LOS ANGELES, Feb 25: Jennifer Lawrence won the Oscar for Best Actress on Sunday for her role as a young widow in “Silver Linings Playbook.”
Lawrence, who was in a tight race with actress Jessica Chastain for the Academy Award, plays an opinionated young widow in the quirky comedy about a bipolar man and his dysfunctional family.
It was the first Oscar for the 22-year-old yesterday, who was previously nominated for best actress in 2011 for her performance in “Winter’s Bone.”
(agencies)

LOS ANGELES, Feb 25: George the Giant, towering over onlookers gathered to see performers swallow steel, hammers a 6-1/2 inch nail up his nostril, rips a phone book in half with his bare hands and dangles a full bottle of Coke from his eyelids with fish hooks. The world’s tallest sword swallower, at 7 feet 3 inches, he was under strict doctor’s orders not to participate in the main event at the 6th Annual “World Sword Swallower’s Day” due to an unrelated injury, but remained intent on pleasing the crowd. (agencies)

WASHINGTON, Feb 25: A new bipartisan deficit-reduction plan to slash a massive $600 billion from US healthcare spending over two decades has policy experts scratching their heads over how such an ambitious target can be reached. Democrat Erskine Bowles and Republican Alan Simpson have yet to declare what they would do to wring savings from Medicare, Medicaid and other programs, according to analysts who provide the two deficit hawks with their facts and figures.
(agencies)

TOKYO/WASHINGTON, Feb 25: US-based Affymax Inc and Japan’s Takeda Pharmaceutical Co said they are voluntarily recalling all lots of anemia treatment Omontys (peginesatide) in the United States due to reports of serious hypersensitivity reactions, including some deaths. As yesterday, fatal reactions to the injection have been reported in about 0.02 percent of 25,000 patients after receiving their initial injection of the treatment, Affymax said in a statement. (agencies)

WASHINGTON, Feb 25: US health regulators approved a new drug made by Swiss drugmaker Roche Holding AG for some patients with late-stage metastatic breast cancer who fail to respond to other therapies. The US Food and Drug Administration said on Friday it had approved Kadcyla, also known as ado-trastuzumab emtansine, for patients whose cancer cells contain increased amounts of a protein known as HER2. (agencies)

LOS ANGELES, Feb 25: The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences handed out the Oscars at Hollywood’s Dolby Theatre on Feb. 24 for the best movies, performances, writing, directing and other achievements on film in 2012.
Following is a list of winners in leading categories.

– BEST PICTURE
“Argo”

– BEST ACTOR
Daniel Day-Lewis, “Lincoln”

– BEST ACTRESS
Jennifer Lawrence, “Silver Linings Playbook”

– BEST DIRECTOR
Ang Lee, “Life of Pi”

– BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Christoph Waltz, “Django Unchained”

– BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Anne Hathaway, “Les Miserables”

– BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Chris Terrio, “Argo”

– BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Quentin Tarantino, “Django Unchained”

– BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
“Amour” Austria

– BEST ANIMATED FEATURE FILM
“Brave”

– BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
“Searching for Sugar Man”

– BEST ORIGINAL SONG
“Skyfall” from “Skyfall”

– BEST SCORE
“Life of Pi”

– BEST COSTUMES
“Anna Karenina”

– BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
“Life of Pi”

– BEST MAKEUP AND HAIRSTYLING
“Les Miserables”

– BEST VISUAL EFFECTS
“Life of Pi”
(AGENCIES)

