PARIS (Fortune) — It’s certainly a unique father-son relationship. The man who created one of the largest fortunes in history, now in his second career as a philanthropist, has his dad working for him as co-chair of the world’s largest charitable organization — the $27.5 billion Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Actually, this is a second act for both men. Bill Gates, 53, stepped down from day-to-day work at Microsoft last June, while his father, Bill Gates Sr., 83, retired from the prominent Seattle law firm Preston Gates & Ellis (now known as K&L Gates), in 1998. These days both men give counsel to each other, but for years, of course, Dad doled out indispensable advice to his son. I recently sat down with this unlikely buddy act in the famed Leonard Bernstein suite at the Hôtel de Crillon on Paris’s Place de la Concorde to ask them about the best advice they ever got.

Bill, I’d like to ask you about the best advice that you’ve ever gotten from your dad.

Bill Gates: Well, my dad and my mom were great at encouraging me as a kid to do things that I wasn’t good at, to go out for a lot of different sports like swimming, football, soccer, and I didn’t know why. At the time I thought it was kind of pointless, but it ended up really exposing me to leadership opportunities and showing me that I wasn’t good at a lot of things, instead of sticking to things that I was comfortable with. It was fantastic, and now some of those activities I cherish. They had to stick to it because I pushed back a lot, but it was fantastic advice.

Mr. Gates, do you remember specifically dispensing advice, or was it something that was just a natural part of parenting?

Bill Gates Sr.: I think to some extent his mother and I were explicit about this, but it was mostly just instinctive. We did feel like he ought to go turn out, go and play on the neighborhood softball team and things of that kind. We thought it would be good for him and that he’d enjoy it, and apparently it turned out to be good advice.

B.G.: Even though I wasn’t very good at it.

B.G. SR.: You were okay.

You make it sound very easy, but all of us who are parents know that raising a family is not always that way. In your new book you mentioned dinners on Sunday nights and wearing the same kind of pajamas [on Christmas]. Does that stuff really work, Mr. Gates?

B.G. SR.: Well, I guess on the basis of one family’s experience, my answer is a loud yes.

What do you think, Bill?

B.G.: I think family traditions that get you to come together and talk about what you’re up to — going on trips together, always sitting at dinner and sharing thoughts — really made a huge difference. We learned from our parents what they were trying to do, whether it was United Way or a volunteering activity or the world of business. I felt very equipped as I was dealing with adults to talk to them in a comfortable fashion because my parents had shared how they thought about things.

Things weren’t always so smooth, though, between the two of you. Like any father and son, you’ve had some rocky moments, right?

B.G.: That’s right. I don’t think I was easy to bring up. I had a lot of energy and stubbornness about things that I wanted to do. At one juncture, when I was in my last year of high school, I got a job offer and it would take me away from school, and I was amazed that my dad, after meeting with the headmaster and getting all the data, said, “Yeah, that’s something you can go and do.” Most of the rockiness had been before that, when I was still confused about, was I trying to prove something vs. my parents. There was actually a professional who I went and visited, who my parents had me chat with. [That person] explained to me that there wasn’t really any benefit to fighting with my parents. It was all about the issues, the battles were going to be about the real world, and they were really on my side. And that was fantastic. It just changed my mindset. I was only 12 or 13 at the time. I think it made things a lot smoother from that point on.

A lot of times 12- and 13-year-olds are told that their parents are not their enemies, and it goes in one ear and out the other. Yet you were able to actually take this advice and listen to it, and you began to become closer to your parents after that?

B.G.: That’s right. As I was starting Microsoft (MSFT, Fortune 500), I’d go over on Sundays and share with my parents what the challenges were and get some thoughts, just vent about what was complicated. I remember when we were taking the company public, I was saying that I thought that would have some real drawbacks, and we talked about how to mitigate those.

So there was a lot of camaraderie that came from the fact that we’d gotten on an even keel, and they were very encouraging even though it was a business that was mysterious in some ways. The scale of the opportunity was beyond what would have been predicted.

You guys have this incredible working relationship, and obviously a close familial one as well. What do you think the secret to that is?

B.G. SR.: One of the [best pieces of advice] I ever had is related to what you just asked about, and that is the business of getting along with and encouraging the right things with your youngsters. Bill’s mother and I early on were involved in parent effectiveness training, [an] activity at the church we went to. And the thing that the people there taught us and emphasized, which is so central and so significant, is that you should never demean your child. When you think about the centrality of that, in terms of the relationship with an offspring, you’re off to a really good start. I’m a great fan of my son’s. I think he’s an incredible citizen and a wonderful businessman, and we let that show in the things we do together.

