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London, September 17 (ANI): A new British TV station, dedicated entirely to fitness, is offering a string of classes, including those on Bhangra.
The Fitness TV, a 24-hour station, also hosts a high heel workout class for the women who refuse to get out of their beloved stilettos. Other workouts include those based on Salsa, Hip Hop and Disco.
“Just like a personal trainer, the channel allows viewers to tailor workouts to their own levels of fitness and interests and can be easily scheduled around busy lives,” the Sun quoted a spokesman for the TV shows as saying.
“Programmes range from children’s classes including a mobility and balance workout for pre-schoolers, kids’ yoga and street dance for teenagers, while pensioners and the less mobile are offered Chairobics.
“For the more adventurous, there are boot camp-style workouts and dance-based exercise sessions for Strictly Come Dancing fans, including Bhangra, Cheerleader and 70s Disco.
“There’s even a High Heels workout for more glamorous viewers,” the spokesman added.
Fitness TV founder Luan Underwood, a former personal trainer and mum-of-two, said: “We are positioning the channel as an additional workout option, not as a replacement to gyms, fitness and wellbeing classes.
“We would like to capture the imagination of the 80 per cent of UK citizens that have never visited a gym and inspire them to do so.
“We also aim to reach people unable to visit fitness facilities, perhaps because they have young children, or time pressures that make it difficult to get to the gym for a few weeks.
“With Fitness TV, people can squeeze in a session at a time to suit them, and because the classes are constantly being updated, they’ll be more motivated to stick to them than they would an exercise DVD,” Underwood added. (ANI)
Islamabad, Sep.16 (ANI) : Close aides of former Pakistan President General Pervez Musharraf are too embarrassed and are shying away from responding to the former general’s claims that he had taken the November 3, 2007 actions only after consulting various top officials, including the then Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz and the current Chief of Army Staff General Ashfaq Kayani.
Musharraf’s erstwhile close associates find the topic as ‘too dirty’ to speak about and have been avoiding any queries regarding that by simply saying ‘no comments’.
A former spokesman of the Shaukat Aziz government, however, denied that the cabinet had prior knowledge of Musharraf’s plan of imposing the emergency.
When asked about the issue, Lieutenant General (retired) Ali Jan Orakzai said: “It’s such a dirty subject that leaving it untouched would be a better option.”
Orakzai said he is waiting for the apt time to speak on Musharraf’s claims.
“Let’s see the gravity of the subject. I would record my statement before the court in case summoned on this issue,” The News quoted Orakzai, as saying.
When informed about Shaukat Aziz’s statement that he was not consulted on the November 3 actions, Orakzai said issuing such statements from abroad is easier.
“Shaukat Aziz can do this as he is living in London. I can’t do so,” he said.
Former Punjab Governor Lieutenant General (retired) Khalid Maqbool said he has decided not to enter into any controversy related to the past events that occurred during his stint. (ANI)
Melbourne, Sep 14 (ANI): While homosexual marriages are not legal everywhere, most of the gays in Australia prefer marriage to other form of relationships, a survey has revealed.
Researchers at the University of Queensland (UQ) conducted a survey of those attracted to the same sex in Australia.
They also found that a huge majority of homosexuals felt marriage should be an option for same-sex couples in Australia.
The survey revealed that the majority (54.1 per cent) of same-sex attracted participants selected marriage as their personal choice and close to 80 per cent felt that same-sex couples in Australia should be allowed to marry if they want to.
Researcher Sharon Dane, from UQ’s School of Psychology, said marriage was still the personal choice of the majority irrespective of the current legal status of participants’ same-sex relationships.
“The findings work to dispel the myth that most same-sex people do not wish to marry or are content with de facto status,” News.com.au quoted Dane as saying.
“This majority preference for marriage may be a reflection of the fact that fewer same-sex couples feel the need to live their lives in secret.
“A generally less hostile environment means same-sex couples can live their lives more openly and honestly and in doing so wish to be treated like everyone else,” she added. (ANI)
London, Sept 8 (ANI): Michael Jackson has come alive in a new avatar – a lifelike doll.
