Angelina Jolie says her six-year-old son Pax is a better cook than she is. The actress opens up about her home life, including Pax’s culinary skills, in the December issue of Vogue magazine. In the article, readers get a glimpse inside the Jolie-Pitt household with its six kids, bulldog named Jacques and nannies who speak …

Hollywood and Bollywood have come together to create a Los Angeles-India Film Council to attract more Indian moviemakers to LA — part of an ongoing effort to spice up relations between the world’s largest film markets. The new cooperation agreement aims to make it easier for Bollywood producers to film in LA, by facilitating permits, …

OTTAWA: The Canadian Arctic’s first mosque opened on Wednesday in Inuvik to serve as spiritual home to the area’s fledgling Islamic community, a mosque committee member said by telephone from Inuvik. The mosque arrived in the small northern town last month after traveling 4,000 kilometers (2,485 miles) over land and water. Several journalists, including Arab …

WASHINGTON: Stem cell injections boosted the leg muscles of mice and warded off the typical loss of muscle mass that comes with aging, a study published Wednesday showed. The discovery could be useful in treating humans with degenerative diseases such as muscular dystrophy, as well as help everyday people prevent at least some of the …

Actress Gwyneth Paltrow learned to play guitar and immersed herself in country music to pull off her latest role. At the world premiere of "Country Strong" on Monday night in Nashville, Tennessee, Paltrow said it was important to get her character right. "I think any time you do any role you want to be as …

Taylor Swift was named country songwriter of the year at the BMI Awards on Tuesday night, becoming the youngest person to win the award at age 20. The pop sensation also won country song of the year with co-writer Liz Rose for "You Belong To Me." She’s the first songwriter to win that award three …

The first single from a posthumous Michael Jackson album was released online Monday — but was immediately clouded by questions over whether it was really the late star’s voice. Record label Epic Records was forced to issue a statement saying it was confident the album including the single, "Breaking News" was indeed Jackson singing, after …

SPACE: NASA Earth Observatory released this image on Nov. 8, 2010 showing in this view of Egypt, a population almost completely concentrated along the Nile Valley, just a small percentage of the country’s land area. The Nile River and its delta look like a brilliant, long-stemmed flower in this astronaut photograph of the southeastern Mediterranean …

CAIRO: The Lotus Scholarship Program (LSP), funded by USAID, granted 44 Egyptian students the opportunity to study in private Egyptian universities to pursue bachelor’s degrees in fields of study that are important to Egypt’s current and future development. “The LSP is an example of what leading change in Egypt really means. It is the start …

A new album by Michael Jackson is to be released next month, including never-before-heard songs by the self-styled King of Pop before his death last year, his record company said Friday. "Michael" has been produced by the late star’s estate in collaboration with Epic Records, which will put a teaser clip on his website this …

Americans cleaned up at the MTV Europe Awards in Madrid on Sunday, as Lady Gaga picked up three top prizes and awards crowned Katy Perry, Canadian teen idol Justin Bieber and half a dozen US outfits. The US diva Lady Gaga received her trophies, for female artist of the year, best pop act and best …

Once reigning supreme as the ultimate Nuweiba destination, Basata is no longer the only camp today with a mass following. Just five minutes further down the Taba-Nuweiba Road (and around 25 minutes south of the Taba checkpoint), Ananda is a more relaxed camp (read: less rules and fees) with an easy-going manager, chilled atmosphere and …

A long-time Maadi favorite, this cozy crêperie is a fine example of the world-class international cuisine on offer in this diverse Cairo neighborhood. While it may not look like much from the outside, Crêperie Des Arts manages to capture the essence of rustic French dining in both atmosphere and cuisine. The cabin-like look of the …

When the Kempinski Nile Hotel threw a party to celebrate the opening of their tenth floor bar-restaurant-cigar lounge concept, Cairo’s socialites were thrilled. Finally, a venue that could be enjoyed pre-dinner, during dinner and post dinner. No need to hop into your car three times during the evening to enjoy a long night out with …

Lebanese-born New York designer Reem Acra has a message to successful Lebanese entrepreneurs: No matter how big you become abroad, in the end you have to return home. On Wednesday, Acra opened her first franchise boutique in downtown Beirut — more than a decade after launching her fashion journey with a bridal collection in New …

