The Chinese military defence website was subjected to 2.3 million hacking attempts in its first month online according to officials.

“When there were major events taking place related to the military and national defense, the number of (cyber) attacks rose,” said editor Ji Guilin.

The website, launched in August 2009, has so far attracted 1.25bn visitors from around the world.

Ji Guilin was talking to Chinese state-run newspaper the People’s Daily.

There are English and Chinese versions of the website.

Most of the overseas visitors to both versions came from the US, but the website also attracted visitors in the UK, Australia, Singapore and Japan.

The most popular search topics were “military photos”, “top military leaders”, “high-level events” and “military power”, said Mr Ji, who runs the website.

Drinking alcohol every day cuts the risk of heart disease in men by more than a third, a major study suggests.

The Spanish research involving more than 15,500 men and 26,000 women found large quantities of alcohol could be even more beneficial for men.

Female drinkers did not benefit to the same extent, the study in Heart found.

Experts are critical, warning heavy drinking can increase the risk of other diseases, with alcohol responsible for 1.8 million deaths globally per year.

The study was conducted in Spain, a country with relatively high rates of alcohol consumption and low rates of coronary heart disease.

The research involved men and women aged between 29 and 69, who were asked to document their lifetime drinking habits and followed for 10 years.

Crucially the research team claim to have eliminated the “sick abstainers” risk by differentiating between those who had never drunk and those whom ill-health had forced to quit. This has been used in the past to explain fewer heart-related deaths among drinkers on the basis that those who are unhealthy to start with are less likely to drink.

Good cholesterol

The researchers from centres across Spain placed the participants into six categories - from never having drunk to drinking more than 90g of alcohol each day. This would be the equivalent of consuming about eight bottles of wine a week, or 28 pints of lager.

For those drinking little - less than a shot of vodka a day for instance - the risk was reduced by 35%. And for those who drank anything from three shots to more than 11 shots each day, the risk worked out an average of 50% less.

The same benefits were not seen in women, who suffer fewer heart problems than men to start with. Researchers speculated this difference could be down to the fact that women process alcohol differently, and that female hormones protect against the disease in younger age groups.

The type of alcohol drunk did not seem to make a difference, but protection was greater for those drinking moderate to high amounts of varied drinks.

The exact mechanisms are as yet unclear, but it is known that alcohol helps to raise high-density lipoproteins, sometimes known as good cholesterol, which helps stop so-called bad cholesterol from building up in the arteries.

‘Binge-drinking’

UK experts said the findings should be treated with caution because they do not take into account ill-health from a range of other diseases caused by excess drinking.

“Whilst moderate alcohol intake can lower the risk of having a heart attack, coronary heart disease is just one type of heart disease. Cardiomyopathy, a disease of the heart muscle, is associated with high alcohol intake and can lead to a poor quality of life and premature death,” said the British Heart Foundation’s senior cardiac nurse, Cathy Ross.

“The heart is just one of many organs in the body. While alcohol could offer limited protection to one organ, abuse of it can damage the heart and other organs such as the liver, pancreas and brain.”

The Stroke Association meanwhile noted that overall, evidence indicated that people who regularly consumed a large amount of alcohol had a three-fold increased risk of stroke.

“Six units within six hours is considered ‘binge-drinking’ and anyone indulging in regular ‘binge-drinking’ increases their risk of stroke greatly,” said research officer Joanne Murphy.

Public health specialists warned no-one should be encouraged to drink more as a result of this study.

“The relationship between alcohol and heart disease remains controversial,” said Professor Martin McKee of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

“While there is good evidence that moderate consumption is protective in people who are at substantial risk of heart disease - which excludes most people under the age of 40 - we also know that most people underestimate how much they drink. This paper adds to the existing literature but should not be considered as definitive. ”

In the UK, the recommendation is no more than two to three units of alcohol a day for women - the equivalent of one standard glass of wine - and three to four units for men.

