The distinctions of Miyuki Hatoyama, 66, do not end there. As well as being a musical actress, cookery writer, clothes maker and television personality, she also says that she knew the actor Tom Cruise in a past life when he was incarnated as a Japanese.

To his credit, Mr Hatoyama, who will formally become Prime Minister in a fortnight after a landslide election victory last Sunday, does not appear in the least embarrassed by his wife’s eccentricities, and nor do his fellow citizens. She falls into the category of public figure known as “tarento”, or “talent” — televisual artists or entertainers who are expected and encouraged to be more flamboyant and unpredictable than the rest of us.

Mrs Hatoyama began her career in a Japanese institution — the Takarazuka Revue, a troupe of female singers and dancers who perform romantic musicals to packed audiences of middle-aged Japanese women. She was living in California, as the wife of a Japanese restaurateur, when she met the young Mr Hatoyama, who was studying engineering at Stanford University. Their marriage in the US, after her divorce, was mildly scandalous for the scion of a political family such as Mr Hatoyama. “Most men choose a partner from among single women,” as he said proudly. “But I chose from among all womankind.”

Since then she has established herself as a lifestyle consultant, or “life composer”, and the author of several books, including Miyuki Hatoyama’s Spiritual Food and Miyuki Hatoyama’s Have a Nice Time. It was in a book of interviews with prominent people, entitled Most Bizarre Things I’ve Encountered, that she revealed her extraterrestrial jaunt, which occurred during her first marriage. “While my body was sleeping, I think my spirit flew on a triangular-shaped UFO to Venus,” she said. “It was an extremely beautiful place and was very green.”

Since it became likely, earlier this year, that Mr Hatoyama and his Democratic Party of Japan were likely to form the next government, she has been extensively interviewed on the daytime “wide shows” aimed at Japanese housewives. It was during one of these that she spoke of her past-life friendship with Cruise and her ambition to make a film with him.

“He was Japanese in his past life, and we were together so when I see him, I will say, ‘Hi. It’s been a long time’, and he will immediately understand,” she said. “I will win the Oscar for sure. About seven years ago my husband Yukio said to me, ‘Yeah, yeah, that’s a nice dream . . .’ but these days, he encourages me and he sits at his computer translating the script into English even though he is tired after work.”

She also described how she “eats the sun” every morning. She closed her eyes and mimed the act of removing pieces from the sky. “Yum, yum, yum,” she said, placing the imaginary solar morsels in her mouth. “I get energy from it. My husband also does this.”

He says his platform is “bringing transparency to a whole new level.” Robert Burck, 38, is best known for standing in tighty-whiteys in Times Square, playing his guitar.

Burck says he has plenty of ideas on tax breaks, tourism, gay marriage, homeland security, and public transportation.

The Naked Cowboy says he will announce his campaign on Wednesday in Times Square.
The aspiring candidate’s chief rival is incumbent Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who is seeking a third term.

Schwarzenegger spoke Tuesday in Davis during an event to promote wildfire safety. He warns against making potentially harmful decisions just to raise money and says some countries that have decriminalized pot have had negative experiences.

Democratic state Assemblyman Tom Ammiano says legalizing marijuana for adults over age 21 and taxing it at $50 per ounce would bring the state more than $1 billion a year. He has a bill in the Legislature but has delayed seeking approval until next year.

California became the first state to legalize the medical use of marijuana in 1996. A dozen other states now have similar laws.

The latest crackdown on the niqab follows a prohibition against nurses wearing the full face veil in hospitals.

In the first in a series of seminars aimed at eradicating the niqab from public posts held under the auspices of the Ministry of religious endowments Dr. Salem Abdel-Gelil, Deputy Minister of Religious Endowments for Preaching, explained to the ministry’s face-veiled female employees that niqab is not an obligation in Islam and that the headscarf is enough.

