Schools shut down as heavy rains lash Kuwait

Emergency services on full alert to deal with possible incidents

Manama: Schools and colleges were closed on Wednesday after heavy rains lashed Kuwait since morning.

The Ministry of Public Works said emergency teams had been deployed in the country’s governorates to deal with any accident resulting from the stormy weather.

Abdul Mohsen Al Enezi, the assistant undersecretary, said the ministry dealt with 100 complaints since the early hours of the day when the country was under torrential rains accompanied by gales.

Trees have fallen and the sewage system suffered damage due to the flooding rain waters, he said, adding that however the emergency teams dealt with the situation, Kuwait News Agency (Kuna) reported.Earlier, the Ministry of Electricity and Water said the power-water network was functioning normally and the technical teams were on full alert round the clock to ensure supplies normally.

The ministry said that people who had complaints should call the hotline or use social media to communicate.

According to the official news agency, Kuwait was engulfed in stormy weather conditions that prompted authorities to take extraordinary measures, including suspending classes while volunteers scrambled into action, aiding those in need for assistance in the thunder storm-whipped neighbourhoods, mainly in Al Jahraa and Taimaa.

The storm began raging in the early hours, with strong winds, heavy rain, recurring thunder and very low visibility. Many public places and roads have been swamped with water, as the authorities urged motorists to drive carefully.

Social media and microblogs posted pictures of people struggling to make their way on foot or in vehicles. One short clip showed two men using a boat across the flooded road.

• 
  

• 
  

• 
  

Apple Breaks Earnings Record With Strong iPhone Sales

An Apple Store in New York City.

The tech giant's latest earnings report beat expectations

Apple reported record fourth quarter earnings of $1.96 per share on revenue of $51.5 billion, driven—once again—by strong iPhone sales.

The results beat but did not blow past expectations. The stock rose more than 2.75% in after hours trading.

“Fiscal 2015 was Apple’s most successful year ever, with revenue growing 28% to nearly $234 billion. This continued success is the result of our commitment to making the best, most innovative products on earth, and it’s a testament to the tremendous execution by our teams,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “We are heading into the holidays with our strongest product lineup yet, including iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus, Apple Watch with an expanded lineup of cases and bands, the new iPad Pro and the all-new Apple TV which begins shipping this week.”

“Apple’s record September quarter results drove earnings per share growth of 38% and operating cash flow of $13.5 billion,” said Luca Maestri, Apple’s CFO. “We returned $17 billion to our investors during the quarter through share repurchases and dividends, and we have now completed over $143 billion of our $200 billion capital return program.”

By the numbers:

— Revenue: $51.5 billion, up 22.3%
— iPhone: 48.05 million, up 22.3%
— iPad: 9.883 million, down 19.8%
— Mac: 5.71 million, up 3.4%
— Services: $5.09 billion, up 10.3%
— Other products: $3.05 billion, up 104.6%
— Gross margin: 39.9%, up from 38%
— Revenue guidance: $75.5 to $77.5 billion
— GM guidance: 39% to 40%

Volkswagen slumps to first quarterly loss in at least 15 years after rigging diesel emissions tests

PHOTO: Volkswagen has reported a third-quarter operating loss of 3.48 billion euros.

German auto giant Volkswagen has posted its first quarterly loss in 15 years in the wake of the global pollution-cheating scandal which also forced it to lower its full-year forecasts.

Volkswagen said provisions related to its admission that it fitted 11 million diesel vehicles worldwide with sophisticated software to skew emissions tests pushed it deeply into the red in the period from July to September.

The group also warned of further "considerable financial charges" related to legal proceedings over the scam, over which it is the subject of criminal probes in the United States and Germany.

Volkswagen, which has just been overtaken by Toyota as the world's biggest carmaker in terms of sales, ran up a net loss of 1.673 billion euros ($2.52 billion) in the three-month period, compared with a profit of 2.971 billion euros a year earlier.

The losses were due to a charge of 6.7 billion euros ($10 billion) Volkswagen took to cover the initial costs of the scandal, primarily a recall of all vehicles fitted with the software scheduled to begin in January 2016.

Excluding that provision, operating profit would have remained stable at 3.2 billion euros in the three-month period, the company said.