The doll is inspired by the King of Pop’s 1983 Thriller music video, which showed him turning into a zombie.
The Hong Kong-based Hot Toys is the creator of the doll, which emphasizes most aspects of the late pop legend’s personality, even his trademark white socks, reports the Daily Star.uyers also have the option to exchange the doll’s head and clothes for the sinister, hollowed-eyed undead look.
The toy has 32 movable points, which enable it to reproduce MJ’s dance steps.
The doll will be available to MJ’s fans in Hong Kong and Japan only, where it will be released later this year. (ANI)
New Delhi, Sep. 4 (ANI): A Memorandum of Understanding has been signed between Indian Army and Indira Gandhi National Open University to meet the twin objectives of empowering soldiers educationally and providing an opportunity for a second career option.
The MoU was signed by Lieutenant General Mukesh Sabharwal Adjutant General and IGNOU Vice Chancellor Professor VN Rajasekharan Pillai in the presence of Army Chief General Deepak Kapoor at South Block today.
The MoU seeks to confer educational certification to soldiers of the Indian Army, within the parameters laid down by IGNOU for Community Colleges, recognizing the ‘in-service’ training done by them; within the broad frame work set out by IGNOU.
IGNOU will register Regimental Training Centres/Human Resource Development Centres of the Indian Army and Army Schools of Instructions as ‘Community Colleges’.
The Army-IGNOU Community Colleges will function as autonomous bodies conducting examinations and their courses as before.
Credits from such approved courses will be transferred to the programme and will count towards the desired credits to be earned for an associate degree.
Certain credits are to be earned for a Graduation Degree which would be from approved elective courses offered by IGNOU or the Army to be undertaken after grant of an Associate Degree.
Approval of these courses with credit ratings would be accorded and reviewed by the ‘Army-IGNOU Academic Committee’ at regular intervals.
With the signing of the MOU with IGNOU leading towards award of academic diploma/associate degree and Graduation Degree to soldiers, a major step forward has been taken to empower the soldier to live a life of dignity and confidence after he leaves the service for a second career.
The project has been named as ‘Gyan Deep’ signifying knowledge. (ANI)
New Delhi, Sep 3 (ANI): To empower soldiers educationally and to provide them with an opportunity of a second career option after retirement, the Indian Army has come out with a plan according to which soldiers who join service after school can study for a degree in market driven courses.
The Indian Army will tie up with the Indira Gandhi National Open University to set up community colleges on the pattern of the US system of community colleges in its cantonments and other defence establishments to impart education in market-driven courses and soft skill programmes.
The Army will sign an MoU with IGNOU on September 4 to give academic diploma or associate degree and graduation degree to soldiers, which is seen as a step towards empowering the soldier to live a life with dignity and confidence after retirement.
The project named ‘Gyan Deep’ will benefit many of the 1.2 million soldiers of the Army. Nearly 50,000 trained soldiers retire every year from the army after an average of 15 years of service.
“The jawans will be given BA, BBA, BSc and BCom degrees depending on their area of work,” a senior officer said.
For soldiers who join after Class 10, the army will be organising bridge courses to bring them at par with those who have completed Class 12.
The Army-IGNOU Community colleges will function as autonomous bodies conducting examinations and their courses are hitherto fore. By Praful Kumar Singh (ANI)
London, Sep 3 (ANI): Dutch winger Ryan Babel has accused Liverpool boss Rafa Benitez of breaking promises which could wreck his World Cup dream.
Babel now wants to join Ajax on loan after claiming he was made a scapegoat for last month’s 2-1 defeat at Spurs.
“There were all sorts of assurances and promises from the club but they have not kept them. I should get more playing time but after the first defeat of the season I was the only one who was singled out – and I lost my place,” The Sun quoted Babel, as saying.
Babel bought by Benitez for 11.5 million pounds from Ajax two years ago, has played just 14 minutes as a sub since that defeat.
He lost his place in the Holland squad for Saturday’s friendly against Japan and the midweek World Cup qualifier in Scotland – until Ibrahim Afellay’s injury saw him recalled.
