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Books come in all sizes, but one 15th century Quran was so enormous, it’s said that a wheelbarrow was needed to carry it. Two consecutive pages of this Quran will be on display during the show “The Art of the Qur’an: Treasures from the Museum of Turkish and Islamic Arts,” which opens Saturday at the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery. The sprawling pages, each measuring 5 feet by 7 feet, have rows of calligraphy standing 8 to 9 inches high. They date from about 1400, and have been on long-term loan with the Smithsonian museum. The passage on display is from a chapter explaining that “signs of God and evidence of His goodness are all around,” according to Simon Rettig, assistant curator of Islamic Art. It also deals with the refutation of materialistic views, the history of some ancient peoples, warnings to those who go astray and encouragements to forgiveness. “If anyone does a righteous deed, it ensures to the benefit of his own soul; If he does evil, it works against his own soul,” one passage reads. Like many items in the exhibit focused on the Muslim holy book, these pages come with a story — this one involving the feared nomadic conqueror, Timur, who ruled a huge empire based in central Asia. As the story goes, Timur — also named Tamerlane by Europeans — was unimpressed by the artistry required to create a Quran tiny enough to fit inside a signet ring. So this calligrapher, Omar Aqta’, gave it another try, this time going large to show off his “incredible talent.” While the feat of creating a tiny Quran likely required more skill, it is amazing that the calligrapher had the “bravery to attempt something like this,” said Massumeh Farhad, chief curator at the Sackler and Freer and curator of Islamic art. Omar Aqta’ returned with a Quran so large, it was carried to the palace in a wheelbarrow, and she said, Timur, “a man who loved big things,” was so pleased that he rewarded the calligrapher handsomely. While it was not unusual for Qurans to be broken up, it’s not clear whether the folios of this Quran were ever bound into one volume, Farhad said. There would have been thousands of pages, but most have been lost to history, with only about 10 surviving. The two pages on display were among those found by a British traveler in a mausoleum in eastern Iran in the 19th century. The show brings together manuscripts and folios from the museum in Istanbul with manuscripts from the collection of the Sackler and Freer Gallery of Art, which together form the Smithsonian’s Asian art museum. Though the Arabic text of the Quran was fixed as early as the late 7th century, the exhibit showcases the variety of styles of calligraphy and illumination employed over the centuries. The works span nearly a millennium, dating from the late 7th or early 8th centuries (not long after the time of Muhammad) to the 17th century.

Kurdish forces have carried out new attacks on positions of so-called Islamic State (IS) in northern Iraq to retake the town of Bashiqa, near Mosul. Kurdish Peshmerga commanders said they made large advances into IS territory and secured part of a highway that will limit IS's freedom of movement. Turkey joined the fight against IS on Sunday, directing artillery fire at jihadist positions in Bashiqa. The Iraqi PM had rejected an offer of Turkish involvement on Saturday. What happened in Bashiqa? Kurdish fighters killed dozens of IS militants, cordoned off eight villages and blocked IS's ability to supply Mosul with reinforcements. The top US commander in Iraq, Lt Gen Stephen Townsend, told reporters there had been "considerable success" in Bashiqa on Sunday. But he cautioned: "I have not received a report that says every house has been cleared, every Daesh [IS fighter] has been killed and every IED [roadside bomb] has been removed." Journalists have not yet been allowed into the town. Reuters TV footage, shot from a nearby village, showed smoke rising from Bashiqa as Kurdish fighters launched attacks against IS with mortars and machine guns. Coalition forces have continued to push back IS positions around Mosul. Peshmerga commanders say they have advanced within 9km (5.5miles) of the city. What is Turkey's role? Turkey has insisted that its forces cannot remain idle during the fight to drive IS militants from Mosul. On Sunday, Turkish forces in Iraq fired weapons on militants in Bashiqa. Turkey said Kurdish fighters had asked for help. Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said in televised comments: "The Peshmerga have mobilised to cleanse the Bashiqa region from Daesh [IS]. "They asked for help from our soldiers at the Bashiqa base. So we are helping the tanks with our artillery there." Bashiqa is close to a military base where Turkish troops are training Sunni Muslim fighters, both Arabs and Kurds. On Friday, US Defense Secretary Ash Carter suggested Turkey should play a role in the Mosul offensive, but the Iraqi PM Haider al-Abadi balked at the idea, telling the US that there was no need for Turkish forces yet. What happened in Anbar? In an apparent attempt to divert attention from the Mosul offensive, IS militants attacked the town of Rutba, in the western province of Anbar, on Sunday. An Iraqi military spokesman reported three suicide car bombs in the city but said the situation was now "under control". The town had been under IS control since 2014, but was taken back into government hands four months ago. Rutba's mayor said IS entered the city through sleeper cells. As the pressure builds on IS in and around Mosul, the group has been counter-attacking with suicide bombers and launching assaults in other areas. On Friday, IS launched an attack on the city of Kirkuk, south-east of Mosul. At least 46 people were killed and many more injured. The city remains under curfew and there were reports of continuing sporadic clashes on Sunday. What is the US reaction? Mr Carter, who is visiting Kurdish officials in Irbil, praised the efforts of Peshmerga forces "They fight extremely well. But because they're fighting hard, they suffer... casualties,'' he said. Mr Carter said Washington would supply extra support to the Iraqis if it was requested and said the US was planning a simultaneous operation in IS's Syrian stronghold Raqqa, according to the Associated Press news agency. He said Washington wanted to begin military operations against IS fighters in Raqqa "as soon as possible". A US-led coalition is backing the assault on Mosul with warplanes and military advisers. Some 30,000 Iraqi security force personnel, Kurdish Peshmerga fighters, Sunni Arab tribesmen and Shia militiamen are involved in the offensive. Is the IS group finished? Voices from Mosul as battle nears Dodging ghosts of IS in the desert Turkey insists forces cannot remain idle What does this mean for civilians? The UN says that 5,000 people have been displaced so far by the recent fighting around Mosul. It expects another 200,000 will be uprooted in the coming weeks. On Friday a sulphur factory outside of Mosul was set on fire by militants. Up to 1,000 people have been treated in hospital for the effects of toxic smoke. Aid agencies are bracing for a displacement of up to one million civilians as the battle continues. The UN says some 700,000 people are expected to need shelter.

