Safe Ways to Save Money on Sunscreen

If you've heard that you can save money on sunscreen -- cheap is chic these days -- by using a body lotion with SPF 15, we've got some bargains that give your skin more burn, wrinkle, and cancer protection. First, think generic. Unless you have supersensitive skin or you're buying sunscreen for a baby, drugstores have plenty of good generic SPF 30s (the minimum you should use). Most generics now offer solid UVA/UVB protection, just like boutique-priced designer brands. Next, check your health plan: Some flexible spending accounts cover sunscreens of SPF 30 or more.
We like formulas that use physical sunscreens, like nanoparticled zinc oxide. Why? Not only does zinc work instantly and stay put well, but also, unlike chemical sunscreens, it isn't absorbed -- there's been some recent safety concern about absorbable chemical sunscreens. Until the research is clear, we're sticking with zinc.
Alternatively, if you hate sunscreen more than mosquitoes detest DEET, invest in some UV-protective clothing for the beach. Because summer's half over, you'll find sales. Now, be smart about buying and wearing it:

• Look for the UPF (Ultraviolet Protection Factor) number. A top-of-the-line UPF 40–50 label means only about 2% of the sun's rays will get through.
• Choose a loose, comfy fit. Tight UPF clothes deliver less protection than their number promises.
• Don't swim in it. Wet clothes won't protect you, regardless of the UPF number.

That should keep your skin, wallet, and dermatologist happy this summer, and next.

Daily Health Tips

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Mallya questions duty to fly unprofitable routes

MUMBAI, (Reuters) - Vijay Mallya, whose cash-strapped Kingfisher Airlines cancelled scores of flights this week, drawing the ire of the government and travellers and spooking investors, questioned on Saturday whether it was the carrier's duty to fly loss-making routes.

Shares in Kingfisher, the country's second-largest airline by market share, fell as much as 18 percent to an all-time low on Friday as investors fretted about the viability of the carrier, which acknowledged it had been late in paying salaries in recent months.

On Saturday, the Mint newspaper, citing an unidentified source, reported that the government had decided in principle to allow foreign airlines to own up to 24 percent of Indian carriers, a move that could throw a lifeline to Kingfisher and its struggling rivals.

It said the matter would be put before the cabinet of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in the next four weeks.

Mallya, the flamboyant liquor tycoon who owns a cricket team and a Formula One racing team, asked on the social networking site Twitter whether it was Kingfisher's duty to fly loss-making routes while it was being heavily taxed by state governments.

Or should the airline be financially prudent and fly profitably, he asked.

Late on Friday, Kingfisher said it was dropping unprofitable routes and speeding up a fleet reconfiguration, which would see its daily schedule of flights drop to 300 from 340. It recently said it was exiting the low-fare segment of the business.

The carrier, whose share price has dropped 70 percent in 2011, bringing its market capitalisation below $200 million, also said on Friday it "does not see any risk to its future or long-term viability".

Aviation Minister Vayalar Ravi said he would approach the finance minister to seek emergency bank assistance for troubled airlines.

Kingfisher said it had not sought a government bailout.

India's mostly loss-making airlines are struggling amid fierce competition and high sales taxes on aviation fuel despite passenger growth of about 19 percent this year.

The Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation has forecast a record $2.5 billion to $3 billion loss for Indian airlines for the year ending March 2012, with state-run Air India alone likely to account for more than half of it.

On Friday, private carrier Jet Airways and budget airline SpiceJet reported losses for the September quarter, compared with profits in the year-earlier period. Kingfisher has never made a profit.

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Police investigate after shots fired near White House

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Police were investigating a shooting incident near the White House on Friday night, but it was not believed to have anything to do with the presidential residence.
President Barack Obama was in San Diego, California, at the time of the incident on his way to the APEC summit in Honolulu.
U.S. Secret Service officers heard shots fired on Constitution Avenue, several hundred yards (meters) south of the White House, and saw two vehicles race off, said spokesman Ed Donovan. One car was abandoned a short distance away and officers recovered an AK-47 assault rifle from the vehicle.

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12 die in attacks in northwest Pakistan: officials

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Two separate militant attacks left at least 12 people dead, including children, in Pakistan's troubled Khyber tribal district on Saturday, officials said.

Some 18,000 people last month fled their homes in Khyber, near the Afghan border, amid fears of a fresh onslaught of fighting between the army and Islamist militants tied to the Pakistani Taliban.

"At least six people including two children and a woman were killed when a mortar fired by militants fell on a house in Tirah valley," a senior local administration official, Saeed Ahmad Jan, told AFP.

He said that the militants apparently wanted to target a nearby checkpost of security forces but missed.

And in Bara town a group of 20-25 militants from the Lashkar-e-Islam (LI) group attacked a checkpost of the paramilitary Frontier Corps, triggering a gunfight.

"The exchange of fire left six militants dead and 10 others wounded," Jan said, adding that troops arrested all the injured rebels.

Pakistan's army has previously launched a series of offensives targeting the LI, a Taliban-allied militant group waging a local insurgency.

Pakistan's seven tribal districts on the Afghan border are rife with a homegrown insurgency and are strongholds of Taliban and Al-Qaeda operatives.

Pakistan has launched operations along parts of the lawless belt but has withstood US pressure to wage battle with the Haqqani network, which is blamed for some of the worst attacks in Afghanistan.