B.G.: I think it’s because we have well-defined roles. I’m kind of a driving, “Why haven’t we gotten all these things done?” [kind of person], and dad is the voice of wisdom. We’ll be having a meeting, talking about the calendar or the cost or those things, and he’ll make a comment that will get everybody to stop and think, You know, we missed that way of looking at things. And his being there at the foundation full-time really has shaped the values. When we have the foundation meeting, people get up and applaud because they see that that really makes a difference. And to create a family foundation, when I was busy, and yet to know that the values were going to be right and strong, I give credit for that to my dad.

And your son maybe didn’t always take your advice, Mr. Gates. I mean when he told you he was going to drop out of Harvard, what did you say to him?

B.G. SR.: Well, the first time he said he was going to take a period away and then go back, the emphasis was on, well, he will go back. Second time around, after he did go back, then he again felt like he had to go to Albuquerque, where the company was, and work there more. We were much more concerned the second time. The company was becoming very demanding, and Paul Allen was out there in Albuquerque, and Bill needed to help him.

Bill, let me ask you about another one of your mentors. What’s the best advice Warren Buffett has ever given you?

B.G.: Well, I’ve gotten a lot of great advice from Warren. I’d say one of the most interesting is how he keeps things simple. You look at his calendar, it’s pretty simple. You talk to him about a case where he thinks a business is attractive, and he knows a few basic numbers and facts about it. And [if] it gets less complicated, he feels like then it’s something he’ll choose to invest in. He picks the things that he’s got a model of, a model that really is predictive and that’s going to continue to work over a long-term period. And so his ability to boil things down, to just work on the things that really count, to think through the basics — it’s so amazing that he can do that. It’s a special form of genius.

If you’re getting too balled up with a lot of complicated things on your schedule, do you actually go back and think, What would Warren do?

B.G.: Yeah, sure. I think Warren is so nice to everybody — how does he say no in a nice way? Or how does he think about priorities and have that explicitly in mind? And he turns down an unbelievable number of things, and yet everybody feels great about it. His grace in talking to people where he’s always saying, you know, “You probably understand this better than I do, but here’s how I messed it up when I first got involved in this.” You know, that’s a special talent, and I do find myself thinking, Hmm, how would Warren say this in a friendly fashion?

There was a case at the annual meeting where somebody asked a question about should you sell the stocks that have gone up and keep the ones that have not? And he sort of said, “No, you look at the value of the business.” And then Charlie [Munger] added, “He’s telling you your conceptual framework is all wrong.” Which is in fact what the answer had been, but there wasn’t one element of, “Hey, dummy …”

What about growing up, Bill? Teachers in high school or at Harvard? Were there any experiences you had there where you got a piece of advice that kind of gave you an ah-ha moment?

B.G.: Well, my parents were nice enough to have me go to a great high school. It was a private high school. And a lot of the teachers there were very encouraging in my math and science and giving me the books that they liked, letting me read ahead. And the whole computer experience, the exposure came because Lakeside was sort of forward-looking. They were truly amazing — that when the teachers found it too confusing, they let the students take over. Most schools would have just, I don’t know, shut the thing down or something. It was a very weird deal where we kind of took charge and even the whole way we started using computers to pick when the classes would meet — that was a friend and I in charge of doing that.

So they had a comfort, and you know, there were a few teachers that I would give a lot of credit to — they let us go and dream about where we would take it.

Do you remember their names?

B.G.: Yeah, Fred Wright was the key person who ran the math department, and I think [he] deserves most of the credit. There was a physics teacher, Gary Maestretti, who encouraged me. Even when I was first in 8th Grade, and I was doing very well on these national tests, a guy named Paul Stocklim was incredible at just saying — Hey, you should have more confidence. You’re really good at this stuff. Getting that kind of encouragement — it was very helpful, and that was a great environment. All those teachers were thoughtful. I think I got more than my fair share of their energy because, you know, I was so excited about the subjects and the frontiers. They kept throwing new stuff at me because of that.

So Mr. Gates, why did you decide to write this book? In this book, there’s a fair amount of advice and learning, and obviously, you feel compelled to share some of that. What was it that prompted you to do this?

B.G. SR.: It started with writing a memoir and really as much as anything, my colleague in that work, someone by the name of Mary Ann Mackin whose name is on the cover of the book, encouraged me to think in terms of making it more of a book than just one that I would give to the family or friends as a memoir. I was reluctant about that, to be candid, but she persisted, and finally, well, okay, okay, let’s go that way. And I’m delighted that I decided to. It’s really been an interesting experience. I mean it’s an industry I knew nothing about, and it’s really revealing and fun to see how the book business works, and I’m tickled with the book.

Has it surprised you that you’ve met all manner of associates and friends of your son’s and that these people have ended up being peers and people that you work with? Did you ever imagine that would come to pass that way?

