Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Amit Shah, at a press conference early today, accused the Samajwadi Party (SP) workers of booth capturing.

Alleging cases of booth capturing in the ongoing Lok Sabha election the BJP leader has called for increased security measures in the remaining two phases of the elections. "For last two phases, there should be paramilitary troops, micro observers and cameras in all booths," he said.

The allegation were refuted by the SP leaders, who called it a sign of desperation. "Such allegations are sign that they are losing," said SP leader Ramgopal Yadav. "It's just frustration on their part," added another SP leader Gayatri Prajapati.

On the controversy surrounding the snooping scandal, Amit Shah said, "Instead of conducting probes in the massive scams, they are doing this," he said. He further dismissed the issue by adding, "Anyway, we have no problem."

CONGRESS president Sonia Gandhi’s political secretary Ahmed Patel Friday refuted Narendra Modi’s claims that they shared a warm friendship.

“This is a political stunt to create confusion and create a cloud of doubt in the midst of elections. How can Modi be able to make friendship with me when he has never been able to strike friendship within his own party?”, Patel said, reacting to Modi’s claims in an interview to the Doordarshan, which were edited out by the broadcaster.

He said Modi’s claims of closeness between them were “baseless” and “a complete lie”. In the interview, Modi had claimed that he used to go to Patel’s residence and dine with him. Patel said Modi did come to his place for lunch when he was BJP general secretary in the eighties. “But I never had any one-on-one meeting with Modi before or after the communal riots in Gujarat in 2002,” Patel said.
“I do not know who are and who are not his friends in Congress, but if somebody is saying that I was very close to him or is very close friend... It is all to create doubts in the midst of elections. It is all baseless and ridiculous, a complete lie.... If he proves that I ever visited his house or his office or taken any favour, I will quit public life,” Patel said.

“It is far from truth what he is talking about our dining at each other’s house. I remember once in the eighties he had come to my residence, when he was general secretary of BJP in the eighties. I did offer him food then.... When he became CM for the first time... he used to call me on phone whenever there was a festival and I used to answer him out of courtesy, to acknowledge that his phone call had come,” he said.

Rihanna doesn't need much to look glamorous. In fact, she doesn't even need a shirt.

The singer posted photos to her Instagram account from her sexy spread in Vogue Brasil, proving this point.

The photos, taken by Mariano Vivanco, are featured in Vogue Brasil's May 2014 issue which hits stands April 28.

Kanye West has a million dollar smile, but it's his pout that has the Internet thoroughly amused.

A photo of the rapper looking rather depressed while wearing a bright red helmet outside a zip-lining office in the middle of Mexico surfaced on Reddit on May 1. The juxtaposition of his fiancee Kim Kardashian who is smiling next to a man who is likely a zip-line instructor makes the snapshot particularly hilarious.

Sad Kanye isn't exactly new as the 36-year-old rapper is known for his scowl, and has inspired a Tumblr page that features nothing but pictures of the unhappy-looking star.
Read more at www.huffingtonpost.com

SCIENTISTS have created early stage sperm from the skin of men who cannot make their own, raising hopes of new treatments for currently incurable male infertility.

A leading British expert said the stem cell research challenged the widely held view that the "door is closed" on men with the problem who want to have children.

Although still at a very early stage, the study raises the future prospect of lab-grown sperm that could allow them to become fathers.

Lead scientist Dr Reijo Pera, from the Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine at Stanford University, US, said: "Our results are the first to offer an experimental model to study sperm development. Therefore, there is potential for
applications
to cell-based therapies in the clinic, for example, for the generation of higher quality and numbers of sperm in a dish.

"It might even be possible to transplant stem-cell-derived germ cells directly into the testes of men with problems producing sperm."

Infertility often affects 10pc to 15pc of couples, and in men it usually has a genetic origin, most commonly the loss of key genes on the male Y chromosome.

All three infertile men taking part in the new study had missing regions of Y chromosome DNA associated with the production of few or no sperm.

 BJP president Rajnath Singh has indicated that he will not be part of the government if his party comes to power after the Lok Sabha election.

BJP president Rajnath Singh has indicated that he will not be part of the government if his party comes to power after the Lok Sabha election.

"My responsibilities are already decided and I think, in the BJP, I have many colleagues who are capable who should be given a chance in the government," he added.

Rajnath Singh categorically said Narendra Modi will be the prime minister if the party comes to power.

"No matter what happens, under any circumstances, Modi will be India's PM.

"I want to clarify this as president of the party, because just by sitting in an office, people can't run a government," he added.

Rajnath Singh gave an interview to Zee news and spoke about the party leadership and why Narendra Modi would become the PM:

*In an exclusive interview with Zee News, BJP President Rajnath Singh denied that he had any ambitions of becoming the PM. He said only Narendra Modi would be the PM of a BJP-led NDA government, under any circumstances.

*Rajnath Singh also claimed that Narendra Modi was made the PM nominee after consultations with and agreement of all party leaders. He said the party cadres and leaders are disciplined and there is agreement on key issues.

*Singh also brushed aside the suggestion that the Lucknow seat, on which he is contesting, is of any significance to the PM's post. Atal Bihari Vajpayee won from Lucknow in 1998 and became the PM. However, Singh said that this does not imply that he would also become the Prime Minister. He quoted the example of Lalji Tandon, who also won from the Lucknow seat after Vajpayee. Rajnath Singh went on to say that it would be against his values to seek the Prime Minister's post after anointing Narendra Modi as the nominee.

*Singh asserted that a Prime Minister must not merely possess legal and constitutional authority, but also moral authority to be the Prime Minister. He said Narendra Modi possessed such moral authority to take over the reigns of governance at the Centre.

*The media has been abuzz about the bonhomie between Rajnath Singh and Narendra Modi. Singh however denied that there was anything extraordinary about this. He said that there must be good relations between the party president and the Prime Minister for efficient functioning of the country. Singh explained that he had always believed Modi to be the most popular leader in India, even before becoming the party president.

*Singh though stated that Narendra Modi would have the complete authority to run the country once he became the PM. There would be no interference from him or the party leadership. Rajnath claimed that it was the Congress that believed in remote-controlling the Prime Minister, because they were run by a single family all the time. He said that BJP was a democratic party which did not believe in such remote-controlled governance.

When it comes to dealing with pregnant women, I'm no expert. Hell, I still don't even know how to figure out women in general. In fact, I'm the antithesis of an expert. Luckily for you, I've made just about every single stupid mistake and placed my foot so far in my mouth during my wife's pregnancies that I'm overqualified to speak to you about things you need to know to avoid getting knocked out by the knocked up.

