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An Australian surfer dragged his 13-year-old cousin out of the jaws of a Great White shark after punching it on the nose, said media reports on Tuesday.

Horrified Syb Mundy, 33, saw screaming Hannah Mighall dragged under the water after the five-metre shark bit a chunk out of her surfboard and seized one of her legs.

Syb, who was surfing off the coast of Tasmania, said, “The shark was thrashing her around like a rag doll. I can remember seeing its head come out of the water and I was going to try and poke it in the eye if I could get close enough.”

As the sea turned red with Hannah’s blood, Syb launched himself at the shark and managed to land a blow on its nose.

He then dragged Hannah from the shark’s mouth and hurled her on to his board before frantically paddling for the shore.

Syb recollected how he thought they were safe when a large wave took their surfboard only to discover the shark had come with them. He said “Hannah, no matter how weak you are try and hang on, this wave is going to save our life.”

“But the shark actually got on to the wave with us. We looked to our left and this thing started surfing towards us. We just headed straight to the beach,” said Syb.

When Lily Allen stepped out with a short pixie cut the other day, fashion critics thought she had become the latest celebrity to succumb to the cropped look, Mail Online reported.

But after only a couple of day with short hair, it appears Lily prefers the long look after she splashed out on some luscious long hair extensions.

Pictured at the BBC Radio 1 studios on Monday, Lily appeared to be having a bad hair day after she was spotted with a blunt, messy short crop.

But spotted outside her London home today, it appeared Lily had quickly tired of her bob and had been to the hairdressers.

The Smile singer let her armpit length locks blow in the wind today as she dressed down to pop out to the local shops.

These latest hair extensions are her second in a month.

She was sporting equally-long locks two weeks ago when she supported her actor father Keith Allen at the opening night of his starring role in the West End production of Treasure Island.

She also had the extensions while filming her new video to her the first single from her second album It’s Not Me, It’s You.

2008 has marked a series of dramatic hairstyles for the 23-year-old singer.

Lily went bottle blonde in April after splitting from boyfriend Ed Simons shortly after miscarrying their unborn child.

By June, she was bright pink, before reverting back to her raven colour in July.

Aston Villa moved back into fifth in the English Premier League as Ashley Young’s injury-time winner sealed a 3-2 thrilling win at Everton on Sunday.

Young snatched the points by adding his second goal seconds after Joleon Lescott’s acrobatic volley brought Everton level at 2-2.

Villa now have 28 points, just one behind fourth-placed Arsenal.

In the day’s other match, Peter Crouch’s second-half equalizer earned Portsmouth a draw at West Brom Abion, who remains bottom of the table.

Jonathan Greening put West Brom ahead after 39 minutes, side-footing in a rebound off the bar, but Crouch leveled matters with a stunning 25-yard strike in the 58th minute.

Villa’s win was a dramatic end to the game at Goodison Park, which had started in equally thrilling fashion with Steve Sidwell smashing in from 20 yards after 31 seconds - the quickest goal in the top flight this season.

Lescott prodded home a deserved equalizer at the half hour mark but the visitors went ahead again early after the interval when Phil Jagielka’s woeful back pass gifted Young chance to slot home.

Everton piled forward as the clock ticked down. Lescott scored three minutes into stoppage time with a flying volley that appeared to have salvaged a draw, only to see Young curl in a winner seconds later.

The Philippine government has not abandoned the search for ill-gotten Marcos’ wealth, a top official said.
Executive Secretary Renato de Villa said Monday the government knows that the youngest daughter of late President Ferdinand Marcos,Irene Marcos, and her husband had tried to withdraw 13.2 billion U.S.dollars from the Union Bank of Switzerland and transfer it to a new account in Deutsche Bank in Germany.
“The position of our government is that we will not let up the search for ways to get back these (ill-gotten) funds which we believe must be turned over to the government,” the Philippine Star newspaper Tuesday quoted De Villa as saying.
De Villa said the government is doing something about these things,but refused to reveal details. He said the government needs the Marcos wealth to fill in the national purse so that the government can finance various infrastructure projects.
Marcos, who had ruled the country for 20 years since 1965, was toppled in February 1986 in a military-backed popular uprising.
He fled to the United States with his family and was charged of pocketing billions of dollars stealing from the Philippine treasury.
The Philippine government has been running 15 years after the Marcos ill-gotten wealth deposited in different bank accounts in Swiss, the U.S. and other countries. Several billion dollars worth of real estate, bonds and Swiss banks deposits have been confiscated by the government up to now.
However, it is believed that there are still large sums of money and gold in secret Marcos accounts in foreign banks.

