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ARY NEWS

Reuters

  • Gyllenhaal, Vallée tackle grief in 'Demolition'

    Vallée calls it his most “rock and roll” film to date, both for its pulsing soundtrack in a film otherwise punctuated by silence, and its often provocative and offbeat portrayal of grief.

    Jake Gyllenhaal plays Davis Mitchell, a New York investment banker coming to grips with his wife’s sudden death. But he has been sleepwalking through life for so long that he is detached from the tragedy.

    An unexpected connection with a vending machine company’s customer service employee, played by Naomi Watts, eventually helps him express his grief. In one scene, Mitchell demolishes the expensive, minimalist home he shared with his wife.

    The movie had its world premiere this week at the Toronto film festival.

    “I could relate to Jake’s character and I guess that’s what kept me on. I wanted to direct this beautiful script,” the Canadian director said on Friday.

    Vallée said Bryan Sipe’s script “was something special and unique. It’s rare to read something that powerful, where you just turn the pages and you’re surprised, you don’t know where you’re going.”

    Vallée’s last two movies, “Dallas Buyer’s Club” and “Wild,” brought a slew of Oscar wins and nominations for its stars.

    But “Demolition” is not scheduled to open in the United States until April 2016, which would put it out of contention for this year’s Hollywood awards season.

    The movie is Gyllenhaal’s third big outing this year. In “Southpaw,” he also played a man struggling after losing his wife. His movie “Everest,” about a fateful 1996 climbing expedition, opened the Venice film festival last week.

    Gyllenhaal said it was a process to work out how his character feels about his loss, compared to what society expects.

    “I think that’s a bit uncomfortable, particularly as an actor, to try and figure out, not what you’ve been told what grief is supposed to be, but just discovering as you go … It was really actually a journey the whole time.

    “Feelings don’t come when we expect them to, so he (Vallée) shoots a movie in the same way … it’s not telling you the obvious in a conventional way and that’s beautiful, because I think that’s how we walk through life,” Gyllenhaal said.

  • Vinci forced to alter travel plans after upsetting Serena Williams

    But instead of returning to Italy on Saturday the 32-year-old will return to Arthur Ashe Stadium court to face Flavia Pennetta in an improbable all-Italian U.S. Open final after pulling off one of the biggest shocks in tennis history.

    “Maybe if yesterday you told me, ‘OK, tomorrow you can win against Serena,’ I say, ‘Come on.’ Yesterday I called my travel agency to say, OK, book me a flight, because you know,” said Vinci. “And now I have my final tomorrow. So it’s incredible.”

    Vinci arrived at Flushing Meadows two weeks ago a 300-1 long-shot to win the year’s final grand slam and the Tale of the Tape for her match with Williams offered no hint of an upset.

    Williams, a 21-times major winner chasing a rare sweep of the year’s four majors, entered the match having lost just twice all season and was riding a 33-match grand slam unbeaten streak.

    In 43 previous grand slams, Vinci had never before been past the quarter-finals in singles. She had also yet to take a set off Williams in their four career meetings, including as recently as last month in Toronto.

    Even Vinci did not fancy her odds and was preparing to pack her bags for a trip back to Taranto before pulling off the David v Goliath upset shocking in Williams 2-6 6-4 6-4.

    Vinci, the 13th unseeded player to reach a grand slam final in the Open Era and only the third at the U.S. Open, could not hide her delight but also found time to spare a thought for Williams, who came two match wins short of becoming the fourth woman to sweep all four grand slam singles titles in one year.

    “It’s like a dream,” said Vinci, who at 32 years, six months Vinci becomes the oldest first time grand slam finalist in the Open Era. “I’m really happy, but of course I’m a little bit really sad for Serena because she’s incredible player, number one, all the Grand Slams.

    “I don’t know. It’s tough to explain my emotion right now. Maybe tomorrow morning I can tell you something, but now it’s amazing.

    “It’s magic moment for me. You work so hard for a long time, and it’s incredible.”

    It may have taken 18 years for Vinci to reach her first grand slam singles final but she has known major success having claimed a career doubles grand slam.

    Still, she will have to face pressure that she did not have to deal with playing against the heavily favoured Williams.

