Senate report: Bin Laden was 'within our grasp'

Osama bin Laden was unquestionably within reach of U.S. troops in the mountains of Tora Bora when American military leaders made the crucial and costly decision not to pursue the terrorist leader with massive force, a Senate report says.

The report asserts that the failure to kill or capture bin Laden at his most vulnerable in December 2001 has had lasting consequences beyond the fate of one man. Bin Laden's escape laid the foundation for today's reinvigorated Afghan insurgency and inflamed the internal strife now endangering Pakistan, it says.

Staff members for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee's Democratic majority prepared the report at the request of the chairman, Sen. John Kerry, as President Barack Obama prepares to boost U.S. troops in Afghanistan.

The Massachusetts senator and 2004 Democratic presidential candidate has long argued the Bush administration missed a chance to get the al-Qaida leader and top deputies when they were holed up in the forbidding mountainous area of eastern Afghanistan only three months after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Although limited to a review of military operations eight years old, the report could also be read as a cautionary note for those resisting an increased troop presence there now.

More pointedly, it seeks to affix a measure of blame for the state of the war today on military leaders under former president George W. Bush, specifically Donald H. Rumsfeld as defense secretary and his top military commander, Tommy Franks.

"Removing the al-Qaida leader from the battlefield eight years ago would not have eliminated the worldwide extremist threat," the report says. "But the decisions that opened the door for his escape to Pakistan allowed bin Laden to emerge as a potent symbolic figure who continues to attract a steady flow of money and inspire fanatics worldwide. The failure to finish the job represents a lost opportunity that forever altered the course of the conflict in Afghanistan and the future of international terrorism."

The report states categorically that bin Laden was hiding in Tora Bora when the U.S. had the means to mount a rapid assault with several thousand troops at least. It says that a review of existing literature, unclassified government records and interviews with central participants "removes any lingering doubts and makes it clear that Osama bin Laden was within our grasp at Tora Bora."

On or about Dec. 16, 2001, bin Laden and bodyguards "walked unmolested out of Tora Bora and disappeared into Pakistan's unregulated tribal area," where he is still believed to be based, the report says.

Instead of a massive attack, fewer than 100 U.S. commandos, working with Afghan militias, tried to capitalize on air strikes and track down their prey.

"The vast array of American military power, from sniper teams to the most mobile divisions of the Marine Corps and the Army, was kept on the sidelines," the report said.

At the time, Rumsfeld expressed concern that a large U.S. troop presence might fuel a backlash and he and some others said the evidence was not conclusive about bin Laden's location.

Mysterious 'Saddam Channel' hits Iraq TV

Turning on their TVs during the long holiday weekend, Iraqis were greeted by a familiar if unexpected face from their brutal past: Saddam Hussein.

The late Iraqi dictator is lauded on a mysterious satellite channel that began broadcasting on the Islamic calendar's anniversary of his 2006 execution.

No one seems to know who is bankrolling the so-called Saddam Channel, although the Iraqi government suspects it's Baathists whose political party Saddam once led. The Associated Press tracked down a man in Damascus, Syria named Mohammed Jarboua, who claimed to be its chairman.

The Saddam channel, he said, "didn't receive a penny from the Baathists" and is for Iraqis and other Arabs who "long for his rule."

Jarboua has clearly made considerable efforts to hide where it's aired from and refuses to say who is funding it besides "people who love us."

Iraqis surprised to find Saddam on their TVs responded with the kind of divided emotions that marked his reign.

"Iraqis don't need such a satellite channel because it has hostile intentions," said Hassan Subhi, a 28-year-old Shiite who owns an Internet cafe in eastern Baghdad.

Others said they felt a nostalgic sorrow at the sight of their late leader, a Sunni Arab.

"All my family felt sad," said Samar Majid, a Sunni high school teacher in western Baghdad, mentioning images shown from Saddam's execution, and pictures of his two sons and grandson.

The channel, which is broadcast across the Arab world, dredges up the sectarian divisions that Saddam inspired among Shiites and Sunnis at a time when Iraq is gearing up for crucial national elections. Iraqi politicians have been arguing over parliamentary seat distribution in a dispute that has inflamed the splits. The wrangling will likely delay the vote beyond its constitutionally required Jan. 30 deadline.

Saddam's hanging three years ago was on the first day of Eid al-Adha, the most important holiday of the Islamic calendar. His execution — and the day it was done — remains a sore point for Saddam sympathizers still smarting over images of the defiant leader in his final moments as Shiites in the death chamber shouted curses.

The Saddam Channel debuted on Friday, the first day of this year's Eid for Sunnis. The holiday started Saturday for Shiites. The station's official name alternates between "Al-Lafeta" ("the banner") and "Al-Arabi" ("the Arab").

It is mostly a montage of flattering, still images of Saddam — some of him dressed in military uniform, others in a suit, even one astride a white horse. One image shows his sons Odai and Qusai smiling with their father, and another their bodies after they and Saddam's grandson, Mustafa, were killed in a July 2003 gunfight with U.S. troops.

One prominently displayed image is that of a man burning an American flag. Another shows graves covered with Iraqi flags.

All the pictures are set against audio recordings of Saddam making speeches and reciting poetry. Patriotic songs urge listeners to "liberate our country." None of the pictures appear to be recent, and no announcers or commentators appear or speak.

A media adviser to Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, a Shiite, brushed off the station and its message, and refused to comment on whether the government will seek to shut down the channel.

Al-Maliki adviser Yassin Majid said in an interview that he had not seen the channel but had heard of it. He called it "an attempt from the dissolved Baath Party to return to Iraq's politics." Since Saddam's fall, Baathists have spread out around the region, mainly to Syria and Jordan but also to Gulf countries and Yemen.

Among the many mysteries surrounding the channel is where it is being broadcast from.

In a telephone interview Sunday from Damascus, Jarboua said he is Algerian and that the Saddam Channel is based in Europe but refused to say where, citing safety concerns for its employees.

"There are threats that the Iraqi government will shut it down, kill its employees, that they will liquidate it," Jarboua said.

He said he started al-Lafeta nine months ago in Lebanon, and has employees in Syria, Lebanon, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.

Ziad Khassawneh, a Jordanian Baathist who once headed Saddam's defense team, said wealthy Iraqis living in Lebanon, Syria and other Arab countries are funding the channel. He declined to give names.

Saddam's oldest daughter, Raghad Saddam Hussein, who lives in Jordan, has denied any connection to the channel.

One Jordan-based Iraqi Baathist said the station broadcasts from Libya and is run by followers of Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, Saddam's No. 2 and a top leader of the outlawed Baath party. Douri's whereabouts is unknown.

Another former Baathist official said the Saddam Channel broadcasts out of Damascus. Both men spoke on condition of anonymity because they said they needed to protect the security of the channel's employees.

A Mideast satellite expert said al-Lafeta's operators tried to hide any clues to their identities and broadcast sites by using a variety of satellite services and frequencies. The channel airs via Noorsat, a Bahrain-based satellite service. It also has purchased a frequency on Egypt-owned NileSat, which is run by Eutelsat, a European consortium.

Some Iraqis shrugged off the broadcast as harmless.

"This channel doesn't mean anything to people," Muhammad Abdullah, 35, an Iraqi journalist, said in northern Baghdad. "It has no effect on the Iraqi people now."

Contributing to this report are Associated Press writers Sameer N. Yacoub and Sinan Salaheddin in Baghdad, Jamal Halaby in Amman, Jordan, and Salah Nasrawi and Sarah El Deeb in Cairo.

What's new about Sony PlayStation 3 Slim?

Sony's sleeker and lighter version of its gaming console, called the PlayStation 3 Slim is now available in India. As PS3 moves into the fourth year of its launch, here's a comparison between the original (or classic) PS3 and PS3 Slim. As you can imagine, most of the differences lie in its physical attributes. Here are some -

PS3 Slim is 33% smaller and 36% lighter than the classic PS3.


The original PS3 has a shiny piano black glossy finish, while PS3 Slim has a Matt plastic finish to avoid those fingerprints on the console.


With PS3 Slim you save on electricity as it consumes 35% less power.


The touch sensitive buttons (eject, power on/off) from the classic console have been replaced by actual physical buttons in PS3 Slim.


With a 120 GB hard drive, PS3 Slim has more memory than the original 80GB one.


The manual On/Off button present in the rear of the original PS3 has been done away with in the latest console.


Unlike the classic one, PS3 Slim does not support PS2 games.


While both PS3 and PS3 Slim have been priced the same (USD 299), classic PS3 comes with two additional games.



Purely by looks and size, PS3 Slim is definitely more impressive. However when it comes to comparing features like the gaming performance and the blue-ray disc speed, the jury is still out. Only time can tell whether PlayStation 3 Slim becomes a cult gaming console or not.

