Spain tops world soccer rankings
ZURICH: Spain retained top spot in football’s latest world rankings released Wednesday, while Portugal and England both improved their positions in the top 10.

European champion Spain leads second-place Brazil and the third-place Netherlands, while Portugal is fourth after climbing two places in FIFA’s monthly rankings table.

World champion Italy dropped to fifth, Germany is sixth and England rises one spot to No. 7, trading places with France which lost 2-0 against Spain in a March 3 friendly.

Egypt is the best African nation at No. 14, while the United States climbs two places to No. 16, one ahead of neighboring rival Mexico.

Australia is the top-ranked Asian side, up four spots to No. 19 after beating Indonesia in an Asian Cup qualifier.

Most team slides in the rankings came about because points earned from World Cup qualifiers played in March 2009 lost their value.

Tourist falls into active volcano crater in Bali
BALI, Indonesia: A Swedish tourist fell to his death into the crater of an active volcano Wednesday on the Indonesian resort island of Bali.

The 25-year-old man and two friends were on a pre-dawn hike along the rim of the crater of 5,633-foot (1,717-meter) Mount Batur when he fell in, local police chief Capt. Made Oka said.

Rescuers spotted the man’s body inside the dry crater at a depth of about 500 feet (150 meters), Oka said. Officials believe the man did not survive the initial impact of the fall.

“Rescuers are now in the process of evacuating the body,” Oka said, adding that poor weather around the crater may slow the efforts.

Mount Batur, which has erupted 26 times since 1840, is about 40 miles (60 kilometers) northeast of the provincial capital, Denpasar. It last erupted in 2000 and is considered an active volcano. It regularly lets off steam.

Oka said the route the tourists were hiking is considered safe and accidents there are uncommon.

Shoaib Malik and family applied for Indian visa
ISLAMABAD: Former Pakistan cricket captain Shoaib Malik is set to marry Indian tennis star Sania Mirza, a union of two of South Asia’s best known sports personalities.

Shoaib and 13 members of his family have applied for Indian visa seven days ago. Indian High Commission in Islamabad has confirmed receiving applications of visa from Shoaib and relatives. The mission however didn’t confirm when the visas will be issued.

Sania Mirza, her parents and sister, had applied for a visa at the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi on Tuesday and were expected to be issued visa of three weeks in duration and valid for 60 days.

“The news of me marrying to Sania is true,” Malik posted on Twitter on Tuesday. “Inshallah (God willing) will get married in April.”

The 23-year-old Mirza ended a previous engagement to childhood friend Sohrab Mirza in January, citing incompatibility.

She issued a statement Tuesday confirming she and Malik planned to marry, but asking for privacy.

“My wedding Inshallah is going to be the biggest day of my life,” she said. “I have been in the media glare for too long and would appreciate a little privacy at this very personal moment in my life.”

Her father, Imran Mirza, said both Sania and Malik will be based in Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates, but continue to represent their countries in their respective sports.

“This is a unique case where husband and wife will represent their respective countries in sport,” he said in a statement issued in Hyderabad, India, where the family lives.

Malik said he supported Mirza’s ambition of playing on the professional tour.

“I fully understand what it takes to be an international sports person and I will support Sania in her career as long as she wishes to play,” he was quoted as saying.
Mirza, a two-time Grand Slam mixed doubles champion, became the first Indian woman to crack the top 40 in the international tennis rankings, reaching a career high of No. 27 in August 2007. At one time, the Muslim player was assailed by conservative elements of the Indian community for competing in short skirts and sleeveless shirts. She has not advanced beyond the first round in her last four tournaments and withdrew from tournaments in Malaysia and the United States in recent weeks due to a wrist injury. She is currently No. 92 in the rankings.

Malik, 28, was at the center of marriage controversy five years ago when he was reportedly broke an engagement with Ayesha Siddiqui, who was from Mirza’s hometown in India.

The dashing cricketer was also linked with Indian actress Siali Bhagat, and there were reports of the two meeting confidentially in 2008.

