Bangladesh-born girl becomes Miss Mississipi

Paromita Mitra, 17, a Bangladeshi immigrant in the United States, has won the crown for the Miss Mississippi Teen USA 2009 competition, according to a message received here on Tuesday.

The victory in the last week’s competition, sponsored by The Miss Universe Organization and NBC Universe, will now bring Paromita to the Miss Teen USA Pageant competition in 2009, to get a chance to embark on a year of traveling around the world, working with incredible non-profit organizations and attending red carpet events.

As a winner, Paromita received some scholarship money, travel allowances, New York Film Academy Awards, several custom designed cosmetics and jewelries, and speech and communication training for Miss Teen USA, among many.

Paromita’s onstage question was: What magazine cover she would like to appear on and what her headline would be.

“Time Magazine,” she said and preferred the headline to be “The headline would be: A new generation for women”. “Because I believe that I could be a diverse addition to the Teen USA programme,” she said at the competition stage.

Daughter of Dr Amal and Ratna Mitra, Paramita is a senior at Oak Grove High School in Hattiesburg, Mississippi while she is the Senior Class President, a cheerleader, a pianist, and a member of her school debate club and the robotics team and in the future she wants to be an aeronautical engineer and work for NASA.

With her areas of interests being astronomy, physics, and math, Paromita likes Bengali music and dance while in one of her last pageant competitions, she performed a Bengali folk dance.

She plans to visit Bangladesh in summer 2009. She wants to help the underprivileged children here.

Source: BSS

Star goats strut in Saudi beauty contest

Photo: People take photographs of a Maaz Al Shami (Damascene goat), which won the ‘Most Beautiful Goat’ title, during the Mazayen al-Maaz competition in Riyadh —Reuters

Estimated to be back online by: Nov 1, 2008 4:00 AM PT

Saudi Arabia has held its first ‘beautiful goat’ pageant following a series of lucrative camel competitions that have taken off in recent years. Owners of pedigree ‘Najdi’ goats from around the Gulf region converged on Riyadh this week, hoping to win the prize for top male and female goat.

‘The Najdi goat is a pure national product like nothing else in the world,’ said Sheikh Faisal al-Saadoun, a leading Saudi breeder who organised the show. ‘They are different in terms of beauty, shape and how eye-catching they are.’

The goats are named after the central Najd region of Saudi Arabia, where the goats have a distinctive high nose bridge and shaggy hair with a fine, silky quality. They were given a thorough shampoo for the show, according to the official website (wwwl.al-nawader.com) which displayed the winners.
Most of the goats in the competition were bred from one star goat, Burgan (Volcano), from Saadoun’s stable and have been exported around the Gulf in trade worth millions of riyals.

Burgan was not on display at the show as the owners fear he could be afflicted by the ‘evil eye’. But that did not stop offers from the Qatari royal family to buy him, the compere told the gathering.
Saadoun sold dozens of goats from his stable for at least 100,000 riyals ($26,000) each at the show, adding to some 8 million riyals he has made over the years breeding from Burgan.

‘This male goat is different. He is historic and he has contributed to developing the Najdi goat,’ he told Reuters, as poets recited odes in praise of the goats over loud speakers.
The winner in the male category was a son of Burgan with a value of 450,000 riyals.
The gathering at a ranch outside Riyadh gave breeders a chance to trade but Abu Ahmed, a breeder from the United Arab Emirates, was disappointed that Saadoun did not take his offer of 350,000 riyals for a one son of Burgan.

‘I wanted to develop the breed from the point it has got to,’ he said.
However, camels remain the pride of the Bedouins. Delicate females or strapping males can sell for more than a million riyals and camel-racing is a popular throughout the Gulf.

Source: Internet

Drama: Rtv airs Dahan tonight

FM News: New Bengali radio goes on air today

A new Bengali radio named ‘Do Bangla Radio’ will start its journey in London from November 2. It will air Bengali programmes on FM 101.4 megahertz every Sunday from 3:00pm to 4:00pm (GMT). Anybody can log on www.dobangla.co.uk or www.paltalk.com of dobangla radio to listen live programme.

The opening programme of the radio channel to be aired at 3:00pm from dobangla On FM Studio Hammersmith in London today. Alama Siddiqui, Deputy High Commissioner of Bangladesh in UK will be present as chief guest at the inauguration of radio. Nicola McHugh, Station Director of On FM, Muhammad Abdus Salik, Mayor of Tower Hamlet, Reza Ahmed Faisal Chowdhury Shoeb, Chief Executive Director of Channel i UK, among others, will be present as guests on the occasion.

From Do Bangla Radio, various Bengali songs, community news and other news will be aired. Line-up of the radio team – Ahsanul Haque Bulu, Chairman, Shahidur Rahman Tareque, Director, Munzur Rahman, Sound Engineer, Kazi Kaisar Mahmud (Mishu), Producer and Shafiqul Haque Matin, Programme Coordinator.

Source: The New Nation