No Indian film in Cannes line up this year

The 64th Festival de Cannes line up has no Indian films unlike the last year's lone entry UDAAN. The line up is on expected and speculated lines. A whole lot of Cannes veterans and giants of art house cinema are in the list. There are four debutante filmmakers whose work has made it to the prestigious line up. Here is the complete list of films that was announced today in Paris by festival director Thierry Fremaux.

OPENING FILM

'MIDNIGHT IN PARIS,' Spain-U.S., Woody Allen

COMPETITION LINE UP

'DRIVE,' U.S., Nicolas Winding Refn

'FOOTNOTE,' Israel, Josef Cedar

'HANEZU NO TSUKI,' Japan, Naomi Kawase

'HARA-KIRI: DEATH OF A SAMURAI,' Japan, Takashi Miike

'THE KID WITH A BIKE,' Belgium-France-Italy, Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne

'L'APOLLONIDE (SOUVENIRS DE LA MAISON CLOSE),' France Bertrand Bonello

'LE HAVRE,' Finland-France-Germany, Aki Kaurismaki

'ONCE UPON A TIME IN ANATOLIA,' Turkey, Nuri Bilge Ceylan

'MELANCHOLIA,' Denmark-Sweden-France-Germany-Italy, Lars von Trier

'MICHAEL,' Austria, Markus Schleinzer

'PATER,' France, Alain Cavalier

'POLISSE,' France, Maiwenn

'THE SKIN THAT I INHABIT,' Spain, Pedro Almodovar

'SLEEPING BEAUTY,' Australia, Julia Leigh

'LA SOURCE DES FEMMES,' France-Belgium-Italy, Radu Mihaileanu

'THIS MUST BE THE PLACE,' Italy-France-Ireland, Paolo Sorrentino

'THE TREE OF LIFE,' U.S., Terrence Malick

'WE HAVE A POPE,' Italy-France, Nanni Moretti

'WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN,' U.K.-U.S., Lynne Ramsay

SEA RISES, JAPAN QUAKES Toll 1,000 And Rising Tsunami Alerts In US, South America

Tokyo: A ferocious tsunami spawned by the biggest earthquake ever in Japan slammed the country’s eastern coast on Friday, killing at least 1,000 people, sweeping away houses, boats and cars across cities and farmlands. Hours later, the tsunami hit Hawaii and set off warnings as far away as the west coast of the United States and South America.

Japanese police officials said toll was at least 1,000 with 300 bodies found in Sendai, a port city in the northeastern part of the country and the closest large population to the epicentre. The full extent of injuries wasn’t known and the toll is feared to rise substantially. Walls of water whisked away houses and cars in central Japan, where terrified residents fled the coast. Train services were shut down across central and northern Japan, including Tokyo, and air travel was severely disrupted. A ship carrying more than 100 people was swept away by the tsunami, Kyodo News reported.

Even for a country used to earthquakes, this one was of horrific proportions because of the tsunami that swallowed everything in its path as it surged several kilometers inland before retreating. The apocalyptic images of surging water and uncontrolled conflagarations broadcast by Japanese TV resembled scenes from a Hollywood disaster movie. The government evacuated thousands of residents near a nuclear plant about 250km northeast of Tokyo after a backup generator failed, compromising the cooling system.

The US Geological Survey said the quake measured a magnitude of 8.9, making it the most severe since an 8.8 quake off the coast of Chile a little more than a year ago. It was less powerful than the 9.1-magnitude quake that struck off Sumatra in late 2004, which triggered a tsunami that killed more than 3,00,000 people, including many on India’s east coast.

“This tremor was unlike any I’ve experienced previously, and I’ve lived here for eight years,’’ said Matt Alt, an American writer living in Tokyo. “It was a sustained rolling that made it impossible to stand, almost like vertigo.’’ Dozens of aftershocks have been felt in the hours after the quake, some of them of magnitude 6.0 or greater, strong enough to do significant damage of their own. A second major earthquake, of 7.4 magnitude, was reported as aftershocks shook the region.

Images os Tsunami hit Japan

Australian cyclone news most powerful in a century

Queensland: The most powerful storm in a century ripped across Australia's northeast coast early on Thursday, blasting apart houses, laying waste to banana crops and leaving boats lying in the streets.

Cyclone Yasi swept entire towns in the disaster zone stretching for hundreds of kilometers leaving thousands homeless.

Authorities say they were surprised to learn at daybreak that no one had been reported killed, but cautioned that bad news could eventually emerge from communities still cut off after the overnight storm.

