World's longest passenger aircraft

Updated On: Sunday, June 19, 2011

LE BOURGET: Boeing Co's (BA.N) 747-8 Intercontinental, the new elongated passenger version of its legendary jumbo jet, made its international debut on Sunday, under cloudy skies after a half-hour delay due to wind.The new model has 467 seats, 51 more than its predecessor, but fewer than the 525-seat A380 made by EADS (EAD.PA) unit Airbus.The high-profile landing of Boeing's new 747 at the Paris Air Show -- three months after its first flight -- marks a show of engineering strength by the world's second-largest plane maker in a competition for control of the wide-body market."We've seen a great deal of interest in the last six to eight months as the market has gotten better," Randy Tinseth, Boeing's vice president of marketing at Boeing's commercial division, told Reuters.The plane features a new red and orange livery to symbolize the importance of the fast-growing Asian aircraft market.Boeing has taken 33 orders for the 747-8 Intercontinental, which will be joined in Paris on Monday by the better-selling freighter version of the plane, which has received 76 orders.Boeing flew its first 747 -- the largest commercial plane it makes -- 42 years ago. Since then, the plane with the distinctive hump has become the world's most recognizable plane.The 747 was the world's largest airplane until 2005, when Airbus unveiled its A380.The 747-8 Intercontinental competes with the A380. The upgraded plane promises to burn less fuel and offers more passenger comfort. The plane also boasts new wings, a new tail, state-of-the-art engines and a new cockpit.The Intercontinental lists at $317.5 million. Germany's Lufthansa (LHAG.DE) has ordered 20 of the planes, and is set to be the first airline to bring the new jumbo into service early next year. Boeing says a VIP customer will take first delivery of an Intercontinental in the fourth quarter of this year.Production of the new 747 has been delayed as has the mid-sized 787 Dreamliner, a carbon-composite plane, which represents a bigger leap in technology than the revamped 747-8.The Paris Air Show is the venue of choice for aerospace and defense companies to strut their stuff, to the delight of aviation enthusiasts around the world.In the market for smaller wide-body aircraft, Airbus took a stab at Boeing when it said it would delay availability of some A350 aircraft to develop a bigger engine. The move was a shot across the bow to Boeing's 777-300ER long-range airliner. (Reuters)

William and Kate to live in Diana palace

Updated On: Monday, June 06, 2011

LONDON: Prince William and new bride Catherine will within the coming months move into Kensington Palace, the London residence once shared by the prince and his late mother Diana, St James's Palace said Sunday.

The newly-titled Duke of Cambridge and his brother Prince Harry lived in the palace after Diana and Prince Charles divorced in 1996, but the newlywed couple will move into a different property within the grounds.

A spokesman from St James's Palace said: "We can confirm that The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge's official London residence will temporarily become a property at Kensington Palace.

"A number of options for longer term solutions are still being considered.

"The couple's main home will continue to be their house on Anglesey, and their Household Office will continue to be based at St James's Palace," he added.

The duke and duchess currently live on the north Wales island of Anglesey, where the prince works as an RAF search and rescue helicopter pilot.

William, 28, is second in line to the throne for the 16 Commonwealth realms, including Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. (AFP)

Identifying bin Laden, unmasking a rapist: DNA at work

Updated On: Sunday, May 29, 2011

WASHINGTON: From identifying Osama bin Laden to proving someone guilty of rape or murder, DNA analysis has become an essential scientific tool for police and criminal justice.

Unique genetic markers could play a crucial role in the trial of ex-IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn, accused of sexually assaulting a hotel maid in New York.

Various media reports, citing sources close to the investigation, have said that DNA from Strauss-Kahn -- believed to be traces of semen -- was found on the shirt of the 32-year-old woman, who has alleged that the French political heavyweight tried to rape her in his hotel suite on May 14.

"The DNA technique, the nuclear DNA, is the one and only technique, if properly conducted, that has an extraordinarily high odds against a misidentification," said University of Arizona professor of chemistry and geoscience Bonner Denton.

"It's very close to 100 percent... It's a much better technique than many other forensic identification techniques, even finger prints."

Thanks to DNA analysis and other tests, US officials were able to say they were certain bin Laden was dead, with just a one in 11.8 quadrillion chance of mistaken identity.

CIA specialists first compared photographs of the Al-Qaeda leader's corpse to photographs of bin Laden and then reviewed a DNA sample against a "comprehensive profile" derived from some of his many family members.

As a result, an intelligence official said there was no doubt that a team of US Navy SEALs that raided a compound in Pakistan on May 1 had killed the Al-Qaeda founder.

Denton was part of a National Research Council team that wrote a key report about DNA analysis in 2009 for the US Congress.

"Nuclear DNA analysis has been subjected to more scrutiny than any other forensic discipline, with extensive experimentation and validation performed
prior to its use in investigations," the report said.

It concluded that the US medical-legal system needed to be revamped because forensics labs were backlogged and understaffed.

