Oil prices headed lower today on the first trading day of 2009, reversing a surge that came before the New Year’s holiday, reports AFP.

British troops could be withdrawn from Iraq despite Washington’s desire that they continue to fight along with American forces. A determined Gordon Brown hinted after meeting President George Bush in Camp David on Monday that he might consider pulling 5,500 British troops from Iraq.

Brown said, “We can then achieve what we want to do, which is to pass security over to the Iraqi­people.” He added his aim was to “step by step move control to the Iraqi authorities – to the Iraqi government and to its security forces – as progress is made.”

“We’ve moved from combat to over watch in three of the four provinces for which we, the British, have security responsibility. We intend to move to over watch in the fourth province, and that decision will be made on the military advice of our commanders on the ground,” the Prime Minister stated.

He is expected to announce the withdrawal to parliament soon after the return of MPs in October from the summer recess. Political analysts said Brown’s determination to draw troops back to base in Basra will lead to irritation in the White House and the Pentagon.

“Gordon Brown has paved the way for the withdrawal of British troops from Iraq by telling George Bush he would not delay their exit in order to show unity with the United States,” one analyst commented.

Brown’s comments will give him further bounce in public ratings here in Britain. One Labour Peer told HT: “Gordon Brown has paved the way for the withdrawal of British troops from Iraq by telling George Bush he would not delay their exit in order to show unity with the United States. It strengthens the belief that a snap poll may be held soon after the forces return home.”

Another significant development was Brown apparently distancing himself from Bush’s “war on terror”. He said, “Terrorism is not a cause, it is a crime – and it is a crime against humanity.” He also appeared to indicate that he considered the fight against the Taliban in Afghan­istan as the more important theatre for British troops. “Afghanistan is the front line against terrorism,” he said.

After a beating at the Lord''s, Team India has come back like the phoenix to win the second Test at Trent Bridge.

It was heartening to see India in complete control of the match from day one. Rahul Dravid called the coin correctly and his decision to put England in to bat was spot on.

The bowlers, who had come under the scanner, pitched it in the right areas and tormented the hosts. Zaheer played the role of a mentor to the younger bowlers to perfection and Sreesanth''s and RP Singh''s aggression reminded one of a certain Allan Donald and Glenn McGrath.

The two though would have to go a long way to measure up to the two greats, but agression is a good start.

The batsmen then delivered like a dream. No big hundreds and at least one poor umpiring decision and yet the score was just 17 shy of a huge 500 runs. The openers even put on a 100-plus partnership.

Do we still need a coach? Surely not.

The channels of communication between the seniors and the juniors in the team seem to be free flowing like never before. Is there any coach who would be able to impart to the juniors what a Tendulkar, Ganguly and Dravid can impart?

Each of them through different phases of Indian cricket in the last 15 years have sometimes together and sometimes single-handedly led the team to glorious moments.

What was also heartening to see in the absence of a coach was the seamless integration of India''s trinity. Ganguly, even with a back injury, was more than willing to bend his back for his captain.

The camaraderie is back, the team spirit is back, winning is back. And all this without a coach.

There are two types of People in Corporate world, People who manipulate and People who are honest. Whereas People who are manipulative are thought to be smarter and People who are honest are thought to be as dumb, And they don't get promoted or they don't move up the corporate ladder easily as they are the ones who are taken for granted as they are good people, So the management knows that they are explainable by giving a reason or an excuse, Whereas a person who is manipulative will not stick if he doesn't get promoted or recognized, So he/She gets promoted.

When that kind of thinking exists in corporate world then a person cannot remain good always and say that it's ok, So what he will do? Either he will leave his/her job or he/she will fight against the system, Well if that's is also not enough then the only option left is to himself/herself become manipulative and succeed at life for a shorter period of time, Just to show people around that being good doesn't mean that they can't change but it only means that they are giving time to other person hoping that he/she will change.

