‘Monty Python’ pals John Cleese and Michael Palin may work together again

London, September 20 (ANI): Former ‘Monty Python’ stars John Cleese, 69, and Michael Palin, 66, may soon be working together again.

They are said to have been discussing reuniting for the first time in more than a decade.

The pair met last month while Cleese, who lives in California, was in London after his 12million-pound divorce from third wife Alyce Faye Eichelberger.

Palin revealed on Michael Ball’s Radio 2 show that they were chatting about old times then Cleese, 69, said: “Wouldn’t it be good to act again?”

The Daily Express quoted Palin as saying: “I saw John the other night and we were saying it would be nice to do some acting again, so you never know.”

Palin’s agent, however, said that there were no definite plans yet for the pair to work together.

The pair starred together in the hit movie ‘A Fish Called Wanda’ in 1988, and its sequel ‘Fierce Creatures’ in 1997. (ANI)

Rashtriya Janata Dal celebrates good show in Bihar by-polls

Patna, Sept 20 (ANI): The activists of the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) here celebrated the party’s good show in the by-election for 18 legislative assembly seats.

The RJD-Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) won eight seats in the by-election for 18 legislative assembly seats, a major set back to ruling Janata Dal-United (JD-U).

The JD (U) bagged three seats while its ally the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won two seats.

The activists burst crackers and distributed sweets to celebrate the win at the party office.

RJD leader Lalu Prasad termed the results as referendum on the ruling government.

“It is not possible for the Bihar Government-led by Nitish Kumar to return. The RJD alliance will return to power. The people of Bihar have welcomed us with open arms,” said Yadav.

The RJD failed poorly in Lok Sabha election in April-May this year, winning just four seats out of the total 40 in Bihar. (ANI)

Italian police seize Maradona’s diamond studs

Rome, Sep 19 (ANI): Beleaguered football legend Diego Maradona had to hand over his diamond studs to police as part payment for the millions he owes the Italian tax authorities.

Italian officials paid the holidaying Argentinean coach a visit at the luxury hotel he was staying in and seized the earrings worth nearly 4,000 pounds, Sky News reports.

Police claimed that Maradona still owes some 20 million pounds, dating back to his seven-year stint at the Italian club Napoli, where he frequently failed to pay income tax.

After fleeing Buenos Aires on Monday following Argentina’s four defeats in five matches of 2010 World Cup qualifier, Maradona, 48, is currently staying at a spa in the town of Merano in north-eastern Italy, where he is trying to lose weight.

Italian authorities had seized two of his Rolex watches worth 11,000 pounds in 2006, when he was staying near Naples.

In 2005, they seized the money he was to receive for taking part in a TV dancing show.

Four years earlier, he was met by 20 police officers as he got off a plane in Rome.

Italy’s Supreme Court ordered the ex-footballer to pay 36 million euros in unpaid taxes.

According to the association of Italian taxpayers, Maradona still has 22.4 million euros to pay.

Recently, Brazilian legend Pele took a blow at Maradona, saying he feels another Argentine-born player, Alfredo di Stefano, is the best player ever.

“Maradona was a great player, but he could not kick with his right foot and did not score goals with his head.

The only time he scored an important goal with his head, it turned out he had used his hand,” Pele said referring to Maradona’s ‘Hand of God’ goal against England in 1986 World Cup. (ANI)

New evidence points towards water on Moon

London, September 19 (ANI): Two separate lunar missions have found evidence which indicates that the polar regions of the moon are chock full of water-altered minerals.

According to a report in Nature News, early results from NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), launched on June 18, are offering a wide array of watery signals.

The Moon, in fact, has water in all sorts of places: not just locked up in minerals, but scattered throughout the broken-up surface, and, potentially, in blocks or sheets of ice at depth.

“We are on the verge of a renaissance in our thinking about the poles of the Moon, including how water ice gets there,” said Anthony Colaprete, principal investigator for the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS), which on October 9, will slam into a polar crater with the intention of ploughing up a plume of water ice for many telescopic eyes to see.

The initial LRO results confirm what was long suspected as a way for ice to stay trapped on the Moon for billions of years.

A thermal mapping instrument showed that permanently shadowed regions within deep polar craters are as cold as 35o Kelvin (-238o Celsius).

Project scientist Richard Vondrak said that they are the coldest spots in the Solar System – even colder than the surface of Pluto.

Variations in the flux of neutrons suggests variability in water content among craters.

