Bollywood's Hollywood connection

 "East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet," so wrote Kipling, but when you look at these stars, you are forced to believe the other way. Meet Bollywood stars' Hollywood lookalikes!

1.Camilla Belle - Katrina Kaif:

2.Bradley Cooper - Hrithik Roshan:

3.Shammi Kapoor-Elvis Presley

Shammi Kapoor’s body language and dancing style reminded many of Elvis Presley.

4.Dev Anand-Gregory Peck :

in the fifties, when Dev Anand ruled, many noted the resemblance he bore with Hollywood actor Gregory Peck

5.Aamir Khan - Tom Hanks:

6.John Abraham - Antonio Banderas: 

The effortlessly sexy look makes us put John in Zorro's league.

 

7.Rakhi sawant -Hafia Wehbe

Rakhi Sawant's doppelganger is not from Hollywood, but from Middle East. Haifa Wehbe - Rakhi Sawant's Lebenese 'twin' is also known for her provocative numbers. It's hard to stay goody-goody when blessed with oomph, that too in abundance.

8.Debra Messing - Pooja Batra:

9.Phillip Rhys - Tusshar kapoor:

10.Alyssa Milano -Hrishita Bhatt:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TOP 10 HAUNTED PLACES IN WORLD

Everyone seems to know of at least one haunted house; as kids there was almost certainly one in our own neighbourhood. This list contains the most famous and most haunted places in the world. If you have had any experiences of a similar nature, feel free to tell us about it in the comments. I should add, before starting, that I am a skeptic; I have written this list for entertainment value.

10. Berry Pomeroy Castle, Totness

There are a number of legends associated with this 14th-century castle, and it has a reputation of being haunted. It has 2 famous female ghosts; the White Lady and the Blue Lady. According to legend the White Lady is the spirit of Margaret Pomeroy, who starved to death while imprisoned in the dungeons by her jealous sister. Apparently she haunts the dark dungeons, and rises from St Margaret’s Tower to the castle walls. The Blue Lady is not confined to specific areas and is supposed to lure people into parts of the ruin. Apparently it’s a very bad idea to follow her!

9. Dominican Hill, Baguio City, Philippines.

According to some people the ghosts of people who were killed during the war haunt this place. Some say the patients who died here despite having the hope to be alive turned into ghosts. Hearing the banging of doors, windows, clattering of dishes and screaming voices during night are reported by people.

8. Edinburgh Castle, Edinburgh, Scotland

This magnificent castle is typically medieval, perched atop a rocky crag, giving it an amazing vista of Scottish hills. But inside the empty halls and narrow streets of Edinburgh, there are the echoes of the dead. At least, that’s what has been reported. Hot spots for specters include the castle’s prison cells, the South Bridge vaults and Mary’s King Close, a disused street used to quarantine and eventually entomb victims of the plague. There are also reports of ghost dogs, a headless drummer, and the bodies of prisoners taken during the French seven-year war and the American War of Independence.

7. Monte Cristo, New South Wales, Australia

Monte Cristo, Australia’s most haunted mansion is located in Junee, New South Wales. Mrs Crawley, the owner of the house never came out of her home after the death of her husband in 23 years of her remaining life except for two times. After her death her ghost haunts the place particularly her former room. Bodiless ghost, phantom face in the window, floating apparition, strange and ghostly voices, automatic turning on and off lights are some haunting experiences of the people. Some people reported that when they entered the boy’s bed room they were breathless and turned purple and almost died, they became normal after coming out from the room.

6. Ancient Ram Inn, Gloucestershire, England

Whether you believe in ghosts or not, a trip to the Ancient Ram Inn is an unsettling experience. Its creaky floorboards, cold bare walls, musty smells and dimly lit nooks and crannies epitomise everything a haunted house should be. And the stories attached to this creepy building are not for the fainthearted: Murder, satanism and child sacrifice are just a few of the dark deeds said to have occurred here, oh and did we mention apparently it’s built on a pagan burial ground?

5. Highgate Cemetery, North London, England

By night, Highgate Cemetery is like something out of a horror movie. Eerie crooked gravestones, headless angles covered in ivy, dark overgrown passages between the tombs, it’s no wonder this is Britain’s number-one ghost spot. Despite it’s chilling atmosphere, by day Highgate Cemetery showcases some of the Britain’s most spectacular Gothic architecture, offers fascinating guided tours. It’s also the burial place of Karl Marx.

