81st Annual Academy Award - Slumdog Millionaire won 8 Oscars, 2 for A R Rahman

SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE - A film with Indian base swept eight Oscars at the 81st Annual Academy Award on 22nd February, 2009. Indian Music director grabs 2 Oscars for Jai Ho... Composition in Slumdog Millionaire and become 1st Indian to do so.

Slumdog Millionaire nominated in 9 categories and won in 8 including Best Picture, Director, Adapted Screenplay, Cinematography, Sound Mixing, Film Editing, Original Score, Original Song.

Sean Penn won Best Actor Award in a Leading Role in Milk and Kete Wislet won Best Actress in a Leading Role while late Heath Ledger won Best Supporting Actor for his memorable role in The Dark Knight.

81st Oscar Award Winners

Best Picture: Slumdog Millionaire

Best Direction: Danny Boyle for Slumdog Millionaire

Best Original Song: A R Rahman and Gulzar for ‘Jai Ho...’ (Slumdog Millionarie)

Best Original Score: A R Rahman for Slumdog Millionaire

Best Actor in a Leading Role: Sean Penn for Milk.

Best Actressin a Leading Role: Kate Winslet for The Reader

Best Supporting Actor: Heath Ledger for The Dark Knight
Best Supporting Actress: Penelope Cruz for Vicky Cristina Barcelona

Best Foreign Language Film: Departures (Japan)

Best Film Editing: Chris Dickens for Slumdog Millionaire

Best Sound Mixing: Ian Tapp, Resul Pookutty for Slumdog Millionaire

Best Cinematography: Anthony Dod Mantle for Slumdog Millionaire

Best Adapted Screenplay: Simon Beaufoy for Slumdog Millionaire

Best Documentary Short Subject: Megan Mylan for Smile Pinki

Best Sound Editing: Richard King for The Dark Knight

Best Visual Effects: Eric Barba for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Best Documentary Feature Film: James Marsh for Man on Wire

Best Live action short film: Jochen Alexander for Spielzeugland Toyland

Best Make-up: Greg Cannom for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Best Costume Design: Michael O’Connor for The Duchess

Best Art Direction: Donald Graham Burt for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Best Animated Short Film: Kunio Kato for La Maison En Petits Cubes

Best Animated Feature: Andrew Stanton for Wall-E

Best Original Screenplay: Dustin Lance Black for Milk

Photos of 81st Annual Academy Award

Best Actor in a Leading Role: Sean Penn for Milk


Best Actressin a Leading Role: Kate Winslet for The Reader


Best Direction: Danny Boyle for Slumdog Millionaire


Best Sound Mixing: Ian Tapp, Resul Pookutty for Slumdog Millionaire


Slumdog Millionaire Team

Best Supporting Actor: Heath Ledger for The Dark Knight


Best Supporting Actress: Penelope Cruz for Vicky Cristina Barcelona

The Change is Barack Obama: Is the Change Good or Bad?

Change we need.... and change has come. Democratic Illinois senator Barack Obama has been elected as the first black president of the USA. Obama leading the race by 338 to 156 as few results has to come and much ahead of essential 270 electoral college votes.

Obama captured the key battleground states of Pennsylvania and Ohio, while projections showed he had also taken California and a slew of other states. Then came the news that he had also seized Florida, Virginia and Colorado, all of which voted Republican in 2004, the country is turning from Red to Blue.

In Indiana and North Carolina, with most of the vote counted, there was less than 0.5% differance between the two candidates. At 0440 GMT it stood at 51.1% in the favour of Illinois Democratic Senator, against 47.7% for Arizona Republican Senator McCain.

John McCain has accepted defeat and given best wishes to next US president. President George W Bush als Congratiulate his predecessor.

2008 US Election - Is McCaine ready for Third and Final Debate vs Obama?

Third and final presidential debate for the race of White House between Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain starting at 0100 GMT at Hofstra University on Long Island. This is the last chance for McCain to bounce back as just 19 days to go for November 4 vote.

37 year old Illinois senator Barack Obama leading by 14 points to 72 year old rival Arizona senator John McCain in one of the latest poll in United States.

A latest poll by New York Times-CBS News on late Tuesday had Obama ahead of McCain by the big margin of 14 points, 53 to 39 percent, compared to a lead of just three points before last week's second presidential debate.