Third-quarter sales revenues, or turnover, advanced by 5.3 per cent to 51.487 billion euros, while deliveries to customers fell by 3.4 per cent to 2.392 million vehicles worldwide.

"The figures show the core strength of the Volkswagen group on the one hand, while on the other the initial impact of the current situation is becoming clear," said Matthias Mueller, who was appointed chief executive shortly after the scandal broke to steer Voklswagen out of its biggest-ever crisis.

U.S. Plans More Patrols in South China Sea Despite Chinese Rebuke

An archive photo of destroyer USS Lassen, which sailed within 12 nautical miles of Subi Reef in the Spratly archipelago in South China Sea, on Oct. 27, 2015.

China has responded harshly

The U.S. is planning more naval patrols in the South China Sea despite a strong rebuke from the Chinese government, according to a new report.

The news, attributed to an anonymous U.S. defense official by by Voice of America, comes after a China Foreign Ministry spokesman condemned a U.S. patrol in the disputed waters as “deliberately provocative actions.” U.S. Ambassador to China Max Baucus had been summoned to explain the perceived violation of China’s territory on Tuesday. The U.S. official said of the patrols: “This is not going to be the last one.”

“We stand firmly against the harm caused by any country to China’s sovereignty and security interests under the cloak of navigation and over-flight freedom,” said a statement from the Chinese government.

The U.S. patrol occurred near artificial islands built by China on reefs in the Sea. Vietnam, Taiwan, Brunei, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines also have claims in the region. The U.S. move follows prodding from allies.

Scientists levitate tiny objects using sound

PHOTO: The scientists created three-dimensional acoustic fields that can exert forces on particles to levitate and manipulate them

A team of scientists have used sound waves to levitate tiny objects without a wizard or wand in sight.

The breakthrough, published today in Nature Communications, could lead to developments in areas as diverse as high-powered "tractor beams"; or manipulating drug delivery in the human body.

Co-author Bruce Drinkwater, Professor of Ultrasonics at the University of Bristol, said while other groups had successfully levitated objects, this had been achieved only by surrounding the object with speakers.

However, Professor Drinkwater and colleagues managed to move the tiny objects - less than one millimetre in size - using a single-sided array of loudspeakers.

The use of a single-sided device to manipulate objects in mid-air extends the potential of the technology as items would no longer need to be surrounded by loudspeakers, Professor Drinkwater said.

He said their new study built on the work of researchers at the University of Dundee.The Dundee team had shown there was a force attracting some acoustic waves back to their sound source.

"But they did not move anything and their system could not trap and hold any objects stable," he said.

"So, we have gone from knowing that the force exists to turning it into a stable working device."

In the paper, the researchers reveal they have not only levitated very small objects but could move them in a controlled manner using acoustic "tweezers", "twisters" and "cages" to manipulate the objects

Ivory Coast President Ouattara easily wins re-election

Results will now be sent to the constitutional court to be validated

vory Coast president Alassane Ouattara smiles to supporters as he leaves a polling station after voting in Abidjan. Ouattara received nearly 84 per cent of the vote

Abidjan, Ivory Coast: Ivory Coast’s President Alassane Ouattara easily won re-election in the first vote since a disputed poll five years ago sparked violence that killed thousands in the West African economic powerhouse, the electoral commission announced early Wednesday.

Ouattara received nearly 84 per cent of Sunday’s vote, trouncing the opposition, according to results read out by Youssouf Bakayoko, the head of the commission. Ouattara needed to get more than 50 per cent to avoid a run-off.

The results will now be sent to the constitutional court to be validated, Bakayoko said.

Ouattara was the heavy favourite long before the campaign began. As the country awaited official tallies Tuesday, he said the vote had allowed Ivory Coast to “turn the page on the crisis our country went through” after the election five years ago.

In that contest, Ouattara defeated ex-president Laurent Gbagbo in a run-off but Gbagbo refused to step down, leading to violence that killed more than 3,000 people and dragged on until Gbagbo’s arrest in April 2011. Gbagbo is set to go on trial next month for crimes against humanity at the International Criminal Court in The Hague.

