Amitabh Bachchan Turns 70!

Seldom are there people who are able to transcend the realm of the mortal and carve a niche for themselves as superhuman during their very lifetime. Seldom are there people whose very name evokes a feeling of deep admiration and unfathomable respect in the mind of the listener. Seldom are there people who are unparalleled in every aspect of their life. Seldom is there a man whose deep voice can wake a country of 1.2 billion from their stupor. Only once can there be Amitabh Bachchan.
As an actor, Bachchan is a monument of sorts. He is a living reminder of the perfection that the Hindi film industry has been able to reach till date, and more often than not, he has been referred to as a ‘one-man industry’. Boasting of a mammoth persona on the silver screen, the megastar is by far the most influential actor in the history of Indian cinema. His very name is enough to turn an entire project into a success, as has been proven by the Polio Campaign of the Indian Government.

Since the time Amitabh Bachchan was first seen on screen in ‘Saat Hindustani’, to this day when the industry swears by him, is a trajectory that hasn’t exactly been all rosy for the actor. The veteran has seen as many troughs as crests in his four decades long liaison with the Hindi film industry. While Amitabh Bachchan has been seen straddling across the entire length and breadth of the world of films in India, he has also seen himself sinking – at times, into oblivion – in the same territory.
 The few years long period wherein Amitabh churned out no blockbusters, was accompanied by depression and acute pessimism. The actor is known to have mouthed the words “This film will be a flop!” before the release of every single film during that time.

Century Fox Post: Aishwarya Rai Bachchan is now UN Ambassador

However, like they say, if there are the seeds of a revolution in somebody, they cannot stay away from the gaze for long. In 2000, when Yash Chopra’s ‘Mohabbatein’ hit the silver screens, Amitabh Bachchan left people speechless with his role. The phoenix had risen, and how! The success of several films rode solely on the shoulders of Amitabh Bachchan at that point of time, and anybody would hardly deny that. 

His contemporaneous TV stint, ‘Kaun Banega Crorepati’, established the actor as a face that became an integral part of every drawing room. People jumped up in joy when Amitabh Bachchan lauded the contestants, and had tears in their eyes when he declared someone’s exit from the game. The baritone of the legend left people weak in their knees, and just the hope of seeing the man, in person, left many sitting by their telephone sets for months and years.

The actor is a name which is uttered with awe, respect, admiration – and these are feelings which are expressible: the many others will always remain inarticulate. In the history of Indian cinema, no other actor has been able to command as much space and as deep an influence as Amitabh Bachchan has been able to. His role in Indian films is perhaps like that of Ulysses in the Trojan War. When, eons later, one delves into the past of Indian cinema, one name that would perhaps appear brighter than most others, would be that of Amitabh Bachchan. Hardly are there people whose name becomes synonymous with an entire film industry.

The task of writing anything about a man called Amitabh Bachchan is a task that one should probably not take up. No matter what one writes, no matter how much one is able to circumscribe within the boundaries of the pages of their books and thesis, one would just not be able to come anywhere near doing justice to the living legend that Amitabh Bachchan is. 

And at 70, the superstar has grown just another year younger.

EXPLORE: Celebrity     Aamir Khan       Kareena Kapoor     Vidya Balan      Salman Khan       Priyanka Chopra      Aishwarya Rai Bachchan         Akshay Kumar

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US Soldiers killed In Afghanistan Helmand Attack

LASHKAR GHAR, Afghanistan (Reuters) - An Afghan police commander and several of his men killed three U.S. soldiers in the southern province of Helmand, turning guns on them after inviting them to a dinner to discuss security, Afghan officials said on Friday.

The men were all American special forces members and were killed on Thursday night while attending a meeting in the Sarwan Qala area, in what appeared to be a planned attack by rogue Afghan forces.

"During dinner, the police commander and his colleagues shot them and then fled. The commander was Afghan National Police in charge of local police in Sangin," a senior Afghan official told Reuters on condition of anonymity. Sangin is a district.

"It looks like he had drawn up a plan to kill them previously," the official said.

A spokeswoman for NATO-led forces in the country confirmed the incident but said it was too early to say whether it was a rogue shooting or due to insurgent infiltration.

"All we know is that they were killed by an Afghan in a uniform of some sort," the spokeswoman said.

So-called green on blue shootings, in which Afghan police or soldiers turn their guns on their Western colleagues, have seriously eroded trust between the allies as NATO combat soldiers prepare to hand over to Afghan forces by 2014, after which most foreign forces will leave the country.

According to NATO, there have been 24 such attacks on foreign troops since January in which 28 people have been killed, not including Thursday's attack. Last year, there were 21 attacks in which 35 people were killed.

Another foreign soldier was killed in the south on Friday during an insurgent attack, NATO said, while seven civilians were killed and three were wounded by an insurgent roadside bomb, also in Helmand.

In a grim 24 hours for the NATO-led force, three U.S. soldiers and an American aid worker were killed earlier on Thursday in the eastern province of Kunar in an attack by a suicide bomber.

