Top Celebrity Hairstyles

Although I don’t want to discriminate in favor of any color or style, we’ll talk about blondes first. It’s just a way to get started. The saying that gentlemen prefer blondes is not always true. Two different proposals for those of you who prefer long hair. Scarlett Johansson’sg long straight hairstyle tied up with a bobby pin. I like it. Besides, if you are wearing expensive earrings you can show them off.

The following proposal is a long wavy hairstyle. As you can see Heidi Klum usually prefers to wear long wavy hair flowing in the wind. Sometimes she also wears updos or prom hairstyles though. I prefer the first one. This hairstyle makes her look like a bad girl and men love that.

Let’s go on with short hairstyles. Kate Moss always wears a natural hairstyle. This hairstyle gives Kate a bit of a bohemian look. It’s a good choice for strong and slightly wavy hair.

Our next guest is the controversial American actress and model Sienna Miller. Sienna has tried almost all hairstyles from fringe bangs to updos. She wears her blond hair always impeccable. Sometimes she seems to prefer short curly bobs.

Jessica Simpson changes her hairstyle quite often. Jessica usually prefers to wear short hair and show off some accessories. As she’s a real bombshell, all hairstyles suit her perfectly.

Our next hairstyle is worn by an increasing number of women since it’s quite a comfortable one. It’s the favorite hairstyle of Victoria Beckham and Sharon Stone. Let’s talk about Victoria. As a trendy and fashionable woman, “Posh” has worn all kind of hairstyles from hair extensions to short hairstyles. Victoria usually wears a short bob with long bangs over her face and high layers at the rear achieved combing the locks straight back and softening them with her fingers. My personal opinion: I don’t like it very much.

Now it’s turn for Jessica Biel. She wears all kind of hairstyles and haircuts and, I don’t know why, but all of them suit her perfectly. She changes from blond to brunette, from short to long hair, from straight to curly and sometimes she also wears updos.

Katherine Heigl’s natural hair color is blonde with a some shades of brown. Katherine, intern Isobel "Izzie" Stevens from “Grey’s Anatomy”, looks always radiant wearing blond curly long hair or updos. Sometimes she likes to knock us out and goes brunette.

We had enough of blondes, hadn’t we? Now it’s turn for brunettes. Catherine Z. Jones usually shows off her long dark hair flowing in the wind. Catherine follows a special hair treatment based on caviar which makes her hair look always shining and beautiful.

Two more examples of long dark hairstyles: Brazilian model Adriana Lima and Spanish actress Penelope Cruz. Adriana Lima, the most beautiful women in the World, loves to wear her dark hair loose and shining. Penelope Cruz never takes trouble in selecting her hairstyle. She’s always worn long hairstyles and also loves to wear her hair flowing in the wind.

Controversial American model Naomi Campbell usually prefers long hair, slightly below the shoulder line, and fringe bangs over her forehead. Below Naomi you can see Rihanna. Rihanna is crazy about fringe bangs hairstyles and usually wears a bob about shoulder length. Occasionally she also wears long hairstyles.

Brunettes also wear long curly hair. Singer Alicia Keys usually wears neat curls although sometimes she also chooses updos. Alicia loves to show off her exuberant curly hair but sometimes she prefers to gather it into a ponytail or wear a long straight hairstyle.

Some brunettes also prefer short hairstyles. Katie Holmes, Tom Cruise’s wife, prefers short hair and it must be said that it suits her baby face quite well. American actress Selma Blair also decided to have her long hair cut and looks very pretty in her short hairstyle.

Last but not least we’ll talk about dark brown and mahogany hair. In my opinion some of the most stunning women in the world fall in this category. Some of them, like Brazilian supermodel Alessandra Ambrosio, prefer to wear long hair. Alessandra Ambrosio, one of my favourite models, sports a long hairstyle combed in the middle enhancing hair volumen by curling the ends a bit.

Here we can see Jennifer Lopez sporting her wavy short hairstyle flowing in the wind. Gorgeous.

American actress Angelina Jolie normally prefers to wear long wavy hairstyles in different tones (sometimes even dark ones). In addition, Angelina usually loves to wear her wavy hair flowing in the wind.

Jennifer Anniston also wears shoulder-long bobs. Jennifer has thin hair and never curls it. Her golden tones are more visible wearing straight hair combed in the middle.

American singer Beyonce Knowles alternates long straight hair with curly hair.

To conclude this post I have chosen two stunning Evas: Eva Mendes and Eva Longoria two of the sexiest women alive. Eva Longoria from “Desperate housewives" usually wears bob hairstyles although occasionally she also chooses long ones. Sometimes she wears a bob haircut over the shoulder line and combs her hair to one side.

