India's Parvathy Omanakuttan was adjudged the first runner-up at the Miss World pageant here Saturday evening, with the crown going to Miss Russia.
Parvathy impressed the jury with her looks and quick wit and was one the five finalists out of the 109 contestants at the Sandton Convention Center. However, she was finally beaten by Miss Russia.
Miss Trinidad and Tobago was named the second runner-up. The others in contention in the final five were Miss South Africa and Miss Angola.
India had high hopes on 21-year-old Parvathy to win the crown that last came to the country in 2000.
India boasts of Miss Worlds like Reita Faria (1966), Aishwarya Rai Bachchan (1994), Diana Hayden (1997), Yukta Mookhey (1999) and Priyanka Chopra (2000).
Noted Indian music director A.R. Rahman has won a Golden Globe nomination for Best Original Score for his music in British director Danny Boyle's uplifting underdog tale "Slumdog Millionaire".
The film has also earned three other nominations for Best Picture-Drama, Best Director for Boyle and Best Screenplay for Simon Beaufoy for the 2008 Golden Globe Awards given by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association.
The film tells the heart warming story of an 18-year-old orphan from the slums of Mumbai who goes on to win a staggering Rs.20 million ($420,000) on India's "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?" game show.
Earlier this week, "Slumdog Millionaire" won two awards from the Los Angeles Film Critics Association - Best Director for Boyle and Best Music for Rahman. It also won the runner-up prize for Best Cinematography for Anthony Dod Mantle.
The film, set and shot in Mumbai, has also won the Best Cinematography prize from The New York Film Critics' Circle and earned six Critics Choice Award nominations for Picture, Director (Boyle), Writer (Simon Beaufoy), Young Actor (Dev Patel), Composer (Rahman), and Song ("Jai Ho").
Currently playing in several major cities, "Slumdog Millionaire" will open in 87 additional theaters across North America Friday and bring its total theatre count to 165.
New markets where the film will debut this weekend include New Jersey, Connecticut, Ohio, Houston, Austin, Miami-Ft. Lauderdale, Orlando, Ann Arbor, Milwaukee, Charlotte, Raleigh-Durham, St. Louis, Kansas City, Louisville, New Orleans, Portland, Honolulu and Sacramento.
When author Gregory David Roberts wrote an open letter to all his readers asking them not to lose faith in India and Mumbai following the 26/11 attacks, he immediately found adherents in people like Anne Fox, a British tourist.
Braving a fear psychosis Fox took a corner table at the famous Leopold Café - the place Roberts had immortalised in his book "Shantaram" - ordered a beer and got up only after she finished reading it.
One of the city's oldest Irani-run cafes owned by Farzad and Farhang Jehani, Leopold was set up way back in 1871. Aptly wearing the tagline 'Getting better with age', it's a huge hit with foreign backpackers.
Situated on the Colaba Causeway in south Mumbai, Leo's (as the cafe is popularly known) offers you more than one reason to hop in. It has 333 items on its food menu ranging from the humble fish and chips to the royal biryani. But loyal Leodians swear by its chicken tikka masala and beef chilly and fried rice.
Serving hefty portions at reasonable price, what also sets the cafe apart is its ambience. Nothing too fancy for your eyes, but a quaint French cafe look with ever amiable waiters ready to serve you make most prefer it to its nearby look alike Cafe Mondegar.
Rudely interrupting its warm ambience, on the night of Nov 26 terrorists targetted Leo's as their first spot to launch their brazen attacks that claimed at least 179 lives. Seven people, including two tourists and two of the café's waiters, were among those killed.
Two weeks later, tourists like Fox have started trickling in again for what seems to be their favourite pass time at Leo's- read Shantaram.
"It's fascinating to read a book based in a particular place and then relate every little detail mentioned in it to the surroundings here," Fox told IANS, as she turned a page of the thick book.
A 2003 novel by Roberts, "Shantaram" is about an Australian bank robber and heroin addict who escapes from jail and flees to Bombay, as Mumbai was formerly called.
Of all the very typical "Bombay" things and places mentioned in the book is the Leopold Café.
Little wonder that one corner of the manager's counter is stacked with the grey and red covered "Shantaram". And it most definitely is the most read book in the café - especially amongst tourists.
Sitting lazily on her chair, Fox said that she was holidaying at the sun-kissed beaches of Goa when terrorists struck Mumbai. In spite of the outrage, Fox said she decided to continue her journey to Mumbai as per her long-drawn travel itinerary in India and despite her family and friends advising her against it.
"I have been in India for a month now and all this while I have been in Goa. When I heard about the attacks here, my parents back home wanted me to cut short the visit, but I just decided to carry on. It would have been such a waste of a trip had I gone back without visiting all these places," Fox maintained.
She, incidentally, was not the only one sitting in the café with a copy of "Shantaram".
Arthur Davis, a Canadian, sat with his girlfriend close by. Among their cloth shoulder bags and other things lying on their table was a copy of the book.
"This is not the first time that I have come to India and to Leo's. Now, the bullet marks on the ceiling of this place is unnerving.
"Yet seeing the crowd and the smiling faces of the waiters here gives you the confidence and hope to return. There is hardly any place today which has not been a victim to terror and, therefore, running away from India after these attacks is never an option," Davis told IANS.
But ask one of the waiters and he admits that after the Nov 26 attack the number of foreigners thronging the place has come down.
