Skin Care Tips For Winter

Winter is dry and this affects your skin which makes it very dry, rough, and flaky. Whatever happens inside your body would surely reflect what is happening to your skin. So have a proper diet and drink lots of water. It helps in transporting the nutrients to your skin cells. Avoid alcohol and caffeinated drinks which cause dehydration and instead have vegetables rich in water like leafy vegetables.

Winter can make you and the body very lethargic. You can change all that if you give more attention to the food you eat such as warm and cooked meals, warm water, juices, light tea and some exercise can all be very helpful in taking care of your skin. Cleanse your face daily with your favorite cleanser every night which making your skin more supple and beautiful.

There are healthy fats which can be very beneficial for skin too, such as olive oil as well as clarified butter. For good nourishment blanched, soaked almonds are very good. The best thing about winter you feel is the hot water bath, but too much of that would make your dryer skin more dry. So limit the hot water baths to sustain the nutrition of your body.

Soap and shower gel are very high on chemicals, so start using something milder which enhances your skin and saves all the nutrients of your body. You can make for yourself a mixture of chickpea flour and milk to clean your face and body. This is highly recommended, as this would help to make your skin smoother and the oil in your body preserved due to the milk.

Nepal hits worrisome bumps on road to democracy

KATMANDU, Nepal—A year ago, it looked like this mountain kingdom beset by royal murders and Maoist insurgents was finally headed for better times. The rebels agreed to lay down their arms and take up politics, ending a bloody civil war that had cost 12,000 lives over 15 years. The army was in its barracks, and the unpopular king, who rose to the throne after a royal massacre by a nephew, had ceded power to a national parliament. Nepalis were assured that they soon would be voting for an assembly to draft a new democratic constitution. But now elections have been delayed indefinitely as Nepal's political parties scramble for the upper hand in determining the shape of the country's new government. Ethnic rebellions are flaring in the country's neglected south, and hard-line Maoist fighters, fed up with their treatment in disarmament camps, are threatening to take to the streets. "This is a complex phase of the peace process," said Martin Chautari, a political analyst and researcher in Katmandu, in typical Nepali understatement. If the country doesn't manage to hold elections soon, "there are many threats," he said, including the emergence of new separatist movements throughout the hugely diverse nation of 28 million, sandwiched between regional giants China and India.

A low pointNepal's fitful push toward democracy hit a low point in September, when the country's former Maoist insurgents backed out of an interim government charged with bringing about elections to create a new constitution. Maoist leaders said they were frustrated that two of their key demands—the immediate declaration of Nepal as a republic, to forestall any return of the king, and a proportional election system reflecting the country's diverse makeup—had not been met. The country's traditional parties quickly pointed out that they already had agreed to 20 elements of the Maoists' 22-point plan and that the former rebels had twice reversed themselves on wanting a proportional election system. They also accused the Maoists of trying to sabotage the elections out of fear that their limited popularity meant they would win only a tiny share of the power they had hoped to achieve. The squabbling, which culminated with elections planned for Nov. 22 being postponed indefinitely, has convinced many Nepalis that the country's politicians have lost sight of the bigger goal—cementing peace and stability—in their bid for the biggest share of Nepal's political spoils. The country's top political leaders "want Nepal to change as long as they stay at the top," charged Gagan Kumar Thapa, a youth leader in the dominant Nepali Congress party and a leading democracy campaigner.

"We need real statesmen now who can think above their own interests and their party's own interests. We are all in the same boat," he said. "But no one will sacrifice anything for the country." The risks of Nepal's political stalemate are substantial. In the southern Tarai plains, disenchantment with years of colonial-style rule by the country's mountain-based political elite has led to widespread strikes and demands for greater autonomy and more political representation in Katmandu. After 30 people were killed in clashes in the region early this year, the interim parliament agreed that Nepal's proposed new constitution would make the country for the first time a federation of regions and that the Tarai, home to 35 percent of Nepal's population, would get the representation it deserved. But election delays and the government's apparent reluctance to deliver on peace accords it has signed—disarmed Maoist fighters have gotten only a fraction of the assistance promised—have spurred growing disillusionment in the Tarai, where protests started by local leaders recently have also attracted armed thugs bent on taking advantage of the unrest. Political leaders fear the growing uprisings could make holding constitutional assembly elections there difficult. And any election that fails to include all of the country's disgruntled parties, from Maoists to the Tarai's simmering residents, would only lead to more conflict, everyone agrees. "If you can't hold a credible election there, you can't hold a credible election in Nepal," warned Kieran Dwyer, a spokesman for the United Nations Mission in Nepal, which was established last year under a UN Security Council resolution aimed at supporting the country's peace process and helping ensure free and fair elections. "It's too late to turn the clock back on the need for inclusion of all the different groups in Nepal," he said. "And the political parties need to act on that."

