Lionel Messi is the best player in the world, according to his rival Wayne Rooney.

The Manchester United striker is the favourite to win the PFA Player of the Year this evening and could become the third player to land both the outright gong and the Young Player award.

Rooney, who could miss the rest of United's season after picking up a groin injury on Thursday, has enjoyed the campaign of his career after smashing 34 goals to elevate him as one of the top players in world football.

But the 24-year-old believes Barcelona's Messi is more deserving of the ultimate accolade and has hailed him as the outstanding star of his generation.

"It's nice that people put me up there, but I think Lionel Messi is the best in the world," he told United Review.

"The things he can do with the ball are unbelievable and he is scoring a lot of goals as well.

"He has been fantastic again this year. He is the best player in the world."

A series of spectacular images of the Northern Lights have been captured over the ash plume from the Iceland Volcano.
The incredible images show in amazing detail the sky lit up in amazing green colour above the Eyjafjallajökull volcano.

In the images, captured by New York-based photographer Lucas Jackson, red lava can also be seen spewing from the top of the active volcano. Mr Jackson had earlier captured an astonishing lightning display over the volcano, which he wrote about in detail in an online blog.

The images, from the Reuters news agency, came as Iceland said it would close two of its airports for the first time later on Friday just as the rest of Europe was starting to recover from a week of airline chaos caused by the volcanic ash cloud.

The Icelandic aviation authority has announced that the Keflavik International Airport and Reykjavík International Airport will be closed from this morning.

Airports within Iceland had previously been unscathed by the giant ash cloud thanks to strong northwest winds which blew ash from the volcano, in the south of Iceland, out to sea and over Europe.

The closures come as airports are finally reopening across Europe after world travel was crippled for almost a week.

At its peak, the crisis affected 1.2 million passengers a day and 29 per cent of all global aviation, according to the International Air Transport Association.

Stranded air passengers have been warned they could face a lengthy battle to reclaim the cost of hotels and meals despite budget airlines agreeing to reimburse them.

And It appears increasingly likely that the taxpayer will end up footing the bill for the £1.6 billion cost to the airline and tourist industries of the six-day shutdown.

THE disruption caused by the volcanic eruption in Iceland is having a severe and acute impact on local travellers.
Following five full days of flight cancellations to and from Northern Ireland owing to the looming volcanic ash cloud, the province's airspace re-opened again for a very short time on Tuesday.
In the interim period however, with planes across European airports grounded, thousands of passengers from Northern Ireland were left stranded, unable either to return home or indeed, leave the country for business or pleasure .
Among those affected by the air travel paralysis was Ballyclare man Conor Johnston who was in France visiting family.

Will you continue in the relationship, leave her for another girl or cheat on her?

Most girls dont believe guys when they tell them the truth. Nowadays most guys have resolved to lying.

Who is to blame?
The girls or the guys

Is President Yar'adua interested in a second term? And assuming he is, should he continue, or should he hand over to someone else?

Personally I think he is doing fine, at least. But what will ever dog his tenure is the legitimacy of the elections that saw him come to power. Thus, it would be best for him not to run again, and allow a fresh person, irrespective of the party or zone he/she is coming from, provided he/she won the elections, to handle the reins of this country. That is the only way he can redeem his impeccable image.

Widespread reports in Italy claim Juve have made Benitez their top target to take over from interim boss Alberto Zaccheroni this summer.

It has been suggested Juventus are prepared to offer Benitez a lucrative contract and hefty transfer war chest to lure him to Turin.

Reports circulating have also claimed Juventus are now working on recruiting Benitez's backroom team if he does decide to leave Anfield.

Benitez insists he is not thinking about his future and is waiting to see who will buy Liverpool after American owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett put the club up for sale last week.

The Spaniard admits Liverpool's search for new owners could decide his future on Merseyside.

Benitez told Premium Calcio: "The future? I just think about the next week, only of the sale of the club.

"I'm interested in who buys Liverpool.

"Resignation? I will have to wait for next week. I will talk to who will buy the club. We must wait."