The Boston Marathon is breaking a 112-year tradition by putting corporate ads on the start and finish lines to help its two main sponsors get more bang for their bucks from the world’s oldest marathon.

Race organizers also announced Tuesday they were increasing its purse by more than 38 percent, from 575,000 U.S. dollars to 796,000 dollars, making it the richest of the World Marathon Majors events.

The changes in sponsorship ads highlight distance running’s growing dependence on sponsors to provide lucrative prize money to attract leading athletes and raise its profile, said Guy Morse, executive director of the Boston Athletic Association, the race’s organizer.

They also demonstrate the need for support to meet operating expenses and make donations to the eight cities and towns that provide public safety and other services to runners passing along the marathon??s 26.2-mile route, Morse said.

The arrangements were made under terms of existing contracts with John Hancock Financial Services and German sports equipment and apparel maker Adidas AG, and no new money was exchanged. However, the logo placement could form a basis for pressing for even more lucrative terms in future sponsorship contracts, Morse said.

Boston-based John Hancock helped the marathon evolve from an amateur to a professional event in 1986, and four years ago was acquired by Toronto-based Manulife Financial Corp. The company??s new managers then began pushing to raise the company??s profile at the race, Morse said.

Bill Rodgers, a four-time Boston Marathon winner, said sponsors deserve recognition for their support.

“Sponsorship helped the sport grow, prize money helped the sport grow in the U.S.,” Rodgers said.

So little to separate them over their careers, so little to separate them on this night. Serena Williams barely got the better of older sister Venus Williams in a U.S. Open quarterfinal that was fit for a final, coming back in each set to win 7-6 (6), 7-6 (7) Wednesday night and break a tie in their head-to-head series.

Serena trailed 5-3 in both sets. She faced set points in both — a total of 10, including eight in the second. But she advanced to the semifinals at Flushing Meadows for the first time since 2002, the year she beat Venus in the title match for her second U.S. Open championship.

“I felt like I was always in control,” Venus said. “If it was someone else, I definitely feel like I would have won the match.”

It was the siblings’ 17th meeting as professionals, and Serena leads 9-8. That includes 11 matches at Grand Slam tournaments, where Serena leads 6-5.

She also has the edge in major championships, 8-7, and only she can add to that total this weekend.

“It’s really just unfortunate it had to be in the quarters,” Serena said.

In the semifinals, the fourth-seeded Serena will meet No. 6 Dinara Safina, who advanced earlier in the day by overpowering No. 16 Flavia Pennetta 6-2, 6-3. No. 2 Jelena Jankovic will face No. 5 Elena Dementieva in Friday’s other semifinal.

Tough to imagine either of those contests could come close to producing the quality or competition managed Wednesday by a couple of sisters who grew up honing their strokes on the same court in Compton, Calif. Both played brilliantly. Venus smacked serves at up to 125 mph, Serena at up to 115 mph. They somehow returned those. They hit groundstrokes and volleys that would be the envy of nearly every other woman on tour. They chased down balls with “You thought that was a winner?!” defense.

In the end, they were separated by three total points, 101-98. Venus had an 8-7 edge in aces. Both double-faulted five times. Both broke serve twice.

“It was so intense,” Serena said.

The seventh-seeded Venus had all sorts of chances to take control, but in the end, as both women’s play reached a very high level, it was Serena who pulled through. In the second tiebreaker, Venus had four set points — and Serena saved them all.

