoping to work in the film industry, falls in love, and finds himself swept up in the vibrant cafe society that defined the spirit of the age”.

It marks a romantic reunion for Stewart and Eisenberg who appeared together in American Ultra.

Cafe Society will screen out of competition at this year’s event, which runs from 11 to 22 May, ahead of its release later this year.

Jodie Foster’s Money Monster starring Julia Roberts and George Clooney, and Steven Spielberg’s The BFG are already confirmed to screen at the festival.

The full official selection will be announced mid-April.

Armenia welcomes Georgia’s support to the efforts of the OSCE Minsk Group – the only format with an international mandate to mediate the settlement of the Karabakh conflict, Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian said at a joint press conference with his visiting Georgian counterpart Mikheil Janelidze.

Speaking about the Armenian-Georgian relations, Minister Nalbandian said the friendship based on mutual respect has been checked by time. “There are no problems between Armenia and Georgia, there are issues that can be solved with joint efforts,” Minister Nalbandian said.

At a meeting in Yerevan the Foreign Ministers of the two countries discussed issues related to the development of transport infrastructures, cooperation in the fields of energy, trade, finances, education and tourism.

“We continue the cooperation with Georgia to preserve the Armenian cultural heritage,” Minister Nalbandian said.

Syrian state television said government forces fought their way into Palmyra on Thursday as the army backed by Russian air cover sought to recapture the historic city from Islamic State (IS) insurgents, Reuters reports.

A monitoring group said the fighting was still outside the city, after a rapid advance the day before brought the army and its allies right up to its outskirts.

The Syrian army earlier this month launched a concerted offensive to retake Palmyra, which the ultra-hardline Islamist militants seized in May 2015, to open a road to the mostly IS-held eastern province of Deir al-Zor.

The state-run news channel Ikhbariya broadcast images from just outside Palmyra and said government fighters had taken over a hotel district in the west. A soldier interviewed by Ikhbariya said the army and its allies would press forward beyond Palmyra.

“We say to those gunmen, we are advancing to Palmyra, and to what’s beyond Palmyra, and God willing to Raqqa, the centre of the Daesh gangs,” he said, referring to Islamic State’s de facto capital in northern Syria.

The state news agency SANA showed warplanes flying overhead, helicopters firing missiles, and soldiers and armoured vehicles approaching the city.

President Serzh Sargsyan sent a congratulatory message to the President of the Islamic Republic of Iran Hassan Rouhani and Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Sayyed Ali Khamenei on the occasion of the Iranian New Year holiday – Novruz.

The President of Armenia wished them good health and happiness, and perpetual peace and prosperity to the people of Iran, President’s Press Office reported.

Photo: AFP/Russia Emergency Ministry

 

A passenger jet has crashed in the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don, killing all 55 passengers and seven crew on board, officials say.

The FlyDubai Boeing 737-800, coming from Dubai, missed the runway as it attempted to land at 03:50 local time (00:50 GMT) on Saturday.

It is not clear what caused the crash but poor visibility and high winds are being considered as a factor.

CCTV footage showed an explosion and a huge flash after the plane crashed.

“The aircraft hit the ground and broke into pieces,” the Investigative Committee of Russia said on its website.

Reports say the plane abandoned its initial attempt to land and circled for two hours before crashing at the second attempt.

Photo: AP

 

North Korea has fired several short-range projectiles into the sea, South Korea’s defence ministry said, the BBC reports.

It comes hours after the UN Security Council unanimously voted to impose some of its strongest ever sanctions against North Korea.

A South Korean spokesman told the Yonhap news agency the projectiles were fired at about 10:00 local time (01:00 GMT) from Wonsan on the east coast.

He said they were still trying to determine exactly what was fired.

Yonhap quoted officials as saying all the objects fell into the sea.

The new UN measures are a response to North Korea’s recent nuclear test and satellite launch, both of which violated existing sanctions.

They will result in all cargo going to and from the country being inspected, while 16 new individuals and 12 organisations have been blacklisted.

Iran hopes for a political solution to regional problems, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said on Tuesday, IRNA reported.

Photo: Getty Images

 

Oil ministers from three Opec countries, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Venezuela, as well as Russia, agreed to freeze oil output at January levels, as long as others follow suit, the BBC reports.

The announcement came after the four ministers met in Doha on Tuesday.

The move is designed to support the oil price, which has dropped sharply in recent months.

Oil prices have fallen about 70% from their recent peak of around $116 a barrel in June 2014.

The steep decline is due to oversupply, sluggish demand and worries about the global economic outlook.

Brent crude, which had been up more than 5% earlier, fell back to be 0.76% higher at $33.61 a barrel, while US crude was up 0.3% at $29.85

Saudi Arabian oil minister Ali al-Naimi said: “Freezing now at the January level is adequate for the market. We don’t want significant gyrations in prices, we want to meet demand. We want a stable oil price.”

Photo: NBC/Getty Images

 

Kanye West has said he is $53m in debt, and called on Facebook founder  to “invest $1bn into Kanye West ideas … after realizing he is the greatest living artist and greatest artist of all time,” The Independent reports.

He continued with a bizarre series of Tweets through Sunday night and Monday morning: “Mark Zuckerberg I know it’s your bday but can you please call me by 2mrw … You love hip hop, you love my art… I am your favorite artist but you watch me barely breathe and still play my album in your house … World, please tweet, FaceTime, Facebook, instagram, whatever you gotta do to get Mark to support me … I’m this generation’s Disney …  I don’t have enough resources to create what I really can.”

He insisted that “one of the coolest things” Zuckerberg could do would be “to help me in my hour of need.”