Digital Journal

Women who win the Best Actress Oscar are at a higher risk of divorce than nominees who do not win. On the other hand, Best Actor winners do not experience an increase in the risk of divorce after an Oscar, a new study insists. Tiziana Casciaro, an assistant professor of organisational behaviour at the Rotman School of Management, studied the marital graphs of 751 nominees in the best actor and actress categories of the Academy Awards between1936 to 2010. The results, which have been published...

A four-member UNESCO-IUCN monitoring team is visiting Manas National Park in Assam for an on-the-spot assessment if the "danger" tag attached to the World Heritage Site should be removed. The outcome of the five-day visit will play an important role at the 35th World Heritage Committee meeting in Bahrain during June when the issue will be discussed. The last time that a UNESCO team visited Manas was in 2008. Manas National Park is India’s only World Heritage Site on the Danger List. It was...

Over 296,800 people died in 373 natural disasters in 2010, Around 208 million others were affected by this disasters, which cost nearly US$110 billion. The figures have just been released by the Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters (CRED). The January 12 earthquake in Haiti was the deadliest disaster of the year, kiling over 222,500 people. The quake had measured 7.0 on the Richter scale, and was followed by over 50 aftershocks over the next two weeks. The second most fatal...

The international community is woefully lacking in courage and hiding behind "soft diplomacy" in confronting human rights abusers the globe over, a leading rights group has said in a 649-page world report released Monday. Human Rights Watch, in its World Report 2011, flayed world leaders and global institutions for "simply feigning serious participation" and "ongoing concern" for human rights, claiming that these "expected champions" use rhetoric as substitutes for concerted action. "The quest...

The three-day Flashpoint Human Rights Film Festival, which brings together eight extraordinary films from around the world that deal with human rights issues, gets under way in New Delhi on Thursday. The films urge people to reflect, react, revolutionalise and act as a ‘flashpoint’ to usher in change. The festival has already been held in Mumbai from December 8-10, 2010. The New Delhi edition would include special focused thematic screenings and panel discussions. The eight documentaries to be...

Tunisia's Jasmine Revolution is the first of its kind: the toppling of an autocrat in the Arab world who was till the end backed by Western powers. What now remains to be seen is if unrest in this Maghreb country will spread across the Middle East. Early signs, if there can be any, are already there. As in Tunisia, Algeria too has been ravaged by riots in protest against food prices. Shortly after Tunisian President Zine Al-Abidine Ben Ali fled his country, the Algerian government of Abdelaziz...

The Brazilian floods that has claimed over 600 lives is deadliest natural disaster to have hit the country. This comes barely months after an unprecedented drought afflicted the Amazon region when water levels in the river's tributaries fell drastically. Torrential rains inundated a heavily populated, steep-sloped area about 40 miles north of Rio de Janeiro on Tuesday and Wednesday, triggering flash floods and mudslides. The disaster had claimed 610 lives at the last count. About 12 inches...

A year after the earthquake that killed over 230,000 people, women and girls living in Haiti’s makeshift camps are facing an increasing risk of rape and sexual violence. The January 2010 devastating earthquake was the beginning of a nightmare. For Guerline, her travails only began with the death of her husband and home in the quake. In March 2010, her 13-year-old daughter was raped by four men. She was threatened with dire consequences if she spilled the beans to the police. Scared even to take...

Six missing pieces from the colossal double statue of the 18th Dynasty King Amenhotep III and his wife Queen Tiye have been discovered at the king’s mortuary temple on Luxor’s west bank. The fragments were recently discovered during excavation work by a team of Egyptian archaeologists working under the direction of Dr Zahi Hawass, Secretary-General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA). According to an announcement made by Dr Hawass on his blog, the pieces from Amenhotep III's statue that...

Archaeologists never make predictions. But the world's best known Egyptologist says the tomb of King Tutankhamun’s wife, the Great Pyramid’s secret doors, and the final resting place of Cleopatra and Mark Anthony may well be discovered in 2011. Dr Zahi Hawass, Secretary-General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) has told Discovery News that these potential discoveries could well be on the cards this year As of now, the emphasis of Dr Hawass and his team is on the Valley of Kings. In all...