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UK military denies cuts to be speeded up

 

Ministry of Defence on Saturday denied claims in a leaked memo that up to 16,500 soldiers -- thousands more than originally proposed -- faced the axe of budget cuts.
The internal memo seen by the Daily Telegraph also reportedly showed that 2,500 wounded soldiers, including 350 who have lost limbs, would not be spared in an ongoing programme of defence cuts.
The MoD dismissed the memo as the "factually incorrect" work of a junior officer and said there were no plans to change the level of cuts to the armed forces set out this year.
It also insisted there had been no change in the way it handled injured personnel, saying they were protected from the cuts until they "reached a point in their recovery where leaving the armed forces is the right decision".
The memo emerged as Britain's new defence minister, Philip Hammond, flew back from his first visit to troops in Afghanistan and amid preparations for Sunday's annual national ceremony in honour of the war dead.
An MoD spokesman said: "The information in this leaked army memo from a junior officer is incorrect.
"Beyond those already announced, there are no further army reductions planned. There is absolutely no plan to change our treatment of service personnel who are wounded, injured or sick.
"Personnel injured on operations will not be included in the redundancy process while they are undergoing medical treatment.
"No one will leave the armed forces until they have reached a point in their recovery that is right for them."
Following a defence review last year by the Conservative-led coalition government, the army has been told to cut its numbers by almost a fifth to 82,000 by 2020.
In July, army chiefs warned that an extra 5,000 soldiers faced the axe by 2015, on top of the 7,000 redundancies announced for the first phase, which has already begun.
The classified document quoted by the Telegraph, sent to commanders in Afghanistan, states that wounded soldiers who have been "temporarily downgraded will not be exempt" and could be dismissed in the next round of job cuts early next year.
Jim Murphy, defence spokesman for the opposition Labour party, warned that an accelerated redundancy programme could have "dangerous" consequences and that axeing injured troops would be "the cruellest cut of all".
In the past month, six British soldiers have undergone double amputations as a result of injuries caused by the roadside bombs used by the Taliban, which have accounted for many of the 385 British deaths in Afghanistan since 2001.
An officer serving with a unit in which a soldier suffered a triple amputation this month told the Telegraph the memo had badly damaged morale.
"We now know that not only will we be left with a life-changing injury serving our country over here but we will more than likely be kicked out of the army," he said.

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Huge blast kills 17 at Iran military base

TEHRAN (Reuters) - A massive explosion at a military arms depot near the Iranian capital Tehran on Saturday killed 17 Revolutionary Guards and wounded 15, a spokesman for the elite fighting force told the semi-official Fars news agency.
Officials said the blast was an accident which happened as troops were moving munitions at a base in Bidganeh, near the town of Shahriar, some 45 km (28 miles) west of Tehran.
The explosion shook homes and rattled windows for miles around, at a time of mounting tension with Israel over Iran's nuclear program.
"Today at 13:30, (0900 GMT), an explosion happened in one of the Revolutionary Guards' bases while a consignment of explosive devices was being moved out from the arsenal, besides that some munitions in the arsenal exploded which created a terrifying sound," Revolutionary Guards spokesman Ramezan Sharif told state
TV.
Sharif initially said 27 people had been killed but later revised that figure down to 17.
Residents in western suburbs of Tehran told Reuters they had felt the blast, some assuming it to be a moderate earthquake.
The explosion started a fire at the base which raged for hours. Surrounding streets were closed and reporters were kept away from the scene.
RISK
Some media reported there had been two explosions and the head of Iran's Red Crescent organization said there was a risk of further blasts.
Mahmoud Mozafar told the Mehr news agency that only six paramedics had been allowed into the Amir Al-Momenin military base and that thick smoke was hampering the rescue operation.
There were no reports linking the blast to any air strike or other attack. Tension has risen in recent weeks between Iran and its enemies Israel and the United States, which have not ruled out attacking facilities whose occupants they believe are working toward making nuclear weapons.
Sharif denied what he said was speculation in the Western media that the military base was linked to Iran's nuclear program.
"This blast is not related to any nuclear tests that some foreign media have reported," he told Mehr.
Tehran denies Western accusations, that were given some credence by a report from the UN nuclear agency this week, that its nuclear program has military ends.
On October 12 last year a similar blast at a Revolutionary Guards munitions store killed and wounded several servicemen in Khoramabad, western Iran. Authorities said that explosion was an accident too.

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Oscar Shocker! Brett Ratner Resigns as Producer of Telecast

Brett Ratner, who has been living on borrowed time this week since he used a gay slur and gave a raunchy interview to Howard Stern, has resigned as producer of the 84th Academy Awards.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences released the following statement:
"This morning, Brett Ratner submitted his resignation as a producer of the 84th annual Academy Awards to Academy President Tom Sherak. Ratner then issued an open letter to the entertainment industry in which he explained his decision."
Ratner wrot
"As a first step, I called Tom Sherak this morning and resigned as a producer of the 84th Academy Awards telecast. Being asked to help put on the Oscar show was the proudest moment of my career. But as painful as this may be for me, it would be worse if my association with the show were to be a distraction from the Academy and the high ideals it represents."

"He did the right thing for the Academy and for himself," Sherak said. "Words have meaning, and they have consequences. Brett is a good person, but his comments were unacceptable. We all hope this will be an opportunity to raise awareness about the harm that is caused by reckless and insensitive remarks, regardless of the intent."
Don Mischer, who was hired with Ratner to produce the awards, remains on board. The status of host Eddie Murphy, however, may come into question, since he accepted the assignment from Ratner.
Ratner has pledged to work with the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) to host a series of public discussions about anti-LGBT jokes and slurs in films and on television.





“When we sat down with Brett today, he seemed very sincere in his desire to use this experience as a way to begin speaking out against anti-gay language in popular culture,” said Herndon Graddick, Senior Director of Programs and Communications at GLAAD, in a press release issued after Ratner's resignation. “We believe his resignation is just the first step and will be announcing a series of concrete actions with Brett in coming days and weeks.”
The GLAAD release also said, "GLAAD and Ratner are working to convene public discussions featuring leaders in the entertainment industry about promoting fair and accurate inclusions of LGBT people and stories. The discussions will address anti-LGBT jokes and slurs in films and on television today as well as their trickle-down effect into popular culture. The first event will take place in coming weeks with additional discussions to take place over the next three years. Additional details to follow."
Pressure had been mounting to fire the bad-boy director of "Tower Heist" and "Rush Hour" since Saturday, when Ratner said "rehearsing is for fags" at a Q&A session that followed a screening of "Tower Heist" in Hollywood on Friday night.
On Monday, he gave a long interview to Stern's Sirius XM Radio show, in which he talked in detail about his sex life while admitting that as producer of the Oscars, he needed to change his image.
The Academy had issued a statement condemning Ratner's initial gay slur but offering support for the producer, who immediately apologized and called the remark "a dumb way of expressing myself."
But in the aftermath of the Stern interview, the chorus of disapproval grew too loud for the Academy to ignore. "The Oscars are a brand, and this is tarnishing the brand," one AMPAS member told TheWrap.
Added another, "Once the producer becomes the story, it's not good for the Academy."
The action came quickly, the day after Ratner's comments came to light.
When Ratner was hired to produce the show by Sherak, the AMPAS president released a statement reading, in part, "He’s unbelievably creative and knows how to take risks that are both interesting and inspiring."
The hiring came in the wake of what was supposed to be a half-hour meeting between Ratner, Sherak and AMPAS CEO Dawn Hudson. The meeting stretched to three hours, and Sherak and Hudson came away impressed with what Hudson called Ratner's "really smart and fresh take for the show."
Of course, there was a bad omen from the start: Ratner lives in the historic Beverly Hills mansion Hillhaven Lodge. In 1989, that house was owned by Allan Carr, who held meetings there when he was producing the Academy Awards show widely considered the worst in Oscar history.