B.G. SR.: No, no, that isn’t the kind of thing you would expect to occur, and you describe it well. It’s a surprise. It’s not a prediction I would have made, the way my life was going to work.

Who were some of your son’s associates or friends that you feel have really contributed to your learning process?

B.G. SR.: Well, a good many of them. Certainly, his two key associates, Paul Allen and Steve Ballmer, would be in that category. Very bright, insightful, thoughtful human beings.

B.G.: And I’d also say probably Patty Stonesifer.

B.G. SR.: Yes.

B.G.: Together with my dad, [Patty] really created the foundation, the whole approach, the values. I think the integrity, humility. Together with Patty they thought through a lot of things so that once I was ready to go full-time, it was a thriving concern that was pretty far into some interesting, complex problems. And so it’s been an incredible gift for me that as I move over, it’s not a startup, it’s a going concern with amazing people, and Dad’s values have really shaped the direction it’s gone in.

B.G. SR.: The other person who would be on that list, by the way, would be Melinda Gates, who is more than just a daughter-in-law. She’s a friend, and she brings wisdom to the table.

Bill, as you move from Microsoft to the foundation world, from computer science to natural sciences and beyond, have you gotten advice and learned new things from this whole new group of people that you now associate with?

B.G.: Yeah, it’s a different world, and you want to make sure you’re bringing what’s good about the business environment and the kind of engineering world that I spent most of my life in, and abandoning some elements that aren’t going to work.

What about advice or lessons learned as you were growing Microsoft from say, Andy Grove or people at IBM?

B.G.: We learned [a lot] about quality control, particularly from IBM Japan. Our Japanese customers on the whole were so tough about quality and precision — that was fantastic, because we did a lot of business there early in our existence. Intel (INTC, Fortune 500), we kind of grew up with together. Andy would sometimes be very friendly, offer good advice. Sometimes he was very tough on us. But it was all very helpful. I mean, he’s brilliant. And he helped us think about things in new ways. Apple (AAPL, Fortune 500) is a competitor, but in terms of getting the Macintosh to critical mass, Microsoft was the key partner who had all the early software. You know, that was an interesting learning curve. Working with Steve Jobs is also exciting and not totally predictable, but he was brilliant and inspired us in a lot of ways.

Is there anything you specifically learned from Steve Jobs over the years?

B.G.: Well, Steve’s kind of a fanatic about things, and you know, I think fanaticism is underrated. I’m a fanatic about running the engineering groups and the quality of them. Steve is a fanatic about the user experience and the design, and it clearly has made a huge difference for Apple that he says that it all has to come together — not some committee-type view that has a list of things, but rather a holistic view. That’s a deep insight.

Do you guys celebrate Father’s Day? What do you guys do to mark that day?

B.G. SR.: We do birthdays and things like that pretty assiduously, but Father’s Day, we’ve occasionally had a dinner or something

B.G.: Yeah, we always talk on the phone on Father’s Day.

B.G. SR.: Yes, we do.

B.G.: Our rituals are more around Thanksgiving, birthdays, July 4th, Christmas. But it’s a nice opportunity to call dad and tell him he’s been [an] amazing father and set an incredible example

A cancerous tumor in 13-year-old Danny Hauser’s chest has shrunk significantly since he was ordered by a court last month to resume chemotherapy treatment, a family spokesman said.

But the Hauser family attributes much of his progress to the complementary use of vitamins and minerals to boost his immune system, Dan Zwakman said.

“The family is doing it on their own, with the doctor’s knowledge,” Zwakman said. “Everybody is pleased that the tumor is shrinking, of course. The goal is to get rid of the cancer, but they’d rather be doing it without the chemo.”

Danny’s case made national headlines last month when he and his mother, Colleen, fled Sleepy Eye, Minnesota, for Mexico to seek alternative cancer care despite a court order that he undergo chemotherapy.

They eventually returned after an arrest warrant was issued for Colleen Hauser. But had they made it to their destination — the Rubio Clinic in Tijuana, according to Zwakman — they would have joined the ranks of an estimated hundreds of other cancer patients who head south of the border each year for cancer care.

“Their intentions started long ago with Colleen. She’s been involved in natural healing for many years now. She believes the world was created with everything needed to sustain and heal life,” Zwakman said.

Despite controversial origins and consistent bad press in the United States, Tijuana’s border clinics continue to attract people like the Hausers, who are in search of more holistic approaches to cancer treatment.

Because little data exist on how many clinics are operating, it’s unclear how many American cancer patients visit Mexico each year, said Stephen Barrett, a patient advocate who runs the Web site, http://www.quackwatch.com/.

“If they answered, you could not be sure they were telling the truth. They might have an incentive to raise the number,” he said in an e-mail. “To make matters more complicated, many of the ‘cancer’ clinics also see people who don’t have cancer.”

