Is Indian Prime Minister 'Manmohan Singh' A 'Tragic Figure'

New Delhi: Not many days after Timemagazine called him an underachiever, another widely respected publication has been critical of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and the UPA, saying his image is one of a "dithering, ineffectual bureaucrat presiding over a deeply corrupt government".
 
This time it is American daily The Washington Post that has critiqued Dr Singh's performance as India's Prime Minister and served a less than flattering report card. The New Delhi-datelined article titled, "India's 'silent' prime minister becomes a tragic figure," credits Dr Singh with once being the major force behind the growing closeness between the US and says his friendship with the Obama administration is "a valued and publicised achievement". 
 
But, it quotes critics to say that the PM - who it describes as "a shy, soft-spoken 79-year-old" - is in danger of going down in history as a "failure". "He has become a tragic figure in our history," the Post quotes historian Ramchandra Guha, also the author of "India after Gandhi", as saying. Mr Guha is quoted as describing Dr Singh as "fatally handicapped by his timidity, complacency and intellectual dishonesty". 
 
Last month, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who has long been lauded for his pivotal role in liberalising the Indian economy, was dubbed as an "underachiever" by Time magazine in its Asia edition. In an article titled 'A Man in Shadow', the magazine said he appears "unwilling to stick his neck out" on reforms that will put the country back on growth path. The opposition BJP had latched on to that story, saying that Time had reiterated what it had been saying all along. The Congress had to put its best ministers and spokespersons up to defend the PM at that time.
 
UK daily the Independent too had carried a critique of the Prime Minister calling him, as Time magazine suggested, 'the underachiever'.
 
And in June this year, global rating agency Standard and Poor's was critical of the Prime Minister as well. Its report said, "Moreover, paramount political power rests with the leader of the Congress, Sonia Gandhi, who holds no Cabinet position, while the government is led by an unelected Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who lacks a political base of his own."
 
The Prime Minister has for some time now been facing severe criticism for allowing the economy to slide by not taking politically tough reform decisions. Many allegations of corruption and scams in the government have not helped his cause either. The latest is the coal allocation issue; the national auditor or CAG has alleged that private firms were shown undue favours, allowing them windfall gains of Rs. 1.86 lakh crore.  Two Congress MPs, one of them a minister in the Union cabinet, are already facing public and political indictment and one of them has been booked by the CBI. 

More:  MANMOHAN SINGH ASKS PRESIDENT FOR HELP IN COALGATE SCAM
The opposition BJP has not allowed Parliament to function at all in the current Monsoon session, demanding the PM's resignation, since he was the coal minister at the time the national auditor alleges the scam happened.

EXPLORE:  World News        India          Coalgate Scams          Indian President      

                2G Scam          Chidambaram

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Where Obama Went Wrong?

Barack Obama goes into this week’s Democratic National Convention neck and neck with Mitt Romney in the race for the U.S. presidency, a competition that appears likely to be settled based on which candidate voters decide is the least worst. The euphoria that developed around Obama in the 2008 election is long gone; it may be surprising that he’s even still in the race at all, albeit against a rival about whom Republicans are similarly unenthused.

Here’s an assessment of Obama’s position and what went wrong with his first four years:

1. He grossly oversold himself. No one could have delivered on the expectations that Obama’s campaign saddled him with by the time of the 2008 vote. Perhaps he needn’t shoulder all the blame – if voters insist on treating you like a messiah, are you supposed to talk them out of it? Even the Nobel committee was caught up in it, awarding him a peace prize just for existing. But he actively fed the beast, pledging a degree of change that was simply unachievable, particularly his vow to change the way Washington does business. Nothing short of an invasion of Huns could separate Washington away from its armies of lobbyists, special interests, financiers, ego-gratifiers and union/corporate enablers. And you can’t change Congress unless it wants to change, which it doesn’t. He was either foolish in thinking he could, or irresponsible in promising it anyway.

