Nokia finally unveiled their flagship smartphone, the Lumia 920, in India. 'Although the phone is still not out on shelves, Nokia allowed us to spend some quality time with the handset to test its new Pure View camera with optical image stabilization.’. Here are some of our initial impressions of the Lumia 920.

A Second Look at Stress

 

 

If you're a human mammal, however, stress comes from something more insidious than a toothy predator: anxiety triggered by the passive-aggressive boss, the 30-year mortgage, and the job of caring for children as well as the ill parent. It's not just high blood pressure or heart attacks. Stress can give you headaches, back pain, indigestion, depression, diabetes, and sleep problems. Stress can make you fat, cause your hair to fall out, and ruin your sex life. It wears on your heart, your memory, and your immune system, and may even give a boost to those rogue cells that can eventually lead to cancer. 

It's impossible to predict exactly how stress will take its toll and where you will feel it most. Some people tense up and feel aches in their muscles; others get headaches or tightness in the chest. How your body responds to stress is determined by genetics, your lifestyle, and even your earliest life experiences (childhood trauma and emotional distress can make you more vulnerable to stress as an adult). Whether you have power and control at work, close friendships and a good marriage also play a role.

Visible physical reactions are only the most obvious signs. Inside the body, stress triggers changes that can take years to show up. "Stress definitely takes a quiet toll," 

The Early-Aging Effect

The Right Way to Manage Stress

• Pay attention to your aches and pains. They're early warning signs. One of the first places stress shows up is in the shoulders and the back of the head. That telltale tightness is your body telling you to take action and find an outlet for your stress before it has time to do even more damage.

 

• Stay close to friends and family. Stress releases oxytocin, the bonding hormone that's also produced when mothers breastfeed their babies. (Men produce this hormone, too, but while a woman's estrogen enhances the effects of oxytocin, a man's testosterone inhibits it.) Stress causes the release of this "tend and befriend" hormone -- triggering a desire to pull children and friends close. This closeness in turn releases more oxytocin, which actually helps dampen stress hormones. In fact, studies show that breast-cancer patients who join support groups have lower levels of stress hormones. Therefore, when you're stressed out, use women's secret weapon against stress: Call your mom, call a friend, or have some fun with your kids. Stress levels drop when you like the company you're keeping.

• Choose the right exercise. The body's stress response evolved to help us fight off a threat or run away from danger. Under stress your body sends a spurt of glucose to your muscles to give you a burst of speed and strength. There's also a shutdown mechanism: Once you actually escaped from a predator, you would stop running. Your body would interpret that as "the threat is gone" and shut down the stress response.

• That's why exercise still helps relieve stress. First exercising -- then stopping -- mimics this energy spurt/shutdown reaction. Your body doesn't know that the stress you're trying to escape is an annoying boss or a family crisis. It just processes the fact that you've responded, then relaxed. It doesn't take much. A quick walk, 10 minutes on the treadmill, or a game of tug with the family beagle usually is enough to release your stress and turn down the stress response.

• 
  Make sure you pick an exercise you like. If you loathe slogging away on a treadmill, the activity may actually add to your stress. Something to think about as you devise your mini-escape from the rat race: In actual rodent studies, animals forced to exercise show a surge in stress hormones, while rodents allowed to trot freely on the exercise wheel when they want to have lower levels of stress hormones.
• Try to gain a sense of control over something. Workers who have little control over their day have more workplace stress than managers with power. While you may not be able to change your job, it still helps to find control where you can. Volunteer for projects at work that interest you. Restore order to a messy kitchen drawer.
• Laugh it up. You wouldn't think that time in front of the tube would do much for your health, but studies show that half an hour to an hour of nightly television comedy can be a medical plus.
  
  
  In an Indiana study, women cancer patients  had lower stress hormones and higher natural "killer" cell activity (killer cells attack viruses and cancers)  Laughter pushes cortisol levels down and increases killer cell levels. The immune-boosting effects of laughter lasted as long as 12 hour.
  
  In another study, diabetic patients who had suffered a heart attack were "prescribed" a nightly 30-minute regimen of TV comedy. After a year they showed drops in blood pressure, used less medication for chest pain, and had 80 percent fewer heart attacks than a control group that didn't regularly watch funny television.
  
