Gist: Hugh Jackman forced to cancel stand-up shows due to a vocal haemorrhage

Los Angeles - Hugh Jackman has suffered a vocal haemorrhage.

The 46-year-old actor has been forced to cancel the remaining dates of his one-man show, An Evening with Hugh Jackman, in Istanbul, Turkey, this week after blood vessels on his left vocal chord burst.

He did however, promise disappointed fans he will be rescheduling the dates on Twitter.

News;IS claims beheading of three Iraqi Kurdish fighters

The Islamic State group claimed to have beheaded three Iraqi Kurdish fighters in an online video and threatened to kill more unless the Kurds stop bombardment of jihadist-controlled areas.

Peshmerga forces from Iraq’s autonomous Kurdish region, backed by US-led air strikes, are battling IS in the country’s north and have pushed the jihadists back in Nineveh and Kirkuk provinces.

The video starts with images of people being brought to a hospital and a voiceover saying that they were wounded by peshmerga rocket fire.

The three prisoners, dressed in orange jumpsuits with their hands bound, are later shown kneeling one at a time with masked militants standing guard at locations said to have been hit by peshmerga fire, and are then beheaded.

News: Iran nuclear talks intensify after Obama appeal

Marathon talks towards an Iran nuclear deal picked up pace Friday as US President Barack Obama appealed to Tehran to seize an “historic” opportunity and begin a “brighter future”.

In Switzerland, US Secretary of State John Kerry and his Iranian counterpart began their fifth day of talks, while in Brussels the leaders of Germany, France and Britain also met.

In a Nowruz (Persian New Year) video address, Obama said that a “reasonable nuclear deal… can help open the door to a brighter future for you the Iranian people.”

“I believe that our nations have an historic opportunity to resolve this issue peacefully — an opportunity we should not miss,” Obama said.

News: India’s first gun for women proves a hit – among men

lightweight revolver gun

A lightweight revolver launched in the wake of a deadly 2012 gang rape in Delhi and billed as India’s first gun designed for women has proved a hit — but only among men.

Sales figures for the Nirbheek, which means “fearless” in Hindi, show that just 28 of around 450 orders received so far have been for women.

The revolver was developed by a state-run weapons factory in the northern city of Kanpur after the death of a young student who was gang-raped in the capital sparked widespread fears about women’s safety.

News: Myanmar leader defends reform pace, army role

Thein Sein

Myanmar’s president has rejected criticism that his government has stalled on crucial reforms and has defended the powerful army’s hold over politics.

Thein Sein, a former general who has run Myanmar since 2011 when the junta ceded power to a quasi-civilian government after decades of brutal rule, insisted his country was on the path towards genuine democracy.

News: Nigeria’s Jonathan eyes Boko Haram ouster within a month

Nigeria’s President Goodluck Jonathan said in an interview broadcast on Friday that he hoped that Boko Haram militants would be pushed out of captured towns and villages within a month.

“I’m very hopeful that it will not take us more than a month to recover the old territories that hitherto have been in their hands,” he told the BBC.

Nigeria’s military has had a remarkable transformation, claiming to have recaptured dozens of communities from the Islamists in the restive northeast since early February.

News: Nigeria’s Jonathan eyes Boko Haram ouster within a month

Nigeria’s President Goodluck Jonathan said in an interview broadcast on Friday that he hoped that Boko Haram militants would be pushed out of captured towns and villages within a month.

“I’m very hopeful that it will not take us more than a month to recover the old territories that hitherto have been in their hands,” he told the BBC.

Nigeria’s military has had a remarkable transformation, claiming to have recaptured dozens of communities from the Islamists in the restive northeast since early February.