“Being left out was a real shock and very worrying. I didn’t expect not to be named, I’d already booked my ticket! We will have to review the situation again in January,” he said.
“But I think half a season back at Ajax, with a World Cup coming up next summer, wouldn’t be a bad option at all. I see the current situation at Liverpool as a signal I have to be playing more,” Babel added. (ANI)
Srinagar, Sep 2 (ANI): In a gruesome incident, resident killed a black bear at Mandi village of Poonch district in Jammu and Kashmir.
Reportedly, the black bear had trespassed into a school and market place. Scores of villagers chased the bear to the nearby forest and killed it with sharp edged weapons and brutally dragged the animal through rocks.
Villagers alleged that they informed the Wild life department and forest officials about the presence of the black bear but no one came to their rescue and they were left with no other option but to kill the animal to save their lives.
Police official present at the spot made no effort to stop the villagers. (ANI)
Washington, Aug. 30 (ANI): The United States had offered ‘millions’ to keep the convicted Lockerbie bomber, Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi, under house arrest in UK, but Scotland went ahead with the controversial decision to release the convicted Lockerbie bomber.
US officials had “very reluctantly” backed a proposal to move Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi from Greenock Prison into some kind of high-security accommodation elsewhere in Scotland, The Independent quoted senior government sources, as saying.
However, the Americans had only consented to the option in a desperate attempt to deter the Scottish Executive from releasing Megrahi on compassionate grounds (due to his terminal prostate cancer) and sending him home to die, the report adds.
“They also made it clear that the US would be willing to contribute millions of dollars to a complicated house arrest operation that would have demanded round-the-clock security to keep the prisoner under guard and protect him from attack,” sources said.
But the Scottish National Party government in Edinburgh eventually chose the option of compassionate release, claiming that police chiefs had ruled that the security implications of house arrest would be “severe.”
However, Strathclyde Police denied last week that they had made any judgement on the proposal, and claimed they had only told the Scottish government how many officers would be needed.
“Our position has consistently been that we wanted to see Megrahi serve out his sentence in Scotland,” an official within the US administration said yesterday.
“It got to the stage [during talks over the release] where we would have agreed to anything that would have kept him under Scottish jurisdiction,” they said. (ANI)
London, Aug 28 (ANI): A new study by researchers from Utrecht University in the Netherlands has suggested that a soluble fibre supplement called psyllium should be the first line of attack in treating irritable bowel syndrome (IBS).
In the study, researchers compared adding bran, psyllium and a dummy supplement to sufferers’ diets.
They found psyllium was the most effective, warning that bran may even worsen the symptoms of the condition.
IBS is characterized by abdominal pain and an irregular bowel habit.
Its exact cause is unknown and recommendations for treatment include dietary advice, antidepressants and drug treatments.
Many relying on dietary adjustments still turn to bran in a bid to help improve the way the intestines work.
However, the new study of 275 patients questions the wisdom of this approach.
The researchers gave patients 10g of either psyllium, bran or rice flour twice a day for 12 weeks.
At the end of the study, those on psyllium, a naturally occurring vegetable fibre, reported symptom severity had been reduced by 90 points using a standard scale of rating problems.
For bran it was 58 points and for the placebo group, 49.
The study also showed that patients seemed less tolerant of bran, with more than half of the group dropping out during the trial, mostly because their symptoms worsened.
Soluble fibre can also be found in fruit such as apples and strawberries, as well as barley and oats.
“I think adding psyllium to the diet is the best treatment option to start with. In the study, people did this by adding it to things such as yoghurt and it had a real effect,” the BBC quoted Dr Niek de Wit, one of the researchers, as saying.
The study has been described in the British Medical Journal. (ANI)
New Delhi, Aug 27 (ANI): The Cabinet Committee on Infrastructure today approved the continuation of Remote Village Electrification Programme of the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy during the remaining period of the 11th Plan.
The Programme aims to provide renewable energy based lighting/basic electricity facilities with 90 per cent Central Financial Assistance to those unelectrified villages and hamlets which are not going to be covered under RGGVY due to infeasibility of grid extension.
