25-03-2010

19 March 2010

Opinion

Viewpoint

India going cheap Why does India continue to sell itself so cheaply to the West, particularly to the US? A case in point is the Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Bill which the Congressled UPA government is seeking to enact, in the face of strong opposition not only from the BJP and the Left but also from within its own ranks. Briefly, the Bill caps the damages paid to victims of a nuclear plant mishap at a total of Rs 2,800 crore, of which the private or public sector entity operating the plant will be liable for Rs 500 crore and the central government would stand good for the balance. The foreign company supplying the nuclear machinery or material will be free of all liability.

India must pass this Bill before foreign suppliers, from the US and elsewhere, can sell the nuclear equipment this country urgently needs if it is to meet its goal of increasing its nuclear generation 10 times over the next 25 years. The nuclear liability Bill will activate the so-called Indo-US nuclear deal in defence of which the prime minister almost resigned during the UPA government's previous tenure.

But even ardent champions of the Indo-

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US nuclear pact - which goes beyond nuclear issues and could help to establish India as a key partner of the US in regional and global affairs - are baulking at the limitation of liability, which former Indian attorney general Soli Sorabjee has described as 'discriminatory', unconstitutional and opposed to the 'polluter pays' principle prescribed by the Supreme Court. In short, there should be no cap on the damages paid to those who suffer as the result of a nuclear leak or other malfunction, nor should foreign suppliers be let off the hook in terms of liability in case an accident occurs.

Remember the Bhopal gas tragedy perhaps the worst industrial disaster in the world - which in the 26 years since its occurrence seems to have been consigned to national amnesia? Barring some NGOs and victims' associations, everyone else appears to have misplaced in memory a toxic gas leak that reportedly took a toll of some 20,000 lives and caused severe bodily damage to almost 6,00,000 others. The culpable party, the Indian subsidiary of USbased Union Carbide, eventually paid a pittance - according to one calculation a scandalous Rs 12,410 per victim, compared with Rs 15 lakh to Rs 18 lakh given to the families of those who died in Delhi's Uphaar Cinema fire - by way of compensation to the affected, many of whom continue to suffer disease and severe disabilities to this day. Suppose an Indian company had done a Bhopal in the US? Would that company - which was responsible for the deaths of many thousands of American citizens have been allowed by the US authorities to get off as lightly as Union Carbide has done? Would an Indian company's CEO manage to escape the law, as did Union Carbide's boss, Warren Anderson, allegedly with the connivance of a senior Indian politician?

Why do we allow Indian lives to be made so cheap in comparison to American lives, or the lives of others who belong to what calls itself the 'developed world'? Isn't an integral part of its development the fact that it values the lives and security of its own citizens, unlike we in India who reveal our lack of development by criminally undervaluing the lives and safety of our people?

If we cannot learn to respect the right to life and health of our citizens we cannot expect others to respect this right, or to respect us. We need to remember this when the nuclear liability Bill is debated, not just in Parliament but also - and equally importantly - outside it.

And while we're at it, will the sarkar please send a belated supplementary Bill to the constituent of America Inc responsible for Bhopal? Better 26 years late than never.

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A Question Of Balance One of the phenomenal events of this round of globalisation is the economic ascent of China. In 2009, China became the second largest economy in the world in nominal dollar terms. Although the American economy is still three times the size of the Chinese economy today, a reasonable prediction shows that China will overtake the United States to become the world's largest economy by 2025 at the latest. However, China is not alone in the quest for a better life. Three other big developing countries, India, Brazil and South Africa, are joining the ranks. Sharing the same destiny and same agenda, these four countries have begun to coordinate in international diplomacy, like what happened in the Copenhagen climate conference in 2009. Global imbalances, whereby some countries run high current account surpluses while other countries run high current account deficits, have resulted in excessive liquidities flowing from the surplus countries to the deficit countries. Many believe that this has been one of the causes of the global financial crisis.

Inflexible exchange rate regimes in some surplus countries, particularly China, are often blamed for creating global imbalances; the more extreme opinions also believe that China's inflexible exchange rate regime is the root cause of unemployment in developed countries and

slow recovery in developing countries. But historical evidence shows that exchange rate regimes had little to do with global imbalances. Germany and Japan both have a floating regime, but both countries run very large surpluses. In particular, Japan has remained a strong exporter despite the Plaza Accord that forced the yen to float and revaluate. China's own experience since 2005 also rejects the claim. Between 2005 and 2008, the renminbi (RMB) appreciated by about 20 per cent, but China's trade and current account surpluses both surged. The claim that a weak RMB (Chinese yuan) hurts China's trade competitors has some merits. But one has to realise two things. One is that RMB is only pegged to the US dollar and floats against other currencies together with the dollar. If RMB's value is artificially low today, then there are periods when it is artificially high. For example, RMB was not devalued in the Asian financial crisis while most Asian currencies were devalued at the time.

The other thing to consider is that there are costs attached with a fixed exchange rate regime that other countries may not want to bear. For example, liquidities are flowing to emerging markets including China; a flexible exchange rate regime discourages the movement by revaluation of the home currency and avoids asset bubbles, but a fixed exchange rate regime cannot do it.

Hopefully, Pawar Sahib will notice it now!

Those who know nothing of foreign languages know nothing of their own.

- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

editor@thesouthasianinsider.com

19 March 2010

Community

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Hindus & Jews ask Pope to uphold “Christian values” on Roma “apartheid” in Europe Hindus and Jews have portrayed His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI as “un-Christian” for not strongly supporting the cause of the Roma who face “apartheid” conditions in Europe. Rajan Zed, acclaimed Hindu statesman; and Rabbi Jonathan B. Freirich, prominent Jewish leader in Nevada and California in USA; in a statement issued in Nevada today, said that the condition of the Roma had most of the signs of “apartheid” and that it was happening right under the Pope’s nose in Europe. Hindus & Jews had repeatedly appealed him in the past to openly embrace the Roma cause and come up with a White Paper on their plight but

without any success.

Zed and Rabbi Freirich quoted from The Bible: “When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd (Matthew 9:36).” “The Lord builds up Jerusalem; he gathers the outcasts of Israel (Psalm 147:2).” “For I will restore health to you, and your wounds I will heal, declares the Lord, because they have called you an outcast (Jeremiah 30:17).” “Behold, at that time I will deal with all your oppressors. And I will save the lame and gather the outcast, and I will change their shame into praise and renown in all the earth (Zephaniah 3:19).” “…let the outcasts of Moab

Boozed-up girl, 14, gyrates naked at Brit lap dance club London : A 14-year-old girl was found gyrating until 3 am at a lap dancing club in Somerset, UK. The schoolgirl guzzled 12 bottles of strong vodka alcopops between dances. The girl, who cannot be named for legal reasons, donned a black basque,

black stockings and suspenders as she performed at the Shadow Lounge in Weston-super-Mare, Somerset. She even stripped naked behind a translucent glass screen and danced for her audience. During the dance the youngster took a middle-aged man to a tiny curtained-off booth for a "private dance". Customers paying 20pounds for these extra services can have a naked girl dancing inches from his face. The girl initially said she was aged 18 and added: "I'm p***** out of my head."

After 30 minutes, she said she was 19. "This is only my second night but I'm a very good

lap dancer. For 20 pounds, you can come into a private booth with me and I'll dance for you," the Sun quoted her as saying, to the men.

She also offered a "VIP dance" for 80pounds. When asked what that was, she replied: "You'll have to find out."

Another 14-year-old girl gave her company, saying was extending " m o r a l support" to her.

The girl and her pal a l s o performed several pole dances in the busy lounge area, while clothed.

Her pal, who also claimed to be 18, slipped when she said: "I work at a restaurant at weekends and school holidays." This girl did not perform any private lap dances.

When the club closed at 3am, the schoolgirls left with two older dancers and returned to a flat rented by the older girls.

It was found that both girls are school students. One of them missed lessons all last week, while her pal only attended irregularly.

However, Shadow Lounge owner Spanish-born Jesus RodriguezCasas said the 14-year-old duped him, saying she was 18, and did not come back when he asked for better ID.

sojourn among you; be a shelter to them from the destroyer…

(Isaiah 16:4).” “Whoever says, ‘I am in the light,’ while hating a brother or sister, is still in the darkness (First Epistle of John 2: 9).” “…Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another (Gospel According to John 13: 34).”

Rajan Zed, who is president of Universal Society of Hinduism, and Jonathan Freirich, argued that Jesus Christ clearly told the world to help the helpless, defenseless and downtrodden and love them, and He showed the way. The Pope, being the acclaimed representative of God on earth, should raise his voice against continuous Roma maltreatment. The Pope should act like a shepherd for a shepherd-less flock of Roma, just as Jesus Himself said that He had sheep from other pastures. The Pope should recognize, acknowledge and affirm the Roma as children of God who deserved to be treated like all other people—as equals. As the Vicar of Christ, the Pope should offer the Roma protection, compassion, and love. In the case of the Roma, the Pope should act as God wanted him to

act, as distinctly defined in The Bible. Hindu statesman Zed and Jewish leader Freirich further quoted “Leviticus 19:33-34”: “When an alien resides with you in your land, you shall not oppress the alien. The alien who resides with you shall be to you as the citizen among you. You shall love the alien as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt. I am the LORD your God.” As this commandment seemed to come directly from God, it should never be violated, especially not by the Pope, Zed and Freirich pointed out. The Pope needed to re-study his scriptures, the Word of God, which was supposed to guide and direct him, and rise to the challenge of directing his followers to work to end the Roma “apartheid” in Europe. We were not asking much from the Pope, just suggesting to him that he be a true Christian, Rajan Zed and Rabbi Freirich said and added that it was a sin to silently watch about 15 million Roma suffer day after day for the last about 1200 years, and doing nothing about it. Rajan Zed and Rabbi Jonathan Freirich further

said that the alarming condition of the Roma people was a social blight for Europe and the rest of the world as they reportedly regularly faced social exclusion, racism, substandard education, hostility, joblessness, rampant illness, inadequate housing, lower life expectancy, unrest, living on desperate margins, language barriers, stereotypes, mistrust, rights violations, discrimination, marginalization, appalling living conditions, prejudice, human rights abuse, racist slogans on Internet, etc. Zed and Freirich stressed that besides the absence of any serious efforts at their inclusion, the Roma were being used as “punching bags” and blamed for the social ills of Europe.

European neglect was trapping the Roma in cycles of persecution and poverty. It was shocking, reprehensible, hazardous and immoral.

Being the most powerful religious leader in the world, it was the Pope’s moral obligation to make efforts to stop the frequent human rights violations suffered by Roma.

Hindu Zed and Jewish Freirich offered help to Pope, if asked, to support the Roma cause.

Diverse Coalition of Local Advocacy Groups Collaborate to Reach Hard-to-Count Communities in New York City

New York, NY – With 2010 census questionnaires expected to be delivered this week, a diverse group of local and national advocacy organizations, educators and members of the media has formed a coalition to encourage full participation in the decennial count. The coalition is focusing their outreach efforts on communities which traditionally have been undercounted – immigrant communities, lowincome residents, children, and people of color – to ensure those

communities receive their fair share of more than $400 billion in federal funds every year for the next decade, and to ensure fair representation in Congress. The groups – the Asian American Federation, the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund (AALDEF), Asian Americans for Equality, the City University of New York (CUNY), the Hispanic Federation, el diario/LA PRENSA, The Leadership C o n f e r e n ce Education Fund (The Education

Fund), Make the Road New York, the Center for Law and Social Justice at Medgar Evers College, CUNY, the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials (NALEO) Educational Fund , the New York Community Media Alliance, the New York Immigration Coalition (NYIC), the New York Urban League (NYUL), the New Immigrant Community Empowerment (NICE), the Northern Manhattan Coalition for Immigrant Rights - NMCIR Bronx Project, the Unity Diaspora Coalition, Univisión, Feet in Two Worlds, WNYC New York Public Radio and the ya es hora ¡Hágaase Contar! campaign – are working together for full participation in the 2010 Census in their communities, through neighborhood canvassing, inlanguage public transit advertisements, radio PSAs, and ethnic media advertising.The coalition is organizing census questionnaire assistance forums to provide assistance and Q&A with members of the community in their own language once they have received their census forms.

19 March 2010

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Hindus in New York denounce Doniger’s book “Hindus: An Alternative History” Narain Kataria in New York A consortium of Hindu organizations, temples and concerned individuals in New York and New Jersey area organized a protest demonstration at New School University Building in New York City on March 10th. The demonstration was against the decision of National Book Critics Circle (NBCC) to consider honoring Dr. Wendy Doniger for her book “Hindus: An Alternative History”.

[Please note that Prof. Wendy Doniger was not selected

by NBCC for the honor. However, because of the very contentious nature of the Doniger award and its ramifications you are requested not to write or call NBCC in any way – positive or negative.]

The protesters argued that Wendy Doniger’s book contains numerous factual errors, mischaracterizations, and shows an undercurrent of deep contempt for Hindus. For decades Dr. Doniger has been masquerading as a scholar on Hinduism and in the Sanskrit language. However Wales Professor of Sanskrit at Harvard Michael Witzel has described Wendy’s translations of rig veda, jaiminiya brahmana and manusmriti in these stark terms – ‘lacking common sense’, ‘unreliable’, ‘idiosyncratic’ ,and “a stream of unconnected George-Bush-like anacoluths “.

In the words of the BBC, “Doniger is known for being rude, crude and very lewd in the hallowed portals of Sanskrit Academics”.

She called the Bhagavad Gita (one of the most sacred Hindu scripture and a classic of world religious literature) a “dishonest book” that “justifies war.”

We condemn this book for its gross factual errors and gratuitously hurtful and contemptuous depictions e.g. comparing revered Hindu goddesses to Playboy models, mocking Hindus as unfaithful “serial monogamists”. This

book caricatures Hinduism in a grossly offensive and degrading manner.

Doniger wants this book to be used as a “basic textbook” on Hinduism and India. Not only will this book subject students to a warped, false and bigoted version of Hinduism, it will also expose Indian-American youth to ridicule and bigotry.

Narain Kataria, President of the Indian American Intellectuals Forum (IAIF), one of the organizers of the protest said that most learned scholars of Hinduism and Sanskrit do not think highly of Doniger. They have totally rejected Doniger’s deceptive claims of being a Sanskrit scholar and they have also stated that her understanding of Hinduism is very superficial and often dead wrong. To repeat, the above book by Dr. Doniger is a work that promotes bigotry, racism and intolerance. According to one Hindu Sanskrit scholar “Her Rg Veda – I own a copy – illustrates her poor knowledge of Sanskrit and her translation is just literal, if at all. She does not have the depth

of knowledge to delve deep into Hindu texts and unravel their real meaning”.

We held the demonstration to expose her bogus scholarship about Hinduism and discredit her in the eyes of academia using objective and factual criteria. Our purpose was to caution NBCC to think twice before considering Doniger for any honor.

By giving a pornographic twist to Hindu objects of veneration and worship, Doniger is trying to create the illusion that Hinduism is nothing but a crude immoral religion.

This has the potential to create disaffection, disillusionment and depression in the minds of Hindu children about Hindu Dharma.

We organized the demonstration to protest those who willingly and deliberately support Dr. Wendy Deniger’s antiHindu agenda.