  
  
  
  
• Cuddle your kids. This will make you feel better, but that's not all. It's stress innoculation. Whether a child grows up in a stable, loving home or a stressful environment has a huge impact on his or her ability to cope with stress as an adult.
• If self-help doesn't help, consult a professional. Though no one can eliminate everything that stresses her, you can try to control the emotional reactions that turn on your stress response. It's not easy, needless to say. Some people benefit from therapy that teaches stress-coping skills. Learning meditation is another way to build calmness into your life. Ask your primary care doctor for advice on finding experts who can help.

Stress Stop: Your Heart

 

• Blood sugar swings can leave you tired and worsen diabetes, if you have it.
• High bloodstream levels of glucose and fatty acids also increase the risk of cardiovascular disease.
• Stress prompts the body to release cortisol, which makes the arteries more vulnerable to the buildup of cholesterol. This may explain why some studies have found a link between stress and high cholesterol.
• There's growing evidence that stress increases the risk of developing metabolic syndrome, a cluster of conditions that include collecting fat around the waistline, high blood sugar, high blood pressure, and high triglyceride levels. Possible result: cardiovascular disease.

• Chronic stress can mean lasting high blood pressure and a lot more wear and tear on the heart. One study showed that male government workers in London with stressful jobs for more than 14 years were almost twice as likely to have high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and insulin intolerance compared with workers who weren't exposed to stress. The most stressed-out workers? Those with demanding jobs who had very little control over how they spent their day.
• Even short-term, intense stress poses a risk. Short-term deadline pressure are at six times higher risk of heart attack in the following 24 hours.

Stress Stop: Your Immune System

• Ideally, these functions are shut down just long enough for you to get out of immediate danger. When the stress hormones keep coming, your immune response and other functions suffer.
• When researchers injected a cold virus into 394 volunteers, those who reported having very little stress in their lives had such supercharged immune systems that they were half as likely to get sick as volunteers who described having high stress levels.
•  

Stress Stop: Your Waistline

 

 

A US judge  denied Apple Inc’s request for a permanent injunction against Samsung Electronics’ smartphones, depriving the iPhone maker of key leverage in the mobile patent wars.

Apple had been awarded $1.05 billion in damages in August after a US jury found Samsung had copied critical features of the iPhone and iPad. The Samsung products run on the Android operating system, developed by Google.

After the jury verdict, Apple asked US District Judge Lucy Koh in San Jose to impose a permanent sales ban against 26 mostly older Samsung phones, though any injunction could potentially have been extended to Samsung’s newer Galaxy products.



In her order founded  that Apple had not presented enough evidence to show that its patented features drove consumer demand for the entire iPhone.

“The phones at issue in this case contain a broad range of features, only a small fraction of which are covered by Apple’s patents,”

“Though Apple does have some interest in retaining certain features as exclusive to Apple,” “it does not follow that entire products must be forever banned from the market because they incorporate, among their myriad features, a few narrow protected functions.”


In a separate order, rejected a bid by Samsung for a new trial based on an allegation that the jury foreman was improperly biased in favor of Apple.

After making a highly successful directorial debut with 'Taare Zameen Par', actor Aamir Khan is contemplating another stint behind the camera.

His 2007 film 'Taare Zameen Par' received accolades from both critics and viewers. The 47-year-old actor had also worked as an assistant director for his filmmaker-uncle Nasir Hussain's movies like 'Manzil Manzil' (1984) and 'Zabardast' (1985).

“He has a story and  chosen,hope to direct. But right now he has responsibility as an actor, plus (TV show) 'Satyamev Jayate' season 2,”

“The script is written by someone else.Amir  told the writer it (direction) will take time. He don't know when he  would direct next. As he  have 'Peekay', 'Dhoom 3' and 'Satyameva Jayaate 2' in hand.

Aamir is fascinated with 'Mahabharat' and will love to be a part of the epic's presentation on big screen one day.

“It is a desire. The project is huge. It is a dream project for him. But if  decide today  making it, I will have to give 20 years to it. This is why I am scared, if I say yes and decide to make it, five years will go only in research and then to execute it....The material is very exciting for me,” he said.
Aamir also cleared the air on reports of creative differences between him and director of his upcoming movie 'Talaash' Reema Kagti.
“As far as Reema is concerned, these rumours are not true. Lots of times they are untrue. Like 'Lagaan', this time around also there was something about me not being happy with the film. If I go around explaining every rumour I will have to stop working. I have to let go and decide that ultimately the film will speak for itself,” he sa

“It's been wonderful working with Reema. She is in control of the material and confident about what she wants. She is very clear about how she will get it. She doesn't compromise,” Aamir said.
“I felt comfortable and safe in her hands. At a number of places, she was able to point out layers in my character and scenes which I had not thought about. I was quite amazed by her perceptiveness and understanding of the moment.”
Besides Aamir, 'Talaash', which releases on November 30, stars Kareena Kapoor and Rani Mukherjee in the lead.
“I don't think I have ever done a film where I haven't given my opinion. Sometimes it is taken and sometimes it is not. But I trust my directors. When a director is working, everyone gives opinions,” said Aamir.
“When I was working on 'Taare Zameen Par', everyone gave me suggestions. That didn't make me less of a director. It's up to me to accept them or not,” he said.

