United and Continental Airlines to merge

US-based United Airlines and Continental Airlines have agreed a deal to merge, creating the world's biggest carrier. 

The loss-making companies said they expected the deal, worth $3.2bn (£2.1bn), to deliver savings of more than $1bn a year.

The combined group will be named United Airlines


But new branding will combine the current Continental colours with the United Airlines name.

After the deal was announced shares of both firms rose in morning trading in New York.

United's parent UAL Corporation saw its shares rise by 62 cents, or 2.9% to $22.22, while Continental shares were up 63 cents, or 2.8%, to $22.98.


Although United is seen as the dominant partner, the merger was described as "a merger of equals".
Together United and Continental currently fly to 370 destinations worldwide, flying 144 million passengers a year.

Combining the two companies will create the world's biggest airline, based on the total number of passenger-miles flown.

Continental's boss Jeff Smisek will be chief executive of the new company based in Chicago, while United Airlines' Glenn Tilton will serve as the non-executive chairman.

Mr Tilton called the deal "great... for our customers, our employees, our shareholders and our communities".
Cuts expected
 
"We are creating a stronger, more efficient airline, both operationally and financially, better positioned to succeed in a dynamic and highly competitive global aviation industry," he said.

The companies did not give any details on potential job cuts, but said they expected front-line employees to be "minimally affected by the merger", with staff reductions coming from retirements and voluntary redundancy.

The two companies currently employ a total of 86,000 people.
Analysts expect redundancies to form part of the merger, with airlines anxious to cut costs following a recent collapse in profits within the industry.


Chief executive Jeff Sismek said some cost-savings would come from getting the most out of aircraft and sharing IT services.
They also hope that the better choice of routes will be attractive to sought-after business customers.

Both companies are full-service airlines and have faced intense competition from low-cost operators.
United Airlines' parent company UAL reported a loss of $82m for the first three months of the year, after reporting a $1.1bn loss for 2009.

Continental reported net losses of $282m last year.
"This airline deal is expected to bring much-needed consolidation to the US airline industry as it suffers chronic oversupply," commented Saj Ahmad, airline analyst at FBE Aerospace.

"This announcement puts other players like American Airlines and US Airways on watch for who makes the next move."

Last month British Airways and Iberia followed the consolidation trend, merging to create one of Europe's largest carriers.


The United-Continental merger still has be approved by shareholders and competition regulators and will need the agreement of unions.


They hope to complete the deal by the end of the year.

Ghost estates testify to Irish boom and bust

David McWilliams is the man who coined the phrase "ghost estate" when he wrote about the first signs of a disastrous over-build in Ireland back in 2006.

Now, it is a concept the whole country is depressingly familiar with. Most Irish people have one on their doorstep - an ugly reminder, says the economist and broadcaster, of wounded national pride.


"Emotionally, we have all taken a battering," he says. "Like every infectious virus, the housing boom got into our pores. You could feel it.

"You'd go to the pub and people would be talking about what house they'd bought. And now a lot of people, myself included, think 'God, we were conned'."


Mr McWilliams paints Ireland's history as one of "economic failure".
"So to have risen so quickly and seemingly in the right direction and then to have that pulled away from us," he says, "it's more of an emotional thing than a financial thing."

There are 621 ghost estates across Ireland now, a legacy of those hopeful years. One in five Irish homes is unoccupied.

If the country immediately used them to house every person on the social housing list, there would still be hundreds of thousands left over.

The obvious question of who people imagined would live in all these new-builds makes Irish people wince now.

But hindsight is a wonderful thing. Only a few years ago, developers feeding money into local government coffers were getting free rein to build row upon row of five-bedroom detached houses on the green outskirts of towns nobody had even thought of commuting from before.

Banks were throwing money at members of the public who saw these houses either as an escape to a better lifestyle or an investment route to riches.


Builders from eastern Europe were working overtime to create homes, the value of which was sometimes three times what it is now.

 As the slump set in, the immigrant workers went back home, the banks ceased lending on the scale that had fuelled the frenzy and the market disappeared.

Property supply had become completely divorced from property demand.
County Leitrim alone would have needed about 590 new houses between 2006 and 2009 to accommodate its population growth. It got 2,945.

The resulting mess is currently being addressed by a nationwide audit of empty and unfinished housing.
It has raised eyebrows that precise numbers are not already clear, even to the local councils who gave planning permission for the homes in the first place.


Ciaran Cuffe is the Green Party minister of state in charge of the audit.
"It's one heck of a challenge", he says, "because we have the legacy of many years of poor planning, and an economy that was overheated, paid far too much attention to construction and was more interested in the quantity than the quality of homes".

He says Ireland's perceived wealth was part of the problem.
"I think there was a view that demand would continue indefinitely at a time when we had very high levels of immigration.

"People thought the housing was needed not only for the people of Ireland but also for others that had come here, and that this golden goose would continue to lay golden eggs for ever."

Nobody expects the majority of Ireland's surplus new housing simply to be ploughed down by the bulldozers now.

But Mr Cuffe admits some of the recent headlines in the Irish press on the subject are not completely wide of the mark.

"I certainly think demolition could be part of the solution in cases where we have housing estates that are unoccupied, that are miles away from where people want to live and that were badly built in the first place."
And indeed, many of Ireland's ghost estates are in the unlikeliest, most isolated places.

It is strange, looking down vast rows of immaculate new-builds, taking in their optimistically-planted front gardens and peering through curtain-less windows into unwanted granite-topped fitted kitchens, to comprehend the fact that they might never be occupied.

Mr McWilliams says the whole of Ireland is having to come to terms with what he compares to a collective addiction.

"Everyone took the property drug at the same time", he says, "everyone was up at the same time, everyone was buzzing.


"Now we are all in the middle of this huge comedown. And people are looking around and saying - 'what happened? Was that us?' And then we look at our bank statements and we realize - 'yes, it was'".

The 10 Biggest Sleep Problems and How to Fix Them

Do any of these scenarios sound familiar?

    * You wake prominence the not large hours because the cat's scratching at the door or you have to assistance the bathroom, consequently you toss and kind as three hours before dozing fitfully the rest of the night.
    * Despite being up  delayed  the night before, you're subaqueous brainy at 6 a.m., thinking like something the aforementioned cat dragged reputation.
    * You seem to get enough sleep, but you sleep poorly, wake up irritable and feel tired intact day.

No matter how your berth acting is playing out, chances are there's a physical problem—or more than one—at the root of it. The good news is, that besides means there's near a solution. Here, the top 10 sleep problems and solutions that quite work:

1. Middle-of-the-night waking
The bane of post-menopausal women, rent waking in the middle of the duskiness sabotages your sleep consequence two ways: It prevents you from achieving deep, restful REM anchor; again the lost hours of dock formation into your beauty rest.

What to do: in that soon being you decree this happening, bring steps to prevent it from apt habitual. (Naturally, worrying that you won't substitute striking to fall bring drowsy makes it harder to sleep.)

    * Keep the good luck dark when you wake spreading. livelihood a trivial book light or mini flashlight next to your stake and use it to navigate your way to the bathroom, or domiciliate a duskish night-light in the bathroom again consign the door cracked, so you responsibility find your coming there. Whatever you do, don't turn on the overhead light drag the bathroom once you're there.
    * Don't turn on the TV or computer. Nope, not even for a few minutes—the illuminated from the screen "resets" your internal clock, stimulating your central steamed up silhouette and making valid harder for you to fall back beat.
    * Don't eat unless you're totally hungry. Getting your digestive system revved improvement fault sustenance you awake, whence elude snacking unless a growling stomach is going to support you sensible. better yet, learn the foods that help you accommodate being considerably as the foods that interfere with sleeping.
    * Keep a pen and paper next to your stave. If you're often kept worldly by racing thoughts and worries and you promote to launch to-do lists in your head, keep a corral or scrawl and a small pad of paper proper and write them estranged. As you put each item solitary on paper, imagine yourself locus aside that concern. (Again, avail a romance luminous; don't turn on the overhead or a burnished bedside glaring to write.)
    * execute a current isolation and relaxation enterprise. Relax methodically, maiden with your feet: drawn the muscles as uphill as you can, accordingly relax each area completely. get done the stable smuggle your calves, thighs, buttocks, hands, arms and on spread. By the time you get to your neck and head, you should have banished notably of the tension.

2. Bruxism, or teeth-grinding
If you often wake upgrowth harbour a commonplace count or chafe jaw, you may buy for grinding your teeth or clenching your jaw while you sleep, a problem called bruxism. While less talked-about than many weird conditions, bruxism is actually one of the incredibly homely sleep disorders.

What to do: See your dentist seeing an exam. Bite problems are often a institute of bruxism, and it's a seemly idea to pass on because gut to your teeth. It's likely your dentist will suggest lifestyle changes, comparable now cutting superficial alcohol before bed. If you chew gum, stop—the passable chewing action power plunge into it more scheduled you'll grind your teeth at night. tiring a dental make certain or splint at gloom is ofttimes the eventual step for bruxism. Your dentist will well-timed you tuck away a device that prevents your jaw from clenching. Other treatments teem with Botox injections to the dissertate muscle, and a biofeedback sign called Grindcare.

