60th Anniversary Of The World's Longest Running Soap

The Archers", the world's longest-running soap opera, celebrated its 60th birthday over the New Year long weekend with a major storyline set to shake up the BBC radio serial.
Feted by some as the essence of Englishness, "The Archers" features everyday tales of rural life in the fictional village of Ambridge, where typical activities include cowshed births, post office chats and broken tractor dramas.
It has five million listeners in Britain and its six, 15-minute episodes per week are also broadcast on the Internet and from British military bases worldwide.
The show was first broadcast nationwide on January 1, 1951. June Spencer has played publican Peggy Woolley since the start.
The soap marked its anniversary over the three-day New Year long weekend with its 16,300th episode and a "thrilling storyline that will shake Ambridge to the core", according to BBC publicity.
In Sunday's special double bill, cheesemaker Helen Archer gave birth via an emergency caesarian after becoming pregnant through artificial insemination.
Meanwhile stately home owner Nigel Pargetter fell from a roof after losing his footing attempting to remove a New Year banner with his fate left in the balance.
Many famous faces have made cameos over the years, including Queen Elizabeth II's sister princess Margaret, actresses Britt Ekland and Judi Dench, fashion designer Zandra Rhodes, Australian comedy star Dame Edna Everage and former England cricket captain Mike Gatting.
To make the sound of a lamb being born, the sound effects man squelches his hand in a pot of yoghurt and then throws a wet tea towel on to some straw.
In recent years the show has shocked some traditional listeners with storylines involving homosexuality, racist attacks and illegitimate children.

Skin Texture Can Be Improved By Eating Guava

Many of you might have tasted this mouth-watering treat, or at least have seen it or heard about it. Guava is very common in Asian countries. It is a good looking pear shaped or round shaped seasonal fruit, light green or yellow or maroon in color from outside when ripe, with white or maroon flesh and lot of small hard seeds enveloping very soft and sweet pulp. It is eaten raw (ripe or semi-ripe) or in form of jams and jellies.
This attractive fruit is a real storehouse of nutrients. If it is “An apple a day keeps the doctor away” in Europe and Americas, it must be “A few guavas in the season keeps the doctor away for the whole year” in the Indian Subcontinent and places where guavas grow. Its scientific name is Psidium Guajava.
Guava is very rich in astringents (compounds those make your gums feel tighter and fresh after you chew guava leaves or eat a raw guava or use some toothpaste) which binds up loose bowels in diarrhea. These astringents are alkaline in nature and have disinfectant and anti-bacterial properties, thus help cure dysentery by inhibiting microbial growth and removing extra mucus from the intestines. Further, other nutrients in guava, such as vitamin-C, Carotenoids and potassium strengthens and tones up the digestive system and disinfect it. Guava is also beneficial in gastroenteritis due to reasons stated above.
Guava is one of the riches sources of dietary fiber. Its seeds, if ingested whole or chewed, serve as excellent laxatives. These two properties of guava help forming bowels, retaining water and clean your intestines and excretory system thoroughly. It is said that single constipation can lead to seventy two types of ailments. It is absolutely true. Every way to your total health goes through proper digestion and more importantly, proper excretion. Guava ensures both of these.
Guavas can help improve your skin texture and avoid skin problems more than the best of beauty creams or skin toner gels can do. This is chiefly due to the abundance of astringents in its fruits (more in immature ones) and in leaves. You can benefit from it either by eating the fruits (this help tighten your muscles apart from your skin) or by washing your skin with the decoction of its immature fruits and leaves. It will tone up and tighten the loosened skin. In addition to the astringents, guava is very-very rich in vitamin-A, B, C and potassium which are very good anti oxidants and detoxifiers and keep your skin glowing and free from aging, wrinkles and other disorders.
Guava helps reduce cholesterol in blood and prevents it from thickening, thereby maintaining fluidity of blood and reducing blood pressure. Studies have shown that food stuffs which lack fiber (such a refined flour) add to blood pressure, due to quick conversion to sugar. Guava, being very rich in fiber and hypoglycemic in nature, helps reduce blood pressure.
Guava is very helpful for those who want to lose weight without compromising with their intake of proteins, vitamins and fiber. Guava, being very high in roughage and very rich in vitamins, proteins and minerals, but with no cholesterol and less digestible carbohydrates, is very filling and satisfies appetite very easily. Just have a medium sized guava in the lunch and you will not feel hungry till night. But ironically, it helps gaining weight in lean and thin people. This is probably due to its richness in nutrients, which keeps your metabolism right helping proper absorption of nutrients.

