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Salma Hayek and Valentina: Go Team!
November 30, 2009 (Monday)

CPE/OS/Ramey

Looking ravishing in red, Salma Hayek and daughter Valentina Paloma, 2, attend the Rennes vs. Le Mans football match on Saturday in Rennes, France.

The actress’ husband François-Henri Pinault is the owner of the football club! Source

Playtime a luxury for competitive kids of China
November 23, 2009 (Monday)

All work and little play is the norm for most children in China, where stiff competition for future jobs and ambitious parents mean long hours in the company of school books, not friends.

China’s one-child policy has contributed to putting enormous pressure on children to succeed, and there is no shortage of wealthy Beijing parents these days willing to stump tens of thousands of yuan for elite educational institutions to give their offspring an academic head-start.

“Children have so much pressure to do well. There is a Chinese idiom: ‘Every parent wants their boy to be a dragon and daughter to be a phoenix’,” said Li Hongyan, who runs the 68,000 yuan ($9,960) a year MEG Bilingual International kindergarten.

But between maths, language and other so-called enrichment classes, there is often little time for play, which children’s rights groups say is essential for healthy development.

Last Friday marked Universal Children’s Day, which aims to promote the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, established 20 years ago to protect the fundamental rights of all children – including the right to play.

“This is what we usually call the ‘forgotten right,’ because of course adults think the right to play is perhaps a luxury. They don’t realise that this is actually a necessity,” said Kirsten Di Martino, Chief of Child Protection at Unicef China.

Through play, children learn how to socialise, communicate and share as well as solve conflicts – skills that can’t be taught from a book, she said.

But for parents who pour all their hopes and ambitions into just one son or daughter, and know they will face a highly competitive society, those skills may be too abstract.

Introduced in the late 1970s to ease strain on the country’s limited resources, the one-child policy forbids most urbanites from having two children, although there is more leeway for ethnic minorities and rural parents whose first child is a girl.

GENIUS SCHOOL?

In the Experimental Class for the Gifted and Talented Children at Beijing’s No. 8 High School, which churns out “geniuses”, students are used to a seven-day school week.

Most Chinese students start high school at 16 but each year a few dozen 9 to 10 year-olds are put on a fast-track to university with a speeded up curriculum, the director of the class said.

Each year thousands of parents put their children through rigorous exams to get onto the programme. The last few candidates even have to live with teachers for a few weeks until a panel of judges makes their final vote.

Those selected get to university up to seven years ahead of normal students. In return, many children in the class said they usually have just 30 minutes of play time a week.

Ten-year-old Wang Shaohan is already thinking about college.

“There are pluses and minuses. The negative side is that when we get into university we are not mature like others,” Wang said.

“The plus side is that I can get ahead. My mother said the best time in life is college life so she wants me in early. It’s not a bad thing to start early.”

Wang’s mother is not worried about the pressure.

“I think all children are different. This way of studying simply suits my child well. I haven’t thought about other things. It’s a good thing as long as it suits my child,” she said.

And when asked about the right to play, most children simply shook heads and asked what it was. Source

Heidi Klum Walks Runway – Six Weeks after Baby!
November 22, 2009 (Sunday)

Jill Johnson/JPI

Heidi Klum, who was supposed to be acting as host of the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show, drew screams from the crowd Thursday night when she made a surprise trip down the runway.

Clad in a corset and full skirt, the new mom, who gave birth to daughter Lou, with husband Seal, last month, smiled as she slowly took the runway for the surprise appearance.

Just Wednesday, Klum spoke of only hosting the show. "You have less pressure," she said. "You definitely have less pressure when you don’t shake your booty in front of millions around the world."

Klum added that she still had 20 lbs. of baby weight to lose: "I embrace that I have more curves right now. I’m definitely one of the heaviest of the bunch of the 30 girls in the show."  Source

Doctors separate Bangladesh conjoined twins
November 20, 2009 (Friday)

Australian doctors successfully separated joined-at-the-head Bangladeshi twins after more than 24 hours of surgery on Tuesday, describing the moment as ‘surreal.’