Eva Mendes (“Ghost Rider”), one of the hottest latinas in the World, usually sports long hairstyles but sometimes, to outline her face, gathers her hair into an updo with side fringes. Eva sometimes gets her hair cut and curls the ends a bit. Whatever her hairstyle, she’s gorgeous and one of my favorite actresses.

As you have seen in this post, there are loads of possibilities to choose amongst depending on the shape of face, hair color and texture. The next time you go to the hairdressers get this catalogue and tell the hairdresser the celebrity whose haircut you would love to wear. Best regards.

Campaign China-bashing obscures real problems

WASHINGTON — It's open season on China in the Republican race for the presidential nomination, and Mitt Romney is leading the charge. Newt Gingrich and some other candidates are on his heels, painting China as the bogeyman responsible for America's economic ills.

Former Ambassador to China Jon Huntsman is the lone holdout, warning against actions that might prompt a trade war.

In a race focused primarily on jobs, taxes and debt, China is emerging as an increasingly prominent foreign policy topic — largely because it is by extension an issue of economics. The debate centers on legitimate gripes over the Asian power's currency value, huge U.S. debt holdings and pirating of American technology. But those issues are often being melded into an all-encompassing populist argument that China is stealing jobs from the United States.

"Day one, I will issue an executive order identifying China as a currency manipulator," Romney said during in last week's debate, outlining his presidential vision. "People who've looked at this in the past have been played like a fiddle by the Chinese. And the Chinese are smiling all the way to the bank, taking our currency and taking our jobs and taking a lot of our future. And I'm not willing to let that happen."

The economics aren't as simple as good and evil in a relationship between the world's largest exporter and importer who between them traded goods worth more than $450 billion last year. Yet the sharp tone has been an effective campaign tool with Americans increasingly perturbed by China's rapidly expanding manufacturing production and pursuit of the U.S. position as the world's biggest economy.

U.S.-China relations are imbalanced, even if exports in both directions are rising. The Asian power sells four times as many goods to the U.S. as the United States sends in return to China. But currency policy is only part of the explanation.

Chinese workers earn far less money than Americans, allowing local and American companies that moved manufacturing operations to the country to sell goods on the global market at lower prices. Chinese citizens are less likely to buy as many U.S.-made goods because on average they are far poorer than Americans.

Those nuances have at times been brushed aside, with talk on China focused more on finger-pointing than serious discussion over ending Washington's overreliance on Beijing for purchasing American debt or supplying the economy with cheap consumer goods.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman, Liu Weimin, speaking to reporters in Beijing on Monday, said the two countries' trade and economic cooperation benefited both sides.

"The attitude of seeking scapegoats and putting the blame on other countries, to mislead the general public, is irresponsible," Liu said in a regular briefing when asked to comment on Romney's attacks on China's currency policies.

Some of the fear of China has spilled over into the question of military might. In an interview with Georgia's Marietta Daily Journal, Gingrich warned earlier this year that if China owns "trillions of dollars of our debt, and they have a superior manufacturing system and a superior military, then our range of independence will be within the framework the Chinese tolerate."

For now, U.S. military supremacy in the Pacific is unchallenged. While some lawmakers watched warily as China unveiled its first aircraft carrier in August, the U.S. has 11 such vessels in operation.

And the reality is that even as the value of the yuan against the dollar has irked Republican and Democratic lawmakers for the last decade, politicians have found it much easier to campaign on the issue than force the communist government to float its currency. President Barack Obama, like George W. Bush before him, has opted for negotiation with Beijing rather than conflict as the best way to gain concessions.

Romney's approach lumps together complaints about Chinese economic policy which aren't necessarily connected. He has said labeling China a currency manipulator would enable Washington to go after Beijing "in places where they're stealing our intellectual property," but it's unclear how currency and counterfeiting would be linked.

Overly aggressive tactics might be counterproductive for U.S. economic recovery.

"I don't subscribe to the Don Trump school or the Mitt Romney school of international trade," Huntsman, the Obama administration's former ambassador to China, said in Tuesday's GOP debate. "I don't want to find ourselves in a trade war. With respect to China, if you start slapping penalties on them ... you're going to get the same thing in return."

A tit-for-tat trade war would help no one. The United States accelerated the Great Depression in the 1930s by setting sharply higher tariffs on hundreds of foreign goods, sparking international retaliation and the devastation of international commerce. Economists fear a similar wave of protectionism today could plunge the world back into recession.