Report: GOOD OBAMA, BAD OBAMA

2. He landed splat in the midst of the worst economic disaster since 1929. Even if his campaign promises had been more reasonable, he wasn’t going to get a chance to act on them while the economy was collapsing around him. The auto industry, Wall Street, the housing collapse – it was an enormous mess and anyone who suggests in retrospect there was some obvious solution is kidding himself. Even though the collapse was a decade in the making, voters gave him less than two years to fix it before impatiently filling Congress with Tea party members dedicated to ensuring failure through obstruction.

More: THE DARK SIDE OF OBAMA WHITE HOUSE

3. He made some big mistakes. Whether or not it was a good idea to pour stimulus money into the economy is debatable, but Obama erred big-time in letting Democrats in Congress waste much of it on vanity projects and partisan crusades. He similarly let slip an opportunity in the early days of his administration to engage Republicans in a badly needed overhaul of the tax system, and delegated too much power to congressional Democrats in crafting his health-care plan, turning it into a partisan slugfest that alienated Republicans when he badly needed them.  In the end the bill was passed without Republican support, leaving many Americans to feel it was a flawed plan being imposed on them to burnish the president’s legacy.

Report: 'HOW ROMNEY TURNED THE TABLES ON OBAMA IN RECENT POLL"

4. Once elected he quit campaigning. The fiery speeches, the soaring rhetoric, the eloquent appeals for hope and change disappeared, as did Obama for surprising stretches. Author Jodi Kantor reports in The Obamas that the president dislikes the phoney backslapping and faked camaraderie of Washington, the schmoozing and ego- gratification sessions, and spends much time alone with his thoughts, working out plans in his office within the White House residence. Members of Congress only hear from him when he wants something, and he spends his private time with a small group of non-political friends. That’s not the way to get things done in a political system that divides power between president and Congress, and awards Congress – and many indovduals within it – enormous powers to frustrate, disrupt and obstruct.

More: 'LESS JOBS' IS A MAJOR CONCERN FOR OBAMA'S ELECTION CAMPAIGN

5. After running as a consensus-builder, he seemed to default to the left once he came under pressure. He dismissed the Keystone pipeline project even though the benefits to the U.S. were obvious, as a sop to the upset environmental lobby. He changed position on same-sex marriage without having adequately prepared the ground. (It didn’t help that his vice-president prematurely blurted out the plan out on a Sunday TV show, forcing a week of desperate spinning by an unprepared White House).  The Democratic convention schedule may please Democrats hot on unions, abortion rights, carbon taxes and Hollywood (Mary J. Blige! Will.I.Am!), but it likely won’t reassure those who suspected Obama was always more of an ivory tower liberal  than he let on, his sympathies more with the groups that like to spend the money than with those who struggle to produce it.

EXPLORE: World News        Romney         Ann Romney          Paul Ryan          Obama  

 Obama's Remarks          White House            Medicare            U.S          Religion    CBO          Voters Undecided          Clint Eastwood   

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Yosemite Hantavirus Warning Extends Worldwide

U.S. officials have warned travelers from 39 other countries, most in the European Union, that those who stayed in certain Yosemite National Park tent cabins earlier this summer may have been exposed to a rare but deadly mouse-borne hantavirus, a park service epidemiologist told Reuters Tuesday.

U.S. health officials have sent warnings to 39 other countries that their citizens who stayed in Yosemite National Park tent cabins this summer may have been exposed to a deadly mouse-borne hantavirus, a park service epidemiologist said on Tuesday.

Of the 10,000 people thought to be at risk of contracting hantavirus pulmonary syndrome from their stays in Yosemite between June and August, some 2,500 live outside the United States, Dr. David Wong told Reuters in an interview.

Wong said U.S. Department of Health and Human Services officials notified 39 countries over the weekend, most of them in the European Union, that their residents may have been exposed to the deadly virus.

The lung disease has so far killed two men and sickened four other people, all U.S. citizens, prompting the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to issue a health alert.

Officials are concerned that more Yosemite visitors could develop the lung disease in the next month or so. Most of the victims identified so far were believed to have been infected while staying in one of 91 "Signature" tent-style cabins in the park's popular Curry Village camping area.

