Shattered after the close 1-2 loss against arch-rivals Pakistan, Indian men’s hockey team will have to regroup themselves quickly and eye atleast a draw in their last crucial Pool B fixture against China in Incheon on Saturday, to qualify for the semifinals of the 17th Asian Games.

After dishing out an insipid display, both in attack and defence, against Pakistan on Thursday, The Sardar Singh-led side will need to tighten their belt and come up with a much more convincing display against China.

A draw on Saturday would be enough for India to seal their semifinal berth as the second best team from Pool B as they enjoy a better goal difference than the Chinese.

India, thanks to their superior goal difference of plus 17, are lying second in the pool ahead of their crunch game against China which they have to win or draw to ensure their berth in the last four.

But if they manage to qualify, it won’t be easy for India in the semifinals as they clash against hosts and four-time champions South Korea, who will end up in the top spot in Pool A.

The danger of going in with a defensive mind-set to force a draw in the match might just backfire for the Indians which was the reason for chief coach Terry Walsh to say that his wards needed to win the game against China after the defeat against eight-time champions Pakistan.
While the Indian forward-line functioned disjointedly against the skilful Pakistanis with hardly any support from the midfield, besides missing a few gilt-edge chances.

The Indian defence was also panicked whenever the rivals attacked deep into their area.

India hardly produced a defence-splitting pass during the entire duration of the game and failed to stitch together enough number of passes to break through the determined Pakistan defense.

Surprisingly, even the ever dependable Sardar Singh did not have a great match as he was called upon more to bolster the fumbling defence and, as a result, could not control the midfield as he does.

Roving forward Akashdeep Singh and Ramandeep Singh were guilty of not grabbing the chances that came their way which cost India dear.

Even though India are above China in world ranking, it would be a mistake to take them tomorrow and Walsh also warned his wards not to be complacent.

“We have a very big game coming up against China tomorrow and we have to win that match to reach the semifinals. It’s not going to be an easy game as China are a tough team to beat,” said the former Australia forward.

China and India have both come to this stage after winning by big margins against minnows Sri Lanka, back in Asiad fray after 32 years, and Oman and losing to Pakistan.

Sierra Leone on Thursday took the dramatic step of sealing off districts where more than 1 million people live as it and other West African countries struggle to control the Ebola outbreak that has claimed thousands of lives.

With three new districts under quarantine, about one-third of Sierra Leone's 6 million people are now living in areas where their movements are heavily restricted. In parts of Sierra Leone and in neighboring Liberia where these cordons have been used in this outbreak, food prices have soared, some markets have shut and the delivery of goods has slowed.

"There is a desperate need to step up our response to this dreaded disease," the Sierra Leone government said. "The prognosis is that without additional interventions or changes in community behavior, the numbers will increase exponentially and the situation will rapidly deteriorate."

President Barack Obama warned a meeting at the United Nations on Thursday that the world is not doing enough to stop the outbreak, saying there is "a significant gap between where we are and where we need to be."

The Ebola outbreak, the world's largest ever, has hit Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea hardest and is believed to have sickened more than 6,200 people. Senegal and Nigeria have also had Ebola cases, but it appears the disease has been contained in those countries.
U.S. health officials warn that the number of infected people could explode to 1.4 million by mid-January, adding that the outbreak could peak well below that if efforts to control the outbreak are ramped up.

The outbreak's unprecedented scale and geographic spread have pushed governments to impose severe measures like the cordons, but the disease has continued to overwhelm efforts to contain it.

In an address to Sierra Leone on Wednesday night, President Ernest Bai Koroma put Port Loko, Bombali, and Moyamba districts under isolation with immediate effect, allowing only people delivering essential services to enter and circulate within these areas. The restrictions will remain in place until the chain of transmission is broken, officials said.

In other parts of Sierra Leone, including the capital, Freetown, homes will be put under quarantine when cases are identified, according to a government statement. Security forces surrounded a house in a Freetown slum on Wednesday, quarantining residents inside, after a popular herbalist who lived there died from Ebola. The forces will ensure that no one leaves or enters until it's clear that no one else in the house has been infected.

India Wednesday created space history by becoming the first country in the world to enter Mars' orbit in its debut attempt. A beaming Prime Minister Narendra Modi, wearing a red jacket symbolic of the Red Planet, described it as "achieving the near impossible", congratulated the feat of Indian scientists and called for challenging the next frontier.