But, the surprise comes from a different instrument on LRO, which counts slow-moving neutrons as a way of measuring hydrogen abundance in the top metre or so of the surface.

This hydrogen is often interpreted as a proxy for water ice, although it could also be molecular hydrogen or hydrogen trapped in other molecules.

The LRO instrument has already found a significant excess of hydrogen at the poles.

But, with added resolution, it is seeing surprising variability within the polar regions. Some of the craters appear enriched in hydrogen. Others are not.

Stranger still, some areas outside the crater walls, which were thought to get too hot for water to linger, show an excess of hydrogen.

Vondrak said this shows that the water could have arrived more recently, or that it can persist if buried as impacts till the lunar soil.

If the LCROSS impact spews up ice, it will eliminate the last vestiges of doubt about water on the Moon.

It could also start a new hunt: to find a record of impact events, such as water-rich comet strikes, that put the ice there in the first place. (ANI)

World’s longest running soap comes to an end

London, September 19 (ANI): The world’s longest running soap opera ‘Guiding Light’, spanning seven-decades and 15,700 episodes, has come to an end.

The American TV programme, which started as a 15-minute daily drama on NBC radio in 1937 before moving to television in 1952, was screened for the last time after a decline in the ratings in recent years.

CBS Senior Vice President Barbara Bloom said the show, that bagged dozens of awards including an Emmy, had set new heights with its treatment of social issues such as cancer, alcoholism and teenage pregnancy.

“No show in daytime or prime time, or anytime, has touched so many millions of viewers across so many years as Guiding Light,” The BBC quoted Barbara as saying.

The show is reportedly set to be replaced by a new edition of game show ‘Let’s Make a Deal’. (ANI)

SC extends stay on Kanshi Ram memorial construction

New Delhi, Sep. 18 (ANI): Expressing dissatisfaction over the Mayawati Government’s plea, the Supreme Court on Friday extended the stay order on its earlier ruling for stoppage of work at Kanshi Ram Memorial Sthal in Lucknow.

“The affidavit is not satisfactory. The question here has many, many burning issues,” it observed during a brief hearing in the case,” a Bench comprising Justices B N Agrawal and Aftab Alam noted.t said the question was whether one could spend so much of money from the state or public exchequer for the purpose.

“Suppose today the legislature decides that 80 per cent of budgetary allocation should be spent on such works of memorials and statues…is it not justiciable,” the Bench asked.

“Serious questions arise in this petition…the cabinet and the legislature have to act under the Constitution,” the Bench added.

The next hearing in the case is on October 5th, and the parties are asked to file their responses to the affidavit by September 29th.

In a detailed affidavit filed in response to the show cause notice issued on September 11, the state government had claimed it had the highest regard for the apex court and that it believed in carrying out its directions in “letter and spirit.”

On September 8, the apex court had ruled that no further construction activities should take place at the memorials which have cost the exchequer 2,600 crore rupees.

However, media reports said construction activities were going on in full swing despite the court’s directive, following which the bench had issued a show cause notice. (ANI)

Lindsay Lohan’s seating arrangement tantrum

New York, Sep 18 (ANI): “Mean Girls” star Lindsay Lohan threw a diva tantrum at the Hammerstein Ballroom, after she decided she did not like the seating arrangements.

Lohan, 23, who is currently unemployed, began removing the seating cards or throwing them on the floor at the G-Star runway show on September 15.

“Lindsay decided she wasn’t happy with the seating arrangements,” the New York Post quoted a source as saying.

“She began taking the seating cards for celebrities like Juliette Lewis and Christian Siriano and moving them or throwing them on the floor,” the source said.

When event producers approached her for throwing Taylor Momsen’s place card to the floor, she told them to stay away.

“She said, ‘don’t [bleep]ing touch me,’ and rolled her eyes and continued moving the place cards,” the source added. (ANI)

Halle Berry ends pregnancy rumours with sexy look on TV

Washington, Sep 18 (ANI): Putting all speculations about her pregnancy to rest, Halle Berry appeared with a sexy look on TV in America on Thursday.

The ‘Monster’s Ball’ star arrived on The Jay Leno Show wearing a revealing black mini-dress and thigh-length boots.

And the 43-year-old actress was hoping that the outfit would be enough to end speculation she’s expecting a second child.

Talking to host Leno, Berry said that the pregnancy talk is beginning to give her a “complex”.

“I was like, ‘I gotta stop with the burgers, or something,’” Contactmusic quoted her as saying. (ANI)

Durga puja celebrations on a modest scale in Siliguri

Siliguri, Sept 18 (ANI): The festival of Durga Puja is just round the corner. However, this time around, the festival may not be full of pomp and show as compared with previous years in Siliguri.

