WORLD
August 20, 2013 | By Jeffrey Fleishman
CAIRO -- The spiritual leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, who was arrested early Tuesday, will stand trial with other members of the Islamist organization on charges that include inciting murder, Egyptian prosecutors said. The arrest of Supreme Guide Mohamed Badie dealt another demoralizing blow to the Brotherhood amid a crackdown by the military to silence dissent and build support for its control of the nation after the removal of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi. State media reported that the charges against Badie and five other Brotherhood members stem from the June killings of anti-Morsi demonstrators during clashes outside the group's headquarters in Cairo.
ENTERTAINMENT
December 10, 2012 | By Susan King
Amy Adams will receive the Santa Barbara International Film Festival's Cinema Vanguard Award for her performance in Paul Thomas Anderson's "The Master. " The announcement was made Monday afternoon. She will be honored on Jan. 31 at the Arlington Theatre with a tribute at the 28th edition of the festival, which runs Jan. 24-Feb. 3. The three-time Oscar nominee was named best supporting actress by the Los Angeles Film Critics Assn. on Sunday for her performance as the steely wife of a charismatic spiritual leader in the drama set during the 1950s. "Amy Adams is one of the gutsiest and most gifted actors working today," said SBIFF's executive director, Roger Durling, in a statement.
CALIFORNIA | LOCAL
October 24, 2012
Swami Swahananda, 91, the longtime spiritual leader of the Vedanta Society of Southern California who had previously headed the Hindu religious organization's branch in Berkeley, died Friday at Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center after a stroke, according to an aide. Since 1976, Swahananda had led the Southern California society, which has its headquarters in a domed white temple in Hollywood and is affiliated with the Ramakrishna Order of India. But Swahananda, a senior monk of the order, was also known for his role in founding Vedanta centers around the United States, including one outside Washington, D.C., and another in upstate New York.
ENTERTAINMENT
August 31, 2012 | By Amy Kaufman, Los Angeles Times
NEW YORK - As the wife of a beguiling spiritual leader, Amy Adams' character in "The Master" takes pains to hide her shortcomings. In public, she toes the party line, extolling the virtues of the Scientology-esque religion founded by her husband, played by Philip Seymour Hoffman. And when she suspects her spouse may be cheating, she tells him only that his exploits must never get back to her. Adams also seems hesitant to reveal too much of herself, staying upbeat but guarded. When she swept into Bemelmans Bar at the Carlyle last month out of a torrential downpour, she was unflustered, skin aglow and swaddled in layers of earth tones.
CALIFORNIA | LOCAL
July 7, 2012 | By Claire Noland, Los Angeles Times
Leontine T.C. Kelly, a daughter and wife of ministers who followed her own calling and became the first black woman bishop in a major Christian denomination when the United Methodist Church elevated her to the position in 1984, has died. She was 92. Kelly, who oversaw Northern California and Nevada for the church from 1984 to 1988 while based in San Francisco, died June 28, the denomination announced. She had been in poor health for some time while living at a retirement home in Oakland.
WORLD
May 24, 2011 | By Laura King, Los Angeles Times
If the latest reports of Mullah Mohammed Omar's demise are greatly exaggerated, they nonetheless show the strength of rumor and media frenzy in Afghanistan and Pakistan after the death of Osama bin Laden. A Taliban spokesman Monday vehemently denied claims that the movement's spiritual leader had died or been killed, even as Afghanistan's main intelligence service asserted that the reclusive cleric had disappeared from his alleged Pakistani hide-out. The spokesman, Zabiullah Mujahid, said by telephone that the one-eyed, self-declared "leader of the faithful," who has long been thought to be hiding in Pakistan, was alive and well, directing the Taliban's military campaign in Afghanistan.