India's Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) traversed over 650 million km through deep space for over nine months to successfully reach the planet's orbit. The US, Europe and Russia had failed in their first attempts.

"The spacecraft (Orbiter) successfully entered the Martian orbit at 7.55 a.m. and is located at about 515 km from its surface...," a senior space official told IANS at the mission control centre here.

Radars at the earth stations of NASA at Goldstone in the US, Madrid in Spain, Canberra in Australia and India's own deep space network at Baylalu near Bangalore received the radio signals from the Orbiter, confirming its insertion into the Mars orbit.

Modi, who witnessed the event from an Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) facility in Bangalore, said that the successful Mars mission "must become a base for challenging the next frontier".

The success "will go down as landmark in history", said a visibly delighted Modi.

India's Mars mission is "a shining symbol of what we are capable of as a nation" and we have gone beyond boundaries of human enterprise and imagination, he added.

The 475 kg (dry mass) Orbiter will take 77 hours or 3.2 earth days to rotate around the red planet over the next six months and will study its surface and mineral composition and scan its atmosphere for methane gas in search of life-sustaining elements.

The prime minister said that the MOM was built "indigenously, in a pan-Indian effort".

"With today's spectacular success, ISRO joins an elite group of only three other agencies worldwide to have successfully reached the Red Planet," he added amidst applause.

Modi, who spoke in English and Hindi, said that the "odds were stacked against us".

"Of the 51 missions attempted across the world so far, a mere 21 had succeeded. But we have prevailed...Travelling an incredible distance, of over 650 million or 65 crore km, we have gone beyond boundaries of human enterprise and imagination."
Indians, including those living abroad, were elated and many took to Facebook and Twitter saying "mission accomplished".

#Mangalyaan #MissionMars #proudindian were some of the top trending topics on Twitter and Facebook since Wednesday morning.

The success of the Mars mission has made India join the elite club of the US, Europe and Russia, which reached the second smallest planet of our solar system after initial failures.

The state-run ISRO became the fourth international space agency after National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) of the US, Russian Federal Space Agency (RFSA) and European Space Agency to have undertaken successful missions to Mars.

India also became the first Asian country to have entered the Mars sphere of influence (gravity) Tuesday, as a similar mission by China failed in 2011.

The success of the mission to Mars will "inspire our scientists to make even greater strides", said President Pranab Mukherjee who described it as a "historic achievement".

The final orbiting exercise began at 4.17 a.m. Wednesday.

After rotating the Orbiter towards Mars at 6.57 a.m., the main engine was ignited at 7.17 a.m. for enabling the spacecraft enter its orbit from the sun orbit, where it cruised for over nine months and 24 days during its voyage to Mars from the Earth.

During the crucial operation, when a solar eclipse occurred on Mars from 7.12 a.m., the main engine started its burn at 7.30 a.m. and lasted for 24 minutes till 7.54 a.m. to swing the spacecraft into the Martian orbit. The speed of the spacecraft was also reduced.

Chloe Grace Moretz addressed her relationship with Brooklyn Beckham during an appearance on Monday’s “Watch What Happens Live.”

Let’s just say the young actress doesn’t like labels.

When a caller asked Moretz to confirm whether she and Beckham are “more than friends,” she replied, “That’s naughty! That was a naughty question!”

Host Andy Cohen and fellow guest Billy Bush both leaned toward the young star in anticipation of her answer.

“You have a 16-year-old daughter,” she told Bush, “You can ask her these questions, too.”
After stalling for as long as she could, Moretz replied,  “Um, I don’t know. He’s a very good guy. He’s a good person. I enjoy hanging out with him.”

Cohen continued to dig for more, asking Moretz if she wasn’t giving a definitive answer because she didn’t want to define Beckham as a “boyfriend” and “put a label” on their relationship.

“Maybe,” she said with a smile.

But Moretz had no problem gushing about her rumored beau’s mom Victoria Beckham.

“She’s an amazing person,” she said. “I really admire her work ethic. I love her line. As a family, they’re awesome people.”

A Florida woman spent $20,000 to get a third boob surgically implanted on her chest in a twisted attempt to look less attractive to men.

"I don't want to date anymore," Jasmine Tridevil, 21, said in a recent radio broadcast when asked why she added the extra mammary complete with an artificial nipple and tattoo to resemble an areola.