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This Week In Civil War

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This Week in The Civil War, for week of Sunday, Aug. 12: Fighting in Missouri, arming the armies.

Fighting in the wide-ranging Civil War erupted in the heartland on Aug. 11, 1862, when Confederate forces attacked Independence, Missouri. The Confederate fighters surprised and scattered a force of Union troops garrisoned at Independence. But ultimately, the Union forces that hadn't been killed or immediately captured were forced to surrender. It marked a morale-boosting victory for the secessionist government based in Richmond, Va. 

The fighting continued days later when a Confederate force of about 3,000 men attacked more Union pickets it encountered in the state on Aug. 15, 1862. Charges and countercharges ensued as the fighting raged for hours in what was also considered a Confederate victory. However, the Confederate force was obliged to withdraw from the area when a larger Union force began advancing toward its position. More fighting would follow in the weeks and months ahead in the states clustered around the Mississippi River and other inland waterways deemed vital to transport and trade.

 Also this month 150 year ago in the war, the armies were still feverishly arming and supplying their troops with all manner of goods and materiel for what is shaping up as a drawn-out fight. The War Department, in an order published in Northern newspapers, called for rush bids from leather workers to be received no later than 5 p.m. on Aug. 26, 1862, for thousands of much-needed sets of harnesses, saddles and other cavalry equipment to be rushed to several armories around federal territory.

 "Bidders will state explicitly in their proposals the time, quantity and place of each delivery," the order stated, adding the bidders should send proposals to the War Department in Washington, D.C., clearly labeled as "Proposals, for Horse Equipments."

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This Week in The Civil War, for week of Sunday, Aug. 19: Confederates on the move.

This week 150 years ago in the war, Confederate fighters are on the move, set to open an offensive in Kentucky that would trigger fighting in the border state in late August 1862. The state is seen as crucial territory to both sides. Confederate Gen. E. Kirby Smith puts his troops on the road on Aug. 14, 1862, and within days that tramping army is moving well into Kentucky. All told, his roughly 6,000 men present a formidable fighting force. The troops advancing on the road to Richmond, Ky., would not engage Union rivals in combat until Aug. 29, 1862, in the first of their clashes in the region.

 Meanwhile, every sign suggests this war will be protracted, deadly and grim. Now the once popular move of signing up to fight is wearing thin in some cities and mandatory calls for duty are being resisted by some. The Associated Press reports a large number of people claiming "protection of the British flag" thronged the British consul's office in St. Louis one summer day seeking to exempt themselves from government-ordered militia duty. 

"Several affrays and struggles occurred between the disturbers and police," AP reported, adding critics complained of those who sought to "sneak from duty by enrolling themselves as subjects of Great Britain." AP notes that several arrests were made. Elsewhere, reports note that a Union army that waged an enormous but ultimately failed offensive to seize Richmond, Va., capital of the Confederacy, has fully withdrawn by Aug. 16 from Tidewater areas to the east. The report said several hundred of the last troops had completed the withdrawal on ships and boats in recent days and "all is quiet."

 The failure of the Union to capture Richmond and end the war quickly has quashed morale in the North while notably boosting spirits in the South.

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This Week in The Civil War, for week of Sunday, Aug. 26: Second Battle of Bull Run or Manassas, Va.

Confederate Maj. Gen. Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson orders his forces to attack the Union army on the Warrenton Turnpike in Northern Virginia on Aug. 28, 1862, opening the Second Battle of Bull Run, or Manassas. Furious fighting rages for hours at the Brawner Farm, not far from the site of the First Battle of Manassas or Bull Run. Union Maj. Gen. John Pope is certain he has trapped Jackson and sends a large federal force to attack Confederates on the farm, set on a ridge. 

The opening day of battle reaches a thundering crescendo in a 90-minute firefight between rival infantry lines set about 80 yards apart. Sunset brings a pause as the first day's fighting abates. Then, on Aug. 29, 1862, Pope initiates a series of assaults against Jackson's lines along an unfinished railroad route. Heavy casualties arise as the attacks are rebuffed on the second day of fighting. On the third day, Aug. 30, Pope renews his attacks, apparently unaware that the Confederates have been heavily reinforced. Confederate artillery shreds yet another Union assault and a large fighting force of Confederates totaling 28,000 fiercely counterattack.

 The Confederate onslaught smashes one of the Union flanks and the federal army is driven back. Pope's army, despite an effective rearguard action, is forced to retreat to Centreville as Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee scores a decisive victory. In July 1861, the rival armies battled for the first time in the countryside overlooking Bull Run and a Union defeat made clear the war would be long and bloody.

 Now the Confederate triumph at Second Bull Run shows Lee at the height of his powers. And when the battle is over, casualties on the Union side approach 14,000 while the Confederates report more than 8,000 killed, missing or wounded.

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This Week in The Civil War, for week of Sunday, Sept. 2: Robert E. Lee on the move.

Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee, victorious at the Second Battle of Bull Run, or Manassas, Va., begins to send his Army of Northern Virginia northward toward Maryland in the first week of September 1862. His bold plan: to strike a heavy blow directly at the North even as the federal government is reeling from defeat at Bull Run and the failed attempt earlier in 1862 by the Union to capture Richmond, Va., seat of the Confederacy.

 The Confederate forces number about 70,000 overall but are ragtag, often hungry and in ill-fitting uniforms. Moving from Leesburg, Va., they are intent on entering Maryland in the shadow of its western mountains. On Sept. 5, 1862, the first advance forces splash across the Potomac River into Maryland. Just ahead is one of the most fearsome appointments of the war: Antietam. 

The battle of Antietam in Maryland, in mid-September, will constitute the bloodiest single day of combat on American soil. Lee's intent is to bring the war to the North with his incursion into Union-held Maryland, a slave-holding border state pocked by divided sympathies. The rebel incursion prompts a massive federal force to respond to the threat. A Sept. 8, 1862, newspaper dispatch reports from Rockville, Md. – outside Washington – that "To-day matters here are assuming a more warlike appearance."

 It reported that Union Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan himself had been seen backed by a daunting force of cavalry, artillery and infantry moving into Maryland "in great numbers, and they are still coming." The report added: "McClellan's presence leads many to suppose he is to assume offensive action." On Sept. 17, 1862, the two opposing armies will clash ferociously at Antietam at a cost of more than 23,000 dead, wounded or missing – one of the great battles of the war

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Faster, Higher And Stronger: Day of Golden Drama In Olympics

From left, Ashton Eaton of the United States, the United States women's soccer team and Usain Bolt.

LONDON — The world’s fastest man and the world’s greatest half-miler ran past the finish line and into the history books. Wembley, the iconic stadium, bulged with 80,203 fans for women’s soccer as the United States found redemption against Japan. Ireland won its first gold medal in 16 years as women’s boxing crowned its inaugural Olympic champions. And a friendly debate ensued about exactly who was the world’s greatest athlete.

Every day at the London Games has offered riveting moments, but perhaps no single day was more crowded with drama and record achievement than Thursday.

With just three more days of competition remaining, the Summer Games might have reached their peak — in the form of Usain Bolt of Jamaica holding his finger to his lips to silence anyone who had doubted his ability to become the first sprinter to win the 100 and 200 meters in consecutive Olympics. He had just crossed the finish line to win the 200 meters in 19.32 seconds.

Appearing relaxed and confident, Bolt chatted with volunteers and gave a royal wave before the race, then did five push-ups afterward, suggesting that he had so much speed and endurance in his 6-foot-5 frame that he may never be caught.

“It’s what I came here to do,” Bolt said, possessing the familiar boldness of being the world’s best sprinter. “I’m now a legend. I’m also the greatest athlete to live. I’ve got nothing left to prove. I’ve showed the world I’m the best.”

Ashton Eaton of the United States later won the decathlon, which comes with the mythic title of world’s greatest athlete. Asked whether Eaton or Bolt deserved that designation, Trey Hardee of the United States, who finished second to Eaton, said, “Ashton is the best athlete to ever walk the planet, hands down.”

Hardee added, “Just because you’re fast doesn’t make you an athlete.”

Eaton, the world-record holder, demurred. “There’s no fight,” he said. “Usain is clearly awesome. He’s an icon in his own right. Titles are for books.”

Bolt later graciously reconsidered in Eaton’s favor, saying, “I’m a great athlete, but to do 10 events, especially the 1,500” — the metric mile — “I’ve got to give it to him.”

In truth, the greatest performance before 80,000 at Olympic Stadium on a cool, windless evening came from David Rudisha of Kenya. He set the first world record in this track competition with elegant and ravenous strides that carried him around two laps to win the 800 meters in 1 minute 40.91 seconds.

It was a particularly good day for Ireland. Katie Taylor won the country’s first gold medal since 1996 in taking first place in the lightweight division of women’s boxing. And an Irish priest, Brother Colm O’Connell, planned to watch on television in Iten, Kenya, as the runner he coaches, Rudisha, broke his own world record in an epic 800-meter race in which seven of the eight competitors ran their lifetime bests.

“Rudisha’s run will go down in history as one of the greatest Olympic victories,” said Sebastian Coe, a two-time Olympic champion at 1,500 meters and the chief organizer of the Games.

At Wembley Stadium, the United States women’s soccer team won its fourth Olympic title with a team that has captured the public imagination with its ceaseless determination. Two goals by midfielder Carli Lloyd and the goalkeeping of Hope Solo gave the Americans an emancipating 2-1 win over Japan. The victory came a year after a shattering defeat to Japan in penalty kicks at the final of the Women’s World Cup.

Throughout the warm, beautiful day in London, thousands watched the day’s competition on big-screen television at the Olympic park. They are showing up in droves at the park and in the arenas and stadiums; the smooth-running Games appear to have enchanted the public after seven years of planning and two weeks of sports.