he National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and Honda have confirmed that a recent crash fatality in the U.S. has been linked to the Takata air-bag rupture. The NHTSA stated late this week that a 50-year-old female driver of a 2001 Honda Civic died of injuries sustained in a crash in Riverside, California, on Sept. 30 of this year. This recent fatality is the 11th death linked to a rupture of Takata air bags in the U.S. The NHTSA notes that the Civic in question was recalled as far back as 2008 and that the repair was not completed. The agency did not say how long the deceased owned the vehicle. "The vehicle is included in a po[CENSORED]tion of Honda and Acura vehicles which has been identified by NHTSA as holding 'substantially higher risk,'" the NHTSA said in a statement addressing the crash. "The air-bag inflators in these particular vehicles contain a manufacturing defect which greatly increases the potential for dangerous rupture when a crash causes the air bag to deploy. Ruptures are far more likely in inflators in vehicles that have spent significant periods of time in areas of high absolute humidity -- particularly Florida, Texas, other parts of the Gulf Coast and Southern California. Testing of the inflators from these vehicles show rupture rates as high as 50 percent in a laboratory setting." The agency and a number of research teams working on the issue have cited several factors that cause Takata-made air-bag inflators to deploy violently, including the lack of a desiccant drying agent, age of the air bags and the climate in which the vehicles reside. Until the Sept. 30 crash, the most recent fatalities definitively linked to Takata air-bag inflators have occurred outside the country but also involved older Honda vehicles. Honda is not the sole marque that features Takata-made air bags that have been recalled; over a dozen other automakers have used desiccant-free inflators in their air-bag assemblies. Prior to the Sept. 30 crash, the most recent fatalities in the U.S. involved a 2002 Honda Civic in Texas and a 2006 Ford Ranger in South Carolina, both happening within the last 12 months. Another death related to Takata ammonium inflators occurred in Texas in August of this year when a subcontractor-operated 18-wheeler carrying inflators and chemicals exploded, killing one person, injuring four and damaging 10 homes within a two-mile radius. The NHTSA has listed a number of vehicles containing higher-risk inflators and urges owners to stop driving them. The vehicles listed in the group below have shown rupture rates as high as 50 percent when they were tested, with the ruptures creating a likelihood of fatal injury to drivers and passengers. - 2001-2002 Honda Civic - 2001-2002 Honda Accord - 2002-2003 Acura TL - 2002 Honda CR-V - 2002 Honda Odyssey - 2003 Acura CL - 2003 Honda Pilot "The air-bag inflators in this particular group of vehicles pose a grave danger to drivers and passengers that must be fixed right away," stated NHTSA administrator Mark Rosekind.

If you cannot take your eyes off the innumerable selfies posted on social networking sites like Facebook, take heed. Researchers have found that the more often people view their own and others’ selfies, the lower is their level of self-esteem and life satisfaction. “Most of the research done on social network sites looks at the motivation for posting and liking content, but we’re now starting to look at the effect of viewing behaviour,” said Ruoxu Wang, one of the researchers from Pennsylvania State University in the US. Viewing behaviour is also called “lurking” — when a person does not participate in posting or liking social content, but is just an observer. This form of participation in social media may sound like it should have little effect on how humans view themselves, but the study, published online in the Journal of Telematics and Informatics, revealed the exact opposite. The researches conducted an online survey to collect data on the psychological effects of posting and viewing selfies and groupies. They discovered that frequent viewing of selfies through social network sites like Facebook is linked to a decrease in self-esteem and life satisfaction.

