Taller women more prone to cancer

Increasing height and increased body mass index are risk factors for developing ovarian cancer, a new study has suggested. 

These findings are important as in high income countries, the average height and average body mass index of women have increased by about 1 cm and 1 kg/m2 respectively per decade. 

These findings suggest that if all other factors that affect ovarian cancer risk had remained constant, the increases in height and weight among women would have resulted in ovarian cancer incidence increasing by 3per cent per decade. 

The Collaborative Group on Epidemiological Studies of Ovarian Cancer, based in the University of Oxford and involving over 100 researchers internationally, reached these conclusions by analysing individual-patient data from 47 epidemiological studies from 14 countries which comprised a total of 25,157 women with ovarian cancer and 81,311 women without ovarian cancer - virtually all the relevant data on the topic worldwide. 

The researchers found a significant increase in the risk of developing ovarian cancer for every 5cm increase in height which did not vary when other factors such as age, menopausal status,smoking, alcohol consumption, having first degree relatives with ovarian or breast cancer, use of oral contraceptives, or use of menopausal hormone therapy, were taken into account. 

However, for body mass index, the risks depended on whether women had ever taken menopausal hormone therapy but not on 11 other factors examined. 

"This collaboration has brought together and re-analysed individual data from 47 studies on ovarian cancer risk associated with adult height, weight, and body mass index, that is, most of the available epidemiological information worldwide. Collectively, the findings show a highly significant increase in the risk of ovarian cancer with increasing values for each of the anthropometric variables examined," the collaborators said. 

"The increase in ovarian cancer risk with increasing height and with increasing body mass index did not vary materially by women's age, year of birth, ethnicity, education, age at menarche, parity, family history of ovarian or breast cancer, use of oral contraceptives, menopausal status, hysterectomy, or consumption of alcohol and tobacco. 

"However use of hormone therapy for the menopause attenuated the relationship with body mass index, since an increase in ovarian cancer risk with increasing adiposity was found only in never-users of such therapy. 

"An advantage of seeking to review all epidemiological studies of ovarian cancer with relevant information on body size, published and unpublished, is that this helps avoid unduly selective emphasis on published results or just on some studies," they added. 

The results appeared in this week's PLoS Medicine.

Who is Jagan Mohan Reddy?

Thirty nine-year-old Yeduguri Sandinti Jagan Mohan Reddy has been in the limelight ever since his father and former Andhra Pradesh chief minister YSR Reddy died in a chopper crash. The Congress did not appoint Jagan Mohan as his successor which fuelled trouble for both the faction-ridden state Congress unit and the party high command with his defiant attitude.

From a businessman to a Lok Sabha MP from his family pocketborough of Kadapa, his rise has been meteoric - thanks to his father's legacy and his popularity in Andhra Pradesh. His father's supporters forced Jagan to take a plunge into active politics.

But the year 2012 is not proving to be a good year for Jagan as the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has filed a chargesheet against him for allegedly building up a vast fortune by misusing the office of his father when he was the chief minister. Jagan has not yet been arrested. He is currently touring the West Godavari district ahead of assembly by-elections. A second chargesheet against him is also expected.

Since the time Jagan left the Congress and formed his own party - the YSR Congress, named after his famous father - troubles have been brewing for him. Reports surfaced of his business empire having alleged links with another wealthy politician Janardhana Reddy, who was arrested in connection with the illegal mining case. He was also questioned by the CBI on his links with Mr Reddy last year. Jagan has so far remained defiant, saying that the allegations are politically motivated.

Called 'Jagan Anna' by his followers, he drew crowds and used his powerful media - a 24-hour news channel and a mass circulation newspaper - to propagate his views and attack the then Rosaiah government that took charge after YSR's death in September 2009.

A successful businessman who built a media empire in just five years, Jagan wanted instant results. He waited in silence until October 2009, when Sonia Gandhi said that she will decide the next chief minister of Andhra Pradesh. Soon after this, he started embarrassing the high command whenever he got a chance.

After getting ample hints that the Congress high command is in no mood to appoint him as YSR's successor, Jagan undertook the controversial 'Odarpu Yatra' to console the families of those who died or allegedly committed suicide after hearing the news of the death of his father.

When he decided to tour the sensitive Telangana region, the high command asked him not to do so fearing backlash. But Jagan went ahead with the yatra and reached Mahabubnagar. When violence erupted there, he was forced to return to Hyderabad.

From then, Jagan was defiant and just met Congress chief Sonia Gandhi once after that. He defied her directives, went ahead with Odarpu Yatra in July 2010 and has been avoiding visiting Delhi since then.

