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News flash: It's not just sugar that makes you dumb, as new research proves. We found the science to back up more foods that drain your brain.

Sugar 


In case you missed it: It's no secret excess sugar isn't exactly sweet where your health is concerned, but now new research indicates it may take a toll on your brain as well as your waistline. In a recent animal study, UCLA researchers found that rats fed a solution of fructose had a harder time navigating a maze, a sign of slowed learning and memory loss, compared to a second group of rats who were given the fructose solution as well as omega-3 fatty acids, which are thought to have a brain-boosting effect. The researchers suspect that the fructose-only diet decreased brain activity because it affected insulin's ability to help brain cells use sugar to process thoughts and emotions. Certain omega-3 fatty acids may buffer the brain from the harmful effects of fructose.

Use the news: While this research is preliminary, it's just general good health advice to minimize your intake of added sugar (see some shockingly sneaky sources here) and up your consumption of foods rich in omega-3s, including walnuts, salmon, flax seeds and soybeans to your meals. You've probably heard of smart foods that boost your IQ, but did you know that some less-healthy options can actually drain your brain?


Red Meat and Butter 


A diet high in "bad" saturated fat may hurt brain function, according to new Harvard research published in the Annals of Neurology. When researchers studied the eating habits and tested the brain function of 6,000 women for an average of four years, they found the women who ate the most saturated fat scored lower on tests of brain function and memory. On the other hand, women who ate the most monounsaturated fats (found in foods like olive oil and avocado) had higher scores.
Use the news: You don't need to shun saturated fat sources entirely, but choose low or non-fat versions of animal products, such as cheese, yogurt, and milk. Avoid processed meat, like bacon, and stick to lean cuts. Get more protein from vegetable sources, like soy and legumes.

Chips, pizza, and other junk food 


Will junk food rot kids' brains? A 2011 British study of nearly 4,000 children found that those who ate primarily junk food (lots of processed and fast food) at age three had a small drop in IQ five years later compared with children who ate healthier diets. (And the link remained after researchers accounted for confounding variables, such as socioeconomic status and parents' education.) Early diet choices especially seemed to affect kids' verbal abilities, according to Time.com. The study suggests that smart diet choices may be particularly crucial during early years of rapid brain development.
Use the news: It can be tricky to get young picky eaters to eat healthy foods, but remember that kids need repeated exposure (sometimes a dozen or more times) to "like" a new food. So don't give up so easily! And many classic kid favorites, like string cheese and yogurt, make for healthy snacks instead of processed cookies and chips.

Low-Carb Diets 


Ditching carbs can sap brainpower (along with energy and mood). A small Tufts University study of 19 women between the ages of 22 and 55 found that when dieters eliminated carbohydrates, they showed a gradual dip in cognitive skills (particularly on memory-related tests) compared to a group who stayed on a low-calorie diet that included carbs.
Use the news: Carbs aren't evil-your body needs them for many important functions, including fueling your brain. So avoid diets that eliminate or severely restrict them, and choose healthy options, like whole grain pastas and breads, brown rice, and quinoa.

Gum 


Does blowing that bubble boost or bust your brainpower? Here, the research is mixed. A recent British study published in the Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology found that chewing gum during a memorization exercise impaired participants' short-term memories. The researchers believe the act of chewing may get in the way of concentrating on memory tasks (In this case, participants were asked to learn the order of items in a list) The finding contradicts previous research, which found a positive association between chewing gum and mental tasks.
Use the news: Because of mixed study results, you might not want to spit just yet. But be sure to include other brain-boosting habits in your daily routine, such as drinking water (dehydration can affect focus and acuity), getting plenty of sleep, and playing brain games.

Kochi, May 31  Kreata Global, an IT company headquartered at Kerala's Kochi Infopark campus, has been selected as a Facebook preferred marketing developer (PMD), said an infopark official.

 The PMD programme aims to better represent the various technologies in the Facebook ecosystem and to recognise companies that develop holistic solutions.

Kreata is just the second Indian company to be picked for the programme. It has qualified for the PMD badge in the apps category for building socially enabled integrations.

Infopark chief executive officer Gigo Joseph said: "It is an honour for an IT company to be chosen as a Facebook PMD."

The Facebook PMD programme also endeavours to help developers build products that make social marketing easier and more effective.

Deepan Parameswar, executive director, Kreata Global, said they were really excited about becoming a Facebook PMD.

"This is definitely going to be an inspiration for developing more engaging and innovative apps," said Parameswar.

The company that was formed in 2010 has developed engaging Facebook applications for popular brands such as Ford, Panasonic, Samsung, Levi's, Clarins and Parachute.

Washington, May 31 : The U.S. head of Strategic Command has said China's nuclear weapons do not pose a "direct threat" to the country, and called for greater dialogue with the Chinese.

"I do not see the Chinese strategic deterrent as a direct threat to the United States. We are not enemies. Could it be (a threat)? I suppose if we were enemies it could be and therefore we at least have to be aware of that," The News quoted General Robert Kehler, as saying.

"We think there would be tremendous benefit to that in both China and the United States, in particular to help us avoid some misunderstanding or some tension in the future," he added.

General Kehler said although the U.S. and Russia account for roughly 90 percent of the world's nuclear weapons, dealing with China on the matter would become increasingly important.

"We would like to have routine contact and conversations with China's military," he said.

New Delhi, May 31 : Microsoft founder Bill Gates, who called on Union Health and Family Welfare Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad here on Thursday, appreciated India's achievements in containing AIDS infections, polio management, reproductive health initiatives as also recent steps taken for TB management.

Gates along with his team met Azad and discussed issues relating to immunization programme, pentavalent vaccine, HIV/AIDS, infectious as well as non-communicable diseases during the meeting that lasted close to an hour and half.

He said that strides made by India go beyond his expectations.

Azad on his part thanked the Bill Gates Foundation for extending catalytic support to innovations in health, particularly in HIV/AIDS and Polio. He said that the support from Gates Foundation is valuable.

Azad mentioned that year 2012 has been declared the year of intensification of routine immunization programme and recently the Mission Steering Group of NRHM has endorsed the introduction of pentavalent vaccine in six more states viz. Gujarat, Goa, Pondicherry, Karnataka, Jammu and Kashmir and Haryana.

The help rendered by Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in establishing Immunization Technical Support Unit (ITSU) to provide technical and managerial support to accelerate coverage and to ensure system preparedness for new vaccines for when they are adopted, was specifically appreciated.

The Health Minister also said that ministry's initiative of name based Mother and Child Tracking System has helped more effective delivery of services at the grassroots level and with the help of Ministry of Information Technology more such initiatives to enhance efficiency, effectiveness and reach of government's schemes are under consideration.

Gates termed name based Mother and Child Tracking System as a very remarkable innovation.

Gates agreed that support from their Foundation would be aligned with national priorities and therefore in sync with the national programmes being implemented by Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India.

Leveraging of IT techniques for health, capacity building and lending technical support were identified as important areas of cooperation.

The Solar Impulse HB-SIA prototype aircraft, which has 12,000 solar cells built into its 64.3 metres (193 feet) wings, attempted its first intercontinental flight from Payerne to Rabat in Morocco.After a flight lasting approximately 17 hours, the HB-SIA prototype has finally landed in Madrid-Barajas airport. The pilot, André Borschberg, made his way out of the cockpit, smiley and certainly happy to stretch his legs.This, and future international landings, are a good way for the Solar Impulse team to practice coordination and cooperation with international airports for fine-tuning of logistics, maintenance and facing challenges of air traffic patterns.

Solar Impulse project president and pilot Bertrand Piccard lands with the solar-powered HB-SIA prototype airplane during a test flight at Payerne airport April 17, 2012. The Solar Impulse HB-SIA, which has 12,000 solar cells built into its 64.3-meter (193-foot) wings, is a prototype for an aircraft that its creators hope will carry out its first circumnavigation of the globe from 2014.

Diabetes has become one of the most aggressively-spreading lifestyle diseases.

It seems to affect people without any discrimination for gender, age or race. It has been established that the onset of diabetes can be prevented if our food habits are corrected. Thus, food habits responsible for causing diabetes should be properly understood. This includes:


Common Diabetes Causing Food Habits:


Eating High Glycemic Index Foods Glycemic Index (GI) is the calculation of how fast a type of food consumed by us is turned into energy, i.e. into glucose. Foods that are turned quickly into glucose are High GI foods. Such foods tend to create extreme spikes in the blood sugar levels.