The concept of complementary and alternative cancer treatment has slowly been gaining acceptance for more than a decade in the United States, with the creation of entities including the National Cancer Institute’s Office of Cancer Complementary and Alternative Medicine.

“Clinicians and researchers have realized that it’s important to conduct methodologically sound studies to help guide patients to understand what’s safe and what’s effective,” said Dr. Ted Gansler, medical director of health content for the American Cancer Society.

But no one recommends that alternative treatment be used to replace conventional care, such as chemotherapy or radiation, he said.

“The important thing to remember is there is no recommended alternative to conventional treatment, and the reason is because if it worked, it would become conventional,” he said.

As far as Tijuana’s border clinics are concerned, the American Cancer Society cautions that “methods promoted in Mexican border clinics are not consistent with scientific understanding” of cancer and its treatment.

“Although these clinics often claim great success in advertisements and books, they have not published convincing evidence in medical journals to support those claims,” the ACS says in a section on its Web site called Questionable Cancer Practices In Mexico. “Patients traveling to the Tijuana area for treatment appear to be subjecting themselves to costly and potentially hazardous regimens, especially if they postpone standard medical care.”

Loose regulatory standards in Mexico allow Tijuana’s clinics to thrive, many offering expensive treatment in luxurious, spa-like settings, complete with fresh meals, exercise classes and emotional and spiritual counseling.

Many herbs and dietary supplements used in border clinics are not considered dangerous; they just have not been put through the rigorous clinical trials required for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to approve them for use as cancer treatments.

Others, like the antioxidants carotene, lycopene and vitamins C, E and A, have produced inconsistent results in large-scale trials and are still being researched. Still others, like laetrile, a chemical compound whose active ingredient is cyanide, can be dangerous, the National Cancer Institute says.

But many patients say they are attracted by the warm, caring relationship between patient and clinic staff.

“They don’t just see the disease. They see the person behind the disease and know how to care for them in every way,” says Sarah Sackett-Hutcheson, who claims she has been cancer-free for 17 years.

When she was 11 years old, her oncologist told her family she had six months to live and recommended chemotherapy and radiation to battle her non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

Instead of undergoing the debilitating treatments, she went to the Oasis of Hope Hospital in Tijuana, where she received low doses of chemotherapy along with intravenous vitamins.

The American Cancer Society says there is no scientific evidence that low doses of chemotherapy or large doses of supplements are effective against cancer. But Sackett-Hutcheson believes the small doses of chemo attacked cancerous cells without destroying her immune system while the vitamins boosted her immunity.

“I remember thinking if they’d given me the high doses of chemo I wouldn’t have made it. Even the low doses made me so incredibly sick. I’d be getting up like every 15 minutes, puking in the middle of the night,” Sackett-Hutcheson said.

Like Danny Hauser, Sackett-Hutcheson was entangled in a court battle over her family’s decision. However, a judge allowed her to continue treatment in Mexico, while last month a judge ordered Hauser to undergo chemotherapy. Sackett-Hutcheson’s case was ultimately dismissed after doctors from the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston declined to evaluate her progress on the grounds that they felt she was receiving “inadequate treatment,” according to court documents.

Four months after her diagnosis in 1991, she says, she was cancer-free, and has remained so.

Dr. Francisco Contreras, Oasis of Hope’s head physician and the son of its founder, says Mexico’s “open-mindedness” toward alternative therapies is related to the socioeconomic standing of most of its citizens.

“Mexican authorities are much more open to natural therapies because most Mexicans live under the line of poverty so they would not have access to conventional medicine,” he said. “I don’t know if that’s for benefit of our patients or not, but we have this open-mindedness because we have to do something to help our people.”

Like many border clinics, Contreras says his center takes an integrative approach, combining conventional treatment, such as chemotherapy and radiation, with alternative methods to create individualized regimens that focus on healing the entire body with fewer debilitating, long-term side effects.

Not everyone leaves Tijuana’s clinics happy. Several articles on www.quackwatch.com and its sister sites contain negative testimonials from people who say they sought alternative treatment, mostly laetrile, for parents or a loved one only to have them die of cyanide poisoning a few weeks later.

Such cautionary tales didn’t stop Jennifer Woods from following the example of her grandfather by going to Tijuana to receive the Alivizatos treatment, an intravenous serum that its makers say consists of vitamins, minerals and amino acids.

During her first monthlong visit, Woods paid about $15,000 for surgery to remove her tumors, 20 days of worth of the dosage and two meals a day, plus lodging expenses across the border in San Diego, California.

But Woods says it was worth every penny.

“I feel well. I’ve never had any ill side effects, and I have learned so much about nutrition and how to maintain my health,” she said in a telephone interview from her home in Denver, Colorado.