But she's still proud of the triple nipple.

On her Facebook page, she thanks followers for sharing YouTube videos featuring her swiveling her hips in a tri-cup bikini. She also hired a camera crew to follow her around so she can pitch a reality show to MTV.

She told Real Radio 104.1 that she reached out to more than 50 doctors before one agreed to perform the surgery. The operation involved taking skin tissue from her abdomen, adding a silicon implant and grafting it between her two, natural breasts.
"It was really hard finding someone that would do it too because they’re breaking the code of ethics," she said. "But I got a breast implant and a mini implant to make it look like there’s a nipple poking out."

Tridevil -- a pseudonym -- says her parents aren't fond of the surgery.

Even in carnival sideshows, Tridevil's physique would strike many as out-of-this world.

"You couldn’t have done that in the early 20th century," Marc Hartzman, who literally wrote the book on American Sideshow, told HuffPost Weird News. "That kind of cosmetic surgery wasn’t around. People aren’t born that way, and I haven't even seen any sideshow actors with three breasts that I can recall."

Our own HuffPost UK thinks Tridevil may have taking the idea from Total Recall, a film that made one woman with three breasts famous in 1990. And since Tridevil isn't revealing who her doctor is, the site also casts doubt on the boob's authenticity:

    We think you’ll agree [Total Recall's] prosthetics are pretty convincing –- could it be that Tridevil simply followed suit and hasn’t been under the knife after all?

Former model Katie Price was upbeat about being a bridesmaid at Kerry Katona's wedding, but she pulled out last minute because her size eight dress didn't fit her.

Price gave birth to daughter Bunny just five weeks ago and her post-baby body, which she has been flaunting via sensual selfies, became furious after she couldn't squeeze into gown she had been to wear for her friend's D-day, reports dailystar.co.uk.

Price had refused to stand alongside Kerry, and instead attended the wedding as a guest, wearing a black and white jumpsuit.
"Kerry was disappointed, but wasn't going to let it ruin her day. Katie was not even prepared to consider wearing a dress that didn't fit her properly. As soon as she found out, she pulled out of her official role altogether," a source told The Sun newspaper.

Nevertheless, Katona had three bridesmaids - bandmate Liz McClarnon, school friend Karen Belton and Mel B's sister Danielle Brown, by her side.

Katona married George Kay Sep 14 at Totworth Court Hotel, Gloucestershire.

Khubsoorat
Director: Shashanka Ghosh
Actors: Sonam Kapoor, Fawad Khan
Rating: *1/2

It’s one thing for a smart, carefree, sassy kind of girl to enter an uptight sort of household to loosen things up and have fun along the way. That was Rekha in Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s Khubsoorat. It’s quite another thing altogether when that same chilled out character comes across as a certified imbecile (Sonam Kapoor), perpetually prone to behave like an over-friendly dement, because her Punjabi mom, who she calls by the first name Manju (Kirron Kher), behaves even more demented.

This film is as much a remake of the gentle, warm Khubsoorat (1980) as Rohit Shetty’s Bol Bachchan was a nod to Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s subtly charming Gol Maal (1979). The film is produced by Disney. Most people who have even seen its trailers will liken it more to the American hit, girly, teen franchise The Princess Diaries (2001).
Sonam plays a physiotherapist in the movie. She gets appointed to treat the jobless king of a mythical empire in the desert. Aamir Raza Husain plays this sombre king. Those who’ve grown up savouring the vibrant theatre scene in Delhi will know Hussain as the master director of stellar productions like The Fifty Day War (2000) and The Legend Of Ram (2004). It’s great to see him on the big screen. He looks and behaves every bit a blue-blooded royal, although talking in a decidedly UP accent, which is only mildly strange for an ‘emperor’ from contemporary Rajasthan.

Stranger by far is the Rajput king’s son. Together with the father and the bored mom (Ratna Pathak Shah), this thoroughly serious looking, busy as hell prince dude (Fawad Khan) lives in a massive palace that, by all accounts, appears to be located quite far away from urban civilisation. I suspect he works in the hospitality business, though it’s very hard to tell. Throughout the film and all through his day, all you can see him do is strut around in an astounding range of super-formal designer suits and bandhgalas, walking around all alone, inside his own house, between the drawing room, study or perhaps the restroom. No, seriously, who are these people?

