The brain is the control center of the central nervous system, responsible for behavior. In mammals, the brain is located in the head, protected by the skull and close to the primary sensory apparatus of vision, hearing, equilibrioception, sense of taste, and olfaction. The outer layer of the brain, the reasoning, planning and self-aware region known as the cerebral cortex, has a central clearinghouse of activity below the crown of the head that is widely connected to more-specialized regions in a large network similar to a subway map, scientists reported.

 The new report, published in the free-access online journal PLOS Biology, provides the most complete rough draft to date of the cortex’s electrical architecture, the cluster of interconnected nodes and hubs that help guide thinking and behavior.

 The paper also provides a striking demonstration of how new imaging techniques focused on the brain’s white matter — the connections between cells, rather than the neurons themselves — are filling in a dimension of human brain function that has been all but dark.

 In previous studies, scientists have used magnetic resonance imaging to identify peaks and valleys of neural activity when people are doing various things, like making decisions, reacting to frightening images or reliving painful memories.

 But these studies, while provocative, revealed virtually nothing about the underlying neural networks involved — about which brain regions speak to one another and when. Previous estimates of network structure, based on such imaging, have been sketchy. The new findings, while not conclusive, give scientists what is essentially a wiring diagram that they can test and refine.

 “This is just about the coolest paper I’ve seen in a long time, and forward-looking in terms of where the science is going,” said Dr. Marcus E. Raichle, a professor of neurology and radiology at Washington University in St. Louis, who was not involved in the research. He added, “They’ve found in the brain what looks like a hub map of the airline system for the United States.”

 Dr. Sporns said continued research should help produce a complete and detailed neural wiring diagram, what he called the “connectome” of the brain. “We hope we can get to a place where we have, in effect, a brain simulator, in the same way we have computer models that can simulate the climate,” he said, “so we can simulate activation patterns we see in clinical cases,” like psychiatric problems and brain injuries.

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Cosmetics are substances used to enhance or protect the appearance or odor of the human skin. Cosmetics include skin-care creams, lotions, powders, perfumes, lipsticks, fingernail and toenail polishes, eye and facial makeup, permanent aves, hair colors, hair sprays and gels, deodorants, baby products, bath oils, bubble baths, bath salts, butters and many other types of products. Their use is widespread, especially among women in Western countries. A subset of cosmetics is called "make-up," which refers primarily to colored products intended to alter the user’s appearance. Many manufacturers distinguish between decorative cosmetics and care cosmetics.

The manufacture of cosmetics is currently dominated by a small number of multinational corporations that originated in the early 20th century, but the distribution and sale of cosmetics is spread among a wide range of different businesses. The U.S. FDA which regulates cosmetics in the United States. Defines cosmetics as "intended to be applied to the human body for cleansing, beautifying, promoting attractiveness, or altering the appearance without affecting the body's structure or functions." This broad definition includes, as well, any material intended for use as a component of a cosmetic product. The FDA specifically excludes soap from this category.

Babies exposed to lotion, shampoo and powder had more than four times the level of phthalates in their urine as those whose parents had not used the products. Previous research found that the substances altered the children’s hormones. Infants and toddlers exposed to baby lotions, shampoos and powders carry high concentrations of hormone-altering chemicals in their bodies that might have reproductive effects, according to a new scientific study of babies born in Los Angeles and two other U.S. cities.

The research, to be published today in the medical journal Pediatrics, found that as the use of baby care products rose, so did the concentration of phthalates, which are used in many fragrances. Manufacturers do not list phthalates as ingredients on labels, so it is unknown which products contain them. The researchers at the University of Washington and the University of Rochester stressed that the potential effects on babies were uncertain.

But previous animal and human research suggests that early exposure to some phthalates could reduce testosterone and alter reproductive organs, particularly in males. The three phthalate compounds found in the highest concentrations in babies in the study were linked to reduced testosterone in a 2006 study of newborns in Denmark. Some scientists theorize such changes in hormones could lead to fertility problems and male reproductive disorders.

Representatives of the fragrance and cosmetics industries said they were surprised by the findings and questioned their validity. They said only one phthalate compound is used in baby products, and it is found in such low levels that they doubt it could explain high concentrations found in the babies

"Phthalate exposure is widespread and variable in infants. We found that mothers' reported use of infant lotion, infant powder and shampoo was significantly associated with urinary concentrations," the scientists wrote in the new study.In the study, babies exposed to baby lotion, shampoo and powder had more than four times the level of phthalates in their urine than babies whose parents had not used the products. The highest levels were reported in babies under 8 months old, and those exposed to lotions.

Previous studies have focused on a different route of exposure for children: sucking on soft, vinyl toys. Phthalates, in addition to helping cosmetics retain fragrance and color, are used as plasticizers in some vinylIn their report, the scientists advised parents who want to reduce their baby's exposure to stop using lotions and powders unless their doctors recommend them for medical reasons. They also suggested limiting use of shampoos and other products. Many adult lotions and other personal care products also contain phthalates. But DEP is used at "very low levels, in the part-per-million range, below what could possibly account for the levels they are finding" in the babies' .The highest concentrations in the babies were for a phthalate known as MEP, which comes from DEP, the compound used in fragrances. One baby had an extremely high level of MEP -- 4.4 parts per million.