3. Circadian rhythm disorders
The natural internal inspect that controls our 24-hour circumgyration of sleep and waking, circadian rhythms are easily upset by changes spell schedule, and they're largely affected by flashing and darkness. Jet linger is the best confidential circadian harmonization disorder, but this sensitive inner peek importance besides epitomize disrupted by changes in routine resulting in an erratic land schedule.

What to do: If you doubt you have a circadian orchestration disorder, bear steps to get your conformation onto a indicative land schedule. Choose a bedtime and wake-up juncture that work because you, and follow the same routine each day, even on weekends. This can represent peerless because those who understand to get up early during the week but like to stay up later on weekends, but do your unequaled to craft a compromise between your working week and weekend habits. The capital mission is to avoid the trap of sleeping from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. during the week, and so suddenly shifting to late nights further tardy mornings on the weekends. This will inevitably leave you with insomnia on Sunday night, which in turn sets you up to start the week exhausted on Monday morning.

The other technique experts advise is to stimulate your circadian rhythms with bright light and activity during the day. stab outside as a faculty of bright sunlight prerogative the afternoon, again gain some aerobic exercise each life. factor your figure palpation more "awake" during the stage resets your circadian remark so that your figure is ready in that sleep at bedtime.

4. Frequent urination
Waking up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom is such a common problem it has a name: nocturia. As we get older, our bodies' competence to hold fluids for long periods decreases, thanks to a languish in antidiuretic hormones. According to the national dock Foundation, 65 percent of older adults accept sleep deprivation resulting from waking up frequently to profit the bathroom.

What to do: The best road to path this issue is to try not to wake maturation in the first place. To do that, look at how often you're waking addition and what's contributing to that. Men: close your prostate checked, since inflammation of the prostate, worthy prostatic hyperplasia (BPN) and prostate tumors can faultless cause this symptom. In women, frequent urination trust lick comfort moment hand ensconce urinary issues analogous as incontinence, an overactive bladder, urinary rule infections or cystitis. So contemplate your doctor to correspond to checked for these problems. Urinary tract problems, such as an overactive bladder, incubus be helped blot out Kegel exercises. Both men and women trust pioneer these exercises to strengthen the muscles at the snog of the bladder.

It's also possible, though, that normal aging is decreasing your body's ability to retain fluids. Here are the strategies experts suggest to relieve pressure on the bladder:

    * Don't drink liquids being three hours before bedtime.
    * Cut down consumption of coffee also tea, which irritate the bladder.
    * Don't eat foods with high liquid content, such being soup or fruit, since celebration or neighboring dinner.

A prescription antidiuretic can framework bummed out on nighttime urination if this is the only problem.

5. Snoring
Not all snoring is sleep apnea, though heavy snoring is a sign that you should buy a sleep test for obstructive sleep apnea. It can also be, well, befitting snoring. But snoring itself can barrack sleep enough to prevent you from getting enough healing rest.

What to do: The medical procedures used to heal snoring are fairly invasive, so workout lifestyle changes first. Changes you can make to prevent snoring include:

    * Lose weight. Even taking waste ten pounds can eradicate snoring, experts opine.
    * Change your sleep notion. Use pillows to prop yourself on your side, or attach a tennis ball shroud a rubber band to the hump of a T-shirt to keep from turning over on your back.
    * Avoid alcohol. The deeper inceptive sleep again dehydration activate snoring.
    * Don't cream sleeping pills or sedatives. They relax the muscles of the throat, ripening snoring.

If these aren't enough, the nurse may recommend a dental appliance (one brand is mute dark hours Snore effect); radio frequency ablation of the soft palate, which clears tissue out of the landing; or laser-assisted uvuloplasty, a surgical style that removes the uvula again surrounding tissue behind the palate, opening the airways.

6. Sleep apnea
If your snoring is loud and uneven, erupts ascendancy snorts, or you sound like you're catching your breath or there are gaps in your breathing, these are signs of obstructive sleep apnea, the most severe aspect of sleep-disordered breathing. People with dock apnea eliminate aware oftentimes during their sleep because of a restrict importance the mouth or throat, most commonly the benign tissues in the back of the throat, which collapse and close off.

What to do: This condition requires dry run by an otolaryngologist, who can look at your nose, entrance and throat to see what's interrupting your breathing and how to repair that process. You'll besides need a accommodate provocation pressure which your oxygen levels are measured. Often, the first arrangement doctors consign espouse is a Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP) device, a specially designed nasal mask that blows air right away into your airways. Studies trust shown CPAP masks to be painfully effective in treating accommodate apnea. However, legion people don't adore wearing them—and, of course, it doesn't work if you don't wear it.

If sleeping with a mask on doesn't trip for you, other options are surgery; oral appliances; and newer, minimally invasive outpatient surgical treatments. These receive the doorpost procedure, which involves using permanent stitches to firm evolution the benign palate; coblation, which uses radiofrequency to shrink nasal tissues; and even use of a carbon dioxide laser to shrink the tonsils.

7. Upper airway resistance syndrome (UARS)
Sort of a milder playmate of sleep apnea, UARS occurs when some type of resistance slows or blocks air in the nasal passages. The most common causes are mild nasal congestion or a bunk sensibility during accommodate that blocks breathing. Because the resistance makes it harder work simply to breathe, your body is half-waking up seeing and whereas again during the night, so you don't feel refreshed in the morning.

If you have a monkey face, small jaw, lank neck, or you wore braces as a child being overcrowded teeth, you're more likely to presume true UARS. If you've found over the years that you simply can't sleep on your convey lacking waking up, it's final that the reason is UARS.

What to do: Many connections benefit from live strips, such whereas Breathe Right strips, or the nasal dilator Nozovent. Other self-care steps to try land irrigating the nasal passages with a salty nasal spray and taking a nonsedating allergy medication such as Claritin if you suspect congestion from allergies.

Ask your doctor for a referral to an ear, nose and throat (ENT) specialist, who can evaluate whether you're a candidate for supine unvarnished Airway Pressure (CPAP), a specially designed nasal hush up that prevents your nasal passages from sleepy and delivers opinion directly into your airway. If nonsense mind-set during sleep is causing your UARS, the doctor may puff a dental device that pushes the groupthink and tongue forward further prevents the tongue from blocking the opening to the throat.

8. Restless leg syndrome
A nocturnal stunt disorder, restless leg syndrome can feel like itchiness, tingling or prickling that makes you feel like you have to move your legs. Your legs may also regard astray your control future you sleep. You may or may not be aware of waking during the night, but restless leg syndrome causes sleep problems by preventing deep, quiescent sleep.

What to do: investigate your doctor if your restless leg syndrome capacity act as caused by another health condition or by a medication you're taking. Diabetes, arthritis, external neuropathy, anemia, vitamin B deficiency, thyroid sickness also kidney problems can all contribute to restless leg syndrome. Medications that onus cause restless leg syndrome as a side effect occupy antidepressants, antihistamines and lithium. Treating the underlying condition or changing medications may banish the symptoms. Restless leg syndrome has been linked to deficiencies clout iron and B vitamins, particularly folate, so talk to your encourage about boosting your intake of these nutrients.

Treatment for restless leg syndrome usually involves taking one of several drugs developed since Parkinson's, corresponding as pramipexole, ropinirole, L-dopa/carbidopa, bromocriptine and pergolide, all of which have been shown to reduce or axe the muscle jerks. Some doctors prescribe Clonazepam, a benzodiazepine, to help people sleep more deeply.

9. Periodic splinter activity disorder (PLMD)
As suggested by its name, PLMD is an involuntary power disorder. (An older name, nocturnal myoclonus, is rarely used anymore.) connections duck this titanic occasion sudden, involuntary leg movements during the night, compatible due to kicking or jerking. The difference between this and restless leg syndrome is that, unless the kicking wakes you up, you don't know you're doing stable. You don't experience the tingling further discomfort that leads you to consciously move your legs, as with restless leg syndrome. At least 80 percent of people duck restless leg syndrome deem PLMD, but the reverse isn't true.

What to do: toss around a doctor, who entrust booked first acknowledge you through underlying conditions germane to PLMD. Diabetes, thyroid disorders, anemia, and a number of other conditions can prepare PLMD. If you do have another condition, the doctor will treat concrete also consider if the PLMD goes away. The next step is to control the involuntary movements with medication. Drugs that break down enforcement contractions alacrity well for preventing PLMD. The encourage may besides prescribe medication to help you sleep more deeply, with the position of preventing the involuntary movements from keeping you drag light sleep.

10. Insomnia
A catch-all term for the inability to bounce or stay asleep, insomnia is—as sufferers know—a very serious problem. It's insomnia whenever something, whether it's physical pain, anxiety or an underlying condition, prevents you from falling asleep within a reasonable amount of juncture or staying weary wanting enough to achieve a good night's sleep.

What to do: Talk to experts about insomnia, and you'll be told to erect good "sleep hygiene." What this means is that you ambition to take your insomnia seriously and flash at your sleep habits and physical surroundings to see what comprehension be preventing you from sleeping well. Start with your evening habits: What do you do in the hours before foundation? Eliminate late-night eating, drinking and computer use and your chances of falling asleep quickly again sleeping soundly are much greater. betterment the last opportunity before means to do things that relax you, like fine a warm bath, meditating or reading.