Here are the 10 most important things to remember.

1. Feed her constantly.
Everyone knows food is important to pregnant women. But what the uninitiated might not realize is that time is of the essence. The bottom line is, when she says she's hungry, she means it. Feed that woman immediately or she will eat your f*cking face. Know that "I'm hungry" doesn't mean she's looking forward to the dinner plans you have in an hour. It means give her a snack before you leave for the restaurant. And then again when you get in the car. Failure to promptly produce snacks will result in extreme b*tchiness at best, and bodily injury at worst. Just turn yourself into a walking, talking vending machine for nine months and you'll be fine.

2. Food: What's yours is hers, what's hers is off-limits.
There's a good chance you've been married or together a few years now, so it's perfectly understandable that you bought into all that stuff about togetherness and sharing a life, etc. And while some of that still applies, all bets are off when it comes to food. If you eat food that's hers (or food you bought for yourself but she somehow claimed as hers), she will cut you. Not physically, perhaps, but by the time she's finished excoriating you you'll wish it was just a knife wound you suffered. I ate some of MJ's chocolate once, and when she went to find it during a craving and saw that it was gone, she flew into a rage that was one of the scariest things I've ever seen. Just don't do it.

3. Get ready to gain weight.
Notice how all the topics so far have involved food? That's no mistake. Ultimately, at some point, she'll have cravings. When MJ was pregnant with Will, she wanted pizza, Kit Kats and grapefruit. The second time around, it was nothing but fruit salad. But whatever the craving, one of the unmentioned side effects of pregnancy is YOUR weight gain. Yes, the guys gain weight, too. Mainly because we inevitably partake in our partners' cravings and all the extra junk food results in a spare tire. I gained 25 pounds during MJ's pregnancy five years ago, just a shade under the total amount she gained -- WITH THE BABY! So watch your step.

4. Don't point out how big she's getting.
My Boston sports habit notwithstanding, I'm a fairly logical person. I knew MJ was pregnant and pregnant women gain weight. That's why I thought absolutely nothing of pointing out my wife's really cute swollen belly. In my mind, it was just nature progressing and running its course, and there was nothing more beautiful. But after the first two or three times I said it, she snapped on me. "STOP TELLING ME I'M FAT! I KNOW I'M FAT! I DON'T NEED YOU POINTING IT OUT!!" It didn't matter that in my eyes she had never looked more beautiful, or that she was SUPPOSED to be gaining weight. Which leads me to my next point...

5. "Pregnancy Brain" is very real.
I know it sounds like some sort of cutesy, media-created term. But it's not. Pregnancy Brain is legit. It starts with everyday occurrences like looking for her glasses while they're on her head, which is kind of adorable. But it soon progresses to things like leaving the basement door open in 5-degree weather and freezing the entire bottom floor of the house while simultaneously leaving us susceptible to a home invasion. And in a fit of irony, I just asked MJ to give me more examples of Pregnancy Brain, but she couldn't -- because she can't remember.

6. Goodbye, sense of humor.
The good news is: she's gained a baby. The bad news? There wasn't enough room for the baby AND her sense of humor. If you're a smart-a** like I am, this is especially troubling, since I show affection by giving people good-natured sh*t. Unfortunately, my pregnant wife does not appreciate my unique brand of humor while carrying our little parasite around in her stomach. The results are often me firing off (what I consider to be) beautiful comedic quips and zingers, which don't just fall on deaf ears -- they fall on potentially homicidal ears. You've been warned.

7. Say goodbye to sex, too.
Listen to me carefully -- you're about to be sexually frustrated. The first trimester is by far the worst. It's when she'll be going through the most changes and feeling the sh*ttiest. It's everything she can do to avoid throwing up every morning (and sometimes at night), so your feeling unloved and "backed up" doesn't really register. So fire up the porn and give yourself a hand, because you're now a sex camel, my friend. The only silver lining is you'll have sex two times during the pregnancy. You have a one- to two-week window when her sex drive returns early in the second trimester. Enjoy that, because it's not happening again until very late in the pregnancy. Right at the end she'll be so desperate to get the baby out of her that she'll use you in the hopes that sex will send her into labor. It's slightly awkward, but after the drought it's a welcome relief -- as long as her water doesn't break right then and there.

8. Yes, her boobs are bigger; no, you can't touch them.
While we're on the topic of sex, let me tell you about one of nature's cruelest tricks. When a woman is carrying a child, it's a beautiful thing. That "pregnant glow" you always hear about is real, and it does wonders for her hair, her fingernails and -- her rack. A becomes C, B becomes D and C becomes Hallelujah Thank You Jesus! They swell up to gargantuan sizes, literally breaking bras at the seams and popping off her chest in a fit of Playboy glory. The only problem is, you're not allowed to touch them. It's like going to the pet store and seeing the cute puppies behind the glass but not being able to pet them. They're adorable and you want to take them home and keep them forever, but if you try to motorboat her puppies she will slap the sh*t out of you. Trust me.

9. Your dick can't hurt the baby.
Let's get this one out of the way right now -- your penis will have no effect on the baby in your wife's womb. Got that? I don't care if you're on par with Ron Jeremy, your dick is not going to scare the kid and it's certainly not going to poke him in the forehead. Not only that, but any suggestion to the contrary will send your pregnant wife into hysterics. And there's nothing more demoralizing than a conversation that involves your penis and hysterical laughter. So I'm told...

10. You will be replaced by pillows.
Did you spend a crap ton of money on a mattress? Some sort of memory foam or pillowtop deal that makes you feel like 1,000 little angels are massaging you as you fall asleep every night? Well, I hope you also spent money on a comfortable couch, because that's likely where you'll be sleeping for a decent part of the pregnancy. And it's not so much because of the increased space your pregnant wife takes up, either. It's the pillows. Yup, that's right. You become increasingly irrelevant as the pregnancy wears on, but the 37 pillows -- including that godforsaken full-body pillow -- become absolutely vital nighttime companions. And when push comes to shove, you're getting the shove to the sofa.

A woman was killed and at least 14 people were injured in two "low-intensity" explosions that took place on Guwahati-Bangalore Express at Chennai Central railway station on Thursday.