But when that doesn't happen then it's time to draw the battle and you yourself become manipulative and explain the other person in their own style. Unless and Until a person suffers he/she doesn't realize what they are doing wrong.

Maruti Q1 net profit jumps 35 pc

Parties must seize the opportunity


Great circumspection must be exercised in welcoming the Pakistan Supreme Court’s decision to nullify President Pervez Musharraf’s reference against Chief Justice Iftikar Chaudhary. The gumption displayed by the court in asserting its institutional independence against a dictatorial regime cannot be overemphasised.

But given Pakistan’s peculiar political situation, this victory could well turn out to be pyrrhic. Sure, military dictatorships have historically been the bane of Pakistani democracy. It would, nevertheless, be foolish to ignore the fact that the country currently faces a far more pernicious adversary: a reactionary and terroristic strain of political Islam.

Unchecked ascendancy of radical Islam in Pakistan would, among other things, spell a huge setback for the already wobbly war on terror. The best bet against such a clear and present danger is, ironically enough, the Pakistani army.

But considering that the country’s security apparatus has very little political accountability, the possibility that it might leave the country’s mainstream politicians in the lurch in the latter’s battle against radical Islam cannot entirely be ruled out.

What could actually effect such an unfortunate turn of events is the likely legal challenge that mainstream democratic players — their resolve bolstered by the independent judgement of the court — could successfully mount against Musharraf’s decision to get himself re-elected by an outgoing puppet Parliament.

A cornered security-intelligence apparatus — not yet fully cleansed of radical Islamist elements — could then not only go slow in its battle against Islamist terror, but actually aid and abet them surreptitiously.

The point is not that this sequence of events is inevitable. However, it is not completely improbable given the limitations of liberal democracy in Pakistan. Mainstream electoral politics has, for the most part, been an alibi for the country’s traditional elite to preserve its vested interests.

That has created a small, though significant, space for radical Islam. Unless Pakistan’s democratic parties change their ways, the forces of reaction and authoritarianism will engulf South Asia.

Painter, curator, collector and installation artist: multiple roles come easy to the indefatigable Bose Krishnamachari


He’s just back from the Peabody Essex Museum, Massachusetts, where his Ghost/Transmemoir installation was part of a cutting-edge group show, Gateway Bombay, curated by Susan Bean and Beth Citron. But there’s no room for jet lag. In his Borivili studio, Bose Krishnamachari, 44, is painting a new canvas for an upcoming group exhibition while fielding calls, unpacking his cargo of books and catalogues and sipping coconut water to keep up with the crazy pace.

Up ahead are shows in Milan, a group exhibition in Paris, a solo in London AICON, another group show in Vienna hosted by Swarovski, and an offer to curate a big show for the Amsterdam India Festival, not to mention the planned solos, group shows and curator projects around in the country.

The little plastic globe on his desk isn’t obviously out of place. “Travel is the best form of education,” says Bose about his upcoming whistle-stop trips. One wonders how it feels to be both a curator and an artist. “Being a practitioner of the arts, I feel I am in a position to curate with the sort of depth that a lot of the so-called curators of today aren’t doing,” says the painter who made a statement with his first curated show Bombay X 17 in 2003. “Bombay X 17 created a link between Mumbai and Kerala. It was followed by Double Enders, where Kerala artists came to Mumbai and shared their works,” he says.

With his latest venture Spy, at The Guild Art Gallery, featuring four upcoming young artists, Bose looks at the human tendency to be voyeuristic through the works of C. K. Rajan, Dia Mehta, Prasad Raghavan and Simrin Mehra. “Spy is an interdisciplinary show that brings photography, painting, advertising and fashion designing,” says Bose.

Despite the hectic workflow, Bose isn’t letting his own painting lag behind. “The current canvases are lager-than-life tributes to dabbawalas. Plans are afoot for my solo at Bodhi, where I am focussing on the media,” says the artist.