There is no cure for the disease, but early detection through blood tests greatly increases survival rates.

"I want people to know about this so they take it seriously," Wong said. "We're doing our due diligence to share the information."

Last week, park officials shut down the insulated "Signature" tent cabins after finding deer mice, which carry the disease and can burrow through holes the size of pencil erasers, infesting the double walls.

Officials are continuing to investigate additional possible cases of the disease, which has killed 64 Californians and about 590 Americans since it was identified in 1993, Wong said.

Early symptoms include headache, fever, muscle aches, shortness of breath and coughing. The virus may incubate for up to six weeks after exposure and can lead to severe breathing difficulties and death.

Experts say hantavirus, which kills 36 percent of those it infects, has never been known to be transmitted between humans.

Four of those known to be infected at Yosemite this summer slept in the insulated tent cabins. One slept elsewhere in Curry Village, located in a valley beneath the iconic Half Dome rock formation, and the sixth case remains under investigation.

One man from northern California and another from Pennsylvania died, while three victims have recovered and a fourth remains hospitalized, the state Department of Public Health said.

Nearly 4 million people visit Yosemite each year, attracted to the park's dramatic scenery and hiking trails. Roughly 70 percent of those visitors congregate in Yosemite Valley, where Curry Village is located.

Hantavirus is carried in viral particles inhaled from rodent feces and urine. People also can be infected by eating contaminated food, touching contaminated surfaces or being bitten by infected rodents.

Hantavirus previously infected two Yosemite visitors, one in 2000 and another in 2010, but at higher elevations.U.S. officials have warned travelers from 39 other countries, most in the European Union, that those who stayed in certain Yosemite National Park tent cabins earlier this summer may have been exposed to a rare but deadly mouse-borne hantavirus, a park service epidemiologisttold ReutersTuesday.

Of the 10,000 people the federal Centers for Disease Control estimate could be at risk of contracting hantavirus pulmonary syndrome from their stays in Yosemite between June 10 and August 24, some 2,500 live outside the USA, said Dr. David Wong.

Six cases of the rodent-borne disease have been linked to Yosemite, and two men, from northern California and Pennsylvania, have died. Park officials traced five of the cases to 91 "signature tent cabins" in Curry Village, one of Yosemite's most popular campgrounds. They said a design flaw allowed mice to nest between the double walls of the insulated cabins. Another approximately 400 canvas-walled tent cabins in Curry Village remain open.

Britain's Health Protection Agency said in a statement Monday that officials were "providing health advice and information ... about the ongoing situation in the U.S." to about 100 people believed to have traveled to the national park between June 10 and Aug. 24.

Yosemite officials have sent emails and letters to 3,100 people who reserved any of the 91 signature tent cabins during that timeframe, urging them or anyone in their party to seek immediate medical attention if they start to show the initial flu-like symptoms of the disease, Associated Press reports.

Through 2011, the CDC had identified a total of 587 cases in 34 states. Of those cases, 556 occurred in or after 1993, when an outbreak in the "Four Corners" area of the Southwest killed at least 26 people. About three-quarters of the victims live in rural areas, and 36% of reported cases have resulted in death.

Spread through urine, droppings or saliva of infected rodents, primarily deer mice, hantavirus takes between one and six weeks before causing symptoms in humans, officials say. The disease is generally transmitted when people come in contact with an enclosed area that has been infested by mice, and most infections are caused by breathing small particles of mouse urine or droppings that have been stirred up into the air.

If the virus is contracted, says Yosemite's website, symptoms include fever, headache, and muscle ache, and the disease progresses rapidly to severe difficulty in breathing and, in some cases, death.

News of the outbreak has rattled recent visitors, notes the Los Angeles Times. Rangers have fielded thousands of calls from concerned travelers, the park is answering questions on its Facebook page and a spokeswoman with the park's lodging concessionaire Delaware North told the Times the company had a 20 percent cancellation rate for a usually sold-out Labor Day weekend.