In no particular order, the following Hindu organizations/ leaders from the New York and New Jersey metropolitan area participated in this protest: Raju Nanoo, Chairman, Trustee Board, Kerala Hindus of North America; Dr. Vasudeva C. Murthy, President, Kannada Koota; Srinivas Shakelly, Forum for Hindu Awakening; Bidyut Sarkar, International Federation of Bangladeshi Hindus and Friends; Sher Bahadur Singh, Member, Board of Directors, International Hindi Samiti; Sunanda Thali, Hindu Human Rights Watch; Ramen Nandi, Bharat Seva Sangh; Nagendra Rao, President, Sanatana Dharma Pratishsthapana Foundation; Dr. Sudhakar Reddy, Overseas Friends of Bharatiya Janata Party (OFBJP); Kamal Pandey of Foundation of Nepalese in America; Sher Bahadur Singh of Rashtravadi Gorkha Seva Dal; Arish Sahani and Nand Ramsinghani of Indian American Intellectuals Forum; and USHA

World’s shortest shortest man man dies dies Indian American Vinod Gupta World’s to pay $7.4 mn penalty for fraud Washington : InfoGroup Inc's Indian-American founder Vinod Gupta, without admitting or denying wrongdoing, has agreed to pay $7.4 million in penalties and a ban from positions of authority in publicly traded companies in a case of alleged fraud.In a settlement announced by the US Securities and Exchange Commission Monday, Vasant H. Raval, former director and audit committee chairman of the Omaha-based d a t a b a s e compilation company, also agreed to a $50,000 penalty without admitting wrongdoing.Also the subject of civil lawsuits filed by the SEC in the US District Court in Omaha were Rajnish K. Das and Stormy Dean, former chief financial officers of InfoGroup.

They were accused of rubber-stamping illegal spending by Gupta.The SEC alleged that while chairman and CEO of InfoGroup, Gupta fraudulently used corporate funds to pay almost $9.5 million in

personal expenses to support his lavish lifestyle, according to Omaha World-Herald.He also allegedly oversaw $9.3 million in undisclosed transactions with other companies in which he had a personal stake. The other three men helped hide those transactions, the lawsuits s a y. ' G u p t a stole millions of dollars from I n f o shareholders by treating the company like it was his personal ATM,' said Robert Khuzami, Director of the S E C ' s Division of Enforcement.'Other corporate officers also abused their positions of trust by looking the other way instead of standing up for investors and bringing the scheme to a halt.'The SEC's complaints allege that from 2003 to 2007, Gupta improperly used corporate funds for more than $3 million worth of personal jet travel for himself, family, and friends to such destinations as South Africa, Italy, and Cancun.

A file photo of He Pingping of China, the world's smallest man, sitting on the lap of Svetlana Pankratova, the Queen of Longest Legs at Trafalgar Square in London.

London : The world’s shortest man, He Pingping, a native of China has died in Rome at the age of 21. Pingping, who stood just over two feet five inches tall, died after falling ill while taking part in a television programme called ‘The Record Show’ Pingping was born in 1988 in Wulanchabu, China, with a form of primordial dwarfism, and was officially recognised as the world’s shortest man in 2008. Pingping was admitted to a hospital two weeks ago after suffering a chest complaint and died on Saturday, according to BBC. He became

instant world celebrity as the world media splashed the pictures of his meeting with the world’s tallest man Bao Xishun, who also hails from China. Producer of the show Europroduzione said that he had already filmed two episodes of the programme.“He started to feel slightly ill and we decided to take him to hospital. He entered hospital two weeks ago and had all kinds of tests, being a very special person he had to go though all sorts of tests. He went into intensive care three days after he was admitted,” said Marco Fernandez de Araoz, Communications Director for Europroduzione.

19 March 2010

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Threatened BA strike spells Palestinians and Israeli trouble for UK's Brown police clash in Jerusalem

Washington : The Unite labour union asked British Airways on Tuesday to return to negotiations to try to avert a planned cabin crew strike that is a major pre-election headache for Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

The ruling Labour Party is trailing the opposition Conservatives in the opinion polls

ahead of an election expected on May 6, and a strike that would disrupt Easter holiday plans for tens of thousands of people is the last thing Brown needs.

He has called the plan "unjustified and deplorable", urging BA and Unite to resume talks. Unite is Labour's main

Pope Benedict to be received by queen on UK visit

London : Britain's Queen Elizabeth will host Pope Benedict at her official residence in Scotland during his first visit to Britain in September, the government said on Tuesday.

Benedict will meet the queen at the Palace of Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh, a baroque landmark that was the home of Mary Queen of Scots, the Catholic monarch executed for treason in 1587 after Elizabeth I signed her death warrant.

The four-day trip, from Sept. 16 to 19, will be the first papal visit since Pope John Paul II's pastoral visit in 1982

and is the first official papal visit to Britain.

Benedict will also meet the Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, spiritual head of the world's 77 million Anglicans, and will hold a public mass in Glasgow and a prayer vigil in London.

A Vatican initiative to welcome conservative Anglicans who want to convert to Catholicism has been criticised by some Anglicans who see the move as an attempt to capitalise on deep divisions in Anglicanism. Relations between Christian churches and major faiths will be a theme of the visit, the British government said. "The papal visit represents an unprecedented opportunity to strengthen ties between the UK and the Holy See on action to tackle poverty and climate change as well as the important role of faith in creating strong and cohesive communities," said Scotland Secretary Jim Murphy, who is leading the preparations for the visit.

financial backer, and the Conservatives have seized on the threatened strike to mount a fullscale attack on what they present as left-wing union bosses' stranglehold on a party dependent on their cash.

"BA needs this strike like a hole in the head," Theresa Villiers, the Conservative transport chief, told a news conference, calling it "damaging and unnecessary".

"Labour's paymasters at Unite are determined to wind the clock back to the 1970s, when strikes brought this country to a standstill," she said.

Most BA cabin crew plan a 3day strike starting on Saturday, followed by a 4-day walkout from March 27. Unite's decision to announce these plans resulted in BA removing a formal offer on staffing levels made to employees, as it was conditional on the union not naming any strike dates.

Washington: Palestinians mounted violent protests in Jerusalem on Tuesday and President Barack Obama's Middle East envoy cancelled plans to return to the region as a U.S.-Israeli crisis over Jewish settlement plans simmered.

Hundreds of Palestinian demonstrators clashed with police in several locations in East Jerusalem, captured from Jordan by Israel together with the adjacent West Bank in the 1967 Middle East war. Police responded with teargas and rubber bullets."We have come to throw stones because that's all we have and the situation in Jerusalem is dangerous," a protester said in a confrontation at an Israeli military checkpoint, reminiscent of the early days of the Palestinian uprising that began in 2000.

Medical officials said at least 40 Palestinians were treated in hospitals in the most serious flare-up in the holy city in months. Police said 15 officers were hurt, one shot in the hand by an unidentified gunman. About 60 people were arrested.

The violence was another challenge to Obama's efforts to revive Israeli-Palestinian talks, suspended since December 2008, which had looked set to resume in the form of indirect negotiations under U.S. mediation. Israel angered Palestinians and touched off a feud with Washington by announcing plans, during a visit last week by U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, to build 1,600 homes for Jews in a part of the occupied West Bank it had annexed to Jerusalem.

Sen. Dodd urges quick action on financial reform London : U.S. Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd on Tuesday said Congress needs to fast track financial reform despite Republican pleas to slow down the process to rewrite sweeping new rules. A day after unveiling his longawaited reform legislation, the Connecticut Democrat told MSNBC that Congress should not adjourn for its two-week Easter recess on March 26 without addressing financial reform.

"We really can't allow this Congress to adjourn without addressing these basic issues," Dodd said in an interview.

Dodd released his bill on Monday after marathon talks with a few key Republican members of the committee failed to produce a deal on a comprehensive set of rules that will redefine financial firms' supervision and risktaking.

The Senate Banking Committee will start meeting on March 22 to debate and amend the bill, a process Dodd hopes to have done within a week. It would then move to the Senate floor where Democrats

would need 60 votes to overcome procedural roadblocks that are sure to be thrown up by Republicans. The Democrats control 59 of the 100 Senate seats.

"We've got work to do yet before there's going to be complete bipartisan support for this, but we're on the right track," Dodd later told CNBC in an interview.

Republicans, however, are trying to put the brakes on Dodd's quick timetable.

Senator Bob Corker, a Republican from Tennessee who tried to revive a bipartisan deal with Dodd before talks collapsed last week, said a one-week deadline for committee passage of the bill was "way too quick."

However, he thinks Congress will still pass a bill this year. "I think the odds are very high, and I think there are people on both sides of the aisle that actually want to see a bipartisan bill," Corker said on CNBC.

19 March 2010

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Osama bin Laden will never face US trial, be caught alive: Holder WASHINGTON: Al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden will never face trial in the United States because he will not be captured alive, Attorney General Eric Holder told lawmakers. During a heated exchange with Republican congressmen, Holder predicted that "we will be reading Miranda rights to the corpse of Osama bin Laden" rather than to the US public enemy number one in captivity.

"Let's deal with reality," the attorney general added. Bin Laden "will never appear in an American

courtroom."

Holder reacted angrily to Republican critics who say the attorney general's proposal to try terror suspects in US federal civilian courts would put Americans at risk. "They have the same rights that a Charles Manson would have, any other kind of mass murderer," he told a House Appropriations subcommittee hearing yesterday. "The notion that a defendant in an Article III (civilian) court is somehow being treated in an inappropriate, special

way -- that he's being coddled, is anything but the truth... These defendants charged with murder are treated just like any other murder defendant would be."

Republican Representative John Culberson said Holder's analogy to Manson, a convicted killer, showed President Barack Obama's administration has a profound disconnect with an American public that wants the terror suspects to be tried as war criminals and not as criminal defendants.

TV game show turns Indians face 'racial slur' at local players into torturers cricket match in Australia

PARIS: Game show contestants turn torturers in a new psychological experiment for French television, zapping a man with electricity until he cries for mercy — then zapping him again until he seems to drop dead. 'The Game of Death' has all the trappings of a traditional television quiz show, with a roaring crowd and a glamorous and well-known hostess urging the players on under gaudy studio lights. But the contestants did not know they were taking part in an experiment to find out whether television could push them to outrageous lengths, and which has prompted comparisons with the atrocities of Nazi Germany. "We were amazed to find that 81% of the participants obeyed" the sadistic orders of the TV presenter, said Christophe Nick, the maker of the documentary. Nick and a team of psychologists recruited 80 volunteers, telling them they were taking part in a new TV show. Not knowing that the screaming victim is really an actor, the apparently reluctant contestants yield to the

orders of the presenter. Nick said 80% of the contestants went all the way, zapping the victim until he appeared to die. Out of 80 players, just 16 walked out.

The experiment was modelled on Yale University study in the 1960s, which examined how obedient citizens could come to take part in mass murder.

MELBOURNE: Almost an entire cricket team in Victoria is under investigation for alleged onfield incidents of sustained racial abuse of players of Indian descent during a match on Saturday, a local media report said. Witnesses claimed the taunts reduced many of the victims to tears and they were considering giving up the sport. The Geelong Cricket Association has launched a probe after receiving an official written complaint from the Waurn Ponds Cricket Club against opposition club Thomson, The Geelong Advertiser reported.

The complaint alleges six Waurn Ponds players of Indian descent were subjected to a series of racially motivated verbal attacks during Saturday's fourthgrade qualifying final at Grinter Reserve No. 2. The comments were allegedly made when the

Waurn Ponds team was batting, with requests to stop from both the umpire and several aggrieved players going unheeded, it said. Waurn Ponds, based at Deakin University, comprises a strong core of international students in its lower grades, with more than a dozen registered players of Indian descent. The complaint exempted only one Thomson player, Paul Welsh, of any wrongdoing. Thomson has denied the allegations and said it would support the GCA investigation. GCA vice president Garry McPherson, who will chair the investigation, confirmed Waurn Ponds had lodged a complaint. "We've received a letter requesting an investigation and that process will be going forward this week," McPherson was quoted in the paper as

saying. "From that investigation hearing we will determine a course of action as to whether there's a case to be found at all, initially, and then any possible penalties or conciliation that may need to be undertaken." "All these things will come out from the meeting on Wednesday night," he added.

Waurn Ponds lost the match by 13 runs. Thomson batted first, setting Waurn Ponds 213 for victory off 40 overs. McPherson said Thomson had cooperated and would make players and officials available for the hearing. Thomson president Laurie McGovern categorically denied the accusations. "There has been a complaint from Waurn Ponds written by (Waurn Ponds president and Advertiser sports reporter) Daniel Breen and it is a letter that is strenuously denied by Thomson Cricket Club and we will support any GCA investigation," McGovern said.

Nobel laureate Ebadi says Siemens and Nokia help Iran regime PARIS: Nobel prize winner Shirn Ebadi accused German engineering giant Siemens and Finnish telecoms firm Nokia of supplying Iran with technology to help it suppress democratic dissent. Speaking on France Culture radio, the exiled Iranian feminist and 2003 Nobel peace laureate, said Western firms are undermining opposition to Tehran's authoritarian regime and called for international economic sanctions. "Unfortunately, a and censorship," she said. "It's state software and technology certain number of firms support clearly the case with Siemens and that it can use to monitor mobile the Iranian regime in its repression Nokia when they send the Iranian telephone calls and text

messages," she declared. Earlier this month, the firms' joint subsidiary Nokia Siemens Networks had already insisted that a system it sold Tehran in 2008 is not capable of bugging calls or spying on the Internet. Nokia went further following Ebadi's latest charges, insisting that networks supported by its technology could in fact boost freedom of expression. "We, as a company, in no way approve of the misuse of telecommunication equipment," Nokia Siemens Network spokeswoman Riitta Maard said.

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19 March 2010

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Thai protesters pour their own blood on streets Thai Thaiprotesters protesterspour pourtheir theirown ownblood bloodon onstreets streets

Bankok : Thai protesters poured blood they had donated outside the front gate of the government headquarters Tuesday in a symbolic sacrifice to press their

demands for new elections.

Thousands of red-shirted demonstrators formed long lines to have their blood drawn by nurses, a day after their leaders

vowed to collect 1 million cubic centimeters of blood — 264 gallons (1,000 liters) — to spill at Government House.

A few teaspoons of blood were drawn from the veins of each volunteer and then transferred into dozens of large plastic water jugs that were passed overhead through the crowd of cheering protesters before being delivered to Government House, the prime minister's office. Police allowed protest leaders to approach the white iron front gate and pour out the blood, which oozed under the gate as national television broadcast the images live. Prime

Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva has not entered his office at Government House since the protests started on Friday. “The blood of the common people is mixing together to fight for democracy,” Nattawut Saikua, one of the protest leaders, told cheering supporters. “When Abhisit works in his office, he will be reminded that he is sitting on the people's blood.”

A protest leader, Weng Tochirakarn, said by midafternoon they had collected 500,000 cubic centimeters of blood — half of their goal — from 50,000 protesters. Each donor is being asked to give only a small

amount of blood. Not all the blood was spilled immediately. Protest leaders said the rest would be poured outside the headquarters of the ruling Democrat Party and the prime minister's house if the protest demands were not met.

Government spokesman Panitan Watanayagorn said authorities will allow the protest as long as it remains peaceful. “If they want to throw it and have a photo op and have us clean it up later, I think it's fine,” Mr. Panitan told a briefing of foreign media. He said health authorities were looking into whether “throwing blood on the streets violates health measures.”

Killing of Americans pressures Mexico in drug war Iran calls on West to pursue

Maxico : Suspected drug hitmen killed an American woman working at the consulate in Ciudad Juarez, just over the border from El Paso, Texas, and her U.S. husband on Saturday as they left a children's birthday party. A Mexican man married to another

consulate employee was killed around the same time in another part of the city after he and his wife left the same event.The FBI joined Mexican authorities in the investigation of the murders, while U.S. officials downplayed suggestions that U.S. diplomats

Oz bookstore's "control a woman" remote causes outrage Melbourne : A bookstore in Melbourne is said to have sparked outrage after it was found to be selling a "control a woman" remote and that too on International Women's Day. According to ABC Radio, Borders was forced to defend the 15 dollars novelty product after a woman told of her anger at seeing it during last week's celebration of female rights and achievements. Katie Robertson said she was "troubled" by the t o y, " m a i n l y b e c a u s e i t encourages a stereotype of women as submissive, who are to be controlled". "There are

certain buttons on there. For example, the male may decide that he wants beer, sex or food," News.com.au quoted her as saying. "He may press a button in which he requires the woman to remove her clothes, cook, clean, leave, (or) say yes. "There's also a button in which you can increase her breast size," she revealed.

