Zurich - Over 668,000 tickets for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa have already been snapped up by fans, football's ruling body FIFA revealed Friday.

The most number of tickets have been sold in the United States (84,034), followed by Great Britain and Germany (48,274).

On Monday, the second phase of ticket sales for the 2010 finals, which has an 82-per-cent success rate, comes to an end.

Zurich  - Swiss bank UBS posted a loss of 564 Swiss franc (552 million US dollars) in the third quarter due to continued problems in the investment banking sector, it reported Tuesday in Zurich.

The bank continued to lose assets for the third quarter, as clients withdrew funds totalling 36.7 billion franc, the bank reported. It said in a statement it did not expect an immediate recovery in the area of client net new money flows.

The new losses exceeded the expectations of analysts who had predicted a slight recovery of the bank.

Zurich  - The world's second largest reinsurer Swiss Re has bounced back into profit in the third quarter, beating expectations of analysts, the company announced Tuesday in Zurich.

The company reported a net profit of 334 million francs (327 million US dollars), compared to a loss of 304 million francs in the same period last year, and continued losses in the second quarter of 2009.

Results in the third quarter continued to be dampened by write- offs of almost one billion francs especially in the securitized products portfolio. (dpa)

Zurich  - The Andre Agassi crystal meth revelations, to be fully explained in his autobiography next month, have come as a shock to world number one Roger Federer.

The top seed at his home event from Monday in Basle told local media that Agassi's confession to have used the drug crystal meth during a low points in 1997 was a stunner.

"It was a shock when I heard the news," said Federer at a sponsor function. "I'm disappointed and I hope there are no more such cases in future. The sport must stay clean."

Zurich - The ruling football body FIFA and the World Anti-Doping Agency will set up a partnership to develop a biological passport for footballers.

The announcement was made at a meeting between FIFA boss Joseph Blatter and WADA president John Fahey at the FIFA headquarters.

The biological passport, similar to that used in cycling, is part of a new anti-doping programme of FIFA. Fahey said that target tests will be the key to success.

Zurich  - Film director Roman Polanski has been arrested as he arrived in Switzerland to attend a film festival, police in Zurich said Sunday.

The director, who has been wanted since 1978 in the US on charges of having sex with a 13-year-old girl, had been due to receive a prize at the Zurich Film Festival.

The Swiss police are believed to be acting on the request of US authorities.

Polanksi, born in Poland and now a French citizen, is best known for Rosemary's Baby (1968) and The Pianist (2002).  dpa

Zurich  - "Damn. Now where was that card with the lemon?"

While the mother is still racking her brains, her small son has already found the lemon and correctly turned up three other pairs of memory cards as well. He sees the game as a picture and remembers the details, while she tries to use reason and does not use her brain effectively.

Zurich  - South American champions Brazil top the September football rankings issued by the sport's controlling body FIFA on Wednesday.

Second-placed Spain, whom the Brazilians toppled from the top space by virtue of winning the Confederations Cup, are gaining ground on the Selecao and have distanced themselves from the third-placed Dutch.

Germany and Italy are joint fourth.

Zurich  - Football's controlling body FIFA said Monday that they would use x-ray films to determine the age of players at the under-17 world championship in Nigeria later this year.

FIFA said that players would be selected at random and that an x- ray of the players' wrists would determine their age. They said that such an x-ray posed no health risk.

Only players born after December 31, 1991 are eligible to play at the tournament.

Zurich - The percentage of club-trained players in the top European leagues has continued to fall, a study conducted by the Professional Football Players' Observatory (PFPO) has found.

Football's governing body FIFA said Monday in a statement that while the number of club-trained players was decreasing, the number of expatriate players was increasing.

Zurich  - Usain Bolt beat fellow Jamaican Asafa Powell to win the 100 metres at the Golden League meeting in Zurich Friday in 9.81 seconds.

The world and Olympic champion, who set a world record 9.58 seconds 12 days earlier in Berlin, appeared to ease up as he crossed the line.