UN human rights chief Zeid Raad Al Hussein has described the Syrian city of Aleppo as a "slaughterhouse". In a speech, he said the siege and bombardment of Aleppo's rebel-held east were among the "crimes of historic proportions" being committed in Syria. Almost 500 people have been killed and 2,000 injured since government forces, backed by Russian air strikes, launched an assault on the east a month ago. Syria's government has said civilians are suffering because of "terrorists". Meanwhile, the UN said a lack of security guarantees had forced it to delay plans to carry out medical evacuations from Aleppo on Friday during the second 11-hour "humanitarian pause" declared unilaterally by the government and its ally, Russia. Russia has said it will also suspend air strikes between 08:00 and 19:00 local time (05:00-16:00 GMT) on Saturday to allow civilians and rebels to leave the city via safe corridors. However, very few people have reportedly taken advantage of the offer, with rebel factions asserting that it would amount to forced displacement and surrender. Russia and the West: Are we entering a new cold war? Life under siege in rebel-held Aleppo Why Assad wants to take Aleppo Aleppo: Key battleground in Syria's war Aleppo, once Syria's largest city and the country's commercial and industrial hub, has been devastated by fighting since 2012. It has been left divided roughly in two, with President Bashar al-Assad's forces controlling the west and rebels the east. At the start of September, troops and Iranian-backed militiamen severed the rebels' last route into the east and placed its 275,000 residents under siege. Two weeks later, following the collapse of a nationwide truce brokered by the US and Russia, the government launched a ground offensive to take full control of the city, accompanied by an aerial bombardment of unprecedented scale and intensity. At an emergency session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva on Friday, Mr Zeid warned that "crimes of historic proportions" were being committed in eastern Aleppo and elsewhere in Syria. "The ancient city of Aleppo, a place of millennial civility and beauty, is today a slaughterhouse - a gruesome locus of pain and fear, where the lifeless bodies of small children are trapped under streets of rubble and pregnant women deliberately bombed," he said. Mr Zeid added that his staff had "documented violations of international humanitarian law by all parties in Aleppo". "Armed opposition groups continue to fire mortars and other projectiles into civilian neighbourhoods of western Aleppo, but indiscriminate air strikes across the eastern part of the city by government forces and their allies are responsible for the overwhelming majority of civilian casualties. "These violations constitute war crimes. And if knowingly committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against civilians, they constitute crimes against humanity." The commissioner said the failure of the international community - particularly the UN Security Council - to protect civilians and halt the bloodshed "should haunt everyone of us". Syria's permanent representative to the UN, Hussam al-Din Ala, made a visibly angry statement afterwards, insisting that the Syrian government was waging a battle against terrorism. Later, the charity Save the Children warned that aid workers and medical professionals in eastern Aleppo were reporting the widespread use of cluster bombs, which are banned under international law. It cited the Violations Documentation Centre, an activist-run site, as recording 137 cluster-bomb attacks in Aleppo between 10 September and 10 October - a 791% increase on the average of the previous eight months.

Actor Shahid Kapoor, who has launched his own fashion brand called SKULT, says there was a time when he had poor sense of fashion. “I think I was a fashion victim 10 years back. I had absolutely no idea about what to wear or where to buy. I didn’t have any knowledge of Google or social media where you could discover what’s going on,” Shahid said in Mumbai. The actor said: “I would wear a bright yellow T-shirt, tight jeans and boots, and thought it was cool. So, it’s been a long journey. In last 2-3 years, I understood a little bit about style and wanted to express myself in the fashion line.” Talking about the brand, the “Udta Punjab” star said: “SKULT is something very close to my heart. It is about freedom, freedom of expression, movement and street style.” On personal front, Shahid and his wife Mira Rajput welcomed their first child, a daughter, in August. And work wise, he will be seen in Vishal Bhardwaj’s upcoming period drama “Rangoon”, and will soon start shooting for Sanjay Leela Bhansali for the upcoming magnum opus “Padmavati”.

