Britney Spears is close to becoming a judge on The X Factor USA, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Spears's fiancé and agent Jason Trawick is reportedly finalising contract negotiations, which could be signed in less than a week.
It was reported last month that the show's producer and head judge Simon Cowell was very interested in signing up Spears, after the Fox show fired Paula Abdul and Nicole Scherzinger after the first season.
"There are going to be a lot of twists and turns over the next few weeks and a lot of things we're going to announce," Cowell said last month in a statement.
Iranian-Americans get reality TV focus
Shahs of Sunset, featuring glossy high-living members of the Iranian-American community in Los Angeles and Beverly Hills, is the latest contribution to the reality TV genre.
The series, which debuted on Sunday on the US cable television channel Bravo, has the requisite fixation on materialism, personality clashes and people whose mantra is "more".
Featured in the show are Reza Farahan, 38, a "flamboyant estate agent"; Mercedes Javid, described as a 30-something "known party girl"; Sammy Younai, 35, a man-about-town who builds lavish homes for fellow Iranians; and Golnesa Gharachedaghi, 29, who is supported by her father and claims a hatred of ants and "ugly people".
Other than touching on the friends' shared roots, the show is "absolutely apolitical", said the Bravo executive Frances Berwick.
The show's executive producer, Ryan Seacrest, says the series is intended to amuse, not educate.
A Separation director filming abroad
Asghar Farhadi, the director who won Iran's first-ever Oscar for his movie A Separation, declared on Saturday he would never leave his homeland despite his new-found global fame – but his next film was being made abroad.
"I love my country and I will not change it for anywhere in the world," the 40-year-old filmmaker was quoted as saying by the Islamic Republic News Agency.
"I will never emigrate from Iran."
Farhadi added, however: "I am at the point of filming a movie outside of the country." The director picked up the golden statuette for best foreign language film at the Oscars last month. His triumph resonated even more strongly because he made the movie under the restrictions imposed by Iranian authorities, who briefly placed a ban on A Separation as it was being filmed.
His next movie is being made in France, according to the trade publication Screen Daily. It is said to centre on a love story between a young Iranian woman and a North African man, and will begin filming within weeks.
Imran Khan to star in Mumbaai 2
Bollywood's Imran Khan has signed up for the sequel to the 2010 period crime thriller and box office hit Once Upon A Time in Mumbaai. He will star alongside the actor Akshay Kumar, reported Zee News.
Shahid Kapoor was originally attached to the lead role, but Khan was later favoured by the film's producers.
"Talks were on with Shahid but we have decided on Imran now. Imran loved the script and we are very gung-ho about this project. The audience will get to see a different Imran," the producer Girish Johar told the Indo Asian News Service.
Khan and Kumar will play rival mafia leaders.
Comic book giant Moebius dies
Moebius, the French comic-book artist whose spectacular science fantasy-based work wrought its magic on Hollywood classics such as Alien and Tron, died on Saturday after a long illness. He was 73.
Such was the appeal of Moebius – or Jean Henri Gaston Giraud – that he won a devoted following as far afield as Japan and the US, countries working in radically different comic-book traditions.
"The whole profession is in shock, totally devastated, even if we knew that he was seriously ill," Gilles Ratier, the head of France's Association of Comic-Book Critics, said.
Colleagues paid tribute to the artist generally acknowledged as having been one of the most innovative in his field.
Benoît Mouchart, the artistic director at France's Angouleme International Comics Festival, compared him to artistic giants such as Germany's Albrecht Durer and France's Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres.
"France has lost one of its best-known artists in the world," Mouchart said.
Common OCD symptoms and how they manifest
Checking: the obsession or thoughts focus on some harm coming from things not being as they should, which usually centre around the theme of safety. For example, the obsession is “the building will burn down”, therefore the compulsion is checking that the oven is switched off.
Contamination: the obsession is focused on the presence of germs, dirt or harmful bacteria and how this will impact the person and/or their loved ones. For example, the obsession is “the floor is dirty; me and my family will get sick and die”, the compulsion is repetitive cleaning.
Orderliness: the obsession is a fear of sitting with uncomfortable feelings, or to prevent harm coming to oneself or others. Objectively there appears to be no logical link between the obsession and compulsion. For example,” I won’t feel right if the jars aren’t lined up” or “harm will come to my family if I don’t line up all the jars”, so the compulsion is therefore lining up the jars.
Intrusive thoughts: the intrusive thought is usually highly distressing and repetitive. Common examples may include thoughts of perpetrating violence towards others, harming others, or questions over one’s character or deeds, usually in conflict with the person’s true values. An example would be: “I think I might hurt my family”, which in turn leads to the compulsion of avoiding social gatherings.
