|  |  |  | | | | | The Guardian World News | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Jury finds that critical features of smartphone and tablet design were copied and dismisses South Korean firm's counterclaims Apple has been awarded more than $1bn in damages after its rival smartphone and tablet manufacturer Samsung was found to have copied critical features of its iPhone and iPad. The US jury stunned observers by returning a decision after just two and a half days' deliberation following four weeks of legal argument. The jurors rejected every single one of the South Korean company's patent claims, and backed Apple's claim that Samsung had breached US antitrust laws by trying to keep its wireless patents as a monopoly. The decision means that Apple has gained a major weapon in its fight against Samsung, which is the biggest maker of smartphones and mobile phones in the world, and the biggest of the Android handset makers. The verdict will also be a key platform in Apple's ongoing court battles with other Android smartphone companies, including HTC and Motorola. Samsung and Apple have been at war through the courts since April 2011, when Apple filed a suit in the US alleging that a number of Samsung smartphones and tablets used some of its patented technologies – such as the "rubber band" effect when scrolling a long list of items – and mimicked its "trade dress", the general cosmetic appearance of its iPhone and iPad, in a way that could confuse potential customers. On Friday Samsung issued a statement saying: "Today's verdict should not be viewed as a win for Apple, but as a loss for the American consumer. It will lead to fewer choices, less innovation, and potentially higher prices. It is unfortunate that patent law can be manipulated to give one company a monopoly over rectangles with rounded corners, or technology that is being improved every day by Samsung and other companies. "Consumers have the right to choices, and they know what they are buying when they purchase Samsung products. This is not the final word in this case or in battles being waged in courts and tribunals around the world, some of which have already rejected many of Apple's claims. Samsung will continue to innovate and offer choices for the consumer." Apple's founder, Steve Jobs, kicked off the battle, telling his biographer Walter Isaacson that he would go "thermonuclear" in his battle against Android because he felt that it had copied elements of the iPhone's behaviour. That started with HTC's implementation in 2010 of Android. "I will spend my last dying breath if I need to, and I will spend every penny of Apple's $40bn in the bank, to right this wrong," Jobs told Isaacson. "I'm going to destroy Android, because it's a stolen product. I'm willing to go thermonuclear war on this." An attempted peace pact between Jobs and Eric Schmidt, then Google's chief executive, came to nothing. But Apple's war against Google has been indirect — targeting the handset makers that use Android rather than the search giant which writes the software itself. Evidence of Jobs's antipathy to Android was excluded from the evidence heard in court. Samsung, in this case, responded that Apple had used its patented technology for 3G wireless connectivity without permission, and that it used some of its patented methods, such as sending photos from a camera-equipped phone. Those claims were rejected by the jury. Samsung had also insisted that Apple's technology patents were invalid because of previous inventions by rival firms, which it demonstrated in the court. It said that the "trade dress" claims were nonsensical, and that customers were not confused. An area of relief for Samsung was that the jury decided its Galaxy tablets did not look so much like the iPad as to breach "trade dress". But they hit it with a billion-dollar damages decision for infringing Apple's "utility" patents on its behaviour. Samsung is expected to appeal to a higher court. But the victory for Apple is a publicity coup as the battle for control of the smartphone and tablet market intensifies ahead of the Christmas period — during which Apple is expected to have a new iPhone on release, and possibly a new, smaller version of the iPad. Apple and Samsung are suing each other in more than 30 cases around the world in Europe, Australia and the US. Apple, based in Cupertino — just 10 miles from the San Jose court where lawyers for the two sides made their case — is fighting multiple cases against rival smartphone makers which use Google's Android software, including Samsung, HTC and Motorola — the latter now owned by Google. The decision is a critical blow in the smartphone wars now going on around the world between Apple and Samsung, and by proxy between Apple and other makers of smartphones using Google's Android software. Samsung is the biggest mobile, smartphone and Android mobile company — meaning that this decision will resound throughout the industry. Reaching a decision had looked like a labyrinthine process. Judge Lucy Koh's instructions on how to decide ran to 109 pages and