Borders spokeswoman Lauren Thompson said the product was intended to be "a bit funny, a bit of a gimmick", and that "it is base level humour". She also said the chain sells a "control a man" remote, which has sold out.

had been targeted in the attacks.

The White House expressed outrage over the murders and pledged to continue supporting Mexico's fight against ruthless gangs smuggling narcotics into the United States.

"The tragic murders over the weekend underscore the imperative of our continued commitment to work closely with Mexican authorities to take down the drug trafficking organizations," National Security Council spokesman Mike Hammer.

Violence has exploded in recent months in Ciudad Juarez as rival drug gangs struggle for control over the city, a hotspot in Mexico's three-year-old drug war. The deployment of thousands of troops

by Calderon, who has staked his presidency on beating back the drug cartels, has failed to stop the killing of more than 4,600 people over two years in the Ciudad Juarez area. Calderon was already scheduled to visit Ciudad Juarez before the consulate murders added to outrage at the slaying in January of 15 people, mainly teenagers, at a party.

talks in nuclear row

Tehran : Iran called on the West Tuesday to pursue talks in the row over the Islamic state's nuclear programmes.'The logical option would be holding negotiations, and if there is any criticism, raising this within the framework of talks,' parliament Speaker Ali Larijani said at a press conference in Tehran.

The speaker, who was Iran's chief nuclear negotiator from 2005 to 2007, noted that China and other countries have yet to join the Western calls for new sanctions against Iran. Iran has said it is ready to negotiate with the world powers over its nuclear programmes but not to suspend its uranium enrichment, as demanded by the West and the UN Security Council. Iran's atomic chief, Ali-Akbar Salehi, proclaimed last month that in the new Persian year, which begins March 21, the country planned to build 10 new enrichment sites, followed by 10 more in the future.

China provided nuke weapon blueprint to Pakistan Washington: It is China which provided Pakistan with the blueprint to build a nuclear weapon, in early 1980s, a small, reliable armament that could be delivered on India by attack aircraft or missile, according to a new book. The blueprint was delivered as the desperate Pakistani nuclear scientists led by A Q Khan were unable to build the weapon they wanted, said the book by David Albright, a former UN weapons inspector.

"The best it (Pakistan) could hope for was a bomb weighing a few thousand pounds, akin to what the United States detonated over Japan. Once again, Pakistan would rely on the technological advances of another country for help, but this time it would

use diplomacy instead if espionage," says the book.

The book "Peddling Peril: The Secret Nuclear Trade Arms America's Enemies" that hit the stands today gives an in-depth account of how the maligned A Q Khan network through espionage and stealing build the nuclear plant and finally weapon for Pakistan, the secret technology of which was later passed to several rogue States.

Albright, founder and president of the Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security, in his book offers an uneven expose on the "illicit trade in nuclear technology" and the threats it poses to American security.

India

19 March 2010

11

BUYING A NEW CAR? BE PREPARED TO PAY MORE NOW, A PERMANENT RECORD OF THE DEAD IN CYBER SPACE

New Delhi : The cashstrapped Delhi government has found a new way to strengthen its exchequer - increase the road tax on new cars and two-wheelers rolling out on the city roads.

Facing a huge deficit due to the economic slowdown in the past couple of years and massive spending on infrastructure projects for the upcoming Commonwealth Games, the Delhi government has now decided to take some harsher measures. The Delhi government is proposing to increase the road tax on smaller cars by 100 per cent and 25-125 per cent on luxury cars in the upcoming budget, which will be tabled in the Assembly on March 22. The higher the car's cost, the more will be the road tax.

According to the new tax structure, the road tax on cars less priced at less than Rs 4 lakh will be increased from the existing two per cent (of ex-showroom price) to four per cent. Also, the government is introducing different tax slabs, ranging from five per

133 abuse cases in 6 yrs in J&K: Antony New Delhi : More than 130 complaints of human rights abuse were filed against the army during the last six years in Jammu and Kashmir, but the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) shielded the soldiers. Defence Minister A K Antony told Rajya Sabha last week that 133 complaints were made against army between 2004 and '09. The state government made 38 requests to prosecute soldiers but permission was not granted by the Centre. The AFSPA prohibits prosecutions from being initiated without the go-ahead from the Centre, if the allegations are linked to the public duty of the accused.

cent to 9 per cent, on cars priced more than Rs 4 lakh, a highly placed source in the government said.Road tax in Delhi, at present, is among the lowest in the country. Delhi's neighbouring states like Haryana and Uttar Pradesh have recently increased their road tax and registration charges. "If a person can afford to buy a super-luxury car, he should not have problem in paying more taxes to the government," said a highly placed source in the Delhi government. According to the proposed tax structure, high-end super-luxury cars, costing above

Rs 10 million (Rs 1 crore) will attract a whopping nine per cent road tax.That means, the proud buyer of Bentley Motors' upcoming super-luxury Mulsanne car, expected to cost Rs 2.90 crore in the Indian market, will have to pay a whopping Rs 26.10 lakh as road tax to register the car in Delhi. The government believes that the increase in road tax will not only discourage people from buying new cars to some extent but will also help improve the financial health of the state. In 2009-2010, the Delhi government is likely to earn Rs 530 crore from registration of new vehicles. With the new tax structure, the amount is expected to be almost double in the next fiscal, the source said.

Everyday, 900-1,000 new vehicles roll out on Delhi's roads, of which, said sources, 250-300 are cars. Of the 60 lakh vehicles registered in Delhi, 18.60 lakh are cars and jeeps while 38 lakh are two-wheelers.

The road tax on two-wheelers is also being hiked from two per cent of the vehicle's cost to three per cent, sources said.

A PEEK AT NEXTGENERATION AGNI-V New Delhi : Shrouded in secrecy for its political implications, the first visual impressions of India's most ambitious nuclear delivery system, the Agni-5 ballistic missile, are out. Officials with the Agni programme in Hyderabad confirmed the pictures were an accurate depiction of the in- development weapon.

On February 10, Agni programme director Dr Avinash Chander had told Headlines Today, " The Agni-5 looks similar to the Agni-3, except that it is longer as a result of an additional propulsion stage." Still at least a year away from its first testfiring-an official estimate says February 2011– the Agni-5 has already acquired a formidable global reputation. In October last year, in its first ever reference to an Indian weapon programme, China's state-owned People's Daily newspaper pointed out that

"India's Agni-5 missile is highly road-mobile, and effectively puts Harbin, China's northernmost city within striking range."

The Agni-5 is being built to deliver a nuclear warhead out to ranges of 5,000-6,000/ km.

Sources reveal that 60 per cent of the first Agni-5 missile system is complete, with work now focused on the weapon's crucial third stage. Scientists are currently tweaking the missile's payload structure, introducing extra heating and making alterations to the re- entry mechanism.The missile will also be India's first to be propelled by a composite rocket motor as opposed to a metallic one. With the 3,500-km-range Agni-3 to enter service with India's Strategic Forces Command– which governs all nuclear weapons– this year, the Agni5 will be put through a similar four-flight trial between 20112013.

Agra : Dead bodies found along railway tracks, at road accident sites and in village wells in this region shall not be cremated without a record. They will now have a permanent abode in cyber space. An NGO in the Taj city, 'Help Agra', Wednesday launched a website, www.unidentifieddeadbodies.in, which will show all available details culled from police records, along with photos of unidentified bodies.

What usually happens is that police do not wait long enough for the relatives or make extra effort to contact people who would know something about a dead

body, Ashok Goyal, head of the Kshetra Bajaja Samiti which looks after the Taj Ganj cremation ground, told IANS. 'For many years we have been collecting data and seeking assistance from government agencies but they did not respond,' Goyal said.

'If even one family benefits from our service, we will feel our mission has been accomplished.

Our aim is to maintain a register of unknown and unclaimed bodies kept in mortuaries.' The organisation will perform the last rites of unclaimed bodies according to their religion, if known.

HC STOPS WIFE FROM TAKING FERNANDES TO AMERICA New Delhi : The feud within the family of former defence minister George Fernandes reached the Delhi High Court on Tuesday. Admitting a petition filed by his brothers Richard, Aloyscious and Michael, the court on Tuesday restrained his estranged wife Leila Kabir and son Sean from taking 79-year-old Fernandes out of Delhi. The brothers approached the HC when they apprehended that Kabir wanted to take him to the

US where she lives. The once firebrand socialist leader is undergoing treatment for Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease and is living with Kabir and Sean. Alleging that they were not being allowed to meet Fernandes, the brothers have sought "unfettered access" to him. Seeking Kabir's reply by April 26, Justice V K Shali has for the time being restrained Kabir and Sean from taking him outside the Capital.

N-LIABILITY BILL AFTER LS BREAK New Delhi : Having failed in its first attempt, the government is now determined to introduce the Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Bill in the second half of the Budget session that begins from April 12 after a 25-day break.

"We are determined to introduce the bill in the Lok Sabha once the financial business is over in the post-recess session,'' said a Union minister.

But to create an atmosphere for it, the government has a threepronged plan. The first part was initiated on Tuesday when it roped National Security Advisor Shiv Shankar Menon to brief its media managers and some young MPs, including those from the minority community, with arguments to counter the Opposition onslaught

on the issue and to remove popular misconceptions on the bill. A 12-page background note that rebuts the Opposition's charges was circulated among the 10-odd MPs at Tuesday's meeting in the office of Parliamentary Affairs Minister P.K. Bansal. Those present included Union ministers Kapil Sibal, Prithviraj Chavan and Sachin Pilot and MPs Jayanti Natarajan, Sandeep Dikshit, Manish Tewari, Rajiv Shukla, Rashid Alvi and Mausam Noor.

The second part will be unfolded when the government brings the bill by ensuring the full attendance of its 274 MPs and the seven independent/ unattached members now backing the UPA.

Showbiz

19 March 2010

12

Well done Abba is tongue-incheek: Minissha Lamba Mumbai : Working with Shyam Benegal is almost every serious actor's wish and when actress Minissha Lamba got a chance to do so, she says, she could be "nothing but perfect".

She terms their film Well Done Abba an "educative trip".

"Much before beginning to shoot for the film, I was sure about one thing that I couldn't let Shyam sir down. Here I was working with a man who has been directing for 35 years now so I had to be

nothing but perfect with my performance," Minissha told IANS. With such a senior person calling the shots, wasn't it intimidating?

"Honestly, it wasn't intimidating because Shyam sir is a pro in working with actors. He knows how to take care of them and extract the best out of them. This is why I didn't even know how an entire month passed by and the shooting got over.

"More than him calling the shots, what was really unnerving was the

kind of immense pressure that I had put myself into. For me, every day was a challenge as I had to give my very best," she said.

The film has been narrated in a comic and ironic vein. It is an engaging story of Armaan Ali (Boman Irani), a driver working in Mumbai. He takes leave for a month to find a husband for his teenage daughter (Minissha), who lives in a small locality close to Hyderabad.

Armaan Ali returns to work only after three months.

I can marry tomorrow: Priyanka Mumbai : She’s back from the States after a shooting schedule of three months, and even if there is still a bit of jetlag, Piggy Chops isn’t showing any of it. The actress was in Delhi to cheer for the Indian Hockey team, all energy and enthusiasm. “I was very excited to at least try and attend one match,” she said. And any plans for the IPL? “Not yet, I’m just focussing on hockey. I love cricket as well, I hope to catch some of the matches if I can.” Ask her which team she’d be rooting for, and she says hastily, “Oh, I don’t pick, a lot of my friends are on these teams, so I’m not picking any teams, at all!” Does that mean she’ll be cheering for everyone? “I’ll be cheering for the game.” Clever reply, we have to say. “Every time I watch a game, I’ll say ‘hmmm, so which is the team I’d like to pick today?’” So what will help her decide, which team has cuter guys, maybe? “Errr.... umm... well as a single girl I could say yeah.” Hold it, did she say single?

“Yeah, definitely, you can hold me up to that,” she laughs, “But no, I always go with the stronger side baba, I like to play it safe! I like to be on the winning side, always.” Would Priyanka perform at any of the matches, or post match ceremonies? “Not yet, but it would be fun I think, to do it,” she says. She was recently in the news for being contractually forbidden by producer Sajid Nadidwala to tweet about her next with Ranbir Kapoor, Anjaana Anjaani; what does she have to say about that?

“Actually, that’s not happened, and I don’t know where that one’s come from. Because if you see any of my tweets, I never speak about my film, only about my experiences. The contract hasn’t happened, I’ve only read about it myself,” says PC.

Big B and his 'Aamir wish' New Delhi : Amitabh Bachchan had recently mentioned in his blog that he had met Aamir Khan after the demise of the latter's father Tahir Hussain. Bachchan also wrote that the two spoke about the possibility of working together some day. The Bollywood superstar has never shared screen space with Aamir. When asked, Aamir admitted that they did talk about such a possibility as they both want to work together.

"I have always been a big fan of Amit ji and have been looking forward to an opportunity to work with him. So far, the right script has not come up, but I am hopeful that it will come up some day," Aamir said. He, in fact, does not rule out even directing a film with Big B playing an important role.

Madonna's boyfriend snubs Lindsay London : The 23-year-old Brazilian had flown into the French capital last week for a night at a plush VIP club, when the 'Mean Girls' tried to get some time out with him, reported Mirror online.

"Lindsay got her people to phone the club to try and hang out with him. She knew he was hosting a night there with Alicia Keys and her boyfriend Swiss Beatz," said a source.

But the DJ avoided the 24-year-old actress as he did not want to anger the Queen of Pop.

19 March 2010

Showbiz

13

Amrita Arora walks the ramp for Wills Lifestyle India Fashion Week New Delhi : Leading designers Namrata Joshipuria and G. Pia Flemings showcased their exclusive collection for Fiama Di Wills, the associate sponsor of Wills Lifestyle India Fashion Week in New Delhi on Tuesday.

Wills Lifestyle India Fashion Week Autumn/Winter 2010 is set to showcase the grand collection, and 75 designers are participating in the much awaited event starting from March 24.umbai-based designer Namrata

Joshipuria showcased her collection titled 'Narcotic love... Elemental Strength'. The collection explored many of the theme designs, which are Namrata's signature like embellishments, unique use of colour and the contemporary shades."The collection as you know is titled Narcotic love...

Elemental Strength. So the collection is basically about a woman who is addicted to love. Narcotic is an addiction but she gets her strength so it's a sensual and a strong collection," said Joshipuria.

Bollywood actress Amrita Rao walked the ramp for Namrata.

"Today I'm very happy that I've come

here through Wills Lifestyle India Fashion Week and Fiama Di Wills which is a close associate and I've introduced two designers," said Rao. The other designer who showcased her collection was G. Pia Flemings and it was titled Red Carpet Collection.The collection was inspired by the Italian Opera.

Wills Lifestyle India Fashion Week is one of the major business-tobusiness fashion fete.The fashion week would provide a stage to 19 new designers to showcase their talent and make a place for themselves in the glamorous industry.

'Avatar' lost at Oscars due to perceived anti-US theme: Cameron

London : Hollywood filmmaker James Cameron feels his blockbuster 'Avatar' may have lost out to 'The Hurt Locker' at this years Oscars due to the sci-fi drama's perceived anti-US theme. When asked whether 'Avatar's defeat at the Academy Awards was related to the anti-US theme of the film at recent event, Cameron said, "You may have a point there. The Academy (Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences) tends to favour those films which give a closure to

what we have been doing on foreign lands."

"And 'The Hurt Locker' is such a film.