As a child, nothing would elicit more excitement from me than new surroundings — particularly hotels. The possibilities of places to explore, like the bars and restaurants intended for grown-ups’s use, and places to practice my cartwheels (long hotel hallways were the best) meant that within safe surroundings I could pretend that my hotel was …

She’s posed on the red carpet at Cannes in a flowing designer gown, at Deauville in a sleek black bustier and palazzo pants. She exchanges e-mails with Naomi Watts. Sean Penn hung out at her house. Not for nothing have they called Valerie Plame Wilson the Glamorous Spy. And yet for years, she lived a …

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – Space is about to get its first humanoid from planet Earth. Robonaut 2 — affectionately known as R2 — is hitching a one-way ride to the International Space Station this week aboard the final flight of space shuttle Discovery. It’s the first humanoid robot ever bound for space, a $2.5 million …

By Mike Householder/ AP “40: A Doonesbury Retrospective” (Andrews McMeel), by G.B. Trudeau: Forty years after the ever-helmeted football hero B.D. first met his dorky Walden College roommate Mike Doonesbury, the creator of those and dozens of other memorable “Doonesbury” denizens is taking a look back at the award-winning, and often controversial, comic strip that made …

By Sergio Duarte and Tibor Tóth NEW YORK: On Nov. 1, a team of over 35 experts will launch an exercise to inspect a simulated nuclear test site near the Dead Sea in Jordan — a step forward in completing the global verification system of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT). Then on Nov. 12, the world’s …

HEART: Abdul Khaliq Stanikzai says the tiny mound of red and yellow threads in the palm of his hand could help cure Afghanistan of its opium addiction. With agricultural development now seen as pivotal to weaning Afghanistan off drugs and war, multi-million-dollar programs aimed at offering farmers alternatives to poppy production are cropping up nationwide. …

Despite an abundance of liquidity, smaller firms more often than not left out of the investment loop — “big players” — are not interested in investing in companies worth less than LE 50 million, said Hassan El-Khitab, managing director North Africa for the Carlyle Group. Leaders from the private and development sectors convened on Oct. …

The “dangerously low supply” of financing for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in some parts of the world is hampering the global economy’s ability to rebound, said Colyn Gardner, chief executive of The Management Center at the Bangor Business School of Bangor University. Gardner was speaking on a panel at the fourth annual Egyptian Banking …

  HSBC Egypt, a division of its global parent company HSBC, and the Financial Services Volunteers Corps (FSVC), a not-for-profit financial organization, launched YallaBusiness.com on Oct. 4 as part of a strategy to better serve the needs of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in emerging markets.   The web portal will allow HSBC Egypt to …

Edrak for Edutainment Projects Development Company has acquired the franchise of three international brands in the fields of edutainment and fitness. Kidzania, The Little Gym and Jazzercise, expected to drive total investments of LE 100 million when launched in 2011 and 2012. In a statement to the press, the firm said Kidzania, Edrak’s flagship brand, …

DUBAI: Demand for emerging-market exchange traded funds (ETFs) is set to grow rapidly as investors hit by foreign-ownership regulations in many countries buy the product as an alternative, a managing director at money manager BlackRock said. Investors have been scrambling to get into fast-growing emerging economies in Asia and Latin America, lured by high returns. …

Minister of Trade and Industry Rachid Mohamed Rachid said that the volume of trade exchange between Egypt and Turkey hit $3.2 billion in the end of 2009, and is expected to increase to $4 billion by the end of this year and $5 billion in 2011. The Egyptian-Turkish partnership is a good example of how …

The European Investment Bank (EIB) has extended two loans to Egypt’s Ministry of Electricity and Energy for an aggregate value of E560 million, the local news reported. Around €260 million will be geared towards upgrading Egypt’s national electricity grid. The balance, €300 million, will finance the construction of the planned 1,500 MW North Giza power …

SINGAPORE: The volume of Iranian crude stored at sea has fallen by as much as 4 million barrels because of a spike in Asian demand this month, traders and shipping sources said. Asian refiners have more than offset waning demand from European buyers who have increasingly shunned Iranian crude because of tough international sanctions, which …

Egypt aims to get its economy growing at levels seen before the global financial crisis by the fiscal year 2016/17 and expects the private sector to play a major role in the rebound, a minister said on Saturday. Egypt’s gross domestic product (GDP) grew at 5.1 percent in the fiscal year that ended June 30, …