Woods says she has not seen a doctor in the United States since. She says she returns to IBC about every six months for six days at a time to receive “booster treatments” for about $1,200 a visit.

“It’s a very well-rounded program. You don’t just go there and let somebody give you something and then walk out and forget about it. You take responsibility from that day forward to do the right thing to keep your health in order.”

Greek President Karolos Papoulias has renewed his country’s call for Britain to return sculptures removed from the Parthenon in Athens 200 years ago.

At the opening of the Acropolis Museum, Mr Papoulias said it was “time to heal the wounds” of the ancient temple.

The new museum, opened five years behind schedule, houses sculptures from the golden age of Athens.

Britain has repeatedly refused to return dozens of 2,500-year-old marble friezes housed in the British Museum.

Greek President Karolos Papoulias greeted guests from all over the world

“Today the whole world can see the most important sculptures of the Parthenon assembled, but some are missing,” said Mr Papoulias.

“It’s time to heal the wounds of the monument with the return of the marbles which belong to it.”

The sculptures, also known as the Elgin Marbles, originally decorated the Parthenon temple and have been in London since they were sold to the museum in 1817 by Lord Elgin.

He had them removed from the temple when he was visiting Greece, then under the rule of the Ottoman Empire.

The British Museum long argued that Greece had no proper place to put them - an argument the Greek government hopes the Acropolis Museum addresses.

The opening ceremony was attended by heads of state and government and cultural envoys from about 30 countries, the UN and the EU.

After several adventures, obstructions and criticism, the new Acropolis Museum is ready Greek Culture Minister Antonis Samaras In pictures: Acropolis Museum Museum raises Marbles’ hopes

There were no government officials from Britain, but the most senior British guest, Bonnie Greer, the deputy head of the board of trustees of the British Museum, said she believed more strongly than ever that the marbles should remain in London.

She argued that in London they are displayed in an international cultural context.

She said a loan was possible, but that would require Greece to acknowledge British ownership, something Greece refuses.

The British Museum holds 75m of the original 160m of the frieze that ran round the inner core of the building.

‘Act of barbarism’

Their reconstruction in the Acropolis Museum is based on several elements that remain in Athens, as well as copies of the marbles in London.

The modern glass and concrete building, at the foot of the Acropolis, holds about 350 artefacts and sculptures from the golden age of Athens that were previously held in a small museum on top of the Acropolis.

The structure is Greece’s answer to the British argument that there is nowhere in their country to house the Elgin marbles Razia Iqbal, BBC arts correspondent Read Razia’s blog

The £110m ($182m; 130m euros) structure, set out over three levels, also offers panoramic views of the stone citadel where they came from.

The third floor features the reconstruction of the Parthenon Marbles.

The copies are differentiated by their white colour - because they are plaster casts, contrasting with the weathered marble of the originals.

Museum director Prof Dimitris Pandermalis said the opening of the museum provides an opportunity to correct “an act of barbarism” in the sculptures’ removal.

“Tragic fate has forced them apart but their creators meant them to be together,” he said.

Bernard Tschumi, the building’s US-based architect, said: “It is a beautiful space that shows the frieze itself as a narrative - even with the plaster copies of what is in the British Museum - in the context of the Parthenon itself.”

The mining giant Xstrata has approached its rival Anglo-American about the possibility of a merger, reports say.

Xstrata’s chief executive is understood to have written to Anglo’s board, amid pressure from major shareholders to do a deal, says the Sunday Telegraph.

Industry observers suggest a merger would make sense because of the vast cost savings that could be made.

This would help compete against the Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton, who have agreed a joint venture.

That deal was struck after Rio scrapped a planned tie-up with Chinalco, a state-controlled Chinese company.

Recession impact

Anglo and Xstrata both have coal mines and infrastructure in Australia and South Africa, while analysts say there was also potential for saving money in their copper mining operations.

The combined firm would be worth about £41bn based on their stock market value on Friday.

However the Sunday Times, which also carried reports of the planned merger, said that Anglo was likely to resist the tie up, saying its chief executive Cynthia Carroll believed the firm was better financed than Xstrata and could generate a better return for its investors as a separate entity.

Mining firms have been hit by falling demand for metals amid the downturn.

They have also had problems raising cash because of the credit crunch, which last year led Xstrata to abandon its £5bn bid for its rival Lonmin.

Sri Lanka and Pakistan will hope to provide a thrilling climax to the World Twenty20 when they meet at Lord’s.

Both sides, who will be unchanged for the final, are packed with talent and it could be as close as in 2007 when India beat Pakistan in the last over.

But it will also be a reminder of the tragedy in Lahore in March when gunmen shot at Sri Lanka’s team bus.

Seven players were injured and five Pakistani policemen who were escorting the bus were killed.