New Alternate-Day diet 'can help you lose weight, live longer'

Forget tedious exercise routine and counting on calories, a simple Alternate-Day diet regime could offer significant health benefits and make you live longer.

The principle behind Alternate-Day diet a.k.a. Intermittent Fasting or The Longevity Diet is eat very little one day and eat whatever you like the next day. This appears to trigger a 'skinny' gene that encourages the body to burn fat.

This diet would not only help lose weight but also ease asthma symptoms and reduce blood sugar levels.

It will also help fend off heart disease and breast cancer, protect brain cells and improve survival.

Dr Mark Mattson, an American neuroscientist, had discovered rats still enjoyed all those health benefits even when their calories were cut only on alternate days.

"These are very hard diets to follow," the Courier Mail quoted Krista Varady, assistant professor of kinesiology and nutrition at the University of Illinois, Chicago, as saying.

"You are constantly hungry. The eat-every-other-day-diet seems to offer an easier and more effective option," Varady added.

During 16 patients, all weighing more than 14st ate 20 per cent of their normal intake one day and a regular, healthy diet the next.

The study showed that each lost between 10lb and 30lb; much more than expected. It takes about two weeks to adjust to the diet and, after that, people don't feel hungry on the fast days," said Varady.

However, some British experts are concerned about the approach.

"We advise anyone trying to lose weight should follow a healthy balanced diet," said a spokesperson for the Food Standards Agency.

"It may not be possible to achieve this with very low calorie diets," the spokesperson added.

Walking while talking on cell phone risky for older people: Study

Walking while talking on mobile phones may be dangerous for older people, say researchers.

They also say that just listening to music on an iPod or other portable device doesn't pack the same risks as talking on a cell phone.

The findings are based on two lab-based studies in which participants had to manoeuvre on a treadmill to cross a virtual street.

"Many people assume that walking is so automatic that really nothing will get in the way," Live Science quoted Art Kramer, a psychology professor at the University of Illinois who conducted the research, as saying in a statement.

"But actually walking in environments that have lots of obstacles is perhaps not as automatic as one might think," Kramer added.

Participants in the study took their virtual stroll on a manual treadmill that only moves when the person walks.

The first study, with 36 college students, showed that students trying to hold a phone conversation took 25 percent longer to cross the street compared with those without phones and those listening to iPods.

Cell-phone users were also less likely to finish crossing the street in the 30 seconds allotted for the task.

However, the young adults were not more likely to get hit by a virtual car even if they were talking on a cell phone. The study was published online Nov. 5 in the journal Accident Analysis and Prevention.

The second study, yet to be published, focused on people 60 and older.

"Older adults on the phone got run over about 15 percent more often [than those not on the phone]," Kramer said.

Subjects who had a history of falling fared even worse.

"Walking and talking on the phone while old, especially, appears to be dangerous," Kramer said.

Firm IIMs hired to hold online CAT test has failure record

Prometric, the American firm conducting the Common Admission Test (CAT), is under fire for failing to conduct the first online version.

CAT, the test for admission to the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs), was rescheduled at centres across the country for the second day on Sunday. Prometric, part of the US-based Educational Testing Service (ETS), has been accused of failing to conduct online tests earlier too.

In August 2008, The Guardian reported that the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority of the UK had ended its five-year contract with ETS Europe after "serious problems with the administration and marking of tests". ETS, on its part, blamed the authority.

In December 2008, Pakistan daily The News International reported that students in Lahore "suffered due to frequent power outages and poor Internet connection while attempting a test (TOEFL) conducted by ETS". In India, students questioned the decision to outsource CAT to Prometric.

"Why did the IIMs and the government allow a firm with a history of failures to conduct CAT?" a student who didn't want to be named said. Pankaj Chandra, director, IIM Bangalore, said: "This is not the right time to comment.

" On Saturday, IIM Ahmedabad director Samir Barua had said Prometric should have ensured error-free deliverance.

'Indian IT cos insulated from Dubai World crisis'

The Indian IT services and outsourcing industry is expected to remain insulated from the ongoing debt crisis in Dubai World, with firms having minimal exposure to the region. Industry insiders fear a long-term impact coming from banks and financial institutions that had lent to the Dubai World. These institutions could account for about 30% of the revenues of Indian IT companies.

Companies like Wipro (WIPRO.NS : 628.55 +5.95) Infotech, Infosys Technologies (INFOSYS.BO : 2388 +59.7), TCS and Mahindra Satyam (SATYAM.BO : 89.75 -0.8) do not have many clients based out of the Middle East. The business they have there is marginal in terms of size of the contracts.

Viral Thakker, partner, sourcing advisory services practice, KPMG, said, "This geography was already facing risks since the last one year. Firms cannot just start focusing on other geographies immediately if there are any risks involved in a particular geography. However, there is no major exposure, with only single-digit revenues coming from Dubai. Therefore, we don't expect any material impact on the IT industry due to the Dubai crisis." A report by research firm CLSA too viewed the crisis in a similar perspective for the IT sector.

Wipro Infotech, a unit of Wipro Technologies that focuses on the India and Middle East market, said it does not expect any material impact of the Dubai crisis. Anand Shankaran, chief executive, Wipro Infotech, said, "We had seen an impact in Dubai about nine months to a year ago. We then took appropriate steps to mitigate the impact of the risks felt." So, the firm started focusing on countries like Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi and expanded to Africa. "The revenues coming from Saudi Arabia have increased three fold since last year. Going ahead, we do not expect any material impact on our business coming from this geography."

Wipro handles a number of clients in the Middle East. The company is in a five-year contract with Saudi Arabian Airlines for infrastructure management sized at about $100 million, a data centre hosting project for Abdullah University, Saudi Arabia, entire BSS/OSS implementation project for a greenfield telecom company in Saudi Arabia, infrastructure services project for road & transport authority of Dubai in UAE.

Woods speaks up, says crash is ‘private matter’

Despite presenting his side of the car-crash story and asking that it remain “a private matter,” Tiger Woods may still not be in the clear.

Troopers arriving at his Isleworth home requesting an interview were turned down for a third straight day, but the Florida Highway Patrol said it will continue to investigate. Yet the tabloid-fueled rumors now swirling around one of the world’s richest and most-recognizable athletes could turn out to be more troublesome still.

About an hour before the troopers arrived Sunday afternoon, Woods released a statement on his Web site taking responsibility for—but providing few details about—the middle-of-the-night accident that left him dazed, bruised and bloodied.
…
“This is a private matter and I want to keep it that way,” Woods said. “Although I understand there is curiosity, the many false, unfounded and malicious rumors that are currently circulating about my family and me are irresponsible. …

“I appreciate all the concern and well wishes that we have received,” the statement concluded. “But, I would also ask for some understanding that my family and I deserve some privacy no matter how intrusive some people can be.”

Yet several public-relations experts believed there was little chance of that request being honored.

“The goal of putting out a statement, or having a press conference, is to make sure questions are answered so you’re not continuing to have questions that are crisis-related,” said Mike Paul, whose firm, MGP & Associates, frequently works with athletes. “There are still over a dozen questions we have regarding his reputation because the statement is not enough.”

The world’s No. 1 golfer remained hunkered down at home in an exclusive gated community outside Orlando. He was scheduled to compete at the Chevron World Challenge, which starts Thursday in Thousand Oaks, Calif. The tournament director, however, did not know whether Woods would play or even attend.

When troopers arrived at Woods’ home Sunday, his attorney, Mark NeJame, gave them Woods’ driver’s license, registration and insurance, as required by law for such accidents. This time, the meeting was not rescheduled.

But patrol spokeswoman Sgt. Kim Montes said investigators spoke with the neighbor who made the 911 call on Saturday and might seek out others who were at the scene as well.

“If we have somebody who we feel is pertinent to the investigation, then we will interview them,” she said.

In the 911 call released by the FHP on Sunday, the unidentified neighbor told the dispatcher, “I have a neighbor, he hit the tree. And we came out here just to see what was going on. I see him and he’s laying down.”

The caller did not identify the neighbor as Woods. When asked if the victim was unconscious, the neighbor replied, “Yes,”

Parts of the call were inaudible because of a bad connection. At one point, the voice of a woman is heard yelling, “What happened?”

Yet even the release of the 911 tape and Woods’ statement failed to answer that question and several other.

— Where he was going at that time of the night?

— How did he lose control of his SUV at such a speed that the air bags didn’t deploy?

— Why were both rear windows of the Cadillac Escalade smashed?

— If it was a careless mistake, why not speak to state troopers trying to wrap the investigation?

Montes said authorities towed the Cadillac SUV that Woods was driving and have already documented the damage to the vehicle and the point of impact. According to the FHP accident report, Woods had just pulled out of his driveway when he struck a fire hydrant and then a tree. His wife told Windermere police she used a golf club to smash the back windows to help him out.