Coming at the problem from the same direction as Romney, the Senate this week passed a bill to impose higher taxes on imports on China if the government fails to allow the yuan to rise in value faster. The bill is unlikely to pass the House of Representatives, where Republican leaders oppose it.

And, as Huntsman noted, the Chinese could easily retaliate with penalties against American goods aided by the Federal Reserve's pumping of hundreds of billions of dollars into the U.S. economy.

The Obama and Bush administrations have approached China more carefully, targeting with higher import taxes those Chinese goods they felt were selling at artificially low prices while negotiating with Beijing for a fairer currency exchange rate. Despite limited success, they've avoided a blanket punishment of all Chinese goods and any breakdown in relations that would surely make it harder for American products to reach China's booming internal market.

"For the first and the second-largest economies in the world, we have no choice: We have to find common ground," Huntsman argued, in a rare voice of support from a GOP candidate for any current administration policy.

A trade war "disadvantages our small businesses," he said. "It disadvantages our exporters. It disadvantages our agricultural producers."

For a jobs bill in pieces, Obama hits road in NC

FLETCHER, N.C. — Rolling through small Southern towns in a campaign-style bus, President Barack Obama on Monday pressed lawmakers back in Washington to start taking up pieces of his rejected jobs bill and mocked the Republicans who had shot it down in total. The Senate moved to vote soon on one part, a plan to help states hire teachers, but the proposal seemed doomed.

Deep in the mountains of politically important North Carolina, Obama soaked up the region's autumn beauty at the same time he assailed foes of his jobs legislation, accusing them of failing to listen to the public.

Back at the Capitol, Senate Democrats announced they would act first on a single part of Obama's plan, a longshot bid to help states hire teachers and police. A Senate vote could come as soon as the end of the week. If not, it would probably fall into November because the Senate plans to take a break next week, even as Obama urges quick action.

In North Carolina, the president directed his most pointed remarks at Senate Republicans, who last week blocked action on his full $447 billion proposal combining tax cuts and new spending.

"Essentially they said no to you," Obama told a supportive crowd outside Asheville. Noting that Republicans will now get a chance to vote on elements of his jobs agenda one by one, he said: "Maybe they just couldn't understand the whole thing all at once. So we're going to break it up into bite-size pieces."

Republicans denounced the bus trip as nothing more than a taxpayer-funded campaign trip through two must-win states to try to bolster Obama's standing for the 2012 election.

As he traveled along on his imposing black bus, there was little denying the presidential politics at play at each stop. Over three days, Obama is covering the countryside of both North Carolina and Virginia, two traditionally GOP-leaning states that he won in 2008 on his campaign's ability to boost turnout among young people and black voters.

Senate Democrats unveiled the first individual bill, which would spend $30 billion to create or save education jobs and $5 billion to do the same for police and firefighters.

The money would come from a new half-percent tax on income over $1 million, a proposal vigorously opposed by GOP lawmakers.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid promised a vote "as soon as possible."

The outcome seemed clear: The plan is unlikely to gain the 60 votes it would need to proceed in the Senate. And it's a non-starter in the Republican House.

More broadly, some aspects of Obama's jobs agenda are expected to become law this fall.

The most likely include extending tax breaks for businesses that buy new equipment, and offering a $4,800 tax credit to companies that hire veterans. There's also bipartisan support for repealing a law that requires the withholding of 3 percent of payments to government contractors.

Democrats and the White House, meanwhile, are confident that Obama's call to extend cuts in Social Security payroll taxes will pass. A two percentage point payroll tax cut enacted last year expires at the end of the year; Obama has proposed cutting it by an additional percentage point and extending the cut to the first $5 million of a company's payroll.

That proposal is hugely expensive — almost $250 billion by administration estimates — and it is not clear how and whether the parties would agree on how to pay for it.

Happy to be back on the road, Obama found a friendly audience that broke into a chant of "four more years." Said the president in response: "I appreciate the four more years, but right now I'm thinking about the next thirteen months."

Still, his travel essentially doubles as his bid for another term. His jobs bill serves as a platform to contrast himself with Republicans on both the legislation and his vision for the nation.

Obama's poll numbers are down in both Virginia and North Carolina, languishing in the mid- to low-forties in recent polls. The numbers mirror his approval ratings nationally. Obama's campaign is pressing to hold both Southern states, even choosing to hold next year's Democratic convention in Charlotte.

The president's bus tour fit into that effort, giving Obama a chance to engage in some of the retail politics that is a staple of presidential campaigns.

Obama's sleek, $1.1 million bus rolled through North Carolina's Blue Ridge Mountains for more than four hours, an unusually long stretch that included unannounced stops.