Also caught up in the incident was International Cricket Council match referee Chris Broad, who has appropriately been put in charge of the final by the game’s governing body.

Among the players injured was Sri Lanka captain Kumar Sangakkara and he said of his team’s place in the final: “It’s fitting reward for the courage and the way we have played in this tournament.

“I think what Lahore really brought home to us was that we are the same as everyone else - it can happen to anyone, and it happed to us.”

Another player injured in the attack was spin bowler Ajantha Mendis, whose 12 wickets in the tournament make him the joint leading wicket-taker along with teammate Lasith Malinga and Pakistan’s Umar Gul and Saeed Ajmal.

“He’s won us enough games in this tournament to be called a great spinner in the T20 format - he’s already a great player in every other format,” said Sangakkara.

“He’s a charm for us, the way he’s bowled in the middle overs - and even in the first six overs. Even against Pakistan (in the Super Eights), they watched him and didn’t really attack him because they know one slight mistake either way and they can get out.”

Pakistan must find a way to score off Mendis and, in the closing overs, Malinga if they are to avoid a repeat of their 19-run defeat earlier in the competition and end Sri Lanka’s unbeaten run.

But they have plenty of potential match-winners of their own, none more so than all-rounder Shahid Afridi.

He was on the losing side in the 1999 World Cup final against Australia - and again when they were beaten by India two years ago and hopes it will be third time lucky for him.

“We have to win this one,” the mercurial 29-year-old said. “I want to do it on my own if I could. This is our best chance to make up for the disappointment of the past.”

Afridi orchestrated Pakistan’s semi-final victory over South Africa by scoring 51 off 34 balls - and he has also taken 10 wickets in the tournament with his leg-spin.

Shahid Afridi hits out during Pakistan’s semi-final victory

He paid tribute to skipper Younus Khan for keeping faith with him and said: “He told me before the game against South Africa that I should play my own game and not worry about anything.

“He also told me that I was a senior player and needed to take responsibility. I had not done well as a batsman for a long time, but I knew the team was relying on me to deliver.

“I could not let them down. I don’t want to let them down again.”

Coach Intikhab Alam believes there is a parallel to be drawn between Pakistan’s 1992 World Cup win and their progress through the World Twenty20.

“The pattern is almost the same. We were on the brink of elimination then, but fought back to make the semi-finals, then the final and then win it in Melbourne.

“Here the team has fought back after bad starts and has peaked at the right time,” he said.

Younus, meanwhile, chose to reflect on the wider context of Sunday’s match after at least 44 people were killed in continuing troubles in north-west Pakistan.

“In my whole career I have dreamed about lifting the World Cup, or something like that,” he said.

“If we win tomorrow it will be good for our future cricket and also for the Pakistani nation as well.

“It has been suffering a lot of things, especially in the north, where I am from. There are a lot of things wrong there.”

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Pakistan (from): Younus Khan (captain), Shahzaib Hasan, Kamran Akmal (wkt), Shahid Afridi, Shoaib Malik, Abdul Razzaq, Misbah-ul-Haq, Fawad Alam, Umar Gul, Saeed Ajmal, Mohammad Aamir, Ahmed Shahzad, Iftikhar Anjum, Salman Butt, Sohail Tanvir.

Sri Lanka (from): K Sangakkara (captain, wkt), T Dilshan, S Jayasuriya, M Jayawardene, C Silva, J Mubarak, A Mathews, A Mendis, M Muralitharan, L Malinga, I Udana, N Kulasekara, F Maharoof.

Umpires: S Taufel, D Harper (Aus); Match referee: C Broad (Eng)

A devastating spell of high-class swing bowling from Katherine Brunt helped England beat New Zealand comfortably to win the Women’s ICC World Twenty20.

Brunt, swinging the ball into the left-handers and seaming it away from the right-handers, took 3-6 as the White Ferns were bowled out for just 85.

Player of the tournament Claire Taylor hit an unbeaten 39 as England won by six wickets with 18 balls to go.

England now hold the Ashes, the 50-over World Cup and the Twenty20 trophies.

In contrast to their nervous performance in the field in the semi-final at The Oval, when Australia hit 163-5, this was a highly-polished display by all the bowlers and the fielders, not least wicketkeeper Sarah Taylor who took a stumping and two fine catches.

Laura Marsh (R) after taking the first wicket for England

The early start, at 1030 BST, may have helped Brunt find swing, and she was quick to cash in, bowling the dangerous left-hander Aimee Watkins (scorer of an unbeaten 89 in the semi-finals), and then adding the wickets of Lucy Doolan - caught behind attempting a paddle-sweep - and Rachel Priest, who was caught and bowled.

