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India needs to liberalise, change policies to attract more FDI: Nazareth (Corrected)

September 19, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

New Delhi, Sep 18 (ANI): Policy analyst Premila Nazareth has emphasised that India needs to liberalise and change its policies to attract more foreign direct investments.

During the release of the annual study of worldwide investment trends by the United Nations Conference on Trade And Development (UNCTAD) in the national capital, Nazareth also blamed the bureaucracy in India for being the main reason for less inflow of FDI.

“FDI policies do not need much changes to increase fund inflows. Policies are fine. The rest of the policies, bureaucracies and regulations are creating problems for people and these are the reasons behind less inflow of FDI. The policies are liberal, but we need to change and liberalise the sectoral policies of various sectors for private investments,” Nazareth said.

Nazareth further said that India and China are being seen as strong contenders for the Global Direct Investment (GDI) due to their emerging economy status.

“India’s position as a recipient country in the global FDI picture is only going to strengthen over the next few years because global investors are now looking more and more the emerging world as a whole. China and India are seen as very strong players, markets with guaranteed growth in a way and this is only going to grow,” Nazareth added. (ANI)

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India needs to liberalise, change policies to attract more FDI: World Bank

September 17, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

New Delhi, Sep 17(ANI): World Bank consultant Premila Nazareth on Thursday emphasised that India needs to liberalise and change its policies to attract more foreign direct investments.

“FDI (Foreign Direct Investment) policies do not need much changes to increase FDI inflows. Policies are fine. The rest of the policies, bureaucracies and regulations are creating problems for people and these are the reasons behind less inflow of FDI. The policies are liberal, but we need to change and liberalise the sectoral policies of various sectors for private investments,” Nazareth said.

Nazareth further said that India and China are being seen as strong contenders for the Global Direct Investment (GDI) due to their emerging economy status.

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Simpson searching for lesbian pet dog snatched by coyote

September 17, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

London, Sep 16 (ANI): American singer Jessica Simpson has been tweeting for help in looking for her lesbian pet dog, which was snatched by a coyote.

Simpson, 29, posted a picture of her pooch Daisy on her Twitter.com page, and sent out an appeal for help in locating her pet dog.

“My heart is broken because a coyote took my precious Daisy right in front of our eyes,” the Sun quoted her as writing.HORROR! We are searching. Hoping. Please help!” she added.

The singer had last month claimed that she thought Daisy was gay. (ANI)

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Pregnant Heidi Klum bares bum for sexy mag shoot

September 14, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

London, September 13 (ANI): Heidi Klum has left many jaws hanging in the air after baring her bottom for a magazine picture shoot.

The Victoria’s Secret model, who is expecting her fourth child next month, sported a tiny backless snakeskin dress while posing for the camera.

“She might be a mum of three already but Heidi has still got it. Men go wild for her,” News of the World quoted an insider at the photo session, for the New York Post’s Page Six Magazine, as saying.

But the 36-year-old German, married to British singer Seal, may disagree with the suggested popular opinion.

Klum previously said: “The last month (of pregnancy) is unbelievable, how rapidly your stomach goes. It’s huge. The thighs, the butt – everything explodes.” (ANI)

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World’s first patient implanted with smallest rechargeable neurostimulator completes one year

September 12, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, Sep 12 (ANI): The world’s first patient to have been implanted with the smallest ever neurostimulator for chronic pain is celebrating the one-year anniversary of his procedure today.

One year ago, former U.S. Army parachutist Adam Hammond became the first patient in the world to have been implanted with an Eon Mini neurostimulator.

Adam got the chronic pain after a skydiving accident when his parachute deployed incorrectly, leaving him in a coma with life-threatening injuries, including a severed spine, broken femur, fractured pelvic bone, and torn aorta.

Although Adam recovered from his accident, he battled chronic pain that left him dependent on a wheelchair.

But, today, the picture has completely changed and Adam is active and exercising, studying for his law degree and no longer in need of a wheelchair.

Adam also went to Washington, D.C., recently to meet with representatives and advocate for pain legislation.

However, Adam is not the only chronic pain sufferers who have been helped with neurostimulation, an FDA-approved therapy that uses electrical pulses to interrupt pain signals to the brain.

Over 60,000 St. Jude Medical neurostimulation devices have been implanted in patients in 35 countries around the world. (ANI)

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Is Al-Qaida’s central leadership weakening?

