Lionel Messi is set to have his contract reviewed by Barcelona once the team returns from its pre-season tour of the United States.
Sport believes that the Blaugrana want to make it perfectly clear who their number one star is following the media circus surrounding the arrival of Zlatan Ibrahimovic. It has already been reported that the Catalan giants refused to grant the Swedish striker the same salary he was previously making at Inter, so that Messi would remain the club’s top earner.
Now, it is believed that Barca want to shift their focus back to the Argentine by offering him an improved contract, even though his current term runs until 2014.
Sources close to the club have revealed that negotiations are already underway but will only pick up steam when the player is back in Catalunya.
It is speculated that his buy-out clause will go from €150 million to €250 million, the same amount as Ibrahimovic, and although there are no predictions as to how much he could be earning, his total income is expected to have a significant jump.
The idea behind this is to make sure that Messi continually feels appreciated by the club and that he remains happy with his conditions.
Barca's technical director, Txiki Begiristain, has already said, “The price of having the world’s best player in your ranks is to upgrade his contract every year.
“It is a significant price, but it is worth it.”
KS Leong, Goal.com

Globetrotting do-gooder Angelina Jolie visited Iraq Thursday to show her support for Iraqis affected by war.
She met with four families displaced from the district of Abu Ghraib, which is west of Baghdad. Parents told the actress and mother of six that their kids can't attend school, and that they don't have the money to pay for medical help.
"It takes a lot of strength for you to survive this life," Jolie, 34, told one man. "I don't know if I would be strong enough to survive this."
She also made the time to hold a baby with a rash.
The day-long trip marks the third visit to the war-torn country by Jolie, a Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations.
Her first visit to Iraq was in 2007, when she addressed 1,200 refugees, followed by another trip in February.
Jolie vowed that Thursday's trip wouldn't be her last.
"I want to come back and find you in a better place and in a different situation," she said. "We hope that the [UN's refugee agency] and the government will support you in getting a piece of land. You need help not because you are poor, but because you are the future of Iraq."
But Jolie added that the country has a long way to go.
"This is moment where things seem to be improving on the ground," she said. "But Iraqis need a lot of support and help to rebuild their lives."

FC Barcelona played this afternoon the last match of the Wembley Cup against Egyptian champions Al-Ahly. Barca won the match 4-1 with goals from Bojan, Rueda, Jeffren & Pedro.

FC Barcelona - Al Ahly: 4-1 (Video-Highlights) The Wembley Cup

The Zlatan Ibrahimovic – Samuel Eto’o transfer saga is nearing the finishing line after the Barcelona hitman agreed a five-year deal with Inter last night, according to Sky Sport.President Massimo Moratti met with the player’s agent, Josep Maria Mesalles, at the club’s new headquarters in Corso Vittorio Emanuele, and it is suggested that Eto’o himself helped break the deadlock.La Gazzetta dello Sport reports that Eto’o talked with Inter technical director Marco Branca on the phone in the afternoon, saying he was enthusiastic about joining the Biscione. Indeed, Eto'o also reportedly stated that he is ready to bring the Champions League trophy back to the San Siro.As a matter of fact, the striker has supposedly agreed to tie his bonuses to Inter’s achievements, rather than personal ones.Eto’o has apparently demanded a €2 million bonus for any trophy won by Inter over the next five years. This will come on top of his wages of €10m-per-season.Inter have failed to win Europe’s premier club competition since 1965, but Eto’o has already lifted ‘the big-eared cup’ twice at Barca.Vince Masiello, Goal.com

