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Being fat is a curse on a woman’s entire life, that’s what a new study suggests, which found that obese females are more likely to be fired from their job or get in trouble with the police than thin ones.

Also, they are more likely to be criminals themselves, the study found.

To make things more ugly, fat women are driven to comfort eating, thanks to stressful life events, which in turn makes them more fat.

To reach the conclusion, the study, carried out by the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Connecticut in America studied 41,218 adults who had completed detailed records of their lives in which each had kept a year-long diary showing when they had suffered the most stress.

The results showed that those who were obese experienced more ’stressful life events’.

The study has been published in the journal Preventive Medicine.

According to the study, obese women were more likely to face the death of a friend or relative, be sacked or made redundant or face financial troubles.

In the study, obese men did suffer more than slim men, but the difference was much greater in women.

“Stress can lead to obesity. But the opposite is also true with the seriously overweight suffering the most stress by contributing to poor health or social factors like workplace discrimination,” the Telegraph quoted researcher Nancy Petry, as saying.

On the up side, the study did show that overweight women in relationships were less likely than slim women and all men to break up from a long-term partner or get divorced.

Internet-connected Xbox 360 owners will see big changes Wednesday, when the New Xbox Experience is downloaded onto their machines. Gone are the old interface’s cramped, text-heavy menus, which have been replaced by eye-catching, 3D displays of all the games and movies that you’ve stored on your console.

In a nod to Nintendo’s beloved Mii characters, you can also create your own personal avatar. Microsoft has made it easier to play with your friends, letting you set up eight-person parties that can move from game to game. And you’ll finally be able to copy entire games onto your hard drive, which will be a relief to players who still haven’t gotten used to that whirring from the disk drive.

Finally, Netflix members will be able to choose among 12,000 movies and TV shows, including some high-definition titles, for streaming through Xbox Live. And further offerings, like community-developed games and exclusive downloadable game content, are on the way.

Microsoft’s goal was “reinventing the entire product through software,” said Xbox 360 director of product management Aaron Greenberg. “It makes it easier for current owners and more accessible to new gamers.” I’ve been playing around with it for a couple of weeks, and I don’t miss the old Xbox experience at all.

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_PUMP YOU UP: The success of Nintendo’s “Wii Fit” certainly hasn’t gone unnoticed by other software publishers. Even Electronic Arts, whose EA Sports titles (like “Madden NFL” and “NBA Live”) let couch potatoes pretend they are superstar athletes, is trying to get gamers on their feet.

EA Sports president Peter Moore calls the company’s forthcoming fitness title, “EA Sports Active,” a “somewhat radical departure from the normal game experiences we provide customers.” It will also take a more Western approach than “Wii Fit,” focusing on higher-energy cardiovascular exercises and less on the yoga routines that make up the bulk of Nintendo’ product.

EA isn’t the only publisher catching the fitness bug. Majesco has brought out “Jillian Michaels’ Fitness Ultimatum 2009,” while Ubisoft is pumping up “My Fitness Coach.” And if you want a really fun workout, there’s always our old favorite, Konami’s “Dance Dance Revolution” series.

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_GOAL LINE STAND: EA Sports’ “Madden NFL” franchise is in the middle of a fight between the NFL Players Association and retired pro football players. A federal jury in San Francisco ordered the NFLPA to pay $28.1 million to the retirees for failing to include them in marketing deals with EA.

For years, “Madden” has featured classic teams of the past in its annual updates, but the games used look-alike characters in place of the veteran players. Only active players received a cut of the union’s lucrative deal with EA, so the publisher didn’t have the rights to the images of the retirees.

Hall of Fame cornerback Herb Adderley, who filed the lawsuit last year on behalf of 2,056 retired players, said after the verdict, “I won three Super Bowls and this feels better than all of them combined.” NFLPA lawyer Jeffrey Kessler responded, “It’s an unjust verdict and we are confident it will be overturned.”

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_TROPHY TIME: It’s almost winter, which in show biz means: Award Season! The video-game biz gets things rolling Dec. 14, with Spike TV’s imaginatively titled Video Game Awards.

“Grand Theft Auto IV” leads the pack with eight nominations; “Metal Gear Solid 4″ got seven. Both titles are competing with “Fallout 3,” “LittleBigPlanet” and “Gears of War 2” for game of the year honors. Will Wright, the legendary creator of “The Sims” and “Spore” will receive Spike’s first-ever Gamer God award.