More than half of the first 250 people released from prison thanks to a DNA test exonerating them had been initially found guilty based on erroneous medical analysis.

DNA analysis entered the US criminal system in 1987 when a serial rapist in Florida became the first person whose guilt was proven using the technique.

Federal authorities, including the US military and all 50 states, now archive DNA samples.

The FBI has developed the powerful Combined DNA Index System (CODIS), which catalogs millions of samples.

Every Monday morning, the FBI launches a CODIS search automatically comparing millions of DNA profiles of people who were arrested or found guilty with samples collected in cold cases.

The methodology has allowed CODIS to confirm the guilt of 140,000 criminals since 1994 and to prove 269 people innocent since 1989, according to University of Virginia School of Law professor Brandon Garrett.

Each year, DNA analysis clears thousands of suspects, even early on in police investigations.

A federal investigation in the 1990s found that 25 percent of principal suspects had been cleared of all suspicion thanks to DNA tests.

The reliability of the technique can also establish the identity of a child's parents at low cost.

And it shed new light on the relationship between Thomas Jefferson and the third US president's black slave Sally Hemings, finding that he likely fathered several children with her. (AFP)

Heart scans tied to ‘evidence-free’ cure

Updated On: Tuesday, May 24, 2011

NEW YORK: When symptom-free people have heart scans to look for clogged arteries, they can end up with overtreatment and side effects, researchers said Monday.

In a study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, they found people who had the scans were much more likely to be put on medications and undergo surgery than those who chose standard health screening.

The scans, called coronary computed tomography angiography or CCTA, produce a detailed image of the heart that reveals cholesterol buildups in the coronary arteries.

If they get big enough, such buildups may cut the blood flow and cause a heart attack. So in theory, treating them early on might help stave off some the more than 1.2 million heart attacks -- a third of them fatal -- that occur every year in the U.S.

Yet there's no evidence that treating people based on heart scan results does any good, said Dr. John McEvoy, of Johns Hopkins Ciccarone Center for the Prevention of Heart Disease in Baltimore, who led the new study.

By contrast, it's well known that the scans expose patients to a high dose of X-rays, which can increase their likelihood of developing cancer. And the dyes used to enhance the images cause kidney damage in a significant portion of people.

"Testing might lead to more harm than good," McEvoy said, adding that heart scans may cost $600 or more.

His team looked at 1,000 Korean patients who chose to get a heart scan as part of a health screening program at Seoul National University Bundang Hospital.

The researchers compared those patients to closely matched individuals who opted to forgo the scans -- not currently recommended by guidelines -- and just get the standard health checkup.

More than a fifth of the patients who got scanned had cholesterol buildups in their arteries, also called atherosclerosis.

Three months later, these individuals were using cholesterol-lowering statins 34 percent of the time and blood-thinning aspirin 40 percent of the time. In those who tested negative for atherosclerosis or didn't get scanned, less than 10 percent used the medications.

People who got scans also had more additional tests and major heart procedures.

The researchers expected that if the extra drugs and procedures were actually helpful, the treated people would have a lower rate of serious heart problems in the future.

But after another 18 months, there was no such difference. There was just one event in the 1,000 people who had CCTA (one case of hospitalization for chest pain) and one in the 1,000 people who didn't (a heart-related death).

Currently, whether a patient gets statin or aspirin is based on risk factors such as their age, and how much cholesterol is in their blood. Both drugs have side effects, notably joint problems and bleeding ulcers.

Although the study can't prove that getting a scan caused the extra medication use, the gap could not be explained by differences in risk factors for heart disease, such as cholesterol levels or smoking.

In an editorial, Dr. Michael S. Lauer of National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute in Bethesda, Maryland, said the new study serves as a reminder of the downsides of screening.

"Physicians cannot easily ignore diagnoses made with screening tests because it is impossible for them to determine whether their patients have real disease or pseudodisease," Lauer notes. "Therefore, physicians prescribe tests, medications, procedures, or even surgical procedures, all of which carry inherent risks."

McEvoy agrees. "With these new imaging techniques, we are left with the dilemma of what to do with the results," he said.

Even when screening helps predict health problems down the road, Lauer adds, that doesn't mean treatments are necessarily beneficial.

"Overdiagnosis is threatening to become an increasingly important public health problem because of the enthusiasm for and proliferation of unproven screening tests," Lauer writes.

McEvoy said there have been several reports of doctors doing CCTA heart scans in healthy patients, although the practice is currently discouraged by the American Heart Association.

According to McEvoy, doctors should focus on patients' lifestyle and traditional risk factors such as smoking and obesity. (Reuters)

Royal wedding party captures world’s attention

Updated on : Friday, April 29, 2011

LOS ANGELES: The fairytale wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton captured the imagination of the world Friday, with millions sharing in the celebration of the royal nuptials at parties across the globe.

An estimated two billion people watched on TV when William and Kate exchanged vows at Westminster Abbey, and even in the home to the Hollywood stars royal glamour shined strong.