“I’m a very good closer,” Venus said, “so today was, um — I’ve never had a match like this in my life, so I guess there’s always a first.”

In contrast, when Serena earned her first match point, nearly 2 1/2 hours into the match, she converted it, when the Venus ended an 11-stroke exchange by missing a forehand.

“It was really luck for me, because she never makes those errors,” Serena said.

Back when they were ranked Nos. 1 and 2, the siblings only could meet in tournament finals. But because of injuries, inactivity and inconsistency, they dropped in the rankings, and now it’s the luck of the draw that determines at which stage they potentially meet.

At Wimbledon in July, for example, the wound up on opposite halves of the field, and Venus beat Serena in the final for her fifth title at the All England Club. At the U.S. Open, they wound up in the same section of the bracket, so the women many consider the two top players at the moment were forced to meet in the round of eight.

The start of the latest all-Williams showdown was delayed by more than an hour because of two lengthy matches that preceded it on the tournament’s main court, including a women’s doubles match and No. 6 Andy Murray’s four-set victory over No. 17 Juan Martin del Potro in the men’s quarterfinals. The long day was capped by No. 1 Rafael Nadal against unseeded American Mardy Fish, a quarterfinal that didn’t even start until 11:30 p.m.

Venus showed up at the locker room about 20 minutes before she and her sister finally headed out, carrying a bunch of rackets in the crook of her left arm. Serena arrived about five minutes later, a red purse slung over her left shoulder.

Neither face betrayed the slightest hint of emotion, and those same expressionless masks were in place at the match’s start. Early on, there were the sorts of nerves and erratic play — a combined seven first-set double-faults, for example — that have marked many of the siblings’ encounters as they have adjusted to playing one another.

“I try not to look at her, because if I look at her, I might start feeling sorry,” Serena told the crowd afterward.

Neither of their parents, who also serve as their coaches, were sitting in the guest boxes at Arthur Ashe Stadium. An older sister, Isha Price, was there, sitting with her hands clasped in front of her face, eyes shut, during the first-set tiebreaker.

How could she possibly cheer for one sister against another?

“I was stressed,” she said. “It is so difficult to watch them. At the end of the day, you want them to play a good match and for the best person to win.”

And did the best person win?

“I’m not sure,” Price said.

The 23,763 spectators sitting in the packed stands had a hard time figuring out which Williams to support, too. When Venus missed a backhand wide on the match’s first point, there wasn’t a sound out there — no applause, no yelling, no booing. Nothing.

There wasn’t much to separate the sisters’ strokes on this night, either.

Down 6-4 in the opening tiebreaker, Serena reeled off four points in a row, saving two sets points and ending it when Venus pulled a forehand wide after a 10-stroke exchange.

Serena pumped a fist and yelled — exactly the way she would against any other opponent.

Venus wasted three set points when she served for the second set at 5-3, 40-love, and a fourth when Serena served while down 6-5.

Then came the second tiebreaker, which featured the point of the match. Serena tried a forehand passing shot but Venus stretched and put a volley into a corner. Serena got to that and flicked up a lob that wasn’t good enough to get over the 6-foot-1 Venus, who pounded an overhead smash. Now the point was over, right? Nope. Serena got to that, too, stretching the exchange until Venus finally put away a volley to go ahead 5-2.

Take that, little sis!

Fans rose for a standing ovation.

Serena was left gasping for air.

Soon after, Venus was ahead 6-3.

But Serena won six of the last seven points.

“I can’t say I was disappointed,” Serena said. “You want the best for her, but in that situation you want to win, too.”

Sergio Garcia won the rain-delayed HSBC Champions to take the No. 2 spot in the world rankings behind Tiger Woods, beating Oliver Wilson with a birdie on the second hole of a playoff Monday.

The Spanish star made a 7-foot birdie putt on the par-5 18th — the only hole used for the playoff at Sheshan Golf Club — after the Englishman missed a 10-footer.

Garcia won The Players Championship and his home-course Castellon Masters, and also has finished second or tied for second in three events this season. One was the PGA Championship — one of the four majors.