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_NEW IN STORES: Zombies are on the march in Electronic Arts’ EA “Left 4 Dead” (Xbox 360). … Square Enix’s latest role-playing adventure is “The Last Remnant” (360). … Furries run wild in Nintendo’s “Animal Crossing: City Folk” (Wii), Sega’s “Sonic Unleashed” (Wii, PlayStation 2), Ubisoft’s “Rayman Raving Rabbids TV Party” (Wii) and Disney’s “Bolt” (360, Wii, PS2, DS). … More franchise upgrades: EA’s “Need for Speed Undercover” (most systems), Midway’s “Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe” (360, PlayStation 3) and Eidos’ “Tomb Raider Underworld” (360, PS3, Wii, DS). … Armchair athletes get EA Sports‘ “NCAA Basketball 09″ (360, PS3, PS2) and Ubisoft’s “Shaun White Snowboarding” (most systems). … And wannabe rockers can jam to Activision’s “Guitar Hero on Tour: Decades” (DS), Disney’s “Ultimate Band” (Wii, DS) and Microsoft’s “Lips” (360).

Inflation came off a 16-year high to 4.5 percent in October as the cost of oil fell sharply, putting the country at risk of equally damaging deflation, official data showed on Tuesday.

With inflation set to tumble even further in coming months, analysts said Britain risked instead a protracted general fall in prices, as well as historically-low interest rates in 2009.

The Bank of England (BoE) slashed interest rates by an unprecedented 1.5 percentage points to 3.0 percent in early November, citing the prospect of sliding inflation as the country heads towards recession.

The Consumer Price Index (CPI) annual inflation rate — the government’s target measure — dropped from a 16-year high of 5.2 percent in September, the Office for National Statistics said.

The BoE’s chief task is to keep annual inflation close to a 2.0-percent target set by the government.

“The sharp drop in consumer price inflation last month is likely only the start of a process which could lead to a significant undershoot of the BoE’s 2.0-percent target during the second half of 2009,” said Bank of America economist Matthew Sharratt.

“In part, the greater-than-expected drop in inflation last month validates the BoE’s dramatic 150 basis point rate cut to 3.0 percent in November.

“Today’s sharp drop in inflation also keeps the door wide open for a deep 100 basis point cut to 2.0 percent at the December (BoE) meeting.”

Sharratt said his house “would not rule out an even larger cut next month as the (BoE) grapples with a sharply deflating economy.”

When prices start to fall, consumers typically put off purchases with the aim of buying more cheaply in the future but this dampens demand, slows the economy further and sets up a vicious downward circle leading to lower overall economic activity.

Investec analyst David Page said British borrowing costs could hit 1.50 percent during the second quarter of 2009.

October’s was the biggest fall in the annual inflation rate since April 1992 and compared with analyst forecasts for a drop to 4.8 percent, according to Dow Jones Newswires.

The ONS said that compared with September, CPI was down 0.3 percent, as against analyst forecasts for a gain of 0.1 percent month-on-month.

“The largest downward pressure on the CPI annual rate came from transport costs where the price of fuels and lubricants fell,” it said.

“The decrease this year was triggered by a sharp fall in the price of crude oil,” it added.

The BoE had cited a “substantial downward shift” in inflation prospects when it cut rates earlier this month to the lowest level since 1955.

World oil prices have plunged by almost two thirds in value since striking record highs above 147 dollars in July on concerns that a global economic slowdown will sap demand for energy.

Jonathan Loynes, chief European economist at the Capital Economics consultancy in London, said the British economy was on a deflationary path.

“October’s sharp fall in UK CPI inflation from 5.2 percent to 4.5 percent is the first step along a road that is likely to end in the first bout of deflation in the UK economy in almost half a century,” Loynes said.

“The drop was driven partly by falls in petrol and food prices and both will continue to exert strong downward pressure over the coming months.”

On Monday, Prime Minister Gordon Brown warned of a risk of deflation next year.

“While last year and in the last few months the problem has been inflation, and we’ve had inflation combined with the credit crunch, in the next year the problem is deflation,” Brown said.

The BoE had said last week said the British economy was probably already in recession and faced a risk of deflation as the global financial crisis takes its toll.

The economy is on the verge of a recession after contracting for the first time since 1992 in the three months to September by 0.5 percent.

A subsequent and widely expected further contraction in the fourth quarter will put the economy technically into recession.

China took another step toward its long-cherished goal of operating high-speed telecoms services, with China Mobile (0941.HK: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) dishing out over $4 billion of deals and smaller rival Unicom (0762.HK: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) hoping to win a 3G license soon.

