The French call it “la gueule de bois,” or wooden mouth. For Germans, it’s “Kater,” or a tomcat. Japanese know it as “futsukayoi,” or “two-days drunk.”

But whatever the language and wherever it takes place, a hangover is the same: headache, nausea, shaking, blurred vision, biliousness, dry mouth… the list of evils is long.

Just as lengthy is the roster of remedies for alcohol abuse that have been touted over the centuries.

In Roman times, Pliny the Elder swo…

Santa beware! Activists in Germany are waging an international campaign to do away with old Father Christmas and say they are gaining ground thanks to the global economic meltdown.

Armed with child-friendly stickers, web-savvy promoters and chocolate figurines, the “Santa-Free Zone” movement says it is gathering steam this year against what it calls the hollow commercialisation of Christmas.

Launched by a German Catholic priest in 2002, the campaign aims to knock Santa of…

Born on a cold night in the chapel of a small Austrian village, “Silent Night,” the most famous Christmas carol in the world, celebrates this year its 190th anniversary.

The song, known as “Stille Nacht” in the original German, was first performed on December 24, 1818, in the tiny hamlet of Oberndorf, as a local assistant priest, Joseph Mohr, sought to comfort his flock, racked by poverty and misery in the aftermath of the Napoleonic Wars.

“He asked his friend Franz Xaver…

A belly dance craze is sweeping the capital of communist Vietnam, dropping jaws, lifting spirits and – the dancers say – empowering women through a new mode of self expression.

Since the sensual Oriental dance arrived in Hanoi two years ago, six dance groups have popped up and more than 1,000 women have joined, among them students, businesswomen, journalists and even a police officer.

“I’ve lived in many places in Asia – Hong Kong, Shanghai, the Philippines, India – but i…

Britons for the first time are drinking more American wine than French, thanks to slick marketing and a growing British penchant for Californian rose, a market study revealed Tuesday.

Shop sales of US wine grew by five percent to 786 million pounds (873 million euros, 1.2 billion dollars) in the 12 months to November, while French wine sales fell three percent to 779 million pounds.

Stewart Blunt, of market analysts Nielsen, said US wines were stealing a march as British …

A team of Ohio doctors have replaced 80 percent of a woman’s face in what is considered the world’s first nearly complete facial transplant, the Cleveland Clinic announced Tuesday.

It was the first such operation in the United States and the fourth known facial transplant to have been successfully performed to date. The procedure took place in recent weeks on a patient who was disfigured by a traumatic injury.

The hospital released no further information about the patient…

A colonoscopy, the procedure in which a doctor looks for dangerous growths in the large intestine, may not be as great a protection from death from colorectal cancer as once thought, a study found Tuesday.

In fact, a colonoscopy was associated with “essentially no reduction” in the risk of dying of cancer if the lesion that caused the disease was located in the right side of the colon, the part that plays a major role in absorbing water and electrolytes during digestion, according to…

Hurricanes and earthquakes win more headlines but heatwaves claim most lives, according to a survey of mortality from natural threats in the United States, published on Wednesday.

The “death map” says hazard mortality is highest in the US South, where a variety of threats are to blame, followed by the northern Great Plains, where heat and drought are the greatest natural risks, then the Rocky Mountains, where the killers are chiefly winter weather and flooding.

The safest…

Bollywood’s leading actors are hitting the gym as never before, adding brawn and biceps to their on-screen repertoires and winning a legion of new fans in the process – including other men.

The latest weight-training convert is Aamir Khan, who enlisted the help of physical trainer Satyajit Chourasia two years ago to get in shape for the film “Ghajini”, which is released on December 25.

His daily four-hour regime appears to have paid off.

Giant advertising hoar…

Often articles about cosmetic surgeries like liposuction, breast implants, and nose jobs do not cleary describe inherent risks, a Canadian study has shown.

Surgery is portrayed as part of a “normal” beauty regime in best-selling North American women’s magazines, in stories alongside clothing and diet advice, researcher Andrea Polonijo told AFP.

While the physical risks of surgery were sometimes reported, emotional risks were mentioned in only 18 percent of stories, said Po…

When veterinary nurse Niccole George heard the sobs on the phone, she felt incapable of doing her job because the collapsed Great Dane’s owner was too frail to bring the dog to her.

That was the phone call that inspired George and her partner Gareth O’Connor to start PetMedics, a 24-hour pet ambulance service for pet owners unable to get their animals to help when an emergency arises.

