Priyanka Chopra will be joining the ‘Miss World’

Priyanka Chopra will be joining the ‘Miss World’ pageant nine years after winning the title – this time not as a participant. The actress is flying to Johannesburg to judge the final round of this year’s Miss World contest to be held in the glittery evening of December 13th, 2009. Visibly elated to be at the contest again, Priyanka said, “When Julia Morley, who is in charge of the beauty pageant, invited me to be a judge, I was ecstatic. There I was a teenager all those years ago, nervous as hell on the same platform. Now I’m going in a totally different capacity.”
Her professional life also saw a high mark this year with considerable appreciation for her role as the leading actress of Bollywood film ‘Kaminey’. Talking to a news daily, she said, “This was a good year and hopefully 2010 will be as good, if not better.” For now, the busy actor has managed her schedules to be at the leading beauty contest, which is going to be a two-hour event at Gallagher Convention Centre. The current Miss World, Russia`s Ksenia Sukhinova, will crown one of the 112 hopefuls, which include Pooja Chopra, the winner of Femina Miss India World 2009.

Obama receives Nobel Peace Prize

US President Barack Obama on Thursday said the nonviolence practiced by such leaders as Mahatma Gandhi and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. should be a guiding force. He was making a speech after he accpted the Nobel Peace Prize in a glittering ceremony here this evening.Obama with a touch of humility said, “I receive this honour with a deep breath as there are many others more deserving of the same." In the beginning of the speech, the US President defended the anti-war strategy of the US which is being supported by other nations including Norway.

Andhra bifurcation: 60 MLAs, 1 MP resign; Cong on back foot

The Centre's decision to carve out a separate Telangana state today provoked a political backlash cutting across party lines from the rest of Andhra Pradesh with 93 MLAs quitting the Assembly.
Three MPs--two from Congress and one belonging to TDP-- also threatened to resign from Parliament protesting against the decision to confer statehood on Telangana region in the wake of TRS leader K Chandrasekhar Rao's 'fast unto death' protest, which he has called off now.
Hyderabad, the capital of Andhra Pradesh, emerged as a bone of contention between the two sides with Telangana leaders insisting that it should remain with their region while those from coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema opposed it being ceded to the new state.
The Congress High Command, which apparently did not expect such a strong reaction from the other regions, got into a damage-control mode with party President Sonia Gandhi meeting MPs from Andhra Pradesh