This is a project like Ghost that featured over 100 tiffin-carriers strung up on what looked like the inside of a local train compartment; this time it’s over 5,000 media logos on mikes. “It’s going to be like a Last Supper with world leaders at the table facing the mikes. The media invades your living room and can make or destroy public opinion,” says Bose.

Who was Bose before he became a phenomenon? A young artist from Kerala, he had already won a Lalit Kala Akademi award when he landed in Mumbai in 1985, with a few leads, loads of talent and a yen to make it big. JJ School of Art initially denied him entry on the grounds that he was already an established artist. “I was determined to get in. I stayed in a Saki Naka chawl, sharing a flat in shifts with a cousin and ten other bachelors. I made portraits for a living at the Mela Restaurant in Worli in the mornings,” recalls the artist.

JJ School relented in 1986 and he enrolled for his Bachelor in Fine Arts. Bose found himself drawn into circles that had a senior like Akbar Padamsee, the contemporaneous Sudarshan Shetty and the younger Riyas Komu. “It was good to have stimulating people around. It inspired me,” says the painter.

Being the topper in his batch, he also had a stint as a teacher at JJ under a Bombay University scholarship. However, when Bose organised a SAHMAT workshop on the campus, he spoke about the changes that he wanted to see at JJ School. “They found it untenable that I had spoken out and critiqued them and I was asked to leave in 1992,” he recalls. That only proved to be a minor setback since he was awarded a scholarship from Goldsmiths College, University of London.

Stylistically Bose has traversed the entire gamut of modern and contemporary art— from photo-realism and portraits, to a popish usage of found images from the media. He has experimented with billboards, furniture, public art, his own brand of abstraction and later in his career, with large-scale installation projects.

Bose is appalled at the apathy of Indian museums towards contemporary art. “Some of them run like commercial galleries with shows running only for a week,” he bemoans. “My dream is to build two museums in Kochi and Mumbai, where I will showcase my personal collection and also invite collectors from the world over. I have bought land in Kerala and am lobbying for a spot in Mumbai.”

For now there is Bose’s adda in his basement adjoining his studio, which is thrown open to young artists and contemporaries to access his vast collection of books and DVDs. “We will have screenings of films, discussions and workshops. My home used to be an adda of sorts. I’m glad I have a new space for it.”

Looking at the glossy spines of the tomes that currently lie in the cardboard boxes, one does wish that he gets all the space that he wants, since he is more than willing to share his goodies with the rest of the art world.

KATHMANDU, An Asian Development Bank (ADB) mission that wrapped up its Kathmandu visit on Sunday will table two key proposals made by Nepal
in connection with the Melamchi project, at the bank's headquarters in Manila, the Philippines.

The mission, headed by former chief of ADB's Nepal Resident Mission Sultan Hafeez Rahman, will table Nepal's proposal to de-link release of ADB funds from appointment of management contractor, according to Laxmi Prasad Devkota, board chairman of Kathmandu Water Supply Corporation (KWSC) that will soon cede rights to manage water distribution inside the Valley. The present funding contract with ADB, the largest donor of the US $ 350 million project, requires appointment of management contractor prior to release of funds for construction of a tunnel, a key component of the project.

The second proposal made by Nepal that the mission will be tabling is autonomy to Kathmandu Upatyeka Khanepani Limited (KUKL), a water utility operator formed as part of institutional
reforms of the Valley's water distribution system, to choose the kind of manager it deems fits for Kathmandu Valley's water supply system, Devkota said.

The current arrangement with ADB, provides no alternative to appointing a private management contractor. During the mission's visit, Nepal asked that alternatives, such as appointing a consultant or strengthening KUKL and allowing it to run the utility on its own, be explored as well.

According to sources, the ADB mission was encouraged by the pace at which institutional reforms are taking place in the Valley's water utility. The government plans to make KUKL fully operational by October 1, the source said. ADB's extended loan commitment to the project expires on November 30.