In November 2010, his Sakshi channel launched an attack against Sonia Gandhi, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and the Congress. The party had expressed strong disapproval of the TV programme but no action was taken against him.

In November 2010, Mr Rosaiah resigned as Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh citing health reasons, and the Congress named Kiran Kumar Reddy as his successor.

As matters deteriorated between him and the Congress party high command, Jagan turned in his resignation on November 29, 2010. In February, 2011, he founded his own party, the YSR Congress. Sixteen of Jagan's supporters even voted against the Andhra Pradesh government in December 2011 during a no-confidence vote over the issue of farmer suicide. The government, however, survived.

Jagan has had his fair share of controversies, even before entering politics. The allotment of 487 acres of land in March 2007 to Raghuram Cements, which had Jagan as one of its directors, was criticised by the Opposition parties.

Jagan topped a list of taxpayer politicians in 2009-10 and his assets last year totalled Rs. 365 crores.

The wealth amassed by the Reddys did not slip past the authorities and in July 2011, the Andhra Pradesh High Court ordered a preliminary inquiry by the CBI into the alleged amassing of wealth by Jagan.

CBI Lakshminarayana's Call Records Stolen?

Central Bureau of Investigation joint director V V Lakshminarayana, who has been creating sleepless nights to several persons involved in various cases being probed by him, has become the most wanted person not only for the media but also from his “enemies” who are apparently watching his every move.

On Monday, there was talk in the media circles that “an unknown couple” managed to obtain the mobile call records of Lakshminarayana for the last one month.

The couple, who put up innocent faces, approached a sub-inspector in the city and told him that they were getting threatening calls from a particular number. They sought his help to obtain the call records of that mobile number unofficially, for which they had paid a bribe of Rs 20,000 to that SI. Within a few hours, the SI managed to get the required details and handed over the same to the couple. They disappeared immediately without lodging any formal complaint.

The SI who made a casual inquiry later came to know that the particular number was that of CBI joint director Lakshminarayana. He tried to trace the couple but in vain.

The call records contain all the details of the CBI official as to whom he had talked to in the last one month. The SI is now said to be worried whether it would turn out to be a noose around his neck. Since there was no formal complaint and no FIR, the media could not carry the story, sources say.

charges against me began after i left congress :jagan to ndtv

Firing on people agitating against 28 augest, 2000

Facebook getting a hate button: TechCrunch

Has TechCrunch pulled off the ultimate April Fool’s day joke? We think so, but we’re hoping it’s not a prank. In a report, the tech website has said Facebook is planning to get the “Hate” button as well.

The TechCrunch story says,

According to Facebook’s S-1 filing, users are now generating 2.7 billion Likes and Comments per day. With the Hate button, Facebook expects to at least double that. The S-1 noted “popular Pages on Facebook include Lady Gaga, Disney, and Manchester United, each of which has move than 20 million Likes.” Many inside the company think the Hates could easily top that.

The Like button is overrated. Getty Images

Why do we think it’s a joke? Well they also say,

The company has also experimented with the “Fax” button, as TechCrunch was also the first to notice.

Ah, that happened to be a prank that Facebook played on them two years back. More on that prank here.

According to TechCrunch the other buttons that could turn up “Meh”, “Love”, “Who Cares”, and “+11″.

Check our April Fool’s day post on Gmail Tap here.

I-T offices, banks to remain in India open on Saturday

The government on Friday said all Income Tax (I-T) offices throughout the country will remain open on Saturday to facilitate filing of returns on the last day of financial year 2011-12.

"As the financial year (2011-12) closes on March 31, 2012 falling on Saturday, all the I-T offices throughout India to remain open on this day. The receipts counters will also work during normal office hours," Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) of the Finance Ministry said in a notification today.

The CBDT has also directed that special arrangements may also be made by way of opening additional receipt counters, wherever required on March 31 to help the taxpayers in filing their income returns.

Meanwhile, the Reserve Bank also directed all banks to remain open on March 31, 2012, with a view to facilitate accounting of all government transactions for the current financial year (2011-12).

"All banks, including private sector lenders, will remain open till 5 pm tomorrow for special clearings of government transactions for 2011-12," the RBI said.

Chiranjeevi resigns from assembly membership

 Politician K Chiranjeevi resigned from the membership of Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly after his election to Rajya Sabha.

The resignation was handed over to Assembly Speaker Nadendla Manohar by the actor turned politician, who was elected to the assembly in 2009. Chiranjeevi will take an oath as Rajya Sabha member on Apr 3.