Nearly 4 million people visit Yosemite each year, and about 70 percent of those congregate in Yosemite Valley, where Curry Village is located.

EXPLORE:   Lifestyle          Health          West Nile Virus          Prevention

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Nasa's Voyager 'Dancing On The Edge' Of Outer Space

NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft was launched in 1977  

Nasa's Voyager 1, launched in 1977, is nearing the edge of the solar system and may already be "dancing on the edge" of outer space, the scientists behind the project said on Tuesday.

In a lecture marking the approaching 35th anniversary of the Voyager project, Ed Stone said it could be "days, months or years" before it finally breaks into interstellar space.

Earlier this year a surge in a key indicator fuelled hopes that the craft was nearing the so-called heliopause, which marks the boundary between our solar system and outer space.

Report: NEW MARS MISSION PLANNED FOR 2016

Scientists were intrigued in May by an increase in cosmic rays hitting the spacecraft, which for decades has snapped images of the Earth and other planets in the solar system as it has made its long journey into outer space.

But measurements since then have fluctuated up and down, indicating that, while the craft is near to the edge, it may still not get there for some time.

"The question is, how much further is it to the heliopause?" Stone asked rhetorically at the lecture at the headquarters of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California.

"We don't know. whether we're dancing along the edge of a new region which is connected to the outside," added Stone, a Voyager project scientist from the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.

Noting that Voyager 1 moves a billion miles every three years, he said: "It's hard to imagine that it's going to be too much longer, but I can't tell you if it's days, months or years. I really can't tell you."

But he underlined how important a milestone it will be.

"Crossing into interstellar space – that will be a historic moment when the first object launched from Earth finally leaves the bubble," he said.

Report:  SCIENTISTS UNVEIL PLAN TO PROTECT EARTH FROM ROGUE SPACE ROCKS

Before May's surge in cosmic rays researchers had said they expected Voyager 1 would leave the solar system and enter interstellar space – between the end of the Sun's influence and the next star system – within two years.

Nasa has described Voyager 1 – now 11 billion miles away from the Sun – and its companion Voyager 2 as "the two most distant active representatives of humanity and its desire to explore."

The scientists controlling Voyager 1 – whose 1970s technology means it has only a 100,000th of the computer memory of an 8 gigabyte iPod Nano – decided to turn off its cameras after it passed Neptune in 1989, to preserve power.

Assuming the craft continues to function normally, they will have to start turning off other on-board instruments from 2020, and it is expected to run out of power completely in 2025, said Stone.

EXPLORE:  World News         NASA        Curiosity     Mars        Sun         Scientists         23 Feet     Supernova      Mount Sharp        Blue Moon

 

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Danielle O'Hara Poses Nude After Implant Removal

At the height of her glamour modelling career five years ago, Danielle O'Hara was no stranger to posing topless.

But after undergoing emergency surgery to have her implants removed earlier this year, the mother-of-two has lost confidence in her body.

Now coming to terms with the scarring and her deflated cleavage, the Liverpudlian model, 28, has decided to pose naked as she has begun to embrace her changed body.

Glamour girl: Former Page 3 girl Danielle O'Hara poses topless for the first time since her breast implants were removed in Closer magazine

Danielle was rushed to hospital earlier this year a few weeks after having her third boob job after her breasts started swelling.

Doctors found a life-threatening blood clot and were forced to remove her E implants, leaving her with an AA cup and scarring.

Despite finding fame as a glamour model, the WAG admitted she was nervous about peeling off due to her dramatically different figure.

More: Miranda Kerr's Nude Photos Surface Online

She told New You Magazine - a free supplement with this week's Closer: 'I’ve been feeling self-conscious about showing off my body, but it feels good to glam up and boost my confidence.'

Body beautiful: The mother-of-two is in good shape after giving birth to two boys and her health drama

She admitted it was 'devastating' being that ill following the emergency operation, which resulted in her losing lots of weight.

Now back to 9st, she said: 'I never want to be that fragile again. I’ve struggled being naked in front of Jamie, although he’s brilliant and says he loves my figure.

