African Champions Egypt have climbed into the top ten in Fifa's latest world ranking released on Wednesday.

The Pharaohs moved up 14 places to number 10 and are now Africa's number one team.

Captain Ahmed Hassan holds aloft Egypt's third consecutive Nations Cup

Not only is this Egypt's highest placing ever, it's also the second highest ever by an African team after Nigeria placed fifth in 1994.

Nigeria moved seven places to 15th and are now Africa's second best placed team in the ranking.

Egypt beat Ghana's Black Stars 1-0 in Sunday's final to win the Africa Cup of Nations in Angola.

It's their third consecutive victory in the competition and their seventh in total.

Other big movers in the Fifa ranking are Ghana who moved seven places to 27th and are now fifth on the African table.

However it's not such good news for Africa's other World Cup bound teams. Cameroon lost nine places and are now 20th in the world, while Ivory Coast and Algeria fell six and five places respectively.

Further down the ranking, Zambia (73rd, up 11) and Malawi (82nd, up 17) also made good progress.

Spain continue to occupy the top spot in the world ranking ahead of Brazil and the Netherlands.

Top ten in Africa:

1. Egypt (10th worldwide)

2. Nigeria (15th worldwide)

3. Cameroon ( 20th worldwide)

4. Ivory Coast (22nd worldwide)

5. Ghana (27th worldwide)

6. Algeria (31st worldwide)

7. Gabon (44th worldwide)

8. Burkina Faso (51st worldwide)

9. Mali (53rd worldwide)

10. Tunisia (55th worldwide)

Source: www.bbc.co.uk

Fernando Alonso got his Ferrari career off to a flying start by setting the fastest time of the major Formula 1 test at Valencia on Wednesday.

The double world champion took over from Felipe Massa and set a best time of one minute 11.470 seconds - more than half a second clear of the field.

Alonso was on top throughout the final day's testing

Pedro de la Rosa's Sauber was second, ahead of Michael Schumacher's Mercedes, which was 0.968secs off the pace.

McLaren's Jenson Button ended the day 1.481secs slower than Alonso.

The Englishman said he had spent a lot of time in the garage during the morning sorting out a problem with his seating position in the car.

He added that he was happy with the McLaren's reliability but that it was "too early" to judge the relative pace of the front-running cars.

Button said it had been a "tough day", adding: "It would have been nice to get more testing done.

"I've been doing a lot of work making sure I'm comfortable in the car. I wasn't quite where I wanted to be. I was quite high in the car and uncomfortable.

"I had to change a lot within the car. I fit well now and feel comfortable with my head in the car now."

Button added: "This is not the best circuit to get a feeling of how the cars going to be during the season - it's very different to any other circuit to race on, the balance is very different.

"We can say that Ferrari are fast but we don't know how fast. You can't do those times if you're not competitive.

"We don't know what fuel they're running when they do those times but their slower runs with high fuel were still reasonably good. But it's wrong to talk about who is quick and who isn't."

Winter testing times are notoriously unreliable indicators of form because fuel loads, tyres and track conditions can make a significant difference to performance.

Alonso, whose appearance at the test brought a crowd of 30,000 spectators, said he was "very, very cautious" about judging the pace of the car from his first day's running.

"It was a very good day," the Spaniard said, "because I found the car very easy to drive because Felipe was running two days and I've been taking this information from him and it was a help. Let's wait."

But Mercedes boss Ross Brawn admitted that Ferrari appeared to have the quickest car in Valencia and added that his team were struggling a little.

Brawn told BBC Sport: "On full tanks yesterday (on Tuesday) we didn't look too bad but we're a little bit off on pace and (there are problems with) the handling and balance of the car which we can fix for Jerez (testing next week). We know what the problem is.

"Of course the other teams will be progressing as well. We are not as quick as Ferrari and Lewis (Hamilton) looked quick yesterday so it looks like we've got a bit of work to do.

"We are cracking exhausts and are having to change those every 150-200km. It's a problem we can fix but here it's difficult.

"We've got a handling imbalance because we are all learning about these tyres here and we've seen straight away some things we want done on the tyres which we'll have done by Jerez."

