Thursday, November 19, 2009 LOS ANGELES: Films about subjects as varied as dolphin-hunting and high fashion are among documentaries hoping to be nominated for an Oscar, according to a shortlist released Wednesday.The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences said the final five films nominated for the coveted best documentary statuette at next year's Oscars would be chosen from a shortlist of 15 films.The list includes critically acclaimed and controversial environmental thriller "The Cove", which chronicles the annual slaughter of dolphins in the Japanese coastal town of Taiji.Other nominees include "Valentino: The Last Emperor," director Matt Tyrnauer's portrait of haute couture icon Valentino Garavani and "The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers," about Vietnam War-era whistleblower Ellsberg.Nominations for the 82nd Academy Awards will be announced on February 2 in Beverly Hills, roughly one month before the Oscars are held at Hollywood's Kodak Theater on March 7.
BEIRUT: Thousands of people converged Saturday on central Beirut to mark the fourth anniversary of the assassination of Lebanese former premier Rafiq Hariri.Waving Lebanese flags and carrying pictures of the slain leader, men, women and children gathered under sunny skies in Martyr's Square where members of the parliamentary majority were to address the crowd. The rally comes as final preparations are underway in The Hague for the launch of the international tribunal set up to bring Hariri's killers to justice. It also comes as the country prepares for legislative elections in June that will pit Western-backed political parties against a Hezbollah-led alliance backed by Syria and Iran.Hariri died in a massive car bombing on February 14, 2005 that also killed 22 others. The assassination was widely blamed on then Lebanese power-broker Syria, which has denied any involvement. The attack on the Beirut seafront was one of the worst acts of political violence to rock Lebanon since t...
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