Depressed women wear more perfum

LONDON, Jan 5: Women who wear too much perfume may be suffering from depression.

A new research shows that women suffering from depression tend to lose their sense of smell, thus wearing too much perfume.

Researchers from Tel Aviv University have discovered a link between depression and the loss of a sense of smell. They showed those who are depressed lose sensitivity in their olfactory glands at the same time and thus unwittingly splash too much scent about.

''Our scientific findings suggest that women who are depressed are also losing their sense of smell, and may overcompensate by using more perfume,'' the study leader, Professor Yehuda Shoenfeld said.

''We also believe that depression has biological roots and may be an immune system response to certain physiological cues,'' he added.

The research could lead to the development of a ''smell test'' to help diagnose depression. Researchers found that in cases of various ulcerous skin diseases , a particle known as an 'autoantibody' attacked the immune system, making the patient feel low, and affecting their sense of smell as well.

It is the first time that depression has been linked to smell in ulcerous skin diseases patients. The report published in the journal Arthritis and Rheumatism also suggests that aromatherapy could be a powerful weapon against depression, and actually helps patients regain their sense of smell.

''People who are depressed seem to respond well to aromatherapy. Certain smells seem to help them overcome the effects of the biological factors,'' Professor Shoenfeld added. (UNI)

UN to get original copy of its charter for first time

UNITED NATIONS, Jan 5: For the first time in its history, the United Nations now holds a certified copy of its own Charter signed on June 26, 1945 by the organisation's original 51 members.

The original copy of the Charter till now was with the United States National Archives.

The National Archive's head Allan Weinstein paid a special visit to the United Nations to present the certified copy of the Charter to Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

The Secretary-General had made the request to Weinstein last October, during his official trip to Washington, when he saw the original document at the National Archives, designated by the Charter itself to be its custodian, UN spokesperson Michele Montas told reporters.

"Each of the 51 signatories has a certified copy," she noted. "The organisation itself now has one." (PTI)

Intl community must exert economic pressure on Iran: Bush

WASHINGTON, Jan 5: US President George W Bush has said that the best way to deal with Iranian nuclear crisis is to solve it "diplomatically" and by exerting economic pressures.

However, Washington keeps all options on the table including a military attack to prevent Iran from building nuclear weapons, Bush said ahead of his nine-day trip to Middle East countries.

"We can solve this diplomatically, and that pressure must work. Of course, the US keeps all options on the table as part of its policy. But the best solution is to encourage Iranian isolation through international pressures," Bush told Israeli newspaper Yediot Ahronot.

"There are financial pressures that we have exerted and will continue to work with others to exert. American companies are not involved with the exportation of goods and services to Iran.

"Similarly, we expect companies from around the world to place significant pressure on Iranian financial institutions, particularly those that are known to be involved in proliferation," the President said.

"...The international response ought to be that, okay, whether or not you agree with the NIE (National Intelligence Estimate) that they (Iran) had a (nuclear) programme at one point of time," he said.

Bush also rejected the idea that Israel had anything to do or was involved with his decision to invade Iraq in 2003.

"No, not at all. My decision relied on US intelligence, based upon the desire to provide security for our peoples and others. It was based upon my willingness to work with the international community on this issue. (PTI)

Stars won't shine at Golden Globes: Actors union

LOS ANGELES, Jan 5: Hollywood actors will boycott this month's Golden Globe Awards in a show of support for striking writers, the actors union has said dealing a blow to the glittering red carpet extravaganza.

Screen Actors Guild (SAG) President Alan Rosenberg said in a statement yesterday there was "unanimous agreement" among actors not to cross picket lines set up by writers locked in a bitter dispute with film and television producers.

Rosenberg said the boycott would cover all nominees up for acting awards in the January 13 event, regarded as the second most important awards show in Hollywood after the Oscars. It would also cover stars acting as presenters.

The decision means that nominated A-listers such as Julia Roberts, Tom Hanks and George Clooney are all likely to steer clear of the Globes, greatly diminishing one of the highlights of Hollywood's awards season.

"After considerable outreach to Golden Globe actor nominees and their representatives over the past several weeks, there appears to be unanimous agreement that these actors will not cross WGA picket lines to appear on the Golden Globe Awards as acceptors or presenters," Rosenberg said.

