London, April 28 : Lily Allen has confessed that she has often left her boyfriends to gather "inspiration" for songs.

The 23-year-old pop star, who has been with a series of older men including 45-year-old art dealer Jay Joplin and music producer Ed Chew, revealed she gets "mean" if she reaches a mental and creative block.

"I've actually broken up with boyfriends for inspiration," the Daily Express quoted her as saying in an interview for Radio Times.

London, Apr 28 : Girl-phone affair has long been known to mankind. And now, a new study has claimed that girls spend more than four years of their lives "on the beloved".

The new UK study has found that women will make or receive an average of 288,000 calls in their lifetime.

Those calls last a total of 42,000 hours - or 4.75 years.

As far as men are concerned, they are not much of "yappers"- their 277,000 calls in a lifetime take up 28,500 hours or 3.25 years, reports The Sun.

London, Apr 28 : Cheryl Cole, who's known for her exquisite feminine style, has revealed she used to be a tomboy.

The Girls Aloud babe told Hello! magazine that as a teen she wore baggy jeans and jumpers - then discovered "girlie clothes and high heels".

She also admitted that hubby Ashley Cole still prefers her dressed down in a tracksuit than the glammed look.

"He thinks I look cutest in a casual tracksuit with my hair pulled back at home," The Sun quoted Cole, as telling the magazine.

London - Portsmouth denied Alan Shearer his first win as Newcastle United manager after a 0-0 draw at St James's Park on Monday night. The point lifts Newcastle into 18th place, above neighbours Middlesbrough on goal difference on 31 points with just four matches remaining. Portsmouth remain four places higher on 38 points.

With Newcastle sitting in the relegation zone before the match, Shearer had staked his team's hopes of survival on winning their three remaining home games, starting with the match against Portsmouth.

Islamabad - British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and his Pakistani counterpart on Monday put aside diplomatic tensions over the planned expulsion of 11 Pakistani students arrested in a suspected bomb plot, as they held talks on fight against terrorism. British authorities arrested 12 men, 11 of them Pakistanis, all of which were later released without charge, but the Pakistani nationals, including 10 with student visas, were now facing possible deportation.

London - Three people are currently undergoing specialist tests for suspected swine flu in Britain after their recent return from Mexico, Health Secretary Alan Johnson said Monday. He told parliament that the three patients were kept in isolation wards in hospitals in Scotland and in the northern city of Manchester after developing "flu-like" symptoms.

A further 14 people were undergoing "initial investigation" but were not treated in hospitals.