4. Bhangarh Fort, India

Bhangarh Fort is on way from Jaipur to Alwar in Rajasthan, India. According to a legend, Singhia, a black magic tantrik cursed the palace that everybody would die in the palace and their souls will stay there for centuries without rebirth. Another interesting point is, all the houses in this area are without roofs because whenever a house is built with roof, the roof collapses. This is the called most haunting place in India. People who visit this place experience anxiety and restlessness. It is said that nobody returns from this place that stays there after dark. Government prohibited this area from staying after sunset. You will find a board installed by Archaeological Survey of India displaying “Staying after sunset is strictly prohibited in this area”.

3. Screaming Tunnel, Niagara Falls, Ontario

The haunting of the Screaming Tunnel is one of Niagara Falls’ most enduring legends. Located off Warner Road, the tunnel runs under the railway tracks that link Niagara Falls to Toronto and New York City. According to local legend, over a century ago, a farm house located just past the south entrance to the tunnel caught fire one night. A young girl, her clothes engulfed in flames, fled screaming from the house. She ran through the tunnel in an attempt to extinguish her garments but collapsed and died on the tunnel floor. A variation of this story has the girl set ablaze in the tunnel by her enraged father when he learned his wife had won custody of their children during an nasty divorce battle. Another version tells of a young girl who was raped inside the tunnel and her body burned to cover the evidence. All these stories allege that if you stand in the middle of the dark tunnel at midnight and light a match, the flame will go out and a girl’s screams will be heard.

2. Ohio University, Athens, America

Ohio University is known in state folklore as the most haunted college campus. A large number of places on campus are said to be haunted, and numerous other popular tales are told about the university across Athens county. The British Society for Psychical Research claims that Athens, Ohio, is one of the most haunted places in the world. Wilson Hall, famous for a girl (a supposed witch)who killed herself moments after writing satanic and supernatural things on the wall in her own blood. The five cemetaries that form a pentagram that surrounds the campus, with the administrative building being in the center of the devil’s sign. Washington Hall, which is famous for housing a team of basketball players who all died in a terrible crashm their ghosts still haunt the hall, and you can sometimes hear them dribbling. The catacombs of Jefferson Hall, where numerous ghost sightings have occurred. And finally, for The Ridges, an abandoned insane asylum that was known for thousands of labotamies and electro shock treatments. Also, a patient who disappeared, and was found five weeks later, her body decomposed onto the floor and left a stain that outlines her body. This stain can still be seen today.

1. Changi Beach, Singapore

Changi Beach served as a popular killing ground for the Japanese during the Sook Ching massacre of The Second World War. Thousands of Chinese were tortured and killed during this Operation as they were suspected of being anti-Japanese. Strange crying and screaming are reported by people. The heads of the Chinese dead bodies are sometimes seen flying everywhere and headless bodies walk around the beach. The scariest thing is that the ghosts leave blood stains. During nights people observe dug holes that appear as if they were used for burying bodies.

TOP TEN HEALTHY BREAKFAST OPTIONS

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, so it’s essential that you make the most of it. But really it’s not that difficult to get a good deal of nutrition from your morning meal. 

 

We’ve put down 10 healthy breakfast options to help you prepare a nutritional feast that will keep you going all day.

Porridge and berries

Use oats and skimmed milk to make your porridge, then add any berries such as strawberries, raspberries or blueberries and honey. This is a great way to start the day as the oats have a low GI (Glycaemic Index) this tells us that oats do not raise the blood glucose level very quickly, which is good as it can help stabilize the appetite. Just go easy on the honey!

Beans on toast

Beans (whether they are just ordinary baked beans or kidney, borlotti or black eyed beans) also have a low GI like oats. They are full of soluble fibre, which helps keep you full for longer and can therefore help you manage your weight. Serve the beans on granary toast and pass on the butter; a great, low-fat breakfast.

Bagel with reduced fat cream cheese and smoked salmon

Bagels are high in starchy carbohydrates, which help kick start the body into action for the day after a fast of at least eight to 10 hours. The smoked salmon provides the body with omega-3 fat which is essential for the body. Many of us eat far too much saturated fat (which is bad for us) and not enough omega-3 fat that is vital for our health.

 

 

Fruit and yogurt

Try adding your favourite fruit to a small pot of low-fat or diet yogurt for breakfast. A small pot of yogurt counts as one of your three portions per day of dairy foods, essential for the teeth and bones.

