
Emma Watson and Zoe Wanamaker banned from driving for speeding
Emma Watson, who played Hermione Granger, and Zoe Wanamaker, known for her role as Madame Hooch, were both penalised for exceeding speed limits in different locations.
Watson, 35, was found driving at 38 miles per hour in a 30-mile zone in Banbury last July.
The actress, currently studying at Oxford University, was stopped while driving her blue Audi.
Her lawyer confirmed that despite being a student, she could afford the £1,044 fine imposed by the court.
Meanwhile, Wanamaker, 76, was caught driving at 46 miles per hour in a 40-mile zone on the M4 motorway in Berkshire last August.
Like Watson, she received a six-month driving ban and was fined the same amount.
Both cases were handled by the High Wycombe Magistrates' Court, though neither actress attended the hearings in person.
The court proceedings concluded with the penalties being enforced without further dispute. - AFP
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The Star
9 hours ago
- The Star
Thai woman escapes with beloved cats while under fire in Cambodia clashes
Pornpan Sooksai sitting with her cats as they take shelter in a gymnasium on the grounds of Surindra Rajabhat University in the Thai border province of Surin on July 25, 2025. - AFP) SURIN: When the first salvo of Cambodian artillery screamed across her village, Thai seamstress Pornpan Sooksai's thoughts turned to her five beloved cats: Peng, Kung Fu, Cherry, Taro and Batman. "I suddenly heard a loud bang," the 46-year-old told AFP. "Then our neighbour shouted, 'They've started shooting!' So everyone scrambled to grab their things." Nearly 140,000 people have been evacuated from the Thai frontier, fleeing with the belongings dearest to them as the country trades deadly strikes with neighbouring Cambodia for a second day. Pornpan was hanging out laundry in her village in the border district of Phanom Dong Rak, but did not hesitate to corral her quintet of cats -- even as the cross-border blasts rang out. "Luckily they were still in the house. I put them in crates, loaded everything into the truck, and we got out," she said at a shelter in nearby Surin city, camping out alongside her fellow evacuees. Tensions have been building between Thailand and Cambodia since late May, when a Cambodian soldier was shot dead in a firefight over a long-contested border region. Tit-for-tat trade curbs and border closures escalated into conflict on Thursday, and each side has accused the other of firing the opening shot in the battle now being waged with jets, artillery, tanks and troops. At least 16 people have been killed, according to tolls from both sides, the majority of them civilians. But Pornpan was well-prepared to save her felines. "Since I heard about the possible conflict two months ago, I stocked up on food and bought cat carriers," she said. "If I leave the cats behind, they'd die." Alongside her cats, Ponrpan also evacuated nine other family members, including her elderly mother with Alzheimer's. The process took its toll once the adrenaline wore off midway through their escape. "I was terrified the whole time. I was scared the bombs would hit us or the house," she said. "I had a panic attack in the car. My body went numb. I had to go to hospital during the evacuation." At the Surin city shelter her cats have been installed in their portable kennels -- drawing curious children waiting out the conflict alongside their parents on the gymnasium floor. Skittish from the sudden onset of gunfire, they are slowly recovering from their ordeal. "One kept trying to escape its crate, wouldn't eat and kept crying," Pornpan said. "Another one was panting -- maybe heatstroke. I had to splash water on it." - AFP


Sinar Daily
10 hours ago
- Sinar Daily
Japan's Sega eyes return to 1990s gaming glory
TOKYO - The big-screen success of 1990s video game speedster "Sonic the Hedgehog" has brought new fans to Japan's Sega, which says it is poised for a comeback after two tough decades. This year all eyes have been on Nintendo, whose Switch 2 recently became the fastest-selling console in history. Sega President and COO Shuji Utsumi speaks during an interview with AFP at the opening ceremony for the company's first official store in Tokyo's Shibuya district on July 16, 2025. (Photo by Kazuhiro NOGI / AFP) But unlike its former arch-rival, Sega has not sold gaming hardware since its Dreamcast console was discontinued in 2001, instead focusing on making games for other platforms. Now, as record tourism to Japan helps boost global appetite for the country's pop culture, the company sees a chance to reinvent itself -- including through nostalgic game remakes and movie adaptations like the hit "Sonic" series. Sega opens its first flagship merchandise store in Japan, having launched a similar shop in Shanghai in May. "Opportunities are expanding," chief operating officer Shuji Utsumi told AFP. "We've been struggling... for a while, but now we are coming back." The company aims "to expand our business globally rather than focusing on the Japanese market", he said. Sega was a top industry player in the 1980s and 1990s, its name synonymous with noisy arcades, home consoles and game franchises, such as beat-em-up "Streets of Rage" and ninja series "Shinobi". But it struggled to keep up with intense competition, falling on hard times financially as multiplayer online titles from US publishers, such as "World of Warcraft", took off in the 2000s. 