The magic of love

True love really is forever! Couples who have been together for more than twenty years love each other for a lifetime.
True love and passion is hardly ever dented by ravages of age, says a new study based on brain scans.

Brain scans of couples who have been together for 20 years prove that they are really capable of loving each other with the same intensity and passion as they felt in their initial relationship, until their last breath.

These scans showed that a tenth of them showed a burst of pleasure-boosting dopamine while looking at the photos of their loved ones, the same chemical reaction that young couples exhibit in the first flush of lust.

It contradicts a previous study suggesting that passionate love peters out in 15 months, after going through a roller coaster ride, called 'limerence' in psychological parlance.

Stony Brook University (SBU) researchers who conducted the latest study said that when limerence matures, it permits couples to enjoy 'intensive companionship and sexual liveliness'.

Simply stated, they are able to sustain the same level of romance and passion decades later.

Researchers concentrated on factors like passion, romantic love and lust. They nicknamed such couples 'swans' because swans, voles and grey foxes stay paired for a lifetime.

'The findings go against the traditional view of romance - that it drops off sharply in the first decade - but we are sure it's real,' said Arthur Aron, SBU psychologist.

Billy and Michelle Jordon, one such pair of 'swans', who live in California, still amaze friends and acquaintances by holding hands all the time. 'It comes very naturally,' said Michelle, 59.

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Ban Ki-moon calls for global action on Gaza

After the US blocked a UN Security Council resolution on the Mideast conflict, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon appeals for the international community to act to halt the fighting in the Gaza Strip.
His statement comes less than two days after the US blocked a UN Security Council resolution on the Mideast conflict.

Ban said the Security Council needs to play a central role in ending the conflict and that he will continue to work with its members to find a solution.

After the closed council meeting Saturday night, Jean-Maurice Ripert, French ambassador to the UN and current holder of the Security Council's rotating chairmanship, said there was a strong consensus among the 15 member countries to issue an opinion on the conflict. The overwhelming majority would demand an immediate ceasefire from all sides, he said.

At the time, US Ambassador Alejandro Wolff said that it would damage the Security Council's credibility to make demands that go ignored. He said that Israel as a member of the world community should not be equated with a terrorist organisation like Hamas, the Palestinian militant movement that controls the Gaza Strip.

The Security Council has been unable to forge a resolution on the violence since an Israeli bombing campaign began Dec 27, in response to stepped up rocket fire toward southern Israel by Gaza militants.

Several Arab leaders and diplomats are expected this week at UN headquarters in New York to make direct appeals for the UN to take action.

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Pak hackers plan attack on Indian cyber networks: Intel

After the Mumbai terror strikes, anti-India elements in Pakistan are now planning an attack on Indian computer networks, intelligence agencies have warned. Already Pakistani hackers are trying out a dry run
against Indian networks through popular websites registered there after the Mumbai terror strikes, Home Ministry sources told PTI here today.

"Every time the relations between the two countries dampen, Pakistanis start attacking Indian computer networks and this has increased after the Mumbai terror attacks," a Home Ministry source said. Pakistani hackers have created websites such as the www.

Songs.Pk, which are infested with software to hack data from the targeted computers, it said.

"The website www.Songs.

Pk has over 12 lakh Indian users who are downloading stuff from these websites daily," said a cyber expert in the Ministry. With these websites being highly popular, it will take only a few minutes for the hackers to take command of over 12 lakh computers in few minutes and the number of such computers can multiply in every minute, sources said.

"Instead of the existing less harmful virus, new ones such as Botnet and Zoombie can be easily released into the Indian computers, which later on replicate and make the entire server vulnerable," the expert said. "Now a days new virus and worms are detected while downloading songs from these websites, which could be just a dry run to manage a bigger attack," he said.

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