    “Will be a tough match for both tomorrow. I think a lot of pressure,” smiled Vinci. “But we know each other for a long time.

    “But it’s a final. Come on. Enjoy. That’s it.”

  • US Open: Vinci dashes Serena's dreams of calender grand slam

    For world number one Williams, who was bidding to become only the fourth woman to win all four majors in the same year, it marked the first time she lost to Vinci in five career meetings.

    Vinci, appearing in her first grand slam singles semi-final, took advantage of some loose points from the American with inspired play and determination to snap Williams’ streak of 33 consecutive match wins in the grand slams.

    The 32-year-old Italian ended the two-hour shocker with a half-volley winner to set up a most unlikely Flushing Meadows final against 33-year-old compatriot Flavia Pennetta, who beat Romanian second seed Simona Halep 6-1 6-3 to reach her first grand slam singles final.

  • Struggles with sleep linked to heart disease risk

    “Many people, up to one third or one fourth of the general population, suffer from inadequate sleep – either insufficient duration of sleep or poor quality of sleep,” said co-lead author Dr. Chan-Won Kim of Kangbuk Samsung Hospital of Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine in Seoul, South Korea.

    Several studies have linked inadequate sleep with an increased risk of heart attack and stroke, but other conditions like depression or obesity could influence this association, Kim told Reuters Health by email.

    “In contrast, we studied if sleep of inadequate duration or quality would be linked to early markers of heart disease in asymptomatic healthy adults free of heart disease,” Kim said.

    For the study, more than 47,000 men and women, age 42 on average, completed a sleep questionnaire and had tests to detect lesions of calcium and plaque in the artery leading to the heart, an early sign of disease, and arterial stiffness in the leg, a sign of vascular aging.

    According to their questionnaires, the participants’ average sleep duration was 6.4 hours per night, and about 84 percent said their sleep quality was “good.” The researchers considered those who got five hours or less per night to be “short” sleepers, and those who got nine or more hours to be “long” sleepers.

    Short sleepers had 50 percent more calcium in their coronary arteries than those who slept for seven hours per night, according to the results in Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis and Vascular Biology. Long sleepers had 70 percent more calcium than those who slept seven hours.

    “The calcium score obtained by computerized tomography scan is a very good measure of calcium buildup in the coronary arteries reflecting coronary atherosclerosis,” Kim said. “The higher the coronary calcium score, the greater the risk of having a heart attack in the future.”

    Those who reported poor sleep quality also tended to have more coronary calcium and more arterial stiffness.

    In a 2013 study, people who tended to get less than six hours of sleep nightly were more likely to have high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes and to be obese.

    “Adults with poor sleep quality have stiffer arteries than those who sleep seven hours a day or had good sleep quality,” co-lead author Dr. Yoosoo Chang of the Center for Cohort Studies at Kangbuk Samsun Hospital said in a statement accompanying the study. “Overall, we saw the lowest levels of vascular disease in adults sleeping seven hours a day and reporting good sleep quality.”

    Short sleepers were more likely than others to be older, have depression, type 2 diabetes or to be smokers.

    “The associations of too short or too long sleep duration and of poor sleep quality with early indicators of heart disease, such as coronary calcium and arterial stiffness, provides strong support to the increasing body of evidence that links inadequate sleep with an increased risk of heart attacks,” Kim said.

    The study does not prove that too little sleep is a cause of early arterial disease, rather than a sign of it or of other medical problems.

    “It is still not clear if inadequate sleep is the cause or the consequence of ill health,” but good sleep hygiene, including avoiding electronic media at bedtime, should be part of a healthy lifestyle, Kim said.

    “For doctors, it can be helpful to evaluate sleep duration and sleep quality when assessing the health status of their patients,” Kim said.

  • Wisconsin baby survives after drinking vodka in formula

    The baby had a blood alcohol level of 0.294, more than three times the legal limit for an adult driver, after receiving the vodka-tainted formula on Monday night, Kenosha police spokesman Bradley Hetlet said.

    Hetlet said investigators believe it was a mistake and the girl’s parents will not be charged for the alcohol incident. Her father was charged separately for altercations that ensued after the girl began to suffer from the alcohol, he said.