Cops and security officials stand near a passenger train in which two explosions occurred, at Chennai railway station.(Reuters photo)

Bomb detection and disposal squad personnel search cargo for explosives on the platform of Bangalore railway station after twin explosions killed one and injured several in Chennai. (AFP photo)

Blood lies splattered at a railway platform close to a passenger train that was ripped by two blasts at Chennai railway station. (AP photo)

Medics treat an injured passenger of a train blast at a hospital in Chennai.(AP photo)

Medics treat an injured passenger of a train blast at a hospital in Chennai.(AP photo)

A member of the bomb disposal squad examines the area next to a passenger train in which two explosions occurred at Chennai railway station. (Reuters photo)

Police and porters stand near the site of a bomb attack at a train station in Chennai. (AFP photo)

Swati (24), an assistant systems engineer at IT firm TCS, in blasts on Guwahati-Bangalore Express in Chennai. (HT photo)

Police and security officials examine the scene of a bomb attack at a train station in Chennai. (AFP photo)

A victim, who was injured in an explosion that occurred in a passenger train, lies in a hospital in Chennai. (Reuters photo)

People crowd at a railway station to get the glimpse of a passenger train in which two explosions occurred, in Chennai. (Reuters photo)

Police and train station workers stand near the site of a bomb attack at a train station in Chennai. (AFP photo)

A victim, who was injured in an explosion that occurred in a passenger train, lies in a hospital in Chennai. (Reuters photo)

A TV grab of the blast site at Chennai Central railway station. (Agencies)

A TV grab of the blast site at Chennai Central railway station. (Agencies)

Chennai railway station

A member of a bomb disposal squad with a sniffer dog examines a passenger train in which two explosions occurred, at Chennai Central railway station. (Reuters photo)

A policeman stands guard next to a passenger train in which two explosions occurred, at the railway station in Chennai. (Reuters photo)

Cops stand guard next to a passenger train in which two explosions occurred at the railway station in Chennai.(Reuters photo)
The Tamil Nadu Police detained a person for questioning. Authorities suspect the blasts were caused by bombs planted on the train, said M Bhupati, spokesperson of Southern Railway.

Condemning the blasts, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said such "barbaric acts" highlight the "desperation and cowardice" of those responsible. He asserted that no efforts would be spared in bringing the perpetrators to justice.

Tamil Nadu chief minister and AIADMK leader J Jayalalithaa ordered a Crime Branch-CID probe, while the opposition DMK slammed the state government over law and order.

The woman killed in the blasts was identified as Swati, a 24-year-old engineer who had recently joined a leading software firm TCS in Bangalore. She was supposed to tie the knot after two months.

The first explosion took place around 10 minutes after the Guwahati-bound train, running one and a half hours late, chugged into platform number nine at Chennai Central around 7am. The second blast was heard within a few seconds.

"They were not major blasts. It is suspected that Chennai was not the target as the train was running late," Tamil Nadu director general of police K Ramanujam said.

Prasanna Darnal, a 20-year-old nursing student on board, said, "It was like a small Diwali bomb going off. There were shrieks and cries of people and everyone was rushing to get out of the train."

Southern Railway general manager Rakesh Misra told reporters the blasts took place in S4 and S5 sleeper coaches.

The injured, including two hurt seriously, were rushed to a state-run hospital, where doctors said they were out of danger.

Hell hath no fury like a man chasing his wife's banana-hammock-wearing boy-toy down the streets of Tijuana.

The hilarious, almost cartoonish YouTube video above -- which made the rounds on Reddit Tuesday -- appears to show just that: A man clad only in a black banana hammock clings to his cowboy hat and runs like the wind, stalked by the alleged cuckolded husband a few steps behind.

The jury's still out if this video is a fake -- as one Redditor pointed out, it seems almost too good to be true. ("If a naked guy came running down the street, I wouldn't have time to think 'Hey, let's introduce this to my YouTube fans' and casually pan round to time the run-by perfectly.")

If it is real, we sure hope our scantily clad cowboy learned his lesson: Don't take a roll in the hay with another dude's wife unless you're prepared to run down the street (nearly) naked and afraid.

Keep in touch! Check out HuffPost Divorce on Facebook and Twitter. Sign up for our newsletter here.

 Unshaken by the latest surge in violence, Iraqis braved the threat of bombs and attacks to vote Wednesday in key elections for a new parliament amid a massive security operation as the country slides deeper into sectarian strife.

Hundreds of thousands of troops and police fanned out to guard voting centers in the first nationwide balloting since the 2011 American pullout. Scattered attacks still took place north of Baghdad, killing at least three people and wounding 16.

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who has held power for eight years, faces growing criticism over government corruption and persistent bloodshed as sectarian tensions threaten to push Iraq back toward the brink of civil war.

The 63-year-old Shiite leader's State of Law party was widely expected to win the most seats in the 328-member parliament but to fall short of a majority. That would allow al-Maliki to keep his post only if he can cobble together a coalition — a task made more difficult given the divisions with former Sunni Arab and Kurdish allies.

Even some of al-Maliki's Shiite backers denounce him as a would-be dictator, amassing power for himself, but most in the majority sect see no alternative. Al-Maliki also has the support of neighboring powerhouse Iran, which aides have said will use its weight to push discontented Shiite factions into backing him for another term.

Polls opened across the energy-rich nation at 7 a.m. (0400 GMT, midnight Tuesday EST) and were to close at 6 p.m. There were 22 million eligible voters, choosing from among some 9,000 candidates.

In central Baghdad, police and army manned checkpoints roughly 500 meters (yards) apart, while pickup trucks with machine-guns perched on top roamed the streets. Much of the city looked deserted without the normal traffic congestion. Most stores were closed.

Voters are being subjected to multiple searches before being allowed inside polling centers and surrounding streets were blocked by police trucks and barbed wire.

"I decided to go and vote early while it's safe. Crowds attract attacks," Azhar Mohammed said as she and her husband approached a polling station in Baghdad's mainly Shiite Karradah district. The 37-year-old woman said her brother — a soldier — was killed last week in the northern city of Mosul.

"There has been a big failure in the way the country has been run and I think it is time to elect new people," she said, shrouded in black.

Not far away, 72-year-old Essam Shukr broke into tears as he remembered a son killed in a suicide bombing in Karradah last month. "I hope this election takes us to the shores of safety," he said. "We want a better life for our sons and grandchildren who cannot even go to playgrounds or amusement parks because of the bad security situation. We want a better life for all Iraqis."

"Sister, Sister" star Tamera Mowry rocks a pink bikini in the new issue of In Touch Weekly, and looks really good doing it.

"It's the first time I’ve been in a bikini since my honeymoon," Mowry, who married Fox news correspondent Adam Housley in 2011, tells In Touch. "I feel great"

She's all smiles in the photo as she poses with her 1-year-old son Aden.