The Ministry has so far provided support for coverage of around 9300 villages and hamlets in 25 States.
A variety of renewable energy technologies are being deployed for electrification of remote villages. These include small hydro, wind, biomass and solar energy based options.
The decision to use a particular technology is taken by the State implementing agencies after examination of the technical feasibility and resource availability.
The most commonly used option by the States so far has been solar photovoltaic homelighting systems with 2 lamps for each household.
The Programme will be implemented by the State Governments through their notified implementing agencies.
The Programme is expected to cover 10,000 remote, unelectrified villages and hamlets and benefit around 1 million households.
Availability of lighting/basic electricity to the remote villages and hamlets is expected to lead to improvement in the quality of life of the people, including better health and education.
The total outlay for the programme has been estimated at Rs.867.89 crores during the current Plan period. (ANI)
Sydney, Aug.27 (ANI): Australian cricket skipper Ricky Ponting has returned home and declared he would not walk away from international cricket even if he was stripped of his captaincy. He said he would be happy to play under deputy Michael Clarke.
Ponting said the stunning Ashes loss had made him more determined than ever to shine with the bat and restore Australia to its status as a world cricketing power.
Ponting, who arrived in Sydney just after 7 p.m., said he accepted responsibility for the 2-1 series defeat – team selections remained a sticking point with critics – before hinting he would play on if Cricket Australia officials elevated Clarke to the top job.
“I still think I’ve got a lot to offer the team as a batsman and captain and leader. If that’s with a ‘c’ next to my name well and good, if not, I still think I’ve got a lot to offer, particularly to the younger guys who are in and around our set-up. I’m not immune to anything, criticism, I’m trying to do the best possible job I can and at the moment I feel I’m the best person to take this team forward,” The Daily Telegraph quoted him, as saying.
“If it ever gets to the stage if I think I’m not … can I play without being captain, absolutely. love the game and every opportunity I’ve had to play and captain Australia, and that makes me more driven now to do it better next time when I get the chance,” he added.
Ponting still managed a smile as he fronted a large press contingent at the airport and was far from bitter given the hammering he had copped by the press on both sides of the globe.
He will take a couple of weeks to unwind with his family before he returns midway through the one-day series against England and then leads Australia into the Champions Trophy in South Africa later next month.
Ditching the shorter forms of the game could be one way to preserve his career, Ponting said, with the 2013 Ashes tour still an option.
Ponting said proof he was already looking to the future was a meeting he had with Clarke, coach Tim Nielsen and Cricket Australia’s Michael Brown in the team hotel a day after the loss at The Oval. (ANI)
London, Aug 25 (ANI): Scientists in Israel have developed a ‘patch’ from heart muscle that can be used to fix scarring left over from a heart attack.
The researchers showed that the technique strengthened the hearts of rats that had suffered heart attacks, reports the BBC.
The ‘patch’ was grown in abdominal tissue first, then transplanted to damaged areas of the heart.
This is the first experiment to show that such patches can actually improve the health of a heart after it has been damaged.
The researchers measured an increase in the size of the muscle in damaged areas, and improved conduction of the electrical impulses needed for the heart to pump normally.
Heart attacks usually cause irreversible damage to heart muscle. If people survive, then the damaged muscle can cause another serious condition called heart failure.
The researchers, led by Tal Dvir from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Beer-Sheva, hope that the procedure may eventually lead to treatments in humans because of its “simplicity and safety”.
However, they added “because most patients with heart attacks are old, and multiple surgery can pose a large risk to them, our strategy is not currently an option”.
The study has been described in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). (ANI)
London, Aug.24 (ANI): Former spin king Warne, Test opener Michael Slater and former captain Ian Chappell have led the chorus on calling for the selection panel, chaired by Andrew Hilditch, to be made accountable for Ashes failures and the fact Australia may drop to as low as No.4 Test nation.
Former coach John Buchanan also said the days where selectors were part-timers, some participating in decisions on players they had limited opportunity to see – particularly when 12,000km away, may be passing.
