World Cup soccer, or football as it is known outside the United States, kicks off with Mexico taking on host South Africa on Friday (June 11) at 9:30 a.m. EDT.

The U.S. plays their first game on Saturday, taking on England at 1:30 p.m. EDT (one of a dozen games airing on ABC).

The rounds and key dates of the 2010 World Cup are as follows:

• Group stage: June 11-25
• Second round: June 26-29
• Quarterfinals: July 2, 3
• Semifinals: July 6, 7
• Final: July 11

• For the World Cup 2010 TV schedule on ESPN, click here.

An earthquake rattled Puerto Rico early Sunday, damaging houses in western and northern towns and causing a rock slide on a highway, according to The Associated Press (AP).

The magnitude-5.8 earthquake struck at 1:16 a.m. (0516 GMT) Sunday about four miles from the small community of Espino on the western side of the U.S. Caribbean island and 63 miles from the capital, San Juan, where it was felt by high-rise dwellers, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

Melina Simeonides, a representative for Puerto Rico’s emergency management agency, said the quake also spilled rocks over a highway in Utuado, where it also shifted a concrete house four inches from its foundation.

Engineers and authorities were assessing the damage on Sunday.  No injuries have been reported.

The ash plume from the Eyjafjallajokull volcano has been captured in satellite images from space.

NASA’s Terra satellite captured a visible image of the ash plume from the Eyjafjallajokull volcano (right).  For more images and information from NASA, click here.

The volcanic ash continues to drift across parts of Northern Europe on Friday.  It has halted air travel in some areas, leaving thousands of passengers stranded. 

Eurocontrol, the European air traffic agency, said the travel disruptions throughout the world Thursday were even worse on Friday, with about 11,000 flights expected to operate in Europe instead of the usual 28,000, according to The Associated Press. Eurocontrol said delays will continue well into Saturday as the ash cloud moves slowly south and east.

The U.N. also warned of possible health risks from falling ash.

Lately, Indian Tennis Star Sania Mirza and Pakistani Cricketer Shoaib Malik, famous personalities belonging to two major rival nations, have been in news when they announced their marriage date for April 15, 2010. However, they have also gained extra media attention as more and more controversies spring up against Shoaib Malik.  Malik and Mirza, who are both Muslim, are due to marry in a rare cross-border union between two of the South Asian rivals’ most popular and controversial sports stars.

Police on Monday seized the passport of Pakistani cricketer Shoaib Malik as they questioned him in the wake of a complaint lodged against him by the father of a local girl Ayesha Siddiqui. He has been accused of marrying Ayesha, also an Indian woman and then dumping her for being fat.

But 28-year-old Shoaib told police, at the Jubilee Hills residence of 23-year-old tennis star Sania Mirza, that he had been tricked into marriage with Ayesha.

The city police questioned Shoaib Malik for one-and-a-half hours and they also seized his passport. Immigration authorities have been informed about the case filed against Malik and his passport seizure.

During questioning, Shoaib told the police that he had been “cheated” by the Siddiqui family and tricked into marriage, he said. On Sunday, the Pakistani cricketer had claimed that he was emotionally forced into the ‘nikahnama’ (muslim marriage) with the Hyderabad girl but said the marriage was invalid as her family had cheated him and ruled out divorce. He said to this day he has not met the girl whose photographs were sent to him by the Siddiqui family purported to be that of Ayesha.  The charges against Shoaib are that of harassment of Ayesha, cheating to marry another girl and criminal intimidation including threats to her to keep quiet.

Ayesha’s father in his complaint, which was lodged hours after Shoaib on Sunday confirmed his marriage with Sania, had accused the Pakistani cricketer of cheating his daughter.

Police Commissioner said there were some legal complications involved in the case and that they will have to examine whether a foreigner committing an offence on a foreign soil comes under the purview of Indian Penal Code (IPC) or not.

This is a hot topic for South Asians, especially belonging to these two rival countries. It will be interesting to see what comes up next, and how this much awaited marriage takes place, if at all, amidst these controversies of accusations from Shoaib’s “current wife” Ayesha Siddiqui and police confiscating his passport.

She’s India’s tennis ace. He’s a high-profile Pakistani cricketer. They are the citizens of rival nations, and yet they’re all set to get married in Hyderabad early next month.

Sania Mirza and Shoaib Malik are planning a small, private ceremony in Hyderabad, but their match will inevitably generate huge interest in their respective countries.

The couple will be based in Dubai, though Sania will continue to play tennis and represent India, while Shoaib will turn out for Pakistan. The alliance has been blessed by both families.

Malik, 28, has been fighting a 12-month ban by the Pakistan Cricket Board for poor performance and indiscipline.

“This is the biggest day of my life. I have been in the media glare for too long, and would appreciate a little privacy at this very personal moment,” Sania, 23.

Shoaib, 28, has pledged Sania his support: “I fully understand what it takes to be an international sportsperson. I’ll support Sania in her career as long as she wishes to play.”

“Representing India at the 2012 Olympics is very important for her, and I will be the proudest husband if she can win a medal for her country,” he said.