Bolt and Powell were neck-and-neck over 70 metres but Bolt powered ahead over the last 30 metres, leaving Powell - who had equalled a then-world record of 9.77 in Zurich three years - second on 9.89.  (dpa)

Zurich  - Russian Yelena Isinbayeva set a world record 5 metres 6 centimetres in the women's pole vault at the Golden League meeting in Zurich on Friday.

Isinbayeva, who did not clear a height when failing to win a third successive title at the world championships in Berlin, stays on course for at least a share of the Golden League 1-million-dollar jackpot. (dpa)

Geneva  - The city of Zurich began to block Wednesday its employees from accessing the social networking Website Facebook using office computers.

The move, local media reported, came after the municipality had given employees a "last chance" in April to reduce the time spent on the site and the number of visits. When that condition was not met, the city moved to block access altogether.

Reportedly, while the number of visits initially dropped, the slow summer months sent more traffic from Zurich's workers to the site.

Zurich - Adecco, one of the world's largest staffing companies, reported Tuesday second quarter revenues at 3.6 billion euros (5.1 billion dollars), down 31 per cent compared to the same period last year.

The company posted a net loss of 147 million euros for the quarter, compared to net profit of 212 million euros last year. Earnings per share showed a loss of 0.85 euros, compared to income of 1.21 euros in the same quarter of 2008.

Zurich - Tiny Charlene Riva and Myla Rose made their photo debut Friday as proud parents Roger Federer and Mirka Vavrinec published the first picture of their new arrivals on Facebook.

While eager to explain the trials and minor tribulations of snapping a picture of the two-week-old infants, Federer dropped zero hints about whether he plans to play in the Montreal Masters from Monday.

But that small mystery will be solved later when the draw is made in Canada.

Zurich - Brazil retained their lead and there was only one change in the top 10 in the latest world football rankings issued on Wednesday by the ruling body FIFA.

Brazil returned to the top last month and have 1,642 points to rank ahead of former leaders Spain (1,590) and the Netherlands (1,379).

Germany climbed from fifth to fourth with 1,195 points at the expense of Italy (1,181) in the only top 10 change. The other top teams are Russia (1,161), England (1,135), Argentina (1,080), France (1,059) and Croatia (1,031). (dpa)

Zurich  - World number one and 15-time Grand Slam winner Roger Federer is the father of twin girls after his wife Mirka Vavrinec gave birth in Switzerland on Thursday.

The girls have been named Charlene Riva and Myla Rose.

"This is the greatest day of our lives," Federer said on his website.

"Mirka, Myla and Charlene are all healthy and doing very well."

Zurich  - China's Beijing Automotive Industry Holding Company (BAIC) is out of the bidding race for General Motors' (GM) European offshoot Opel, the US car giant confirmed Thursday.

"We have agreed to continue the negotiations to secure the future of Opel with Magna and RHJI," said John Smith, who is leading the talks on behalf of GM.

Rival bids from Canadian-Austrian car parts manufacturer Magna and RHJI, the European offshoot of US investor Ripplewood, were the focus of a 4-hour meeting with politicians in Berlin the previous day.

Zurich  - Football's governing body FIFA on Wednesday announced that they had fined the football association of Ivory Coast after 22 fans died during a World Cup qualifying match between the Ivory Coast and Malawi in March.

In a statement released in Zurich, FIFA said that the organization's disciplinary committee had finalized an investigation into the tragedy outside the Felix Houphouet-Boigny Stadium in Abidjan.

Zurich - The number of millionaires in the world dropped last year by nearly 15 per cent in the wake of the global economic meltdown, according to the World Wealth Report published Wednesday.

There are now around 8.6 million millionaires, the survey, now its 13th year, found.

While the United States remained the world leader with the largest number of millionaires, China was moving up the ranks and placed fourth, behind Japan and Germany, out-seating Britain for the first time.