Perhaps nothing they saw Thursday surpassed the grit or inspiration of Manteo Mitchell of the United States, who broke his left fibula but kept running in a preliminary round of the 4x400-meter relay.

Mitchell led off the race for the Americans, but after 200 meters, he said, he felt — and even heard — the small bone in his lower left leg break.

“I wanted to just lie down,” Mitchell, 25, who had slipped on a stairway in the Olympic Village earlier this week, said in a statement issued by USA Track & Field. “It felt like somebody literally just snapped my leg in half.”

If he had stopped, the United States would have been ineligible for Friday’s final in an event it has dominated. So Mitchell persevered. He and his three teammates tied for the fastest time of the day in 2 minutes 58.87 seconds.

“I didn’t want to let those three guys down, or the team down, so I just ran on it,” Mitchell said. “It hurt so bad.”

Having campaigned for the inclusion of women’s boxing in the Games, Taylor sustained Ireland’s rich pugilistic tradition by winning Olympic gold. She hugged her coach and father, Peter Taylor, and charged around the ring carrying an Irish flag.

Not since 1996 had Ireland won a gold medal. Michelle Smith won three in swimming at those Games, but competed under widespread public suspicion of doping. Two years later, she was barred from competition for tampering with a urine sample by spiking it with alcohol.

But that was long forgotten on Thursday as Taylor, a four-time world champion, finally realized her Olympic dream. She was celebrated for her “pioneering spirit and boxing brilliance” in a statement by Enda Kenny, Ireland’s prime minister, who added, “She has won the hearts and minds of the Irish people who admire her greatly and love her to bits.”

A large crowd had gathered to watch on big-screen televisions in Taylor’s hometown, Bray, south of Dublin. After the fight, many people wandered the streets celebrating. Emmet Murphy, 17, walked along the promenade beside the Irish Sea, shouting the name Katie again and again.

“I was so worried,” Murphy said of the close fight. “I was worried for Katie, I was worried for myself; I was worried for all of Ireland. The only one calm was Katie.”

Two South African runners who have exposed inequities in how sports officials sometimes deal with the full panoply of elite athletes appeared on the track Thursday. Oscar Pistorius, the first double-amputee runner in the Games, did not get to carry to carry the baton in the 4x400 relay after one of his teammates collided with a Kenyan runner. South Africa appealed, claiming the collision had unfairly impeded its chances, and Pistorius’s relay team was reinstated for Friday’s final.

Caster Semenya had to undergo sex-verification tests in 2009 after she won the women’s world championship at 800 mts. But she won the right to compete again, and on Thursday, Semenya ran the fastest time in the semifinals (1:57.67), a season best that made her a gold medal favorite on Saturday.

“I think the time I ran makes me very confident,” Semenya said.

No one, though, seemed as assured as Bolt. Yes, he was in the same rarefied category of greatness as Michael Jordan and Muhammad Ali, Bolt said, but he would rather others say it than himself.

“I just know I’m a legend,” he said.

And then: “Bask in my glory.”

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Trial in China Murder Leaves Shadows!

 

Eugene Hoshiko/Associated Press

Police officers stood guard outside the Hefei Intermediate People’s Court on Thursday.

“The criminal facts are clear; the evidence is solid,” a court official said after the trial here in the provincial capital of Anhui Province, more than 800 miles from the scene of the crime in Chongqing. The formal guilty verdict will be announced at a later date.HEFEI, China — Worried that a longtime friend and business associate might harm her only child, Gu Kailai lured him to a rented villa in southwest China, plied him with alcohol until he could take no more and then, when he began to vomit and requested a drink of water, poured a poisonous concoction into his mouth.That, at least, is the prosecution’s version of what happened in a scandal that has riveted many in China and outside the country for months, presented in a neatly packaged capstone after a murder trial on Thursday that lasted, with a break for lunch, less than seven hours. Ms. Gu, the wife of the ousted party leader Bo Xilai , was said to have confessed to the murder of the British businessman, Neil Heywood. Her state-appointed defense lawyers asked for leniency.

Communist Party leaders clearly hoped the proceedings, which were closed to the foreign news media and shown on television only in carefully packaged snippets, would provide the Chinese public with a captivating spectacle, that would distract attention from the political scandal surrounding Ms. Gu’s husband, a populist leader who left a trail of corruption and abuse of power that deeply unnerved many of his fellow Politburo members. But if they hoped the trial would also showcase a more transparent, by-the-books legal system, they are likely to be disappointed.

Ms. Gu and her accomplice, Zhang Xiaojun, were deprived of their own legal counsel and forced to accept a government-appointed lawyer. No defense witnesses were produced during the trial. The defendants’ lawyers never had a chance to review the prosecution’s evidence.

In a bitter twist of fate, Ms. Gu, herself a lawyer, once expressed an unshakable faith in her nation’s legal system. In a book she wrote after visiting the United States in 1998 and successfully representing a Chinese company in a civil trial, she ridiculed the American justice system as doddering and inept. “They can level charges against dogs and a court can even convict a husband of raping his wife,” she wrote.

