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Do you have club fingers? Then it’s possible you may have lung cancer. A new study in the latest issue of the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine reveals your hands can provide clues to hidden diseases you may have.Researchers came to this conclusion after studying the palms of a woman tested positive for ovarian cancer.

A 74-year-old woman who was otherwise healthy sought medical help for hard lumps that had developed on her palms. These had gradually spread and joined together, giving the palm a ‘wooden’ feeling, making movement difficult and painful.

Doctors could not find anything obviously wrong, but she was tested for - and diagnosed with - ovarian cancer after they read medical literature and found that the lumps (called palmar fasciitis) were a rare sign of the disease.

Why a tumour has this effect on hands remains a mystery. But one theory is that cancer cells pump out chemicals that trigger fibrosis, or scarring of tissue.

The study’s author, Graham Easton, who has a special interest in hands, says they can provide essential clues on a patient’s well-being.

‘I always try to shake hands when I meet a patient for the first time,’ Easton, a family doctor in London, told the Daily Mail.

‘I’m not being polite - their hands are packed with information about their general health, from whether they might have a thyroid problem to signs of osteoarthritis. In fact, doctors can often tell more about someone’s health by their hands than their face.’

Here are some hand signals you should look for to keep a check on your health.

Club fingers: If the tips of your fingers are dome-shaped or look like small clubs, it could be a warning sign of serious diseases such as lung cancer, TB or mesothelioma - a deadly lung disease linked to asbestos. It is due to the build-up of a substance called PGE2 which helps dampen down inflammation in the lungs. It is thought lung tumours send production of PGE2 into overdrive, churning out 10 times the amount the body needs. It builds up in the finger tips and causes swelling.

Blue fingernails: They look blue as the body is low on oxygen because blood is not being pumped round the body properly. Called cyanosis, this condition can be a warning sign for a heart failure. Oxygen-poor blood is not actually blue. It just appears less bright through the nails than red oxygen-rich blood.

Two-tone nails: Nails that are a pale white on the bottom half, nearest the skin, but a brownish shade on the top half, could be a sign of kidney failure. It’s thought to be due to a build up of urea - a waste product normally processed by the kidneys but which here crystallises under the skin and nails.

Sweaty palms: Hot and sweaty palms are a sign of hyperthyroidism. With an overactive thyroid, the body uses up more calories and generates more heat. Feeling hot and sweaty all the time is a classic symptom.

Beaded nails: If you have tiny beads on your nails that resemble candle wax dripping downwards, it could be a sign of rheumatoid arthritis, even if your joints have not become swollen or painful. The cause is thought to be vasculitis, inflammation of the blood vessels under the nail bed, triggered by the arthritis.

Bony lumps on fingers: Bony pea-sized lumps that are painful to the touch around the joints of the fingers can be a marker for osteoarthritis elsewhere in the body, such as hips or knees.

Fatty knuckles: Lumps of cholesterol deposits - known as tendon xanthoma - over the knuckles are one of the signs of a potentially fatal condition called familial hypercholesterolaemia. These are hard, yellowy bumps that protrude when you clench your fist.

Reddened palms: It is a sign of liver cirrhosis. Called palmar erythema, this reddening usually affects the outer edge of the palm, near the little finger. Blood vessels in the skin dilate due to changes in the hormone balance caused by liver disease.

Close on the heels of taking on Indian Inc over duty evasion on import of aircraft, the government is now scrutinising all imports of high-end cars, resulting in seizure of nearly 20 cars.

Highly placed sources said that customs department had initiated nationwide investigations into the import of luxury cars in August after it came across cases, whereby a large number of cars were imported through legal channels by misrepresenting facts, resulting in losses of several crores of rupees to the exchequer.

Officials said over 400 such imports are under the scanner. Sources said importers had allegedly misused the Export Promotion Capital Goods (EPCG) scheme to avail nearly 90 percent customs duty exemption.