Bacon, tomatoes, beans, mushrooms and toast

For those of you who can’t resist a cooked breakfast at the weekends try this. It really is a healthy twist on a traditional fried breakfast; grill the bacon, tomatoes and large, flat field mushrooms.

Crumpets and fruit spread

Crumpets are a starchy food (they should be the basis of every meal). The only problem with crumpets is the tendency to add lots of butter to them. Try a fruit spread, a great way to top them without adding all the calories and fat in butter.

Muesli and soya milk or low-fat milk (such as semi-skimmed or skimmed milk)

Swiss-style muesli has milk powder added to it, which increases the calcium content of this breakfast cereal. Add calcium-enriched soya milk or semi-skimmed milk and you have a bone-friendly breakfast!

Pure fruit juice and iron-fortified breakfast cereal

Next time you are in the cereal aisle at the supermarket, spare a few minutes to check out the labeling on the packets. Not all cereals are equal when it comes to the vitamins and minerals that are added to them. Iron is a mineral that is added to many cereals, try sultana bran or bran flakes, drink a glass of pure fruit juice such as orange or grapefruit and the vitamin C that the juice contains helps your body to absorb the iron more easily.

Smoothie

If you really can’t face breakfast try to have a smoothie instead. If you fancy trying to make one yourself (easy if you have a hand blender) then fruits such as berries, apples and bananas are great with some milk. All those antioxidant vitamins in the fruit help boost your immunity.

Scrambled or poached egg on granary toast

Eggs are not bad for us! It is what you do with them … Poaching or scrambling eggs with a little milk is a good way to incorporate them into your diet — they provide valuable protein. Scrambled eggs on toast is a much better choice over a fried egg sandwich.

TOP TEN MOST EXPENSIVE CITIES IN THE WORLD

10. Singapore

Singapore is both a city and country located in south east Asia. The city of just under 5 million people takes up the majority of the country of 710km², leading to an extremely high population density of almost 7000 people per km². It is located on a small island, which lies in one of the busiest waterways in the world which connects east Asia with south Asia, Africa and Europe. The city first started to grow to prominence under European rule because of it's high strategic importance and the city has continued to grow in stature since independence .THE thriving economy combined with lack of space for expansion leads to Singapore being the tenth most expensive city in the world to live. 

Singapore Central Business District.

9. Geneva

Geneva is a city nestled between Lake Geneva and The Alps in Switzerland. Although most of the city is in Switzerland, due to the high cost of living in the city proper many people commute in from nearby France. Geneva is famous for being the location where the Geneva Conventions were signed, which govern the handling of prisoners of war. Geneva is also home to the headquarters of the International Committee of the Red Cross, and many United Nations departments are also based here. In addition to being a major city in humanitarian terms, Geneva is also the 6th most important financial centre in the world. All of these factors, along with the fantastic location alongside Lake Geneva and a policy to preserve the city, leads to it having the ninth highest cost of living worldwide. 

8. Frankfurt

Frankfurt is joint seventh most expensive city to live in along with Helsinki. Frankfurt is a city in Germany, and is located on the Main River, which leads to it's full name Frankfurt am Main. When Germany was divided, it was located in west Germany, and so with berlin isolated became the economic powerhouse of west Germany, and upon re-unification it retained this position. It is the largest financial centre of mainland Europe, and both the European and German central banks are located here, as well as the Frankfurt stock exchange which is one of the biggest in the world. All of this wealth leads to Frankfurt being the joint seventh most expensive city in the world to live in. 

Frankfurt skyline at night. Author Nicolas 17 and published under Creative Commons 

7. Helsinki

In terms of the cost of living, Helsinki is joint seventh most expensive along with Frankfurt. Helsinki is the capital city of Finland, and is located in the far south of the country next to the Gulf of Finland. Despite being at the south of Finland, it is still a very northerly city and so can get very cold in the winter. Helsinki is the economic centre of the Finnish economy, and this partly explains the high cost of living. Helsinki has traditionally had a large shipbuilding industry and this continues to this day, although there are now also more hi-tech industries such as Nokia which is located just outside the city. Along with other Scandinavian countries, Finland has a relatively high tax rate, and this combined with the large amount of wealth generated is probably what results in Helsinki having the joint seventh highest cost of living in the world. 

Helsinki Cathedral and the wider area.

