Top 10 Mobile Phones In The World Today

Are you buying smartphones?. we guide what phone is best for you?

You want the best smartphone, right? We've whittled our constantly updated selection down to the 10 best handsets you can get your hands on right now - but after you've checked out number one, we've still got plenty of other options to feast your eyes on.

We've all got at least one mobile phone each, right? We've probably got about three or four nowadays, and that counts giving your old Nokia 3310 to your Mum a few years ago.

But while you used to be able to just bank on the new Nokia or always get the next Sony Ericsson because it had a half-decent camera, there are now so many great options out there from loads of manufacturers.

The trouble is, how do you decide which is the best one for you?

Well, this is where we make it easy: we've played with nearly every device on the market and have found the ten best you can spend your money on. It needs to be good, after all, given it will reside in your pocket for the next two years.

Our ranking of the best mobile phones available in the UK today celebrates the brilliance of the smartphone: we love handsets that add in functionality to enrich our lives in so many different ways.

We also partially take into account the price of the phone too - meaning a low-price handset doesn't always need to have high-spec functions to be in our top 10. Read More

Why West Africans keep eating bush meat, which could be Ebola's bridge from animals to humans

A woman in Ivory Coast dries bush meat near a road in March. Photo: Reuters

Abby Phillip

To the foreign eye, it looks like a flattened, blackened lump of unidentifiable animal parts. To many Africans, however, bush meat - the cooked, dried or smoked remains of a host of wild animals, from rats and bats to monkeys - is not only the food of their forefathers, it is life-sustaining protein where nutrition is scarce.

And as it has been during past Ebola outbreaks, bush meat is once again suspected to have been the bridge that caused the deadly disease to go from the animal world to the human one. All it takes is a single transmission event from animal to human - handling an uncooked bat with the virus, for example - to create an epidemic. Human-to-human contact then becomes the primary source of infection.

"If you know that the Ebola virus is introduced in one area, it's probably an extra good time to stop eating bush meat," said Daniel Bausch, an associate professor of tropical medicine at Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine.

What is bush meat? It varies. It can be a chimpanzee, gorilla or monkey. It could also be a rat, deer or fruit bat. The animals come from the wild and are captured and sold for sustenance where other sources of protein from domesticated animals are scarce or prohibitively expensive.

West Africans say they have been eating bush meat for longer than anyone can remember. And even where it is outlawed and frowned upon by conservationists who decry the killing of protected primates and other animals, you can still find it readily available in markets and on street corners.

"Life is not easy here in the village," Guinean Sâa Fela Léno told the Guardian. Authorities and aid groups "want to ban our traditions that we have observed for generations. Animal husbandry is not widespread here because bush meat is easily available. Banning bush meat means a new way of life, Read more 

Gaza ceasefire gives pause to assess destruction

Palestinians in a car with their belongings drive past a destroyed house in Rafah's.

Ruth Pollard

Gaza City: Amidst the vast moonscape of grey rubble, the bloated carcasses of dead animals and the occasional splash of colour from a child’s toy, Gazans returned to what was left of their homes as another 72-hour ceasefire began.

Between 16,000 and 18,000 housing units have been severely damaged or totally destroyed, the United Nations Development Program estimates, leaving tens of thousands not just homeless, but with nothing left but the clothes they were able to evacuate with.

On a wider scale, almost every piece of critical infrastructure, from electricity to water to sewage, has been seriously compromised by either direct hits from Israeli air strikes and shelling or collateral damage.

As many as 520,000 Palestinians have been displaced from their homes in Israel’s nearly four-week long military campaign and with this temporary ceasefire, many are only now able to fully grasp the extent of the devastation in their neighbourhoods.

Shocked families wordlessly picked through the rubble of their houses in northern towns of Shujaiya and Beit Hanoun, where the smell of death still hangs in the air.

Rescue workers are still pulling bodies from under rubble – after successive humanitarian ceasefires broke down over the last week, there has been little access until now to some of the worst-affected neighbourhoods.