“As per the scheme, vehicles imported to be used as tourist cars for foreigners could avail duty exemption. But we learnt that many of the vehicles were being diverted for private use,” a senior official of Customs Preventive Department said.

While the Customs Preventive is focusing in Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai and Kolkata, the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence is running an inquiry in the matter across the country.

The House Web site was overwhelmed Monday as millions of computer users sought information about the financial bailout bill rejected by the House.

“We haven’t seen this much demand since the 9/11 commission report” was posted on the site in 2004, said Jeff Ventura, spokesman for the House chief administrative officer. “We’re being overwhelmed with Web traffic about the bill.”

Ventura said the Web site is working, but many computer users are getting the equivalent of a busy signal when they try to visit the site. Once users are on the site, it works at reduced speed.

“You have to keep trying and eventually you get in,” he said.

Ventura said the slowdown is expected to last until Tuesday. n the meantime, technicians planned to work through the night to fortify the system.

“Our computer people aren’t going anywhere,” Ventura said.

The House on Monday defeated a $700 billion emergency rescue for the nation’s financial system, and the Dow Jones industrials plunged nearly 800 points, the most for a single day.

Ventura estimated that millions of computer users went to the Web site to e-mail their representatives and to learn about the bill. He was unable to provide a more precise estimate.

The computer slowdown is affecting all House-member Web sites, he said. The site has an application that enables computer users to send e-mails to their representatives.

“It’s all tied into one system that is clearly being overloaded at this point,” he said.

Heath Ledger’s insurance company has been sued in Los Angeles for not paying out $10 million in benefits to his daughter, claiming the actor may have committed suicide, according to court papers.The 28-year-old Australian star of “Brokeback Mountain” and “The Dark Knight” was found dead in his New York apartment in January in what officials ruled was an accidental death from an overdose of painkillers and other medicines.

But lawyers for the ReliaStar insurance company, where Ledger took out a life insurance policy in 2007, have claimed his death was suspicious and possibly a suicide. That would nullify the policy, said the court papers posted on celebrity website TMZ.com.

Ledger’s daughter with actress Michelle Williams, Matilda Rose, 3, was named as the beneficiary in the policy, insurance specialist lawyer William Shernoff said on Monday.

“ReliaStar want to investigate the possibility of suicide, and we think that is inappropriate because the coroner’s report and all the official reports say it was accidental,” said Shernoff, who filed the suit on behalf of Ledger’s daughter in July.

“It is distressing for everybody. The insurance company wants to spend months, if not years, investigating this so they can hold on to their money,” Shernoff told Reuters.

A ReliaStar spokesman said the company was still investigating the claim on the policy and had not yet made a decision.

The company said in court filings it was entitled to investigate because Ledger died within two years of taking out the policy, and accused the other side of failing to cooperate.

News of the legal dispute came after Ledger’s father told Australia’s Sunday Times that the actor’s estate, with an estimated value of $20 million Australian (US $16 million), would go to his daughter.

Bollywood actress Vidya Balan is doing every bit that she can to deliver her best in Vishal Bharadwaj’s ‘Ishqiya’. For this, she even joined a 10-day workshop with her co-star Naseeruddin Shah.’The character that Vidya is playing in ‘Ishqiya’ is very complex and difficult to enact. Vidya thought that the way to emote the character on screen was best learnt from Naseeruddin Shah because the veteran actor is a master at it,’ a source close to the actress said.

‘She was ecstatic to be discussing cinema with the master himself. Though they ended up discussing the film and cinema at length instead of doing a serious workshop, Vidya treasures the experience and is looking forward to working with the actor in the film,’ added the source.

Vidya, who stars opposite Arshad Warsi in the film, is not only taking lessons from Naseer but also also underwent classes to speak the typical Uttar Pradesh dialect during those 10 days.

‘Vidya was just not familiar with the native that kind of Hindi. She mastered it by getting a teacher,’ said the source.

Norway’s top consumer advocate said Monday he is taking Apple Inc. to the government’s Market Council in a test case seeking to force the American company to open its iTunes music store to digital players other than its own iPod.

