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We expect marriages to get rocky and families to provoke pain. But friends tend to be presented in a mostly happy light: think Sex and the City, or Friends. Bumps and scrapes between Samantha and Charlotte are in the plot but only so they might be resolved. Lovers come and go. Friends remain.

This idealisation does not help us in real life, where friendships do not just have entertaining ups and downs, but disturbing fights and bitter endings. Such a reality is demonstrated in new research based on data collected from the Mass Observation Project, just published in The Sociological Review.

Prof Carol Smart and her colleagues argue that some friends can be dumped quite easily. These are "simple friendships" – people we know for fun, say, so when the fun ceases the relationship is dropped or drifts away. But "complex friendships" – people to whom we were close, as soulmates – prove more distressing.

One woman is typical when she confessed that she stuck with an old friend out of responsibility:

"I have an ongoing friendship with a divorced man … who is a good friend in many ways, but who can be very overbearing, loud and insensitive … and he has an anxiety problem. I am sorry for him but find myself totally drained after a day in his company."

The idealisation of friendship comes through in the research too. Some insisted that you should not abandon old friends, ever. "I'm loyal towards my friend," said one participant, before admitting: "This sounds awful, but I don't get a lot out of the friendship any more." Another person made the arresting observation that the way someone talks about their friends opens a window into the soul, "through which a person's moral calibre could be assessed".

Interestingly, the research advises caution when it comes to reconnecting with old friends. Meeting college or childhood friends can "call up the ghost of former selves, causing regret, embarrassment and discomfort".

Part of the problem is that friendship has no institutionalised life course. When you fall in love, you will think about moving in, about engagement, about marriage, about children, about divorce, about how to get along with your ex. The pathway is not trekked by everyone, of course. But the marital pattern provides a template against which to chart your love life, even when you honour it in the breach. Further, the institutional nature of marriage and marriage-like relationships means that help can be sought when things go wrong.

Not so with friendship because the course of a friendship has no such pattern or support. That is part of its appeal, in fact – friendship as the relationship of freedom. You did not choose your family. You realise that you had little conscious sense of why you chose your lover, once the romance quietens. But you did choose your friends, apparently. And then something goes wrong. You are left floundering.

Perhaps there should be friendship counselling too. It would recognise that friendship is vital to human wellbeing because this form of human love gets under our skin quite as much as any other, for good and ill. But in the meantime, the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche has a useful metaphor to offer.

He knew a thing or two about amity's calamities, having once been a friend of Wagner. The experience of the break-up seems to have led Nietzsche to develop the notion of "star friendship".

Stars are distant, like the friendships of yesteryear. They look bright, as you remember the good times. But the great thing about stars is that they don't cast a shadow over you now. So too might old friendship, once a blessing, now broken. It is not easy to find the place where they don't cast a shadow of guilt or bitterness or loss. But the star metaphor might keep you headed in a better direction. It holds out the hope that one day you will wake up and realise that you're over the friendship, it was good, and all will be well.

London, May 12 (ANI): Statins, the pills taken by millions of people to combat high cholesterol, could more than halve the risk of bowel cancer, say researchers.

In a recent study, a team of doctors at Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital found that the cholesterol-busting pills, which cost as little as 40p a day, slashed the chances of the disease developing by an average of 57 per cent.

And in patients taking higher doses of the cholesterol-busting drugs, or were on them for at least five years, the risk fell by more than 80 per cent.

The findings suggest the pills could be a cheap and effective way of easing the cancer burden on the NHS, if future large-scale investigations can confirm the results.

The researchers stressed the numbers involved in their study were small but the findings could be important in terms of preventing an often fatal illness.

"Statins may have a protective effect against the development of bowel cancer. In our study, they were associated with a significantly reduced incidence of the disease, and greater statin exposure offered more protection," the Daily Mail quoted the researchers as saying.

The study raises the possibility that high cholesterol could be a key factor in the development of the disease and that taking a daily dose of statins may have a powerful preventive effect.

Although previous studies have investigated statins' possible protective effects in bowel cancer, the results have been inconclusive.

But the latest results, published in the journal BMC Gastroenterology, point to much greater benefits than first thought, with laboratory tests suggesting the pills reduce the formation of polyps, the pre-cancerous growths in the bowel that can develop into tumours.

Dr Kat Arney, of Cancer Research UK, said the study provides 'another piece of evidence to add to the pile'.

But she added that there is still no definitive answer on whether the drugs 'have a significant effect on reducing cancer risk'.