But analysts continued to warn that while the billions of dollars need to be invested under an ambitious government-orchestrated plan, carriers and investors should not expect quick returns with consumers likely to tighten spending in a worsening economy.

China Mobile, the world’s largest mobile provider, is now in talks with Motorola (MOT.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and Sony-Ericsson (6758.T: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) (ERICb.ST: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) on acquiring dual-band cell phones that can used on China’s homegrown third-generation wireless standard, known as TD-SCDMA.

Chairman Wang Jianzhou said on Tuesday the firm had completed tenders for the building of the second phase of that network, sealing deals worth reportedly 30 billion yuan ($4.4 billion).

That will allow the firm to jumpstart construction of a network that is expected to begin operating in mid-2009.

“With TD-SCDMA, one headache now is that the available handsets are just not of good enough quality,” Wang told Reuters in a brief interview on the sidelines of an Asian wireless telecommunications conference.

Wang said customers in trials had complained about dropped lines, a problem with handsets and not the network.

But revenue from 3G applications and content such as multimedia, music and games will not come in time to offset a sharp deceleration in consumer spending. China Mobile last month posted a 26-percent jump in third-quarter net profit but disappointed investors with a sharp drop in growth.

“To try and compensate for the slowdown in revenue growth, we’re going to accelerate the pace of our investment in rural markets,” Wang said.

China’s Mobile’s second phase of 3G expansion would expand services to 28 more cities, taking the mobile giant’s coverage to 38 cities next year, Wang added.

EAT MY DUST

But the competition is coming on fast.

Unicom, the smaller of the country’s two existing mobile operators, expects Beijing to speed up the issue of 3G licences, Chairman Chang Xiaobing said on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, developing a TD-SCDMA network will take time for China Mobile — which may hurt its current two-thirds share of users — and the market is not yet big enough to justify full commercial operations, said Marvin Lo, telecom analyst for Daiwa Securities.

“With economic conditions deteriorating… very likely consumers will tighten their spending,” he said.

ZTE Corp (0763.HK: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), China’s No. 2 telecommunications equipment vendor, had won about 28 percent of the 30 billion yuan in orders from China Mobile, the South China Morning Post reported over the weekend.

ZTE executives declined to confirm nor deny that on Tuesday.

Other winners in the tender may include Datang Mobile, the patent and holder of the TD-SCDMA technology, together with Alcatel Shanghai, Huawei Technologies HWT.UL and Siemens Networks (SIEGn.DE: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), the newspaper said.

Shares of ZTE slid as much as 6.4 percent, while China Mobile dived 3.8 percent — narrowly outperforming the benchmark Hang Seng Index’s 4.5 percent fall.

China Mobile said on Tuesday it will sign a contract with Nokia (NOK1V.HE: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) for the Finnish firm to supply dual-band handsets next year compatible with both GSM and TD-SCDMA networks.

Wang told reporters the company was also in talks with Motorola (MOT.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and Sony-Ericsson on the supply of dual band handsets.

Unicom chairman Chang Xiaobing told reporters that he hoped the company would get a 3G license by year-end. Unicom aims to have data services account for 50 percent of revenue in future, Chang said, but did not give a timeframe for that target.

“I suspect that license may not be issued by year-end as China Unicom is hoping for. They (Chinese government) will put a higher priority on the development of TD-SCDMA first before any 3G license could be issued,” Lo argued.

China urged Washington on Tuesday to lift new restrictions that U.S. health officials have imposed on imported foods from China, insisting Beijing has taken effective measures to improve food safety standards since it was hit by a recent tainted milk scandal. The Chinese Foreign Ministry said it regretted the move by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration last Thursday to order dozens of imported foods from China held at the border.

Most are ethnic treats, including snacks, drinks and chocolates. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration also plans to open three offices in China this week in an unprecedented effort to improve the safety of exports headed to America amid recurring product safety scares.

Qin Gang, a ministry spokesman, said Chinese quality inspection authorities strictly examine exported products to ensure they meet the standards of importing countries. “We hope the U.S. side will take seriously China’s major concerns because what they are doing now will impact on our trade.

We hope the U.S. will lift the restriction sooner than later,” Qin told a regular news briefing. It is unusual for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to put such a broad hold on goods from an entire country, not just a few rogue manufacturers.