A Saudi Arabian princess who had an illegitimate child with a British man has secretly been granted asylum in this country after she claimed she would face the death penalty if she were forced to return home. The young woman, who has been granted anonymity by the courts, won her claim for refugee status after telling a judge that her adulterous affair made her liable to death by stoning.
Her case is one of a small number of claims for asylum brought by citizens of Saudi Arabia which are not openly acknowledged by either government. British diplomats believe that to do so would in effect be to highlight the persecution of women in Saudi Arabia, which would be viewed as open criticism of the House of Saud and lead to embarrassing publicity for both governments.
The woman, who comes from a very wealthy Saudi family, says she met her English boyfriend – who is not a Muslim – during a visit to London. They struck up a relationship
She became pregnant the following year and worried that her elderly husband – a member of the Royal Family of Saudi Arabia – had become suspicious of her behaviour, she persuaded him to let her visit the UK again to give birth in secret. She feared for her life if she returned to Saudi Arabia.
She persuaded the court that if she returned to the Gulf state she and her child would be subject to capital punishment under Sharia law – specifically flogging and stoning to death. She was also worried about the possibility of an honour killing.
Since she fled Saudi Arabia, her family and her husband's family have broken off contact with her.
The woman has been granted permanent leave to remain in the UK after the Immigration and Asylum tribunal allowed her appeal.
The Home Office yesterday declined to discuss the case. A spokesman for the Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia in London said that he would call back but subsequently became unavailable.
Relations between the UK and Saudi Arabia have been strained in recent years and were brought to a head in 2006 when Tony Blair intervened to end a Serious Fraud Office (SFO) inquiry into alleged kickbacks paid in a multibillion military aircraft deal between the two states.
The Saudi royal family was deeply concerned about the idea that the investigators might try o open up their Swiss bank accounts, it was alleged at the time.
This led the Saudis to threaten to restrict the sharing of intelligence relating to terror activity if the prosecution went ahead. They also threatened to pull out of other highly-lucrative arms deals.
Last year, the House of Lords ruled that the SFO's decision to drop the corruption investigation into the £43bn Saudi arms deal with BAE Systems was unlawful.
In a hard-hitting ruling, two High Court judges described the SFO's decision as "an outrage".
One of them, Lord Justice Moses, said the SFO and the Government had given into "blatant threats" that Saudi intelligence co-operation would end unless the probe into corruption was halted.
"No one, whether within this country or outside, is entitled to interfere with the course of our justice," he said. "It is the failure of government and the defendant to bear that essential principle in mind that justifies the intervention of this court."
The Middle East state has been shrouded in controversy over oppressive policies against women and homosexuals. Secrecy surrounds much of the Saudi legal system, but in a recent report on the use of the death penalty in the kingdom, the human rights group Amnesty International highlighted its extensive use against men and women.
Adulterers face public stonings and floggings and, in the most serious cases, beheadings and hangings.
The high numbers of executions in Saudi Arabia in 2007 continued into 2008. There were at least 102 executions of men and women last year – at an average rate of two every week. Amnesty is aware of at least 136 individuals currently awaiting execution.
Last week, Saudi Arabia's religious police were blamed for the death of two sisters who were murdered in what was deemed an "honour killing" by their brother, after the sisters were arrested for allegedly mixing with men to whom they were not related.
The Society for Defending Women's Rights in Saudi Arabia said that the religious police had arrested the two sisters, aged 19 and 21, thus putting their lives in danger.
Their brother shot them dead in front of their father when they left a women's shelter in Riyadh on 5 July, according to Saudi news reports.
In 2007, in a case that shocked Saudis, a woman from Qatif was sentenced to 200 lashes and six months in prison after being gang-raped. She offended cultural expectations because she was unaccompanied when she got into a car with a former boyfriend.
The man had agreed to hand back a photograph of the woman who was about to marry another man, but as they drove along a street they were stopped and seized by seven men who raped them both. The woman was originally sentenced to 90 lashes but the sentence was increased when she appealed. Eventually, after an international outcry, she was pardoned.
In 2007, King Abdullah II of Saudi Arabia was jeered during a state visit to Britain as dozens of demonstrators turned out to protest at his country's human rights record.
src: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/princess-facing-saudi-death-penalty-given-secret-uk-asylum-1753007.html

WASHINGTON - The American soldier who went missing June 30 from his base in eastern Afghanistan and was later confirmed to have been captured, appeared on a video posted Saturday to a Web site by the Taliban.
Two U.S. defense officials confirmed to The Associated Press that the man in the video is the captured soldier. The video provides the first glimpse the public has had of the missing soldier.