Not that I am trying to take anything away from Kathryn. It is a fantastic film and it was me who asked her to direct it," he added. Cameron, whose film shows how the US military and corporates seek to displace the Na'vi people on Pandora to obtain a rich mineral called 'Unobtainium', lost the Best Director Oscar to former wife, Kathryn Bigelow for 'The Hurt Locker'.

Men imagine undressing me: Sophia Loren plays her mother in biopic Sydney : "La Mia Casa E Piena Jessica Simpson di Specchi" (My House Is Full of Washington : Jessica Simpson feels men imagine undressing her after ex boyfriend John Mayer compared her to "sexual napalm” in an interview.

The singer revealed that she felt uncomfortable being in public. "I''ll walk into a restaurant and I feel like men are looking at me. I feel like they''re undressing me," the New York Daily News quoted her as saying on ‘The View’.

The blonde also dismissed Mayer’s apology. She added: "He''ll never have this napalm again!" Simpson has started her own VH1 reality show, ‘The Price of Beauty.’

Mirrors), based on a book by the actress''s sister Maria Scicolone, has been divided into a two part series. Giuseppe Tornatore''s Sicilian village blockbuster ‘Baaria’ star Margareth Made plays the young Loren. However, the main character is the mother, Romilda Villani, who fulfilled her thwarted desire of being an actress through Loren. "Things stay inside you, you never forget and you can''t help it," the Telegraph quoted Loren, 75, as saying.

19 March 2010

Showbiz

"Jennifer and I are just friends," says Gerard Butler

Titanic in 3D version by 2012

London : Acclaimed filmmaker James Cameron has confirmed that he'll bring the 3D version of Titanic on the big screen by 2012. "We're targeting spring of 2012 for the release (of a 3D version of Titanic) which is the 100th anniversary of the sailing of the ship," contactmusic.com quoted him as saying. The movie was released in 1997. Cameron also revealed that he would put his latest epic film Avatar back into movie theatres by releasing a director's cut later this year. "The wild card is that we might be rereleasing the movie this fall. It's kind of gotten stomped out (in theatres since the release) of Alice in Wonderland. The word we're getting back from exhibitors is we probably left a couple of hundred million dollars on the table as a result," he said. "The question is (that) the appetite (is) still going to be there after the summer glut of movies. We're going to assess that. We're talking about may be adding in additional footage and doing something creative," he added.

14

London : Even after their flirtatious body language and a trip to Mexico together, actor Gerard Butler insists that he is "just friends" with co-star Jennifer Aniston.

After embracing Aniston at the London premiere of their new film ''The Bounty Hunter'' last week,

Butler did little to dispel rumours the couple were dating in real-life. But the Scottish actor insists the pair are ''just friends'', Daily Mail online reported. The ''300 star'' even admits he enjoys the rumours because they deflect attention from the women he is really dating.

"I went for her birthday to Mexico.

We''re just friends. We have a natural chemistry - you can see it in our magazine shoot (W) and the film. We have a great time together," Butler said."But here''s the thing while they''re accusing me of

being with Jennifer, I''ve probably been off somewhere else doing some damage with someone else," he added. Butler, 40, has a reputation of being a ladies man in Hollywood, which he insists isn''t as true as he would like. He says that he has only had two relationships. "My last two girlfriends - one was two years, the other 18 months - nobody ever found out I was dating them.I''m pretty good at keeping that silent. I''m not a big relationship guy. One of my vices is, I''m too wrapped up in myself and not always in a good way," Butler said.

Preity Zinta appointed UNAIDS Goodwill Ambassador New Delhi : Actress Preity Zinta was appointed UNAIDS Goodwill Ambassador and plans to combine Cricket and Bollywood to raise awareness about the deadly disease. The 35-year-old actress who is the co-owner of IPL team Kings XI Punjab, will donate 25 percent of the profits made by her team to charities selected by the UN. "The players of my team will be wearing ribbons for the cause of HIV-AIDS. Someone living with HIV will come on the field and toss for our matches. Me and my team will also be making field trips in Punjab," the actress told reporters here.

Preity will be making public service message films for UNAIDS featuring herself and the players which will be in English, Hindi and Punjabi. She promised to ask for support from the film fraternity, who she noted are always up for a cause.

Abhishek Bachchan starrer to be co-produced by Fox Star Chennai : Abhishek Bachchan starrer 'Dum Maaro Dum' set to be directed by Rohan Sippy will be co-produced Fox Star Studios, a joint venture between Twentieth Century Fox and Star.

The film will be Rohan's third movie with Abhishek, whom he had earlier directed in 'Kuch Naa Kaho' and 'Bluffmaster'. "I am happy to team up yet again with Abhishek, who is a marvelous actor, and together we promise to provide edge of the seat excitement to audiences," said Rohan. "We are committed to working with the best talent in

the business and are delighted to be working with the winning pair of Rohan and Abhishek on 'Dum Maaro Dum'. It's an amazing script that we are all very excited about. It's going to be a film to watch out for in 2010," Vijay Singh, CEO of Fox Star Studios India, said in a statement.The movie, an action-thriller, will be shot in Goa and also star Bipasha Basu, Aditya Panscholi and Pratiek Babbar and Telegu Star Rana Daggubati, who will make his Bollywood debut. Ramesh Sippy, the co-producer of the movie, also echoed similar sentiments.

Kate Winslet splits from hubby New York : The Hollywood A-listers' split was "amicable." Winslet, winner of the 2009 best actress Oscar for "The Reader", married Mendes, awarded the Academy Award for best director in 2000 for "American Beauty", in May 2003. "Kate and Sam are saddened to announce that they separated earlier this year. The split is entirely amicable and is by mutual agreement," London lawyer Keith Schilling said in a statement Monday. "Both parties are fully committed to the joint parenting of their children," Schilling added.

"They ask that the media respect the privacy of the family." Winslet and Mendes have a six-year-old son, Joe, and Winslet has a nine-year-old daughter, Mia, from her previous marriage to Jim Threapleton, an assistant director she met while making the low-budget "Hideous Kinky". The 34-year-old British actress rose to global prominence as the

romantic heroine in the 1997 blockbuster "Titanic" alongside Leonardo DiCaprio. She was married for just over three years to Threapleton, but they divorced in December 2001. Mendes and Winslet became a couple within two months of her split from Threapleton. They made their first public appearance in Britain together in 2002 when they attended the premiere of Mendes's second film, "The Road To Perdition".

Mendes, 44, directed his wife in the 2008 drama "Revolutionary Road", an experience he describ e d as "exhilarating", and confessed he saw "a side of her I just didn't know". The film, about a disintegrating marriage in 1950s suburban America, reunited her with DiCaprio and won her a Golden Globe for best actress. Often described as one of Hollywood's "golden couples", Winslet and Mendes were based in New York.

19 March 2010

Showbiz

15

Salman Khan's My shop will always sell fear: Vikram Bhatt family planning New Delhi : The buzz in the trade is that Boney had bought the rights of Bodyguard and wanted Prabhudebva (who directed the runaway hit Wanted not too long ago) to direct the Hindi version, but Salman asked him to hand over the rights to Atul Agnihotri.

Siddique, who had directed the original in Malayalam, will also direct the Hindi version. A source revealed, “Boney did not hesitate to give up remaking Bodyguard.

He loves Salman too much and considers the actor’s wish as his command.” Boney admitted that he initially wanted to r e m a k e Bodyguard in Hindi but he is not upset. He said, “It’s fine if Atul will make it with Siddique.

Salman was keen that Atul should make it and I have no i s s u e s whatsoever. I have not done anything great. I was simply on the verge of buying the rights of Bodyguard.

Salman is family to me. I love fulfilling all his wishes and will always continue to do so.” Atul confirmed that he is making the Hindi version of Bodyguard with Salman.

Mumbai : Bollywood director-producer Vikram Bhatt, who is ready with his next spook flick 'Shaapit' says his fascination for horror films will always continue as he likes to scare audience.

"I love horror films...I enjoy making them. Directors like David Dhawan, Karan Johar and Madhur Bhandarkar weave laughter, love and social issues into their stories.Similarly, I love to scare people," Vikram said. "I like to sell fear. It may be horror or something else..but my shop will always sell fear," Vikram who has earlier directed spook fests like 'Raaz' and '1920', said. 'Shaapit' is a romantic-horror story starring noted playback singer Udit Narayan's son Aditya Narayan and newcomer Shewta Agarwal will release next week under the banner of ASA Productions and Enterprises. The director is working on one more horror film with Aditya Narayan, "but we are still working on the script and rest of the starcast for the film," he said.

Shah Rukh Khan

urges Bollywood to learn from Hollywood business from Hollywood.

'However, learning Hollywood screenplay and technology is not about losing the intrinsic quality of our stories. We must maintain our own cinematic individuality,' he said. Shah Rukh advocated formation of alliances with Hollywood to help the Indian film industry nurture its potentially different story format, the musicaldrama format and 'make us travel around the world'. Shah Rukh emphasized that 'the sooner Mumbai : Superstar Shah Rukh Indian filmmakers realize that Khan Tuesday urged Indian screenplay is not an art form but filmmakers 'to learn from a science, the faster Indian movies Hollywood' and offered a threepoint prescription which could help the globalization of Bollywood movies. Speaking at the inaugural session of 'FICCI FRAMES-2010', Shah Rukh said that Indian filmmakers must learn screenplay writing techniques, visual effects and discipline in doing movie

will globalize and Hollywood can exchange that know-how with India'. 'The big investment we are looking for from Hollywood is the training of mechanics for running machines for visual effects. We need to develop people who can make us our own cheaper, better and faster softwares for filmmaking and have a special branch of trained visual effect teams and talent here,' Shah Rukh added.

Stressing on discipline, Shah Rukh said that the Indian film industry needs to adopt from Hollywood the discipline and organisation with which it does its business.

Fat-rina resists temptation!

Mumbai : After being fed on a diet of cakes, chocolates and other desserts to look curvaceous and full-bodied, the poor girl, who is reportedly doing the Partner sequel, is having a tough time shedding those extra kilos.

Apparently, her mentor, co-star and script-writer of Veer, Salman Khan had ordered her to pile on the pounds and to gorge on cakes and chocolates for months to look voluptuous for her role in order to resemble a woman in the 18th century, all under the superstar's supervision. It was mentioned in her contract, too. So from 54 kgs her weight zoomed up to 62 kgs in three months. Also, most of

her clothes – saris and gowns were designed in a way that enhanced her size and made her look bigger. "Yaaa”, Zarine moaned, “I will have to keep a control on my tongue today so that I don’t binge (imagine the young girl had to look away from numerous exotic cuisines that lay in front of her) because I really need to lose whatever I gained in that period. Chocolate is totally out. That is really sad,” whined the 21-yearold actress, who prefers nonvegetarian food and is fond of Lebanese in particular. “But I love homemade food, I eat whatever my mom cooks rather than going out,” she said. Her mantra: “Whatever you eat should be healthy.” Best of luck, Zarine!

Despite living in a town where even the under-30s queue up for Botox, facelifts and liposuctions, the 35-year-old star does not want to follow in the footsteps of her contemporaries in Showbiz.

19 March 2010

Health

16

Pregnant women with gum disease more likely to give birth prematurely London: regnant women with gum disease are more likely to give birth prematurely than mothersto-be with good oral health, according to a new US study.

The research by scientists at the University of Pennsylvania suggests that successful treatment for gum disease can cut the risk of pregnant women giving birth early, reports the BBC. The study of 160 women showed that those whose gum disease was not treated successfully were three times more likely to give birth before 35 weeks. It has been previously established that severe gum infections cause an increase in the production of prostaglandin and tumour necrosis

factor, chemicals which induce labour, to be produced.The study enrolled women who were between six and 20 weeks' pregnant. All of the volunteers had gum disease. These women were given treatment, which was successful in one third of the cases.

The results showed a ‘strong and significant association’ between successful treatment and fullterm births. Those whose treatment did not work were ‘significantly more likely’ to give birth before 35 weeks. However, UK experts warned that this was a small study and further research was needed.

The study was presented to the annual conference of the American Association for Dental Research.

Let your baby cry itself to sleep Melbourne : Mothers shouldn't lose their sleep when their baby cries, instead they should let children cry themselves to sleep, as it is apparently good, a new study claims. A six-year Australian study recommends doctors and health workers to advise families to adopt the controversial method of controlled crying -letting children cry itself to sleep - to beat sleep problems. Researchers from Murdoch Childrens Research Institute and Royal Children's Hospital in Melbourne claim controlled crying reduced babies' sleeping problems by 30 per cent within four months and cut depression rates in mothers by 40 per cent by the time children turned two. Lead author Anna Price, said: "Hopefully this evidence really will reassure parents who want to manage their children's sleep by using these kind

of strategies."We totally understand that hearing your baby crying is difficult for any parent, but it's great to know if they persevere, they are not doing their child any harm. "It's quite phenomenal. We know that early sleep problems double the risk of post-natal depression in mothers, which can affect bonding with the child."By the time the babies reached age of two, 85 per cent of parents agreed controlled crying had improved their relationship with their child. Meanwhile, the remaining 15 per cent reported no change, but none thought it had done any harm, reports The Daily Telegraph. However, critics call controlled crying "cruel" and fear it may have "unintended negative consequences" for children in the future.

The study will be presented to the World Health Congress of Internal Medicine later this month.

After cancer, why women remove the healthy breast too New York : For decades, advocates have fought to protect women from disfiguring breast cancer surgery, arguing that it was just as effective to remove only the cancerous tissue rather than the whole breast. But today, a growing number of women with breast cancer are pushing surgeons not only to get the cancerous breast removed, but to also get healthy breast cut off.

“I just didn’t want to worry about it,” explained Liliana Holtzman, 50, an art director, who had both breasts removed after a cancer diagnosis five years ago. “It was for my own peace of mind.”

The percentage of women asking to remove both breasts after a cancer diagnosis has more than doubled in recent years. Over all, about 6 per cent of women undergoing surgery for breast cancer in 2006 opted for the procedure, formally known as contralateral prophylactic mastectomy. Among

women in their 40s, one in 10 opted to have both breasts removed, according to a University of Minnesota study.The practice is also popular among women with the earliest, most curable forms of cancer. Among women who had surgery for ductal carcinoma in situ, sometimes called Stage 0 cancer, the rate of double mastectomy rose to 5.2 per cent in 2005, from 2.1 per cent in 1998, according to a 2009 study in The Journal of Clinical Oncology.

Women with a known genetic risk for breast cancer can lower the chances of developing it by having both breasts removed before cancer appears.

But for most, cutting off a healthy breast does not improve the odds of survival. A new study in The Journal of the National Cancer Institute reviews data on 108,000 women who underwent mastectomy, including 9,000 who chose to remove the healthy breast as well.

19 March 2010

Health

17

Flu shots futile: Study Surrey : A new Canadian-led study has added to a simmering scientific dispute over flu-shot campaigns, concluding that immunizing nursing-home workers does nothing to cut the number of confirmed influenza cases among the homes' elderly residents.

Coming at the end of the largest flu-vaccination campaign in Canadian history, the review of previous studies calls for steppedup research into alternative, lowertech ways to combat the virus, such as improved hand washing.

"What troubled us is that [shots] had no effect on laboratoryconfirmed influenza," said Dr. Roger Thomas of the University of Calgary, lead author of the paper published by the respected Cochrane Library."What we were looking for is proof that influenza ... is decreased. Didn't find it. We looked for proof that pneumonia is

reduced. Didn't find it. We looked for proof deaths from pneumonia are reduced. Didn't find it."

A prominent flu expert, however, calls the authors' conclusions misleading, noting that vaccinating workers does, in fact, lessen the amount of influenza-like sickness and the number of deaths from all causes among those nursing-home denizens. That is all that really matters, said Dr. Allison McGeer, infectious disease specialist at Toronto's Mount Sinai Hospital.

"There is [very little] that you or I can do that is more effective at preventing deaths than vaccinating health-care workers in long-term care facilities," she said. "That's the bottom line ....

