Hamburg  - Nordic combined skiing has undergone a complete overhaul to raise its popularity but has lost its superstar Hannu Manninen when the World Cup season starts on Saturday.

Manninen, 30, announced his retirement in May, quitting after a poor 2007-08 season. He is the sport's most decorated athlete with four World Cup trophies 2004-2007, a record 45 race wins, a sprint world title and team golds at worlds and Olympics.

The Finn will now watch from the sidelines as the sport twinning ski-jumping and cross-country skiing has changed face again for popularity and television reasons.

Hamburg  - People who work in the hotel and restaurant industries often are the target of sexual harassment on the job, says a report by a Bilbao-based European agency for security and health in the workplace.

Nearly 8 per cent of hospitality employees complain about sexual harassment on the job, according to the report, which was referenced by a German professional association for food and restaurants based in Mannheim. In other branches about 2 per cent complain.

In addition, about 12 per cent see themselves as the target of intimidation and 6.5 per cent have been confronted with physical violence. In other sectors, the figures are 8.5 per cent and 3.5 per cent, respectively.

Hamburg  - English and Spanish clubs completed their Champions League charge when Liverpool and Atletico Madrid swept into the knockout phase on Wednesday.

Italian champions Inter Milan also progressed to join Serie A rivals Juventus in the last 16 despite a 1-0 defeat at home to Panathinaikos

Liverpool joined defending champions Manchester United and Arsenal in the last 16 with a 1-0 win over Olympique Marseille, while Atletico complete a Spanish quartet including city rivals Real Madrid, Barcelona and Villareal by beating PSV Eindhoven 2-1.

However last season's losing finalists Chelsea will have to wait after being held 1-1 at Girondins Bordeaux.

Hamburg - Thomas Morgenstern is restricted to Austrian air space with his freshly obtained pilot's licence, but has permission for takeoff on the ski-jumping hills everywhere when he starts his World Cup title defence on the weekend.

Morgenstern, 22, received his pilot's licence last month which allows him to fly single-engine crafts in Austria.

"I am a pilot! ... It is a great feeling," Morgenstern said on a blog on the Red Bull website.

Hamburg  - Even though car air conditioners (AC) work overtime during the summer, they should also be switched on during winter to remove damp air from the cockpit and prevent the windscreen from fogging-up, manufacturers recommend.

The air in the vehicle is not only heated up, but also dried as the defrost function helps clear the windscreen. Many car heating systems automatically engage the air conditioner in the defrost position. But if the car has no automatic climate control, the

defrost position should be adjusted manually.

A car AC is basically designed to move heat from the car interior to the exterior similar to a refrigerator.

Hamburg, Germany  - Ever wonder how hundreds of ants are able to go up and down a narrow twig without bumping into each other?

A team of German scientists want to find out how ants avoid collisions so that they can apply the same principles to cars on the motorways.

The scientists built an ingenious super "ant farm" complete with roads and bridges and a veritable city of ants. Then they observed the traffic patterns of the ants and fed their findings in to a computer.

The Dresden Institute of Technology collective intelligence expert Dirk Helbing and his team set up an ant highway with two routes of different widths from the nest to some sugar syrup, according to their findings, published in New Scientist.