High GI Foods include common food items like:

 • White bread
 • Pasta
 • Rice
 • Candy
 • Backed items or snack foods made from refined flour
 • Pastries
 • Carbonated drinks
 • White potatoes
 • Pasta
 • Noodles
 • Sugary cereal foods
 • Instant, ready-to-eat food items

Such food items are also called Easy Carbohydrate Foods. These foods have minimal or absolutely zero fiber which makes it further easier for the body to digest them. Such, quickly-digested foods create a glycemic overload by inducing excessive sugar in the blood stream. This is also referred to as a Glycemic Load. The intake of such foods should be restricted.

Instead of choosing such fast-release carb foods, the emphasis should be on fibrous, slow-release carb resources. A fine example of this is fruits like apples or peaches. Since fruits contain a lot of fiber, the release of sugar into the bloodstream is slower. This helps to negate severe fluctuations in the levels of insulin (the hormone deciding ability of bodily to absorb glucose).

Easily Preventable Food Habits that Cause Diabetes:


Consuming Unhealthy Fats


There is common misconception even among health conscious folks that all fats are bad. As a result, they tend to shun both the good and diabetes causing fats. However, the ideal approach is to sustain the consumption of healthy fats like those derived from walnuts, almonds and other types of nuts.

 Again, olive oil is a healthy source of unsaturated fats. However, saturated fats found in dairy and animal products are pro-diabetic. These are also referred to as trans-fats and are found in heavy quantities in packaged, fast food items. Red meat, dairy products and foods containing semi-hydrogenated oils are unhealthy.

Sinful Eating Habits that Lead to Diabetes:


Irregular Eating Regimen

It should be understood that diabetes is essentially the inability to maintain uniform sugar levels in the body. One common food habit that induces unwanted changes in blood sugar levels is eating at irregular hours. Major meals need to be eaten at around the same time to prevent fluctuations in blood sugar levels.This is vital to ensure that the secretion of insulin is kept in check. Eating heavy desserts post dinner, particularly just before going to bed is essentially a health disaster that could be your stepping stone towards diabetes.

Ignoring Healthier Food Choices

 • Tendency to overlook ingredients mentioned on the packaging of food times. Many ingredients lead to an overload of sugar and should be prevented.
 • Tendency to snack upon artificially sweetened, packaged foods rather than nutritious, diabetes-controlling options like fruits.
 • Over-frying cooked foods that lead to excessive consumption of harmful, trans- fats.
 • Dependency on packaged, sweetened fruit juices rather than fresh juices. This leads to unnecessary intake refined sugar.

 • Not eating salads regularly. Salads prepare from green veggies and sprouts are a nutritious, anti-diabetic choice. They take a very long time to be fully digested due to the high fiber content. This easy way of regulating sugar levels on a daily basis is often ignored.
 • Not drinking sufficient water is perhaps the most common of food choice errors. Sufficient water intake ensures that kidneys are able to function properly and get rid of toxins that make our metabolism sluggish, i.e. more prone to retaining and storing glucose.

Common Diabetes Causing Food Habits:


Skipping Breakfast 

Skipping breakfast is akin to pushing yourself towards lifestyle problems like obesity and diabetes. Eating breakfast increases your chances of maintaining uniform sugar levels throughout the day as you are less affected by sugar cravings and hunger pangs.

Diabetes & Protein Overload

Most people seem obsessed about their daily protein intake, many of them overeating high-protein foods. However, merely eating more protein doesn’t make you muscular or healthier. It only leads to weight gain and makes you more vulnerable to health problems like diabetes. Excessive protein is handled by the body in a manner akin to fats or any other energy resource found in excessive amounts.

Our emphasis is to highlight the fact that diabetes is a preventable disease albeit we are ready to get rid of unhealthy food habits. If there is something we have missed in our endeavor to provide a comprehensive resource of how to eat in a healthier, anti-diabetic manner, Please Comment Below.

There are lot of people who and a lot of articles/books that will tell you what you must do in office. But there will be very few who tell you what not to do.

This is where we come in. Every office has its set of dos and don’ts, but then there is also a set of general don’ts that you need to keep in mind. We are here to list these general don’ts for you and we are sure they will help you stay clear of getting embarrassed in office.

1. Peep into someone’s laptop/desktop

The most annoying person in office is the one who peeps into his colleagues laptop screen. Make sure you are not this annoying person. No matter the urge to see what other people are up to, you must save yourself the embarrassment of being labelled the office’s peeping tom.

2. Walk around like you own the place

It is great to be confident, but it is a sin to be cocky. So under no circumstances should you walk around like you own the place. It is advisable to keep your smartness in check and not throw your weight around. Keep it easy going and genuine, and everyone in office will like you instead of bitching about you.

3. Be loud

Oh my GOD!Please don’t be that loud person in office. Keep your voice level in check, do not play loud music and stay clear of all things loud. Loud people annoy colleagues like few other people/things do. Train yourself to talk softly yet be audible.

4. Gossip

We are sure you have heard this one before. It is imperative to stay clear of gossip, but we all know that this is not possible. Every nook and corner of office is full of gossip mongers. What you can do however, is keep your tongue in check. Don’t bitch everyone out to everyone, and don’t allow others to christen you the gossip king.

5. Stealing

Every office goer at some point in time is inclined to steal some office stationery: a pen, a paper, a folder, or a print out. Doing so once in a blue moon is okay, but don’t make a habit of it. Stealing is bad and you will be answerable and payable if you are caught.

6. Lie/Blame others

When you find yourself in a soup or in tough situations you will be inclined to lie or shift the blame of your wrong doing on someone else. If you do this, you are putting not only your reputation at stake but your job too. Always stick to the honesty policy and play fair.

7. Share your personal problems

No one lives an easy life. Everyone has their share of personal problems just as you have yours. It would be naïve to share your personal problems with your work colleagues. We suggest you leave these issues at home and come to office with a clear mind. Remember, your colleagues aren’t your personal agony aunts.

8. Make out

Irrespective of how hot that colleague of yours is, making out in the office is just unpardonable. Making out is an extremely private affair and an office is the least private of places you know. Besides, if somebody catches you in the act, you can bid your job farewell.

This is our list of general don’ts in work environments. Avoid committing these errors and you are sure to stay in the office good books.

PARIS  - As the years go by, Roger Federer has little trouble coping with the pressure of playing the early rounds of a grand slam event but it is an altogether different story when it comes to dealing with post-match scrutiny.

 The Swiss third seed won a record 234th grand-slam match, surpassing Jimmy Connors's professional-era record, by dismissing Romanian Adrian Ungur 6-3 6-2 6-7 6-3 in the second round on Tuesday.

 The 16-times major champion should have won the match in straight sets but did not seem too concerned about his minor wobble in the third set.

 "I think (playing the early rounds) is a bit easier now, just because I have been around for so long that, even though I expect myself to win, I can still manage to do that," the third seed told reporters.

 "Whereas in the beginning when you think you're good but you're maybe not that good yet, you suffer many more surprise losses."

 But with fame comes scrutiny.

 "The difference to playing a match where you're the overwhelming favourite potentially in the early rounds of a grand slam is you have to (deal with the) press (inquisition) afterwards," said Federer.

 "So you're talking about a match that potentially wasn't that close sometimes or they make a bigger deal out of maybe you losing a set or getting broken a couple of times, whereas maybe at another tournament you wouldn't talk about that.

 "So it's just a bit of a different momentum in the press conference. I think that's the toughest part sometimes."

 Federer seemed in complete control of his match on a sunsoaked Court Philippe Chatrier against Ungur before he wasted two match points in the third-set tiebreak, allowing world the number 91 to stretch the match into a fourth set.

 Federer said he let his guard down in the tiebreak he lost 8-6.

 "Instead of being aggressive, I let him show me what he could do. He played two beautiful shots," he said.

 Ungur then ran out of steam as Federer cruised through the set and into round three.

 Although Federer had won his opening match in straight sets, Federer was far happier with his performance on Tuesday.

 "(I felt) far better than during the first round. It was obviously a totally different match, because my opponent today was used to playing on clay, whereas my first opponent was used to harder surfaces," he explained.

 "Of course rallies were different because of that. Even though I won the first set 6-3 with a solid break, I knew that if he was to get in the match, it would be more difficult, and he had many opportunities during the second set.

 "In the third set I made wrong decisions. He got in the match, and he played a very good third set."

 Federer, who is contesting his 14th consecutive Roland Garros, will next face either France's Nicolas Mahut or Martin Klizan of Slovakia.

PESHAWAR, Pakistan  - A Pakistani doctor who helped the United States find Osama bin Laden was imprisoned for aiding militants and not for his links to the CIA, as Pakistani officials had said, according to a court document.