The soldier is shown in the 28-minute video with his head shaved and the start of a beard. He is sitting and dressed in a nondescript, gray outfit. Early in the video one of his captors holds the soldier's dog tag up to the camera. His name and ID number are clearly visible. He is shown eating at one point and sitting cross-legged.
The soldier, whose identity has not yet been released by the Pentagon pending notification of members of Congress and the soldier's family, says his name, age and hometown on the video, which was released Saturday on a Web site pointed out by the Taliban.
The soldier said the date is July 14. He says he was captured when he lagged behind on a patrol.
He is interviewed in English by his captors, and he is asked his views on the war, which he calls extremely hard, his desire to learn more about Islam and the morale of American soldiers, which he said was low.
‘Well I’m scared’Asked how he was doing, the soldier said on the video:
"Well I'm scared, scared I won't be able to go home. It is very unnerving to be a prisoner."
He begins to answer questions in a matter-of-fact and sober voice, occasionally facing the camera, looking down and sometimes looking to the questioner on his left.
He later chokes up when discussing his family and his hope to marry his girlfriend.
"I have my girlfriend, who is hoping to marry," he said. "I have a very, very good family that I love back home in America. And I miss them every day when I'm gone. I miss them and I'm afraid that I might not ever see them again and that I'll never be able to tell them that I love them again and I'll never be able to hug them."
He is also prompted by his interrogators to give a message to the American people.
"To my fellow Americans who have loved ones over here, who know what it's like to miss them, you have the power to make our government bring them home," he said. "Please, please bring us home so that we can be back where we belong and not over here, wasting our time and our lives and our precious life that we could be using back in our own country. Please bring us home. It is America and American people who have that power."
The video is not a continuous recording — it appears to stop and start during the questioning.
It is unclear from the video whether the July 14 date is authentic. The soldier says that he heard that a Chinook helicopter carrying 37 NATO troops had been shot down over Helmand. A helicopter was shot down in southern Afghanistan on July 14, but it was carrying civilians on a reported humanitarian mission for NATO forces. All six Ukrainian passengers died in the crash, and a child on the ground was killed.
Details on disappearance unclearOn July 2, the U.S. military said an American soldier had disappeared after walking off his base in eastern Afghanistan with three Afghan counterparts and was believed to have been taken prisoner. A U.S. defense official said the soldier was noticed missing during a routine check of the unit on June 30 and was first listed as "duty status whereabouts unknown."
Details of such incidents are routinely held very tightly by the military as it works to retrieve a missing or captured soldier without giving away any information to captors.
But Afghan Police Gen. Nabi Mullakheil said the soldier went missing in eastern Paktika province near the border with Pakistan from an American base. The region is known to be Taliban-infested.
The most important insurgent group operating in that area is known as Haqqani network and is led by warlord Siraj Haqqani, whom the U.S. has accused of masterminding beheadings and suicide bombings including the July 2008 attack on the Indian Embassy in Kabul that killed some 60 people. The Haqqani group also was linked to an assassination attempt on Afghan president Hamid Karzai early last year.
On Saturday, a U.S. military official in Kabul, Col. Greg Julian, said the U.S. was "still doing everything we can to return him safely."
Julian said U.S. troops had distributed two fliers in the area where the soldier disappeared. One of them asked for information on the missing soldier and offered a $25,000 reward for his return. The other said "please return our soldier safely" or "we will hunt you," according to Julian.

Variety reports that Jackie Chan will star in the Chinese-Hollywood movie Kung Fu Kid, which is a so-called remake of the 1984 American box-office smash hit The Karate Kid.
In the original, the late Pat Morita created one of the most iconic characters in movie history, the Karate master known simply as "Mr. Miyagi." He mentored Daniel Larusso, played by Ralph Macchio, a high-school kid who suffers humiliation and physical abuse at the hands of bullies who take karate from a slave-driver coach with a serious attitude problem.
Chan will apparently be a second incarnation of the Miyagi role, and the part of the young pupil will be played by Jaden Smith, the son of Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith who starred alongside his father in The Pursuit of Happyness. Will Smith is also acting as one of the movie's producers.
It's strange that Kung Fu Kid's being called a remake when so many aspects of the original have been changed. According to a post on Movieline, the project is shooting in China due to financial obligations, thus forcing changes to parts of the original story that were specifically Japanese. These include the change from Mr. Miyagi, a carpenter born in Okinawa, to "Mr. Han," a Chinese janitor, and also the change from karate to kung fu.
As a result, the product will likely bare only a passing resemblance to the movie from 25 years ago, but calling it a remake will likely stir up the desired anticipation. Shooting for Kung Fu Kid began this past weekend, and the movie is scheduled for release next June. It is a joint project between Columbia Pictures and the China Film Group, and is being directed by Harald Zwart (Agent Cody Banks, The Pink Panther 2).