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, yesterday said it was mapping out a fresh strategy to arrest former Delta State governor, Chief James Ibori, even as it said the impression that Ibori was above the law was unacceptable.

Chairman of the anti-graft agency, Mrs. Farida Waziri told journalists at the EFCC headquarters in Abuja where she also addressed a group of protesters, called True Face of Lagos, who came to find out about the status of their petition against the Lagos State government, that Ibori could not get away with the impression.

Mrs. Farida admitted that militants chased a combined team of EFCC operatives and policemen who were in Chief Ibori’s country home in Oghara, Delta State to arrest him on Tuesday and challenged the embattled ex-governor to answer the invitation by security agency if his hands are clean.

Ferguson has laughed off talk that he might retire at the end of next season.

Reports earlier this week claimed Ferguson was set to confirm his retirement at the end of the 2010/11 campaign.

However, Ferguson has moved to dispel the rumours, insisting his health will determine when he finally quits Old Trafford.

"It is rubbish," said Ferguson.

"There is no truth in it.

"I have no intention of retiring and if I did the people I would tell are (chief executive) David Gill and the Glazer family."

Ferguson is battling with Chelsea for the Premier League title and he is adamant he can handle the pressure of managing at the highest level.

"It is what you have to accept in life," added Ferguson.

"There is pressure in life. I can deal with it.

"The only thing that determines whether I stay here is my health. And I am in rude health."

University of Abuja professor Kabiru Mato says past federal budgets have failed to meet the expectation of Nigerians.

A Nigerian political analyst said he hopes acting president Goodluck Jonathan’s 2010 budget would this time around address Nigeria’s poor infrastructure concerns.

Mr. Jonathan signed into law Thursday a $31 billion budget that calls for Nigeria's government to raise spending by about 50 percent from last year's level.

University of Abuja political science professor Kabiru Mato said federal budgets in the past couple of years have failed to meet the expectation of Nigerians.

“I think it’s really an aspiration of governments in Nigeria, but you see the tragedy of it all is that there seems to be already a high rate of skepticism among Nigerians because every year they vote such a large sum of money and say they are going to put infrastructure in place. But at the end of the day the money is exhausted and the infrastructure is not in place. And that is why electricity is still an issue, roads are still an issue, the issue of public transportation is virtually nonexistent in Nigeria,” he said.

Mato said both the executive and legislative branches of the federal government will have to strengthen their monitoring capabilities if the budget money for infrastructure development is to be used for the purposes intended.

“It means that if the acting president is serious about what he’s saying then he has to, of course, strengthen the supervisory mechanism of government to ensure that the budget is strictly implemented. I lay the blame fundamentally on the doorstep of the national assembly that has the constitutional powers to carry out oversight function over appropriated funds,” Mato said.

The 2010 budget assumes Nigeria will pump 2.35 million barrels of oil a day, with each barrel selling for an average price of $67.

Mato said it is possible the Nigerian government can reach that production goal because militant attacks on oil facilities in the Niger Delta region have lessened recently as a result of government's offer of amnesty.

“Oil production in the Niger Delta in Nigeria in the last few months has been rather steady. The amnesty granted by President Umaru Yar’Adua is a fundamental factor there. It has addressed a lot of the issues and we’ve had very few incidences of disruption or blowing up of oil pipelines. And the way the oil market is going, it suggests that possibly you are still going to have some savings from the revenue that will accrue from oil,” he said.

Some Nigerians have been commenting on the new budget in the context of the country’s fight against corruption.

Mato said government officials responsible handling money intended for Nigeria’s infrastructure development will have to lead by example.

“What really needs to be done in Nigeria is to build a very strong regulatory framework to ensure that government funds are deployed to the right area and there is value for money. Secondly also the problem of corruption I think lies with the inability of those at the top of societal ladder to provide the exemplary leadership that is required. If transparency is observed at the highest level of governance, it is automatically going to transmit to every level of government,” Mato said.

Its a miracle.

I wonder what government is doing to improve lives in the country. all the same the man died trying.