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When it comes to picking a partner, being choosy is rewarded by cooperativeness, says a new study. The study, led by John McNamara, a professor at the University of Bristol, stated that the level of cooperation and the degree of choosiness increase together over time. “The problem is that the process of natural selection tends to produce individuals that do the best for themselves. So why has a behaviour evolved that appears to benefit others at a cost to the individual concerned,” Nature quoted McNamara.

“In our model, an individual’s level of choosiness determines the level of cooperation demanded of its partner. If the current partner is not cooperative enough the individual stops interacting with this partner and seeks a better partner, even though finding a new partner incurs costs”.

Therefore, when the time arrives to leave the current partner and seek a more cooperative one, two components are needed for this happening. Firstly, there must be better partners in the crowd and secondly, there must be time to exploit the relationship with the new partner, which will be true for long-lived animals like humans.

If these conditions are achieved, natural selection will lead to a certain degree of choosiness evolving. And once this happens, an individual that is not cooperative will be discarded by its partner and must pay the cost of finding another partner. Thus, cooperation can evolve from an initially uncooperative population. 

In the study, the researchers considered a large population where, in each of a discrete series of time steps, pairs of individuals engage in a ‘game’ in which each individual does best by being uncooperative and letting its partner put in the hard work. 

Every volunteer was characterised by two traits: a cooperativeness trait, which specifies the effort that the individual made in generating benefits available to its co-player, and a choosiness trait, which specifies the minimum degree of cooperativeness that the individual is prepared to accept from its co-player. The traits are not adjusted in response to the co-player’s behaviour and do not change over an individual’s life.

Professor Nigel Brown, Director of Science and Technology at BBSRC, said: “This is one of a number of fields where modelling studies are advancing biological science more rapidly than experiment alone can achieve.” The study is published in Nature.

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Ratan Tata drove in the Nano, the much awaited Rs 100,000 ($2,500) "people's car", into the podium in Tata Motor's pavilion at the Auto Expo 2008 in New Delhi, heralding the launch of the world's cheapest car. The Nano is here. Ratan Tata seems to have achieved the feat of showcasing to the world a one-lakh rupee car that meets the specs of an international affordable peoples' car. The small beauty claims to meet all the current safety requirements of a modern day car and has pollution levels that are even less than those of a two-wheeler.

But Nano will have to shake off the ‘one-lakh rupee’ tag as the on-road prices will also include VAT, transportation, insurance and road tax component. So, the on-road price may actually go much beyond one lakh. The 33-horsepower, 624-cc Nano will come at a dealer price of Rs 100,000 ($2500). This, despite rise in the price of inputs such as steel since the project was started four years ago, Tata said at the launch. "A promise is a promise”. Tata also said that Nano fully meets safety and emission standards. The car has passed the full frontal crash test and meets Euro-IV emission norms, he added.

Tata said, alluding to the environmental activists' concerns on the car's adverse impact on the environment. "The vehicle can accommodate four-five people,". Absolute chaos marked the launch of the car, with at least 1,000 members of the media corps struggling to gain entry into Tata Motor's pavilion. Nano, which at Rs 100,000 will cost less than a branded DVD player of a BMW or a Mercedes, will be available to customers later in the year.

The car will be manufactured at the company's Singur facility in West Bengal. The launch is a part of the group's plans to showcase as many as 17 models of cars, utility vehicles, trucks and busses, Tata officials said. Meanwhile, a Tata Motors press release said that the People's Car has been designed with a family in mind. It has a length of 3.1 metres, a width of 1.5 metres and a height of 1.6 metres. When launched, the car will be available in both standard and deluxe versions.

The statement also added that the car has a rear-wheel drive, all-aluminium, two-cylinder, 623 cc, 33 PS, multi-point fuel injection petrol engine. "This is the first time that a two-cylinder gasoline engine is being used in a car with single balancer shaft," it said. "The lean design strategy has helped minimise weight, which helps maximise performance per unit of energy consumed and delivers high fuel efficiency. Performance is controlled by a specially designed electronic engine management system." The car reportedly gives a mileage of 23 km per litre of petrol.

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H.I.V (Human immunodeficiency virus) is a retrovirus that can lead to acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), a condition in humans in which the immune system begins to fail, leading to life-threatening opportunistic infections. Infection with HIV occurs by the transfer of blood, semen, vaginal fluid, pre-ejaculate, or breast milk. Within these bodily fluids, HIV is present as both free virus particles and virus within infected immune cells.

Using a new type of genetic screen, researchers at Harvard Medical School have identified 273 proteins that the AIDS virus needs to survive in human cells, opening up new potential targets for drugs. Their work, published online on Thursday by Science magazine, used RNA interference to screen thousands of protein-making genes; previously, scientists had identified only 36 human proteins that the virus uses to break into cells, hijack their machinery and start reproducing.

