Los Angeles - It wasn't a thing of beauty, in fact it was plain ugly, but the Houston Rockets will take it.

Yao Ming had 21 points with 10 rebounds and the Rockets struggled to beat the visiting Memphis Grizzlies 82-71 on Wednesday night, in the season opener for both teams.

"You're going to have games where you play great and be on Sports Centre," said Ron Artest, who added 16 points in his Rockets' debut. "You're going to have games when you play bad and get the win. If it was ugly and we're 1-0, we'll take it."

Tracy McGrady netted 16 points while Argentina's Luis Scola finished with 12 and 13 rebounds for the Rockets, who won despite shooting an icy 36.8 per cent (28-of-76) from the floor.

Guwahati, Oct 30 : At least 11 persons died and 50 injured in at least 11 serial blasts in Guwahati and Upper Assam this afternoon. All the blasts are said to have taken place within a span of 15 minutes.

According to official sources, one of the blasts took place in front of the Kamrup district deputy commissioner''s office in Guwahati. Two other bombs exploded at Ganeshguri and Fancy Bazaar areas. A yet other blast took place in Barpeta district and two explosions occurred in Bongaigaon area.

Madrid - Villarreal can hardly wait for Saturday to come.

That's when they will have the chance to put their awful recent form behind them, away to lowly Athletic Bilbao.

The normally solid Villarreal defence began to show signs of vulnerability in last week's 6-3 defeat of Euro minnows Aalborg. Sunday saw the "Yellow Submarine" shipping water, when Atletico Madrid forced a bizarre 4-4 draw in El Madrigal.

And the submarine was sent to the bottom of Davy Jones' Locker on Wednesday, when Villarreal were astonishingly thrashed 5-0 in the King's Cup by third divsion Polideportivo Ejido.

Seoul - Shares surged by a record 12 per cent Thursday on the Seoul stock exchange as a currency swap with the US worth 30 billion dollars and a decreased currency account deficit in South Korea in September boosted investor sentiment.

The local currency spiked 16.5 per cent against the greenback, buoyed by the swap deal and the bullish stock market.

The benchmark Kospi index jumped 115.75 points, or 12 per cent, to close at 1,084.72, its largest ever one-day gain. The index fell more than 20 per cent last week, the biggest loss in two decades.

Advancing issues outpaced decliners 841 to 53.

Washington, Oct 30 : The initial excitement of joining a gym and being regular often dies, and people start coming up with innovative excuses to miss their exercise routine. Now, according to a group of researchers, such a sudden transition to a sedentary lifestyle can quickly lead to symptoms of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease 
(hepatic steatosis).

Hepatic steatosis is a reversible condition that causes fat to accumulate in liver cells of obese people.

The new study by researchers at University of Missouri indicated that a regular exercise can prevent nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, which affects at least 75 percent of obese people.

Washington, Oct 30 : Allergies are much more than just an annoying immune malfunction, they may protect against certain types of cancer, suggests a new study.

According to a new article in the December issue of The Quarterly Review of Biology, allergy symptoms may protect against cancer by expelling foreign particles, some of which may be carcinogenic or carry absorbed carcinogens, from the organs most likely to come in with contact them.

In addition, allergies may serve as early warning devices that let people know when there are substances in the air that should be avoided.

The article has been produced by researchers Paul Sherman, Erica Holland and Janet Shellman Sherman from Cornell University.