All the negative tactics was back fired to McCain like Obama's links to 1960s radical turned Chicago education professor William Ayers.

Another new survey by the Los Angeles Times and Bloomberg showed Obama was ahead by nine points, 50 to 41 percent. As the economy is the major concern for Americans right now, and Obama was their preferred candidate.

Obama spokeswoman Jen Psaki said, "Obama will talk about he's doing for weeks, i.e. will talk about his plan for the economy".

Hope it will be a fair debate before the November 4 election and McCain will show some positive attitude against Obama.

Manmohan Singh led UPA won Trus Vote by 275/256

Indian Prime Minister Dr.Manmohan Singh led UPA won the vote of trust in the Parliament by a comfortable margin on Tuesday, 22nd July, 2008. UPA government won the vote of confidence by 275 votes in favor and 256 against. Big step towards Ind0-US Nuclear deal.

Indian Parliament has 541 seats, and from the initial figures showed 253 votes in favor of the motion, 232 against and 2 abstentions in a total vote of 487. In the final results UPA got 275 in favor and 256 against and 10 abstentions.

After a long debate Speaker Somnath Chatterjee ordered voting by electronic voting machine. Even before the final result was announced, all the members of ruling alliance went to the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi to greet them on the victory in the confidence motion.

UPA government was in trouble after Left parties, which provided outside support since May 2004, withdrew it on the issue of government operationalising the Indo-US civilian nuclear deal by approaching the IAEA.

Pakistan Election- Benazir's PPP and Sharif's PML-N are in Lead

Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf's opponents headed for election victory on Tuesday after voters rejected his former ruling party. Counting is on in Pakistan, where elections for its national and provincial assemblies were held on Monday.

No party is expected to win a majority in the 342-seat National Assembly but the opposition parties of assassinated former prime minister Benazir Bhutto (PPP) and another former prime minister, Nawaz Sharif (PML-N), were set to be the biggest.

Early trends in Pakistan’s vote-count show that so far there is no clear winner, though former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto's party appears to have taken a narrow lead, according to preliminary results.

While the Election Commission is yet to officially announce the turnout or any of the results, the initial trends do not augur well for Musharraf.

What has, however, emerged is that the ruling PML-Q, which backs Musharraf, seems to be the clear loser.

Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party (PPP) has been expected to reap a sympathy vote and was doing well, partial results showed.

Political Parties participating in Pakistan Election

Following are the political Parties participating in Today's Election.

PPP:
Benazir Bhutto's, Pakistan Peoples Party, now led by her widower Asif Zardari. The party hopes to get sympathy votes after Benazir's tragic death.

PML-N:
The PML-N is led by former prime minister Nawaz Sharif. Sharif who returned from years of exile last year is barred from serving another term as prime minister but his party has an understanding with the PPP to form a coalition government just in case.

PML-Q:
The PML-Q was formed mainly with defectors from Nawaz Sharif's party after the 1999 coup. Since then it has been the main political face of President Musharraf's government together with smaller provincial allies. It was the disputed victor of the last elections in 2002.

MMA:
Wrangling over an election boycott has led to a division in the six-party religious alliance, the MMA. The alliance emerged as the third largest group in the last elections and has sided with Musharraf. The largest party in the alliance, the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam of Maulana Fazlur Rahman, has decided to contest the elections despite a boycott appeal by the alliance chief.

APDA:
The All Parties Democratic Alliance, a grouping of several opposition parties, almost all nationalist groups from Balochistan and one of the two main Pashtun nationalist groups from the north-west.

Among the parties boycotting the elections are cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan's Tehreek-e-Insaaf.

Election Day in Pakistan: Fear of more terror attacks

Finally, it's election time in Pakistan. Over eight crore people vote for the National Assembly as well as the provincial assemblies today. The run-up to the elections has seen widespread violence including the assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto.

Not in recent memory has there been an election that has attracted so much attention, despite it being well known that it won’t amount to much. It reflects the world’s anxiety over Pakistan. It also reflects how much the world wants the Pakistan ship to right itself with these elections and sail out of troubled waters.

There are apprehensions of widespread rigging. Over 1000 observers, including those from the United States and the European Union will be monitoring the elections.

Pakistan witnessed a violent start to the general elections on Monday as a PML-N candidate was shot dead in Lahore while a blast hit a polling booth in Swat Valley, even before the voting began.