Spring target for electionsThe country's interim parliament, which last week resumed talks aimed at ending the various stalemates, hopes to reschedule constitutional assembly elections for early next spring, politicians in Katmandu said. Just as important, analysts say, the body needs to begin delivering on its promises to the country's disaffected, particularly the disarmed Maoists, who are growing frustrated while waiting for support payments and jobs. Without such movement, hard-liners among the Maoists, whose party looks increasingly like a coalition of splinter groups rather than a cohesive whole, could take to Katmandu's streets in protest, potentially sparking a violent showdown with Nepali security forces. "It's never easy to go from war to peace," said Darren Nance, a Nepal specialist at the U.S.-based Carter Center's offices in Katmandu. "It's always two steps forward and one back. And it's human nature to forget how easily [the situation] could go back to something worse." Still, there are a few positive signs. The country two months ago traded in its old royalist national anthem for a new one extolling the diversity of Nepal's more than 100 languages and ethnicities. "We are a hundred different flowers in a garland," says the new song, adapted from a Nepali folk tune. And Nepal's people, who clearly remember the bitter years of war, "are an extremely patient lot," said Kundra Dixit, the editor of the Nepali Times newspaper. All politicians need to do, he said, "is not take them for granted."

Russia divulges Putin assassination plot

Russian President Vladimir Putin has been told about a plot to assassinate him during a visit to Iran this week, a Kremlin spokeswoman said Sunday.
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The spokeswoman, who spoke on customary condition of anonymity, refused further comment.
Interfax news agency, citing a source in Russia's special services, said suicide terrorists had been trained to carry out the assassination.
A spokesman for Iran's foreign ministry, Mohammad Ali Hosseini, denied any such plot had been uncovered, characterizing the news as disinformation spread by Iran's adversaries.
"These sort of reports are completely baseless and in direction with psychological operations of enemies of relations between Iran and Russia," Hosseini said in a statement.
Putin is to travel to Tehran on Monday night from Germany after meetings with Chancellor Angela Merkel.
During his visit to Iran, Putin is to meet with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and attend Tuesday's summit of Caspian Sea nations.
He will be the first Kremlin leader to travel to Iran since Josef Stalin attended a 1943 wartime summit with Britain's Winston Churchill and President Franklin Roosevelt.
Officials have reported uncovering at least two other plots to kill Putin on foreign trips since he became president in 2000.
Ukrainian security officials said they foiled an attempt to kill Putin during a summit in Yalta in August 2000. And in 2001, Russian security officials said a plot to assassinate Putin earlier that year in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, had been uncovered by the Azeri special services.
Russian officials linked both alleged plots to Chechen separatists. Putin had sent troops back into the southern Russian republic to crush resistance to Moscow's rule.

Bangladeshi develops humanoid robot from scrap

DHAKA (Reuters) - Move over Japan? A Bangladeshi graduate student is developing a robot capable of picking up objects, mopping floors and performing other simple tasks -- at the fraction of the cost of other humanoids.

Feroz Ahmed Siddiky of the International Islamic University in Chittagong says his "IRobo" responds to voice commands, has spatial intelligence and is cheap because it's made from scrap materials he's collected from electronic shops and car mechanics. "On completion, this robot will comply with different verbal commands for tasks like shifting objects, cleaning floors and standing guard," Siddiky told Reuters. "It can also be used for some risky jobs like in coal mines, where workers commonly suffer many accidents." Siddiky has been working on the robot for two years and says he has got another year's worth of engineering to do before its completed. He said he is currently discussing commercial production of the robot with an Australian software firm.

"I hope people will be able to buy it for less than $1,000," he added. Cyber-crazy Japan is hooked on androids with several companies selling robots that mimic human action for medical and cleaning purposes, as well as entertainment.

Iraqi Authorities Seek Blackwater Ouster

BAGHDAD - Iraqi authorities want the U.S. government to sever all contracts in Iraq with Blackwater USA within six months. They also want the firm to pay $8 million in compensation to families of each of the 17 people killed when its guards sprayed a traffic circle with heavy machine gun fire last month.