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Kamaal R. Khan Contemplating Suicide?

If Kamal R. Khan is to be believed, then he is planning to... commit suicide soon! Unable to find a suitable star for his next project Love Story Of 3 Khans and getting no support from the industry dwellers, has finally taken a toll on Khan's mental state.

Kamaal elaborated his state of mind via Twitter, "Why I m always thinking about suicide? M I disturbed? Should I get married immediately?"
And the Desh Drohi star didn't stop here, he further threatened the Bollywood biggies by writing, "There are few ppl in industry who had harassed me so they will be responsible for my suicide if I do? There are 2 actors and 2 directors who harassed me so I shall write their names in my note."

He said that though others, in the past, have complained about sexual harassment, the industry is giving him a tough time in a totaly different manner.

"Rajeev Khandelwal, Sayali Bhagat, and many more already said about casting couch but mera case doosra hai," added Kamal R. Khan.

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Will the "K" factor work for Ranbir?

 

 The alphabet 'K' has been crucial for the Kapoor clan for many decades now. If you are wondering what this K factor is all about, here is the story.

It is a well known fact that the Kapoor's owe their success to films that have been shot in Kashmir. From Shammi Kapoor to Rishi Kapoor, the settings of Kashmir have been integral part of their films.
In Ranbir's upcoming film ROCKSTAR, Kashmir has been revisited keeping the Kapoor tradition in mind. According to our sources, "Imtiaz is well aware of the significance of Kashmir with the entire Kapoor clan. Though the place may no longer be the hot bed of Bollywood shoots but the rapport Shammi Kapoor and Rishi Kapoor shared with Kashmir is legendary. Rishi Kapoor has gone to the extent of saying, "I am because of Kashmir!" Keeping this fact in mind Ranbir's ROCKSTAR is has added expectations from the audiences."
To gauge the attachment of Kashmir with the Kapoor family it must be mentioned that the last remains of legendary actor Shammi Kapoor were flown to Kashmir in keeping with the wish of the late actor.
With the Kapoor's sharing a long successful relation with the backdrop of Kashmir, let's hope the "K" factor works for ROCKSTAR too since it stars another Kapoor in the lead.

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Buffett goes on $20 billion stock buying spree

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- In the worst quarter for U.S. stocks since the financial crisis, investor Warren Buffett went on a stock buying spree.
A filing late Friday from Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway (BRKA, Fortune 500) shows it bought $20 billion in stocks in the three months ended Sept. 30 -- including $6.9 billion worth of dabbling in U.S. stocks.

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The purchases also included the $8.7 billion purchase of specialty chemical company Lubrizol Corp., which closed in the quarter after being announced earlier in the year, and $5 billion in preferred shares and warrants of Bank of America (BAC, Fortune 500).
The $6.9 billion in common stock purchases represented a fairly aggressive market position, said Greggory Warren, the analyst who follows Berkshire for Morningstar.
"That's a better jump than we've seen from them in a while," he said.
Berkshire bought about about $3.6 billion in stock in the second quarter and less than $1 billion in the first quarter. Given Buffett's inclination to try to find bargains, the buying in the third quarter wasn't a surprise, Warren said.
"We saw a fairly significant decline in the quarter," he said. "The question is where he put the money to work. We'll have to wait to find that out."
The blue chip Standard & Poor's 500 fell 14% in the third quarter, the biggest drop since the fiscal crisis hit markets in the final three months of 2008. Other major indexes also tumbled, driven by the downgrade of the U.S. debt rating, the uncertainty over the European sovereign debt and rising worries during the period that the U.S. economy is in danger of a new recession.
Buffett continued to be bullish on stocks in comments during the period. On Aug. 15, he told PBS interviewer Charlie Rose that on the first day of trading after the U.S. credit downgrade -- as the S&P 500 plunged nearly 7% -- Berkshire made its largest single-day stock purchases of the year to date. And he said the $7 billion Berkshire had invested to that point of the year was at least $1 billion more than it had ever purchased in a year.
"It's like buying on sale," he said in that interview.
Berkshire's earnings tumbled 24% in the quarter to $2.3 billion, hurt by the decline in value of its holdings and a $1.6 billion loss on derivatives it held during the period.
But Cliff Gallant, analyst with Keefe, Bruyette & Woods, said he believes most of the reported derivative losses have already been reversed by the rebound in stocks in October. He said the operating earnings beat forecasts.
"The strength of core operating earnings shrugged off mark-to-market paper losses in the derivatives book," he wrote in a note Monday. "With nearly $35 billion of cash on hand and as one of the highest credit worthy financial institutions in the world, we expect that Berkshire will continue to be positioned for such attractive opportunities."
Berkshire shares were down just less than 1% in midday trading Monday, but that was less than the drop in the broader markets.

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Italian parliament to vote on budget reform

 

ATLANTA (CNN Wire) -- The Italian parliament is expected to face a crucial vote on budget reform measures Tuesday as the country's president warned of a credibility gap if it failed to make such changes.
Last month, Italy agreed to implement structural reforms during an European Union meeting in Brussels. Italian President Giorgio Napolitano said the reforms must be put in place.