LOS ANGELES, Feb 25: Taiwanese-born Ang Lee won his second Oscar for Best Directing for “Life of Pi,” the adaption of Yann Martel’s fantasy adventure novel about an Indian boy who survives a shipwreck but is stranded in a lifeboat with a Bengal tiger.
“Life of Pi” was nominated for 11 Oscars – including Best Picture – and also won for Cinematography, Original Score and Visual Effects. Starring newcomer Suraj Sharma, the film was lauded by critics for Lee’s ability to bring the complex book to life.
“Thank you movie god,” Lee said yesterday to a big laugh from the audience.
“I really need to share this with all 3,000 – everybody who worked with me on ‘Life of Pi’,” he said.
Lee won in a year in which the director’s race was one of the most controversial for its exclusions, most notably Ben Affleck, the director of “Argo” who picked up the top award from his peers at the Directors Guild and a slew of other awards.
Lee, 58, won his first Academy Award in 2006 for directing “Brokeback Mountain,” the story of a complex love affair between two men.
He began directing Chinese-language films and has made 13 films in a diverse career. Those films have included the special effects-laden “Hulk” based on a Marvel comic Book and the adaption of Jane Austen’s classic, “Sense and Sensibility.”
His 2000 Chinese-language film “Crouching Dragon, Hidden Tiger,” won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film and was a surprise hit with worldwide ticket sales of $213.5 million.
Lee came to Hollywood’s attention after directing three Chinese-language films, including “The Wedding Banquet” in 1993, nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar.
Lee cast Sharma, then a 17-year old student, for the role of a young Pi Patel in 2010 after 3,000 young men auditioned for the lead role.
After his family goes down in the giant ship, Pi spends most of the film on the lifeboat in the middle of the Pacific, trying to avoid being consumed by the 450-pound (200-kg) tiger, a premise that Lee pulled off with heavy reliance on special effects and a digital tiger. The ocean scenes were filmed in a (6.4-million-liter) tank.
Movie reviewer critic Roger Ebert gave the film 4 out of 4 stars, calling it “a miraculous achievement of storytelling and a landmark of visual mastery.”
President Barack Obama also gave “Life of Pi” a thumbs up in an interview with People Magazine, saying the film “was good – because we had read that book together.” (AGENCIES)

MELBOURNE, Feb 25: A doctor mentored by Indian- origin surgeon Jayant Patel, who is facing trial for manslaughter, today told an Australian court that her former boss should not have removed part of the bowel of a patient who later died.
Patel, 62, the former director of surgery at Bundaberg Base Hospital, has pleaded not guilty to the manslaughter of 75-year-old Mervyn Morris, who died in June 2003, three weeks after the major surgery.
Emma Igras, Patel’s junior at the time, told his Supreme Court trial earlier this month that the surgery was not justified and should not have been done.
Lawyer of Patel, Paul Smith cross-examined Igras today and asked her if she had given that opinion at any of the previous times she had given evidence to a Commission of Inquiry or Patel’s first trial.
Igras said no.
She told the Judge George Fryberg that she had only formed the opinion “relatively recently”, after hearing there was to be a retrial but before she had been contacted about it.
Igras said she was more experienced as a surgeon now, so felt more comfortable giving an opinion.
She told the court she refused to give the defence her CV when they asked for it.
Smith said “I suggest to you that whilst you are a qualified surgeon, your experience in rural health is reasonably limited”.
Igras disagreed, saying she had done 18 months’ worth of rural placements as a surgeon at towns such as Bundaberg, Griffith, Broken Hill, Gladstone and Armidale.
She graduated as a doctor in 1999 and completed general surgical training after that.
Igras is currently training to be a specialist breast and endocrine surgeon. (PTI)

LOS ANGELES, Feb 25: Daniel Day-Lewis won a record third Best Actor Oscar for playing US President Abraham Lincoln in “Lincoln.”
Day-Lewis, 55, was the outright favorite to win the Academy Award for his quiet, intense performance as one of America’s most revered presidents as he battled to end slavery and the US Civil War.
The British-born actor with dual Anglo-Irish citizenship won virtually every award in the run-up to yesterday’s Oscar ceremony, including a Golden Globe, British BAFTA and Screen Actors Guild statuettes.
Known for months of meticulous preparation, Day-Lewis is already the holder of Best Actor Oscars for his roles as a paraplegic Irish writer in “My Left Foot” (1989) and a greedy early 20th century oil baron in “There Will Be Blood” (2007).
His win for “Lincoln” made him the first man to win three Best Actor Oscars in the 85-year history of the Academy Awards.
The tall, intellectual actor also became the first person to win an Oscar for playing a U.S. President.
Accepting the award, Day-Lewis thanked the film’s director, Steven Spielberg, and then paid tribute to the “mysteriously beautiful mind, body and spirit of Abraham Lincoln.”
It took director Steven Spielberg three attempts to persuade Day-Lewis to take on the role of Lincoln.
Once he made the commitment, he threw himself into the part with the same devotion that saw him spending weeks living in a wheelchair for “My Left Foot” and sharpening knives between takes to capture the menace of Bill “The Butcher” Cutting in “Gangs of New York.”
This time, Day-Lewis spent months researching Lincoln’s political and personal life, and 19th century language and customs. Months before shooting began, he was texting his screen wife, actress Sally Field, in 19th century vernacular.
Day-Lewis chose to adopt a high-pitched speaking voice for Lincoln, in contrast to the dramatic, booming tones associated with the Civil War president in previous movies and TV portraits.
But it was the humanity he brought to Lincoln that earned most critical praise and his success in bringing to life an American icon in a different, subtle way for a new generation.
(agencies)