To examine the effect on bowel cancer, the Norwich team recruited 101 cancer patients and another 132 healthy adults. They compared statin use among the two groups to see how it matched up with cancer diagnoses.

The results showed that patients who had taken statins at any time in the past were 57 per cent less likely to get a tumour.

The extent of the protection depended on how long they had been on the tablets and what dose they took, with those prescribed statins for under two years a third less likely to get bowel cancer than non-statin users.

But patients on them for five years or more were 82 per cent less likely to develop tumours.

While the standard daily dose of 40 milligrams halved cancer risk, higher doses slashed it by 80 per cent.

British cancer experts said last night the findings add to the evidence that statins may have a protective role and called for larger studies to investigate the possible health benefits. (ANI)

NEW YORK (Reuters) - New Yorkers may like "Mayor Mike" but are less certain they want him playing the role of "Mayor Mom."

A new poll shows the Big Apple's denizens are divided over City Hall's efforts to correct their bad habits, which in recent years has included bans on trans fats and smoking in bars, as well as drives to cut consumption of salt and sugary soda.

While nearly six in 10 New York voters would prefer to live in a building where no one is allowed to smoke, more than half of those polled say City Hall should not pressure building owners to ban indoor smoking, a Quinnipiac University poll showed on Friday.

And asked whether the government should discourage unhealthy eating and drinking habits, 45 percent said it should while 48 percent said the government shouldn't get involved.

Overall, 58 percent of voters say Mayor Michael Bloomberg's efforts to improve health habits are "about right" or have not gone far enough, while 33 percent say they have gone "too far," the poll found.

"New York City voters have a love-hate relationship with 'Nanny Government,'" said Maurice Carroll, director of the Quinnipiac poll.

The Bloomberg administration's push for more bike riding has also left voters feeling conflicted. While nearly two-thirds think the city's new bike rental program is a good idea, fewer than half of voters would like to see more bike lanes in their neighborhoods.

The telephone survey of 1,066 New York City voters had a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

Bloomberg is in the middle of this third four-year term as New York City mayor. A separate Quinnipiac poll released on Thursday found city voters approve of his job performance by a margin of 49 percent to 42 percent.

(Reporting By Edith Honan; Editing by Doina Chiacu)

London, May 11 (ANI): Common chemicals found in household products may be the reason behind a range of medical problems such as cancer, reduced fertility and obesity, Europe's environmental watchdog has warned.

The European Environment Agency (EEA) has warned that other items such as cosmetics and medicines, which contain endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs), could be harmful to humans.

In a study published on Thursday, officials said that there was strong evidence of harm and cautioned against their use but stopped just short of recommending a complete ban.

According to the agency five classes of chemicals need more scrutiny.

These included phthalates, which are often found in pesticides bisphenol A and other PCBs, which are used to make plastics parabens that are increasingly found in sunscreen and chemicals used in contraceptive pills.

It found those chemicals, which disrupt the hormone system "may be a contributing factor behind the significant increases in cancers, diabetes and obesity, falling fertility and an increased number of neurological development problems in both humans and animals".

The agency said that in recent decades, there has been a "significant growth" in many human diseasesand disorders including breast and prostate cancer, male infertility and diabetes.

It added that many scientists believe that the growth was connected to the "rising levels of exposure to mixtures of some chemicals in widespread use".

The agency also said that the link between some diseases and these disrupter chemicals was now fully accepted.

The findings, in a report titled "The impacts of endocrine disrupters on wildlife, people and their environments", were made following a review of scientific studies literature commissioned by agency over the past 15 years.

"Scientific research gathered over the last few decades shows us that endocrine disruption is a real problem, with serious effects on wildlife, and possibly people," the Telegraph quoted Jacqueline McGlade, the EEA Executive Director, as saying.

"It would be prudent to take a precautionary approach to many of these chemicals until their effects are more fully understood," McGlade said.

She said the real problem was not a single chemical but the "cocktail effect" of many of them together. (ANI)

London, May 13 (ANI): In a new study, scientists have revealed that they are a step closer to curingdiabetes after discovering how a potent two-pronged attack on diabetes can wipe it out.

Researchers of the study found that a powerful "combination therapy" can tackle the condition, even at a late stage.

Around 370,000 Britons have Type 1 diabetes, which develops when immune cells in the body attack and destroy beta cells in the pancreas leaving it unable to produce insulin, the hormone which controls blood sugar levels.

The researchers in California found they can reverse the process by quickly shutting down this "autoimmune" attack on beta cells before feeding the pancreas growth factor molecules.

However, tests have been carried out only on mice.

