|  |  |  | | | | | The Guardian World News | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | $7m prototype for cheaper, greener spacecraft was being tested untethered for the first time at Cape Canaveral Earlier this week Nasa safely landed a robotic rover on Mars 350 million miles (563 million kilometers) away. But on Thursday here on Earth, a test model planetary lander crashed and burned at Kennedy Space Centre in Florida just seconds after liftoff. The spider-like $7m spacecraft called Morpheus was on a test flight at Cape Canaveral when it tilted, crashed to the ground and erupted in flames. Nasa spokeswoman Lisa Malone said it appears that the methane-and-liquid oxygen-powered lander is a total loss. Nobody was hurt in the unmanned experiment and the flames were put out, she said. In a statement, Nasa said it was probably more a mechanical failure than a control issue. Morpheus is a prototype for a cheap, environmentally friendly planetary lander. Thursday was the first time it had been tested untethered in a free flight. It had performed about 20 flights at Johnson Space Centre in Houston, where it was designed and made, but it was always tethered to a crane, Nasa said. The testing moved from Texas to Florida last week and Morpheus had a successful tether test on Friday. Nasa had planned to run tests for three months. The plan was for flights over a specially created field designed to mimic the surface of the moon, with boulders, rocks, slopes and craters. The lander was built mostly with low-cost, off-the-shelf materials. It was an attempt to use cheaper, more readily available and environmentally friendly rocket fuel. The space agency was considering it as a potential lander for places like the moon or an asteroid, possibly carrying a human-like robot or small rover. Nasa promoted Morpheus as a "green" project because methane is more environmentally friendly than the toxic rocket fuels it uses. Methane, which is the main component of natural gas, is also cheaper and could even be made from ice on the moon or Mars. Morpheus was early in the Nasa experimental "test bed" process and the space agency had not committed to using the lander in any specific flight.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Venezuelan president suggests unnamed man is part of conspiracy against government related to upcoming election Hugo Chávez, the Venezuelan president, is claiming a US citizen has been arrested and interrogated on suspicions he is a mercenary involved in a conspiracy against the government. Chávez, who faces an election on 7 October, suggested the man is part of a plot to destabilise the country if he is re-elected. Chávez said the Hispanic man was detained on 4 August while crossing into Venezuela from Colombia. The president said the man was carrying a US passport with entrance and exit stamps from countries including Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya as well as a notebook containing geographical co-ordinates. The man's identity was not released. Chávez did not say where he was being interrogated. An official from the US embassy in Caracas did not answer repeated telephone calls seeking comment on Chávez's announcement. "He has all the appearance of a mercenary," Chávez said, speaking during a campaign rally in the coastal state of Vargas. "We are interrogating him." The man tore up part of the notebook in his possession when he was detained, Chávez said. Chávez, who often makes sweeping and bellicose denouncements of his opponents, suggested – without offering evidence – that the American might have been recruited by government opponents to instigate violent protests if opposition presidential candidate Henrique Capriles loses the election. Chávez has repeatedly vowed to win re-election and continue trying to steer Venezuela toward socialism. The president has repeatedly claimed the opposition plans to accuse election officials of rigging the vote and refuse to accept the results if he is victorious, an allegation that Capriles and fellow opposition leaders deny. "A group of the bourgeoisie is preparing to reject the people's triumph, that's very clear," Chávez told the crowd of cheering supporters. Anti-Chávez politicians also reject the president's allegations they are trying to stir up trouble by campaigning in areas that have been bastions of support for Chávez or conspiring with US officials to provoke upheaval if Capriles fails to defeat the incumbent who is trying to win a fresh six-year term. So far campaigning ahead of the presidential vote has mostly been peaceful, but observers say there is a danger that Venezuela's deep political polarisation and rising tensions between allies and adversaries of Chávez could boil over.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Melvin Morse and wife arrested after claims he used technique associated with interrogating terrorists on 11-year-old A paediatrician has been arrested over claims he disciplined his 11-year-old daughter by waterboarding her. Melvin Morse, 58, a doctor known for his research into near-death experiences of children, is accused of subjecting the girl to the simulated drowning technique more typically associated with the interrogation of terrorist suspects. He and his wife Pauline Morse, 40, were arrested at their home in Georgetown, Delaware, on Tuesday on charges of endangering the welfare of a child, reckless endangerment and conspiracy. The paediatrician, who was held in lieu of $14,500 bail, was accused of waterboarding the girl four times over two years starting in May 2009. Police said she had so much water poured on her face that it would go up her nose. They said Pauline Morse, who was released after arrest, saw some of the punishment but did not stop it. Police learned of the alleged waterboarding earlier this week when they spoke with the girl about a separate incident. The Morse family drove home on 16 July and the 11-year-old refused to get out of the car for an unknown reason. Melvin Morse opened the door and dragged her by the ankles over a gravel driveway to the house, police said. Later, the child ran to a neighbour's house, and police were called. He was charged with assault and two counts of endangering the welfare of a child. While the girl was being questioned by authorities on Monday, she told them that her father would discipline her by what he called waterboarding, police said. After their arrest, both parents were ordered to have no contact with the 11-year-old and her 6-year-old sister. Both girls were placed in care. Melvin Morse, who heads the Institute for the Scientific Study of Consciousness, had appeared on television on Oprah, Good Morning America and Larry King Live. He is also the author of a book called Closer to the Light. On his website, he wrote about his research into near-death experiences, particularly those involving children.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Former opposition leader lived as a fugitive overseas for many years under late dictator Muammar Gaddafi's rule Libya's newly formed national assembly elected former opposition leader Mohammed el-Megarif as the country's interim president on Friday, the latest move to establish a democratically based leadership after decades of rule by deposed late dictator Muammar Gaddafi. El-Megarif won 113 votes to defeat another opposition leader and human rights lawyer, Ali Zidan, who won 85 votes from the 200-member General National Congress, an assembly created in the first nationwide election since Gaddafi was ousted and killed last year. Both men had been diplomats who defected and fought Gaddafi's regime while living in exile since the 1980s. "This is a historic moment and no one is a loser," said Hussein al-Ansari, who was elected to the assembly as an independent candidate. El-Megarif, who wrote a series of books on Gaddafi's repressive policies, lived as a wanted fugitive for years, and was the leader of the country's oldest armed opposition movement, the National Front for the Salvation of Libya. The movement made several attempts to end Gaddafi's 42-year rule, sometimes by plotting assassination attacks including a well-known and daring 1984 raid on Bab al-Aziziyah, the late dictator's fortified compound in Tripoli. The regime cracked down on the group, executing and arresting many of its members. Many fled abroad where they worked as political activists. El-Megarif's movement organised the first Libyan opposition conference in London in 2005 and called for the overthrow of Gaddafi's regime at a time when other groups, including the Muslim Brotherhood, accepted Gaddafi. Upon his return to Libya after last year's armed revolution, he formed a new party, the National Front, which sees Islam as a broad guideline to the state's affairs, but does not mention the implementation of sharia law. El-Megarif will hold the office until a new constitution is in place sometime next year. He replaces Mustafa Abdul-Jalil, head of the outgoing transitional council, which was disbanded on Wednesday when Abdul-Jalil handed power to the new assembly. The body, which voted just after midnight, was elected in July in a turnout that exceeded 60%. It will choose a prime minister within 30 days, then decide on a mechanism to select a 60-member panel tasked with writing a constitution. The assembly had been charged with forming the panel until July, when in a last minute move the outgoing transitional council declared that the panel will be elected directly by the people. Assembly members, however, have said that the assembly has the right to reverse the move.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | $7m prototype for cheaper, greener spacecraft was being tested untethered for the first time at Cape Canaveral Earlier this week Nasa safely landed a robotic rover on Mars 350 million miles (563 million kilometers) away. But on Thursday here on Earth, a test model planetary lander crashed and burned at Kennedy Space Centre in Florida just seconds after liftoff. The spider-like $7m spacecraft called Morpheus was on a test flight at Cape Canaveral when it tilted, crashed to the ground and erupted in flames. Nasa spokeswoman Lisa Malone said it appears that the methane-and-liquid oxygen-powered lander is a total loss. Nobody was hurt in the unmanned experiment and the flames were put out, she said. In a statement, Nasa said it was probably more a mechanical failure than a control issue. Morpheus is a prototype for a cheap, environmentally friendly planetary lander. Thursday was the first time it had been tested untethered in a free flight. It had performed about 20 flights at Johnson Space Centre in Houston, where it was designed and made, but it was always tethered to a crane, Nasa said. The testing moved from Texas to Florida last week and Morpheus had a successful tether test on Friday. Nasa had planned to run tests for three months. The plan was for flights over a specially created field designed to mimic the surface of the moon, with boulders, rocks, slopes and craters. The lander was built mostly with low-cost, off-the-shelf materials. It was an attempt to use cheaper, more readily available and environmentally friendly rocket fuel. The space agency was considering it as a potential lander for places like the moon or an asteroid, possibly carrying a human-like robot or small rover. Nasa promoted Morpheus as a "green" project because methane is more environmentally friendly than the toxic rocket fuels it uses. Methane, which is the main component of natural gas, is also cheaper and could even be made from ice on the moon or Mars. Morpheus was early in the Nasa experimental "test bed" process and the space agency had not committed to using the lander in any specific flight.