"We have movie stars, but they're not as good," said Paula Haifley, 30, as she arrived at the Cat and Fiddle British pub on Sunset Boulevard.

Decked out with Union Jack flags and cut-out Kate and Wills models at the entrance, some 300 royal party-goers packed into the bar for the all-night bash to watch the wedding service that started at 3:00 am in LA.

"We came to celebrate. It gave us the opportunity to dress like girls, and celebrate the pomp and circumstance that we don't necessarily get over here," said Katie Christiansen, 24.

"It's a Cinderella story to make Hollywood drool," Andrew Rule from London commented in Sydney's Daily Telegraph tabloid.

"Today the world will see the wedding that proves that fairytales can, and do, happen," he wrote in the newspaper which reserved its first five pages for the wedding.

Hundreds of devoted monarchists gathered for celebratory lunches across the country, joining for a champagne toast, wedding cake and slideshows of the royal family and newlyweds.

And British troops took a rare break from frontline duties in one of Afghanistan's most hostile provinces to watch the pomp and ceremony from London on a big screen while toasting the marriage with alcohol-free beer and hunks of barbecued steak and chicken.

For some at Camp Tombstone in the southern province of Helmand it was a chance to honour the future king and their country, for others it was a great excuse to relax and have some fun.

"If you were going to say the politically correct thing, it would be it's a great thing but if you were to say (the) real thing, it's a cracking day off," said Able Seaman Kieran Glynn, a 22-year-old from Edinburgh, Scotland.

The British embassy in Brussels threw an austerity-based royal wedding reception with food and drink laid on by sponsors.

Ambassador Jonathan Brenton told some 400 guests the British tradition was to bring something old, something new, something borrowed and something blue to a marriage.

"Here we are in a time of austerity in the UK and we have had to borrow an enormous amount -- so thanks to our sponsors," he said, listing backers that offered Freixenet cava sparkling wine from Catalonia, pork pies from an Irish butcher and "North Sea" cod and chips.

Meanwhile in Paris, some well wishers visited the statue by the Pont d'Alma that has become an unofficial memorial to William's mother, the late Diana, Princess of Wales.

A solitary pink rose lies at the foot of the "Flame of Freedom", above the tunnel where Diana's car crashed in 1997. With it is a handwritten message: "Dear Diana, thinking of you on this special day."

Despite France's revolutionary past, the wedding was followed avidly here, where three channels screened it live. Champagne corks flew in southern France where many British expats have settled.

"It's history in the making. The prince is marrying a commoner," said Lise Moloney, who toasted the royal couple from the Cafe de Paris in Eymet, a medieval "bastide town" in the Dordogne region.

In former British colony Kenya, where William proposed to Kate last October, wedding gatherings were held in cafes and restaurants across the capital Nairobi.

Even in the Nairobi slum of Kibera, Africa's biggest, a small group of people gathered around a television set up by a stall owner.

"As he proposed to her in Kenya, I think it is good for Kenyans to watch it," said Zack Aseka, owner of a stall selling electrical equipment.

Across Asia tens of millions tuned in to the event as national channels interspersed wedding coverage with discussion, commentary, and off-beat tributes to British life.

Some British-curriculum schools like the Alice Smith School in Malaysia were festooned in British flags and colourful bunting, as students celebrated by making wedding cards and cupcakes.

"This is a great opportunity for us to celebrate the British character of the school as well as wish the happy couple the best of luck," Steve Caulfied, principal of the school's primary section, told AFP.

Even the Kremlin, which has had frosty relations recently with Britain, extended "heartfelt congratulations" to the newlyweds.

"This day is a great and outstanding event not only for you, but also all the people of the United Kingdom. Let your family always live in harmony, happiness and love," Medvedev wrote to Prince William, the Kremlin said.

But British republicans took the opportunity to throw an anti-monarchy party, venting their annoyance at an occasion they consider to be a waste of time and money.

"The whole country is not in rapture over the royal wedding," Graham Smith, campaign manager of anti-monarchy group Republic, told 200 people gathered in a picturesque London square at the 'Not the Royal Wedding' celebration. (AFP)

Energy saving bulbs can cause cancer

Updated on : Tuesday, April 26, 2011

BERLIN: Energy saving bulbs may help cut down electricity bill, but it can take a toll on health.
Fears have been reignited about the safety of energy saving light bulbs after a group of scientists warned that they contain cancer-causing chemicals. Their study has found that these energy saving bulbs emit cancer-causing chemicals when switched on.

Scientists in Germany have claimed that energy saving bulbs should not be left on for long periods of time or placed close to a person's head because they release poisonous materials.

The German study has shown that the chemicals are released as a form of steam. Scientists claimed that several carcinogenic chemicals and toxins were released when the environmentally-friendly compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) were switched on, including phenol, naphthalene and styrene.

India world's biggest arms importer: SIPRI think tank

Updated on : Monday, March 14, 2011

STOCKHOLM: India has been the world's biggest weapons importer over the last five years, Swedish think-tank SIPRI reported Monday, naming four Asian countries among the top five arms importers.