The festival is known for massive makeshift tents or pandals which are put up by various festival organising committees.

Organising committees vie for making the best and unique pandals worth hundreds of thousands of rupees.

However, global economic slowdown has dampened the pandals-making spirit. Organisers have now to make do with less.

“This year, we have been hit by global recession. We generally depend on advertisements for our revenue, but this time no company has advertised with us. So, we have no other alternatives, but to cut down our budget,” said Sourav Nath, Secretary, Central Colony Puja Committee.

The recession has also pinched decorators as they are getting fewer orders for embellishing pandals.

“Puja committees have trimmed their budgets. This has affected us severely,” said Gopal Sarkar, General-Secretary, North Bengal Decorators Association.

Durga Puja is the biggest festival in Bengal.

The festival is also known as Dussehra and Navaratri in other parts of the country. (ANI)

Natural hydrogel may boost spinal cord healing

Washington, Sep 18 (ANI): A jab of biomaterial gel into a spinal cord injury site may significantly improve healing, according to researchers at the Barrow Neurological Institute at St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center.

Dr. Mark Preul and Dr. Alyssa Panitch have found in a study that injection of an engineered hydrogel made up mainly of hyaluronic acid (a naturally-occurring body substance) into the spinal cord injury site decreases scarring, and promotes a realignment of the spinal cord fibres around the injury site.

The hyaluronic acid, which forms a scaffold-like configuration may help to structurally stabilize the spinal cord injury site.

The researchers traced cells in the brain stem after injury, and found much higher levels in the hydrogel treated animals as compared to animals that did not receive the treatment, and approached nearly normal levels.

Treated animals had higher functional scores than their non-treated counterparts.

“Spinal cord injury is devastating to civilian and military populations – especially to the young. There has been little progress toward paradigms of regeneration and few results that show real, sustained functional recovery. We’ve been so pre-occupied with regeneration, but that is a highly complicated and difficult to define goal. This project is a synergy of neurosurgeons and bioengineers that attempts repair of the SCI lesion cavity using a tissue-engineering biomaterials approach,” says Preul.

He added that the team aimed at finding ways to structurally allow the body to better heal itself.

“In this project we did not add anything to the hyaluronic acid. It may be that adding growth factors or cells into the gel matrix may allow even better results,” he said.

Preul said that the results show “we may be on a practical path that can give hope to the many people who suffer this sort of injury.”

The work was presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Association of Neurological Surgeons in San Diego where it won the Synthes Prize for Spine Research. (ANI)

Susan Sarandon’s daughter Eva Amurri strips for TV show

Melbourne, Sep 18 (ANI): It seems budding actress Eva Amurri is following in her mother Susan Sarandon’s footsteps, for she is playing the role of a student who turns to stripping in the latest series of US hit show ‘Californication’.

Sarandon was known for doing similar roles more than 20 years ago- in ‘The Hunger’ in 1983, she dropped her clothes for a controversial lesbian love scene with Catherine Deneuve and has never shied away from nudity in films.

And now Eva, 24- born from Sarandon’s relationship with an Italian director during the Eighties- is kick-starting her own acting career in a racy guest appearance on the show.

She stars as Jackie, a student who moonlights in a strip club, during the third season of the show starring David Duchovmy, reports the Daily Telegraph.

The show sees her writhing around Duchovmy’s college professor character Hank Moody, peeling off a corset to dance for him topless.

And later, she is shown at his place taking their relationship to the next level. (ANI)

Rashtriya Janata Dal celebrates good show in by-polls in Bihar

Patna, Sep 18 (ANI): Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) celebrated its good show in state by-election on Thursday.

The RJD-Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) won eight seats in the by-election for 18 legislative assembly seats, a major setback to ruling Janata Dal-United (JD-U).

JD (U) bagged three seats while its ally Bharatiya Janata Party won two seats.

RJD activists gathered at the party office and burst crackers and distributed sweets to celebrate the win.

Rabri Devi, leader of opposition in Bihar legislative assembly, termed the results as referendum against the ruling government.

“Bihar government led by Nitish Kumar is fooling the public. The people of Bihar have understood it and that’s why they have rejected the ruling party. I congratulate the people of Bihar. I am sure that people will keep on voting for Rashtriya Janata Dal alliance,” said Devi.