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Attorneys for James Holmes disclose at hearing that they need more time to assess the former PhD student's illness Attorneys for the suspect in the Colorado movie theater shootings said Thursday their client is mentally ill and that they need more time to assess the nature of his illness. James Holmes' lawyers made the disclosure at a court hearing in suburban Denver where news media organisations were asking a judge to unseal court documents in the case. Holmes, a 24-year-old former PhD student at the University of Colorado, Denver, had the familiar, dazed demeanor that he has had in previous court appearances. Holmes is accused of going on a 20 July shooting rampage at a midnight showing of the latest Batman movie in Aurora, killing 12 people dead and injuring 58 others. Defence attorney Daniel King made the revelation about Holmes as he argued defence attorneys need more information from prosecutors and investigators to assess their client. "We cannot begin to assess the nature and the depth of Mr Holmes' mental illness until we receive full disclosure," he said. King said Holmes sought out university psychiatrist, Lynne Fenton, for help. He did not elaborate. A hearing was scheduled for 16 August to establish whether there is a doctor-patient relationship between Fenton and Holmes. Twenty-one news organisations were also asking chief district judge William Sylvester to scale back a gag order that bars the university from releasing details about Holmes. Arapahoe County prosecutors argue releasing documents could jeopardise their investigation. Holmes' attorneys want to ensure he receives a fair trial.
Sylvester's order sealing documents includes the case file, which makes it impossible for observers to understand prosecution and defence arguments on motions that are referenced by number only. Sylvester on 23 July also issued a gag order that bars officials at the University of Colorado from responding to public records requests concerning Holmes. The judge said doing so would jeopardise the county's investigation. Aurora officials have cited the order in declining to speak about the city's response to the shootings. "It is performing our watchdog role to look at the process and try to assess for the public how the police have handled the case and assembled the evidence and assure for the defendant and the public that things are being conducted open and fairly," said Gregory Moore, editor of the Denver Post. "It goes way beyond what's necessary to protect the defendant's right to a fair trial." Court documents, which include search warrants, inventories of evidence collected by police and police interviews with witnesses can be an important source of information for the public. Little is known about how police say Holmes prepared for the shooting, or how they say he rigged his nearby apartment with explosives. Aurora police chief Daniel Oates has said the explosives were designed to kill anybody who entered, including first-responders. Steven D Zansberg, an attorney representing the news media consortium, said the judge should at least explain which documents have been sealed and why.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Levi Aron admitted to kidnapping Leiby Kletzky, an Orthodox Jewish boy who was walking home alone from a day camp A Brooklyn man pleaded guilty on Thursday to murdering an 8-year-old Orthodox Jewish boy last year, dismembering his body and stashing the parts in his freezer and a suitcase tossed into a dumpster. Levi Aron, 36, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and second-degree kidnapping in the death of Leiby Kletzky, who had lost his way in the Hassidic neighborhood of Brooklyn, where they both lived. "I panicked," Aron told state supreme court judge Neil Firetog when asked about the killing, which occurred after Aron saw posters of the missing boy plastered along the sidewalk. Aron was charged with first-degree murder and kidnapping, and had faced life in prison, but he reached a plea deal with prosecutors under which he will get 40 years in prison with five years of supervised release when he is sentenced on 29 August. Wearing a black yarmulke and dressed in an orange prison jumpsuit, his wrists handcuffed behind his back, Aron faced the judge in state supreme court in Brooklyn and answered his questions in a barely audible voice. He acknowledged kidnapping the boy and, after seeing the missing child flyers, panicked, drugged him with prescription medicine and suffocated him with a towel. He then dismembered the body and police found some of the parts in a freezer in Aron's apartment. Aron disposed of other body parts in a dumpster. Kletzky went missing the first time he was allowed to walk home alone from a religious camp. He met Aron on the street and sought help from him after getting lost. The boy's family agreed to the plea deal to avoid reliving the crime through a trial, said Dov Hikind, an Orthodox Jewish state assemblyman who served as a spokesman for the family. "A day doesn't pass without thinking of Leiby, but today we close the door on this one aspect of our tragedy," the boy's father Nachman Kletzky said in a statement. "Closure does not mean we don't continue to feel the pain." District attorney Charles Hynes said the plea deal should allow the family and the community to begin healing. "No one should ever forget what happened to Leiby Kletzky but we can all take solace that Levi Aron with never, ever be able to hurt anyone again," Hynes said in a statement. Aron's lawyer said he was full of remorse. "He came in today to admit his guilt and to take responsibility for his actions … He's very remorseful in his own way," said his lawyer, Jennifer McCann.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | • USA 2-1 Japan
• Lloyd 8 54; Ogimi 63 USA gained the desired revenge for losing to Japan in last year's World Cup final on penalties. There was personal redemption, too, for Carli Lloyd, who answered her missed kick in that 3-1 shootout loss by scoring a goal in each half to seal the Olympic crown for her nation. Japan were dubbed the Barcelona of the women's game for their flurry of neat passing and slick movement and their average height of 5ft 4in compared to the US's 5ft 7in. The Americans were the big tournament specialists. This was the fifth women's Olympic final and USA were continuing their record of being in all of them, losing only to Norway at Sydney 2000, 3-2. For Japan, their coach Norio Sasaki framed the attempted conquest of gold as part of the country's healing process, following the trauma of last year's earthquake which killed nearly 20,000 people. Ahead of this final he said: "All the Japanese people are still trying to come back from the earthquake disaster. "Winning the World Cup was very emotional last year and gave energy to the nation after what had happened and the same can happen again." After eight minutes a noisy, though not completely filled Wembley, witnessed the opening strike. Tobin Heath galloped into space down the left before Alex Morgan's twist and cross was met by Carli Lloyd, just ahead of the 143-goal Abby Wambach. Far from being unsettled, Japan went in search of an instant reply. A shot from Nahomi Kawasumi was blocked by the USA captain, Christie Rampone, with Hope Solo, the keeper, stranded. Yuki Ogimi followed up but could not convert. Ogimi went closer moments later. A hanging jump was followed by the forward's header being superbly palmed onto the bar b y Solo. The goal-frame proved an extra defender for both sides. Amy LePeilbet's cross was met with a glancing header by Rampone that hit Yuki Fukomoto's right post. At the opposite end, Aya Miyama's pile-driver smashed back off the bar. Ogimi was instrumental in every Japan attack. Her lay-off nine minutes from half-time was hit with a menacing curl by Shinobu Ohno but the ball was marginally wide of the post. The open, entertaining nature of this contest continued after the break. Japan spread the ball across midfield only for their attacks to founder due to a belief deficit. When given sight of goal – as Miyama, the captain, on 52 minutes – the opportunity was snatched at. When America flooded forward there was menace. After Megan Rapinoe laid the ball into Lloyd, she surged from near half-way then unloaded a 20-yard humdinger that gave the 5ft 4in keeper Fukumoto no chance, and that was 2-0 to Pia Sunhage's team. In the 63nd minute Japan's Ogimi raised the excitement scale to fevered after her strike, though this proved a consolation as the neat triangles that were ending in cul-de-sacs continued to frustrate the Japanese. The world champions still had their chances but when Miyama had two free-kicks to deliver in quick succession, her side failed to profit.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Richard Williams at the Olympic Stadium watches the master beat the pupil – just – as Jamaica sweeps the board in the 200m Shush, he told the crowd before the start. Calm down, he gestured. So serene was he, so unstressed by the whole thing, that after he had taken care of the necessary business he got down on the track and performed a few press-ups. In between times he ran 200m in 19.32 seconds: not a threat to his own world record, or even to his Olympic record, but certainly good enough to reassert his standing as the world's fastest man. Yohan Blake, his compatriot and training partner, had beaten Bolt in the national trials at both 100 and 200m, and he did his best once again to give his rival a contest, finishing strongly and closing what had been a big lead as they came off the bend to a margin of 0.4sec – still an eternity – behind the great man. Warren Weir completed a devastating clean sweep of the medals for Jamaica. As the runners bent to their blocks there was the unusual sight of the United States outnumbered in an Olympic 200m final. Before Thursday night the US had provided 18 out of the 26 winners since the event was first held in 1900, but Wallace Spearmon was the only compatriot of Jesse Owens, Tommie Smith and Michael Johnson on view. He failed to challenge the trio from Kingston's Racers Track Club, finishing fourth, ahead of Churandy Martina of the Netherlands and Christophe Lemaitre of France. As if to celebrate the presence of Bolt and his fellow Jamaicans, London was blessed with glorious weather. Three more days of this and no one will go home from the 2012 Olympic Games with anything other than the memory of a perfect setting for the kind of athletic excellence enjoyed by another capacity crowd of 80,000. The warmth arrived as if on cue