“The only person responsible for the accident is me. My wife, Elin, acted courageously when she saw I was hurt and in trouble. She was the first person to help me. Any other assertion is absolutely false,” Woods said.

The reference in his statement to “false, unfounded and malicious rumors” may have involved a story published last week in the National Enquirer alleging that Woods had been seeing a New York nightclub hostess, and that they recently were together in Melbourne, where Woods competed in the Australian Masters.

The woman, Rachel Uchitel, denied having an affair with Woods when contacted by The Associated Press. On Sunday, she flew to Los Angeles and was met by high-profile attorney Gloria Allred at the airport.

Uchitel didn’t speak to reporters except to ask that she be left alone. Allred, however, confirmed to the AP that she would be representing Uchitel.

“We plan to meet and then we’ll decide on the next step, which we do not plan to announce to the press,” the attorney said in an e-mail.

AP Golf Writer Doug Ferguson in Jacksonville, and Associated Press writers Linda Deutsch in Los Angeles, and Sarah Larimer in Miami contributed to this report.

Swiss ban mosque minarets in surprise vote

Swiss voters overwhelmingly approved a constitutional ban on minarets on Sunday, barring construction of the iconic mosque towers in a surprise vote that put Switzerland at the forefront of a European backlash against a growing Muslim population.

Muslim groups in Switzerland and abroad condemned the vote as biased and anti-Islamic. Business groups said the decision hurt Switzerland's international standing and could damage relations with Muslim nations and wealthy investors who bank, travel and shop there.

"The Swiss have failed to give a clear signal for diversity, freedom of religion and human rights," said Omar Al-Rawi, integration representative of the Islamic Denomination in Austria, which said its reaction was "grief and deep disappointment."

About 300 people turned out for a spontaneous demonstration on the square outside parliament, holding up signs saying, "That is not my Switzerland," placing candles in front of a model of a minaret and making another minaret shape out of the candles themselves.

"We're sorry," said another sign. A young woman pinned to her jacket a piece of paper saying, "Swiss passport for sale."

The referendum by the nationalist Swiss People's Party labeled minarets as symbols of rising Muslim political power that could one day transform Switzerland into an Islamic nation. The initiative was approved 57.5 to 42.5 percent by some 2.67 million voters. Only four of the 26 cantons or states opposed the initiative, granting the double approval that makes it part of the Swiss constitution.

Muslims comprise about 6 percent of Switzerland's 7.5 million people. Many are refugees from the Yugoslav wars of the 1990s and about one in 10 actively practices their religion, the government says.

The country's four standing minarets, which won't be affected by the ban, do not traditionally broadcast the call to prayer outside their own buildings.

The sponsors of the initiative provoked complaints of bias from local officials and human-rights group with campaign posters that showed minarets rising like missiles from the Swiss flag next to a fully veiled woman. Backers said the growing Muslim population was straining the country "because Muslims don't just practice religion."

"The minaret is a sign of political power and demand, comparable with whole-body covering by the burqa, tolerance of forced marriage and genital mutilation of girls," the sponsors said. They said Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan compared mosques to Islam's military barracks and called "the minarets our bayonets." Erdogan made the comment in citing an Islamic poem many years before he became prime minister.

Anxieties about growing Muslim minorities have rippled across Europe in recent years, leading to legal changes in some countries. There have been French moves to ban the full-length body covering known as the burqa. Some German states have introduced bans on head scarves for Muslim women teaching in public schools. Mosques and minaret construction projects in Sweden, France, Italy, Austria, Greece, Germany and Slovenia have been met by protests.

But the Swiss ban in minarets, sponsored by the country's largest political party, was one of the most extreme reactions.

"It's a sad day for freedom of religion," said Mohammed Shafiq, the chief executive of the Ramadhan Foundation, a British youth organization. "A constitutional amendment that's targeted towards one religious community is discriminatory and abhorrent."

He said he was concerned the decision could have reverberations in other European countries.

Amnesty International said the vote violated freedom of religion and would probably be overturned by the Swiss supreme court or the European Court of Human Rights.

The seven-member Cabinet that heads the Swiss government had spoken out strongly against the initiative but the government said it accepted the vote and would impose an immediate ban on minaret construction.

It said that "Muslims in Switzerland are able to practice their religion alone or in community with others, and live according to their beliefs just as before." It took the unusual step of issuing its press release in Arabic as well as German, French, Italian and English.

Sunday's results stood in stark contrast to opinion polls, last taken 10 days ago, that showed 37 percent supporting the proposal. Experts said before the vote that they feared Swiss had pretended during the polling that they opposed the ban because they didn't want to appear intolerant.

"The sponsors of the ban have achieved something everyone wanted to prevent, and that is to influence and change the relations to Muslims and their social integration in a negative way," said Taner Hatipoglu, president of the Federation of Islamic Organizations in Zurich. "Muslims indeed will not feel safe anymore."

The People's Party has campaigned mainly unsuccessfully in previous years against immigrants with campaign posters showing white sheep kicking a black sheep off the Swiss flag and another with brown hands grabbing eagerly for Swiss passports.

Geneva's main mosque was vandalized Thursday when someone threw a pot of pink paint at the entrance. Earlier this month, a vehicle with a loudspeaker drove through the area imitating a muezzin's call to prayer, and vandals damaged a mosaic when they threw cobblestones at the building.

4 Ways Your Eating Habits Can Make You Happier

Many people seeking help for mental health issues look first to chemical intervention in the form of a medication. There is another chemical intervention which you can utilize yourself - your diet. Having a healthy diet is crucial when trying to fight for your mental health, especially where mood disorders are concerned. How can dietary changes affect depression, anxiety and mood swings?

Good mental health is about maintaining balance, in your thoughts, in your actions and especially in your emotions. When addressing nutrition for mental health it is important to understand how food nourishes and fuels your body as well as the part it plays in providing your body with necessary nutrients for maintaining that balance that it is important for peace of mind.





1. Complex Carbohydrates
Carbohydrates are the body's preferred source of energy. Your body will burn carbohydrates first before turning to protein or fats. A lack of energy sources in the body will result in the body shutting down and altering activity levels. People who are chronically tired often feel sad and hopeless as a result. To keep your emotions on an even keel it is important to have a slow steady stream of carbohydrates broken down and made available in the bloodstream for energy.

People struggling with depression and/or mood swings often rely heavily on simple carbohydrates (sugars) rather than complex carbohydrates (starches). Simple carbohydrates (candies, table sugar, honey, sodas, fruits, milk products) break down quickly in the bloodstream and hit it with a bang that provides immediate energy. This is why they are preferred by people with depression. However, what goes up must come down, usually with the same speed and intensity. The surge of energy is followed by a crash when the sugar is quickly burned up. This crash exacerbates depression, fatigue, impaired concentration and memory and irritability. However, all simple carbohydrates are not equal. There is a difference between the simplest carbohydrates like table sugar, sodas and candies which are referred to as "empty calories" because they provide so much glucose, an easily broken down form of sugar, and no nutritional value. Compare these with fruits and milk products whose sugars (fructose and galactose respectively) are somewhat harder to break down, enter the bloodstream a bit more gradually and have a somewhat milder crash and provide significant nutrition such as vitamin C and calcium. If you are craving something sweet have an apple or orange rather than a candy bar.

Complex carbohydrates (whole grains, starchy vegetables and beans) are even harder for the body to metabolize and provide and slow, constant stream of fuel for the body's energy demands. This avoids the peaks and crashes of the simple carbohydrates. Whole grains also provide lots of B vitamins which calm and stabilize the mood and help your body metabolize carbohydrates for increased energy.




2. Proteins

It is important to eat high quality proteins like chicken, fish, turkey, soy, dairy products and beans. (I am a very big fan of beans. They are usually high in protein, low in fat and high in fiber.) Proteins are made of amino acids. Your body uses amino acids to make neurotransmitters in the brain. These chemicals (like serotonin, norepinephrine, dopamine and GABA) are the chemicals which antidepressants and anxiolytics (anti-anxiety medications) seek to increase to improve your mood and calm you. Chicken and turkey are also high in tryptophan, which the body also uses to make serotonin, one of the primary neurotransmitters for lifting and calming the mood. Running short on these neurotransmitters results in depression, irritability, difficulty thinking and remembering, insomnia, fatigue and anxiety. Having sufficient stores of these neurotransmitters available to the brain helps it regulate emotions and thinking. Providing your body with the necessary ingredients to manufacture these neurotransmitters is vital for improving your mental health and keeping things in balance.




