Casillas is World Cup top goalkeeper

Johannesburg, July 12: Spain skipper Iker Casillas has been named the best goalkeeper of the 2010 World Cup.

The FIFA Technical Study Group picked the Real Madrid shot-stopper after some outstanding performances which inspired Spain to win their first-ever World Cup trophy.

Previous winners of this award are Gianluigi Buffon (Italy) in 2006, Oliver Khan (Germany) 2002 and Fabien Barthez (France) in 1998.

The 29-year-old Casillas made several saves against the Netherlands in Sunday's final, which his side won 1-0. One of the saves was a point-blank block which denied Arjen Robben, who was clean on goal.

He also saved a penalty against Paraguay in a quarter-final match as Spain won 2-1 to reach the last four.

Casillas made history when he became the first goalkeeper since Italy's Dino Zoff in 1982 to lead a team to World Cup glory.

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Mueller wins World Cup Golden Boot, best young player

Johannesburg, July 12: Germany midfielder Thomas Mueller has won the Golden Boot award for top scorer at the World Cup and was also named best young player of the tournament.

Mueller was one of four players to finish on five goals, but won by virtue of his three assists, two more than his nearest rivals- Spain's David Villa and Wesley Sneijder of the Netherlands, who each had one assist.

Mueller, 20, has spearheaded a new generation of players that include Mesut Oezil, Sami Khedira, Jerome Boateng and goalkeeper Manuel Neuer in a German team that finished third.

The Bayern Munich ace, who 12 months ago was playing in the German third division, succeeded compatriot Miroslav Klose, who topped the scoring at the last World Cup in Germany four years ago.

Mueller first gave notice of his huge potential during last season's UEFA Champions League as Bayern made it all the way to the final. It was his first full season at the Bavarian giants and he ended up scoring 19 times in 52 appearances.

He is a fast, composed and technically gifted attacking midfielder or second striker who scores and creates goals.

Ahead of the World Cup, Mueller was valued at about 10 million euros ($12.5 million), but there are now suggestions that on the back of his performance in Africa, he has more than tripled this valuation.

Mueller, who made his full international debut against Argentina in a friendly in March, is a product of a systematic and extensive German youth programme which began 10 years ago after Germany crashed out of the 2000 European Championships in Belgium and the Netherlands.

The German football federation DFB then chose to embark on scouting and developing new talent, a programme which was further enhanced when former captain Matthias Sammer was appointed sports director in 2005.

Since then the German Football League wand the DFB have invested some 500 million euros on youth development schemes.

All Bundesliga clubs were mandated to have their own junior training centres, while the DFB developed centres of excellence and talent-spotting programmes across the country.

The results have been outstanding - Germany were under-19 European champions in 2008, and then won the under-17 and under-21 European titles last year. Before that, Germany had gone 16 years without a European title at junior level.

In South Africa, Mueller extended the legend of the Germany number 13 shirt, which his namesake Gerd Mueller made famous during a distinguished career in the 1970s.

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3G mobile calls to cost users dearly, says Mittal

New Delhi, July 11: Market leader Bharti Airtel on Sunday cautioned that 3G mobile services will not come cheap, especially for subscribers in metros, as service providers had to pay dearly for spectrum.

“Take the example of Delhi itself, or Mumbai. The amount for spectrum that has been charged is close to Rs 3,500 crore each... Just to recover license fees and input cost, it works out to be Rs 700-900 per month,” Bharti Group chairman, Mr Sunil Mittal, said.

Amid highly aggressive bidding for 3G spectrum, Bharti Airtel won 13 circles, including Delhi and Mumbai, paying Rs 12,295.46 crore, the highest among service providers.

The company could not achieve the objective of a pan-India 3G foot print as the prices rose beyond a reasonable level due to various factors like the auction format, a severe shortage of spectrum and also ensuing policy uncertainty.

Asked by when the service would be launched by Bharti, Mr Mittal said, “Some time later this year. We will wait for the spectrum allocation, which is promised in September, a few months after that.”

