Washington - Nothing prepares you for Aravind Adiga's India - a deep, oozing, festering sore that you are desperate to ignore, but one that he forces you to stare at, and later laugh about.

The White Tiger, the Indian author's debut novel about one man's unscrupulous journey from a village life of unbearable poverty to blazing entrepreneurial success was awarded the 2008 Man Booker Prize for Fiction late Tuesday in London.

Adiga described the novel as "a portrait of society that is on the brink of unrest." But it's also funny. "It's meant to get people thinking," he said.

London - Indian debut novelist Aravind Adiga won the Man Booker Prize for Fiction 2008 for his work The White Tiger in London Tuesday.

The 33-year-old journalist tells the "story of two Indias" in his book, praised by Booker Prize judges' chairman Michael Portillo as "being in the tradition of Macbeth with a delicious twist."

Adiga is the third first-time novelist to win the 50,000-pound (86,000 dollar) Booker Prize, which is awarded each year for the best novel in the British Commonwealth and the Republic of Ireland.

Adiga, who lives in Mumbai - formerly Bombay, charts his journey from working in a teashop to entrepreneurial success in what is seen as a critique of modern India and its class divisons.

London, Oct 14: American psychologists have given employees the perfect excuse for the much desired tea breaks or 15-minute time out – the study has found that distractions in the workplace actually help in solving problems.

The experts reckon that a moment spent working on something else or taking a break altogether allows the brain''s unconscious thought process to take over.

They found that when the brain kicks back into gear, the conscious thought process picks up on the solution.

London, Oct 13: Nearly a third of celebrities

London - British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has promised an "end to rewards for failure" while annoucing details of a 37-billion pound (65-billion-dollar) bank bail-out package in London on Monday.

The package, which will see the British government taking significant ownership in the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) and a merged Lloyds TSB and HBOS, comes with the proviso of no bonuses for the executives of banks that receive public funds.

London - Britain's Lloyds TSB bank is to renegotiate its