JK Rowling hits out at Rupert Murdoch tweets

Also, Bangladeshi filmmaker Chashi Nazrul Islam and La Dolce Vita actress Anita Ekberg die, and CW Network renews all of its shows.

British author J K Rowling. AP Photo

J K Rowling has taken media mogul Rupert Murdoch to task for comments he made on Twitter in the aftermath of the attack on the office of the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo last week that left 12 people dead. The Harry Potter author responded sharply to Murdoch’s tweet that said that while “maybe most [Muslims are] peaceful,” all were responsible for the “growing jihadist cancer” until they work to destroy it. He also tweeted: “Political correctness makes for denial and hypocrisy.” Rowling sent several tweets on Sunday criticising Murdoch. She wrote that since she and Murdoch were both Christians, she felt responsible for him and would “auto-excommunicate”. She also mockingly accepted the blame for the Spanish Inquisition and violence by Christian fundamentalists. “Oh, and Jim Bakker,” she added, referring to the American televangelist who was jailed for fraud. – AP

La Dolce Vita actress Anita Ekberg dead at 83

Swedish actress Anita Ekberg, best-known for one of cinema's most sensual performances in the 1960 film La Dolce Vita, has died in Italy at the age of 83. The actress, immortalised by her performance as the dream woman who tempts Marcello Mastroianni in Federico Fellini's classic, died on Sunday in a hospital outside Rome. She had been confined to a wheelchair for several years after being knocked over by one of her pet Great Danes and breaking her hip. Ekberg was born and brought up in Sweden but spent most of her life abroad, first in the United States, where she quickly emerged as a 1950s pin-up and starlet, and then in Italy. The sixth of eight children, she was born in 1931 in the Swedish port of Malmo, where her father was a docker. She won the Miss Sweden beauty contest in 1950 and set off for the United States to compete in Miss Universe. She did not win, but was noticed by movie producers in Hollywood and Europe. In the most famous scene from La Dolce Vita, she cavorted in Rome's Trevi Fountain. The film won Fellini the Palme d'Or award at the 1960 Cannes International Film Festival, and the fountain scene rapidly became one of the most famous in cinema history. – AFP

Bangladeshi film pioneer Chashi Nazrul Islam dies

The acclaimed Bangladeshi film director and producer Chashi Nazrul Islam died on Sunday in a hospital in Dhaka. He was 73. Saifur Rahman Lenin, Labaid Hospital's assistant general manager for corporate communication, said Islam had been fighting a long battle with cancer. Islam rose to fame in 1972 with his first film Ora Egaro Jon (They Are Eleven), a film based on the Bangladesh Liberation War. His last film was 2013's Devdas, a remake of his 1982 film of the same name. – IANS

CW network renews all of its big shows

All eight of the youth-focused US CW television network's scripted series will return in the autumn for new seasons after the channel gave them early renewals. The order includes: DC Comics superhero hits Arrow and The Flash; demonic drama Supernatural; historical romance Reign; sci-fi thriller The 100; vampire dramas The Originals and The Vampire Diaries; and comedy-drama Jane the Virgin, for which star Gina Rodriguez won the best comedy actress award at the Golden Globes on Sunday night. CW president Mark Pedowitz said the network was broadening its audience by attracting more men. Roughly 60 per cent of the CW's audience is women. The early order of new seasons would give producers more time to develop their stories and plot twists, he added. – AP