“[N]iqab is a custom that has no basis in religion whether directly or indirectly,” he told AlArabiya.net. “[A]ccording to the four schools of thought in Islam the face is not awra [a body part that has to be covered].”

Abdel-Gelil stressed that the Islamic dress code required covering the entire body with the exception of the face, feet, and hands and that it cannot be tight or transparent.

“Women performing hajj (pilgrimage) show their faces, and this is the ultimate proof that niqab is not a must.”

There are two contradictory references attributed to one of the major Sunni imams Ahmed ibn Hanbal, founder of the Hanbali Sunni school of thought. One of them makes the face veil a requirement while the other says it is not an obligation.

“However, there was a consensus amongst Islamic jurists that covering the face is not required,” said Abdel-Gelil, explaining that in Islam, jurists resolve contention through consensus.

The 2003 low budget film called Kyon Kis Liye (Why? and for Whom?) features Ruby Dhalla, and used numerous locations around the city for film shoots. It’s loosely based on the Sukhinder Dhillon murder case in Hamilton, in which a husband tries to collect insurance money after poisoning his wife.

The film had showings in Toronto and Hamilton before ending up in movie theatres in India.

The evidence pics are beyond the break….

But more recently, distributors began the process of releasing the film on DVD, something that Dhalla has been trying to stop.

Dhalla contends the movie’s publicity posters and photos have been “doctored” by putting her face on someone else’s body.

But the film’s producer Charanjit “Chico” Sihra, who also owns Hillyard Body Shop in Hamilton, denies this.

“That is her. That is her body. That is her face,” he says.

Dhalla, 35, who represents the riding of Brampton-Springdale, could not be reached for comment today, but in a statement from her office she said: “The producers have super-imposed and doctored images of myself for their personal opportunistic gain. Despite notices from lawyers to immediately cease and desist, the producers continue to use my name, image and involvement without my consent.

“I have worked extremely hard to get to where I am and will not be exploited by individuals. I have taken and will continue to take all necessary legal action to stop this opportunism, defamation, slander and exploitation by the producers.”

But Sihra contends: “She doesn’t want the movie to be released. The pictures are from the movie.”

He says he feels there is nothing to be ashamed about in the film. There is no nudity and even though the subject matter involves a murder, he says, the content has been rated as being suitable for children.

“We want to see this movie go to homes. This film took a lot of work. She is the one causing nonsense because she is holding a politician’s job. Indian people feel if someone works in a movie they should not be a politician.

“But we feel that she did good work on the film and should be proud to show the people.”

We hesitate to bring you this story because, when Chuck Norris is the president of our newly seceded state-turned-country, he might find out about it. Would you want to be on Chuck Norris’ bad side? But I continue because that’s just how dedicated to advancing the banner of truth in journalism and defying danger to bring information to you lovely people that I am (adding this to my resume).

Ahem.

Chuck Norris is running for president. So soon, you say? Didn’t we just have an election? What month is it? Well, that’s just the thing, there aren’t any official dates for the election of the president of Texas.

The idea came to him when he joked he should run in a discussion about his frustrations with the national government on Fox News’ “The Glenn Beck Show” recently. The concept apparently stuck, and he then used this quip as a headline on a piece he published Monday, the day before his 69th birthday, for World Net Daily, balancing somewhere between byline and battle cry.

The piece (which also popped up on Wonkette) uses a great deal of historical examples and contains an outline of a case for why it would be ok to express disagreement with certain policies through force and violence. Quotes from Founding Fathers highlight how far he believes our current government has strayed from their true intentions. His sincere desire for advancing conservative values and not bankrupting the country are evident, though he offers a rather extreme solution.

Though you might have thought the Republic of Texas murmurings were constrained to a few lone biker clubs or trailer-sized headquarters somewhere, Norris says the undercurrent of separatist fervor runs thicker than anyone knew,:

“Anyone who has been around Texas for any length of time knows exactly what we’d do if the going got rough in America. Let there be no doubt about that. As Sam Houston once said, ‘Texas has yet to learn submission to any oppression, come from what source it may.’”