After Introducing Alia, Sidharth and Varun to tinsel town Bollywood, ace director Karan Johar is all set to launch Disha Patani, former Femina Miss India first runner up in his upcoming flick ‘No Sex Please, W are Indians’. As the name suggests the movie  is believed to be a sex comedy.
If we believe on gossip mills, Karan Johar has teamed up with daily soap queen Ekta Kapoor for this film. However, the male lead is not finalised yet.

The yet-to-be Bollywood actress has appared in many advertisements and now she is all set to make her Bollywood debut.

The social networking site Facebook is updating its news feed to feature right content at the right time, so that users do not miss out on key stories.

"We have heard feedback that there are some instances where a post from a friend or a Page you are connected to is only interesting at a specific moment, for example when you are both watching the same sports game, or talking about the season premiere of a popular TV show," said Facebook in a blog post.

Facebook is also going to factor in the rate at which people are liking or commenting on a post, Forbes magazine reported.
Facebook currently looks at the total number of likes that a post received, but now it will look at when people like, comment and share posts.

For people that engage with the story shortly after it is posted means that it was most interesting at that time, but will be less interesting at a later time.

The update to the news feed will be based on two factors - trending topics and engagement.

"This means that posts that receive likes, comments and shares faster will be posted higher in the news feed," Facebook added.

Kurdish militants in Turkey have issued a new call to arms to defend a border town in northern Syria from advancing Islamic State (IS) fighters, and the Turkish authorities and United Nations prepared for a surge in refugees.

About 70,000 Syrian Kurds have fled into Turkey since Friday as IS militants seized dozens of villages close to the border and advanced on the frontier town of Ayn al-Arab, known as Kobani in Kurdish.

Carol Batchelor, the United Nations refugee agency's (UNHCR) representative in Turkey said the real figure may be more than 100,000 as Turkey faces one of the biggest influxes of refugees from Syria since the war there began more than three years ago.

"I don't think in the last three-and-a-half years we have seen 100,000 cross in two days," she said.

"So this is a bit of a measure of how this situation is unfolding and the very deep fear people have about the circumstances inside Syria, and for that matter Iraq."

A Kurdish commander on the ground said IS militants had advanced to within 15 kilometres of Kobani, whose strategic location has been blocking the radical Sunni Muslim militants from consolidating their gains across northern Syria.

A Kurdish politician from Turkey who visited Kobani on Saturday said locals had told him IS fighters were beheading people as they went from village to village.
Video: Syrian Kurds cross the border into Turkey as Islamic State sweeps over northern Syria. (ABC News)

"Rather than a war this is a genocide operation ... They are going into the villages and cutting the heads of one or two people and showing them to the villagers," Ibrahim Binici, a deputy for Turkey's pro-Kurdish HDP, told Reuters.

"It is truly a shameful situation for humanity," he said, calling for international intervention.
Five of his fellow MPs planned a hunger strike outside UN offices in Geneva to press for action, he said.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which monitors Syria's civil war, said clashes overnight killed 10 insurgents, bringing the number of IS fighters killed to at least 39. At least 27 Kurdish fighters have died.

IS has seized at least 64 villages around Kobani since Tuesday, using heavy arms and thousands of fighters.

It executed at least 11 civilians on Saturday, including at least two boys, the Observatory said.

"We now urgently need medicines and equipment for operations. We have many casualties," Welat Avar, a doctor in Kobani told Reuters.

"ISIL (IS) killed many people in the villages. They cut off the heads of two people, I saw it with my own eyes," he said, referring to an incident in the village of Chelebi, near Kobani.

The Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), a rebel group which has spent three decades fighting for autonomy for Turkey's Kurds, renewed a call for the youth of Turkey's mostly Kurdish south-east to rise up and rush to save Kobani.

"Supporting this heroic resistance is not just a debt of honour of the Kurds but all Middle East people. Just giving support is not enough, the criterion must be taking part in the resistance," it said in a statement on its website.

"ISIL fascism must drown in the blood it spills ... The youth of North Kurdistan (south-east Turkey) must flow in waves to Kobani," it said.

Hundreds of security forces cleared the border area south of Suruc of a couple of thousand people who had gathered in solidarity with Kobani for a third day on the Turkish side of the barbed wire fence, where many of the refugees have crossed.