London, Jan 7 : Self-styled investigative journalist Ian Halperin is so set on finding out if Michael Jackson is dying from a lung disease that he has offered to pay for the singer to undergo medical tests.

Halperin, who is producing a new book on Jackson's life, insists that the Thriller star is suffering from the deadly lung condition Alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency.

When Jackson''s publicist denied the claims of his illness last month by calling them "a total fabrication", the author offered to fund for a medical examination to get to the truth.

Los Angeles - The Charlotte Bobcats are the latest to take advantage of the mighty Boston Celtics' recent road woes.

Raymond Felton scored 25 points, and rookie DJ Augustin came off the bench to add 11 of his 20 in overtime, including the go-ahead three-pointer, as the Bobcats surprised the suddenly stumbling Celtics with a 114-106 victory on Tuesday night.

After starting the season with a sparkling 27-2 record, including a franchise-record 19 consecutive victories, the defending NBA Champions have sputtered, dropping five of their last seven contests - all on the road.

Muzaffarabad, Jan 7 : The newly elected Prime Minister of Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (POK), Sardar Yaqub, took oath of office.

POK President Raja Zulqarnain Khan administered the oath on Tuesday, the Online reported.

Former POK Prime Minister Sardar Attique Ahmed was removed from office in a no-confidence vote amid allegations of corruption and nepotism; the Daily Times quoted sources, as saying.

Attique received only 17 votes against 31 in favour of Yaqub, they added.

Attique accused the government in Islamabad of engineering his ouster.

Attique's supporters chanted anti-Zardari slogans outside the legislative assembly in Muzaffarabad.

New Delhi, Jan 7 : A nationwide strike by tens of thousands of truckers entered its third day on Wednesday, pushing the prices of vegetables and fruits up mildly in New Delhi.

Although the impact of the strike was not felt much in Delhi on Tuesday, vegetable traders said prices have slightly gone up at the Azadpur Market.

"The strike has led to a hike in the prices of the vegetables," said Ashok Kumar, a vegetable trader.

The strike has also affected the livelihood of the labourers employed by traders at Azadpur market for loading and unloading sacks of vegetables and fruits.

Due to the strike, the number of trucks coming into the market has reduced, leaving the laborers with less work.

London, Jan. 7: Indian-born steel baron Lakshmi Mittal has pushed Russo-Latvian billionaire Roman Abramovich down the rankings in the latest world top 20 rich list of football club owners.

According to The Mirror, Mittal and his family, which owns the football club QPR, are worth 12.5 billion pounds, as opposed to Abramovich, who owns Chelsea, and is worth seven billion pounds.

Manchester City football club owner Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan with earnings of 15 billion pounds is the only person ranked above Mittal, says the tabloid.

Abramovich was at the top the football club owners rich list from 2003 to 2008. Abramovich is believed to have lost a third of that in the world economic downturn.

The Rich List Top 20:

London, Jan 7: A Chinese expedition is all set to build an inland research base at Dome Argus, or `Dome A', in Antarctica, 4,093 meters above sea level.
According to a report in Nature News, Kunlun, the station, which is scheduled to open on January 28, will gather data in fields ranging from global climate change to the origin of the Universe.
The 37 million dollars Kunlun will be China's third Antarctic station, joining the Great Wall station in the South Shetland Islands and the Zhongshan station in east Antarctica.