“This is just terrific work,” said Dr. Robert C. Gallo, director of the Institute of Human Virology at the University of Maryland and a co-discoverer of the virus. “I think it’s destined to be one of the top papers in this field for the decade.” Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and the government’s top AIDS expert, called the Harvard team’s work “elegant science,” but added a caution. “It remains to be seen if any of these proteins they identified are useful clinically,”

Dr. Fauci said. “This is hypothesis-generating, not hypothesis-solving. It creates a lot of work — someone has to go down each of these pathways.” The lead author on the paper, Dr. Stephen J. Elledge, is a geneticist, and this is his first work on the human immunodeficiency virus, which causes AIDS. His previous work has been on cancer,

Dr. Elledge said, trying to figure out how cells sense when their chromosomes are broken, and this paper was a collaborative effort. “I can’t even grow H.I.V. in my lab,” Dr. Elledge said, so he had to use virus grown by Dr. Judy Lieberman, director of the medical school’s AIDS division and one of the co-authors. Dr. Elledge’s team used a library of tens of thousands of different short interfering RNAs, bits of genetic code — each of which, when introduced into a cell, knocks out the cell’s ability to make a single protein.

Next, about 21,000 samples of cells, each crippled in its ability to produce one protein, were placed in separate wells on laboratory plates and dosed with the virus. If the virus could not reproduce normally in a given well, it suggested that the missing protein was one of those it needed. Of the 273 human proteins identified, only 36 had been previously found by other methods.

The virus, which is itself only a short string of genetic material inside a protective capsule, can make only 15 proteins, so it has to adopt human proteins to its own use. Many of the proteins identified by the screen are already known to be important to cells in the immune system, which is the port of entry for H.I.V.

Dr. Abraham L. Brass, a co-author, said the screening method undoubtedly missed other proteins the virus needs, “but the majority of the ones we found are highly likely to play a role in H.I.V. propagation.”

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Nicole Camille Richie (born September 21, 1981) is an American socialite, actress, television personality, author, model, and singer. The daughter of Lionel Richie, she is known for her role in the reality show The Simple Life and her turbulent personal life.

Nicole Richie was born Nicole Camille Escovedo in Berkeley, California. She is reportedly the biological daughter of Mexican/African-American percussionist Peter Escovedo III and a white woman identified only as a backstage assistant on Lionel Richie's 1980 world tour; Escovedo was a member of Richie's band. Reportedly, Nicole's mother was never a factor in her life, and Escovedo raised her alone. Escovedo took Nicole to Richie's shows and recording sessions, and she became something of a mascot for the band

In addition to figure skating, Richie studied the guitar, cello, violin, and piano. In 1986, she started kindergarten at The Buckley School in Sherman Oaks, California where she met Paris Hilton. Richie graduated from Montclair College Preparatory School in 2000. After high school, she studied Arts and Media for two years at the University of Arizona.

Richie has guest starred in television series including Eve and American Dreams. In American Dreams, Richie portrayed Brenda Reid, the lead singer of the girl group The Exciters, and sang the group's hit song "Tell Him".

Harlow Winter Kate Madden was born at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, People said, quoting a spokesman for Richie's manager. It is the first child for Richie, 26, and Joel Madden, 28, the lead singer of pop-punk band Good Charlotte. Richie, the adopted daughter of singer Lionel Richie, has become a tabloid staple in recent years on account of her party-hopping lifestyle, stick-thin figure, and fractured friendship with Paris Hilton, her co-star in the reality TV series "The Simple Life."

Acting and singing, Richie has also modeled and has appeared in ads for Bongo Jeans and Jimmy Choo. In April 2007, Richie announced plans to start jewelry, accessories, and sunglasses line along with a perfume and style book.

Richie was a member of the rock band Darling in 2004. Since 2005, Richie has been working on her debut album. A release date has not yet been announced.In 2005, Richie wrote a semi-autobiographical novel, The Truth About Diamonds, which was released by Bharell Jackson Publishing. The novel is loosely based on her life, but is mostly fictional. It chronicles Chloe Parker, the adopted daughter of a singer who makes her way through all of the hottest nightclubs and parties in Hollywood and battles a drug addiction. It was rumored that a character in the book, Simone Westlake, was based on Paris Hilton.

A pregnant Richie spent an hour in a Los Angeles jail in August after being sentenced to four days for driving the wrong way on a Los Angeles freeway while under the influence of drugs. Prison overcrowding in Los Angeles County means nonviolent offenders often spend only a fraction of their sentences behind bars.

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WASHINGTON - A cough medicine is a medicinal drug used to treat coughing and related conditions. Dry coughs are treated with cough suppressants (antitussives) that suppress the bodies urge to cough, while productive coughs (coughs that produce phlegm) are treated with expectorants that loosen mucus from the respiratory tract. These medicines are widely available in the form of cough syrup, also known as linctus.

About 3.1 million people between the ages of 12-25 have used cough and cold medicine to get high, the government reported Wednesday.

The number of young people who abused over-the-counter cold medicines is comparable to use of LSD and much greater than that for methamphetamine among the age group, according to the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

The agency's 2006 survey on drug abuse and health found that more than 5 percent of teenagers and young adults had misused cough and cold medicines and indicated that these people also had experimented frequently with illicit drugs.

Nearly 82 percent also had used marijuana. Slightly less than half also used inhalants or hallucinogens, such as LSD or Ecstasy, the agency said.

The cough suppressant DXM is found in more than 140 cough and cold medications available without a prescription. When taken in large amounts, DXM can cause disorientation, blurred vision, slurred speech and vomiting.

Among all persons aged 12 to 25, the rate of past year misuse among whites was 2.1 percent, which was three times higher than the level for blacks, 0.6 percent, and also significantly higher than the level for Hispanics, 1.4 percent.

"While increasing attention has been paid to the public health risk of prescription drug abuse, we also need to be aware of the growing dangers of misuse of over-the-counter cough and cold medications, especially among young people," said Terry Cline, the agency's administrator.