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Debate is scheduled to start just after midday.
The developments came as Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi denied Monday's rumors that he might resign, highlighting Europe's growing unease in Italy's economy.
"The rumors of my resignation are groundless," a message on his official Facebook page said.
A press aide to Berlusconi also told CNN he had no plans to resign.
But there are growing fears that Berlusconi's government no longer has the strength to push through the austerity measures needed to get the economy back on track.
These include tax increases and raising the retirement age by two years to 67.
A vote to pass the reform measures could give the embattled government enough fortitude to keep the prime minister in power.
Although Italy passed a package of austerity measures in September, including tax increases, some economists fear that without further reforms its debts could become overwhelming -- and there would not be enough money in the European rescue fund to bail it out.
Italy has one of the largest bond markets in the world, worth an estimated €2 trillion (about $2.8 trillion).

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Brain Parasite Directly Alters Brain Chemistry

 

Research shows infection by the brain parasite Toxoplasma gondii, found in 10-20 per cent of the UK's population, directly affects the production of dopamine, a key chemical messenger in the brain.
 Findings from the University of Leeds research group are the first to demonstrate that a parasite found in the brain of mammals can affect dopamine levels. Whilst the work has been carried out with rodents, lead investigator Dr Glenn McConkey of the University's Faculty of Biological Sciences, believes that the findings could ultimately shed new light on treating human neurological disorders that are dopamine-related such as schizophrenia, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and Parkinson's disease.
This research may explain how these parasites, remarkably, manipulate rodents' behaviour for their own advantage. Infected mice and rats lose their innate fear of cats, increasing the chances of being caught and eaten, which enables the parasite to return to its main host to complete its life cycle.
In this study, funded by the Stanley Medical Research Institute and Dunhill Medical Trust, the research team found that the parasite causes production and release of many times the normal amount of dopamine in infected brain cells.
Dopamine is a natural chemical which relays messages in the brain controlling aspects of movement, cognition and behaviour. It helps control the brain's reward and pleasure centres and regulates emotional responses such as fear. The presence of a certain kind of dopamine receptor is also associated with sensation-seeking, whereas dopamine deficiency in humans results in Parkinson's disease.
These findings build on earlier studies in which Dr McConkey's group found that the parasite actually encodes the enzyme for producing dopamine in its genome.
"Based on these analyses, it was clear that T. gondii can orchestrate a significant increase in dopamine production in neural cells," says Dr McConkey.
"Humans are accidental hosts to T. gondii and the parasite could end up anywhere in the brain, so human symptoms of toxoplasmosis infection may depend on where parasite ends up. This may explain the observed statistical link between incidences of schizophrenia and toxoplasmosis infection."
Dr McConkey says his next experiments will investigate how the parasite enzyme triggers dopamine production and how this may change behaviour.
Toxoplasmosis, which is transmitted via cat faeces (found on unwashed vegetables) and raw or undercooked infected meat, is relatively common, with 10-20% of the UK population and 22% of the US population estimated to carry the parasite as cysts. Most people with the parasite are healthy, but for those who are immune-suppressed -- and particularly for pregnant women -- there are significant health risks that can occasionally be fatal.
The parasite infects the brain by forming a cyst within its cells and produces an enzyme called tyrosine hydroxylase, which is needed to make dopamine. Dopamine's role in mood, sociability, attention, motivation and sleep patterns are well documented and schizophrenia has long been associated with dopamine, which is the target of all current schizophrenia drugs on the market.
The enzyme tyrosine hydroxylase is a crucial step in making L-DOPA (prescribed as levodopa for Parkinson's Disease), a chemical that is readily converted to the neurotransmitter dopamine.
The US-based Stanley Medical Research Institute, which focuses on mental health conditions and has a particular emphasis on bipolar illnesses. Dunhill Medical Trust supports research on diseases of aging.

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Where horror and video games intersect

 

Several years ago, I was writing about a new generation of video games that were pretty damn frightening and believable. Of course, with the popularity of games like Dead Island, they’re getting more hyper violent and freaky than ever.
As gamer Andrew Alonso told me, "Blood and horror are mainstays that have been with us for years, starting with the first Resident Evil in 1996. There is something extremely satisfying about killing zombies. Games like Dead Island are outlets."

There was even a point when Fangoria magazine had a gaming column, and Dead Island also recently made the cover of Rue Morgue. 


The first mainstream horror video game, based on the Texas Chainsaw Massacre, was pretty cheesy by today's standards, but as Fangoria editor Michael Gingold told me, "Horror films and games kind feed the same demographic, young males, though there's reports that female gamers are getting into it, and younger women are getting more into horror films than ever. Women's interests in horror and games seem to be  on a parallel track."
And Tom Savini, the godfather of gore make-up (the original Dawn of the Dead and Friday the 13th) told me, "I had the first Space Invaders game that came out, and that was a miracle back then. When I was making Knightriders with George Romero, we would sit in the hotel room and play Space Invaders and Pong for hours."
Recently, Entertainment Weekly compiled a list of the scariest moments in video games, including Fatal Frame (clearly influenced by the J-horror trend); F.E.A.R. with its frightening dead nurse and shadows; the giant spider of Limbo; Eternal Darkness, which had a non-linear, nightmare style quality and the twisted lullaby in BioShock. Oh, and the zombie dogs of the first Resident Evil Game, of course.

Although they may never be as terrifying as a well done horror film, gaming has definitely become quite scary over the years.
Screenwriter Dave Callahan, who adapted the movie version of Doom, told me, "If you were to turn out the lights and play Doom 3 on a large monitor and wear headphones, it’s probably a lot scarier than most movies will ever be because you don’t have the comfort of people around you, and the stereo speakers are right in your ears. When I played Manhunt, it bothered me to the point where I couldn’t play it anymore. The Resident Evil and Silent Hill games are definitely some creepy sh*t!"

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JTT Chobi Cam Pro is the Napoleon of cheap miniature cameras

 

Unlike JTT's cutesy miniature DSLR, this new ¥6,000 ($76) Chobi Cam Pro could potentially be used for home monitoring or perhaps even wildlife photography. In addition to recording 12 megapixel stills and 720p motion JPEGs onto microSD, it also has a motion detector that can hold the camera in a state of readiness for up to two months. If nothing happens within that sort of timeframe, you probably failed to camouflage it properly. 

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Court Vision pulls huge upset in the Turf

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP)—Court Vision pulled off a 64-1 upset in the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Mile as three-time champion Goldikova finished third in her final race.