Hoarding: the intrusive thought is the overvaluing of objects or possessions, while the compulsion is stashing or hoarding these items and refusing to let them go. For example, “this newspaper may come in useful one day”, therefore, the compulsion is hoarding newspapers instead of discarding them the next day.
Source: Dr Robert Chandler, clinical psychologist at Lighthouse Arabia
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Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
APPLE IPAD MINI (A17 PRO)
Display: 21cm Liquid Retina Display, 2266 x 1488, 326ppi, 500 nits
Chip: Apple A17 Pro, 6-core CPU, 5-core GPU, 16-core Neural Engine
Storage: 128/256/512GB
Main camera: 12MP wide, f/1.8, digital zoom up to 5x, Smart HDR 4
Front camera: 12MP ultra-wide, f/2.4, Smart HDR 4, full-HD @ 25/30/60fps
Biometrics: Touch ID, Face ID
Colours: Blue, purple, space grey, starlight
In the box: iPad mini, USB-C cable, 20W USB-C power adapter
Price: From Dh2,099
The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
The specs: 2018 Audi RS5
Price, base: Dh359,200
Engine: 2.9L twin-turbo V6
Transmission: Eight-speed automatic
Power: 450hp at 5,700rpm
Torque: 600Nm at 1,900rpm
Fuel economy, combined: 8.7L / 100km
KILLING OF QASSEM SULEIMANI
History's medical milestones
1799 - First small pox vaccine administered
1846 - First public demonstration of anaesthesia in surgery
1861 - Louis Pasteur published his germ theory which proved that bacteria caused diseases
1895 - Discovery of x-rays
1923 - Heart valve surgery performed successfully for first time
1928 - Alexander Fleming discovers penicillin
1953 - Structure of DNA discovered
1952 - First organ transplant - a kidney - takes place
1954 - Clinical trials of birth control pill
1979 - MRI, or magnetic resonance imaging, scanned used to diagnose illness and injury.
1998 - The first adult live-donor liver transplant is carried out
Skewed figures
In the village of Mevagissey in southwest England the housing stock has doubled in the last century while the number of residents is half the historic high. The village's Neighbourhood Development Plan states that 26% of homes are holiday retreats. Prices are high, averaging around £300,000, £50,000 more than the Cornish average of £250,000. The local average wage is £15,458.
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LEAGUE CUP QUARTER-FINAL DRAW
Stoke City v Tottenham
Brentford v Newcastle United
Arsenal v Manchester City
Everton v Manchester United
All ties are to be played the week commencing December 21.
Types of bank fraud
1) Phishing
Fraudsters send an unsolicited email that appears to be from a financial institution or online retailer. The hoax email requests that you provide sensitive information, often by clicking on to a link leading to a fake website.
2) Smishing
The SMS equivalent of phishing. Fraudsters falsify the telephone number through “text spoofing,” so that it appears to be a genuine text from the bank.
3) Vishing
The telephone equivalent of phishing and smishing. Fraudsters may pose as bank staff, police or government officials. They may persuade the consumer to transfer money or divulge personal information.
4) SIM swap
Fraudsters duplicate the SIM of your mobile number without your knowledge or authorisation, allowing them to conduct financial transactions with your bank.
5) Identity theft
Someone illegally obtains your confidential information, through various ways, such as theft of your wallet, bank and utility bill statements, computer intrusion and social networks.
6) Prize scams
Fraudsters claiming to be authorised representatives from well-known organisations (such as Etisalat, du, Dubai Shopping Festival, Expo2020, Lulu Hypermarket etc) contact victims to tell them they have won a cash prize and request them to share confidential banking details to transfer the prize money.
More coverage from the Future Forum
Volvo ES90 Specs
Engine: Electric single motor (96kW), twin motor (106kW) and twin motor performance (106kW)
Power: 333hp, 449hp, 680hp
Torque: 480Nm, 670Nm, 870Nm
On sale: Later in 2025 or early 2026, depending on region
Price: Exact regional pricing TBA
THE SPECS
Engine: 6.75-litre twin-turbocharged V12 petrol engine
Power: 420kW
Torque: 780Nm
Transmission: 8-speed automatic
Price: From Dh1,350,000
On sale: Available for preorder now
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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Formula Middle East Calendar (Formula Regional and Formula 4)
Round 1: January 17-19, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 2: January 22-23, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 3: February 7-9, Dubai Autodrome – Dubai
Round 4: February 14-16, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 5: February 25-27, Jeddah Corniche Circuit – Saudi Arabia