"The findings hint that people with late-stage diabetes could potentially be cured with a mix of two techniques that spur re-growth of pancreatic cells while stopping autoimmunity," the Daily Expressquoted the researchers as saying.

Type 1 diabetes can develop at any age but usually appears before the patient is 40, especially in childhood.

It is important that laboratory-based research like this is conducted, and that it is followed up, but the many years and many obstacles which lie between this point and any possible use in people mean that we should not get too excited at this stage

The study by a team at the Beckman Research Institute of City of Hope in Duarte, California showed the combination treatment lets new beta cells fully regenerate and produce insulin without a risk of being depleted by the immune system.

The researchers said that more studies are needed to see if the technique can work on humans.

"This paper provides insight into techniques which may be used in combination to regenerate and protect insulin producing beta cells," Matthew Hobbs, head of research for Diabetes UK, said.

"However, it is extremely important to realise that these two techniques have so far only been tested in mice, either individually or in combination.It is important that laboratory-based research like this is conducted, and that it is followed up, but the many years and many obstacles which lie between this point and any possible use in people mean that we should not get too excited at this stage. Certainly, it is far too early to hail this as a cure for Type 1 diabetes," he added.

The study has been published in the journal Science Trans-lational Medicine. (ANI)

RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) - The formal response of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Palestinian grievances over frozen peace negotiations contains nothing that could revive the talks, Palestinian officials said on Sunday.

Netanyahu's reply on Saturday to a letter he received last month from Mahmoud Abbas rejected the Palestinian president's demand to halt Jewish settlement building in occupied territories and repeated a call for an unconditional return to talks that collapsed in 2010, according to the officials.

"The content of (Netanyahu's) letter did not represent grounds for returning to negotiations," Hanan Ashrawi, a member of theExecutive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization which reviewed the document, told Reuters.

Israel did not release details of Netanyahu's letter, which a senior aide carried to Abbas in the West Bank city of Ramallah. But Israeli officials said last week they did not expect Netanyahu to agree to Abbas's demand to stop settlement construction before reopening any talks.

After the right-wing Israeli premier's letter was delivered, his office issued a joint statement with the Palestinians saying both sides were "committed to achieving peace".

Few diplomats, however, expect any breakthrough ahead of the U.S. presidential election in November, although the surprise formation of a national unity government in Israel last week has provided a slight flicker of hope.

BROAD COALITION

Netanyahu stunned the political establishment on May 8 by hooking up with the main opposition group, the centrist Kadima party, to form one of the biggest coalitions in Israeli history.

The head of Kadima, Shaul Mofaz, has long blamed Netanyahu for the failure of the peace talks and told reporters last week that entering new negotiations "was an iron condition for forming the unity government".

Yasser Abed Rabbo, who also belongs to the Palestinian Executive Committee, said the Israeli letter "did not include clear answers about the central issues which are undermining the resumption of the peace process".

Abed Rabbo cited the issues of settlements and Israel's refusal to accept Palestinian demands for the creation of a Palestinian state, with minor territorial swaps, along the lines that existed before it captured the West Bank in a 1967 war.

Netanyahu has called those lines indefensible and said the future borders and the fate of settlements should be discussed in negotiations and not serve as preconditions for talks.

Speaking at a news conference, Abbed Rabbo said the Executive Committee, which is chaired by Abbas and serves as the PLO's highest decision-making body, urged the "Quartet" of Middle East peace sponsors to intervene and get peace efforts back on track.

The Quartet consists of the United States, the European Union, the United Nations and Russia.

Before Abbas met Netanyahu's aide, the Palestinian leader received a call from U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to discuss regional issues, Abbas's office said. Clinton also spoke to Netanyahu in mid-week to urge a resumption in negotiations.

The U.S.-sponsored peace talks unravelled after Netanyahu rejected Palestinian demands that he extend a partial settlement construction freeze he had introduced at Washington's behest.

About 500,000 Israeli settlers and 2.5 million Palestinians live in the West Bank and East Jerusalem -- territory the Palestinians want for an independent state.

The settlements are considered illegal by the International Court of Justice, the highest U.N. legal body for disputes. Israel rejects that position and cites historical and biblical links to the West Bank and Jerusalem.

(Editing by Jeffrey Heller, additional reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi in Gaza)

MADRID (Reuters) - A fired-up Serena Williams sent out a warning to the young pretenders of women's tennis when she powered to a crushing 6-1 6-3 victory over world number one Victoria Azarenkato win the Madrid Open on Sunday.