There was no celebration of the ceasefire – the first to have lasted more than a few hours since this conflict began on July 8 – or of the fact that Israeli ground troops had withdrawn from Gaza after announcing they had destroyed 32 Hamas tunnels and significant weapons caches.

Instead, Gaza was blanketed in grief and loss.

Gaza officials say that 1834 Palestinians have died in the conflict, most of them civilians, including more than 400 children. Israel says 64 of its soldiers and three civilians have been killed since fighting began on July 8. Read more

Man arrested for hoax bomb threat on plane escorted by fighter jet to Manchester Airport

A Qatar Airways aircraft is seen surrounded by emergency.Photo: Reuters

Andrew Yates

Manchester: British police have arrested a man on suspicion of making a hoax bomb threat after two fighter jets escorted a Qatar Airways plane into Manchester Airport. The pilot had reported a possible explosive device was on board.

The incident, which prompted the authorities to close the northern England airport for 25 minutes, briefly raised fears of a terrorism attack.

Qatar Airways said the Airbus A330-300 plane was flight QR23 from Doha to Manchester with 269 passengers and 13 crew on board.

A Reuters photographer saw armed police remove a handcuffed male passenger dressed in baggy trousers and a sports shirt from the plane.

Police say a 47-year-old man from the north-west of England has been arrested on suspicion of making a bomb hoax and remains in police custody for questioning.

A full search of the aircraft found nothing suspicious on board. Read more:

World Health Organisation Meets as Ebola Fears Grow

The World Health Organisation began a two-day emergency meeting on West Africa's Ebola epidemic, with the UN agency deciding whether to declare it an international crisis.

The closed-door session is tasked with ruling whether the outbreak constitutes what is known in WHO-speak as a "public health emergency of international concern".

The meeting comes as Nigeria reported its second death and Saudi Arabia said a man who had visited Sierra Leone and had returned with Ebola symptoms died at a hospital in Jeddah.

Taking the form of a telephone conference between senior WHO officials, representatives of affected countries, and experts from around the globe, the WHO meeting is not expected to made its decision public until Friday.

To date, the WHO has not issued global-level recommendations - such as travel and trade restrictions - related to the outbreak which began in Guinea and has spread to Liberia, Sierra Leone and Nigeria.

But the scale of concern is underlined by the WHO emergency session itself - such consultations are relatively rare.

The UN agency this year held such meetings on polio and last year on the mysterious Middle East Respiratory Syndrome.

But before that, the last emergency meeting had been during the 2009 H1N1 influenza outbreak.

Nigeria on Wednesday confirmed five new cases of Ebola in Lagos and a second death from the virus, bringing the total number of infections in sub-Saharan Africa's largest city to seven.

"Nigeria has now recorded seven confirmed cases of Ebola Virus Disease (EVB)," Health Minister Onyebuchi Chukwu said.

Read more , AFP, Washington Post

Home Remedies To Treat Obesity Naturally

What Is Obesity?

Obesity is the condition in which a person is overweight and has a high degree of body fat. Obesity is measured by the Body Mass Index of a person (BMI). BMI is calculated by dividing your weight in kilograms with your height in meters squared.  A person with BMI 25-29 is considered as overweight and the person with a BMI between 30 and 40 are considered as obese. Obesity can lead to various life threatening diseases like diabetes, heart diseases, some varieties of cancer, stroke etc. obesity can occur in people of all ages. Consumption of more calories and sedentary lifestyle are the major cause for obesity. It is possible to control obesity or get rid of obesity using various home remedies and lifestyle changes. Heredity also plays an important role in the development of obesity. Though many weight loss treatments are available in the market to get rid of obesity, they are not effective and are not a safe method. Try the following home remedies to get rid of obesity.

Home Remedies To Treat Obesity Naturally

The following are some of the home remedies that aren’t just controlling obesity in humans but will also help them to maintain a healthy body and mind.

1. Green Tea
Green tea has been found to be very effective in weight loss and will help in treating weight loss without any dieting or weight loss pills.

• Use the best quality green tea leaves in boiling water and let it simmer for a few minutes.
• Drink this green tea two to three times a day to see visible results in days.

