No Country, Coen brothers win top Oscars

No Country For Old Men won the Oscar for best film and its makers, brothers Joel and Ethan Coen, were named best directors on Sunday, giving the bleak crime drama four of the world's top movie awards.

Members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences honored a wide range of movies, actors and actresses from several countries.

Briton Daniel Day-Lewis won the Oscar for best actor as a sadistic oil prospector in the early 20th century whose rise to wealth and power comes at a deep cost to his soul.

France's Marion Cotillard was named best actress, Britain's Tilda Swinton took supporting actress and Spain's Javier Bardem won supporting actor.

Cotillard earned her Academy Award portraying singer Edith Piaf in La Vie en Rose and became the first French actress to win the Oscar in that category since 1960.

"I'm speechless now," Cotillard said on stage, visibly surprised and overjoyed. "Thank you life, thank you love. It is true there (are) some angels in this city."

Swinton won supporting actress playing an ethically challenged corporate lawyer in the thriller Michael Clayton and Bardem was given his award for portraying a sadistic killer in No Country For Old Men.

Bardem, who hails from a family of performers, took the occasion to thank his family in Spanish, apologizing in advance to the Hollywood audience.

"Mama, this is for you. This is for your grandparents and your parents," said Bardem. "This is for the comedians of Spain who like you have brought dignity and pride to our profession. This is for Spain and this is for all of you."

The fourth Oscar for No Country For Old Men also went to the Coen brothers for best adapted screenplay by basing their movie on the Cormac McCarthy novel of the same name.

Militants breach wall of snow on LoC

The Indian Army's worst fears have come true. Militants are now desperate enough to defy the high walls of snow to cross over to this side of the Line of Control (LoC).

The first such attempt was made this year — in Keran sector — on February 22. Two infiltrators were shot dead by the security forces.

For miles there is nothing but snow in this area, 111 km from the summer capital Srinagar. The mountains look like an undulating ocean of snow - enchantingly beautiful for onlookers, but a big challenge for soldiers guarding the borders. The temperatures often dip to minus 10 or less.

Kashmir has experienced the heaviest snowfall in decades this year. Nanda post in Gulmarg sector received over 24-feet snow while Cheema post in the same sector got almost 17 feet. One would think it's humanly impossible to cross in such conditions. And yet, militants chose to make their first attempt at such a time.

This attempt was detected and neutralised, but this could well be the beginning, admitted an army officer.

The security forces are expecting heightened activity this year at the LoC. Especially in view of the February 22 attempt, made despite the hostile terrain and round-the-clock vigil of Indian soldiers, who are under orders to shoot in case of any suspicious movement.

Col. Mathur, of the 15 Corps, attributed it to the "sheer desperation of militants."

Desperation for what? "These are foreign militants in pursuit of their agenda of global jihad," said the officer, who has
been monitoring cross-border activity.

“The most disturbing fact is that terror camps are still intact. Militants have been shifted to the launching pads. There are at least 26 of them in the sectors facing the Valley," the army officer said.

Not just the army, former militants are also getting similar inputs from across.

A former militant leader, now an over ground activist, told Hindustan Times: "When I was in Pakistan last year, I asked ISI officers why they keep sending militants to Kashmir despite the ceasefire and the Indo-Pak dialogue. Their answer was: We cannot dismantle our infrastructure which took us 50 years to put together." The militancy plan in Kashmir did not come about in 1987 or 1988. "It started long ago," the militant leader was told.

That explains why the infiltration is still on. And why our soldiers need to be on guard 24x7.

"The infiltrators have to succeed once, but soldiers have to be successful every time. There is no room for error," the Army officer said.

The snow will melt by May-June. The thick snow would have, by then, inflicted heavy damage to the fence. It'll take two to three months to repair it. By then it'll be October, when snow again starts in the upper reaches of the Valley.

The interregnum period will be ideal for infiltration, since many areas will virtually have no fencing on the LoC. That's the time the security forces face their biggest challenge.

How deep is your love? Passion phones know

Valentines Day in South Korea means chocolates, romantic dinners and a high-tech mobile phone device that can secretly check the passion in the voice of a lover.

The "Love Detector" service from mobile operator KTF uses technology that is supposed to analyze voice patterns to see if a lover is speaking honestly and with affection.

"We created this service because we thought people would want to know what others were feeling about them," said Ahn Hee-jung, a KTF official.

Users who speak by pointing their mobile phones at themselves for video conferences can see a "love meter" bar on the screen of their handset during a conversation.

They later receive an analysis of the conversation delivered through text message that breaks down the amount of affection, surprise, concentration and honesty of the other speaker.

The service costs subscribers a flat fee of 1,500 won ($1.59) a month for unlimited use or can be accessed at 300 won for each call, KTF said.

"The caller is paying the money, so the information is provided only to him or her," said Ahn.

article source : www.reuters.com

Jodha Akbar releases today

Ashutosh Gowarikar's ambitious historical Jodhaa Akbar has not released in Rajasthan after protests by some Rajput groups led by the Karni Sena. They say Jodha was not Akbar's but his son Jehangir's wife. Rajputs allege that the film had distorted history and had demanded a ban on the film. Given the fear that the protests may get ugly all theatre owners in Jaipur have decided not to screen Jodhaa Akbar.