Marriages between citizens of the rival nations are not entirely uncommon, with Muslim families who migrated to Pakistan after the nation was carved out in 1947 maintaining ties with families who remained in India.

An outage of on Thursday was technical and not caused by outside tampering, according to owner Google Inc.

“YouTube is up again following a technical issue which has now been resolved,” a Google representative said in a written statement. “We know how important YouTube is for people and apologize for any inconvenience the downtime may have caused.”

The outage on the popular video web site apparently lasted from about 7 a.m. to 8 a.m. (ET).  Internet users were reportedly able to access individual videos, but the main page had an error message.

A YouTube source said the outage was not the result of any kind of attack or related in any way to Google’s recent move to stop censoring results in China, according to a CNN report.  Since it came just a few days after Google’s announcement about the censoring, the outage prompted speculation on the Internet.

Google has officially ended censoring search results in China. Google has shut down its Chinese search site at Google.cn, and is redirecting its users to its Hong Kong, .hk. .hk includes a note in Chinese that reads ‘Welcome to Google China’s new home.’

Google explains, ” Users visiting Google.cn are now being redirected to .hk, where we are offering uncensored search in simplified Chinese, especially designed for users in mainland China and delivered via our servers in Hong Kong. Users in Hong Kong will continue to receive their existing uncensored, traditional Chinese service, also from .hk. Due to increased load on our Hong Kong servers and the complicated nature of these changes, users  may see some slowdown in service or find some products temporarily inaccessible as we switch everything over.”

“Figuring out how to make good on our promise to stop censoring search on Google.cn has been hard. We want as many people in the world as possible to have access to our services, including users in mainland China, yet the Chinese government has been crystal clear throughout our discussions that self-censorship is a non-negotiable legal requirement. We believe this new approach of providing uncensored search in simplified Chinese from .hk is a sensible solution to the challenges we’ve faced—it’s entirely legal and will meaningfully increase access to information for people in China. We very much hope that the Chinese government respects our decision, though we are well aware that it could at any time block access to our services. We will therefore be carefully monitoring access issues, and have created the new web page, which we will update regularly each  day, so that everyone can see which Google services are available in China. Finally, we would like to make clear that all these decisions have been driven and implemented by our executives in the United States, and that none of our employees in China can, or should, be held responsible for them.”

Whether you love figure skating or hockey, there will be lots of action on the ice on Thursday with the women in the Vancouver Winter Olympic Games.

First, the U.S. women’s hockey team will take on team Canada for the gold-medal game at 3:30 p.m. PT/6:30 p.m. ET.  Finland and Sweden are playing for the bronze medal at 11 a.m. PT/2 p.m. ET.

Then onto figure skating, the ladies take the ice Thursday evening (5 p.m. PT/8 p.m. ET) for their free skate.  Leading the women’s figure skating following the short program on Tuesday is Yu-Na Kim (or Kim Yu-Na), of South Korea, who earned 78.5 points (an all-time world best), according to NBC Olympics.

Behind her are medal hopefuls Mao Asada of Japan with 73.78 points, and Joannie Rochette of Canada with 71.36 points. Rochette’s performance on Tuesday was bittersweet as she bravely performed her routine just two days after her mother died of a sudden heart attack while in Vancouver.

Miki Ando of Japan is in fourth place with 64.76 points. And the U.S. figure skaters, Rachael Flatt (with 64.64 points) and Mirai Nagasu (with 63.76 points) are in fifth and sixth place.

The 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics are under way, with the U.S. men’s hockey team making their debut on Tuesday afternoon.

The first game for the U.S. men’s hockey team (vs. Switzerland) will take place at 3 p.m. ET/noon PT.  It is scheduled to air on the USA network, but will also be livestreamed at NBCOlympics.com.

Some of the stars of the U.S. men’s hockey team include team captain Jamie Langenbrunner, alternate captain Dustin Brown (who is the captain of the Los Angeles Kings in the NHL) and Ryan Suter, who is the son of 1980 gold medalist Bob Suter and nephew of 2002 silver medalist Gary Suter.  For more about Team USA, click here.

Tuesday afternoon coverage of the Winter Olympics can be seen on U.S. television on the USA network (started at noon ET), NBC beginning at 3 p.m. ET, and MSNBC beginning at 5:30 p.m. ET.

Did you know Fat Tuesday, the day before Ash Wednesday and the start of Lent, is also called Paczki Day in parts of the U.S. and world?

A Paczki (pronounced poonch-key, and often mis-spelled as “punchki”) is a donut-like pastry filled with custard or jelly (in fruit flavors such as prune, apple, strawberry, lemon, raspberry, and more).  The round ball of dough is also coated in a sugary icing.

Paczkis are a Polish treat, in which Polish immigrants brought the recipe and tradition to the U.S.   Most notably, the city of Hamtramck, Mich., which has a large population of Polish immigrants and their descendants.

Depending on the recipe, most Paczkis contain about 25 grams of fat and 500 calories.  Good thing these tasty treats only come around once a year.

Do you eat Paczkis or another special treat on Fat Tuesday, before Lent begins?  Share your treats and recommendations for others below.