The report also highlighted how the world's major arms supplying countries had in recent years competed for trade in Libya, and in other Arab countries gripped by the recent wave of pro-democracy uprisings.

"India is the world's largest arms importer," the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) said as it released its latest report on trends in the international arms trade.

"India received nine percent of the volume of international arms transfers during 2006-10, with Russian deliveries accounting for 82 percent of Indian arms imports," it said.

Its arms imports jumped 21 percent from the previous five-year-period with 71 percent of its orders being for aircraft.

India's arms purchases were driven by several factors, said Siemon Wezeman of SIPRI'S Arms Transfers Programme.

"The most often cited relate to rivalries with Pakistan and China as well as internal security challenges," he wrote.

China and South Korea held joint second place on the list of global arms import, each with six percent, followed by Pakistan, on five percent.

Aircraft accounted for 45 percent of Pakistan's arms imports, which had bought warplanes from both China and the United States. Pakistan's arms imports were up 128 percent on the previous five-year period, SIPRI noted.

Greece rounded off the top-five list arms importers, with four percent of global imports.

Since the lifting of a UN arms embargo on Libya in September 2003, Britain, France, Italy and Russia had all competed to win orders from Moamer Kadhafi's regime, said the report.

Kadhafi's forces are currently using tanks, artillery and warplanes to reclaim territory held by the opposition forces.

Egypt had received 60 percent of its major arms imports from the United States between 2006 and 2010, said the SIPRI report.

They included "M-1A1 tanks and M-113 armoured vehicles of the type present during demonstrations in the country in January 2011," it added.

A pro-democracy uprising forced Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak to step down on February 11, after nearly three decades of autocratic rule, after pro-democracy uprising.

But the conflict left at least 384 dead and more than 6,000 injured.

Russia, Montenegro, the Netherlands and China had also supplied weapons to the Mubarak regime, said the SIPRI report.

The United States remained the world's largest military equipment exporter, accounting for 30 percent of global arms exports in 2006-10, 44 percent of which went to to Asia and Oceania, SIPRI said.

The rest of the top five arms suppliers were: Russia, with 23 percent of the total market; Germany (11 percent); France (seven percent); and Britain (four percent).

"There is intense competition between suppliers for big-ticket deals in Asia, the Middle East, North Africa and Latin America," said Dr Paul Holtom, head of the SIPRI Arms Transfers Programme.

He cited the efforts of the Eurofighter consortium to sell their plane across the world against rival warplanes, with competition particuarly fierce for the markets in Brazil and India.

Britain, France, Germany and Italy were also competing for orders for naval equipment from Algeria, noted SIPRI.

The think tank, which specialises in research on conflicts, weapons, arms control and disarmament, was created in 1966 and is 50-percent financed by the Swedish state. (AFP)

Over 180,000 refugees flee to Libya's borders

Updated on : Thursday, March 03, 2011

GENEVA: Libyan border crossings were overwhelmed by tens of thousands of hungry, fearful people fleeing its burgeoning civil war. Egypt and a handful of European nations launched emergency airlifts and sent ships to handle the chaotic exodus.

U.N. refugee agency spokeswoman Melissa Fleming said that over 180,000 refugees have reached the border. Over 77,300 people have crossed east from Libya into Egypt, most of them Egyptians, while a similar number have fled west from Libya into Tunisia, she said. Another 30,000 more were still waiting in Libya at the border, trying to get into Tunisia.

She said Libyan strongman Moammar Gadhafi's forces appear to be targeting Egyptians and Tunisians, apparently thinking they are the main trigger of the uprising against Gadhafi's 42-year-old regime. Authoritarian regimes in both neighboring countries have been toppled in the last two months by a wave of popular protests.

"(There are) many, many terrified refugees" in the Libyan capital of Tripoli who are too afraid to move for fear they will be killed, Fleming said.

Some Somali and Eritreans workers around Benghazi, Libya's second largest city which is now under the control of opposition forces, are also feeling "hunted" as they are being mistaken for mercenaries hired by Gadhafi, she said.

Human Rights Watch warned that fleeing African workers were "particularly under threat due to popular anger" over Gadhafi's mercenaries.

As border crossings were overwhelmed with mostly young men, U.N. experts warned that fast action was needed to protect and feed them before a humanitarian crisis or riots broke out.

Angelina Jolie, a U.N. goodwill ambassador for refugees, appealed Wednesday for all nations to give people safe passage, evacuation if needed, and ensure they have asylum.

"All I'm asking is that civilians be protected, and not targeted or harmed," the actress said. "We don't want to look back and find their deaths are on our hands."(AP)

NATO to deploy AWACS in Afghanistan

Updated on : Saturday, January 08, 2010

KABUL: The US-led military alliance says it will deploy the Airborne Warning and Control System planes (AWACS) to war-ravaged Afghanistan, officials say.

