News India-Times

She is also nominated in the ‘Actress in a Supporting Role' category for her gender-bending portrayal of music legend Bob Dylan in the film ‘I'm Not There'.

It is the 11th time in the Academy's history that an actor or actress has been nominated in the leading and supporting categories in the same year, but no one has won both.

Labels: Cate Blanchett Oscar nomination, Shekhar Kapur

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Labels: bobby jindal, governer, louisana

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Suguna Poultry Farm Ltd, based in Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu, has also introduced another branded egg fortified with Vitamin E, organic selenium and docosahexanoic acid (DHA), an essential fatty acid present in breast milk.

The Rs.15-billion turnover company that forayed into the branded egg segment early this year launched the two new brands, Suguna Heart and Suguna Active, in Chennai last month.

"Suguna Active contains high levels of DHA, Vitamin E and organic selenium needed by children, pregnant women, lactating mothers and all adults. The Suguna Heart eggs are enriched with Omega 3 fatty acids and Vitamin E," K. Ravindran, general manager, sales and marketing, Suguna Poultry, told the media.

He said Omega 3 fatty acids help in decreasing serum triglycerides and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol in the blood.

"The egg yolk has 24 percent less cholesterol than normal table eggs," he said.

Suguna Active and Suguna Heart are available for Rs.47 and Rs.52.80 a dozen, respectively.

"The branded eggs are available in all big retail chains and big provision stores in Tamil Nadu, Bangalore and Hyderabad," he said.

Designer eggs are the outcome of feeding hens with customized food to get them to lay eggs with desired properties. Ravindran said branded eggs cost more because the special feed costs 35 percent more than normal chicken feed.

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Her case is another sign of strain in the social fabric of the multi-racial nation, where many non-Muslims believe their rights are being trampled by the Muslim majority.

R. Subashini took legal action after her husband converted himself and their elder son, now four, to Islam in 2006. She says she now fears the husband wants to take their two-year-old, who still lives with her, and convert him to Islam as well.

The Federal Court rejected her request for an injunction on technical grounds, leaving her free to try again, but one judge noted the court's jurisdiction was limited, given the husband was now a Muslim and therefore governed by Islamic or sharia law.

"The civil and sharia courts cannot interfere with each other's jurisdiction," said Nik Hashim Nik Abdul Rahman, one of two judges who dismissed the case. One judge dissented.

Family law has become an emotional battleground between Malaysia's religious communities, with non-Muslims complaining civil courts are too willing to surrender jurisdiction to their Islamic counterparts in cases involving a Muslim conversion.

Marriages between Muslims and non-Muslims are forbidden in Malaysia, so once a nonMuslim spouse converts to Islam, the union is broken, lawyers say. While it can still exist under civil law, in reality the Islamic court does not recognize it.

A lawyer for R. Subashini said that although his client's case failed on a technicality, the judges' comments made it clear they recognized the husband's right, as a newly converted Muslim, to have recourse to the Islamic courts.

"The High Court has jurisdiction to hear matters when this is a non-Muslim marriage but the husband also has a right to sharia court under Islamic Law," lawyer K. Shanmuga said when asked by reporters to sum up the ruling's significance.

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Article taken from the issue: 18 Jan 2008

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Since 1992, BTS has granted more than $13 million through its main Research Grant Program. The organization's research mission is "To aggressively raise and grant funds to stimulate and support carefully-selected basic and translational scientific research projects." Several Indian Americans have received funding from BTS to conduct research or lead research teams (listed below).

The monies are given out for research focused on speeding up investigation into the causes of and potential treatments for Juvenile Pilocytic Astrocytomas (JPAs), fibrillary astrocytomas and other pediatric low-grade gliomas (LGGs).

¦ Deadline Deadline: Feb. 15, 2008 Grants between $50,000 to $99,999 will be for one year, and grants between $100,000 to $200,000 may be for a one- or two-year timeline.

You can download the LGG application and get more information from the Web site www.tbts.org. Or for further information contact Carrie Treadwell at grants@tbts.org or 800.770.8287 ext 1520.

The project start date is June 1. Grant recipients will receive a check for the first half of the annual budget upon receipt of their funding contract.

¦ Eligibility You do not have to be a United States or Canadian citizen, but research must be conducted in the United States or Canada.

Applicants are contacted in August regarding the status of their grant application.

¦ Evaluation Criteria The LGG Initiative targets development of new treatments.