At Countryside Barbeque in Marion, he shook hands and took photos, and he also had a chance of to talk to potential voters about his jobs bill. The tour took him through a blaze of bright red and orange fall colors. He later stopped at the Mast General Store in Boone, near the campus of Appalachian State University, for some Halloween candy.

Capping his public comments at a high school in Millers Creek, N.C., Obama chided Republicans again, this time in an apparent reference to the influence of the tea party. "It's way overdue for us to stop trying to satisfy some branch of the party and take some common-sense steps to help America," Obama said.

House Republicans were quick to point out that they originally proposed breaking Obama's jobs plan into pieces. House Speaker John Boehner's office said Monday that the Ohio Republican has offered to work the president on aspects of the bill Republicans agree with but the president opted for a bus trip instead.

However, Obama and his opponents on Capitol Hill don't agree on how much they have tried to agree. Obama insisted he would work with the GOP "in any way possible." Noting the angst within some in his own party about his willingness to compromise, Obama said: "I tried so hard to cooperate with Republicans, Democrats have been getting mad at me."

Navguard launches GPS app for BlackBerry

Dubai: NavGuard, a leading location solutions company for GPS technology, has entered the Middle East market with the launch of combined navigation and tracking application, NavTrack, for BlackBerry smartphones, which is now available on BlackBerry App World.

It has been optimised specifically for the BlackBerry platform and allows users in the Middle East region to access accurate GPS maps to ensure they never lose their way, the company has said.

Whether the user is driving or walking, getting from one location to another is now easier than ever for BlackBerry smartphone users with turn-by-turn voice instructions, prior notice of the next manoeuvre and an estimated time of arrival, it said.

Users can view their position in real-time using 2D and 3D interactive maps and can make calls using the built-in phone menu without switching tasks.

GPS-equipped BlackBerry smartphones can also be turned into a tracking devices, particularly helpful for fleet and sales managers, so that employee movements can be monitored via the web-based app.

Managers are empowered to instantly locate and communicate with any of their field workers, at any time.

NavGuard is a member of the BlackBerry Alliance Programme, which provides technical, marketing and business development support to BlackBerry developers.

Samsung Wants Apple iPhone 4S Banned in Japan, Australia

Samsung on Monday expanded its battle against Apple's iPhone 4S by asking courts in Japan and Australia to ban the sale of the new smartphone in those countries.

Samsung also wants the iPhone 4 and iPad 2 banned in Japan, and has appealed a recent decision regarding the its Galaxy Tab 10.1 in Australia.

Samsung filed preliminary injunction motions in the Tokyo District Court and Australia's New South Wales Registry, which ask that they both "immediately stop the sale of Apple's iPhone 4S in the respective countries," Samsung said in a blog post.

In Japan, Samsung says that Apple is infringing on one High Speed Packet Access (HSPA) standard-related patent and three user interface patents. The HSPA patent is related to power consumption during data transmission, while the user interface patents relate to information displayed on a screen—specifically, the airplane mode icon, home screen customization, and apps store browsing.

In Australia, the Samsung suit focuses on three patents related to wireless telecommunications standards—Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA) and HSPA—which cover data transmissions.

"In light of these violations, Samsung believes the sale of such Apple devices should be banned," Samsung said. "Apple has continued to violate our patent rights and free ride on our technology. We will no longer stand idly by and will steadfastly protect our intellectual property."

Patent blogger Florian Mueller said this morning that Samsung's claims in Australia are "doomed to fail" because they relate to technologies that are essential to the 3G telecom standards. A Dutch court ruled against Samsung on the same grounds last week, and "I'd be extremely surprised if an Australian judge took a different perspective," Mueller wrote in a blog post.

The situation is "less clear" in Japan and "depend[s] on whether those patents will be upheld," he said.

Samsung has also asked courts in Italy and France to ban sales of the new iPhone 4S.

Last week, meanwhile, a Federal Court in Australia granted Apple's request for a temporary injunction against Samsung's Galaxy Tab 10.1, meaning the tablet will likely not be available to Australian consumers during the upcoming holiday season. It is also temporarily banned in Germany.

The patent dispute between Apple and Samsung began in April, when Apple sued Samsung for copying the look and feel of its iPhone and iPad in its flagship Galaxy S line of devices; a suit that was later expanded to include 13 more products, including the Galaxy Tab 10.1, Nexus S 4G, and the Droid Charge.

For more, see PCMag's full review of the iPhone 4S and the slideshow below.

New life in television's evening news

NEW YORK — There's new life in broadcast television's evening news shows, in part because of forces once thought poised to kill the genre off.

