South Korean author Han Kang has won the Nobel Prize in Literature.

The 53-year-old fiction writer is a former winner of the Man Booker International Prize for her 2007 novel The Vegetarian.

At the ceremony she was praised “for her intense poetic prose that confronts historical traumas and exposes the fragility of human life”.

The Nobel Prize committee has awarded the literary award since 1901 and this marks the 18th time a woman has won the prize.

She has won 11m krona (£810,000) which is the amount awarded to each Nobel Prize winner this year.

(BBC News)

A new panda-themed film with world-renowned action movie star Jackie Chan as the leading actor was premiered in Beijing on Sep. 28.

It tells a story about an international Kung Fu star who fights against a criminal group to rescue a panda.

At the premiere, Chan shared his understanding on the purpose of this movie.

“I always want to shoot a movie about panda, but I don’t know how to get it started, until director Zhang Luan approached me. With this film, I hope more children around the world will know pandas, and know how cute these creatures are, who represent friendship and peace,” he said.

Several Chinese film stars also attended the premiere, where they expressed how Chan has inspired and motivated them.

“After all these years, you are still making movies. I think you put audience, Chinese people in your heart. I could learn a lot from you,” said Sun Honglei, an actor.

“See Jackie still presenting such wonderful action movie for us, I’m really moved,” said Wang Zhi, an actress.

(CCTV +)

A doctor charged in the drug-related death of actor Matthew Perry has pleaded guilty in the case.

Dr Mark Chavez changed his plea to guilty in a Los Angeles court to a charge of conspiring to distribute the surgical anaesthetic ketamine.

Chavez, 54, operated a ketamine clinic and sold ketamine lozenges to Dr Salvador Plasencia, who supplied them to Perry, the star of NBC sitcom Friends.

Chavez is one of five people charged in Perry’s death. The 54-year-old actor was found dead in his backyard jacuzzi in southern California in October 2023.

A post-mortem examination found a high concentration of the drug ketamine in his blood and determined “acute effects” of the substance had killed him.

Ketamine is used as a treatment for depression, anxiety and pain.

In his plea agreement, Chavez admitted he obtained ketamine from both his former clinic and a wholesale distributor through a fraudulent prescription.

Prosecutors said Perry’s assistant, Kenneth Iwamasa, worked with the two doctors to provide the actor with more than $50,000 (£38,000) of ketamine in the weeks before his death.

According to the indictment, the two medical doctors exchanged texts discussing how much they could charge Perry for vials of the drug, with one message reading: “I wonder how much this moron will pay.”

The plea allows Chavez to plead guilty to a lesser charge for his co-operation in the investigation, though he could still face up to 10 years in prison.

“He has accepted responsibility. He is co-operating,” his attorney told the court.

Chavez has turned over his passport and agreed to surrender his medical licence immediately.

He is free on bail until sentencing on 2 April 2025.

(BBC News)