Norway is leading a European campaign that began two years ago to get Apple to make its iTunes online store compatible with rivals’ digital music players.

“We discussed this at a meeting two weeks ago, and decided that Norway will do the test case,” Consumer Ombudsman Bjoern Erik Thon said by telephone. “This could have international consequences.”

The council has the power under Norwegian law to order companies to change trade practices, and can also order fines if companies fail to comply. Thon said Apple has until Nov. 3 to respond to the allegations, and that the council was likely to decide on the case sometime early next year.

Apple in Norway did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Associated Press.

Thon began pushing Apple to change its system and rules more than two years go, saying the restrictions violate Norwegian law.

Currently, songs purchased and downloaded through iTunes are designed to work with Apple’s market-leading iPod players but not competitors’ models, including those using Microsoft Corp.’s Windows Media system. Likewise, iPods generally can’t play copy-protected music sold through non-Apple stores.

“It’s a consumer’s right to transfer and play digital content bought and downloaded from the Internet to the music device he himself chooses to use. iTunes makes this impossible or at least difficult, and hence, they act in breach of Norwegian law,” said Thon.

Thon said Apple agreed at a meeting in February that they wanted to sell music without the protection known as “Digital Rights Management,” or DRM, and that they shared his goal of making systems interoperable.

But “iTunes has now had two years to meet our demands regarding interoperability. No progress has been reported by iTunes since our meeting in February,” said Thon about the decision to file a complaint. “This is a matter of great principal importance.”

Finland, Denmark, France, Germany and the Netherlands all back the Norwegian drive.

The Sudanese army said it had killed the leader of a group that kidnapped 11 Western tourists and eight Egyptians on Sunday and said the hostages were now in Chad, the state-run SUNA news agency reported.

The agency quoted a statement from the army as saying one of its units killed five other gunmen and detained two in a gun battle near the Egyptian and Libyan border.

The army said “preliminary information” indicated the 19 hostages were inside Chad under the protection of 30 armed men. There was no comment from the Chadian government.

The army unit seized a white vehicle belonging to an Egyptian tourism company, along with papers linking the gunmen with the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA), a Darfur rebel group, the statement said, according to SUNA.

Several Darfur rebel groups fight under the name of SLA. It was not clear which faction the Sudanese army was referring to.

Khartoum and the Darfurian rebel groups routinely trade accusations of bombings and acts of aggression in Darfur, a war-ravaged area in western Sudan.

Egypt has identified the tourists as five Germans, five Italians and one Romanian. The eight Egyptians include the owner of the tour company whose German wife has been in contact with the kidnappers by satellite phone, according to Egyptian officials.

The Egyptian government and many political analysts have largely ruled out any political motivation behind the kidnapping. Egyptian officials say the kidnappers have demanded a ransom from the German government. One security official put the figure at $6 million euros.

Egypt said this month four masked kidnappers seized the hostages while they were on safari in a remote desert area and took them across the border into Sudan. An Egyptian government official said on Saturday the hostages were inside Sudan.

The Sudanese army, however, said its unit searched for the hostages in the border area with Egypt from Thursday to Sunday but only found empty food cans and “traces of their vehicles in the direction of the Libyan border,” the statement said.

On its way back inside Sudan, the army unit encountered a speeding white vehicle whose passengers refused to stop and opened fire at the Sudanese soldiers, the statement said.

“As a result of the clash, six of the (gunmen) were killed including Bakhit the leader of the kidnappers who is a Chadian national and the capture of two others, one of them Sudanese.”

The statement said the army unit also seized firearms and a rocket-propelled grenade.

A spokesman for the SLA-Unity faction Mahgoub Hussein denied any involvement in the kidnapping.

“The Unity movement emphasizes that it does not have any connection with the kidnapping and no individual members within the kidnapping cell,” he said in a statement. Another SLA faction, headed by Abdel Wahed al-Nur, also denied any involvement.

Hussein told Reuters Unity members in north Darfur, operating close to its borders with Libya and Chad, had reported no Sudanese army activity all day.