The number of vacancies in the 294-member AP Assembly has come up to 18 following Chiranjeevi's resignation.

Early this month 16 ruling Congress MLAs were disqualified by the speaker and the resignation of a Praja Rajyam Party MLA was also accepted for violating their respective parties and voting against the government on the no-confidence motion.

Sachin Tendulkar will be available for entire IPL: Mumbai Indians

Sachin Tendulkar will be available to play the entire duration of the upcoming Indian Premier League after returning from Londonwhere he has gone for a medical consultation for a toe injury, the Mumbai Indians (MI) franchise team spokesman said. 

"I can categorically say Sachin Tendulkar (captain of Mumbai Indians) is available for the entire duration of the IPL. He has gone to London just for consultation (about his toe injury) and is scheduled to be back on March 31. There is no question of any surgery," the spokesperson said. 

"He will also be there for the opening ceremony (on April 2) at Chennai and for the opening encounter (on April 4 against defending champions Chennai Super Kings)," the spokesman added. The MI clarification came after it was learnt from a source in the Cricket Board that the return of the champion batsman, after his consultation in London with a specialist, was uncertain as even a surgery might be needed to put a question mark on his participation for the entire duration of the Twenty20 League. 

"Yes, Sachin Tendulkar has gone to London for consultation about his toe injury. He has been playing with this injury for long. It is not sure when he will return as even a surgery may be needed to correct it," the BCCI source said earlier. 

The Indian Premier League is all set to commence on April 4 in Chennai, where Tendulkar's Mumbai Indians, last year's runner-up will take on Mahendra Singh Dhoni's Chennai Super Kings at the M A Chidambaram Stadium. 

Tendulkar, who notched up his 100th international ton in the recently-concluded Asia Cup, did not attend the BCCI-organised felicitation function of the retired batsman Rahul Dravid last evening at a hotel near his residence, as he had already left for England. 

The toe injury is a decade-old but it came back to haunt him and upset his plans to play the ODI series in England last September after a not-too-successful run in the four-Test series that preceded it. 

The senior cricketer was withdrawn from the team sheet before the first ODI, which was washed out. And then the BCCI issued a statement, saying that Tendulkar had been ruled out of the series "due to a toe injury". 

Tendulkar had consulted a specialist in London after suffering the injury and was advised four weeks' rest. 

He came back to play the Test rubber against the West Indies at home after missing the Champions League Twenty 20, which was won by Mumbai Indians under the stand-in-skipper Harbhajan Singh. 

But after playing the Test series against the Windies, Tendulkar again opted to rest for the ODI series. 

He went to Australia with an advance party of senior players including captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Dravid and VVS Laxman to get acclimatised to the conditions Down Under when the limited over series against the West Indies was in progress. 

Tendulkar played the Test series in Australia and then stayed on to take part in the triangular ODI series before playing the Asia Cup in Bangladesh where he achieved the long-eluding milestone of 100 tons in international cricket. 

He had addressed the media in a lengthy session last Sunday, got feted by MI's owners Mukesh and Nita Ambani at their residence the next evening before flying off to London. 

"Mumbai Indians captain Sachin Tendulkar will be joining the in-progress camp at Wankhede Stadium from 31st March 2012 and is fully available for the entire IPL season 5. Sachin is in UK to consult his doctor and will be back in India to join the camp from 31st March," a statement issued by Mumbai Indians said.

Opera Mini 7 speeds web browsing on Android phones

WEB BROWSER DEVELOPER Opera Software released its latest Opera Mini browser for Android smartphones, which boasts faster hardware acceleration plus some user interface tweaks.

Available as a free download from the Android Market or Opera's mobile web site, Opera Mini 7 for Android features improved hardware acceleration that makes for faster browsing and smoother panning around web sites, the firm said.

Other improvements include changes to the user interface such as the option to add as many Speed Dial buttons as the user wants. Previously, users could have only nine of these visual bookmark thumbnails for accessing favourite web sites on the Home screen.

Opera Mini also uses Opera's Turbo feature that is designed to speed web browsing and cut download sizes by routing all web page requests through a proxy server operated by Opera.

The proxy server optimises web pages, compressing them by up to 90 per cent before forwarding them on to the browser on the user's handset.

Opera Mini faces competition from Google's Chrome, which was released for Android last month, while the native Android web browser has already passed it in popularity according to some reports.

Opera Mini 7 requires handsets running Android 1.5 or above. µ

Source: The Inquirer (http://s.tt/18mZK)