Nigeria’s first-ever Oscar submission for best international feature film has been disqualified by award organisers, sparking criticism from its director. Films in this category, formerly best foreign language film, must have “a predominantly non-English dialogue track”. However, the 95-minute film Lionheart is largely in English, with an 11-minute section in the Igbo language. Director Genevieve…

A controversial plan to build a cable car network in Jerusalem’s Old City to transport visitors to one of Judaism’s holiest sites has been approved by Israel’s housing cabinet. The cable cars will ferry up to 3,000 people an hour about 1.4km (0.9 miles) from West Jerusalem to the Western Wall in occupied East Jerusalem.…

A 13-year-old survivor of the attack by suspected Mexican drug cartel gunmen on a convoy of US Mormons hid six siblings in bushes before walking 23km (14 miles) to get help, his family said. Eight children survived Monday’s attack in northern Mexico in which three women and six children were killed. Five of the children…

McDonald’s has fired its chief executive Steve Easterbrook after he had a relationship with an employee. The US fast food giant said the relationship was consensual, but Mr Easterbrook had “violated company policy” and shown “poor judgement”. In an email to staff, the British businessman acknowledged the relationship and said it was a mistake. “Given…

A couple who claim they were kicked off a cruise ship over their rowdy love making is now suing the cruise liner. The German couple, identified as Renate F and husband Volker, were removed from the TUI Cruises Mein Schiff 5 vessel while docked in Barbados for the first day of its two week Caribbean…

Kanye West fans had a long wait for “Jesus Is King.” In the end, they propelled the rapper’s latest album, released Oct. 25, to debut at No. 1.   The gospel-inspired album is West’s ninth in a row to open at the top of the Billboard 200, putting him in a tie with Eminem for the most…

A historic record was set over the weekend at the Miss Malaika grand finale. Among the top three who have been crowned as this year’s Queens, an overall winner with two runner ups, was one Habiba Bint-Abdallah, a 23-year-old Muslim, who was adjudged, the 2nd runner up. Habiba, who wore her Hijab throughout the weeks…

Kwame Agyeman-Budu has been given an interim appointment as the Managing Director of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) following the exit of Ing. Samuel Boakye Appiah who served for three years. Mr. Agyeman-Budu, until his appointment, was the Deputy Managing Director at ECG in charge of Corporate Services. The announcement comes days after the…