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Jeff Raikes, the president of Microsoft's Business Division, plans to retire. As president of the Microsoft Business Division; Jeff Raikes oversees the Information Worker, Server & Tools Business and Microsoft Business Solutions Groups. This division delivers software, servers and software-based services that maximize the impact that an organization's key assets, their people, have on both structured and unstructured business activities, thereby amplifying business success. Its products include the Microsoft Office system of programs, servers and software-based services, Microsoft Dynamics, business applications for small and midsize businesses, large organizations and divisions of global enterprises and Microsoft’s Server & Tools Business, products that provide the foundation for IT operations, security, application development and integration.

Raikes' association with Microsoft dates back to 1981 and was involved in the development of the company's applications marketing strategy and graphical applications for the Apple Macintosh and the Windows operating system. He became vice president of Office Systems in 1990 and became group vice president of the Worldwide Sales and Support Group. Later in 2000, Raikes returned to the business groups to enhance the company's productivity applications and to include unified communications, business intelligence, business applications and services in the company's core business.

"There is no overstating the incredible impact Jeff has had during his amazing career at Microsoft,”. Raikes will be replaced by Stephen Elop, formerly the chief operating officer at Juniper Networks. Elop also did a stint as president of worldwide field operations at Adobe Systems following its acquisition of Macromedia, where he served as president and CEO.

Software giant Microsoft Corp. Thursday revealed that Jeff Raikes, president of the Microsoft Business Division or MBD would retire from the company, effective September 2008. During the nine-month period, Raikes will ensure a flawless transition of responsibilities and management of the division. Raikes will be replaced by Stephen Elop, former chief operating officer of Juniper Networks Inc. Raikes will remain as a member of the company's senior leadership team until his departure.

Commenting on Raikes retirement, chief executive officer of Microsoft Steve Ballmer said, "There is no overstating the incredible impact Jeff has had during his amazing career at Microsoft. Leading our business division, Jeff and his team have delivered terrific results while reshaping and expanding the portfolio of our business-related products and services to ensure a very healthy future for our customers, partners and Microsoft."

Elop is slated to join by January end and will be responsible for the Information Worker, Microsoft Business Solutions and Unified Communications businesses. In Juniper Networks, a valued Microsoft partner, Elop had been managing the company's product groups, corporate development, global sales and service and marketing and manufacturing organizations. Elop joined Juniper from Adobe Systems Inc., where he was president of worldwide field operations responsible for the company's global sales organization and all customer-facing functions. Elop's association with Adobe started in 2005 when the company acquired Macromedia Inc.

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You have one more reason to ask for workplace flexibility from your boss. It has now been proved scientifically that if companies provide workplace flexibility and if employees perceive that flexibility as real, then healthier lifestyle habits are put into action by those employees.

"People who believe they have flexibility in their work lives have healthier lifestyles. Individuals who perceive an increase in their flexibility are more likely to start some positive lifestyle behaviours," says Joseph G Grzywacz, author of the study on effects of workplace flexibility on health behaviours.Flexibility programmes that are situated within a broader organisational commitment to employee health may be useful for promoting positive lifestyle habits, avers study. Data for the study came from Health Risk Appraisals (HRAs) completed by employees of a large multinational pharmaceutical company.

This company is consistently recognised by Working Mother magazine as among the most family-friendly employers in the United States, in large part, because if its commitment to flexibility such as compressed workweeks, flextime, job sharing, and remote or telework. Employees with a wide variety of jobs and responsibilities completed the HRA, including executives, administrative support staff, and warehouse and production workers. The data was analysed to determine if lifestyle behaviours differ between employees with different levels of perceived flexibility and to identify if changes in flexibility over a one-year time period predicted changes in health behavior.

"These weren't all office workers that's an important point," Grzywacz of Wake Forest University School of Medicine, said. "This isn't just about high-level office workers these people perform a wide variety of tasks within the company." The study focused on frequency of physical activity, engagement in stress management programmes, participation in health education activities, healthful sleep habits, and self-appraised overall lifestyle.

"Overall, the results showed that nearly all the health behaviours examined in this study were associated with perceived flexibility. "Although further research is needed, these results suggest that flexibility programmes that are situated within a broader organisational commitment to employee health may be useful for promoting positive lifestyle habits." The author said the study is important because it reinforces the idea that workplace flexibility is important to workplace health and there had been little systemic research till now in support of this belief.

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The Governor and Company of the Bank of England is a state owned institution acting as the central bank of the United Kingdom which convenes the Monetary Policy Committee that is responsible for managing the monetary policy of the country. It was established in 1694 to act as the English Government's banker, and to this day it still acts as the banker for the UK Government. The Bank's building is located in the City of London, in Thread needle Street and hence it is sometimes known as The Old Lady of Thread needle Street or the Old Lady

The Bank of England will probably resist calls for another interest-rate cut today as policy makers gauge the effects of last month's reduction on the economy, a survey of economist’s shows. The nine-member Monetary Policy Committee, led by Governor Mervyn King, will keep the bank rate at 5.5 percent. The rest forecast a quarter-point cut. The bank will announce the decision at noon in London.

Economists predict officials will wait until next month before lowering rates again as banks pare lending, cooling economic growth and deepening a slowdown in the housing market. The bank is weighing those risks against the threat of inflation after oil costs rose to a record $100 a barrel last week.

