K Sudhakar, the famed car designer and enthusiast of automobiles from the Twin Cities of India’s southern Andhra Pradesh has conjured up scrap materials from various sources for a unique office set up, with almost every facility shaped as a vintage car.
This innovative enthusiast who is much fascinated by vintage cars noted that he has designed the office table, sofas, and teapots, all in the shape of his cherished designs of vintage cars.
He candidly mentioned that it took him nearly three years to set up his dream office, where everything is in shape of vintage cars.
He has designed an office cabin in such a manner that the 1908 Ford car model can be converted into an office table, all within mere three seconds. Even, the sofas of his innovative office boast of headlights and wheels of oldie-goldie cars.

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JERUSALEM :Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak has ordered the army to seal off the West Bank for 48 hours until midnight on Saturday, an army spokesman said.

The action was taken “for security reasons” including a risk of attacks, the spokesman said Friday. The area was sealed off at midnight on Thursday.

Israeli police have also said they would bar Muslim men under the age of 50 from prayers on Friday at Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa mosque compound, one of Islam’s holiest sites, fearing unrest.

The moves come after violent clashes at the site, which is also holy to Jews, during last week’s Muslim prayers, and fresh tensions over Israeli plans to build 1,600 homes for Jewish settlers in mostly Arab east Jerusalem.

The army said some medical and religious workers, teachers, journalists and others would be exempted from the West Bank closure.

Since the outbreak of the second Palestinian uprising in September 2000, Israel has usually sealed off the West Bank ahead of major holidays, saying the move is necessary to prevent attacks, but only rarely on other occasions.

“The IDF (armed forces) will continue to operate in order to protect the citizens of Israel while maintaining the quality of life of the Palestinian population in the area,” the military said in a statement.

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JAKARTA: A Red Cross official says a rain-triggered landslide has killed at least seven villagers and left three missing on Indonesia’s main Java island.

Rudi Syahriar says at least 10 people were buried under tons of mud from Thursday’s landslide in a village in West Java province.

He said Friday rescuers have dug up seven bodies.

Last month, a mudslide that hit a tea plantation in a neighboring district killed 45 people.

Landslides are becoming increasingly common in Indonesia during the late monsoon season as large-scale forest clearing destabilizes hillsides.

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Chile Earthquake March 11, VALPARAISO: The largest aftershock since Chile’s devastating earthquake rocked the South American country Thursday minutes before the inauguration of President Sebastian Pinera.

The 7.2-magnitude aftershock was stronger than the Jan. 12 quake that devastated the Haitian capital. It happened along the same fault zone as Chile’s magnitude-8.8 quake on Feb. 27, said geophysicist Don Blakeman at the U.S. Geological Survey in Golden, Colorado.

“When we get quakes in the 8 range, we would expect to see maybe a couple of aftershocks in the 7 range,” he said.

Blakeman said Chile now can expect to feel “aftershocks of the aftershock.”

“It’s not a sign of anything different happening. But what does occur when you get these large aftershocks, typically we have a whole series of aftershocks again,” Blakeman said.

The temblor rocked buildings and shook windows in the capital, and provoked nervous smiles among dignitaries arriving for the ceremony at the congressional building in coastal Valparaiso. Bolivian President Evo Morales seemed briefly disoriented and Peru’s Alan Garcia joked that it gave them “a moment to dance.”

Buildings emptied and streets crowded with people seeking higher ground in coastal Constitucion, a city wiped out by the tsunami that followed the quake. Pinera planned to visit the city shortly after his swearing-in.

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China lashed out at the Dalai Lama on Thursday after the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader gave a speech in which he said Buddhists were living in prison-like conditions and expressed sympathy with the people of Xinjiang.
The speech, given to mark the 51st anniversary of his flight from Tibet to India, drew official Chinese ire at a regular Foreign Ministry news briefing in Beijing.
“The Dalai Lama made another statement yesterday, this is nothing new. In the past few years, year on year, the Dalai Lama has distorted the true situation in Tibet, and attacked and insulted the central government’s policies in Tibet, to trumpet his separatist claims of independence or semi-independence,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang told journalists. China calls the 1989 Nobel Peace Prize winner a dangerous separatist, pointing to his speech in which he referred to Xinjiang as “East Turkestan”, the name given to it by pro-independence exiles. The region is populated by the ethnic minority Uighurs, a Turkic-speaking largely Muslim people. Ethnic violence in Xinjiang last year between Uighurs and Han led to at least 200 deaths.
“Regarding his mentioning of his sympathy with East Turkestan, this exposes and proves his intent on splitting up China and wrecking ethnic unity,” Qin said. In his speech the Dalai Lama also said Beijing had put monks and nuns “in prison-like conditions”, making “monasteries function more like museums … to deliberately annihilate Buddhism”.