Professor Alan Maryon-Davis, president of the UK Faculty of Public Health, agreed that the message from this study was not clear: “At the end of the day, you’re juggling different risks and benefits, maybe helping your heart or maybe damaging your brain and liver.

“The simple message is moderation.

“Stick to the guidelines, and you won’t go far wrong.”

All around Saks Fifth Avenue, merchandise is sold out. The $2,520 Marni shearling vest? Gone. The $5,295 Brioni leather bomber jacket? Only one left. The $1,995 over-the-knee, Christian Louboutin boots?

“All gone, except for this,” said Nick Passerelli, a Saks employee, dangling a size 11 boot from his fingers.

After a brutal year in which the nation’s luxury retailers were forced to offer their wares at stunning discounts, they are trying to get their magic back. And they may have found a way: deliberately running low on merchandise.

Saks, the posh Manhattan department store, is a prime example. Its inventory is down by double digits compared with last year. That is partly a response to lower demand, of course, but it is also a business strategy designed to wean consumers from deep discounts. By carrying fewer goods and selling them at full price, Saks is essentially telling customers: Buy it now or live without it.

“Upscale stores want to train the customer that luxury equals exclusivity and that they cannot assume they can wait and they’re able to buy it on sale,” said William S. Taubman, chief operating officer of Taubman Centers, a mall developer and owner.

This less-is-more strategy is risky, of course. If retailers sell out of goods too soon, they will lose profits they need. But they think it is even riskier to stock up too much.

This time last year, purveyors of high-end goods were drowning in merchandise. Consumers had stopped spending amid the economic downturn, forcing stores to cut prices sharply to unload designer goods. At 50 or 70 percent off, once-pricey stilettos and suits flew off the shelves.

But the discounts prompted some consumers to wonder what those items were really worth in the first place. And to the distress of retailers, shoppers began to feel entitled to those eye-popping discounts - not just at big-box stores like Wal-Mart and Kohl’s, but at Saks and Neiman Marcus, too.

Now, as the economy stabilizes, luxury retailers are taking measures to stamp out discount fever.

They have significantly cut their inventories and are trying, with some early success, to sell their wares at full price. Both Saks and Neiman Marcus have gently told customers that there are fewer goods to go around this year.

Burton M. Tansky, president and chief executive of the Neiman Marcus Group, does not think he is retraining consumers. Rather, he said, he is doing what is best for the health of his company.

“We’ve told our customers that the availability is less than they’re used to seeing in the stores,” Tansky said. “We’ve suggested that it would be prudent to shop early.”

If a particular item sells out at Neiman Marcus, the ability to restock the shelves will depend on the merchandise category. In general, though, lead times for manufacturing luxury goods are long.

“As you go up the ladder to European designers, it’s virtually impossible,” Tansky said. “But in contemporary apparel, women’s shoes, it’s possible.”

Saks, too, has told customers its inventories are lean.

“We’re out of stock on a number of hot items people want,” Stephen I. Sadove, chairman and chief executive, said this month as he walked through the sprawling shoe department at Saks in Manhattan. “Our associates are telling people ‘If you want this item in your size, we only have three of them, we only have two.’ “

That strategy might be working. “I’ve been running out of sizes because I’m selling out,” said Lera Alexkseyeva, a Saks employee who sells clothing by Brunello Cucinelli. Saks bought 21 gray cashmere and fox fur jackets designed by Cucinelli in the medieval village of Solomeo, Italy. All but one jacket sold out - at $2,695 each.

A big question this Christmas will be how successful retailers are with the strategy. Some surveys have found that, so far, the prospect of lean inventories is not prompting consumers to hasten their holiday shopping. Shoppers could wait out the retailers until late in the season, in the hope that they will panic and put high-grade merchandise on sale.

“Bargains seemingly may matter more than selection for the consumer,” Michael P. Niemira, the director of research and chief economist for the International Council of Shopping Centers, said in a news release this month.

Regardless of when consumers choose to shop, retailers are glad to have a better handle on customer demand.