There is no question."

The studies could not accurately gauge the effect of vaccination on actual laboratory-

confirmed flu cases in nursing homes, because so few residents are tested, added Dr. McGeer. If labs had examined specimens from everyone in the studies, the results would likely have shown

Blood pressure fluctuations 'a new stroke risk factor' London : Extremely variable blood pressure, and not just high blood pressure, can greatly increase a person's risk of stroke, researchers have said. To reach the conclusion, UK and Swedish researchers looked at the variability in blood pressure readings at doctors' checks, reports The BBC. They found those with fluctuating readings at different GP visits had the greatest risk of future stroke regardless of what their average blood pressure reading was. According to Professor Peter Rothwell of the Department of Clinical Neurology at the University of Oxford, who led the research, the finding has major implications for how GPs spot and treat people at high risk of stroke.

"At the moment, the guidelines for GPs say not to believe a oneoff unusual reading, to bring the patient back and measure again, and as long as it's not consistently high, there is no need to treat.

"What we're saying is don't discount that one-off high blood pressure reading." "If you get rapid fluctuations that can cause turbulent flow of blood which can cause damage and stiffening in the arteries," said Professor Rothwell.

(Atlanta, GA) Recently passed senate and house bills in Arizona are a throwback to the dark ages for infertility treatments.

Recently the Arizona House and Senate heard testimony on bills that would virtually wipe out egg donation as a treatment for infertility in Arizona. Wiping out egg donation in Arizona reduces the opportunity for potential parents to choose egg donors within the state borders and thus reduces the chance for infertile patients to have children.

Regrettably, in late February these bills passed thus restricting many infertility treatments and putting a halt to research that would improve the ability for many to conceive or give birth to healthy

a reduction in confirmed flu cases, too, she said. The new paper's co-author is Dr. Tom Jefferson, a British epidemiologist who heads vaccine research for the

Tomato the new, safe way to fight heart disease New Delhi : A tomato derivative called Fruitflow, derived from the gelatine that surrounds tomato seeds, is apparently effective in reducing the risk of blood clotting. Scientists at Aberdeen's Rowett Institute said the results of the latest trials were 'statistically significant'. Provexis, a spin-off company of the research institute, which manufactures Fruitflow, has released its findings after comparing the effects of Fruitflow and aspirin over a seven-month period using 43 people. "We are delighted with the results of this latest human trial, which highlights the substantial effect that Fruitflow can have, without the associated side effects known to occur with aspirin," the Scotsman quoted chief executive Stephen Moon as saying. He added: "We have already announced intent to enter into an agreement with DSM Nutritional Products, the world's leading supplier of vitamins, carotenoids and other fine chemicals to feed, food, pharmaceutical and personal care industries." No ill effects were observed even when Fruitflow and aspirin were taken together. The drawbacks of aspirin are: it increases risk of ulcers and stomach bleeding.

Arizona Infertility Bills Oppose Life babies.

Georgians faced a similar threat in early 2009 when a similar bill was introduced to the senate. Due to the rally of patients, physicians, pro-life attorneys, RESLOVE, and protests by Xytex Cryo International the bill did not pass.

It is quite frightening that other states and lobbyists are pushing similar laws that would ban infertility treatments. Many of these laws are being lobbied by groups considered to be prolife while these laws would ironically affect the possibility to bear children for thousands of

respected Cochrane Collaboration -- and who has earned a reputation as a scientific dissident for his outspoken criticism of flu vaccination.

families and the loss of the ability to treat many childhood diseases that could be prevented if caught before birth.

One question that comes to mind when reviewing laws of this nature is why do legislators introduce these anti-family bills?

Infertile couples pray that laws are not passed that will restrict their opportunity to have children.

Families of children with Down syndrome, cystic fibrosis and other genetically curable diseases are outraged by the fact that encroaching legislators gamble with their future offspring by cutting or attempting to make illegal the

research that will help detect and eliminate genetically transferred diseases.

Political posturing over medical control which interferes with the possibility of infertile couples bringing forth life has nothing to do with government leadership. Politicians proclaim justice by spending tax dollars to pick and choose who will have children and who will not, and which children will be born healthy and which will not. It would seem that these politicians have forgotten their duties to uphold American ideals and have replaced them

with the choices of lobbyist deals.

About Xytex International: Xytex International has been enhancing lives through cellular ingenuity since 1975. A worldwide leader in reproductive tissue storage and research, Xytex International is made up of Xytex Corporation, which provides donor semen; Xytex Tissue Storage, Inc. (XTS), which provides long-term safekeeping of reproductive cells and is the parent company of Xytex Cord Blood Bank; and Xytex Research, which works to improve reproductive tissue technologies. For more information, please visit www.xytexinternational.com.

19 March 2010

'Indian women are bad lingerie shoppers'

Mumbai : Designer duo Narresh and Shrivan, who specialise in customised beachwear, feel that Indian women are at a loss when it comes to lingerie or swimwear shopping as there is no sizing chart available to suit their body type.

"The irony is that the most Indian designers make clothes in the UK or US measurements because that is the way it is taught in our fashion schools. We can't blame them but the problem is that till today no one has bothered to make a size chart for Indian women," Narresh Kukreja said in an interview.

"As a result, Indian women are very bad lingerie and swimwear shoppers because nothing is made according to their body type. No one is educating them about this and hence they lack confidence," he said. The designers showcased their resort collection at the ongoing Lakme Fashion Week recently.

National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT) alumni, Narresh and Shrivan, started working together in 2004.

After graduating from NIFT in 2007, they got a scholarship to do their masters from Fashion & Textiles and Luxury Marketing from Istituto Europeo di Design, Milan and Rome respectively. After finishing their masters, they launched their label Shrivannarresh at Cannes in 2008 and they shifted base to New Delhi in 2009.

As they specialise in beachwear, the duo wanted to launch resort wear in India too.

But the two were taken aback by the response from friends and relatives, who had warned them that they might be burning their fingers in this niche market.

"Resort wear is our forte and we know we are very good at it. Our near ones were very apprehensive about the fact that we were planning to launch the same line for Indian women too.

Fashion

18

IPL skirt-o-meter a fair amount of praise.

Uncomfortable footwear Says Debashish Shyam of the Royal Challengers, “Our uniform has been designed keeping in mind ‘flirtatious mischief', with youthful colours.” The Deccan Chargers again get a thumbs up from Anjana Bhargav, who also thinks the Rajasthan Royals and Royal Challengers rock as well. She says, “The Deccan Chargers are the best as they look very well coordinated.” She also feels that the Mumbai Indians could have done a lot better with high-heeled golden boots.

For Nitin Bal Chauhan, the Royal Challengers steal the show, while the Mumbai Indians and Rajasthan Royals get a firm thumbs down. He says, “The Bangalore uniforms are the best because of their play of colours and cuts.

The Mumbai Indians have ill-fitting costumes.” The hemlines are still playing havoc it seems.

Bundchen launches skincare line

New Delhi : The IPL cheerleaders have brought glamour and oomph on the field.

While designers have their own favourite cheerleader costumes, one thing is clear: the Deccan Chargers’ cheerleaders outfits rock and the ones sported by the Mumbai Indian girls score rather low on the style quotient.

Funky & sporty

Says Nikhil Mehra, “This year’s uniforms are funky and sporty. The Deccan Chargers uniforms are the best due to their colour combination.” While he is one of the few designers to endorse the Mumbai Indians uniforms as well, there are many detractors for the latter. Nida Mahmood thinks everything seems to have gone wrong with the Mumbai Indians’ outfits. She explains, “This is by far the worst of the lot! The fits are terrible. The styling and design have nothing to do with what a cheer team should be wearing. The outfit lacks every sort of grace. The boots must be so uncomfortable, I wonder how these girls cheer their team.” She endorses the Deccan Chargers as according to her, the colours are well co-ordinated and the outfits look complete with the right detailing. It’s not just the Deccan Chargers who are being applauded.

The Royal Challengers’ cheerleader outfits — stylish in white — are also coming in for

Supermodel Gisele Bundchen Monday launched her own range of eco-friendly skincare products. The 29-year-old Brazilian beauty, who is also a UN ambassador for environmental issues, launched an ecofriendly line of products called Sejaa Pure Skincare, her agent said. The line promises to use all-natural ingredients, "thoughtful" packaging and recycled paper, reports people.com.

19 March 2010

Fashion

19

Don’t Blame the Iceberg for the Lack of Warmth

A COSTUME FOR EVERY ARCHETYPE From left, Jean Paul Gaultier’s ethnic melting-pot look; Hussein Chalayan’s adventure seeker, and the leathered-up model Lily Cole walking the runway for Hermès.

THE berg was not, as it appeared, a solid block of ice. It was many, a total of 240 tons of “snice,” or snow-ice, purportedly hacked from a glacier in Sweden, hauled to France in 15 tractor-trailers and installed in a specially built waterproof box at the Grand Palais. There 35 artisans spent days sculpturing the 28-foot mountain of frozen water into an apparition that made the Chanel show on Tuesday one of the more unforgettable pieces of theater, fashion or otherwise, that most in the audience were likely to see. It was a National Geographic moment, a stunt of the sort only a designer like Karl Lagerfeld could come up with, or afford, thanks to the deep corporate pockets of Chanel.

But there was also a Woody Allen moment, and it occurred after the last of the models, clad in fake fur Wookie-wear, had sloshed through the puddles and offstage, and a small group of Mr. Lagerfeld’s industry friends tried to see and congratulate him. For reasons that were not altogether clear but may have had something to do with pooled water and electrical cables lying about, the security guards formed a human wall blocking the Vogue editors Tonne Goodman and Grace

Coddington; the Vanity Fair correspondent Ingrid Sischy; Lady Amanda Harlech; Babeth Djian, the editor of Numéro; and Jonathan Newhouse, the chairman of Condé Nast International, from going backstage.

BlackBerrys were fired up. Frantic calls were dialed. Well-shod hooves were stamped. Ms. Sischy upbraided the security force, assuring them that Mr. Lagerfeld would be both furious and “triste” if prevented from seeing his adoring fans. But the guards would not be budged. Passage backstage was impossible! Then, in an abrupt reversal familiar to anyone who has ever encountered French bureaucracy, they changed their minds. The guards moved away, and the small crowd surged en masse to where Mr. Lagerfeld posed beside his ice sculpture surrounded on three sides by television crews. Still separated from her friend and idol, Ms. Sischy called out plaintively.

“Karl, Karl, Karl,” she trilled, and for a moment one was not in Paris at all but on a floe in the Arctic Ocean, on a fragment of ice snapped off the glacial shelf. “Karl, Karl,” Ms. Sischy called, her cry like that of a baby seal.

The Party Chronicles “People used to have fun,” said

Stéphane Feugère, the indefatigable photographer who has spent the last eight years shooting fashion parties and people, on assignment for French Vogue.

“But then everyone got a camera,” Mr. Feugère added, “and now they all wait for someone else to have fun so they can shoot it.”

This was at the Maison Baccarat, once the hotel particulier of an immensely rich French aristocrat, a patroness of Cocteau, and now a museum of glass and a swank restaurant designed by Philippe Starck. A party was being held at the mansion in the 16th arrondissement by the people behind The Webster, a 20,000square-foot multibrand luxury boutique in Miami Beach whose mastermind is the designer and fashion gadfly Milan Vukmirovic. The occasion was a dinner featuring a rare tasting of Louis XIII, an alarmingly expensive cognac (base price 1,500 euros a bottle, or $2,000, oligarchs take note) aged for decades or — in the case of the rarest vintage — for more than a century. Despite Mr. Feugère’s observation, and every stereotype ever uttered about the abstemious ways of the French, people here do like a drink (even one administered,

as the Louis XIII was, almost as a sacrament and in a thimble-size Perfection glass hand-blown by Baccarat). They also enjoy other stimulating substances, of course, and if some of those people happen to be famous models grown wary of being surreptitiously snapped in mid-snort by someone’s phone camera, that explains why Mr. Feugère makes it a point, he said, to stay at the many fashionable parties he attends until all but the hardiest have called it quits. “That’s always when you get the best shot,” said the photographer, who is hoarding his choicest material for a photographic diary he plans to publish in 20 years. It was Mae West, Mr. Feugère was reminded by another partygoer, who once made the wise observation that people in his position would do well to keep a diary, for the simple reason that one day the diary might keep them.

Memorializing McQueen It was a wake without a corpse. There is hardly a delicate way to put it. Alexander McQueen (whom everyone who ever briefly made his acquaintance now refers to by his first name, Lee) was impious by nature and would likely have said the same were he alive.

19 March 2010

Recepie

INDIAN EGG CURRY

Ingredients of this recipe: 4 Eggs (hard boiled) 1 onion 1/2 tomato (pureed) 3-4 flakes of garlic 1/2-inch

piece of ginger 1-2 green chilies 2 tbsp chopped coriander leaves Salt To Taste Red chili powder to

HOT AND SOUR SOUP Ingredients of this recipe: 2tbsp. chili sauce or to taste 11/2tbsp. Corn flour / corn starch 1 tbsp Soya sauce 2 tbsp vinegar 2tbsp.

Capsicum / green bell p e p p e r (chopped) 2tbsp spring o n i o n s (chopped) 2 tbsp tomato sauce 2tbsp. c a r r o t s (chopped) 1/ 4th cup chopped cabbage A small block of Paneer / organic tofu (thinly sliced), optional 1tsp. Black Pepper powder or to taste 1/2 tsp sugar A pinch Ajinomoto Salt to taste 4 cups water Method to make this recipe: Mix 4 cups of water, Chili sauce, Soya sauce, vinegar,

sugar, salt, pepper powder and ajinomoto and bring to boil. Now add all the chopped vegetables except paneer . Cook for a minute

on a medium heat.

Dissolve corn starch in 1/2 cup water and add to the soup stirring constantly till it becomes thick. Cook for a minute, add paneer slices.

Serve hot . Hot and sour soup should be prepared just before consuming and should be served fresh, else it will lose the taste.

taste 3/4th tsp turmeric powder 1/2 tsp coriander powder 3/4 tsp garam masala 2-3 tbsp vegetable oil / ghee 1 cup green peas or 250 gms paneer Method to make this recipe: Remove the shell of boiled eggs & keep aside. If using Paneer cut into cubes and fry till golden & set aside for later use. Make a paste of onion, garlic, ginger and green chilies in a mixer or chopper. Heat oil in a kadhi or wok and add onion-garlic paste and fry till golden brown. Add all the spices (salt, turmeric, coriander & chili powder) except garam masala and fry for a minute and add tomato puree. Fry till it starts leaving oil. Add a cup of water and cook till it dry’s. Now add the fried paneer cubes or green peas (which ever using) and boiled eggs. Add 1 cup of water and bring to boil and reduce the flame. Simmer for 10 minutes. Garnish egg curry with garam masala and coriander leaves and serve hot with paratha, roti or rice.

CURD RICE RECIPE Ingredients of this 1 cup boiled Rice 2 cups Yogurt (Curd) 2 tblsp Oil 1/ 4 cup Milk Finely chopped Coriander Leaves 1-2 Green Chilies 1 tsp Chana Daal 1 tsp Urad Daal 1 tsp Mustard Seeds 1 1/2 tsp finely chopped Ginger 2 tblsp desiccated Coconut 1/2 tsp Salt Method to make this recipe : curd rice : · In a saucepan heat 2 tablespoonful of oil. Add mustard seeds to the oil.

When the mustard seeds start popping add chana and urad daal. After a minute, add in the ginger, coriander and green chilies.

Saute them for a minute.

Take the pan off the gas.