A NATO spokesperson said in Brussels on Friday that the planes would monitor the growing traffic of aerial missions against Taliban militants.

"AWACS [planes are] to begin their operations in Afghanistan in mid-January," media quoted NATO spokeswoman Oana Lungescu as saying.

She said AWACS are also fitted with long-range radar allowing them to detect other aircraft and prevent mid-air collisions.

Defense analysts say US-led forces do not need AWACS planes and other advanced weapons meant for big wars.

The developments come after Lindsey Graham, senior Republican senator, suggested that the US should devise a plan to permanently keep American troops in the war-torn country.

The Pentagon, meanwhile, decided to send an additional 1,400 marines to Afghanistan, the first series of which could begin arriving on the ground as early as mid-January.

Despite an earlier pledge by US President Barack Obama for a major drawdown of troops from the war-ravaged country by July 2011, American officials recently announced that US soldiers would remain in Afghanistan for at least another four years.

Analysts say the US is looking for an excuse to expand its military operations in the troubled South and central Asian regions to secure bases near Russia and China.

NATO has admitted to the rising power of militants in Afghanistan despite the growing presence of US-led forces in the country, which currently stands at 150,000.

Iran invites world powers to visit nuclear sites

Updated on : Tuesday, January 04, 2011

TEHRAN: Iran said on Tuesday it has invited envoys of world powers and European Union states to visit its nuclear facilities ahead of talks in Istanbul on its controversial atomic programme.

The invitation to ambassadors of the countries represented in the UN atomic watchdog comes as Tehran works to garner support for its atomic drive in the run-up to talks with six world powers in Turkey at the end of January.

"The representatives of some European Union countries, NAM (Non-Aligned Movement), and some representatives of the five-plus-one (six world powers) have been invited to visit our nuclear sites," foreign ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast told reporters.

He said the invitation was part of the Islamic republic's attempt to demonstrate "cooperation with the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency)." The "visit to our nuclear sites once more shows the goodwill of our country and the peaceful and cooperative nature of our (nuclear) activities," Mehmanparast said.

Such visits to Iran's atomic facilities are rare and the last trip which Tehran arranged for members of the IAEA, the UN nuclear watchdog, dates back to February 2007.

The proposed new visit to nuclear facilities, Mehmanparast said, "will take place before the Istanbul meeting," for which a final date has yet to be determined.

Iran and the six powers -- Britain, China, France, Russia, the United States and Germany -- are to meet for another round of talks on Tehran's atomic programme. The previous round of talks, which took place after a hiatus of 14 months, was held in Geneva on December 6 and 7.

But Mehmanparast did not specify whether Iran's arch-foe, the United States, one of the six world powers negotiating with Tehran over its nuclear programme, was among those invited. Asked specifically whether a US representative would be invited, Mehmanparast replied: "The list of the countries invited for the visit will be unveiled when it is finalised."

Washington has been spearheading a campaign of sanctions against Iran over its nuclear programme, which world powers suspect is masking a drive for atomic weapons. It has also not ruled out a military strike to stop the growing nuclear programme under President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and Tehran has been slapped with four sets of UN sanctions.

The latest UN sanctions were imposed on June 9, followed by unilateral punitive measures by the United States, the EU and several other countries.

Holbrooke final words; ‘Stop war in Afghanistan’

Updated on : Tuesday, December 14, 2010

WASHINGTON: Richard Holbrooke, the late US special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan, had some stark final words as he was sedated and going in for surgery, the Washington Post reported Tuesday.

"You've got to stop this war in Afghanistan," Holbrooke told his Pakistani surgeon, the Post reported, citing unnamed family members.

Holbrooke, one of the most experienced US diplomats, died Monday as the administration of President Barack Obama reviews its strategy in Afghanistan. He was 69.

Holbrooke fell ill at work on Friday, was rushed to a Washington hospital and underwent what the Post described as a 21-hour operation to repair his aorta.

Working along with US military planners in Afghanistan, Holbrooke oversaw a tripling in the number of civilians in the war-ravaged country under a year-old plan to boost the country's agriculture, economy and civilian institutions.

Take anti-cholesterol food

Updated on : Monday, December 13, 2010

LONDON: Anti-cholesterol food to control high cholesterol is not to be the method of nutritional therapy, i.e. eats anti-cholesterol food that is commonly found in everyday life. You can replace bad fats with healthy fats.

Eating plant foods may increase intake of vegetable protein lowers cholesterol efficacious excess.

Want to know what foods are anti-cholesterol? Check out the tips below is taken from various sources.

1. Mushrooms.
Rich in chromium, a mineral that helps break down fats into simpler compounds, i.e. fatty acids. This activity helps shrink the fat bad (LDL), and increase levels of good fats (HDL). Another source of chromium is nuts, like almonds, peanuts, cashews, and almonds.

2. Fresh pumpkin seeds.
So far, we used pumpkin seeds, whereas abundant copper. Low dietary copper intake is associated with increasing levels of bad LDL cholesterol, and lack of good cholesterol HDL. Often consume watermelon seeds, especially the fresh, good seeds and pumpkin seeds sunflower seeds.