Ang Lee’s much-awaited film version of Yann Martel’s bestselling adventure saga, Life of Pi, is a shimmering visual spectacle. Coming close to James Camerons’ Avatar, this film too has made optimum use of 3D technology along with heavy CGI effects, which eventually makes for a unique watching experience. This story about a young man trapped on a lifeboat with a tiger, has an artificial premise but if you’re sold to the contrivances, the movie turns into a spiritual, life-altering saga.

Life of Pi is narrated in flashback by the older Pi (Irrfan Khan) to a reporter (Rafe Spall), who is in search for an interesting story – “A story that will make me believe in God,” he says. Pi recounts the incredible experiences he went through during his 200-day ordeal on sea with a tiger. They have  narrated how different religions influenced him as an impressionable child and how his faith had been questioned when he was stranded in the middle of the ocean.


Life of Pi is a film difficult to make. Most of the story takes place on a lifeboat, in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. The shipwrecked hero (Suraj Sharma) doesn’t have a human soul to talk to for several days, except Richard Parker, a full-grown 450 pound Bengal tiger. This is one glaring problem faced by any aspiring filmmaker – How can they create a mighty tiger and make it look real?  Well, it's amazing what they can do with special effects these days. Richard Parker is such a fabulous and fully realized creation, perhaps nothing seems impossible to film now.

Claudio Miranda's luminous, glossy, color-saturated cinematography gives the movie a picture book quality which impresses to say the least. Especially the night portions at sea, when the water reflects the deep glimmering stars. Or the cameo made by the fluorescent painted whale that makes the scene look so magical. You almost start to believe that Pi, even while he’s stranded in the middle of the ocean, is living a better life than yours.

Ang Lee’s film is stronger as a visual experience than an emotional one. Right from the opening credits to the last scene, each and every frame is like a painting. There are scenes which do not help the story move forward but they determine Pi’s existence and his journey towards finding the actual meaning of life. However, the ones who’ve read Martel’s book will understand the visual metaphors of the film, much better than those who haven’t. Simply because this film is like a spiritual experience, you’d understand only if you connect.







For instance the film is about the desire to survive and will to live. Pi believes in three different religions and always performs their rituals. But when he’s on the life boat in the open sea, he’s unable to perform those rituals. He can’t pray towards Mecca and he eats fish in order to survive, even though he’s vegetarian. In a truly terrific scene between him and Richard Parker, Pi exclaims how the need for survival powers over any conviction.

The problem isn’t in the execution. Scenes with the tiger may be examples of movie magic but it doesn’t give enough meat for the audience to understand and accept what’s been thrown at them. The problem many would face is, ‘It’s all beautiful but what does it all mean?’

As for the cast, Young Suraj Sharma anchors Life of Pi with a confident performance. Irrfan Khan as the older Pi brings a lot of meat into the character. Watch out for the scene when he remembers Richard Parker while narrating his story to the reporter. Tabu and Adil Hussain as Pi’s parents are cast well.



The more you say about Ang Lee, the less it feels. He’s showed us the magic that can be created on-screen with 3D and CGI.  He’s made us believe that one just needs to have a vivid imagination and courage to back it with conviction.

Life of Pi is a fitting adaptation of Martel’s book. There have been umpteen arguments for how movie adaptations of novels ought to work. But ultimately, the movie has to stand on its own. If you haven’t read the book, the visuals of this film will entice you like never before. Perhaps the central message of Life of Pi works better on the printed page rather than moving images. But if you have read the book, then this film is an alternate reality; magnificent and one of its kind, waiting to be explored.

Wal-Mart’s Indian joint venture has suspended several senior executives and delayed the opening of some stores in the country as part of an internal bribery investigation.

It is the latest in a series of setbacks for the retail giant’s international operations and comes at a particularly sensitive time here because Indian policy makers recently allowed foreign retailers like Wal-Mart to open stores in the country. The investigation seems to have emboldened opposition lawmakers in New Delhi who are trying to overturn the government’s decision on foreign retailers.