Speaking about the luxury market, Peter E. Nordstrom, executive vice president and president of merchandising for Nordstrom, said “the business might not be exactly where we want it, but it is relatively stable.”

Nordstrom has always had a wider range of prices than Saks and Neiman Marcus, and so has less need to hit the reset button with shoppers. The chain weathered the downturn better than its competitors. And while it has less inventory than last year, Nordstrom said when it came to Christmas, “we think we’re going to have enough.”

Saks came in for sharp criticism from designers last year for the magnitude of its discounting. Sadove is being aggressive this year about managing inventory, and acknowledged the possibility of not having enough merchandise even for customers willing to pay full price.

“I think we in the industry may go too far and cut back too much,” he said. “You’re going to lose some sales. And that’s OK versus having too much and having to sell it at these very high markdowns.”

In fact, chains said they were selling more merchandise at full price today than they were a year ago. And while the stores will not reveal exact numbers, they say a reason their earnings are improving is that they are selling a higher proportion of goods at full price. This month, Saks posted a profit for the first time in months, and Nordstrom said its profit rose as well. Neiman Marcus will report its earnings in December.

While there will be sales this season, as there are every year, most analysts are predicting they will be less drastic than last year.

That is good news for tony chains that suffered after years of giddy, double-digit growth fueled by easy credit. While those days are gone, for now at least, some industry veterans say luxury retailing will thrive again by returning to its roots.

“What’s luxury retailing about?” Sadove said. “It is about a scarcity of supply.”

Hamid Karzai was sworn in as the president of Afghanistan for second term on Thursday.

“I swear to uphold the Constitution of the country and protect the people of Afghanistan,” Karzai said as he took the oath flanked by vice presidents Mohammed Fahim and Abdul Karim Khalili.

Clad in a traditional hat and colourful cape, the president vowed to defend Afghanistan’s territorial integrity and independence.

Pakistan president Asif Ali Zardari and Turkey’s foreign minister Ahmet Davutoglu were also present during the swearing-in ceremony, ahead of which new checkpoints were erected in various parts of the city to inspect vehicles.

Born on December 24, 1957 in the village of Karz in Kandahar, Karzai was first sworn in as the president of Afghanistan for a five-year term on December seven, 2004.

Karzai was a student of International Relations and Political Science at the Shimla University, from where he earned his Master’s degree.

In 1982, he joined the struggle against the Soviets and became director of operations of the Afghan National Liberation Front (ANLF).

When the Taliban emerged on Afghanistan’s political scene in the early 1990s, Karzai initially supported them. However, by late 1994 he had become suspicious of the movement, fearing it had been infiltrated and was controlled by foreigners, including Pakistanis and Arabs.

World leaders have descended in Kabul. Foreign Minister SM Krishna is representing India.

“I think Afghanistan must muster enough courage and conviction to fight these terrorist elements,” Krishna told reporters on his arrival in Kabul.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is already in Kabul with words of caution for Karzai.

Moshe Holtzberg celebrated his third birthday on Wednesday the way many Jewish children do — he got his first haircut. He appeared not to recall the tragic events of a year ago, when his parents were killed in a terror attack in Mumbai.

Surrounding the smiling tot were his grandparents and Sandra Samuel, the caretaker who brought him home to Israel after the attack on the Jewish outreach Chabad House in Mumbai. Hundreds joined them at the group’s Israel center, a village outside Tel Aviv, to mark a year since the attack.

Six people were killed at the Chabad House, among 166 who died in the coordinated attack in several locations in Mumbai. Gavriel and Rivka Holtzberg, Moshe’s parents, opened the house in 2003 as the local representatives of Chabad, which offers services and kosher food to Jews in many locations around the world.

Attackers rampaged through the building, killing people, as Indian commandoes fired at them. The house has not been repaired in the year that has passed.

Samuel rescued Moshe unhurt from the bullet-raked building. She said it took some time for the child to recover from the attack. Now he recognizes his parents in pictures, but he no longer cries out when he sees them.

“Everything is normal,” she said. “It took a little bit of time, but now it’s completely normal.”