Accepted

Hyundai never disappoints at the annual SEMA Show in Las Vegas, and for 2016 it's bringing its most aggressive lineup yet of SUVs, hatches and coupes. We'll have to wait until November for a live look, but, for now, here's a quick preview. This first concept was built with the help of tuner Bisimoto and is based on Hyundai's usually staid Santa Fe SUV. The red-and-white "Santa-Fast" was converted to rear-wheel drive and lays down 1,040 hp from its flex-fuel turbocharged Hyundai 3.8-liter Lambda V6. The motor is positioned longitudinally in this application, as opposed to transversely in the street car. Full boost is rated at 39 psi. “Bisimoto takes pleasure in making any vehicle fun to drive, even a larger SUV,” said Bisi Ezerioha, owner of Bisimoto. “Our Santa-Fast SUV is a proof-of-concept vehicle with driving capabilities that our customers can count on every day they turn the key.” There are about 100 upgrades to this jelly-bean-shaped rocket, so we'll just hit the highlights: Custom twin-turbo kit AEM electronics Five-O racing injectors Turbonetics turbos Hyundai Equus(!) rear differential Six-speed manual conversion KW coilover suspension Bisimoto axles and halfshaft 19-inch wheels, Toyo tires and Buddy Club four-piston brakes Hyundai Rockster concept for SEMA The second SEMA concept sees Hyundai partnering with extreme drink maker (we suppose that's a thing now) Rockstar Energy for this nitrous-powered Santa Fe. It uses Hyundai's 3.3-liter Lambda V6 to drive all four wheels. Hyundai didn't give a full hp output on the off-roader, but we've called to check. Other upgrades include: AEM cold air intake Mishimoto cooling system Nitrous oxide injection system R1 6-piston front, 4-piston rear, big brake system 2.0 KING coilovers front 2.5 KING shocks with finned reservoir rear Custom suspension setup with new tie rods and control arms Nology high-performance wires Odyssey batteries Nitro Gear gears KICKER® audio system Magnaflow custom exhaust 17-inch off-road KMC XD 301 Turbine bead-lock wheels Mickey Thompson Baja Claw 35-inch off-road tires Wheel clearance expansion setup WARN® winch Rock sliders and bumpers Custom roof rack, headlamps and taillamps Bulldog LED lighting Roadwire custom leather interior design The Veloster concept by Gurnade Inc. emphasizes the stock car's stance with flares, splitters, racing canards, custom spoiler and a set of lightweight, three-piece forged wheels. The intercooler, downpipe, cold-air intake and ECU tune come from 845 Motorsports, and ARK Performance made the cat-back exhaust. As for the chassis, NEO Motorsports supplied the coilovers and brake kit; Pierce Motorsports did the strut bar, rear torsion bar and tie brace; and Rotiform provided the 19-inch wheels. Other upgrades to the interior and exterior consist of: PPG Refinish Magic Magenta paint Lightner Motorsports custom fender flares and grille EPR carbon-fiber front spoiler, side sills, and rear garnish Seibon carbon-fiber hood and hatch ARK Performance carbon-fiber spoiler Tippett Auto Design vented bumper cover Cappelletti Design custom headlamps and foglamps Front crash bar InShane Design paint protection Cobra Nogaro racing seats Takata racing harnesses Pierce Motorsports roll cage Glowshift gauges and LEDGlow lighting SoCal Garage Works carbon-fiber steering wheel Phoenix Gold subwoofer and amplifier with Stinger audio system wiring Creative Car-Tunes audio system Hyundai Elantra SEMA concept Finally, Hyundai and ARK Performance joined up to produce this Elantra concept with flares, racing wheels and new front and rear fascia designs. The Elantra's not a bad canvas to start from and it's our favorite of the bunch, so far. We wouldn't be surprised to see a few more before the end of the month. Other upgrades on this Elantra include: Custom ARK turbo kit using Xcargot XT26 turbocharger ARK downpipe and GRiP exhaust system Turbosmart blow-off valve and wastegate ARK DT-P coilover system ARK front strut tower bar ARK front and rear performance anti-roll bars ARK front big brake kit Nitto Tire NT05 summer tires ARK Solus wide body kit ARK lightweight forged wheels Fiere Customs full vinyl wrap APR Performance front splitter Custom diamond-stitched interior Custom sport steering wheel by ARK

Kakkathuruthu, a tiny island in Kerala’s Alappuzha district has been listed in National Geographic’s ‘Around the World in 24 Hours’, a photographic tour of travel-worthy spots across the world. “It is a matter of pride for us to be listed by NatGeo, which is among the leading magazines in the world,” said Kerala Tourism Minister A.C. Moideen. The tiny island, also known as the ‘Island of crows’, that can be reached only by boats, was captured by the magazine photographers during the time of dusk when “the shadows lengthen and the sky shifts from pale blue to sapphire”. In a graphic description, the magazine said the sunset in Kerala is greeted by a series of rituals — Saree clad women head home in skiffs, fishermen light lamps and cast nets into the lagoon and bats swoop across the horizon snapping up moths. “If dawn is awakening and daytime illumination, then twilight is transcendence, a final burst of vitality before darkness falls,” said NatGeo Expeditions. The other destinations included in the magazine’s list are the Northern Lights zone in Norway at 12:00 a.m., Hawaii at 5:00 a.m., Paris at 6:00 a. m., San Francisco at 7:00 a.m., Abu Dhabi at 8:00 a.m., Melbourne at 9:00 a.m., New York at 8:00 p.m., Budapest (Hungary) at 10:00 p.m. and Kerala at 6:00 p.m.