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The demands — part of an Iraqi government report examined by The Associated Press — also called on U.S. authorities to hand over the Blackwater security agents involved in the Sept. 16 shootings to face possible trial in Iraqi courts. The tone of the Iraqi report appears to signal further strains between the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and the White House over the deaths in Nisoor Square — which have prompted a series of U.S. and Iraqi probes and raised questions over the use of private security contractors to guard U.S. diplomats and other officials. Al-Maliki ordered the investigation by his defense minister and other top security and police officials on Sept. 22. The findings — which were translated from Arabic by AP — mark the most definitive Iraqi positions and contentions about the shootings last month. The report also highlights the differences in death tolls and accounts that have complicated efforts to piece together the chain of events as one Blackwater-protected convoy raced back toward Baghdad's Green Zone after a nearby bombing, while a second backup team in four gun trucks sped into the square as a backup team. The Iraqi investigation — first outlined Thursday by The Associated Press — charges the four Blackwater vehicles called to the square began shooting without provocation. Blackwater contends its employees came under fire first. The government, at the conclusion of its investigation, said 17 Iraqis died. Initial reports put the toll at 11. It said the compensation — totaling $136 million — was so high "because Blackwater uses employees who disrespect the rights of Iraqi citizens even though they are guests in this country." The U.S. military pays compensation money to the families of civilians killed in battles or to cover property damage, but at far lower amounts.

The United States has not made conclusive findings about the shooting, though there are multiple investigations under way and Congress has opened inquiries into the role of private security contractors. Last week, the FBI took over a State Department investigation, raising the prospect that it could be referred to the Justice Department for prosecution. The Iraqi government report said its courts were to proper venue in which to bring charges. It said Blackwater's license to operate in Iraq expired on June 2, 2006, meaning it had no immunity from prosecution under Iraqi laws set down after the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003. The government report also challenged the claim that a decree in June 2004 by then-Iraqi administrator L. Paul Bremer granted Blackwater immunity from legal action in incidents such as the one in Nisoor Square. The report said the Blackwater guards could be charged under a criminal code from 1969. U.S. Embassy spokeswoman Mirembe Nantongo said the diplomatic mission would have no comment on the report. Iraq's Interior Ministry spokesman, Abdul-Karim Khalaf, said the document was in American hands.

The report found that Blackwater guards also had killed 21 Iraqi civilians and wounded 27 in previous shootings since it took over security for U.S. diplomats in Baghdad after the U.S. invasion. The Iraqi government did not say whether it would try to prosecute in those cases.
The State Department has counted 56 shooting incidents involving Blackwater guards in Iraq this year. All were being reviewed as part of the comprehensive inquiry ordered by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

Prasant Tamang Indian Idol 3

Even if he did imagine that, the 24-year-old from Tungsung village in Darjeeling district could have never thought, even in his wildest dreams, that for many in Nepal his win would become a symbol of political victory over their southern neighbour India, frequently regarded as an arm-twisting bully.For nearly two months, Nepal agonised over Indian Idol while its own contest Nepali Tara went ignored. Indeed, the Nepalese contest had to change its timing since no one watched it while it clashed with Idol.Why would a nation ignore its own talents and devote its energies to promoting a singer whose ancestors originated from Nepal?The answer is because, for many Nepalese, Darjeeling is still part of Nepal.In the 19th century, Darjeeling and other parts of Sikkim had been annexed by Nepal. However, as the British East India Company tried to open trade routes to Tibet via Sikkim, Nepal waged war against the Company and lost.As a result, it was forced to sign the Sugauli Treaty and withdraw from all the territory it had occupied in Sikkim, Kumaon, Garhwal and much of the Terai.Though the British found it difficult to govern the Terai and restored some of it to Nepal, Darjeeling, Kumaon and Garhwal remained part of British India.When India obtained independence in 1947, Nepal hoped to get back its wrested land but did not.Since then, the dream of achieving a "Greater Nepal" some day in the future with the lost area still remains in the mind of the Nepalese.Royalists had been demanding a Greater Nepal and the Maoists, the opponents of the royalists, want it as well, demanding that the Sugauli Treaty be scrapped.There has been no formal treaty between Nepal and India after 1947, even after Sikkim's merger with India in 1975, which Nepal regards as the annexation of Sikkim.Nepal still does not formally recognise Sikkim's "annexation", nor has India sought recognition from Nepal. Therefore Nepalis still regard Darjeeling as a part of Nepal that should be restored and Prashant Tamang is considered a Nepalese.His victory Sunday therefore is the victory of Nepal over India in a way, which is why, despite his Indian citizenship, the fact that Prashant speaks Nepali at home, which constitutionally is an Indian language as well, is being regarded as evidence of his being a Nepalese.Ironically, actress Manisha Koirala, who carved a niche in Bollywood, was never an icon in Nepal.One reason was probably because she came from one of Nepal's most influential families and the average Nepali did not identify with her.Her popularity also took a dive after she supported King Gyanendra when the king tried to seize absolute power through an army-backed coup.Nepalis feel that Manisha obtained stardom with the help The politics behind Prashant's Indian Idol winof the Indian film industry, she did not "defeat" thousands of Indian contenders to attain success.

Nepal