International Awards 2007
Alternative Nobel Prize:
"Legal scholar Christopher Weeramantry from Sri Lanka, Dekha Ibrahim of Kenya, Percy and Louise Schmeises of Saskatchewan, Canada and Bangladesh's Grameen Shakti Organisation were chosen for the 2007 Right Livelihood Awards, often called the Alternative Nobel Prize in Stockholm, Sweden, on October 2, 2007. The awards were given in recognition to their practical solutions to global problems.
Annual Academy Awards 2007: At the 79th Annual Academy Awards (popularly known as the Oscars) ceremony held in Los Angeles (USA) on February 25, 2007, The Departed won the award for Best Motion Picture. Following is the list of major winners:
Best Motion Picture of the Year : The Departed
Best Director : Martin Scorsese (The Departed)
Best Actor in a Leading Role : Forest Whitaker {The Last King Of Scotland)
Best Actress in a Leading Role : Helen Mirren (The Queen)
Best Actor in a Supporting Role : Alan Arkin (Little Miss Sunshine)
Best Actress in a Supporting Role : Jennifer Hudson (Dreamgirls)
Best Animated Feature Film of the Year : Happy Feet
Best Foreign Language Film : The hives Of Others (Germany)
Annual Pulitzer Prizes: The 91st annual Pulitzer Prizes in Journalism were announced in New York on April 16, 2007. Following are the prominent winners:
Public Service : The Wall Street Journal
Investigative Reporting : The Wall Street Journal
Breaking News : Oregonian
Investigative Journalism : Brett Blackledge, Birmingham News
Explanatory Journalism : Kenneth R. Weiss, Usha Lee McFarling and Rick Loomis, Los Angeles Times
Local Reporting: Debbie Cenziper, Miami Herald
National Reporting : Charlie Savage, Boston Globe
International Reporting : The Wall Street Journal
Chinua Achebe awarded 2007 Man Booker International Prize: Famous Nigerian novelist Mr. Chinua Achebe was awarded the '2007 Man Booker International Prize' for fiction in London on June 13, 2007.
Grammy Awards: The Dixie Chicks, Emily Robinson, Natalie Maines and Martie Maguire, bagged all five awards that they were nominated for at the 49th Annual Grammy Awards in Los Angeles (USA) on February 11,2007. The Texas trio won Record and Song of the Year for the no-regrets anthem "Not Ready To Make Nice." They also won Best Country Album. It was a bold and challenging comeback for the Dixie Chicks, who were shunned by the American country music establishment for criticising US President Mr. George W. Bush on the eve of the Iraq war in 2003.
Mary J. Blige walked away with three trophies for her double-platinum album "The Breakthrough". Country singer and former American Idol' winner Carrie Underwood won the Best New Artist award.
International Gandhi Award: The Gandhi Memorial Leprosy Foundation of Maharashtra has awarded its 10th International Gandhi Award to Mr. Yohei Sasakawa, Chairman of the Nippon Foundation and the World Health Organization's Goodwill Ambassador for the Elimination of Leprosy on April 12, 2007 in Mumbai. At the award ceremony, Vice-President Mr. Bhairon Singh Shekhawat handed a certificate to Mr. Sasakawa.
Jawaharlal Nehru Award for International Understanding 2006: Brazilian President Mr. Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva received the Jawaharlal Nehru Award for International Understanding 2006 in New Delhi on June 4, 2007.
Man Booker Prize 2007: Irish author Ms. Anne Enright won the 2007 Man Booker Prize for her novel, 'The Gathering' on October 16,2007. She won £50,000 as the prize money.
Miss Earth 2007: Ms. Jessica Nicole Trisko from Canada was crowned as Miss Earth 2007 during the Ms. Earth coronation held at the Philippines University Theatre in Quezon City, Manila, Philippines, on November 11, 2007. The runner-up tides were won by Ms. Silvana Santaella Arellano from Venezuela who was crowned as Miss Earth-Water; Ms. Pooja Chitgopekar from India crowned as Miss Earth-Air; and Ms. Angela Gomez from Spain crowned as Miss Earth-Fire.
Miss International 2007: The 47th Miss International pageant, Miss International 2007 took place in Tokyo (Japan) from October 2 to October 15, 2007. Sixty-one beauties from all over the world competed to win the title. Miss Mexico International, Ms. Priscila Perales won the title with Ms. Despoina ! Vlepaki (Greece) and Ms. Yulia Sindzeyeva (Belarus) being crowned first and second runners-up, respectively.
Nobel Prize 2007: The list of Nobel Prize winners for 2007 was announced by Royal Swedish Academy in October 2007. The distinguished awardees associated with different fields included:
Literature: British writer Ms. Doris Lessing won the 2007 Nobel Literature Prize for her remarkable works that have covered feminism, politics and her youth in Africa. Ms. Lessing was the 11th woman to have won the prize since 1901.
Peace: The 2007 Nobel Peace Prize was shared by the former US Vice-President, Mr. Al Gore, and the United Nations' top climate panel, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The award was given for their efforts to build up and disseminate knowledge about global warming and its effects.
Economics: Three Americans, Mr. Leonid Hurwicz, Mr. Eric S. Maskin and Mr. Roger B. Myerson won the 2007 Nobel Economics Prize for developing a theory that helps explain situation in which markets work, situation in which they don't work and how incentives and private information aftect the functioning of markets.
Medicine: Prof. Mario Capecchi and Prof. Martin Evans of USA with UK's Prof. Oliver Smithies won the 2007 Nobel Prize in Medicine for their creation of "designer mice" to track the roles of different genes in human development and disease.
Physics: France's Prof. Albert Pert and Germany's Prof. Peter Gruenberg won the 2007 Nobel Prize in Physics for a discovery that has shrunk the size of hard disks found in computers, iPods and other devices.
Chemistry: Prof. Gerhard Ertl of Germany won the 2007 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his studies of chemical reactions on solid surfaces, which are the key to understanding questions related to the thinning of Ozone layer.
Ramon Magsaysay Award 2007: Noted media person, Mr. Palagummi Sainath of India has been honoured with the prestigious Ramon Magsaysay Award for 2007 in recognition of his outstanding contribution to the fields of journalism, literature and the art of creative communication. The other prominent awardees are as follows :
Jovito R. Salonga (The Philippines): Government Service
Rev. Kim Sun-Tae (Korea) : Public Service
Mahabir Pun (Nepal) : Community Leadership
Tang Xiyang (China) : Peace & International Understanding
Chung To (China) : Emergent Leadership
Chen Guangcheng (China): Emergent Leadership