Jennifer Hudson From Size 16 to 6 - Sexier Than Ever!

From a size 16 to a size 6 using Weight Watchers' point system, Jennifer Hudson is showing everyone a slimmer, sleeker body. And she's not finish yet!

According to CNN.com, less than a year after having her son last August, Hudson was able to drop 10 dress sizes in nine months. Wow. that's amazing work. Through Weight Watchers' point system, Hudson learned portion control and through her trainer Harley pasternak, the actress learned workout routines that were suited for her weight loss program.

I think she looks wonderful and the amount of weight she loss very reasonable. This new look is for an upcoming film where she will play ' Winnie Mandela'. The film is set to shoot in South Africa. Hudson says, "Whatever it takes to morph into a character I'll do it,". And she is showing us that she can. After all the tragedies she's overcome, I think it shows that she is strong enough to overcome anything else thrown her way.

Source: Gather.com

The ‘Sex and the City’ ladies are back

The ‘Sex and the City’ ladies are back, in Abu Dhabi, no less, and with a $10 million wardrobe budget

NEW YORK — Samantha is fighting an escalating war with menopause. Carrie and Miranda have lines around their eyes and mouths that weren’t there before. And Charlotte looks as though she might occasionally nip at some of those delectable cupcakes she bakes with her kids.

It’s true. Even the “Sex and the City’’ girls are not immune to aging. In their new movie, “Sex and the City 2,’’ which opens nationwide on Thursday, all are in the throes of a midlife crisis. But these ladies don’t sulk. Instead they ramp up their wardrobes, step up their antics and outrage, outrage against the dying light.

Their instincts are sound, according to experts. Jacqueline Olds, a professor of psychiatry at Massachusetts General and McLean hospitals, said while most of us can’t relate to the splashy clothes and endless glitz, the ladies’ intimacy and support for one another resounds with most women.

“It’s been a trend for a long time that women turn to each other,’’ said Olds, who co-wrote “The Lonely American.’’ “Friendships help restore your sense of proportion when you’re losing it, which happens as we get older.’’

So it’s no wonder all four “Sex and the City’’ girls thought taking solace in one another during a trip to Abu Dhabi, paid for by Samantha’s potential public relations client, was good for what ailed them. Once they arrive, there seems to be a limitless supply of luxury, fun, and excuses to change clothes — which have always been a few of their favorite things.

While filming the Abu Dhabi part of the movie, which was actually shot in Morocco, the actresses said they grew closer. “I came away loving them more than I ever have because I got to see them in a new way,’’ Sarah Jessica Parker said of her costars at a press conference for the film last Sunday. It was held in the shoe department at Bergdorf Goodman. The movie’s first scene takes place in the department store.

“I was so reliant on them and I was so challenged by the work that they were doing, how good they were and what thoroughbreds they were,’’ she said. “And nothing could get us down — no matter how hungry we were, no matter how much we had to go to the bathroom.’’

The film, based on the series, which ran from 1998 to 2004, is a sequel to the blockbuster 2008 movie. This one is meant to be a kiss to women everywhere, said writer and director Michael Patrick King.

Thanks to a $10 million wardrobe budget, the clothes in this film are even more gorgeous and eye-popping than they were in the first. Parker’s character goes through 41 outfits. So as Carrie, Samantha, Miranda, and Charlotte strut around in their Christian Louboutin and Manolo Blahnik shoes, draped in Dior, Alexander McQueen, and Pucci, each displaying an individual sense of style, you don’t get the sense that these women are planning to settle into quiet routines any time soon.

Inter Milan Wins Champions League Title

MADRID — As the stadium loudspeakers announced the lineup for the Champions League final between Inter Milan and Bayern Munich, the name of José Mourinho, Inter’s Portuguese coach, drew a thunderous shout of approval from the section of fans in Inter’s black and blue.


For those fans, Saturday night was probably their last chance to celebrate the man they call Mou, who crowned another remarkable coaching season by leading Inter to a 2-0 victory at Real Madrid’s Santiago Bernabéu stadium.

It was Inter’s first triumph in Europe’s most prestigious club soccer competition since winning consecutive titles in 1964 and 1965, and it came in the kind of match that will almost certainly convince big-spending Real Madrid that Mourinho can help secure championships after this year’s trophyless season.

Even before Inter’s victory, Real Madrid was rumored to want Mourinho on its bench.

Mourinho, who also won the Champions League with Porto in 2004, seemed to agree that Madrid would probably be his next home.

“If you don’t coach Real Madrid then you always have a gap in your career,” he said.

By the final whistle, Mourinho’s tactical choices had certainly paid off.

Despite a big advantage in ball possession, Bayern never managed to pierce Inter’s defensive wall, marshaled by its two South American central defenders, the Brazilian Lúcio and the Argentine Walter Samuel. As Bayern tried to push forward, it left itself exposed to lethal counter-attacks, spearheaded by Inter’s Argentine forward Diego Milito, who scored both goals.