Two-year-old Trishna and Krishna, rescued from certain death in a Dhaka orphanage, were said to be ‘very well’ after leaving the operating theatre in induced comas and unattached for the first time.

‘The moment of separation was a rather surreal moment,’ Leo Donnan, chief of surgery at Melbourne’s Royal Children’s Hospital, told reporters.

‘There was relief but I think everyone realised there was still a long way to go and that the girls have a very difficult time ahead of them.’

Doctors worked through the night to prise apart the twins’ brain tissue at about 11:00 am (0000 GMT) before reconstruction experts closed up their heads using bone and skin tissue, some 32 hours after they were wheeled into the operating room.

‘The girls have now come out of the theatre and they’re in intensive care,’ Donnan said.

‘Everything’s gone very well. They’re in great shape which is fantastic... they’re both in good condition and healthy. I think they’re better than we thought they’d be.’

The girls will spend the next few days sedated, on ventilators and under close monitoring before being gradually woken up, Donnan said, adding they faced myriad possible dangers.

‘They’ve got a long process to go through and it will be many days before we know how well it’s gone,’ he said.

‘There’s still considerable risks they’ve got to face, like any child who’s been through a major procedure. They’ve got a long recovery ahead of them — there are many unknowns after this sort of surgery.’

Moira Kelly, the girls’ legal guardian who brought them to Australia from Bangladesh, was said to be overcome by the day’s dramatic developments.

‘I think she’s overwhelmed this has come to fruition,’ said Margaret Smith, her colleague at the Children First Foundation charity. ‘She’s just so grateful to the team here that they’ve been able to pull this off.’

Some 16 specialists worked through the night, taking occasional food and rest breaks and listening to pop music in the operating theatre to stay alert, as the operation ran hours past its scheduled midnight finish.

Donnan said there was quiet elation among the surgeons when they finally separated the girls after more than 24 hours of painstaking work.

‘The moment of separation was a rather surreal moment ... Everyone has known these girls as one with their individual personalities, so to see them as separate human beings is a pretty amazing moment,’ he said.

The girls were brought to Australia in November 2007 after aid workers became alarmed at their fading health in Dhaka, where doctors said they were powerless to help.

But they were nursed back to health, developing a unique system of crawling on their backs and a love of Australian children’s band ‘The Wiggles,’ as they underwent a series of preparatory operations.

‘These are once-in-a-lifetime operations that teams would do. For the hospital it’s a historic moment, for the girls it’s an even more historic moment,’ Donnan said.

Separating conjoined twins is a notoriously difficult procedure, with attempts in Britain and Bangladesh both failing over the past year, although Saudi doctors successfully divided a pair of Egyptian brothers in February.

In one of the best known cases, Singapore doctors in 2003 made a vain attempt to separate adult twins — Iranian law graduates Laleh and Ladan Bijani, 29 — who died from severe blood loss after 52 hours of surgery. Source

G'Day for the Garden
November 17, 2009 (Tuesday)

Credit: Carlos Costas/Pacific Coast News

Taking a break from her Circus tour in Australia, Britney Spears and beau Jason Trawick enjoy Sydney's Royal Botanic Gardens with her sons Sean Preston and Jayden James. Source

Taking a Break
November 17, 2009 (Tuesday)

Credit: Ramey

Taking a break on a stoop in Beverly Hills, Gwen Stefani adjusts her 14-month-old son Zuma's wardrobe while enjoying a family outing. Source

Shopping Girls!
November 17, 2009 (Tuesday)

Credit: PPNY/GSNY/Splash News Online

Katie Holmes and her mini fashionista Suri Cruise, 3½ – back in her kitten heels! Source

Internet 'as dangerous as letting children go out into the street'
November 14, 2009 (Saturday)

The professor, who was commissioned by Gordon Brown to investigate the harmful effects of video games and websites, said parents needed to think more about the dangers of the internet.

Because they had not grown up with such technology many did not know the threats and felt unprepared to deal with them, she argued.

Speaking in London at the annual conference of the organisation The Voice of the Listener and Viewer, she said: "A lot of parents don't realise that it's the same as opening the door and going out into the street, opening that [internet] browser."