    Hetlet said the girl’s mother told police she filled a container with water to be used for the baby’s bottle, set it on a kitchen counter and left the room. The girl’s father entered the kitchen, emptied the container and filled it with vodka, intending to take the water bottle to a friend’s home.

    When the mother returned to the kitchen, she mixed about two ounces of the liquid with baby formula and fed her baby, Hetlet said. The parents realized the error when the child began acting abnormally, he said.

    “Then the blame game started,” he said.

    Several fights ensued between the girl’s 22-year-old father and her mother, family members and police as rescue workers arrived and then rushed the baby to a hospital, Hetlet said.

     

  • Ford hires Carla Bruni to sell cars in France

    Ford France, seeking to counter the home ground advantage of Renault and PSA Peugeot Citroen, reckons Bruni’s improbable change of career will inspire equally bold decisions by French car buyers to stray from the fold, in its direction.

    It is also taking a bet on the consumer-influencing power of Bruni. The marriage to Sarkozy of the singer and former model fuelled the perception among many voters that he was an overly showy leader, known as “president bling bling” during his 2007-12 term.

    Ford, whose 4.3 percent share of total car sales in France so far this year pales beside the 30 percent and 26 percent shares of PSA Peugeot Citroen and Renault, says what counts is Bruni’s reputation and versatility, not political affiliation.

    “She’s a woman who went from top model to singer and actress, and from champagne socialist to wife of a right-wing president,” Fabrice Devanlay, Ford France’s external relections director, told Reuters.

    “Sure there’s a risk, because she is marked by the political side of her marital status, but her international celebrity is an incredible driver for the visibility of our campaign.”

  • Islamic State attacks Syrian air base in east, dozens reported killed

    Islamic State used at least two car bombs in its latest assault on the air base near the city of Deir al-Zor, where government troops are holed up, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

    It said at least 18 soldiers and 23 Islamic State fighters had been killed. The base is one of President Bashar al-Assad’s last footholds in eastern Syria. There was no mention of the attack on state media.

    After more than four years of war, Assad’s sway is now mostly confined the cities of western Syria, with the rest held by Islamic State, other insurgent groups, or a Kurdish militia, which controls much of the north.

    On Wednesday, Syrian state TV said government troops had quit the Abu al-Duhur air base in the northwesterly Idlib province after a two-year siege by insurgents including the al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front.

    Deir al-Zor province borders territories in Iraq that are also controlled by Islamic State, and its oilfields are a major source of revenue for the group.

    A U.S.-led coalition has been attacking Islamic State from the air in Deir al-Zor and the neighboring Raqqa province.

  • Software guru McAfee seeks White House as Cyber Party candidate

    The offbeat anti-virus software industry pioneer who grabbed media headlines in 2012 during a run from Belize authorities on Wednesday filed the requisite paperwork to become a U.S. presidential candidate in the November 2016 election as part of his new Cyber Party.

    McAfee, 69, told Reuters in an interview that he wants to put more limits on government’s reach into Americans’ lives, strengthen privacy protections and “return sanity to the government.”

    “I would sit down and say, Now I’m the president, please tell me the truth about what’s happening here. … We cannot allow this insanity to continue, because we are on the precipice.”

    Precipice of what? “The total collapse of society.”

    In what is now a field of 23 contenders – 17 Republicans, five Democrats and now one independent – in a race already rife with wild cards such as business mogul Donald Trump, McAfee arrives as a free-wheeling candidate, riding in predominantly with Internet reach and social media.

    His campaign is housed in an Alabama warehouse and run by 28-year-old Drew Thompson, who has never worked in politics but says he has a master’s degree in international affairs from Northeastern University. McAfee said his plan is to cleverly use technology.

    Third-party candidates face huge disadvantages but McAfee considers himself a shoo-in because of his “very large and very dedicated fan base.”

    “I know I have the numbers,” he said. “At least 10,000 people in the past few years have said, please run for president. Weird, it’s truly weird.”

    His online celebrity stems in part from his outlaw persona portrayed over recent years through profanity-laced video, gun-toting photos and connection with media outlets during his semi-seclusion and later fugitive status in Central America.

    The one-time millionaire fled his home in a former pirate haven in Belize in 2012 after police sought to question him about the murder of a neighbor. They ultimately said he was not a suspect.

