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Monday, August 03, 2009 STANFORD:: Marion Bartoli avenged a Wimbledon loss to Venus Williams, winning a marathon final at Stanford Classic 6-2, 5-7, 6-4.Williams beat French woman Bartoli for the All England club final two years ago.Bartoli will move up two spots in the rankings to 12th on Monday after claiming her second title of 2009 and the fifth of her career.She won her only two titles at the start of the decade in 2000 and 2005, last finishing runner-up to Kim Clijsters in 2005. The five-time Wimbledon champion will remain on third in the world behind number one Dinara Safina of Russia and sister Serena Williams,Bartoli went up an early break in the opening set only to lose it a game later. But the French player took the lead again on a third consecutive break and added an insurance policy with another for 5-2 before closing it out in 40 minutes.The unseeded Bartoli jumped out to a 1-0 start in the second with another break of the erratic Williams. But serving for victory, Barto...

HEART: A bomb blast targeting police in Afghanistan's western city of Herat on Monday killed 12 people and wounded another 20, the provincial police chief said. "Twelve people have been killed in this explosion and 20 other people have been wounded. Among those killed are two police," commander Esmatullah Alizai told reporters. The blast was caused by a bomb placed in a roadside rubbish bin, he said. Another police officer said earlier it was a suicide attack.

Monday, August 03, 2009 KUWAIT: Kuwait has begun to oblige new couples to undergo pre-marriage medical check-up. The Ministry of Health opened a new center for pre-marriage medical check-up, receiving 45 couples on the first day of opening.The ministry plans to open new offices of the center in all other governorates in the country in order to facilitate the application of the new system, Minister of Health Hilal al-Sayer told reporters following the inauguration of the medical facility.The Kuwaiti move is chiefly intended to ensure healthy and safe marriages with a view to curbing genetic and contagious diseases, he said. Diseases involved in pre-marital medical examination include anemia, hepatitis, AIDS and syphilis, he added.

Monday, August 03, 2009 LA PAZ: A fashion show is organized in the city of El Alto near the capital La Paz to display Bolivian pollera styles.Bolivia's traditional layered skirts, bowler hats, embroidered shawl, lacy petticoat, shirt and matching shoes were presented as hip items in this fashion show.Pollera, a big skirt made of wool or cotton is very colorful. The large gathered skirt is generally white with two or three ruffles which have a floral design or embroidery.Bolivian president, Evo Morales encouraged traditional clothes like folksy sweaters, jackets with traditional textiles and the occasional Andean poncho and hat.Morales' message encouraged secretaries, college students and bureaucrats to wear luxury adaptation of the traditional outfit.Veronica Diaz, a designer who is showcasing her creation in the show has focused on gold and metallic colours. Bigger shawls with a longer fringe, classic look for the tops, with high necks, and a lower crown hat are in vogue.

Monday, August 03, 2009 BERLIN: Two weeks after tragedy struck, a spark of good news has emerged from the Nachterstedt landslide: a cat belonging to the couple killed in the accident has survived, Bild newspaper reported on Friday.Incredibly, the dead couple’s neighbours, who lost their home but survived because they were out of town at the time, came across the bedraggled Angora cat called “Miezi” while driving through town.“Suddenly Miezi was on the street,” neighbour Elke Schirrmeister, 59, told the paper. “I thought I wasn’t seeing right.”The couple drove on, but the next day, Miezi was sitting in front of the Schirrmeisters‘ motor home, which they are using as temporary accommodation.Their house was one of the two destroyed on July 18 when a piece of ground the size of six football pitches tore free and slid into Concordia Lake, a former open-pit mine filled with water on the edge of Nachterstedt in the state of Saxony-Anhalt.Their neighbours Ilka, 48, and Peter K., 51, were kill...

Monday, August 03, 2009 WASHINGTON: Recent research found a strong connection between teenagers’ weights and those of their friends. The data show that kids tend to interact in groups with others who have similar weight; so overweight children tend to spend time together. The study, which will be in the journal Economics and Human Biology, looked at 5,000 teenagers, then followed up with many of them two years later, according to BBC News. The weight changes overtime showed that a child’s weight gain could be associated with having a fat friend, which, according to the study, supported the theory of imitative obesity: mirroring the habits of one’s friends. Using the Body Mass Index scale, a boy who is 5 feet 9 inches is technically healthy if he weighs around 147 pounds. If a friend who weighs the same and is at the same height later gains 7 pounds, the boy is likely to gain 2 pounds, according to the study. Even though that weight gain is not significant at first, if the gain continu...

Monday, August 03, 2009 KUSHINAGAR: Hundreds of families have been affected as the rain swollen River Narayani breaches embankments in Uttar Pradesh’s Kushinagar district. Residents are apprehending that almost 50 villages in the region would be submerged in water if the embankments are completely broken.Further they noted that embankments have not been built properly and there are breaches in them as soon as the water level increases even a little.“Almost 50 villages would be flooded if the embankments are completely broken,” said Manoj Gupta, a resident. Meanwhile, the representatives in the panchayats alleged that when the state’s Chief Secretary had come for a survey of the flood-affected areas, he was not shown the actually affected areas since the officials feared that action might be taken against them.“The Chief Secretary was here but he was made to survey everything else but the areas where the problem actually lies. He was not taken there as that could have led him to take a...

Monday, August 03, 2009 NEW YORK: It's a debilitating pain that affects over 10 percent of the population -- some 30 million people in this country. Nearly one in four households have someone afflicted by migraines. And no one knows that better than Theresa Schenk. "I had the migraine syndrome for 20 years, and it really did own my life," Schenk, 62, said. "It was depressing, it was debilitating; it was something of a nightmare." For two decades, no drug or treatment could help make the pain go away for the Willoughby, Ohio woman. And Schenk is far from alone; for many with migraines, standard treatment just doesn't work. "There's a subset of patients who have what we call chronic migraine," said Dr. Lawrence Newman, director of the Headache Institute at St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital in New York. "Many of those people are quite treatment resistant. Why? We're not really sure. "I tell our patients it is a life-altering conditi...

Sunday, August 02, 2009 MUMBAI - With an aim to lend a fillip to the tourism in the state, the Maharashtra Tourism has launched a laser show.Bollywood star Celina Jaitley was present during a musical laser show that was presented for the first time here last evening.“Maharashtra has given me a lot and therefore I am associated with Maharashtra Tourism since two years. I have also shot a video to promote the tourism of this state,” said Jaitley.The Maharashtra Government and the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) have jointly mooted the laser show at the Bharat Van Garden, a popular park located at Andheri, a suburb of the city.There was a huge turn out of curious public to view the spectacular extravaganza and indeed, all enjoyed the thrills of the marvel of science.Considering that the terror attacks on Mumbai last year may have hampered the tourism of the state to a great extent, the introduction of such innovative ideas ushers a ray of hope for the revival of the tourism.