Thursday’s order, which covers products made with milk, is a precaution to keep out foods contaminated with melamine, the industrial chemical found in dairy products that sickened more than 50,000 children with kidney problems and was blamed in the deaths of at least four infants in China’s most recent food scandal. Under the directive, FDA inspectors at U.S. ports of entry will detain foods from China made with milk and other dairy ingredients.

Importers must pay to have their products tested by an independent laboratory that meets FDA standards. Only products found to be melamine-free will be allowed into the country.

Melamine, a chemical used to make plastics and fertilizer, is said to have been added to watered-down milk by dairy suppliers in China to dupe quality control tests and make the product appear rich in protein. The practice became known after the Beijing Olympics this summer.

Other melamine-tainted Chinese products soon surfaced in other countries, setting off a global safety scandal that has further tarnished the reputation of Chinese food brands.

‘Music is always noise-related and often not appreciated,’ German poet and humorist Wilhelm Busch noted wryly.

Busch’s sarcastic saying embodies a bitter truth: Orchestra musicians jeopardise their ears with their own music. For instance, in a Wagner opera, sound values of 120 decibels (dB) and higher can be attained.

Even the average sound level, depending on the repertoire and instrument, often takes on a magnitude that is considered hazardous to health.

Nevertheless, the EU Noise Directive, also in effect for German orchestras since Feb 15, has been implemented too rarely in practice; there is a lack of effective noise-protection measures.

Therefore, the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB) has developed a noise protection shield. It can in the critical range above 250 Hertz lower the sound level at the ear of the musician by up to 20 dB, according to a PTB release.

The noise protection shield can be reconstructed with little time and effort. In early testing, this has already been accomplished, with extremely positive feedback.

Religious leaders and locals of this sleepy town are doing their bit to save the endangered fresh water dolphins found in the river Ganga.

Their efforts are bearing fruits as in the 165 km stretch of the Upper Ganga between Bijnor and Narora, the number of the endangered aquatic species is on the increase.

In 1993-94, the number of the dolphins (Platanista gangetica) in this stretch was just 20. However, with the intervention of the community and with help from World Wildlife Fund (WWF) experts, the count has doubled to around 40, including calves.

Sandeep Behera, freshwater programme coordinator from WWF calls the efforts an excellent example of community participation in aquatic species conservation.

Locals of Karnawas villagers have set up a sewage treatment plant to ensure that dirty water does not pollute the river and in turn wipe-out dolphins, Behera said to a news agency.

“Atleast 85 families of the village are using this treatment plant. We will soon set up another such plant, again without the help of government,” adds 25-year-old Himanshu Sharma, a local and volunteer with WWF.

Fishing activities are banned and so is mining. “In fact now farmers have stopped using chemical fertilisers and instead started using eco-friendly manure cow-dung on the agricultural land situated on the banks of the river,” Sharma says.

In yet another eco-friendly measure, farmers are being encouraged to set up vermi-composting units. Polythene is collected and then burnt at a safer place lest it choke the river, the activist adds.

However, Bahera stresses on efforts for long-term survival of the dolphins. “If not poaching then declining water level will take a toll on the conservation efforts,” he says.

River dolphins being deep water pool swimmers and hunters are facing the threat of extinction as the water level in the Ganga if falling due to siltation.

“Also, due to damming of the river, less quantity of water is being released from Tehri dam. The species are depending only on water from Ramganga river which is being released to meet the nearby Narora nuclear power plant,” Behera says.

Damming of the river has already isolated the dolphin population which are now concentrated either in extreme upper stream or lower stream of the river in the region.

Besides dolphins, the stretch is rich in other wildlife too having over 120 species of waterfowl, red-handed gulls and cranes on the islands and the grassy areas that lie along the banks of the river.

The dolphin which is protected under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, and the Convention on Migratory Species can grow as large as 2.7m in length and weighs up to 90kg having life span of around 30 years.

The Ganges River dolphin is among the four “obligate” freshwater dolphins found in the world. The other three are found in the Yangtze River in China, the Indus River in Pakistan and Amazon River in Latin America.

Although there are several species of marine dolphins whose ranges include some freshwater habitats, these four species live only in rivers and lakes and need extensive conservation efforts to prevent them from becoming extinct, says Behera.

The Indian Space Research Organisation is ready to establish a world class facility for atmospheric studies near Tirupati in Andhra Pradesh.

Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) chairman G. Madhavan Nair informed Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy that ISRO would establish the facility for advanced atmospheric studies.

Nair was replying to the message sent by the chief minister congratulating him and his team for the successful launch of Chandrayaan-I, said a statement from the chief minister’s office.