3. Fats

The benefits of a low fat diet for fighting weight gain and heart disease have been highly touted. However, many don't realize that limiting your fat intake too severely of healthy fats can result in serious mood changes, irritability and aggression. The omega-3 fatty acids found in fish have been found to help stabilize mood swings and decrease stress. "Good fats" burn clean in the bloodstream compared to "bad fats" which clog the arteries and narrow the blood vessels. Good fats include olive oil, nuts, seeds, avocadoes and fish. Exchange that fried chicken for a grilled salmon. Replace a mayonnaise dressing with an olive oil and vinegar splash.




4. Caffeine

It's always amazing to me to find people struggling with serious anxiety problems who are still drinking a significant amount of caffeine everyday. Since I don't drink caffeine on a regular basis I have no tolerance for it and it literally makes me shake when I do drink it. I can't imagine throwing that in on top of an anxiety problem. If anxiety is the problem, I would eliminate caffeine all together and see if it helps.

For people with mood disorders, caffeine provides a serious rush of energy, but like simple carbohydrates (sugars) you crash when it wears off. This peak and crash pattern is not good for people trying to stabilize mood swings and the crash will exacerbate depressive symptoms.

Motorola Droid Phone

Thursday on Thanksgiving my brother came over with his new cell phone, a Motorola Droid on Verizon. I caught a bad case of geek envy and wound up getting one of my own on Black Friday. Although I've been happy with my Verizon BlackBerry 8330 I've been interested in something better. Apple's iPhone was interesting but I have zero desire to switch to AT&T, whose 3G network is not nearly as widespread as Verizon's. I also don't like the idea of a non-swappable battery. Aside from a better wireless network, the Android has a slide out QWERTY keyboard which you can use instead of the touchscreen keyboard. The keys are small but usable, at least for me. It would be better if the keys weren't flat, i.e., if there was a more pronounced edge or space between adjacent keys. There's also a square trackpad/scroll thingy on the keyboard for screen navigation. The 3.7" screen is very nice, clear and sharp. This is the first phone I've seen with virtual desktops, three total. Of course, the Droid has a camera. Resolution is good at 5 MP. It also takes video. I haven't done much with either yet but if I plan on taking pics I'll be grabbing my Nikon S560, not my phone. The hardware seems like it has plenty of power. When connected to my home WiFi network browsing, checking email, and downloading applications all go very fast. Browsing on Verizon's 3G network is a bit faster than it was on my BlackBerry; it appears that pages render faster on the Droid. I've only made a couple phone calls but quality seems fine. The Droid uses the new Micro USB connector for charging or connections to a computer. This is good in that it's a new standard across cell phone brands but bad for me in that I had to shell out for a new car charger. C'est la vie. Overall, the hardware feels very solid and well made. So far I've mostly been using the Droid like a pocket computer, at which it is quite a bit more advanced than my BlackBerry. The applications which I've installed are: - Dolphin browser. (Supports multi-touch like an iPhone.) - Google Finance. (So I can watch my portfolio crater.) - GPS App. (Gives you a compass and other stuff.) - My Verizon. (Basically a shortcut to my online VZW account.) - Weather Channel. - OneKey Terminator. (Provides one touch killing of all open apps, in case your phone gets sluggish due to having too many open.) - ScanLife barcode scanner. (Allows you to scan bar codes and look them up online. In the case of books takes you to the Google Books entry.) - OI File Manager. (File manager for your SD card. The Droid comes with a 16 GB card.) - Wardrive. (Scans for and detects wifi networks then stores them in a map database.) - Wifi Toggle Widget. (Adds a one touch widget to the home screen to enable/disable WiFi. This is handy because leaving WiFi on when you're not using it eats battery life.) - Star Wars Sounds & Ringtones. (I'm in tech. Being a Star Wars nerd is pretty much required.) - CIDR Calculator. (For calculating subnets and masks.) - AK Notepad. - ConnectBot. (SSH and Telnet client.) - Tricorder. (Displays gravitation and magnetic field, environmental and geographic information, including a compass. Also has a WiFi monitoring mode. The GUI is styled after the tricorders in ST:TNG.) All of the above apps can be found in the Android Market, accessible through on Android phone. I've also also using the included email, Gmail, Facebook, Google Maps, and YouTube apps, all of which work smoothly. The Google Maps Navigation feature turns the phone into a car GPS. If I was Garmin, Magellan, or a similar company I'd be concerned. Like the iPhone, tethering is not yet supported on the Droid. As I understand it, Verizon will be supporting tethering sometime in the Spring. While I occasionally used tethering on my BlackBerry I doubt I'll spring for it with the Droid, saving myself about $15/month. Since getting the Droid yesterday it's been hard to put down. For gadget freaks this thing will be like crack. For computer geeks like myself it's simply amazing. Jerry Pournelle has said that his iPhone is almost the manifestation of the pocket computers from The Mote in God's Eye. The Droid is another version of the same thing.

Girl in black at Obama's China meet a hit online

While President Barack Obama talked about internet rights during his visit to China, the internet here talked about a mystery woman in black.

Clad in a black dress and red coat, college student Wang Zifei was snapped by photographers sitting behind Obama during his townhall forum last week in Shanghai and her photos have ricocheted online, turning her into a minor internet sensation.

She has become China’s version of the “Obama Girl”, as online forums gushed over her beauty and poise. Photos of her taking off her coat in slow motion have been uploaded and spread widely.

Even a week after Obama left China, the buzz about Wang is still going strong. The official newspaper China Daily reported on Thursday that Google searches for “Obama girl in red coat” in China turned up nearly 7 million results.

Most of the comments posted online have been positive, but a number of Internet users have been less flattering, with some speculating that she had actively courted the attention.

In the US, an aspiring model and actress rose to fame as “Obama Girl’’ after being featured in a music video (“I Got A Crush On Obama) supporting him when he was still a candidate. The sexy video featuring Amber Lee Ettinger became a hit on YouTube.

But this Obama girl has been a reluctant celebrity. After Wang’s identity was unearthed by persistent Internet admirers, she broke her silence this week on her blog.

Wang urged netizens to stop delving into her personal life. “I don’t want to be popular in this way,’’ she said on her blog. This brief bout of celebrity has “totally disturbed my study and life,’’ she wrote.

Travel Picks: World's top 20 business hotels

The Residences at the Ritz Carlton, a condominium... Hotels that combine service, technology and comfort have topped a list of the world's best business hotels with the winners offering their guests those added extras that can make all the difference to a trip.

Readers of travel magazine Travel + Leisure ranked hotels on a list of services and amenities to come up with their 20 top business hotels, part of the publication's annual World's Best survey.

Some offered free Internet access and a 24-hour business centre, some had rooftop pools, while one had an award-winning Gordon Ramsay restaurant. Free parking was also a plus.

Boston's The Eliot had touch-screen monitors for guests to order room service and print boarding passes. The Peninsula Hong Kong transported one guest in a Rolls Royce and treated her to tea upon arrival.

This list (http://www.travelandleisure.com/articles/worlds-best-business-hotels-2009/1) is not endorsed by Reuters. :



1. Palacio Duhau-Park Hyatt, Buenos Aires

2. Shangri-La's Far Eastern Plaza Hotel, Taipei

3. St. Regis, Shanghai

4. XV Beacon, Boston

5. Four Seasons Hotel, Hong Kong

6. The London West Hollywood, West Hollywood

7. Eliot Hotel, Boston

8. Rosewood Mansion on Turtle Creek, Dallas

9. Sofitel Shanghai Jin Jiang Oriental Pudong, Shangai

10. Mandarin Oriental, Hong Kong

11. Peninsula Hong Kong, Hong Kong

12. Pudong Shangri-La, Shanghai

13. Omni Mandalay Hotel at Las Colinas, Dallas

14. Intercontinental Buckhead, Atlanta

15. St Regis, Beijing

16. Peninsula Beverly Hills, Beverly Hills

17. Mandarin Oriental, New York

18. Conrad Centennial, Singapore

19. Four Seasons Hotel, Buenos Aires

20. Ritz-Carlton Central Park, New York

Heart health in winter

On a cold windy night in December, Satish Gupta had gone to a late night party.

On his way back, his car began giving trouble and he had to push it for a while along with a colleague. Later, he felt some strain in the chest and thought that he had pulled a muscle. The nagging discomfort continued for the whole night. He applied a balm and used a hot water bottle to soothe the area.

But the next morning, since he still felt restless, he went to the hospital. After the primary examination, the doctor asked for an ECG, which revealed a full fledged heart attack.

He was admitted in the Cardiac Care Unit and had to undergo an angioplasty and stenting.

He recovered but has been left with a weak heart, necessitating long-term drug treatment and the implantation of a defibrillator.

His total hospital bill exceeded Rs 10 lakh and he is still incurring costs.

The winter months are known to increase the chances of a heart attack and related problems.

This is especially true for people who have one or more risk factors - high blood pressure, diabetes, tobacco use, obesity, high blood cholesterol levels etc.

It is therefore important to recognise this fact and be careful and use preventive strategies during this period.

