Israel frees 550 Palestinian prisoners

RAMALLAH: Israel on Sunday freed 550 Palestinian prisoners, completing the second phase of the deal which saw Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit freed in October, Palestinians said.

Officials in the West Bank city of Ramallah said that the main contingent of freed prisoners entered the city, where thousands of well-wishers awaited them at the presidential headquarters. (AFP)

Pakistan cricketers and agent jailed for no-balls scam

Former Pakistan cricket captain Salman Butt has been jailed for 30 months for his part in the conspiracy to bowl deliberate no-balls in last year's Test match against England.

 The charges related to the fourth Test between Pakistan and England at Lord's in August 2010

Former world number two Test bowler Mohammad Asif was jailed for one year and bowler Mohammad Amir has been sentenced to six months.
Cricket agent Mazhar Majeed was jailed for two years and eight months.
The BBC's James Pearce is tweeting live from Southwark Crown Court in London.
The judge, Mr Justice Cooke, said cricket matches would forever be tainted by the scandal.
He told the defendants: "'It's not cricket' was an adage. It is the insidious effect of your actions on professional cricket and the followers of it that make the offences so serious.
"The image and integrity of what was once a game but is now a business is damaged in the eyes of all, including the many youngsters who regarded you as as heroes and would have given their eye teeth to play at the levels and with the skills that you had."
The three players have all been ordered to pay compensation towards prosecution costs.
Butt was ordered to pay £30,937, Amir £9,389 and Asif £8,120.
The men were arrested after the fourth Test between Pakistan and England in August 2010.
An undercover News of the World (NOTW) reporter paid Majeed £150,000 for details of the precise timing of three no-balls, which the players were persuaded to bowl, which were extremely valuable on the spot-fixing betting market.

Majeed claimed to have paid Asif £65,000, Butt £10,000 and Amir £2,500.
The judge told all the players they would be released on licence half way through their sentences if they behaved.
The trial heard that the cheating would never have been exposed without the investigative journalism of the NOTW.
The judge said: "Whenever people look back on a surprising event in a game or a surprising result, or whenever in the future there are surprising events or results, followers of the game who have paid good money to watch it live or watch it on television will be left to wonder whether there has been fixing and whether what they have been watching is a genuine contest between bat and ball."

Pakistan cricketers guilty of betting scam

Pakistan cricketers Salman Butt and Mohammad Asif have been found guilty of their part in a "spot-fixing" scam after a trial at Southwark Crown Court.

Former captain Butt, 27, and fast bowler Asif, 28, were both found guilty of conspiracy to cheat and conspiracy to accept corrupt payments.
They plotted to deliberately bowl no-balls during a Lord's Test match against England last summer.
Another bowler, Mohammad Amir, admitted the charges prior to the trial.
The guilty pleas by the bowler, who was 18 when the scam took place, could not be reported before.
The jury was not told of these pleas.
BBC sport news correspondent James Pearce said all three are facing the real prospect of jail terms.
Conspiracy to accept corrupt payments carries a maximum prison term of seven years.
Our correspondent also said the case "raises serious questions about the integrity of Test cricket".
A statement was read out by Amir's lawyer at the start of the trial, before any evidence had been heard.

He said: "Mohammad Amir accepts full responsibility for deliberately bowling two no-balls and, in due course, you will hear how this vulnerable 18-year-old boy was subjected to extreme pressure from those on whom he should have been able to rely.

"He recognises the damage his actions have caused Pakistan cricket."
Spot-betting involves gamblers staking money on the minutiae of sporting encounters such as the exact timing of the first throw-in during a football match or, as in this case, when a no-ball will be bowled.
After deliberating for nearly 17 hours, the jury unanimously convicted Butt and Asif of conspiracy to cheat.
The jurors also found Butt guilty of conspiracy to accept corrupt payments by a majority of 10 to two.
Our correspondent said Butt's wife, Gul Hassan, had given birth to a baby boy one hour before he was found guilty.
The BBC's Aleem Maqbool, in Lahore, said the story was leading the national news in Pakistan and the four-week trial had been closely followed in the country.
The judge, Mr Justice Cooke, extended bail for Butt and Asif until sentencing later this week.

'Rampant corruption'
They were charged after a tabloid newspaper alleged they took bribes to bowl deliberate no-balls.
The court heard the players, along with fast bowler Mohammad Amir, conspired with UK-based sports agent Mazhar Majeed, 36, to fix parts of the Lord's Test last August.

Three intentional no-balls were delivered during the match between Pakistan and England from August 26 to 29 last year.

Prosecutors said Butt and Asif had been motivated by greed to "contaminate" a match watched by millions of people and "betray" their team, the Pakistan Cricket Board and the sport itself.
Aftab Jafferjee QC, for the prosecution, said the case "revealed a depressing tale of rampant corruption at the heart of international cricket".
Former Pakistan cricket captain Asif Iqbal told BBC 5Live it was a "sad day for cricket" and said the case would send out a "huge message".
Angus Fraser, a former England fast bowler, said it could be a "watershed" for cricket.
"It shows young cricketers that there is a consequence to their behaviour. In the past players have been banned and then they have come back," he told BBC 5Live.
"The International Cricket Council has got to support the players, see these signs and help them out of predicaments, but also see (that) if players do commit these offences they are punished severely."

Pakistan cricket: Jury undecided on corruption verdict

The jury in the corruption trial of Pakistan cricketers Salman Butt and Mohammad Asif has retired for the day after failing to reach a verdict.