'The scarring bothers me, but I’m trying to get my head around it. I’m alive – that’s the most important thing.'

She explained: 'People have Tweeted awful things since my op, like I’ve got "flat tyres for boobs". It’s upsetting, but Jamie reminds me that all that matters is that we’re healthy and happy.'Danielle is a frequent Twitter user and admitted she had received some nasty criticism from some followers over her modest breasts.

Although she's been taking time out to fully recover and spend time with her two young sons Archie, two, and Harry, 13 months, Danielle is preparing to undergo re constructive surgery on her chest soon.

She explained: 'I’d like to have some scar revision or treatment in the future. My left breast is quite disfigured – it’s got a fold over where the nipple is so, although I’m dreading the trauma of another op, I’m definitely going to have some reconstructive surgery.'

EXPLORE:   Celebrity          Irina Shayk          Sofia Vergara        Natalie Portman     Marisa Miller         Lindsay Lohan        Rosie Huntington         Miranda Kerr     Sherlyn Chopra  

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Pentagon Criticizes Bin Laden Raid Book

• 
                           The book debuted at No. 1 on Amazon's best-seller list Tuesday.

Washington --

A former Navy SEAL's insider account of the raid that killed Osama bin Laden contains classified information, the Pentagon said Tuesday, and the admiral who heads the Naval Special Warfare Command said details in the book may provide enemies with dangerous insight into secretive U.S. operations.

Report:  PENTAGON MAY TAKE LEGAL ACTION AGAINST 'SEAL' AUTHOR

Rear Adm. Sean Pybus told his force Tuesday that "hawking details about a mission" and selling other information about SEAL training and operations puts the force and their families at risk.

"For an elite force that should be humble and disciplined for life, we are certainly not appearing to be so," Pybus wrote in a letter to the roughly 8,000 troops under his command. "We owe our chain of command much better than this."

At the Pentagon, press secretary George Little said that an official review of the book, "No Easy Day," determined that it reveals what he called "sensitive and classified" information. He was not more specific but said the author was required to submit the book to the Pentagon before publication for a formal review of potential disclosures of such information.

More:  EX NAVY SEAL DENIES SPILLING SECRETS

"When you have special operations units that perform these missions, there are tactics, techniques, and procedures, not to mention human life, that are in play," Little said. "And it is the height of irresponsibility not to have this kind of material checked for the possible disclosure of classified information."

Pybus, in his letter, was more direct, saying that, "We must immediately reconsider how we properly influence our people in and out of uniform NOT to seek inappropriate monetary, political, or celebrity profit from their service" with the SEALS.

Last week, Adm. William McRaven, head of U.S. Special Operations Command, warned his troops that he would take legal action against anyone found to have exposed sensitive information that could cause fellow forces harm.

A lawyer for author Matt Bissonnette, who wrote under the pseudonym Mark Owen, has disputed that he was legally obliged to have the book screened before publication.

Little would not say what damage may result from the book's revelations and he declined to point to any specific portions of the book that contain material that would be considered a violation and a release of classified information.

The book, which was published by Dutton, an imprint of Penguin Group (USA), was No. 1 on Amazon's best seller list Tuesday, which was its official release day.

   EXPLORE :   World News         ex-Navy SEAL Matt Bissonnette  

                                             No Easy day   

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The Truth About Obama And Israel

AS an Israeli-American I care deeply about the survival of Israel and the future of the Jewish people.

Even though he could have done a better job highlighting his friendship for Israel, there’s no denying that by every tangible measure, his support for Israel’s security and well-being has been rock solid.

Mitt Romney claims Mr. Obama has “thrown allies like Israel under the bus,” but in fact the president has taken concrete steps to make Israel more secure — a commitment he has described as “not negotiable.”

When he visited Israel as a candidate he saw firsthand how vulnerable Israeli villagers were to rocket attacks from Gaza. As president, he responded by providing full financing and technical assistance for Israel’s Iron Dome short-range anti-rocket defense system, which is now protecting those villagers. In July, he provided an additional $70 million to extend the Iron Dome system across southern Israel. That’s in addition to the $3 billion in annual military assistance to Israel that the president requests and that Congress routinely approves, assistance for which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has expressed deep personal appreciation.