Court Vision nipped Turallure by a nose on Saturday at Churchill Downs.

Goldikova, the champion mare from France, failed in her quest for an unprecedented fourth straight Breeders’ Cup win. She battled her way to a brief lead in deep stretch but could not hold off the pair of late challengers.
Goldikova held third, as a claim of foul by Patrick Valenzuela aboard Courageous Cat was disallowed.

Court Vision paid $131.60, the second highest payoff in the world championships after the $269.20 Arcangues paid in the 1993 Classic.

Robby Albarado was aboard for trainer Dale Romans as Court Vision ran the one mile on the turf in 1:37.05.

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Nadal pulls out of Paris to focus on ATP finals

MADRID (AP)—Rafael Nadal has withdrawn from the Paris Masters to focus on the season-ending ATP World Tour Finals and Davis Cup final.
The second-ranked Nadal says on his Facebook page the decision to pull out of next week’s event at Bercy was necessary “to prepare well for the end of this season and also for 2012.”

The Spaniard has not played since losing to the 23rd-ranked Florian Mayer in the second round in Shanghai three weeks ago.
Nadal is one of five players already qualified for the season-ending Nov. 20-27 tournament in London, which features the year’s top eight players.
The French Open champion also is expected to play for Spain against Argentina in the Dec. 2-4 Davis Cup final.

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Redknapp aiming to return ahead of doctor’s target

LONDON (AP)—Tottenham manager Harry Redknapp says he hopes to be back in charge of the Premier League team soon despite being told by his doctor that he “shouldn’t even think” about football for at least four weeks following minor heart surgery.

Redknapp has handed over control of the side to assistants Kevin Bond, Joe Jordan and Clive Allen after having surgery this week.

The 64-year-old Redknapp says his doctor has recommended that he “shouldn’t even think about football for four or five weeks … but I’ll see how I go. I’m hoping to be back before then.”

Redknapp took charge of Spurs in October 2008 and guided the north London club to fourth place and a first Champions League appearance two years later.

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Dhoni Surpasses Kirmani

 

When MS Dhoni stumped West Indies' Kraigg Brathwaite off Pragyan Ojha, it was his 199^th wicketkeeping dismissal in Tests. He thus overtook Syed Kirmani, who had held the Indian record of 198 dismissals.

Kirmani, who finished playing Tests in 1986, was the first Indian wicketkeeper to 100 Test dismissals, and he had owned the record for over three decades.

Later in the innings, Dhoni caught Marlon Samuels, making him the first Indian wicketkeeper to 200 dismissals.

Dhoni is the 13^th wicketkeeper to reach the mark. He would be expected to climb this list quickly given that most of these wicketkeepers here have retired.

No	Player	Team	Mat	Inns	Dis	Ct	St
1	MV Boucher	SAF	139	265	521	499	22
2	AC Gilchrist	Aus	96	191	416	379	37
3	IA Healy	Aus	119	224	395	366	29
4	RW Marsh	Aus	96	182	355	343	12
5	PJL Dujon	Win	79	150	270	265	5
6	APE Knott	Eng	95	174	269	250	19
7	AJ Stewart	Eng	82	141	241	227	14
8	Wasim Bari	Pak	81	146	228	201	27
9	TG Evans	Eng	91	175	219	173	46
10	RD Jacobs	Win	65	122	219	207	12
11	Kamran Akmal	Pak	53	99	206	184	22
12	AC Parore	NZl	67	121	201	194	7
13	MS Dhoni	Ind	62	114	200	174	26

Dhoni is No. 9 among wicketkeepers with most Test stumpings. The list:

No	Player	Team	Mat	Inns	Dis	Ct	St
1	WAS Oldfield	Aus	54	101	130	78	52
2	TG Evans	Eng	91	175	219	173	46
3	SMH Kirmani	Ind	88	151	198	160	38
4	AC Gilchrist	Aus	96	191	416	379	37
5	IA Healy	Aus	119	224	395	366	29
6	Wasim Bari	Pal	81	146	228	201	27
7	HAPW Jayawardene	Srl	43	73	107	81	26
8	RS Kaluwitharana	Srl	48	85	119	93	26
9	MS Dhoni	Ind	61	113	200	174	26

The opponent-wise break-up of Dhoni's 200 dismissals:

Opposition	Mat	Inns	Dis	Ct	St
Australia	10	19	35	26	9
Bangladesh	3	6	15	12	3
England	12	22	40	37	3
New Zealand	5	10	22	19	3
Pakistan	5	9	10	9	1
South Africa	10	17	25	24	1
Sri Lanka	9	16	22	21	1
West Indies	8	15	31	26	5
Total	62	114	200	174	26

The top Indian wicketkeepers:

Player	Mat	Dis	Ct	St
MS Dhoni	62	200	174	26
S Kirmani	88	198	160	38
K More	49	130	110	20
N Mongia	44	107	99	8
F Engineer	46	82	66	16
N Tamhane	21	51	35	16
D Karthik	16	50	45	5
P Patel	20	49	41	8

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Climate Shift Could Leave Some Marine Species Homeless

Rising temperatures will force many species of animals and plants to move to other regions and could leave some marine species with nowhere to go, according to new research just published in the journal Science.
An international research team, led by Dr Mike Burrows from the Scottish Association for Marine Science, compared changing temperatures for both land and sea and from place to place over a 50 year period, from 1960 -- 2009.
The team used the data to project how quickly populations of both terrestrial and marine species would have had to relocate to keep up with the changing temperatures. They found that there was very little difference between movement rates in either environment.
Dr Burrows explains, 'When temperatures rise, plants and animals that need a cooler environment move to new regions. The land is warming about three times faster than the ocean so you might simply expect species to move three times faster on land, but that's not the case.
'If the land temperature becomes too hot for some species, they can move to higher ground where temperatures are generally cooler. That's not an option for many marine species which live at, or near, the surface of the ocean. When temperatures rise, species such as fish will be able to move into deeper water to find the cooler environments they prefer -- but other species, such as marine plants or slow-moving corals, will have to move further to find suitable habitats and could become trapped if there are no cooler places for them to go.'
Co-author Dr John Bruno, from the University of North Carolina, agrees that many marine creatures would have a hard time keeping up with climate change. He says, 'Being stuck in a warming environment can cause reductions in the growth, reproduction and survival of ecologically and economically important ocean life such as fish, corals and sea birds.'
The study also highlights the variation in ocean surface temperatures within a very small region, which also causes species movement. Spring-time temperatures in the seas around Scotland, for example, have arrived around 5 days per decade earlier on the east coast, whereas there has been almost no shift in spring temperature on the west coast.
Dr Burrows concludes, 'The areas where species would need to relocate the fastest to stay ahead of climate changes are important biodiversity hotspots, such as the coral triangle in South-eastern Asia. Our study may help conservationists to prepare for change and protect future coral habitats.'
The research was co-funded by the UK Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) and carried out as a part of the 'Towards Understanding Marine Biological Impacts of Climate Change' Working Group supported by the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis, a Center funded by the US National Science Foundation , the University of California, Santa Barbara, and the State of California.

