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Wrong medical diagnosis could have killed Napoleon Bonaparte  (Go To Top)

          Washington: A study of records relating to Napoleon Bonaparte's final days has revealed that the French Emperor was killed by his over-enthusiastic doctors and not murdered as is widely believed. Most historians accept the official version that he died from stomach cancer. The verdict of an autopsy by his personal physician-Francesco Antommarchi was observed by five English doctors. Napolean's father had also died of stomach cancer. However, the most fanciful version of events is that the monarch was murdered by his confidant Count Charles de Montholon. It is believed that Montholon could have poisoned Napolean by putting arsenic in his wine.

           Now, forensic pathologist Steven Karch at the San Francisco Medical Examiner's Department and his team have come up with the idea that Napolean's mysterious death was a medical misadventure. Napolean's doctors gave an enema to him on daily basis to relieve his stomach problem. "They used really big, nasty syringe-shaped things," Karch says. This, combined with regular doses of antimony potassium tartrate to make him vomit, would have left his body seriously short of potassium, which can lead to a lethal heart condition called 'torsades de pointes' in which bouts of rapid heartbeats disrupt blood flow to the brain," said Karch. The final straw was probably 600 milligrams of mercuric chloride given as a purge, that was five times the normal dose, and it would have depleted his potassium levels further as Napolean died two days later.

         Nonetheless, Phil Corso, a retired doctor from Connecticut does not believe in Karch's explanation of Napolean's death. "It is really far-fetched when you think about it. Napolean had clearly been ill for a long time and his doctors are unlikely to have made much of a difference," said Corso.

Black Sabbath video morph George Bush as Adolf Hitler (Go To Top)

         Washington: Pop band 'Black Sabbath' have joined the anti-Bush campaign by flashing video morphs of the US President as Adolf Hitler during their Ozzfest shows. According to ratethemusic.com, the British singers, led by veteran star Ozzy Osbourne, are showcasing the video footage during performances of their classic 'War Pigs'. The footage shows Bush and Hitler on the same screen, with the caption, "Same s**t, different a**hole." The band has also used a song to flash a photo of Bush wearing a clown nose, with the caption, 'The White House Circus'. However, not all members of the band are supportive if the controversial footage. Distancing himself from the controversy, drummer Bill Ward said on his web site: "I wish to say this video structure does not represent my personal views towards President Bush. This video was made without my prior knowledge or consent."

Britney's fianci too has 'walked the aisle' once before (Go To Top)

          London: Britney Spears may have had a charade of a marriage with her childhood sweetheart, but her fianci Kevin Federline does not lag far behind. Apparently the dancer too 'walked the aisle', with his childhood sweetheart, Felicia Cabiero, dressed up like bride and groom for Felicia's coming of age ceremony. Kevin at 15 acted as Felicia's escort for the 'quinceaqera', a service held throughout Latin America for girls celebrating their 15th birthday, according to The Sun. "He was the first guy I slept with and I was the first girl he slept with," Felicia was quoted as saying.

Kate Hudson feels that a woman's place is at home (Go To Top)

         London: Hollywood actress Kate Hudson may have courted success in tinsel town, but she primarily wants to be seen as a dutiful wife and a loving mother, who believes that a woman is the angel of the home and hearth. According to 'This Is London', the Oscar nominee revealed in an interview to Instyle magazine that she holds old fashioned views about the role of women. "I think the greatest thing when you're a female who is always out and about or doing something is to remember that your place is in the home," the actress was quoted as saying. "I want my man to feel like he's the man of the house, because that's the greatest dynamic of men and women," she added.

'Posh Spice' hires 25,000 pound jet to shop in France (Go To Top)

          London: Pop star Victoria Beckham hired a jet for 25,000 pounds to fly to the south of France for shopping. Victoria took her two sons, Brooklyn and Romeo, her dad Tony Adams and some friends to a furniture store on an industrial estate near Cannes and bought some soft furnishings. "Victoria's always had a canny eye for bargains, but this was a bit of an expensive way to do the shopping! Luckily for her, there was a sale on, but even by her standards this was a long and pricey way to go to buy some sofas," The Mirror quoted a source as saying. The former Spice Girl may have been buying furniture for the 1.5 million pound 15-bedroom holiday home the Beckhams bought last May in the medieval village of Bargemon in Provence.

Nicole Kidman says she is homeless (Go To Top)

         London: Hollywood diva Nicole Kidman has revealed that she is 'homeless' and spends her time travelling around the world like a gypsy. Nicole told Radio One that she is too busy to find a place of her own, but feels that people are usually surprised to know about her unusual lifestyle. "I don't have a place where I 'live' live. I just travel around, I really do. It's a strange thing at my age to be just, a, yeah a gypsy," Ananova quoted Nicole as saying. "It is a little strange and it seems to make people uncomfortable at times when you say: "No, I don't really have a home," she added. Nicole also said that her base is in New York and it is the place where she feels most settled. "My children do very well here because they get to see a lot of theatre, I grew up seeing theatre, and so they see a lot of theatre, and they are exposed to lots of culture. Culturally I think it is a very rich city, but I don't prefer it to say Sydney or Paris or London, it just happens to be where I am now," said the 'Cold Mountain' actress.

Man held for secretly keeping a tiger in his apartment (Go To Top)

          London: Police have charged and arrested a man with reckless endangerment for surreptitiously harbouring a 400lb tiger and an alligator inside his apartment. Antoine Yates who said that he wanted to dedicate his life to animals and perhaps open a wildlife reserve, was arrested in Philadelphia, where he had gone for treatment of a deep bite on his leg, inflicted by the tiger. "It seemed like the District Attorney was taking this personal and I didn't want him to hurt my mum. He can do whatever to me, but I will not let him do anything to my mother," Yates was quoted by Annanova as saying. Ming, the Siberian tiger, who ate 25 chicken thighs a day, is now at a sanctuary in Ohio while the alligator is being looked after in Indiana.