3 ab exercises you can do at home

Get a flat tummy without stepping into the gym, with these weight-free exercises

1. Donkey kickbacks
This yoga-inspired move is easy but intense.

How to do it

- Go down on all fours with your toes tucked in.
- Contract your abs while drawing your stomach inwards.
- Lift both your knees a couple of inches off the ground. Keeping your abs contracted, bring the right knee to your nose.
- Stretch your right leg straight behind you and squeeze your butt. Repeat this 8 times.
- Switch to the left leg, and do eight repetitions.

2. The teaser
This is a Pilates-inspired exercise you can do anywhere.

How to do it

- Lie on your back.
- Lift your feet and bend your knees at a 90-degree angle.
- Tighten your stomach while inhaling, and slowly lift up arms over your head.
- Exhale and bring your arms forward, while straightening the legs to form a V-shape with your body.
- Slowly roll back while bending your knees and bringing your arms overhead.
- Do this 15 times.

3. Low-belly legger
This one's a six-pack move.

How to do it

- Lie down with your face up and bend your knees at a 90-degree angle. Put your hands behind your head, and contract your belly.
- Lift your shoulder, inhale and hold for 5 seconds.
- Exhale and stretch your legs to 45 degrees. Hold for 5 seconds while squeezing your lower abs.
- Do 2 sets of 10 repetitions.

Top 9 breakfast mistakes to avoid

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, but what people do not know about this meal is that if they skip this meal, it could have an adverse effect on their weight. 

Akansha Jhalani, Registered Dietitian and health blogger at Beyond The Weighing Scale, helps you decode the myths associated with breakfast, so that you enjoy the most important meal of the day in a healthy way.

1 Juicing your fruit
When you start your blender to juice oranges, remember that this process causes the fruit to lose most of its vitamins, minerals and fibre. Instead, replace your juice with a glass of water and a whole fruit. It will save you some extra calories.

2 Eating a baby size breakfast
Eating whatever you want cannot help you escape from those extra calories. It is a common myth that eating whatever you wish after a long gap of fasting will not make you gain weight. Oily parathas, waffles, leftover dinner can lead to extra calorie consumption.

3 Beware of breakfast treats
The tempting doughnuts and muffins can cause as much as an entire meal's caloric consumption. When placed in front of you, take a deep breath and realise that you have set healthy lifestyle changes and politely decline.

4 Monitor your caffeine intake
One cup of coffee or tea could help boost your mood and metabolism, but avoid drinking multiple cups of coffee. This can cause sleep deprivation and coffee add-ons can reflect on your body in a bad way.

5 Unhealthy breakfast
Eat a fist full of nuts, a bowl of cereal and a whole fruit instead of chocolate pancakes, muffins and mayo sandwiches. High calorie and high fat items can cause a sugar spike and recurring spikes could cause health issues.

6 Thinking breakfast is not important
Even if you feel full from the previous day's dinner or are in a rush, make sure you eat a quick breakfast. Skipping breakfast slows down our metabolism and makes us feel lethargic. A slice of whole-wheat toast, a fruit or a fist full of sprouts can do the trick.

7 Avoid breakfast buffets
Buffets and large breakfast spreads could make you eat more than you need. Do not stuff yourself silly by opting for sugar coated cereals, doughnuts and fruit cocktails. Instead, choose egg preparations, leaner meats, oats, wheat flakes and milk.

8 Gorging on food early in the morning
Have a glass of lukewarm water, first thing in the morning. It helps to keep you hydrated, aids digestion, cures gastric ailments and gives you a feeling of fullness.

9 Not eating a healthy breakfast
Try and eat a healthy breakfast like green tea with a lemon wedge, oats with half a banana an egg preparation with an orange and whole wheat toast.

Viber, WhatsApp, Twitter, Skype, Imo back

Popular social media sites, including Viber, WhatsApp, Twitter, Skype and Imo have reopened Monday evening.

Earlier, state minister for posts and telecommunications Tarana Halim asked Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) to open all social media sites.

The minister made this disclosure to the media Monday afternoon.

She also thanked people for accepting the government’s decision regarding the closure of the sites.

