Misc

New Delhi, June 21:Repayment of car, housing and personal loans is leaving a hole in the take-home salary of an average employee in metro cities who is left with just about 40 per cent of his earnings, an Assocham survey said.

“Take-home salary of average employee in metros and large townships has gone down to 40 per cent from 70 per cent around 1999,” the survey of 5,000 employees said. Those feeling the maximum pinch of EMIs from the sectors include IT, Automobile, Hospitality, Civil Aviation, Manufacturing, Gems and Jewellery.

London, June 22: Childbirth and exams are among life’s most stressful experiences. But Kate Archer tackled both in the space of barely 12 hours – and was left celebrating a healthy baby girl and a first-class degree.

The 28-year-old’s first child decided to arrive at the same time as the final paper in her business management and law course at university.

Within hours of finishing her final university exam Kate Archer gave birth to baby Grace

Panaji, June 21: A three-month-old child was hospitalised here after the baby was given Dettol instead of polio drops at a health centre in Goa, the state’s leader of opposition said. Officials confirmed the incident but said the child’s father, and not the hospital, had made the mistake.

The Bharatiya Janata Party’s Manohar Parrikar said the incident occurred in the state Health Minister Vishwajeet Rane’s constituency of Valpoi in north Goa.

London, June 21: US President Barack Obama has written a letter for his daughters on the occasion of Father’s Day Sunday, saying that he could not be a perfect father.

‘I know I have been an imperfect father. I know I have made mistakes,’ said Obama in the letter that will be published in a magazine reported people.com

‘I drove Michelle and newborn Malia home from the hospital nearly 11 years ago and I think about the pledge I made to her that I would give her what I never had. And that if I could be anything in life, I would be a good father,’ he added.

Beijing, June 20: A middle-aged man miraculously survived a suicide attempt in which he hammered a 6-cm-long nail into his head.

Gao who has been sick for 15 years, had his left leg cut off by surgery, due to his medical problem. After he used the nail to kill himself, his brother rushed him to a hospital and doctors removed the nail.

–Agencies

Washington, June 20: US President Barack Obama can cook keema and da’– and cook well! He is a fan of Cricket– but terrible with bats!

These little known secrets about Obama were revealed during his interview to Dawn television of Pakistan where he reflected upon his acquaintance with the South Asian culture.

“As you know, I had Pakistani roommates in college who were very close friends of mine. I went to visit them when I was still in college, was in Karachi and went to Hyderabad. Their mothers taught me to cook,” Obama said.

Sydney, June 20: Finally some good news for people on the heavier side: those ugly-looking love handles and a double chin can help you live longer.

That’s the conclusion of a new study by the Japanese Health, Labour and Welfare Ministry, which found that people who are overweight at the age of 40 live longer on average than people with other physiques.

London, June 20: Even if you don’t have enough reasons to cheer, keep smiling, for a scientific study says that today is the happiest day of the year.

A British psychologist at Cardiff University has devised a formula to pinpoint the day when people are all most likely to feel the cheeriest, his complicated mathematic formula is: O + (N x S) + Cpm/T + He.

Pune, June 20: An increasing number of responsible HIV infected Puneites are opting for spouses who are also infected by the virus to prevent passing on the condition to unsuspecting partners

When Abhay tested positive for HIV eleven months ago, the graduate lost hope of ever leading a happy life.

Then he met Manisha who too was HIV positive and his life changed. They got married a few months ago.

Dubai, June 20: A Lebanese man is facing 30 days in jail in Dubai for wearing a cancer awareness T-shirt featuring an image of a partially clothed Victoria Beckham.

The man, identified only as RN because of Dubai’s secretive court system, lost an appeal against the conviction for offending public decency.

RN, 28, was wearing the T-Shirt with the slogan “Protect the skin you’re in” last November when he was confronted by another Arab man, who complained to the police.

Harrison Township, June 20: Police say two men were seriously injured when they were hit by a car as they tried to help a turtle crossing a road.

Macomb County sheriff’s deputies found a truck stopped on the Harrison Township road early Friday and discovered the injured men nearby.

Derek James Redmond of Mount Clemens was arraigned on charges that include drunken driving. A preliminary hearing is set for July 1.

Redmond didn’t have an attorney on record with the court.

–Agencies–

London, June 20: Pilots of the Royal Air Force have come up with a novel way of making their female passengers pay for their ride in a jet by asking for their knickers in return as fare.

The panties, which are framed, can be seen adorning a whole wall of the Tornado pilots’ bar, with some even hanging from the ceiling. Fast jet crews started the tradition at Mount Pleasant airfield in the Falklands, but pilots of helicopters and rescue planes charged a bra for a joyride.

Washington, June 19: According to the reporter who first broke the NSA wiretapping story, there is no proof the agency has scaled back its interception of the personal phone calls and email messages of American citizens as promised by the Obama administration or even that it is being straight with Congress about its activities.

James Risen and Eric Lichtblau revealed the NSA’s over-collection of data in an article for the New York Times on Tuesday, noting that one NSA analyst was even found to have been reading the private email of former President Bill Clinton.

Shimla, June 19: Congress President Sonia Gandhi and her daughter Priyanka Vadra spent a brief holiday here during which they oversaw the construction of the house being built for the UPA Chairperson’s daughter.

Gandhi and Priyanka, who had arrived here on Sunday and left today, oversaw the construction of the house which is being built at Chhabra, about 11 km from here on the outskirts of the town, district Congress leader Kehar Singh Kachhi said.

London, June 19: Men think women are hotter when they smile than wear make-up, a new UK study has found. The research, carried out by Orbit Complete for National Smile Month, found that nearly 70 percent of blokes find women more attractive when they smile.

To reach the conclusion, the study tested photographic case studies of women on over 1,000 people across the UK.

According to the survey, more than 60 per cent of men considered women who didn’t smile to be moody and two thirds of other women thought they appeared disinterested, reports The Sun.

Toronto, June 19: How could a contemporary of the great dinosaurs survive to this day?

A rare leatherback turtle, which has existed since the time of the dinosaurs, has been found to be adept at making the longest ocean journey to breed in warmer places.

Fitted with a satellite transmitter by Canadian scientists to track its journey, the turtle – which is the also world’s largest turtle growing up to two metres long and weighing up to 500 kilogramme – travelled over 7,000 km to be found on the coast of Colombia in South America.

Taipei, June 18: A jobless Taiwan man released from prison stole a box of cotton swabs just to get arrested again because he “could not forget the police department boxed lunches,” officers and local media said Tuesday.

The homeless man in Taipei first stole a pair of shoes on Sunday, was detained and released, the Liberty Times said. He then resorted to stealing again the next day just to get back inside and be fed for free.

London, June 18: Brazil’s playboy magazine is set to hit the market shelves with a photograph featuring President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

The 63-year-old appear fully clothed in a photograph reproduced alongside the magazine’s nude centrefold, a Rio de Janeiro dancer and model who looks as if she is about to plant a kiss on the head of state’s image.

And surprisingly the Brazilian premier isn’t aware of his photo being used.

“Nobody knew they were going to use a photo of the president in this shoot. It was a surprise,” the Telegraph quoted spokesman for the president said.