World's Oldest Cat - Frank and Louie, The two-faced Cat

Frank and Louie, a gray feline with two mouths, two noses and three eyes, just turned 12 years old and is the world's oldest, living two-faced cat.

In this Wednesday, Sept. 28, 2011 photo, a cat with two faces, named Frank and Louie, one name for each face, is held by the cats owner, who identified herself only as Marty, at their home in Worcester, Mass. The animal is known as a Janus cat, named for the figure in Roman mythology with two faces on one head. The owner calls the face on the left Frank, while the face on the right is identified as Louie.

US cat with 2 faces lives 12 years, sets record

India axe Harbhajan for first two one-dayers

Harbhajan Singh missed for the first two one day international against England

Mumbai - India axed spinner Harbhajan Singh on Thursday and drafted in the uncapped Sreenath Aravind and Rahul Sharma for the first two one-day internationals against England next month.

Senior players Sachin Tendulkar (toe), Virender Sehwag (shoulder) and Yuvraj Singh (finger) have not recovered from injuries and were left out of the 15-man squad for the matches on October 14 (Hyderabad) and October 17 (Delhi).

"A number of senior players are not fit...it provides a great opportunity for the youngsters to prove themselves," chief selector Krishnamachari Srikkanth told reporters in Chennai.

India's batting received a boost with opener Gautam Gambhir, who suffered concussion in England, returning to the side.

Harbhajan struggled in England, managing just two wickets in the first two tests before an abdominal strain cut short his tour.

The 31-year-old with over 400 test wickets declared himself fit for the series against England but the selectors persisted with off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin.

The slow bowling department will also include Punjab leg-spinner Sharma, who has been consistently among the wickets in the Indian Premier League.

Karnataka left-arm pacer Sreenath Aravind will also hope to make his international debut against England.

India and England will play three more one-dayers in Mohali (October 20), Mumbai (October 23) and Kolkata (October 25).

Kolkata will host a one-off Twenty20 international on October 29.

India failed to win a single match against England on their recent tour. Mahendra Singh Dhoni's team lost the test series 4-0 and were knocked off the top of the world rankings by their hosts.

"We are confident we will do well in home conditions," Srikkanth said.

"It is a very good combination and we did not compromise on quality. We thoroughly scrutinised the players' fitness and I'm sure they will deliver."

Squad: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (captain), Gautam Gambhir, Parthiv Patel, Ajinkya Rahane, Virat Kohli, Suresh Raina, Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Varun Aaron, Umesh Yadav, Vinay Kumar, Sreenath Aravind, Rahul Sharma, Manoj Tiwary and Praveen Kumar.

Indian IT firms to weather dismal global scenario well

IT Companies to go slow on hiring

Senior human resource ( HR) managers are of the view that the gloomy global economic scenario will have a limited and short- term impact on hiring in the Indian information technology ( IT) sector as the industry is better prepared to deal with the current slowdown, says a survey by job search portal HeadHonchos.com

"As many as 62.9 per cent of the respondents do not expect the global economic scenario to impact hiring plans, while 37.1 per cent of HR heads surveyed expect a cut back on hiring," the survey said.

As a measure of confidence, nearly 92 per cent of the respondents said they believe that the impact will be limited to the next six months and only 8.1 per cent expect any long- term fallout, the survey said.

About 4.9 per cent companies expect that the impact will be felt over the next two years. Only 3.2 per cent of all respondents expect employment to be impacted over a two- to five- year period.

"The hiring outlook for the IT industry is holding steady and feedback from companies indicate that they are better geared to deal with the challenges ahead," Uday Sodhi, chief executive officer ( CEO), HeadHonchos. com, said. Read More...

Champions League T20 faces crucial test in India

Champions League T20 faces crucial test in India

New Delhi, September 22 (AP): The third edition of the Champions League Twenty20 gets under way in Bangalore on Friday with the tournament struggling to carve a niche for itself and experts blaming the short format of the game for increased injuries.

The 19-day tournament, featuring top domestic Twenty20 teams from around the world, comes immediately after India's disastrous tour of England, adding to the challenge for organizers hoping to popularize the tournament.

Organizers were left looking for a last-minute replacement for title sponsorship as India went from the high of a World Cup victory to the low of an England tour on which it failed to win a single game.

In between, India organized the six-week IPL that has been blamed for fatigue and injury to its players.

"The amount of cricket India are playing, they just cannot survive," West Indian great Michael Holding wrote in a column in The Asian Age newspaper this week, adding his opinion that players had their priorities wrong.

"Look at Harbhajan Singh, he was not fit to play the test and ODI series against England, but is fit this week to play club cricket and I would suggest that his return to full fitness was not a recent occurrence." Read More....