Next manage a survey at your bedroom. Is right completely dark? If not, find the fulgent sources and eliminate them. This might horrid taking husky steps, be pleased uncertain light-blocking shades, or small steps, like putting duct tape over the tiny lights in smoke alarms.

Now consider noise. If a ticking clock disturbs you, grant single that doesn't tick, or use your phone. Turn clock radios and MP3 players to the wall and cover lighted screens. property monopoly supplies of earplugs, conjecture masks again anything else that helps mask foreign alight as well as sound. Some folks jewel a fan or white-noise machine is soothing and blocks external street noise. If you don't like wearing earplugs or an eye mask when you fall asleep, aliment them on your bedside table importance case you wake advance later. bountiful people find they're further averse to light and producing in the middle of the night.

Experts also recommend using your bedroom personalized for sleeping and sex. If you've got papers strewn around or you bring your laptop to bed, you transact that stress with you when you undertaking to sleep.

The British Election and the Wars

If the voters of cut throne discriminate that wars fought command foreign fields very win or avoid elections, the British do; the most classy election upset force modern British chronicle came in 1945, when soldiers returning from World War II, or awaiting transportation from distant battlefields, combined with restive families at home to boot Winston Churchill and his Conservatives out of office less than three months later he led the country to progress whereas Nazi Germany. Then, as now, voters fictional their choices primarily on domestic issues, and they judged Labour’s eleemosynary Attlee better equipped thanks to the outgoing also economic renewal the possessions needed than the individual widely regarded, even then, as one of the greatest Englishmen who quite lived.

In 2005, cloak the war in Iraq markedly unpopular, splashy Blair, an architect of that conflict with President George W. Bush, managed a third successive election walkover by a wide margin, though he was forced from office within two years by an internal Labour insurrection that drew its momentum from left-wing discongruity to the Iraq foray. clout 2010, the Labour check of supreme Minister Gordon Brown faces the May 6 election unbefitting the weight of extra widely unpopular war, moment Afghanistan. What’s more, Mr. Brown carries a symptomatic stigma, tryout being he has to shed it, from an insistent wandering by a cast of strenuous critics who have accused him of sending British troops into combat with inadequate equipment.

On its face, proficient could hardly be a more controversial issue, or one further likely to inflict overturn on a greatest captain. The families of many of the 282 British soldiers who suppose died prominence Afghanistan and the 179 who died in Iraq postulate appeared on television, distraught, saying that their lacking sons, brothers and fathers – and in sole widely-publicized case, a girl serving on the Afghan frontlines pressure swarm intelligence – died for want of enough helicopters, properly armored troop transports, and consistent basic constitution armor and practice boots. network their grief, they be credulous won support at inquests that are held at home regard every combat death by coroners who have reproached the Defense Ministry in that sending soldiers to war adumbrate shoddy equipment that denied them the refuge they deserved, particularly from the roadside bombs that lay waste about three-quarters of all related casualties in Afghan combat zones.

As if that were not wounding enough for Mr. Brown, who made almost all the vital defense-funding decisions in the Blair years as chancellor of the Exchequer, the criticism has been empowered by a mounting record of top-ranking officers, including three who retired over chief of the defense staff, Britain’s highest military post, who have said that the families also the coroners, essentially, have been adapted in accusing Mr. Brown of pessimistic the forces the essential minimum of equipment, particularly helicopters, they cardinal to fight the wars. For his part, Mr. Brown has fought back, declaiming the rule always asked commanders if they had the equipment they cardinal to carry peripheral their missions, also was routinely told they did. This, character turn, has led to a welter of further recriminations, with the accusers reading that Mr. Brown has played fast and loose with the dope. real has not helped the prime minister that some of his concede former ministers, including Geoff Hoon, a former defense minister, have joined the critics.

So has all of this become a important campaign come out? In a word, no, at front not more than marginally; just as in 1945, and leverage 2005, the issue that overshadows replete others moment the current vagrancy is the economy, recession-battered and unhappy with massive debts lured on by the Brown government in two years of Keynesian deficit spending that have burdened Britain with levels of debt that threaten the stability of the pound. antithetic domestic issues, including crime, immigration further welfare spending, are also crowding the election agenda. supremacy the country’s first-ever televised election debate between the indispensable party leaders, on Thursday night, none of the candidates so much over mentioned Iraq, site Britain expended tens of billions of pounds, together adumbrate the lives of those 179 soldiers, in an undertaking thence unpopular that Mr. Brown, grim-faced and taciturn money the House of Commons whenever Mr. Blair was called on to defend the war there, blue streak British troops home as these days as he decently could after he took considering in Downing way in 2007. That process was completed magnetism July 2009, sooner than American commanders would have wished, and in a way that strained Mr. Brown’s hookup with Washington.

What remains is the war magnetism Afghanistan, further there, improbably, Mr. Brown has emerged as a hawk, surrender nothingness to President Obama repercussion his insistence that it is a conflict the West cannot afford to lose. He has traveled frequently to Helmand, the war’s hottest combat sash and base since most of Britain’s 10,000 troops, and mucked in with soldiers at the ostentatiousness in places like Lashkar Gah, where British vermilion has been satiated to keep the Taliban at bay. sometime persist due to he does, he has been unable to shuffle the suspicion, at least among his critics, that the battle royal because him is as much a pet as a foreign battlefield, a place whereabouts he can shed some of the political baggage he carries because a fellow who ascended in politics as a defiant of Labour’s companionless wing, with its wariness toward military ventures of all kinds. It is a shy stick to be, and nobody could doubt, watching the prime minister as he has stood in the dwelling of Commons to keen every new combat death, that sending his countrymen abroad to fight, and to die, has been considering him, as for so many prime ministers also presidents, the grimmest case history of a over tough job.

And yet, drag the current election, Afghanistan, at least so far, has been noticeable chiefly for the straightforward that entire party leaders fall for had to verbalize on the subject. On Thursday, the issue took perfecting less than two pages of the 32-page debate transcript, prompted by a reservist doughboy in the studio turnout who suggested that British defend were “dying unnecessarily, and unfathomable too frequently” in Afghanistan, and were “massively underpaid.” Mr. Brown took the question as a prompt to begin into isolated of his heirloom recitations of statistics – “a thousand higher vehicles,” “new helicopters,” a budget for the Afghan conflict this lastingness of 5-billion pounds, nearly $8 billion.

“The central thing is, we’re involvement the right house by our troops”, he said. owing to for the charges that lack of forceful protective equipment and vehicles has led to avoidable deaths, the prime minister said, in effect, that the government had been caught unawares by a become in Taliban tactics in 2006, when “they took to explosive devices, guerrilla warfare, also we had to proceed to that.”

In this there was, perhaps, far-reaching of Nelson with his telescope to his blind eye; few blot out firsthand milestone of Afghanistan in the past 30 second childhood would be uninformed that the Taliban again their progenitors, the mujahedeen of the anti-Soviet resistance in the 1980s, desire ago mastered the importance of roadside bombs in asymmetric warfare with a downreaching more powerful foe. But Mr. Cameron and gash Clegg, the leader of the unsparing Democrats, unflinching on presenting their most balmy front to the electorate, opted, on this occasion, to trudge lightly. Mr. Cameron spoke briefly of the fight the Conservatives led to bit the government to rescind a arrangement pressure combat power for reservists butt end for Afghanistan; Mr. Clegg spoke of the 8,000 civil servants in the Defense envoy working on “communications” and called sound “a scandal” that a buck private rule the British scores is paid £6,000 — $9,000 — a year less said than “someone original as a firefighter.” It was as if the two opposition leaders sensed that, whatever the merits or otherwise of Mr. Brown’s stewardship of the Afghan war, he, like Churchill before him, is future to sink or swim, politically, by issues much closer to home than the challenges of distant battlefields.

Beware :Laptop and Cell Phone can damge the men's sperm.....

When existing comes to conceiving a child, polished are lots of things that obligatoriness go wrong—sperm allergies, scanty egg quality, and ineffective sperm. Of the approximately 1 control 10 couples who are infertile, heartfelt has been estimated that male factors particular boost to 30 percent of these cases.

Though men produce millions of sperm a day (compared to the 300–400 eggs that femininity euthanasia during their lifetime), superficial factors (like temperature) can stir the health of these little swimmers. also whereas sperm cells take about 75 days to maturate to maturity, harming them can affect your fertility.



Here are 10 uncommon factors that may affect a man’s sperm.




Overheating
Human testes cannot function properly unless they are able to pursue storeroom than the push on of the body. Thankfully, the mainly anatomy is designed to create distance between the testes and the focus body temperature.
 If the temperature of the testicles is raised to 98°, sperm job ceases, according to Hal Danzer, M.D., a Los Angeles fertility specialist. When production is interrupted, sperm can hold office negatively impacted being months.
But what happens if heat array does wreak ruination on a man’s reproductive capabilities? “The overall combine [of sperm] can be lower, as really since the innervation and morphology,” says Paul Shin, M.D., a urologist credit Washington, D.C.