 A court in the Khyber tribal region near the Afghan border jailed Shakil Afridi for 33 years last week. Pakistani officials said the decision was based on treason charges for aiding the CIA in its hunt for the al Qaeda chief.

 But the judgment document made available to the media on Wednesday states that Afridi was jailed because of his close ties to the banned militant group Lashkar-e-Islam, which amounts to waging war against the state.

 It is unclear why Pakistani officials first said Afridi was jailed over his links to the CIA. The government may have wanted to show a largely anti-American public that Pakistan will not tolerate any cooperation with the U.S. spy agency, especially at a time of troubled relations with Washington.

 "There was a lot of friction because of this case with the United States. This appears to be an effort to patch things up with the United States, while also satisfying the people of Pakistan that Afridi has been punished," said Mansur Mehsud, director for research at Islamabad's FATA Research Center.

 "The mindset is being managed, confusion created, about what exactly he has done."

 While the document said there was evidence that Afridi "has been shown acting with other foreign intelligence agencies", it noted the court in Khyber had no jurisdiction to act on that.

 But the court recommended that the evidence may be produced before an appropriate court for further proceedings.

 The Afridi case has further strained ties between the United States and Pakistan, already damaged by a series of events, including a NATO cross-border air attack last November that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers.

 In Washington, government sources said the United States is exerting strenuous efforts to win Afridi's release from jail.

 U.S. officials hail Afridi as a hero who helped the CIA track down bin Laden, who was killed by U.S. Navy SEALs in a raid in the Pakistani town of Abbottabad in May last year.

 "UNRELIABLE PARTNER"

 Defense Secretary Leon Panetta suggested on Sunday that the jailing of Afridi would hurt efforts to repair relations between the United States and Pakistan.

 Many Pakistanis were infuriated by the U.S. raid to get bin Laden in a town just a two-hour drive from the capital, Islamabad and they see Afridi as a villain who conspired against the state and brought unwanted scrutiny of Pakistan's attitude to militants.

 Pakistani officials describe bin Laden's long presence in the garrison town of Abbottabad as a security lapse and reject suggestions that members of the military or intelligence services were complicit in hiding him there.

 Pakistan joined the U.S. war on militancy after the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States. But U.S. officials often describe Islamabad as an unreliable partner and demand tougher action against militant groups based along its border with Afghanistan.

 Critics also say the judicial system has failed to take decisive action against militants. Convictions for terrorism are rare in the South Asian nation, recipient of millions of dollars in U.S. aid. Appeals drag on for years.

 Pakistan says it has made big sacrifices fighting militants.

 The charges of aiding militants could give Afridi a greater chance to successfully challenge the verdict. Pakistan, for its part, can both claim it is cracking down on militancy and ease the outcry in the United States over Afridi's imprisonment.

 One of the doctor's lawyers, Samiullah Afridi, was baffled after reading the verdict, which he also received on Wednesday.

 "These charges against him are very different from the ones we were told earlier," he told Reuters.

 "The earlier allegations against him were very serious. We deal with issues like this every day in the courts, of people accused of helping militant groups. So it's not that big an issue for us to defend."

 Afridi had been working with the CIA for years before the bin Laden raid, providing intelligence on militant groups in Pakistan's unruly ethnic Pashtun tribal region, said a former Pakistani security official.

 Afridi's brother, Jamil, described the treason charges as baseless and said the doctor was being made a scapegoat.

New Delhi, May 30 : Veteran social activist Anna Hazare on Wednesday intensified his attack on the Prime Minister, saying if Dr. Manmohan Singh is honest, then he should be ready to face any kind of probe.

"The inquiry into charges against the Prime Minister should be headed by a former judge," he told a leading English news channel.

Hazare, however, said he needed time to study the allegations against the Prime Minister.

"I always saw the Prime Minister as a non-corrupt personality. I need time to study the allegations against the Prime Minister," he said.

Hazare's key aide Arvind Kejriwal earlier today said they would be extremely delighted if the allegations levelled against the Prime Minister are found to be false.

"We will be most happy if the allegations levelled against the Prime Minister are found false. But how will it be proved? For that, we need to have an independent investigating agency to probe it," said Kejriwal.

"The Prime Minister has said that the allegations levelled against him were baseless, unfortunate and irresponsible. We want to tell him that it was not we who levelled these allegations but the CAG, which is a Consitutional body," he added.

Union Law and Justice Minister Salman Khurshid had, however, hit out at Team Anna for demanding an independent probe into charges against the Prime Minister, saying it seems that the underlining urge of the civil society activists is that either bring the Lokpal Bill of our choice or be ready to face the accusations.

Commenting on the allegations made by Team Anna against senior Cabinet ministers, including the Prime Minister, Khurshid said India is a country where the rule of law prevails, and emphasized that there is a system that has to be followed.

"Of course, they are making the allegations. We all read those allegations and we see those allegations. I don't think we can have trials for anybody, forget about ministers and certainly the Prime Minister, we can't have media trials, and we can't have street trials. We are a country where the rule of law prevails. There is a system. They are the same people, who have gone to the Supreme Court and the High Courts etc. and they have got matters investigated," said Khurshid.

"So, nobody stops them from going to institutions that are available. It seems to me that the underlining urge is that please give us Lokpal and give us the Lokpal of the kind that we want, otherwise we will keep accusing you of all kinds of things," he added.

The Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh, had earlier on Tuesday termed as unfortunate the allegations made against him by Team Anna.

"There have been reports about the allocation of coal blocks based on leaked portions of a draft report on the issue. We have also recieved a letter on the same subject. The Coal Minister has given factual details in response to these allegations and the Coal Ministry has put up all the information on its website (on May 17th). We have not yet received the CAG report," Dr. Singh told media on-board press interaction enroute from Yangon to New Delhi

"When we do, the Government will submit its detailed factual response before the Public Accounts Committee as per Constitutional procedure. Uninformed allegations and discussions based on leaked drafts are unfortunate. It is unfortunate that irresponsible allegations are being made without confirming the facts," he added.

Dr. Singh also said that if it was found that he had done something wrong, he would not hesitate to quit public life.

Supreme Court lawyer and Team Anna member Prashant Bhushan had earlier criticized the Prime Minister, saying that the ruling Congress Party had been using his honest credentials as a 'shield' while perpetrating corruption with brazen impunity.

Bhushan questioned the Prime Minister's perceived hesitancy in dealing with corrupt minister and coalition allies.

"The Congress party repeatedly hails the honesty of the Prime Minister. He is projected as an honest leader of the government. So, I had said the Congress party was trying to use the Prime Minister and his clean image as a shield, just like the character of Shikhandi was used in the Hindu epic Mahabharata," he said.

Bhushan further called for the establishment of an independent panel to probe the allegations of graft levelled against senior cabinet ministers.

Hold that polish! Or at least give your nails a good look before you paint them. Your fingernails and toenails are like 20 mini-mirrors to the state of your overall health. Changes throughout the body that are otherwise invisible can sometimes be first seen in the nails, says dermatologist Amy Newburger, a senior attending physician at St. Luke's - Roosevelt Medical Consortium in New York City.

Fingernails tend to give more reliable clues than toenails, given the wear and tear of walking, tight shoes, and slower foot circulation over time, which can obscure toenail changes. But check both hands and feet -- the first of the following nine nail clues explains why.


Clue 1: A black line

Look for: A black discoloration that's a straight vertical line or streak and grows from the nail bed, usually on a single nail. About 75 percent of cases involve the big toe or the thumb, according to a review in the British Journal of Dermatology. Especially worrisome: a discoloration that's increasing or that's wider at the lower part of the nail than the tip. "That tells you that whatever is producing the pigment is producing more of it," says Newburger.

Also beware when the skin below the nail is deeply pigmented as well, says podiatrist Jane Andersen of Chapel Hill, North Carolina, a spokeswoman for the American Podiatric Medical Association.

What it might mean: Melanoma, the deadliest form of cancer. People with darker skin are more vulnerable than Caucasians to subungual melanoma (melanoma of the nail bed), but darker-skinned races also have more dark lines in nails that are benign, according to a 2004 report in American Family Physician.

Next steps: Always have a doctor check out a suspicious black line on the nail quickly because of the high skin cancer risk. A black line on the nail may also be caused by a harmless mole or an injury. A biopsy can confirm melanoma.


Clue 2: Small vertical red lines

Look for: Red (or sometimes brownish red) streaks in the nail. "They look like blood or dried blood," Anderson says. These are known as "splinter hemorrhages" because they look like a splinter but are caused by bleeding (hemorrhage) under the fingernail or toenail. They run in the same direction as nail growth.