When the first President Bush had disagreements with Israel over its settlement policy, he threatened to withhold loan guarantees from Israel. Mr. Obama has had his own disagreements with Mr. Netanyahu over the settlers but has never taken such a step. To the contrary, he has increased aid to Israel and given it access to the most advanced military equipment, including the latest fighter aircraft.

Ask any senior Israeli official involved in national security, and he will tell you that the strategic relationship between the United States and Israel has never been stronger than under President Obama. “I can hardly remember a better period of American support and backing, and Israeli cooperation and similar strategic understanding of events around us,” the defense minister, Ehud Barak, said last year, “than what we have right now.”

Report: ISRAEL WANTS TO ATTACK IRAN BEFORE U.S. VOTE: ISRAELI REPORT

That cooperation has included close coordination by intelligence agencies — including the deployment of cyberweapons, as recent news reports have revealed — to thwart Iran’s nuclear ambitions.

Mr. Romney conveniently neglects to mention that Mr. Obama’s predecessor, George W. Bush, diverted American attention from Iran — the greatest threat to Israel’s existence — to Iraq, even helping to put a pro-Iranian leader in power in Baghdad. In contrast, through painstaking diplomacy, Mr. Obama persuaded Russia and China to support harsh sanctions on Iran, including an arms embargo and the cancellation of a Russian sale of advanced antiaircraft missiles that would have severely complicated any military strike against Iran’s nuclear facilities. Mr. Obama secured European support for what even Iran’s president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, called “the most severe and strictest sanctions ever imposed on a country.”

More: AHMADINEJAD SLAMMED BY US, UN FOR ISRAEL-BASHING

Mr. Romney has never explained how he would prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons; Mr. Obama not only has declared that all options are on the table, but he has also taken the option of merely “containing” a nuclear-armed Iran off the table. He has directed the military to prepare options for confronting Iran and has positioned forces in the Persian Gulf to demonstrate his resolve.

Israel necessarily has a thinner margin of security than the United States, given differences in size, geography and military capabilities. Iran’s leaders are not threatening to destroy the United States, but their threats to destroy Israel must be taken seriously. As Iran approaches the nuclear weapons threshold, Israel’s nervousness is understandable. But Mr. Obama has assured Mr. Netanyahu that he will “always have Israel’s back.” Americans who support Israel should take the president at his word.

Report: WHITE HOUSE TO PREVENT IRAN FROM ACQUIRING NUCLEAR WEAPONS

Finally, Mr. Obama has been steadfast against efforts to delegitimize Israel in international forums. He has blocked Palestinian attempts to bypass negotiations and achieve United Nations recognition as a member state, a move that would have opened the way to efforts by Israel’s foes to sanction and criminalize its policies. As a sign of its support, the Obama administration even vetoed a Security Council resolution on Israeli settlements, a resolution that mirrored the president’s position and that of every American administration since the 1967 Arab-Israeli war.

So what’s the case against Mr. Obama? That he hasn’t visited Israel since he was a candidate in 2008? Perhaps these critics have forgotten that George W. Bush, that great friend of Israel, didn’t visit Jerusalem until his seventh year in office.

Yes, Mr. Obama should have gone there, especially after his 2009 speech in Cairo, addressed to the Arab world. He should have showered Israelis with more love and affection. He could have done more to allay Israel’s worries that there might one day be an American president who would take a different approach to the Middle East in general, and Israel in particular; Mr. Obama should have made it clear he isn’t that president.

But as John Adams said, facts are stubborn things. The facts back up the president’s staunch support of Israel — facts that even $100 million from a casino magnate can’t refute. (Full disclosure: I have contributed to Democratic campaigns this political cycle, though not nearly to that extent.)