took over two hours to read out after the two companies had spent four weeks arguing in court. The jury then had to negotiate a verdict paper consisting of 20 pages with 33 questions which offered, in total, about 700 options – although it all boiled down to four: were Apple's claimed patents infringed and if so how much was it owed? And: were Samsung's claimed patents infringed, and if so how much was it owed? Yet they reached their verdict after barely two days' deliberation, surprising legal experts who had thought that the decision could take weeks. The jury for the high-profile trial in which Oracle sued Google alleging that the Android mobile operating system infringed its patents. The jury then took two weeks to reach a verdict that largely exonerated Google. Apple brought a high-profile array of executives to testify including Phil Schiller, its longtime head of marketing, and Scott Forstall, who heads its iPhone and iPad software division. Apple also showed prototypes of the iPhone and iPad dating back to 2003, as well as an internal Samsung document comparing the iPhone's behaviour with that of Samsung's smartphone, which described the difference as "Heaven and Earth" and noted hundreds of items of difference where Samsung needed to improve. The jury of seven men and two women, all from California, included four who have worked for technology companies including chipmaker Intel and phone business AT&T, and two engineers. One member owns multiple Apple and Samsung products, according to CNet. Five are over 50; three were born outside the US – one in India and two in the Philippines. The result came just hours after a South Korean court had ruled against both Apple and Samsung, deciding that they had each infringed each others' patents. Both were fined and told to take some of their products off the shelves in that country.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Mexican naval officials say embassy vehicle caught up in police chase on road just south of Mexico City Two US embassy employees were shot at and wounded by Mexican police on Friday after they were caught up in a police chase on the outskirts of the capital, Mexican naval officials said. The US embassy vehicle was attacked just south of Mexico City, according to a government statement. A confused gun battle began around 8am after the embassy car, on its way to a naval installation with two US officials and a captain from the Mexican navy, was approached by car containing armed men. "The driver of the diplomatic car manoeuvred to avoid the aggressors and get back onto the main road, at which point the crew of the aggressor vehicle opened fire," the statement said. "Moments later three other vehicles joined the chase and shot at the US embassy vehicle." Speaking anonymously, a Mexican government security official said federal police had thought the vehicle belonged to a group of suspected kidnappers they were pursuing, and had opened fire on it. "This was all because of a mix-up," the official said. The government statement was not clear about the point at which the federal police got involved, or whether any bullets fired from their weapons wounded the US government workers. It said the US employees were recovering in hospital from "non-life threatening" injuries, and that the naval captain was unharmed. The Associated Press quoted an unnamed law enforcement official saying one of the wounded men had been shot in the leg and the other in the stomach and hand. The official did not identify their jobs, but he did rule out that either belonged to Drug Enforcement Administration, the DEA, or the FBI. The incident took place on a highway on the southern outskirts of Mexico City close to the city of Cuernavaca, which has been ravaged by criminal gangs during the government's conflict with drug cartels. A number of different organised criminal groups, most famously the remnants of the Beltran Leyva drug cartel, are known to have a presence in the mountainous area just beyond the Mexican capital in the state of Morelos. Morelos has suffered from periodic bouts of intense violence during the drug wars that have killed over 55,000 people since President Felipe Calderón launched a military-led offensive against the country's drug cartels in December 2006. Although attacks on diplomatic personnel are not common, there have been several in recent years including one last year in northern Mexico which killed a US immigration and customs enforcement agent. The incident is, at the very least, highly embarrassing for the highly resourced Federal Police which Calderón set up a few years ago with significant US support, and has repeatedly sought to promote as the biggest achievement of his efforts to modernise the country's law enforcement capabilities. The force is still recovering from the damage to its image down by an incident in the food court of Mexico City's international airport in June in which three federal agents were shot dead by colleagues also in uniform who, according to the official version of events, were on the point of arresting them in connection with drug smuggling investigations.