"We applaud our members for this remarkable show of solidarity for striking Writers Guild of America (WGA) writers."

Hollywood screenwriters have been on strike since November 5 after the WGA and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) failed to agree terms for a new contract that expired in October.

Negotiations have foundered over the writers' demands for an increased share of profits from Internet and new media sales. (AGENCIES)

Youngest planet in new solar system discovered

LONDON, Jan 5: Astronomers have identified an infant planet, the youngest yet to be discovered and is in a solar system that is still being formed.

The planet is still being created by cosmic dust and gas and despite being a baby chronologically speaking, it is vast in comparison with Earth and has been classified as a giant planet.

Researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Germany said that it has a mass 3,115 times that of our own planet and 9.8 times that of Jupiter, The Daily Mail reported.

Previously the youngest planet to have been identified was an estimated 100 million years old. Earth is calculated to be 4.5 billion years old.

The new planet orbits an infant star, called TW Hydrae (TW Hya), which is thought to have formed eight million to ten million years ago.

The new planet is 3.7 million miles from its parent star, compared to the 93 million miles between Earth and the Sun and takes a mere 356 days to complete an orbit around TW Hya.

The new planet, TW Hya b, had formed within the first ten million years of the star system's formation, before stellar winds and radiation could dissipate the clouds.

The process of formation of TW Hya is still continuing but it is thought to be nearly complete.

There is a gap of 5.6 million miles between the star and the inside edge of the disc of clouds surrounding it.

The planet lies between the disc and the star and it was the absence of gas or dust in the gap where it orbits that helped to alert astronomers.

Vast discs of dust and gas are thought to form stars and planets because tiny specks of matter bump into each other to create lumps that eventually become big enough to form cores.

In their discovery, published in the journal Nature, the researchers said, ''There is a consensus that planets form within discs of dust and gas around newly born stars. Details of their formation process, however, are a matter of debate.''

''The timescale of formation remains unclear, so the detection of planets around young stars with protoplanetary discs is potentially of greath interest. Hitherto, no such planet has been found,'' they added.

An alternative theory is that gravitational anomalies within the disc of dust and gas cause giant planets to form.

The researchers said, ''The detection of TW Hya b opens up the possibility of directly connecting the disc evolution and planet formation processes. It is the ideal system to test numerical simulations of planet core formation, migration and accretion.'' (UNI)

Hutchison pushes back 3G break-even target :Paper

HONG KONG, Jan 5: Hutchison Whampoa Ltd <0013.HK>, tycoon Li Ka-shing's ports-to-telecoms flagship, has pushed back the break-even targets for its third-generation mobile telecoms business to next year, a Hong Kong newspaper reported on Saturday.

Hutchison said last August that it expected its 3G business to achieve positive monthly earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) on a sustainable basis in 2008, barring unfavourable regulatory and market changes.

However, at a company dinner on Friday, Li forecast the breaking even on the EBIT level would only be achieved next year, the South China Morning Post said.

''Our 3G business will turn a new page in 2008, on a path to achieving positive full-year cash flow and positive EBIT in 2009,'' Li was quoted as saying.

Hutchison has been the most aggressive investor in European 3G mobile telecoms, but profits have been elusive amid fierce competition. Its US$25 billion bet on high-speed mobile phones has been a drag on its share price for several years.

The company's 3G loss before interest and taxes narrowed to HK$20 billion in 2006 from HK$36.3 billion in 2005.

Looking ahead, Li sounded a note of caution.

''The global business environment could experience greater turbulence this year due to the fallout from the subprime predicament and the possibility of continuing weakness of real estate prices in the United States, record oil prices, rising inflation, and tightening economic measures on the mainland.''

But he believed the Hutchison's investment across the globe are all sound and heading in positive direction, the newspaper said.

Shares in Hutchison rose 1.35 percent to HK$90.00 on Friday, lagging the benchmark Hang Seng Index's <.HSI> 2.4 percent rise.

(AGENCIES)

Pesticides may be behind extinction of frog species

SYDNEY, Jan 5: Pesticides may have been responsible for extinction of eight frog species, scientists say.