By contrast, China’s system was straightforward and judicious. “We don’t play with words and we adhere to the principle of ‘based on facts,’ ” she wrote. “You will be arrested, sentenced and executed as long as we determine that you killed someone.”

In fact, many legal analysts say, her trial will reinforce the widely held notion that despite three decades of legal reform, the Communist Party keeps an iron grip on many judicial proceedings and dictates a denouement that serves its political needs.

“This is not a trial that is likely to enhance China’s reputation for soft power,” said Jerome A. Cohen, an expert in Chinese law at New York University. “It’s not likely to improve foreign respect for China’s rule of law and human rights.”

To be sure, legal analysts and rights advocates say China has come a long way since the Maoist years, when justice was meted out according to the whims of Communist Party officials often unfamiliar with the niceties of criminal law. Since the 1980s, China has built hundreds of courthouses, opened dozens of law schools and produced legislation that, on paper, intricately describes the rights of defendants and sets out limits on the police.

Stéphanie Balme, an expert on China’s justice system at the Institut d’Études Politiques de Paris, said that ordinary Chinese had benefited enormously from such reforms. “For small civil disputes and ordinary justice, especially in regional cities, daily justice is much better,” she said. “But when it comes to criminal justice, especially big trials and ones that are political, there has been absolutely no fundamental change.”

With a conviction rate of 98 percent, Chinese prosecutors almost never lose. Indeed, Ms. Gu’s prosecution showcased the system’s ruthless efficiency. Weeks before the trial began, the official Xinhua news service telegraphed that the outcome had already been decided by announcing that the evidence was “irrefutable and substantial.”

Many legal analysts said the details that emerged on Thursday were undoubtedly decided weeks ago by senior leaders, who are eager to close the chapter on a scandal that has strained relations between Britain and China, and roiled the once-a-decade leadership transition scheduled for the fall.

“This trial is the outcome of a political struggle,” said Pu Zhiqiang, a defense lawyer, referring to powerful enemies of Mr. Bo, a brash up-and-comer who alienated many party luminaries. “Any trial to which the central party pays this much attention had no chance of being fair.”

The terse statement issued by the court on Thursday evening appeared to omit what those inside the courtroom said were far more detailed revelations about the crime.

According to several accounts, prosecutors said that Ms. Gu herself procured the poison, a commercially available product for exterminating animals, and that the dispute with Mr. Heywood centered on his efforts to strong-arm her son into paying approximately £13 million that he said he was owed to him after a joint business venture went bust. At one point, Mr. Heywood briefly detained the son, Bo Guagua, inside his home in England, and then sent a threatening e-mail to Ms. Gu demanding the money, a courtroom witnesses said. The e-mail, which was displayed in the courtroom, threatened to “destroy” him.

Prosecutors also said that Wang Lijun, a trusted aide of Mr. Bo’s, met with Ms. Gu a day after the murder and secretly recorded a conversation in which she discussed the crime. The courtroom accounts said that Mr. Wang had taken a blood sample from Mr. Heywood’s heart as potential evidence, although it tested negative for poison. Mr. Wang, fearing for his life, later sought refuge in the United States Consulate in Chengdu, where he reportedly revealed details of the murder to American officials.

Legal analysts said that the mitigating circumstances presented by the court — that Ms. Gu feared for the safety of her son — lessened the likelihood that she would face the death penalty but did not rule it out.

The court official here in Hefei, Tang Yigan, portrayed Ms. Gu as emotionally frail. He quoted her lawyers as saying that Ms. Gu’s “ability to control her own behavior was weaker than a normal person.” But Mr. Tang made a point of describing Ms. Gu as “healthy and emotionally stable” during the trial. The lawyers, he added, said that they hoped for leniency given that she had assisted the authorities with details about other people’s crimes.

Until now, coverage of the case had been drastically limited inside China, but on Thursday evening, CCTV reported on the trial with video from inside the courtroom. The three-minute segment showed Ms. Gu, smiling and wearing a black blazer over a white dress shirt, as she was led into the chambers. She appeared to have gained considerable weight, and a relative expressed shock, saying her face had changed dramatically since they had last met.

The camera lingered on two British consular officials in the courtroom. The British Foreign Office, other than saying it attended the trial to “fulfill our consular responsibilities to the Heywood family,” declined to comment on the case.

The CCTV newscaster added one significant new detail: that four police officials in Chongqing had been charged with helping Ms. Gu in a cover-up. Those officials will be tried on Friday.

By focusing exclusively on the murder, said Cheng Li, an expert on Chinese politics at the Brookings Institution, party leaders were able to avoid revealing details about the financial dealings of Ms. Gu and Mr. Bo, who has been held incommunicado for months but still enjoys support among certain factions of the leadership and ordinary Chinese.

The couple’s son did not return from the United States for the trial. He declined to discuss the case, but in a statement Wednesday confirmed that he had submitted witness testimony on behalf of his mother.