“I had felt so bad for her and wished there was something that I could have done,” Georg…

A South Korean hospital said Wednesday it would appeal a landmark court ruling which approved a request for euthanasia for the first time in the country.

Severance Hospital said it would file an appeal with the Supreme Court against a lower court’s decision acknowledging an individual’s right to die.

In the ruling three weeks ago, a district court in Seoul told doctors to take a brain-dead woman off feeding and ventilator tubes at her family’s request.

It said…

“I came out to show people we are normal,” says AIDS worker Roberto Ruiz, who is fighting the social stigma that HIV/AIDS still carries in the Philippines.

While the government puts the number of HIV/AIDS cases at 8,600, Ruiz believes the number is much higher.

“The true number is probably fast approaching 10,000,” said Ruiz, who sits on the board of trustees of Positive Action Foundation Philippines Inc.

He said local and foreign health experts used to say th…

Yoobot the free online game designed by ‘The British Heart Foundation’ shows children how their food choices and how much they exercise affect their life span and general health.

The charity has launched a website feauturing Professor Gunter von Gunter who encourages kids to create a virtual version of themselves by playing the game.

The British Heart Foundation is head over heels in making the kids opt for salads instead of burgers. The charity explains in their website how the food choices of children affect them in the long run.

Overall in allowing children to watch the future unfold before their eyes by playing the game it is hoped that children would be encouraged to make healthier lifestyles from an early age.

The British heart foundation’ has launched this mission as at present one third of the children’s population are obese and two thirds of children are predicted to be obese by 2050.

Utilizing our sense of smell aptly and ably can have a profound impact on our physical and emotional state. Aromatherapy for stress relief has achieved ever-growing popularity because of this reason.

Aromatherapy for stress relief is a holistic therapy that involves the use of natural essential oils in promoting physical and emotional well-being. Such essential oils derived from natural plants has a calming effect on the central nervous system. Often aromatherapy is used in conjunction with other holistic practices such as acupuncture or therapeutic massage during which the essential oils are either massaged into the skin are placed under the nose for maximum effect.

Using aromatherapy for stress relief is quite common in spas across the world. But it is also offered through holistic professionals who practice aromatherapy in combination with other techniques or by itself. As more and more people find relief through non-traditional approaches such as aromatherapy for stress relief, western medicine has had to sit up and take notice, conceding that such practices may in fact do quite a bit of good in lowering blood pressure and easing depression.

Some of the more commonly used essential oils in aromatherapy for stress relief include sandalwood, lavender, jasmine, rose, and eucalyptus.

Physical and emotional responses to stress vary from person to person; and successful methods for eradicating that stress vary as well. While one person may find relief in a good workout at the gym, another may need a more “hands-on” approach. Aromatherapy for stress relief can be a wonderful way to take a break from the craziness of life and spend a few moments alone; often that is enough to release stress and keep it at bay.

my panis turn long side .it is advice give me . please

Name : jitendra goyal       Country : India

Cream Of Broccoli Soup

• 1 cup broccoli diced

• 2 tbsp. butter

• 2 medium sized onions, chopped

• 1/4 tsp chopped green pepper

• 2 tbsp. corn flour

• 6 c. chicken soup stock

• 1 bay leaf

• 6 black peppercorns

• Pinch nutmeg

• cream

Chop up the broccoli, saving some of the small buds and flowers for later use. Saute in the butter along with the onions and green pepper. Sprinkle with the flour and stir. Add to the soup stock, along with the bay leaf and peppercorns. Cook for 30 minutes and puree mixture in blender or sieve. Add the nutmeg. Strain the soup from the pulp and return to pan. Add the cream mixture and pour into hot soup. Serve with some of the reserved broccoli buds floating in the bowl.

Fanatstic livley movie, as i was also obsessive with my child-love… hard to relieve and forget, can you help me …. she is still in my memories.. anyhow, i am living normal life today… but feel sad sometimes !

Name : Ankur       Country : India

Sarcasm may be the lowest form of wit, but Australian scientists are using it to diagnose dementia, according to research published on Friday.

Researchers at the University of New South Wales found that patients under the age of 65 suffering from frontotemporal dementia (FTD), the second most common form of dementia, cannot detect when someone is being sarcastic.