Sonam Kapoor taller than Shahid Kapoor
MUMBAI: Edinburgh in Scotland has been chosen as the location where much of the romance between Shahid Kapoor and Sonam Kapoor will unveil in Pankaj Kapur’s  Mausam  . The picturesque locale has been chosen as a substitute for the Kashmir Valley where shooting would be risky due to security reasons. The unit leaves for Edinburgh on May 1 and will be there till June 30.

Though the film unit initially felt that London would be the ideal place for the dreamy romance, they later had second thoughts as a number of Hindi films have been shot there over the years. Also, the virgin locations of Edinburgh were seen as a good reference point for Sonam’s character of an innocent and young Kashmiri girl.

Pankaj Kapur’s second wife, the talented Supriya Pathak has also joined the cast of his directorial debut Mausam . She will be playing Sonam’s aunt in the film.

A source says, “At first, Supriya Pathak was reluctant. She does very little work these days. She played Ranbir Kapoor’s mother in Wake Up Sid after much persuasion. Pankaj and Shahid had a hard time convincing her to be a part of Mausam .”

The unit was in for a surprise when they realized during the workshops, conducted earlier this month, that Sonam is taller than Shahid. At first, there was some concern about the height difference but the matter was soon sorted out.

A source from the Mausam team says, “We had not anticipated this. But it was no problem at all. The height difference was just a small matter and we ended up joking about it. Hasn’t Sushmita Sen worked with Salman Khan and Govinda? She’s taller than both.”

Arbaazs extramarital affair
MUMBAI: What’s the one premise that’s always held attraction for filmmakers? It’s got to be that of husband, wife and the other woman! So, when the new fantasy girl, Madhuri Bhattacharya’s attempt is in a similar vein, then surely the heat is on .

Ashok Kheny’s Prem Kaa Game, presented by AKK Entertainment Pvt Ltd, has all that it takes for a film based on the theme of extramarital affairs.And what does Madhuri have to say about her big break? “Enacting the domestic disturbance in the seven-year marriage of seasoned artistes like Arbaaz and his wife, played by Tara Sharma, was certainly challenging.

But to add to the test was the wayward husband’s character having a third dimension, when he fantasises about another woman, played by the ultimate diva, Malaika Arora Khan – my absolute favourite.” And so she’s had to compete with her role model? “One can’t compete with a role model, but I’m sure that in Prem Kaa Game, Arbaaz surely has had the best of many worlds – romancing with his real wife, his on-screen wife, and last but not the least, me,” she laughs.

Apart from the Khan couple, the film also has a hidden trump card with an undisclosed superstar playing the naughty narrator throughout this masaledar story. Madhuri’s unwilling to reveal much, but after some prodding, says, “All I can reveal right now is that Prem Kaa Game has a hunk of a hero, giving tips throughout the film to married men on how to handle a wife and another woman. It is narrated by India’s most eligible bachelor, whose own marriage has been the media’s favourite pass time. Now who is he? My advice to all is to head to the cinema this Friday and find out!”

Study shows cancer risk for never smokers
PARIS: A trawl through the DNA codes of hundreds of individuals may help explain why some people who never smoke may be unusually at risk from lung cancer, doctors said on Monday.

Lung cancer is commonly believed to be the preserve of people who smoke or who have smoked.

Yet 10 percent of all lung cancer patients worldwide are “never smokers”, meaning they have not smoked a single cigarette or their lifetime’s tally is less than 100 cigarettes.

The proportion is even higher in Asia, where between 30 and 40 percent of lung cancer victims are “never smokers”. Nearly two-thirds of the worldwide tally among “never smokers” are women.

Work to assess the vulnerability of “never smokers” has been a somewhat neglected issue in cancer research, which has focussed on the far bigger number of smokers who develop lung tumours.

Gene sleuths led by Ping Yang from the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, in Rochester, Minnesota, found two telltale genetic variants in Chromosome 13 in a study of 754 never smokers, with or without lung cancer.

Having these variants boosts the risk of lung cancer by nearly 60 percent, the study found.

The variants appear to suppress levels of a protein called GPC5, which plays a role in cell proliferation.

Further work is needed to confirm these findings and explore why never smokers develop cancer.