The 30-year-old former number one, seeded ninth at the premier clay event in the Spanish capital, made the most of Azarenka's nervous start on the blue dirt of the Manolo Santana show court to race into a 4-0 lead.

After breaking the Belarussian's serve for a third time to clinch the first set, Williams turned the screw with another break early in the second and clinched victory on her first match point when Azarenka completely missed an attempted return.

It was the American's second title of the year after her success on the clay at Charleston last month and her 41st singles crown overall, putting her in joint 13th on the all-time list with Belgian Kim Clijsters.

Azarenka, who flung her racket to the floor in frustration on the way to being broken in the second game of the second set, had beaten Williams just once in seven previous meetings and was bidding to improve on her runners-up finish in 2011.

It was only her third defeat in a year in which the 22-year-old won her first grand slam singles title at the Australian Open, which lifted her to the top of the rankings, and has earned more than $4 million in prize money.

Williams clubbed 26 winners to Azarenka's six and smashed down 14 aces, while her opponent did not manage a single one and offered up six double faults.

(Reporting by Iain Rogers, editing by Justin Palmer)

Washington, May 13 (IANS) India's ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA) chairperson Sonia Gandhi and Pepsico's India-born CEO Indra Nooyi figure in Forbes' World's 20 Most Powerful Moms list topped by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

While Sonia Gandhi, 65, mother of daughter Priyanka and son Rahul, was ranked No 6. just ahead of US First Lady Michelle Obama (7), Nooyi, 56, a mother of two takes the third spot in the list released by the US business magazine on the Mother's Day Sunday.

The chairperson of soft drink giant says if her children call in the middle of a meeting, she takes the call.

"Power moms must develop unique strategies to succeed in both boardrooms and playrooms," says ForbesWoman, which chose the list from diverse spheres of government, business, entertainment and philanthropy.

Clinton, 64, who has a daughter and holds one of the world's most powerful jobs, takes the top spot ahead of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, 64, who too has a daughter and a grandson, at second position.

Myanmar's democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi takes the 20th spot in the list that includes Melinda Gates, co-founder of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Christine Lagarde, managing director of International Monetary Fund and Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook.

The magazine ranked the world's 100 most powerful women based on money controlled, decision-making power and multiple measures of influence and teased out the moms who are at the top of their game.

RIVER VOVODO, Central African Republic (Reuters) - U ganda has captured one of the Lord's Resistance Army's top five rebels, bringing it a step closer to catching Joseph Kony, the LRA leader accused of war crimes, the military said on Sunday.

The Uganda People's Defence Force said Caesar Achellam, a major general in Kony's outfit of about 200 fighters, had been captured in an ambush on Saturday along the banks of the River Mbou in neighbouring Central African Republic (CAR).

They said Achellam had been armed with just an AK-47 rifle and eight rounds of ammunition. He was being held with his wife, a young daughter and a helper.

The army, which has a force hunting for Kony full-time in the jungles of CAR, backed by American troops, said the capture of Achellam would encourage other fighters to abandon the LRA.

"The arrest of Major General Caesar Achellam is big progress because he is a big fish. His capture is definitely going to cause an opinion shift within LRA," said Felix Kulaigye, UPDF spokesman.

A Reuters reporter who accompanied UPDF forces to CAR said Achellam, who was paraded before media, was walking with a limp, which he attributed to an old wound.

He was returning from the Democratic Republic of Congo when he walked into the Ugandan soldiers' ambush. UPDF said it had been on his trail for a month.

Kony, a self-styled mystic leader who at one time wanted to rule Uganda according to the biblical Ten Commandments, fled northern Uganda in 2005, roaming first the lawless expanses of South Sudan, then the isolated northeastern tip of Congo.

In December 2008, Uganda launched Operation Lightning Thunder, dispersing the rebels and pushing them north into CAR.

Analysts said Achellam was a close ally of Kony who had masterminded the group's relocation from northern Uganda.

"From whichever angle you look at it, the loss of Achellam should be very troubling for Kony and a big boost for his manhunt," said Angelo Izama, an analyst who has written extensively on the LRA.

(Reporting by Justin Dralaze; additional reporting by Elias Biryabarema in Kampala; Writing by Duncan Miriri; Editing by Kevin Liffey)

LONDON (Reuters) - Worsening financial and political turmoil in southern Europe caused a surge of interest in London property last month with buyers from Greece and Spain showing strongly among investors seeking a safe haven for their money.

The number of Greeks searching for homes costing more than 1.5 million pounds on the website of property agent Savills jumped 39 percent in April compared with the average of the preceding six months, the company said.