The study, described by its authors as groundbreaking, helps explain why patients with the condition behave th…

A pair of US inventors are bringing to market a computerized car key that prevents people from chatting on mobile telephones or sending text messages while driving.

Key2SafeDriving adds to a trend of using technology to thwart speeding, drunken driving, and other risky behavior proven to ramp-up the odds of crashing.

Once slipped into a car’s ignition, the key created by US university researcher Xuesong Zhou and Dr. Wallace Curry sends a wireless signal to a driver’s mobi…

Train stations in the Tokyo area will ban smoking from April 1, in another dent to Japan’s reputation as a smokers’ paradise, the railway company said Friday.

The Japan Railway Co. said it would eliminate most designated smoking sections at 226 stations along 17 major lines in the Tokyo region. The company already prohibits smoking inside local trains.

“Smoking bans are becoming the health trend in Japan,” a company spokesman said. “Our company is making an effort to enti…

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was to hold talks next week with the UN on Zimbabwe, as Harare blamed Britain for a “genocidal” cholera outbreak and President Robert Mugabe ignored mounting calls to quit.

Rice will visit New York on Monday and Tuesday to discuss among other things the political deadlock in Zimbabwe, ravaged by a meltdown and a humanitarian crisis, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said in Washington.

McCormack said Rice hoped the UN Securit…

A two-year-old Indonesian girl has died of bird flu, the country’s 113th fatality from the disease, the World Health Organisation said Wednesday.

A spokeswoman said the toddler from east Jakarta contracted the deadly strain of the virus on November 18, was hospitalised on November 26 and died three days later.

“Laboratory tests have confirmed infection with the H5N1 avian influenza virus. Initial investigations into the source of her infection suggest exposure at a live b…

Hong Kong’s government said Wednesday it was looking at whether there was a need to change the vaccine used to protect chickens against avian flu after the latest outbreak at a local poultry farm.

Health secretary York Chow said the bird flu virus had mutated, a day after the government confirmed that some chickens from a farm in the New Territories area of Hong Kong, near the border with mainland China, had died of the H5 virus.

“This virus has mutated slightly over the …

Despite widely held beliefs autism and obsessive-compulsive disorders may be linked to factors other than genetics.

When researchers removed the protein FKBP12, found in both humans and mice, from studied mice, the animals demonstrated major neurological and behavioral changes.

FKBP12 is known to regulate the activity of mTOR, an enzyme that affects the ability to change behavior and regulates connections between neurons, thus playing a key role in learning and memorizati…

The agriculture ministry in Dublin said on Wednesday that Irish pork products can go back on sale.

Irish pork products can go back on sale, so long as processors can prove the meat was not from herds believed to be contaminated by dioxins, the agriculture ministry in Dublin said Wednesday.

In a statement, it said Agriculture, Fisheries and Food Minister Brendan Smith “today confirmed that all the necessary controls are now in place to enable the restoration of supplies of…

A new World Health Organization report says that a cholera epidemic in Zimbabwe has killed 775 people with 16,141 suspected cases reported across the African nation.

“Approximately half of cases have been recorded in Budiriro, a heavily populated suburb on the western outskirts of the capital, Harare,” said the WHO.

Other badly hit areas include Beitbridge, which borders South Africa and Mudzi, which borders Mozambique, it added.

Earlier, the UN humanitarian a…

In a bid to discourage smoking and reduce the trend, retailers in Britain may soon be bound by law to keep cigarettes under the counter.

Prominent displays of tobacco products would be banned, while cigarette vending machines would be made more difficult for people under 18 years old to use, under proposals outlined by Health Secretary Alan Johnson.

Corner shops, which typically sell cigarettes displayed on the wall behind the counter, have protested against the move, sayi…

Nearly 40 percent of adults and 12 percent of children in the United States use complementary and alternative medicine (CAM), according to an annual, nationwide government survey published Wednesday.

The 2007 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) for the first time included children aged 17 and under who used non-conventional medical treatment including herbal supplements, meditation, chiropractic and acupuncture.

The survey questioned more than 23,000 adults and 9,400 …

Muxlim pal, became the world’s first Muslim-friendly virtual world to be launched allowing users to have an online personality, interact with others, and even purchase items.

Called Muxlim Pal and created by the Finnish-based company Muxlim.com, the English-language site caters primarily to Muslims living in western countries who long to reconnect with other Muslims and Muslim culture.

“Muxlim Pal is just another channel for our users to socialise, have fun and express th…