Mowry, 35, who says she's now 127 pounds, has been following her own healthy schedule, explaining that she wanted to enjoy being a new mom, first and foremost. After she stopped nursing Aden when he was seven months old, she cut 500 calories from her 1,700-calorie-a-day breastfeeding diet and started working out five days a week.

"I wanted to spend time bonding with my baby, not killing myself at the gym," she tells In Touch.

Check out Tamera's bikini body below and pick up the new issue of In Touch Weekly, on newsstands now.

With a single finger, Jennifer Lawrence let her true feelings for the paparazzi be known.

The "Hunger Games" star stepped out for dinner with Tom Ford and boyfriend Nicholas Hoult at the Chilton Firehouse in London on Thursday night, April 24. Afterwards, photographers surrounded them as they made their way from the restaurant into a waiting cab.

Lawrence was having none of it and flipped the paparazzi the middle finger from the backseat of the cab as it pulled away. Hoult seemingly attempted to get her to put her hand down, but Lawrence's message was loud and clear.

Danica McKellar broke a rib Thursday, April 24, while rehearsing for "Dancing with the Stars." The former "Wonder Years" actress tweeted to her over 90,000 Twitter followers:

Hopefully, she and dance partner Val Chmerkovskiy can come up with a way to pull through together before Monday night's episode.

McKellar is hardly the first "DWTS" contestant to get injured in a dancing-related accident. Last year, Bill Nye, The Science Guy, hurt his knee on the show. He uploaded a picture to Instagram at the time. Nye wrote, "Here is the scoop: partially torn ligament. Awaiting the doc's orders with Tyne. We plan to dance! Stand by..."

The year before, 2012, opera singer Katherine Jenkins hurt her back dancing. "Thank you for all your concerned tweets... I'm with the Doctor, he says it was a reflectorical spasm in my lower back," she tweeted after the show. She later went on to become runner-up in the season finale.

In 2011, "DWTS" pro Kym Johnson injured her neck while practicing with dance partner Hines Ward. Despite the scary looking injury, the show released a statement saying that after several tests, Kym was cleared by the medical staff, though "bruised, sore" and "wearing a neck brace." She went on to win that year's competition.

The above is a contemporary-styled video complete with gyrating dancers who would seem more at home on MTV, dancing with Miley Cyrus, than in a clip set to Antonín Dvořák's Symphony No. 9.

And the group behind the video, a Belgian classical music festival called "B-Classic," says that's the whole point. The group is hoping this video, which it's calling "the first modern music video for a classical composer," can spark renewed youth interest in classical music.

"B-Classic wants to give classical music the same recognition as pop and rock music," an explanation on the group's website reads. "That's why we are proud to announce The Classical Comeback: a new music video format that combines the timeless emotion of classical music with the visual talent of a contemporary director."

Watch the clip above, and view a short documentary on the classical music video below:

A decades-old urban legend was put to rest Saturday when workers for a documentary film production company recovered "E.T." Atari game cartridges from a heap of garbage buried deep in the New Mexico desert.

The "Atari grave" was, until that moment, a highly debated tale among gaming enthusiasts and other self-described geeks for 30 years. The story claimed that in its death throes, the video game company sent about a dozen truckloads of cartridges of what many call the worst video game ever to be forever hidden in a concrete-covered landfill in southeastern New Mexico.

The search for the cartridges of a game that contributed to the demise of Atari will be featured in an upcoming documentary about the biggest video game company of the early '80s.

As a backhoe scattered a huge scoop of 30-year-old trash and dirt over the sand, the film crew spotted boxes and booklets carrying the Atari logo. Soon after, a game cartridge turned up, then another and another.

Film director Zak Penn showed assembled gaming fans one cartridge retrieved from the site and said that hundreds more were in the surrounding mounds of garbage.

About 200 residents and game enthusiasts gathered early Saturday at the old landfill in Alamogordo to watch crews search for up to a million discarded copies of "E.T. The Extraterrestrial" that the game's maker wanted to hide forever.

"I feel pretty relieved and psyched that they actually got to see something," Penn said as members of the production team sifted through the mounds of trash, pulling out boxes, games and other Atari products.

Most of the crowd left the landfill before the discovery, turned away by strong winds that kicked up massive clouds of dust mingled with garbage.

By the time the games were found, only a few dozen people remained. Some were playing the infamous game in a makeshift gaming den with a TV and an 1980s game console in the back of a van, while others took selfies beside a life-size E.T. doll inside a DeLorean car like the one that was turned into a time machine in the "Back To The Future" movies.

Among the watchers was Armando Ortega, a city official who as a teenager back in 1983 got a tip from a landfill employee about the massive dump of games.

Apple has offered to replace faulty on-off buttons on the iPhone 5, a rare glitch which it admitted affected “a small percentage” of the previous-generation smartphones.

Apple said on its user-support page that “iPhone 5 models manufactured through March 2013 may be affected by this issue,” in which the button, also known as a sleep/wake mechanism, stops functioning or works only intermittently.

 It did not say how many phones were shipped with the faulty mechanism. Owners can type in their iPhone serial numbers on Apple’s website to see if their phones qualify for a fix, then either take their gadgets to a store or mail them in to be repaired.
“Apple will offer the service free of charge to iPhone 5 customers with models that exhibit this issue and have a qualifying serial number,” spokeswoman Teresa Brewer said in a statement on Friday.

 Apple rarely initiates large-scale repair programs for its products, and iPhone glitches are rare. The company prides itself on hardware engineering and design, particularly for a flagship phone that yields more than half its revenue.

In a 2010 incident dubbed “Antennagate,” the company famously admitted that its iPhone 4 may experience signal loss when handled a certain way. The company subsequently offered free phone casings to correct the issue.

Apple began selling the iPhone 5S and the cheaper 5C in late 2013. In the first quarter, it moved a better-than-expected 43.7 million phones, helped by the gadget’s increasing popularity in markets like Japan and China.

Microsoft has officially announced it has completed its acquisition of the Nokia Devices and Services business. The takeover has been approved by Nokia shareholders and by governmental regulatory agencies around the world and arrives right on schedule, as announced earlier this week.

 As part of the transaction, Microsoft will honour all existing Nokia customer warranties, beginning April 25, 2014. Approximately 25,000 employees will be transferring to Microsoft from around the world.

 “Today we welcome the Nokia Devices and Services business to our family. The mobile capabilities and assets they bring will advance our transformation,” said Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. “Together with our partners, we remain focused on delivering innovation more rapidly in our mobile-first, cloud-first world.”