Li Xiaolin, a lawyer who was hired by Mr. Zhang’s family, was denied access to him. But he was allowed to attend the trial and said the state-appointed lawyers mounted a more vigorous defense than he had expected. Still, there were glaring holes in the prosecution’s case.

“I found the evidence presented in court was incomplete,” he said in an interview afterward. “Lots of pieces were missing.”

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5 Ways To Beat Bloat

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Feeling puffy? Bloating caused by gas, irregularity, or water retention can make even a tiny tummy become anything but. Here’s how to nix the problem.

1. Increase potassium
The more salt you consume on a given day, the more potassium-rich foods—asparagus, citrus fruits, melon, tomatoes—you should eat, says Tammy Lakatos Shames, RD, the author of The Secret to Skinny.

2. Get off the couch
"In many people, exercise stimulates the bowels, ending constipation," says Dr. Jacqueline Wolf,  associate professor of medicine at Harvard University and author of A Woman’s Guide to a Healthy Stomach.

3. Down 8 glasses of liquids each day
Fluids help flush waste out of your system and reduce water retention. Coffee can have the added bonus of contracting the colon, helping you to go.

4. Sip peppermint tea
It alleviates gas by relaxing the digestive tract and boosting normal peristalsis, says Dr. Wolf. Research suggests that enteric-coated peppermint-oil capsules also help with stomach pain.

5. Stop it before it starts
Before a little-snug-dress event, take a cue from red-carpet vets: Cut out excess salt and drink two to three liters of water a day, says Carrie Wiatt, nutritionist to Fergie and Sela Ward.

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How to End the Chaos in Syria?

Syrian rebel fighters in Aleppo on Monday.

The Assad regime continues to lose crucial support, most recently with the defection of the Prime minister and other prominent Sunnis. Meanwhile, opposition factions inside the country continue to jockey for power, many of them financed by foreign entities, that have their own agendas.

And earlier this week Iran framed the unrest as part of a wider struggle fueled by the United States.

Some are already calling the conflict a civil war. What can be done to end the fighting, or at least contain it?

Like Iraq, Syria is a country divided by religion and ethnicity, held together by a brutal regime that is drawn from a minority element of the population, which has, in turn, profited at the expense of the majority. As in Iraq, the minority will not cede power easily, while at least some elements of the majority will see the demise of the regime as payback time.

And like Iraq, Syria also has a large Kurdish population, which will seek to take advantage of the regime's fall to gain greater autonomy for its people and region. Should a three-way civil war follow post-Assad regime, it would drag in Turkey (against the Kurds), Iraqi Kurdistan (for the Kurds), Iran (for the Alawites), Saudi Arabia and other Arab states (for the Sunni majority), and various Lebanese factions (on all sides).

American ability to encourage a peaceful transition in Syria will likely be in direct proportion to the help the U.S. provides the opposition.

To avoid such a region-wide free-for-all, the United States needs to work to unify the opposition, marginalize Al Qaeda and other extremist elements, stimulate defections from the regime — particularly from its Alawite core – and encourage inclusion of representatives from the Alawite community within the new opposition leadership.

American influence and ability to advance such goals will tend to be in direct proportion to the help the United States provides the opposition. Well-meant advice and promises of postwar aid will mean much less in forging a relationship with the eventual rulers of Syria than decisive assistance now. As I testified last week to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, the new Syrian leadership will be formed in the crucible of war, and in all likelihood will prove resistant to the admixture of elements that did not participate in the fight, or to influence from governments that did not support them in it.

It would be a great mistake to allow that leadership to conclude that Al Qaeda had done more to help them prevail than had the United States. Washington needs to do more now than provide advice and nonlethal assistance, if the United States is to be in a strong position to head off a larger sectarian conflict once the current campaign to oust Assad succeeds.

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Want to Live In The Moment? Impossible! Say Researchers

Ommmmmmm …

No matter how hard you try to stay focused on the present, your mind keeps racing. One moment, you’re thinking about what you’re going to make for dinner. The next, you’re fretting about the meeting you had this morning with your boss.

Yoga and meditation instructors often call this jumble of ceaseless thoughts the “monkey mind,” a phenomenon they believe may be remedied by staying in the moment. But now, scientists say they’ve identified the area of the brain responsible for such mental distractions. And they suggest the monkey mind can’t be helped.

Dr. Sommer’s research, conducted with neuroscientist Paul Middlebrooks and published in the journal Neuron, zeroed in on neurons in the frontal cortical areas of the brain, particularly the supplementary eye field (SEF).“For a healthy person, it’s impossible to live in the moment. It’s a nice thing to say in terms of seizing the day and enjoying life, but our inner lives and experiences are much richer than that,” neuroscientist Marc Sommer of Duke University, who conducted the research while at the University of Pittsburgh, said in a press release.

“If we think we’re going to receive something good, neuronal activity tends to be high in SEF. People want good things in life, and to keep getting those good things, they have to compare what’s going on now versus the decisions made in the past,” Dr. Sommer said.

