Pacemen Peter Siddle and Mitchell Starc bowled Australia to victory over Sri Lanka in the first Hobart Test Tuesday, claiming six wickets in the final session for a thrilling win.

The Sri Lankans looked to be batting out for a draw until Siddle and Starc struck to secure Australia's first win of the home season, after losing to South Africa 1-0 in the recent three-Test series.

Starc claimed the last four wickets to fall to end with five for 63, while Siddle was named man of the match after his four for 50 to finish with nine wickets for the match.

Australia found it hard going to gouge out the batsmen on a fifth-day pitch until the wickets tumbled in the final two hours.

They got the wicket of Mahela Jayawardene before lunch, Kumar Sangakkara in the middle session and the remaining six wickets in the final session after the tourists appeared headed for a morale-boosting draw.

Siddle struck in the fourth over after tea when Angelo Mathews needlessly flicked outside his off stump and nicked to Matthew Wade for 19, giving the Australians a glimmer of victory.
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Indo-Canadian adult movie star Sunny Leone was the Most Searched Indian Celebrity on the net in 2012, in Yahoo’s Year in Review (YIR) released Thursday.

The review "reflects topics that dominated the daily online habits of Indian net users across 15 categories. This combines search trends with the editorial selection of what users read, recommended and shared most on the Yahoo! network in India during 2012", a Yahoo statement said.

It "offers a glimpse into the social trends, compelling newsmakers and top stories of 2012, based on what Internet users in India looked for. It is clear while looking at the top trends that scams and controversies, with a large dose of Bollywood gossip, captured the attention of the user in 2012", the statement said.

Leone grabbed the spot ahead of Bollywood's leading ladies, thanks to her controversial entry into Bollywood with "Big Boss 5" and "Jism 2".

Mary Kom's selection followed India's biggest Olympics medals haul at the London Games, equaling the collective tally of the country's previous seven campaigns.

Arvind Kejriwal, the new poster boy for the crusade against corruption, knocked off mentor Anna Hazare from the position to become Top Newsmaker in India for 2012.

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Noted astronomer D P Durai has dismissed the prediction of the world ending on December 21 as a mere rumour, saying next Friday would be like any other day.

  
Durai, a NASA educator and director of M P Birla Planetarium, said December 21 would be marked different only because it is a day of winter solstice and the world would not certainly meet its end on that day.
  
"December 21, 2012 will be another normal day, the only speciality being that it will be the day of winter solstice when sun will be at the southernmost point of the sky and the amount of day time will be the shortest."
  
Durai noted that doomsday stories had become the centre of discussion around the globe in recent weeks and India was no different, thanks to social networking sites and the Internet.
  
Explaining the origin of the world-wide buzz, the astronomer said that at the core of this rumour lay a belief by certain people that the ancient Mayan civilisation in Latin America had December 21, 2012 as the last day of their calendar and thereafter the earth's life span would expire.
  
There are other theories too of how the earth will come to an end on that day, one of them being a devastating collision between the earth and a planet of the yet-undiscovered solar system called 'Niburu', he pointed out.
  
He explained that there was no scientific basis behind the claim that December, 2012 would have a solar maxima resulting in the reversal of the polarity of the earth's magnetic field.
  
Another theory that spoke of a rare planetary alignment of earth, sun and the earth's galactic centre thereby causing a huge gravitational instability was also unfounded, Durai said.

"21st December, 2012 is not the end of time as indicated by the Mayan calendar. It is rather the end of an era which, according to the Mayans, was of duration of 5,125 years or 13 Bakhtuns, each Bakhtun being of a duration of little more than 393 years," Durai explained.
  
At the end of the 13 Bakhtuns, the Mayans believed, there would be the beginning of a new era, he pointed out.

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Actor Arbaaz Khan, who has turned director with Salman Khan-starrer Dabangg 2, says the film is not just minldess action and comedy but has an inherent story that binds all the drama.

The film, which will hit theatres on December 21, is the sequel to Dabangg with Salman and Sonakshi reprising their characters of Chulbul Pandey and Rajjo respectively while Prakash Raj is the main antagonist.

"You would see a lot of style coming along with the action and it would be in the kind of space that Chulbul Pandey as a character and Dabangg as a brand stand for.

"Having said that, while action is an integral part of the film, it would be not more than what is necessary. There is a story running behind all the action. You just can't have action and more of action. None of it would hold if there is no emotion behind it; for that you need to have a story in a scene or a sequence," Arbaaz told PTI.

The sequel has a sizzling item number Fevicol Se by actress Kareena Kapoor and other numbers are also topping the charts. Music-composer duo Sajid-Wajid have been roped in this time too for the compositions.
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