September 12, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

London, Sep 11(ANI): Al-Qaida, known for its rigorous training camps for terrorists to carry out attacks around the World, is now undergoing a massive change as tales from six captured Al-Qaida terrorists belonging to immigrant communities in France and Belgium reveals another facet of the organisation.

According to intelligence reports, it is claimed that all the flashy videos shown to prospect recruits were a “trick”, which served a dual purpose -”to intimidate enemies and to attract new recruits” The Guardian reports.

However, the reality had a different picture for them, they had to spent months in Pakistan’s rugged frontier zones and had nothing more than basic small arms training, some physical exercise and religious instruction.

They were also expected to pay around 1,000 dollars for their equipment, weapons and accommodation.

The disappointments for them continued, as they did not get any opportunity to meet supreme head Osama Bin Laden, nor was there any real need for them as fighters in Afghanistan.

Training provided to them involved little live firing and weeks of religious instruction from a junior cleric.

Though the six were forbidden to venture outdoors, one of the six did eventually participate in operations against US forces. (ANI)

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Machines can’t recognise images like humans as yet

September 10, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, Sep 10 (ANI): Computers might have reached a point where they can replicate many aspects of human behaviour, but still they cannot recognize distorted images like humans do, says a team of Penn State researchers.

James Z. Wang, along with Ritendra Datta and Jia Li at Penn State, explored the difference in human and machine recognition of visual concepts under various image distortions.

“Our goal is to seek a better understanding of the fundamental differences between humans and machines and utilize this in developing automated methods for distinguishing humans and robotic programs,” said Wang.

The researchers used those differences to design image-based CAPTCHAs (Completely Automated Public Turing Test to Tell Computers and Humans Apart), visual devices used to prevent automated network attacks.

Many e-commerce web sites use CAPTCHAs, which are randomly generated sets of words that a user types in a box provided in order to complete a registration or purchasing process. This is done to verify that the user is human and not a robotic program.

In the study, a demonstration program with an image-based CAPTCHA called IMAGINATION was presented on imagination.alipr.com.

Both humans and robotic programs were observed using the CAPTCHA.

While the scope of the human users was limited, the results of the study proved that robotic programs were not able to recognize distorted images.

In other words, a computer recognition program had to rely on an accurate picture, while humans were able to tell what the picture was even though it was distorted.

Wang said that he is hoping to work with developers in the future to make IMAGINATION a CAPTCHA program that Web sites can use to strengthen the prevention of automated network attacks.

Although machine recognizability does not exceed human recognizability at this time, Wang is optimistic that it would be possible in the future.

“We are seeing more intelligently designed computer programs that can harness a large volume of online data, much more than a typical human can experience in a lifetime, for knowledge generation and automatic recognition. If certain obstacles, which many believe to be insurmountable, such as scalability and image representation, can be overcome, it is possible that one day machine recognizability can reach that of humans,” said Wang.

The study has been presented in the latest issue of IEEE Transactions on Information Forensics and Security. (ANI)

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Gorilla-like creature resembling ‘Bigfoot’ photographed in Kentucky backyard

September 10, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

London, September 10 (ANI): A gorilla-like creature that resembles the mythical creature ‘Bigfoot’ is causing excitement on the web after being photographed in the back garden of a home in Kentucky in the US.

According to a report in the Telegraph, the large, hairy beast can be seen in a blurry picture taken on an automatic camera set up by an amateur hunter.

While flicking through images of rabbits and deer, Kenny Mahoney noticed a dark, humanoid creature that does not look like any of the southern US state’s known native species.

The mystery animal’s head appears too small for it to be a bear, leaving Mahoney wondering whether he had accidentally captured one of the clearest ever photos of Bigfoot.

“It looked like it had the outline of a head, and like gorilla type shoulders, and then the arms crossed is what it looks like to me,” said Mahoney.

“One of the explanations my brother-in-law said it may be a garbage bag blowed up in there, but all the smashed over vegetation in there – I really don’t know. I have no idea what it is,” he added.

Mahoney said he is very doubtful that the creature in the photo is Bigfoot.

His wife Margaret has sent the image to a wildlife expert in the hope of getting it identified.