Why winter predisposes one to heart ailments

- The changed daylight to dark hour ratio adversely affects the hormone balance. The cortisol levels in the blood are altered. This is one of the possible reasons for increase in heart attacks.

- The low temperature leads to tightening or constriction of blood vessels. This reduces blood supply to the heart, which can aggravate angina and block of arteries - leading to heart attack.

- The oxygen demand of the heart increases because the heart has to work harder to keep the body warm.

- The early morning surge in blood pressure is an important reason for heart attacks being more common at that time. In winter, because of fewer daylight hours, people often have a tendency to finish outdoor work earlier in the day. The combination of cold temperature and hard work leads to a higher blood pressure.

- The shift of activities to morning hours also leads to a change in the circadian rhythm (body clock), leading to an increase in heart rate, blood pressure and cortisol levels. The combination reduces the threshold levels of events like heart attack and brain stroke.

The risk does not necessarily decrease if one migrates to relatively warmer places.

It has been seen that people predisposed to heart attacks who migrate to relatively warmer places during the colder months can get caught with cardiac problems there too. This is especially caused by attacks of infections like influenza, which prevail in places like Mumbai and Kolkata which are warmer than say Delhi in winters.

The inflammation and swelling caused by these diseases can spread to the arteries of the heart and lead to heart attacks.

The smoke and smog in these places during the winter are also unhealthy for the heart.

For people over 65 years in age, diabetics and cardiac patients, influenza vaccine should never be taken without medical supervision.

The author is the Executive Director and Dean, Cardiology, Escorts Heart Institute & Fortis Hospital, Vasant Kunj, New Delhi

Column: Dubai's bubble trouble was bound to come

Dubai's debt default underlines what has been apparent to careful Dubai-watchers for a while: that such an attempt at creating an international financial centre out of thin air was not going to work. It is an opportunity to carefully understand the critical ingredients required for exporting financial services. And, it is a reminder that the market economy is surprisingly lenient for a surprisingly long time when presented with the spectacle of an entrepreneur trying to puff himself up to look bigger than he is.

For a full two decades, Dubai's rise out of the desert was a surprise. As with China, opinions were divided on whether this was a sham that would ultimately come apart, or whether this was a new success story of what can be done by imagination and pluck.

As with all such miracle stories, it started with a kernel of truth. Dubai did the right things at the outset, with public investment in a good port and airport, and a relatively liberal atmosphere for foreign business. Through this, it became a gateway for the world to access the Middle Eastern market and a gateway for people in the Middle East to step out of stifling conditions at home for a weekend.

This excellent starting point morphed into two things. The first was a real estate play. It was almost too easy to build grandiose buildings in the desert and sell them at fabulous prices. The second was the hope of Dubai as an international financial centre (IFC).

On a good day, the sales pitch that Dubai could make was as follows. With a zero income tax and infrastructure to beat Bombay, Dubai could bring in the best finance talent from Bombay to live and work in Dubai. The rich all over the Middle East did not like to keep money at home, and would prefer to deal with private bankers in Dubai when vacationing there on weekends. Corporations in the Middle East needed a place to do corporate finance. A two-hour plane ride took you to Bombay, where companies were outgrowing the shackles of the domestic market and needed a place to do sophisticated finance.

The reality is that IFCs are genuinely hard to create. They cannot be willed into place; they involve a complex ecosystem of many individuals and firms coming together. Deeper legal and regulatory reform was not even attempted in Dubai (as was done in Qatar): DIFC is an enclave with its own rules, and there is legal risk about the extent to which the rules within DIFC are grounded in constitutional law.

The rich in the Middle East did not like to keep money at home, but they mistrusted Dubai (an autocracy) and preferred the political stability of London. The corporations of the Middle East got their corporate finance done in London. The shaky foundations of economic growth in the Middle East meant that neither personal wealth nor corporate success had much to show beyond oil. For a while, many expats liked to live in Dubai, but eventually, the fact that this was a police state started getting out.

The great IFCs of the world—London and New York—have a combination of factors which makes possible export of financial services: a high-quality English-speaking labour force, good quality financial regulation, macroeconomic stability, rule of law located in a democracy, and a large natural hinterland with a significant fiscal capacity to cope with financial crises. When we pause to think carefully about these preconditions, Dubai really never fit the bill.

Which brings us to the leniency that the market economy exhibits towards showmen. Again and again, we see puffery getting taken seriously. It seems easy for an entrepreneur to make a splash, buy coverage from a corrupt media, get endorsements from a few celebrities, and kick off a ponzi story. It is easy to sink money into building glass towers, buy a few computers, set up a few financial exchanges, and produce fake turnover by having a few accomplices buying and selling on screen. The early investors make a lot of money in selling to the second crop, and good stories start getting around. Glossy analyst reports soon start flowing out, particularly from financial firms that are themselves invested in the project.

So capitalism does wrong in giving too much rope to these tactics. But capitalism is also harsh in that it is not possible to fool all the people, all the time. It takes a while—and in Dubai's case the party lasted a full 20 years—but in the end it is hard to keep up the facade. Dubai has a bright future as a port, airport, trading centre and vacation spot for the Middle East. Much of the effervescence beyond that might now come apart.

The author is an economist with interests in finance, pensions and macroeconomics

'You realise that nothing matters - job or money'

Life has never been the same again. You realise that nothing matters - job, money, banking or anything else. I checked into the Trident Mumbai on 26/11 to attend a board meeting. I was to have dinner at the hotel's Kandahar restaurant with two of my colleagues. I had forgotten some office papers and went back to my room, which was on the 20th floor.

As soon as I came down and got out of the lift, I sensed something abnormal about the place. It was dark. Just as I started walking towards the restaurant, I was shot at and luckily for me the bullets hit my legs and lower abdomen. For the first few minutes, I could not understand what was happening. My immediate thoughts were to call my colleagues; they were supposed to wait for me for dinner. Some hotel attendants told me about the terrorist attack.

My immediate thoughts were to call my colleagues. I asked them to leave the hotel immediately through the rear gate. I thought about my family. I somehow managed call. I told them about the attack and asked them to leave the hotel immediately through the rear gate. I thought about my family. It is a funny feeling and it dawns on you that nothing matters and all you can think of is your near and dear ones. I was extremely concerned about my colleagues who were stuck on another floor of the hotel.

Sleep is something, which comes with great difficulty now when I am in a hotel. I keep my lights on even when I am sleeping in a hotel. I am so paranoid now that I even check the wardrobes immediately after I check in.

I am old and just a catalyst: Rahul Gandhi

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi today described himself as "old" and only playing the role of a catalyst for strengthening the youth wing of the party.

"If you do a demographic analysis of the population, I am old. I am 39. If you see the population of the country, 60 per cent of our population is below 40," he told reporters here.

The Congress General Secretary said he has not empowered the youth of the country or the Youth Congress but the youth have empowered themselves.

"Rahul Gandhi has not empowered the Youth Congress. The youth empowered themselves in the Youth Congress. I am a catalyst. I am not the leader of the Youth Congress. I am not even a member of the Youth Congress. My job is to make it a dynamic and powerful organisation," he said.

Gandhi said he has been trying to democratise the two key arms of his party -- NSUI and Youth Congress. "We are moving to a system which listens to the voice of the youth," he said adding he wants to concentrate on the future of the NSUI, Youth Congress and the party itself.

He said, "We want them (youth) to come out with their leaders. We want them to say this is the man we want to lead us in the Youth Congress."

Asked whether the family members of the Congress leaders are having an advantage in the party affairs, he said, "There are a lot of leaders in Punjab, Gujarat and Tamil Nadu who have no family connections."

Hitler's favourite car makes comeback in Germany

A car expert says he has tracked down Hitler's favourite Mercedes to a garage near the town that helped the Austrian-born Fuehrer become a German citizen.

Classic cars specialist Michael Froehlich said he found the bullet-proof touring car after charting its postwar travels from Austria to Las Vegas and back to Munich, where Hitler burst onto the political scene with a failed putsch in 1923.

"It was the best car in the world at the time. Better than the Bugatti, Bentley, Rolls Royce or whatever," Froehlich told Reuters from his office in Duesseldorf. "It was his favourite car: the one he used most often, which he used for parades."

After being commissioned by a Cypriot buyer to find the vehicle, Froehlich discovered it had been bought by a farmer near Braunschweig, where in 1932 local Nazi officials got Hitler a civil servant's job so he could claim citizenship.

"I thought it was an interesting job, but on the other hand I wasn't too thrilled, because my parents and grandparents suffered greatly under his regime," Froehlich said of the commission.

The dark blue car, which Froehlich said had spent decades in the basement of the Imperial Palace Casino in Las Vegas, was recently sold by the heirs of a Munich brewing tycoon before he traced it "in under two months" to northern Germany.

