Laura says she is ready for a two year solo sail around the world. She is determined to complete the trip before she turns 17 on Sept 2012.

Council spokesman said the request has been made from fear for the girl’s social and emotional development. “A 14-year-old child cannot appreciate the risks of a solo trip of this nature.”

Laura’s plans to set sail last September were thwarted by the intervention of child care officials and a subsequent court ruling placing her under their supervision until July 1, when the school year ended.

In December, she breached the court order, running away to the Dutch Caribbean island territory of St Martin. Police escorted her back home and the supervision was extended to August 1^st.

Her lawyer Peter de Lange said “We were able to show the court today that she has met all the court’s conditions, and an independent sail expert has approved her sailing plan.”

“Laura has obtained a first aid diploma, registered with a distance education facility to continue her schooling at sea, gained solo sailing experience and learnt sleep management techniques,” said De Lange.

In May, after a grueling two hundred ten days at sea and a twenty three thousand nautical mile journey, Australia’s Jessica Watson, became the youngest person to sail around the world non-stop, solo and unassisted. Jessica completed the challenge just three days before her 17^th birthday.

In June, a U.S. teenager was plucked from her stricken yacht in the Indian Ocean, as she attempted the solo sail.

Guinness World Record no longer has the ‘youngest or oldest solo sail around the world category. Australian Jesse Martin won the record in 1999, at 18.

The psychic, winner picking, octopus known for his amazingly accurate World Cup predictions, has received death threats. Paul, the oracle octopus whose premonitions perfectly predicted the outcome of all six German World Cup games, first generated anger from Argentinean fans who believe his pick doomed Argentina in the quarterfinals.

The Germans are not happy with Paul either, after his controversial choice of selecting Spain to beat Germany, even though the pick was correct. The beautiful and brilliant octopus accurately predicted all four of Germany’s victories, as well as their upset loss to Serbia and semi-finals defeat at the hands of Spain.

Paul’s keeper in Oberhausen, Germany said “There are always people who want to eat our octopus but he is not shy and we are here to protect him as well. He will survive.”

Prior to the final Paul’s keepers gave the octopus an out. “It will only happen if he is deemed not too tired and still hungry,” a spokesman for the Sea Life Aquarium in Oberhausen, said. “We do not want to overburden him.”

The magnificent mollusk made his selections clear by a selection from boxes inside his tank. From the commencement of the World Cup, two boxes were placed within the tank, with the flags of the opposing teams on them. Whichever box Paul selected it was said to be the team he picked to win the game. Each box contained a tasty morsel inside.

Prophetic Octopus

Eventually Paul correctly chose Spain as the winner. An enterprising business person leapt on the band wagon and produced hats with an octopus on top, in the Spanish colours.

The miraculous mollusk’s prophetic prognosis even generated an online hoax, with an unsophisticated Photoshopper forging a sham Paul pick.

Singapore was not to be outdone by Germany. Mani, a rose-ringed parakeet also predicted all four countries for the World Cup semi-finals. Mani blotted his copy book, however, when he chose Uruguay to win against the Netherthlands.

Then the predictions of Mani and Paul came in direct opposition to each other. Mani chose the Netherlands to win the Final, making a lot of Dutch people very happy, while Paul opted for Spain.

Mani belongs to a roadside astrologer, Maniyappa, of Indian origin. Mani increased the traffic to Maniyappa’s small business in Singapore’s Little India, when the customers increased from 10 a day to 10 an hour.

What will these two intrepid creatures turn their talents to next? Tanja Munzig, a spokesman at Sea Life said Paul would now step back from the official oracle business and return to relaxing in his water home, having greedily consumed his own shiny golden replica of the World Cup trophy.

AFP reported one tongue-in-cheek bookmaker offered odds of 8-1 that Paul becomes a bookmaker, 20-1 that he releases a record, 100-1 that Paul unveils his own brand of calamari, 250-1 the octopus becomes Merkel’s new adviser and 1,000-1 he ends life as part of a paella.