The child is being raised by his grandparents

The Obama administration wants India to lift the cap in both defence and insurance sectors, a top US official said.

“One thing that I think the Indian government could do would be to lift the cap on foreign equity in Indian defence firms, from 26 per cent to 49 per cent,” the Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Robert Blake, told reporters at a conference.

Blake said there will be a announcement about sort of a new framework in trade after the US-India summit here next week.

“This is an area where we have been working very hard and made a lot of progress over the last several years. There is a lot of ongoing work that we just need to continue,” he said.

“I just think there’s a tremendous amount of progress that’s already been made… but more is needed. Particularly I talked earlier about the need to continue to open the economy,” he noted.

“For example American companies are very interested in seeing investment caps lifted in the insurance sector, in the defence sector, in several other — in banking, in retail. And all of those would provide significant new opportunities to further expand our trade and investment,” Blake said.

At least 15 people have been killed and 20 injured in the latest terror attack in Peshawar in North West Pakistan.

The blast, a suicide attack, targeted the court on Khyber Road. The bomber blew himself up when he was being frisked at the gate of the judicial complex. The blast on Thursday morning was so powerful that several cars parked nearby were destroyed. Schools in the area have been closed.

Last week, a car exploded in front of Intelligence Offices on the same road.

Peshawar has seen a series of blasts since the Pakistan government began a huge offensive against the Taliban in South Waziristan. Last month, a hundred people were killed in a blast at a city market.

The White House has now gone into damage-control mode after anger in New Delhi over the US-China statement that the two sides “support the improvement and growth of relations between India and Pakistan”.

“The United States is interested in pursuing the best and healthiest possible partnership with China; but that does not come at the expense of other increasingly important partnership, particularly our relationship with India,” said Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Williams Burns.

“The US appreciates China’s growth and involvement in solving global issues but India-Pakistan issues are internal,” he said.

On Wednesday, India described the US-China joint statement as unnecessary and said there was no need of third-party monitoring on Indo-Pak issues.

The Ministry of External Affairs said in a statement on Wednesday: “Government of India is committed to resolving all outstanding issues with Pakistan through a peaceful bilateral dialogue in accordance with the Simla Agreement. A third country role cannot be envisaged nor is it necessary. We also believe that a meaningful dialogue with Pakistan can take place only in an environment free from terror or the threat of terror.”

On Wednesday, the US sent out a clarification terming India as a key ally and major partner. State Department spokesman Ian Kelly told reporters at his daily news briefing that the US is looking forward to the state visit of the Indian Prime Minister and that the US President would share his thoughts on his China visit with Manmohan Singh.

“I am sure that since the President will have just gotten back from China, and that’ll be fresh on his mind that he will share some of his impressions and thoughts about his visit to China as well,” Kelly said in response to a question.

Pakistan meanwhile has welcomed the US-China joint statement. Pakistan’s Foreign Office Spokesman said the joint reiteration to promote peace, stability and security in South Asia was a welcome statement.

The Indian prime minister will be the first head of a government to be hosted at the White House after Obama took over in January. He leaves for the US on Saturday, and will meet the US president on November 24.

President Obama will also discuss 26/11 with Manmohan Singh during the Prime Minister’s trip, Timothy Roemer, the US Ambassador to India, has confirmed. (Read: Obama-Manmohan to discuss 26/11)

On Wednesday, Roemer also said that America “needs to see action” by Pakistan against the terrorists behind 26/11. He added that Pakistan needed “to concentrate on dismantling terrorist infrastructure”.

Meanwhile, the US House of Representative has decided to discuss a resolution commemorating the Indo-US relationship on Wednesday.

The resolution welcomes the Prime Minister to the US and commends the maturating of the relationship. It notes that the ties between the US and India have great potential to promote stability, democracy, prosperity, and peace throughout the world and enhance the ability of both countries to work together to provide global leadership in areas of mutual concern and interest.

The last time the prime minister went to America as President Bush’s state guest he came back with the Indo-US nuclear deal.