LONDON, Sept 6:  R&B star Usher has confirmed that he has been working with Drake on his new album UR in addition to Nicki Minaj and other stars.
The ‘Love In This Club’ hitmaker is currently working on his eighth studio album, which is expected to be released later this year, reported Contactmusic.
“He’s extremely talented, man. He’s nice. Money really knows what he’s doing. He really understands how to analyse a beat and then recognise a cadence. Because hip-hop is that way; it’s not just words and a rhythm.
“You gotta understand the cadence of what the song is saying, so that when you’re on it, you know how to get it,” he said. (PTI)

LONDON, Sept 6:  Ahead of her wedding to George Clooney, Amal Alamudin was spotted visiting Alexander McQueen’s headquarters in Clerkenwell, East London.
The 36-year old London-based lawyer was accompanied by her mother, Baria Alamudin, when stopping by Michael John hair salon before heading to the fashion house for a ninety-minute appointment, reported Daily Mirror.
Alamudin and Clooney got engaged in April after dating for seven months.
The couple obtained their marriage license at Chelsea Town Hall in London last month and is expected to tie the knot in Clooney’s Lake Como house in Italy later this month. (PTI)

OMAHA (US), Sept 6: An American doctor who became infected with Ebola while working in Liberia is sick but in stable condition and communicating with his caregivers at the Nebraska Medical Center, officials have said.
Dr Rick Sacra, 51, is being treated at a 10-bed special isolation unit, the largest of the United States’ four. It was built to handle patients with highly infectious and deadly diseases, according to Dr Mark Rupp, chief of the infectious diseases division at the center.
Sacra the third American aid worker sickened with the virus arrived at 6:38 am (Local time) yesterday at the Omaha hospital. Sacra was wheeled on a gurney off the plane at Offutt Air Force Base, transferred to an ambulance and then wheeled into the hospital, said Rosanna Morris, chief nursing officer for the medical center.
Sacra was conscious yesterday and was able to communicate with medical staff, Morris said.
The first two American aid workers infected by Ebola Dr Kent Brantly and Nancy Writebol have recovered since being flown to Emory University Hospital in Atlanta for treatment.
Sacra came to Omaha instead of Atlanta because federal officials asked the medical center to treat him in order to prepare other isolation units to take more Ebola patients if needed.
Sacra, a doctor from Worcester, Massachusetts, who spent 15 years working at the Liberia hospital where he fell ill, said he felt compelled to return after hearing that two other missionaries with the North Carolina-based charity SIM with whom he’d worked were sick.
He delivered babies at the hospital, and was not involved in the treatment of Ebola patients, so it’s unclear how he became infected with the virus.
An estimated 2,100 people have died during the outbreak, but Ebola has not been confirmed as the cause for all of the deaths.
Dr Phil Smith, medical director of the Omaha unit, has said a team of 35 doctors, nurses and other medical staffers will provide Sacra with basic care, including ensuring he is hydrated and keeping his vital signs stable.
The team is discussing experimental treatments, including using blood serum from a patient who has recovered from Ebola, Smith said. There are no licensed drugs or vaccines for the disease, but about half a dozen are in development. (AGENCIES)