6. Zurich

Located in Switzerland, Zurich comes sixth on the list of most expensive cities in the world by living costs. Zurich is to Switzerland like New York is to the USA, it is the commercial capital of the country but not the political one. Zurich is home to many top educational institutions, and this helps ensure that the top minds in Switzerland and further afield come to live in Zurich, and it is likely that many of these will spend at least some of their working lives here. A large proportion of the Swiss economy is based on financial services, and many multinational companies such as UBS, Zurich Financial Services and Credit Suisse are based here. In addition, the population of Zurich is very diverse, and this potentially explains why many international companies, such as IBM, Google and Microsoft have facilities here. All of these factors mean that Zurich has a very strong economy, and this results in the 6th highest cost of living worldwide.

The central part of Zurich along with the four main churches

5. Oslo

The city in the world with the fifth highest cost of living is the Norwegian capital city of Oslo. Oslo is Norway's biggest city, both economically and by population. Norway is one of the most developed countries in the world, with a large income from a variety of sources. These include the large offshore oil and gas reserves, maritime engineering and insurance and tourism. Norway has one of the highest average wages for a country in the world, and Oslo has an average even higher than this national average. Due to the high average wage, linked to the fact that many basic commodities such as many foodstuffs are imported, leads to an extremely high cost of living. This is further exaggerated by the very high Norwegian tax rate. Finally there is large public opposition to both the development of the city itself with high-rise buildings and the surrounding areas, resulting in space becoming at a premium. All of these factors combine to make Oslo the fifth most expensive city in the world in which to live. 

This street is the Karl Johan gate with the Royal Palace in the distance. .

4. Copenhagen

Copenhagen is the fourth most expensive city in the world in which to live. Like Helsinki and Oslo which also appear in the top 10 most expensive cities in terms of cost of living, it too is the capital city of a Scandinavian country. In Copenhagen's case the country is Denmark, and like both Oslo and Helsinki, it is not only the political capital city but the dominant city in the country economically and culturally as well. Copenhagen is the location for many international head and regional offices, such as Maersk which has head offices in Copenhagen and Microsoft, for which Copenhagen provides the regional headquarters. Recently Copenhagen, and Denmark as a whole has seen massive growth, both domestically and internationally. For example, the largest wind turbine manufacturer, Vestas, is a Danish company. All of these factors combined lead to Copenhagen having an extremely strong economy, with the corresponding high wages, which results in it being in fourth position on the list of most expensive cities in terms of cost of living.

The former stock exchange building on an island in Copenhagen. Now a major tourist attraction.

3. Paris

Paris is the capital city of France, and comes in third on the list of most expensive cities in the world. The city of Paris is a rather compact area, although the metropolitan area is much larger and includes many satellite towns. The central area of Paris, and the area with which this cost of living list deals with, refers solely to the city of Paris. Paris is famous for tourism, and whilst this generates a large amount of money for the local economy, it does lead to demands for less development of the older parts of the city. As such this leads to less modern space for both commerce and residences than many other cities, and this pushes up the cost of living. Another factor in the high cost of living is the strong economy of the Paris region, and therefore high average wage. Major industries in Paris include the previously mentioned tourism, as well as finance and high-tech manufacturing. All of these factors combine to give the city of Paris the third highest cost of living worldwide.

2. Osaka-Kobe

The second highest cost of living is for two linked cities in Japan - Osaka and Kobe. As with many Japanese cities, both of these have an extremely high population density, which leads to expensive housing and other costs. Both cities are very large with populations in excess of 1 million. In each city there are a number of different industries, with many large multinational companies having their headquarters in the respective cities. Examples of these include Mitsubishi, Mizuno, Panasonic, Sanyo and Sharp. There is also a relatively large financial industry in both cities, leading to high wages. The high cost of land, as well as high wages, combine to make the Osaka-Kobe region the second most expensive region in the world in which to live.

View of Osaka taken from the Umeda sky building to the north. Photo taken by Flying Toaster and licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license.

1. Tokyo

The Japanese capital city of Tokyo comes first on the list of most expensive cities to live in. In addition to being the top of the list of cities with the highest living costs, it is also the centre of the world's largest metropolitan area by both population and economy. This is probably what makes it the most expensive city in the world in which to live. The Tokyo stock exchange is one of the world's largest, and is the largest one in Japan. Many international companies are based in Tokyo, and yet more have regional offices in the city which leads to a lot of highly paid jobs. In addition, the large size of the population leads to massive demand for space, and this is further exacerbated by the fact that Tokyo is surrounded by the Bay of Tokyo and a lot of steep hills and mountains. All of these factors combine to make Tokyo the most expensive city in the world in which to live.