“This is going to be a massive betting year for us,” Graham Sharpe, a spokesman for Britain-based bookmaker William Hill, told MartketWatch.com in describing World Cup wagering. “Almost by definition, turnover increases exponentially every four years. We are very optimistic that there will be 1 billion or more pounds bet with British bookmakers alone.”

Nevada is the only place where American soccer fans can legally wager on the World Cup soccer teams.

Special offers abound, aiming to attract the betting dollar, as sports book operators are unsure what to expect. The trend online is to offer ‘Free Bets’, such as ‘register and get up to a $300 Free Bet that can be used for any of the World Cup markets, or any sport you want’.

Another promotion offers a money back guarantee on every game, a tipping competition, as well as multibet promos. Others offer a free World Cup jersey, plus a $100 Free Bet when you register and deposit a minimum of $150. While still others offer generous monthly, reload and pick-the-score super bonuses.

The list is endless. However, the high rollers take a different tack altogether. They use insurance companies.

Warren Buffet was an unexpected beneficiary of France’s 2-0 loss to Uruguay, which eliminated the beleaguered, scandal ridden Les Blues, from the World Cup.

Bloomberg reports that the Oracle of Omaha wrote an insurance policy to an unnamed individual that would have paid out in a very big way if France won the World Cup. In March, Buffett told CNBC that he was going to lose something in the neighborhood of “30 million bucks” if France won. Bloomberg adds that bookmakers put France’s odds of winning a championship at 12-1.

Whether or not this is ultimately a form of high-finance gambling on Buffett’s part, the $30 million payout dwarfs the individual insurance policies taken out on World Cup players, the Insurance Journal reports. A high-priced World Cup player could have their bodies insured for upwards of $70 million. Lloyd’s estimated the total market for World Cup insurance this year to be worth nearly $9 billion.

The police also confirmed that 316 people, 207 of South African origin, have been arrested for World Cup-related crimes since the start of the tournament. Eight British citizens, 9 Algerians, 11 Ethiopians, 7 Nigerians, 6 Mozambique, 6 Zimbabwe, 6 Pakistan and 6 United States citizens have all been detained.

Meanwhile, the residence of Police Vice Minister Fikile Mbalula was robbed and expensive electronic equipment was stolen. Mbalula is one of the top officials in charge of security for the tournament.

Speaking in a phone interview, the Police chief, Bheki Cele, said the South African government has placed a huge premium on security since the World Cup started.

“You will hardly walk 500 meters without seeing police patrol around …and you cannot drive into the stadium area if you don’t have an accreditation and if you are not an official. So these are some of the things the government has done to make sure the security is tight and high.”

He said the robbery cases, even though disturbing, have however not affected the excitement of visitors and tourists.

“Only on Monday police shot two robbers and arrested four of them at a place not too far from the soccer city and that’s bad enough,” Atohengbe said.

Original World Cup Trophy

In 1966, the World Cup Trophy (insured for $60,000) was stolen from a public exhibition at Westminster Central Hall, four months before the FIFA World Cup in England.

The Chairman of the Football Association received a ransom note demanding $30,000 in small currency notes. Using scraps of paper, a ransom was put together, but the hand over was bungled.

A few days later a ‘package’ was discovered lying under a hedge, wrapped in old newspaper. It was the trophy. A petty thief and used car dealer was convicted of the theft.

The FA secretly manufactured a replica of the trophy for use in pre-match celebrations.

The real cup was stolen again in a daring robbery in 1983 in Rio de Janerio and never recovered. The Brazilian Football Confederation commissioned a replica of their own. The replica trophy was made by Eastman Kodak, using 3.97 pound of gold and finished in 1986.

Either way, after two thefts FIFA said enough was enough. It now keeps the “FIFA World Cup Trophy” and hands out the replica trophies to the champion nation.