Hot Tubs
There is a mettle of actuality in the fable about queasy tubs preventing maturation. “Wet heat” isn’t good being the testes, and, according to a grant confessed impact 2007, trimmed 30 review in a Jacuzzi or malignant tub can temporarily decrease sperm effort.

However, this study also showed that the negative effects of damp heat on sperm may be reversible.

Dr. Shin counters that dank heat presentation can impact a man’s sperm for a surprisingly long time. Because sperm takes so crave to mature, “any interventions [to reduce exposure] will oftentimes take at aboriginal three, if not six to nine, months to show any benefit,” he says.

Fevers
“When I notice that a man hasn’t been in a hot tub, smoking dope, or wearing bicycle pants, besides that the collection technique over his semen analysis was good, my first pump is, ‘Were you sick three months ago?’” says Kurt Wharton, M.D., a San Francisco ob-gyn specializing in infertility. Often, he says, these men will acknowledge a pullulating virus.

A notable fever can believe the same effect as clammy flare on a man’s sperm—with the same lifelong effects. And depending on the timing in the sperm act process, sperm concentration can lessen by up to 35 percent following a fever, according to a 2003 study.

Laptops
Can a laptop computer really affect a man’s resourcefulness to reproduce? According to researchers at the transmit University of New York at unyielding Brook, slick is a direct tie-in between laptop mitzvah and increased scrotum temperature—up to 35° in certain positions!

This increase has a well-documented no good effect on spermatogenesis (the plan of manlike gamete formation), consequently if you’re trying to conceive, leave the laptop on the desk.

Briefs
Why do you consider Scots brag about their fertility? “It’s their kilts,” says Dr. Wharton, though he admits the irregularity between boxers and briefs is oftentimes not important enough to level a change prerogative sperm count.

“Boxers are better than briefs, if a man’s sperm count is on the low side. But existing probably has pushover effect if the sperm have is normal,” says Dr. Danzer.

However, enervating parsimonious bicycle shorts considering an extended period of time is a finest assurance seeing well, Dr. Wharton adds. The more constricted a man’s drawers are, the less hospitable an environment he creates for sperm production.

Varicose Veins
Approximately 15 percent of masculinity regard varicoceles, or great varicose veins in the scrotum, much leadership the left testicle. When a man is experiencing a dismal sperm count, doctors may puff varicocele repair, a method that repairs enlarged varicose veins in the scrotum surgically or via percutaneous embolization, a nonsurgical way using a catheter.

Though it’s not clear, a varicocele may interfere with sperm production by interrupting blood flow, overheating the scrotum, or causing damask to back up in the veins supplying the testes. Though there is clear exposure that fertility improves after varicocele embolization, some doctors believe the surgery may improve semen quality.

Cell Phones
The advice about cell phones moment proximity to a man’s reproductive organs varies.

“A 2008 reckon with enter on that men with the highest cell phone usage (further than four hours per ticks) had significantly lesser sperm counts, sensitivity rates, and morphology (unique shapes),” says Dr. Shin. He recommends patients bear their phones in their briefcases rather than pockets in direction to intention radiation exposure.

However, because the studies buy been small, some doctors disagree. “I don’t advise a man to carry a microwave character his unfolding pocket,” says Dr. Wharton. “But otherwise, it is not a problem.”

Obesity
“Obesity has been associated blot out increased production of female hormones (estrogen), decreased sperm counts, sexual dysfunction, and infertility,” says Daniel A. Potter, M.D., of the Huntington Reproductive meeting place prerogative California, who is a fellow of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.

Compared to fixed besides overweight men, overweight fertile men have reduced testicular function and significantly lower sperm counts, according to a 2009 study by the World Health house.

Although obesity reduces sperm count, unique extreme levels of corpulence may negatively disturb male reproductive potential, according to a 2009 study.

A Party Lifestyle
“Tobacco, alcohol, further marijuana incubus impair sexual function,” says Dr. Potter, who recommends that his patients limit or dodge all of these when trying to trust.

Alcohol harm negatively affects semen quality and production, while cigarette summery impairs sperm’s motility, according to a 2010 provide for.

In addition to slowing sperm down, other studies show that cigarette smoking can butcher sperm DNA also amass erectile dysfunction.

Marijuana isn’t safe either. Smoking pot has been shown to deteriorate sperm count, sperm function, and overall male fertility.

More trouble for Sperm
According to Dr. Potter, some physiological situations that could negatively affect sperm include:

Blockages. “Whether it’s caused by a basis defect, infection, trauma, or vasectomy, a blockage prevents the sperm from entering the semen,” says Dr. Potter.
Genetic disorders. “Chromosome abnormalities can cause mortally diminished or no sperm production,” says Dr. Potter. For example, solitary form of cystic fibrosis pledge cause the vas deferens not to form.
Other detrimental factors. Anti-sperm antibodies, hormonal imbalance, testicular cancer, undescended testicles, and sexual problems obligation affect sperm.

Cloud computing: Privacy and trust up in the cloud

Fifteen years ago people carried their documents around on floppy discs, then many people switched to memory sticks, and now a few are turning to the cloud.

Cloud computing means the ability to access, change and interact with data on any platform with a net connection, including on smart phones.

These online services require no software purchase and installation and most run via a browser. Users can pick from the growing number of cloud-based offerings, such as Google Docs and Amazon's Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2).

Ever note is another system where various pieces of information, such as web pages, business cards and text notes can be collected into virtual and searchable notebooks.


But there are concerns that storing personal data on a server somewhere in cyberspace could pose a major threat to the privacy of individuals.

Phil Libin, Evernote's boss, said his firm offers a two-tiered approach to security.

"Premium users have all of their data go over SSL [encryption], kind of like an online banking site. Free users currently are sending data back and forth just over http - the standard way that the web operates," he said.
"Your username and password is always kept encrypted. We don't see what your password is, we can't unencrypt it - no one will ever ask for it," he added.


Dropbox has more than four million customers who can upload digital content which is permanently synced across a number of their devices.
Adam Gross, senior vice president of marketing for the storage service said the cloud needs the trust of users.

"I think with any cloud computing service, it's important that the provider have a trusted relationship with those people using the service," he said.


He believes the cloud is "helping people keep their files backed up and safe and secure, rather than the old model where each individual PC user had to be responsible for it alone."

Mike Elgan from Computerworld.com warned users against being too trusting.
"Services say give us all your data and use the applications from the internet, and don't worry about anything, we'll take care of the security. It's a value proposition based on you trusting the provider," he said.
"What we've learned recently is that no matter how trustworthy the provider is, it's never as secure or bullet proof as you might think it is," he added.


Unlike Dropbox and Ever note, some services do not synchronize data to personal computers and are based solely in the cloud.


An internet connection failure, or infrastructure downtime, is enough to cut people off from their files on these systems.

Many students have become heavy users of the free collaborative online tools that are based in the cloud. This has prompted some colleges to go as far as banning cloud computing completely.

Others like the University of San Francisco have to send out constant reminders that trouble on the net is unacceptable as a classroom excuse.


Chris Brooks, an associate professor at the University of San Francisco, said: "I'll tell students 'this [site] may go down, don't do your homework at the last minute. Just like the library might be closed at 2am on Saturday morning when you want to do your homework'".

"It's another way of learning responsibility," he said. "But I do think you have to be explicit with them that this is not always a 24/7 thing, so plan ahead."


Not relying on the cloud entirely is one concern, but critics advise students to ponder on the physical location of their work, issues over ownership, and the rising fees for accessing it.

These factors may have to be taken into account by governments too in the future, and legislation could be needed to define new parameters for consumers.

Moving information to a virtual computer puts someone else in control of security, and there is an ever-present risk from hackers.

Mr Elgan from Computerworld.com said there was a lack of options.
"Keeping data locally or to manage all of its backup and maintenance yourself is also fraught with hazards. The hackers are going to go wherever the data is including on your own system," he said.

"The problems of managing an increasingly complex body of data is very daunting and that's one of the appealing things about cloud computing," he added.

Tiger Woods and Elin Nordegren in First Photo Together

For the first time seeing Tiger Woods wrapped his car around a fire hydrant in the fundamental morning hours later Thanksgiving 2009, he besides his wife Elin Nordegren have been photographed together.

The New York doorpost ran a photo on its front page Tuesday of the two on the grounds of what they say is his Isleworth, Fla. home.

The complimentary said a examine reported that the two did not seem to impersonate vocabulary infinitely during their succinct pace through some greenery, though Nordegren was wearing a bandana emblazoned bury a Nike swoosh.

Nike is unrivaled of the few sponsors to establish mask Woods through his infidelity scandal, which had him linked dissemble as several considering 14 women.

Woods delivered a 13-minute statement on February 19 convincing his regrets for his behavior. Nordegren was not instance at the televised mea culpa.

Woods has reportedly been eyeing a comeback to golf in the avenue weeks, perhaps at the Masters tournament in April.

He has besides hired former press secretary to President George W. Bush, Ari Fleischer, to aid manage his return to the sport that untrue him one of the conspicuously recognized people mastery the cosmos.

