Remix King Bappi Lahiri visits Agartala (Go To Top)

         Agartala: Remix king Bappi Lahiri was in town recently to start a new venture in the same genre. Describing the venture as an extension of his over three-decade- long journey in music, Lahiri told reporters here that he had so far scored music for 430 films. Belting out some of his famous tunes, Lahiri further went on to say that his 32-year long involvement with music had helped to give India's music industry an all together new profile.

Norah Jones 'Feels Like Home' topping the charts! (Go To Top)

         Washington: Norah Jones' new album ,'Feels Like Home', seems all set to break new records. The album which has sold 204,000 copies till date has emerged the chart-topper passing OutKast for the longest run at number one so far this year, reports e online. Jessica Simpson's revamped album 'In This Skin',occupied the second slot. It features new album artwork, a bonus DVD and a handful of new songs, including a cover of Berlin's "Take My Breath Away." The original version of the album had sold just 52,000 copies. While Evanescence's Fallen was at number three, Kanye West's The College Dropout dropped two spots to number four with 107,000 copies, but Kenny Chesney's 'When the Sun Goes Down' held steady at five with 90,000 copies. OutKast's Speakerboxxx/The Love Below was at sixth slot, Josh Groban's Closer at seven, The Very Best of Sheryl Crow at eight, Twista's Kamikaze at nine, and Eamon's I Don't Want You Back at 10.

Jude Law getting too close to 'Closer' co-star! (Go To Top)

         New York: Oscar-nominated actor Jude Law seems to be on a romancing-spree with reports that he is now getting close to his "Closer" co-star Natalie Portman. According to IMDb, the reports have sparked fears his romance with "Alfie" beauty Sienna Miller is over. The "Cold Mountain" star first met Portman on the set of the Anthony Minghella-directed civil war drama, while he was going through his split from wife Sadie Frost. But it wasn't until the pair teamed up to play lovers in the new drama - which also stars Julia Roberts - that they struck up a close friendship. A source close to Law told Britain's Closer magazine, "Jude regularly mixes with big Hollywood names and while Natalie is at ease in those circles, Sienna, a former model, is seen as a comparative lightweight. Her only big film role so far has been beside Jude in Alfie."

Scientists shatter 'footing' the ladder myth! (Go To Top)

         London: Getting your friend, spouse or a bored child to hold the bottom of a ladder can be risky, says a new study carried out by the ergonomics and safety research unit of Loughborough University. Scientists have shown that "footing" - the practice of standing or leaning on the bottom of a ladder - gives a false sense of security to the person on top, reports The Telegraph. "Footing seems obvious, but it turns out not to offer sufficient stability," said Laurence Clift, who led the research team. His study calculated how different stability devices and techniques worked in the case of 52 typical ladder users.

         Footing only prevented one of the four types of ladder accidents - when the ladder flips on one leg and falls over.It made almost no difference to the others - when a ladder top slides sideways, when the top of the ladder comes away from the wall and when the legs slip back on the floor away from the wall. The research also worked out the most effective way to help someone up a ladder."The important thing is to stand with both feet well apart on the first rung and keep very still," Clift added.

Women have capacity to conceive even after menopause! (Go To Top)

          Washington: Researchers at the Boston-based Massachusetts General Hospital have revealed that contrary to popular belief, female mammals produce new eggs after birth. Since the 1950s, biologists have insisted that no egg stem cell source existed in adult female mammals indicating that a woman only has the eggs she was born with. The numbers simply decline until the menopause, when the supply is exhausted. Years of research supported this belief. For example, when biologists opened mouse ovaries and counted the number of healthy follicles ,they found the number declined slowly with age. Jonathan Tilly, the lead researcher says his took a different approach because they studied atresia, the process by which the follicles die. It was discovered that follicles were dying so rapidly in mouse ovaries that the egg supply should have been depleted in a few weeks, even though female mice are fertile for more than a year. But the low rate of growth of living follicles suggested that new egg follicles were being created well into adult life from stem cells. "We didn't expect to challenge the dogma," says Tilly. "We are just as shocked as everyone else."