The World Cup is the most famous trophy on earth. Other contenders include the Olympic gold medal, Nobel Prize, Stanley Cup and Posh Spice.

The Regalecus glesne, known as the King of Herrings or Giant Oarfish, was found dead in the small fishing village of Bovallstrand, on Sweden’s west

Giant Herring

“Down at the water, there was something big floating. At first we thought it was a big piece of plastic. But then we saw an eye. I went down to check and saw that it was this extremely strange fish,” said Kurt Ove Eriksson, the west coast resident who found the specimen floating near the shore.

The rarely seen regalecus, the world’s longest bony fish, can reach up to 12 metres.

“The last time we saw a King of Herrings in Sweden was in 1879,” said a spokesman for the House of the Sea museum in Lysekil, where the fish was taken to. “We don’t know much about the species, but believe it lives in deep waters, at least 1000 metres deep and many believe it’s at the origin of the sea serpent myth”, or stories of mythological sea creatures like the Loch Ness Monster.”

The dead fish, which was frozen at the museum, had a deep cut through its body and was missing its beautiful, typical back fin. The museum said the fish might be added to an exhibit on sea monsters planned later this year.

Giant Herring Catch

Giant herrings, a schooling species that lives in coastal and estuarine waters in the southern hemisphere, grow up to a couple of metres in length. Many are found in waters from Australia, to the Philippines and as far as Hawaii. The fish are commonly caught in lower estuary reaches, bays, harbours and inshore waters.

The Giant Herring is also known as the Banana Fish, Chiro, Hawaiian Ladyfish, Pincushion-fish, Torres Strait Herring, or Ten Pounder.

“These types of messages typically come in waves and play on a person’s topical interest in the event as a hook,” ACMA chairman Chris Chapman said.

Three major World Cup scams are being circulated via SMS:

• “Congratulations from FIFA (sic) World Cup Promo you won $1,000,000.00 contact our agent to claim your prize Mr Fred Samuel Email: (email address)”
• “Your mobile number has won $100,000 and to watch the finals live at the FIFA WORLD CUP PROMO REF: SA3T10.send email to (email address) or call: (phone number)”
• “This is to confirm your cell have won US$5.8M for FIFA 2010 International Award. To claim contact Mrs. Martins via: (email address)”

All this is happening while the fans live in a cheek-by-jowl tent city.

In another type of fraud, a fraudster contacts the seller of an automobile, asking for the vehicle’s identification number (VIN), supposedly to check the accident record of the vehicle. However, the supposed buyer actually uses the VIN to make fake papers for a stolen car that is then sold.

Re-shipping scams trick individuals, or small businesses, into shipping goods to countries with weak legal systems. The goods are generally paid for with stolen or fake credit cards.

The latest scam to hit the headlines is the multi-million dollar click fraud, which occurs when advertising network affiliates force paid views, or clicks to ads on their own websites, via spyware. The affiliate is then paid a commission on the pay-per-click that was artificially generated.

Affiliate programs such as Google’s Adsense capability pay high commissions that drive the generation of bogus clicks. With paid clicks costing as much as US$100 and an online advertising industry worth more than US$10 billion, this form of Internet fraud is on the increase.

Online dating scams and fraud are almost as old as Internet dating itself. Often called a ‘Sweetheart Swindle‘ this is a long, drawn out process in which the con artist develops a relationship and eventually convinces the victim to send money. The scammer often meets the victim in chat rooms or via online dating sites. Their object is not to get into their hearts, but get into their wallets.

Another variation of internet marketing fraud is offering tickets to sought-after events such as concerts, shows and sports events. The tickets turn out to be fake, or are simply never delivered. A prime example was the Beijing Olympic Games ticket fraud run by US-registered Xclusive Leisure and Hospitality, sold through a professionally-designed website, www.beijingticketing.com with the name “Beijing 2008 Ticketing”. It was reported that more than $50 million worth of fake tickets had been sold through the website and the person behind the scam, which was wholly based outside China, was a British ticket tout, Terrance Shepherd.

