London, Dec 12 : A collection of bronze sculptures modelled by the surrealist Salvador Dali are expected to fetch up to 1 million pounds at an auction in London.

The artist, who is better known for his paintings, created the 44 works despite the onset of Parkinson''s disease and by a swimming pool at his summer residence in Port Lligat, Spain.

They include a jewelled talisman, a dragon, a mythical lion and a silhouette of a flamenco dancer.

Bonhams, in New Bond Street, London, which is auctioning the items, said Dali created them through the difficult "lost wax" medium, reports BBC.

Isidro Clot, who commissioned the works, called them "Dalinian origami".

According to the Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology (IIST) director B N Suresh, the successful space missions carried out by the country would enable India to share the resources in other planets in the outer space, apart from getting elevated to the prestigious group of countries that have successfully conducted space exploration missions.

Perth, Dec. 12 : Former Australian pace great Dennis Lillee once described a teenage Mitchell Johnson as a "once in a generation" bowler, and now seems intent that his young protégé fulfills his ultimate prophecy.

Lillee met Johnson yesterday to discuss tactics for bowling at the WACA Ground, passing on advice and experience from 15 years of bowling on the pace-friendly surface.

"It''s good to have his advice. We just spoke about how things have been going for me at the moment and also just bowling at the WACA,"The Age quoted Johnson, as saying.

Paris, Dec 12 : Data and images from Mars Express suggest that groundwater springs played a much important role in shaping the surface of the Red Planet than previously believed, and may have even sheltered primitive life forms as the planet started drying up.

Light Toned Deposits (LTDs) - martian sediments that most closely resemble sediments on Earth - are some of the most mysterious sediments on Mars. Causes for their origin remain unknown.

These deposits occur on a large scale in Arabia Terra, Chaotic Terrain and Valles Marineris, close to the Tharsis volcanic bulge.

Until now, different mechanisms, including volcanic processes, have been proposed for their formation.

Sarah Palin may have been on the losing end of the Republican ticket, yet she topped the web search chart, confirms Google’s list of the most popular searches in 2008, which the internet search giant released on Wednesday.

At the number two positions of ‘fastest-rising’ searches around the globe was Beijing Olympics 2008. Facebook login and Tuenti, a Spanish social networking website followed the Beijing Olympics 2008.

Johannesburg, Dec. 12: Cricket South Africa (CSA) chief Gerald Majola believes that the decade-old contentious racial quota system - known as "targeted transformation" has produced the results that it was designed for.

The Age quotes Majola as saying the target for the Proteas this season is "a minimum of four black players on the field and a minimum of seven black players in a squad of 15".

By "black players", lovers of the sport should read non-whites.