Despite repeated death knells for the ABC, CBS and NBC evening newscasts, they've just completed a TV season where all three grew their audiences for the first time since 2001-02, when terrorists struck and the Afghanistan and Iraq wars began. The growth is continuing for the first few weeks of this season.

After years in which the network broadcasts seemed interchangeable, they now have sharp contrasts that go beyond the faces of anchors Brian Williams, Diane Sawyer and Scott Pelley. Each of the newscasts, which are collectively seen by more than 20 million people each weekday, changed their top executives over the past couple of months.

News is an obvious factor in audience growth, and the Japanese tsunami, Arab spring, debt ceiling debate and teetering economy all attracted interest. But busy and not-so-busy news periods fluctuate all the time.

Many pundits believed these evening newscasts would become obsolete with the availability of news 24 hours a day on cable TV and the Internet. Instead, the curating function of the evening news has become more vital.

"We all work so hard and we all do so much," said Patrick Burkey, executive producer of NBC's top-rated "Nightly News," which had its highest viewership since 2005 for the season that ended in September. "I get to the point where I sort of have Internet fatigue going out there looking for all the material myself. It's nice to have somebody else do that work."

People follow news, "but they want someone they trust at the end of the day to explain it to them, to show what it means to them. Somebody credible," said Michael Corn, executive producer of ABC's "World News" with Sawyer.

Brand name journalists mean something when people can't trust the accuracy of what they see online, said Dave Marash, a veteran journalist who worked at ABC News and Al-Jazeera English.

Marash wrote recently in the Columbia Journalism Review about the declining number of reported and edited stories on television news, as opposed to journalists talking live or experts arguing. There are fewer of those reported stories on the network evening news programs, too, but they have disappeared much faster on 24-hour cable news. News, or news unfiltered by a point of view, is harder to find on cable.

"There have been enough obituaries written about the evening news to fill a newspaper," said Patricia Shevlin, "CBS Evening News" executive producer. "But it's a very resilient commodity."

Shevlin, Burkey and Corn are all new to their jobs, but not to their institutions. Shevlin has been at CBS News since 1973 and spent most of her time at the evening news since 1989, most recently as the top weekend producer. Burkey has worked with Williams since 2000, first at MSNBC and, since 2004, at "Nightly News." Corn worked at "Good Morning America" from 2002 to 2010, and moved with Sawyer last year to "World News."

The ratings pecking order of NBC in first, ABC second and CBS third hasn't changed since the days of Tom Brokaw, Peter Jennings and Dan Rather. The content of the shows, at least two of them, has changed, though. Andrew Tyndall, a consultant whose ADT Research has monitored the broadcasts since 1987, said the shows are as different as they've been in at least 15 years.

Since CBS News Chairman Jeff Fager installed Pelley of "60 Minutes" as Katie Couric's replacement in June, CBS has aired a meat-and-potatoes newscast for a serious time.

CBS has devoted more time to foreign policy and economic subjects than either of the two other shows, according to Tyndall's research. Pelley has been to Afghanistan twice since becoming anchor, and his newscasts have reported on that war for more minutes than both ABC and NBC combined.

Pelley has spent more than three full hours reporting on the economy than the other two broadcasts, with a particular emphasis on unemployment, the housing crisis and increased poverty. With Norah O'Donnell as the new top White House correspondent, CBS has also spent more time on Washington politics, a topic that NBC took the lead when Tim Russert was alive.

Shevlin has largely dispensed with the "feel-good" feature at the end of the show that has been a staple of all the evening newscasts, in favor of material such as Byron Pitts' piece on what happens to a dead soldier's body after it leaves Afghanistan.

"You want to leave the viewer thinking about something or feeling something when they see the evening news," Shevlin said. "As long as you do that, you're doing a good job."

During one busy news day, CBS acted fast to report at the top of its show Sarah Palin's late announcement that she wouldn't run for president. NBC's "Nightly News" led with the growing Occupy Wall Street demonstration. ABC topped "World News" with audio tape of a drug-impaired Michael Jackson that came to light in the manslaughter trial of his former doctor Conrad Murray.

Sawyer, the former "Good Morning America" anchor, has brought a morning show sensibility to the evening news, with a greater emphasis on celebrity and "news you can use," Tyndall said. It has become more evident since Ben Sherwood, a former "GMA" executive producer, took over as news division president in the past year.

ABC emphasizes health, medicine and family stories more than CBS and NBC. It spent 26 minutes on the Casey Anthony trial; CBS and NBC combined spent 16 minutes, Tyndall said. The British royal wedding, Oprah Winfrey's retirement and the Murray trial have all received the most coverage on ABC.