“There is bound to be a lot more talk about why Australia did not choose Nathan Hauritz. Personally, I have to say that I was staggered by the decision. I would always want to have a spinner in the side for variety’s sake, but I think this time Australia simply misread the pitch,” Warne said.
“We all make mistakes and somebody, somewhere, will have to take the blame for this one,” he said.
Slater claimed selectors got it wrong from the start of the Ashes and problems have snowballed ever since.
“The fact of the matter is that we have gone over to England with the wrong squad. We needed an aggressive off-spinner in the squad and our best option was Jason Krejza,” Slater said.
“We should have won the first Test match and we didn’t, the selectors definitely got it wrong and it has just manifested right through the series,” he added.
“The selectors need to be made answerable at the end of this campaign,” he said.
Chappell also blamed the selectors for making the wrong choices for the series, and added that Ponting was not at fault as he was given a team to play with.
“It’s never easy beating Australia, they don’t just roll over and hand you the Ashes. England are finding out they have to fight for every wicket,” former England captain Nasser Hussain said. (ANI)
London, Aug 24 (ANI): Michael Jackson’s nephew Taj has said that the King of Pop had mapped out the next chapter of his life.
Tito Jackson’s son said that his uncle was looking forward to the London concerts and planning a movie career ahead.
“He had his next chapter mapped out. He wanted to do this (tour) and get on to the next chapter. The last words he said to me were, ‘We’re gong to do film after this,’” the Daily Star quoted him as saying.
The former 3T singer took to the stand while testifying in the planned King of Pop memorabilia tour lawsuit, in a bid to back his grandmother Katherine’s opposition to the deal.
He also added that he was against burying the icon at Neverland Ranch as the star came to “hate” the estate following his 2005 child molestation trial.
He said: “Neverland was never an option to us. It brought so much pain to him.”
Jackson will be buried at the Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California on 3 September. (ANI)
Islamabad, Aug.22 (ANI): A survey conducted in Pakistan on the issue of forced marriages among male dual nationals, reveals that only 3.4 per cent children are consulted before marriage whereas 96.6 per cent marriages take place mainly to attain foreign nationality or helping hand abroad.
The findings make part of the research report of baseline survey on the issue of forced marriages launched by SACH on Friday. The survey was conducted in collaboration with British High Commission.
The target area for the survey were Mirpur, Bhimber and Kotli where the concentration of dual nationals is considerably high and incidents of forced marriages are largely reported. The survey was conducted in order to plan an implementation strategy for intervention, prevention and awareness raising campaigns in the target areas.
Among 870 individuals interviewed during the survey, 61.9 per cent respondents were British nationals and 38.08 per cent were Pakistani nationals who visited UK many times. The study also revealed that only 7.9 per cent among dual nationals had an education up to post-gradation level and 3.6 per cent got UK based education.
The survey shows that majority of such marriages take place within family or ‘baradari’ with only 11 per cent marriages taking place outside the family. Only 19.9 per cent respondents strongly agreed that families and parents have the right to decide.
Majority of respondents (74.4 per cent) termed forced marriages against Islamic teachings whereas 54.1 strongly agreed to the statement that both girls and boys should be given chance to freely marry. Around 51.6 per cent believed that forced marriages may lead to torture and violence in the society and 52.8 per cent said that mostly women are forced-marriage victims as they cannot dare to oppose and they had no other option but to surrender. (ANI)
Islamabad, Aug. 22 (ANI): Former Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has said his party, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), had no personal grudge against former President General Pervez Musharraf, but that it was a unanimous call of the country to try the former general under Article 6 for disregarding the Constitution.
Interacting with media persons at Punjab House here, Sharif said Musharraf’s trial is ‘must’ to ensure supremacy of law.
“It is a golden opportunity to block the path of military interventions and if the government does not move against the dictator, it would be a great disappointment for the nation,” Sharif said.
He said with the Supreme Court declaring Musharraf’s November 3, 2007 acts as ‘illegal’ and ‘extrajudicial’, the Government had no option but to try the former military ruler.