"The reason Greeks are coming is very simple," said Dinos Joannou, a 65-year-old Cypriot who works in the Athenian Grocery in the Bayswater district of London and has seen growing numbers arrive this year. "Greece is screwed, there are no jobs and it has been run by crooks."

The number of Europeans buying property in London has grown steadily over the last year as the euro zone debt crisis has worsened but numbers spiked ahead of elections in Greece last weekend that failed to produce a government.

George Kastaros, 37, dresses as a traditional Greek soldier handing out leaflets for the Kalamaras restaurant on Queensway in Bayswater, an area popular among Greeks and home to the St Sofia's Greek Orthodox cathedral.

The Athenian moved to London before the crisis began in 2007 and said the number of Greeks arriving jumped after Christmas.

"Dressed like this, Greek people who have just got off the plane come up to me with their suitcases and ask where they can find a place to live or a job. I was stopped by more than 100 people in January."

The chef at Kalamaras arrived five months ago with his son and daughter, who are a doctor and teacher, he said. "These are well-educated people who cannot find jobs in Greece."

"What we're seeing is another stage in the euro zone crisis gathering pace," said Liam Bailey, head of residential research at property agent Knight Frank. "It's ironic that the more instability you get in the euro zone the more the London property market benefits."

Savills data showed Spanish buyers grew 14 percent in April compared with the same six-month period and Knight Frank registered a 21 percent jump. Searches from Portugal last month were 153 percent up on April 2011 while Italian traffic jumped 46 percent, Knight Frank said.

Growing interest from Greece in the last three weeks has been buoyed by buyers looking to rent out property as an investment, said Noel de Keyzer from Savills.

"There seems to be an endless flow of wealthy Greek buyers, old Greek family money, coming to London both renting and buying."

In addition to countries afflicted by the euro zone crisis, the best London homes have attracted growing interest from Russia, the Middle East and Far East as buyers attempt to protect their assets amid the gyrations of the money markets.

Interest has pushed prices for so-called prime central London properties up by 44 percent in the last three years, more than twice the increase across London as a whole, Knight Frank said.

Kostas Kazolides owns the Halepi Greek restaurant around the corner from Kalamaras and provides advice to Greeks looking to buy real estate or invest as part of club deals in residential and commercial property.

"There have been a lot of new faces walking through the door of my restaurant lately," he said, pointing to the growing popularity of deals in which professionals such as doctors and architects club together to invest.

"There is real and justified fear on the streets of Greece at the moment. People are going hungry and those with money feel threatened by kidnap. My banker friends in Greece tell me about nine billion euros left the country after the election."

Most buyers are reluctant to talk publicly, said one estate agent who specialises in helping wealthy Greek buyers find London real estate.

"With the Greek tax system the way it is, these people don't want others to know how much they are moving out of the country or where they are putting it," he said.

(Reporting by Tom Bill)

AMMAN (Reuters) - Syrian forces have released the bodies of seven young men killed in a military raid on a conservative Sunni district of Damascus in exchange for an army officer abducted by rebels, opposition sources in the capital said on Sunday.

The army had refused until Friday to release the bodies of the seven, who were killed on May 5 in a sweep of the Barzeh neighbourhood, prompting the rebels to abduct the officer, Youssef Zaghbour, days later, they said.

The area in the north of the capital has been the scene of regular street demonstrations against President Bashar al-Assad's rule.

Free Syrian Army rebels have lately been finding support in Barzeh, with more of the population turning to armed struggle to counter the military crackdown on the 14-month protest movement.

"Zaghbour was not hurt. The funerals of the seven martyrs took place in Barzeh yesterday and today, drawing large crowds," one of the sources said from Barzeh.

Live video footage broadcast by activists on Sunday purportedly showed the coffins of three of the seven, covered in red and white roses, being carried by mourners.

It showed thousands shouting slogans demanding freedom and waving green and white flags from the era before Assad's Baath Party took power in a 1963 coup.

"Rejoice, mother of the martyr. Your son is beloved by God," the crowd sang.

There was no comment from the authorities, who tightly restrict access by independent media.

Keeping the bodies of those killed by Assad's forces has been a common practice in the crackdown on the revolt against 42 years of rule by Assad and his late father, Hafez al-Assad, activists and human rights organisations say.

The say that by keeping the bodies, or releasing them after weeks or months, and only after agreeing with the families that funerals will be small and quiet, the authorities hope to prevent the funerals becoming anti-Assad rallying points.

(Reporting by Khaled Yacoub Oweis, Amman newsroom; Editing by Kevin Liffey)