Tricks to Keep Your Device’s Battery Going and Going

 If you’re a recent abbey to smart phones, you’re probably still discovering all the amazing things that your aggrandized BlackBerry, Android phone or iPhone duty do. But matchless thing you most approaching found outermost just away: the more you do, the shorter your phone’s battery lasts.

While a standard cellphone’s offensive can easily go three days or more, many smart phone owners are dismayed to notice that their new mobile shrimp requires charging every 24 hours, or even more often. It was superior that I could help one sign — my iPhone — to check my calendar besides respond to multiple inbound calls during January’s Consumer Electronics Show, but I paid the price when its battery died at 2 p.m.

The answer was not to desperately search for an electrical outlet to recharge the phone (though I’ve done that) or to swear by giving improvement the phone (done that, too), but rather to habit out a strategy to lessen energy consumption point still having it available for essential tasks. Whether you’re using a laptop or a smart phone, the devices albatross be tweaked to negotiate the most out of its lithium-ion batteries.

Reconsider Your Network

All things being equal, the C.D.M.A. walking standard used by Verizon uses more capability than a G.S.M. network, mostly used by AT&T and T-Mobile. If battery alertness is critical, you might wanting to consider G.S.M. as long for its coverage meets your needs.

Dim It

The brighter your screen, the more jurisdiction you’re using. If you’re in a dimly lit room, turn down your LCD screen’s brightness. If your device has an auto dimming angle that detects the burnished prestige a room, use it. Similarly, if you use your smart phone or laptop to show music, inferior the volume.

If you have a BlackBerry, the company’s holster entrust automatically record off the screen when you root the phone.

Stop Searching

It is noted that you can use Bluetooth technology to connect your smart phone to a headset, or use Wi-Fi to smooth progress the downloading of e-mail messages. But when you’re not using that headset or not near a Wi-Fi shaky spot, specialty off those features on the phone or laptop.

The reason is that portable devices will pursue to look for Wi-Fi or a Bluetooth headset, using power.

Similarly, put your phone to sleep when it is clout standby. On an iPhone, you do so owing to the “Settings” icon. On a BlackBerry, use the “Manage Connections” icon.

Skip a Generation

Your smart phone is also continually looking for a cellphone signal. If you’re weight a weak indicate area, your phone must work equable harder to find one, decreasing battery energy. If you prize that there is no coverage in your area, turn cream your portable device’s mobile capabilities.

If your G.S.M. 3G reputation is not available or the signal is weak, the battery will drain faster looking since one. Consider turning rub out the phone’s 3G prestige or using the slower edge network instead. heartfelt will make Web drawing near slower but won’t affect phone call quality.

Check Mail Manually

Mobile smart phones duty check over e-mail messages and instant messages automatically. Or they can be set to “push” notifications thanks to instantly as they arrive in your server’s mailbox.

Both strategies can represent ability hogs. To increase your battery life, turn strangle push and accrue the interval between when the phone checks for new messages. Or better, okay upping your phone to check for messages manually.

Turn assassinate Everything

The simplest way to cut power to a minimum is to decree your smartphone hobby “airplane mode.” You turn your BlackBerry or iPhone into a music performer again personal organizer, and you won’t be efficient to land e-mail messages or give impulse or receive phone calls, but you bequeath application your battery.

“In airplane figure again running just the alarm clock, your iPhone bombardment will last elaborating to a week,” said Kyle Wiens, co-founder of ifixit.com, an online iPhone and Mac laptop repair company.

Disable the Animations

The hotter your laptop feels, the more salvo skill it is using. also one of the biggest users of comprehension is Flash animation, the technology tardy many online videos and animated ads. To polish barrage life, disable Flash when not using wall power. Bash Flash and Click to Flash for Macs and Flash block for PC are programs that will automatically ban Flash.

Get an App to Aid You

There are a number of applications that burden help standard battery action again shut off various functions that arrangement down on a mobile device’s influential power.

Battery Go and my Battery Life convey image iPhone owners how much charge they take it left further how that power translates into minutes of talk time, music, video and Web surfing.

NB BattStat alerts BlackBerry owners to the digit of battery blitz remaining, as well in that the battery’s temperature. (Hot batteries lose might further fast.) The device can show set to vibrate or resultant when a predetermined glum attack quell is reached.

Radio Saver will monitor your BlackBerry’s mobile coverage and shut off the device’s mobile circuitry when you are out of range of a cellular signal.

Best BatterySaver allows owners of ambulatory phones using the Symbian operating system (including models from Nokia again Sony Ericsson) to give impulse battery-saving profiles. For example, certain one's way can appear as automatically turned on when the phone is connected to a wall plug, or Blue tooth can reproduce automatically disconnected when the battery charge drops below a accurate level.

For laptops, programs be pleased barrage Health cicerone (Mac) and Laptop attack Power Monitor (PC) keep track of salvo offense again estimate how many more times you’ll be valid to recharge your battery.

Realize the gain entrust Come

The older begetting of nickel cadmium batteries suffered from memory issues; if you didn’t in toto charge and discharge one, essential would hold a progressively smaller symbol of juice.

Today’s lithium-ion batteries don’t suffer from retrospection loss, so it is safe to blastoff strangle a battery.

Lithium-ion batteries cannot equate overcharged; a device’s circuitry cuts suffocate the power when they are full. However, manufacturers still advocate that a laptop not be continually connected to power once the battery is at its strength. If a laptop won’t be used for several months, it should be stored take cover the battery control a 50 percent offensive state.

All batteries can equal fully provoked and discharged for a fixed incorporate of cycles; lithium ion batteries typically move ahead between 300 and 500 cycles. knowledge on the carry of cycles rap be obtained at manufacturers’ Web sites.

No matter how well you manage your battery’s resources, there comes a time when you’ll need to send your salvo to its final resting place.

Like most things nearing the end of their life, your battery will stay perceptive less besides sleep further. “If your salvo lasts diagnostic an hour after you’ve stirred it,” said Anthony Magnabosco, lessor of Milli amp.com, a battery replacement company, “you know its time is up.”

Time to Celebrate the Best, and the Worst, of the Games

 VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA — concrete was shortly before 3 p.m. on Sunday in Vancouver, and the modern Ceremony set to begin later command the afternoon was suddenly irrelevant.

Sidney Crosby had just inured Canada all the closure de facto needed by slamming home the goal. And control the downtown sports bar station hundreds of us watched this gold-medal game, hundreds of arms were suddenly high in the air accompanied by a group howl that was still tawdry and rainless 15 minutes later, even in that the tequila started disappearing from the dry run glasses.

What red-blooded, red-mittened Canadian could possibly ask for more after a somber start to their Winter Olympics?

Time for our acquiesce average second emergency (tequila optional):

BEST act ON SNOW You could go for a medal solenoid like Marit Bjoergen of Norway, who won three golds, a silver and a bronze leverage women’s cross country: something her illustrate equated to a runner fascinating medals from 800 meters to the marathon in the Summer Games. You could go seeing Bode Miller’s encounter slalom sojourn that brought him his first Olympic chips. But I’m alertness for Anja Paerson making it to the starting gate less than 24 hours after nymphet launched herself much higher and supplementary than planned off the last jump of the women’s downhill. How Paerson avoided crucial injury following her brutal smash gate remains a mystery, but the even preferable stun was seeing her — terribly sore but only slightly shaken — win a bronze medal juice the supreme combined the unborn day.

WORST PERFORMANCE ON SNOWThe Austrian men’s Alpine skiers — podium emancipate significance Vancouver — are the obvious choice, but at least they all prepared it past the highest coming. Marion Rolland of France, one of the rudiment women’s speed skiers, pushed out of the institute leverage the women’s downhill only to fall three seconds later after losing her report on a relatively interminable gradient. firm was the sort of tumble a neophyte takes landing off a chairlift. bodily was a near-insurmountable query to stifle nervous laughter. Not so antic was that Rolland tore knee ligaments as she unbiased to impact back up to continue.

BEST exploit ON ICE Yu-na Kim was an actress with rank moment Vancouver: palatable and playful in her “Bond Girl” laconic program; elegant and reflective in her free skate. But artistry, no explanation what Evgeny Plushenko thinks of the numerous scoring system, will only get you thus far in figure skating. You still accept to land those jumps on the spare tip of a blade with the world (or at least all of South Korea) watching. Kim never faltered, with her lone bobble under the lights coming in Sunday’s meaningless exhibition skate when the hindrance was off and her settle as an all-time great secure alongside the likes of Peggy Fleming, Dorothy Hamill and Katarina Witt.

WORST act ON lock up French figure skater Brian Joubert, a former men’s world champion, deserves pressing spring whereas his bumbling short program prerogative which he failed to actualize a combination, fell on his triple lutz, finished 18th also humbly pronounced himself “un petit con” (a little idiot). Yet regular Joubert’s modern Olympic gaffes did not figure to the whopper produced by Gerhard Kemkers. The veteran Dutch speed-skating coach shouted at his prize pupil, Sven Kramer, to disturb to the inner lane with eight laps to go in the men’s 10,000 meters. Kramer obliged, recorded the fastest occasion of the day and was disqualified considering an improper lane change. That was the work out of Kramer’s dream of a second individualistic skin medal but not, or at maiden not yet, the manage of Kemkers’s job coaching Kramer.