The mythical ape-like creature Bigfoot is most regularly sighted in the forests in the northwestern states and provinces of North America, although last month a teenage girl in Poland reported seeing a similar beast.

Last year, two men in the US state of Georgia claimed to have discovered a body of Bigfoot, but subsequently confessed that photos they produced as “proof” of their find actually showed a rubber ape costume. (ANI)

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Moblies, digital cameras to feature in new WPI list

September 10, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

New Delhi, Sep. 8 (ANI): Moblie phones and digital cameras are among the 300 new items, which would figure in the new Wholesale Price Index (WPI).

Over 30 items would be taken off the new inflation series, which is expected to be out by December. Existing series has many obsolete items. They will not figure in the new series. There will be 25-30 articles which you will not see in the new index we are compiling,” an official said.

Most of the addition would be in the manufacturing products category and the primary items, which consist of food grains and milk, would remain unchanged, the official added.

There could be minor changes in the fuel, power light and lubricant group.

With the addition of new items, data reporting would be more representative and give a better picture of the price situation, he said.

The base year for the new index will be 2004-05 while the WPI is presently calculated on 1993-94 base.

The Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP), which brings out the inflation data, has started a trial run of the new index and data is being collected.

In the trail index, data for 1,100 items are being collected, which would be eventually consolidated to about 700 articles, the official said.

In the existing series, the weight of primary articles is 22.02 per cent while manufactured products contribute 63.75 per cent.

The weight of fuel, power, light and lubricants in the index is about 14 per cent. (ANI)

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Malaysian Indian Congress working committee has two Punjabis candidates

September 7, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Kuala Lumpur, Sep. 7 (ANI): In an unprecedented move, the Malaysian Indian Congress has kept two Punjabi hopefuls on the preferred list of candidates for the party’s central working committee (CWC).

MIC President S. Samy Vellu has endorsed J. Randhir Singh from Johor and G. Jaspal Singh from Selangor among 27 candidates, who will be part of party’s decision making body.

According to a part source, one of the two was being groomed by Samy Vellu to fill the vacancy left by former vice president K.S. Nijhar.

“But it will be an uphill task since both are newcomers and are going for the same allocation. And there are only a few north Indian delegates,” the New Strait Times quoted him, as saying.

“There are many candidates vying for the 23 CWC seats and these two are newcomers. They have so little time and the delegates want to get to know them more. They will have to work hard in whatever little time they have,” said another source.

Though popular in their own states, the two candidates are relatively unknown at the national level.

But Randhir is not letting that hamper his chances. He is leveraging on his father Jasbir Singh’s popularity, who has been the Pontian division chairman for the past 45 years.

“I am using the picture with my father because many people recognise my father for his long service to the party. I want to tell them that I am the second generation who will continue what he has been doing for the community,” Randhir said of an appeal in newspapers which shows him along with his father.

Being a non-Tamil speaking candidate in a predominantly Tamil speaking party is a non-issue, as far as he is concerned.

“My father doesn’t speak Tamil as well and he has been division chairman for 45 years. Language is not a barrier. What is important is your ability and willingness to work for the betterment of the community,” he said.

Being on Samy Vellu’s list of endorsed candidates showed that the president recognises the work of non-governmental organisations, he said. (ANI)

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Malaysian Indian Congress working committee has two Punjabis candidates

September 7, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

MIC President S. Samy Vellu has endorsed J. Randhir Singh from Johor and G. Jaspal Singh from Selangor among 27 candidates, who will be part of party’s decision making body.

According to a part source, one of the two was being groomed by Samy Vellu to fill the vacancy left by former vice president K.S. Nijhar.

“But it will be an uphill task since both are newcomers and are going for the same allocation. And there are only a few north Indian delegates,” the New Strait Times quoted him, as saying.

Though popular in their own states, the two candidates are relatively unknown at the national level.

But Randhir is not letting that hamper his chances. He is leveraging on his father Jasbir Singh’s popularity, who has been the Pontian division chairman for the past 45 years.

Being a non-Tamil speaking candidate in a predominantly Tamil speaking party is a non-issue, as far as he is concerned.

“My father doesn’t speak Tamil as well and he has been division chairman for 45 years.

Language is not a barrier. What is important is your ability and willingness to work for the betterment of the community,” he said.