But he said two rival groups from another faction of the SLA, one led by Minni Arcua Minnawi, had been fighting each other around the same area on Saturday and Sunday.

Officials from the SLA faction headed by Minnawi, the only rebel leader to sign a peace deal with the Khartoum government in 2006, were not available for comment.

Astronauts aboard China’s Shenzhou 7 spacecraft were making final preparations for the country’s first ever spacewalk planned for Saturday afternoon. Space suits, one Chinese, the other Russian-made, were fully functional, while all three astronauts aboard the capsule were in good health, the official Xinhua News Agency reported. The 20-minute spacewalk is scheduled for 4:30 p.m.

(0830 GMT), although the exact timing depends on the readiness of equipment and personnel. The event is to be broadcast live on television.

Performing a successful spacewalk is a key step in mastering techniques for linking two orbiters, technology that will be needed when China moves to create its first space station in the next few years. Risks involve pressurizing and depressurizing the orbital module and ensuring power, life support and other vital systems aboard the spacesuit operate as intended.

Two astronauts will don suits for the spacewalk, although only one will actually leave the orbiter. They will be supported by Russian experts throughout the mission, although officials haven’t said in what capacity.

The astronaut leaving the orbiter, reported to mission commander Zhai Zhigang, will retrieve scientific experiments placed outside, described by the Xinhua as samples of solid lubricant. The ship will then release an 88-pound (40-kilogram) satellite that will circle the orbiter and send back images to mission command.

Another astronaut, Liu Boming, will assist Zhai from inside the orbiter, while Jing Haipeng will remain inside the re-entry module to monitor spacecraft operations. All three men are 42-year-old fighter pilots with more than 1,000 hours of flying time each.

Since blasting off from their northwestern China launch base on Friday, the astronauts have been largely occupied with preparing the suits and adapting to zero gravity. Meals aboard the craft have followed a typical Chinese menu, featuring versions of kung pao chicken, shrimp and dried fruit, Xinhua said.

On Friday, the three-module capsule shifted from an oval orbit to a more stable circular orbit 213 miles (343 kilometers) above Earth, meaning it is circling Earth at a constant distance. The change ensures Earth’s gravitational pull will not vary during the spacewalk attempt, and will allow for smooth operation of the ship’s instruments, the agency said.

A round orbit will also help Shenzhou make a precise landing on the Inner Mongolian Steppe on Sunday after its re-entry vehicle bursts through Earth’s atmosphere, Xinhua said. Thursday’s launch of China’s third manned mission in five years continued to dominate state media reports, shoving aside coverage of China’s continuing scandal involving contaminated milk, which has killed four babies and sickened more than 54,000.

China’s government portrays the manned space program as an illustration of how communist rule has consistently elevated China’s economic growth, technological might and global influence.

Former Spice Girls singer Victoria Beckham says she wears socks and gloves to bed to ensure that her skin looks young.Thesun.co.uk reports Victoria, 34, as saying: ‘I put really thick foot lotion on with socks before I go to sleep. I also use thick hand cream with gloves at the same time. David (Beckham) must think I’m loony, because I get into bed with gloves and socks on.’

She also revealed other strange ways of taking care of her eyebrows.

She said: ‘I spend more time on them than I used to. I always thought, ‘Oh, they’re just brows.’ But now I pay attention to them. I brush them and I’m careful not to over-pluck.’

Taiwan authorities issued a sea and land warning Saturday as a powerful typhoon barreled toward the island.

The Central Weather Bureau urged residents across Taiwan to beware of strong winds and heavy rains whipped up by Typhoon Jangmi. It also warned of possible landslides and floods in mountainous areas.

As of 5:30 p.m. Saturday, Jangmi was about 273 miles east of Taiwan’s southern tip, the bureau said.

Packing winds of 118 mph, the typhoon was moving northwest at 12 mph, it said.

If Jangmi stays on its current course, it will strike Taiwan on Sunday evening, the bureau said.