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Officers injured nine bystanders as they pursued gunman Jeffrey Johnson, who appeared to have just one intended target Questions have been raised over the New York police department's handling of a shooting near the Empire State Building after armed officers injured nine passers-by as they pursued a gunman who had just shot dead his former boss. One of those injured by police told the Guardian that officers appeared to fire "randomly" as they confronted Jeffrey Johnson, 58, minutes after a workplace dispute escalated into a chaotic shootout in one of the busiest parts of Manhattan. Reports suggest that while Johnson drew his gun, he did not fire; all those injured appear to have been shot by police. The New York police commissioner, Raymond Kelly, said officers had no choice but to act as they did: police discharged 14 rounds and the gunman died at the scene. The incident began just after 9am when Johnson, described as a "disgruntled former employee", walked up to Steve Ercolino, his former manager at Hazan Imports, a business that operates from premises in midtown, near the Empire State Building. Johnson shot him three times before calmly walking away. Panic soon ensued in the tourist-heavy streets around the landmark, with fears that another mass shooting was under way. However, it became clear that it was not a random attack when police revealed the victim was targeted. Johnson had previously been fired from the business. Robert Asika was among those wounded, shot in the elbow from a distance of around eight feet by one of the two police officers who confronted Johnson. He accused police of "shooting randomly", and said he saw at least two others hit by police bullets. "If you're gonna aim try and aim perfectly. If you wanna aim at the target, you got to know what you're doing because it's the street," Asika said. "I could have been dead right now. I could have been dead." Asika was working on 5th Avenue on Friday morning, selling tickets for tour buses and the building's observation deck. He had only been in the job a week, after having been unemployed for over a year. "I was just standing there and I saw people running. I didn't want to run because I wanted to know why people were running so I turned around and I saw this guy," he said. "He was suited up, he had like a tie and a briefcase. If you see him, you'd probably think he was like a doctor, or maybe a lawyer, a business guy. He just looked like a normal guy." Johnson, who was wearing a light-coloured suit, had just killed his former boss and was walking calmly away. "Jeffrey just came from behind two cars, pulled out his gun, put it up to Steve's head and shot him," said Carol Timan, whose daughter, Irene, was walking to Hazan Imports at the time with Ercolino. A construction worker saw the shooting and told two police officers who were stationed outside the Empire State Building. The mayor of New York, Michael Bloomberg – a vocal critic of America's lax firearm controls – said: "Once again, there are an awful lot of guns out there." He added that although homicides in New York were on the decline, "we are not immune to the problem of gun violence". Police said Johnson been employed for six years as a designer of women's accessories at Hazan Imports. Kelly said during a press conference that he was laid off as part of a downsizing at the firm. Kelly described the gunman as a "disgruntled former employee" who came back to confront his former manager. "He shot and killed the former co-worker, striking him three times," Kelly said. Johnson moved to draw his weapon, a .45 caliber handgun, as the officers approached, police said. There are conflicting reports as to what happened next. "The [police] tape clearly shows that the gunman had the gun out, and was trying to kill the officers," Bloomberg said. Other officials at the scene reportedly said the man had not fired on police. The two police officers discharged 14 rounds, killing Johnson outside the entrance to the Empire State Building. Kelly at first said Johnson fired on officers, but police later said they were trying to determine whether Johnson fired. "These officers ... had absolutely no choice," Kelly said. "This individual took a gun out very close to them and perhaps fired at them." Four women and five men were taken to city hospitals with gunshot wounds, but none was believed to be in a life-threatening condition. Police shut down nearby streets as forensic teams checked the gunman's body. The FBI were quick to confirm that the attack was not an act of terrorism. Askia described a chaotic scene when officers caught up with Johnson. He said the gunman stopped six feet away from him, with two officers about eight feet in the other direction. "All of a sudden the guy stopped, and he was facing a cop who was following him," Asika said. "He just reached in his suit and took out the gun, and I saw him pull it [towards] the cops. I'm like, is this guy for real? One of the cops was trying to shoot back at