Being on Samy Vellu’s list of endorsed candidates showed that the president recognises the work of non-governmental organisations, he said. (ANI)

High quality video, telephone conferencing may be round the corner

September 6, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, September 6 (ANI): German researchers are sure that compression technologies can put an end to the poor images and sound quality that are often encountered by people during video and telephone conferencing sessions.

At this year’s IFA international consumer electronics exhibition in Berlin, researchers from four Fraunhofer Institutes will demonstrate the power and flexibility of these new technologies by holding games sessions in which players compete against each other via the Internet.

To ensure high and consistent quality of sound, the researchers have developed the Audio Communication Engine, which consists of reciprocally-tuned components that vastly improve the sound quality and clarity of video and telephone conferences compared with present systems.

The key component in providing excellent sound is the MPEG Enhanced Low Delay AAC audio codec, which ensures low-delay hi-fi quality even at low bit-rates.

An echo control eliminates troublesome echo so that users do not have to wear a headset, and can move around the room freely.

Sophisticated signal processing, which extends from enhancement of the microphone signals through to multi-channel loudspeaker reproduction, removes the barrier of distance between friends without incurring great installation expense.

The researchers say that they have already started working on actual implementation by designing the technology for integration in TV sets, set-top boxes and hi-fi systems.

They claim that visitors to the IFA international consumer electronics exhibition will be able to experience the system’s superb picture and sound quality, and even play games such as Memory, Battleships and Sorry. (ANI)

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High-performance, low-cost green LEDs to brighten up the future

September 6, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, September 6 (ANI): A scientist is aiming to develop a high-performance, low-cost green LED (Light-emitting diode).

According to Christian Wetzel, professor of physics and the Wellfleet Professor of Future Chips at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), “Going green means different things to different people. For companies, going green means making a profit by selling equipment and services that allow one’s customers to be more efficient and reduce costs.”

“I’m doing both of those, but I’m also trying to make an LED that literally shines green light,” he said.

First discovered in the 1920s, LEDs are semiconductors that convert electricity into light.

When switched on, swarms of electrons pass through the semiconductor material and fall from an area with surplus electrons into an area with a shortage of electrons.

As they fall, the electrons jump to a lower orbital and release small amounts of energy. This energy is realized as photons – the most basic unit of light.

Unlike conventional light bulbs, LEDs produce almost no heat.

The color of light produced by LEDs depends on the type of semiconductor material it contains.

“We have high-performance red LEDs, we have high-performance blue LEDs, and if we paired them with a high-performance green LED we would be able to produce every color visible to the human eye – including true white,” said Wetzel.

“Every computer monitor and television produces its picture by using red, blue, and green. That means developing a high-performance green LED would likely lead to a new generation of high-performance, energy-efficient display devices,” he added.

“The problem, however, is that green LEDs are much more difficult to create than I, or anyone else, imagined,” he explained.

Simple preliminary attempts to create green LEDs, by merely adding more indium (In) to the gallium nitride (GaN) materials that composed blue LEDs, were unsuccessful.

The resulting green LEDs just weren’t strong or bright enough to stand toe-to-toe with red or blue.

Wetzel and his research group have been working to tweak precisely how to add more indium, and how to grow the structure more carefully into a device, with the goal of boosting the strength and light output of green LEDs.

“They’re endeavoring, he said, to close the green gap,” said Wetzel.

Once they overcome the challenge of developing efficient green LEDs, Wetzel envisions LED technology will quickly evolve from its current applications in signs and small displays and grow into a universally adopted, globally used replacement for traditional light bulbs and compact fluorescence tubes. (ANI)

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Dutch model strips for Victoria’s Secret promo pics

September 3, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

London, Sep 3 (ANI): Dutch/Frisian model Doutzen Kroes has stripped down to her undies for a scorching set of promo pics for Victoria’s Secret.

Kroes, 24, leaves little to the imagination as she poses topless for the camera, reports the Sun.

The model is also pictured showing off her peachy rear and curvy back in one picture.

And she is seen stripping off her bra in another mouth-watering snap. (ANI)

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Blind people may soon be using their tongues to ‘see’

September 2, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Melbourne, Sep 2 (ANI): In a groundbreaking innovation, scientists have created an electronic device that may allow blind people to “see” using their tongues.

The extraordinary technology works by taking pictures filmed by a tiny camera, and turns the information into electrical pulses, which can be felt on the tongue.