The World's Most Shocking X-rays

In this undated photo released by the New South Wales Police on Friday, April 24, 2009, an X-ray image of the skull of Chinese man Chen Liu is shown. Liu's badly decomposed body was found in marshland in Sydney's south, Nov. 1 2008, after being shot repeatedly in the head with a high-powered nail gun. (AP Photo/New South Wales Police, HO)

Shocking X-rays

World's Smallest Camera

Here's world's smallest camera that is just the size of a fingertip!

London, Sept 21 (ANI): A New York firm has developed the world's smallest commercially-available camera that is around the size of a fingertip, but can take two megapixel images and can even shoot video.

Hammacher Schlememr insists that the 28-gram, one inch-squared device works perfectly well, despite being the size of a marble.

The gadget is set to hit the shelves for 100 dollars.

"Although The World's Smallest Camera is only slightly larger than a marble, it takes still images and records video just like much larger cameras," the Daily Mail quoted Schlemmer's General Manager Fred Berns, as saying.

"It comes with a wrist lanyard that keeps it close to hand and enables ease of portability," he added.

The camera can reportedly take JPEG images with a resolution of 1600x1200 and comes complete with autofocus.

Just like regular pieces of photography equipment, this camera also connects to a computer via a USB cable.

MWC, C-USA considering football-only merger

SMU wide receiver Terrance Wilkerson runs after making a reception Saturday against Northwestern State. SMU is a former WAC rival of Nevada, along with Rice, UTEP and Tulsa

United States of America: The Mountain West Conference, which Nevada will join next summer, and Conference USA are considering a football-only merger, MWC commissioner Craig Thompson told the Idaho Statesman.

"We've resurrected ... this consolidation concept with Conference USA from a football-only standpoint," Thompson told the Statesman. "The timing is right to be proactive in that. Consolidation is, at least, worth exploring."

Thompson was referring to the turbulent state of conferences and the seemingly constant flux of realignment. The Atlantic Coast Conference announced Sunday that Syracuse and Pittsburgh would be accepted as new members, and there has been on-again, off-again talk of Texas, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State and Texas Tech possibly leaving the Big 12 for the Pac-12. The days of four superconferences appear closer to reality.

C-USA commissioner Britton Banowsky later issued a statement: "We find the activities involving conference realignment fascinating. We are closely watching the recent developments in other conferences, and the potential for change. At the same time, we are working on some creative consolidation strategies that have the potential for positioning our members well into the future. We are particularly intrigued by cooperative possibilities with the Mountain West." Read More...

Strong quake hits India, Nepal; 18 dead

People who rushed out of buildings following tremors stand on the street in Patna,

Guwahati, India (AP) — A strong earthquake shook northeastern India and Nepal, killing at least 18 people, damaging buildings and sending lawmakers in Nepal's capital running into the streets.

The quake, with a preliminary magnitude of 6.9, struck at 6:10 p.m. Sunday local time. The epicenter was in Sikkim state near the border with Nepal, and shaking was felt across northern and eastern India, including in the capital of New Delhi. It triggered at least two aftershocks of magnitude 6.1 and 5.3, Indian seismology official R.S. Dattatreyan said. He warned more aftershocks were possible.

At least five people in Sikkim were killed and more than 50 were injured, according to the state's top official, Chief Secretary Karma Gyatso. The north Indian state of West Bengal reported four deaths, and Bihar state reported two. Nepal's government said five people died and dozens were hurt there, including two men and a child who were killed when a brick wall toppled outside the British Embassy in Nepal's capital, Katmandu.

Nepalese rescue workers and people look on after after the British Embassy's compound

The full extent of damage was not immediately known because the region is sparsely populated with many people living in remote areas now cut off by mudslides triggered by the quake, state police Chief Jasbir Singh told the Associated Press. Read More...

Reno crash killed 9; probe focuses on wayward part

A P-51 Mustang crashes into the edge of the grandstands at the Reno Air show on Friday,

RENO, Nev. (AP) — The death toll rose to nine Saturday in an air race crash in Reno as investigators determined that several spectators were killed on impact as the 1940s-model plane appeared to lose a piece of its tail before slamming like a missile into a crowded tarmac.

Moments earlier, thousands had arched their necks skyward and watched the planes speed by just a few hundred feet off the ground before some noticed a strange gurgling engine noise from above. Seconds later, the P-51 Mustang dubbed The Galloping Ghost pitched oddly upward, twirled and took an immediate nosedive into a section of white VIP box seats.

The plane, flown by a 74-year-old veteran racer and Hollywood stunt pilot, disintegrated in a ball of dust, debris and bodies as screams of "Oh my God!" spread through the crowd.

National Transportation Safety Board officials were on the scene Saturday to determine what caused Jimmy Leeward to lose control of the plane, and they were looking at amateur video clips that appeared to show a small piece of the aircraft falling to the ground before the crash. Witnesses who looked at photos of the part said it appeared to be an "elevator trim tab," which helps pilots keep control of the aircraft. Read More...