The veteran director, who is planning to shoot a film in Paris next year, says the French first lady has the charisma to be a movie star.
She's been a supermodel, a singer and songwriter, and is currently the French first lady. Now Carla Bruni-Sarkozy seems one step closer to adding another string to her bow: Woody Allen wants to make her a movie star. In France to promote his latest comedy, Whatever Works, Allen yesterday told RTL radio in Paris that Bruni had a certain star quality which might be perfect for the big screen.
"I'm sure she would be wonderful," he said through a translator. "She has charisma and she performs, so she's not unknown to an audience, and I would cast her in many different ways.
"I don't have a story at the moment but, you know, maybe even I'll ask her, if she's interested," said Allen, who is planning to make a film in Paris next summer. The 73-year-old director is certainly keeping busy: he is due to start shooting his next project, a London-set comedy, in July.
So far, Bruni-Sarkozy has appeared in a number of films and TV series – including in Prêt-à-Porter, Robert Altman's 1994 black comedy skewering the fashion world, as well as the 1998 French comedy Paparazzi – but always playing herself.
Allen is expected to visit the Élysée presidential palace during his stay and meet with Bruni-Sarkozy and her husband.
Whatever Works opens in French cinemas next month, and in the US today. It stars Curb Your Enthusiasm's Larry David in a role many will see as a surrogate for Allen himself. He plays an eccentric physicist-turned-chess teacher from Greenwich Village who winds up marrying a young woman (Evan Rachel Wood) he finds lying on his doorstep.

fter years of nude scenes, Oscar-winner Kate Winslet is getting ready to put it all away once and for all.
In a new interview with Harper’s Bazaar, the actress says she knows that her age will catch up with her one day, but is happy to have done a full-frontal or two in her heyday.
“If people are noticing my boobs in a movie and saying they do what real boobs do, then that’s great. I’ll be 34 in October. I can’t keep getting away with it. There was much of it in ‘The Reader’ because the story required it, but people have seen enough of my bum and my boobs. I have to put them back.”
Known not just for her fabulous figure but also for her glamorous look, Winslet is quick to dismiss the world of Hollywood glitz. “Our knickers will still go up our ass at the most inappropriate moment. And we’ll still want to flick them out, but you can’t because someone is going to catch you.”
Instead, Winslet said she does it in secret: “Oh, I run behind pillars and things.”
That’s our kind of movie star.

A ten year old and an eleven year old give their views of the new Harry Potter film - Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince.
Clever, witty, gripping what else do you want from a movie?. Sadly this is not what I can say about The Half Blood Prince. Although I was really excited about the new Harry Potter film and I thought that the start was brilliant, I have to say it started fading away about half way through.
The special effects were outstanding, but don’t they get better every year anyway? I thought the main story line came in very late, so I never got the gist of it. I also thought that it was one of those films that you could have easily gone to sleep in.
Some of the new characters, like Professor Slughorn, were fun but overall it was not the best Harry Potter movie I have seen and I would not go and see it again.
By Freddie Ruddle (10)
Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince is very interesting and the best Harry Potter film so far. I am a really big Harry Potter fan and I love them all. The only reason I like the new one best is because the special effects and the graphics are better than the rest.

The beginning was brilliant because it was exciting and a little bit scary, but when it got deeper in it got a little bit worse. For instance, there was a girl who was mindlessly in love with Ron, she kept on snogging him. It was funny at first, but got out of hand.
It was also bad because it was confusing. At one point Harry and Dumbledore were on a rock and then they were suddenly in a cave. It was weird and complicated. Even though this Harry Potter doesn’t have the best structure I want to see it again.

A little boy became famous after trying to present Megan Fox with a yellow rose -- and Kodak is attempting to set up a meet-and-greet between the boy and the bombshell!
The fan, dubbed "Rose Boy" by the media, was snapped attempting to give Megan a rose at the U.K. premiere of "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen."
Kodak is urging people who know who Rose Boy to come forward, and the company is offering "$5,000 to the first person who can provide verifiable information" about him so they can arrange a meeting between the boy and Fox!
Megan recently told Collider.com that she felt horrible for inadvertently ignoring Rose Boy, who she claims she didn't even see. "I feel so sad for him. That's so terrible. That kills me." She added, "There were, like, 80 million people everywhere. It's dark, all I see are flashes -- everyone's yelling different things... and I didn't know that was happening."
The actress went on to say, "If you know his name, I will send him a personal apology. I'm horrified. I would never do that. I'm sorry, sweet boy. I would never do that to you, and I would gladly accept your rose if I see you again."

MADRID — Real Madrid's record signing Cristiano Ronaldo has passed his medical examination ahead of his presentation to fans at the Santiago Bernabeu stadium.
Madrid's medical staff said the Portugal winger is in "perfect condition" after arriving in the Spanish capital on Monday following his 80-million-pound (C$150.5 million) transfer from Manchester United.
Fans lined up outside the Bernabeu to see the 24-year-old Ronaldo, with up to 80,000 expected at the stadium. The presentation is expected to be the largest reception for a player since Argentina great Diego Maradona arrived at Napoli in 1984.