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Anticipation is building for the big screen adaptation of The Hunger Games, the best selling trilogy of books written by Suzanne Collins, which hit theaters on March 23 by Lion's Gate.
Clearly, the studio is hoping Hunger Games be the next Twilight style saga - not that the stars of the film look at it that way, of course.



Jennifer Lawrence, who won the lead role of Katniss Everdeen in Games, emphatically told Vanity Fair Hunger Games is not Twilight, adding, "While I hear the comparisons, it's really premature to say that it will be the same phenomenon." 


She further told Access Hollywood, "The reach is very similar, they're very popular books with a very large fanbase. I think the size of it is very familiar to Twilight."

Lawrence is already a best actress nominee from her role in Winter's Bone, and has also starred in X-Men: First Class. She is trying to brace herself for even more fame, telling the Wall Street Journal that one day she was in a coffee shop thinking, if I say yes to this job, next year at this time people will be here taking pictures of me with their phones. But I didn't want to say no to a script that I loved because I was scared."

As for the film itself, the first installment of The Hunger Games was adapted into screenplay form and directed by Gary Ross, who'd previously written Big, Dave, and wrote and directed Seabiscuit. 

Ross told VF, "My kids turned me on to it, and I went nuts. You rarely get a tentpole that has this much emotional depth, this much character to dive into."

The L.A. Times reports that Lion's Gate is looking at the Games trilogy as a "game changer" for the company, and it has a huge built in audience that will certainly be there opening weekend.

Although the film has kids fighting each other to the death in a futuristic society, in all likelihood it's going to have to stay within a PG-13 for maximum box office impact. 


Lawrence told Access Hollywood her favorite part of weapon training was archery. 

"I feel like Hugh Jackman," she said. "We all have to get into supernatural shape."

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Best Buy whacks $50 from Nook Color's price tag

 

Waiting for Monday to hear about the inevitable? Don't. If you're looking to snap up a Nook Color (review) following the impending price drop -- you know, now that the Nook Tablet is about to replace it on the company's hardware pedestal -- Best Buy would like you to know that it's dropping the MSRP of said product already. What's still listed at $249 at B&N's own site is $199 in the source link below. Celebrate accordingly. 

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Govt gets respite as Anna Hazare's team fumbles

 

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Back in the summer, mass anti-corruption protests modelled on Mahatma Gandhi's methods had India's government running scared. Now, the political class has a new spring in its step as splits and scandals tarnish activist Anna Hazare's team.

These have been tough days for Hazare, the 74-year-old whose two-week hunger strike in August captivated the nation and forced a humiliated government to bow to his demands for a powerful new graft watchdog.

Accusations of financial misdeeds against Hazare's top advisers have smudged an aura of blamelessness around his movement - to the glee of the ruling Congress party as it gears up for parliament's winter session and bellwether state elections next year.

"It's put us in a defensive situation," said Kiran Bedi, a former police officer and senior member of Hazare's movement who this week said she would return some cash after accusations she inflated travel expenses. "It taps lots of extra energy, but you have to draw on your reserves."

Bedi, who shot to fame in the 1980s after she towed away ex-Prime Minister Indira Gandhi's car for a traffic violation, denies any personal gain.

Another top adviser of Hazare, Arvind Kejriwal, this week paid $18,000 in overdue taxes, saying he had done no wrong and the government was running a smear campaign.

It is too soon to write off a movement that made political activists of millions of previously apathetic middle class voters fed up with a venal elite, but there is a sense the scales have for now shifted to the main political parties.

The government is deeply unpopular because of high prices and multi-billion-dollar corruption scandals, but it would rather fight the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party on these issues than a multifarious street movement.

"Congress has been dented by Team Anna's assaults, and on a parallel track the opposition has gained, but it's really back to normal," said Swapan Dasgupta, a former editor of news magazine India Today.

"The party system is more resilient than was made out, there were certain tremors for three weeks or so, but that has not really undermined institutional politics," Dasgupta said.

VOW OF SILENCE

Hazare himself retreated to his village complaining of ill health and observed a vow of silence for 19 days. He travelled to Delhi on Friday to lead talks on the Jan Lokpal Bill, breaking his silence with the nationalist slogan and army battle cry "Bharat Mata ki Jai" or "Victory for Mother India".

"The fight against corruption and for the Jan Lokpal bill is going on and will continue until corruption is completely uprooted," said the retired soldier, who once called for corrupt politicians to be hanged.

Hazare repeated a threat to use his vast popularity to campaign against the Congress party in five election-bound states - including the largest of them all, Uttar Pradesh - a controversial partisan policy that has divided supporters.

A test of this tactic by Hazare's team in a by-election in October was nominally a success: the Congress candidate had so few votes he lost his deposit. But by taking sides in the political fray, Hazare split his own movement and two core activists left.

It now looks increasingly possible that the leadership of the movement will dissolve if parliament passes the bill to create the corruption ombudsman in its month-long winter session starting Nov 22.

"What we are hoping is that, irrespective of what happens, whether the same team or the same leadership carries on the movement, we hope and we expect that the momentum and the energy will be carried on," said Prashant Bhushan, a lawyer who helped draft the bill.

Ultra-nationalists burst into Bhushan's office and beat him up while he was being interviewed by a TV channel in October after he said citizens of the contested region of Kashmir should be allowed to vote on autonomy from India.