All that brain activity, mulling past and future events, may not be a bad thing, he suggests. “You need that continuity of thought. We are constantly keeping decisions in mind as we move through life, thinking about other things.”

But just because it’s difficult to live in the moment doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try. There’s plenty of research that suggests mindfulness meditation, which focuses on the here and now, offers a multitude of health benefits.

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Romney Campaign: "Team Obama Has Hit A New Low"

According to Mitt Romney’s campaign manager, Matt Rhoades, “this week, the Obama campaign hit a new low.” In an email to supporters, Mr. Rhoades said the Obama campaign hit bottom with an ad run by the pro-Obama super PAC Priorities USA Action that featured Joe Soptic, a steelworker whose wife died without health insurance after he was laid off from a company owned by Bain Capital. Multiple members of President Barack Obama’s campaign staff subsequently claimed not to have any knowledge of Mr. Soptic’s story in spite of the fact he previously was featured in a campaign commercial and conference call.

“This week, the Obama campaign hit a new low. Obama allies released a desperate and dishonest ad that tried to falsely link Mitt to a family tragedy. As if the disgusting and disgraceful ad wasn’t enough, President Obama’s top campaign advisers repeatedly lied, claiming they had no knowledge about the content of the ad,” Mr. Rhoades wrote.

Mr. Rhoades went on to describe the ad as an attempt to distract voters from the president’s “failed economic record.”

“We’re not going to whine about this ad, because politics is a rough sport. But I wanted you to know about this discredited, dishonest, despicable attack by President Obama’s allies designed to divert attention from his failed economic record,” he wrote. “What happened to the campaign of hope and change? After months of lies, distortions, and distractions, the Obama and liberal reelection machine needs to be held accountable for their words and actions.”

Of course, no campaign email would be complete without a request for cash. Mr. Rhoades finished up his message by asking for donations to “help ensure Barack Obama, his liberal allies, and their reelection machine are defeated.”

The Obama campaign admitted they were aware of Mr. Soptic’s situation yesterday, though campaign spokeswoman Jen Psaki stressed they had “nothing to do with the ad.”

Read Mr. Rhoades’ full email below:

“This week, the Obama campaign hit a new low. Obama allies released a desperate and dishonest ad that tried to falsely link Mitt to a family tragedy.

As if the disgusting and disgraceful ad wasn’t enough, President Obama’s top campaign advisers repeatedly lied, claiming they had no knowledge about the content of the ad.

But in May, President Obama’s Deputy Campaign Manager Stephanie Cutter hosted a conference call that featured the same person and distortions from the disgraceful ad. The Obama campaign also featured the same person and similar stories in one of their own discredited campaign ads back in May.

As Reid J. Epstein of Politico wrote, “When President Obama’s aides said they weren’t familiar with former Missouri steelworker Joe Soptic’s life story, all they had to do was check their own campaign archives.”

We’re not going to whine about this ad, because politics is a rough sport. But I wanted you to know about this discredited, dishonest, despicable attack by President Obama’s allies designed to divert attention from his failed economic record.

What happened to the campaign of hope and change? After months of lies, distortions, and distractions, the Obama and liberal reelection machine needs to be held accountable for their words and actions.

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Aurora Cinema Massacre: James Holmes 'Mentally ill'

James Holmes

The man accused of last month's Colorado cinema massacre is mentally ill, defence lawyers have said.

The man accused of last month's Colorado cinema massacre is mentally ill, defence lawyers have said.Continue reading the main story

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The statement came during a court hearing on a motion by US media to weaken a gag order on the case against James Holmes.

His lawyers argued that they need more time and information from prosecutors to fully assess Mr Holmes' condition.

The 24-year-old former PhD student was present at the hearing and looked dazed, as in previous appearances.

"We cannot begin to assess the nature and the depth of Mr Holmes' mental illness until we receive full disclosure," defence lawyer Daniel King said.

He added that the prosecution has police reports, but not any photographs, recordings or expert testimony.

Prosecutors argued that police were still interviewing witnesses and finishing their reports.

"There is a large queue of information to be typed up," prosecutor Rich Orman said.

Twelve people died and 58 were wounded in the 20 July attack at a midnight screening of the new Batman film near Denver.

'Watchdog role'

More than 20 news groups have asked Judge William Sylvester to unseal documents related to the case.

Both prosecutors and defence lawyers are resisting the release.

Under the gag order, the University of Colorado Denver, where the accused was in the process of dropping out of a neuroscience PhD at the time of the shooting, is not allowed to release information about him.

The case file itself is also sealed.

Prosecutors have said it could jeopardise their investigation if information is made public, while Mr Holmes' lawyers have said it could risk his right to a fair trial.

Officials in Aurora have cited the order as a reason for declining to speak about the city's response to the shootings.

But members of the media say that court documents, which include search warrants, lists of evidence and police interviews with witnesses, can be important sources of public information.

"It is performing our watchdog role to look at the process and try to assess for the public how the police have handled the case and assembled the evidence and assure for the defendant and the public that things are being conducted open and fairly," Gregory Moore, editor of the Denver Post, told the Associated Press.