          To prove directly that new egg cells were being created, his team implanted parts of the ovaries of normal mice into mice that were genetically engineered to produce a glowing protein in all their cells. After a few weeks, the implanted ovary grew new follicles, containing the glowing protein. Stem cells from the modified mice had infiltrated the transplant and formed new eggs. If such stem cells exist in women, they could provide a way to treat infertility problems, such as the destruction of eggs during cancer chemotherapy. "Women could essentially grow back their ovaries after therapy," "The possibilities are almost too numerous to mention," Tilly added.

Jolie and Farrell are 'just friends'! (Go To Top)

         Washington: In a vehement denial of her alleged affair with wildman actor Colin Farrell Hollywood beauty, Angelina Jolie has insisted that the duo are just "great friends". The pair met on the set of forthcoming epic Alexander and have since been plagued by speculation that they're dating each other. This was followed by a series of alleged sightings of them disappearing into hotel rooms together, reports imdb.com. And although Jolie admits she spent Christmas with Farrell, she slams reports saying that they're an item. "He's a great guy and we're both single people so it makes sense we'd be put into a romantic thing. But as insane as it sounds, we're actually just great friends," she said.

Oscar winner Theron gets choosy about her roles! (Go To Top)

          Washington: Oscar-winning actress Charlize Theron is setting new standards for herself after winning the best actress award for her critically lauded performance in Monster. The sexy South African has vowed never to star in a "mediocre" movie again, and says she's just as happy playing a supporting role to a leading man. "I don't think I can go back to mediocre. I don't care if it's the 'girlfriend' role, as long as it's good. I think you can do incredible work playing the 'girlfriend' role if the writer actually writes an incredible part for you and the film- maker directs you in a brave and interesting way and pushes you out onto the edge," she was quoted by imdb.com, as saying.

Britney's 'robotic pelvic thrusts' have few takers! (Go To Top)

         Washington: Pop star Britney Spears' Onyx Hotel tour has kicked off to a bad start and she has been accused of making desperate attempts to shock audiences as well. Britney began her North American tour in San Diego, California, on March 2, but it failed to impress Los Angeles Daily News critic, Fred Shuster, when it hit Los Angeles. "Spears was wheeled on stage in a tall chariot, looking for all the world like a statue of Lenin, if the Russian dictator had been a beefy bottle-blond aerobics instructor. The robotic pelvic thrusts began almost immediately". imdb quoted Shuster as saying.

         He added, "Much has been made of the show's allegedly racy content. But as a second male dancer's head was being pulled into Spears' crutch Monday, the night's sole irony became enticingly clear - the tour is promoted by Clear Channel, the radio broadcasting giant that recently dropped Howard Stern from six of its stations and has taken a self-congratulatory stand against what it called public decency". "More troubling is Spears' continued inability to realize how dull she is when she's not acting as glorified ringmaster. As she sat down at the piano to simulate a ballad 'that's close to my heart' she announced that after all she'd suffered at the hands of the press, 'At the end of the day, it's made me what I am today," said Shuster.

Norah Jones' love for rock! (Go To Top)

         New York: Though a Jazz singer, Norah Jones grew up listening to an unlikely list of stars as a teen, they included, rock bands "Poison" and "Motley Crue" and pop rapper MC Hammer. According to ratethemusic.com, though the songstress has scooped a long list of accolades for her mellow vocal tones, she admits the music she liked as a youngster often had a much harder edge. "I really liked Poison and Motley Crue. I have this neighbour and we would go to listen Poison and Motley Crue all the time", she said. Jones, who admits she'd consider doing a tribute to 80s heavy metal at some point in her career, adds that MC Hammer's concert was also the first live show she went to.