Because children were often not allowed outside the real front door, due to dangers she felt in many cases were overstated, they were increasingly turning to the internet for their thrills instead.

"An integral part of development is risk taking," she said. "Children are taking risks online because we live in a risk-averse culture."

For example, said Prof Byron, who has two children, it was "crazy" that some children were now banned from playing conkers at school.

Just as her parents generation had to be told to put on seatbelts in the car, so today's parents had to be educated about the dangers the internet held for their children, she said.

"I remember 'Clunk-clip' when I was a child. Now we need 'Clunk-click," she said, referring to clicking a computer mouse.

Prof Byron, who is Chancellor of Edge Hill University in Lancashire, described parents and other adults as "digital immigrants" who were unfamiliar with the new media world, in which children were the "natives".

Parents "not born with this technology" needed to think about what exactly their children were watching, surfing, or playing online, she said.

Children should only be free to roam the internet when they were prepared for it.

"It's analogous to deciding when to let my kids go to the sweetshop or make their way to school on their own," she said.

Professor Sonia Livingstone of the London School of Economics told the conference that the dangers were "considerable".

An EU-wide study found 40 per cent of teenagers had been exposed to pornography online, 20 per cent had been bullied and 10 per cent had met someone in the real world they had 'met' in a chatroom or a social media site.

In addition, the numbers of children able to surf the internet unsupervised is growing fast.

In the last two years the proportion of 12 to 15-year-olds with internet access in their bedrooms has almost doubled, from 20 to 35 per cent.

Facebook is the sixth most popular site among six to 11-year-olds, she discovered hidden in a report by Ofcom, the media regulator.

She commented: "I'm intrigued that Facebook is there given that you are not allowed to be on Facebook until you are 13."

YouTube was the eighth most popular site for children that age and eBay the ninth. The only site specifically aimed at children in the top ten was Disney - at number 10.

In early December the UK Council for Child Internet Safety delivers its recommendations on how industry, Government and parents can best protect children online.

It was launched in March to answer questions raised by Prof Byron's report, Safer Children in a Digital World, which she was asked to write by Gordon Brown. Source

Women with bigger breasts found to be smarter
November 13, 2009 (Friday)

A study conducted in the United States shows that women with big breasts are not necessarily less intelligent than those who are less endowed.

Quoting a Singapore newspaper article, Sin Chew Daily said women with bigger breasts were found to be smarter instead.

It said the study was conducted in Chicago to find out whether the size of a woman's bust affected her brain power.

The study, involving 1,200 women, was conducted by a female researcher. The subjects were divided into five groups, from extra small to extra big.

The report said it was possible such women were smarter due to the higher level of female hormones that could result in better development in the brain. Source

Celine Dion’s Husband Confirms That She Is No Longer Pregnant
November 13, 2009 (Friday)

Celine Dion is no longer pregnant, her husband has confirmed.

Rene Angelil told Canadian newspaper Journal de Montreal that the latest in vitro fertilization treatment she underwent last month was unsuccessful.

“We’re living the reality of the majority of couples who face these procreation techniques,” he told the paper.

Celine, 41, who was due to give birth in May, confirmed this past August that she was expecting.

Celine and Rene have an 8-year-old son, Rene-Charles, who was conceived by in vitro fertilization after six years of trying. While trying to conceive her first child, she had her embryos frozen in liquid nitrogen.

When she finished her concert run in Las Vegas in 2007, she consulted Dr. Zev Rosenwaks in New York City about trying to conceive again.

Celine (who is the youngest of 14 children) has long talked about wanting to have more kids.

“We’d love to extend the family,” she said on CBS’ The Early Show last December. Source

Mel Gibson's new baby girl
November 10, 2009 (Tuesday)

Little Lucia Anne really caught her parents by surprise when she made her arrival a month ahead of schedule. But as Oksana Grigorieva reveals to HELLO! magazine, she and Mel Gibson could not be happier now that their baby girl is here.

"He is ecstatic. He is very much in love with her already," says Oksana, "She just wins people's hearts, she's so beautiful and tiny."