What it might mean: Heart trouble. The "splinters" are caused by tiny clots that damage the small capillaries beneath the nail. They're associated with an infection of the heart valves known as endocarditis. Don't panic if you see one, though: Sometimes an ordinary injury to the nail can cause a splinter hemorrhage.

Next steps: No treatment is needed for the splinter hemorrhage itself. A doctor can evaluate and treat the underlying cause if it's heart-related.


Clue 3: Wide, "clubbed" nails

Look for: Uniformly widened fingertips or toes -- they appear to bulge out beyond the last knuckle -- where the nails have widened, too, so that they curve down and appear to wrap around the tips of the finger like an upside-down spoon. (Normal nails are narrower than their base fingers.) These extra-wide nails are called "clubbed" nails.

What it might mean: Clubbed nails are a common sign of pulmonary (lung) disease, Newburger says. Although the nails' odd shape develops over many months to years, people are often unaware of the underlying condition, which can include lung cancer.

Next steps: If you haven't had a physical exam lately, consider one, especially if you have other symptoms such as coughing or shortness of breath.


Clue 4: Spoon-like depressions

Look for: Nail beds that have little dips in them, an effect called koilonychia, or "spooning." "If you put your hand flat on the table, the spooned nails look like they could each hold liquid," Newburger says. The nails will also be unusually pale or stay whitish for more than a minute after you press gently on one. (Normally it would turn white for a second or two before returning to its original pinkish color.) The moons at the base of the nails may look particularly white.

What it might mean: Iron-deficiency anemia. Spooning can also be seen in the nails of people with hemochromatosis, or "iron overload disease," a condition usually caused by a defective gene that leads to too much iron being absorbed from the gastrointestinal tract. Other symptoms for both conditions can include fatigue and lack of energy, or they may be symptomless.

Next steps: A complete blood count can diagnose anemia, and a physical exam might pinpoint the cause of iron problems. Iron supplements and dietary changes are often prescribed as first-line treatments for anemia.


Clue 5: Rippled, pitted nails

Look for: Tiny indentations or holes in the nail bed called "pits." The nail may also appear to be rippled rather than smooth. (You can also feel these abnormalities by rubbing your finger across the nail, which is normally as smooth as the inside of a seashell.)

What it might mean: Psoriasis. Between 10 and 50 percent of patients with this common skin disease have pitted, hole-pocked nails, according to a 2000 report in Primary Care. So do more than three-fourths of those with psoriatic arthritis, a related disorder that affects the joints as well as the skin. More rarely, Reiter's syndrome and other diseases of connective tissue show this symptom.

Next steps: A doctor can prescribe medications to treat the underlying conditions. The nail bed can often be restored in psoriasis when the treatment starts early.


Clue 6: Brittle nails

Look for: Peeling, splitting, or easily cracking nails. Sometimes vertical ridges mar the surface, too. These telltale wrecked nails are sometimes called "hypothyroidism nails."

What it might mean: Thyroid disease. Hypothyroidism, or underactive thyroid, occurs when the thyroid gland doesn't make enough thyroid hormone. (Typically a patient's hair is also thin and brittle.) Metabolic functions throughout the body are disrupted, including the delivery of moisture to the nails. Pale, dry skin and hair that may fall out are related signs. Hyperthyroid (overactive thyroid) diseases, such as Grave's disease, may also cause brittle nails.

Next steps: Skip the over-the-counter nail strengtheners for persistently brittle nails and get thyroid levels checked; if thyroid disease is the cause, it's important to treat the root problem.

Clue 7: Nails that seem to be "lifting off"

Look for: The nail itself separating from the nail bed, which is the layer of skin directly under the nail. This effect, known medically as onycholysis, often begins at the fourth or fifth fingernail. Toes can also be affected. It's also called "Plummer's nails" (after the physician Stanley Plummer, who described them in 1918) or "dirty nails," because debris can accumulate and be seen.

What it might mean: Thyroid disease. Hyperthyroidism, in which too much thyroid hormone is produced, can cause excessive nail growth and lead to this deformation. Plummer's nails tend to occur in younger patients rather than older ones.

Next steps: Other hyperthyroidism symptoms to be aware of include fatigue, difficulty concentrating, increased appetite, weight loss, sweating, hair loss, itching, and protruding eyes.


Clue 8: Depressions running across the nail horizontally

Look for: White ridges running across the width of the nail bed. These so-called "Beau's lines" (after the French physician who described them) can occur in all or just one nail; if in all nails, they're at about the same place on all of them. They're actual ridges in the nail plate itself.

What it might mean: Diabetes, psoriasis, Raynaud's disease -- or just a trauma to the nail. Beta-blockers and drugs used in chemotherapy can also produce Beau's lines. Some people develop them simply as a result of aging.

Next steps: Consider this effect just one piece of a puzzle. Nails grow about 1 mm every six to ten days, so doctors use this measurement to estimate when the problem might have begun.

Clue 9: White bands running across the nail horizontally

Look for: The white-colored bands, known as "Mees' lines," run transverse (parallel to the white tips of the nails). They may affect one nail or several, occurring at about the same spot on each nail. Because the problem is in the nail itself, the line moves forward as the nail ages -- allowing doctors to date the time the problem began.

What it might mean: Arsenic poisoning! Hair and tissue samples should be tested to verify. It's pretty rare these days, Anderson says, but worth knowing about.

Next steps: Make an appointment to see a doctor -- and avoid eating anything you don't prepare yourself!

Here are the most dangerous cell phone viruses for symbian based mobiles. Like Computer, cell phones are also using system that keeps the cell phone running in a proper way.

Cell phones are having a problem as well with viruses that attach their operating system. There are quite lot cell phone viruses. But here’s the most dangerous cell phone viruses for symbian based cell phone as one of the most popular operating system for cell phone. You have to keep away from it.




1. Cabir Virus:

The target of this cell phone virus is Symbian s60v2 mobile phone. Cabir is a virus that spreads via a Bluetooth connection and come into your inbox with an interesting message. It won’t cause a fatal damage, but the battery of the cell phone will quickly run out because this virus periodically activates Bluetooth of the infected cell phone.

2. Skulls Virus:

The target of this virus is symbian cell phone and spread via the internet. The damage resulted is the mobile phone cannot be used again except to call and receive calls.

3. CommWarrior Virus:

The target of this virus is symbian s60v2 mobile phones. The Virus spread via Bluetooth and MMS. It will send replication through MMS to all numbers in contacts, so will make your mobile phone bill high.

4. Locknut Virus:

The target of this virus is the symbian s60 mobile phone and spread through the internet download. Locknut E, one variant of this virus, will damage important files in a Symbian system and causes the infected application could not be opened. By using that way, step by step the cell phone will be locked totally by this virus.

5. Fontal Virus:

The target of this virus is symbian s60 mobile phone and spread through internet download. This virus will lock the cell phone in stages. It will finally lock the phone since it was first turned on.

6. Rommwar Virus:

The Targets of this virus is symbian s60 cell phone and its spread through Bluetooth, MMS, and internet. This virus cause the phone can’t do booting and often restart itself.

7. DoomBoot Virus:

The target of this virus is symbian S60 cell phone and spread via Bluetooth. Doomboot make files become corrupted, and after infecting a file, it will put other viruses such as Commwarrior into the mobile phone. Damaged file will prevent the phone to do rebooting. In addition, this virus also causes the battery run out quickly due to constant use Bluetooth connection.

8. CardTrap Virus:

The target of this virus is the symbian s60 mobile phone and Windows-based PC. It spread through the memory card and cause important applications become malfunctioned, the chaos system, and damage to the function of the keypad.

9. PBstealer Virus:

The target of this virus is Symbian S60 cell phone and spread via Bluetooth. This virus will copy the necessary data in the mobile phone, for example, contacts, to-do lists, notes to the format. txt and then will be spread to other mobile phone, using Bluetooth.

10. AppDisabler:

The target of this virus is symbian based mobile phone and spread through Bluetooth, MMS, and internet. This virus will install other dangerous viruses like Locknut, Cabir, Skulls, etc. Thus causing the entire operating system broken, you can say, this is the most dangerous viruses that never existed because they combine several types of viruses in once.

Losing your sign of youth, power and virility may be your biggest scare. It's time you come to terms with the bald truth.

Stress causes dandruff, leading to hair loss
If it's starting to snow over your shoulders, then you're working too hard. "The fungus which causes dandruff is present on all scalps," says Dr Rakesh Sood, a New Delhi-based trichologist.