Schumacher was third fastest on both his days' running - Monday and Wednesday - with Nico Rosberg fourth quickest on Tuesday.

The seven-time world champion said: "I'm thinking we will be competitive, but whether this is a winning car straight away or not, that's another story.

"For me that's not so important - it's a long season. We need to be there and taking points from the beginning.

"I wouldn't expect to be winning right from the beginning. It wasn't something that I was aiming for and expecting to be the case. But we need to be strong enough on development."

De la Rosa and Sauber were close to the top of the times throughout

Ferrari were fastest on all three days - with Massa setting the pace on Monday and Tuesday before handing over to Alonso for the final day.

The Brazilian's fastest lap was 0.3secs slower than Alonso's.

Sauber have been the surprise package, with veteran De la Rosa second fastest on the first and third days and his Japanese team-mate Kamui Kobayashi occupying the same position on day two.

Sauber are back under the ownership of founder Peter Sauber after BMW, which had owned the team for the previous four years, decided to quit F1 following an uncompetitive season in 2009.

Button did not match the pace of team-mate Lewis Hamilton on Tuesday - but as they ran on different days no conclusions can be drawn about their relative performances.

Further down the order in terms of headline times were Renault, Williams and Toro Rosso.

For them, Wednesday was a case of giving their more inexperienced drivers some miles.

At Williams, German novice Nico Hulkenberg took over from veteran Rubens Barrichello and set a best time of 1:13.699.

New Renault signing Russian Vitaly Petrov replaced number one driver Robert Kubica for his first experience of an F1 car.

He set a best time of 1:13.097, but that was at a stage when no other drivers were improving, so it suggests the team sent him out with low fuel.

And Jaime Alguersuari drove the new Toro Rosso, taking over from Sebastien Buemi and managing a 1:12.576.

Source: www.bbc.co.uk

John Terry will not be making any public statements on his future as England captain until after a meeting with Fabio Capello.

The Three Lions and Chelsea skipper has been thrown into the centre of a media storm following a series of revelations over his private life.

Details of the centre-back's alleged affair with the former girlfriend of international colleague Wayne Bridge were disclosed last week, after a court injunction he had obtained was overturned.

This has led to frenzied reporting in the media and calls for his resignation as captain of his country from some quarters over his off-field antics.

Sky Sports News has learned Terry has no intention of relinquishing the armband, but the Football Association has already made it clear that any decision on his future as captain would be left to head coach Capello.

The Italian, known for his strict approach to team discipline, is due in England later this week before he travels to Poland at the weekend ahead of the draw for Euro 2012 qualifying.

Capello is set to meet with Terry at some point before next week, when he is set to decide on whether to appoint a new captain or not.

And Terry has made it clear that any communication over his role as skipper of England will come from Capello, the only man who will decide his fate.

Phil Hall, Terry's spokesman, said: "John Terry asked me to make it clear that he has made absolutely no statement about his future as England captain.

"He is keeping his own counsel until he speaks to England manager Fabio Capello and then Mr Capello will decide what announcement will be made."

Source: www.football365.com

Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim has pleaded not guilty at the start of his long-delayed sodomy trial.

Prosecutors say he sodomised a male aide, and they claim that traces of Mr Anwar's DNA were found in medical tests on the man making the allegations.

Many of Mr Anwar's supporters turned up at court to cheer him on

Mr Anwar has consistently denied the charges, calling them a conspiracy aimed at breaking his increasingly strong political movement.

Homosexual acts are illegal in Malaysia and he faces up to 20 years in prison.

This is not the first time the charismatic opposition leader - who was once the deputy prime minister until his sudden sacking in 1998 - has faced a sodomy claim.

He served six years after an earlier conviction, which was subsequently overturned on appeal. After his release he led the opposition to election gains in 2008.

Mr Anwar represents a major challenge to Prime Minister Najib Razak, whose coalition has held power for more than 50 years.

'Malicious and frivolous'

Mr Anwar's much anticipated trial has already been delayed many times, and could easily have been put back yet again.

His lawyers tried a last-ditch effort to ask for advanced access to medical evidence, DNA and CCTV tapes, which they say are key in providing a proper defence.