There is growing pessimism that a European probe which attempted to land on Mars on Wednesday has been lost. Tracking of the Schiaparelli robot's radio signals was dropped less than a minute before it was expected to touch down on the Red Planet's surface. Satellites at Mars have attempted to shed light on the probe's status without success. One American satellite even called out to Schiaparelli to try to get it to respond. The fear will be that the robot has crashed and been destroyed. The European Space Agency, however, is a long way from formally calling that outcome. Its engineers will be running through "fault trees" attempting to figure out why communication was lost and what they can do next to retrieve the situation. This approach could well last several days. One key insight will come from Schiaparelli's "mothership" - the Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO). As Schiaparelli was heading down to the surface, the TGO was putting itself in a parking ellipse around Mars. But it was also receiving telemetry from the descending robot. That telemetry could now hold vital clues as to what happened in the crucial minute before the expected touchdown. Esa experts and those from the industries that built Schiaparelli will examine the downlinked data overnight. They will hold a press conference at 1000 local time (0900 BST; 0800 GMT) on Thursday. Paolo Ferri, the head of mission operations here at Esa's control centre in Darmstadt, Germany, told reporters: "People will spend the night looking at this data. I'm pretty confident that this telemetry will tell us what action was interrupted when we lost the communications. I would say we have a very good chance tomorrow morning to either know that the lander is lost or to know what attempts we can make to recover it." If the mood here surrounding Schiaparelli's fate is sombre, there is at least good cheer in the performance of the TGO in getting into its right orbit above Mars. This satellite is really the key part of the mission formally called ExoMars 2016 - a joint endeavour with the Russian space agency (Roscosmos). The TGO is going to spend the coming years studying the behaviour of gases such as methane, water vapour and nitrogen dioxide in the Red Planet's atmosphere. Although present in only small amounts, these components - methane in particular - hold clues about Mars' current state of activity. They may even hint at the existence of life on the planet today. Landing on Mars is always a daunting prospect. It is necessarily a high-speed approach that has to be got just right or the spacecraft runs the risk of smashing into the ground. Schiaparelli had a heatshield, a parachute and rocket thrusters tin order to get itself to the surface intact. If the robot is later confirmed as lost, it will clearly be a major blow to Esa which suffered the disappointment of the Beagle-2 lander's failure at Mars in 2003. But officials here have underlined the fact that Schiaparelli was always viewed within the agency as a technology demonstrator - a project to give Europe the learning experience and the confidence to go ahead an land a more ambitious six-wheeled rover on Mars in 2021. "This is typical for a test," said Prof Jan Woerner, Esa's director general. "We did this in order to get data on how to land on Mars with European technology. Therefore, all the data we will get this night will be used to understand how to manage the next landing when we go with the rover." This future vehicle is expected to use some of the same technology as Schiaparelli, including its doppler radar to sense distance to the surface on descent, and its guidance, navigation and control algorithms. What will concern commentators is that the budget for the rover is not yet secure. If Schiaparelli is indeed lost, Esa officials may find themselves having to work harder to explain to member states why the extra investment remains worthwhile.

Maybe you've gone there in your mind -- you have the rear jacked up and the wheels and tires off your car. You might have wondered, if your car is front-wheel drive, what it would be like to just drive around with the rear propped up only by that trusty floor jack. Naturally, because you like living and not endangering the general public, you shot your own idea down the minute after you thought it up. Sadly, for the people in the video below ... they didn't. This video allegedly was shot in China. It shows a pair of people recklessly endangering their lives and those of everyone around them. We don't know if the floor jack's pad was welded to the back of the car, or if the folks inside were relying on gravity to keep the mess together, but it seemed to work long enough to shoot a video. Between the bearings kicking out of the floor jack's metal casters, getting lost in a pot hole or the weight shifting on the floor jack's pad, there are too many risks to even remotely consider trying this at home. We don't know what happened after this video was shot, but we can only assume they died in a fiery crash pulled over and slapped some wheels back on the car.

When Kainaz Messman opened a small bakery and patisserie in Mumbai called Theobroma (literally meaning “food of the gods” and referring to the cocoa bean), she unwittingly created a Mecca of sorts in the world of patisserie pilgrimage. The decadent brownies and desserts became sought after gifts and or favours from anyone who was returning from Mumbai. Now with the announcement of the brand’s first venture outside the city, an outlet in Noida and another in Gurgaon, we speak to Messman about her journey. Excerpts: What led you to start a patisserie? My family is obsessed with food. Our lives revolve around what we make and what we eat. I grew up in a sweet smelling house. My mum supplied cakes and desserts from home. Theobroma is still an extension of that. I was 16 when I went to France as a Rotary Youth exchange student and fell in love with simple, classic, unpretentious patisserie. Upon my return, I proceeded to study French literature but already knew I was going to become a chef. I went to IHM Mumbai and then to OCLD (Oberoi Centre of Learning and Development) Delhi. I became a pastry chef at the Oberoi Udailvilas until a back injury abruptly ended my career there. Out of job, I was soon dreaming about our own cake shop. We opened our doors in October 2004. Were you expecting the overwhelming response the first patisserie received? When we started, we did not know what to expect. We didn’t know if we would recover the costs of starting our business or fill the four small tables we had ordered. We were making the things we liked to eat and hoped to do well. I knew how to bake but not much else. I was unprepared for the retail market and the demands and challenges that lay ahead. We couldn’t have predicted or dared to hope for the success that Theobroma would become. What led to the expansion in NCR (National Capital Region) now? We are a small family business. We take our time and we move in baby steps. We have been growing within Mumbai and were only concentrated on this market. We come with a good product and a genuine desire to serve. We have been couriering our products all over India for a few years. Delhi has, by far, been our biggest market. So it became the natural place for us to open first as we expanded out of Mumbai. Since you started Theobroma, have you seen any major shifts in consumer tastes? Mumbai has gastronomically evolved over a decade. The customer today is far more knowledgeable, better travelled, has a more developed palette and is willing to experiment with new products and flavours. How do you deal with Theobroma imitations in the market? Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. We take it in our stride. What we cannot control, we try not to worry about. Our name, our products, colours, our packaging have all been copied to some degree. Often, our staff is poached. However, there is no sustainability in this kind of effort. We concentrate on our offering and it encourages us to keep innovating and improving.