It comes after the judge said he would take majority verdicts because they could not reach unanimous decisions.
Mr Butt, 27, and Mr Asif, 28, deny conspiracy to cheat and conspiracy to accept corrupt payments.
They are accused of plotting to bowl deliberate no-balls in last summer's Lord's Test against England.
The allegations came from an undercover reporter investigating match-fixing.
Prosecutors allege that Mr Butt, the former Pakistan captain, and bowler Mr Asif conspired with agent Mazhar Majeed and Pakistan fast bowler Mohammad Amir, 19, to deliver three intentional no-balls during the Lord's Test between Pakistan and England from August 26 to 29 last year.
Jurors were told that Mr Majeed, 36, accepted £150,000 in cash, as part of an arrangement to rig games or aspects of games, from an undercover News of the World reporter.
The jury has heard that the agent told the undercover journalist that two no-balls would be bowled by Mr Amir and one by Mr Asif at pre-arranged points during the Lord's Test.

Air pollution tied to lung cancer in non-smokers

NEW YORK: People who have never smoked, but who live in areas with higher air pollution levels, are roughly 20 percent more likely to die from lung cancer than people who live with cleaner air, researchers conclude in a new study.

"It's another argument for why the regulatory levels (for air pollutants) be as low as possible," said Francine Laden, a professor at the Harvard School of Public Health, who was not involved in the research.

Though smoking is the number one cause of lung cancer, about one in 10 people who develop lung cancer have never smoked.

"Lung cancer in 'never smokers' is an important cancer. It's the sixth leading cause of cancer in United States," said Michelle Turner, the lead author of the study and a graduate student at the University of Ottawa.

Previous estimates of how many non-smokers get lung cancer range from 14 to 21 out of every 100,000 women and five to 14 out of every 100,000 men.

The fine particles in air pollution, which can irritate the lungs and cause inflammation, are thought to be a risk factor for lung cancer, but researchers had not clearly teased apart their impact from that of smoking.

In this study, Turner and her colleagues followed more than 180,000 non-smokers for 26 years. Throughout the study period, 1,100 people died from lung cancer.

The participants lived in all 50 states and in Puerto Rico, and based on their zip codes, the researchers estimated how much air pollution they were exposed to -- measured in units of micrograms of particles per cubic meter of air.

Pollution levels in different locations ranged from a low of about six units to a high of 38. The levels dropped over time, however, from an average of 21 units in 1979 - 1983, to 14 units in 1999 - 2000, producing an overall average pollution level of 17 units across the study period.

After the team took into account other cancer risk factors, such as second-hand smoke and radon exposure, they found that for every 10 extra units of air pollution exposure, a person's risk of lung cancer rose by 15 to 27 percent.

The increased risk for lung cancer associated with pollution is small in comparison to the 20-fold increased risk from smoking.

And the study team didn't prove that the pollution caused the cancer cases, but "there's lots of evidence that exposure to fine particles increases cardiopulmonary mortality," Turner told Reuters Health.

Fine particles in air pollution can injure the lungs through inflammation and damage to DNA, Turner's team writes in its report, published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.

Previous research has suggested similar conclusions. A study of people in China, for example, found an increased risk of lung cancer attributed to indoor air pollution from burning coal and wood to heat homes (see Reuters story of December 7, 2009). And several European studies have linked levels of soot and vehicle exhaust to lung cancer in non-smokers.

Laden noted that the pollution levels associated with the increased risk of cancer in the current study are not uncommon in the U.S.

"These levels are within the (regulatory) standards," Laden told Reuters Health. "We're not talking about people who live in a really polluted place with no pollution control."

Chasing America's deadliest storms

Each year Sam Hall, who has a rare genetic condition, drives with her brother Keith across the US to experience tornadoes first-hand.

Tornado researcher Sam Hall found herself heading into America's deadliest tornado that destroyed the town of Joplin, Missouri, on her latest storm-chasing trip.
From Warrington, Cheshire, she is the editor of the International Journal of Meteorology but also has to battle a rare genetic condition, Epidermolysis Bullosa (EB), in which her skin and internal body linings blister at the slightest knock.
Each year Sam drives herself and her brother Keith thousands of miles across America to experience tornadoes first-hand.

Suicide bombers hit US charity in Kandahar

KANDAHAR: Suicide attackers on Monday blew up a truck bomb and raided the offices of a US charity in Kandahar, killing at least four Afghans in the main city of southern Afghanistan, officials said.

One attacker detonated the vehicle outside the offices of US-based International Relief and Development (IRD), before two others entered the compound and fired on security forces, said police and government officials.

The Kandahar government said the attackers struck at 6am (0130 GMT) and that two gunmen remained holed up in a veterinary clinic inside the compound - which also houses UN offices - and were shooting at security forces.

"There were three suicide attackers. One exploded in front of the office. The two others entered the compound (wearing suicide vests). They are still alive, but the police are surrounding them," said police spokesman Ghorzang.

Taliban spokesman Yousuf Ahmadi said the insurgent group carried out a car bomb attack in the city, but claimed to have targeted the UN refugee agency.

The bodies of the dead were taken to the nearby Mirwais hospital along with several people wounded in the assault.

"Four bodies, all Afghan civilians, and five people including a Nepali guard have been admitted to our hospital with injuries," said Sardar, a hospital doctor who like many Afghans goes by only one name.

The United Nations has some offices in the compound but the Kandahar government's media office said the UN properties appeared safe.