Hazare, who says he was scarred by a bullet during a 1965 war with Pakistan over the Kashmir issue, reacted angrily to Bhushan's comments and said he was ready to fight another war with India's arch-rival.

If Hazare's principal aim of creating a powerful new tool to fight the rampant culture of graft in high politics and business is met, many of his allies, including Bedi, say they would be ready for a rest.

"You cannot expect the same group of people who have come together on the particular issue of corruption, to carry on many other issues in which there could be some difference of opinion," said Bhushan.

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Agitators blamed for Oakland unrest that injured 8

 

OAKLAND, Calif (Reuters) - Police arrested more than 100 demonstrators early on Thursday in clashes that activists and Oakland city officials alike blamed on agitators who provoked unrest following a day of mostly peaceful rallies against economic inequality.

Officials said eight people -- five civilians and three police officers -- were injured in violence that left Oakland streets littered with graffiti, smashed glass and debris. But the nature or severity of those injuries was not disclosed.

Busloads of police in riot gear advanced on demonstrators after midnight, firing tear gas to disperse hundreds lingering in downtown streets hours after protesters numbering in the thousands had forced a shutdown of the busy Port of Oakland.

The clampdown appeared aimed at preventing protesters from expanding their foothold in the streets around a public plaza that has become a hub for demonstrations in Oakland, a largely working-class city on the eastern banks of San Francisco Bay.

City officials said police acted in response to "a select group of people" who vandalized property, set several fires, assaulted police officers and broke into a downtown building.

"We had the opportunity to isolate the main group of people who seemed to be hiding in the crowd all day," Mayor Jean Quan told a news conference. "The police, I think, very effectively got in and surrounded and arrested them."

Activists from the Occupy Oakland movement, who are aligned with anti-Wall Street protests in New York and other U.S. cities against corporate excesses, high unemployment and bank bailouts, said the vandalism gave police an excuse to intervene. Some blamed "anarchist youths" for the unrest.

"Everything went beautiful until these guys (came) with scarves around their mouths, and then all hell broke loose. Our city just got demolished," said Johnny Allen, 60, a health-care provider sweeping away debris in front of City Hall.

City crews pressure-washed graffiti messages such as "kill cops" and "SMASH" that had been sprayed on downtown buildings.

Protester Laura Long said it was unfortunate the rallies in the city "should be marred by broken windows and graffiti."

Still, she called the police action "unprovoked."

Acting Oakland Police Chief Howard Jordan, addressing a special meeting of the city council on Thursday, said 101 people had been arrested.

'ABSOLUTELY UNACCEPTABLE'

Several hundred people attended the boisterous meeting, including protesters asking the city for more support and residents who backed them.

Business leaders called on the council to shut down the downtown protest encampment, saying it had damaged the local economy by driving customers away from stores and prompting new businesses to reconsider plans to relocate to Oakland.

"The situation we find ourselves in is absolutely unacceptable. We want Occupy Oakland closed," Oakland Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce president Joe Haraburda said, to boos and hisses from protesters in the audience.

The unrest in Oakland, which has shot to the forefront of nationwide Occupy Wall Street protests, came a week after former U.S. Marine Scott Olsen was badly injured in a previous clash between police and protesters.

The wounding of Olsen, an Iraq war veteran turned peace activist, appeared to galvanize Oakland's demonstrators and helped broaden their grievances to include police brutality.

Following a day of rallies that drew some 7,000 activists at their height, police sought shortly after midnight to pen demonstrators back inside Frank Ogawa Plaza, a square next to City Hall that protesters have for weeks used as a camp.

Despite some early sporadic vandalism, demonstrators on the scene said downtown streets were largely calm when police -- who had kept their distance throughout the day -- arrived and ordered the "unlawful assembly" to disperse.

Lined up shoulder to shoulder, police fired volleys of tear gas, forcing the demonstrators to retreat to the plaza, then made a second charge with batons and tear gas about an hour later to drive protesters farther into the square's interior.

Some protesters hurled tear gas canisters and rocks back at police. At least one was seen being carried away with a leg injury. Another who had been arrested, his hands bound behind him, lay on the ground with blood streaming down his face.

Adam Konner, 29, of Ann Arbor, Michigan, said he didn't clearly hear a police announcement ordering "campers to move back to your tents," before officers rushed in.

"I was trying to figure what they were saying. I was trying to figure out if I could go back into the plaza," he told Reuters, recounting being knocked to the ground and arrested.

The streets were calm by daylight. Dozens of tents remained standing in the plaza, and a cold drizzle dampened prospects for further disturbances later in the day.

The Port of Oakland, the nation's fourth busiest maritime container-cargo hub with $39 billion in yearly imports and exports, was back in full swing by late morning after being shut down by the protests on Wednesday.

Friction between some Occupy Oakland protesters seemed deepened by the unrest after disagreements flared overnight between a minority of protesters who set up trash-can barricades and others, often older demonstrators, who lectured about the need to keep protests peaceful.

A sign on a coffee shop with a shattered window offered an apology: "We're sorry. This does not represent us."

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Pirates seize tanker off coast of Nigeria

 

Pirates seized an oil tanker with over 20 crew off the coast of Nigeria, an official of the International Maritime Bureau said on Thursday amid mounting concern at such attacks in West Africa.

"We believe it's been hijacked and we believe there are about 25 crew on board," Cyrus Mody, a London-based manager with the world's piracy watchdog told AFP on the phone.

The attack occurred on October 30, he said.

A Nigerian vessel servicing an international oil firm was also attacked on on the country's waters off the Niger Delta region on Wednesday and its whereabouts were unclear on Thursday, a security source told AFP in the oil city of Port Harcourt.

Neither the nationalities of the crew on the tanker nor details of the vessel could be immediately confirmed. A Nigerian navy official was unable to confirm the incident.

The attacks are the latest in a surge of attacks along the Gulf of Guinea in recent months.

Twenty Eastern European crew hijacked off Nigeria last month were freed along with their vessel around a week later.

The coast of Nigeria, Africa's largest oil producer, has long been a dangerous place to sail, and the risk has extended in recent months to the coast of the small neighbouring nation of Benin.

