The US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has declined an offer to make an appearance on the comedy sitcom How I Met Your Mother.
The actor Jason Segel revealed on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon last week that he and the show's producers asked Clinton to portray the mysterious titular mother on the series. Clinton politely declined with a rejection letter.
According to the internet blog Politico, which acquired the note, Clinton said she was "delighted" to be invited, but, "as you can imagine, I am a little occupied at the moment".
"Perhaps someday I can help you forget Sarah Marshall … again," she wrote, referring to Segel's previous film. "My only condition is that there be Muppets involved, and that is non-negotiable."
Duran Duran to headline Olympics
There will be a retro feel at a concert to mark the start of the London Olympics, with the 1980s heartthrobs Duran Duran among the headliners.
The organisers said on Tuesday that the band will represent England at the July 27 concert in London's Hyde Park, which features acts from each of the four parts of the UK.
The lead singer Simon Le Bon said the show would be "one of the highlights of the last decade for us".
The other headliners are Snow Patrol from Northern Ireland, Stereophonics from Wales and Scotland's Paolo Nutini.
* AP
Coke Studio focuses on fusion music
The fourth episode of Coke Studio, which was broadcast last night on MBC1, took music fusion to a new level when the Palestinian Chehada brothers combined two of the most traditional eastern instruments, the oud and the buzuq, with the electrifying house music of the German-Spanish DJ, Jerry Ropero. The result was a traditional song, Neyalu Albu, played beautifully in stimulating modern electronic beats and sung by the Moroccan singer Jannatt. Coke Studio is broadcast on Wednesdays at 10.30pm on MBC1.
Once leads Tony nominations
The low-tech musical Once, based on the love story of a Czech flower seller and an Irish street musician in Dublin, received a leading 11 Tony Award nominations on Tuesday.
Two other musicals - The Gershwins'Porgy and Bess and Nice Work If You Can Get It - each got 10 nominations. Peter and the Starcatcher, a play about the origins of Peter Pan, earned nine nominations, and the revival of Follies and the new Disney musical Newsies got eight nods each.
The Tony Awards will be held on June 10. Neil Patrick Harris will host.
* AP
Jessica Simpson has baby girl
Jessica Simpson gave birth on Tuesday to a baby girl. The father is her fiance, the former NFL football player Eric Johnson.
Simpson, who recently appeared pregnant on the cover of Elle, said she was delighted to welcome Maxwell Drew Johnson, her first child.
"Eric and I are elated to announce the birth of our baby girl," the 31-year-old singer and actress wrote on her website. "This has been the greatest experience of our lives."
Dolby adopts Oscars venue from Kodak
The Hollywood venue that hosts the annual Oscars show was renamed the Dolby Theatre on Tuesday, after the audio pioneer gained naming rights previously held by the bankrupt camera company Kodak.
The California-based audio technology pioneer Dolby announced a deal with the CIM Group, which owns the Oscars venue, to put its name on the theatre for the next 20 years.
The theatre has hosted the Academy Awards since 2002.
* AFP
Pop artist up for Turner Prize
A pop performance artist who has staged works about the Incredible Hulk and Jabba the Hutt is among four finalists for Britain's most influential and most-mocked art award, the Turner Prize.
Spartacus Chetwynd, who uses elaborate handmade props and costumes for carnivalesque performances inspired by everyone from superheroes to Michael Jackson, is a contender for the prize, awarded annually to a British artist under 50.
The other finalists are the film and video artists Luke Fowler and Elizabeth Price, and Paul Noble, who produces minutely detailed drawings of a dystopian imaginary city named Nobson Newtown, populated by human excrement. The judging panel said Noble's work was an "utterly compelling ongoing narrative" about a "dysfunctional" world.
The Turner Prize often sparks lively debate about the value of modern art.
An exhibition of the artists opens at London's Tate Britain in October.
* AP
The 12 Syrian entities delisted by UK
Ministry of Interior
Ministry of Defence
General Intelligence Directorate
Air Force Intelligence Agency
Political Security Directorate
Syrian National Security Bureau
Military Intelligence Directorate
Army Supply Bureau
General Organisation of Radio and TV
Al Watan newspaper
Cham Press TV
Sama TV
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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
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