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Angry public and private sector workers in Greece walked off the job on Thursday, grounding flights, shutting schools and freezing public transport in the second nationwide strike in as many weeks against austerity plans.
Police estimate some 20,000 demonstrators joined a protest march through Athens as opinion polls showed increasing opposition to many of the measures. But the 24-hour strike is unlikely to halt government plans to slash spending and hike taxes to rein in a yawning deficit that has shaken the euro.
Greeks largely see the plan as unfair and not hitting the right people, in a country where corruption and tax evasion are widespread.
The major public and private sector unions – representing about half of the country’s five million workforce – organised the march and say the EU-backed austerity plan will only hurt the poor and aggravate the recession-hit country’s economic problems.

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hollywoodnews.com’s Todd Gilchrist interviews Amanda Seyfried on her upcoming film “Chloe”

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Sanyo Vpc Zh1r, This VPC-ZH1R red, compact “dual camera” features an impressive 30x optical zoom and 50x digital zoom that allow you to go in for some serious close-ups. A wide 3.0-inch color LCD screen gives you a great view of what you’re shooting in crisp detail. Easily switch gears to take still images in up to 1600 x 1200 resolution or video in up to 720p format.

Other key features include high speed sequential shooting, a digital image stabilizer and face chaser function. Record up to 32 GB of content on to an SDHC card. You can then enjoy your footage on a PC or HDTV with HDMI, USB and AV connectivity options.

This VPC-ZH1R package is an especially great deal because you get a number of bonus accessories, including a 1 GB SD card, an HDMI cable, extra Li-ion battery pack, and a carrying case. That’s worth almost a $100 value! Order this Sanyo Xacti VPC-ZH1 Digital Camcorder Bundle today!

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KARACHI PAKISTAN : World Kidney Day (WKD) 2010 is being observed on Thursday with the theme ‘Protect Your Kidney, Control Diabetes’.

The day holds particular relevance for Pakistan where one in three citizens over 40 has some form of Kidney disease.

According to available studies diabetes and high blood pressure are the two most common causes of chronic kidney disease and, if left unchecked, patients may ultimately need to undergo dialysis up to three times a week to stay alive.

“The scenario demands widespread screening of those sections of society that are at risk of kidney disease,” said Dr. Fatima Jawad.

Talking to APP on Wednesday she said it is essential to create awareness amongst physicians as well as the public about the factors causing kidney diseases and its ultimate failure.

Studies have shown that early detection and treatment can delay and possibly prevent kidney failure in most patients, said Dr. Ahmer Raza.

Diabetes, the doctors said has emerged to be a global epidemic which currently affects an estimated 171 million people worldwide and is estimated to affect over 246 million people living with diabetes.

Surge in the disease was attributed to population growth, aging, urbanization, and the increasing prevalence of obesity and physical inactivity.

Diabetes, a disease in which the body does not produce or properly use insulin, a hormone that is needed to convert sugar, starches and other food into energy needed for daily life, is registered in almost all age groups of people in Pakistan.

The diseases is categorized into two different types – type 1 diabetes results from the body’s failure to produce insulin, the hormone that “unlocks” the cells of the body, allowing glucose to enter and fuel them.

Type One Diabetes is usually a congenital condition found among children and Insulin is required to treat type 1 diabetes.

Type 2 diabetes results from insulin resistance (a condition in which the body fails to properly use insulin), combined with relative insulin deficiency. Most patients with diabetes have type 2 diabetes.

Experts agreed that Type Two diabetes can be prevented and, to a certain extent, controlled through lifestyle interventions such as increased physical activity, weight loss (in patients who are overweight) and proper nutrition.

When lifestyle interventions are insufficient to control diabetes, anti-diabetic medications and insulin may be required, said Dr. Fatima Jawad.

The diabetologist and the nephrologist answering a question to control the situation also recommended strict control of blood pressure and blood glucose levels.

“Use of certain classes of blood pressure medicines can also be a risk,” said Dr. Jawad and urged for medication under proper supervision.

She also suggested need to avoid drugs that may cause further kidney damage (especially some pain killers), a low salt diet and cardiovascular risk reduction.

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British Foreign Secretary David Miliband urged Afghans on Wednesday to push energetically for a peace settlement with Taliban insurgents and said Afghanistan’s neighbours must support such an agreement.
Miliband’s conciliatory comments, in a speech to be given in the United States later on Wednesday, reflect growing acceptance in the West that Taliban fighters who break ties to al Qaeda have a role to play in the country’s future.
“Now is the time for the Afghans to pursue a political settlement with as much vigor and energy as we are pursuing the military and civilian effort,” Miliband said in excerpts published in advance of a speech he is to give at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
In a separate appearance in Boston on Tuesday night, Miliband said there was no longer a military solution for Afghanistan. “The truth about an insurgency and a counterinsurgency is that it’s never ended militarily, it’s only ended politically,” he said at a Kennedy Library foreign affairs forum.
Eight years after the US-led invasion, it is not enough to explain to people why the war started, Miliband will say in Wednesday’s speech.
“We need to set out how it will be ended,” he will say. “Afghanistan will never achieve a sustainable peace unless many more Afghans are inside the political system, and the neighbors are onside with the political settlement.”

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