In the late 1990s, Mourinho was an assistant to Bayern Manager Louis Van Gaal at Barcelona. On Saturday, Van Gaal acknowledged the superiority of Mourinho’s more defensive approach.

“I’m very happy for Mourinho that he won with this style of play,” he said. “Attacking is much more difficult than defending — and so many German teams that we face also opt for defending. But Inter does it a bit better.”

Mourinho dismissed as “provocation” the suggestions that Inter managed to win only by playing defensively.

“We have demonstrated our identity throughout this Champions League,” he said. “We deserved this title.”

Milito’s performance was the climax of a season in which he justified his signing last summer from the smaller club Genoa. In recent weeks, Milito scored the decisive goals in Inter’s Italian Cup triumph over Roma and in the final match of the Serie A season, a victory that clinched the league title for Inter.

In the 35th minute Saturday, Inter goalkeeper Júlio César sent a powerful kick upfield, which Milito headed to Wesley Sneijder. Sneijder, Inter’s Dutch playmaker, quickly returned the pass, and Milito sent a perfectly timed chip over Bayern goalkeeper Hans Jörg Butt. On the second goal, in the 70th minute, Milito collected the ball far from the Bayern goal and charged forward with no obvious support in sight. Choosing once more a direct path to goal, he ran at the last defender, Belgium’s Daniel Van Buyten, bamboozled him with a beautiful dribble and put the ball in the net.

Bayern had its chances but rarely looked likely to translate its ball possession into goals. A perfect illustration of its sterile domination came in the final minute of the first half, when Bayern kept the ball close to the edge of the Inter penalty area without finding a way to penetrate the Italian fortress. By the final whistle, Bayern had managed 21 shots to Inter’s 12. But only six were on target, compared with seven for Inter.

Without the suspended French wing Franck Ribéry, Bayern lacked creativity and pace. Ribéry’s absence on the left also resulted in an imbalance in Bayern’s attack, helping Inter to focus on controlling Arjen Robben on the right.

For all his powerful running, Robben, who was returning to the Bernabéu after playing there for Real Madrid, rarely managed to worry Júlio César. Mourinho appeared to have given his defenders instructions to keep Robben at bay, and even physically to intimidate him. After only three minutes, Robben was rolling around on the grass after being brought down by the much larger Samuel.

The match, the first Champions League final played on a weekend and the first to be broadcast on an over-the-air network in the United States, never turned into the dirty and stale game some had predicted. The opening minutes of the second half provided end-to-end soccer, forcing great saves from Júlio César and Butt, who palmed away a shot by Goran Pandev.
Source: NY Times

American Teen Becomes Youngest to Climb Mount Everest

A 13-year-old American boy has become the youngest person ever to climb Mount Everest, the world's highest peak. 

Jordan Romero of California reached the Himalayan summit, 8,850 meters above sea level, on Saturday, surpassing the previous record holder, 16-year-old Temba Tsheri of Nepal.

Nepal does not allow anyone under the age of 16 to climb Mount Everest due to the danger involved, so Romero and his team, which included his dad and stepmother, entered from the Chinese side.
The website documenting Romero's journey said he was "unbelievably happy" when he called from the summit via satellite phone.  He now needs only to scale Vinson Massif, in Antarctica to complete his quest to climb the highest peaks on all seven continents.

Romero reached the Everest summit with a group of mountaineers, including a Nepalese Sherpa named Apa who broke his own world record by climbing Everest for a 20th time.
Apa was joined by other mountaineers to collect garbage left behind by other climbers and bring awareness to the issue of global climate change.
Source: VOA News

Mangalore plane crash survivor relives harrowing experience

Mangalore, May 22 (ANI): A survivor of the Air India Express passenger flight that crashed in Mangalore on Saturday recalled the horror of the moment when the plane overshot the runway and broke into pieces.

Pradeep, a technician working in Dubai, said he couldn't believe that he was still alive.

"At the time of landing, as it touched down, there was a tyre burst and the flight went out of control. Within five seconds of the blast there was fire and smoke all over; I could not even breathe. At that time, I saw a broken window through which I jumped to save myself, hurting my legs and hands," Pradeep said while recounting his narrow and harrowing escape.

All the passengers were Indian nationals, an Air India official in Dubai said. Many were likely Indian migrant workers in Dubai. The pilot was Serbian and said to be very experienced.

Air India Express is the budget arm of the loss making state-run carrier Air India, which has been fending off growing competition from private airlines.

The survivors were being treated in a local hospital for various degrees of burns and injuries.

It was India's first major crash in more than a decade, which has seen a boom in private carriers amid growing demand from India's middle class.

A series of near misses at major airports, including Delhi and Mumbai, have sparked debate about how India's creaking infrastructure was failing to keep pace with an economic boom.

The last major crash in India was in July 2000, when an Alliance Air Boeing 737-200 crashed into a residential area during a second landing attempt in Patna, killing at least 50 people.
Source:  ANI