This time around, Ouattara faced a divided opposition that failed to gain traction. He campaigned on the impressive economic rebound he has overseen since taking office in May 2011, though critics say ordinary Ivorians have not benefited much from the growth and that post-conflict reconciliation has been minimal.

The second-place finisher with 9 per cent was Pascal Affi N’Guessan, the candidate of Gbagbo’s Ivorian Popular Front political party. A large faction of the party had withheld its support for N’Guessan, calling him a traitor to Gbagbo and predicting the vote would be rigged.

Former House Speaker Dennis Hastert Pleads Guilty in Hush Money Case

Former U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert leaves after a guilty plea at Dirksen U.S. Courthouse in Chicago on Oct. 28, 2015.

The longest-serving Republican Speaker admitted to making illegal cash withdrawals in the alleged hush money scheme

Former House Speaker Dennis Hastert pleaded guilty to illegal bank transactions in an alleged hush-money scheme that linked back to his days as a high school teacher.

Hastert entered the guilty plea in an Illinois federal court on Wednesday just weeks after prosecutors in the case announced they had reached a deal with the embattled Republican leader. In May, Hastert was charged with improper transactions and lying to federal authorities about his banking transactions, which were said to have been conducted in an effort to hide the alleged sexual abuse of a former student.

According to the indictment, Hastert was set to pay a person known simply as “Individual A” a total of $3.5 million. Hastert is charged with withdrawing the money in amounts under $10,000, in violation of banking law. Little is known about “Individual A” other than the fact that Hastert knew him or her for his or her entire life.

Under his plea, Hastert did not plea guilty to lying to federal authorities but the lone count carries a maximum penalty of 5 years in prison. According to NBC News, prosecutors recommended 6 months imprisonment for the 73-year-old. At Wednesday’s hearing, Hastert admitted to the judge that he knew what he did was wrong.

Man charged with murder of 11yo girl in Wangaratta

PHOTO: A candlelight vigil was held for Zoe on Tuesday in Wangaratta. 

A Mildura man has been charged with the murder of an 11-year-old girl in Wangaratta, in Victoria's north-east.

A party was held at the girl's home on Saturday night and she was found dead in the morning.

The 29-year-old man has been charged with three offences, including murder and the sexual penetration of a child under 16.

He will face an out-of-sessions remand hearing in Wangaratta before appearing at the town's Magistrates Court today.

The man has been in custody in Wangaratta Hospital's psychiatric ward after he was picked up by officers on an unrelated matter when he was reported behaving erratically and walking along the Hume Highway at 6:00am on Sunday.

On Wednesday, the girl's family thanked police and the local community for their "extraordinary support".

"Zoe's family would like to take this opportunity to sincerely thank Wangaratta Police, the homicide squad and paramedics who attended the scene," the family said in a statement.

"Their continuing support during this terrible time in our lives has just been extraordinary."

The community held a candlelight vigil for Zoe on Tuesday night.

"[We] would like to say a huge thank you to those who organised and attended the candlelight vigil at the park that Zoe always enjoyed playing at," the family's statement said.

"We are so very touched and thankful for all the personal messages and tributes and for the concern which has been shown for the wellbeing of the family."

The family asked for their complete privacy to grieve privately over their "beautiful little girl".

22 more elephants poisoned to death in Zimbabwe

Latest deaths came less than two weeks after 26 elephants died from poisoning in two separate incidents

An elephant crosses the road in Hwange National Park, about 700 kilometers south west of Harare, Zimbabwe. Cyanide poisoning has killed 22 elephants in Zimbabwe’s Hwange National Park, the Zimbabwe National Parks and Wildlife Management Authority said. This brings to 62 the number of elephants poisoned by poachers in this southern Africa country in October.

Harare: At least 22 more elephants have died from suspected poisoning by poachers near Zimbabwe’s main game reserve, a parks official said Tuesday, as conservationists struggle to stem a spate of attacks.

“We recovered 22 elephant carcasses in the Sinamatela area yesterday and so far we have also recovered 35 tusks,” Caroline Washaya, spokeswoman for the parks and wildlife management authority, said.

“Initial investigations indicate that there was cyanide poisoning. We continue to lobby for deterrent penalties for people found with poisonous substances such as cyanide.“We can’t continue to lose wildlife at such a rate.”

