The American College of Chest Physicians has elected Dr Kalpalatha K Guntupalli, the only woman president of the American Association of Physicians of Indian origin, as its first Asian American woman president.

Hyderabad-born Guntupalli is currently tenured full professor at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, considered one of the top 10 medical schools in the US, and also chief of pulmonary/critical care and sleep division at BCM.

She will be inaugurated as the new president of the 75-year-old ACCP Nov 1 in San Diego.

With 2010 declared ‘Year of Lung’ by the Forum of International Respiratory Societies, Guntupalli hopes the AACP will take on a leadership role in “contributing to celebrate lung health around the globe”.

At home, her priorities are to make the ACCP the ‘one-stop shop’ “for education, practice, management, performance improvement and monitoring and the advocacy needs of our membership.”

Guntupalli did her MD from the Institute of Medical Sciences, Osmania Medical College, Hydrabad, before migrating to the US in 1974 to specialise in internal medicine.

She has received numerous awards including the prestigious ‘Parker J Palmer Courage to Teach’ award for 2007 by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education, making her one of just 10 program directors to receive the honour.

Virender Sehwag, nicknamed ‘Viru’, is an international cricketer, who is known for his aggressive right-hand batting style. He was born to Mr.Krishan and his wife Krishna Sehwag on October 20, 1978 in Delhi, India and has three siblings. Virender Sehwag got married to Aarti Alhawat in April 2004 and they have a son born on October 18, 2007.

Virender Sehwag made his Test match debut in 2001 as a middle-order batsman for the Indian team against South Africa with a century to his name, scoring 105. After home series in 2001-02 against England and Zimbabwe, Virender Sehwag was promoted up the order to open the innings in the 2002 England tour and he remained in the order ever since. During the 2002-03 season, he scored his maiden home century of 147 against West Indies, earning his first Man of the Match award and on December 26, 2003 test match against Australia, he scored 195. In 2004, Virender Sehwag scored the first ever triple century by an Indian with 309 runs against Pakistan, earning the Man of the Match award and later, the Man of the Series award. The same year, he scored 155 against Australia in Chennai and 164 in the First Test of the series against South Africa and 88 in the second, claiming the Man of the Series award once again. At the 2005 three-match Test series against Pakistan, Virender Sehwag scored a total of 544 runs at an average of 90.66, and he went on to cross 3000 runs becoming the fastest Indian to reach it in terms of innings played. For his performance in the earlier 12-months period, Virender Sehwag got selected in the International Cricket Council (ICC) Test Team of the Year and also got nominated for the Test Player of the Year award. He captained the side in the third Test match of a series against Sri Lanka in the absence of Rahul Dravid, leading the team to victory.

Indian ace Pankaj Advani beat defending champion Mark Russel to win the World Professional Billiards Championship-2009.

Advani beat the defending champion 2030-1253.

Advani became the second Indian to win the title in its 139th years of history; Geet Sethi was the first Indian to win the title in 1992.

Earlier, Advani notched up a thrilling win over compatriot Dhruv Sitwala in the semi-final to set up the title clash.

In the other semifinal, compatriot Rupesh Shah squandered a first session lead and succumbed to his elementary mistakes to go down 880-1366 against nine time-winner Russel.

Geet Sethi crashed out of the World professional billiards championship in a league match.

In a must-win last league match for both players, the Indian lost to compatriot and IBSF World billiards champion Pankaj Advani 482-818.

Onam is the biggest and the most important festival of the state of Kerala. It is a harvest festival and is celebrated with joy and enthusiasm all over the state by people of all communities. According to a popular legend, the festival is celebrated to welcome King Mahabali, whose spirit is said to visit Kerala at the time of Onam.

Onam is celebrated in the beginning of the month of Chingam, the first month of Malayalam Calendar (Kollavarsham). This corresponds with the month of August-September according to Gregorian Calendar.

Carnival of Onam lasts from four to ten days. First day, Atham and tenth day, Thiruonam are most important of all. Popularity and presentation of rich culture of the state during the carnival made Onam the National Festival of Kerala in 1961. Elaborate feasts, folk songs, elegant dances, energetic games, elephants, boats and flowers all are a part of the dynamic festival called Onam.