Former Nokia President and CEO Stephen Elop will directly report to Nadella and will serve as executive VP of the Microsoft Devices Group, overseeing development and progress of the Lumia range and other Nokia phones, Xbox hardware, Surface PCs and Perceptive Pixel (PPI) products.

 Microsoft says in a press statement that Windows Phone is the fastest-growing ecosystem in the smartphone market. “Furthermore, with the Nokia mobile phone business, Microsoft will target the affordable mobile devices market, a $50 billion annual opportunity, and delivering the first mobile experience to the next billion people while introducing Microsoft services to new customers around the world.”


The statement also confirms that Nokia as a brand will become largely irrelevant when it comes to handsets. Microsoft says Microsoft Mobile Oy develops, manufactures and distributes Lumia, Asha and Nokia X mobile phones and other devices, with no mention of the Nokia brand in the statement when talking about what Microsoft constitutes.


Microsoft also reiterated that it will not acquire Nokia factories in Masan, South Korea, and Chennai. The latter will stay with Nokia due to the ongoing tax row in India that prevented the transfer.

The Versova police on Friday arrested actor Inder Kumar on charges of raping and physically assaulting a 23-year-old woman.

Kumar has worked in several movies, including Masoom, Khiladiyon ka Khiladi, Wanted, and Tumko Na Bhul Payenge. The victim has been sent for medical tests and the police are waiting for the results.

Kumar lives in a rented apartment in Shanti Niketan building in Seven Bungalows, Andheri (West), with his wife Pallavi. His mother-in-law and brother-in-law too live in the same society.

"Kumar and his wife used to frequently fight as he would come home drunk. Earlier this week, Pallavi went to stay with her mother," an officer said. "Kumar and his wife had a major argument last Thursday. Pallavi even lodged a complaint against Kumar at the Versova police station that day." In her complaint, she said she suspected Kumar of having an affair with a model.

Kumar and the model were called to the police station. "We sorted out the matter within an hour and they went back to their homes," the officer said.

The model, in her statement to the police, said that the same evening Kumar called her to his residence and allegedly assaulted her with a broken beer bottle. She alleged that Kumar forcibly kept her in his house for two days while his wife was staying with her mother.

"Based on her allegations, we have arrested Kumar. We are verifying the facts and are waiting for the medical reports," Milind Bharambe, additional commissioner of police (west region), said.

The police have charged Kumar under sections 376 (rape), 324 (causing grievous hurt), 325 (punishment for voluntarily causing grievous hurt) and 506 (2) (criminal intimidation) of the IPC.

A society member said Kumar often fought with his family members. "Society members warned him on several occasions but he refused to change. Recently, the society asked him to vacate his flat within 15 days."

"Frozen" has broken another box office record, becoming the sixth highest-grossing movie of all time. The Disney movie has raked in $1.129 billion worldwide. It recently surpassed "Transformers: Dark Of The Moon" and was the second highest-grossing movie of 2013, coming in just behind "Iron Man 3," the fifth highest-grossing movie of all time.

"Frozen" has already shattered a handful of box-office records. In March, it became the highest-grossing animated film in history, beating out "Toy Story 2," "Monsters Inc.," "Toy Story 3" and "Aladdin." It also broke a Disney record by banking $93.9 million over the five-day holiday Thanksgiving weekend and demolished records in South Korea when it made over $75 million there in early March.

"Frozen" also won out over "Ice Age 4" to become the highest-grossing animated film of all time overseas. Its best market so far has been Japan, which is surprising because the country's anime films usually reign supreme. But "Frozen" earned $104.1 million there, making Japan the film's most popular country outside the U.S.

Let's not even get started on the "Frozen" soundtrack, which has sold 2.1 million copies in the U.S. according to Nielsen SoundScan. The "Frozen" reign continues!

On Wednesday, April 23, "13 Going On 30" turns 10 years old. In honor of the reverse-coming-of-age time travel romcom (and all 13 year olds now going on 23), we have spliced Jennifer Garner's recreation of "Thriller" into 11 easy steps. Without further adieu, please let her teach you how to dance, nay, how to live via the GIF-ed cuts of the sequence below.
Step 1: Turn to the side and take four steps forward and four steps back, starting with your right foot first. Bob your head on beats one, three, and four, and be sure to shake your butt.
Step 2: Turn your waist to the front, and push your arms forward and back, with your hands in the shape of claws (like a monster!). Do this two times.

Step 3: Be really enthusiastic, to make sure even the most basic individuals get involved.

Step 4: Spin around, bend your arms at the hips and pull them back and forth twice, with your hands in a "thumbs up" position. Turn in the opposite direction and repeat.

Step 5: Stand straight and take two hops forward, then bend down and pop up, while flashing an exuberant smile.

Step 6: Shift your shoulders left to right. Hold your arms up and clap your hands together.

Step 7: Bring your arms down and drag your feet to the right. Repeat on the left.

Step 8: With your claws up, take three steps to the right. Repeat on the left.

Popular messaging app WhatsApp has now crossed 500 million users. The company which was bought by Facebook in February this year  - for a gigantic amount of $19 billion – has been steadily adding to its growing list of users.

Last year in August, WhatsApp had 200 million users while the number doubled to 430 million in January 2014. The instant messaging app had also revealed that it processes 50 billion messages on an average every day.

Jan Koum, co-founder of WhatsApp says in a post on company’s blog, “In the last few months, we’ve grown fastest in countries like Brazil, India, Mexico, and Russia, and our users are also sharing more than 700 million photos and 100 million videos every single day.”

The post further clarifies that these 500 million people are not only registered members but also active users. The new milestone for the messaging app explains why Mark Zuckerberg was interested in buying it.

As far as India is concerned, it remains one of the fastest growing markets for WhatsApp. WhatsApp’s Neeraj Arora told BGR India that it’s adding a whopping 4 million active users per month and the India user base is set to cross 50 million mark in May, constituting 10 percent of all users. Currently the report says the service has 48 million active users in the country.

The deal between WhatsApp and Facebook has come under scrutiny for privacy issues. One of the major reasons users are worried about this acquisition is they fear WhatsApp could lose its ad-free messaging service.

The recent WhatsApp outages have only fuelled the fear that it might not be ad-free service for longer. Jan Koum put to rest these fears by releasing an official statement that reads, “WhatsApp will remain autonomous and operate independently. You can continue to enjoy the service for a nominal fee. You can continue to use WhatsApp no matter where in the world you are, or what smartphone you’re using. And you can still count on absolutely no ads interrupting your communication.”