In a world exclusive this week – issue number 1098 – the striking Russian introduces the couple's beautiful newborn baby complete with never-before-seen photographs of Lucia.

And she reveals all about the little girl's unexpected arrival into the world, being in love with Mel and how the Hollywood superstar is an "incredible" and "hands-on" father. Source 

Sarah Michelle Gellar: Motherhood Was Worth the Wait
November 09, 2009 (Monday)

Photo by: Claire Greenway / Getty

Sarah Michelle Gellar, adored as the star of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and her husband, Freddie Prinze Jr., know what everyone has been thinking: What took so long?

"I always say, the minute you start dating someone, people ask, 'When are you getting engaged?' And the minute you get engaged, they ask, 'When are you getting married?' " a bemused Gellar tells PEOPLE. "And then the minute you get married, they ask, 'When are you having a baby?'"

Gellar, 32, and Prinze Jr., 33, – who stars in the upcoming season of 24 – took seven years before answering that last question, as evidenced by the Sept. 19 arrival of daughter Charlotte Grace.

"Becoming a parent is the most selfless act, and you need to be at a point in your life where you can give up anything and everything for a child," Gellar says waiting before starting a family. "I don't know if you know how to that when you're in your 20s."

Her husband concurs: "I'm so happy we didn't have kids in our 20s – I just didn't know a thing. You have so much more patience in your 30s, and I feel like I appreciate this so much more."

Charlotte, according to her mom and dad, was well worth the wait. "Every day I look at her and I am in awe," says Gellar. Of course, the new mother knows what's coming next. "The minute you have a baby, everyone asks, 'When are you going to have another one?'" Source

Mum with post-natal depression falls to death
November 08, 2009 (Sunday)

A 35-year-old woman, believed to be suffering from post-natal depression after giving birth to her first baby three months ago, fell to her death in Paya Terubong here.

The body of Phang Ting Yeow, from Bayan Baru, was found on the hood of a car at the Wayton Flats at 12.15pm yesterday.

It is learnt that Phang, who had delivered a baby boy, had driven her car from her home in Bayan Baru to the flats.

Police found some used tissue paper, leaflets on cervical cancer and a book on Buddhist mantras in the front passenger seat of her car which was parked beside the van she landed on. Phang’s body was sent to the Penang Hospital mortuary for post-mortem.

Acting George Town police chief Supt Gan Kong Meng said initial police investigations showed that she was suffering from depression. Source

Fernando Torres says baby will speak scouse!
November 07, 2009 (Saturday)

Pic source

Liverpool goal hero Fernando Torres says he can't wait to hear his baby's first words - in a Scouse accent! 

The super Spaniard, known as El Nino or The Kid, has a four-month-old girl called Nora.

And daddy Torres, 25, says he wants his daughter to speak like the locals when she grows up.

He said: "I want to be at Liverpool for many years. If that means my daughter will have a Scouse accent, it'll make me very proud." Source

Girl, 11, gives birth on wedding day
November 05, 2009 (Thursday)

                                         Picture: NIS Barcroft Pacific

An 11-year-old Bulgarian girl gave birth to a baby girl on the day she got married to her teenage boyfriend.

She was still wearing her flowing white dress and tiara when she arrived at the hospital and gave birth to 2.49kg Violeta last week.

After spending the night with her newborn, Kordeza changed back into her wedding dress to finish the ceremony.

“I used to play with my toys but now she is my new toy. She is so beautiful, I love her. Violeta is the child and I must grow up. I am not going back to school – I am a mother now,” Kordeza said.

Her husband is 19-year-old Jeliazko Dimitrov. Source

OctoMom or OctoNun?
November 01, 2009 (Sunday)

All ready for a day of shopping!
November 01, 2009 (Sunday)

Pedro Andrade/Matt Symons/Pacific Coast News

Jessica Alba and daughter Honor Marie, 16 months, made a fashionable pair as they strolled down the street on Thursday morning in Beverly Hills, Calif.

The duo hit the shoe store, where the actress had Honor sit on her lap and try on a few new pairs.

Honor is the first child for Jessica, 28, and husband Cash Warren. Source