Against Australia, Brunt had been brought into the side at the expense of Isa Guha in an attempt to rattled the opposition with pace and bounce. The ploy failed when she went for 39 runs, but England’s management intelligently persevered with the woman from Barnsley and here she repaid their loyalty in dramatic fashion.

As important as the wickets was her superb economy rate, in a match in which the other bowlers all cost at least four an over.

After eight overs, the score was 23-4, Laura Marsh having set the ball rolling with a wicket in the very first over with her bravely flighted off-spin, and New Zealand did not know whether to stick, twist or fold.

Medium-pacers Nicky Shaw and Jenny Gunn helped themselves to two wickets each, and the scoring was of the ones and twos variety until the 18th over, by which time England must have felt they had done enough.

By then Holly Colvin had got through her four overs of left-arm spin safely, and it took a burst of 21 runs from 11 balls towards the end, with Sophie Devine and Kate Pulford finally putting some pressure on the fielders, to take the White Ferns past 80.

Lydia Greenway, who had earlier held a fine catch running in from the boundary, produced a deadly accurate throw to run out Devine from the final ball.

England’s chase got under way with a lovely cover-drive from Sarah Taylor for four, and skipper Charlotte Edwards took the left-arm seamer for two off-side boundaries in the fourth over.

England’s best batsman Claire Taylor was voted player of the tournament

But Edwards was over-confident. Backing away to leg in a bid to hit Sian Ruck for another boundary, she was defeated by the inswing, and New Zealand had a wicket to celebrate.

In the seventh over, an outside edge from Claire Taylor, off Pulford, was dropped by wicketkeeper Priest before she had scored. The ball escaped for four and a massive opportunity to have England’s best batsman back in the pavilion was lost.

New Zealand kept attacking field settings, forcing England to hit boundaries, and the tactic had some effect in making the host nation feel pressure that wasn’t really there.

Sarah Taylor nicked an attempted cut to fall for 23, before Claire Taylor slipped gears, biffing Pulford down the ground for four and then whipping Suzie Bates through square-leg.

Beth Morgan was dropped once, before holing out to midwicket, but by then Taylor, the Oxford graduate and former hockey player who has become a thorn in the side of so many teams, was in full flow.

Ten runs came from Doolan’s first over, and just 14 were needed from the last five overs with seven wickets in hand.

Just as they had done in the World Cup final - when New Zealand were again the opposition - England did not make things entirely straightforward, losing another batsman when Greenway was bowled slogging across the line.

But Taylor was determined to see the job through to the finish, sealing the deal with a lofted straight drive for four off Nicola Browne.

Shape-shifting robots, big budget special effects, and good looking lead characters - the new Transformers movie, Revenge of the Fallen, has the ingredients to be this summer’s big blockbuster movie.

Megan Fox, one of Hollywood’s hottest new talents, once again provides the female eye candy.

The 23-year dons her Lara Croft-style hot pants as Mikaela Banes - girlfriend of the film’s hero Sam (played by Shia LaBeouf).

The actress says that although she doesn’t like to watch the many lingering camera shots of her body, they’re nothing unusual for a thrills and spills popcorn movie.

“I don’t watch those parts… I don’t watch myself,” she said. “I only know of the one shot. Maybe there’s a few. I’m glad I don’t know which ones they are.

“But that’s part of the industry. It’s part of the summer blockbusters. They have those gratuitous shots of their actresses. It’s what the territory is.”

Body image

Her 2007 role in the first Transformers film, which made about £350m, raised Megan Fox’s profile around the world and also led to her being voted sexiest woman in the world by FHM magazine.

“I don’t think you ever become comfortable with a title like that”, says the Tennessee-born star.

“I’m just saying I’m comfortable doing what I need to do in order to make Michael Bay’s movie the way he wants it to be.”

It isn’t all about Fox and her body though. The film inevitably sees the goodie robots (the Autobots) crunch metal in a number of spectacular punch ups against their old enemy, the evil Decepticons.

However, Megan Fox says helping her on-screen boyfriend save the world wasn’t exactly easy: “The running is really hard. I just can’t keep up. He might be the fastest boy on the planet.

“I’ve never seen anyone run so fast. People have asked whether it’s a special effect, if they speed up the film.

“In the last movie he would just get really annoyed at me because I couldn’t keep up. In this movie I forced him to hold my hand to propel me forward!”

‘Hollywood starlet’

The last few years have seen Megan Fox’s sultry image splashed across the internet and magazines, and the actress admits that dealing with the media is something she’s struggled with.

However, Megan Fox says she’s now wising up to how the media works and how her sometimes less-than-serious comments can be misinterpreted.

Megan Fox was in Confessions Of A Teenage Drama Queen in 2004

“Especially with the internet and everyone having their own blog, people like to twist your words and it’s hard to express the intent behind some of your jokes when they’re in black and white.