The moon mission was launched from Sriharikota launch station in Andhra Pradesh.

Rajasekhara Reddy, in his congratulatory message, sought the establishment of ISRO’s human space programme (astronaut training and biomedical engineering centre) and offered the necessary land in Anantapur district close to Bangalore.

Nair, however, informed him that as part of Human Spaceflight Programme (HSP), a centre for training India astronauts is planned to be set up around Bangalore, (in coordination with Indian Institute of Aviation, Medicine, Bangalore).

The ISRO chief pointed out that the National Atmospheric Research Laboratory (NARL) of ISRO was already functioning at Gadanki, near Tirupati since 1992. It is engaged in fundamental research related to atmospheric and space sciences and developing various types of radars and lidars for atmospheric studies.

‘NARL has proposed to expand its activities towards advanced technology experiments and in this regard a laboratory for developing flight instruments is planned to be set up near Tirupati,’ wrote the ISRO chairman.

Naidu urged the chief minister to allot 20 acres of land for establishing a world class facility for atmospheric studies which would attract the participations of many Indian and foreign researchers, who will contribute to advanced research in weather and climate.

A British woman is divorcing her husband after discovering his online alter-ego was having an affair with a virtual woman in the fantasy world of Second Life, media reported on Friday.

Amy Taylor, 28, said her three-year marriage to David Pollard, 40, came to an end when she twice walked in on him watching his online character, Dave Barmy, having sex with other virtual women.

Second Life enables players to create online lives in which their virtual alter ego, or avatar, can socialize, develop relationships, buy property and set up businesses in an imagined world using the game’s virtual currency.

The couple met in an internet chatroom in 2003 and married in real life and in a fantasy tropical setting in Second Life.

However, Taylor always had suspicions about Pollard’s online loyalty. At one point she hired a virtual detective to test whether his avatar was cheating on her, after finding him at the computer watching his character having sex with a prostitute.

Pollard passed that honeytrap test but earlier this year Taylor found his character in a compromising position with another virtual woman.

“He confessed he’d been talking to this woman player in America for one or two weeks and said our marriage was over and he didn’t love me any more,” said Taylor, who filed for divorce the next day.

“The solicitor wasn’t at all surprised — she said it was her second divorce case involving Second Life that week.”

Scientists have uncovered a number of events that take place after brain cells are infected by HIV, a virus whose assault on the nervous system continues unabated despite antiviral medications.

Researchers from the University of Rochester Medical Center and other institutions say that they have been successful in reversing the effects of Tat, a protein that is central to HIV’s attack on cells called neurons, in the laboratory.

The scientists attribute their success to the discovery of the receptor that Tat uses to attack neurons. They say that it was by blocking this receptor that they could reverse the effects of Tat.

Writing about their work in the journal PloS One, the team insist that their work opens up a new avenue for exploring ways to prevent or treat HIV’s neurological effects, for which there is no currently approved treatment.

Funded by the National Institute of Mental Health, the latest research project aims at finding out the first treatment for the neurological effects of HIV, known collectively as neuroAIDS or HIV dementia.

Dr. Harris Gelbard, a neurologist at the University of Rochester Medical Center, has revealed that Tat works through the ryanodine receptor to sicken neurons in two ways: by destroying the ability of mitochondria to protect themselves from changes in levels of calcium, and by affecting an organelle known as the endoplasmic reticulum, where proteins are actually assembled and folded.

The researcher says that it is Tat’s effects on the ryanodine receptor that cause an “unfolded protein response” seen in the brains of HIV patients.

Gelbard says that the new findings are in line with past studies that showed that the central problem in HIV dementia is not that brain cells simply die, but rather they become sick and lose their ability to communicate with each other.

Since the cells are still alive, according to Gelbard, there is hope that the condition could be stopped or even reversed with proper treatment.

The researcher has revealed that the team were able to stop the harmful effects of Tat in neurons from mice by using the drug dantrolene, which blocks the ryanodine receptor.

Gelbard, however, cautions that dantrolene has side effects and thus may not be appropriate for use in people.

“A lot of people are under the impression that HIV has been ’solved,’ that somehow, it’s no longer a problem. But the disease never went away, and it’s a huge problem,” said Gelbard, who is professor of Neurology, Pediatrics, and Microbiology and Immunology.

“There are a fair number of similarities between this brain disease and other diseases, such as Parkinson’s or Alzheimer’s. We hope that what we are learning can be applied to other diseases as well,” the researcher added.