Author Alan Hollinghurst abercrombie outlet has won the 2004 Booker Prize for his novel, The Line of Beauty. The prestigious award is for the best novel of the last 12 months by an author from a Commonwealth country or the Republic of Ireland. Also nominated were Achmat Dangor, Sarah Hall, Colm Toibin, Gerard Woodward and bookies' favourite David Mitchell. Hollinghurst, 50, takes home a cheque for ￡50,000. The winner was announced by chair of the judges, MP Chris Smith, at a ceremony in the Royal Horticultural office 2007 professionalHalls in Westminster, central London. In accepting his award, Hollinghurst said: "It's very amazing to me that the long, solitary process of writing a novel should lead to a moment like this. "I hardly know where I am. My whole psychological technique for dealing with this evening was to convince myself I wasn't going to win it. "I know it's a decision I shall be grateful [to the judges] rolex daytona for for the rest of my life. How they reached it, I've no idea and I'm conscious how easily it could have gone to one of the other authors." The Line of Beauty is about Oxford University graduate, Nick Guest, living in the London house of a high-flying Conservative parliamentarian at the height of Margaret Thatcher's power. Set in the boom years of the 1980s, Guest has a passionate affair with a black council worker before Montres Hommes falling in love with a cocaine-addicted millionaire. Mr Smith said: "This year's shortlisted authors... have indeed written formidable books. They were all strong contenders. "This was an incredibly difficult and close decision." Mr Smith said the final decision was between the "big three" of Hollinghurst, Mitchell and Toibin. He added: "It was down to a very difficult decision between three books... but all six of them were in contention right at the start." Orologi Rolex The judging panel included novelist Tibor Fischer, writer and academic Robert Macfarlane and Erotic Review editor Rowan Pelling. Martin Higgs, the literary editor of Waterstone's, said: "Hollinghurst's The Line of Beauty is a wonderful book, a sophisticated social comedy with huge dollops of tragedy set against Thatcher's Britain and the rise of AIDS. "Hollinghurst has previously been known to a literary audience and particularly to a gay audience so I am delighted that this prize will help elevate his writing and give it a much wider appeal, something he richly polo shirts for men deserves." Another powerful earthquake has hit northern Japan, two days after a series of deadly tremors rattled the same area killing at least 23 people and injuring more than 1,200. The latest shock, measuring 5.6, hit the rural region of Niigata at 6:05 a.m. (9:05 p.m. GMT) and was also felt in the Japanese capital Tokyo, 260 kilometers (155 miles) to the south. The focus was about 10 kilometers (6 miles) below the earth's surface, Japan's best hair straighteners national broadcaster NHK reported. At least one building in Niigata collapsed as a result of the latest quake, Reuters news service reports.Meanwhile, thousands of weary and frightened residents in northern Japan spent a second night in shelters, cars or in the open after Saturday's tremors. Television pictures showed hundreds of people crammed together under covers and coats in one shelter. Many complained that they had little or no food, as they waited for supplies to reach the mountainous area, some parts of which have been cut off by landslides, NHK said. Other residents have begun salvaging belongings from their flattened homes, as hundreds of people suffering injuries overwhelmed local hospitals. "After the first earthquake, I ran to my shop," one woman said. "Then the next one hit and I was clinging to a pillar. I ran out with nothing in my Lisseur hands. All I have left is what I am wearing now." The earth movement was so powerful from Saturday's quakes that it also was felt in Tokyo, where the city's skyscrapers swayed for about a minute. The first of three temblors was a 6.8-magnitude quake centered in Ojiya. It rocked the area on Saturday evening, knocking a bullet train from its rails and ripping through roadways. Several strong quakes followed through the night, and aftershocks continued to jolt the area Sunday morning. The region was hit with blackouts , ruptured water mains and cracked and buckled roads reports said. The bullet train omega watch derailment was the first since such trains began running in Japan in 1964. A second-floor supermarket collapsed as it was busy with customers. Across the state, 61,000 people were evacuated to emergency shelters and in Ojiya, 5,290 people took refuge at 50 different evacuation centers, AP quoted an official as saying. The temblors came just days after Japan's deadliest typhoon in more than a decade, which left 78 people dead and a dozens missing. Saturday's temblors caused mudslides in areas where the storm's torrential rains had loosened the ground. Japan is among the world's most Ralph Lauren shop earthquake-prone countries.It was vintage Bill Clinton, a lip-biting, thumb- wagging, center-of-attention performance. Seven weeks after quadruple bypass heart surgery, looking pale and unusually thin, the former president came back to give John Kerry a sendoff for the final week of the campaign - promoting his own presidency as well - and bluntly framed the campaign between Kerry and President Bush.zf