SYDNEY (Reuters) – When doctors and staff realized that a cat living in a U.S. nursing home could sense when someone was going to die, the feline, Oscar, was portrayed as a furry grim reaper or four-legged angel of death.

But Dr. David Dosa, who broke the news of Oscar’s abilities in a paper in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2007, said he never intended to make Oscar sound creepy or his arrival at a bedside to be viewed negatively.

Dosa said he hopes his newly released book, “Making Rounds With Oscar: The Extraordinary Gift of an Ordinary Cat” will put the cat in a more favorable light as well as providing a book to help people whose loved ones are terminally ill.

“After the New England Journal article you got the feeling that if Oscar is in your bed then you are dead, but you did not really see what is going on for these family members,” said Dosa, an assistant professor of medicine at Brown University.

SYDNEY (Reuters) – When doctors and staff realized that a cat living in a U.S. nursing home could sense when someone was going to die, the feline, Oscar, was portrayed as a furry grim reaper or four-legged angel of death.

But Dr. David Dosa, who broke the news of Oscar’s abilities in a paper in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2007, said he never intended to make Oscar sound creepy or his arrival at a bedside to be viewed negatively.

Dosa said he hopes his newly released book, “Making Rounds With Oscar: The Extraordinary Gift of an Ordinary Cat” will put the cat in a more favorable light as well as providing a book to help people whose loved ones are terminally ill.

“After the New England Journal article you got the feeling that if Oscar is in your bed then you are dead, but you did not really see what is going on for these family members,” said Dosa, an assistant professor of medicine at Brown University.

SYDNEY (Reuters) – When doctors and staff realized that a cat living in a U.S. nursing home could sense when someone was going to die, the feline, Oscar, was portrayed as a furry grim-reaper or four-legged angel of death.

But Dr. David Dosa, who broke the news of Oscar’s abilities in a paper in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2007, said he never intended to make Oscar sound creepy or his arrival at a bedside to be viewed negatively.

Dosa said he hopes his newly released book, “Making Rounds With Oscar: The Extraordinary Gift of an Ordinary Cat” will put the cat in a more favorable light as well as providing a book to help people whose loved ones are terminally ill.

“After the New England Journal article you got the feeling that if Oscar is in your bed then you are dead, but you did not really see what is going on for these family members,” said Dosa, an assistant professor of medicine at Brown University.

Clint Eastwood’s movie “Invictus”, featuring Morgan Freeman as Nelson Mandela, might not have bagged any of the top honors so far this awards season but it has come  top  of one annual list — “Best Movie for Grownups,” according to AARP The Magazine catering for the 50+ audience. 

The ninth annual list ranking films for the 50+ audience — and ranking actors and actresses aged over 50 — also awarded Robert de Niro a Lifetime Achievement Award that will be presented at a Los Angeles Awards Gala on Feb. 16.

Other awards went to “Julie & Julia” for the ” Best Grownup Love Story,” “The Soloist” for the “Best Buddy Picture” and “Star Trek” for the “Best Movie for Grownups Who Refuse to Grow Up.”

Top acting honors went to Jeff Bridges winning best male actor 50+ for country singer Bad  Blake in “Crazy Heart,” Helen Mirren for best actress 50+ in “The Last Station,” and the best supporting acting awards went to Alec Baldwin for “It’s Complicated,” and Kim Basinger for “The Burning Plain.”

SYDNEY (Reuters) – American writer Adam Haslett has always been fascinated by power, particularly the kind wielded by a singularly influential institution like the United States’ central bank, the Federal Reserve.

His first book in 2002, a best-selling collection of short stories called “You Are Not A Stranger Here,” dealt with themes such as estrangement and suffering and was a finalist for the National Book Award and the 2003 Pulitzer Prize.

But when he turned to write his first novel, “Union Atlantic,” which is released next month, he delved into the world of finance, tackling topics such as wealth, greed and power.

Little did Haslett, 39, realize when he started work on his novel seven years ago that he would finish his book the week before the collapse of Lehman Brothers and the onset of the worst global financial crisis in generations.

SYDNEY (Reuters) – British writer Ali Shaw drew inspiration from fairy tales for his debut novel and to magical effect, with “The Girl With Glass Feet” published to great acclaim.

The novel, which has been short-listed for the Costa First Book Award, is a set in a snowbound, remote land where winged creatures and albino animals live and Ida MacLaird is slowly turning into glass when she falls in love.

The novel will be published in the United States in January.

Shaw, who was born in 1982 and has worked as a bookseller at Oxford’s Bodleian Library since graduating with a first class degree in English Literature, spoke to Reuters about his writing:

SYDNEY (Reuters) – Tis the season to be jolly — and to make a list, with the end of decade sparking them galore, ranging from the top words of the decade, to the top celebrity or the stupidest gifts for the person with everything.

As 2009 ends the first decade of the 21st century, organizations are cranking out lists for the ultimate items or experiences of the decade that’s called the noughties, aughts or even the naughties, with websites hungry for bite-size reads.

“Lists are quick and easy to digest compared to an in-depth article, and often people are looking for quick information,” said Nicole Feenstra, a travel editor at Canadian website Canoe.ca.

Media tracking company Global Language Monitor crowned “global warming” as the top word of the decade, followed by “9/11,” referring to the 2001 attacks on the United States, and the last name of U.S. President Barack Obama.

SYDNEY (Reuters) – When Suzan Colon was laid off from her dream job as a magazine editor in New York, her mother came up with some advice that has led to the next chapter of her life — “put up soup,” or resort to fortifying foods.

Colon picked up her grandmother’s recipe folder and started cooking everything from butter cookies to baked pork chops, realizing along the way that her grandmother had cooked her way through the Great Depression and other hard economic times.

“When in doubt, bake,” she writes, finding that using food as an avenue to the past can help put life in perspective.

This realization turned her mood around about being laid off — and inspired her first book, “Cherries In Winter: My Family’s Recipe for Hope in Hard Times,” which was released this month.

CANBERRA (Reuters) – Parents used to save for their children’s weddings but now there’s another major rite of passage to fund before they even leave home — the school formal or prom, a booming industry which seems recession-proof.

Parties or balls to celebrate the end of school have become increasingly glitzy affairs in a list of countries from Britain, to Singapore, to India and Australia, emulating U.S.-style proms glamorized in the hit Disney movie “High School Musical” and the TV series “Gossip Girl.”

Teenagers are no longer content to celebrate in a school gym decorated with streamers and a parent DJ — and parents are left with the dilemma of whether or not to join the party and splash out on their teenager’s big night.

Figures from Elk and Sons Consolidated Ptd Ltd, which runs event organizer Prom Night Events, show that in Australia the high school formal market grew nine percent in the past year to be worth $170 million ($155 million) in the city of Sydney alone.

CANBERRA (Reuters) – Britney Spears has done it again, hitting the headlines during her first Australian tour over a row about lip-synching and a lacklustre performance that her tour promoter said had left her “extremely upset.”

Australian media reported that fans walked out of the first of Spears’ 14 Australian performances that was staged in Perth on Friday after just a few songs, describing it as “boring,” “stiff,” mimed and lacking interaction with the audience.

But the promoter of Spears’ Australian “Circus” tour, her manager and some fans rushed to her defense, saying this savaging has left the U.S. pop singer traumatized.

“Britney is aware of all this and she’s extremely upset by it,” Paul Dainty, Spears’ tour promoter, told The Australian newspaper on Monday.