Entertainment

LONDON: Ireland’s Katie Taylor moved a step away from becoming one of the first Olympic women’s boxing champions on Wednesday when she produced a clinical performance to reach the lightweight final. The four-time amateur world champion, at the forefront of the campaign to get women’s boxing into the Olympics, beat Tajikistan’s Mavzuna Chorieva 17-9 in front of another raucous crowd …

LONDON: The Olympic flame took a festive, valedictory lap around London on Thursday, taking in some of the sun-drenched capital’s most famous landmarks and getting a royal welcome on the second-to-last day of its trek across Britain. The torch – carried by athletes, charity workers and celebrities – thrilled thousands of Londoners as it swept across Regent’s Canal in Camden, …

LONDON: Women’s rights campaigners called on Wednesday for an end to sex discrimination at the Olympics, urging the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to ensure there are equal numbers of sports and medals for men and women. Representatives from various European women’s groups met in London for a symbolic burial of the Olympic Charter, saying its principles of condoning any form …

LONDON: The Olympic stadium, the beating heart of the Games when the world’s greatest athletes come to London in 82 days’ time, was formally opened on Saturday by a nine-year-old girl who lives down the road. Niamh Clarke-Willis, who can see the Olympic Park from her home in the east London borough of Hackney, stepped out into the infield of …

LOS ANGELES: Paramedics say they took Whitney Houston’s daughter to a Los Angeles hospital Sunday morning for unspecified medical reasons. The Beverly Hills Fire Department says Bobbi Kristina Brown was taken from the Beverly Hills Hilton around 10:30 a.m. Sunday, less than a day after her mother died in a room at the same hotel. The 18-year-old’s condition was not …

NEW YORK: Chris Brown will perform at this year’s Grammy Awards, the event where his career almost ended three years ago. Brown admitted to assaulting then-girlfriend Rihanna at a pre-Grammy party in 2009 and is serving five years of probation for the felony attack. A source told The Associated Press on Monday that Brown will hit the stage at Sunday’s …

NEW YORK: After receiving tepid reviews for his first book of fictional short stories, actor James Franco has sold his debut novel to Amazon Publishing, a spokeswoman said on Wednesday. The novel is titled “Actors Anonymous” and will be published in 2013. The spokeswoman for Amazon declined to say how much money the book deal was worth and whether the …

NEW YORK: World-renowned primatologist Jane Goodall began her groundbreaking research into chimpanzees over 50 years ago in Tanzania’s Gombe National Park, leaving an indelible imprint on the way humans view animals. On Tuesday this week, the 77 year-old animal researcher and United Nations Messenger of Peace, is featured in an unusual event in 500 movie U.S movie theaters. The one-night …