Experts have previously attributed to a combination of climate change and a deadly fungus to the collapse of frog populations.

Griffith University's Jean-Marc Hero says chemicals may have wiped out frog species in Queensland.

Brisbane environmental consultant Glen Ingram, who has studied some of the eight Queensland frog species that have become extinct since the late 1970s, said: ''There is a growing view that pesticides

have a role in the extinctions of these frogs.

''People had assumed it was a fungus, probably being spread by global warming. Now, we're not at all sure.''

Scientists have previously highlighted the extinctions of dozens of frog species worldwide as an indication of consequences of climage

change arising from increased greenhouse emissions.

Many frogs have been killed by the chytrid fungus, which infects their skin, impairing their breathing and nervous sytems. However, the fungus can be harmless to frogs and some experts claim it has become deadly because of climate change. They suggest that increases in cloud cover, temperature or ultraviolet radiation have spread the fungus.

However, several recent studies in California implicated chemicals in frog population declines.

California has experienced similar collapses in frog populations to Australia.

Four pesticides and herbicides identified in the studies are used widely in Australia.

Californian biologist Gary Fellers, of the Western Ecological Research Centre, who has participated in some of the studies, said pesticides could be a more significant factor in frog declines that the chytrid fungus.

''The role of the fungus is not well understood in many areas, including some of the places where scientists have declared it to be the primary or only factor causing amphibian declines,'' Dr Fellers told The Weekend Australian.

''The fungus might not be the whole story,'' he added.

Queensland's wave of frog extinctions began in the late 1970s, at the same time as organochlorine chemicals such as DDT were being phased out.

The organochlorines were replaced by organophosphorus and other chemicals. The Californian studies have implicated three organophosphorus pesticides and the herbicide atrazine in frog population declines.

All four chemicals are used widely in Australia. (UNI)

Aussies are the most calorie-conscious:Study

MELBOURNE, Jan 5: Obsessed about weight? Aussies seem to be leading the way.

According to an international survey on obesity, Australians are the world's biggest users of weight loss programmes.

The survey of almost 10,000 people, including more than 800 Australians, found that 9.2 per cent of Australians join weight loss courses, compared with 9.6 per cent of Britons, 8.5 per cent in the US and 5.2 per cent in France.

More than seven million Australians aged 25 and over are considered overweight and, of these, more than two million are obese, according to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare.

The director of the Institute of Health Economics and Technology Assessment, Paul Gross, said as the obesity epidemic rose, Australians were more likely to seek help losing weight.

''When we get to levels of desperation all sorts of options that were seen as too expensive or time-consuming are suddenly considered,'' The Age quoted Dr Gross as saying.

Despite being weight conscious, Australians were relaxed when it came to weighing themselves, with 38 per cent likely to hop on the scales only when they remembered, and one in five not weighing themselves at all, according to the survey, conducted in 13 countries including Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, Canada, Saudi Arabia and Brazil.

Dr Gross explained about half of overweight or obese people considered their weight ideal. ''If you want to deny something don't measure it,'' said Dr Gross, who has called for the amount of exercise school children take to be recorded on school reports. ''Parents who are overweight are less likely to think their children are too,'' he added.

Throughout the world, about 1.6 billion people aged 15 and over are overweight and at least 400 million are obese, according to the World Health Organisation. Those figures are expected to rise to about 2.3 billion adults overweight and more than 700 million obese by 2015, it added.

The survey revealed conflicting attitudes to healthy eating in the countries surveyed. More than half of all respondents (54 per cent) said they ate whatever they wanted, whenever they wanted. However, more than two thirds (68 per cent) said they watched their food intake carefully and tried to be healthy.

Most Australians believed obesity was caused by an unhealthy diet, followed by a lack of exercise and self-discipline, the survey concluded.

(UNI)

UK pub inposes two drinks limit on ''child cruelty''

LONDON, Jan 5: One of Britain's largest pub chains has banned customers from having more than two drinks if they have children with them.

The move by JD Wetherspoon, which owns 683 pubs throughout the UK, emerged only after a man, who tried to order a third drink and a meal was told he could not be served to prevent cruelty to children under the Licensing Act, the Independent reported.