The pound has fallen on expectations of further rate cuts. Against the euro, the currency shared by 15 European countries that buy about half of British exports, it's dropped 11 percent since the start of July. The pound has fallen 6 percent against the dollar since reaching a 26-year high of $2.1162. Investors are betting on a cut today, derivatives trading shows. A Credit Suisse index of probability derived from overnight indexed swap rates showed the odds on a quarter-point reduction to 5.25 percent were 61 percent yesterday, compared with 50 percent the day before.

The Bank of England's benchmark rate is the highest among the Group of Seven industrialized nations. The U.S. Federal Reserve has trimmed its rate three times to 4.25 percent. The European Central Bank will keep its benchmark at 4 percent today. The U.K. central bank trimmed its rate by a quarter points in December in the first unanimous vote for a reduction since the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. ``Financial market turmoil, and the consequent tightening of credit conditions, had increased the downside risks to activity,'' policy makers said in the minutes of the decision.

Banks became reluctant to lend to each other because of concern about losses on U.S. sub prime mortgage investments. U.K. banks plan to make fewer loans to consumers and companies in the first quarter, the central bank's quarterly survey on credit conditions showed on Jan. 3.

House prices fell in the fourth quarter from the previous three months, the first drop in seven years, according to HBOS Plc. Energy and food prices should keep inflation above target in the short-term, but slowing demand growth should reduce the pressure on supply capacity, bringing inflation back to target. Inflation stayed above the central bank's 2 percent target for a second month in November. U.K. gasoline prices rose to a record this week after the cost of crude oil reached $100.09 a barrel, and RWE AG's Npower business, Britain's fourth-biggest energy retailer, raised gas prices by an average 17 percent and electricity prices by 13 percent this month.

Economists predict the Bank of England will move in February, when it publishes new forecasts for economic growth and inflation. ``There's no urgency to continue cutting now,'' said ABN Amro's White. ``The fall in sterling, pay settlements and rising power prices all suggest that we could see another hump in inflation. It's a very difficult situation for the bank.''

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Yoga induces a feeling of well-being in healthy people, and can reverse the clinical and biochemical changes associated with metabolic syndrome, according to results of studies from Sweden and India. Metabolic syndrome is a cluster of heart disease risk factors such as high blood pressure, obesity and high blood sugar. Dr. R.P. Agrawal, of the SP Medical College, Bikaner, India, and colleagues evaluated the beneficial effects of yoga and meditation in 101 adults with features of metabolic syndrome.

In the study, 55 adults received three months of regular yoga including standard postures and Raja Yoga, a form of transcendental meditation daily, while the remaining received standard care.

Waist circumference, blood pressure, blood sugar, and triglycerides were significantly lower, and "good" HDL cholesterol levels were higher in the yoga group as compared to controls, Agrawal's team reports in the journal Diabetes Research and Clinical Practice. In the second study, published online December 19 in BioMed Central Complementary and Alternative Medicine, Dr. Anette Kjellgren from the University of Karlstad, Sweden and colleagues evaluated the beneficial effects of yoga-like breathing exercises on healthy volunteers.

Fifty-five adults were advised to practice "Sudarshan Kriya," which involves cycles of slow normal and rapid breathing exercises. The exercises were practiced for an hour daily, six days a week for six weeks, while 48 controls were advised to relax in an armchair for 15 minutes daily. At the end of the study period, feelings of anxiety, stress and depression were significantly lower and levels of optimism significantly higher in the yoga group compared to the control group, Kjellgren and colleagues report.

Yoga induces a "relaxation response" associated with reduced nervous system activity and a feeling of well-being probably due to an increase in antioxidants and lower levels of the stress hormone cortisol, they suggest. Yoga not only helps in prevention of lifestyle diseases, but can also be "a powerful adjunct therapy when these diseases arise," co-investigator Dr. Faahri Saatiglou, from the University of Oslo, told Reuters Health. "We do not emphasise this point enough in our Western health care.”

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Yahoo! Inc is an American public corporation and global Internet services company. It provides a range of products and services including a web portal, a search engine, the Yahoo! Directory, Yahoo! Mail, news, and posting. There may not be a Yahoo phone in the works, but the struggling Internet company is betting that a new mobile-phone strategy will help it better compete with the likes of Google, Microsoft and others for a share of the growing cellphone advertising business.

On Monday at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Yahoo is planning to announce that it has opened up some of its key mobile software and services to outside publishers and programmers in an effort to make Yahoo’s own mobile offerings more useful to more people.

The strategy falls in line with the chief executive Jerry Yang’s plans to turn around Yahoo by making it the “starting point for the most consumers” on the Internet. To achieve that, he told investors last fall, Yahoo would have to develop platforms that are open to outside publishers and developers.

MySpace, eBay and MTV Networks have already created mobile services that are accessible via a new Yahoo home page tailored for mobile phones and through Yahoo Go, a cellphone software package that Yahoo introduced two years ago. The Yahoo mobile home page and Yahoo Go both give users easy access to e-mail, search, news, weather and other services provided by Yahoo.

Now users of Yahoo’s mobile offerings will also have easy access to applications from other companies. As more of them create useful programs that run on top of Yahoo’s mobile services, the company hopes that more users will choose its services over those of rivals.