Add in the rice. Mix the salt and desiccated coconut. Just before serving, mix all the ingredients with yogurt (curd) and milk

20

CHICKEN SHORBA Ingredients of this recipe: 100 gms Boneless Chicken Shredded 500 ml Chicken Stock 1 tblp Garlic Finely Chopped 1 tsp Cumin Seeds 1 tblsp White Flour 2 tsp Butter 1 tblsp Oil Salt & White Pepper to taste 1 tblsp Fresh Cream Method to make this recipe : Chicken Shorba: Heat the butter in a pan and fry the shredded chicken pieces till tender.

Remove and keep aside.

In a pan heat oil and let the cumin seeds splutter.

Add the chopped garlic and saute for a few seconds. Add the white flour and fry for 1 min. Add

the chicken, chicken stock, white pepper powder and salt. Cook on medium level for about 4 minutes while stirring all the time. Stir in the fresh cream just before serving. Note: For 500 ml

of chicken stock, cook about 500 grams of chicken bones with one litre of water add chopped onions and garlic till the stock is reduced to half the quantity.

yogurt, ginger garlic paste, green chilli paste, red chilli powder, turmeric powder, roasted cumin powder, g a r a m masala, coriander powder a n d s a l t . St i r w e l l .

Marinate the chicken with this mixture and keep aside for 3-4 hours. Heat oil in a pan. Fry the onions until golden brown. Add

the marinated chicken and cook for 10 minutes. Add 4 cups of water to the rice.

Mix saffron in milk and add to it. Add cardamom powder. Add the chicken pieces. Pressure cook the rice. Mix gently. Garnish with green coriander leaves and serve hot.

CHICKEN BIRYANI Ingredients of this recipe: 2 cups Basmati Rice 3/4 kg Chicken Pieces 1/2 cup Milk 1 cup Yogurt (curd) 3 sliced onion 1 tsp Ginger Paste 1/2 tsp Garlic Paste 1 tsp Green Chilli Paste 1/2 cup Tomato Puree 2 tsp Red Chilli Powder 1 tsp Turmeric Powder 1 tsp Roasted cumin powder 2 tsp Garam Masala Powder 1/2 tsp Green Cardamom Powder Saffron a pinch 1 tsp Coriander Powder 2 tbsp Green Coriander Leaves Salt to taste 7 tbsp Oil Method to make this recipe: Mix tomato puree,

BHINDI ANARDANA Ingredients of this recipe: 2 medium sized onions 1/2 cup oil 400 gms ladyfinger 2 tblsp pomegranate seeds powder (anardana powder) 1 tblsp lemon juice 1 tblsp coriander powder 1/2 tsp turmeric powder salt to taste 1/2 tsp garam masala powder 1 tsp red chilli powder Method to make this recipe : bhindi anardana : Wash, wipe and trim ladyfingers. Make a deep slit on one side of the ladyfinger to create a pocket. Take

off and finely slice onion. Mix red chilli powder, coriander powder, turmeric powder, pomegranate seed powder, garam masala powder and salt with four-tblsp oil to make a thick paste. Stuff the ladyfingers liberally with this masala paste. Heat up oil in a pot and stir fry cut onion for two to three minutes or until translucent. Gently slide in the stuffed ladyfingers and stir fry on medium heat up for five minutes turning them occasionally.

Sprinkle lemon juice and serve hot.

19 March 2010

Trends

21

Gene map can help make your family disease-free In A First, Researchers Use Genome Sequencing To Pinpoint Exact Causes Of Inherited Illnesses Washington: Two studies published on Wednesday show it is possible to sequence the entire gene maps of families with inherited diseases and pinpoint the offending bit of DNA. The studies, which would not have been possible a year or two ago, are the first real delivery of the promised transformation of medical science from the Human Genome Project’s mapping of the human genetic code.

One was also made possible by some of the $5 billion that US president Barack Obama directed to the National Institutes of Health in September from the $787 billion economic stimulus package. And in that study, the genetic researcher was himself one of the patients. James Lupski of the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston has a recessive genetic disease called Charcot-MarieTooth syndrome. It affects the nerves stretching from

the spinal cord to the arms, legs and feet. Lupski has been experimenting on himself and his own family for years. “We tried every other method for 25 years to find out which mutation was important,” he said. “With this methodology we were able to do it. This is the first time whole genome sequencing has applied to actually find the cause of a disease.”

Lupski had been taking blood samples from his grandparents, parents and siblings for years. He got close but the research was considered too risky for funding by the National Institutes of Health. “He was only able to complete this study because of the stimulus money that we got,” said Story Landis, director of the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. Her institute designated Lupski’s project for about half a million dollars of the money that Obama directed to the NIH.

Small hobbit a big challenge to Darwin’s theory Liang Bua (Indonesia): Hunched over a picnic table in a limestone cave, the Indonesian researcher gingerly fingers the bones of a giant rat for clues to the origins of a tiny human. This world turned upside down may once have existed here, on the remote island of Flores, where an international team is trying to shed light on the fossilized 18,000-year-old skeleton of a dwarf cavewoman whose discovery in 2003 was an international sensation. Her scientific name is Homo floresiensis, her nickname is “the hobbit”, and the hunt is on to prove that she and the dozen other hobbits since discovered are not a quirk of nature but members of a distinct hominid species. “They butchered the animals here,” said the researcher, Rokus Due Awe, studying the toothpick-sized rat bones possibly left over from hobbit meals.

The discovery of Homo floresiensis shocked and divided scientists. Here apparently was a band of distant relatives that exhibited features not seen for millions of years but were living at the same time as much more modern humans. Almost overnight, the find threatened to change science’s understanding of human evolution.

It would mean contemplating the possibility that not all the answers to human evolution lie in Africa, and that human development was more complex than thought.

Revealed: How brain decodes music, lyrics London: Does the brain process lyrics and melody separately or as one?

Scientists claim to have found an answer. A team at Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences in Germany has found that the brain first deals with music and lyrics together and then, after passing through more complex processing, like understanding what lyrics mean, the two are treated separately. The scientists studied a functional MRI brain scan of people listening to songs to make the discovery. The team knew that when neurons process the same stimulus repeatedly, their response to it decreases over time. They reasoned that if they

varied just the tune and kept the lyrics the same, areas showing a decline in activity must be processing lyrics. And if they varied just the lyrics, areas showing a decline must be processing the tune, while any regions declining when both the tune and lyrics are repeated must be processing both. The team wrote four different sets of six songs and played these to 12 volunteers. The scientists worked out that one particular part of the brain - the superior temporal sulcus - was responding to the songs. In the middle of the STS, the lyrics and tune were being processed as a single signal. But in anterior STS only the lyrics were processed.

Even in old age, men crave sex more than women London: It seems the old cliche may be true.

Men are more likely than women to be interested in sex, have sex and enjoy sex, according to new scientific research, which also found people who stay active and healthy enjoy longer sex lives.

Research by University of Chicago academics published online on Wednesday in the British Medical Journal found that, across all age groups, men were more interested in sex than women — and the gap increased with age. The difference was most pronounced in the 75-to-85 age group, where 39% of men and 17% of women said they were sexually active, although the gender difference was smaller among people with a partner.

Women of that age are more likely than men to be widowed. A total of 71% of men who were sexually active above age 75 reported a good sex life,

compared with 51% of women, while 41% of men said they were interested in sex, compared to 11% of women.

“Overall, men were more likely than women to be sexually active, report a good quality sex life, and be interested in sex,” the researchers found.

The researchers found the average person’s sex life winds down by the age of 70. It said that by age 55, men can hope for another 15 years while women generally have another 11 years of sexual activity.

But 55-year-old men in very good or excellent health gained five to seven years of sexually active life on average, compared with their peers in poor or fair health. Women in very good or excellent health gained about three to six years compared with women in poor or fair health.

19 March 2010

Trends

22

A phone that lets boss snoop on staff A Japanese phone company has come up with a new technology that can track the most minimal movements of mobile phone users and beam the information back to HQ. KDDI Corporation, which has developed the technology, intends to offer the service to clients such as managers, foremen and employment agencies, or whoever may be interested in keeping in check the activities of their staff.

“Technically, I think this is an incredibly important innovation,” the BBC News quoted Philip Sugai, director of the mobile consumer lab at the International University of Japan, as saying. “For example, when applied to the issue of telemedicine, or other situations in which remotely monitoring or accessing an individual’s personal movements is vital to that service... But there will surely be negative consequences when applied to employee tracking or salesforce optimisation”, he added. The new system uses analytical software to detect more complex behaviour, unlike sensor

systems. The software is held on a server back at base, to match patterns of common movements. For example, the KDDI mobile phone strapped to a cleaning worker's waist can tell the difference between actions performed such as scrubbing, sweeping, walking and even emptying a rubbish bin. Hiroyuki Yokoyama, head of web data research at KKDI’s research labs in Tokyo, said: “We are now at a stage where we can offer managers a chance to analyse more closely the behaviour of staff”.

“Of course there are privacy issues and any employer should really enter into an agreement with employees before using such a system”, Yokoyama said. “But this is not about curtailing employees’ rights to privacy. We’d rather like to think our creation more of a caring, mothering system rather than a Big Brother approach to watching over citizens”. KDDI is presently in negotiation with a Japanese employment agency that gets jobs for

contract cleaners and security personnel.

It is not the first time remote spying technology has been enlisted by employers to keep an eye on their workforce in Japan or elsewhere.

Lorry drivers are regularly monitored through mobile phones in Japan, while salespeople have been regularly tracked by their employers using GPS since it was introduced to Japanese mobiles in 2002.

Critics of such systems accuse the makers of pandering to an overcontrolling, Big Brother-type managerial class and say that with this new technology there comes the increased opportunity for abuse.

Grandma’s right: Hi-cal diet for son Learn parenting with baby robots London: In a finding that adds some credence to grandma’s tales that eat “bacon for boys”, a new research has found that taking a high-calorie diet during the period around conception increases the odds of having a boy from ten to 11 in every 20 births.

According to Cheryl Rosenfeld of the University of Missouri, women who eat a full breakfast and a highfat diet at the time of conception are more likely to have a boy, while a low-fat diet with periods of long fasts favours girls.

“High-calorie diets generally favour birth of males over females, whereas low-calorie diets tend to favour females over males,” said Rosenfeld. The researchers came to the conclusion after analysing the genes

in placentas of pregnant mice fed diets high in fat or carbohydrates and low-calorie diets. They found that each one had a distinctive effect compared with a third group given normal soybean meal-based food, the Daily Telegraph reported.

After 12 days - just over half the animals’ pregnancy term - there were differences in almost 2,000 genes including those involved in kidney function and smell, according to the research.

They also found that female foetuses were more sensitive to their mother’s diet and there genes were more likely to be affected or altered. The team concluded that gene expression in the mouse placenta is “adaptive and shaped by maternal diet” with the biggest effect on the placentas of females.

Tsukuba: It giggles and wiggles its feet when you shake its rattle, but will get cranky and cry from too much tickling: Meet Yotaro, a Japanese robot programmed to be as fickle as a real baby. The cuddly baby-bot looks unearthly with a pair of luminous blue eyes and oversized cheeks, but engineering students are hoping it will teach young people the pleasures of parenting as Japan faces a demographic crisis.

“Yotaro is a robot with which you can experience physical contact just like with a real baby and reproduce the same feelings,” said Hiroki Kunimura of Tsukuba University. Yotaro’s face, made of

soft translucent silicon with a rosy hue, is backlit by a projector connected to a computer to simulate crying, sneezing, sleeping and smiling, while a speaker can let out bursts of baby giggles. The baby changes its facial expressions and moves its arms and legs when different parts of its face and body are touched.

Physical contact is detected by sensors, and Yotaro’s mood changes based on the frequency of touches. Yotaro also simulates a runny nose, with the help of a water pump that releases bodytemperature droplets of water through the nostrils.

Key to obesity: We have a taste for fat Sydney: It’s a theory set to confirm why humans are so fond of fatty foods such as chips and chocolate cake: in addition to the five tastes already identified lurks another detectable by the palate - fat. “We know that the human tongue can detect five tastes — sweet, salty, sour, bitter and umami (a savoury, protein-rich taste contained in foods such as soy sauce and chicken stock),” Russell Keast, from Deakin University, said on Monday. “Through our study we can conclude that humans have a sixth

taste - fat.” Researchers tested the ability of 30 people to taste a range of fatty acids in otherwise plain solutions and found that all were able to determine the taste — though some required higher concentrations than others.

They then developed a screening test to see how sensitive people were to the taste and found that, of the 50 people tested, their ability to detect fat was linked to their weight — a finding which could help counter obesity. “We found that the people who were

sensitive to fat, who could taste very low concentrations, actually consumed less fat than the people who were insensitive,” Keast said. “We also found that they had lower BMIs (Body Mass Indexes).” The reverse was happening in people who were not sensitive to the taste. “They are overconsuming and this is creating an energy imbalance, which is leading to higher BMI or development of overweight or obesity”, he added.

19 March 2010

Trends

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Invisible star shooting comets at Earth? the researchers, as the star spins through the galaxy, its gravitational pull drags icy bodies out of the Oort Cloud - a vast sphere of rock and dust twice as far away as Nemesis. “These ‘snowballs’ are thrown towards Earth as comets, causing devastation similar to the asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs 65 million years ago,” the report said. John Matese of the University of Louisiana said most comets come from the same part of the Oort Cloud. “There is significant evidence that this concentration of comets could be caused by a companion to the London: In what sounds like a chilling script of a Hollywood science fiction, scientists have claimed that an invisible star, five times the size of Jupiter, might be lurking near our solar system, occasionally kicking deadly comets towards the Earth.

According to scientists, the brown dwarf star is up to five times the size of Jupiter and could be

responsible for mass extinctions that occur on Earth every 26 million years. They believe that the star nicknamed Nemesis or ‘The Death Star” could be hidden beyond the edge of our solar system and only emits infrared light.

It is believed to orbit our solar system at 25,000 times the distance of the Earth to the Sun, the scientists said. According to

Sun”, he said. Now, Nasa scientists believe they will be able to find Nemesis using a new heatseeking telescope that began scanning the skies in January. The Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer - expected to find a thousand brown dwarf stars within 25 light years of the Sun - has already sent back a photo of a comet possibly dislodged from the Oort Cloud. Scientists got their first clue to the existence of Nemesis from the bizarre orbit of a dwarf planet called Sedna.

Scientists believe its unusual, 12,000-year-long oval orbit could

Now, a PC that reads minds London: British scientists have developed a computer that can read human minds, a key breakthrough which they claim takes telepathy a step closer to reality. According to Eleanor Maguire of University College London and colleagues, the computer is able to decipher thought patterns and tell what people are thinking simply by scanning the brain. For the research, which focused on the hippocampus, an area at the centre of the brain that plays a crucial role in short term memory, the

Just a bottle of water can power your home With one bottle of drinking water and four hours of sunlight, an MIT scientist says he can produce 30 KWh of electricity - enough to power an entire household in the developing world. With three gallons of river water, Dan Nocera says he could satisfy the daily energy needs of a large American home. The key to these claims is a new, affordable catalyst that uses solar electricity to split water and generate hydrogen. reports physorg.com. Using the electricity generated from a 30-square-meter photovoltaic array, Nocera’s cobalt-phosphate catalyst converts water and carbon dioxide into hydrogen and oxygen. The process is similar to photosynthesis, except that in nature, plants

create energy in the form of sugars instead of hydrogen. The hydrogen produced through artificial photosynthesis can be stored in a tank and later used to produce electricity by being recombined with oxygen in a fuel cell, even when the sun isn’t shining.

Alternatively, the hydrogen can be converted into a liquid fuel. “Almost all the solar energy is stored in water splitting”, Nocera said at the first-ever ARPA-E (Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy) conference last Tuesday.

Now, a digital master key for all locks London: Do you find keeping track of your keys a tedious job? Then here’s your dream invention. Experts have come up with a digital master key that’s going to make your life a lot easier.