"But the problem is exacerbated when your immune system is weakened." An American Academy of Dermatology research confirms that stress is a key reason for low immune function. Can't drop out of the rat race just yet? The study suggests using tea tree oil-based shampoos to root out the worst of the dandruff situations.

Wearing hats causes hair loss
For that to happen, the hat would have to be so tight as to cut off circulation to the follicles. If that were the case, the hat would likely be much too tight for you to wear comfortably...so it's not likely. Wearing a tight hat can, however, cause hair breakage and damage.

Dermatologists say that a hat can cause damage to the scalp by blocking proper air circulation. Without a well-ventilated headgear, sweat can clog up the pores in the scalp. Go for a hat with a brim to shield your face from sun.

Regular haircuts make hair grow faster and thicker
Getting frequent haircuts is a good way to keep existing hair healthy by removing damaged, split ends. But a regular cut has no effect on your hair's growth rate or its thickness, says hair stylist Vidya Tikari.

This common misconception comes from the fact that hair is thicker at the base than it is at the tip, so it appears thicker at first. Cutting your hair does not affect hair growth at all; it will grow about half an inch each month no matter what.

Hair loss can be prevented by frequent hair brushing or standing on your head
Some people have maintained that constant brushing increases scalp circulation and thus boosts hair growth. However, because alopecia is primarily caused by the presence of dihydrotestosterone and your genetic predisposition rather than blood flow, hair brushing will have no positive effect on hair growth. Similarly, standing on your head might give you a head rush from the increased blood flow, but it won't have any effect on your hair.

Growing hair longer will hide baldness
Actually, in almost every circumstance, growing hair longer makes the thinning and baldness appear much more noticeable. When the sides and back are worn fuller, it makes the top appear thinner.

"If you can see scalp on the top, cut the sides short enough so you can see an equal amount of scalp," says Tikari. This will give an overall uniform appearance and take the emphasis off the thinning areas. Guys, you are only fooling yourselves with the comb-over!

Chennai Super Kings are the Manchester United of IPL, for more reasons than one. It’s not just a superlative record across the five years that the league has been in existence for that fosters favorable comparisons. There is also the small matter of the undisguised hate that their success has spawned.

Wherever one goes, people – rabid followers, casual viewers, disinterested passersby – are dismissive, even openly venomous, of the consistency that has been Chennai's hallmark since 2008, the year the IPL was unleashed upon the Indian consciousness.

In a format that thrives on unpredictability, in which regular success is illusory and reliability rare, the Super Kings have made four finals and a semifinal in five seasons. They have lifted the IPL trophy twice, in succession, and a hat-trick of wins may well have resulted on Sunday night were it not for Manvinder Bisla’s freakish knock and the unfortunate no-ball that Ben Hilfenhaus bowled.

In contrast, there are at least three franchises that have never reached the final in five seasons and would consider even a last-four finish – were it to somehow materialize - as commendable. It comes as a surprise then that a record as unimpeachable as Chennai’s is not given its due by most and is met with frank illogic from detractors.

Those who do not swear by the march-marigold yellow that unites Super Kings’ legion of fans usually recourse to hackneyed responses, which allude to a doctoring of results in the IPL. By virtue of being owned by the Big Daddy of Indian cricket – N. Srinivasan – Chennai, they also claim, is assisted by predetermined outcomes, favorable scheduling and basically favoritism in all things IPL.

This season too, after being only barely in the reckoning to make the play-offs, Super Kings were lent a hand by a succession of results in matches that didn’t involve them but that required a specific consequence for them to progress. As it happened, all three games went the way Super Kings stood to benefit most from, and once again tongues started to wag.

What this perpetually acerbic lot did not realize was that the 17 points and superior run-rate (speaking relatively to Royal Challengers Bangalore’s) that Chennai found themselves with at the end of their league matches was all gained on their own steam. On at least two occasions they won close games that would have gone the other way were it not for a blinding performance down the order – again, outcomes that can be straightaway attributed to ‘fixing’ so far as critics are concerned.

But really, despite the ‘sting’ operation by the honorable India TV (a channel that has earlier ‘broken’ stories such as the existence of a ‘Stairway to heaven’ and ‘Alien attacks in the Middle East’) is fixing matches involving a plethora of international and national stars really feasible? Even, for a moment, accepting the heinous possibility that matches were and are tampered with, what prevents other dollar-heavy franchises to follow suit and bend results their way? Would not the league benefit most if wins and losses were equally disbursed to further the image of a highly competitive event?

It doesn’t help that the subliminal hardwiring and structures of power that provide the IPL its sustenance are too mangled and intertwined to allow for any transparent process of assessment to be put in place. That apart, besmirching what Chennai has done over the past five years appears to be a case of sour grapes. It’s common knowledge that the team is the only one which has retained its core since the inaugural season. Yes, they have been lucky, but no more than any other team; you cannot really blame an outfit for peaking at the right time, which Super Kings have made a habit of.

In this edition too, the damage that Chennai’s batting inflicted upon the opposition in their last few matches – after being patchy for the most of the initial stages – was astounding. Was it all engineered by Srinivasan, pre-decided by the IPL council in a boardroom, or chanced upon by a draw of lots? I think not. So, vicious disbeliever, pause for a moment and give credit where it’s due – doff your hat to Super Kings, the IPL monsters who refused to relent until KKR beat them at their own game on Sunday night.

Bollywood star and Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise Kolkata Knight Riders co-owner Shah Rukh Khan apologised for his misbehaviour. At the Wankhede stadium he had allegedly misbehaved with security guards and cricket officials at the ground.

Shah Rukh was overwhelmed after KKR won it's final match and apologised for his behaviour in Mumbai, "I want to apologise to all my children that I misbehaved at the MCA. I am sorry. And I am sorry to all my viewers that I subjected you to a side of me which is not nice. So please forgive me. Forgive me because, you know, we have not won for a long time. Come on! You can give this much to me. I am sorry for misbehaving. If you make me win every year, I will not misbehave. So please allow me to win."

Roger Federer netted a record-equalling 233rd Grand Slam victory when he beat German Tobias Kamke 6-2, 7-5, 6-3 in the first round of the French Open on Monday.

The third-seeded Swiss matched Jimmy Connors's professional era (since 1968) mark despite hitting some wayward shots against the World No. 78 on Court Suzanne Lenglen .


It was also Federer's 50th singles match win at Roland Garros .

Federer, looking to secure a record-breaking 17th Grand Slam title at Roland Garros, cantered through the first set and broke decisively in the 11th game of the second, wrapping it up with a forehand winner in less than two hours.

Next up for the former World No. 1 is either Argentine David Nalbandian or Adrian Ungur of Romania.

World No. 1 Novak Djokovic showed great composure to beat Italian Potito Starace 7-6, 6-3, 6-1 and reach the second round.


The Serbian was dragged into a first-set tiebreak, which he won 7-3, before gradually outpacing the world number 97 as he bids to become the first man in 43 years to hold all four Grand Slams simultaneously.

Starace put up a decent fight in the opening set and was only broken in the fifth game of the second before Djokovic, who did not face a single break point throughout, found his stride on a sundrenched Court Philippe Chatrier and raced home in just over two hours.

Djokovic next faces Blaz Kavcic after the Slovenian knocked out former world number one Lleyton Hewitt of Australia .


Li starts title defence with easy win

Li Na began the defence of her French Open title with an easy win on Monday, defeating Romanian Sorana Cirstea 6-2, 6-1 in 58 minutes.


China's Li, who became the first player from an Asian nation to take a grand slam singles title when she won at Roland Garros last year, was never challenged by the 43rd-ranked Cirstea.


In front of stands that were barely half-full on Philippe Chatrier Court  Li, who played with her right knee strapped up, allowed the Romanian few chances and few points.


Li said she was still upset about losing to Russian Maria Sharapova in a dramatic and rain-interrupted Italian Open final eight days ago.


"After that final I told everyone: 'Don't talk to me about tennis for three days'," the World No. 7 said.


Azarenka has narrow escape in first round


Victoria Azarenka narrowly escaped becoming the first women's top seed to lose in the first round of the French Open when she recovered from losing the opening set to beat Italian Alberta Brianti 6-7, 6-4, 6-2 on Monday.


Azarenka, 10 years younger and 104 ranking places higher than her opponent, was in patchy form, giving away breaks with double faults and errors and screaming in anguish at her own mistakes.


After losing the first-set tiebreak 6-8, the Belarussian World No. 1 found herself five points from defeat as she was 0-4 and break point down in the second set.