"As such, our objective is to identify promising studies which are an early stage of development," for which the National Institutes of Health or other traditional funding mechanisms are not easily available, BTS says. Projects that have a high potential of stimulating additional funding are given a higher priority, the organization concedes.

Projects which focus on genomics, proteomics, immunohistochemistry, cell lines, and imaging are all of a high degree of interest, BTS indicates. Additionally, projects which are particularly cost-efficient, have extraordinary collaboration mechanisms, and draw new investigators into the field of low grade glioma research from other areas of cancer research are encouraged.

Recipients have to submit semi-annual progress reports and a detailed progress report at the end of the grant period.

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Article taken from the issue: 18 Jan 2008

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"Tonight what we have seen is a new day in American politics," Huckabee told supporters at the Embassy Suites here. "And tonight it starts in Iowa, but it doesn't end here. ... It goes to all the other states and ends at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue."

After spending nine months near the bottom of the pack, Huckabee surged to become the front-runner in Iowa in December and never relinquished the position, despite a barrage of negative ads from Romney's methodically built and well-financed operation.

But Huckabee now heads to New Hampshire, where voting takes place Jan. 1, with little support in the polls and only a rag-tag organization to mount a second come-from-behind victory.

To succeed, he will have to broaden his message, which has largely been designed to appeal to the social-conservative voters who helped him win Jan. 3 night. New Hampshire voters tend to be less focused on social issues and more concerned with lowering taxes and reducing the size of government.

Sixty percent of Republican caucusgoers described themselves as evangelicals, according to entrance polls. Those voters went for Huckabee over Romney by more than two to one.

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Article taken from the issue: 10 Jan 2008

Labels: elections, governer, Mike Huckabee, Victory

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Bhutto and the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) illustrate what's best and worst about Pakistani politics. The party and the drive for democratic politics are remarkably resilient. The PPP boasts a nationwide following, with a dedicated core in Sindh and southern Punjab. But the tragedy of Pakistan is that the PPP and other major parties are family fiefdoms, built on personal loyalty, with no record of developing new leaders or permitting opposition within the ranks. This structure strengthens the tendency to view political office as a possession. Corruption and unaccountability are natural byproducts. Talented second-tier party members had no prospect of emerging from Bhutto's shadow.

I first met her in 1974, when she was a slightly impish 21-year-old home from Oxford on summer vacation. Her father, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, was prime minister, a political virtuoso, part Napoleon, part Peron. My husband and I were diplomats just arrived in Pakistan, but Benazir had already been part of our lives indirectly while she and my brother were students at Harvard.

Five years later, the elder Bhutto was dead, and Benazir had inherited his party. She spent her first years as a political leader under house arrest. In those years, Benazir captured people's imagination. Senior civil servants, staid businesspeople and prominent personalities saw in her a modernizing influence, someone who could propel the country beyond military governments and dysfunctional politics. More than one told me that they saw her as a beacon of hope for young Pakistani women.

She took the United States by storm during her first state visit, in 1989. Her address to Congress and a speech she gave at Harvard emphasized hope for democracy and for a world of pos sibilities. She and President George H.W. Bush had a warm relationship.

Less than a year later the country's relations with India were in crisis and the United States was edging toward cutting off aid over its nuclear program. In August 1990, Benazir was overthrown at the army's instigation. For 10 years, she and her political rival Nawaz Sharif alternated terms as prime minister. Each was pushed out amid deepening disillusionment and accusations of corruption. Finally, in October 1999, Pervez Musharraf's coup ushered in a long exile for both.

Labels: Benazir Bhutto, Democracy in Pakistan, US relations with Pakistan

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With almost all of the state's 1,781 precincts reporting, Obama, D-Ill., was winning 38 percent of the delegates being awarded in the competition. Clinton, D-N.Y., took 29 percent to run third behind former senator John Edwards, D-N.C., who drew 30 percent.

Obama's victory came after the longest, costliest and most intensely fought campaign in the history of the Iowa caucuses. The year-long competition produced a huge turnout that temporarily swamped some precincts and reflected the energy and enthusiasm among Democratic voters determined to recapture the White House in November.

Labels: Barack Obama wins Iowa, Hillary Clinton, john edwards

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On the Democratic side, three candidates -Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois and John Edwards, former senator from North Carolina -- are running neck-and-neck-and-neck, with the rest of the field fighting to squeeze past one of them to finish third.