“I become a little fearful and I’m trying to be a little more aware of it. At the same time I do wanna be a real human being because I think eventually audiences will appreciate that.

“They’re tired of that old cookie-cutter, manufactured, Hollywood starlet stuff.”

Megan Fox’s confidence in speaking her mind and wicked sense of humour may set her apart from other young actresses, but she could be in danger of being typecast for her looks.

Her next film is the lead in a bizarre-sounding “sci-fi, dark comedy thriller” called Jennifer’s Body.

Megan Fox says her character gets sacrificed by a rock band and ends up becoming “a little man eater, she eats the boys in her high school.” Sounds like one to look out for.

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen is out in cinemas now.

A

Music fans were able to download albums by top artists for just 29p on Wednesday after a mistake by Amazon.

The online retail giant unwittingly cut the prices of releases such as Kings Of Leon’s Because Of The Times and Lily Allen’s It’s Not Me, It’s You.

The mistake, which was publicised by several consumer websites, was rectified after about four hours.

Other albums available for 29p included MGMT’s Oracular Spectacular and Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ It’s Blitz!.

Albums by Bruce Springsteen, Calvin Harris and James Morrison were also among the 30 or so being sold at the cut price.

In a statement, Amazon said: “We can confirm that yesterday there was a pricing error on a small number of MP3 albums. This issue has been rectified. Despite our best efforts, with the millions of items available on our website, pricing errors can occur.”

There have been suggestions the mistake could alter the charts this Sunday, but Newsbeat understands there weren’t enough hits to make a difference.

Dan from Selby was one listener who took advantage of the mistake.

“I was just looking at CDs,” he says, “I just sort of found the song that I wanted and the song was 69p and the album was 29p, so I just clicked it and downloaded it.

“I bought Black Eyed Peas, Calvin Harris - altogether I got about 10 - spent about £2.99 on 10 CDs when it should have cost me 60 or 70 quid, so it was quite good.”

A record crowd of about 36,500 revellers has welcomed the dawn of the Summer Solstice at Stonehenge.

The number of people attending the event caused roads in the area to become gridlocked in the hours leading up to sunrise at 0458 BST.

Druid ceremonies took place alongside music and Morris dancing, however overcast skies obscured the sun.

Police praised the crowd and said there had been only 37 arrests, for minor disorder and drugs offences.

Supt Nick Ashley said: “The celebration has been peaceful and enjoyable for the majority who were present to celebrate in a safe manner.

“It is disappointing that a small number of people chose to ignore the conditions of entry and brought with them illegal drugs but this was dealt with effectively.”

The event to mark the dawn of the longest day in the Northern Hemisphere has grown in popularity since a four-mile exclusion zone around the site was lifted nine years ago.

English Heritage, which manages the ancient monument, said the car park was full with 6,500 cars two hours before sunrise.

Meanwhile the main route into Stonehenge, the A303, was closed due to volumes of traffic.

Peter Carson, head of Stonehenge, said: “We were expecting it to be busy this year, but we had ensured that it has been a peaceful and enjoyable solstice.

“There has been a great atmosphere and where else would you want to be on midsummer’s day?”

Police drafted in extra officers and said there would be a zero-tolerance approach to drugs and drunkenness, with an alcohol limit of four cans of beer or a bottle of wine per person imposed by English Heritage.

‘Jovial mood’

Druid King Arthur Pendragon told the BBC shortly before sunrise: “It’s a very nice atmosphere and everything’s fine at the moment.

“There have been more police present this year, more security, but everything’s passed off very jovially and everyone’s in a good mood.

“And the police for the most part are wishing people a happy solstice and so are the security guards.”

English Heritage had issued an advisory note to visitors which warned: “Summer Solstice is not a good time to experiment with drugs - the crowd, the noise and the sheer size of the place are likely to make any bad reaction much, much worse.”

Meanwhile, a limit of 200 tents was set at a field near the Avebury Ring after residents complained about the number of visitors to that site in 2008.

Iranian authorities have asked the BBC’s correspondent in Tehran to leave the country within 24 hours.

The BBC said the office would remain open despite the departure of Jon Leyne, the broadcaster’s permanent correspondent there.

The request came a day after protests about the presidential election left at least 10 people dead in the capital.

Foreign media, including the BBC, are under severe restrictions, preventing reporters leaving their offices.

Leyne reported for BBC radio, TV and online.

Iran has singled out Britain and the BBC in its widespread condemnation of what it calls meddling by foreign powers in its affairs.

In the days following the 12 June election, BBC Persian TV was disrupted by “deliberate interference” from inside Iran, the corporation said.

In response, the BBC increased the number of satellites that carry its BBC Persian television service for Farsi-speakers in Iran, Afghanistan and Tajikistan.