    Guatemalan police detained McAfee on charges of illegally crossing into the country. He denied any connection to the shooting and said he feared the Belize police would kill or torture him. He was later deported to Miami.

    “I take responsibility for all my faults,” McAfee said. “If you want to sling mud, I promise you that no one can sling mud at me that I had not already slung at myself publicly.”

  • Hard-disk maker Seagate to cut 1,050 jobs worldwide

    The company said on Thursday it expected to save about $113 million annually from the restructuring and incur pretax charges of about $53 million. (1.usa.gov/1LYRk4e)

    Seagate, which has about 52,200 employees worldwide, expects to complete the restructuring by the end of the December quarter. The company expects to incur most of the pretax charges in the first quarter, it said.

    Seagate has reported a fall in sales for the past two quarters, hurt by weak demand from original equipment manufacturers, including PC makers.

    Research firm International Data Corp said last month that it expected a bigger drop in 2015 PC shipments than it had anticipated earlier due to a large inventory of notebooks and a strong dollar.

    To help make up for a declining PC market, Seagate and rival Western Digital Corp are expanding into the growing market for cloud data storage products.

    Seagate’s shares ended at $50.10 on Wednesday. Up to Wednesday’s close, the stock had fallen more than 24 percent this year.

  • U.S. jobless claims drop; imported inflation remains weak

    Initial claims for state unemployment benefits dropped 6,000 to a seasonally adjusted 275,000 for the week ended Sept. 5, the Labor Department said on Thursday. It was the 27th straight week that claims remained below the 300,000 threshold, which is usually associated with a strengthening labor market.

    The four-week moving average of claims, considered a better measure of labor market trends as it irons out week-to-week volatility, ticked up 500 to 275,750 last week.

    “Consistently low readings for initial and continuing jobless claims suggest that the separations side of the labor market remains healthy, and we see little reason to expect a meaningful shift in labor market dynamics in the near term,” said Jesse Hurwitz, an economist at Barclays in New York.

    In another report, the Labor Department said import prices fell 1.8 percent last month as the cost of petroleum and a range of goods dropped, after sliding 0.9 percent in July.

    August’s drop in import prices was the largest in seven months and suggested a strong dollar and soft global demand continued to put downward pressure on imported inflation. Import prices now have declined in 12 of the last 14 months.

    In the 12 months through August, import prices declined 11.4 percent, the largest drop since September 2009.

    Very low inflation, in the face of a tightening labor market and strengthening economic growth, poses a challenge for the Fed’s policy-setting committee, which meets on Sept. 16-17.

    Economists are divided on whether the U.S. central bank will raise rates at that meeting in the wake of recent volatility in global financial markets, which was sparked by fears of slower growth in China and other major emerging markets.

    The Fed has not raised rates in nearly a decade.

    “Coming at a time when the Fed is contemplating a lift-off in rates, the weak tone of this report should come as a key reminder to the Fed that the disinflationary impulse is re-emerging,” said Millan Mulraine, deputy chief economist at TD Securities in New York.

    U.S. stocks were generally flat, while prices for longer-dated U.S. government debt rose. The dollar was slightly weaker against a basket of currencies.

    HEALTHY JOB MARKET

    The labor market is tightening rapidly. Job openings are at a record high and the economy has added an average of 221,000 jobs per month over the past three months, far more than the amount needed to keep up with population growth.

    The unemployment rate, which is at a 7-1/2-year low of 5.1 percent, is within the range that most Fed officials see as consistent with a low but steady rate of inflation. That could bolster expectations that a pick-up in wages will help lift inflation toward the central bank’s 2 percent target.

    For now, inflation is trending lower. Last month, imported petroleum prices tumbled 14.2 percent, the biggest drop since January, after falling 5.9 percent in July.

    Import prices excluding petroleum slipped 0.4 percent in August, the eighth consecutive monthly drop.

    That likely reflects the impact of the dollar’s 17.5 percent rise against the currencies of the United States’ main trading partners since June 2014. Imported food prices rose modestly last month and prices for capital goods automobiles fell.

    A third report from the Commerce Department showed wholesale inventories fell in July for the first time in nearly two years, a tentative sign that businesses were starting to whittle down a huge stockpile of merchandise that could weigh on production in the second half of the year.