3. Lime.
Among the various types of citrus, lime or lemon is the most contain flavonoids. These compounds can inhibit the excessive production of LDL, thereby reducing the risk of heart attack. Flavonoids can also be found in tea, broccoli, tomato, and soybean, onion like layers of onion and onions and pomegranates.

4. Apple.
A lot of soluble fiber found in apples is a source beta glucan. In the body, contributes beta glucan control of cholesterol absorption and production. Another source of papaya, the fruit was eaten with the skin (apples and pears), carrots, peas and vegetables, legumes in general (bean, Winged bean, and green beans), dried beans (green beans, red beans, and Tolo beans), and red rice.

5. Tuna.
Sources of fatty acids including omega-3 are popular, other than salmon and mackerel. Omega-3 in particular can protect the body against rising levels of bad LDL cholesterol.

6. Local Guava Red.
Just like watermelon red and red tomatoes, red guava locally rich in leucopenia. Leucopenia had a role in controlling the production of cholesterol.

7. Avocado.
Pantothenic acid is the most prominent compounds in avocados that acts reduce blood cholesterol levels.

8. Tofu and Soy Milk
Food is abundant compounds are anti-cholesterol.

9. Peanut
Peanut skin, which is skinned peanuts are roasted in the oven. This abundance of snacks and healthy fats rich in vitamin E, which can ‘lock’ free radicals that damage is not bad LDL cholesterol, so the formation of plaque in blood vessel walls can be avoided and prevent heart attacks.

10. Mango.
Vitamin C is found in many mangos. Other sources: star fruit, papaya, strawberries, and kiwi. Vitamin C prevents oxidized LDL bad cholesterol, so avoid the formation of plaque in blood vessel walls.

All foods the above can be used as anti-cholesterol food.

World’s most expensive bottle unveiled

Updated on : Friday, November 26, 2010

MEXICO CITY: The Mexican distiller ‘Hacienda La Capilla’ has produced a bottle of tequila that it is expected to fetch £2.2 million at auction, making it the most expensive drink of its kind in the world.

The 1.3 litre bottle is coated in a layer of platinum and studded with more than 4,000 diamonds.

Hacienda La Capilla already holds the Guinness world record for most expensive bottle of tequila, but their previous offering fetched a mere £142,000, a fraction of what the latest bottle is expected to go for.

The bottle will now be going on tour in Europe and the Middle East in the hope of attracting potential buyers.

Pomegranate juice helps reduce tummy

Updated on : Friday, October 22, 2010

LONDON: Studies earlier revealed that pomegranate can help prevent cancer, is good for your heart and can even boost your sex life.

Now, scientists believe that pomegranate juice has the power to reduce the fat around the stomach - the 'spare tyre' in men or the 'muffin top' in women.

After just one month, volunteers who consumed a bottle of pomegranate juice daily were found to be less likely to develop fatty cells around their abdomen.

They also had much lower blood pressure, therefore reducing the risk of heart attacks, strokes and kidney disease, reports a UK daily.

Researchers from the University of Edinburgh believe pomegranate juice may lower the amount of fatty acid in the blood known as non-esterified fatty acid or NEFA.

Previous studies in humans and animals have shown that high NEFA levels are linked to a greater storage of fat around the abdomen as well as an increased risk of heart disease and Type II diabetes.

In the experiment, a group of men and women were given a 500ml bottle of pomegranate juice to drink every day for four weeks.

The researchers found that nearly half of all volunteers had much lower NEFA levels by the end of the trial. They believe that this will make them less likely to store fat around their stomach.

Besides, more than 90 per cent of the men and women had lower blood pressure by the month end.

Emad Aldujaili and Catherine Tsang, lead researchers at Edinburgh University's School of Health Sciences, said: "There is no doubt that pomegranate juice is beneficial in reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease because our results showed a significant and consistent lowering of blood pressure."

Time, like others, may come to an end

Updated on : Saturday, October 16, 2010

WASHINGTON: The end of the world as we know it cannot be avoided, but it can be predicted, according to a group of astrophysicists who see a 50 percent chance of the final countdown ending in 3.7 billion years.

"Time is unlikely to end in our lifetime, but there is a 50 percent chance that time will end within the next 3.7 billion years," according to the team of US and Japanese scientists, who are challenging a long-standing theory of the universe.
While scientists have long concluded that the universe is expanding, and will do so for an infinite period of time, the researchers say the very rules of physics suggest that "an eternally inflating universe" is far from given.

"The point of this paper is to show that certain methods and assumptions that have been widely used by physicists for years -- most prominently, the use of a time cutoff in order to compute probabilities in an eternally inflating universe -- lead to the conclusion that time will end," Raphael Bousso of the University of California, Berkeley said.

"In other words, the time cutoff, which we may have thought was just a calculational tool, actually behaves like a physical event, whether we like it or not," said Bousso, lead author of the study published on arXiv.org

Current theories of the universe begin with the "Big Bang," which cast our living space into being some 13.7 billion years ago in a massive explosion.