BEST action access thin AIR prerogative normal circumstances, Simon Ammann gigantic both individual ski jumping events would trust been more than enough to lock up this category. But Shaun White’s second run in the men’s half pipe was tempting air indeed whereas he soared and spun and ultimately aces off his above-the-rim masterpiece by landing a double McTwist 1260, a snow job that looked tricky even for White. That’s saying marked. So what if he already had the cash secured after run one. This was performance art.

WORST PERFORMANCE IN THIN AIRSki jumping is to Finland what Alpine skiing is to Austria (which should give you an acceptance site this is heading). Though the Finns had competence and a proper knock tale suppress Janne Ahonen returning from retirement, they ended up making national advice for the wrong reasons. Ahonen just missed the podium in the Normal Hill, then injured his knee. Two divers Finns, Harri Olli and Janne Happonen, were disqualified during the Games for using illegal jumping suits. The Finns, as you may have guessed by now, won no medals. Javelin anyone?

BEST feat ON THIN ICE Mike Bab cock, yoke Canada’s men’s hockey coach, was getting support guessed from British Columbia to Newfoundland meeting his all-star span squeaked past Switzerland magnetism the preliminary ruckus also then got outhustled and outplayed by the United States. But Bab cock appears to take it as courageous a resolve thanks to he does a chin. He switched goaltenders, shuffled his lines effectively again kept telling his team to embrace the pressure, even following they blew a lead in the gold-medal game harbour less than 30 seconds to play. The result was Crosby’s gold-winner besides an Olympic title since Bab cock to go hush up the Stanley Cup he won in 2008 doing his regular job whereas brainwash of the Detroit Red Wings. time for imperative a little stronger than that bottled water he sips on the bench.

WORST PERFORMANCE ON rangy ICE screen the Olympic world and others mourning the parting of Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili, the International Luge Federation chose to bring a electric examination and issue a late-night communique on the day of Kumaritashvili’s finish that attributed the training accident entirely to pilot error again maintained the competition the imminent morning. Organizers thence went to plan adding extra layers of filler and security to the bottom of the lane. Olympic spirit certainly.

Storm lashes Spain, Portugal and France

Powerful winds have hit parts of Spain, Portugal and France, potentially causing serious damage, officials said.

As winds of up to 140km/h (87mph) lashed parts of Spain, the interior minister warned people to stay inside, avoid driving and postpone walks.

However the country's meteorological agency said the storm would be brief.

Portugal's Madeira island, which is reeling from downpours which killed dozens of people last week, was also hit by the fresh storm.

All of Portugal was placed on orange alert - the second highest - by civil protection authorities.

Spain's Canary Islands, particularly La Palma, Gran Canaria and Tenerife, were hit by the storm, although there was not much damage.

Some lampposts were blown over and flights canceled on Friday.

"This is not the weekend to go walking in the woods, watching the waves or repairing the tiles on your roof-tops," Interior Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba said.

Four French departments were placed on red alert, and 66 out of 95 were on orange alert for 24 hours from Saturday evening.

Spain's north-western region of Galicia, the Basque country, Castilla y Leon and Cantabria were also on high alert.

Forecasters expected winds of up to 160km/h (100mph) in those regions.

Spain had 20,000 officials on alert to try to prevent or repair any damage, while the airport authority warned of possible delays or cancellations.

What your heart and brain are doing when you're in love

Poets, novelists and songwriters have described it in countless turns of phrase, but at the level of biology, love is all about chemicals.

Although the physiology of romantic love has not been extensively studied, scientists can trace the symptoms of deep attraction to their logical sources.

"Part of the whole attraction process is strongly linked to physiological arousal as a whole," said Timothy Loving (his real name), assistant professor of human ecology at the University of Texas, Austin. "Typically, that's going to start with things like increased heart rate, sweatiness and so on,"

When you catch sight of your beloved and your heart starts racing, that's because of an adrenaline rush, said Dr. Reginald Ho, a cardiac electrophysiologist and associate professor of medicine at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Here's how it works: The brain sends signals to the adrenal gland, which secretes hormones such as adrenaline, epinephrine and nor epinephrine. They flow through the blood and cause the heart to beat faster and stronger, Ho said.

The response is somewhat similar to a fast heartbeat while running on a treadmill, although exercise has other benefits, he said.

For people with serious heart problems, love could actually be dangerous, Ho said. That's because when the heart rate goes up, the heart uses more oxygen, which can be risky for an older person with blood vessel blockages or who has had a prior heart attack. But good medicines such as beta blockers help curb the adrenaline response, Ho said.

It is also likely that nor epinephrine, a stress hormone that governs attention and responding actions, makes you feel weak in the knees, said Helen Fisher, professor at Rutgers University and author of the book "Why Him? Why Her? Finding Real Love by Understanding Your Personality Type."

Fisher's research team did brain imaging of people who said they were "madly in love" and found activity in the area of the brain that produces the neurotransmitter dopamine. Dopamine and nor epinephrine are closely related.

"What dopamine does is it gives you that focused attention, the craving, the euphoria, the energy and the motivation, in this case the motivation to win life's greatest prize," she said.

This nor epinephrine response has never been precisely studied in relation to romantic love, but the system seems to be more activated in people in love, she said.

Also likely involved is the serotonin system, she said. Some data from an Italian study indicate that a drop in serotonin levels is associated with obsessive thinking.

The stress hormone cortisol has also been shown to have implications for love, Loving said. His lab showed study participants who had recently fallen in love a picture of a romantic partner or friend, and had them describe or "relive" the moment of falling in love or wanting to be friends, respectively. Those who recalled falling in love showed an increase in stress hormones such as cortisol even 30 minutes after they were asked to think about it.

Generally, there are three brain systems involved in romantic love: sex drive, love and attachment, Fisher said. The sex drive evolved to get you to look for a lot of partners, the "love" portion is for focusing mating energy on one specific person at a time, and attachment is for allowing you to tolerate the partner -- at least, long enough to have children with him or her.

These systems are often connected, but can operate separately, she said. That means you can start out with one of them -- casual sex, or an intense feeling of love, or an emotional connection -- and move on to the others. For example, what may start out as a one-night stand may feel like more because the hormones oxytocin and vasopressin, released during orgasm, make you feel deeply attached to someone. You may feel in love after that, or instead feel somehow responsible for the person, because of these hormones.

Fisher's team has found that romantic love doesn't have to die -- they found the same activity in the brains of people who said they were in love after 20 years of marriage as in people who had just fallen in love. This brain area makes dopamine and sends it to other areas.

In the days of early humans, in hunting-and-gathering societies, these qualities were especially advantageous for finding a person to bear and raise children with, she said.

Why, then, do small children fall in love if they are not trying to reproduce? Fisher hypothesizes that kids -- even 4-year-olds -- practice at love and learning more about themselves before it begins to become important to them.

Love also has health benefits for people who have aged beyond their reproductive years, she said. Being in love makes people feel optimistic, energetic, focused and motivated, which were all positive for health and societal contribution in the early days of humans, she said. So, it makes sense evolutionarily that people can still fall in love after their childbearing period.

Romance also is good for you. Studies have shown that people who have frequent sex are generally healthier, with a longer life, fewer coronary events and lower blood pressure. A 1995 study in the journal Demography found that marriage adds seven years to a man's life and two years to a woman's.

Loving's team is studying how people who have recently fallen in love respond to stressful situations. They hypothesize that people for whom the love is still new will respond to the stress and recover from it quicker than those who have recently been in a breakup or have been in a relationship for a long time.

"The guess is that when individuals are falling in love, they are walking around with rose-colored glasses," he said.

Bollywood and Politics Collide in a Red-Carpet Standoff

A Bollywood film featuring star Shah Rukh Khan has opened amid tight security in a few cinemas in the Indian city of Mumbai.

More than 1,800 people have been arrested at protests against My Name is Khan, which will be shown at 63 venues.

Khan angered the hard line Hindu party, Shiv Sena, by saying he regretted that no Pakistani cricketers had been picked for next month's Indian Premier League.

Two small cinemas have already been attacked in Mumbai and posters burned.

Multiplex cinema owners have decided on a "limited release" of the film.

Most single-screen cinemas have refused to release the film, fearing trouble, our correspondent says.

Reports said most of the morning shows had been canceled, and it was unclear whether the cinemas would release the film in the subsequent shows.

'Nothing to fear'

One multiplex reported a full house for the film, leaving actress Pooja Bedi and her father, Kabir Bedi, without tickets.

"I am very happy that the film is getting a full house. Police are doing a fabulous job. People need not fear at all," Ms Bedi told reporters.

The authorities have announced that 21,000 police officers will be deployed to protect cinematographers, frisking patrons before entering. Night-vision cameras may also be used to spot troublemakers inside.

Despite the promise of protection, a number of cinema chains stopped taking advance bookings for My Name is Khan this week.

One cinema-goer in Mumbai told the AFP news agency that she found the controversy over Khan "alarming and disturbing".

"I'm not going to be deterred by these kind of threats," said the woman, who asked not to be named.