To take this notion even further into the physical plane of reality, Norris and Beck are urging others to unite with them as well as “thousands of cell groups around the country” on March 13 at 5 p.m. ET, 4 p.m. CT and 2 p.m. PST, in “solidarity over the concerns for our nation.” They will host a live telecast, “We Surround Them,” and Beck’s Web site encourages anyone who agrees with 7 out of 9 listed principles to send in their photos, although what exactly they will do with them or what the content of the program will be was not made clear.

* Must be a native-born US citizen
* Must be at least 35 at the time of the election
* Must have lived in the US for 14 years

For weeks, the McCain-Palin campaign has dealt with the fallout from the disclosure that the Republican National Committee was billed for $150,000 in wardrobe purchases for the Palin family — a discovery that was widely ridiculed and undercut Palin’s hockey mom appeal.

Several McCain aides said they had recently discovered that Palin’s traveling staff had used personal credit cards to spend as much as $20,000 to $30,000 on additional wardrobe items for Palin.

Also, check out HuffPost’s slideshow of Palin’s fashion on the campaign trail – how she spent that $150,000.

Pamela Anderson, 41, was recently in Toronto speaking out against the abuse of animals in Hollywood.

When asked by E! News Weekend Canada about Palin, she has some choice words for the Republican hopeful.

Besides Clinton, Governors Janet Napolitano of Arizona and Kathleen Sebelius of Kansas are also scheduled to campaign for Obama in the coming weeks.

Obama’s chief strategist says the campaign respects John McCain’s V.P. pick. David Axelrod calls Palin “a skilled politician” who’s “deft at going on the attack.”

Bon Jovi and his wife, Dorothea, hosted more than 100 people for dinner on their mansion lawn by the Navesink River in Middletown, N.J. The price was $30,800 a person, to be divided between the Obama campaign and the Democratic National Committee.

“When I look at Barack, I see an old man,” Bon Jovi said in introducing his guest. Obama is 47, Bon Jovi is 46.

Obama spoke for about eight minutes before greeting guests individually. He vowed to fight Republican attacks on his character and background more fiercely than John Kerry did in his losing campaign four years ago.

“We’re not going to be bullied, we’re not going to be smeared, we’re not going to be lied about,” Obama said. “I don’t believe in coming in second.”

Well, Sarah, I’m calling you a liar. And not even a good one. Trig Paxson Van Palin is not your son. He is your grandson. The sooner you come forward with this revelation to the public, the better.

“We’re now beginning to see that perhaps it’s not so popular to be a suicide bomber. We’re beginning to see that perhaps people are questioning whether Osama Bin Laden ought to really be the face of Islam,” Rice, 53, said in an interview to be broadcast this weekend on Bloomberg Television’s “Conversations with Judy Woodruff.”

“And I am proud of the decision of this administration to overthrow Saddam Hussein,” said Rice, who was Bush’s national security adviser at the time of the March 2003 invasion. As of yesterday, 4,107 U.S. soldiers died in Iraq and more than 30,000 were wounded. She said the Iraq war has been “tougher than any of us really dreamed.”

Kristol added that if Senator John McCain was going to win the presidency, Bush would “think it more appropriate” to let him deal with the issue.

Senators McCain and Obama have often sparred about whether military force or diplomacy should be the primary way of dealing with Iran, according to an article by the Los Angeles Times.

Victorian MP Jason Wood got into trouble while discussing “genetically modified organisms”. He wowed the mercifully sparse late-evening attendance thus: “I support the member for McMillan’s call for the government to conduct an independent broad-ranging scientific investigation into the genetic modification of food and biotechnology to assess not only the health of the crops and the food, but also the potential for contamination, the commercial implications for Australian primary industry, and the benefits and risks associated with genetically modified orgasms, orgasms.”