The latest deaths came less than two weeks after 26 elephants died from poisoning in two separate incidents outside Hwange National Park, in the resort town of Kariba and near Zimbabwe’s border with Botswana.And last month, at least 14 elephants died of poisoning in various attacks.

Poaching is common in Zimbabwe’s game parks with elephants and rhino as the main targets for their tusks and horns which are smuggled to eastern Asian countries.Last year, more than 300 elephants died after suspected poachers placed cyanide near their watering holes.

Coles employee wins right to appeal over union workplace deal

PHOTO: A Coles supermarket worker has won the first round of a battle against a major union. 

A Coles supermarket worker has won the first round of a David and Goliath battle which exposes a major union to claims it sold out its own workers.

Duncan Hart, a student who works part time at a Coles supermarket in Brisbane, took action in the Fair Work Commission claiming that the enterprise bargaining agreement between Coles and his union, the Shop Distributive and Allied Employees Association (SDA), left thousands of workers worse off.

In a decision published on Tuesday, the Fair Work Commission granted Mr Hart the right to appeal the approval of the EBA, saying there was an argument to be made the deal failed what is known as the 'better off overall test' (BOOT).

For a workplace agreement to be legal, all employees must be made better off when an agreement is compared to the award.

Starbucks’ New Halloween Frappuccino Looks Like a Delicious Forbidden Mess

It's called the Frappula

If you’re looking for a fun seasonal beverage at Starbucks this week, you’ll probably go for a pumpkin spice latte or some kind of cinnamon cider apple thing. But if you want to go a spookier route, Starbucks just released a limited-edition Halloween-themed drink called the Frappula Frappuccino.

Props to Starbucks for creating a Halloween beverage that really does look spooky. Or at least, a beverage that looks like blood is one of the key ingredients.

The vampire-inspired drink “is made with white chocolate sauce, milk and ice blended together then layered between mocha sauce and a dollop of whipped cream. A drizzle of raspberry syrup oozes from the rim, which is finished with whipped cream on top.”

The Frappula will be available in U.S. stores from Oct. 28 to Oct. 31. It’s available in Canada for one extra day.

Americans Fear Most, According to Their Google Search Histories

The Google search engine is reflected in a woman's eye.

Just in time for Halloween

When you’re a human, there are so, so many things to be scared of. Poisonous spiders. Snakes. The idea that nobody outside your immediate family will ever love you. The dissolution of the middle class. Instagram going down. The Really Big One. Losing your basic human rights. Losing your mind. Losing your HBO GO access.*

For Americans, the biggest fear, apparently, is corruption of government officials, according to a recent survey. (Other biggies from that study included cyber-terrorism, economic collapse and corporate tracking of personal information. Basically, we’re all really paranoid.) But actually, when use the super-scientific metric of Google searches, Americans are mostly afraid of things like God, heights and other people.

To gear up for Halloween, which is obviously the spookiest day of the year, we decided to look for the most common Google searches for the words “scared,” “afraid” and “fear” to see what really terrifies people the most. Unfortunately, data was not available for smaller states, but we like to think the results were indicative of what’s going on in the collective American psyche. So, with that in mind, here are some of the most common fear-related Google searches in the country.

Melbourne's NGV sets up first Lego drop-off point for Ai Weiwei outside of Beijing

PHOTO: Chinese artist Ai Weiwei has called for Lego collection points to be set up in cities around the world.

Melburnians are being urged to donate Lego to the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV), after the Danish toymaker refused to supply building blocks for Chinese dissident artist Ai Weiwei's upcoming installation.

The NGV said a collection point, which would take the form of a car with an open sun roof in the gallery's sculpture garden, would be the first outside Beijing.

Last week, Weiwei said Lego refused his studio's request for a bulk order of blocks to create an artwork to be shown at the gallery.

A spokeswoman for the National Gallery of Victoria said the blocks were required for a "room-scale installation" the artist was planning, highlighting Australian human rights and free speech advocates.

The gallery is planning to bring the works of Andy Warhol and Weiwei to Melbourne from December 11, in its largest ever international contemporary show.

Egg-humed: Russian police bust caviar smuggled in coffin

Prized delicacy fetches around $100 for a tiny 125 gram jar

• 

• Moscow: Russian traffic police have busted a caviar smuggling operation after stopping a speeding hearse with half-a-ton of black caviar hidden in a coffin.