However, just when it seemed that Brianti was on the verge of winning her first match at Roland Garros in five appearances, Azarenka put the Italian under pressure in a long fifth game.


The Australian Open champion clawed her way back, then broke to love in the eighth game of the third set to take victory in two hours 16 minutes.

Washington, May 25 : Pornographic websites have ceased to be the 'most dangerous' places on web for picking up viruses.

The Internet Security Threat report for 2011, released by security Software Company Symantec (SYMC) ranks pornographic sites at 9th as the riskiest to visit.

One of the most fascinating part of the report is in the review of malicious code trends, which lists the 10 most dangerous categories of Websites.

These categories of sites don't reflect the total number of infected sites; rather, they represent the kind of sites that tend to be the most infected as per URL.

The list of sites in order of danger is:

Blogs and Web communications

Hosting and personal hosted sites

Business and economy

Education and reference

Technology

Entertainment and music

Automotive

Health and medicine

Porn

According to Symantec, 20 percent of all blog and Web communication sites are infected with malicious code, 15 percent of hosting sites are infected, and 10 percent of business and economy sites.

Surprisingly, only 2 percent of pornographic sites are infected.

Conventional wisdom would flip that list upside-down.

Symantec's list is a reminder that Macs are no longer immune to security worries.

"The first known Mac-based bot network emerged in 2009 and 2011 saw a number of new threats emerge for Mac OS X, including trojans like MacDefender, a fake anti-virus program," the CBS News quoted Symantec as saying.

"Mac users are exposed to sites that push trojans by means of SEO poisoning and social networking. In May 2011, Symantec found a malware kit for Mac (Weyland-Yutani BOT) -- the first of its kind to attack the Mac OS X platform.

"In addition, many attack tools have become cross-platform, exploiting Java exploits whether they are on Macs or Windows PCs," the company added.

Nay Pyi Taw, May 28  With Myanmar opening up to democratic transformation, India and the Southeast Asian state Monday decided to forge links between their think-tanks.

The need for building academic linkages was underscored in two pacts signed after wide-ranging talks between the leaders of the two countries in the Myanmarese capital.

A memorandum of understanding on cooperation between the Myanmar Institute of Strategic and International Studies and the Indian Council of World Affairs and another MoU to establish linakges between the Myanmar Institute of Strategic and International Studies and the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses were among a dozen pacts that were signed.

"The two leaders also welcomed the formalization of contacts between Indian and Myanmar think tanks and academic institutions and urged scholars to participate actively and exchange views in academic events being held in either country," a joint statement said.

The academic and scholarly links will go a long way in bridging the knowledge gap between India, the world's largest democracy, and Myanmar, which has shed decades of isolation to embrace democratic reforms in an incremental fashion.

CANNES, France  - Critics lauded the Cannes film festival jury on Monday for awarding director Michael Haneke's "Love" (Amour) the coveted Palme d'Or for best picture, justifying its status as favourite going into Sunday night's awards ceremony.

 The Austrian has now won the top prize at the world's biggest cinema showcase twice, joining a small elite of multiple winners and cementing his place as a master of film making.

 Slow and understated, Love's portrayal of an elderly French couple facing the last stages of life had audiences in tears and critics rushing off to write five-star reviews virtually across the board.

 Its victory was particularly welcome in France, with the stars of the movie, both in their 80s, highly respected names in French cinema.

 "The names of Emmanuelle Riva and Jean-Louis Trintignant ... will play in the public eye like a French victory," said Le Parisien newspaper.

 Conspicuous in their absence from the awards ceremony that wrapped up the 12-day festival on the French Riviera were U.S. productions, five of which made it into the main competition of 22 entries.

 Not even the acting talent of A-listers Nicole Kidman and Brad Pitt, alongside hot emerging Hollywood names like Jessica Chastain, Tom Hardy and Zac Efron, was enough to win over the judges led by Italian director Nanni Moretti.

 Turn the clock back a year, and U.S. director Terrence Malick was winning the Palme d'Or for "The Tree of Life" and Kirsten Dunst scooped the actress award for her role in Lars Von Trier's apocalyptic epic "Melancholia".

 "FEELING LET DOWN"

 Cannes critics were cool towards most U.S. productions, although New Zealand-born Andrew Dominik's "Killing Them Softly", starring Pitt as a mob enforcer in a recession-hit U.S. city, was reasonably popular.

 "None set the town on fire and clearly can't count upon widespread critical support down the line," said The Hollywood Reporter's Todd McCarthy, in reaction to the awards.

 "The feeling of letdown about these films running from vague to severe created the feeling of a mixed-bag festival."

 What the strong North American presence did do, however, was put stars on the red carpet, a key ingredient to success at a film festival which thrives not only on high-brow cinema but also on glamour, fame and celebrity buzz.

 The other big loser on the night was French-born director Leos Carax's "Holy Motors", an audacious and surreal film about a man, played by Denis Lavant, who adopts 10 alternative lives in a single day.

 Featuring Kylie Minogue and Eva Mendes in cameo roles, as well as a character who is married to a monkey, an aroused man-monster and stretch limousines which talk at night, the movie was the main talking point of the festival as it sharply divided opinion.

 In addition to Haneke, two other former Cannes winners were awarded -- Briton Ken Loach won third prize for Scottish comedy caper "The Angels' Share" and Romanian Cristian Mungiu won best screenplay for exorcism drama "Beyond the Hills".

 The movie's two young stars, Cristina Flutur and Cosmina Stratan, were surprise dual winners of the actress prize, while Danish star Mads Mikkelsen scooped the best actor prize for his portrayal of a man wrongly accused of child abuse in the harrowing drama "The Hunt".

 Mexico's Carlos Reygadas won the best director category for "Post Tenebras Lux", a dreamlike exploration of the undercurrent of menace within Mexican society today.

LONDON  - Britain's first Muslim woman to hold a cabinet post fought back on Monday against allegations she had made improper expense claims, the latest in a series of public relations disasters to hit her political patron, Prime Minister David Cameron.

Sayeeda Warsi, a lawyer of South Asian origin who describes herself as a "Northern, working-class roots, urban, working mum", cuts an unusual figure in Cameron's Conservative Party, whose leadership is dominated by privileged white men from the affluent south.

 Cameron elevated Warsi in 2007 to the House of Lords, giving her the title of Baroness, and when he took office in 2010 he made her party chairman and gave her a seat at the cabinet table. Her rise was widely interpreted as part of Cameron's drive to rebrand the Conservatives and broaden their appeal.

 But the strategy risked backfiring after Warsi was accused on Sunday of claiming taxpayers' money for overnight stays in London during visits on House of Lords business in 2008 when she was in fact staying for free with a party colleague.

 "I take these allegations very seriously," Warsi said on Monday in Malaysia, where she was on an official visit. "It's why I said right at the outset that I would fully cooperate with any investigation," she told the television channel ITV, denying that she had done anything wrong.

 The slightest whiff of scandal related to expenses is political poison in Britain since a huge scandal over hundreds of dubious claims filed by lawmakers from both main parties dominated the news agenda for much of 2009.

 "It stretches credulity that after all the expenses scandals, and all the transparency pledges by David Cameron, someone so senior should get into such a mess," said the popular Sun newspaper in a Monday editorial.

 "APPROPRIATE PAYMENTS"

 The Warsi expenses row comes at a terrible time for Cameron, whose reputation has been battered over the past two months by an unpopular tax cut for high earners, a scandal over big party donors gaining access to him and endless embarrassing details about his party's courting of Rupert Murdoch's media empire.

 Warsi has referred the allegations against her to the House of Lords commissioner for standards, who will consider whether an investigation is necessary.

 The man making the allegations, medical doctor Wafik Moustafa, was reported by several newspapers to have a grievance against the Conservatives. The papers said he was angry over the party's refusal to recognise a group he had founded, the Conservative Arab Network.

 Moustafa says he let Naweed Khan, a Conservative member of staff who later became Warsi's special adviser, stay at his London house for free for a period. Warsi says she stayed at the house, as a guest of Khan, about 12 times in early 2008.

 Warsi says Khan was paying rent to Moustafa and that she had made "appropriate payments" to Khan which she had then legitimately claimed back on expenses. Khan backs her up. But Moustafa said he received no money from either Khan or Warsi.

 Separately, Warsi has said she failed to declare rental income on an apartment she owns in the Register of Lords' Interests, as the rules required. Warsi said she took full responsibility for the "oversight" and had now put things right.

 Whether or not Warsi is eventually vindicated, she is likely to be lastingly damaged by the bad publicity.