to lubricate the limbs that broke world records while winning the 100m and 200m in Beijing, as well as the 4x100 relay. We knew less than a week ago that such an epochal feat would not be repeated in London. On Sunday Bolt won the 100m, as expected, but his time of 9.63sec – although 0.6sec faster than the mark he set four years ago in Beijing, and therefore a new Olympic record – was still half a second off the world mark that he had achieved at the world championships in Berlin in 2009. To capture the double of the 100 and 200m again in London, he had repeatedly claimed since achieving the feat for the first time four years ago, would make him a legend. Which raises the question of in whose mind, exactly, those staggering performances in 2008 had not automatically elevated him to that status. For those of his own generation, the Jamaican's existence provides a special thrill: like growing up, in some ways, during the era of Muhammad Ali. Even to those of us who lived through the eras of such dominant sprint champions as Bob Hayes, Valeri Borzov, Pietro Mennea and Carl Lewis, the 6ft 5in Jamaican represents a unique figure: a man who could break through generally accepted frontiers to set new standards of human achievement on the physical plane, taking rather less time than the scientists at Cern to redraw the map of mankind's potential. Bolt sprints like no champion ever has. By greeting his audience with a laugh and a little dancing-fingers mime show, he single-handedly revoked the licence of sprinters to throw gangsta shapes on the start line. Henceforward their threatening, glowering poses would provoke only derision. And he appeared to question the idea that there was more to the job, as long as you had completed a modicum of training, than just turning up and running. He ran, and can still run, even though the record-breaking years may be in the past, with the ease and naturalness of a gifted child at a school sports day. There is a sense of glorious, uncaring freedom long since lost to most sports in the professionalised, corporatised era. His world records in Beijing and Berlin were not the kind of incremental improvements usually seen on the track, the onward nudges that made Roger Bannister the first man to run the four-minute mile in Oxford in 1953 or Jim Hines the first man to go under 10 seconds for the 100 metres in Sacramento in 1968. Nor was there the kind of environmental assistance like that which enabled Bob Beamon to break the long-jump record by 55cm in the thin air of Mexico City, 2,240m above sea level, during the 1968 Games. Bolt's record-setting runs were quantum leaps, in the truest sense of the term: a shift from one state to another, without passing through the conventional intermediate stages. In the shorter event, a record that had been lowered over the years by the odd hundredth of a second here and there, taking 40 years to go from Jim Hines's 9.94 to Asafa Powell's 9.74, suddenly seemed to have missed several stages, going from Powell's 9.74 to Bolt's 9.58 – set in Berlin, a year after the Olympics – in under two years. In the 200m at the Beijing Games he took only two hundredths of a second off Michael Johnson's record of 19.32, but that was a mark, set in 1996, that had been expected to endure a great deal longer. In Berlin he lowered it further, leaving it at 19.19. Those record-shattering days may be gone, to judge by his performances over the past week on what has appeared to be a very fast track. But no one who was in the stadium will have gone home anything other than profoundly grateful to have witnessed at first hand the author of such historic deeds on the Olympic stage. Bolt's thunder is never completely stolen, but a large measure of it was appropriated by David Lekuta Rudisha, a 23-year-old from Kenya who knocked a tenth of a second off the 800m world record while winning a storming final. The remorselessly powerful acceleration of the tall 23-year-old in the back straight on the second circuit, taking him several metres clear of the field, was immediately reminiscent of Alberto Juantorena, the great Cuban who broke the record while winning the two-lap event in Montreal in 1976. Fittingly, Juantorena was present to watch Rudisha's run. A few minutes after the 800m runners had left the track, he fulfilled the duty of assisting at the medal ceremony for the men's 110m hurdles. Now 61 and an official of the Cuban Olympic Committee, he would have been delighted to see his old event won in so distinguished and memorable a manner.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Children and the elderly most susceptible to the virus which has seen a surge in number of human cases in the past month The US government's health watchdog is warning children and the elderly to avoid contact with pigs at agricultural fairs following a surge in humans infected with swine flu over the past month. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said the bulk of the 145 infections identified since 12 July are in young people. Elderly people are also vulnerable to the virus passed from pigs to humans. The outbreak is centred on Indiana and Ohio but infections have also been reported in Illinois and Hawaii. Dr Joseph Bresee, of the CDC's influenza division, said: "Right now a large number of agricultural fairs are ongoing around the country and the direct exposure of people to pigs has been the primary cause of infection." Bresee said that anyone coming into contact with swine should avoid eating, drinking or putting anything in their mouths while around pigs. He said that children and the elderly or anyone with a weakened immune system should not go near pigs at all. The outbreak of the virus, a strain called H3N2, was first detected last year but the number of cases has risen sharply over the past month. The biggest increase has been in Indiana where infections are up eight-fold in a week to 113. The Indiana state health commissioner, Gregory Larkin, was at a loss to explain the surge in infections. "It could be we're where the strain broke out, or it could be that our surveillance is tighter than other states," he told the the Indianapolis Star. Ohio has had 30 new cases, all traced to contact with pigs at agricultural shows. Dr Ted Wymyslo, director of Ohio's health department, said that has prompted closer scrutiny of people and animals. "There has been a tremendous increase in surveillance across the state," said The outbreak has caused concern in rural states in the midst of summer fairs. Four Ohio counties have agricultural shows on at present and another 25 are to be held later this month. Even states without any swine flu cases are being forced to take precautions.
The Iowa authorities required exhibitors to have about 3,500 pigs screened by veterinarians for entry to the state fair that opened on Thursday. "We're on alert and we're looking for it, but I wouldn't say we're concerned," the state fair manager, Gary Slater, told the Gazette. Bresee said those precautions are sufficient, at least for now. "I don't think it's necessary at this point to cancel swine shows," he said. Bresee said most cases are mild and people generally fight off the infection but it is possible for the swine flu virus to kill. He said two people were kept in hospital since the recent outbreak and both recovered. Bresee also said that so far people appear to have contracted infections direct from pigs rather than other humans. "At this point there's no evidence of sustained efficient human-to-human spread in the community," he said, although he said it is possible it will occur.
Typical symptoms are several days of fever, coughing, aches, sore throat nausea and diarrhoea.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Justice is swift as China tries to rid itself of scandal of woman accused of killing British businessman In a few short hours, behind the closed doors of courtroom number one in a nondescript provincial city, China attempted to dispatch its biggest political scandal for two decades. Thursday's official account of Gu Kailai's trial for the murder of British businessman Neil Heywood raised as many questions as it answered. The number of the room where she is said to have poisoned the Briton was revealed: 1605, at the Lucky Holiday hotel in Chongqing, the southwestern city where Gu's husband Bo Xilai was the powerful party secretary. But details of Heywood's dealings and economic conflict with Gu remained vague. And when the black-robed judges return to the Hefei intermediate people's court, at an unspecified date in the near future, they are certain to pronounce Gu and her aide Zhang Xiaojun guilty. The defendants did not contest the allegation of premeditated murder, said Tang Yigan, vice president and spokesman of the court. There was ample evidence that they had "used brutal means" to kill Heywood. "Gu Kailai is the main culprit and Zhang is the accessory," he said in a statement to reporters. Yet it went on to note the defence lawyer's claims that the 41-year-old victim, who left a widow and two young children – one, the godchild of his alleged killer – bore "a certain responsibility" for the reason of his murder. That was presumably a reference to the prosecution claim that Gu thought he posed a threat to her son, Bo Guagua, for reasons not specified. The case's sensitivity is such that it was not even mentioned in the country's main evening news bulletin. But a short report on the news channel showed Gu, 53, wearing a black suit and white shirt as she arrived in the courtroom. The former lawyer, who was flanked by two policewomen as she entered, looked considerably heavier than in pictures taken in recent years. Zhang, her 33-year-old aide, wore a white polo shirt and dark trousers as he walked between two male officers. Prosecutors alleged that Gu arranged for Zhang to escort Heywood from Beijing to south-western Chongqing on 13 November last year. She met him in his hotel room, where they drank tea and alcohol together until he was so drunk he vomited and needed water. She then poured the poison – that she had previously prepared, and that Zhang had carried – into Heywood's mouth. Gu's lawyer said her ability to control her behaviour was "weaker than normal people's" at the time of the murder, perhaps hinting at mental health issues – though the court noted that she was in good physical condition and emotionally stable during the hearing. More intriguingly, he said that her "significant contribution" in reporting on other people's crimes should be taken into account. No further details were given. Whether that was a hint that she might have discussed