When I enter the voting booth, I’m going to ask myself, what do I prefer for Israel and its relationship with the United States: meaningful action or empty rhetoric? To me the answer is clear: I’ll take another four years of Mr. Obama’s steadfast support over Mr. Romney’s sweet nothings.

EXPLORE:  World News       Syria           Assad           Iran            Iraq            War       Syrian Sad Stories           Afghanistan             Israel            UN In Syria        

 Syrian Rebels          Lebanon  

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The Truth About 'Power Nap'

Stop pushing your brain and body to the limits. Extract peak performance out of your system by squeezing in a snappy shut-eye at work

If you can ever have a best friend that's always misunderstood and underestimated, napping is that.

 At work, it is treated with contempt, associated with laziness and the power of its 20-odd minutes to rejuvenate your brain and body is so underrated that the only feeling you wake up to is guilt. The workaholic-loving, forever-wired life cycle that the Internet era has brought upon us, however, can't change the fact that napping is not just ingrained into our biology but also linked to better productivity.

Sleep simplified

As they sleep for short periods through the day, more than 85 per cent of mammals are polyphasic sleepers. Monophasic-sleeping humans divide days into two periods — of sleep and wakefulness. But scientists have found the biphasic pattern to work best for humans — a long stretch of sleep at night and a shorter siesta during the day. These help encounter two intense sleep periods, between 2 am and 4 am; and between 1 pm to 3 pm. This is why napping, the abridged version of which is called power napping, is key to spruce up our mood, memory, reaction time and alertness.

How naps help

You may feel putting in extra hours at work instead of dozing increases productivity, but it doesn't. Napping reverses information overload, brightens up your memory retention and heightens the senses, says Dr Jaleel Parkar, chest physician at Lilavati hospital who also consults at the hospital's sleep clinic. "Naps reboot our system much like a few cups of coffee or a round of yoga. 

Our brain and body need time to recuperate from fatigue. Especially after lunch, when we feel the need to take a power nap, we must. A 20-minute nap lowers blood pressure and lessens heart load," he says. Little wonder then that countries with a siesta culture have a lower rate of heart disease. "I recommend having a big bowl of fruits after a light lunch to wake up fully energized," Parkar adds.

Dr Sandra, consultant respiratory physician at Andrews Hospital, says, "Napping improves concentration, relaxes your strained muscles and gives you relief from stress-induced neck-aches and backaches. However, too much napping can mask conditions such as sleep apnea." Besides, naps repeatedly used as substitutes for long, deep sleeps, will only result in stacking up your body's sleep deficit.

Productivity starts dipping the moment you feel the weight of your eyelids. Napping for 40 minutes, a NASA study found, increases alertness by 100 per cent and prepares you for the next 10 hours. However, when at work, if you nap for more than 45 minutes, you may suffer from 'sleep inertia' or grogginess.

As to why it improves mood, the answer lies in how the neurotransmitter serotonin regulates your mood, sleep and makes you feel content. Stress, on the contrary, drives our bodies to use higher levels of serotonin and also obstruct more of it from being produced. This explains the anxiety, irritability, depression and distraction the sleep-deprived suffer from.

Nap at work

While Indian organisations are yet to wake up to the benefits of napping, the West has been wise to this for some years. Nike workers use nap-friendly 'quiet rooms', while British Airways lets pilots sleep during long international flights as colleagues take over the cockpit. Tech giants are increasingly professing their love for napping. Google's Mountain View campuses have several 'energy pods' — sleek-looking white capsules in which nappers can recline out of others' sights.

In offices without such luxuries, the desk becomes your headrest. What works as effectively is the 'caffeine nap', where you chug some coffee and catch 20 minutes of shut-eye. This works because once the caffeine circulates through your body in about 20 minutes, it rids your body of adenosine, a sleepinducing chemical. The caffeine also revives you around the time you wake up. But if you must stay up through a night, ditch the coffee. Instead, pull off the 'prophylactic nap', where you take a preventive nap knowing you have to ride the small hours.