Powell has not walked since he broke his back at the age of 18, in a motorcycle accident.

He said: “I have been flying all over the world to take part in wheelchair races – this has never happened before. I was left feeling angry and embarrassed.”

Powell offered to get out of the wheelchair and use his powerful arms to ease himself up the steps of the Eastern Airways aircraft. But the airline again refused him permission to board on safety grounds.

“It’s basically discrimination. They told me: ‘You can’t come on unless you can walk’,” said Powell, father of two. “They knew full well that I was in a wheelchair. I’d told them when I phoned to check the flight was on time.”

Powell had flown to Scotland for a race, last year with the same airline without any problems.

Powell competed at the 1992 Barcelona Paralympic Games, the 1994 Commonwealth Games in Canada and the 1998 World Championships.

He was booked onto the flight by Aberdeen Council, who had organised a 10K race he was taking part in.

A statement from Eastern Airways said: “The booking that was made on behalf of Mr Powell highlighted that he needed wheelchair assistance, but was able to climb the aircraft steps unaided. Unfortunately that wasn’t the case and Mr Powell was refused boarding on safety grounds.

“Wheelchair assistance is available to and from all our aircraft, as long as passengers are able to walk up the aircraft steps and onto the aircraft without assistance.”

Mr Powell later flew to Edinburgh with easyJet and was driven to the event in Balmoral.

“Like a surfer catching a wave, river Crocodiles, which can grow up to 20 feet (6 meters), can ride currents and cross hundreds of miles of open sea,” said Hamish Campbell a University of Queensland ecologist and author of the study.

The research began in 2002 in the tropics of Australia’s Queensland state and involved environmentalist and television personality Steve Irwin, the so-called Crocodile Hunter who was killed by a stingray barb off Queensland in 2006.

The team tagged 27 adult crocodiles in the remote Kennedy River, using sonar transmitters and underwater receivers to track their movements over 12 months.

Campbell said a 20-minute swim is hard work for a crocodile, so he was surprised that eight of the tagged crocodiles repeatedly took long journeys out to sea from their river home area, that was more than 35 miles (60 kilometers) upstream.

“It did seem unlikely that they were swimming the entire way and when we looked at residual surface currents from satellite images, you could see quite clearly that they were indeed following the current systems,” Campbell told The Associated Press.

Adult Crocodile

One 13-foot (3.8-meter) male swam 367 miles (590 kilometers) over 25 days, to reach another river system, where it stayed for seven months before making the return journey.

“Why he went there, we have absolutely no idea, but it seems very deliberate, purposeful movements,” Campbell said.

The research showed that currents could carry crocodiles, which can survive for months without food or fresh water, across vast tracks of ocean. It also explains why the same species of estuarine crocodile is found in various countries, separated by the ocean

Zoologist Grahame Webb, an Australian crocodile expert independent of the study, welcomed the research as the first demonstration of how crocodiles use currents.

“Long distances voyages at sea have always been a bit rare with crocs and people have suspected that currents played a part,” Webb said. “The research shows they’re much more mobile than people realize”.

Large crocodiles are powerful, but tire quickly. A 20-minute struggle in a trap can kill a crocodile, because exertion causes a rapid buildup of lactic acid in their blood, Webb said.

Estuarine crocodiles mainly live in rivers and mangroves, in a range extending over more than 3,800 square miles (10,000 square kilometers) of the Southeast Pacific from India to Fiji and from China to Australia.

Some Solomon Island crocodiles have been found in Vanuatu, a distance of around 1000 kms. It is believed the crocs became lost during a cyclone. They were captured and returned to the Solomon Islands.

“He had gone to South Africa for the World Cup without the authority of the military hierarchy. This is an act of insubordination,” an army spokesman said.