RJD failed poorly in Lok Sabha election in April-May this year, winning just four seats out of the total 40 in Bihar. (ANI)

Spitzer’s call girl Ashley Dupre walks runway at NY Fashion Week

Melbourne, September 17 (ANI): Ashley Dupre, the former high-class call girl at the centre of the Eliot Spitzer prostitution scandal, walked the runway during New York Fashion Week.

The 24-year-old made the appearance at Bahar Shahpar’s fashion show, according to Jill Fehrenbacher at Ecouterre.

“It’s a rare rare thing when the tabloid world crosses into the world of eco-fashion, and one that might bring a little more attention to Bahar’s already-provocative line than would normally have been the case,” the Courier Mail quoted Fehrenbacher as saying.

Dupre was dubbed as an ‘informant’ during the scandal that saw the politician patronising a prostitution service that subsequently led to his resignation from the post of New York Governor.

Eighteen months after the storm, Dupre has been recording pop songs and wooing a record deal. (ANI)

Extremely tough to win a Grand Slams now, says Murray

London, Sep.17 (ANI): World Number three Andy Murray is of the view that winning a Grand Slam title in the present day and age is far more tougher than it was before, given the kind of talent on show in the tennis circuit.

He said that when players are competing against the likes of Roger Federer, Raphael Nadal and now Juan Martin Del Potro, winning a title was not easy.

“It’s really, really tough to win the slams now so Del Potro’s effort was pretty good. There’s no question that Roger (Federer) and Rafa (Nadal) are two of the best ever. Roger’s people say he’s the best of all time; that’s not really up for debate. And Rafa, providing he stays healthy, I’d expect to get to double figures on slam wins,” The Telegraph quoted Murray, as saying.

“That’s better than any two rivals have managed together and then behind them the standard is very high. There are guys like (Andy) Roddick who’s only managed to win one slam right at the start of that career and he’s a great player,” he added.

Murray, who exited from the US Open in the fourth-round, also said that he wanted to take his mind off his disappointment and move on.

For the moment, he is only concerned about defeating a couple of Polish journeymen to provide Britain with the platform for a victory which would ensure they do not get demoted to the Davis Cup’s third tier for the first time in 13 years. (ANI)

Robbie Williams moving Down Under?

London, Sep 16 (ANI): It seems that Robbie Williams is shifting bag and baggage to Australia, all thanks to his ladylove Ayda Field.

The singer has revealed that he is searching for a farm or beachfront retreat Down Under because of his girlfriend.

Robbie divulged the details in an interview on Australia’s biggest breakfast radio show on station 2DayFM, which is being guest-hosted by Dannii Minogue.

The ‘Feel’ singer-who is making a storming comeback with new single ‘Bodies’, out on October 12-even quizzed the Aussie beauty about dealing with jetlag.

“Ayda told me she had kind of a psychic feeling she’d end up in Australia,” The Sun quoted Rob as saying.

“I’m thinking of coming down there. I have been looking for places out in the outback, maybe a farm,” he added.

Robbie has recently moved back to Blighty, and the dodgy climate is already forcing him into Aussie estate agencies. (ANI)

Glowing light show in American sky was actually astronaut pee

Melbourne, Sep 16 (ANI): The trail of light that sparkled through the American sky on Wednesday night was not a unique celestial show, but was actually astronaut piss.

While skygazers marvelled at the beauty of the glowing trail, astronauts aboard the space shuttle Discovery were merely dumping water and urine out into space in preparation for a landing attempt on Thursday.

Although the astronauts had to postpone their landing due to poor weather, but the Discovery safely landed in California on Friday, reports the Courier Mail.

NASA spokeswoman Kylie Clem said that the light show was due to an unusually large amount of water (about 150 pounds) being dumped all at once.

Discovery had just undocked from the International Space Station the day before, and had not been able to unload wastewater during the 10-day visit. (ANI)

Lady GaGa nips out in racy see-through lace catsuit at NY fashion week

London, September 16 (ANI): Lady GaGa continued her shock tactics as she stepped out in a bizarre see-through red lace catsuit teamed up with eye mask and eccentric spiky hair piece at the New York fashion week.

The singer’s modesty was said to be hardly covered by a barely there red G-string and an almost-strategically placed ruffle on her costume.

Meanwhile, the 23-year-old recently gave a blood-covered performance and faked her own death at the MTV Video Music Awards, during which she changed her outfit five times, reports the Daily Mail.

However, the ‘Poker Face’ hitmaker’s appearance was said to be a little toned down at the Marc Jacobs Spring Summer 2010 fashion show after party, where she bumped into fellow ‘shocker’ Madonna.