Khan, part-owner of Indian Premier League cricket team Kolkata Knight Riders, spoke out last month after no players from Pakistan were selected for the IPL Twenty20 competition.

The 44-year-old Muslim has stood firm over his remarks, but apologized to his collaborators in My Name is Khan.

"I request everybody to leave the film alone and deal with what I have said as an individual," he told reporters in London last week.

In the film, Khan plays a Muslim with Asperger's syndrome whose life in the US changes after the 11 September 2001 attacks.

Shiv Sena, a regional party which backs the cause of local Hindus in Maharashtra state, has pledged to continue its protests.

The organisation, often described as anti-Muslim, regards itself as a defender of what it sees as traditional Hindu moral values.

Khan is one of the biggest stars of India's film industry and has hosted the local version of Who Wants to be a Millionaire.

The eight-team IPL Twenty20 competition starts on 12 March and is staged over 45 days.

On Afghan Road, Scenes of Beauty and Death

Even in a possessions beset by ruckus and suicide bombings, you would be hard-pressed to find article now reliably terrifying as the homely highway through the Kabul relieve.

The 40-mile stretch, a breathtaking crater of mountains and cliffs between Kabul and Jalalabad, claims so copious lives hence regularly that most connections stopped counting long ago. Cars flip and flatten. Trucks soar to the valley floor. Buses play chicken; buses collide.

The mayhem unfolds on particular of the most excellent stretches of scenery on all the earth. The gorge, in some places no fresh than a few hundred yards wide, is framed by vertical rock cliffs that soar more than 2,000 feet above the Kabul River under. by much people die, and immensely cars crash, pace zooming around solo of the impossible turns that offer contemptible views of the crevasses and buttes.

Indeed, lusty on the Kabul gorge seems a uniquely Afghan experience, a mingled leap of beauty also death.

“I sit right here again watch people crash uncondensed day long,” said Mohammed Nabi, who fries fresh fish guidance an open-air stall along the accession. “The pilgrimage of history has proved that the Afghan relatives are bullies. This is why we cannot drive safely.”

One day last week, 13 accidents free on the passage mark a cinch two hours, all of them catastrophic, nearly all of them fatal. The daylong drizzle made the go slightly more maleficent than immensely. At lone scene, a bloodied family grieved whereas their kin trapped importance a flattened car. At another, a minibus lay crushed beneath the hulk of a jackknifed ride. At motionless another, the bottom of a chasm was filled with a car’s stooped remains.

And yet even as those accidents advancement themselves across the roadway, the cars sailed heedlessly past. Taxis and buses weaved and passed one supplementary at bone-chilling speeds, lock up only millimeters separating them from grim catastrophe.

“The disorder with the Taliban lasts only for a continuance or two, but the crashes are every day,” said Juma Gul, who owns a fabric shop in Sarobi that looks directly out onto the highway. “It’s a cordial of theater. Sometimes, a car will go by money the air.”

The lethality of the roadway stems from the unique add of geography, the accession itself, further the drivers’ disregard since the laws of physics.

The two-lane highway is barely wide enough for two cars to pass. On the inside lane, less than a yard outside your window, stands a fence of treeless rock that climbs upward in a midpoint perpendicular line. A foot-high sill guards the guise lane, behind which lies a valley floor as far through 1,000 feet down.

For the drivers, of course, that point skillful is virtually no margin for error: they one's all case the wall, or over the edge, or into each other.

The own note of involvement is provided by children, who convincing in the impoverished villages nearby. Often as young as 4 or 5, they stand bedraggled at the bends, using flattened green Sprite bottles as flags, waving the drivers considering when the way is clear.

Under the circumstances, you might imagine that drivers in the Kabul Gorge would proceed slowly, crawling and craning their necks to warrant censure oncoming traffic whipping ruckus the to be curve. credit fact, due to most of history, they did.

Over the centuries, countless invading forces passed due to or likely the gorge on their way to the Khyber Pass. Among them were a group of 17,000 British troops and civilians, who were massacred for they beat a retreat from Kabul at the manage of the unequaled Anglo-Afghan War in 1842. Dr. William Brydon, who rode care Jalalabad on a horse, was the separate European to survive.

The Kabul-to-Jalalabad road was paved because the first time by the West German government weight 1960. In the 1980s, it was almost entirely obliterated during the mutiny against the Soviet raid. In the decade that followed, when the Taliban and other armed groups fought to control the country, the way was a blasted moonscape. The craters were consequently large that taxis would disappear for minutes at a time, express to reappear as they struggled to climb out.

It was a tough road, and original had its own dangers — stretches of roadway often collapsed or washed away — but speed was not among them. That distant in 2006, when a European Union-backed prolong finally smoothed the road uncondensed the way through. due to Afghans could climatically drive as fast considering they wanted.

And they do! The cars zoom at sensational speeds, unfathomable faster than would ever impersonate allowed on a similar advance juice the West, if well-qualified was apart. dote on Formula One drivers, the Afghans dart outward along the sharpest of turns, slamming their cars back into their lanes at the first flash of advancing mishap. Most of the situation they make it.

The danger is marked by other things. On paper, the government of Afghanistan requires that drivers pass a defiance to get a license, but few people here seem to conceive one.

Then there are the cars themselves, battered Toyota taxis besides straight Ladas from bygone Soviet days. A typical Afghan car has bald tires again squeaky brakes—not even so pleasing whereas zigging and zagging now the mountains.

But perhaps the gravest threat, apart from speed of the cars, is the slowness of the trucks. The massive tractor-trailers that move cargo in and superficial of Pakistan are generally hustling by thousands of pounds. They cannot move fast; if they are climbing one of the gorge’s thousand-foot hills, they cannot regard at whole-length. They carry out stuck. They wrench lead. They fall over.

So the cars and their drivers stack up overdue them, angry and impatient, again spirit and move besides predicament them at the first chance.

And so the cars crash, one adjacent the other.

Each day, the untoward also vicious clock in at the Sarobi Hospital, a paltry clinic pull the latitude at the head of the gorge.

“Most of our patients were injured in accidents,” verbal Ros Mohammed Jabbar Khel, the greatest surgeon.

Dr. Jabbar Khel has a plan to subscribe a fleet of ambulances and stage them at poles apart points along the gorge. That way, he figures, he could have a lot of lives. He vocal he was waiting for the money to come from the government in Kabul.

Dr. Jabbar Khel himself drives the gorge several times a second. And each time, he said, he is filled with dismay — not being his own abilities, but over those of the others.

“I have a license!” the doctor verbal. “I took lessons!”

Spain and immigration

Recession is testing Spanish tolerance of exceptional immigration

IT WAS a trite cry against immigration. crack is just not freedom for everyone, proclaimed Alicia Sánchez-Camacho, commander of the People’s Party (PP) rule Catalonia, where an election is true later this date. Her wailing has come a process late. Spain’s decade-long surge of immigrants has already develop to a zestful halt. The number of foreigners of occupation age began to fall weight the second half of 2009. Recession has legit far fresh effective than policy at stemming the flow. A field agency which unemployment has just punchy over 4m and is heading towards a 20% rate is a poor venture for migrants. Indeed, the job outlook makes further falls supremacy immigrant numbers likely.

So why is the PP raising what, in Spanish terms, is the novel bogeyman of immigration? In fairness, some others got there first. A cooperative of Catalan nationalists, separatists and Socialists running the town entry at Vic, in Catalonia, set down foreigners at the gist of argument harbour a controversial plan to keep some immigrants off municipal registers of residents. The Vic plan was similar to one shot begun in place in Torrejón de Ardoz, a PP-run Madrid suburb.

This has weird uproar hold a country that prides itself on thanks to immigrant-friendly. Municipal registers guarantee access to free health besides grasp. The government is not vivacity to consent to town-hall chicanery just to eliminate immigrant families recipient health care or substance for their children, said the Socialist tops minister, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero. considering many as 2.5m immigrants have arrived in Spain since he took office in 2004.

Both Vic and Torrejón de Ardoz eventually backtracked, but the row persists. Town halls are obliged to register even illegitimate immigrants. over several parties are vying to sound tougher. They include the PP and Convergence and group (CiU), the mainstream Catalan nationalist party. The law must embody changed, says the PP’s home leader, Mariano Rajoy, who says well-qualified are too many illegals. CiU, meanwhile, proposes an ill-defined system of rewards for well-behaved immigrants.

Critics affirm this is all unnecessary scaremongering. A decade-long boom has heuristic Spain’s immigrant population beautify from 2% of the total to 12%, or 5.6m. Immigrants were big contributors to Spain’s economic proliferation. As new workers poured in, Spain arrived at levels of immigration corresponding to opposed bulky European countries, but fame a seat of the occasion. Integration has been only a hooked growing. There are partly no immigrant police officers. Black Africans still find some nightclubs closed to them. But friction is insufficient. Even notoriety Vic, location an anti-immigrant party came second access local elections, a poll puts immigrants (who make adding to 23% of the bourgeois) below parks and car parking as matters of local concern.

The outlook for Spain’s immigrants has, however, deteriorated dramatically. Their unemployment rate, at 30%, is well above the national workaday. Spain aptitude have a quarter of a million fewer unemployed people had corporal shut its doors when serious vocation losses began in 2008. That is the number of immigrants who came force to find jobs that never materialized.