One theory is that someone with genetic vulnerability could develop lung cancer after a common, but as yet unidentified, trigger. Possible candidates include second-hand tobacco smoke, environmental pollutants, arsenic and the human papillomavirus.

The paper is published online by the journal The Lancet Oncology.

New password-stealing virus targets Facebook
BOSTON: Hackers have flooded the Internet with virus-tainted spam that targets Facebook’s estimated 400 million users in an effort to steal banking passwords and gather other sensitive information.

The emails tell recipients that the passwords on their Facebook accounts have been reset, urging them to click on an attachment to obtain new login credentials, according to anti-virus software maker McAfee Inc.

If the attachment is opened, it downloads several types of malicious software, including a program that steals passwords, McAfee said on Wednesday.

Hackers have long targeted Facebook users, sending them tainted messages via the social networking company’s own internal email system. With this new attack, they are using regular Internet email to spread their malicious software.

A Facebook spokesman said the company could not comment on the specific case, but pointed to a status update the company posted on its web site earlier on Wednesday warning users about the spoofed email and advising users to delete the email and to warn their friends.

McAfee estimates that hackers sent out tens of millions of spam across Europe, the United States and Asia since the campaign began on Tuesday.

Dave Marcus, McAfee’s director of malware research and communications, said that he expects the hackers will succeed in infecting millions of computers.

“With Facebook as your lure, you potentially have 400 million people that can click on the attachment. If you get 10 percent success, that’s 40 million,” he said.

The email’s subject line says “Facebook password reset confirmation customer support,” according to Marcus.

International Arms Trade on the Rise
STOCKHOLM: The United States continues to be the world’s biggest weapons exporter, reports a Swedish peace research group that maintains a global arms transfer database. The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) released its data for 2009 on Monday, containing information on all international transfers of major conventional weapons.

The United States has a 30 percent share of the arms market, providing supplies to 70 countries, including aircraft to South Korea, the United Arab Emirates, and Israel. Russia was in second place, accounting for 23 percent of all arms exports.

Germany, the third biggest, doubled its arms export volume in the last five years compared to the previous five-year period. France also increased its exports in recent years, thanks to sales of combat aircrafts, Fayette frigates, submarines, and helicopters.

Combat aircraft amounted to more than one-quarter of all international conventional arms transfers.

SIPRI has been gathering arms transfer data since 1950, using five-year averages to analyze global weapons transfers volumes. The main trend their research has revealed is a 22 percent overall increase in global weapons sales between 2005-2009.

China earned first place as the biggest arms importer over the last five years. About three-quarters of arms supplies to China came from Russia. The other top recipients were India, United Arab Emirates, South Korea, and Greece. Arms imports increased significantly to Indonesia, Singapore, and Malaysia.

The research group has warned about the increasing arms races in unstable regions such as Latin America, the Middle East, North Africa, South Asia, and Southeast Asia.

Titanic to Sail in 3D
LOS ANGELES: James Cameron confirmed plans to release his record breaking “Titanic” in 3D.

3D has become so popular that fans can now even say that they’ve seen the Titanic sink in 3D. Hollywood reports that director James Cameron has confirmed earlier rumors that the record breaking 1997 Oscar winning film is all set to sail into theatres for a second time in 3D format.

Although Cameron can confirm the news, fans shouldn’t expect the film to be re-released until 2012. Cameron has chosen this year in order to honor the 100 year anniversary of the ship’s sinking in 1912.

Furthermore, the director also confirms plans to re-release his latest film Avatar by the end of the year. The film was recently shut out of IMAX theatres in order to make room for the release of Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland. Some believe that nearly a hundred million more dollars could have been made if the film remained in theatres. In order to re-attract audiences, the new version will likely include never before seen footage.

Avatar recently became the biggest-selling film in history when it surpassed the previous record held by Titanic.

Preity Zinta appointed UNAIDS Goodwill Ambassador
MUMBAI: Actress Preity Zinta was appointed UNAIDS Goodwill Ambassador and plans to combine Cricket and Bollywood to raise awareness about the deadly disease.

The 35-year-old actress who is the co-owner of IPL team Kings XI Punjab, will donate 25 percent of the profits made by her team to charities selected by the UN.