“I’m just so proud to win, and well, No. 2 in the world,” said Garcia, who earned $833,300. “So I’m very happy. It’s a great week. The last seven months have been very, very positive since my win at The Players.”

Garcia forced the playoff by holing a 5-foot birdie on 18 to finish with a 4-under 68 and match Wilson at 14-under 274. Wilson, a surprise star for Europe in the Ryder Cup, reached the playoff by saving his par on 18 with a 7-footer for a 70.

Wilson is winless on the European tour, but has eight second-place finishes. It was the fourth playoff this year for Wilson and Garcia.

“It’s been a very solid year,” Garcia said. “I had some hard losses this year but we came back strong and we’re finishing the year very nicely.

“When you get into a sudden-death playoff, you have to hit the right shot at the right time, but you have to get lucky at the same time. It’s happened to me a couple of times this year where I thought I won the playoff and I wound up losing.”

Wilson is tired of finishing No. 2.

“It’s just getting to a stage where second is not enough anymore,” Wilson said. “There was a time when I was pleased to be finishing there, and it’s gone.”

The finish moved Garcia into the No. 2 spot in the world rankings behind Tiger Woods, pushing Phil Mickelson to No. 3.

Mickelson, the 2007 champion, shot a 73 to tie for eighth in the $5 million tournament, five strokes behind the leaders.

Peter Hanson (66) and Geoff Ogilvy (70) finished a stroke off the lead, while Henrik Stenson (71) was three behind.

Garcia and Wilson were the survivors on the back nine, which saw four players — Garcia, Wilson, Hanson and Ogilvy — tied at 13 under over the closing holes.

All play was washed out Friday, and rain slowed the start on Saturday which forced the Monday finish. Wilson played two holes of the final round on Sunday, and Garcia got in three before darkness stopped play.

The rain and darkness made for a clumsy finish, but Garcia wasn’t complaining.

“You have to deal with it,” Garcia said. “You can’t do anything about it so you just stay patient.”

The event was the first of the 2009 European tour season, which will end next November in the Dubai World Championship. The European tour also rebranded the Order of Merit — the season money title — and now calls it the Race to Dubai. That tournament will have a $10 million purse with $10 million more available in bonus money.

The HSBC also is being suggested as a possible World Golf Championships event. All three are now played in the United States.

With purse strings pulled tighter across the country, travelers are likely to expect top-notch–and punctual–service when spending hard-earned dollars on air travel. Who wants to drop $300 on a flight to Vegas only to miss that night’s show because of delays? U.S. airlines may be in for some stiff competition this year to beat out rivals (and win over passengers) in areas such as on-time performance record.

The most punctual U.S. airline is Hawaiian Airlines. Nine out of 10 of the Aloha State’s largest airline’s flights arrived as scheduled in 2008, securing its number one ranking for the fifth consecutive year. The airline has achieved this record, asserts Hawaiian’s VP of Public Affairs Keoni Wagner, by continued attention to detail regarding operations. “In fact, every delay is discussed and analyzed in a daily conference call,” Wagner says. “Punctuality is a priority for us.”

Another carrier from the state, Aloha Airlines previously held the number two spot but ceased operating as a passenger carrier and became Aloha Air Cargo in March 2008. Southwest filled the void by achieving an 80.5% punctuality record.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics, the average on-time arrival rate for the 19 biggest domestic passenger carriers was 76%—a slight increase from 73.4% in 2007. Contributing to the increase in on-time flights is perhaps due to our list’s biggest upset: number three ranked US Airways. The Arizona-based carrier increased its percentage of on-time flights from 68.7% in 2007 to 80.1% in 2008, flip-flopping its position from one of the least reliable airlines in America to one of the most punctual.

US Airways hit bottom in March of 2007 with just 55.5% of its flights arriving as scheduled. Unable to control factors such as weather and oil prices, the company decided to focus on improving—and speeding up—on-the-ground operations, explains US Airways spokesman Morgan Durrant. Their effort, Durrant says, “began as a rallying cry that came from the top but resonated with employees at the ground level.”