her husband's affairs – and that he could yet face a criminal trial – is impossible to judge. "The most important part of the case is still not known – how it relates to Bo Xilai, a Politburo member and rising political star," said Cheng Li, an expert on Chinese elite politics at the Brookings Institution in the US. Bo was once tipped for possible promotion in the 10-yearly change of leadership approaching this autumn. Now he remains under internal party investigation. Unseen since his ousting in spring, his fate unclear. The challenge for the party is to justify the removal of a popular figure, without discrediting other leaders by association. "The most important thing [to the party] is making the case that this is truly exceptional. As a murder that's probably true. But the economic issues involved are by no means exceptional; there's widespread corruption," Li said. Many believe such considerations explain why Gu stood trial solely for murder and why the trial was sited well away from the capital and from Chongqing, where Bo remains popular. Four police officers from Chongqing were charged last week with covering up Heywood's murder and will stand trial in the same court in Hefei on Friday. No foreign media were allowed into Gu and Zhang's trial, with officials saying there was no room in the spacious courtroom, although empty seats could be seen in the news footage. Two British diplomats attended in a consular capacity. Relatives and friends of Heywood and the defendants were present, the statement added. Dozens of plain clothed officers and scores of uniformed police surrounded the taped-off courthouse throughout the hearing. There were the usual muscular young men with crew cuts and T-shirts. But others, including a woman with a Louis Vuitton handbag and patent leather peep-toe sandals, also wore earpieces as they stood outside the granite-and-glass building in the drenching rain. Two protesters were later dragged away by colleagues at the back of the building. "The security of the Hefei intermediate court is definitely number one in the world but whether it can ensure just proceedings is another question," lawyer Li Fangping wrote on Sina's Weibo microblog. Hefei, capital of Anhui province, is known as the home of Lord Bao, an 11th-century official still seen as an icon of justice and righteous officials in China. But responding to another lawyer's post, the artist and activist Ai Weiwei wrote on Twitter: "The 'justice' of no justice, no fairness, and no openness to the public. It is sad." Relatives of Gu and Zhang hired lawyers to represent them, only to be told that the defendants had accepted state-appointed lawyers. Gu thanked the judge, prosecution and defence at the end of proceedings and asked that Zhang receive a lighter sentence than hers, a source who witnessed the trial told the Washington Post. Possible sentences range from 10 years in prison to the death penalty. "I committed a crime that brought negative consequences to the party and the country," Gu added, according to the source. It is unclear whether she extended her concern to the former friend whose violent death, hundreds of miles from his family, had brought her to the courtroom.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Experts say it could take months to repair the refinery in Richmond, after fire broke out in cooling tower on Monday night Investigators are waiting to see if it is safe to enter a smouldering Chevron oil refinery after it was ravaged by fire, sending plumes across the San Francisco bay area and Californian gasoline prices surging. Experts warned it could take months to repair the refinery in Richmond, a 2,900-acre facility which refines about 150,000 gallons of gasoline daily, 15% of the state's daily needs. Monday evening's blaze began in a tower and spread to at least three units used to cool water, prompting hundreds of people to seek treatment for respiratory problems and panic buying at the pumps, raising prices 11% in the bay area. However, initial predictions that prices could exceed $4 per gallon were scaled back because spare capacity in other west coast refineries could fill much, if not all, of the gap. "There's room in the system to pick up the slack," Rob Schlichting of the California Energy Commission told reporters. "The large jump we saw on Wednesday in prices I think was mostly panic buying." Chevron was expected to file a structural engineering and environmental report by Friday specifying how investigators could safely enter the facility. The all-clear would let a team of Chemical Safety Board inspectors –
the same which investigated the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico – to begin sifting through the charred equipment of a refinery which opened in 1902. The Environmental Protection Agency's Toxic Release Inventory lists the refinery as one of California's top emitters of toxic chemicals. It has been cited by San Francisco Bay area regulators for violating air regulations 93 times in the past five years, reported AP. The number increased from 15 violations in 2007 to 23 in both 2010 and 2011. After the fire residents besieged legal firms — queues snaked around blocks — to register compensation claims. The fire began after vapour ignited but the cause remained unclear. A second, smaller fire erupted on Wednesday. Chevron issued a statement saying it resulted in "no injuries, presented no immediate threat to the public and was extinguished in minutes." The company said the refinery was now partially operating, but did not say how much it was producing, nor the extent of damage and likely duration of repairs. Fixing water cooling units would take time, Richard Kuprewicz, a pipeline safety expert, told the San Francisco Chronicle. "They've got to rebuild them, and that will take a while. If they work 24/7, it will still take a while. Some of this stuff is not available off the shelf; the parts have to be ordered. They can scour the country, but it's not a like a car part. You're not going to fix it in a couple days." A 2008 hurricane which closed Gulf coast refineries sent prices in the south east briefly soaring to $5.21 a gallon. Analysts said this week's surge in prices at California's gas pumps – they hovered at $3.88 on Thursday – would continue but not as drastically as initially feared.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Internet giant tracked iPhone, iPad and Mac users by circumventing the privacy protections on Safari web browsers Google is to pay a record $22.5m (£14.4m) fine to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in the US after it tracked users of Apple's iPhone, iPad and Mac computers by circumventing privacy protections on the Safari web browser for several months at the end of 2011 and into 2012. The fine is the largest paid by one company to the FTC, which imposed a 20-year privacy order on Google in March 2010 after concerns about the launch of its ill-fated Buzz social network. In the latest case, commissioners ruled 4-1 that Google had breached that order not to mislead consumers about its privacy practices. There was no admission of wrongdoing on the part of Google. Jon Leibowitz, chairman of the FTC, said in a statement: "The record setting penalty in this matter sends a clear message to all companies under an FTC privacy order. No matter how big or small, all companies must abide by FTC orders against them and keep their privacy promises to consumers, or they will end up paying many times what it would have cost to comply in the first place." The intrusion would have affected millions of users of Apple devices, which web statistics suggest are used for substantial amounts of mobile browsing in western countries particularly. The FTC began investigating the case six months ago after Jonathan Mayer, a researcher at Stanford University – once attended by Google's founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin – discovered that Google's DoubleClick advertising network was overriding safeguards built into Safari to stop cookies being used to track peoples' movements around the web. Cookies can be used as unique identifiers of a user, so that if someone goes from one site to an unrelated one that also uses DoubleClick, the cookie will work as an identifier and mean that adverts on that site, and their activity there, will be logged and tailored to them. Google's circumvention of the protection – a system it said was used by other companies – apparently contradicted its online help, which told Safari users they need not do anything to prevent Google monitoring their actions, because the browser's default settings would block Google's cookies. The previous largest FTC fine, of almost $19m, was imposed on a US telemarketer accused of duping people into thinking they were giving to charity. While it has not admitted wrongdoing, the fine is another in a growing list for Google, which fell foul of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) earlier this year over its collection of Wi-Fi data from home and business networks via its Street View cars in 2008. The FCC fined it $50,000 for failing to cooperate with its investigation. The largest payment remains the $500m that it paid to settle a federal case in August 2011 after advertising Canadian-sourced pharmaceuticals to US users. The adverts appeared after being bought by vendors trying to sell pills to US users, who bought AdWords adverts alongside search results. The company escaped prosecution after settling. In a statement, Google said: "We set the highest standards of privacy and security for our users. The FTC is focused on a 2009 help center page published more than two years before our consent decree, and a year before Apple changed its cookie-handling policy. We have now changed that page and taken steps to remove the ad cookies, which collected no personal information, from Apple's browsers." The company is also under investigation in Europe and the US over whether it has used its dominant position in search to push other products, such as its shopping, video and maps products, ahead of rivals' which would have an equal claim to high ranking in search results. The pressure group Big Brother Watch said: "It is a very dangerous precedent for companies to deliberately circumvent privacy protection and so we welcome this ruling as an important milestone in returning to consumers true control over their personal information. "As we have often warned, where businesses rely on personal information to offer better targeted advertisements there will be inherent tension between respecting consumer privacy and pursuing profit."