In fact, not only Bharti, but no operator could bag the pan-India 3G spectrum. The three leading mobile operators — Bharti, Vodafone and Reliance Communications — managed to win 3G spectrum in Delhi and Mumbai, which could lead to a tariff war in these two metros. PSU firms MTNL and BSNL together have pan-India 3G.

In the rest of the circles, especially in the C-category, the tariffs may not be very high.

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Former model Natasha Padbidri commits suicide

Mumbai: A 30-year-old former model on Sunday allegedly committed suicide at her residence in suburban Versova, police said.

Natasha Padbidri, who did a few modelling assignments some years ago, hanged herself by dupatta in the bedroom of her flat in Petricorn building this afternoon.

She was suffering from depression for some time, the police said.

Her family owns two flats in the building and the model stayed alone in one flat while her family lived in the other.

According to police, her brother knocked on her door but since there was no response, police were called.

Further probe is on.

Her death comes weeks after former supermodel Viveka Babaji was found dead under similar conditions at her flat in Mumbai. Babaji too was said to have been under depression.

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Bank staff colluded with cyber fraudsters: Police

July 11: Officers at the police cyber crime cell were surprised when 10 people recently registered cases pertaining to an online air ticket booking fraud one after the other. When they discovered a common thread, the cops realised that they had an elaborate fraud on their hands. “About 10 complaints came in over the past three weeks and all the cases were similar,” said a senior police officer. “The fraudsters cheated these people of around Rs 20 lakh.”

The crooks’ modus operandi was to steal data from credit cards of shoppers at a textile showroom in Purasawalkam and use it to book air tickets online. “One of the gang members is a travel agent and the gang would book tickets for legitimate passengers. The cardholders and the passengers were never aware of the fraud until it was too late.”

When the cardholders realised that cash was disappearing from their accounts, they approached the police. Investigating officers said the culprits used the three-digit CVV (card verification value) code from the credit cards to access the accounts of the card holders online.

“The CVV code alone is not enough,” the officer pointed out. “One has to know the PIN of the account they are hacking into or the personal question used as a substitute for the PIN. The fraudsters had access to both which cannot be possible without the help of bank staff. We have reasons
to believe that bank employees connived with the culprits.”

The police has arrested one person in connection with the case and is searching for the mastermind of the racket.

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Spain beat Netherlands 1-0 to win the World Cup

Spain beat Netherlands 1-0 to win the World Cup

JOHANNESBURG: Spain rules the soccer world, winning the World Cup at long, long last.

It came after an exhausting 1-0 victory in extra time over the Netherlands on Sunday. Two years after winning the European title, the stylish Spaniards did even better.

This was a physical test of attrition that sometimes turned dirty — a finals-record 11 yellow cards were handed out and the Dutch finished with 10 men. In the end, it was Andres Iniesta breaking free in the penalty area, taking a pass from Cesc Fabregas and putting a right-footed shot from 8 yards just past the outstretched arms of goalkeeper Maarten Stekelenburg.

For the Dutch and their legions of orange-clad fans wearing everything from jerseys to jumpsuits to clown gear to pajamas, it was yet another crushing disappointment.

Their first World Cup title tantalizingly within reach, they failed in the final for the third time. This one might have been the most bitter because, unlike in 1974 and 1978, the Netherlands was unbeaten not only in this tournament, but in qualifying for the first World Cup staged in South Africa.

Soccer City was soaked in Oranje, from the seats painted in that hue throughout the stadium to pretty much everyone seated in them. Unlike when they lost to hosts West Germany and Argentina in previous finals, the Dutch were something of a home team this time.

The Spaniards, though, were the winners.
They had pockets of supporters, too, to be sure, dressed in red and scattered around the stadium. They might have been the minority, but when the final whistle blew, they were tooting their vuvuzelas loudest in tribute to their champions.

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PSLV launch successful, 5 satellites placed in orbit

Five satellites, including the advanced high resolution cartography satellite Cartosat-2B, were placed in orbit on Monday after India's space agency Isro successfully launched its Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) rocket from here.

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