Tests have shown that the nerves send messages to the brain, which turn these tingles back into pictures.

The tool, called the BrainPort vision device, resembles a pair of sunglasses attached by cable to a plastic lollipop.

Its users have revealed that they can make out shapes, and even read signs with fewer than 20 hours training only.

The scientists behind this innovation say that learning to picture images felt on the tongue is similar to learning to ride a bike.

The device, which collects visual data through a small digital video camera about 2.5cm in diameter, which sits in the middle of a pair of sunglasses worn by the user, could be available for sale later this year.

The information is then transmitted to a hand-held control unit, which is about the size of a mobile phone.

The unit converts the digital signal into electrical pulses and sends this to the tongue via the lollipop that sits on the tongue.

The lollipop contains a grid of 600 electrodes, which pulsate according to how much light is in that area of the picture.

The control unit allows users to zoom in and out and control light settings and electric shock intensity.

“At first, I was amazed at what the device could do. One guy started to cry when he saw his first letter,” News.com.au quoted William Seiple, research director at Lighthouse International, which has been testing it, as saying.

Robert Beckman, president of US-based Wicab which is developing the BrainPort, said: “It enables blind people to gain perception of their surroundings, displayed on their tongue. They cannot necessarily read a book but they can read a sign.”

Beckman is hoping that the device would be used to improve people’s mobility and safety. (ANI)

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Now, preferential voting for best film Oscar

September 2, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

London, Sept 2 (ANI): The voting pattern for deciding the best movie at the Oscars is all set to change.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences which presents the Oscars said preferential voting will now decide the best film.
Under the system, voters will rank nominees in their order of preference from 1 to 10.

The nominee who bags the most votes will be declared the winner.

The same preferential voting is used by the Academy in its nominating process.

However, it is being introduced to judge films for the first time since 1945.

The new voting procedure has been brought in to bring in more movies to compete for the award. Now 10 films can be accommodated in the category, which allowed only 5 previously.

The BBC quoted Academy president Tom Sherak as saying: “Instead of just marking an X to indicate which one picture they believe to be the best, members will indicate their second, third and further preferences as well,”

He said this would “establish the best picture recipient with the strongest support of a majority of our electorate”.

The 82nd Academy Awards nominations will be declared on February 2, at the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater. (ANI)

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US Fritzl’s victim Jaycee Lee Dugard ‘wanted to be a model’

September 1, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

London, Sept 1 (ANI): Jaycee Lee Dugard, who was in ‘American Fritzl’ Philip Garrido’s clutches for 18 years, wanted to become a model, it has emerged.

Cheyvonne Molino, 35, who owns a wrecking business and was a client of Garrido’s printing firm Printing 4 Less, has revealed that Garrido even handed out pictures of his ‘daughter’ Dugard, who he called ‘Allissa’, to his clients.

However, nobody recognised her as the missing girl who had been kidnapped at the age of 11.

“She was just a normal teenager, she was aspiring to do modelling. Her picture was all over his business cards for the last 10 years,” the Telegraph quoted Molino as saying.

“He would leave his cards, blonde hair and blue eyes, she was a beautiful young lady,” she added.

it was also revealed that the two daughters Jaycee had with Garrido – Starlet, 15, and Angel, 11 – spent much of their time in captivity watching the television show Hannah Montana on the Disney Channel. (ANI)

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1988 pic shows US Fritzl, wife as loving couple

September 1, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

London, Sep 1 (ANI): A picture of American Fritzl, Phillip Garrido, and his wife Nancy, taken in 1988, has portrayed them to be a loving couple.

The picture of Garrido, then 37, and Nancy, 34, shows them hugging one another as they posed for the camera, soon after he had been released from jail on parole for kidnap and rape.

Both had met at Leavenworth prison, Kansas, where he was serving his sentence and she was visiting a relative, and they got married in the jail.

After Garrido got out they had the picture taken to send to his father Manuel, who refused to attend the ceremony.

It was signed on the back: “All our love, Phillip and Nancy Garrido”.

“You can see that he is a very handsome man and you can imagine him dominating Jaycee,” the Sun quoted Manuel as saying.

“Nancy was extremely attractive and would have and did do anything for Phil.