Earlier on Sunday night (December 13), BTRC asked the telecom operators to block the sties of Twitter, Skype and Imo.

Tamanna Rahman to lead cultural delegation to Nepal

A nine-member cultural delegation, led by Tamanna Rahman, exponent of Manipuri dance and accomplished choreographer of Bangladesh, is going to Nepal to perform on December 16, 2015, the 45th Victory Day of Bangladesh.

The Embassy of Bangladesh to Nepal invited Nrityam Nrityasheelon Kendro, one of the leading dance institutions of Bangladesh, founded by Tamanna Rahman in 1998, to celebrate the glorious occasion.

Nrityam Nrityasheelon Kendro issued a press release in this regard.

It said the program will be held at Rastriya Sabha Griha (City Hall) in Kathmandu.

Former Prime Minister of Nepal Sushil Koirala, who received the Friends of Bangladesh Honour, will attend the occasion as chief guest.

Tamanna Rahman and artists of Nrityam Nrityasheelon Kendro will portray the heritage, culture, struggle and achievement of Bangladesh through different dance numbers.

Other dance artists of the team are Subrata Das, Joyonty Samantha, Shahidul Islam, Katha, Chhoa, Bithi, Farzin and Ripon.

The program will be presented in two parts. The first part will showcase the traditional Manipuri Dance and the second part will present dances composed on folk songs depicting the rural life, patriotic songs, Rabindra- Nazrul songs etc. all choreographed by Tamanna Rahman.

The delegation will leave Dhaka on December 13 for Kathmandu and expected to return on December 17. 

Hidden portrait ‘found under Mona Lisa’

 An image of a portrait underneath the Mona Lisa has been found beneath the existing painting using reflective light technology, according to a French scientist.

Pascal Cotte said he has spent more than 10 years using the technology to analyze the painting, reports the BBC.

He claims the earlier portrait lies hidden underneath the surface of Leonardo’s most celebrated artwork.

A reconstruction shows another image of a sitter looking off to the side.

The Louvre Museum has declined to comment on his claims.

Instead of the famous, direct gaze of the painting which hangs in the Louvre Museum in Paris, the image of the sitter also shows no trace of her enigmatic smile, which has intrigued art lovers for more than 500 years.

But Cotte’s claims are controversial and have divided opinion among Leonardo experts.

The scientist, who is the co-founder of Lumiere Technology in Paris, was given access to the painting in 2004 by the Louvre.

He has pioneered a technique called Layer Amplification Method (LAM), which he used to analyze the Mona Lisa.

It works by ‘projecting a series of intense lights’ on to the painting, Cotte said.

A camera then takes measurements of the lights' reflections and from those measurements, Cotte said he is able to reconstruct what has happened between the layers of the paint.

The Mona Lisa has been the subject of several scientific examinations over more than half a century. More recent techniques include infrared inspections and multi-spectral scanning.

But Cotte has claimed his technique is able to penetrate more deeply into the painting.

He said, ‘We can now analyze exactly what is happening inside the layers of the paint and we can peel like an onion all the layers of the painting. We can reconstruct all the chronology of the creation of the painting’.

Loss and Gain of BPL 2015

BPL 2015 has reached its crescendo. The curtain will drop after the final tomorrow (December 15). While the matches created lots of excitements and enthusiasm it also left behind few controversies and possible scandals which may let off bad breath after the tournament is over.

 One such allegation is the toss manipulation allegation. There is no doubt that such tournaments present opportunity for young players getting exposure to international cricket. 

For Bangladesh it is more important as it plays very little T20 international and its record in that version of cricket is not palatable. But was BCB well and truly guarded against the dark side of T20 tournaments where evil syndicate go all out in betting and match fixing? 

A leading electronic media of Bangladesh has aired footage-supported allegation for possible toss manipulation of some matches of BPL 2015. Given that teams winning the toss and letting opponent bat first have won most of the matches intensifies doubt that a powerful syndicate with the evil intention of making fortune through betting may have done this. Anyway, the electronic media says there may be likely an investigation.

Two relatively unfancied teams Comilla Victorians and Barisal Bulls have reached the final of BPL 2015. The match is scheduled to be played tomorrow. Off the six franchises, the two finalists were relatively weaker in matter of recruitment. They did not feature in most pre-tournament expert previews.