In a statement, Bharti Walmart, a 50-50 joint venture between the Indian conglomerate Bharti Enterprises and Wal-Mart,“a few associates” to ensure “a complete and thorough investigation.” The Economic Times, an English-language daily, reported that the suspended employees included its chief financial officer and its legal team, but the company would not confirm that.

This month, Wal-Mart disclosed that it had expanded a bribery investigation that was initially focused on Mexico to India, China and Brazil. In April, The New York Times reported that executives at the company’s Arkansas headquarters had suppressed an internal investigation that found credible evidence that its Mexican subsidiary had paid bribes in an effort to open more stores in that country.

Bharti Walmart operates 18 wholesale stores in India that are allowed to sell goods to other businesses like retailers, hotels and restaurants. Most of its stores are in northern India, but it had planned to expand in the coming months in the south and west. Those plans have now been delayed, but the company said in a statement that “we remain excited about the opportunity to grow our business in one of the world’s most vibrant economies.”

Wal-Mart’s Indian joint venture also supplies about 200 supermarkets that are wholly owned by its partner’s Bharti Retail, and which operate under the brand Easyday.

In a separate inquiry, Indian authorities are looking into whether Wal-Mart violated foreign investment rules by giving Bharti Retail an interest-free loan of $100 million that would later convert into a controlling stake in that company. Both companies have maintained that they did not violate Indian investment regulations.

In September, Indian policy makers said foreign companies like Wal-Mart could directly enter the retail business with a local partner as long as they did not own more than 51 percent of the business.

The long-delayed move came with significant political opposition — one important regional political party withdrew its support from the governing coalition in New Delhi, which is led by the Indian National Congress Party, as a result. Days after that change, Wal-Mart officials said they would open retail stores in the country in as little as 18 months.

On Thursday and Friday, opposition lawmakers disrupted the first days of the winter session of Parliament, demanding that the government allow a debate and vote on the change in its retail policy. The demand was turned down.

The latest developments in Wal-Mart’s internal investigation could strengthen the opposition’s hand because Indian policy makers are already struggling to recover from accusations of corruption involving industries like telecommunications, energy and mining.

“It showcases that these are Wal-Mart’s practices worldwide,” Prakash Javadekar, a lawmaker for the country’s largest opposition party, the Bharatiya Janata Party, said in a telephone interview. “This will sharpen the debate.”

Though it is unclear exactly what Wal-Mart’s investigators are examining, Indian analysts say it is common to encounter corruption in industries like retailing that are governed by numerous overlapping federal, state and local rules.

In some Indian states, retail chains have to secure 50 to 60 regulatory approvals before they can open a store, a process that can take months and provides numerous opportunities for bribery, said Arvind Singhal, chairman of Technopak Advisors, a consulting firm that specializes in the retail business. Often the regulatory requirements are holdovers from a distant era. Stores that want to sell thermometers, for instance, usually have to obtain approval from a department in charge of weights and measures.

“To me, much beyond the Wal-Mart example, I sincerely hope that there is a serious debate about why is it so difficult to do business in India,” he said. “All of these conditions have only made India a poorer country.”

ONE OF THE globe’s worst killing fields is once again aflame. The eastern region of Congo was the epicenter of two wars in the past 15 years that laid waste to an estimated 5 million lives — many lost to hunger and disease that followed in the footsteps of armed conflict.

A rebel group, M23, seized the provincial capital of Goma as Congolese army forces and U.N. peacekeepers fell back. The fighting has intensified an already dire humanitarian crisis. Since the beginning of this year, more than 650,000 people have been uprooted in the regions of North and South Kivu. A series of fragile peace agreements reached in recent years are in tatters.

 The M23 was formed out of a mutiny from the Congolese army in April by several hundred soldiers from a former rebel army that had signed a peace deal with the government on March 23, 2009. They are led by Gen. Bosco Ntaganda, a former high-ranking army officer who has been indicted by the International Criminal Court on seven counts of crimes against humanity. The rebels have used and recruited child soldiers by the hundreds, according to the United Nations. By taking Goma, the rebels have raised the prospect of a destabilizing return to a regional war.






In the broadest sense, what’s unfolding is a result of the vacuum created by Congo’s weakness as a state. As the author and Congo analyst Jason Stearns has pointed out, the government in Kinshasa under President Joseph Kabila can’t impose rule of law or its military writ in the region, leading armed groups to fill the space. The International Crisis Group described the latest rebellion as, in part, the result of failure to implement earlier accords, failure to reform the army and failure to start a serious political dialogue. The presence of a 19,000-strong U.N. peacekeeping force has done little to halt the conflict.