Froehlich said reports the buyer was Russian were mistaken, and rejected the notion that past owners of the vehicle with the number plate "1A 148 461" were admirers of the dictator.

"They weren't Nazis from what I can see, I think it's something they saw as a business investment," he said. "I can well imagine that an old Hitler banger has a certain value."

Froehlich declined to name the car's price tag, or give details about the buyer, but said the 1935 edition custom-made vehicle could fetch "more than 10 million euros ($14.91 million)".

Though he had not yet had outside confirmation of the car's authenticity, the owner's paperwork left no doubt, he added.

"The Mercedes sales register shows this 770 K model was ordered for the Fuehrer and Chancellor of the Reich in 1935," he said.

Only 88 of the series were ever made and the Braunschweig car showed all the special modifications made for Hitler, who had to be driven because he had no "Fuehrerschein" -- a German word made up from "driver" and "licence" -- Froehlich said.

"He was a Fuehrer without Fuehrerschein," he said.

26/11 anniversary turns into a verbal duel in Parliament

Minutes after members of parliament observed a minute's respect for the victims of the 26/11 terror attack, the treasury and the opposition engaged in an uncalled verbal battle over compensation and coordination issue.

The war of words took place during Zero Hour. The treasury maintained that every issue taken up in parliament need not necessarily to money and that there were other ways to commiserate with the families and friends of the 166 victims who were killed, the opposition said that to provide more relief, more coordinated action was needed between various agencies.

An emotional Leader of Opposition L.K.Advani said the government had come up short on the compensatory front, while Leader of the House, Pranab Mukherjee warned the opposition that its broadside would not go down well with the rest of the country because of the timing-the first anniversary of the attack.

The heated exchange also focussed on the ooposition charge that the the Maharashtra government, the Central government and the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) have not ensured proper relief and rehabilitation to people hit by the terror strike.

BJP leader Ananth Kumar sought the government's responsed to Advani's demand, but Mukherjee said: "I have come only to listen to him (Advani). Not to hear from you (Ananth Kumar),"

Pranab also said every zero hour reference could not be answered,and added that there was need to make it a habit.

This led to heated exchange of words between Mukherjee and BJP MPs.

"You are making politics on 26/11," Mukherjee shouted.

Speaker Meira Kumar stepped in and urged the members to maintain order as it was a solemn day.

She also said that she could not ask Mukherjee to respond to a Zero Hour reference.

'Need to ask factual, not emotional, questions'

Rensil D'Silva, director of recently-released movie Kurbaan, writes on 26/11 and the bitter truth it exposed:

The 26/11 attacks last year presented to me a strange dichotomy. Around the same time last year I was shooting a terror sequence for Kurbaan on a train in Philadelphia. The scene was that of a shootout between the police force and the terrorist where one of the terrorists blows himself up at the subway station.

It was while shooting this scene that we found about the siege in Mumbai. That both the things were happening parallel was surreal. We could not have stopped shooting since we had hired the train for a limited period. One of my sound designers Nakul Kamte lost his cousin, a police officer, in the attack at Taj. However, he soldiered on despite the loss. Everyone was grim. None of us spoke about it; we had been rendered numb.

A year on, I am not sure if we are any safer. There are times when after my meetings at the Taj I take a walk around the Gateway to have a look at the harbour and I wonder if we have indeed closed our porous borders.

Truth can get stranger than fiction. Ten terrorists entered the country, entered its finest hotels and killed so many people. If I had written a script like this before 26/11, I wouldn't have received any funding.

The 26/11 attacks proved that Indian life comes cheap. If an event of this magnitude had taken place in a country in the West, there would be an alarming amount of security everywhere. But here in India we are used to the fact that a man can fall into a pothole, injure himself and never sue the government for it. Public opinion has a short shelf-life. The next calamity, the next attack, the next scandal, the next theatre burning down - it's just another day in the life of India. There aren't very many cultures where karma and destiny are blamed for whatever happens.

Mumbai is famous for its spirit. But I feel we need to stop patting ourselves and take charge of the situation. The depth of the conspiracy that 26/11 was, is still unfolding as we see in the newspapers and that is what the truth is. There is a need for finger-pointing at the government because I want to know when can we finally feel safe?

We need to ask the government questions that are factual and not emotional. How many coast guards are patrolling our waters today? Does the city have an elite commando force now? Is there a greater amount of fiscal power being provided to them? Why did the safety vests fail their job during the attacks? How many new vests are being manufactured? Are they being tested before being put to use?

There are innumerable answers that the government owes us. Candlelight vigils and poetry is all okay but will that alone stop terrorists from striking the next time?

Do you have a 'clean aura'?

As part of the Reiki programme, he also learnt aura cleansing. Ten years hence, aura cleansing has become an integral part of his daily bathing ritual. "I don't remember ever falling ill since I started practising aura cleansing," says the Mumbaibased Singh, who now works for a stock broking firm. "Also, my confidence level has been steady over time and my mind is always alert."

A healthy aura helps instill a sense of mental and physical well being, affirms aura-cleansing expert Vanitha Soneji. "The aura body exists two inches outside the physical body, and it protects us from illness and negative thoughts. Any illness first comes in contact with the aura body, and only if the aura is weak can it effectively permeate the constitution." Regular aura cleansing helps prevent illness and increases confidence and concentration levels, she adds. "A strong aura enables the mind to eliminate negative thoughts and harbour positive ones, promoting happiness in the process," explains Soneji.

Those who have benefited from aura cleansing vouch for its healing power and say it helps in building up on positive energy. Jyoti Budhia, a 38-yearold who was introduced to aura cleansing last year while dealing with a severe illness, says, "It often happens that one walks into a particular place and immediately experiences a feeling of calm, no matter what his state of mind is. Similarly, when you are in the company of certain people, you feel good. It seems unexplainable, but this happens because of the aura a place or a person exudes." Aura cleansing helped Budhia cope with her illness and since then she has been a believer, and has been following the practice regularly.

At Soneji's Mumbai centre, auras are cleansed with the help of aroma oils, magnetic pens, crystals and candles. Usually, there are two therapists involved in the process, and it takes about two hours. "Ideally, one should go for the 21-day cleansing programme, but in case one can't manage time for that, a monthly cleansing session would make one feel rejuvenated," says Soneji. "It works like a spa therapy, but comes at a fraction of the cost - Rs 350 per session."

Aura cleansing is easy to practice, doesn't take much time, and can be done at home as well. So, you can pack in a few minutes of cleansing no matter how hectic your daily schedule. Here's the recipe for the cleansing salt and a lowdown of the procedure: Make a mixture consisting of 1 kg common salt, 250 gm black salt and 250 gm baking soda. Keep it in a glass jar, away from sunlight. This will keep for up to a month. Every day after you bathe, apply the salt all over your body, avoiding the head. Keep it on for two-three minutes and then wash off with warm water. Follow this up with the application of an aura aroma oil on your aura body. Make sure you do not touch your body with the oil, as it is your aura that is supposed to be treated.

But before you embark on your auracleansing expedition, make sure you get a professional to guide you through the correct procedure. "One must complete a 21-day cleansing programme under the guidance of an expert before attempting it at home," says Singh. You can also keep a tab on the state of your aura with the help of Kirlian photographs, which reveal the colour of your aura. Auras can have a single colour or a combination of hues. A healthy aura will be gold, blue, violet or green in colour, while a black or grey aura signals an urgent requirement for cleansing.

10,000-page chargesheet, 270 witnesses, a few hiccups

Exactly a year after the Mumbai terror attack, the prosecution in the 26/11 trial is likely to complete evidence against the three arrested accused in the case Pakistani gunman Ajmal Kasab and two Indian co-accused Fahim Ansari and Sabahuddin Ahmed, charged with conspiring the attack along with 35 wanted Pakistani nationals on Pakistan soil.

Among the charges levelled against them include waging war against the nation, which attracts punishment of death.

The trial, presided over by Special Sessions Judge M L Tahaliyani, commenced in April inside the special court housed inside the Arthur Road prison. The court framed 86 charges against the three accused on May 6. Two days later, the first witness, Bhaskar Kadam, an officer with the D B Marg police station who was part of the team that captured Kasab, was examined.

However, before the trial could begin, there was a major issue who would defend Kasab as lawyers did not want to take up his case on account of 'morals' and political pressures. The court first appointed Anjali Waghmare as defence lawyer from the state legal aid panel, but Judge Tahaliyani sacked her on charges of professional misconduct.

Soon after, the court appointed private lawyer Abbas Kazmi, who had earlier represented the accused in the 1993 serial bomb blast case, to defend Kasab. The court also recommended higher legal fees to be paid to him by the state government and handed over the 10,000-page chargesheet to him. Immediately after taking charge, Kazmi prayed before the court that Kasab was a juvenile, and that his case should be transferred to the Juvenile Justice Board. In reply, the prosecution conducted several medical tests and examined witnesses to prove that Kasab was 21-year-old at the time of the attack.