The Arizona-based company focused on getting planes to leave their gate on-time and continued an employee incentive program begun in 2006. Seeing initial improvements in punctuality acted as a moral booster, notes Durrant, and helped build momentum.

At the other end of the spectrum, the most-delayed airlines are Comair and American, both with only around 70% of flights achieving on-time status, which according to the Department of Transportation, means departing and arriving within 15 minutes of scheduled times.

“There are numerous reasons why a flight could be delayed,” says Federal Aviation Administration spokesperson Tammy Jones. Security incidents, mechanical problems and scheduling issues all impact carrier performance, but the typical reason for delays, Jones notes, is weather.

“Weather in one part of the country can affect flights in another part of the country,” Jones says. “You may not see the weather issue where you are.” Frustrating as it may be, it means that high winds in New York could keep a flight grounded in Atlanta. Weather-related delays are most common in summer because of thunderstorms, and winter, due to snow and ice.

But there are ways to lessen the chances of finding yourself on that mythic delayed flight from hell. Jones advises choosing days that are less traffic-heavy (read: not the Wednesday before Thanksgiving) and flying into smaller airports, which tend to have fewer punctuality problems. This may be one reason four of the top ten on-time airlines in the U.S—Pinnacle, Frontier, Skywest and AirTran—are regional carriers, Jones says.

Department of Transportation spokesman Bill Mosley says there tend to be more delays at bigger airports because they have more traffic. “Across the board, delays have been easing a bit, but certain larger airports have had very chronic delays,” says Mosley, who points to LaGuardia, JFK, Newark and O’Hare as some of the least punctual airports in the country.

Methodology:

Rankings were compiled based on monthly statistics provided by the Department of Transportation and calculated by Forbes Traveler on an annual basis. The DOT computes percentages based on data contributed from the 19 airlines with at least 1% of total domestic scheduled-service passenger revenues.

In an article published last week in Malaysia’s leading Chinese-language newspaper, Sin Chew Daily, a Mr Lam recalled unpleasant experiences he had during a recent visit to Shanghai and Zhejiang Province.

Lam and his colleagues were unhappy about the throngs at the railway station in Yiwu, a boom town for production and sales of accessories.

“There were constantly people who jumped into the queues we were in for buying train tickets and getting on and off the trains,” Lam was quoted as writing by www.xinhuanet.com.

Lam and his colleagues were especially perturbed by what they experienced during a book fair in Shanghai, which is considered the most modernized metropolis in China.

“While we were leafing through the books or waiting in a line at the cashier, we were constantly elbowed away or pushed around by people who appeared to have come from nowhere,” he recalled.

Apparently, no one said “duibuqi” (sorry), or “laojia” (excuse me) to Lam and his colleagues either.

Lam is just one of many visitors from overseas who have developed some grudges against uncivil Chinese manners.

Similar behaviours, such as speaking loudly in public, putting one’s feet on a chair at a banquet, spitting or littering in public and, above all, jumping in queues, have also been singled out by media both at home and overseas as typical of the rudeness of some Chinese tourists abroad.

While heated discussions have been taking place in the media and on the Internet regarding the bad manners of some Chinese, most seem to focus on educating and training the individuals.

But good manners are not lacking in our society, especially as far as queues are concerned.

When I shop at the Wu-mart near the north Fourth Ring Road, I often see a long queue of shoppers waiting patiently for their turn to purchase a bagful of eggs, which weighs around 2.5 kilograms. (Wu-mart is known for its comparatively low-priced regular eggs.) I have not seen a single brawl over line-jumping.

At subway stations in downtown Beijing, it is not uncommon to see people waiting in long lines for their turns to buy passes.

There was a time, in the years of “cultural revolution” (1966-76), when long queues were associated with scarcity of food and daily necessities.

Only after I began to travel overseas did I discover that queues are common even in most developed countries, at airports, in amusement parks or even in banks. It is a fair way to make it convenient for every one to get what they want or get served.

