Paris:

In 2006, Arnold Schwarzenegger will be re-elected governor of California, Internet giant Google will suffer a setback — and Brazil will hang on to the World Cup.

If Earth doesn’t get wiped out by a giant comet first, that is.

Maybe it will all come true and maybe not, but a legion of soothsayers is full of predictions for the year to come. Some use elaborate computer programmes like ‘Torah4U’ to ferret out remarkably precise predictions allegedly hidden within the Hebrew text of the Old Testament and the Torah. One Website complete with diagrammed excerpts from Holy scripture, exodus2006.com, foresees the November re-election of Schwar-zenegger along with the re-establishment of a military draft in the US. It also predicts that August 3, 2006 will be a blood-drenched day — yet just a mere shadow of the calamity that will befall us in 2010.

Annie Stanton, one of countless psychics plying her trade on the Internet, predicts catastrophe will come this year in the form of a massive asteroid crashing into the planet.

Another mystic seer, Anita Nigam from India, has extended her powers of the paranormal into another realm — sports betting. For $88 dollars a week, you can get her insights into the outcomes of English football’s Premier League matches. World Cup rates are yet to be announced, but rumour has it she’s keen on Brazil.

Bill Gray of Colorado University uses turbo-charged computer models that crunch data on global sea-surface temperatures and atmospheric conditions to forecast the number and

intensity of hurricanes that will hit US each year. Gray says 2006 will be no picnic — 17 named tropical storms, nine hurricanes and five major, high-wind hurricanes, nearly twice the historical average in all categories.

Meanwhile Wired magazine cofounder John Battelle says “Google will stumble” due to a bad partnership or a legal setback. He also predicts legislators in the US and elsewhere will take steps to protect citizens against “the perils of unprotected Internet data mining” into their personal lives, including credit and health histories. Like many of his high-tech colleagues, he thinks 2006 will be the year when mobile technologies plug into the Web — so get ready for the first truly usable electronic newspaper. Another wid-espread forecast: by the end of the year, there will be a one-in-three chance that you are making your phone calls, especially long-distance ones, over the Internet. For free.

With the possible exception of the Apocalypse, no single event inspires more fevered speculation than the Oscars — who will be nominated, and who will win. Odds-makers have coo-led considerably on King Kong after the release of Brokeback Mountain, but Memoirs of a Geisha and Jarhead have loyal supporters too.