Computer giant Apple is set to revolutionize the traditional door key with introduction of a hi-tech alternative nicknamed the “iKey”. It means people can stop carrying around a bunch of keys, and instead use a single electronic device to unlock their car, front door and gain access to their office.

The technology simply requires the users to enter a pin code and wave the device over an electronic pad fitted beside a door to open it. Apparently, a newly published patent application, filed with the US Patent Office, contains the details of the new technology. It is speculated that the next model of the iPhone will contain this feature. The application states:

be explained by a massive celestial body. Mike Brown, who found Sedna in 2003, said: “Sedna is an odd object - it shouldn’t be there. The only way to get on an eccentric orbit is to have some giant body kick you - so what is out there?” “I think the possibility that the Sun could harbour a companion of another sort is not a crazy idea,” said Davy Kirkpatrick at Nasa’s Infrared Processing and Analysis Center at Caltech. “There might be a distant object in a more stable, more circular orbit that has gone unnoticed so far.”

“The device can communicate with an external device to open a lock. By way of example, the electronic device may be a model of an iPhone.

In a home, householders would need to install electronic, computer controlled locks to their doors. The iPhone would need to be registered with the locks so that they could communicate with each other. By rotating the iPhone near the electronic lock, consumers then select their pin numbers on a dial displayed on the screen, as if entering a combination on a safe.

If the combination entered matched the one held by the electronic lock, the door would open. If not, an alarm could be sounded or alerts sent to the householder to indicate someone was attempting to gain unauthorised entry. For safety purpose, the device may be attributed with a feature to encrypt any information that passes between the

iPhone and the computercontrolled lock, preventing hackers from “listening in”.

Leander Kahney, a consumer technology expert and author of a book and blog called the Cult of Mac, said there were rumours that Apple has been testing the technology. “If true, it’s a very big deal. As well as opening doors and unlocking your car, it could also turn your iPhone into an electronic wallet and ID card,” the Telegraph quoted him as saying. He added: “You’d be able to pay for buses and trains, as well as your morning coffee and groceries in a jiffy, just by laying your iPhone on a special pad, and the price is electronically deducted from your account.

scientists carried out an experiment involving 10 volunteers. The subjects were shown three sevensecond films featuring different women carrying out an everyday task in a typical urban street such as posting a letter or drinking a cup of coffee from a paper cup. The volunteers were asked to memorise what they saw and then recall each one in turn whilst inside a magnetic resonance imaging scanner which records the brain activity by measuring changes in blood flow within the brain.

19 March 2010

life style

24

‘Don’t ride bike top-less in Goa’ Panaji : The Goa government has asked foreign tourists visiting the coastal state to be dressed appropriately, especially while driving a two wheeler. "Never ride a two-wheeler without clothes on the upper part of the body" says an advisory issued by the state tourism department. In what seems to be a fall out of recent statements by local politicians condemning skimpy dressing by foreigners, the tourism department has come out with 'Dos' and Don'ts for the visitors.

The booklet is printed in English and Russian. Of the four lakh foreigners visiting Goa annually, the British and Russians top the chart followed by Germans. Recommending a dress code, the department has said that while the Goan attitude to informal European styles of dress is generally tolerant, local religious or other sensibilities should be borne in mind.

"If in doubt take local advice especially with regard o topless bathing. Nudity on beaches and public places is trictly forbidden," the guidelines, which are made available through tourist counters and hotels, read. Goa MP Shantaram Naik recently had alleged that scantily clad Russians were corrupting the locals.

State Tourism Director Swapnil Naik said that the pocket booklet aims at educating the tourists.

"In America, even if you apply for visa they give you such booklets," he said.

The booklet, distributed free of cost, also mentions that riding without helmet is an offence.

R-rated films 'propel' Is your man trustworthy? Find out underage kids to try booze Washington: R-rated movies that glamorise violence and crime inspire children under 17 to try alcohol, a new study claims. A total of 6,255 children were surveyed, every 8 months for two years from 2003 through 2005, to find the relationship between R-rated movies and the probability of alcohol use. The link was established across different levels of “sensation seeking,” which are a tendency to seek out risky experiences. James D. Sargent, a paediatrician at Dartmouth Medical School, who conducted the study, said: "The study found that watching R-rated movies affected the level of sensation seeking among adolescents.

“It showed that R-rated movies not only contain scenes of alcohol use that prompt adolescents to drink, they also jack up the sensation seeking tendency, which makes adolescents more prone to engage in all sorts of risky behaviours. "There is another take home point in the findings. When it comes to the direct effect on alcohol use, the influence of R-rated movies depends on sensation seeking level. High sensation seekers are already at high risk for use of alcohol, and watching a lot of Rrated movies raises their risk only a little.

But for low sensation seekers, R-rated movies make a big difference. In fact, exposure to R-rated movies can make a low se n s a t i o n seeking adolescent drink like a high sensation seeking adolescent." The D a r t m o u t h paediatrician explained that high sensation seeking adolescents go out on the street and engage in risky behaviours, hence movies don’t play a big role in their alcohol consumption.

London : Is he dependable? Well, ladies, check out the breadth of his cheek bones, for a new study says that men with wider faces are less trustworthy than others.

For the study, a team of psychologists at University of St Andrews invited a group of men to play a computerised game for money. The game offered players chances to trust other participants, but also opportunities to exploit them.

During the game a participant was shown an expressionless photo of a fellow player's face at the start of each game. The participant had then to decide whether to take an immediate payoff or entrust the money to the person they saw who, in turn, could decide either to co-operate, and help both players make more money, or take

the cash and run. Lead researcher Michael Stirrat set up the games to investigate whether he could find any measurable relationship between perceptions of trustworthiness from perceptions and behaviour. He found that participants were more likely to entrust money to men with narrower faces.

"We all make instant judgements about strangers - whether to trust him or whether to be wary of her.

In my research I have been trying to find a basis for these intuitive judgements. From the evolutionary theory of sexual selection we predicted that male faces may signal physical dominance and that more dominant men would be more likely to be exploitative. We found that men with wider faces exploited trust more often to make money for themselves," Stirrat was quoted by The Daily Telegraph as saying.

19 March 2010

Life Style

25

Women more skilled at budgeting than men Women Women Womenmore more moreskilled skilled skilledat at atbudgeting budgeting budgetingthan than thanmen men men London : Women are better than men at budgeting and maintaining a record of the household expenditure, a new study has found.

The research, conducted by money management website love money.com, shows that women are less likely to build up debts and will try and pay off the money they owe unlike men who would rather pay as less as possible.It was also revealed that fewer wives paid their bills late or forgot to pay them completely unlike their other halves. “For years, women have been thought of as the big spenders, splashing their cash on clothes and shoes,” the Daily Express quoted a spokesman for love money.com, as saying. He added: “But it seems men are gaining their own reputation when it comes to managing their finances while women are learning how to handle their money.” The survey, comprising 3,000

Britons, also demonstrated that men’s debit cards carried an average debt of 2,176 pounds, while women had just 1,987 pounds.One in four men confessed to regularly paying their credit card bills late, or even forgetting them altogether. On the other hand, only 17 percent women made the same mistake.It was seen that women were also better at keeping track of their expenses. Twice as many men ignored their finances with one-tenth admitting to burying their head in the sand, compared with just one in 20 women. Over 57 percent women knew where money had to be spend each month and when bills need to be paid, while a mere 54 per cent of men could boast of the same. One in 20 men even confessed to having no idea about the position of their family finances, always ended up overspending and forgot to pay household bills.

'World's oldest' whisky unveiled Exercising in the heat may help you eat less London: The study of 11 physically active men found that participants ate less immediately after working out in hot conditions -- about 97 degrees Fahrenheit (36 Celsius) -- than in a more moderate, 77 degree Fahrenheit (25 degrees Celsius) environment. On average, the men ate roughly 300 calories more when they worked out in moderate temperatures than when they exercised in the heat.

"Our findings suggest that if you exercise in a warmer environment you will eat less in the subsequent meal," researcher Dr. Kym Guelfi, of the University of Western Australia's School of Sports Science, told Reuters Health. In theory, she said, that would be a good strategy for exercisers trying to lose weight.

However, Guelfi added, future studies should look at whether warmweather exercisers just make up for the smaller meals with larger ones later in the day.

For the study, which is published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, the researchers had 11 young, regularly active men make several visits to the exercise lab. During one visit, the men ran on a treadmill for 40 minutes in 97 degree heat; on another visit, they performed the same workout under 77 degree conditions. On a third visit, they rested in a moderately warm room. In all three situations, the men were then presented with an all-you-can-eat breakfast buffet and were found to eat the most after working out in moderate conditions.

Edinburgh: A Scottish whisky firm today unveiled bottles of what it claims is the oldest single malt whisky in the world, having spent the best part of a century inside an oak barrel.

Gordon and MacPhail's Mortlach 70-Year-Old Speyside was sampled at a launch party in Edinburgh Castle, where it was escorted through the doors by pipers and a military escort. "It matured for 70 years in the cask

and that is what makes it the oldest whisky in the world," a spokeswoman for Gordon and MacPhail told AFP. The whisky was filled into its cask on October 15, 1938 by the grandfather of the company's managing directors David and Michael Urquhart.

There will only be 54 full-size bottles priced at 10,000 pounds each (USD 15,000), with another 162 smaller bottles on sale for 2,000 pounds.

Chewing gum can give you wrinkles Warning: Sex & Sacrifice New York: A constant gum-chewing habit can cause wrinkles to pop up, health experts warn. People who chew gum compulsively are likely to develop wrinkles around their mouth, according to doctors.

As per Dr. Joel Schlessinger, a dermatologist and cosmetic surgeon from Omaha, Neb., many of his patients who chew gum regularly have developed these wrinkles, reports The New York Daily News.

“I think the gum is responsible to some degree for it,” he told MSNBC. As for the link between gum and wrinkles, cosmetic surgeon Dr. Hema Sundaram, of Washington, D.C., told MSNBC that chewing gum causes people to overuse their jaw muscles.

Paris: The latest show at Paris' Quai Branly museum comes with a warning for visitors: "This exhibition of Moche ceramics shows sexual acts of an explicit nature."

But the extraordinary and graphic testimonial of the ancient Moche civilization of Peru isn't about physical pleasure or procreation, according to the curator. He says the sexual acts evoke the rituals that accompanied the death of dignitaries, and the human sacrifices that went with them. They tell a story about the power of the elite that he says has

parallels with modern life. "Sex, death and sacrifice in the Moche religion," which opened this week and runs until May 23, brings to Europe for the first time 134 erotic Moche ceramics on loan from the Larco Museum in Lima, Peru.

The Moche lived on what is now the northern coast of Peru between the first and eighth centuries. The ancient Andean people belonged to one of the first societies to organize itself in way that would be recognized as a state, constructing cities with elaborate monuments and specialized centers for the production of textiles, metal and ceramics.

19 March 2010

Life Style

Accent speaks louder than race when it comes to making friends

Washington: A Harvard University study has shown that when it come to making friends, children prefer those whose speech patterns – rather than skin colour – mimic their own. It has long been recognized that both kids and adults form and organize re-

lationship networks largely based on the race, gender and age of others. While previous research has shown that white kids in the United States tend to pick samerace friends, new findings suggest that race takes a back seat when foreign or non-native accents

Increase in pre-marital sex high in Mizoram

Aizawl: A study by the largest Church in Mizoram reveals that the percentage of incidence of premarital sex is high amongst Mizo youths with 43.27 per cent admitting that they had sex before marriage.

While 52.88 per cent said that they did not have premarital sex, 43.27 per cent admitted to doing so and the rest refused to respond to a questionnaire sent by the Synod Social Front, a social organisation of the Mizoram Presbyterian Church. The SSF gave questionnaires to 31,202 people across the state of whom 30,001 responded, SSF coordinator Dr

Robert S Halliday says. "It seems that the majority of those who had premarital sex think that what they did was morally wrong with 87.43 per cent regarding sex before marriage as a sin," sources in the SSF say. Only 9.8 per cent thought there was no problem in premarital sex if it was consentual. The Presbyterian Church conducted the study to create awareness amongst members that the practice of premarital sex was against the principles of Christianity and should be eradicated. Hardliners among the church leaders are against pre-marital sex, with retired pastors like Rev Z T Sangkhuma speaking out openly against the use of condoms and slamming social workers for encouraging young people to use them to avoid HIV/ AIDS. Sanghuma said that his logic was that encouraging use of condoms was an encouragement to have sex without having to worry about unwanted babies, which was against the tenets of Christian teachings. Sabhuma's view has drawn protests from social activists who defended the use of condoms to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS.

come into play. During the study, when offered the choice between making friends with either a white or black child who spoke French, English with a French accent or native English, the group of white, 5-year-old study participants overwhelmingly opted for the native speakers, regardless of their race.

A related research has shown that 5-month-old infants also exhibit similar inclinations toward a native accent, which emphasizes its powerful role as a critical marker of social identity and group membership. "Given how difficult languages are to learn into adulthood, how someone speaks is a really good marker of where someone's from, who they are and where they've been," Discovery News quoted Katherine Kinzler, lead author in the Harvard study and developmental psychologist at the University of Chicago, as saying. The study has been published in the journal Social Cognition.

26

Youth ends at 35 and old age begins at 58

London: An average Briton believes that youth ends at 35 and old age begins at 58. In between – all 23 years – is middle age.

These are the findings of a new survey. To reach the conclusions, academics from the University of Kent studied data from 40,000 people across Europe. They presented the findings to a meeting of the Economic and Social Research Council, in London, reports The Telegraph. Professor

Dominic Abrams said: "The survey showed that age prejudice – being treated as "too young" or "too old" – is perceived to be a serious or very serious issue by 63 per cent of respondents, so it is obviously important to know what these age labels mean to people." Professor Abrams, a psychologist, added: "This evidence shows that what counts as young and old is very largely down to the age of the beholder."

Parents with twins more likely to end up divorced: Study lies with single-birth children. Another significant finding was that 55 per cent of twins are born when there are already other children in the family. Researchers said most families want, and plan for, just two children. The proportion of multiple births has soared as a result of IVF and women giving birth when they are older, according to the research. One in 65 births now results in twins or triplets compared with one in 100 in 1970.

Selective hearing: 'It's all in the mind' London: A survey has found that parents with twins are more likely to end up divorced, broke and out of work, even though they are better off, older and more likely to be married than those who have their babies one at a time.

The research on the chaos caused by multiple births, tracked 18,500 families, and found that married couples were 17 per cent more likely to divorce if they had twins or triplets rather than several children with gaps in between.

The impact on family finances is even more pronounced. Two thirds

of multiple-birth families said that they were significantly financially worse off after their babies were born compared with 40 per cent of other parents. The researchers found that nine months after giving birth, mothers of twins and triplets were 20 percent less likely to have returned to work than mothers of single babies, the cost of childcare being largely to blame. Among lower-income groups, the poorest quarter of families with multiple births lived off 181 pounds a week compared with 192 pounds among poor fami-

London: Selective hearing?

It's all in the brain, and not ear, say scientists. A new study has revealed that selective hearing – the ability to filter out unwanted noise and conversation – exists and it is the brain that "zooms in" on sound acting like radio by tuning into certain noises while ignoring everything else. And, according to the scientists, the study could help explain why people with hearing difficulties lose this ability and are swamped by background noise, thereby pave the way for combating deafness, 'The Daily Telegraph' reported.

19 March 2010

Business

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Tax cuts for wealthy should expire - U.S. panel chair New York : Most House Democrats back President Barack Obama's plan to let tax cuts for the wealthy expire this year, though the proposal will face a battle in the Senate, the acting chief of the tax-writing panel in the U.S. House of Representatives said on Tuesday. Tax cuts for all income groups enacted in 2001 and 2003, including for capital gains and dividends, will expire at the end of this year unless Congress acts to extend them.

