Tag: prize

  • Lost glasses help 80-year-old win more than £100,000

    Lost glasses help 80-year-old win more than £100,000

    An 80-year-old man has won more than £100,000 in the EuroMillions after forgetting his glasses and being unable to choose his regular numbers.

    According to details, Denis Fawsitt would generally use family birthdays for his weekly ticket but as he could not see, went for a lucky dip instead.

    Expressing his joy over the win, Fawsitt said it “turned out to be one of my best decisions ever”. He shared that he and his wife Ann plan to give their Derbyshire home and garden a makeover with the £116,124 (Rs 24,543,009) winnings.

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    Recalling how he ended up choosing different numbers, Fawsitt said: “I realised I had forgotten my glasses and tried to pick my numbers, but I just couldn’t. I went to pay for my papers and asked the lady behind the counter for a lucky dip.”

    He added: “After what happened in the newsagent, I had this funny feeling we were going to win. I said to my wife Ann that evening that I felt we were going to win big.”

    The next morning he was surprised to win the money and contacted the newsagents. They checked his ticket and confirmed his win.

    The couple matched the five main numbers and one Lucky Star number on March 16.

    Fawsitt who is a retired builder and coal miner said his aim was to use the winnings for a full garden makeover. He had suffered from a back injury a few years ago and had limited his ability to tend it himself.

    He said that the money would also allow them to buy a new TV.

    The couple has two daughters, two grandsons and a granddaughter and said that most of the money would go to their family.

    “We’ve had our time, it’s theirs now, this money will help them more than us.”

  • Mohammed Hanif’s controversial novel’s Urdu publisher shortlisted for the prestigious Prix Voltaire award

    Mohammed Hanif’s controversial novel’s Urdu publisher shortlisted for the prestigious Prix Voltaire award

    Pakistani publishing house Maktaba-e-Daniyal, which published a translated Urdu version of Mohammed Hanif’s controversial novel, A Case of Exploding Mangoes, has been shortlisted for the prestigious International Publishers Association’s (IPA) Prix Voltaire honour.

    The publishing house had come under fire in January 2020 for publishing the Urdu translation of the novel, which presents a satirical take on the plane crash that killed former military dictator, General Ziaul Haq. The book won the Best First Book Award in the year 2009 in the Commonwealth Book Prize.

    Hanif took to social media to share the news and express his excitement.

    The prize honours those publishers who have presented courage and have exercised their right to freedom of expression. It also carries a cash prize of $9,000.

    According to IPA, “Freedom of expression and freedom to publish are human rights under Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Yet the freedom to publish is under continuous, sustained daily attack, with writers and publishers vilified, jailed, tortured and killed merely for doing their jobs. In 2005, the IPA created the Freedom to Publish Prize to honour a person or organisation adjudged to have made a significant contribution to the defence and promotion of freedom to publish in the world. In 2016, the prize was renamed the IPA Prix Voltaire, in tribute to the French philosopher and writer François-Marie Arouet (pen name Voltaire), who propounded a doctrine of tolerance and free expression before the terms were in general use. Moreover, between 1755 and 1759 Voltaire lived in Geneva, Switzerland, where the IPA is based, before moving to the nearby French border town of Ferney, which was renamed Ferney-Voltaire in his honour after the French Revolution.”

    Other publishing houses that have been short-listed include Turkish publishing house Avesta Yayinlari, which has faced several lawsuits, investigations and attacks; Gerakbudaya Publishing House in Malaysia which has published a number of books on controversial topics; and Liberal Publishing House in Vietnam which presented a “direct challenge” to the government which attempted to control the publishing industry in Vietnam.

    The winner of this years’ award will be announced at the 33rd International Publishers Congress in Norway scheduled to take place in May.