''We are not in any way a children's pub with an activity centre. It is not a wonderful day out for children spending hours in the pub,'' JD Wetherspoon spokesman, Eddie Gershon said.

''Once customers have finished the meal with the child, we would expect them to leave soon after. We are not uncomfortable with children being on the premises as it is commercially viable. We would let an adult order an alcoholic drink with a meal and another drink after that,'' he added.

(UNI)

Fish: The good mood food for teenagers

SYDNEY, Jan 5: Scientists believe that eating fish can help ward off depression among teenagers, and are about to put their theory to test.

A group of Australian scientists believe too few omega-3 fatty acids, found in fish and seafood, and too many omega-6 fatty acids, found in processed oils and nuts, raises the risk of depression in adolescents.

According to one of the researchers, Dr Ross Grant, the results would be used to give teenagers positive messages about healthy eating.

''Often kids who are physically unhealthy are emotionally unhealthy as well,'' the Age reported him as saying.

Lower seafood consumption has been linked to higher rates of depression in adults. The ''How Food Affects Mood'' study will attempt to prove how it affects teenagers in the same way.

Humans evolved with a diet equal in both essential fatty acids but current Western diets have up to 15 times more omega-6 than omega-3.

Omega-3 fatty acids are critical to brain development and function, but because our bodies cannot effectively make them we rely on dietary sources.

American research suggests fish oil capsules and fatty fish do an equally good job of enriching the blood and other body tissues with omega-3 fatty acids.

(UNI)

Family not letting me go back to Australia: Haneef ....

BANGALORE, Jan 5: Mmohammed Haneef, the city-based doctor who was cleared of terror charges in Australia, today said he may not return to that country as his family was not letting him go back.

"My family is adamant in not sending me back to Australia," the 27-year-old Medico, who has just returned home after a one-and-half-month Haj pilgrimage, said.

Haneef, who was working in gold coast hospital in Australia, returned to India in July last year after being cleared of terror charges in the Botched Glasgow Airport suicide attack in the UK. The Australian Government withdrew all the charges and restored his visa a few days ago.

He said he has not decided on going back to Australia to work and hopefully would take a call in the next two weeks.

"Unless we get reassurance from the Australian Government and AFP (Australian Federal Police), we (he and his family) will not go back," Haneef said, describing the detention days in Australia last year as the "worst part of my life and a traumatic experience".

He had maintained in the past that he had been "victimised" and "harassed" in Australia with his case being "politicised" in an election year in that country.

On the full judicial enquiry in Australia, Haneef said he would attend it if he is asked to do so.

Haneef said he is looking forward to work again. "I have a few offers from the Middle-East. I am looking forward to work soon." (PTI)

Sikh school girl of Indian origin fights ban on bracelet ...

LONDON, Jan 5: A Sikh student of Indian origin, excluded from her school in Britain two months back for refusing to take off her iron bangle, has moved the High Court against the authorities’ decision.

The authorities at the Aberdare girls’ school in south Wales had barred 14-year-old Sarika Singh from attending her classes temporarily after she declined to remove the ‘kara’, a symbol of her religion.

The challenge at the High Court has been filed on her behalf by Human Rights Group Liberty — it argues that the school has breached race relations and human rights laws, the media reported here today.

"My bangle is very important to me. It reminds me always to do good and not do anything bad, especially with the hands," Sarika had said immediately after her expulsion from school in November last year.

Even her mother, Sinita Singh, had hinted that the family could seek legal recourse against the decision after she failed to convince the school’s governing body that the bracelet was a symbol of faith. "It is not jewellery — it is a symbol of our belief."

So far, the school authorities have declined to comment on the issue. But the institution’s Code of Conduct prohibits wearing of any jewellery other than watches and plain ear studs.

The dispute is the latest in a series of rows over the wearing of religious symbols in schools in Britain. In 2006, Shabina Begum, a 15-year-old Muslim student of Indian origin, had lost her battle to wear a Jilbab, a long gown, in class.

Earlier last year, a 12-year-old had similarly failed to gain the right to wear a full-face veil at a girl’s school in Buckinghamshire. Even in June, 16-year-old Lydia playfoot had lost her legal battle to be allowed to wear a Christian "purity" ring as a symbol of her chastity. (PTI)