WikiLeaks May Open Names Of Arab Leaders Having Ties With CIA

Assange, the founder of whistle-blowing website WikiLeaks, came out swinging against some high-level Arab officials in an interview with an Arab TV Channel, saying they maintain close ties with the CIA and are spies for the U.S. intelligence agency in their respective countries.
Top officials in several Arab countries have close links with the CIA, and many officials keep visiting U.S. embassies in their respective countries voluntarily to establish links with CIA. These officials are spies for the U.S. in their countries, he was quoted in media reports as saying in the interview.
Assange also alleged that a number of Arab countries run special torture centers where U.S. authorities dispatch suspects for "interrogation and torture."
The WikiLeaks founder did not disclose the identities of Arab officials with alleged links to the CIA. The interviewer said Assange had previously showed him documents with some of their names.

Some Important Events During The Last Decade (2000--2010)

The first decade of the 21st century is in the history pages now. Nearly 3665 new pages have been pasted to the human-history book. Starting with entirely interwoven matter this decade ended with inflammatory questions. Let us have a look on the events that divided the world in various ideological concepts.
Nine Eleven (9/11):-
Te 11th day of September 2001 is not only the most important event of the last decade but is also among the important events since man entered into the machine-age. This also parted the world in many confronting fronts. On September 11 the terrorists (hijackers) hit the twin-tower( World Trade Centre) with passenger plane resulting in the collapsing of the skyscraper in no time. This tragedic act took the lives of 2606 human-beings on the spot Soon after this hijackers made the other plane crash on the American Defense Ministry Building The PENTAGON. While the third hijacked plane crashed by the terrorists incidentally in the suberbern area of Shariksville in Penysalvania. Expers say the targeyt of this plane was the "Capital Hill" where congress men meet or may be the White House however the hickaers failed to achieve the target. In all in this incident 2977 people of 70 countries including 19 hijackers were killed. The independent sources claim the death toll thrice the declared number. The awesome result of this tragedy was the war against terrorists that President Bush called "Crusade". Then related to this war was the decision of attacking Afghanistan. The results of this war have encircled the whole world.
Tsunami:-
This was the early morning of 26th December 2004 that the million of the people living around the Indian Ocean could not imagine that death is stepping towards them in the form of Tsunami waves. This turbulence caused the death of 0.25 million people of 14 countries. The earth quake that resulted in Tsunami occurred in India sea near the Province of Ache in Indonesia at the depth of 30 km under the sea. Its severity on the Richer scale was between 9.1-9.3. This wass the third most severe earth quake recorded up till now. The waves that hit the shores of different countries were as high as 6-30 meters.The earth quake's duration was from 8-10 minutes.In India Ocean the the hitting of "Burma Plate" with "Indian Plate" caused Tsunami that destroyed the vast areas in Indonesia, India, Malaysia, Maldeev,Myanmar, Somalia, Srilanka, and Thailand.The Indonesia had to bear larger financial and lives loss. In the country 0.28 million people died. While, mostly telecommunication installations and buildings were destroyed in Bangladesh, Kenya, South Africa, Tanzania, Western Australia, Madghaskar, Marecius, Amman, and Singapore.

