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Sydney, Oct.24 : There have been plenty of light moments in the cricket life of Ricky Ponting, too, and one of them surrounded his first involvement with Shane Warne at the Australian Cricket Academy in Adelaide during the winter of 1992, of how the aspiring spin-king tried to lead him astray even though his then captain-to-be was a teenager at the time.

In his book, Ponting reveals that despite their age difference — Ponting was 17 and Warne almost 23 — "he headed in my direction and we shared some time together".

Writes Ponting in his Captain’s Dairy for 2007: "He was the bloke responsible for my nickname 'Punter', assigned to me because of my habit of sneaking down to the TAB on Monday and Thursday nights to have a bet on the greyhounds.

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Sydney, Oct.24 : In his new book, Captain's Diary 2007, which hits bookshelves across Australia today, Ponting reveals how his team's World Cup-winning celebrations almost ended in disaster — with the possibility of even a night in jail — in the West Indies earlier this year after the team ventured back onto the Bridgetown pitch to sing its celebratory song Under the Southern Cross following its win over Sri Lanka in the final.

According to stuff.nz.com, Ponting noticed a group of policemen coming up behind them, with one of them saying: "Righto boys, time to go, you've got to get off the ground."

Washington, Oct 24 : An international team of scientists from the US, Germany, Spain and Sweden have successfully launched a solar telescope to an altitude of 120,000 feet on board a balloon.

The test clears the way for long duration polar balloon flights beginning 2009 that aims to capture unprecedented details of the Sun’s surface.

“This unique research project will enable us to view features of the Sun that we've never seen before. We hope to unlock important mysteries about the Sun's magnetic field structures, which at times can cause electromagnetic storms in our upper atmosphere and may have an impact on Earth's climate,” said Michael Knölker, director of NCAR's High Altitude Observatory and a principal investigator on the project.

Washington, October 24 : Surgeons at the Ohio State University Medical Center have preformed the first incisionless surgery in the US by using a device known as EsophyX, approved by the Food and Drug Administration, to cure gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), also known as heartburn.

The surgeons have treated the first two patients in the country by using the device.

The mechanism, which is new in the US, has been proven safe and effective in patients treated throughout Europe for GERD.

According to the surgeons, the new procedure does not leave any scars and results in minimal post-operative pain. It also reduces patients’ recovery time significantly, they say.

Edinburgh, Oct.24 : Muslims attending prayers at Edinburgh's central mosque last night criticised the eight-year jail sentence handed to Mohammed Atif Siddique as too severe.

Karim Adam Zarhara, 31, said: "I think he is the victim of political interference. Whatever happened to freedom of speech?"

Rohan Haksar said he believed the sentence was "very unjust".

Sana Ashraf, 21, said she had not followed the case, but believed Siddique was "disadvantaged" by being a devout Muslim.

"If you're Asian, you have a beard and are religious, it's going to work against you from the start," the law student was quoted by Scotsman, as saying.

Mohammed Ali, a 21-year-old student, said: "I don't think it's good for young people to be made a criminal for motives alone.