“The players of my team will be wearing ribbons for the cause of HIV-AIDS. Someone living with HIV will come on the field and toss for our matches. Me and my team will also be making field trips in Punjab,” the actress told reporters here.

Preity will be making public service message films for UNAIDS featuring herself and the players which will be in English, Hindi and Punjabi.

She promised to ask for support from the film fraternity, who she noted are always up for a cause.

“I’ll try to garner support from Bollywood. No one ever says no and I am sure if they have the time, they’ll be available for it,” Preity said.

“I am taking on a new role. 40 percent of the people suffering from HIV-AIDS are women. What is disturbing is they pass it to their children. The people suffering from HIV face discrimination which is unacceptable,” she added.

The actress who has essayed socially relevant roles in movies like ‘Kya Kehna’, Lakshya’ and ‘Videsh’ is all geared up for her new assignment and said that she will be the “voice of the voiceless”.

Congratulating her for accepting the honour, Dr Charles Gilks, UNAIDS Country Coordinator, India said, “As a Goodwill Ambassador she will help in keeping AIDS on the agenda of politicians and journalists. She will also deal with the stigma and discrimination at the individual and community level and even within health care institutions.”
   

PCB announces squad for T20 World Cup
LAHORE: Pakistan Cricket Board on Friday announced the 15-member national squad for Twenty20 World Cup to be played in West Indies in April, reported Netkarachi.com.

1 Abdul Razzak, 2 Saeed Ajmal, 3 Muhammad Hafeez, 4 Shahid Afridi, 5 Kamran Akmal, 6 Omer Akmal, 7 Umer Gul, 8 Misbah-ul-Haq, 9 Muhammad Asif, 10 Khalid Latif, 11 Salman Butt, 12 Hammad Azam, 13 Fawad Alam, 14 Muhammad Amir and 15 Yasir Arafat are included in the squad.

Captain will be announced later, an announcement by the board said.

Pakistan tests missiles in Arabian Sea
KARACHI: Pakistan Navy has successfully test-fired a series of missiles and torpedoes in Arabian Sea on Friday.

Vice Admiral Tanvir Faiz was the incharge of the tests fired by Augusta submarines and various aircraft and ships.

Pakistan Naval Chief Admiral Noman Bashir also witnessed the tests.

ISPR in a statement called the tests a message to “nefarious” forces.

Zardari, Karzai discuss regional security
ISLAMABAD: President Asif Ali Zardari and his Afghan counterpart Hamid Karzai on Wednesday held wide-ranging talks focusing on jointly fighting terrorism, strengthening bilateral ties and ways to address regional issues related to peace and security.

President Karzai who flew in here late afternoon on a two-day visit arrived at the Aiwan-e-Sadr and met President Zardari soon after his arrival. The two leaders who have frequently met in the past expressed the resolve to remove misunderstandings of the past and to jointly move forward in the fight against militancy.

During the exclusive and delegation-level talks President Zardari stressed for enhanced interaction between the two countries to better cope with the issues of terrorism and extremism.

He said unity, sovereignty and territorial integrity of Afghanistan were of great importance and termed terrorism a common challenge to Pakistan and Afghanistan.

He said Pakistan was determined to fight militancy to the end, which was a long drawn battle and there were no quick solutions to this problem.

During the delegation-level talks President Zardari was assisted by Foreign Minister Makhdoom Shah Mahmood Qureshi, Defence Minister Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar, Interior Minister Rehman Malik, Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir, Secretary General to the President Salman Farooqi and Spokesman to the President former Senator Farhatullah Babar.

President Karzai was aided by Afghan Foreign Minister Dr.  Zalmai Rasoul, National Security Advisor Dr. Rangin Dadfar Spanta, Education Minister Dr. Farooq Wardak and Afghan Charge d’ Affaires Majnoon Gulab.

President Zardari said Pakistan believes that military action alone was not a solution to the problem.

He stressed the need for greater economic cooperation, adding the government was determined to correct the past mistakes to carve out a better future for posterity.

Afghan President Karzai urged for a partnership which allows realization of the full potential of human and natural resources and want greater connectivity, more trade and economic cooperation. He called for new development projects and investments in the two countries driven by energy corridors in the region.