As part of institutional reforms of the Valley's water utility, Nepal Water Supply Corporation (NWSC) on Monday refused to extend contracts of 250 out of 550 temporary workers of the corporation throughout the country. Raj Kumar Thapa, secretary of NWSC Workers' Union Joint Struggle Committee, said this has set a deep sense of insecurity in NWSC staff, and added that the committee is launching protests from Tuesday. NWSC has over 1,650 permanent staff across the country.

After over a month of protest by the committee in February this year, the government had agreed to accommodate existing NWSC staff and workers on contract in the new bodies to be set up for Melamchi, and to hand over retirement benefits to the remaining staff.

Health and Fitness Make the Difference Between Living Well and living

Eva Longoria was at the Bebe Collection Fall 2007 runway show for LA Fashion Week. Why wouldn't she be? She is now the new face of Bebe Sport, which seems like an odd pick to me, even though I adore her.

Though she looks like a fairly voluptuous woman, Eva Longoria is teeny tiny - she makes Rebecca Romijn look like an Amazon! How adorable is Eva in that little black dress, which she paired with black peep-toe heels (black peep toe is the flavor of the month, it seems). The only thing I didn't like is the new hair style. You can't tell from the photo, but it's straight and shorter, almost a long bob.

How to Lose 20 lbs. of Fat in 30 Days… Without Doing Any Exercise

Rule #1: Avoid “white” carbohydrates

Avoid any carbohydrate that is — or can be — white. The following foods are thus prohibited, except for within 1.5 hours of finishing a resistance-training workout of at least 20 minutes in length: bread, rice, cereal, potatoes, pasta, and fried food with breading. If you avoid eating anything white, you’ll be safe.

Rule #2: Eat the same few meals over and over again

The most successful dieters, regardless of whether their goal is muscle gain or fat loss, eat the same few meals over and over again. Mix and match, costructing each meal with one from each of the three following groups:

Proteins:
Egg whites with one whole egg for flavor Chicken breast or thigh Grass-fed organic beef Pork

Legumes:
Lentils Black beans Pinto beans

Vegetables:
Spinach Asparagus Peas Mixed vegetables

Eat as much as you like of the above food items. Just remember: keep it simple. Pick three or four meals and repeat them. Almost all restaurants can give you a salad or vegetables in place of french fries or potatoes. Surprisingly, I have found Mexican food, swapping out rice for vegetables, to be one of the cuisines most conducive to the “slow carb” diet.

Most people who go on “low” carbohydrate diets complain of low energy and quit, not because such diets can’t work, but because they consume insufficient calories. A 1/2 cup of rice is 300 calories, whereas a 1/2 cup of spinach is 15 calories! Vegetables are not calorically dense, so it is critical that you add legumes for caloric load.

Some athletes eat 6-8x per day to break up caloric load and avoid fat gain. I think this is ridiculously inconvenient. I eat 4x per day:

10am - breakfast
1pm - lunch
5pm - smaller second lunch
7:30-9pm - sports training
10pm - dinner
12am - glass of wine and Discovery Channel before bed

Here are some of my meals that recur again and again:

Scrambled Eggo logy pourable egg whites with one whole egg, black beans, and microwaved mixed vegetables

Grass-fed organic beef, pinto beans, mixed vegetables, and extra guacamole (Mexican restaurant)

Grass-fed organic beef (from Trader Joe’s), lentils, and mixed vegetables
jpg">
Post-workout pizza with extra chicken, cilantro, pineapple, garlic, sun dried tomatoes, bell peppers, and red onions

Rule #3: Don’t drink calories

Drink massive quantities of water and as much unsweetened iced tea, tea, diet sodas, coffee (without white cream), or other no-calorie/low-calorie beverages as you like. Do not drink milk, normal soft drinks, or fruit juice. I’m a wine fanatic and have at least one glass of wine each evening, which I believe actually aids sports recovery and fat-loss. Recent research into resveratrol supports this.