 Warsi has ruffled many feathers during her career, repeatedly causing controversy with comments on religious and racial topics.

Santa Fe, New Mexico  - A wildfire burned out of control for a fourth day in the steep mountains of southwestern New Mexico on Saturday, one of several blazes that have consumed more than 200 square miles (520 square km) of rugged land in six U.S. states.

 Efforts to contain the blazes spreading in sparsely populated areas of Arizona, Colorado, Michigan, Nevada, New Mexico and Utah have been hurt by gusting winds and tinder-dry late-spring conditions.

 Several small towns, including the historic Wild West mining town of Mogollon - now nearly a ghost town - were ordered to evacuate, as the spreading fire torched miles forest, brush and grass.

 New Mexico's Whitewater-Baldy Complex fire, which was started by lightning 10 days ago, had raged across 82,252 acres as of Friday and officials said the area could now be much larger than that.

 "We know that there was significant growth yesterday, but we don't have a hard and fast number," said Fire Information Officer Dan Ware.

 More than 580 firefighters and support crew have been fighting the blaze.

 "This is the biggest show in the country right now in terms of fire size. So a lot of resources are available to us. We're just not sure we'll be able to do a lot of flying," Ware said.

 He said access to the fire had been the chief difficulty as it was burning in very steep, rugged terrain where firefighters were not able to cut through the brush and timber.

 "Fire activity was so extreme yesterday we had to pull crews out," he said. "We're expecting another day like that today. With such high wind levels and low humidity there's going to be big potential for some major growth."

 Smoke from the New Mexico fire wafted north into the Denver metropolitan area on Saturday, as firefighters battled a separate wildfire burning on the Utah-Colorado border.

 That 2,800-acre fire was burning in a remote area near Paradox, Colorado, U.S. Forest Service spokesman Steve Segin said.

 He said there were only a few isolated ranches in the area and no structures had been lost so far, although the wind-driven blaze was "very active." He said the cause was under investigation.

 Most of western Colorado has been put under a "red flag" warning for wildfires due to hot temperatures, low humidity and high winds, according to the National Weather Service.

 In Utah, officials said that a wildfire burning on the west side of Promontory Point, the tip of a peninsula that juts into the Great Salt Lake, had grown to 4,200 acres, but was 50 percent contained.

 The fire, which was touched off by lightning on Thursday, was burning uphill in the Promontory Mountains, on public and private land, the officials said. No structures have been lost, they said.

President Barack Obama faces new warning signs in a once-promising Southern state and typically Democratic-voting Midwestern states roughly five months before the election even as he benefits nationally from encouraging economic news.

Obama's new worries about North Carolina and Wisconsin offer opportunities for Republican Mitt Romney, who must peel off states Obama won in 2008 if he's to cobble together the 270 electoral votes needed to oust the incumbent in November.

Iowa, which kicked off the campaign in January, is now expected to be tight to the finish, while New Mexico, thought early to be pivotal, seems to be drifting into Democratic territory.

If the election were today, Obama would likely win 247 electoral votes to Romney's 206, according to an Associated Press analysis of polls, ad spending and key developments in states, along with interviews with more than a dozen Republican and Democratic strategists both inside and outside of the two campaigns.

Seven states, offering a combined 85 electoral votes, are viewed as too close to give either candidate a meaningful advantage: Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Nevada, New Hampshire, Ohio and Virginia.

"As of today, the advantage still lies with the president, but there is a long and hard road ahead in this election," said Tad Devine, who was a top strategist to Democratic presidential candidates Al Gore and John Kerry but isn't directly involved in this year's race.

If Romney wins all the states Republican John McCain carried in 2008 plus North Carolina, as trends today suggest he would, he would still need 64 electoral votes to hit the magic number. That would require him to win a majority of the states that are up for grabs.

Obama, on the other hand, faces the costly and labor-intensive challenge of defending those states in a much different environment than the one he enjoyed four years ago.

Big-spending, pro-Romney political committees are certain to be a factor, and already are running heavy levels of television ads in states where Obama is vulnerable, such as Florida.

But Obama's early spending — more than $30 million on advertising before Memorial Day — and new glimmers of economic hope across the battleground states demonstrate the size of Romney's challenge.

The race is expected to be close, and the past six weeks have been volatile.

North Carolina is a case in point.

Obama announced his support for gay marriage on May 9, one day after 60 percent of North Carolina voters approved a constitutional ban. "That issue definitely hurts him down there," said veteran Republican presidential campaign strategist Charlie Black, a top aide to 2008 nominee McCain. Black's not directly involved in this year's race but is an informal adviser to Romney.

North Carolina's high African American and young voter population, keys to Obama's 2008 wins there, give him the edge, aides say. And the president so far has spent heavily there, $2.7 million on television, according to reports provided to the AP.

But Democratic Gov. Bev Perdue gave Republicans an opening by not seeking re-election this year. And union leaders, a key Democratic constituency, are upset that this summer's Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, N.C., is being held in a state where union rights are weak.

In Wisconsin, embattled Republican Gov. Scott Walker's improving fortunes as a contentious June 5 recall election approaches could alter that state's landscape. Walker, who sparked mass protests by signing anti-union legislation last year, has pulled narrowly ahead of Democratic Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett in recent polls.

If Walker survives, Romney aides say they have a real chance to carry Wisconsin, which no Republican has done since Ronald Reagan in 1984.

"I don't think there's been any better dress rehearsal for a presidential election than what's going on in Wisconsin right now," said Rich Beeson, political director for the former Massachusetts governor.

Indeed, the Wisconsin recall could signal a GOP shift in an arc of states from Iowa to Pennsylvania that have reliably voted Democratic in presidential elections for a generation.

"Whether Walker wins or doesn't is going to be a big indicator of how Wisconsin goes, and how the whole upper Midwest goes," said Iowa's Republican Gov. Terry Branstad.

Romney has signaled plans to contest Iowa, where Obama's 2008 caucus win propelled him to the Democratic nomination. Romney also sees opportunity in his native Michigan, where Democratic presidential candidates have won since 1988.

Bright spots are developing for Obama, too.

Public polls this month showed the president narrowly ahead in Virginia, a Southern state Republicans had carried nine times before Obama won it in 2008. Obama's advantage among Latino voters is moving New Mexico his way. Neither campaign nor the super PACs have advertised there, despite close finishes in 2000 and 2004.

Obama also has seized on new economic data that could give him a lift across the contested map. April unemployment ticked downward in all of the up-for-grabs states except Colorado as Obama and Romney have fought over who is best equipped to lead an economic recovery.

In Des Moines, Iowa, this month, Romney blamed Obama's spending for the recovery's slow pace. A week later, on the other side of town, Obama said Romney's career as a private equity executive was more suited for the boardroom than the Oval Office.

Obama's attack dovetails with scathing ads on Romney's career at the head of Bain Capital, which ran briefly in Colorado, Iowa, Pennsylvania and Virginia. They remained on the air last week in Ohio, where Obama aides say Romney's opposition to the auto industry bailout in 2009 hurts him with workers in the region's auto manufacturing sector.

Obama has had an edge in getting out his message. For nearly two months, his campaign has aired spots across 11 states, heaviest in Florida, Iowa, Ohio and Virginia, according to the ad-tracking reports.

Romney has only been airing ads for two weeks in four states. But super PACs that support him have helped shave Obama's advertising edge, airing $10 million in ads across 10 states.

Obama aides point to an edge in state-by-state organizing that could be the deciding factor in a close election. While Romney is quickly arranging with the Republican National Committee to deploy staff to various battlegrounds, Obama's campaign has been up and running for years.

Said Democratic strategist Devine: "The president and his campaign have a real and potentially decisive advantage on the ground."

In a rather self-conscious manner, this film nods to the Priyadarshan-style anarchy and confusion in the plot but in truth, it's more like a C-movie version of his signature comedies (I mean it as a tribute to Priyan).

The confusion here is over a severed head of a man who looks like the poorest cousin of Bob Christo. The trouble is not that director Amol Shetge chooses to create comedy over a big-sized, bald man's severed head because in the end, all is fair in humour and if you recall, the corpse farce in Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro is the finest example to cite. The cause of real trouble is how ridiculous and absurd the situations are and the sadder fact is that this absurdity dominates much of this film, without any respite whatsoever.

If you still care, here's making some sense of the nonsensical plot. Pratap Singh (Manoj Joshi) is a retired top cop who loves all things Indian. And for some very stupid reason, he is against love marriage. So, when his daughter Tia (Rani Agrawal) falls in love with DJ Rahul (Suhail Karim) and his son Pappu (Vrajesh Hirjee) brings home an Italian bahu, it becomes imperative to lay the ground before they tell him the truth.