On 'fast' track, Modi hails Gujarat model

Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi began his three 'sadbhavna' fast for peace and harmony in Ahmedabad 

New Delhi: Playing to the gallery, invoking growth, development and communal harmony that Gujarat has achieved in his 10-year-long reign, Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi began his three 'sadbhavna' fast for peace and harmony in Ahmedabad on Saturday.

The Gujarat Chief Minister, whose fast coincides with his 62nd birthday today, started the day by seeking his mother's blessings. As Modi made a pitch for the national stage, top BJP leaders leaders including LK Advani and Arun Jaitley attend the show of strength.

"I have never celebrated my birthday. This is the only day of the year I don't meet anyone, I don't talk to anyone, I don't celebrate my birthday. But because Saturday and Sunday was convenient, that's why I chose this day, this has got nothing to do with my birthday," said Modi as he began his fast. Read More...

Giant 1000 KG Crocodile Caught in Philippines

Villagers and veteran hunters have captured a one-ton saltwater crocodile which they plan to make the star of a planned ecotourism park in a southern Philippine town.

Impossible Expectations for Obama Speech

Obama Speech - Conference Meeting

President Obama is in worse shape now with voters than he was one year ago just ahead of the worst electoral rout for Democrats since 1946. Poll after poll, including those that usually buoy the president’s job-approval average, show Obama falling to new lows, and dissatisfaction with the direction of the country reaching levels not seen since the aftermath of the Panic of 2008.

With that as his backdrop, Obama will this week begin to release an economic and fiscal plan that he promised one month ago that he would reveal after his family vacation. The pitch will begin with an early evening speech on Thursday, already groaning under the massive expectations placed upon it by the White House. It was designed to be a “game changer” by a political operation obsessed with game changing.

That obsession is one of the reasons that the president has had such an unhappy 32 months in office. Unlike the campaign world of daily tracking polls and overnight sound bites, the presidency doesn’t lend itself much to game changing. While candidate Obama could end months of embarrassment over his former preacher’s radical views with one big speech on race and religion or stifle Hillary Clinton’s comeback with the endorsement of the Kennedy clan, President Obama can’t do the same thing for the downward direction of the economy.

All modern presidents are in permanent campaign mode, but this president and his team seem trapped by campaign psychology. After all of the purfled prose devoted to the genius of the Obama organization and the way in which it revolutionized American politics, it’s not surprising that Team Obama has a rather lofty view of itself.

Less discussed has been the matter of circumstance. No one may have ever been luckier in presidential politics than Obama, except for James Garfield who was surprised to learn at the 1880 Republican convention of his own nomination. With weak opponents and a perfectly timed financial panic, Obama was able to turn good oratory and a redemptive racial message into an improbable presidential victory. Read More...

Manoj Tiwary replaces injured Sharma in India's ODI squad

Manoj Tiwary

Mumbai, Sep 4 (IANS) Middle-order batsman Manoj Tiwary was Sunday named as a replacement for the injured Rohit Sharma in India's One-day squad for the remaining four matches against England.

Sharma was ruled out for the remaining ODIs due to a finger injury he suffered while batting in the rain-hit opening match in Chester-le-Street Saturday.

'Rohit Sharma fractured his right index finger during the first ODI against England, and has been ruled out of the remainder of the series as a result.

'Manoj Tiwary has been named his replacement in the India ODI squad. He will join the team at the earliest,' BCCI secretary N. Srinivasan said in a statement.

The series stands at 0-0 with the second ODI scheduled in Southampton Tuesday.

India records highest number of new born deaths: UN

More new born babies die in India annually than in any other country, even though the number of neonatal deaths around the world has seen a slow decline, a new study by the World Health Organisation (WHO) has said. New born deaths decreased from 4.6 million in 1990 to 3.3 million in 2009, and fell slightly faster in the years since 2000, according to the study led by researchers from WHO, Save the Children and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

The study, which covers a 20-year-period and all the 193 WHO member states, found that new born deaths - characterised as deaths in the first four weeks of life (neonatal period) – account for 41 % of all child deaths before the age of five.

Almost 99 % of the newborn deaths occur in the developing world, with more than half taking place in the five large countries of India, Nigeria, Pakistan, China and Congo.

"India alone has more than 900,000 newborn deaths per year, nearly 28 % of the global total," WHO said, adding that India had the largest number of neonatal deaths throughout the study.

Nigeria, the world's seventh most populous country, ranked second in new born deaths – up from fifth in 1990. Three quarters of neonatal deaths around the world are caused by pre-term delivery, asphyxia and severe infections, such as sepsis and pneumonia.

WHO pointed out that two thirds or more of these deaths can be prevented with existing interventions.