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Claims that Standard Chartered broke US sanctions against Iran could lead to credit rating being downgrading, the agency Fitch warned Claims that Standard Chartered broke US sanctions against Iran could result in its credit rating being downgraded, the agency Fitch warned on Thursday. The agency said it was still "too early" to judge the outcome and that there needed to be "more clarity". The bank is due to appear before the New York state department of finance services next week and it has been suggested that George Osborne has asked his US counterpart Tim Geithner to ensure it is treated fairly. The chancellor is said to have been reassured that there would be a coordinated approach between all the regulators involved – something which Sir Mervyn King of the Bank of England has also called for.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Afghan man who lost relatives in missile strike says UK role in supplying information to US military may be unlawful Britain's role in supplying information to an American military "kill list" in Afghanistan is being subjected to legal challenge amid growing international concern over targeted strikes against suspected insurgents and drug traffickers. An Afghan man who lost five relatives in a missile strike started proceedings against the Serious Organised Crime Agency (Soca) and the Ministry of Defence demanding to know details of the UK's participation "in the compilation, review and execution of the list and what form it takes". Legal letters sent to Soca and the MoD state the involvement of UK officials in these decisions "may give rise to criminal offences and thus be unlawful". They say Britain's contribution raises several concerns, particularly in cases where international humanitarian laws protecting civilians and non-combatants may have been broken. "We need to know whether the rule of law is being followed and that safeguards are in place to prevent what could be clear breaches of international law," said Rosa Curling from the solicitors Leigh Day & Co. "We have a family here that is desperate to know what happened, and to ensure this kind of thing never happens again." Targeting Taliban commanders in precision attacks has been an important part of Nato's strategy in Afghanistan, and it has involved US, British and Afghan special forces, and the use of drones. But who is put on the "kill list" and why remains a closely guarded secret – and has become a huge concern for human rights groups. They have questioned the legality of such operations and said civilians are often killed. Soca refused to discuss its intelligence work, but the agency and the MoD said they worked "strictly within the bounds of international law". Its role in the operation to compile a "kill list" was first explained in a report to the US Senate's committee on foreign relations. The report described how a new task force targeting drug traffickers, insurgents and corrupt officials was being set up at Kandahar air field in southern Afghanistan. "The unit will link the US and British military with the DEA [Drug Enforcement Agency], Britain's Serious and Organised Crime Agency, and police and intelligence agencies from other countries." The 31-page report from 2009 acknowledged the precise rules of engagement were classified. But it said two generals in Afghanistan had explained they "have been interpreted to allow them to put drug traffickers with proven links to insurgency on a kill list, called the joint integrated prioritised target list". "The military places no restrictions on the use of force with these selected targets, which means they can be killed or captured on the battlefield," the Senate report said. "It does not, however, authorise targeted assassinations away from the battlefield. The generals said standards for getting on the list require two verifiable human sources and substantial additional evidence." The legal challenge has been brought by an Afghan who believes his relatives were unlawfully killed in a case of mistaken identity during one "kill list" operation. A bank worker in Kabul, Habib Rahman lost two brothers, two uncles and his father-in-law in a US missile attack on their cars on 2 September 2010. They had been helping another member of the family who had been campaigning in Takhar province in northern Afghanistan in the runup to the country's parliamentary elections. In total, 10 Afghans were killed and several others injured. Rahman says most of those who died were election workers. But the attack was praised by Nato's International Security and Assistance Force (Isaf) which said the target had been a man in the convoy called Muhammad Amin. The US accused him of being a Taliban commander and member of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, and said the people who had been travelling with him had been insurgents. A detailed study of the incident by the research group Afghanistan Analysts Network contradicted the official account, saying Isaf had killed Zabet Amanullah. Amin was tracked down after the incident and is still alive, said the study's author, Kate Clark. "Even now, there does not seem to be any acknowledgment within the military that they may have got the wrong man," she said. "It is really very bizarre. They think Amin and Amanullah are one and the same." Rahman's lawyers acknowledge they do not know whether information provided by Britain contributed to this attack, but hope the legal challenge will force officials to be more open about the British contribution to the "kill list". The letters to Soca's director general, Trevor Pearce, and the defence secretary, Philip Hammond, point to the Geneva conventions, which say that persons taking no active part in hostilities are protected from "violence to life and person, in particular murder of all kinds". They also draw on the International Committee of the Red Cross, which has said anyone accompanying an organised group who is not directly involved in hostilities "remains civilian assuming support functions". The legal letters, the first step towards seeking judicial review, say "drug traffickers who merely support the insurgency financially could not legitimately be included in the list" under these principles. The lawyers believe that, even if Isaf had targeted the right man, it may have been unlawful for others to have been killed in the missile strike. "The general practice of international forces in Afghanistan and the experience of our client suggest that proximity to a listed target is, on its own, sufficient for an individual to be considered a legitimate target for attack. Such a policy would be unlawful under the international humanitarian law principles," they say. Curling said: "Ensuring the UK government and its agencies are operating within their legal obligations could not be more important. Our client's case suggests the establishment and maintenance of the 'killing list' is not in line with the UK's duties under international humanitarian law. Our client lost five of his relatives in an attack by the international military forces as a result of this list. It is important that the Ministry of Defence and Soca provide us with the reassurances sought." Soca said: "Soca does not discuss intelligence. Soca works strictly within the bounds of international law. "Our activity overseas is conducted in line with other UK government departments, which comply with the principles of international humanitarian law and human rights." The MoD said: "As part of Isaf, UK forces operate alongside numerous partner nations in the fight against an insurgency that seeks to maim and kill both innocent Afghan civilians and allied forces alike. We continue to work towards a stable Afghanistan that can effectively manage its own security by the time our combat operations cease at the end of 2014. "In doing so, UK forces operate strictly within the bounds of international law under rules of engagement which, for reasons of operational security, we do not discuss in detail."
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Olympics 2012 women's soccer: Live minute-by-minute coverage of the Gold medal game between the USA and Japan
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Super Pac refuses to pull ad that has spurred widespread disapproval from Republicans who call it a new campaign low Mitt Romney joined a growing chorus of criticism over a pro-Barack Obama ad linking the Republican candidate's time at Bain Capital to the death of a woman from cancer. Conservatives expressed disgust at the ad, describing it as despicable and a new low in the campaign. Romney's former Republican rival, Newt Gingrich, said it was "truly tragic" that such an ad should be running in a presidential campaign. One of the main Super Pacs backing Obama re-election efforts, Priorities USA Action, released the ad on Tuesday evening. But in spite of the heavy criticism, the group is refusing to back down and will go ahead with plans to run it in swing states. In the ad, former steelworker Joe Soptic recounts how when Bain Capital, which Romney headed, shut down his steel plant in 2001, he lost his family health benefits. His wife died of cancer five years later. "I do not think Mitt Romney realises what he's done to anyone. And furthermore, I do not think Mitt Romney is concerned," Soptic says in the ad. The Romney campaign said the ad is misleading: the woman died years after Romney left Bain Capital – running the Salt Lake Olympics rather than Bain in 2001 – and that the woman had health coverage through her own job. The Republican campaign has been critical of the ad since it was first made public but Romney only commented for the first time on Thursday. In an interview, Romney told Bill Bennett's Morning in America radio show: "I don't know what happened to the campaign of hope and change." Without referring directly to the ad, he said: "You know, in the past, when people pointed out that something was inaccurate, why, campaigns pulled the ad. They were embarrassed. Today, they just blast ahead. You know, the various fact-checkers look at some of these charges in the Obama ads and they say that they're wrong, and inaccurate, and yet he just keeps on running them." The row over the ad comes as polls show the White House race almost tied. Real Clear Politics, in its poll average, puts Obama on 47.5% to Romney's 44.1%. But Romney is set to dominate headlines in the coming weeks, firstly with his vice-presidential pick and then with the Republican convention, beginning in Tampa, Florida, on 27 August. After being formally nominated as the Republican presidential candidate, he will be free to spend the millions of dollars in campaign funds he has been accumulating in recent months. Bill Burton, founder of Priorities USA Action, in an interview on Wednesday night insisted the ad will be run as planned in swing states at a cost of about $20m. He denied the ad suggests Romney was responsible Soptic's wife's death "We're not saying Mitt Romney is culpable for that. What we're saying is that Joe Soptic was fired from his job, and as a result of that, he wasn't able to get … he wasn't able to hold onto healthcare benefits that were promised to him. And as a result, when his wife got sick, he didn't have healthcare." Another of Romney's former Republican rivals, Tim Pawlenty, also joined the criticism. In comments distributed by the Romney campaign, Pawlenty accused Obama supporters of putting out negative ads to distract attention from his record as president. Pawlenty, former governor of Minnesota, is being talked of as a possible candidate to becoming Romney's vice-presidential running-mate. Other potential picks include congressman Paul Ryan and Ohio senator Rob Portman. The Romney campaign said the decision will be announced "soon".
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Rolling report: Can Usain Bolt claim a second straight Olympic sprint double – or will Yohan Blake have his say? Find out with Barry Glendenning
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Rolling report: Jamaica's Usain Bolt beat his compatriot Yohan Blake to become the first man to successfully defend the men's 100m and 200m Olympic sprint titles. Join Barry Glendenning
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Rolling report: Jamaica's Usain Bolt became the first man to successfully defend the men's 100m and 200m Olympic sprint titles, while David Rudisha broke the world 800m record
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Internet giant admits it tracked iPhone, iPad and Mac users by circumventing the privacy protections on Safari web browsers Google is to pay a record $22.5m fine to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in the US after admitting that it tracked users of Apple's iPhone, iPad and Mac computers by circumventing the privacy protections on the Safari web browser for "several months" at the end of 2011 and into 2012. The fine is the largest ever paid by a single company to the FTC, which imposed a 20-year privacy order on Google in March 2010 following concerns around the launch of its ill-fated Buzz social network. In the latest case, the FTC's commissioners ruled by a 4-1 majority that Google had breached that order, which demanded that it should not mislead consumers about its privacy practices. Jon Leibowitz, chairman of the FTC, in a statement: "The record setting penalty in this matter sends a clear message to all companies under an FTC privacy order. No matter how big or small, all companies must abide by FTC orders against them and keep their privacy promises to consumers, or they will end up paying many times what it would have cost to comply in the first place." The intrusion would have affected millions of users of Apple devices, which web statistics suggest are used for substantial amounts of mobile browsing in western countries particularly. The FTC began investigating the case six months ago after Jonathan Mayer, a researcher at Stanford University – once attended by Google's founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin – discovered that Google's DoubleClick advertising network was overriding safeguards built into the Safari browser that should have prevented cookies being used to track peoples' movements around the web. Cookies can be used as unique identifiers of a user, so that if someone goes from one site to an unrelated one that also uses DoubleClick, the cookie will work as an identifier and mean that the adverts on that site, and their activity there, will be logged and tailored to them. Google's circumvention of the protection – a system that it protested at the time was also used by other companies – apparently contradicted the advice in its online Help Center, which at that time told Safari users they did not need to do anything to prevent Google monitoring their actions, because the browser's default settings would block the cookies. The previous largest FTC fine, of almost $19m, was imposed on a US telemarketer accused of duping people into thinking they were making donations to charities. Google has not admitted wrongdoing. But the fine is yet another in a growing list for Google, which fell foul of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) earlier this year over its collection of Wi-Fi data from home and business networks via its Street View cars in 2008. The FCC fined it $50,000 for failing to cooperate with its investigation. The largest payment remains the $500m that it paid to settle a federal case in August 2011 after illegally advertising Canadian-sourced pharmaceuticals to US users. The adverts appeared after being bought by vendors trying to sell pills to US users, who bought AdWords adverts alongside search results. The company escaped prosecution after settling. In a statement, Google said: "We set the highest standards of privacy and security for our users. The FTC is focused on a 2009 help center page published more than two years before our consent decree, and a year before Apple changed its cookie-handling policy. We have now changed that page and taken steps to remove the ad cookies, which collected no personal information, from Apple's browsers." The company is also under investigation in Europe and the US over the question of whether it has used its dominant position in search to push its other products, such as its shopping, video and maps products, ahead of rivals' which would have an equal claim to high ranking in search results. The pressure group Big Brother Watch welcomed the ruling. It said in a statement: "It is a very dangerous precedent for companies to deliberately circumvent privacy protection and so we welcome this ruling as an important milestone in returning to consumers true control over their personal information. "As we have often warned, where businesses rely on personal information to offer better targeted advertisements there will be inherent tension between respecting consumer privacy and pursuing profit."