Israel Was Preparing For A Large Scale War-- Diplomatic Cable

Israel's army chief told a US Congress delegation in late 2009 he was preparing for a large war in the Middle East, probably against Hamas or Hezbollah, leaked US diplomatic cables showed Sunday. "I am preparing the Israeli army for a large scale war, since it is easier to scale down to a smaller operation than to do the opposite," Lieutenant General Gabi Ashkenazi was quoted as saying in a cable from the US embassy in Tel Aviv.
The document, dated November 15, 2009, was quoted Sunday in Norwegian by Oslo-based daily Aftenposten, which said it had obtained WikiLeaks' entire cache of 251,187 leaked US embassy cables. "The rocket threat against Israel is more serious than ever. That is why Israel is putting such emphasis on rocket defence," Ashkenazi told the US delegation led by Democrat Ike Skelton, the cable showed.
The army chief lamented that Iran has some 300 Shihab rockets that can reach Israel and stressed that the Jewish state would have only between 10 and 12 minutes warning in case of an attack.
However, it was Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon that posed the most acute threat, he added. According to the quoted cable, Hezbollah is thought to have more than 40,000 rockets, many of which are believed capable of reaching deep into Israel.
US officials meanwhile reportedly estimate the militant group has acquired an arsenal of around 50,000 rockets.
A 2006 war between Hezbollah and Israel killed 1,200 Lebanese, many of them civilians, and 160 Israelis, most of them soldiers.
And in his comments made nearly a year after Israel on December 27, 2008 launched the deadly Gaza war, Ashkenazi said "Israel is on a collision course also with Hamas, which rules Gaza."
"Hamas will have the possibility to bombard Tel Aviv, with Israel's highest population concentration," he was quoted as saying.
The Gaza war, a response to hundreds of rockets fired into the Jewish State, killed some 1,400 mainly civilian Palestinians and 13 Israelis, 10 of them soldiers. It ended on January 18, 2009.
Israel had been harshly criticised for putting civilians at risk during fighting in the densely populated Gaza Strip.
However, in the cable leaked Sunday Ashkenazi is quoted saying Israel next time will not accept "any restrictions on warfare in populated areas," and insisted the army had never intentionally attacked civilian targets.

MQM Decides To Sit On Opposition Benches

Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) will sit on opposition benches, according to a decision taken by MQM’s Coordination Committee’s meeting held simultaneously in Karachi and London on Sunday and later ratified by the party chief Altaf Hussain.
The meeting of MQM’s Coordination Committee, taking serious exception, among other things, to the massive hike in prices of petroleum products by the government at the outset of new-year, finally decided to move from government to opposition benches.
On the other hand, Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani talking to media in Lahore said in reaction to the MQM’s decision that the government would continue to function no matter if any party decides to abandon the coalition. “The government will continue to function with or without the coalition partners,” he said. If all the parties are sitting on opposition benches then President and prime minister will run the government. It is a strange logic of PM.?
Earlier, talking to media, MQM leader Faisal Sabzwari regretted that despite repeated calls made by his party, the government failed to take any practical steps towards redressal of MQM’s grievances. “This forced Muttahida Qaumi Movement to take the extreme step of sitting on the opposition benches both in the National Assembly and the Senate,” he added.
Faisal Sabzwari said now MQM is weighing all its options including parting ways with government in Sindh government. He said MQM would oppose all the anti-people decisions of the government.
Earlier its two federal ministers, Dr. Farooq Sattar and Babar Ghauri, resign following its decision to abandon Federal Cabinet.
Reiterating MQM’s stance on imposition of taxes, he said the government should collect the taxes from agriculture and the landlords rather than the poor,” he said.
He said MQM has made the decision with an honest intent. When asked whether the MQM’s meeting discussed no confidence motion against the Prime Minister, Faisal Sabzwari replied in negative.
One of the senior journalist said after the latest move of MQM, the coalition government has now lost its majority in the assemblies.
He said two major parties have so far left the Pakistan People’s Party-led coalition government which makes it necessary for the Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani to come forward and get a fresh vote of confidence.

Almonds Can Help Prevent Diabetes And Heart Disease

Eating almonds could help prevent diabetes and heart disease, according to a study.
Researchers found that incorporating the nuts into our diets may help treat type 2 diabetes, which accounts for 90 to 95 per cent of all cases. As well as combating the condition, linked to obesity and physical inactivity, it could tackle cardiovascular disease, said the report published in the Journal of the American College of Nutrition.
Diabetics have a shortage of insulin or a decreased ability to use the hormone that allows glucose to enter cells and be converted to energy.
When diabetes is not controlled, glucose and fats remain in the blood and over time, damage vital organs.
The study found that a diet rich in almonds may help improve insulin sensitivity and decrease LDL-cholesterol levels in those with pre-diabetes, a condition in which people have blood glucose levels higher than normal but not high enough to be classified as diabetes.
The study conducted at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey looked at the effects of consuming an almond-enriched diet on 65 adults with pre-diabetes.
The group on the almond-enriched diet showed greater improvements in insulin sensitivity and significant reductions in LDL-cholesterol compared with the nut-free group. Lead researcher Dr Michelle Wien said: ‘It is promising for those with risk factors for chronic diseases, such as type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease that dietary changes may help to improve factors that play a potential role in the disease development.’
An estimated 55 million people in Europe have been diagnosed with diabetes.