2. Apple Cider Vinegar And Lime Juice 

• Mix one teaspoon of apple cider vinegar and one teaspoon of lemon juice in a cup of lukewarm water.
• Drink this glass of water on an empty stomach every day for two to three months.
• You will see visible results as water will keep you hydrated, apple cider vinegar will boost your metabolism and lemon will help in improving the taste of water.

3. Start Day With Honey 

• Take a teaspoon of honey and mix it in a glass of hot water.
• Add a teaspoon of lemon juice to this water mixture.
• Drink this water the first thing in the morning when you get up and on an empty stomach.
• Repeat this daily for two to three months to see an effective weight loss.

4. Drink Hot Water 

• If you have the habit of drinking cold water, try to replace it with hot water.
• Hot water will help in eliminating the fat deposits in your body.
• Drink hot water after every meal and make sure that you leave a gap of half an hour between the food and the water.
• Never drink water immediately after eating.

How to Lighten Skin Naturally with Home Remedies?

Posted by: Sara in Home Remedies,

Your skin color depends upon various factors, main of which is the pigment melanin which is produced in the skin cells known as melanocytes. If you have darker skin, it means your melanocytes produces more melanin. Sometimes, darker skin is not your natural skin color. It may get darken due to tanning resulting from exposure to sun rays. In fact, your skin color adapts to intense sunlight irradiation so that you get protection against the ultraviolet rays that can damage your skin. There can be many other causes for dark skin other than heredity and overexposure to sun. These may include environmental pollution, dry skin, stress, as well as prolonged usage of cosmetics having lots of chemicals in them. If your dark skin is not due to genetic reasons, you may take an attempt to lighten your skin with the help of these home remedies for skin lightening.
Homemade Remedies to Lighten Skin Naturally

1. Milk for Skin Lightening

Milk is a rich source of calcium. Calcium, along with many important functions in our body, also regulates normal skin color. It does so by stimulating melanocytes, the skin cells that produces melanin pigment. Also, when you provide higher calcium content to the upper epidermis of your skin, you help maintain effective barrier against moisture loss. This prevents skin from going dry which can also affect your skin making it darker. Milk also contains lactic acid which reduces skin’s pigmentation making your skin lighter in complexion.

How to use milk for skin lightening?

Get this:

    Milk (preferably cow’s or goat’s milk)- 1 bowl
    Washcloth

Do this:

• Take the bowl of milk and warm it a little. You need just warm milk and not hot.
• Soak your washcloth in this.
• Take out the washcloth and wring it out to discard excessive milk. While the cloth should be fully soaked in milk, it should not drip.
• Now gently rub your skin with this cloth.
• Once the cloth gets dry, soak it again in the milk and repeat the process.
• Repeat the cycle of dipping and rubbing for 3-4 times.
• Do this daily, preferably after taking bath.
• After a couple of weeks, you may do this twice a week instead of doing it daily.

2. Yogurt for Skin Lightening

Lactic acid is a known remedy for natural skin lightening. This acid is the most gentle alpha hydroxy acids (AHAs). Alpha hydroxy acids act as exfoliants by contributing in rapid shedding of dead skin cells on the surface. This leads to cell renewal which in turn removes dullness from your skin giving you a brightening effect. As a skin lightening agent, lactic acid helps bleach the hyperpigmented skin by suppressing the production of melanin. Therefore, using yogurt loaded with lactic acid, makes sense when it comes to skin lightening with natural remedies.

Ways to use yogurt for skin lightening

1. Take some plain, unflavored and unsweetened, yogurt. Rub this gently on to your skin for a couple of minutes. Then leave the yogurt on your skin for another few minutes. Now wash off using lukewarm water. Repeat this daily.
2. Mix yogurt, lemon juice and oatmeal to get make a face mask. Apply this to your skin. Leave it there for 15-20 minutes before washing off with water.
3. Add 1-2 tsp of honey to 1 tablespoon of yogurt. Apply this to your skin. Leave it for 10-15 minutes. Wash off with water. Repeat daily. Read More