Rule #4: Take one day off per week

I recommend Saturdays as your “Dieters Gone Wild” day. I am allowed to eat whatever I want on Saturdays, and I go out of my way to eat ice cream, Snickers, Take 5, and all of my other vices in excess. I make myself a little sick and don’t want to look at any of it for the rest of the week. Paradoxically, dramatically spiking caloric intake in this way once per week increases fat loss by ensuring that your metabolic rate (thyroid function, etc.) doesn’t down regulate from extended caloric restriction. That’s right: eating pure crap can help you lose fat. Welcome to Utopia.

White Tie & Tiara Ball

After a decade of hard work, Elton John's annual White Tie & Tiara Ball - which raises funds for his charity, the Elton John Aids Foundation - has lost none of its sparkle.

For its ten year anniversary, the event had a beach party theme and Valentino, Agyness Deyn and Roberto Cavalli were among the glamorous attendees who saw Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys play a live set before digging deep at the charity auction.

"The aim every year is to get people to say that it was the best one yet," said David Furnish; mission accomplished.

See the stars in their cars as they arrive at one of the most closely-guarded celebrity events on the calendar.

Sienna and Keira

Sienna and Keira have been pictured together yet again, this time for The Edge of Love film premiere in London. Designer and friend Matthew Williamson was there to show his support - and perhaps assist Sienna with a quick dress change before heading into Mayfair.

Also in London, another pair of well-dressed girls - Gweneth Paltrow and Stella McCartney - headed out to Hoping Foundation Benefit Evening, which was held in Soho, while over in New York, London girl Agyness Deyn took a quick cigarette break whilst shopping in the West Village and Anne Hathaway stepped out with a new haircut.

Philip Treacy

A design by Philip Treacy. Photograph by Joy Ekpeti

Inspired by beauty and elegance, master milliner Philip Treacy has dressed the heads of everyone from Madonna and Kate Moss to The Countess of Wessex and Sarah Jessica Parker.

With his dramatic and wildly imaginative creations - clouds of butterflies, festoons of feathers and shapely sculptures - it's no wonder he's been awarded British accessory designer of the year five times. This is indeed what wearing a hat is all about.

Kangana Ranaut's 'Fashion' statement

No midriffs or minis for Ascot fashion parade

ASCOT, England (Reuters Life!) - The "fashion police" were on alert on Thursday for Royal Ascot's Ladies Day to ensure no mini-skirts or bare midriffs marred the hallowed turf of the exclusive Royal Enclosure.

For officials at one of the world's most elegant race meetings are cracking the sartorial whip after veteran racegoers complained that standards were slipping.

So the Duke of Devonshire, chairman of the course where Queen Elizabeth plays host for the five-day meeting, has issued firm fashion instructions to stamp out errant dressers.

Once the Royal Enclosure was so select that divorcees were banned and all ladies had to wear gloves.

Today all you need to gain admittance is to be recommended by someone who has attended four times before.

All this year's badgeholders were given their fashion marching orders and warned: "Those not complying with the directions will be asked to leave the Royal Enclosure."

Thursday is Ladies Day at Ascot so the competition to put on the finest fashion display is intense.

Researchers envision a day when workouts are tailored for men vs. women.

"I don't think they really are ever going to catch up," says Danielle Day, an assistant professor of exercise and sport performance at the University of New England in Biddeford, Maine, who follows the topic.While women have made tremendous gains in athletic performance, experts generally agree that the world's top female athletes will probably never outperform their male counterparts. Men are bigger and have more muscle and higher levels of that powerhouse hormone testosterone than women.

But as researchers have begun to unravel the differences between the sexes with regard to physical activity, they're learning that there's more to the story. Men and women also differ in energy metabolism, lung function and other factors during exercise.

OCTOBER is going to be one busy month for Burberry's Christopher Bailey: the creative director will head to Los Angeles where he'll continue with the label's sartorial charm offensive of the US.