Mr. Boerries said that developers, who often find it frustrating to have to rewrite their software for multiple mobile platforms, would be able to create programs on top of Yahoo’s services, which themselves run across a broad range of devices.

But wireless industry veterans say that Yahoo’s attempt to become a platform faces hurdles and competition. Other companies, including cellphone makers like Nokia and Apple, and mobile software providers, like Google and Microsoft, are trying to lure third-party publishers and programmers to create services for their mobile platforms.

Although Yahoo Go runs on about 250 mobile devices, and comes preloaded on some phones made by Motorola, LG, Samsung and Nokia, carriers in the United States strip the software from the phones. Currently, no American carrier offers phones with the Yahoo software installed, forcing American consumers who want to use Yahoo Go to download it themselves, a requirement that limits its distribution.

Mr. Boerries said that developers who write services to run on Yahoo’s mobile offerings could choose to have Yahoo deliver ads on those services.

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Exercise is manual activity that develops or maintains physical fitness and overall health. It is often practiced to strengthen muscles and the cardiovascular system, and to hone athletic skills. A lack of time is one of the main excuses people give for not exercising, but experts say it's easy to sneak exercise into your life.

Melina Jampolis, an internist who works with overweight patients in the San Francisco area, advises clients to squeeze in activity whenever they can. She tells them to do five minutes of calisthenics, such as sit-ups or push-ups, in the morning, take a 10-minute walk at lunch, pace when talking on the phone and march in place while watching commercials on TV.

She also suggests broadening your definition of exercise beyond the traditional workout. Active volunteer work, for example, like coaching a Little League team, packing boxes at a food bank or cleaning up the neighborhood, will get you moving and use your muscles.

Jampolis, author of The No Time to Lose Diet, says one of her female patients started walking dogs at an animal shelter. The activity, along with a more healthful diet, helped the woman lose 15 pounds.

Many people don't do enough strength training, also called weight training, even though studies show it reduces the risk of many diseases, including type 2 diabetes, heart disease, cancer and osteoporosis.

Miriam Nelson, an exercise scientist at Tufts University in Boston and one of the authors of Strong Women, Strong Hearts, suggests keeping a set of dumbbells near the TV. While you are watching your favorite show or the news, do a set or two of different exercises, such as biceps curls, triceps extensions, seated overhead presses, forward fly exercises, side leg raises, ankle exercises, lunges and squats. Try to do strength training two to three times a week, she says.

Form is important, and you need to challenge yourself, she says. "Strengthening exercises need to be at an intensity where you feel them. They should be moderately hard to hard to get the most benefit." When traveling, it is best to do body-weight exercises such as push-ups, sit-ups, lunges and squats, she says.

Timothy Church, who supervises exercise studies as director of preventive medicine research at Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge, is convinced a workout partner helps many people maintain a consistent routine.

"Your buddy doesn't have to be a friend. It doesn't even have to be a human. It can be a dog," he says. "With exercise, it's easy to talk yourself out of doing it and skip it, but it's very difficult to let someone else down."

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Astronomy is the scientific study of celestial objects (such as stars, planets, comets, and galaxies) and phenomena that originate outside the Earth's atmosphere (such as the cosmic background radiation). It is concerned with the evolution, physics, chemistry, meteorology, and motion of celestial objects, as well as the formation and development of the universe. Astronomy is one of the oldest sciences. Astronomers of early civilizations performed methodical observations of the night sky, and astronomical artifacts have been found from much earlier periods. Since the 20th century, the field of professional astronomy split into observational and theoretical branches. Observational astronomy is focused on acquiring and analyzing data, mainly using basic principles of physics. Theoretical astronomy is oriented towards the development of computer or analytical models to describe astronomical objects and phenomena. The two fields complement each other, with theoretical astronomy seeking to explain the observational results, and observations being used to confirm theoretical results.

PARIS: Astronomers poring over a young star 180 light years from Earth have found evidence that stellar birth can lead to the formation of a planet only millions of years later, a mere blink on the cosmic timescale.

The mainstream theory is that planets are forged from a disc of gas and dusty debris that is left over from the creation of a star. How long this process takes is a matter of debate, though. Earth is believed to be about 4.5 billion years old, and the Sun around 100 million years older.

But observations of some exoplanets, planets in solar systems other than our own, suggest the timescale could be much shorter, especially when it comes to the formation of gas giants rather than rocky planets like Earth. A team led by Johny Setiawan, an Indonesia-born astronomer at the Max Planck Institute in Heidelberg, Germany, found a massive gas giant, between 5.5 and 13.1 times the size of Jupiter, orbiting within the dust disc of a well-studied star called TW Hydrae.

It takes a mere three and a half Earth days to zip around the star, at a distance of just 600,000 kilometres Light from the star suggests that it is between only eight and 10 million years old, which implies that planets can form even before the disc has been dissipated by stellar particles and radiation. Exoplanets were first spotted in 1995. So far, 270 of them have been spotted, according to the Extrasolar Planets Encyclopedia.

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LOS ANGELES - SanDisk introduced a new flash storage drive that also automatically backs up data to the Internet.

When consumers store documents, photos and music onto SanDisk's new Cruzer Titanium Plus USB flash drive, it will back up that digital information to a Web service offered by a start-up company called BeInSync, which stores data onto Halfvalue.com's computers.