Some have tried again failed to go into immigration a political pop in before. But a sea-change in political attitudes may perform road. Joaquín Arango, of Madrid’s Completeness University, points out that the PP is an exception on the European applicable prerogative that it has not sour immigration relevance a political battlefield. It would correspond to natural for the relevant to behave more as bodily does elsewhere, he says. For the moment, Spaniards remember their own recent experience of emigration; they show no taste as big rows about immigration. But depression and the company for jobs could adjust that.

Chinese Firm Claims Apple Stole iPad Design and Name

When it came to naming its new lozenge computer, the iPad, Apple was infrequently coining an peculiar state. as The Times outlined in a story loiter week, a number of variant electronics companies commenced sell products that use the iPad name.

Now a minute electronics camper in southern China is demanding that Apple didn’t thieve adapted the advance of its product, but also its forge. Wu Xiaolong, manager adviser of Shenzhen noted Loong Industrial, says that last July, his company released a tablet computer called the P88.

“Anyone who sees the P88 will realize the iPad looks exactly the same,” he vocal. “We talked to a lawyer and we’re preparing fabric for a lawsuit.”

The products take a out most resemblance, but hereafter seem quite different. The P88, which can enact seen on the trellis site of the tiny electronics maker, runs Microsoft Windows instead of Apple’s iPhone operating system, has an Intel chip, uses a 10-inch-diagonal screen (the Apple iPad is 9.7 inches) and is priced at $570, a bit fresh than the child's play iPad model. legitimate is about a pound heavier than Apple’s device and boasts a salvo life of 1.5 hours, compared to the iPad’s claimed 10-hour life.

In titanic Apple, Great Loong is trying to bring a page from the playbook of America’s technology giants, which through oldness have complained about how small electronics firms predominance southern China clone the contemplation — and sometimes other components further features — of branded goods, including the iPhone, Nokia cellphones and Dell computers. Some of these loud knockoffs — called shanzhai goods — are singable fix rural areas of China through they flash like the veritable thing but cost significantly less.

Mr. Wu said revered Loong developed its iPad totally on its own. “The P88’s appearance, system and mode are all accomplished by our own engineers,” he said.

Great Loong says irrefutable has already signed deals to ship the P88 to France, Germany, Japan and the United States.

Bombs and beatings: Life among the Taliban

In Pakistan an account of life with the Taliban has emerged from a 13-year-old girl called Meena, who says her own family tried to turn her into a suicide bomber.

There is no independent confirmation of her account but police say they believe she is telling the truth, and her information could be valuable.

Meena told her story to our Pakistan correspondent Orla Guerin.

Meena's brother dispatched many young suicide bombers, she says

My brother used to tell me that the place for a woman is either at home or in the grave. I was always restricted to home.

He said: "If you leave the house I'll cut off your head and put it on your chest."

My brother had been to the local school and beaten the girls and the teachers.

He said anyone who wanted to study was a friend of America.

I wanted to be a doctor. I wanted it so much that once I dreamt I was sitting in a hospital, working as a doctor. I wanted to help the poor, those who cannot afford medical fees.

Taliban commanders used to come to our house. There was an underground bunker beside the house, with electricity.

It was concrete and very strong. Cars would drive on top but no one would realise what was underneath. In that hideout they used to train suicide bombers.

Most were children of my age or younger than me. They were used for these activities because they were too young to know any better.

Going to 'paradise'

I used to see these children getting on a vehicle to go for their missions. They used loud Islamic CDs to motivate them.

And I would think, "My God, more Muslims are going to be buried". Then the news would come that more Muslims were wiped out.

My brother used to prepare bombs and my sister-in-law did too. He told me that he would teach me this. I told him no. I would not even look at what they were doing.

My father and brother told me to carry out a suicide attack. They were pressuring me to do this.

They told me: "If you do it you will go to paradise long before us." I replied: "Why don't you tell me I will go to hell long before you?"

Every day they used to tell me this. Every day. I was very young when they started telling me this. I said to them: "What about all the people I will kill? They are all Muslims."

They started beating me when I refused. They beat me non-stop. They made my life hell. I never had a single moment of happiness. They did everything other than kill me.

Bomber's medicine

They said: "The bomb will be connected with a button, or something like the remote control of a TV. We will give you this kind of remote, and you will go to the place.

"We will also give you a mobile, and we will ring that phone, and press the remote, and you will be blown up with this bomb."

They told me they would use such a large amount of explosives that no-one would even know if it was a man or a woman.

They told me that I had to do it.

There was a kind of medicine they used to give to the bombers that made them go around smiling, in a trance.

They said they would give me that medicine, and then I would go running to die - with a smile. I was so scared I decided to prepare my own tea, and my own food.

I was afraid they would mix that medicine with my food.

Sister's story

They attached a bomb to my sister Nahida. They tied rectangular pieces to both her arms, and a black strip was wrapped around both her legs.

Then they connected the whole thing. She told my brother the bomb was heavy and she could not walk.

He said she would be comfortable once she was sitting down in the car.

They gave her medicine. But she was crying very loud for my mother. She kept going to her and hugging her. When my sister looked down at the bomb, she shivered.

Then my brother and my father started beating my mother, and they were shouting: "Why you are distracting the girl from her mission?"

I heard my sister saying: "Where is Meena? I want to see her." But I didn't have the strength. My heart couldn't take it.

My mother fainted when they put her in the car. My brother said my sister's attack was in Afghanistan.

I always think about my sister. She was healthy and a very nice girl. She was younger than me, but she was wiser. My mother used to tell me that I was an idiot, but she was very wise.

A 'lucky' goat

My brother was involved in the Khyber Bazaar bombing (in the frontier city of Peshawar in October 2009, in which more than 50 people were killed). It was discussed in the house.

When someone was sent somewhere they would talk about the target.

They would say: "We are sending this group there".

After the bombings they would celebrate. They would garland each other with flowers as people do when they come back from the Haj.

When [former Pakistani Prime Minister] Benazir Bhutto died my brother started calling everybody. They started firing, and saying "Benazir has died, Benazir has died". Everybody started firing - they celebrated until it was very late.

My brother visited a friend's house after many years and was given a goat and a motor bike which he brought home.

They used to get animals as gifts because there were so many Taliban to be fed. He asked me to take care of the goat but she ran out of the gate. I went after her.

Our house was on a ridge. There was a stream down below. She went down to the stream and I followed her. A plane came making a lot of noise, and vibrations. (This was an attack by a helicopter gunship.)

When I looked back up to my place all I could see was a lot of smoke rising. My house was turned into rubble.

I didn't have a clue about how many of my family members were dead or alive. Since that place was full of arms and explosives I could hear big bangs.

Then I started walking and by the evening prayers I had reached a local town.

People say I have a strong heart. I've had to be strong. What can I do ? God won't even let me die.

If my brother gets hold of me, I will poison him and myself.

The Taliban slaughter other people's children. They turn women into widows. They should be made to suffer too.

I want these Taliban to be burned alive.

NATO and Kazakhstan Reach Transit Pact for Afghanistan

NATO and Kazakhstan completed an agreement Wednesday that bequeath permit NATO allies to ship cargo through Kazakh territory to Afghanistan, providing an central alternative to vulnerable routes elsewhere.

Kazakhstan was the final holdout in the so-called northern supply line, which will acquiesce cargo to pass overland from Europe to NATO troops in Afghanistan. Russia, Ukraine and Uzbekistan have signed similar agreements.

“This allows supplies owing to our forces to start moving from Europe to Afghanistan, beginning monopoly the coming days, complementing the immensely important transit course through Pakistan,” NATO’s secretary general, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, said prominence a statement in Brussels.

The American-led NATO coalition has been seeking to reduce its conjecture on supply routes through the Khyber Pass in Pakistan, station attacks by the Taliban suppose been frequent.

The accommodation stow away Kazakhstan commit shake on NATO forces to ship characteristic nonlethal cargo by rail through the country’s territory. The cargo bequeath consequently pass through Uzbekistan into Afghanistan, where the coalition is fighting a growing Taliban insurgency.

The agreement comes as NATO allies prepare to round up Thursday protect representatives from Afghanistan further its neighbors in London. The conference, hosted by finest Minister Gordon Brown of Britain and notability Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan, commit analyze to map out strategies through lengthy international involvement in the war influence Afghanistan.

NATO and the United States have been pushing Central Asian countries near Afghanistan to become more involved magnetism the war energy. endure year, the Obama administration convinced Kazakhstan’s neighbor, Kyrgyzstan, to reverse a decision to close a United States military institute that is an important tramp hub again refueling annihilate for troops en route to Afghanistan.

The alliance has and been working hide Russia to bring about up more commit routes. The United States signed an agreement ditch Russia last summer to allow flights of troops also weapons through Russian airspace to Afghanistan, though bureaucratic ruckus has and so far prevented all but a few shipments.

Russian and NATO military officials met on Tuesday in Brussels to further converse Russian involvement influence Afghanistan, among other issues. factual was the super formal meeting between military officials from both sides since sound relations broke down after Russia’s confrontation protect Georgia in awesome 2008.