BOGOTA, Sept 6: Colombia has deported two Venezuelan student activists, drawing criticism on both sides of the border by groups who fear they’ll be unjustly prosecuted for their political views.
Lorent Saleh, whose arrest had been sought by President Nicolas Maduro’s government, was handed over to Venezuelan authorities Thursday night after he was detained for overstaying and violating the terms of his visa.
Fellow Venezuelan Gabriel Valles was expelled yesterday though his visa remained valid. Both are members of the activist group Operation Liberty, which is critical of the Venezuelan government.
Saleh can be seen loudly protesting Colombia’s decision in a video of the handover shot with a cellular phone by a fellow activist.
“(Colombian) President Juan Manuel Santos is negotiating and handing over the students,” Saleh shouts as he is ushered from a white van parked on the Simon Bolivar international bridge to members of Venezuela’s national security agency. “Migration authorities are responsible for violating my human rights and right to life.”
Colombian authorities said that Saleh faced multiple charges and an arrest order in Venezuela. They said he entered the country on Feb 19, during the height of protests in Venezuela against Maduro’s socialist government, and from Colombian territory engaged in unspecified political activities not allowed by foreigners.
When his 90-day visa expired, he was fined and given 10 days to normalise his migratory status. In the end, he didn’t apply for another visa nor did he request political asylum, the foreign ministry said in a statement.
“We don’t know where he is or how he’s doing,” Dayi Sedano, who was with Saleh when he was detained on Thursday in Bogota, told The Associated Press. “The last contact anyone has had with him was on the bridge.”
His family does not know his whereabouts either, according to the Venezuelan nonprofit Penal Forum.
Valles entered Colombia in early June with a 90-day tourist visa, which he renewed earlier this month, according to authorities.
Immigration police arrested him yesterday in the Colombian city of Cucuta, near the border with Venezuela. The Colombian Foreign Ministry said he had been carrying out “activities expressly prohibited under the immigration laws,” but did not offer additional details. (AGENCIES)
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CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla, Sept 6:  A recently discovered asteroid about the size of a house will make a relatively close pass by Earth on Sunday, flying just past the communication satellites that circle the planet, scientists said.    NASA yesterday said the asteroid, known as 2014 RC, poses no threat, though at its closest approach it will be only about one-tenth the distance to the moon, or roughly 25,000 miles (40,000 km) from Earth.
Communications and weather satellites are generally  located in orbits about 22,000 miles (36,000 km) above the planet.    ‘While this celestial object does not appear to pose any threat to Earth or satellites, its close approach creates a unique opportunity for researchers to observe and learn more about asteroids,’ NASA said in a statement released on Tuesday.    With a diameter of about 60 feet (18 meters), Asteroid  2014 RC will be too dim to see with the naked eye, but amateur astronomers with small telescopes might be able to catch a glimpse as it zips by, NASA said.
Asteroid 2014 RC is slightly smaller than the 65-foot (20-meter) diameter asteroid that exploded over Chelyabinsk, Russia, last year. The shock wave from the explosion, estimated to have had 30 times more energy than the Hiroshima atomic bomb, blasted out windows and damaged buildings. More than 1,000 people were injured by flying glass and debris.    The same day as the Chelyabinsk asteroid explosion,  another larger asteroid flew as close as 17,168 miles (27,630 km) from Earth, well within striking distance of the planet’s communications and weather satellites.    Earth’s latest celestial visitor was spotted on Aug. 31 by the Catalina Sky Survey near Tucson, Arizona, and confirmed the following night by the Pan-STARRS 1 telescope in Hawaii.    The asteroid’s closest approach will be over New Zealand  at 0618 hrs on Monday (0218 hrs/2348 IST tomorrow), NASA said.    NASA currently tracks more than 11,000 asteroids in orbits that pass relatively close to Earth.
(agencies)

NEW YORK, Sept 6:  Tributes poured in as comedians and friends mourned the loss of Joan Rivers, the sassy, sharp-tongued comedy legend who jokingly wrote about wanting an elaborate funeral and will be laid to rest in a private service on Sunday.    But the cause of the death of the pioneering comedian, who passed away peacefully in a hospital on Thursday, a week after an outpatient procedure, was unclear.
After an initial examination, the New York City Medical Examiner’s Office yesterday said further tests were needed.    Rivers, 81, will have an invitation-only funeral at Temple Emanu-El, a landmark synagogue on New York’s Fifth Avenue where she was a member of the congregation.    ‘We mourn with her family, friends and all those millions  to whom she brought laughter and joy,’ Senior Rabbi Joshua M. Davidson, who will conduct the service, said in a statement.    No details of the service were released, but in her 2012 book ‘I Hate Everyone …Starting With Me,’ Rivers, ever the comedy star, wrote about wanting her funeral to be a big showbiz affair, complete with actress Meryl Streep crying in different accents.    ‘I want paparazzi and I want publicists making a scene! I want it to be Hollywood all the way.’
Friends of the Brooklyn-born comedian, who helped pave the road for women in comedy, remembered her in statements, tweets and Facebook posts.
Late-night talk show host David Letterman said the force  of her comedy was overpowering.
‘Here’s a woman, a real pioneer for other women looking  for careers in stand-up comedy,’ he said. ‘And talk about guts – she would come out here and sit in this chair and say some things that were unbelievable, just where you would have to swallow pretty hard … but it was hilarious.’
(agencies)