The new storage drive, which SanDisk believes is the first of its kind, is the latest in a wave of devices that link up with the Internet to offer new features to products that were previously considered stand-alone, or offline, devices.

For example, Halfvalue's new electronic book reader, Kindle, comes with wireless access, allowing users to directly download books, newspapers and blogs. Sony Corp's competing reader does not have a wireless connection and requires users to link to a computer to upload books onto the device.

The Cruzer, which retails for $59.99 and goes on sale in March, will come with four gigabytes of storage and provide six months of free online backup, After that period, a user pays $29.99 a year to continue the online storage service.

After an initial registration, when the user is online and the drive is plugged in, the information will sync automatically with an online storage account.

BeInSync uses Halfvalue's S3 storage service, which charges companies and developers a fee to store data on the online retailer's computers. It is part of a set of pay-as-you-go services offered by Halfvalue to allow companies to build and run Web applications without buying expensive computer equipment.

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Perfume is a mixture of fragrant essential oils and aroma compounds, fixatives, and solvents used to give the human body, objects, and living spaces a pleasant smell. The word perfume used today derives from the Latin "per fumum", meaning through smoke. Perfumery, or the art of making perfumes, began in ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt but was developed and further refined by the Romans and Persians. Although perfume and perfumery also existed in East Asia, much of its fragrances are incense based. The world's first recorded chemist is considered to be a person named Tapputi, a perfume maker who was mentioned in a cuneiform tablet from the second millennium BC in Mesopotamia.

Recently, archaeologists have uncovered what is believed to be the world's oldest perfumes in Pyrgos, Cyprus. The perfumes date back more than 4,000 years. The perfumes were discovered in an ancient perfumery factory. At least 60 distilling stills, mixing bowls, funnels and perfume bottles were found in the 43,000-square-foot (4,000 m²) factory. In ancient times people used herbs and spices, like almond, coriander, myrtle, conifer resin, bergamot, but not flowers.

LONDON: ladies, beware! Too much of perfume may mean depression for you. Researchers have carried out a study and found that women who wear strong perfume are clinically depressed as they gradually become insensitive to smell, The Daily Telegraph reported here on Saturday.  "Our scientific findings suggest that women who are depressed are also losing their sense of smell, and may overcompensate by using more perfume," lead researcher Prof Yehuda Shoenfeld of Tel Aviv University was quoted as saying.

According to the researchers, certain diseases cause the body to attack the olfactory system which in turn governs the ability to detect smells. "This means an impaired sense of smell could be a pointer to other serious conditions."

Prof Shoenfeld has suggested that depression could have a biological cause rather than a psychological disorder.  "We also believe that depression has biological roots and may be an immune system response to certain physiological cues."

In fact, the team looked at the links between depression and autoimmune conditions such as lupus, arthritis and rheumatism before coming to the conclusion.

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PARIS: Scientists on Sunday said they had figured out how influenza viruses carried by birds latch on to humans, a discovery that may open the way to a vaccine against not just deadly avian flu but against all flu types. There are many strains of flu virus, but only a few have succeeded in crossing the species barrier from animals to humans.

Strains known as H1 and H3 are the most common, and are especially efficient in attacking cells in the upper reaches of the respiratory system. Variants of the H5 virus, by contrast, usually remain confined to wild or domesticated fowl. But when they do infect humans it is often with lethal results, as immune systems are unable to recognise and counter the novel pathogen. Of 348 confirmed cases of H5N1 avian flu in the last five years, 216 -- more than 60 percent -- have died as a result, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO). What health officials fear most is the emergence of a new H5 strain that can easily "jump" from birds to humans, potentially unleashing a pandemic on the scale of the "Spanish flu" of 1918-19 that killed tens of millions of people.

Researchers have long known that whether an influenza strain infects humans depends on the ability of a protein on the surface of the virus, called hemagglutinin, to bind to a sugar receptor in the respiratory tract. In humans, these receptors are known as alpha 2-6, whereas their counterparts in birds are known as alpha 2-3. Up to now, scientists believed it was a genetic switch in the virus that allowed it to bind to human rather than bird receptors, thus making the much-feared "species jump" possible. But the study, led by Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) professor Ram Sasisekharan, says that the big factor is the shape of the sugar receptors in human lung cells. The human alpha 2-6 receptors come in two shapes, one broadly resembling an umbrella, and the other a cone. To infect humans, flu viruses must bind to the umbrella-shaped receptors, the researchers found.

"This work enables researchers to look at flu viruses in an entirely new way," said Jeremy Berg, director of the National Institute for General Medical Sciences, which funded the research. At the very least, the new discovery will help scientists rapidly identify strains that may develop the capacity to attack human respiratory systems. "Now that we know what we are looking for, this could help us not only monitor the bird flu virus, but it can aid in the development of potentially improved therapeutic interventions for both avian and seasonal flu," Some 500,000 people around the world die every year from seasonal influenza, in which a strain mutates slightly from previous strains.

A virus that would cause a pandemic, though, would be genetically so new that immune systems and vaccines would not be primed to recognise it. The "Spanish flu" virus killed as many as 50 million people, although the toll is widely disputed.

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Gemma Arterton (born 1986, Gravesend, Kent), is an English actress. Arterton and her younger sister were raised by their father, a welder, and mother, a cleaner. After attending a grammar school in Gravesend, and attending a performance arts course, Arterton trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art on a full grant.