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Hundreds take part in candlelight vigil in New York as people come together to urge political leaders to act on gun control The victims of the Sikh temple shootings in Wisconsin have been remembered at a series of solemn events across the US, as people gathered to urge religious tolerance and greater gun controls. In New York, hundreds took part in a candlelight vigil in Union Square honouring the six people killed by Wade Michael Page at the Wisconsin Sikh Temple in Oak Creek on Sunday. It was a scene that played out across the US as people came together to remember those caught up in America's latest shooting atrocity and to urge political leaders to act. The event in New York was coordinated by the Manhattan Sikh Association and began around 7.30pm ET. Organizers handed out dark blue bandanas for attendees to cover their heads, white T-shirts that read "We Are All Sikhs" and hundreds of small electronic candles. As six people stood in a line and each held a photo of an Oak Creek victim with their name below, a series of interfaith speakers took the podium to urge an elimination of religion-based discrimination and push for gun control in the hopes of preventing further hate crimes. "It's so easy to come together when there's a terrible tragedy. It's more difficult to come together when things are going well because we get caught up in our day-to-day lives, we re-erect the walls that separate us and we wait until the next tragedy," said one of the speakers, a rabbi. Near him, a woman draped in an American flag head covering stood silently as he spoke. "Well, it can't be that way any more," the rabbi continued. "It's really time to demonstrate every day – not just on a terrible day like today – to demonstrate every day that we are one, that we are in this together, that our skin colours, that our religion and our nation of origin is meaningless in the face of our unified humanity." Near the end of the vigil, with the plaza at Union Square nearly filled, supporters were asked for a moment of silence to remember each of the victims. At that point, they turned on their electronic candles and lifted them up against the night sky in a show of nationwide solidarity. Similar scenes were witnessed across the US as people continued to commemorate the victims. Scores of Sikh temples took part in vigils on Wednesday. In Michigan, 500 people gathered at a gurdwada in the Detroit suburb of Plymouth. Sikh places of worship opened their doors to those previously unfamiliar to the tenets of the faith, with a temple in San Jose among many that gave newcomers required head coverings. The vigils began earlier this week. On Tuesday, residents of Oak Creek turned out in their hundreds to join members of the Sikh community at the site of the shootings. At that event, local police chief John Edwards addressed those gathered, telling them that he was struck by the reaction of the temple-goers, in their lack of hatred and focus on "compassion, concern and support". The calls for calm and understanding come despite an emerging picture of the killer as a man driven by racial hatred. Page, a former US soldier who had been kicked out of the army for being drunk on duty and going absent without leave, was a member of the white power music scene. He sometimes performed with a Nazi swastika hanging behind the group, and his first band, Definite Hate, produced an album called Violent Victory, with a cover design of a white fist punching a black face. Community leaders are scheduled to hold more unity events at cities across America on Thursday evening. On its Facebook page, Punjabi Radio USA, which is helping publicise the vigils, urged: "Now is the time to show the world that we as human beings can rise above the ignorance and violence that still exists today. Now is the time to come together in peace and solidarity. Now is the time to stand against hatred towards anyone."
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Smartphone company's legal chief claims law is too often exploited, despite winning appeal against payout BlackBerry maker Research in Motion (RIM) has hit out at the US patent system after a judge overturned a lower court jury's award of $147.2m against it in a patent fight against Mformation. In a statement after the judge's decision, Steve Zipperstein, RIM's chief legal officer, said: "The purpose of the patent system is to encourage innovation, but the system is still too often exploited in pursuit of other goals. Many policy makers have already recognised the need to address this problem and we call on others to join them as this case clearly highlights the significant need for continuing policy reform to help reduce the amount of resources wasted on unwarranted patent litigation." The companies' patent battle had centred on remote management of wireless devices such as phones over a wireless network. Mformation, which has a number of patents in the field, sued RIM in October 2008 and won a jury verdict this July where it was awarded $8 (£5) for each user of the BlackBerry Enterprise Server version 4 since then, covering 18.4m users. The judge's decision is a rare bit of good news for RIM, which is fighting the defection of corporate and consumer clients from its BlackBerry smartphones. Its shares have fallen 95% from their peak, and 70% in the past year. The smartphone market has turned into a vicious battle not just between device makers, but also between patent holders: Apple, Samsung, HTC, Motorola, Microsoft and Nokia are among the many companies which are fighting legal battles over disputed patents and licensing. Other third-party companies which own patents – such as Mformation – have also pitched in to profit from what they see as unlicensed use of their intellectual property. The situation is most intense in the US, where the combination of the US Patent Office's struggles with low staffing, and its different standards for allowing "software" to be patented, have created a climate that has led to a profusion of asserted patents. Yet often when cases involving such patents come to court, they are overturned or proven to have been awarded incorrectly because there was "prior art" – existing examples of the use of the idea embodied in the patent. RIM had argued that Mformation's patent claims were invalid because of such "prior art" issues – that the processes were already being used when Mformation filed its patent application. Judge James Ware said Mformation failed to establish that RIM had infringed on the company's patent and overturned the jury award, according to court papers. "We appreciate the judge's careful consideration of this case. RIM did not infringe on Mformation's patent and we are pleased with this victory," Zipperstein said. If Mformation successfully appeals the judge's ruling, the jury verdict will not be reinstated; instead a new trial will be conducted.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Ronald Poppo, who lost most of his facial features in the attack, details in police tapes how 'vicious' Eugene 'just went berserk' A homeless man whose face was chewed off in an attack on a Miami causeway has described how his assailant "just ripped me to ribbons" before police shot him dead. Ronald Poppo, who lost an eye and most of his facial features in the May attack, told detectives that he believed Rudy Eugene had "a bad day on the beach," causing him to launch the brutal assault. "He attacked me. He just ripped me to ribbons. He chewed up my face," Poppo, 65, told Detective Frank Sanchez of Miami police in his first interview last month, the transcript of which has just been released. "He mashed my face into the sidewalk. My face is all bent and bashed up. My eyes … my eyes got plucked out. He was strangling me in wrestling holds, at the same time he was picking my eyes out." Poppo was unable to offer any reason why Eugene, a 31-year-old Miami native of Haitian descent, had singled him out, but said his attacker was "in kind of a glad mood for a while" before suddenly turning on him. "For a very short amount of time, I thought he was a good guy," he said. "But he just went and turned berserk. He apparently didn't have a good day at the beach and I guess he took it out on me or something. I don't know. "He turned quite vicious after a minute or two, and he started to rip me apart. He just started to scream. And he was talking kind of funny talk for a while, too. That I was gonna die. And he was gonna die. He must have been souped up on something. "What could provoke an attack of that type? I didn't curse at the guy or say anything mean or nasty." The early-afternoon attack, which was captured on video by security cameras overlooking Miami's MacArthur Causeway, ended only when police officer Jose Ramirez fired five shots at Eugene, who was naked having discarded all of his clothes as he walked from his car that he abandoned nearby. At the time, police and doctors speculated that Eugene was probably under the influence of a mind-altering drug, with bath salts — a synthetic substance with effects similar to LSD — the chief suspect. But toxicology tests on Eugene's body revealed only evidence of recent marijuana use and, contrary to reports that he had ripped strips from Poppo's face with his teeth and swallowed them, no human skin was found in his stomach. Larry Vega, a passing cyclist who witnessed the attack, likened the encounter to a scene from a zombie film. "The guy was like tearing him to pieces with his mouth, so I told him: 'Get off!'" Vega told a Miami TV station. "He just kept eating the other guy away, like ripping his skin. The police officer told him several times to get off and the guy just stood his head up like that with a piece of flesh in his mouth and growled. The guy, he was like a zombie, blood dripping. It was intense." Doctors say Poppo has maintained a positive attitude and had recovered well from the attack, in which he lost his left eye, probably the sight in his right and most of the rest of his face. But he will need to stay in a rehabilitation facility for the foreseeable future and faces the likelihood of months of reconstructive surgery. In the police interview he remains calm, thanking Miami police for saving his life and giving a mostly coherent account of his memory of the attack, although some of his assertions — such as Eugene hitchhiking from Miami Beach to the mainland — remain at odds with what investigators believe. Poppo also recalled Eugene wearing a green shirt and shorts, even though he was naked during the attack. He told police how he heard a car dropping Eugene off and said they then spent several minutes chatting. "He said he didn't like the beach for something. He said he wasn't scoring there. He is in kind of a flustered mode about it, I think."