Rwanda, which borders Congo to the east, sees this mineral-rich swath of Congo as a sphere of influence. Rwanda’s role in supplying arms and support to the M23 rebels cannot be underestimated, despite denials. A U.N. report just published concludes that Rwanda has provided “direct military support” to the rebels, including “arms, ammunition, intelligence and political advice.” Uganda is also believed to be aiding the rebels.

Rwanda and Uganda should stop their meddling, and the United States and Britain must turn up the pressure on Rwanda to halt support for the rebels. That will take more than quiet diplomacy. A U.N. Security Council resolution approved Tuesday called for sanctions against the rebel leaders but stopped short of naming Rwanda. All sides need to recognize they are sliding once again toward the killing fields and to come to their senses before the bloody wars of the past are repeated.

 

The decree, which says his decisions cannot be overturned by the courts, also sparked attacks on offices of the president's party in several cities.

A defiant Mr Mursi defended the move, saying he was leading Egypt on a path to "freedom and democracy".
The Obama administration has voiced concern about developments.Tear gas in Tahrir
 
Overnight, some 20 white tents were pitched in the middle of Cairo's totemic Tahrir Square, where Egyptians celebrated the ousting of President Hosni Mubarak last year.

Protest organisers said more than 20 different groups had joined the week-long sit-in against Mr Mursi's reforms. Numbers of protesters have ranged from a few hundred to a few thousand.Organisers have called for a huge protest on Tuesday.


The protesters have two demands: to reverse the president's constitutional declaration, and to dissolve the constituent assembly that is currently drafting Egypt's new constitution.

Separately  another set of anti-Mursi protesters clashed with police near the interior ministry off Tahrir Square. Police fired tear gas and demonstrators threw petrol bombs. Chants of "Mursi is Mubarak... revolution everywhere" rang out.

Almost 100 people were injured in violence as offices of the president's Muslim Brotherhood party were reportedly attacked in the cities, Suez and Ismailia, while clashes between rival demonstrations took place in Alexandria.
Defending his decision at a rally at Cairo's, Mr Mursi  was the guardian of political, economic and social stability, but that he wanted to see a "genuine opposition, a strong opposition".

Key opposition figures have accused the president of "monopolising all three branches of government" and overseeing "the total execution of the independence of the judiciary".

US state department, the decree had "raised concerns" in the international community.

Egypt's revolution had aimed "to ensure that power would not be overly concentrated in the hands of any one person or institution".The US wanted democratic dialogue within Egypt to solve constitutional issues.

The rapid turn of events may have caught Washington by surprise.

 Secretary of State Hillary Clinton met Mr Mursi in Cairo and praised him for his efforts in brokering the ceasefire in Gaza.

Constitution rewrite,  The new decree bans challenges to Mr Mursi's laws and decisions, and says no court can dissolve the constituent assembly, which is drawing up a new constitution.

It also opens the way for a retrial of people convicted of killings during Egypt's 2011 uprising which toppled Mubarak.

The declaration also gives the 100-member constituent assembly two additional months to draft a new constitution, to replace the one suspended after Mubarak was overthrown.

The rewrite of the constitution, which was meant to be finished by December, has been plagued by legal complaints questioning the make-up of the constituent assembly. Once completed, the document is due to be put to a referendum. If it is approved, legislative elections will be held two months later.

 If you sleep only for five to six hours, it is bound to affect your work negatively. Experts recommend eight hours of sleep for ideal health and productivity.

Researchers at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH), a teaching affiliate of Harvard Medical School, have found that regardless of how tired you think you are, lack of sleep can influence the way you do certain tasks.

“Our team decided to look at how sleep might affect complex visual search tasks because they are common in safety-sensitive activities such as air-traffic control, baggage screening and monitoring power plants,”

“These types of jobs involve processes that require repeated, quick memory encoding and retrieval of visual information, in combination with decision making about the information,” .

Researchers collected and analyzed data from visual search tasks from a group of participants over one month’s study. In the first week, all participants were scheduled to sleep 10-12 hours per night to make sure they were well rested.

For the following three weeks, the participants were scheduled to sleep the equivalent of 5.6 hours per night and also had their sleep times scheduled on a 28-hour cycle, mirroring chronic jet lag.

The research team gave the participants computer tests that involved visual search tasks and recorded how quickly the participants could find important information, and also how accurate they were.