Sharif also threatened that the PML-N would come out of the Parliamentary Committee on Constitutional Reforms if the PPP government fails to revoke the 17th Constitutional Amendment as soon as possible.
He also regretted the delay in implementation of the Charter of Democracy (CoD) in true letter and spirit.
Earlier, in a meeting with his close associates and party workers, Sharif expressed disappointment at Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani’s decision not to try Musharraf for high treason.
Referring to Gilani’s statement in the National Assembly where he asked the opposition to come up with a unanimous resolution for Musharraf’s trial, Sharif said he never expected this from Gilani.
“I was not expecting this kind of statement from Gilani. He broke my heart,” The News quoted Sharif, as saying.
He said Gilani’s statement suggests that he supports Musharraf’s illegal acts.
During the meeting, Sharif also clarified that he was never approached by any foreign diplomat asking him to ‘forgive’ Musharraf.
Responding to a question, Sharif said British diplomat Mark Lyall Grant had never discussed any deal with him before the resignation of Musharraf.
“Grant never asked anything more and informed him that he is going to the United Nations as the new British envoy,” he said. (ANI)
London, Aug 22 (ANI): An international team of physicists have revealed that metamaterials, which are currently being used to make real-life invisibility cloaks, may soon shrink cellphone antennas, leading to smaller gadgets.
The new metamaterial antennas could be tuned to a range of different frequencies as required.
It could be tuned to work efficiently across a small frequency range, and retuned to a different band for roaming.
Tom Driscoll at the University of California, San Diego along with Dimitri Basov and collaboraters from Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, and ETRI in the Republic of Korea developed the new “frequency-agile” design by attaching a thin film of vanadium dioxide to a gold metamaterial structure.
They found that applying a voltage to the film alters the frequency at which the gold metamaterial interferes with light waves, tuning it to a new “setting”.
This occurs because voltage causes nanoscale “puddles” of conducting vanadium metal to form within the insulating vanadium dioxide.
They interact with the design’s electrical properties and alter the metamaterial’s tuning.
“The effect continues after the electrical current is gone because the metal puddles, once formed, will not readily disappear without some cause,” New Scientist quoted Driscoll as saying
He added that there is evidence to suggest the effect should last for months or more.
“Metamaterials are often narrowband, but at least with this scheme one could adapt the material to new frequencies,” said Ulf Leonhardt, a metamaterial researcher at the University of St Andrews in the UK.
That removes an obstacle to the wider use of metamaterial antennas. Such antennas would be attractive because they could help to shrink the size of cellphones.
Driscoll said that a tunable metamaterial antenna would allow a wireless gadget to work “outstandingly well” at the frequencies used in one country, but also carry the option of retuning for use abroad.
The findings appear in journal Science Express. (ANI)
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Musharraf power theft scandal case: Low level workers punished
Islamabad, Sep 17 (ANI): The Islamabad Electric Supply Company (Iesco) has only punished 64 junior officers for their involvement in the power theft scandal involving former President Pervez Musharraf, Shaukat Aziz and others in the luxurious Chak Shahzad farmhouses.
The big guns in the electricity department have not even been touched, according to well-placed sources.
The list of punished employees includes 35-meter readers, 14 line superintendents and 15 sub-divisional officers, The News reports.
Sources said these personnel were those who had to implement the orders of the higher-ups and no high-ranking official has been touched in the order passed by Iesco on 10-9-2009.
The official spokesman for Iesco, Ameer Hussain Chaman, when asked about the punishment, said he was not aware of any such punishments.
“I have not been conveyed any such details, therefore, I cannot offer any comment over the issue,” he added.
Sources said Colonel Umer Hayat was conducting the inquiry and on 9-9-2009 his tenure was completed and on 10-09-2009 these personnel were punished.
They say that in this power-theft scandal the higher-ups passed all the orders and the junior officers had no option, but to obey the orders.
It is worth mentioning here that Musharraf had constructed a modern house on the farm obtained for breeding poultry and vegetables, but the ex-general has been enjoying the cheapest power tariff, D-2(1) connection, which is meant for agriculture tube wells and lift irrigation pumps. (ANI)