Since then, theorists have assumed the universe will simply continue to expand forever, but have also used a theoretical expiration date to help calculate the laws and rules of physics.

But Bousso and his colleagues says the discipline simply cannot have it both ways.

He cautioned however that the complex thought experiment and calculations proposed by the research could not be used to draw definitive conclusions.

"It's very important to understand that we are not saying that we are certain of the conclusion that time will end (though we cannot rule out that it may be correct)," he wrote.

But he said even if the theory was false, discovering why that was the case would help scientists better understand the universe.

"In science, this kind of reasoning is often valuable: you realize that your reasonable-seeming theory predicts something that sounds crazy, so you have to come to grips with that," he said.

"Either you have to abandon the theory, or you have to understand why the crazy-sounding thing may not actually be so crazy."

For astrophysicist Charles Lineweaver, of Australian National University's Mount Stromlo Observatory, Bousso's conclusions are simply incorrect.

"Bousso's average life of a universe is a set time, only because that's what happens when you introduce a cutoff point to get a reasonable probability," he told ABC Television.

"It's a statistical technique being taken probably too seriously," he added.

But Bousso said he and his team had not invented or introduced anything.

"These cutoffs have been used by many leading physicists for years," he said. "We merely pointed out that it's not such an innocent thing to do.

"The cutoff on time is inevitably physical and hence requires a physical justification. It cannot be considered a mere mathematical trick."

Peru's Mario Vargas Llosa wins Nobel Literature Prize

Updated on : Thursday, October 07, 2010

STOCKHOLM: Peruvian-Spanish author Mario Vargas Llosa won the 2010 Nobel Literature Prize on Thursday, the Swedish Academy said.

The 74-year-old author, a one-time presidential candidate, is best known for works such as "Conversation in the Cathedral" and "The Feast of the Goat" but is also a prolific journalist.

Announcing the award, the academy hailed "his cartography of structures of power and his trenchant images of the individual's resistance, revolt, and defeat."

Vargas Llosa has won a string of major literary awards, including the most prestigious of all for a Spanish-language author, the Cervantes Prize, and had often been tipped to win the Nobel prize.

Born in Arequipa, Peru, Vargas Llosa grew up with his mother and grandfather in the city of Cochabama in Bolivia before moving back to Peru in 1946.

He then became a journalist, moving to France in 1959 where he worked as a language teacher and as a journalist for Agence France-Presse as well as for French television before establishing his reputation as an author.

His first major success came with the novel "The Green House" which appeared in English in 1966. He has since continued to produce a string of bestsellers, many of which deal with political themes and the troubled history of Latin America.

He ran for the Peruvian presidency in 1990 on a centre-right ticket, but was badly beaten by Alberto Fujimori, later to be disgraced after a string of political scandals.

Disappointed by his defeat and upset at the dictatorial turn of Fujimori's 1990-2000 regime, Vargas Llosa took on Spanish nationality in 1993 -- a controversial move that angered many Peruvians.

The following year he was elected to the Spain's Royal Academy of Language, the final authority in Spanish-language grammar and vocabulary.

Last year, German author Herta Mueller took the Nobel Literature Prize for her work inspired by her life under Nicolae Ceausescu's dictatorship in Romania, and the year before it went to French author Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clezio.

The Literature Prize is the fourth of six awarded this Nobel season, following the prizes for medicine, physics and chemistry earlier this week.

Next in line is the other big crowd-pleaser, the Peace Prize, which will be announced on Friday, with many observers saying a Chinese dissident might follow in the footsteps of US President Barack Obama, who took the honour last year.

The Economics Prize will wrap up the Nobel season on Monday, October 11.

This year's laureates will receive 10 million Swedish kronor (1.49 million dollars, 1.09 million euros) which can be split between up to three winners per prize.

The Peace Prize will be handed out in Oslo on December 10, the anniversary
of the death in 1896 of the prize's creator, Swedish industrialist and inventor of dynamite Alfred Nobel.

The other Nobel laureates will pick up their prizes in Stockholm on the same day.

The prizes were first awarded in 1901.Here follows a list of the 15 most recent winners of the prize:

2010: Mario Vargas Llosa (Peru)
2009: Herta Mueller (Germany)
2008: Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clezio (France)
2007: Doris Lessing (Britain)
2006: Orhan Pamuk (Turkey)
2005: Harold Pinter (Britain)
2004: Elfriede Jelinek (Austria)
2003: J.M. Coetzee (South Africa)
2002: Imre Kertesz (Hungary)
2001: V.S. Naipaul (Britain)
2000: Gao Xingjian (France)
1999: Gunter Grass (Germany)
1998: Jose Saramago (Portugal)
1997: Dario Fo (Italy)
1996: Wislawa Szymborska (Poland)

New US advisory angers UK

Updated on : Monday, October 04, 2010

LONDON: New US travel advisory for Europe has left UK intelligence officials wondered after increased drone attacks in Pakistan, Geo News reported Monday.