The EU should be prepared for returning jihadists if the so-called Islamic State (IS) is driven out of its Iraqi stronghold, Mosul, an official warns. Security Commissioner Julian King said even a small number of militants would pose "a serious threat that we must prepare ourselves for". Iraqi forces say they have captured 10 villages near Mosul since beginning their long-awaited offensive on Monday. As many as 5,000 IS fighters are believed to remain in the city. Advance on Mosul 'ahead of schedule' Iraq's beleaguered second city Battle must navigate ethnic rivalries Government troops, moving in from the south, are currently some 40km (24 miles) from the city, while Kurdish fighters are some 30km to the east. The International Committee of the Red Cross has appealed to all sides to show their humanity as aid agencies brace for what they say could be the largest man-made humanitarian crisis of recent times. How big is the threat to Europe? Julian King, a British diplomat recently made the EU's security commissioner, told Die Welt newspaper (in German) the threat of IS fighters returning to Europe after the fall of Mosul was "very serious". There were currently about 2,500 fighters from EU countries in the combat zones, he said. However, he stressed it was "very unlikely that there would be a mass exodus of IS fighters to Europe". Similar cases in the past had shown, he said, that "only a few fighters come back". But he added: "I don't want to talk the risk down. Even a small number constitutes a threat." Some of the militants involved in the deadly IS attack on Paris last November had recently returned from Syria. Collapse of IS 'will lead to attacks' Is so-called Islamic State finished? What is the latest on the offensive? Some 34,000 Iraqi security personnel, Kurdish fighters, Sunni Muslim Arab tribesmen and Shia Muslim paramilitaries have been deployed against IS, with backing from the US, France and others. Photos from one of the freed villages, Badana, show the dead bodies of two suspected IS fighters. IS has issued a video, said to have been recorded in the Mosul area, which shows militants firing at a distant column of armoured vehicles. One vehicle appears to be alight. In another video, which purports to show fighters patrolling Mosul by night, an IS spokesman goads the group's enemies to engage it in battle. France's Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian has warned the fight to liberate Mosul in its entirety could take a long time. "It's not a blitzkrieg," he said. "It's a city with 1.5 million residents, so it's a long-term project - several weeks, maybe months." Meanwhile, the Syrian army accused the US-led coalition of planning to allow IS fighters in Mosul to flee into Syria, Reuters news agency reports. The army, which has no control over Syria's border with Iraq, was quoted as saying it would resist any attempt by fighters to cross. The commander of Iraq's Counter-Terrorism Service, Maj-Gen Fadhil Jalil al-Barwari, has been quoted by the New Arab website as saying IS fighters are being offered two corridors "to go to Syria". Kurds describe fighting IS How are civilians coping in Mosul? An Iraqi-American journalist who has been on the outskirts of Mosul and has relatives in the city said the situation there was currently calm. Steven Nabil said people were feeling a mixture of excitement at the prospect of being liberated, and "stress and worry" over what dangers the offensive would bring.

George Barris remains the first name in Hollywood car customizers, having created everything from the Batmobile to KITT from "Knight Rider." His custom work for TV shows led to special projects for celebrities for their own personal use, including a Pontiac station wagon for John Wayne. But when it comes to Ford cars, Barris' best known work is the duo of 1966 Mustangs created for Sonny and Cher as gifts. The two 289-cid Mustangs optioned with three-speed automatic transmissions were originally plucked from the assembly line and sent straight to Barris' shop. The "King of Kustomizers" created new front fascias for the cars, also swapping in Ford Thunderbird taillights and reworking the interiors with appropriately '60s colors and materials. The changes to the exterior are more extensive -- few people notice the shaved-off door handles -- as the wild colors dominate the designs. Barris painted Sonny's car in Murano gold pearl, while Cher's new ride received a hot-pink pearl paint job. Had Xzibit been around in the 1960s, we're sure he and the guys from West Coast Customs would have approved. The two just sold at Barrett-Jackson's Las Vegas auction, with Sonny's Mustang fetching $71,500, while Cher's brought an even $55,000. The two cars have been to high-profile auctions before and were offered with extensive memorabilia, both coming from the Tammy Allen collection. The two were sold as a pair, so they won't be parting company anytime soon, and we have a feeling that we'll see them at auction again sometime in the next 10 years.