  The driver of the funeral home vehicle told police that he was transporting a dead woman to the far-eastern city of Khabarovsk, but upon inspection it turned out that “there was no dead body in the car,” regional police said in a statement.

  Policemen found plastic containers with caviar under the funeral wreaths and even inside the coffin, with the total haul amounting to 500 kilogrammes (1,100 pounds).

  The prized delicacy - the salt-cured eggs of sturgeon fish that were originally found mainly in the Caspian Sea - fetches around $100 (Dh367) for a tiny 125 gram jar.

  Catching the fish in the wild has been banned as sturgeon numbers have dropped perilously low after over-fishing during the Soviet era and only farmed caviar is legal to sell.

  Poaching, however, remains a major problem and smuggling is thought to be widespread.

  Police footage from the night time raid showed officers pick through the hearse’s cargo, holding up tupperware containers with the greenish-black fish roe inside.

  The officers then pry the lid off a purple coffin with frilly trim to reveal several tightly wrapped packages with more caviar inside.

  The driver and his accomplice swore they had no idea they were loaded with an illegal caviar cargo instead of a corpse, according to the police statement.

  A man had approached them, asking to come and pick up the coffin and drive it to a morgue, paying them 25,000 rubles (Dh1,469 or $400) and “the coffin was loaded into the hearse by men they didn’t know”, it added.

Philippines president Benigno Aquino rules out permanently resettling refugees

PHOTO: Philippines president Benigno Aquino says his country needs to address the challenges of supporting its own people before accepting refugees for permanent residency from Australia.

Philippines president Benigno Aquino says his country will not accept any refugees sent by Australia if they are expected to resettle permanently.

Mr Aquino said he was "seriously considering" an Australian Government proposal to accept some refugees, but only if they were in the South-East Asian nation temporarily.

"If this proposed agreement is not transitory in nature... we feel we are not in a capacity at this point in time to afford permanent residency to these people," he said.

"Australia can recognise that we do have a significantly bigger population than they do.

"We have challenges to meeting the needs of our people right now.

"We would want to assist but there are limitations."

Comment was sought on Tuesday from Immigration Minister Peter Dutton and his Opposition counterpart Richard Marles.

Mr Aquino did not elaborate on the "proposed agreement", which was alluded to earlier this month after Foreign Minister Julie Bishop visited the Philippines.

In a statement on the October 9 visit, Mr Aquino said the issue of migration and refugees were "discussed in the context of how each country is finding ways to fulfil its international obligations".

The news follows recent criticism of the Government's resettlement deal with Cambodia, which has seen one of the four refugees transferred from Nauru to Phnom Penh return to his home country.

Local media has reported that two more refugees are due to resettle shortly.

Argentina’s Massa to give nod to Macri as run-off starting gun fires

Massa failed to reach the run-off but his 5 million votes will leave him in an influential position over the next month

Presidential hopeful Sergio Massa of the Frente Renovador (Renewal Front) greets supporters during the election in Buenos Aires.

Buenos Aires: Defeated Argentine presidential challenger Sergio Massa will give a tacit nod of support this week to rival Mauricio Macri, party sources said, giving an early boost to the opposition candidate’s scramble for votes ahead of next month’s run-off.

Macri delivered a humiliating blow in Sunday’s vote to outgoing leftist leader Cristina Fernandez and her candidate, Daniel Scioli, who had been tipped by some opinion polls to win outright and now faces a nail-biting battle in the second round.

Massa failed to reach the run-off but his five million votes will leave him in an influential position over the next month.

Top officials in Massa’s New Alternative alliance are compiling a manifesto with policy proposals.

“The document won’t explicitly support Macri but it is a wink in his direction,” said one close aide familiar with Massa’s strategy.

A jubilant Macri wasted no time on Monday urging supporters of Massa and three other candidates knocked out in Sunday’s ballot to fall behind him.

“We are here to represent you,” Macri said. “Argentina needs a change and we are ready to make that happen.” Yet Massa is likely to shirk a public king-maker role because he will struggle persuading his supporters to follow him en masse and trying to do so could open rifts within his party.