As the prosecution examined evidence in the form of injured victims and relatives of deceased, Kasab on July 20 made a request to the court for making a detailed statement accepting all charges levelled against him. In a guilty plea given by Kasab over two days, he gave details about training in handling arms and ammunition and intelligence gathering given to him in Pakistan, and also about the directions given to him on executing the attack along with his nine deceased accomplices.

After due consideration, the court took Kasab's plea on record but carried on with the trial. Since then, the prosecution has examined 270 witnesses and is likely to rest its case against the accused today. It is also likely to submit evidence of around 300 formal witnesses in the form of affidavits.

The goof-upsThe evidence led by the prosecution might have made the case watertight, but several goof-ups did crop up while doing so Inspector Prakash Bhoite, who investigated the attack on the Taj Hotel, told the court that the police had found two bombs near the hotel during the attack and one contained a note which said "Ammar Askari". A translator used by the police translated it as "Yeh jang ki or ishara hai" or "This is a pointer to war". However, when the defense lawyer cross-examined the translator Mukhtar Pirzade, an insurance agent in Bhiwandi, it was placed on record that he could not read or write Arabic, and that a friend had translated the note for him.

No further probes were conducted by the Mumbai Police Crime Branch on the identity of Suresh Prasad, who had submitted a fake electricity bill to procure the mobile SIM card that was used by the terrorists in the Taj Hotel to communicate with their handlers in Pakistan.

Police Inspector Manikrao Patil of Colaba police station, who conducted the preliminary investigations at three attack sites (the Taj Hotel, Nariman House and Caf Leopold) and seized various articles handed over to him by the National Security Guards (NSG), failed to recall in the court the accurate details of the seizures made by him.

Patil was also the officer responsible for goof up during the seizure of articles by placing articles seized from the Taj Hotel in wrappers meant for Nariman House and vice versa. He cited work pressure after the attack as the reason behind the error.

10,000-page chargesheet, 270 witnesses, a few hiccups

Exactly a year after the Mumbai terror attack, the prosecution in the 26/11 trial is likely to complete evidence against the three arrested accused in the case Pakistani gunman Ajmal Kasab and two Indian co-accused Fahim Ansari and Sabahuddin Ahmed, charged with conspiring the attack along with 35 wanted Pakistani nationals on Pakistan soil.

Among the charges levelled against them include waging war against the nation, which attracts punishment of death.

The trial, presided over by Special Sessions Judge M L Tahaliyani, commenced in April inside the special court housed inside the Arthur Road prison. The court framed 86 charges against the three accused on May 6. Two days later, the first witness, Bhaskar Kadam, an officer with the D B Marg police station who was part of the team that captured Kasab, was examined.

However, before the trial could begin, there was a major issue who would defend Kasab as lawyers did not want to take up his case on account of 'morals' and political pressures. The court first appointed Anjali Waghmare as defence lawyer from the state legal aid panel, but Judge Tahaliyani sacked her on charges of professional misconduct.

Soon after, the court appointed private lawyer Abbas Kazmi, who had earlier represented the accused in the 1993 serial bomb blast case, to defend Kasab. The court also recommended higher legal fees to be paid to him by the state government and handed over the 10,000-page chargesheet to him. Immediately after taking charge, Kazmi prayed before the court that Kasab was a juvenile, and that his case should be transferred to the Juvenile Justice Board. In reply, the prosecution conducted several medical tests and examined witnesses to prove that Kasab was 21-year-old at the time of the attack.

As the prosecution examined evidence in the form of injured victims and relatives of deceased, Kasab on July 20 made a request to the court for making a detailed statement accepting all charges levelled against him. In a guilty plea given by Kasab over two days, he gave details about training in handling arms and ammunition and intelligence gathering given to him in Pakistan, and also about the directions given to him on executing the attack along with his nine deceased accomplices.

After due consideration, the court took Kasab's plea on record but carried on with the trial. Since then, the prosecution has examined 270 witnesses and is likely to rest its case against the accused today. It is also likely to submit evidence of around 300 formal witnesses in the form of affidavits.

The goof-upsThe evidence led by the prosecution might have made the case watertight, but several goof-ups did crop up while doing so Inspector Prakash Bhoite, who investigated the attack on the Taj Hotel, told the court that the police had found two bombs near the hotel during the attack and one contained a note which said "Ammar Askari". A translator used by the police translated it as "Yeh jang ki or ishara hai" or "This is a pointer to war". However, when the defense lawyer cross-examined the translator Mukhtar Pirzade, an insurance agent in Bhiwandi, it was placed on record that he could not read or write Arabic, and that a friend had translated the note for him.

No further probes were conducted by the Mumbai Police Crime Branch on the identity of Suresh Prasad, who had submitted a fake electricity bill to procure the mobile SIM card that was used by the terrorists in the Taj Hotel to communicate with their handlers in Pakistan.

Police Inspector Manikrao Patil of Colaba police station, who conducted the preliminary investigations at three attack sites (the Taj Hotel, Nariman House and Caf Leopold) and seized various articles handed over to him by the National Security Guards (NSG), failed to recall in the court the accurate details of the seizures made by him.

Patil was also the officer responsible for goof up during the seizure of articles by placing articles seized from the Taj Hotel in wrappers meant for Nariman House and vice versa. He cited work pressure after the attack as the reason behind the error.

Are you addicted to social networking?

Your relationship with your partner was all hunky dory, till the time one of you got addicted to a social networking site. One such example is that of British singer Lily Allen, whose relationship with boyfriend Sam Cooper got strained because she spent too much time using social networking sites.

HT City quizzed a few who confessed that social networking sites are the villains in their relationship. "Good were the days when there were differences because of the reasons such as; incompatibility between the couple, in-laws differences," says Radhika Singh, whose husband, somehow ends up being in front of the computer after every half an hour.

One more distraction, when it comes to addiction of networking sites, boys too feel neglected by their girlfriends. "My girlfriend and I meet only on weekends, and half of that time she wastes on checking all the sites available on the Internet. She has accounts on all possible social sites," says Mohit Arora, engineer. Pshycologist Sanjay Chugh, says, "If a partner spends more time on the net, then obviously the relationship has been losing substance and need a little more attention." A stitch in time...

Preeti Mathur, 28, says, "My boyfriend and I are both addicted to Internet. At times when we get tired of checking accounts of each one we know and the new taglines people flaunt, we feel the futility of it all. We do discuss the time we kill surfing Internet, and putting in collective effort to give time to each other.' She adds, "I think though we gossip about others, but that still counts as 'time spent together'."

Most Dangerous U.S. Holidays

Good cheer leads many Americans to slip behind the wheel when they shouldn't on Jan. 1. Nearly half of all traffic fatalities that day involve alcohol, the most of any U.S. holiday, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, a division of the U.S. Department of Transportation.

But New Year's Day isn't the deadliest of the year.


More from Forbes.com:

• Full List: Most Dangerous U.S. Holidays

• Most Dangerous Times to Drive

• Digitally Driving Car Safety


That title belongs to Thanksgiving. Last year, 502 people were killed on the road that day. On a typical day, 102 people die in traffic accidents. Robert Sinclair, a spokesman for AAA, says the combined factors of more than 50% more drivers on the road and higher-than-usual alcohol consumption contribute to its danger.

See list of Most Dangerous Holidays below

"More vehicles create greater conflict potential," he says. "And unfortunately, during holiday times, celebratory actions, people drink and get out on the road, and that leads to a problem, too."

Last year's Thanksgiving deaths were down from a 26-year average (the DOT began tracking traffic fatalities in 1982) of 556 in part because volatile gas prices that summer and early fall had deterred some families from driving, Sinclair says. This year, with gas prices averaging $2.63 a gallon nationwide and holding, he expects the number of highway travelers--and fatalities--to rise.

Even non-fatal crashes will take their toll. According to the NHTSA, motor vehicle crashes cost American taxpayers more than $100 billion each year. Russ Rader of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety estimates that $36 billion is paid out annually in insurance claims.


Of course, the human toll from auto accidents is the most severe. Between the list's top three days--Thanksgiving, Labor Day and Independence Day--an average of 550 Americans lose their lives on a holiday each year.

Behind the Numbers

To determine the most dangerous holidays for drivers, we used traffic fatality data from NHTSA. We based our ranking on the average amount of deaths on six federal holidays for which fatalities have been tracked since 1982 (we also calculated the average percentage of alcohol-related fatalities for each holiday since 1982, but that percentage did not affect the ranking). Deaths were counted for just the one day, not a holiday weekend or period.