The intel officials were of the view that there was nothing extraordinary in the advisory and level of threat has not been raised, adding that such advisory was also issued after Mumbai attacks.

According to a UK daily, US has not shared any such information with the security agencies. Soon after Mumbai attacks US also issued such warning that the terrorists were planning to attack Europe.

UK has expressed anger over US for leaking the information in public rather than taking up the issue with the authorities.

Meanwhile, a senior UK police officer said that the country was not prepared to face such tragedy.

Angelina Jolie to shoot film on Bosnian war

Updated on : Friday, July 16, 2010

LOS ANGELES: Oscar-winning actress Angelina Jolie is planning to direct her first film in the Balkans. She will also play a leading role in the movie, a love story set in the Bosnian war.
n
Jolie will visit Serbia in August to discuss planning of the film and scout locations, local media reported.

In the film, a Muslim woman is raped by a Serb at the beginning of Bosnia's bloody 1992-1995 war. But they eventually fall in love and go together through horrors of the war in which more than 100,000 people were killed.

Jolie is a goodwill ambassador for the UN refugee agency UNHCR. She and her husband Brad Pitt visited the Balkans in April, taking a short vacation in Montenegro and visiting refugee camps in Bosnia.

Megan Fox's wedding pictures come online

Updated on : Friday, July 09, 2010

LONDON: The setting couldn't have been more cinematic. Sunset on one of Hawaii's beautiful beaches. But for Megan Fox, there was only one choice of leading man.

These exclusive pictures bear witness to the 24-year-old actress's biggest role to date - when the blushing bride made a stunning entrance walking barefoot along the beach as she prepared to wed fiancé Brian Austin Green, 36.

Swathed in a strapless white Armani Privé gown complete with a flowing16ft-long train, carrying a bouquet of gardenias and white roses, Megan looked like a textbook bride for her wedding to the former 90210 actor.The groom, former Beverly Hills 90210 star Austin Green also chose all-white Armani for the ceremony.

In these newly released pictures, Megan is seen strolling barefoot along the beach in a wedding, which bore few of the hallmarks of the typical Hollywood nuptials.The couple was married on June 24th in an intimate ceremony, conducted on a deserted beach in Hawaii at sunset, to the tranquil sound of waves lapping on the shore.Megan and Brian who had been dating for six years on and off before tying the knot, were wed at the Four Seasons Resort Hualalai at Historic Ka'upulehu.

Gen Petraeus warns of tough Afghan mission ahead

Updated on : Saturday, July 02, 2010

KABUL: The United States' top field commander, General David Petraeus, warned on Saturday of a tough mission ahead a day after arriving to take command of the 150,000-strong NATO-led foreign force in Afghanistan.

Petraeus told hundreds of guests at a U.S. embassy party held to mark U.S. independence day that it was essential to show unity of purpose to solve Afghanistan's problems.

"This is a tough mission, there is nothing easy about it," he said at the sprawling and heavily fortified U.S. embassy complex in Kabul, Washington's biggest foreign mission anywhere in the world and boasting 5 ambassadors.

Petraeus is charged with not only winning the war against a growing Taliban insurgency, but also with starting a withdrawal of U.S. forces from July next year.

Wearing casual camouflage under a scorching Kabul sun, Petraeus and a besuited U.S. Ambassador Karl Eikenberry on Saturday welcomed scores of guests to an embassy compound liberally decorated with Stars and Stripes flags.

A brass band played as guests munched on burgers, corn-on-the-cob, popcorn and ice-cream cones.

Petraeus's appointment could be a last throw of the dice for Washington to end an increasingly costly conflict that is draining Western budgets as they emerge from one of the worst global recessions in history.

He landed in Kabul on Friday after his appointment was confirmed by the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives approved $33 billion in funding for a troop surge he hopes will turn the tide of the war.

The surge will bring to 150,000 the number of foreign troops in Afghanistan just as a new strategy takes root. It entails tackling the Taliban in their strongholds while relying on the government to simultaneously improve local governance and development.


Petraeus, who is due to formally take command at a ceremony at the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) headquarters on Sunday, is credited with turning the tide of the war in Iraq using similar tactics.

ISAF said on Saturday that a service member had died in an improvised explosive device (IED) attack in the south.

Nearly 1,900 foreign troops have died in Afghanistan since the Taliban were overthrown in 2001 -- including more than 100 last month, the bloodiest since the war began.

The last two weeks have thrown an especially harsh light on the war effort, with new reports of corruption in President Hamid Karzai's government and the change in command of foreign forces.

Doubts have also been raised over the commitment of the government to push governance and development alongside the military drive, and also the ability of Afghan forces to take over responsibility for security.

At the same time, Karzai has been wooing the Taliban with a series of modest peace overtures, all have which have been rejected by the hardline Islamist movement, which insists all foreign forces must leave before they will end the insurgency.