On another side, there is a love story between a South Indian female cop and her Marathi colleague, both devotees of Rajinikanth. If you still didn't get the connection, Rajinikanth is a Marathi who, having achieved stardom in Tamil cinema, made Chennai his home.

Practically all the ingredients in Love Recipe are flavourless. It offers nothing but consistent hamming (Hirjee's among the worst on display), terrible writing and tacky humour. The actors are simply sleepwalking through their roles or they just don't have it in them. I haven't consciously mentioned Upasana Singh yet to save you, dear reader, from third degree torture. If at all, this film is a sure-footed recipe for disaster.

Before the release of Dangerous Ishhq, I had heard that the film is about past life regression. After having watched the film I can confirm that it is indeed about past life regression. I can also confirm that the regression here is not confined to past life. It is also a regression into an era when Bollywood filmmakers could grossly underestimate their audiences' thinking capacity and get away with it.

The film brings Karisma Kapoor back on the big screen after a six-year hiatus. In the interviews that Karisma gave as a run up to the film, she described her role in Dangerous Ishhq as the most challenging role of her career. She essays four different characters across four time periods in the film.

Starting with a supermodel Sanjana whose fiancé Rohan ( Rajneesh Duggal) is kidnapped under mysterious circumstances, Karisma goes on to play Geeta, Salma and Paro across five centuries. All this made possible by her doctor who makes Sanjana delve into her past lives in order to identify Rohan's kidnappers. The doctor casually throws in references to famous psychiatrist Dr Brian Weiss and his past-life therapy in support of her treatment of Sanjana. And from here on things get increasingly bizarre.

Despite her claims of having worked very hard for the film, none of Karisma's four characters leave any impact on the audience. A ridiculous and faulty plot, superficial dialogue delivery and weak direction leaves the audience completely untouched and mighty annoyed at being taken for such a dumb ride.

However, a couple of impressive dialogue deliveries by Karisma's period characters do assure us that her acting prowess has not dwindled over the years. Given an opportunity, she can still pull off a Zubeidaa with the same panache and possibly more depth and maturity.

In the looks department, Manish Malhotra's impeccable styling ensures that Sanjana struts around in six inch heels through all the chaos and trauma of trying to find her kidnapped fiancé. And that the city slicker turns into a village belle with style and flair. While her wafer thin frame is compatible with Sanjana's supermodel looks, Salma and Paro's bodies could have done with better definition.

Rajneesh Duggal is a model-turned-actor. And whenever anyone mentions a male model turned actor, the first image that comes to my mind is that of a wooden Deepak Malhotra squeaking out "Pallo" in Yash Chopra's Lamhe. Lets just say Rajneesh Duggal does better than that.


Divya Dutta's natural performance tries to bring some semblance of realism into a preposterous plot but elements like Meerabai's (Gracy Singh) 'vardaan' to Paro and Durgam Sigh's (Ravi Kishen) shoulder mark across many rebirths  render any such effort ineffective.

The film was also being touted as a supernatural thriller. Supernatural it surely is, what with far-fetched characters like a sorceress (Natasha Sinha) and a villain who chases Sanjana through generations. But there is nothing remotely thrilling about the film -- unless some exasperated laughs at the sheer absurdity of the plot can pass off as thrills. And a convoluted ending doesn't make it any better.

Cinegoers have always been happy and willing to suspend their disbelief before entering theatres. And many great filmmakers thrive on this trait. But Dangerous Ishhq demands a suspension of not just disbelief but of all our thinking powers and even that does not make us take this incredible farce spread across five hundred years in our stride.

So here's a plea to all filmmakers -- regressive or progressive -- for the sake of Indian cinema and its viewers, Mirabai and Dr Brian Weiss should be kept as far away from each other as possible.

Synopsis

Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Thor, Captain America, Hawkeye and Black Widow answer the call to action when Nick Fury, director of the international peacekeeping agency known as S.H.I.E.L.D., initiates a daring, globe-spanning recruitment effort to assemble The Avengers team to defeat an unexpected enemy threatening global safety and security. Despite pulling together the ultimate dream team, Nick Fury and longtime confidant Agent Coulson must find a way to convince the Super Heroes to work with, not against each other, when the powerful and dangerous Loki gains access to the Cosmic Cube and its unlimited power.



Review





The good versus evil mythology built on the bones of classic comic book legend needs for the right side to triumph, against seemingly insurmountable odds. Which is why when we walk into a comic book movie, no matter how formidable the foe initially seems -- no matter how humongous Mickey Rourke's  muscles and how many intelligent arms Alfred Molina  has -- we always know he'll be licked by the end of it.

Which is where Joss Whedon's The Avengers truly scores.

The film isn't about the bad guys -- even though it has a captivatingly slimy villain -- but about an ambitious assemblage of larger-than-life superhero icons; heroes yet aglow from their own individual blockbusters totting up over $2 billion over the last few summers.


Men, in short, with preposterous identities, egos and issues with authority. And it is by wittily mining their invariably tempestuous dynamic that Whedon strikes comicbook gold.

The Earth is under attack -- from spurned Norse God Loki (played by a creepy Tom Hiddleston) -- and the eyepatch-wearing Nick Fury (an appropriately commanding Samuel L Jackson) decisively begins to put together a squad of superheroes equal to the task. Forever the man with a plan, Fury's been glimpsed in all the component blockbusters leading up to this one, speaking of an Avengers Initiative, the heist-master putting together his ace crew, step by slow-burn step. Those familiar with the books and recent Marvel movies have more than an inkling, but the rest need only know the basics -- -- and trust in the fact that the gents gathered here can spank an army apiece.

After they find their own groove, that is.

A film throwing as many one-liners as it does punches, The Avengers consists of the drily snappy Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo), swiftly angered hammer-weilding God of thunder Thor (Chris Hemsworth), quaintly vintage Captain America (Chris Evans) and Robert Downey Jr's Tony Stark, that Iron Man treading on everyone's shoes with his serrated-edge sarcasm. Somewhere in the mix also lie Scarlett Johannson's redheaded Russian superspy Black Widow and Jeremy Renner's impossibly good marksman Hawkeye, but while they too have their moments, they simply aren't super enough to trade quips with the big boys.

There is much to admire and to applaud, and all of it too well-written for a review to play spoiler. The words and the cast deliver, earning guffaws, gasps and wolf-whistles.


It's Stark -- that Jack Sparrow of superheroes -- who takes the obvious lead, literally poking Banner with a stick to bring out his big green alter ego, and making Shakespeare jabs at Thor, but despite his immense quotability, the film's genius lies in letting each icon get a rightful piece of the pie.

Cap A is positively irresistible when he, frozen from World War II, triumphantly catches on to a pop-culture reference (to 1939 classic The Wizard Of Oz), Thor is quick to retract sibling-love hearing of his half-brother's homicidal madness, and Ruffalo's Banner is an absolute masterstroke, an in-control scientist who strangely but perfectly seems almost proud of the beast within. The role has been played before by Eric Bana and Edward Norton, but Ruffalo's Hulk is by far the truest to the character's spirit, and has a hilariously electrifying screen presence. (He is also responsible for the film's finest line, a two-word instruction given to him by Cap, one that will cause many a fangasm around the globe.)

Yet when the villain imperils the world, oneupmanship is instantly sacrificed as the Avengers do indeed assemble. Each member of the team finds a role and is ready for the banal as well as the big: in one brilliant scene, with every Avenger surrounded by volcanic chaos and striking more glamorous blows, Iron Man, the inevitable star of the piece, sees his task reduced to that of a welding job.

By the time the heroes arrange themselves into a unified force and take attack positions, Manhattan is being ravaged by gigantic alien vertebrae, skyline-crumblingly snaking through midtown. This is the cue for a long and ridiculously enjoyable action setpiece that -- while amplifying the ante for a big-screen 3D spectacle -- keeps things cheeky as it oscillates from Avenger to Avenger (once even in a breathlessly unbroken shot) each getting the job done in their own uniquely awesome way.

The Avengers is wall-to-wall action, executed with a fluid coherence we don't get to see in most superhero films, and yet what stays with you are the lines and, resultantly, the characters. As this big, meaty film -- this hero sandwich of a film, even -- winds down, Whedon makes us do something increasingly rare in these over-franchised times: root for a sequel.

The Avengers -- from ambition to scale to the way it justly balances each remarkable character -- is an absolute blast, and it's far easier to lose yourself than to find fault. It's the most spectacular superhero party of all time. And you're invited. Go smash.