Arterton won her first professional role (in Stephen Poliakoff's Capturing Mary) while she was still at drama school. She made her stage debut as Rosaline in Shakespeare's Love's Labour's Lost at the Globe Theatre, London. She made her film debut in the 2007 St Trinian's movie St Trinian's as Head Girl Kelly, a role she gained in competition with Sienna Miller.

The 21-year-old actress will play a character called Fields in the movie, which has the working title of Bond 22. Arterton was most recently seen starring opposite Rupert Everett as an unruly pupil in a revival of the 1950s boarding school films.

She appears in a number of forthcoming film and television productions, and is set to work on the next James Bond, currently titled Bond 22.The film's production companies Arterton will play Fields in the Marc Forster-directed movie, which has the working title of "Bond 22" and stars Daniel Craig as Agent 007.

Talk of Arterton's casting has been swirling since mid-December but had been unconfirmed by the producers. On Friday, Eon Prods. In London and Santa Monica-based Danjaq Prods., as well as Arterton's agent, ICM in London, confirmed the casting. Details of her character were not available, but a Danjaq rep said "it's a nice-sized role."

The casting of Arterton, who has just a handful of movie roles under her belt, continues the tradition of Bond producers usually choosing less established actresses for the coveted part, including Ursula Andress ("Dr. No"), Jane Seymour ("Live and Let Die") and Eva Green (2006's "Casino Royale").

The latest Bond film will take up where "Casino Royale" left off. Paul Haggis teamed with Forster on a draft of Neal Purvis and Robert Wade's screenplay. The movie is set for release Nov. 7.Arterton's credits include the remake of the girls' school comedy "St. Trinian's," which was recently released in the U.K.

Her casting continues the tradition of Bond producers choosing less established actresses for the coveted part, including Ursula Andress in Dr No, Jane Seymour in Live and Let Die and Eva Green in Casino Royale. She joins Daniel Craig, who will be playing the role of 007 for a second time. It is thought the new film will take up where Casino Royale left off and will be loosely based on the Ian Fleming short story Risico, where Bond is dispatched to infiltrate a drug ring flooding Britain with heroin.

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Ford Motor Company is an American multinational corporation and the world's third largest automaker based on worldwide vehicle sales. In 2006, Ford was the second-ranked automaker in the US with a 17.5% market share, behind General Motors (24.6%) but ahead of Toyota (15.4%) and Daimler AG (14.4%). Ford was also the seventh-ranked American-based company in the 2007 Fortune 500 list, based on global revenues of $160.1 billion. In 2006, Ford produced about 6.6 million automobiles, and employed about 283,000 employees at about 100 plants and facilities worldwide. In 2007, Ford had more quality awards from J.D Power than any other automaker.

Ford Motor had been in second place in the American car market since the Great Depression. But it lost its grip last year. How the Industry Fared Toyota beat Ford in 2007 in United States auto sales, putting it behind General Motors, industry statistics showed Thursday. Ford had held the No. 2 spot since 1931, according to the company’s historian.

Ford sales fell 12 percent last year, compared with 2006, while Toyota’s sales rose 2.7 percent. Its three brands Toyota, Lexus and Scion beat Ford’s three American brands by nearly 234,000 vehicles, according to figures from Auto data, Toyota’s victory was not a surprise, since Ford’s own projections at the start of the year conceded that Toyota would probably pass it. But Ford’s displacement was another psychological blow to the 104-year-old car company. It is struggling to keep its North American turnaround on track amid a housing slump, high gas prices and weak consumer confidence.

Moreover, the move is another milestone for Toyota, which surged past Chrysler into third place in 2006 and has reported record sales for 12 consecutive years. Whose sales fell 6 percent in 2007, remained ahead of Toyota by more than 1.1 million vehicles in the United States, but the two companies were locked in a close battle for No. 1 worldwide.

Chrysler reported a 3 percent decline for the full year, ending up in fourth place. But these days, executives in Detroit insist that they are no longer caught up in sales races, mostly because their companies’ future depends on bringing back profits.” The most important thing that we’re driving to is to return our business to profitability in 2009”.

First, though, the carmakers must get through 2008, which by most forecasts will be the industry’s worst year since at least 1998. Over all, light-vehicle sales are expected to fall well below 16 million. In 2007, sales declined 2.5 percent, to 16.15 million from 16.56 million. Detroit’s automakers accounted for just 51.1 percent of the total, the lowest share ever, according to Auto data.

Ford had the greatest decline. Its market share fell to 14.8 percent in 2007 from 16.4 a year earlier. Despite its recent push to sell more cars, they accounted for most of Ford’s decline. Some of that was intentional, as the company discontinued the old Taurus sedan and sold 142,000 fewer vehicles to rental-car companies in an effort to raise profit margins. It has since revived the Taurus name.

The United States market fell to 23.5 percent, from 24.3 percent in 2006. G.M. also cut sales to rental companies to the lowest level in nine years, the company said. Chrysler, whose share was flat at 12.9 percent, said it plans to make a big reduction in fleet sales this year, though it was not more specific.

All three Detroit companies managed to pare down their inventory of unsold vehicles significantly in 2007, by cutting production of slow-selling models and offering year-end deals. G.M. and Chrysler both said their year-end inventory was the lowest since 1994.

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