The newscast Jennings proudly called "World News" now has less news from a foreign dateline or about American foreign policy than either CBS or NBC.

The broadcast reflects Sawyer's sense of curiosity and adventure, Corn said. It does more on health matters, for instance, because they have a real impact on people's lives, he said.

"We believe we lead with the most interesting story of the day," he said. "There's nothing wrong with not being boring."

Sixty percent of "World News" viewers are women, according to Nielsen. That's a higher percentage than on CBS and NBC, although not by much, and would make the news consistent with ABC prime time's emphasis on appealing to women.

NBC's "Nightly News" tends to stake out a middle ground. It covers more news that has broken in the previous 24 hours than ABC or CBS, which may be mindful of stories that can last longer on the Internet, Tyndall's research said.

Perhaps because of NBC's parent company now owning The Weather Channel, NBC's broadcast spends the most time on natural disasters. Or there may be a simpler reason: "Brian's a bit of a weather nerd," Burkey said.

Of the three, it's also the broadcast that people who were watching a year ago would best recognize today.

"Consistency is a very good thing," Burkey said. "I think viewers know that they trust us and they see us as consistent and I don't see any need to change things up too dramatically."

Said Tyndall: "They're number one. They didn't need to change."

Hard-hit Obama donors still opening wallets

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama has shored up support from mid-level donors in some of the most economically distraught areas of the country, even as his Republican challengers have made jobs a central issue heading into next year's election.

An Associated Press analysis of Obama's fundraising since April found his supporters opened their wallets more often this election cycle in places with the worst unemployment rates. That's compared with the same period four years ago, just months before the country was thrust into a major recession.

The new numbers suggest GOP candidates will have to make a harder sell on the gravity of the nation's 9.1 percent unemployment rate, an issue that has bedeviled Obama throughout his term. Republicans in Congress have opposed the White House on specifics, especially tax increases, in a jobs bill aimed at pulling the economy out of a nosedive.

While Obama reported this week his campaign and the Democratic party raised a combined $70 million for his re-election bid, similar fundraising numbers totals for the GOP field point to growing support for candidates promising to change the country's direction.

Republican contenders raised a total of roughly $52 million, with Texas Gov. Rick Perry and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney taking the lead in drawing support from across the country. And they have missed few chances in recent weeks to point fingers at Obama and his jobs record.

"Right now, America's in crisis," said Romney at an Oct. 11 Republican debate devoted exclusively to the economy. "You want to have someone who's smart, who has experience, who knows how the financial services sector works, who knows how to protect American jobs — and I do. I've done it."

Among Obama's supporters, however, there has been an uptick in donations from both Democratic- and Republican-leaning counties, even as more than one in 10 people are out of work in those places.

In the Detroit area, where unemployment has exceeded 14 percent, supporters wrote hundreds of more checks — albeit in smaller amounts when adjusting for inflation — to Obama's campaign than the same period in 2007.

The AP's review drew upon unemployment figures from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and Census Bureau estimates, excluding donations from interest groups. Although campaign finance reports don't capture donors who gave less than $200 per election cycle, the donations reflect in part the attitudes among supports who give in the $200 to $2,500 range, making up nearly 40 percent of Obama's fundraising this period.

"I believe in the ideas that he has for the country," said donor Barbara Weeda, a 70-year-old retiree from Joshua Tree, Calif., home to San Bernardino county and its 13 percent jobless rate. "How else is he going to get elected than to just dig in and help as much as you can?" she said, saddened at what she sees as a lack of cooperation in Washington negotiating a jobs bill.

The AP's analysis found not only a broadening of support for Obama — he received cash for the first time from parts of the Plains, the Rockies and the Midwest — but also a wide appeal for top GOP contenders Romney and Perry.

But the fundraising picture for Obama isn't guaranteed: The analysis found Romney picked up some support in hard-hit areas, including Democratic-leaning New Orleans, where his supporters on average gave twice as much as they did during his 2007 campaign.

Obama campaign manager Jim Messina said in an email to supporters this week that more than 600,000 people donated to the campaign since July, more than the previous three-month cycle. "Getting to a million grassroots donors isn't just a huge accomplishment this early in the campaign. It's our answer to our opponents, the press, and anyone who wants to know whether the president's supporters have his back," he said.

Campaign finance reports released Friday and Saturday revealed the first complete picture of the presidential field, showing a haves and have-nots among the Republican candidates. Romney and Perry brought in more than $30 million in combined contributions; other candidates raised remarkably less, and some were mired in debt.