As one of the world’s oldest museums dedicated to anthropology turns 150, it is undergoing some big changes to showcase its significant role in developing the discipline. Leaders of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology at Harvard University hinted this month at changes to come when they trotted out _ for one day only _ some of its quirkier, rarely seen pieces as part of a birthday bash marking the day in 1866 when philanthropist George Peabody committed $150,000 to help found the museum. Among the curiosities was a grizzly bear claw necklace from Meriwether Lewis and William Clark’s expedition to the Pacific coast and a grotesque, 19th century “mermaid” made of papier-mâché, wood and fish parts that showman P.T. Barnum once took on a national tour to fanfare. The “FeeJee Mermaid” and other items long sitting in storage will find a permanent home in public view as part of a new exhibition exploring the Peabody’s role in anthropology, said Castle McLaughlin, a museum curator. When it opens in April, “All the World is Here: Harvard’s Peabody Museum and the Invention of American Anthropology” will feature roughly 600 objects. Officials hope to show a greater range of the museum’s more than 1 million items, only a fraction of which are on display now. “Harvard was very much in the business of developing anthropology,” said Jane Pickering, head of Harvard’s science and culture museums. “It’s a really interesting occasion to reflect on the Peabody and its role. Within its field, it’s incredible. The size and quality of its collection is truly astonishing.” McLaughlin said the display will be the largest and perhaps most ambitious the museum has attempted, taking up an entire floor. The museum, which opened on Harvard’s campus in 1877, currently has two levels of exhibit space open. The new exhibition will highlight curiosities collected by American ship captains that traveled to the Far East from the late 1700s to mid-1800s, of which the “Feejee Mermaid” is a prime example. The museum’s many famed excavations _ from the prehistoric earthwork in Ohio known as Great Serpent Mound to the Mayan ruins of Copan in western Honduras _ will also be a focus, as will the museum’s role in the World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893. The Peabody’s director at the time, Frederick Ward Putnam, played a leading role in planning the lavish fair, which took place in Chicago and celebrated the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus’ first voyage to the Americas. Putnam scoured the globe for unique artifacts and helped introduce the principles of anthropology to the wider public through the fair. Jeffrey Quilter, the Peabody’s current director, said the World’s Columbian Exposition highlights the dual legacy of anthropology during those early decades of the profession. On one hand, he said, it exposed more people to the diversity of world cultures. On the other, it inadvertently helped bolster advocates of colonialism and imperialism. As the Peabody turns 150, Quilter said, the museum continues to play a vital role in navigating the complex cultures humans have created. “We’re not just an anthropology museum. We’re interacting with so many other disciplines, from literature to political science to the study of ancient DNA,” he said. “These collections are never dead. They’re constantly being revitalized by people who come back with new ways to study them.”

A State Department official offered a "quid pro quo" deal if the FBI would change the classification of a Hillary Clinton email, FBI documents indicate. Patrick Kennedy, an undersecretary of state, had asked the email be downgraded to a lower category. In exchange, an FBI agent said, Mr Kennedy offered to accept an FBI request for extra agents at foreign diplomatic posts. Both the FBI and the State Department deny any deal was offered or struck. State Department spokesman Mark Toner said there was no "quid pro quo" and it was the FBI official who raised the issue of putting more agents in Iraq, when they discussed the email. Other interesting revelations from the newly released FBI documents include: A former diplomatic security agent said Mrs Clinton would often "blatantly" disregard security and diplomatic protocols, including her frequent refusal to attend overseas diplomatic functions with local ambassadors, which left envoys "insulted and embarrassed" While secretary of state she ignored security advice by going to a dangerous part of Jakarta, Indonesia, in a move that "placed Clinton, her staff, the media and her security detail in unnecessary danger in order to conduct a photo opportunity for 'her election campaign'" A group of top State Department officials that some called "The Shadow Government" met weekly to discuss Freedom of Information requests related to Mrs Clinton. They wanted her emails to be released all at once, instead of on a rolling basis, as would normally be the case, according to the FBI summary. But the group did not get its way. Explaining that security and protocol procedures were regularly breached, the report states that early in Mrs Clinton's tenure as secretary of state, "she and her staff were observed removing lamps and furniture from the State Department", which were brought to her residence in Washington DC. The unnamed source does not know if the government property was ever returned. The 100-page FBI document published on Monday says an unnamed FBI official was "pressured" in summer last year to change the classified Clinton email to unclassified. The official said he had received a call from a colleague - whose name is also redacted - at the FBI's International Operations Division. The colleague said he had been contacted by Mr Kennedy asking him to change the email's classification level in "exchange for a 'quid pro quo'". The State Department, the document says, offered to "reciprocate by allowing the FBI to place more agents in countries where they are presently forbidden". Mr Kennedy, according to the document, followed up on this matter at a subsequent meeting, spending 15 minutes attempting to influence the FBI to unclassify the Clinton email. He also pressed FBI assistant director of counterterrorism Michael Steinbach on the issue. Republican House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan said the revelation "bears all the signs of a cover-up". Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump tweeted: "Unbelievable." But Mr Toner denied there had been any wrongdoing, and said Mr Kennedy was merely questioning why the email was categorised as such. "Under Secretary Kennedy sought to understand the FBI's process for withholding certain information from public release," Mr Toner said. "As has been reported, there have been discussions within the interagency on issues of classification." The email in question was among some 100 messages recovered from Mrs Clinton's private email server that the FBI would ultimately designate as classified. The FBI and State Department engaged in a review of the former secretary of state's emails as they were being made ready for public release. FBI Director James Comey concluded in his investigation Mrs Clinton had been "extremely careless" in handling the classified material.