Benin's coast has seen at least 20 piracy incidents this year compared to none in 2010. The two neighbours - Nigeria and Benin - in September launched joint sea patrols to tackle the piracy surge.

The maritime bureau has warned that the spate of attacks off West Africa indicates the region could emerge as a new piracy "hotspot".

Unlike the explosion of piracy off the coast of Somalia on the eastern side of the continent in recent years, those involved in the recent west African attacks have so far not appeared to be after ransom payments.

Fuel or oil cargo has been stolen for sale on the region's lucrative black market, while robberies have also occurred. Crew members have been beaten and the pirates tend to be heavily armed.

The theft of such cargo tends to be relatively sophisticated, with tankers often being directed to another pirate-controlled ship, where the fuel is siphoned and then taken elsewhere for sale.

Benin, Togo and Ghana will hold a meeting in Cotonou next week to hammer out ways to end piracy in the Gulf of Guinea.

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Lufthansa agrees to sell British Midland to IAG

 

German airline Lufthansa said Friday it has agreed in principle to sell its loss-making unit British Midland to the International Airlines Group, the holding company of British Airways.

"Deutsche Lufthansa AG and International Consolidated Airlines Group have reached an agreement in principle on the sale of British Midland to IAG," the German carrier said in a statement.

"The sale and closing of the deal remain subject to conditions including a binding purchase agreement, further due diligence and regulatory clearances. It is envisaged that the purchase agreement will be signed in the coming weeks and the aim is for the transaction to be completed in the first quarter of 2012," the statement said.

Media reports said Virgin Atlantic had also been interested in buying British Midland (BMI) because of its attractive slots -- take-off and landing rights -- at Heathrow airport.

Lufthansa acquired the British airline in 2009, but the recent crises and conflicts in the key regions of North Africa and the Middle East prevented the German carrier from steering the unit back into profit.

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Jail for Pakistan cricketers a "wake-up call"

 

Tough jail sentences handed down to disgraced former Pakistan cricketers and their agent by a British judge were welcomed Friday as a "wake-up call" for the game as well as a tragedy for the youngest player involved in the fixing scandal.

Former captain Salman Butt, 27, looked aghast as he received a 30-month sentence at London's Southwark Crown Court, where he and fast bowler Mohammad Asif were found guilty on Tuesday of fixing parts of the August 2010 Lord's Test match against England.

Asif, 28, was jailed for a year, while prodigious 19-year-old bowler Mohammad Aamer, who admitted involvement in pre-arranging no-balls for shadowy South Asian betting rings, was sentenced to six months in a young offenders' institution.

Their corrupt British agent Mazhar Majeed, 36, who had also pleaded guilty, was given the longest sentence -- two years and eight months.

The Guardian's editorial recognised the waste caused by 18-year-old Aamer's detention, but reasoned that the game's reputation was too important for sentimentality to prevail.

"It's no time to surrender. A beefed-up International Cricket Council (ICC), longer bans, greater powers to investigate. The fightback starts now," it declared.

Former England captain and Times cricket correspondent Michael Atherton called Aamer's plight "tragic" and claimed all three custodial sentences "bordered on harsh".

"There are those who want to see blood spilt, of course, those for whom no punishment is too severe," he wrote in Friday's edition. "Their careers are already over. What more do people want?"

The former opening batsman questioned what was to be gained in sending Aamer to London's notorious Feltham Young Offenders Institute, which, according to its latest inspection, was a place where 'fights between young people were frequent and vestiges of youth gang culture were inevitably imported'.

"There is only sadness and the hope that, for Amir, redemption can be found," he concluded.

The Telegraph's Paul Kelso echoed Atherton's concerns, calling it a "hollow victory" in the battle to clean up cricket.

"So much of this case is singular that the prospect of three UK cells being filled by foreign cricketers can only be greeted with sadness," he wrote.

"It is one of many singularities of the case that Aamer's no-balls came in the midst of a devastating spell of four for none that reduced England to their knees and set up one of the greatest days of competitive cricket Lord's has seen.

"No-one who saw him send the England top-order packing could suggest he was not trying," he argued.

Tim May, head of the Federation of International Cricketers' Associations (FICA), which co-ordinates the activities of national players' associations, said it should be a wake up call to anyone contemplating cheating.

"The real possibility of spending time in prison is a further compelling argument for players to distance themselves from those who seek to profit illegally from the game," the Australian said in a statement.

He said he had mixed emotions about the verdict in London's Southwark Crown Court, saying he was concerned that spot fixing still appeared to be prevalent despite cricket authorities spending millions of dollars to stamp it out.

But he said he felt "satisfaction that the prosecution has been able to identify corruption and deliver a loud and clear message to players of all sports that if you are caught cheating the integrity of sport you will be prosecuted and face severe penalties".

In passing sentence judge Jeremy Cooke said the offences "regardless of pleas, are so serious that only a sentence of imprisonment will suffice," adding they would each serve half their sentences and then be released on licence.

He said the players were motivated by greed despite the fortunes they could earn legitimately, and said he hoped the sentences would deter other cricketers and agents from following their "hugely detrimental" example.

The judge also condemned the "insidious effect" of their actions on the sport of cricket itself, "the very name of which used to be associated with fair dealing".

"It's the insidious effect of your actions on professional cricket and the followers of it which make the offences so serious," he told the packed courtroom.

Its "image and integrity" stands "damaged in the eyes of all, including the many youngsters who regarded three of you as heroes".

Despite their status, he said the players had "procured the bowling of three no-balls for money to the detriment of your national cricket team, with the object of enabling others to cheat at gambling".

Any surprising event in a cricket match will now be suspect to suspicion, he said.

The world of cricket has reacted with dismay to the worst fixing scandal since South Africa captain Hansie Cronje in 2000, but the head of the anti-corruption unit of the International Cricket Council, Ronnie Flanagan, denied that corruption was rampant in the sport.

"The vast, vast majority of cricketers are not only wonderfully talented, but wonderfully ethical people," he said.

The ICC has banned Butt for ten years, with five suspended, Asif for seven years, with two suspended, and Aamer for five years straight, sanctions which they are appealing against.

Butt, whose wife gave birth Tuesday, intends to appeal, his lawyer said outside court. Aamer also intends to appeal, the BBC reported.

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