Among Republicans, former governors Mike Huckabee of Arkansas and Mitt Romney of Massachusetts are battling for first place, while the race for third is a toss-up among several contenders.

The closeness of the caucus contests here increases the import of these final days -- and any verbal misstep, breakthrough TV ads or crystallizing moment on the campaign trail -in what already have been exceptionally fluid races.

Iowans are scheduled to vote on January 3.

"We've never had anything like this," said David Nagle, a former congressman and past chairman of the Iowa Democratic Party, who has been tracking the caucuses since they gained national attention in 1972. "If you can find a three-headed coin, flip it. That's about the best projection I can give you."

The onslaught in Iowa reflects its centrality to the presidential contest, despite the efforts of politicians in more populous places -- including Michigan, Florida and California -- to cut the state down to size by moving their contests up to January and early February. All that Iowa's detractors managed to do was to elevate the state's import and add uncertainty by pushing the campaign into the heart of the holiday season.

"This is really a caucus like no other," said Jeff Link, a longtime Iowa Democratic strategist and Edwards supporter. "Everyone feels they need to get in as many visits and events as they can between the 26th and the 3rd because it's close. Everyone's going to try to do everything they can in these closing days."

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Labels: Barack Obama wins Iowa, Hillary Clinton, Mike Huckabee

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They said the study may explain why so many people who lose weight gain it all back.

"We found that the more people report eating in response to thoughts and feelings, the less weight they lost," Heather Niemeier, an obesity researcher at The Miriam Hospital and The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, said in a statement.

"Amongst successful weight losers, those who report emotional eating are more likely to regain," said Niemeier, whose study appears in the journal Obesity.

The study included 286 overweight men and women who were participating in a behavioral weight loss program.

A second group consisted of more than 3,300 adults who have lost at least 30 pounds and kept it off for at least one year.

Niemeier and her team analyzed responses to an eating inventory questionnaire.

They focused on people who ate because of external influences, such as people who eat too much at parties, and people who ate because of internal influences, such as feeling lonely or as a reward.

Labels: adults, diet, dieting, emotional eaters, emotions

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"The doctor panicked my family by saying I'm a walking time bomb, that it's a miracle I was still alive. He gave me six months more to live. I hated the man. I never wanted to see him again. The doctor said, 'Within six months your family will find you dead in a hotel room.' That was my reality check," Adnan told IANS.

He lost 85 kg (187 lbs) of his 200 kg (440 lbs) and the singer intends to lose at least 40 more in the coming months.

"I was living in denial for years, not facing up to the fact that I was obese. When wellwishers would warn me, I'd brush them off as being melodramatic. Would you believe, when I was in university I was sporty. I was the captain of my squash team.

"Surprisingly, I didn't become breathless while singing, though I did become asthmatic."

He says he resorted to food to cope with his divorce with first wife Zeba Bakhtiar, who played the title role in "Henna".

"When I went through my divorce, I was devastated by the end of the marriage and I lost custody of my son whom I completely adored. I began to look to food for emotional sustenance. It soon became a habit, even when I put my life together, the habit remained. I was gaining weight constantly.

"Food became an addiction. Soon my weight became an obstruction in my life. But surprisingly most of my faculties were in order. I did have a high blood pressure though. But that's a genetic problem."

Adnan's last meal before the dieting began?

"It was a huge porterhouse steak with mashed potatoes with butter and a huge New York cheese cake to top it all on June 6, 2006.

I ate it all on my own. Then I just gave up the food. And now I hate the sight of fatty food."

He has turned a vegetarian also.

"I'm allowed to eat any kind of meat, but I just don't feel like. I'm on a high-protein diet - no bread, no rice, no sugar and no oil.

My meals are salad for lunch and a bowl of daal with no seasoning in the night. For snack I've popcorn without butter. And I can have as many diet drinks as I want."

Adnan heaves a sigh of relief.

"I've got my sleep back. I had reached a point where I couldn't lie down flat on my back. It was so ironical. I'd be staying at the most beautiful presidential suites in the world and I couldn't use the damn beds! I had to sit upright and doze off. At the tail end of my obesity I was using a walking stick and a wheelchair to remain mobile. I had for gotten how to balance myself on my own two feet. It was a nightmare. I'd walk in constant fear of losing balance. Believe me there's no nobility in immobility."

Labels: adnan sami, Bollywood, obesity, singer

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