"It goes way beyond what's necessary to protect the defendant's right to a fair trial."

Judge Sylvester said during the hearing that he would consider the media request and issue a written ruling later, but gave no timeline for a decision.

Eviction

Few details are currently known about how the accused allegedly planned the shooting, or the explosives that, according to the authorities, he set to booby-trap his apartment.

On Thursday, Mr Holmes was formally evicted from his apartment, the Denver Post reported, as his landlord said that booby-trapping the apartment, as well as murder, violated his lease.

Despite the gag order, some details about the accused have emerged in the US media.

It was reported this week that the suspect's university psychiatrist, Dr Lynne Fenton, told campus police weeks before the attack that she was concerned about his behaviour.

It has also been reported that the accused posted a package to the psychiatrist, containing a notebook with descriptions of an attack. The parcel was found in the university's mail room three days after the massacre.

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Assam riots: Four more bodies found, toll 77

GUWAHATI: Four more bodies were recovered today in lower Assam, which witnessed fresh incidents of violence, taking the toll to 77, police said. 

"Two bodies, that of a male and a female from the minority community, were recovered from Kokrajhar district, and one each from Baksa and Chirang districts," Assam IGP (law and order) L R Bishnoi said. 

He said of the two bodies found from Kokrajhar, one was fished out from Champa river and another was recovered from Gossaigaon area. 

"There were certain fresh incidents of violence but the police has taken timely action to prevent escalation," Bishnoi said. 

The rival Bodo and Minority communities had planned attacks but intelligence inputs had helped in prempting the violence. They had planned arson in several interior villages but were thwarted by security forces, the IGP claimed. 

Curfew is on in all four strife-torn districts of Kokrajhar, Chirang, Baksa and Dhubri, he said. 

AICC general secretary Digvijay Singh is currently touring affected areas of Kokrajhar today. 

The state government has directed the district administration to take stern action to ensure that there is no further outbreak of violence. 

Fresh clashes between Bodos and minority immigrants had erupted on August 5 in the lower Assam districts after a relative calm of 10 days. 

A CBI team is scheduled to arrive here tomorrow following chief minister Tarun Gogoi's recommendation for a probe by the central agency, officials said. 

A five-member team of Group of Ministers, constituted by the chief minister, visited refugee camps in Dhubri reviewed relief measures and directed the district administration to ensure health and hygiene.

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Teaser home loans can be freely pre-paid during floating rate phase

           

Borrowers who availed of dual rate home loans, which were hugely popular between 2009 and 2011, will be allowed to pre-pay loans during the floating rate phase without a penalty. The national housing bank has revised its earlier decision where it had said that dual rate loans would be classified as fixed rate loans if at the time of signing the contract the loan was subject to a fixed rate.

Since a big chunk of home loans that were availed during 2009-2011 were dual rate, a big chunk of borrowers will benefit as these loans are now switching to floating rate. These borrowers who raised loans at interest rates ranging from 8% to 8.5% found their interest burden jumping to over 11.5% as the rates switched to floating. This was because interest rates had moved up sharply between 2010 and 2011 when Reserve bank of India raised its key rates 13 times.

Although NHB and RBI have asked lenders to waive penalties on refinancing of floating rate loans the one exception was floating rate loans which were earlier fixed as they were part of a dual rate contract wiith housing finance companies. NHB in October 2011 had said that in the case of dual rate loans, lenders should consider the loan as fixed if the loan had a fixed loan nature at the time of the contract. 

As a result of this HFCs were requiring borrowers to pay a foreclosure penalty of 2% on dual rate loans even when they were repaid after the switchover to floating rates. ""Feedback was received by NHB about the features of the dual/special rate products offered by the HFCs and their relative interest rate structures. 

It has been observed that there is wide variation/ non-uniformity in the features of the product offered to the customers by the HDFC. The lack of uniformity has been observed across the industry as also by the same lending instutitons at diferent times, including the relative periods of fixed v/s floating rates in the dual rate loans. It is also observed that this wide variation in the product features reflects lack of uniformity and transparency, not considered healthy for the system"" NHB said in a circular issued on Tuesday.

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'Fifty Shades of Grey' breaks Potter records

                    

LONDON: 'Fifty Shades of Grey' has become UK's largest selling book outselling 'The Da Vinci code' and Harry Potter novels after its publisher claimed to have sold 5.3 million print and digital copies. 

Only four months after its publication in book form experts say 'Fifty Shades of Grey' is outselling Dan Brown's 'The Da Vinci Code' and JK Rowling's Harry Potter books, the Daily Mail reported.

EL James's erotic novel, released as an e-book last June and in book form in April, has sold 5.3 million print and digital copies. The other books in the trilogy, 'Fifty Shades Darker' and 'Fifty Shades Freed', have sold 3.6 million and 3.2 million copies.

"My main ambition when I signed the deal with Random House was to see my books in the shops. I simply had no idea they would be so successful. The process has been so rewarding," E L James said.

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