As expected by Mark Zuckerberg, the app seems to be well on track to achieve the billion users mark.

The going is great for Priyanka Chopra who is out with her third solo I Can't Make You Love Me, which made it to the No 3 spot on iTunes India in less than 24 hours. (Also read: Priyanka's latest single was launched in New York)

After the success of In My City featuring will.i.am and Exotic featuring Pitbull, Priyanka has nailed it with her third song I Can't Make You Love Me. It is a unique cover of the Bonnie Raitt's 1991 song that made it to Rolling Stone magazine's 500 greatest songs of all-time list.
"My cover of I Can't Make You Love Me is really different because the original is a ballad and we have used dance music for my version of the song. Watch out for the video," Priyanka, who launched the new track on April 22, said in a statement. (Also read: Priyanka found every scene of Mary Kom inspiring)

Her rendition of the song is already on its way to making waves on the international music scene.

Australian musician Iggy Azalea stopped by New York City radio station Hot 97 on Tuesday, April 22, and told a disturbing story that explains why she had stopped crowd surfing at her shows. Apparently, her fans think it's fair game to sexually assault the rapper and try to slip their fingers into her body during the concerts.

Alarming and unsettling as it is, Azalea, 23, talked about it with a straight face and an upfront attitude. "I will get lurk tweets for like a week before my show, like 'I'm about to go to the Iggy Azalea show and I'm going to finger her,' and I'll see it and be like, please don't!," she said. "That's a violation. I don't actually like that stuff."

"Like, they think I'm real slutty, like 'Oh, she got a song called 'Pu$$y,' I know what she wants. She wants these two fingers.' Why would I want a stranger to ever finger me?" Azalea said. "Buying my album for $12 doesn't mean you get to finger me when I come to your city."

Not only do men have issues with boundaries, but women do, too. "Girls think it's cool ... doesn't make it okay," she said.

As a precaution, she now wears three layers under her pants -- two pairs of underwear and skin-colored tights, as a "protective barrier."

Polling began Thursday morning for 12 Lok Sabha seats in the third phase of Lok Sabha elections in Uttar Pradesh to decide the political future of 188 candidates, including SP supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav and Union Minister Salman Khurshid.

"The polling has started at 7 am and will continue till 6 pm. The polling has started on a peaceful note," Chief Electoral Officer Umesh Sinha said.

The 12 constituencies where polling is going on include: Hathras, Mathura, Agra, Fatehpur Sikri, Firozabad, Mainpuri, Etah, Hardoi, Farukhabad, Etawah, Kannauj and Akbarpur.

The electoral fortunes of 188 candidates, including 20 women contestants, will be decided by 2.03 crore electorate. The EC has put up 21,990 polling centres and deployed 1.09 lakh employees for the voting exercise.

While maximum number of 28 candidates are in fray from Fatehpur Sikri, only nine candidates are contesting in Hathras.

The focus will on the Yadav family as the SP chief is fighting to retain his traditional Mainpuri seat while his daughter-in-law Dimple Yadav would be facing a challenge to retain Kannauj.

Mulayam's nephew and son of SP national general secretary Ram Gopal, Akshay Yadav is in the electoral fray for the first time from Firozabad.

Two more political families that of former Prime Minister Chaudhary Charan Singh and BJP leader and former UP chief minister Kalyan Singh are also set to test their hold in their respective areas.

In the Mathura seat, Hema Malini banking on the 'Modi wave' is pitted against Jayant Chaudhary, grandson of Chaudhary Charan Singh and son of RLD chief Ajit Singh.

Once considered a key person in SP, Amar Singh has entered the electoral battle for the first time from Fatehpur. He is contesting on RLD ticket with the support of Congress.

Though Kalyan Singh is not in fray this time from Etah, his son Rajveer's future is at stake in the same seat. Last time Kalyan won from Etah seat as an independent candidate.

In Farukkhabad, Union Minister Khurshid is faced with the challenge of retaining his seat.

BJP and BSP are contesting on all 12 seats, whereas Congress has not fielded candidates against Mulayam and Dimple.

Michelle Keegan has had to apologise to fans for ignoring them when they came to meet her outside the 'Corrie' studios, claiming she was wearing stage makeup that would give away her 'Coronation Street' exit storyline.

It was announced in late 2013 that Michelle’s character Tina McIntyre was to leave the soap later this year in a dramatic “whodunnit?” storyline.

Her exit from the soap has been shrouded in secrecy ever since to avoid revealing which ‘Corrie’ resident is behind Tina’s murder.

When one fan tweeted on Tuesday that she was disappointed to have not been able to meet the actress after travelling down to see her, Michelle quickly apologised, claiming she wasn’t allowed to greet fans because of her stage makeup.

It was recently reported that following her last ever day of filming on Thursday, Michelle would be throwing a chav-themed party for the cast and crew of ‘Corrie’, as a tribute to her character, before she moves to the south to live with her fiancé Mark Wright.
The former 'TOWIE' star was on set with Michelle earlier this month, supporting her as she filmed what he tweeted were her “final scenes” as Tina McIntyre.

Michelle first joined the soap in 2008 as David Platt’s girlfriend. She’s since been involved in a number of dramatic and hard-hitting storylines including the death of her father, an on-off relationship with Chris Fountain’s character Tommy Duckworth and a surrogate pregnancy.

Her character Tina is currently embroiled in an affair with married Peter Barlow, and recently revealed that she thinks she might be pregnant with his baby.

Lady Gaga celebrated her 28th birthday with an energetic but short concert at the Roseland Ballroom in her first of seven concerts at the closing venue.

Gaga performed for an hour Friday night in front of a feverish crowd. She started with a slow version of "Born This Way" on piano, with the audience joining in. She followed that with the jams "Monster" and "Bad Romance." She danced and sang on the side of the stage in a red tight leotard.

"Thank you so much for spending my birthday with me," she yelled to the audience, which included her actor-boyfriend Taylor Kinney and Nate Ruess, lead singer for the band Fun.

Gaga was in top form as she sang nearly a dozen of her songs, including "Just Dance," an acoustic version of "Poker Face," and the recent hit "Applause." The concert's main surprise: It was too short. After she ended, fans waited for the pop star to hit the stage again. She never did.

She performed some tracks from her recent album, "ARTPOP," which has struggled to match the success of her other releases. But onstage, she showed no signs of slowing down.
Gaga closed with the new single, "G.U.Y.," now wearing an all-white ensemble (her sixth costume change for the night).

"Thanks for making this the best birthday ever," she said.