Massa served as cabinet chief in Fernandez’ first term before splitting with her. His own party is a dissident faction of the broad-based Peronist movement that dominates Argentine politics.

Many of his supporters believe Fernandez has mismanaged the economy but still find Macri’s shock pro-market policies hard to stomach. Others balk at what they say would be four more years of brazen leftist populism under Scioli.

At play in the Nov. 22 presidential run-off is how Argentina deals with high inflation, a central bank depleted of liquid foreign reserves, an artificially strong peso currency and a debt default.

Another New Alternative alliance source said: “It will be easier for (Macri’s) ‘Let’s Change’ alliance to find common ground with the document than for the ruling party.” MARKET RALLY Former powerboat champion Scioli on Monday sought to draw a line under Sunday’s election, which saw him win 36.9 percent of valid votes while Macri drew 34.3 support. Opinion polls had shown Scioli winning by a 10-point margin.

“Today starts a new election campaign that will decide the future of Argentina,” a grim-looking Scioli told reporters.

For the second day running, Scioli went on the attack.

Voters faced a choice between protecting industry, employment and social welfare and Macri’s proposal “to liberalize the market and take on debt,” Scioli said.

Macri’s surprisingly strong showing on Sunday sparked a stunning rally in financial and equities markets.

Two of its main internationally traded bonds jumped to record or near-record highs while Argentine US traded bank stocks soared, with Banco Macro and Grupo Financiero Galicia posted double-digit gains.

Macri is favored by investors for promising to free up the economy and conduct more investor-friendly policies. He is also the candidate seen as most likely to reach a deal with a group of “holdout” creditors whose lawsuit over bonds defaulted on by Argentina in 2002 caused a new and continuing default last year.

“If Macri wins ... we have a very interesting growth cycle ahead in Argentina,” said Roberto Lampl, Head of Latin American Investments at Alquity Investment Management.

Even so, the road to growth would not be smooth because Argentina needs to devalue the currency and address a widening fiscal deficit, Lampl said.

South China Sea: China slams US over warship sailing near artificial islands; US ambassador 'summoned'

PHOTO: The USS Lassen has passed within 12 nautical miles of at least one of the formations Beijing claims in the South China Sea.

The United States has defied China by sending a warship close to a series of artificial islands it claims in the South China Sea, prompting Beijing furiously to denounce what it called a threat to its sovereignty.

China's defence ministry said a destroyer-class ship and another vessel were dispatched to "warn" the US vessel, which Beijing said it had "shadowed".

Key points:

• US ambassador Max Baucus summoned
• Chinese destroyer-class ship and another vessel sent to "warn" US
• China says US actions have "damaged trust"

China's vice foreign minister Zhang Yesui called the US patrol "extremely irresponsible" and summoned US ambassador Max Baucus in response, state television said.

The USS Lassen passed within 12 nautical miles - the normal limit of territorial waters around natural land - of at least one of the formations the rising Asian power is building in disputed waters.

Washington's long-awaited move appeared to escalate tensions over the strategically vital waters, where Beijing has rapidly transformed reefs and outcrops into artificial islands with potential military use.

Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang also blasted the exercise, saying the ship had "illegally entered" the waters near the islands "without receiving permission from the Chinese government".

Beijing "resolutely opposes any country using freedom of navigation and overflight as a pretext for harming China's national sovereignty and security interests", he said.

He added it would "staunchly defend its territorial sovereignty".

An American official said the US action was part of its "routine operations in the Sea in accordance with international law".

Before and after: South China Sea

See how China is converting reefs to military facilities by building artificial islands in the South China Sea.

"We will fly, sail, and operate anywhere in the world that international law allows," the official said.

China claims sovereignty over almost the whole of the South China Sea, raising concerns it could one day dictate who may transit its busy sea lanes.

Several neighbouring countries including the Philippines, a US ally, have competing claims and the dispute has raised fears of clashes in an area through which a third of the world's oil passes.

On Tuesday, Defence experts said they believed Australia would face growing pressure to join the US-led maritime patrols in the region.

Quentin Tarantino Says Jennifer Lawrence Could Have Been Hateful Eight Heroine

Jennifer Lawrence attends the Lionsgate press room during Comic-Con in San Diego, Calif. on July 9, 2015.