The longer the participants were awake, the more slowly they identified the important information in the test, the team observed.

Additionally, during the biological night time, 12 a.m. to 6 a.m., participants (who were unaware of the time throughout the study) performed the tasks more slowly than they did during the daytime.

Physicist Albert Einstein's brain had an "extraordinary" prefrontal cortex - unlike those of most people - which may have contributed to his remarkable genius, a new study has claimed.

According to the study led by Florida State University evolutionary anthropologist Dean Falk, portions of Einstein's brain have been found to be unlike those of most people and could be related to his extraordinary cognitive abilities.

Falk and his colleagues describe for the first time the entire cerebral cortex of Einstein's brain from an examination of 14 recently discovered photographs.

The researchers compared Einstein's brain to 85 "normal" human brains and, in light of current functional imaging studies, interpreted its unusual features.

"Although the overall size and asymmetrical shape of Einstein's brain were normal, the prefrontal, somatosensory, primary motor, parietal, temporal and occipital cortices were extraordinary.

"These may have provided the neurological underpinnings for some of his visuospatial and mathematical abilities, for instance," said Falk. The study was published in the journal Brain. On Einstein's death in 1955, his brain was removed and photographed from multiple angles with the permission of his family. Furthermore, it was sectioned into 240 blocks from which histological slides were prepared.

A great majority of the photographs, blocks and slides were lost from public sight for more than 55 years. The 14 photographs used by the researchers now are held by the National Museum of Health and Medicine.

The study also published the "roadmap" to Einstein's brain prepared in 1955 by Dr Thomas Harvey to illustrate the locations within his previously whole brain of 240 dissected blocks of tissue, which provides a key to locating the origins within the brain of the newly emerged histological slides.

After 'Don' and 'Agneepath', Priyanka Chopra is working in 'Zanjeer' but Farhan Akhtar has warned the actress about getting typecast by doing too many remakes.

Farhan directed Priyanka in the remake of 1978 film 'Don' and then the 30-year-old actress went on to star in the new version of 1990 film 'Agneepath' opposite Hrithik Roshan.

Farhan took to Twitter to remind the actress about her fondness for the remakes of Amitabh Bachchan starrers.

“Priyanka Chopra, do you realise that this is the third official remake of Amitabh Bachchan you are in? Be careful you don't get typecast,”.

'Zanjeer' remake is being produced by Amit Mehra, who is the son of the original director Prakash Mehra. The 1973 film starred Amitabh Bachchan and Jaya in the lead roles.

Apoorva Lakhia is helming the new film, which also stars southern star Ram Charan Teja.
Priyanka is currently in Hyderabad for the shooting of the film.

“In Hydrabad for 'Zanjeer'. Starting a new film always makes Priyanka Chopra nervous,”.

Russian conglomerate Sistema's(SSAq.L) Indian mobile phone unit, set to lose all but one of its 22 zonal operating permits, is open to acquisitions in India,

 Vsevolod Rozanov, CEO at Sistema Shyam TeleServices  does not expect any deals until the Supreme Court decides on the company's appeal on the order to revoke the permits.

"Nothing serious to report on this," when asked if it was was currently engaged in talks with any company in India.

Sistema Shyam TeleServices Ltd will lose its permits in January after a court order to revoke permits awarded in a scandal-tainted 2008 sale.

Media reports, Sistema is in talks to acquire Indian carrier Aircel, which is the country's seventh-biggest mobile phone operator by customers.

Try the following easy tips at home and see how effective they are in reducing hair loss!

1. Hot oil treatments: Take any natural oil - olive, coconut, canola - and heat it up so that it is warm, but not too hot. Massage it gently into your scalp. Put on a shower cap and leave it on for an hour, then shampoo your hair.

2. Natural juices: You can rub your scalp with either garlic juice, onion juice or ginger juice. Leave it on overnight and wash it thoroughly in the morning.

3. Get a head massage: Massaging your scalp for a few minutes daily will help stimulate circulation. Good circulation in the scalp keeps hair follicles active. Circulation may be improved through massage by using a few drops of lavender or bay essential oil in an almond or sesame oil base.

4. Antioxidants: Apply warm green tea (two bags brewed in one cup of water) on your scalp and leave this mixture on for an hour and then rinse. Green tea contains antioxidants which prevent hair loss and boost hair growth.

5. Practice meditation: Believe it or not, most of the times, the root cause for hair loss is stress and tension. Meditation can help in reducing that and restore hormonal balance.