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Free Syrian Army orders main fighting units to leave suburb of Salahedin after intensive shelling from regime planes and tanks The Free Syrian Army has withdrawn all its main fighting units from its stronghold in the war-ravaged suburb of Salahedin in southern Aleppo. The withdrawal was ordered just after sunrise on Thursday after a night of intensive shelling from planes and tanks on all three rebel frontlines. Commanders in Aleppo claimed the pullout was tactical and said a small force had remained behind to oppose any advance by regime forces. However, the rebel move seems to mark a significant moment in the fight for control of southern Aleppo – which has raged for more than two weeks, claiming several hundred casualties, and laid the rest of the city to siege. Shelling intensified on Thursday in other parts of Syria's second city, which had notionally been held by the FSA since it secured its foothold in Salahedin in late July. The regime push had been widely expected earlier this week and rebels had vowed to defend their ground. However, commanders said the intensity of the shelling had meant their fighters now had too few opportunities to take cover. "They were shelling the buildings at the frontline all night," said Major Abu Furad, who led one of the main units in Salahedin, Katiba al-Ansar. "The buildings were falling in front of us. It was impossible to stay there." The rebel group had been occupying an area known as street 15, which faced a regime force around 200 metres away. Both sides had traded small arms fire for the past fortnight, but neither had advanced beyond their positions. "We withdrew to street 10, which [runs parallel] behind street 15, 150 metres back," he said. "But the regime was shelling that street too. It was relentless and no one could stay behind. "They have started using bigger bombs from planes. They were far bigger than the shells from the tanks." The FSA leadership in Aleppo says it is now redeploying its forces to other key areas of the city. It claims its ousting from Salahedin has not damaged morale and maintains that the regime is continuing to hold back its ground forces because it fears many would defect if they were ordered to enter the city. "That's what the defectors are telling us," said Sheikh Tawfik Abu Sleiman, the leader of one of the Aleppo brigades. "They would shed their uniforms and run away." Shelling intensified throughout Thursday in other areas of Aleppo that had so far seen limited fighting. The FSA said it was responding by launching attacks in the centre of the city, where regime troops and the loyalist shabiha militia were stationed to defend key state institutions. The FSA in Aleppo seemed to be united in a plea for an internationally enforced no-fly zone, which would ground the Syrian air force jets now playing an increasing role in the campaign. "That's all we need," said Abu Hanefa. "No guns, no armies, just the ability to get these things out of the sky. They are killing us." Another rebel leader, who had left Salahedin, said: "Even the bravest among us had to acknowledge that these jets are something that we cannot fight. It is one thing being outgunned by tanks, but planes are creating a very, very difficult situation."
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Free Syrian Army orders main fighting units to leave suburb of Salahedin after intensive shelling by regime planes and tanks Syrian rebels fighting the regime of Bashar al-Assad have withdrawn all their main fighting units from their stronghold in the Salahedin area of Aleppo, after heavy shelling by government forces. The pullout from the northern city was ordered just after sunrise on Thursday after a night of intensive attacks by planes and tanks on all three rebel frontlines. Free Syrian Army (FSA) commanders claimed the withdrawal was tactical and said a small force had stayed behind to oppose any advance by government forces. But the move seemed to mark a significant moment in the fight for control of southern Aleppo, which had raged for more than two weeks, claiming several hundred casualties. In Damascus, meanwhile, the FSA announced the defection of Muheddine Musalmani, President Assad's protocol chief. But a state TV channel said he would issue a statement denying the claim. Last week, Assad's prime minister, Riyad Hijab, a veteran Ba'ath party member, became the most senior Syrian political figure yet to defect, appearing in Jordan on Wednesday. Hijab's replacement was named on Thursday as Wael al-Halqi, formerly the health minister. Iran – a close ally of Syria – called for "serious and inclusive" talks between Assad's government and the opposition as it hosted a conference for 29 countries that it said had "realistic" views on the escalating crisis. None of the participating countries has called on Assad to quit or backed opposition groups. Only Iraq, Pakistan and Zimbabwe sent their foreign ministers. Fighting was reported on Thursday in the Damascus area, Hama and Deraa. Shelling also intensified in other parts of Aleppo which had notionally been held by the FSA since it secured its foothold in Salahedin in late July. The regime push had been widely expected earlier this week and rebels had vowed to defend their ground. However, commanders said the intensity of the shelling meant their fighters now had too few opportunities to take cover. "They were shelling the buildings at the frontline all night," said Major Abu Furad, who led one of the main units in Salahedin, Katibat al-Ansar. "The buildings were falling in front of us. It was impossible to stay there." The rebel group had been occupying an area known as street 15, which faced a regime force around 200 metres away. Both sides had traded small arms fire for the past fortnight, but neither had advanced beyond their positions. "We withdrew to street 10, which [runs parallel] behind street 15, 150 metres back," he said. "But the regime was shelling that street too. It was relentless and no one could stay behind. They have started using bigger bombs from planes. They were far bigger than the shells from the tanks." The FSA leadership in Aleppo said it was now redeploying its forces to other key areas of the city. It claimed its ousting from Salahedin had not damaged morale and maintained that the regime was continuing to hold back its ground forces because it fears many would defect if they were ordered to enter the city. "That's what the defectors are telling us," said Sheikh Tawfik Abu Sleiman, leader of one of the Aleppo brigades. "They would shed their uniforms and run away." Shelling intensified throughout Thursday in other areas of Aleppo that had previously seen limited fighting. The FSA said it was responding by launching attacks in the centre of the city, where regime troops and the loyalist shabiha militia were stationed to defend key state institutions. The FSA in Aleppo seemed to be united in a plea for an internationally enforced no-fly zone, which would ground the Syrian air force jets now playing an increasing role in the campaign. "That's all we need," said Abu Hanefa. "No guns, no armies, just the ability to get these things out of the sky. They are killing us." Another rebel leader, who had left Salahedin, said: "Even the bravest among us had to acknowledge that these jets are something that we cannot fight. It is one thing being outgunned by tanks, but planes are creating a very, very difficult situation."