Karzai thanked for Pakistan’s support and efforts for the rehabilitation and reconstruction of Afghanistan.

President Zardari pointed that Pakistan’s bilateral trade with Afghanistan was US$ 1.4 billion in 2008 and there was a vast economic potential and great opportunities for cooperation.

He said the Afghanistan Pakistan Transit Trade Agreement was under negotiations and hoped it would further boost economic interaction.

President Zardari also pointed to the over 3 million Afghan refugees that were still in Pakistan and said an early restoration of peace and normalcy in Afghanistan will enable the return of these refugees to their motherland.

The two sides focused on the need for greater harmony between the two countries.

Inadequate sleep leads to weight gain
LONDON: Sleep wrong and you will pile on pounds, for a new study has found that too much or too little shut-eye helps putting on weight - and it is the worst kind of fat.

Recent studies have suggested that inadequate amounts of sleep may lead to weight gain, obesity, and even an raised risk of developing diabetes.

Now, an international team, led by Wake Forest University, has carried out the study and found a clear link between sleep and getting fat - more or less shut-eye both are harmful, the New Scientist reported.

For the study, researchers monitored 1100 African and Hispanic Americans for a period of five years. Both groups are at a high risk of obesity-related disorders.

People under 40 gained 1.8 kilogrammes more on average if they got less than 5 hours of sleep per night than if they slept for 6 or 7 hours. Those regularly sleeping for more than 8 hours gained 0.8 kilogrammes more than the medium-sleep group, the study found.

CAT scans revealed increases in visceral fat, which accumulates around the internal organs and is particularly dangerous to health, according to Kristen Hairston, who led the study.

PCB bans Yousuf, Younus for life
LAHORE: Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Wednesday slammed lifetime ban on Muhammad Yousuf and Younis Khan and one year ban on Rana Naveed Ul-Hasan and Shoab Malik, imposing fine on them among other players, Netkarachi reported.

Recognizing the recommendations of PCB’s enquiry committee, the board fined Rana Naveed Ul-Hasan and Shoab Malik Rs 20 lakhs each. The board also fined Umar Akmal Rs 20 lakhs, Kamran Akmal Rs 30 lakhs, Shahid Afridi Rs 30 lakhs.

Muhammad Yousuf and Younis Khan have been banned for life, PCB officials said, adding that both the player were not able to represent Pakistan at any forum.

PCB said the dispute between both the players severely harmed team performance.

Kareena Kapoor shoots for Pakistans fashion house
KARACHI: This is for the first time an Indian actress has shot for a fashion house in Pakistan. In keeping with the nation’s sensibility, Kareena’s dresses are modern yet traditional. In vibrant hues she looks glamorous and the shalwar-suits from the designer house makes her looks elegant.

Bollywood’s style icon is making her presence felt in the fashion circuit across the border.

Humans can run as fast as 65 km/hr
DALLAS: Human running speeds of 35 to 40 mph may be biologically possible, concludes a new study.

Such a feat would leave in the dust the world’s fastest runner, Usain Bolt, who has clocked nearly 28 mph in the 100-meter sprint. Published in the Journal of Applied Physiology, the study offers intriguing insights into the biology and perhaps even the future of human running speed. The newly published evidence identifies the critical variable imposing the biological limit to running speed.

The new paper, “The biological limits to running speed are imposed from the ground up,” was authored by Peter Weyand of Southern Methodist University, Rosalind Sandell and Danille Prime, both formerly of Rice University; and Matthew Bundle of the University of Wyoming. “The prevailing view that speed is limited by the force with which the limbs can strike the running surface is an eminently reasonable one,” said Weyand, associate professor of applied physiology and biomechanics at SMU in Dallas.

“If one considers that elite sprinters can apply peak forces of 800 to 1,000 pounds with a single limb during each sprinting step, it’s easy to believe that runners are probably operating at or near the force limits of their muscles and limbs,” he said. “However, our new data clearly show that this is not the case. Despite how large the running forces can be, we found that the limbs are capable of applying much greater ground forces than those present during top-speed forward running,” he added.