Kurdish soldiers have neither the financial backing nor manufacturing capabilities that most militaries have at their disposal. They might, however, have the "Mad Max" collection on Blu-Ray, judging by their improvised military heavy vehicles. The Kurdish military, known as the Peshmerga, has been using everything it can find to prepare for war against the Islamic State. The Peshmerga are no strangers to improvised military vehicles and have been militarizing farm equipment and regular light trucks for years. While the older vehicles seem more apt to get interesting paint schemes, the most recent additions to the Kurdish fleet are straight out of the second "Mad Max movie." These modern military vehicles are menacingly matte black and sport aggressive steel accents.

Spiderman, Captain America, Iron Man — we have basically grown watching these superheroes fight evil, thanks to Marvel comics. The first Marvel comic was published in the year 1939, and still it continues to amaze all of us. The publishing house’s latest is called Madaya Mom and the excitement around it is for a poignant reason. In a collaboration with ABC News (also owned by Disney), Marvel’s latest is inspired by real-life experiences of a mother living in the war-torn Syrian city of Madaya. According to The Independent, the lead character in Madaya Mom was inspired by the blog posts of a citizen in the Syrian town who managed to reach out to ABC journalists, who later documented her fight for survival. The person, for reasons of safety, have chosen to remain anonymous. The blog posts began to be published on ABC starting from January with the first being Syria Starving: A Family’s Fight for Survival. She reportedly also kept the journalists regularly updated with her family’s situation. This is not the first time that Marvel has commented on socially relevant and sensitive issues through what they do best — their comics. Earlier, they showed Captain America punching Adolf Hitler in the face, during the World War II. One of the early exchanges between the mother and the journalists was thus: “Today, our one meal was rice and bean soup … our bodies are no longer used to eating. The comic book’s opening line too, is the same line. What more, the comic is freely available for everyone online. Artist Dalibor Talajic, po[CENSORED]r for working on Deadpool, reportedly spoke to The National about the comic. He said he did not want to sensationalise the comic. “I wanted to make a comic with a civilian point of view, where you’re really powerless. You can’t do anything. You’re just waiting for it to pass or for you to die.”

A giant panda believed to have been the oldest ever kept in captivity has died at the age of 38, officials say. The death of Jia Jia, whose age in human terms was more than 100 years, was announced by the Hong Kong theme park where she lived. Her condition had worsened rapidly in recent weeks and she had lost her appetite, according to local reports. She was put down by vets at Ocean Park, where she had lived since 1999. In a statement obtained by BBC Chinese, a Hong Kong government spokesman thanked the park for providing Jia Jia with care and support and added that it was "saddened" by the news. The park in Hong Kong held a high-profile celebration for Jia Jia's 37th birthday at her enclosure in July 2015. Born in 1978 in the wild in Sichuan, China, Jia Jia was given to Hong Kong in 1999 to mark the semi-autonomous city's handover by Britain two years earlier. Pandas normally live to around 20 years of age in the wild, and 25 in captivity.

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This past weekend, Robby Gordon’s son Max entered the Bluewater Desert Challenge in Parker, Arizona. While it’s not uncommon for a father to help his son get involved in motorsport -- especially if said father is a racer himself -- what isn’t exactly ordinary is that Max is competing in off-road races while most of his contemporaries are getting ready for the third-grade spelling bee. Max Gordon is only 8 years old and competing against people with almost that many years of desert-racing experience. Of course, young Max isn’t running in a trophy truck or unlimited class, but a small Arctic Cat UTV. Sure, Max’s dad Robby could have thrown him into a shifter kart and fed his son’s racing desires that way, but it’s hard to argue against desert racing as the coolest way to learn car control. Want some proof? Check out the video below to see how undeniably cool it is to see a kid running in a desert race.

From staying hydrated, moisturising your skin to saying no to hot water bath, it is important to give your skin extra care before the festive season, says an expert. Preeti Seth, Cosmetologist at Pachouli Spa & Wellness Centre, Delhi, has shared some tips that one must start from now to keep your skin healthy. * Stay hydrated: The more you keep your body hydrated, the more youthful you will look. Drinking lots of water is the best way to do away with impurities in your skin, and eliminate waste and toxins from your system. So make sure you drink 8-10 glasses of water every day. * Avoid exposure to sun: Although shopping and celebrations are a big part of the festive season, it is best to avoid too much direct exposure to sunlight. The sun’s strong UV rays can damage your skin texture and make you look dull and tanned. When stepping out, carry an umbrella, apply sunscreen of SPF 45, wear sunglasses and full-sleeved clothes. * Moisturise your skin: Do not wash your face more than twice a day, as it may result in dryness. Additionally, apply a good herbal moisturizer to keep your skin soft and hydrated. * CTM is a must: One must do CTM — cleansing, toning, moisturising — once a day. You can opt milk for cleansing, a good toner as per your skin type and olive oil for moisturising your skin. * Say no to hot water for bathing: Use warm water than hot water for bathing as hot water leads to removal of skin oils which makes it dry.