'Persona' movie? After Sega quit the hardware business, its game offerings "got a little stale", said David Cole of the US-based games market research firm DFC Intelligence. But "the kids who grew up in the 1990s are now in their 30s, 40s, even older, and really like those franchises" -- and are introducing them to their own children -- he told AFP. "It's untapped value" that Sega -- just like its Japanese peers including Nintendo -- is trying to capitalise on through new movies, stores and theme park rides, Cole added. Last year, the film "Sonic the Hedgehog 3" starring Jim Carrey as the villain zipped to the top of the North American box office in one of the best December openings in years. It followed the first live-action "Sonic" movie in 2020, as Sega cashes in on a video-game movie craze that saw "The Super Mario Bros. Movie", based on the Nintendo characters, become the second-highest grossing film of 2023. "Shinobi" is also being turned into a film, while Sega's "Yakuza" game series has been adapted for television. When asked if cult franchise "Persona" could be next, Sega's Utsumi said fans should "stay tuned". "We are talking to a lot of interesting potential partners. So we are under some discussions, but I can't say too much about it," he said. Super Game Sega bought Finland's Rovio, creator of "Angry Birds", in 2023, seeking to expand into the mobile gaming market. "Gamers' behaviour has been changing" since Sega's original heyday, going beyond TV-connected consoles, Utsumi said. But Cole said that in the long run Sega should concentrate on "high-end" gaming: larger-scale, more involved titles that encourage brand loyalty. Sega is working on what it calls a "Super Game" with big-budget international ambition and a scope that is "not only just a game -- communication, social, maybe potentially AI", Utsumi said. "The competition in the game market is very fierce," he cautioned. "It's important to really have a fan base close to us. But at the same time, when we develop a great game, it takes time." Sega's parent company Sega Sammy also makes arcade and gambling machines, including those used in Japanese "pachinko" parlours, whose numbers are in decline. That makes Sega's entertainment business "really the growth opportunity for the company", Cole said. Sega Sammy said in May its "Sonic" intellectual property "has contributed to an increase in both game and character licensing revenue". Young tourists in Tokyo shopping near Sega's new store ahead of the opening seemed to confirm this. "I've always liked Sega. I kind of grew up around their games," said 19-year-old American Danny Villasenor. "They're pretty retro. But I think they've evolved with time pretty well." William Harrington, 24, who lives in Los Angeles, said his father "put me on to a lot of the older games back in the day", and so to him, Sega "feels like childhood". - AFP


Malaysian Reserve
18 hours ago
- Malaysian Reserve
Thailand says over 100,000 civilians flee clashes with Cambodia
MORE than 100,000 people have fled the bloodiest border fighting between Thailand and Cambodia in a decade, Bangkok said Friday, as the death toll rose and international powers urged a halt to hostilities. A long-running border dispute erupted into intense fighting with jets, artillery, tanks and ground troops on Thursday, and the UN Security Council is set to hold an emergency meeting on the crisis later Friday. The Thai interior ministry said more than 100,000 people from four border provinces had been moved to nearly 300 temporary shelters, while the kingdom's health ministry announced that the death toll had risen to 14-13 civilians and one soldier. In the Cambodian town of Samraong, 20 kilometres (12 miles) from the border, AFP journalists reported hearing distant artillery fire on Friday morning. As the guns started up, some families packed their children and belongings into vehicles and sped away. 'I live very close to the border. We are scared because they began shooting again at about 6:00 am,' Pro Bak, 41, told AFP. He was taking his wife and children to a Buddhist temple to seek refuge. 'I don't know when we could return home,' he said. AFP journalists also saw soldiers rushing to man rocket launchers and speeding off towards the frontier. The fighting marks a dramatic escalation in a long-running dispute between the neighbours — both popular destinations for millions of foreign tourists — over their shared 800-kilometre (500-mile) frontier. Dozens of kilometres in several areas are contested and fighting broke out between 2008 and 2011, leaving at least 28 people dead and tens of thousands displaced. A UN court ruling in 2013 settled the matter for over a decade, but the current crisis erupted in May when a Cambodian soldier was killed in a new clash. Fighting on Thursday was focused on six locations, according to the Thai army, including around two ancient temples. Ground troops backed up by tanks battled for control of territory, while Cambodia fired rockets and shells into Thailand and the Thais scrambled F-16 jets to hit military targets across the border. Both sides blamed each other for firing first, while Thailand accused Cambodia of targeting civilian infrastructure, including a hospital hit by shells and a petrol station hit by at least one rocket. Thursday's clashes came hours after Thailand expelled the Cambodian ambassador and recalled its own envoy after five members of a Thai military patrol were wounded by a landmine. Cambodia downgraded ties to 'the lowest level' on Thursday, pulling out all but one of its diplomats and expelling their Thai equivalents from Phnom Penh. At the request of Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet, the UN Security Council will hold an emergency meeting on Friday to discuss the deadly clashes, diplomatic sources told AFP. The United States urged an 'immediate' end to the conflict, while Cambodia's former colonial ruler France made a similar call. The EU and China — a close ally of Phnom Penh — said they were 'deeply concerned' about the clashes, calling for dialogue. — AFP