Big night for The Assassin with five Golden Horse Awards
The Assassin by director Hou Hsiao-hsien became the biggest winner last night at the 52nd Golden Horse Awards, bagging five awards including Best Director and Best Feature Film.
The Assassin had led the field with 11 nominations for the awards held at the Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall in downtown Taipei.
Set in ninth-century China, The Assassin is a slow-burning minimalist movie with Taiwanese megastar Shu Qi playing a highly trained female assassin sent back to her home province to kill its governor, who is also the man she loves.
Former South Korean president Kim Young-Sam dies at 87
Former South Korean President Kim Young-Sam, who became the country's first civilian ruler for more than 30 years, died on Sunday, hospital officials said. He was 87.
The pro-democracy activist who served as president from 1993 to 1998, was suffering from a serious blood infection and died shortly after midnight, several days after being hospitalised with a high-fever, Seoul National University Hospital President Oh Byung-Hee told reporters.
Kim's term was bookended by two major events, the first nuclear crisis with North Korea in 1994 and the Asian financial crisis of 1997 to 1998, when he accepted a $58 billion dollar bailout from the International Monetary Fund.
Empty streets and shuttered shops in tense Brussels
At the Gare du Midi train station in Brussels, a line of taxis awaits desperate travellers facing a city on lockdown, many from London or attack-hit Paris.
The terror alert is at its highest in the Belgian capital following the Paris atrocities and the subsequent raids that have targeted dozens of militant suspects from this city.
"Eighty euros in an hour, as much as yesterday!" said one driver, his smile at odds with the sombre atmosphere.
Football: Liverpool stun City as Vardy helps Leicester go top
Manchester City suffered a surprise 4-1 defeat by Liverpool while Jamie Vardy equalled a Premier League goalscoring record to leave Leicester as the shock leaders of English football's top-flight on Saturday.
City started the late kick-off match at their Eastlands ground knowing victory would see them go top on a day when the Premier League paid tribute to the victims of the Paris terror attacks.
But instead Manuel Pellegrini's men found themselves 3-0 down inside 32 minutes after an Eliaquim Mangala own-goal preceded two sweeping Liverpool moves finished by the Brazilian pair of Phillippe Coutinho and Roberto Firmino respectively.
Football: Barcelona thrash Real Madrid 4-0 in 'El Clasico'
Barcelona dealt a stinging blow to Real Madrid's title hopes when Luis Suarez and Neymar continued their scintillating form to fire the champions to a stunning 4-0 victory in the La Liga "Clasico" on Saturday.
Suarez struck twice either side of goals from Neymar and captain Andres Iniesta as Barca humiliated their arch rivals with an imperious performance at the Bernabeu to surge six points clear at the top after 12 matches and ratchet up the pressure on under-fire Real coach Rafa Benitez.
Barca's dominance, which prompted the angry Real fans to roundly whistle their own team and chant for president Florentino Perez to step down, was all the more remarkable considering coach Luis Enrique had started with a fit-again Lionel Messi on the bench.