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Police examine evidence from building where prime suspect Pedro Hernandez worked at the time of Etan's death in 1979 Police are examining evidence removed from the site of a former New York grocery store where a man says he killed a six-year-old boy more than 30 years ago. Officers from the New York police department searched the space, which is now an eyeglass store, but in 1979 was a bodega where the alleged abductor of Etan Patz once worked. Paul Browne, a spokesman for the NYPD, said police returned to examine an area on Wednesday that was not searched on earlier visits. He said the visit was not based on any new information. Browne declined to discuss what, if anything, was found, but officers were seen removing a number of bags from the scene. Pedro Hernandez has been charged in the killing of Patz, one of the first missing children whose picture ever appeared on a milk carton. He remains held without bail. Hernandez was a teenage stock clerk at the convenience store when Etan disappeared on his way to school on 25 May, 1979, a date that would later be commemorated as National Missing Children's Day. A judge in 2001 declared the boy dead, but his body has never been found. The suspect's sister has said she heard secondhand that he told a church prayer group in the 1980s that he killed a child in New York City. But Hernandez, now 51, was not regarded as a suspect in Etan's disappearance until last month, when police were alerted by a tip-off. Police say Hernandez, of Maple Shade, New Jersey, told investigators he lured the boy into the shop with the promise of a soda. He allegedly said he led the child to the basement, choked him and left his body in a bag of trash about a block away. Court dates in the case have been put on hold as doctors evaluate Hernandez's mental fitness for trial and investigators seek more evidence beyond his alleged confession. "There remains an enormous amount of energy and investigative efforts devoted to the case," Manhattan district attorney Cyrus Vance said, when asked about it at an unrelated news conference last week. Defense attorney Harvey Fishbein has described Hernandez as bipolar and schizophrenic, with a history of hallucinations. The lawyer declined to comment Wednesday.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Obama and Romney campaigns trade blows over negative and distorting attack ads - live coverage
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Trial ends within eight hours, with Gu's lawyer claiming Briton Neil Heywood bore some responsibility for his own murder Neil Heywood bears "a certain responsibility" for his own murder, a lawyer defending Gu Kailai claimed as the most scrutinised trial in China for decades was dispatched in less than eight hours on Thursday. Gu, the wife of the disgraced politician Bo Xilai, and a family employee, Zhang Xiaojun, did not contest allegations that they premeditatedly murdered the British businessman, officials at the court in Hefei said. The judgment would be delivered at an unspecified future date, said Tang Yigan, vice-president and spokesman of the Hefei intermediate people's court, in a brief statement to reporters after the hearing closed. The statement outlined only brief details of the prosecution and defence cases. No foreign media were allowed into the trial, with officials saying there was no room in the spacious courtroom, although the statement said that journalists – presumably from state media – were present. There was no indication of why Gu's lawyer, Jiang Min, had said the 41-year-old Briton should bear any responsibility for his murder. But the statement said Gu had killed him in the belief that he posed a threat to her son. Prosecutors alleged that Gu met Heywood for drinks in his hotel room in the south-western city of Chongqing, where her husband was then party secretary, on 13 November last year. He became drunk, vomited and needed water. Gu had already given Zhang poison, which the family orderly carried, said the statement. It was then put into Heywood's mouth, presumably by Gu. The defence said Gu had reported other people's crimes and this should be considered a significant contribution and taken into account, the statement added. It also said she had less ability to control her behaviour than normal people at the time of Heywood's death. But the court said that she was in good physical condition and emotionally stable during the hearing. A short clip of the trial was later released by the state broadcaster. Gu, who appeared to have put on considerable weight compared with photos taken of her in recent years, wore a black suit and white shirt as she arrived in the courtroom, flanked by two policewomen. Zhang, her co-accused, wore a white polo shirt and dark trousers as he walked between two male officers. The news clip added that four police officers from Chongqing were charged last week with covering up Heywood's murder to prevent Gu from having to face criminal responsibility. They will face trial in the same court in Hefei on Friday. Two British diplomats attended in a consular capacity. Relatives and friends of Heywood and the defendants were present, the statement added. Dozens of plain-clothed officers and scores of uniformed police surrounded the closed courthouse throughout the hearing.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Trial ends within eight hours, with Gu's lawyer claiming Briton Neil Heywood bore some responsibility for his own murder The British businessman Neil Heywood bears "a certain responsibility" for his own death, a lawyer defending Gu Kailai has told her murder trial, as the first official account of how she is alleged to have murdered the Briton emerged. Prosecutors said Gu – the wife of the disgraced Chinese politician Bo Xilai – drank with Heywood in his hotel room until he vomited, then, when he wanted water, administered the poison that killed him. The hearing into China's greatest cause celebre for decades was dispatched in a few hours on Thursday. Gu and the family employee Zhang Xiaojun did not contest the allegation of premeditated murder, said Tang Yigan, vice-president and spokesman of the Hefei intermediate people's court. "Gu Kailai is the main culprit and Zhang is the accomplice," he added. The judgment will be delivered at an unspecified future date, Tang said in his brief statement to reporters after the hearing closed, which included the details of the case. Bo, once tipped for promotion in the 10-yearly change of party leadership approaching this autumn, was ousted as party secretary of Chongqing in March. His downfall, and the extraordinary news of his wife's arrest on suspicion of murder, was the biggest upheaval in Chinese politics for 20 years. Gu's trial is so sensitive it was not even mentioned on China's flagship evening news programme. But in a short clip carried on the state broadcaster's website, Gu was shown arriving at the courtroom wearing a black suit and white shirt, flanked by two female police officers. Zhang, her co-accused, wore a white polo shirt and dark trousers as he walked between two male officers. The clip said four Chongqing police officers had been charged last week with covering up the murder of Heywood by Gu to prevent her from having to face criminal responsibility. They will stand trial in the same court in Hefei on Friday. The official statement released on Thursday did not explain why Gu's lawyer, Jiang Min, had said the 41-year-old Briton should bear responsibility for his murder. But officials said Gu had killed him in the belief that he posed a threat to her son and alluded to a conflict over money. Prosecutors alleged that Gu arranged for Zhang to escort Heywood from Beijing to south-western Chongqing on 13 November last year. She met him in his room, number 1605 at the Lucky Holiday hotel, where they drank tea and alcohol together until he was so drunk that he vomited and needed water. She then poured poison that she had prepared earlier, and had been carried by Zhang, into Heywood's mouth. The 41-year-old's family were told he died of excessive drinking. They accepted the conclusion, apparently believing it brought on a heart attack. But friends of the businessman were sceptical, saying he was only a light drinker. Intriguingly, Gu's defence lawyer said she had alerted officials to crimes of other people and that this should be considered a significant contribution and taken into account. No further details were given. When news of her detention first emerged, some thought Bo might also be tried. But no further mention has been made of his case since the initial statement that he was under investigation by party authorities for disciplinary violations. Some also surmised that the decision not to charge Gu with economic crimes, to which she allegedly confessed, was an attempt to shield her husband – and by extension other leaders and their families – from unwelcome scrutiny over possible corruption. Defending Gu, Jiang said Gu's ability to control her behaviour was "weaker than normal people's" at the time of Heywood's death. But the court noted that she was in good physical condition and emotionally stable during Thursday's hearing. No foreign media were allowed into Gu and Zhang's trial, with officials saying there was no room in the spacious courtroom, although empty seats could be seen in the news footage. Two British diplomats attended in a consular capacity. Relatives and friends of Heywood and the defendants were also present, the statement added. Dozens of plain-clothed officers and scores of uniformed police surrounded the courthouse during the hearing. Two singing protesters who appeared outside the Hefei intermediate people's court in Anhui were dragged away in the pouring rain. "I don't believe it. This case was decided well in advance," said one of them, Hu Jiye, before he was pushed into a car. The lawyer Li Fangping wrote on Sina's Weibo microblog: "The security of the Hefei intermediate court is definitely number one in the world but whether it can ensure just proceedings is another question." Responding to another lawyer's post, the artist and activist Ai Weiwei wrote on Twitter: "The 'justice' of no justice, no fairness, and no openness to the public. It is sad." Relatives of Gu, 53, and Zhang, 33, hired lawyers to represent them, but were then told that the defendants had accepted state-appointed lawyers. But Gu thanked the judge, prosecution and her own lawyers at the end of proceedings and asked that Zhang receive a lighter sentence than hers, a source who witnessed the trial told the Washington Post. "I committed a crime that brought negative consequences to the party and the country," she added, according to the source.
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Egyptian forces fight gunmen at a police station in northern Sinai town of al-Arish Egyptian police have fought gunmen in the main northern Sinai town of al-Arish a day after security forces began a crackdown on Islamist militants in the region. "Clashes resumed between armed men and police forces in front of police station number two in al-Arish," Nile News television reported. It did not identify the gunmen. No further details were available and security officials could not immediately be reached for comment. A Reuters correspondent in al-Arish said the town was now calm after the reported clashes. The army's security sweep follows an attack on Sunday in which gunmen killed 16 Egyptian border guards before storming through an Israeli border crossing. Israel said it was a wake-up call for Egypt to take a firmer grip on a region threatened by growing lawlessness. Egyptian aircraft struck suspected militant targets near the border and troops raided villages on Wednesday. The Egyptian army brought extra troops, tanks and other armoured vehicles into al-Arish on Thursday to expand the security operation, a security source said.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Militant group say they will kill 'infidel' politician if he holds march to their stronghold to protest against US drone attacks The Pakistani Taliban have threatened to kill Imran Khan if the cricket player turned politician holds a planned march to their tribal stronghold to protest against US drone attacks. Although the Pakistani Taliban oppose the strikes, which have killed many of their fighters, a spokesman, Ahsanullah Ahsan, said they would target Khan because he calls himself a "liberal". Ahsan also warned they would attack anyone who participates in upcoming elections. "If he comes, our suicide bombers will target him," Ahsan said in an interview in the militant group's South Waziristan stronghold. "We will kill him." The threat could come as a surprise to many in Pakistan who have criticised Khan for not being tough enough on the Pakistani Taliban and instead focusing most of his criticism on the government's alliance with the US. Some critics have nicknamed him "Taliban Khan" because of his views and his cosy ties with conservative Islamists who could help him attract rightwing voters in national elections likely to be held later this year or early next year. Khan, who is the founder of the Pakistan Movement for Justice party, has gained momentum over the past year after more than a decade in politics. He is perhaps the most famous person in Pakistan because he led the country's cricket team to victory in the 1992 World Cup. Khan was once known for his playboy lifestyle and marriage to the British socialite Jemima Khan. But the couple divorced several years ago, and he has since become more conservative and religious. Khan has described himself as a liberal in various TV interviews, but has also made clear that he is a practising Muslim. Ahsan said the militants did not want Khan's help in opposing drone attacks. "We will not accept help or sympathy from any infidel," said Ahsan, referring to Khan. "We can fight on our own with the help of God," he said, as drones buzzed overhead. The spokesman for Khan's party could not be immediately reached for comment.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Follow live as the Free Syrian Army announces a tactical retreat from Salahedin after intense bombardment
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | The European Central Bank's latest monthly report warns that the eurozone economy faces a series of 'downside risks'
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