Maybe when she's older

Quentin Tarantino has a reputation for casting actors in unexpected roles – John Travoltain Pulp Fiction or Uma Thurmanin Kill Bill, for example. The director’s forthcoming film, the western Hateful Eight, will featureJennifer Jason Leigh in one of her highest-profile roles in years: as Daisy, the sole female member of the titular group of tough characters.

In an interview with Vulture, Tarantino, 52, said he could imagine Jennifer Lawrence playing the part as well.

“I could have seen Jennifer Lawrence doing a good job with the role,” he said in the interview. “I’m a very big fan of hers. I think she could end up being another little Bette Davis if she keeps on going the way she’s going.”

However, Tarantino imagined the character being older than Lawrence, 25, and notes that he’s always been a fan of Jason Leigh, 53.

“Jennifer Jason Leigh came in and was really good. She went for a couple of things that other people just kind of playacted,” he said. “She had to act like she got shot, and she just screamed bloody murder. I kept remembering Jennifer’s bloodcurdling scream. If it had happened in a house, somebody would have called the cops.”

Tarantino, who cast Pam Grier in the title role in 1997’s Jackie Brownwhen she was in her late 40s, said it’s not that he’s necessarily interested in writing meaty roles for older actresses; he’s more interested in finding the right actors to embody his characters.

“I actually think my characters are going to be one of my biggest legacies after I’m gone. So I have no obligation whatsoever other than to just cast it right,” he said. “I don’t really know if I’m writing the kind of roles thatMeryl Streep and Julianne Moore would play. Jessica Lange on American Horror Story is a little bit more my cup of tea.”

MONA founder David Walsh lashes powerful Farrell family with monopoly on Tasmania's pokies

MONA founder and professional gambler David Walsh has lashed out at one of Australia's richest families for attempting to use him to extend its poker machine monopoly indefinitely.

The Farrell family run Tasmania's two casinos and have owned the gambling license monopoly for decades, including every poker machine in the state.

The license was extended for 20 years in 2003 following secret negotiations with the then Labor state government.

The monopoly has seen the Farrell's personal wealth skyrocket to an estimated $463 million.

Mr Walsh, the owner of Hobart's Museum of Old and New Art (MONA), wants to break the Farrell monopoly by opening a high rollers casino dubbed Monaco. But last month he withdrew from negotiations with the Farrells and the Hodgman State Government when he decided the terms were unacceptable.

PHOTO: MONA owner David Walsh says poker machines are "insidious". 

David Bowie Announces Release Date for New Album Blackstar

File photo of David Bowie dated June 13, 2004.

He will debut 'Blackstar' on Jan. 8, 2016, his 69th birthday

David Bowie has plans to release his 25th studio album, the artist confirmed on his personal websiteSunday. After rumor spread about the project, the 68-year-old performer announced he will debut Blackstar on Jan. 8, 2016, which also happens to be his 69th birthday.

Bowie’s latest installment will be led by the title-track single “Blackstar,” due out Nov. 20. While early reports hyped the album as the singer’s “strangest”and “oddest” recording yet, a release from Bowie’s camp aboutBlackstar clarified, “Contrary to inaccurate reporting on the sound and content of the album, only the following can be confirmed: The single will be released on November 20th and is not part of David’s theatre pieceLazarus. The album will be released on David’s birthday, January 8th 2016.”

This is the latest contribution in a busy few years for the Grammy winner. Following the 2013 release of The Next Day, Bowie dropped the compilation album Nothing Has Changed in 2014, and released the Five Years (1969–1973) box set just last month. He’s also been hard at work at the aforementioned Broadway production of his musical Lazarus, which recruited Michael C. Hall, Cristin Milioti, and Sophia Anne Caruso, among others for the stage production.

“Blackstar” will also feature during the opening credits of the British television show The Last Panthers. “I showed Mr. Bowie the two first episodes in the rough state they were at the time, and he liked what he saw very much,” director Johan Renck said in a statement earlier this month. “We discussed the various aspects of the show; naturally the plot line, but also the underlying currents of guilt and personality flaws. We talked about the dark heart of Europe. We talked about the biblical aspects of human nature.”