Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs hits theaters July 1, 2009.
JK Rowling Confessed She Had “Suicidal Thoughts” March 23, 2008
J. K. Rowling, the British writer and author of the Harry Potter fantasy series which had an insane success worldwide, admitted she had “suicidal thoughts” during a period of her life when she was bankrupt and miserable as a single mother.
“We’re talking suicidal thoughts here, we’re not talking ‘I’m a little bit miserable’,” Rowling told an Edinburgh University student magazine.
Rowling, who is now the13th richest woman in Britain according to the 2007 Sunday Times Rich List, talked about her mid-20s, a very tough stage of her life as she described it. After failing in her first marriage, Rowling was living in a cramped apartment with her very young daughter.
She paid the rent only after a friend gave her the £600 ($1,189) that she needed according to a report in Britain’s Sunday Times newspaper.
Rowling confessed that the only thing that kept her going was the love for her daughter.
“Mid-twenties life circumstances were poor and I really plummeted. The thing that made me go for help … was probably my daughter.
“She was something that earthed me, grounded me, and I thought, this isn’t right, this can’t be right, she cannot grow up with me in this state,” said Rowling, whose fortune is now of about £545 million.
Rowling, 42, had discussed before about that dark period of her life, but never confessed she thought about killing her self. She said she tried counseling and found it “absolutely invaluable” at first because she had to see a replacement doctor due to the fact that her usual GP was on holiday.
However, after the holiday ended, her GP called her and helped her to “get out” of the depression. She went through cognitive behavioral therapy which means she attended sessions with a counselor which helped her counter negative thoughts.
Rowling, a woman who had “leanings towards depression”, urged anybody who has the same problem to seek professional help.
Rowling married Portuguese journalist Jorge Arantes and in 1993 they had Jessica. Unfortunately the two divorced several months after their daughter’s birth. The marriage failure drove her to despair, but after seeking counseling things got better.
During that period she wrote the first Harry Potter book which was published in 1996.
Rowling remarried to British anesthesiologist Neil Murray in 2002. They are now loving parents to two children.
“What’s to be ashamed of?” Rowling said. “I went through a really rough time and I am quite proud that I got out of that.”
Rowling has become a remarkable philanthropist lately and she supports charities such as Comic Relief, the Multiple Sclerosis Society of Great Britain and, one more linked to her life story, One Parent Families.
Corinne Bailey Rae’s Husband Found Dead March 23, 2008
The husband of singer Corinne Bailey Rae has been found dead in a London apartment.
SKY News reports the body of 31-year-old Jason Rae was found around 3:15 PM Saturday, a victim of an apparent drug overdose. Cops reportedly arrested a 32-year-old man for “supplying controlled substances.” He was then released on bail. No word on if his wife was at home.
Jason Rae was a saxophonist with the Haggis Horns.
The 29-year-old Bailey Rae is probably best known for her hit “Put Your Records On.”
China accuses Dalai Lama of taking Olympics “hostage” March 23, 2008
BEIJING, March 23 (Reuters) – China has accused the Dalai Lama of plotting “terror” in Tibet and colluding with Uighur separatists in Xinjiang as it escalates a security and propaganda drive to stifle anti-Chinese unrest ahead of the Olympics.
Anti-government protests by Buddhist monks erupted in Tibet’s capital, Lhasa, from March 10 and five days later anti-Chinese rioting shook the city, killing a policeman and 18 innocent civilians, burnt or hacked to death, authorities have said.
Protests then flared in nearby provinces with large ethnic Tibetan populations, leaving at least several more people dead.
In Sichuan, Gansu and other troubled provinces, troops continued conspicuously patrolling the streets of Tibetan towns, with schools and Buddhist monasteries under tight guard.
China said on Sunday 94 people have been injured in Tibetan areas in Gansu, almost all of whom are police, Xinhua reported.
Police had discovered a semi-automatic rifle and a cache of ammunition in Gansu’s Gannan region, in what Xinhua described as the hideout of a “mobster”, in a report that repeated government offers of leniency to those who surrender.
Tibet’s exiled Buddhist leader, the Dalai Lama, has criticised the violence and said he wants talks with China to negotiate autonomy, but not outright independence, for his homeland, which was occupied by Chinese troops from 1950.
But the government is intensifying propaganda telling its citizens and the rest of the world that the Dalai Lama, not failings in government policy, caused the trouble and that he wants to ruin Beijing’s Olympic Games in August.
“We must … win the final victory in all respects against the secessionist forces to help ensure a successful Olympic Games with a stable social situation in the Tibet Autonomous Region,” Xinhua quoted Tibet’s governor, Qiangba Puncog, as saying.
The ruling Chinese Communist Party’s official newspaper, the People’s Daily, said on Sunday that the Dalai, winner of the 1989 Nobel Peace Prize, had never abandoned violence after fleeing China in 1959, following a failed revolt against Beijing.
“The so-called ‘peaceful non-violence’ of the Dalai clique is an outright lie from start to end,” the paper stated.
“In 2008, the Beijing Olympic Games, eagerly awaited by the people of the whole world, will arrive. But the Dalai Lama is scheming to take the Beijing Olympics hostage to force the Chinese government to make concessions to Tibet independence.”
The paper earlier accused the Dalai Lama of planning attacks with the aid of violent Uighur separatist groups seeking an independent East Turkestan for their largely Muslim people in northwest China’s Xinjiang region.
FEROCIOUS CRITICISM
Up to now, most of the ferocious criticism of the Dalai Lama came from the official Tibet press, but many more are joining in.
“The Dalai clique has descended into becoming an outright terrorist organisation,” said a commentary on an official Shanghai news Web site (www.eastday.com).
Beijing’s efforts to isolate the Dalai Lama could become a sticking point with Taiwan’s President-elect Ma Ying-jeou, who said the exiled leader would be welcome on the disputed island, and an Olympic boycott was possible.
China calls Taiwan a breakaway province that must accept reunification.
“The Dalai Lama, if he wants to visit Taiwan, he’d be more than welcome,” Ma — who favours closer economic ties and political dialogue with China — told a news conference in Taipei on Sunday, a day after his landslide election win.
“If the situation in Tibet worsens, we would consider the possibility of not sending athletes to the Games,” said Ma.
China’s denunciations of the Dalai Lama have drawn applause from many Han Chinese citizens, who have said Western critics fail to appreciate their government’s efforts to develop Tibet and have treated the violence in Lhasa as legitimate protest.
But the campaign has begun to draw some domestic critics.
On Saturday, a group of 29 Chinese dissidents urged Beijing to end the bitter propaganda, allow United Nations investigators into Tibet, and open direct dialogue with the Dalai Lama.
While troops have choked off much travel in Tibetan areas and blocked access by foreign reporters, officials have also said they are guarding against unrest in Xinjiang.
Faisal Saleh may be nominated NA parliamentary leader March 23, 2008
ISLAMABAD: Makhdoom Faisal Saleh Hayat is likely to be made the parliamentary leader of the Pakistan Muslim League (Q) at the National Assembly.
According to sources, the leadership of the PML (Q) wants to keep the positions of the opposition leader and the parliamentary leader separately.
Makhdoom Faisal Saleh Hayat is being considered a strong candidate for the position of the parliamentary leader.
However, the nomination of the parliamentary leader of the party will be announced after the announcement of the nomination of Chaudhry Pervez Elahi as the opposition leader.
On the other hand, Faisal Saleh Hayat told Geo News that he has no information of his nomination as the party’s parliamentary leader.