An estimated 91% of Americans will travel by car to reach their destination this Thanksgiving, according to the Research and Innovative Technology Administration (RITA) of the Department of Transportation. During that holiday weekend (Thursday to the following Monday), the number of Americans on a road trip longer than 50 miles increases by 54%. During the week between Christmas and New Year's Day, the number of trips increases by 23%.

Not only are there more people on the road during holidays, but, for Christmas at least, they're driving longer as well. While the average Thanksgiving road trip is 214 miles, the average Christmas or New Year's trip 275 miles, compared with a national average of 261 miles for long trips during the rest of the year. The RITA report says the travel rates for Christmas and New Year's depend largely on whether or not Christmas and New Year's land on a weekend. Thanksgiving, since it always falls on a Thursday, is less variable. Ellen Martin, a spokeswoman for the DOT, declined to forecast what this year's travel rates might be.

Eyes on the Road

Alcohol abuse is a main concern for people who track fatality data, since driving fatality rates are always higher during holiday periods than non-holiday times, according to the National Center for Statistics and Analysis. Young partygoers are particularly at risk: the NHTSA says drivers aged 21 to 24 have the highest level of involvement in alcohol-impaired driving.

"Looking at fatalities in crashes involving 21- to 24-year-old drivers during the last two weeks in December from 2002 to 2006, nearly four fatalities out of every 10 were in alcohol-impaired crashes," a December 2008 report from NHTSA said.

However, a less-hyped aspect of safe driving, especially around the holidays, is vision itself. More than 11 million Americans have uncorrected vision problems, and those lead to impaired driving, says Ed Greene, the CEO of The Vision Council, a nonprofit organization that represents manufacturers and suppliers in the optical industry.


List of Most Dangerous U.S. Holidays

To determine the most dangerous holidays for drivers, we used traffic fatality data from the U.S. Department of Transportation. We based our ranking on the average amount of deaths on six federal holidays for which fatalities are tracked since 1982 (we also calculated the average percentage of alcohol-related fatalities for each holiday since 1982, but that percentage did not affect the ranking). Deaths were counted for just the one day, not a holiday weekend or period.

1. Thanksgiving Day
Number of Fatalities in 2008: 502
Average Number of Fatalities Per Year Since 1982: 567
Average Percentage of Alcohol-Related Fatalities Since 1982: 41%

2. Labor Day
Number of Fatalities in 2008: 487
Average Number of Fatalities Per Year Since 1982: 544
Average Percentage of Alcohol-Related Fatalities Since 1982: 45%

3. Independence Day
Number of Fatalities in 2008: 491
Average Number of Fatalities Per Year Since 1982: 542
Average Percentage of Alcohol-Related Fatalities Since 1982: 45%

4. Memorial Day
Number of Fatalities in 2008: 425
Average Number of Fatalities Per Year Since 1982: 508
Average Percentage of Alcohol-Related Fatalities Since 1982: 45%

5. Christmas Day
Number of Fatalities in 2008: 420
Average Number of Fatalities Per Year Since 1982: 414
Average Percentage of Alcohol-Related Fatalities Since 1982: 42%

World's biggest cruise ship is a floating resort

The world's largest and newest cruise ship, is shown during a... Royal Caribbean's new Oasis of the Seas is the largest, widest, tallest, most expensive cruise ship afloat, a cornucopia of amusements aimed at quashing the notion that cruising is a sedentary vacation, said chief executive Richard Fain.

Then he donned swim trunks, jumped on a boogie board and challenged fellow executives to a contest in one of the Oasis' two FlowRider pools that simulate surfing.

"I've never been a believer in building it big just for size's sake. We build large because we've had so many ideas they simply don't fit in a smaller hull," Fain said.

The $1.4 billion Oasis of the Seas, the world's biggest cruise ship, enters service during the industry's worst year in decades but is so exuberantly excessive that Fain predicts it will be profitable from day one.

Oasis is a floating resort that eclipses the condo towers it sails past at its new home, Port Everglades in southeast Florida. The 225,282-gross-ton ship has 16 passenger decks and can carry 6,292 passengers plus 2,165 crew.

It has rock-climbing walls, a basketball court, an ice skating rink, a carousel with hand-carved wooden animals, a shopping promenade lined with cafes and bars, cantilevered whirlpools overlooking the sea and a Central Park with 12,000 live plants and trees.



ZIP LINE

An amphitheater surrounds a deep-diving pool on the stern, where high-divers and synchronized swimmers perform. Passengers can harness themselves onto the "zip line" and soar across the ship above an open-air atrium nine decks high and lined with balconied cabins.

One of its many bars, the Rising Tide, floats up and down between three decks, while a touring company performs the Broadway musical "Hairspray" in the 1,380-seat theater.

The Oasis, which starts its inaugural voyage on Dec. 5, was six years in the making and arrives at a time when cruise lines are cutting rates to fill berths.

Net yields, a measure of revenue generated per bed per day, were down 16 percent during the first nine months of 2009 for the major companies, Carnival, Royal Caribbean and Norwegian Cruise Line, said Rod McLeod, a vacation management consultant who has held senior management posts at all three lines.

"Over the last 20 years, that's the steepest level of year-over-year declines in yields, which is understandable given what's happened in the worldwide economy," said McLeod, now with McLeod/Applebaum Partners in Miami.

The cruise lines are cautiously predicting 2010 will be less awful, with yields down by only 7 or 8 percent.

Generally the farther ahead passengers book cruises, the more the lines can charge. The window has begun to widen, with passengers now booking an average of three months ahead, compared with just six weeks in early 2009, McLeod said.



WAVE OF NEW SHIPS

But a wave of new ships ordered during the boom times are now coming on line and that will put pressure on rates, a boon for bargain-hunting passengers but not so much for cruise line earnings.

No. 1 cruise line Carnival's newest and biggest ship, the 3,652-passenger Carnival Dream, starts regular cruises to the Caribbean in December out of Florida's Port Canaveral.

Royal Caribbean will launch the Oasis' twin, Allure of the Seas, next December, one of eight new ships due out in 2010 industrywide. Capacity is expected to rise by 7 percent next year, and a little less than that in 2011, before settling.

"No new ships have been ordered for now 20 months and that hasn't occurred in the last 25 years," McLeod said.

New ships tend to attract passengers at the expense of the older ones. Cruise lines are compensating by moving their older ships away from weakening markets like Hawaii and Alaska and into growing ones like Europe and China, "like a giant chess game, playing with boats," he said.

Bookings aboard Oasis have been strong because it offers so much of everything, Royal Caribbean's Fain said.

Seven-night cruises start at $1,049 per person, double occupancy, for an inside cabin and run up to $16,659 per person for the two-story Royal Loft suite, which includes a baby grand piano and private 843-square foot balcony.

"We're getting much higher rates than I certainly would have expected even a year ago. The reception has just been overwhelming. I'm feeling pretty good right now," Fain said.



ZAMBONI DRIVER NEEDED

Royal Caribbean will see some cost savings from economies of scale on Oasis. Fuel consumption per guest is 30 percent lower than on an average ship and engine room staffing, for example, is not significantly bigger than on other ships because that part of the Oasis is very compact, Fain said.

Other costs are higher because it takes more staff to run its 24 dining venues and service 4,100 toilets, 42 elevators and 4,500 air conditioning units.

"On another ship we don't have high divers and horticulturists, Zamboni operators," Fain said, referring to equipment used to groom ice-skating rinks.

Oasis' size limits its itinerary. It will stop initially at the Caribbean ports of St. Maarten and St. Thomas and the Bahamian capital of Nassau, a week-long voyage that will later alternate with western Caribbean sailings.

Those ports dredged and deepened their approaches and built new docks to accommodate Oasis, while Port Everglades built a whole new terminal to handle the crowd of passengers who will leave the ship as a new horde embarks.

The mega-ship has its detractors. Travel writer Arthur Frommer wrote in his Budget Travel column that it exists to "cater to more of those people who are unable to entertain themselves, those arrested personalities who rely on constant, massive, outside distractions to ward off depression."



AN EVEN BIGGER ONE?

Other lines are cheering the Oasis, figuring the publicity bonanza will lift all cruise ships. Boutique lines are pitching their smaller more intimate vessels as the anti-Oasis.

"Yes they have the most space but they're also putting the most number of guests into that space," said Steve Tucker, vice president of North American field sales for privately held luxury line Silversea, which launches its all-suite Silver Spirit on a 91-day voyage from Port Everglades in December.

At a tenth the size of the Oasis, Silver Spirit offers a private butler in every stateroom and carries 540 passengers.

Fain, meanwhile, is "looking at the forward bookings and smiling" while fending off the inevitable question of whether Royal Caribbean will build a ship even bigger than Oasis.

"I'm not saying it couldn't happen but one would need a reason," he said. "If somebody comes up with an idea that we think would be appealing to our guests, we would certainly look at it."