Janet's Nipplegate is up for grabs on eBay! (Go To Top)

         Washington: For all those who missed out on the Nipplegate episode, here's a second chance! Thanks to eBay, you can now own plastic replicas of busted Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake in their Super Bowl finery. According to a report in Eonline, Canadian artist Siobhan Sawatsky created the pair and put them up for online auction, in an effort to gain mileage on the brouhaha surrounding the wardrobe malfunction. Though Sawatsky admits she did not actually watch the Super Bowl, she was careful with her creations, including Jackson's sun- shaped nipple shield and Timberlake's beard stubble.

         "The dolls actually took only a couple of evenings to create. However, if I had known they were going to create such a hype, I would have spent more time on them and paid more attention to detail," Sawatsky was quoted as saying. Earlier, Sawatsky has created other leather-clad dolls and sold them on eBay for between 30 and 80 dollars. Referring to the Nipplegate episode, Sawatsky says she found the frenzied reaction amusing. "I have to admit that the whole incident was quite humorous. It is amazing how something so minor can be blown completely out of proportion and become such a national event," she said.

Parish councillor stars in sex video on porn site! (Go To Top)

          London: A parish councillor has started her own porn website which shows her in the act! According to a report in 'The Sun', former stripper Christine Cranfield is canned wearing a basque and suspenders and performing explicit sex acts. However, Christine's fellow councillors flipped when they discovered her sordid sideline and the councillor is now on the verge of being booted out from the parish panel. "I don't see what all the fuss is about. It is just harmless fun. Some people can be a bit fuddy-duddy about this sort of thing, but I think most people are a lot more broad-minded," the 3- month-old councilor said. Christine, who earlier worked as a stripper for a decade, said she told officials she was planning to set up a website when she applied for a position on the council. However, locals in Clifton Without village, near York, were flabbergasted when they realized how explicit the site is. Christine, who lives with fianci Kevin Paylor, also offers a 19.99-pound-a-week Internet sex chat service.

David Beckham takes on Harry Potter in Brit battle! (Go To Top)

          London: Metrosexual man David Beckham is now set to woo fans off-field with his thoughts in the form of an autobiography! According to the Sun, the soccer idol's autobiography "My Side" is in contention for the British Book Awards' Book of the Year. The Real Madrid mid-fielder's prose shares space along with JK Rowling's "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix". Royal butler Paul Burrell's memoir "A Royal Duty", doing an expose on Princess Diana's disturbed state of mind and marital crisis also features in contention. "It will be my only chance to be on a level playing field with one of the world's greatest footballers - and have a chance of winning," Burrell said. Madonna's The English Roses is nominated in the children's fiction category.

Hitler's buffoon role in Nazi spoof annoys Jews! (Go To Top)

          Sydney: The Great Dictator, Adolf Hitler, is in the news once again. Only this time, he is potrayed as a moron in a musical, which has sparked off mixed emotions from the Jewish community. According to the Herald Sun, The Producers, a spoof of the Broadway theatrical scene, involves a pair of producers plotting a financial scam by staging what they think will be a surefire flop - a musical called Springtime for Hitler written by a former Nazi soldier. The original 1968 film featured goose-stepping chorus girls and a ridiculous Hitler portrayed as a hippie. Mel Brooks, the director who is Jewish, has said that the Nazis were his enemies and his aim was to attack them by sending them up. But Saba Feninger, a Melbourne-based Holocaust survivor, is offended by the idea. "When you portray Hitler as a buffoon, what does that make the Holocaust - a joke?" she said. "He was anything but a buffoon. I think it's in bad taste".

         Another Holocaust survivor, Henry Korn, 74, however, believes that the musical was in the tradition of Charlie Chaplin's classic film, The Great Dictator. "Chaplin made Hitler look like a fool and The Producers reinforces this image," he said. "Anything that shows Hitler to be a moron makes me happy." Korn, who is writing a book about his wartime experiences, concedes that the musical might affect Germans more than Jews. "Germans might think: 'Why were we so easily fooled by this crank? Now we are made to look like a bunch of cretins'." The Australian production, opening on April 17, stars Reg Livermore, Tom Burlinson and Bert Newton.