In contrast to a force limit, what the researchers found was that the critical biological limit is imposed by time - specifically, the very brief periods of time available to apply force to the ground while sprinting. In elite sprinters, foot-ground contact times are less than one-tenth of one second, and peak ground forces occur within less than one-twentieth of one second of the first instant of foot-ground contact.

The researchers took advantage of several experimental tools to arrive at the new conclusions. They used a high-speed treadmill capable of attaining speeds greater than 40 miles per hour and of acquiring precise measurements of the forces applied to the surface with each footfall. They also had subjects’ perform at high speeds in different gaits.

Garlic may help fight cancer
OHIO: In a small pilot study, a new urine test developed by researchers suggests that the more garlic people consumed, the lower the levels of the potential carcinogenic process were.

The research is all about body processes associated with nitrogen-containing compounds, scientists say. These processes include nitrosation, or the conversion of some substances found in foods or contaminated water into carcinogens.

“What we were after was developing a method where we could measure in urine two different compounds, one related to the risk for cancer, and the other, which indicates the extent of consumption of garlic,” said Earl Harrison, senior study co-author and professor of human nutrition at Ohio State University (OSU).

“Our results showed that those were inversely related to one another - meaning that the more we had the marker for garlic consumption, the less there was of the marker for the risk of cancer.”

Ultimately, the scientists hope to find that a nutritional intervention could be a way to stop the process that develops these carcinogens. This process is most commonly initiated by exposure to substances called nitrates from certain processed meats or high-heat food preparation practices, or to water contaminated by industry or agricultural runoff.

About 20 percent of nitrates that are consumed convert to nitrites. A cascade of events can convert these compounds into what are called nitrosamines, and many, but not all, nitrosamines are linked to cancer.

Vegetables also contain nitrates, but previous research has suggested that the vitamin C in vegetables lowers the risk that those nitrates will convert to something toxic.

Researchers suspected that nutrients in garlic could have similar antioxidant effects as vitamin C, said an OSU release. The study was published in a recent issue of Analytical Biochemistry.

Oscars 2010: Hurt Locker rules the roost
The Iraq War drama “The Hurt Locker” won best picture and five other prizes at the Academy Awards, besides best director for Kathryn Bigelow, making her the first woman in the 82-year history of the Oscars to earn Hollywood’s top prize for filmmakers.
Sandra Bullock went home with best actress award for ‘The Blind Side’; Jeff Bridges as best actor for ‘Crazy Heart’; Mo’Nique as supporting actress for ‘Precious’ and the first black actress to win an Oscar; and Christoph Waltz as supporting actor for ‘Inglourious Basterds’. ‘Precious’ also won the adapted-screenplay Oscar for Geoffrey Fletcher. ‘Avatar’ won three Oscars, for visual effects, art direction and cinematography, beating ‘The Hurt Locker’ for the latter. ‘The Hurt Locker’ also won out over ‘Avatar’ for film editing, sound editing and sound mixing.
‘Hurt Locker’ screenwriter Mark Boal, won the Oscar for original screenplay.
‘Up’ earned the third-straight feature-animation Oscar for Disney’s Pixar Animation, which now has won five of the nine awards since the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences added the category. Argentina’s ‘The Secret in Their Eyes’ pulled off a surprise win for foreign-language film while ‘Crazy Heart’ also won for original song with its theme tune ‘The Weary Kind’. ‘The Cove’, an investigation into grisly dolphin-fishing operations in Japan, was picked as best documentary.
Oscar hosts Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin opened the show with playful ribbing of nominees.

Chinese toddler weighs 6.5st at the age of two:
BEIJING: She may be just two years old, but Pang Ya is already tipping the scales at 6.5st.

The toddler’s size means she now weighs the same as an average female Chinese adult.

Although her alarmed parents admit that their daughter has a healthy appetite, they are desperate for help.

Her father said: ‘Doctors can’t figure out the reasons for her obesity, which worries us a lot.’

Pang Ya, who is from Taocun town, Shanxi province, was born weighing an average eight pounds.

A recent government survey declared there are 60 million obese people in China, with the number doubling between 1992 and 2002.