"The number of people coming to Leo's after the attack has not been affected; in fact it has increased. But the number of foreigners among them has come down. Otherwise, at any given time, the lower section of the cafe is generally filled with foreigners," said Avik, one of the waiters.
Nevertheless, this pub-restaurant - with its typical 1980s look and now bullet-riddled window panes - continues to serve loyal customers defiant in the face of depredations it had to endure.
(Azera Rahman can be contacted at azera.p@ians.in)
The Pakistan-based Jamat-ud-Dawah (JuD), which has been branded a terrorist group by the UN, is writing to the global body to clarify that it has no links with terrorism and the Pakistani government began investigations against it only on the basis of "Indian propaganda", its chief Hafiz Muhammad Saeed said.
Acceding to Indian and US requests in the aftermath of the Nov 26 Mumbai terror attacks, the UN Security Council Wednesday declared JuD, the front for the banned Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), a terrorist group. Four top LeT leaders, including Saeed, have also been branded global terrorists.
However, BBC Urdu website quoted Saeed as saying in an interview that he never headed the LeT. He added that although he was once arrested by the government, he was let off after JuD proved that he had nothing to do with the LeT.
The other LeT leaders whom the UN Security Council Sanctions Committee has branded global terrorists are Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, Haji Muhammad Ashraf and Mahmood Muhammad Ahmed.
While insisting that none of the "LeT office holders are members of JuD", Saeed said: "India has failed to provide any evidence of LeT involvement in the Mumbai attacks."
Asked about LeT offices and camps in Pakistan, Saeed said all LeT offices were closed in 2002 after the ban on the organisation.
"Presently, there are no offices or camps (of LeT) in Pakistan," he said.
He said India was pressurising Pakistan through propaganda, adding: "The Pakistani government should investigate the allegations and clear the situation. LeT has already denied all the allegations."
Saeed said that previously India was accusing LeT of the Mumbai attacks but this week its envoy in the UN demanded restrictions on JuD. He demanded that Indian authorities provide evidence of the involvement of either of the two groups in the Mumbai attacks, which left over 170 people dead.
Declaring that the JuD will challenge the sanctions imposed on it in all forums, Saeed said his group will write to the UN explaining that it has no involvement in any terrorist activity.
When asked what he would do if India presented any evidence against JuD, Saeed said in that case his group will abide by the decision of the government of Pakistan.
He said all JuD offices in Pakistani Kashmir and other parts of the country were working as usual and the recent raids in Kashmir were on LeT.
"Pakistan army and security agencies are conducting these raids and they are in a better position to tell you against whom they are taking these actions," he added.
When asked about media reports that one of the Mumbai attackers had visited the JuD office in Muridke, Saeed said he had never met him.
"I have seen a media report that I met him for the first time in Dubai whereas I have never been to Dubai," he added.
Indo-Asian News Service
Acceding to Indian and US requests in the aftermath of the Mumbai terror attacks, the UN Security Council has branded Pakistan-based Jamat-ud-Dawah, the front for banned Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), a terrorist group and four top LeT leaders as global terrorists.
The LeT leaders who were Wednesday declared terrorists by the Security Council are Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, Haji Muhammad Ashraf, and Mohmoud Mohammad Ahmed Bahaziq. Except for the last one, all are Pakistani nationals.
India says Saeed, the LeT head, is the mastermind of the Nov 26 Mumbai terror attacks that killed at least 179 people, including several foreigners. While Lakhvi is the chief of operations of LeT, Ashraf is the chief of finances of the terrorist organisatiation, which was declared a terrorist organisation by the UN in 2002.
India-born Saudi national Bahaziq raised money for the LeT in Saudi Arabia. Frontal organisations of the banned Al Rashid and Al Akhtar trusts, which raised funds for LeT, have also been included in the Security Council's terror list.
India had requested the UN to ban the Jamat-ud-Dawah and Saeed, while the request for rest of the terrorists and organisations came from the US.
With this, the onus is now on Islamabad to take immediate action against those included in the list by the UN Security Council's Al Qaeda and Taliban Sanctions Committee.
Richard Barrett, coordinator for Al Qaeda Taliban Monitoring Team, told IANS that the sanctions come into effect immediately. With this, Pakistan is expected to take action against them immediately, which include freezing of their assets, a ban on their foreign travel and arms embargo.
Since all the members of the Al Qaeda and Taliban Sanctions Committee have veto power, the decision was taken by consensus. All the 15 members of the Security Council are the members of this sub-committee.
In the three previous attempts to include the Jamat-ud-Dawah in the list, China had opposed the request. But not this time, given the concrete supportive documents provided by India and the US about the group's role in the Mumbai terror attacks.
At a Security Council meeting convened Tuesday to debate terrorism, Indian Minister of State for External Affairs E. Ahamed said: "The Jamat-ud-Dawah and other such organisations need to be proscribed internationally and effective sanctions imposed against them."
Soon thereafter, the Pakistani Ambassador to the UN Abdullah Hussain Haroon told the Security Council that his country would take action against the Jamat-ud-Dawah, including freezing its assets if it was designated a terrorist organisation.
"The government of Pakistan has already initiated investigations on its own pertaining to the allegations of involvement of persons and entities in the Mumbai attacks," he said.
"After the designation by the Indian government of the Jamat-ud-Dawah under 1267, the (Pakistani) government upon receiving this instruction shall proscribe the JuD and take under consequential action as required including the freezing of assets," Haroon added.
Indo-Asian News Service
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