Hundreds of thousands of people spent the night huddled in evacuation centres or bunkered in their homes with winds gusting to 300 kilometers per hour causing tidal surges that swamped coastal areas.

More than 10,000 people in 20 evacuation centres were being told they could not leave yet.

Power was cut to almost 180,000 houses in the region.

The largest towns in the path of the cyclone, including Cairns and Townsville, were spared the worst of the fierce winds. Although many trees were knocked down, only a few buildings were damaged.

Cyclone Yasi is now moving further inland but thankfully is losing power.

Veena Malik pakistani actress reality show

Pakistani actress Veena Malik has mounted a fiery defence of her appearance in the controversial Indian reality show Bigg Boss, taking on mullahs who had criticised her.

Malik took Mufti Abdul Kawi to task for calling her "baigharat" (immoral) on a talk show on television and said if she were in the wrong, so was he because Islam doesn't permit a man to cast a second look at a woman who isn't his relative.

"One can be punished for looking at a woman a second time, you should be punished," Malik, clad in a black sleeveless dress, told the Mufti on Express News' Frontline show.

Malik's outspoken defence of herself received widespread support from Pakistani liberals and civil society activists on social networking websites like Twitter, which were flooded with messages praising her and quotes of her witty repartee with the Mufti

Malik, who was ousted from Bigg Boss after spending 84 days on the show, described her appearance in the programme as a "beautiful, terrible, exciting, emotional, sad" experience. She said the most beautiful thing for her was the love Indians showered on her by voting for her.

Malik refused to apologise for her behaviour on the show, saying the show was not aimed at promoting the culture of any country. "It isn't a religious show either. The format of the show is to get people from various walks of life under one roof... I was contacted for my bravery," she said.

Barack Obama biography and image

Barack Obama




Date of Birth
4 August 1961, Hawaii, USA

Birth Name
Barack Hussein Obama Jr.

Height
6' 1" (1.85 m)

Mini Biography
Barack Obama was born for kenyan father and an Ametican mother, Ann Dunham, and a black Kenyan father, Barack Obama Sr., who were both young college students at the University of Hawaii. When his father left for Harvard, she and Barack stayed behind, and his father ultimately returned alone to Kenya, where he worked as a government economist. Barack's mother remarried an Indonesian oil manager and moved to Jakarta when Barack was six. He later recounted Indonesia as simultaneously lush and a harrowing exposure to tropical poverty. He returned to Hawaii, where he was brought up largely by his grandparents. The family lived in a small apartment - his grandfather was a furniture salesman and an unsuccessful insurance agent and his grandmother worked in a bank - but Barack managed to get into Punahou School, Hawaii's top prep academy.
       Obama attended Columbia University, but found New York's racial tension inescapable. He became a community organizer for a small Chicago church-based group for three years, helping poor South Side residents cope with a wave of plant closings. He then attended Harvard Law School, and in 1990 became the first African-American editor of the Harvard Law Review. He turned down a prestigious judicial clerkship, choosing instead to practice civil-rights law back in Chicago, representing victims of housing and employment discrimination and working on voting-rights legislation. He also began teaching at the University of Chicago Law School, and married Michelle Robinson, a fellow attorney. Eventually he was elected to the Illinois state senate, where his district included both Hyde Park and some of the poorest ghettos on the South Side.

In 2004 Obama was elected to the U.S. Senate as a Democrat, representing Illinois, and he gained national attention by giving a rousing and well-received keynote speech at the Democratic National Convention in Boston. In 2008 he ran for President, and despite having only four years of national political experience, he won. In January 2009, he became 44th President of the United States, and the first African-American ever elected to that position.

Obama extends diwali greetings

Today, Hindus, Jains, Sikhs and some Buddhists, around the world, will celebrate the holiday of Diwali - the festival of lights. This is a day when members of some of the world's oldest religion celebrate the triumph of good over evil,' Obama said in a message released by the White House.

He reminded that he had lighted a 'diya (lamp)' last year in the White House to mark the holiday. 'This lamp symbolizes the victory of light over darkness and knowledge over ignorance,' said Obama.

He added that Diwali was also a time for reflection that there were people less unfortunate. 'This holiday reminds us all that we should commit ourselves to helping those in need.'

Referring to his visit to India this weekend, Obama added, 'To those celebrating Diwali in India, I look forward to visiting you over the next few days.'

He then ended his message with his wishes. 'And to all those who will celebrate this joyous occasion on Friday, I wish you, your families and loved ones Happy Diwali and Saal Mubarak,' said Obama.