Mashrafe Bin Mortaza has a proven track record of leading under strength teams to winning competitions. For that matter Comilla qualifying for the final has not surprised many. But under strength Barisal overpowering strong Dhaka Dynamites and tournament favorite Rangpur Riders, are significant events. 

Moreover, Bulls won most matches without their tramp card Chris Gayle. Without taking away any credits from Victorians and Bulls the nature in which some teams exploded in some matches raised doubts and confusions of back door parleys.

We have seen the TV footage of the alleged toss manipulation. The match referee announces the result of the toss with the coin on the surface. But in the alleged case that was not done. The views of captains were covered while picking the coin and announcing later. Hope it was unintentional and nothing was done. We have great confidence in that particular match referee.  But since it has been widely reported and even from Australia we viewed it must be neutrally investigated.

BPL T20 definitely entertained many. It created opportunities for Bangladesh cricketers for rubbing shoulders and sharing the dressing rooms with some international super stars. Some talented youngsters have emerged and some national players could iron out their skills and temperament for the shortest version of the game. 

Bangladesh will soon participate in Asia Cup to be played in T20 format in its own backyard. Then it has to play first the qualification round for T20 world cup in India. If qualified they play in the elite group of 10. Can we say BPL 2015 was ideal preparation for that?

The wickets were mostly not conducive for playing ideal T20 brand of cricket in most cases. The umpiring was in general substandard. There were genuine allegations of attempted favoring franchise belonging to persons in influential positions of BCB. 

Going back a little, BPL 3 version was delayed after ICC commissioned enquiry surfaced match fixing in the second BPL. There were genuine allegations of nonpayment to players by the franchise. Some players including Bangladesh Icon Ashraful was given long term ban. This is not unique in Bangladesh.

Even major scandals were surfaced in IPL. Two main teams Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals got ban for two years. Some players were even arrested.

BCB dared to venture for BPL 3. BCB shouldered responsibility of payment partially. But the structure of BPL 3 created controversy right from the start. Persons serving in present BCB and some persons having strong links with BCB were allowed direct or indirect ownership of franchise. BCB directors got directly involved in franchise management. ICC was not requested to commission ACSU for policing transparency.

We are not indicating to anything. But we are recording apprehension that if major incident of online betting, toss manipulations or any other covert method of scandal are surfaced after the tournament will that serve the interest of Bangladesh Cricket? The possibilities are there are favored teams could not get through and many investing on online betting must have lost their fortune.  

But it is encouraging that youngsters like Mustafiz, Abu Haider Rony, Zahurul Islam and Al Amin had wonderful BPL. Sabbir, Liton and Kayes found their feet. Tamim batted to his reputation. Perhaps players like Soumya and Rony could realize their limitations of temperament from repeated failures.

We are not sure what Bangladesh Cricket achieved in spending much higher foreign exchange payments to most of the ordinary foreign players than even the Bangladesh top players? Will there be any soul searching ever? Is there any fair business ombudsman in Bangladesh to police this?

Mourinho sacked as Chelsea manager

Chelsea has sacked manager Jose Mourinho for a second time, just seven months after winning the Premier League.

The 52-year-old has been dismissed with Chelsea 16th in the division and one point above the relegation zone following a dismal run of nine defeats in 16 games, reports the skysports.com

Sky sources understand that Mourinho was called to the training ground at Cobham to a meeting with chairman Bruce Buck and director Eugene Tenenbaum earlier on Thursday afternoon, which lasted no longer than 10 minutes.

And at 2pm his second spell as Chelsea manager was brought to an end after 30 months and 136 games, despite delivering his third and the club's fourth Premier League title by an eight-point margin in May.

A Chelsea statement read: "Chelsea Football Club and Jose Mourinho have today parted company by mutual consent. All at Chelsea thank Jose for his immense contribution since he returned as manager in the summer of 2013.

"His three league titles, FA Cup, Community Shield and three League Cup wins over two spells make him the most successful manager in our 110-year history.

"But both Jose and the board agreed results have not been good enough this season and believe it is in the best interests of both parties to go our separate ways.