But why are there still people who get away with jumping the queues? I believe people sometimes choose to ignore such acts, and so those who violate the social norm take this as tolerance for their uncivil behaviour.

In cities such as Hong Kong and New York, similar acts are never tolerated. Even taking a look at the bus-stop signs in front of the queues could arouse suspicion and even denunciation as jumping the queue. People quickly take the hint and wait at the end of the lines.

Thus, for all the suggestions of building a civilized society, there should be some priorities. I believe one priority is to create an environment in which courtesy and civility are encouraged and uncivil behaviours like jumping the queue, spitting and littering in public places are frowned upon, condemned and stopped.

It is essential for people to learn discipline, behave themselves and contribute to improving the civility of the Chinese people.

Singapore has attached great importance to its environmental protection for decades. In recent months, it has unveiled a series of measures to make the city-state more energy efficient.

The Building and Construction Authority (BCA) is looking into amending the Building Control Act to impose minimum requirements on environmental sustainability for new buildings to follow.

When it happens, all new buildings will have to achieve the basic standard of Green Mark certification, which rates buildings on their environmental impact and performance.

Buildings rated green are those which are designed, built and maintained for energy efficiency and better for human health. For instance, such buildings have efficient air-conditioning systems to make temperatures comfortable and better ventilation to improve indoor air quality.

According to several initiatives launched last December, all new public buildings, including public housing, must be Green Mark certified from April 1. Furthermore, those developers who use green building technologies extensively will be rewarded of the 20million Singapore dollars (about 13 million U.S. dollars) Green Mark Incentive Scheme.

Another 50 million Singapore dollars (about 32.5 million U.S. dollars) research fund for the next five years was aimed to intensify research and development efforts in green building technologies and energy efficiency.

Now the incentives to go green may become law, which has shown the Singapore government’s determination to shift to eco-friendly buildings.

The BCA has promised to work closely with the industry concerned when drafting the law and pointed out that no date has been set for the law to kick in.

Even the response from industry players has been encouraging, watchers pointed out that not everyone has been ready to go green.

Going green means more costs. It is estimated that adopting green features could raise construction costs by 5 to 10 percent.

While the construction sector, architects, material suppliers and developers would all have to take more efforts to achieve green status.

The task of converting existing buildings to become green may be a bigger one, because owners have to spend money upfront to make buildings green. So industry players hope that the government agencies will launch more incentives to help the developers and owners to cut down costs of going green.

Not only commercial and public buildings, but also residential projects should be green.

The Singapore government unveiled its first green public housing project last month, which will have eco-friendly features, including corridor lights powered by solar panels, common areas washed by recycled rainwater and plants growing vertically covering the exterior of walls.

While a green building is likely to involve higher development cost, Minister of State for National Development Grace Fu pointed out recently that the savings gained from operating a green building would more than offset the higher upfront cost.

She also believed that with widespread adoption of green building technologies, the construction cost will also decline.

Furthermore, the country launched a new campaign to encourage people use reusable bags when go shopping, in a bid to cut use of plastic bags.

Singapore’s National Environment Agency (NEA) has asked all the Shoppers to bring their own carriers to supermarkets once a month, if shoppers don’t get their own bags, they will be requested to donate 10 cents for each plastic bag they take.

On the first Bring Your Own Bag Day this Wednesday, the response from shoppers were positive. Some retailer chains said at least half the customers brought their own bags and these supermarkets cut the number of plastic bags by up to 60 percent.

Singapore consumes 2.5 billion plastic bags a year, or about 625 bags per person each year. And burning a ton of waste plastic bags produces almost 2,900 kg of carbon dioxide–the organizers cite these figures to raise people’s awareness of environment protection.

In addition, the Singapore government is mulling over the national energy efficiency plan, aimed to help reduce its emissions of carbon dioxide and other gases that cause global warming.

The latest step the Singapore government took was to develop the island state as a center for research in environment sustainability.

With growing concerns about the global environment, Singapore needs to have long term sustainable solutions for the supply of water and clean energy.