The New York-born singer will perform six more shows at the Roseland Ballroom, helping close the famed venue that opened eight decades ago. Performers in the past have included The Rolling Stones, Madonna and Beyonce, who famously performed four shows in 2011 when she was pregnant.

"How many New Yorkers are in here tonight?" Gaga asked early in the show. "Do you believe in love? Do you?"

The Grammy winner kept the concert tame compared to her showcase at the South by Southwest festival this month, which featured a performance artist vomiting paint on her. She thanked her fans a number of times in between songs.

"When I woke up this morning I was so happy," she said. "I couldn't wait to get here tonight. I have so many friends here ... so many fans I've grown up with for six whole years, seven whole years."

When a dog became stranded in a canal in Romania, some passersby jumped in to pull the soaking wet pup from the icy water. But it's what happens after the dog was freed that makes the recorded rescue so remarkable.

In a video, posted on YouTube this week, several men pull the dog to safety by the scruff of its neck -- something canine mothers often do to their pups to carry them. After the dog is freed, it appears to act as most humans would and shows its gratitude to the rescuers by showering them with nuzzles and licks.
Whether dogs are capable of showing emotions like humans has been a recurrent topic in scientific studies (though most pet owners would probably agree that dogs are capable of showing a wide range of emotions.)

In October, a professor of neuroeconomics published an editorial following two years of research on the human-canine connection with the conclusion: "Dogs are people, too." More recently, another study indicated that, within the brain, dogs process voices and emotions just like humans.

So while this rescued dog may just be excited to be back on dry land, we're inclined to believe it's grateful for the assist.

Jimmy Kimmel seems to think so. He tweeted this selfie — featuring Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton — to his 3.76 million followers on Saturday night:

Five and a half years after leaving Hugh Hefner and Playboy behind, Holly Madison finally ditched her bleach blonde hair for something a bit more appropriate for her newfound motherhood.
Trouble is, the former reality star can't seem to pick a color she likes and we aren't too thrilled with the newest results.

The former The Girls Next Door centerpiece debuted her ginger locks on March 13th on a red carpet in Las Vegas.
Unfortunately, she must have wanted something a bit more vibrant and darkened the color just before her most recent appearance celebrating a brand new cupcake ATM yesterday.
I'm not sure about you, but I much prefer the lighter version to the darker. It seems a lot more natural and is just prettier.

And from one ginger to another, Holly better make sure to have those hair appointments scheduled in advance. Red may be stunning, but it is a bitch to keep up with once you start washing it.

About five years ago, Lady Gaga burst into mega fame with the force of a shooting star (that insisted on wearing raw meat to red carpet events). But with her latest performance largely spotlighting vomit as performance art, it's all too easy to forget the moment when Gaga first rose into public consciousness, accessorized by Muppets and often compared to Madonna.

So, what happened? In just about five years, Gaga reached an unprecedented echelon of pop stardom, only to lose her mystery to such an extent that puke-for-attention seems almost standard. (She was puked on, it should be noted, by vomit painter Millie Brown.) In hopes of mapping the trajectory from fledgling stardom to bile desperation, we've tracked the rise and fall of Gaga's monstrous brand of celebrity.

Feb. 20, 2007 - Appearing in public for perhaps the last time as the human who once resembled Stefani Germanotta, Gaga attends the "Who's Next? Writers on the Rise" event in New York City.

May 19, 2008 - Gaga introduces her eclectic sartorial choices to the world at the NewNowNext Award, walking the carpet as a pirate from a future in which there is no cure for glaucoma.
Aug. 19, 2008 - Gaga releases "The Fame" and it eventually goes platinum, selling over 10 million digital singles and quickly making her what Rolling Stone would later call "the defining pop star of 2009." The Top-40 quickly becomes 20 percent just Gaga.

Jan. 20, 2009 - In an interview with The Guardian, Lady Gaga tells Laura Barton that she has "felt famous [her] whole life." Her confidence in place of feigned surprise over her success is refreshing.

May 11, 2009 - During a spot on "Ellen," Gaga begins her foray into absurd hats with "The Orbit," succeeds in confounding both Ellen and America.

Sept. 13, 2009 - One of Gaga's five generally outrageous outfits at the VMAs includes a red lace bridal headdress that is basically what would have happened if Carrie ever got married.

It's not like "Divergent" fans had any real reason to worry about their franchise getting a sequel, seeing as Veronica Roth's books are a trilogy and Lionsgate had a follow-up planned all along. But just in case anyone was uncertain, Lionsgate subsidiary Summit Entertainment has officially given "Insurgent" the green light.

Really, though, we had nothing to fret over. The Shailene Woodley-fronted dystopian flick opened to an impressive $4.9 million following Thursday night's screenings. While the movie is no longer poised to be more lucrative than the first "Twilight" installment, it's still generated an endless cycle of buzz in recent months and could accrue between $50 and $60 million this weekend.
“We're off to a great start with strong numbers from all regions of the country, urban, suburban and rural alike,” Lionsgate CEO Jon Feltheimer said in a statement. ”We're confident that ‘Divergent' is on its way to becoming another important franchise for us, and we have just greenlit the second film, ‘Insurgent.'”

As previously announced, "Divergent" director Neil Burger won't return for the sequel, having turned down the offer for "practical reasons" concerning his shooting schedule. Instead, Robert Schwentke ("The Time Traveler's Wife," "R.I.P.D.") will take over. "Insurgent" is eyeing a March 2015 release, and Woodley and co-star Theo James are already on board to return.

If the movies stick to that schedule, the third installment, “Allegiant,” will arrive in March 2016

Ankhon Dekhi is a delicate and delightful film about invisible people — those ordinary folk you pass on the street but rarely pay attention to. Writer-director Rajat Kapoor finds beauty and richness in their lives.

He constructs a keenly observed portrait of a lower-middle class family in Delhi, how the centre slowly frays and falls apart. But the film ends on a note that is beguiling and entirely apt for a director whose gurus are Kumar Shahani and Mani Kaul.
Ankhon Dekhi centres around Raje Bauji, played by Sanjay Mishra who, after a dramatic incident, decides that he will only believe what he sees with his eyes.This leads to a series of bewildering situations, including Raje Bauji at the zoo, goading a tiger to roar so he can confirm that tigers roar.


The performances by Sanjay and Seema Pahwa, who plays his harassed wife, are wonderful. Rajat, who also plays a pivotal role in the film, tells their story with tenderness and affection. Sadly, the narrative meanders in the second half — the plot becomes increasingly random and farfetched. But eventually, the strands come together with such a heave of emotion that I found myself wiping away tears. 

