Vegetable du jour: Pumpkins.You found them carved with spooky faces and lighted with candles on front stoops on Halloween night. But did you realize how good pumpkins are for you to eat, too?In fact, all orange fruits and vegetables are packed with nutrients and phytochemicals that play a part in fighting off disease. Unless you overdo them with brown sugar or maple syrup, they're also low in calories and high in vitamins.So, as we continue our series about adding color to our plates in a salute to good health, consider orange foods.Nature's yummy offerings such as pumpkins, sweet potatoes, oranges and carrots are not only full of vitamins but also packed with fiber.According to the Produce for Better Health Foundation, orange foods contribute to heart and vision health while also strengthening our immune systems.They also might lower the risk of some cancers.Foods such as carrots, pumpkins and winter squashes can be baked in the oven or pureed in soups.

Retail therapy at the mall now includes cosmetic surgery

Andrew Rudnick snickered when he first saw a medical spa offering Botox and laser hair-removal services on a visit to a Las Vegas mall in 2002. He laughed at the thought of someone - anyone - shopping for the latest fashions, grabbing a bite to eat and then, oh yeah, strolling in for a quick shot of Botox to zap out a nasty wrinkle.

"I couldn't understand why anybody in a mall would walk in and have their legs lasered, never mind Botox," he recalled. He parked himself on a bench near the spa and watched in amazement as shoppers strolled in. He owned a weight-loss and laser center in Boston at the time, and the sight was a revelation. "I counted the traffic in and out and saw the revenue."

Returning to Boston, he scouted retail locations. He dropped the weight-loss part of his business to focus on skin care and laser treatments, renamed the company and opened his first Sleek MedSpa that same year.

Definition of Scleroderma

Approximately 300,000 people in the U.S. have scleroderma. Women are affected three times as often as men. Although the disease can develop at any age, it most frequently appears in the third to fifth decades of life. It is most frequently a chronic and often progressive illness.

Collagen, a protein manufactured by the connective tissues of the body, is produced in excess in someone suffering with scleroderma. This over-production of collagen can be likened to the process of "scarring," which is the way the body heals a wound.

For persons with scleroderma, the production of collagen is abnormal, depositing it in various organs and/or tissues of the body, especially in layers of the skin.

It is important to stress that the symptoms of scleroderma vary greatly from person to person, as though each person with scleroderma has his/her own version of the disease.

Erection self-test

A strip of four to six postage stamps (any kind) is used for each test. The test needs to be done for three nights. The man needs to wear brief-type undershorts that have a fly. The penis is brought through the fly leaving most of the pubic hair against the body.

Tragedy at Sivam Kovil

It was at the dawn of the New Year when gun shots reverberated inside the Sivam Kovil at Kotahena just before the Pooja began creating pandemonium among devotees. Most devotees ducked for cover by bending instantaneously while others ran inside the temple to escape the mad gunman brandishing a pistol in his hand.

Thereafter the gunman swung to a side and fired at one of the MP's bodyguard's standing near him.