Still, the campaign figures didn't capture the tens of millions raised by new, outside groups known as super political action committees, which can collect unlimited amounts of money to influence elections. Obama and leading GOP candidates all have super PACs working in their favor, not counting groups like GOP-leaning American Crossroads that have raised hundreds of millions ahead of the general election.

No Likey, No Lighty

I'm officially in pre-holiday stressing mode- too much to do, too little time.

Two wardrobes, 10 drawers of clothes into a 15kg suitcase... seriously...fml.

Quick outfit of the day for you from Saturday night, when I went to see Paddy McGuiness at the Metro Radio Arena with Stephy, the pest Laura was also there with her other half. In a nutshell- don't go and see him live, it was rubbish. Plan of action for this week is the following- work, gym, spinning, work, gym, work, spinning, work, gym, work, gym, spinning, gym, pack suitcase, cry cause I have no clothes, bed, airport, Tenerife (in that order).

Back to the outfit of the day, by the way I don't do dressed up for gigs at the arena.

Sheer/Lace top- Topshop (last year)

Jeans- Asos

Leather Jacket- New Look

Chanel XL Jumbo

Watch- Asos

Belt- All Sainta

Skull Bracelet- Topshop

Glasses- Rayban.

Check out the crater on my face. The spot of doom which will not budge.

Quick FOTD?? Go on then..

Elf Tinted Moisturizer- Nude

Topshop Blush- Head Over Heels (post to come)

Mac MSF Soft and Gentle

Mac NC20 concealer (did naff all for the spot)

Vivo Lippy in Barely there/nude/whatever its called.

Eyes- painterly paintpot, All that glitters, 17 wild curls mascara.

I actually hate Tesco Golden Vegtable cup a soup- worlds worst lunch.

Indy 500 winner Wheldon dies after massive wreck

LAS VEGAS — Race car drivers always know the worst can happen whenever they get behind the wheel.

On Sunday, it happened to one of IndyCar's biggest and most popular stars.

Two-time Indianapolis 500 winner Dan Wheldon died after his car became ensnared in a fiery 15-car pileup, flew over another vehicle and hit the catch fence just outside turn 2 in a season-ending race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

"Things happen in this kind of racing," said Wade Cunningham, also caught up in the wreck. "It's so close. Not much room for error. I was near the front of what caused all this, so I'm not thrilled about it. At this point, whose fault it was is kind of immaterial."

The green flag had barely stopped waving when disaster struck.

Wheldon, driving from the back of the field for a chance at $5 million, was in the middle of the pack when he drove into a tangle of cars careening off each other in every direction.

Unable to avoid the massive wreck unfolding before him, Wheldon clipped another car and went hurtling through the air, his car bursting into flames as it flew into a fence.

After just 11 laps, the race was over. Two hours later, track officials announced that Wheldon was dead. The Englishman was 33.

"One minute you're joking around at driver intros and the next, Dan's gone," said Dario Franchitti, whose wife, actress Ashley Judd, had to bring him a box of tissues. "I lost, we lost, a good friend. Everybody in the IndyCar series considered him a friend. He was such a good guy. He was a charmer."

With the speed — close to 225 mph during practice — and a crowded 34-car field, a big worry was aggressive driving early in the 200-lap race.

Chaos started when two cars touched tires and almost no one had time to react.

Within seconds, several cars burst into flames and debris covered the track nearly halfway up the straightaway. Some points of impact were so devastating workers had to patch holes in the asphalt.

Video replays showed Wheldon's car turning over as it went airborne and sailed into what's called the catch fence, which sits over a barrier designed to give a bit when cars make contact. Rescue workers were at Wheldon's car quickly, some furiously waving for more help to get to the scene.

"It's unfortunate that early on in the race they've got to be racing so close. ...," Team Penske owner Roger Penske said. "You always worry about those at these mile-and-a-halves at the speed and with this many cars."

Three other drivers, including championship contender Will Power, were hurt in the pileup.

Wheldon was airlifted from the track to University Medical Center; news of his death came from IndyCar CEO Randy Bernard:

"IndyCar is very sad to announce that Dan Wheldon has passed away from unsurvivable injuries," he said. "Our thoughts and prayers are with his family today. IndyCar, its drivers and owners, have decided to end the race."

In his honor, drivers, many sobbing openly, took part in a five-lap salute around the 1.5-mile oval as thousands of fans stood and cheered from the grandstand.