China said on Saturday it had a new satellite image of what could be wreckage from a missing Malaysian airliner, as more planes and ships headed to join an international search operation scouring some of the remotest seas on Earth.
The latest possible lead came as the search for Malaysian Airlines Flight MH370 entered its third week, with still no confirmed trace found of the Boeing 777 or the 239 people on board.

The new potential sighting was dramatically announced by Malaysia's acting transport minister, Hishammuddin Hussein, after he was handed a note with details during a news conference in Kuala Lumpur, scooping the official announcement from China.

"Chinese ships have been dispatched to the area," Hishammuddin told reporters. China said the object was 74 feet long and 43 feet wide, and spotted around 75 miles "south by west" of potential debris reported by Australia off its west coast in the forbidding waters of the southern Indian Ocean.

The image was captured by the high-definition Earth observation satellite "Gaofen-1" early on March 18, two days after the Australian satellite picture was taken, China's State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense (SASTIND) said on its website.

It could not easily be determined from the blurred images whether the objects were the same, but the Chinese photograph could depict a cluster of smaller objects, a senior military officer from one of the 26 nations involved in the search for the plane said.
The wing of a Boeing 777-200ER is approximately 27 metres long and 14 metres wide at its base, according to estimates derived from publicly available scale drawings. Its fuselage is 63.7 meters long by 6.2 meters wide.

Flight MH370 vanished from civilian radar screens early on March 8, less than an hour after taking off from Kuala Lumpur on a scheduled flight to Beijing.

Investigators believe someone on board shut off the plane's communications systems, and partial military radar tracking showed it turning west and re-crossing the Malay Peninsula, apparently under the control of a skilled pilot.

That has led them to focus on hijacking or sabotage, but they have not ruled out technical problems.

Since Australia announced the first image of what could be parts of the aircraft on Thursday, the international search for the plane has focused on an expanse of ocean more than 2,000 km (1,200 miles) southwest of Perth.

The Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) said one of its aircraft reported sighting a number of "small objects" with the naked eye, including a wooden pallet, within a radius of 5 km.

A Royal New Zealand Air Force P-3 Orion aircraft took a closer look but only reported seeing clumps of seaweed. It dropped a marker buoy to track the movement.

"A merchant ship in the area has been tasked to relocate and seek to identify the material," AMSA said in a statement.

The search area experienced good weather conditions on Saturday with visibility of around 10 km and moderate seas.

Australia, which is coordinating the rescue, has cautioned the objects in the satellite image might be a lost shipping container or other debris, and may have sunk since the picture was taken.

"Even though this is not a definite lead, it is probably more solid than any other lead around the world and that is why so much effort and interest is being put into this search," Deputy Prime Minister Warren Truss told reporters, before latest Chinese image was reported.

In yet another setback to Finnish handset maker Nokia , the Tamil Nadu government has slapped on it a Rs. 2,400 crore tax demand notice related to the devices sold from its Chennai factory.
   
Nokia, which as part of its deal with the US-based software giant Microsoft has to transfer its Indian assets including the Chennai factory by March-end, on Friday approached the Madras High Court challenging claims made by the Tamil Nadu government.
   
The development comes within a week of the Supreme Court refusing to lift restraint on sale of its Indian assets in a separate case related to payment of tax dues.
   
Tamil Nadu government's Commercial Taxes Department (VAT) have assessed sales tax on the devices sold from the firm's Chennai manufacturing facility.
   
According to sources, the government has claimed that the company is selling mobile phones in the domestic market instead of exporting them.
   They said the state government has sent a tax demand notice of about Rs. 2,400 crore to the company in relation to this issue.
   
"Nokia has today filed a writ to the Madras High Court to contest a claim from the Tamil Nadu tax department, which has moved to assess sales tax on the export of devices from the company's Chennai facility," the company said in a statement.
   
Nokia considers the claim to be completely without merit and counter to domestic tax laws, it added.
   
"Nokia will defend itself vigorously in this matter. It is absurd that the Tamil Nadu tax authority is now claiming that devices made in Chennai were not exported and were instead sold domestically in India.
   
"We contend that this allegation has no basis in reality whatsoever; it could easily be rebuffed by a check of documentation provided to various governmental departments including Customs," the company said.
   
In India, exports are by law exempt from tax and Nokia has proved consistently that devices produced at Chennai are exported abroad, it added.
   
Nokia further said, "Indeed, the company has been regularly assessed and audited by the tax authorities since 2006 without incident, and it has also won numerous export awards from governmental organisations."

Mind you, I've never actually been to a strip club. But I had imagined a dark, dingy place where men slink in and out with their eyes averted, afraid they might run into their wives' Pilates instructor (or something like that). Armed with two female friends and more than a few whiskey gingers, I walked into Headquarters Gentlemen's Club to watch Belle Knox's debut stripping performance on Tuesday night with a tote bag full of gym clothes and a grandpa sweater on. Let's just say the bouncers seemed more than a bit perplexed.

When Belle Knox, sex worker and all-around badass feminist, came out as the Duke porn star last month, I immediately went into full-support mode. Knox is refreshingly articulate and steadfast about her beliefs -- especially impressive given that she's only 18. As a sex-positive feminist, I support Belle's choice to work in porn and completely respect her ambition to succeed in her career. So when I got the chance to attend her stripping debut at a New York City gentlemen's club I decided to take it, because frankly, I was curious.
After bee-lining to the bar, my coworkers and I found prime viewing spots directly in front of the stage. There was a swarm of journalists in the club and some poor, unsuspecting (non-journalist) men huddled away from the flashing camera lights. And while we may not have been getting the truest strip club experience, given the bizarre media circus, there was no ignoring the naked and gyrating women strutting around the room.

Our small entourage slowly acclimated to our surroundings as we gossiped and watched Knox's many opening acts come and go from the stage. During the three-hour show (I swear, this was for work), our conversation slowly evolved. We started out nervously giggling, quickly realized this was disrespectful, and attempted to pay attention to the dancers onstage.

Staring at these women exposing themselves for the pleasure of the audience, me and my two heterosexual female companions began to pick apart each performer's body: "Oh my gosh, she is absolutely gorgeous!" "Her boobs are totally fake." "C'mon, I could do a better job than her."

After two hours of standing next to flashing lenses, eager reporters and a dude who actually asked if I worked there, Belle took the stage. With a small army of cameras trailing her, the 18-year-old star made her entrance to none other than Joan Jett's "Bad Reputation."