Hamburg - Former officials of the now defunct Gerolsteiner cycling team said on Wednesday that Austrian rider Bernhard Kohl showed no indication of using forbidden doping substances.

Then team boss Hans-Michael Holczer said that Kohl was "not even suspicious" until he was found to have used the third generation of the blood booster EPO, known as CERA, at the 2008 Tour de France.

Hamburg - Australia moved top of Asian World Cup qualifying Group 1 courtesy of a 2-0 victory over Uzbekistan in Sydney Wednesday to all but book their place at the 2010 finals in South Africa.

Substitute Joshua Kennedy put the home side in front on 66 minutes and a Harry Kewell penalty seven minutes later made the game safe after Richard Garcia was fouled in the area by Ansur Ismailov.

Hamburg - Lewis Hamilton is playing down the chances of replicating the third-place finish he achieved in Sunday's season- opening Formula One race in Australia in this weekend's Malaysian Grand Prix in Sepang.

"Firstly, we shouldnt get carried away by our podium in Australia. Yes, we had a fantastic race but were all aware that our car isnt capable of repeating that sort of performance on sheer pace alone," said the defending world champion in a statement on the McLaren-Mercedes team website.

Hamburg  - The Maldives has initiated a new tourism policy aimed at increasing contact between visitors and inhabitants of the island chain in the Indian Ocean, the country's tourism minister said.

Speaking recently to the German weekly newspaper, Die Zeit, the minister, Ahmed Ali Sawad, said there would no longer be a "parallel world" of resort islands kept separate from the islands inhabited by Maldivians.

Hamburg - The Brawn GP Formula One team is to reduce the workforce at the team's Brackley factory in England by 270 to cut costs.

The team made the announcement shortly after celebrating a one-two victory in Sunday's season-opening Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne.

"It's very unfortunate that we've got to do that but it's the change of technical regulations and obviously we are now a private team," said team chief executive Nick Fry.

"We are about 700 people at the moment and we talked to the staff about going down to about 430."

Hamburg, Germany  - A team of German scientists say they have found a genetic cause for mysterious sudden deaths of perfectly healthy athletes who collapse and die of cardiac arrest.

German researchers at Heidelberg University Hospital claim to have discovered a seemingly insignificant genetic modification that may in fact spawn a potentially, fatal cardiac condition.