According to The Daily, the designer will celebrate the opening of a new flagship concept store in Beverley Hills followed by a suitably glam bash the following evening to mark the arrival of the National Portrait Gallery's exhibition Vanity Fair Portraits - for which Burberry is the sponsor. The exhibition opened in London in February.

Just last month the luxury British fashion label announced a 25 per cent rise in annual profits, a result which was boosted from successful sales in the US and it has also just unveiled an ultra chic new store in Cannes.

Ike Moves Toward Bahamas, Cuba After Crossing Turks and Caicos

Conditions appear favorable for strengthening'' before Ike crosses the middle of Cuba, the center said in a statement on its Web site. Life-threatening flash floods and mudslides may hit mountainous areas in the Turks and Caicos, Bahamas, Cuba and Hispaniola, shared by Haiti and the Dominican Republic.

Rumors Swirl Around AMD Chip Plant Spin-Off, New Processor Roadmap Surfaces


Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD) is an American multinational semiconductor company based in Sunnyvale, California, that develops computer processors and related technologies for commercial and consumer markets. Its main products include microprocessors, motherboard chipsets, embedded processors and graphics processors for servers, workstations and personal computers, and processor technologies for handheld devices, digital television, and game consoles.

AMD is the second-largest global supplier of microprocessors based on the x86 architecture after Intel Corporation, and the third-largest supplier of graphics processing units. It also owns 21 percent of Spansion, a supplier of non-volatile flash memory. In 2007, AMD ranked eleventh among semiconductor manufacturers in terms of revenue.


AMD (Advanced Micro Devices) isn’t in the competitive position against top rival Intel that it once enjoyed. AMD, however, hasn’t given up though and continues to battle Intel for market share. AMD is particularly strong in the server market, especially in the virtualization realm where its technology offers better performance than some of Intel's similar offerings.

In December, AMD will unveil several new Phenom parts. One of them will be a Toliman-based Phenom X3 8850 running at 2.5GHz that will be multiplier unlocked. The roadmap also shows in December a pair of new Deneb-based Phenom quad-core parts. The CPUs will include the a Phenom X4 running at 3.0GHz, and a Phenom X4 running at 2.8GHz. Both of these processors will apparently not hit retail until early January.

AMD is looking to spin-off some of its chip plants Rumors have circulated for a while now. CNET News reports the rumors keep coming up repeatedly due to some truth being in them. Another rumor was started about a possible spin-off recently that cited analyst John Lau with Jefferies & Co who said, "[AMD may] spin-off of its manufacturing operations within two weeks."

CNET News quotes AMD's Drew Prairie saying, "I wouldn't expect an urgent phone call from me in the next two weeks." The implication being that Lau's timing may not be accurate. The chip factories at the heart of the rumors are the pair AMD owns in Dresden, Germany.


Prairie also said, "I wouldn't take that assumption from (analysts) as definitive. There are a lot of nuances and gray areas, as to what we're going to be doing. A lot the speculation is painting things as black and white. I don't think, come announcement day, it will be that black and white."

Prairie also stated again that the chip plant in New York -- which DailyTech reported on in June 2006 -- is a critical part of AMD's manufacturing capability. Other analysts believe that AMD could receive another influx of investment cash to shore up its operations in a manner similar to the $622 million an Abu Dhabi firm paid for an 8.1% stake in AMD in November 2007.


In related news, AMD's Q4 2008 roadmap surfaced today at CHW.net. The roadmap shows new AMD processors are inbound starting on October 8. On that day, AMD will introduce an AMD Athlon X2 5050e Brisbane-based CPU running at 2.6GHz. The same day AMD shows a new Phenom X3 8850 running at 2.5GHz debuting.

In November, AMD will introduce AMD Ultra-Value Client (UVC) solutions that are direct OEM products only. In the consumer space AMD will announced a new Lima-based Athlon 2650e at 1.6GHz. A new Brisbane-based Athlon X2 3250e running 1.5GHz will also be introduced in November.