So, while the whole country will be able to watch the Aishwarya-Hritik starrer, ironically people in Jodha 's native city will be denied a chance to see Gowarikar's version of the crucial alliance between a Rajput princess and a Mughal ruler. "The movie should be released in Jaipur. Politics should not affect films and these protests are done to gain political mileage," said a moviegoer.

Some NRI groups have also planned a boycott and that's not all a few multiplexes have still to reach a verdict on whether they will even screen the film. So, for the emperor and his queen, the real battle is still to be waged- at the box office. The toughest field to conquer.

But the royal families of Jaipur and Kishangarh have come out in support of the film and they say there is not much in a name. Akbar's consort was a Jaipur princess and Gowariker only went ahead with the film once they cleared the script and if anybody has any objections it should be them, the closest living relatives of Jodha Bai. The royal family of Jaipur has pulled out original historical records to prove that Akbar married a Jaipur princess. It was a clever political alliance, which consolidated the Mughal hold over the Rajputs and turned them into allies.

The wedding was carried out with great pomp and ceremony on January 20, 1562 at Sambhar, a 100 kms from Jaipur. "We went through the script before he started the movie, the mahurat shot was here. We are the closest relation to Jodha therefore he started with us and if there was anything objectionable we would have not endorsed it," said Maharani Padmini Devi, member, Jaipur Royal family. "What are they objecting to, the name or is there something else? She was indeed Raja Bharmal's daughter and the sister of Bhagwandas. She was Raja Bharmal's eldest daughter and the aunt of Mansingh. It is a fact," said Maharaja Brajraj Singh, Kishangar Royal family.

But Rajput community claims that Jodha was not from Jaipur but from Jodhpur and by distorting history Gowariker is hurting Rajput sentiments. "Do you have a right to make your own history or change history. Jodha Bai was the daughter of Mota Raja of Jodhpur who wed Salim and became the mother of Shahjahan," said Prof Khangarot. But the Royals of Jaipur and Kishangarh say why were there no the protests over Mughal-E-Azam which was released not one but twice.

No red roses for Saudi sweethearts

Saudi Arabia's religious police have banned red roses ahead of Valentine's Day, forcing couples in the conservative Muslim nation to think of new ways to show their love.

The Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice has ordered florists and gift shop owners in the capital Riyadh to remove any items colored scarlet, which is widely seen as symbolizing love, newspapers said.

"They visited us last night," the Saudi Gazette quoted an unidentified florist as saying.

It is not unusual for the Saudi vice squad to clamp down ahead of Valentine's Day, which it sees as encouraging relations between men and women outside of wedlock, the newspaper said.

Saudi Arabia imposes an austere form of Sunni Islam which prevents unrelated men and women from mixing, bans women from driving and demands that women wear a headscarf and a cloak.

Relations outside marriage are strictly banned and punishable by law.

article source : www.reuters.com

Clinton, Obama draw; McCain leads

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democrats Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton battled to a draw on "Super Tuesday" and John McCain took charge of the Republican race in coast-to-coast presidential nominating battles in 24 U.S. states.

In their hard-fought Democratic duel, Obama won 13 states and Clinton took eight, ensuring a long and difficult battle for the nomination. Clinton's wins included the key prizes of California and New York on the biggest day of U.S. presidential voting before the November 4 election.

"There is one thing on this February night that we do not need the final results to know: Our time has come," Obama told cheering supporters in Chicago. "Our movement is real, and change is coming to America."

McCain won nine contests, including victories in California and the Northeast, to take a daunting lead in the Republican race. He captured a huge haul of the convention delegates who select the party's presidential nominee, taking several big states where delegates are granted on a winner-take-all basis.

Republican rivals Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee kept their hopes alive and vowed to fight on, but could face growing questions about the viability of their campaigns. Romney won seven states and Huckabee won five.

"Tonight, I think we must get used to the idea that we are the Republican Party front-runner for the nomination," McCain told supporters in Scottsdale, Arizona. "And I don't really mind it one bit."

RACE SET TO CONTINUE

Tired of controversies, Sania stops playing in India

Tired of being dragged into one controversy after another in the past few months, Sania Mirza has decided against playing in India for now.

Sania has opted out of next month's Bangalore Open and has cited the petty controversies that have been dogging her for quite some time for the pullout.

"I am not playing in Bangalore Open. I have been advised by my manager not to play (there) because a lot has been happening in the past few months," Sania said.

"Everytime I have played in India, there has been some kind of problem. So we just thought it was better not to play this time," she added.

Ever since her breakthrough 2005 season, Sania has been battling controversies ranging from her on court attire being dubbed indecent by Islamic fundamentalists to the recent flag controversy during the Hopman Cup in December last year.

In fact, the off-court furores had shaken the world number 29 to such an extent that she had contemplated giving up the game altogether a few weeks before last month's Australian Open.

Sania, who will undergo a MRI scan on Tuesday, said she is pleased with the good beginning in this season, reaching the mixed doubles final at Australian Open in the company of Mahesh Bhupati.

On her encounter with Venus Williams, Sania said, ''though I played well in the first set, I could not break her service in the second set."

The injury, due to a torn abductor muscle, in the left leg had forced her out of the first three matches in the Asia-Oceania Zone Group One competition at Bangkok. Sania saved India from relegation in the Federation Cup beating Hong Kong 2-1 in the final match.

image and article source:www.ibnlive.com