General Kazura, a senior figure in President Paul Kagame’s regime and a member of the very closed circle of rebel leaders who ended the 1994 genocide with him, is also in charge of operations and training in the Rwandan Army.

When the military realised he travelled to South Africa without permission, he was recalled and arrested upon arrival in the capital Kigali. Kazuara has been accused of high treason for ‘leaving the national territory without the consent of his superiors’.

The arrest of General Kazura, a Tutsi who grew up in exile in Burundi, came after the arrests of two other high-ranking Rwandan army generals in April.

Arrests however, are not uncommon in soccer.

In 2002 police arrested national league soccer referee, Yochanan  Chibotero, on suspicion of being involved in a match-rigging scandal.

The ongoing investigation had already seen four soccer officials arrested on the same game fixing scandal, involving active and retired referees and linesmen.

Officials believed the arrests were just the tip of the iceberg.

The fixing was achieved through several methods:

• The referee or linesmen agreeing a result with a bettor before a game began, in exchange for a hefty payoff, amounting to thousands of dollars
• Awarding penalties through false calls, or a foul, or a hand ball in the penalty area
• Referees suspected of prolonging games, or failing to blow a whistle for some fouls
• Bettors placing money on various details of the game, with officials getting the payoff for delivering the goods to win the bets.

Pakistani soccer players

In 2000 a Pakistani football team was arrested while playing some friendly matches in the Afghan city of Kandahar.

The Taleban authorities said the wearing of shorts during a match violated the Islamic dress code, as there was too much flesh displayed.

The players were not only arrested, they also had their head shaved as punishment, before being sent back to Pakistan.

The team were in the middle of their third match, when the Taleban authorities moved into the stadium, arresting 12 members of the squad. Five other Pakistani players managed to escape.

Several spectators were injured in the stampede that followed the arrests.

Abby was put aboard the French fishing vessel, Ile De La Reunion, heading to the French archipelago Kerguelen Islands.

Transport Minister Anthony Albanese said Australia couldn’t send Abby and her backers a bill even if it wanted to. “That’s not the way the law works. The Australian taxpayer at the end of the day makes a contribution.”

He went on to say “We have to put this in context – if there was an Australian lost at sea we would want every effort to be made to save that person.” The search fell just outside of Australia’s search and rescue region.

Abby Johnson' boat Abandoned

A chartered Qantas plane was sent from Perth to search for Abby about 3700km off the coast of Western Australia. It located her 12m yacht, Wild Eyes, within four hours of being put in charge of the rescue. It’s been reported the Qantas charter cost $10,000 an hour.

Albanese said the episode proved Australia was a world leader in search and rescue. “We can be very proud of the efforts of the Australian Maritime Safety Authority. They have pulled off a remarkable rescue.”

The US ambassador called Albanese yesterday to thank the nation for its efforts.

Abbey says she will make another attempt to sail solo, nonstop, around the world, following three ‘crazy days’, after being lost in a storm in the turbulent Indian Ocean.

Abbey left Los Angeles on January 23^rd, in the hope of being the youngest to circumnavigate the globe solo and unassisted, attempting to beat Australian Jessica Watson.

In facing her growing number of critics Abbey said, “Storms are part of the deal when you set out to sail around the world. As for age, since when does age create gigantic waves and storms?”

Abbey’s father, a boat builder, said his daughter had thousands of miles of solo sailing experience, before she began her solo attempt. He said she simply ‘caught a bad wave’.

During the rescue operation the captain of the French fishing boat fell into the water and had to be rescued. It is not clear whether the French vessel will seek compensation.

Australian lone sailor, Jessica Watson, completed her unofficial solo circumnavigation of the globe on May 15^th, three days before her 17^th birthday. Unofficial, because Guinness World Record have now removed the ‘oldest and youngest’ categories of solo circumnavigation. Jesse Martin, from Melbourne, Australia, achieved the solo unassisted record in 1999, aged 18.