If you still seek inspiration, the list of nap-practitioners in history is exhaustive: Thomas Edison, Albert Einstein, Napoleon Bonaparte, John F Kennedy, Winston Churchill and Margaret Thatcher. So forty winks to that, then.

Ride the shut-eye

The nano-nap

Duration: 10-20 seconds.
This happens on your commute, when you nod off on your passenger's shoulder.

The micro-nap

Duration: Two to five minutes.
This shoots down sleepiness pretty efficiently

The mini-nap

Duration: Five to 18 minutes.
This increases alertness, stamina, motor performance and learning.

The original power napDuration: 20 minutes
This packs in the multiple benefits of the micro and the mini naps, but also enhances muscle memory and clears the brain of useless data buildup, which helps with long-term memory.

The lazy man's nap

Duration: 50 to 90 minutes
This includes slow-wave plus Rapid Eye Movement sleep, and it improves perceptual processing. It also aids bone and muscle repair.

How to nap right

It's not hard to figure what time works best for your nap. If you are an early riser and early sleeper, nap at around 1 or 1.30 pm. If you hit the bed post midnight, your nap calls out to you around 3 pm. An hour before your nap, eat calcium and protein-rich foods as they promote sleep. At work, cut down your lunch time and use those 15 minutes to nap. The best way to fire up the benefits of a quick nap is to immediately break into a few stretches, pacing across the corridor or a quick bout of yoga that won't look awkward around colleagues.

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Colombian 'Cocaine Queen' Gunned Down

(Reuters) - Griselda Blanco, a Colombian drug dealer known as the "Queen of cocaine," was gunned down by unidentified assailants, local media reported on Tuesday.

The 69-year-old was shot twice in the head on Monday when she was walking out of a butcher shop in the north-central city of Medellin.

"She was in a butcher's ... and was killed by two unidentified people on a motorbike," Police Colonel Mauricio Cartagena was quoted as saying by Colombian daily El Espectador.

Blanco was a powerful drug smuggler in the 1970s and 1980s, credited with opening several trafficking routes between the Andean country, a leading cocaine producer, and the United States.

She was arrested in 1985 and sentenced to 60 years in prison for killing three people. She spent almost two decades behind bars in the United States.

Upon her release in 2004, she returned to Colombia.

Blanco reportedly showed the ropes to drug lord Pablo Escobar, the infamous kingpin who ruled over Colombia's cocaine trade for years until he was shot and killed by security forces in 1993.

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China's Xi Jinping Cancels Hillary Clinton Meeting Amid 'Tensions'

China's likely next president Xi Jinping has cancelled a meeting with the visiting US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, a US official said Wednesday, amid friction between the two global powers.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton shakes hands with Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi  

Hillary Clinton had been due to meet Vice President Xi later Wednesday during a brief visit to Beijing that looks set to be dominated by a series of territorial disputes between China and its neighbours, notably in the South China Sea.

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"We were informed after 11.00 pm last night by the Chinese side that for unexpected scheduling reasons, the meeting between Vice President Xi and Secretary Clinton is not going to happen today," said the official, who requested anonymity.

"We understand from the Chinese side that Vice President Xi's meetings with the prime minister of Singapore and a Russian official have also been cancelled today."

^{Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping (left) and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton with Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jieche}

Clinton nevertheless met with the rest of the top Chinese leadership including President Hu Jintao.

Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi, asked at a joint news conference with Clinton about Xi's cancellation, said: "I hope people will not have unnecessary speculation."

China has in the past called off meetings at the last minute to show displeasure, although Xi has generally made US-friendly statements and sought warm relations during a trip across the United States earlier this year.

Report: SHOULD U.S LOOK TO CHINA FOR ECONOMIC ADVICE?

Clinton has voiced hope that China, which claims virtually all of the South China Sea, will agree to work out a code of conduct on regional territorial disputes, and has encouraged Southeast Asian nations to stand united.

But Beijing has repeatedly expressed concern over what it sees as interference by Washington in the region.

Foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei said ahead of Clinton's arrival Tuesday that China hoped the United States would "do more to promote regional peace and stability, instead of the opposite."

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