Madonna admitted she was “very flattered” by comparisons to the newcomer.

The Queen of Pop complimented the star, saying: “She looks like she’s going to a carnival in Venice, very beautiful.” (ANI)

Early man used crude version of ‘sat nav’ system to navigate across England

London, September 15 (ANI): In a new research, a scientist has found that prehistoric man navigated his way across England using a crude version of a satellite navigation system, which was based on stone circle markers.

According to a report in the Telegraph, the research, by historian and writer Tom Brooks, shows that Britain’s Stone Age ancestors were “‘sophisticated engineers” and far from a barbaric race.

Brooks studied all known prehistoric sites as part of his research.

He found that the prehistoric man was able to travel between settlements in England with pinpoint accuracy, thanks to a complex network of hilltop monuments.

These covered much of southern England and Wales and included now famous landmarks such as Stonehenge and The Mount.

New research suggests that they were built on a connecting grid of isosceles triangles that ‘point’ to the next site.

Many are 100 miles or more away, but GPS co-ordinates show all are accurate to within 100 metres.

This provided a simple way for ancient Britons to navigate successfully from point A to B without the need for maps.

“To create these triangles with such accuracy would have required a complex understanding of geometry,” said Brooks.

“The sides of some of the triangles are over 100 miles across on each side and yet the distances are accurate to within 100 metres. You cannot do that by chance,” he added.

“So advanced, sophisticated and accurate is the geometrical surveying now discovered, that we must review fundamentally the perception of our Stone Age forebears as primitive, or conclude that they received some form of external guidance,” he further added.

Brooks analyzed 1,500 sites stretching from Norfolk to north Wales. These included standing stones, hilltop forts, stone circles and hill camps.

Each was built within eyeshot of the next.

Using GPS co-ordinates, he plotted a course between the monuments and noted their positions to each other.

He found that they all lie on a vast geometric grid made up of isosceles ‘triangles’. Each triangle has two sides of the same length and ‘point’ to the next settlement.

Thus, anyone standing on the site of Stonehenge in Wiltshire could have navigated their way to Lanyon Quoit in Cornwall without a map.

According to Brooks, many of the Stone Age sites were created 5,000 years ago by an expanding population recovering from the trauma of the Ice Age.

“The triangle navigation system may have been used for trading routes among the expanding population and also been used by workers to create social paths back to their families while they were working on these new sites,” he said. (ANI)

Lady Gaga says no to judging ‘American Idol’

Washington, Sep 14 (ANI): Lady Gaga has said that she does not want to be a judge on TV show ‘American Idol’, because it is difficult for her to criticise someone else’s talent.

The ‘Poker Face’ singer denied that she would be a judge on the show.

“I did appear on the show but I am not going to be a judge. I generally feel uncomfortable judging other artists anyway. I don’t feel that a musician’s life is a contest,” Contactmusic quoted her as saying.

The singer also slammed shows that push new artists straight into the limelight, claiming they should spend time nurturing their talent.

“It’s more about growing and struggling and playing live. It would be very uncomfortable for me to judge someone else,” she said.

Already, celebrities of the likes of Victoria Beckham, Shania Twain and Mary J Blige have appeared as guest judges on the talent show after Paula Abdul decided not to return for the new season.

Meanwhile, it was recently announced that US talk show host Ellen DeGeneres has replaced Paula on the judging panel, alongside Simon Cowell, Randy Jackson and Kara DioGuardi. (ANI)

Debt-ridden Duchess of York Fergie in line to join Loose Women

London, September 13 (ANI): Debt-ridden Duchess of York Sarah, 49, may soon bag a presenter’s job on the hit lunchtime chat show ‘Loose Women’.

After her guest appearance on the programme earlier this month, Sarah is now desperate to have a permanent seat at the table anongside motormouths like Carol McGiffin and Denise Welch.

Fergie, as she is popularly known, is even said to have begged ITV1 bosses for the job.

“Sarah loved it so much that afterwards she asked to be a panellist,” the News of the World quoted part-time anchor Andrea McLean, 39, as saying.

“We would all jump at the chance. She would be absolutely ideal. We’d love to have her,” McLean added.

Sued by three firms over nearly 25,000 pounds in unpaid bills, Sarah can make up to 50,000 pounds a year if she gets a regular spot on the show.

An ITV1 insider said: “Fergie has a lot of interesting things to say and would be great for Loose Women.” (ANI)