Also injured in the crash were JR Hildebrand and Pippa Mann. Both will remain in the hospital overnight. IndyCar said Mann was being treated for a burn to her right pinkie finger and will be released Monday morning; Hildebrand was awake and alert but will be held overnight for further evaluation. Power was evaluated and released. An autopsy was planned Monday for Wheldon.

"I'll tell you, I've never seen anything like it," Ryan Briscoe said. "The debris we all had to drive through the lap later, it looked like a war scene from Terminator or something. I mean, there were just pieces of metal and car on fire in the middle of the track with no car attached to it and just debris everywhere. So it was scary, and your first thoughts are hoping that no one is hurt because there's just stuff everywhere. Crazy."

IndyCar has not had a fatality since Paul Dana was killed at Homestead in 2006, during a crash in a morning warmup. Wheldon won the race later that day.

The accident appeared to start when Cunningham's car swerved on the track and Hildebrand drove over the left rear of Cunningham's car. Hildebrand appeared to go airborne, and Cunningham's car shot up into the wall, setting off a chain reaction among the cars behind him.

Some of those cars slowed, others didn't, and others spun in front of Wheldon and Power. There was so much confusion on the track it was hard to tell who was driving what car.

Power appeared to fly over Alex Lloyd's car, rolling into the catch fence and landing on its right side. His in-car camera showed one of the front tires coming toward him in the cockpit.

Wheldon then appeared to drive over a car driven by Paul Tracy, who seemed to be slowing down. Wheldon, however, went airborne and spun into the fence.

"It was like a movie scene which they try to make as gnarly as possible," said Danica Patrick, making her final IndyCar start. "It was debris everywhere across the whole track. You could smell the smoke. You could see the billowing smoke on the back straight from the car. There was a chunk of fire that we were driving around. You could see cars scattered."

Wheldon, who came to the United States from England in 1999, won 16 times in his IndyCar career and was the series champion in 2005.

Despite winning this year's Indy 500, Wheldon couldn't put together a full-time ride this season. He landed in the Las Vegas race thanks to Bernard's promise of $5 million to any moonlighting driver who could win the IndyCar season finale at Vegas. Although there were no takers, Bernard refused to scrap the idea and Wheldon was declared eligible for the prize, which would have been split with a fan.

Asked about speed after the crash, Wheldon's former boss Chip Ganassi said, "There'll be plenty of time in the offseason to talk about that. Now is not the time to talk about that."

And Franchitti said: "I agree. We'll discuss that and sort it out."

But driver Oriol Servia didn't mince words: "We all had a bad feeling about this place in particular just because of the high banking and how easy it was to go flat. And if you give us the opportunity, we are drivers and we try to go to the front. We race each other hard because that's what we do," he said. "We knew if could happen, but it's just really sad."

Wheldon had been providing blog posts for USA Today in the days leading up to the Las Vegas race, and in one posted Saturday to the newspaper's website he spoke of how he expected Sunday to be "pure entertainment."

"This is going to be an amazing show," Wheldon wrote. "The two championship contenders, Dario Franchitti and Will Power, are starting right next to each other in the middle of the grid. Honestly, if I can be fast enough early in the race to be able to get up there and latch onto those two, it will be pure entertainment. It's going to be a pack race, and you never know how that's going to turn out."

The accident spoiled what Bernard had hoped would be a showcase event for the struggling IndyCar Series.

The second-year CEO worked the entire season on turning the finale into a spectacle, and said he would offer his resignation to the IndyCar board of directors if ABC's broadcast didn't pull a .8 ranking. His goal was to improve upon last year's season finale's horrible television rating and give the series some momentum for a strong season in 2013 with the introduction of a new car and new manufacturers.

So Bernard poured everything into Las Vegas, renting the speedway from owner Bruton Smith and agreeing to promote the event himself. He landed enough sponsorship to at least break even on race, and the $5 million challenge bought him an enormous amount of publicity the entire year.

Bernard got the Las Vegas Strip to close to stage a parade of cars, hosted industry parties and a blackjack tournament all to boost interest in the race. He even got MGM Grand Resorts to offer a pair of tickets to anyone staying this weekend in one of the chain's 14 properties.

But what was hoped to be a day of celebration quickly turned somber.

When drivers returned to the track for the tribute laps, Wheldon's No. 77 was the only one on the towering scoreboard. Franchitti sobbed uncontrollably as he got back into his car for the memorial ride. The sound of "Danny Boy" echoed around the track, followed by "Amazing Grace." Hundreds of crew workers and representatives from each team stood at attention in honor of Wheldon.

"What can you say? We're going to miss him," Ganassi said. "Everybody in IndyCar died a little today."

Jessica Alba Hairstyle