“They look like the typical All-American couple – but when you know Phil like I do you know there is something terrible under the surface,” he added. (ANI)

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Counting duplicated genome segments now possible with new computational method

September 1, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

London, August 31 (ANI): Counting copies of duplicated genome sequences and doing initial analyses of their contents are possible with the aid of a new computational method, according to a study.

Led by scientists at the University of Washington (UW), the study suggests that the number of copies of particular DNA segments can differ from one person to the next.

The researchers use the term mrFAST, an acronym for micro-read Fast Alignment Search Tool, to refer to the novel method.

In their study report, they have highlighted the fact that segmental duplications in the human genome have been associated with susceptibility and resistance to disease.

The report points out that duplicated segments have been linked to such disorders as lupus, Crohn’s disease, mental retardation, schizophrenia, colour blindness, psoriasis, and age-related macular degeneration.

It adds that segmental duplications often contain duplicated genes, many of which have an unknown function, and that individuals have different numbers of copies of some of these duplications.

The researchers write that determining the number, content, and location of segmental duplications is an important step in understanding the health significance of gene copy-number variation.

“New computational methods, combined with next-generation DNA sequencing technology, has provided for the first time an accurate census of specific genes that exist in varying number of copies,” Nature magazine quoted Alkan as saying.

“This is a way to deal with some of the most complex regions of the human genome and do what might appear to be a simple thing: Count whether a person has one, two, three or more copies of a gene. In fact, such counting is surprisingly difficult,” said Kidd.

The researchers say that next-generation technology for sequencing the human genome has far greater detection power, and costs substantially less than the traditional sequencing method known as Sanger sequencing.

According to them, the new technologies are beginning to distinguish subtle dissimilarities between nearly identical gene copies.

“This can provide researchers with a more accurate assessment of specific gene content and insight into functional constraints,” Alkan said.

“The newer, faster genome sequencing platforms may eventually make it feasible to detect the full-spectrum of genomic variation among many individuals, including patients suffering from diseases of genetic origin. Next-generation technology and computational methods promise low cost, rapid sequencing of different individuals and may lead to a fuller understanding of the patterns and significance of human genetic variation,” Alkan added.

The analytical method they devised is already being tapped for the 1000 Genome Project, an international effort to catalog and compare the genomes of hundreds of people from around the world.

Alkan, Kidd, and their colleagues note that the ability to accurately and systematically determine the absolute copy number for any genomic segment is a notable step toward a true and complete picture of individual genomes, and how the genome shapes a person’s characteristics.

“The next challenge will be defining variation in the sequence content and the structural organization of these dynamic and important regions of the human genome,” they wrote.

A research article describing their study has been published in the journal Nature Genetics. (ANI)

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Novelist Somerset Maugham exposed as cruel father in daughters’ lost tapes

August 30, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

London, August 30 (ANI): English novelist Somerset Maugham has been exposed as an unkind father who inflicted cruelty on his daughter, Liza, in newly discovered tapes.

The tapes that Liza made before her death in 1998 shed light on the harsh life she spent as a kid at the hands of her father and his gay lovers, including one incident in which her puppy was flung out of a moving car.

Liza’s tapes were intended for a memoir, but she never wrote one.

They remained hidden until transcripts were tracked down to the south of France by Selina Hastings, who has written Maugham’s first authorised biography.

The tapes paint a vivid picture of a childhood tormented by the dysfunctional relationship of her parents, Maugham and Syrie.

Although the couple married after Liza’s birth, Maugham remained very distant and was far more attached to two men, Gerald Haxton, whom he met while serving as a medic during the First World War, and Alan Searle, a later companion.

Searle even tried to supplant Liza in the author’s will by casting doubt on her legitimacy.

The tapes show Liza recalling how, as an eight-year-old, she went for a drive on the French Riviera, where her father spent much of his time with Haxton, a friend and her puppy.

“Suddenly, in an act of possibly drunken, seemingly inexplicable cruelty, Gerald at the wheel scooped up the dog and hurled it out of the window. I was hysterical and tried to throw myself out of the car after it, but was held back,” Times Online quoted her as saying in the tapes.

Miraculously, the dog survived, and turned up several months later.

Liza even reveals in the tapes that the “violent fights” between her parents sometimes left her feeling physically sick, and that she once covered her face in greasepaint to disguise her tears.

She admits: “I had quite the reverse of a happy childhood.” (ANI)

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