"The King's Speech" won four Oscars including best film on Sunday during Hollywood's biggest night when many front-runners claimed glory including Colin Firth and Natalie Portman for best actor and actress.
The world's top film honors from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences came packed with a lot of comedy onstage from show hosts Anne Hathaway and James Franco but the attention, as always, was on awards and winners.
Portman was named best actress for her role as a young ballerina who grows into womanhood in "Black Swan." She wiped tears from her eyes onstage collecting her Oscar as she thanked her family, co-stars and director Darren Aronofsky.
"This is insane and I truly, sincerely wish the prize was to get to work with my fellow nominees," she said.
Firth won best actor for playing stammering British King George VI in "The King's Speech," in which the monarch must overcome his speech impediment to lead his country.
"I have a feeling my career just peaked," Firth joked.
When Tom Hooper was named best director, he thanked his mom for being first to suggest he make "The King's Speech." "The moral of the story is, listen to your mother," Hooper said.
Melissa Leo and Christian Bale, playing a tough-minded mom and her drug-addicted son in boxing movie "The Fighter," won supporting actress and actor, while "King's Speech" writer David Seidler" won for best adapted screenplay and Aaron Sorkin with "The Social Network" earned best original screenplay.
Franco and Hathaway, the first man and woman team to host the Oscars, got the show off to a comic start and continued to make audiences laugh. While they provided a youthful edge to the program -- Hathaway, 28, was the youngest host ever -- many of the show's sequences harkened back to Hollywood's history.
And top actresses dazzled on the red carpet with bright and colorful fashion choices, a turnaround from more muted styles of recent years that reflected the world's economic woes.
TWISTERS
Director:+Lee+Isaac+Chung
Starring:+Glen+Powell,+Daisy+Edgar-Jones,+Anthony+Ramos
Rating:+2.5/5
Sinopharm vaccine explained
The Sinopharm vaccine was created using techniques that have been around for decades.
“This is an inactivated vaccine. Simply what it means is that the virus is taken, cultured and inactivated," said Dr Nawal Al Kaabi, chair of the UAE's National Covid-19 Clinical Management Committee.
"What is left is a skeleton of the virus so it looks like a virus, but it is not live."
This is then injected into the body.
"The body will recognise it and form antibodies but because it is inactive, we will need more than one dose. The body will not develop immunity with one dose," she said.
"You have to be exposed more than one time to what we call the antigen."
The vaccine should offer protection for at least months, but no one knows how long beyond that.
Dr Al Kaabi said early vaccine volunteers in China were given shots last spring and still have antibodies today.
“Since it is inactivated, it will not last forever," she said.
From Europe to the Middle East, economic success brings wealth - and lifestyle diseases
A rise in obesity figures and the need for more public spending is a familiar trend in the developing world as western lifestyles are adopted.
One in five deaths around the world is now caused by bad diet, with obesity the fastest growing global risk. A high body mass index is also the top cause of metabolic diseases relating to death and disability in Kuwait, Qatar and Oman – and second on the list in Bahrain.
In Britain, heart disease, lung cancer and Alzheimer’s remain among the leading causes of death, and people there are spending more time suffering from health problems.
The UK is expected to spend $421.4 billion on healthcare by 2040, up from $239.3 billion in 2014.
And development assistance for health is talking about the financial aid given to governments to support social, environmental development of developing countries.
Profile of RentSher
Started: October 2015 in India, November 2016 in UAE
Founders: Harsh Dhand; Vaibhav and Purvashi Doshi
Based: Bangalore, India and Dubai, UAE
Sector: Online rental marketplace
Size: 40 employees
Investment: $2 million