Keeping a campaign pledge, Obama wants to extend the cuts for people who earn less than $200,000 and families that earn less than $250,000. But Obama and most Democrats want to let the cuts for the richer groups expire. Republicans and a small number of conservative Democrats favour extending them all and the Democrats' slimmer majority in the Senate will make it a tougher fight in that body, Rep. Sander Levin, acting chairman of

the Ways and Means Committee, told reporters. "We're ready to fight over the issue," said Levin in his first briefing with reporters since taking over as panel chair.The 14term Michigan Democrat took over the panel earlier this month after Rep. Charles Rangel stepped down amid several congressional ethics probes. It is unclear how long Levin will stay on, though most people believe Rangel lacks enough political support to reclaim the top spot. Lawmakers will need to find a way to pay for the cuts in the lower income categories, which will cost more than $2 trillion over a decade.

Levin, who has been more active on trade than tax issues, said he believes House Democrats back Obama's plan solidly, but added that "we need to persuade enough people in the Senate" to back it.

Levin said it is possible the committee will hold hearings to highlight the issue of inequities in the tax system and said he hopes to start work on the issue after the Easter break.

U.S. retail sales rise as shoppers fight winter blues Washinton : U.S. retail sales rose unexpectedly last month despite heavy snow storms that were thought to have kept shoppers at home and bolstered hopes of a sustainable economic recovery. Optimism about Friday's report was tempered by a slip in consumer confidence early this month.

Worries about stubbornly high unemployment held back sentiment, even though the economy appears to be on the cusp of creating jobs.

"The manufacturing recovery is starting to broaden out to the key consumer area of the economy. Consumers are keeping up their end of the bargain to ensure the recovery from recession is a sustainable one," said Chris Rupkey of the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi in New York.

Sales rose 0.3 percent, the Commerce Department said, as consumers bought an array of goods from necessities to luxury items. Analysts had expected sales to slip 0.2 percent. January sales, however, were revised down to a gain of 0.1 percent from the previously reported 0.5

percent rise. U.S. stocks initially rose on the retail sales data but lost steam, and major indexes ended flat on the surprise drop in consumer confidence.

U.S. government debt prices rose as investors focused on the weak sentiment data, while the dollar tumbled to a one-month low against the euro. The sales report was the latest in a series of data hinting at building underlying strength in an economic recovery that has been largely driven by government stimulus and a swing toward inventory building by businesses. Officials from the Federal Reserve meet on Tuesday and are expected to hold overnight interest rates in a range of zero to 0.25 percent and maintain a pledge to keep them ultra-low for an "extended period" to foster a more robust recovery.

Stronger data, however, could spark a lively discussion at the meeting, as some officials have raised concerns about the inflationary impact of keeping rates too low for too long.

U.S. Senate bill would penalize China over yuan Washington : Members of the U.S. Congress on Tuesday threatened Beijing with duties on some of its exports if it fails to revalue its currency, pressuring the Obama administration to label China a currency manipulator.

A bipartisan bill introduced in the U.S. Senate merges previous legislative efforts to press China to change policies that critics say keep its yuan currency cheap, effectively subsidizing Chinese exports and taxing competing imports.

"When there's a 20 percent or 30 percent undervaluation that reduces the price of a product coming in, that's not fair.

That's cheating," Democratic Senator Debbie Stabenow, a co-sponsor of the legislation, told a news conference.

"If they're not going to do it, we're going to force them," Republican Senator Sam

Brownback added.

The bill, a rare show of bipartisan accord, reflects widespread concern about high U.S. unemployment. It follows two days after Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao dismissed U.S. complaints about China's exchange-rate policy as protectionist. It also is likely to weigh on the Obama administration's deliberations whether to label China a currency manipulator in a semiannual Treasury Department report due on April 15. In the background is the realization that China is a major holder of U.S. debt.

19 March 2010

Business

28

Wall St hits fresh 17-month high after Fed New York : U.S. stocks rose to a fresh 17-month high on Tuesday after the Federal Reserve held benchmark rates near zero and maintained its pledge to keep them low for an extended period. The central bank also pointed to increased momentum in the economy's recovery, and that, coupled with strength in Intel, helped the S&P 500 hit a fresh 17-month high.

"Although everything was expected here, it's definitely a bullish sign that nothing negative came out of (the Fed) decision and the language as well," said Cort Gwon, director of research and trading strategies at FBN Securities in

New York. Intel ranked among the Dow's top performers, up 4 percent at $22.01 on speculation that the world's top chip maker is expected to release positive guidance for the current quarter.

The Philadelphia semiconductor index gained 2.7 percent.

General Electric Co gained 4.5 percent to $18.07 after the Dow component's chief financial officer said he expects the company's earnings and dividend to rise in 2011.

The Dow Jones industrial average gained 43.83 points, or 0.41 percent, to end at 10,685.98. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index rose 8.95 points, or 0.78 percent, to finish at 1,159.46. The Nasdaq

Composite Index added 15.80 points, or 0.67 percent, to close at 2,378.01. The S&P 500 was able to puncture 1,150, a mark it had been unable to hold above in two previous attempts, and a level strategists cited as a significant obstacle for more gains.

"Throughout the day and the past week, we've been breaking out of this S&P 500 trading range of 1,050 to 1,1150 -- hopefully, we are breaking into a new trading range." Gwon added. Earlier in the session, stocks moved higher after Standard & Poor's ended its review for a downgrade of Greece, saying the government's recent deficit-reduction measures are supportive of the ratings.

Toyota casts doubt on 'Control a woman' toy causes outrage 'runaway' Prius claim Melbourne : A `control a woman' toy that looks like a TV remote control has caused outrage in Melbourne, with a woman complaining it has buttons a man may press to seek 'beer, sex or food'.

Katie Robertson spotted the toy at a Borders book store being sold for $14.99, ABC News reported Tuesday.

'There are certain buttons there. For example, the male may decide that he wants beer, sex or food. He may press a button in which he requires the woman to remove her clothes, cook, clean, leave, (or) say yes.' 'There's also a button in which

Toronto : Toyota Motor Corp said on Monday it had found no evidence to support the driver's account of a widely publicized "runaway" Prius incident in California that overshadowed the company's attempts to restart sales after a punishing series of recalls.

U.S. safety investigators said separately that they had yet to pinpoint any evidence to support or disprove the claim that a 2008 Prius sped out of control near San Diego a week ago. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration engineers drove the hybrid in an effort to recreate the episode reported by the driver, James Sikes, but failed to do so, the agency said in its first statement on a hurried and highprofile analysis.

"We would caution people that our work continues and that we

may never know exactly what happened with this car," NHTSA said. Sikes, 61, had reported in a call to emergency telephone operators that his Prius was racing out of control for some 20 minutes before he could slow down the vehicle and bring it to a safe stop with coaching from a California Highway Patrol officer who pulled alongside him.

Highway patrol spokesman Brian Pennings said on Monday that the initial findings of Toyota and NHTSA did not constitute sufficient grounds to reopen an inquiry into the incident. "Up until now, they've presented no physical evidence that's like a smoking gun to disprove Mr. Sikes' statement," Pennings told Reuters. "We have to take Mr. Sikes at his word until there's evidence to discount his statement."

you can increase her breast size,' Robertson told ABC Radio.

She said that she was troubled by the item 'mainly because it encourages a stereotype of women as submissive, who are to be controlled'. Lauren Thompson of Borders said the item was intended as a joke.

She pointed out they were also retailing a 'control a man' remote that had sold out. 'All I can say in its defence is that it is base level humour. 'But it's meant to be a bit funny, a bit of a gimmick, something you might buy for your best mate before a stag night or a hens night,' Lauren was quoted as saying.

ANALYSIS - Toxic waste weighs on revival of nuclear industry Washington : Reviving the U.S. nuclear industry could get hung up on the political minefield of how to handle the security, legal and environmental risks posed by a growing mountain of radioactive waste.The Obama administration, which sees nuclear power as a key part of its policy to meet America's energy needs with more fuels that do not add to global warming, has said it plans to scrap a long-delayed permanent dump site for nuclear waste.The move probably won't stop new nuclear plants from being built, but could limit the pace of growth in the sector, which has been stagnant since the 1970s.

That leaves the 2,000 tonnes of used fuel already produced each year by U.S. nuclear plants stored at various power plant sites, waiting for a permanent home. "The whole system wasn't designed to accommodate accumulating waste on site," said Arjun Makhijani, president of the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research.

"It was designed for the waste to be taken away."

At least one company, Exelon Corp, has said it will not pursue new U.S. nuclear plants at this

time, citing the lack of a national plan for waste in its decision.

Even as the White House moves to spur development of new U.S. nuclear plants to lessen dependence on hydrocarbons like coal and oil, experts agree it will take at least several decades to fully develop any alternative to the proposed waste dump site at Yucca Mountain in Nevada.

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Embracing Ontario's great outdoors and rediscovering my inner Scout It has been a long time since I donned my green uniform and talked up my scouting honour so was a little apprehensive when I was offered a chance to jet off to the Canadian wilderness on a trip billed as a ‘Scouts adventure for grown men’. According to the itinerary we would be exploring the expansive Algonquin Park in Ontario, canoeing and hiking by day and camping and cooking dinner by the bonfire at night.

It sounded too good to pass up so with thoughts of knottying, marshmallow roasting and other benign activities that filled my life before I discovered girls – I booked myself in. A little unsure of what awaited me in the Great Outdoors, I was glad of the opportunity to ease myself in to my adventure gently with a little pre-wilderness luxury at the Deerhurst Resort.

The sumptuous lakeside hotel is set in acres of verdant grounds

complete with golf course, swimming pools (indoor and out) and - most importantly for our allmale group - a bar that stayed open until the last person left.

After a maple syrup-heavy breakfast fit for a king (and not a boy scout) we piled into our van and bid farewell to the good life for a few days. It was time for Algonquin Park.Algonquin can barely be described as a park at all. It is roughly the size of Wales (almost 5,000 square miles) and renowned for its hundreds of freshwater lakes and towering birch and maple forests. It was established as a sanctuary for diverse local wildlife - including man-eating black bears and carnivorous packs of wolves more than a century ago and the best way to see it all is from a canoe.Splitting into pairs for our watery outing, I found myself alongside my equally out-ofshape travel buddy who had

definitely left his best canoeing days behind him. This was going to be interesting. After a brief shoreline lesson on paddling, steering and general canoeing etiquette from Robin, our barrelchested guide, we felt like experts. Like the young boys we wished we could be, we

straight line from a hole in his pocket, and the place where they all landed is Chile. It may be at the other end of the world, but Chile's staggeringly beautiful landscapes are truly worth a visit.

I was in Chile days before the recent earthquake, and it was

of hundred yards reality set in.

As our arms gave up and our lungs exploded we slowed, panting and ground to a near halt. Lesson one: canoeing is a marathon not a sprint.It took us a while to get into the right rowing rhythm but once we did, it was glorious.

On the edge of On the the edge edge of of On the world the the world world

It is hard not to fall in love with Chile, an unsung paradise boasting beautiful landscapes

According to a charming Chile an legend, when God was finished with making the earth, he had some leftovers forests, glaciers, fjords, volcanoes, lakes and deserts which he put in his pocket. As he was walking across heaven, they all fell in a

practically jumped into our canoes as we raced off into the huge expanse of water.

Speeding along I dared to hope that we were fitter than we had first thought, those years of beers and takeaways hadn't taken their toll after all, this was a doddle.But, within a couple

hard not to fall in love with the place. The long, thin sliver of land that perches on the edge of South America is dominated by the Andes Mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. Friends I met before I left asked, "Why Chile?" They'd

heard of General Pinochet, Chilean wine, and the recent economic upswing. They'd also read Isabelle Allende's novels and Pablo Neruda's poetry. But nothing more.

A land of natural beauty Chile lies in an unsung, unknown paradise. The Atacama desert in the north, with its salt flats, sculptural mountains and valleys; the rolling wine country around the Capital Santiago in the middle; the lake district, replete with freshwater lagoons and snow capped peaks; and the protected forests of Park Pumalin in Patagonia and further south, Torres Del Paine, an exceptionally beautiful National Park. The pampas or the grasslands where gauchos herd their cattle give way to Chile's tail end.

Exploring Chile While there, I came across

business folks dealing in copper and lithium, salmon and fruits; astronomers who were studying the clearest skies in the driest desert; geologists and biologists who were there to study the land formations and biodiversity. I was there to enjoy the topography, and after spending a day in Valparaiso, a crumbling port-city, and another day in Santiago, that's becoming more vibrant by the day, I set off to see two very contrasting landscapes wet, lush, Torres del Paine National Park in the south and the dry, threadbare Atacama desert in the north. Though there are plenty of good lodges in both these places and hundreds of backpacking folks find the camping facilities excellent, the Explora lodges in both these areas are exceptional.

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A Peloponnese holiday in Greece impresses Michael and Sandra Howard 'You'll really love the Peloponnese,' my Greek friend enthused. 'It's like Tuscany, with tall cypresses, the red tiles of the hilltop villages and endless olive groves. It's a stunning place.'

John Humphrys had told me how much he loved it too, when we were both speakers at a literary lunch.

'I can shut myself off from the world!' he said. John has just built a house there and he and his son have written a book about all the teething trials and tribulations. After such glowing recommendations, my wanderlust was up - although I have to confess to poring over an atlas before trying to persuade my husband Michael to holiday there.

I had no idea whether the Peloponnese was north, south or sideways of Athens and only just about knew it was part of mainland Greece.

For anyone as dozy as me, it is the large area of countryside

separated from the southern mainland by the Corinth Canal and shaped like a spread-out hand. The thumb is below Athens, pointing east to the Cyclades and the Aegean Sea, and the fingers reach southwards into the Mediterranean.

We decided to sneak in a short break in the West Peloponnese, where the coastline is one long sandy beach washed over by the waves of the Ionian Sea. The islands of Zakynthos and Kefalonia - which has one of the ten best beaches in the world are a short ferry ride away. We were flying to Athens to have a night in the Greek capital, then planned to carry on by train to see a little of the Peloponnese countryside. My Greek friend put us right. 'The trains are wonderful - two days out of three,' she warned. 'I'm fixing you up with a lift.' Athens is awash with hotels.

We made a 'lucky dip' and fell on

o u r feet with t h e Divani Palace.

It was in a n unassuming side street and our room seemed just like any other in a quality hotel. But when we stepped out on to the balcony that was still bathed in mellow sunshine and glanced up the street, we had to gasp; the Acropolis was right there in full view, close as your corner shop, monumentally glorious and presiding over the entire city in its towering, perfect symmetry. It was an awesome sight. The view from the Divani's chic rooftop

restaurant was even more stunning. Floodlit in the darkness, the Acropolis looked ethereal, almost suspended between Heaven and Earth. We had nipped up for a late-night glimpse after an evening's exploring, strolling along with Athenian families on a walkway in the lee of the Acropolis. We were tight on time, but for anyone less constrained, the new Acropolis museum is a must. Ten times larger than the original, it houses a feast of masterpieces, and excavations carried out at the site have unearthed an important part of the ancient city that will soon to be open to visitors. Next morning we set out for the West Peloponnese - by car. Having heard how easy it was to miss seeing the Corinth Canal when driving, we made a mini detour to a viewing point on a narrow iron bridge. To be out of the car and under a great blue sky, gazing down on the the steep, carved-out sides of the canal to the narrow slit of cobalt-blue water, was quite a thrill. A passing ferry far below seemed only to have an inch either side to spare.

We decided to sneak in a short break in the West Peloponnese, where the coastline is one long sandy beach washed over by the waves of the Ionian Sea. The islands of Zakynthos and Kefalonia - which has one of the ten best beaches in the world are a short ferry ride away. We were flying to Athens to have a night in the Greek capital, then planned to carry on by train to see a little of the Peloponnese countryside. My Greek friend put us right.

'The trains are wonderful - two days out of three,' she warned. 'I'm fixing you up with a lift.'

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