But a judge decided there was no reason to delay proceedings any further, and Mr Anwar finally faced his 24-year old male accuser, Saiful Bukhari Azlan, in the High Court.

Mr Saiful said Mr Anwar had demanded sex in a Kuala Lumpur apartment.

"I was angry and afraid," Mr Saiful told the court, according to Reuters news agency. "I rejected his offer. I said I didn't want to do it."

The prosecution say that Mr Anwar's semen was found in medical tests on Mr Saiful, and say they plan to bring evidence of this to the trial.

But Mr Anwar maintains his innocence, and has called the sodomy allegation "malicious" and "frivolous".

"It is trumped up by political masters using the prosecution for that purpose," Mr Anwar told the High Court.

He believes he is only on trial for political reasons, and in an interview with the BBC before the trial, he referred to the claims against him as a "nasty conspiracy".

"We are committed to democratic ideals and some of us may have to pay the price," he said.

Rights groups have also criticised the trial. Amnesty International accused the government of using "the same old dirty tricks in an attempt to remove the opposition leader from politics".

There were huge protests after Mr Anwar's first conviction for sodomy a decade ago. He was freed on appeal in 2004.

Source: www.bbc.co.uk

Judges at the International Criminal Court ruled Wednesday that Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir may be charged with genocide for his role in a five-year campaign of violence in western Sudan's Darfur region.

Al-Bashir, who remains in office, has already been charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity. Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo had the genocide charge on his original arrest warrant for al-Bashir, but the pre-trial judges left off the charge when they approved the warrant last March.

Genocide could be added to the Sudanese President's list of charges which already includes war crimes

Moreno-Ocampo appealed in July, saying that the judges' standard for adding the genocide charge was too high. The appellate court agreed with Moreno-Ocampo and ruled in his favor Wednesday.

The appeals judges said the pre-trial chamber had applied an "erroneous standard of proof" to the genocide charge.

The judges said they were not ruling on whether al-Bashir should be charged with genocide -- only whether the charge could be added to the arrest warrant. They said it will be up to the pre-trial chamber to determine whether to add the charge to the warrant, which could take several weeks.

The International Criminal Court at The Hague, Netherlands, is a permanent, treaty-based tribunal dealing with the most serious crimes against humanity.

It is an independent court that is not part of the United Nations. It is funded primarily by nations, but also receives contributions from governments, corporations and individuals.

Even if genocide is added to the arrest warrant, Moreno-Ocampo still faces a challenge in proving the charges at trial, said Mark Ellis, the executive director of the International Bar Association.

"Genocide is a much more complicated legal position to meet (than war crimes and crimes against humanity), because you have to show in proving genocide that there was a specific intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a group based on -- in this case -- ethnicity or race," Ellis told CNN in July. "Obviously, the prosecutor believes he would be able to prove this intent and so he wants the opportunity to prove that in trial."

The warrant for al-Bashir was the first ever issued by the ICC for a sitting head of state. It currently includes five counts of crimes against humanity, including murder, extermination, forcible transfer, torture and rape. It also includes two charges of war crimes for intentionally directing attacks against civilians and for pillaging.

Al-Bashir has traveled to several countries since the warrant was issued, even though any country that is party to the ICC has an obligation to hand him over to The Hague, the court says.

He openly attended the African Union conference in Ethiopia, which ended this week. Ethiopia is not party to the ICC.

Al-Bashir is the front-runner in an election scheduled to take place in April, and a genocide charge is unlikely to harm his prospects.

A genocide charge could further isolate Sudan, but it could also mobilize African nations around Sudan. Leaders from several African countries have said the ICC has been unfair to Africa, and they have threatened to pull out of the court.

The United Nations estimates that 300,000 people have been killed in the conflict in Darfur, and 2.5 million have been forced from their homes. Sudan denies that the death toll is that high.

The violence in Darfur erupted in 2003 after rebels began an uprising against the Sudanese government. To counter the rebels, Sudanese authorities armed and cooperated with Arab militias that went from village to village in Darfur, killing, torturing and raping residents, according to the United Nations, Western governments and human rights organizations.

The militias targeted civilian members of tribes from which the rebels drew strength.

Source: www.cnn.com