him and one of them shot me while the other one shot the guy." "As soon as the bullet hit me, I felt like I didn't feel it. But then as soon as I tried to get up, I couldn't get up. I looked there and the blood was gushing out," Asika said. "I was crawling, trying to get across the street, to the safe side of the street. I got across the street and I just fell at the bus stop and I was laying there and I couldn't get up no more. I was so tired, I was so scared. I've never been scared like that in my whole life." Asika said Bloomberg visited him in hospital, but he received no apology from police. He was discharged with his arm bandaged and in a sling. Erica Solar, a mother of two who works as a receptionist on 37th Street, was hit in the back of the leg as she made her way to Dunkin' Donuts. Solar's friend, Christopher Collins, found her lying on the street as he got off a bus on his way to work. "She was basically in shock. She didn't know if she had gotten stabbed or if she had gotten shot, but she just knew she was bleeding, and I was just there trying to keep her calm until paramedics arrived," Collins told the Guardian. "It was chaotic. Everybody was running, cops were there immediately," Collins said. Solar was taken to Bellevue hospital, about a mile from the Empire State Building. Another among the wounded was Media Rosario, from Brooklyn, who like Solar was hit in the back of the leg. She said that everything happened so fast, she saw people running, and when she turned around to see what happened, she was already shot," said her sister-in-law, Auselis Rosario. Johnson lived alone in the Upper East Side, his superintendent, Guillermo Suarez confirmed to the Associated Press. Suarez described Johnson as a "very likeable guy" who always wore a suit. "He was always alone," said Gisela Casella, who lived a few floors above him. "I always felt bad. I said 'Doesn't he have a girlfriend?' I never saw him with anybody." City officials were quick to praise the response by police and the construction worker who followed Johnson from the site of the initial shooting. Bloomberg said: "We all use the word 'hero' – he did what he should have done." The mayor added: "He saw something, he said something" – the phrase has become the backbone of efforts to get New York residents to be vigilant ever since the September 11 attacks. The actions of both the worker and police officers may have prevented further injuries, Bloomberg and Kelly said. The incident puts gun crime in America back in the spotlight. As with other high-profile summer shootings in the US – at a movie theatre in Colorado on 20 July and at a Sikh temple in Wisconsin earlier this month – it is thought unlikely that Barack Obama or Mitt Romney will address the issue in an election year.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | In continued defiance of Republican party leaders, Akin is to remain in race, saying 'this is an election, not a selection' Republican Senate hope Todd Akin reaffirmed his intention to stay in the Missouri race Friday despite continued opprobrium over comments he made concerning rape and pregnancy. At a press conference in Chesterfield, the deeply conservative politician told reporters: "We are going to be here through the November election, and we are going to be here to win." The defiant message comes despite senior members of his own party – including presidential contender Mitt Romney – calling on him to quit following his claim that "legitimate rape" rarely leads to pregnancy. Reaffirming his refusal to acquiesce to party demands, Akin added: "I may not be the favourite candidate of some people within the Republican establishment, but the voters made a decision." Polls have shown that the Missouri congressman's chances of being elevated to the Senate have slumped since his ham-fisted attempt to justify a no exception policy on abortion during an interview on Sunday. Almost two-thirds of voters now view him unfavourably. Meanwhile he trails by a full 10 points to his Democrat opponent Claire McCaskill. A poll this week put her ahead on 48% to Akin's 38%. It is marked turnaround in the race for a Missouri Senate seat, which many people were tipping Akin to take comfortably. A week ago, one survey put the Republican candidate ahead by as much as nine points That was until Sunday's interview with KTVI-TV, in which he attempted to explain why he was against abortion, even in the case of pregnancy resulting from rape. He told the local station that "from what I understand from doctors, that is really rare", adding: "If it is legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try and shut that whole thing down". The comments sparked outrage, with prominent members of both political
parties condemning the remarks. Akin later said he "misspoke" but the clarification did little to halt the tide of criticism. President Barack Obama said the comments were "offensive". In a rare attendance at a regular White House briefing to the press, he added:
"Rape is rape". He later went on to ridicule Akin for being a member of the House's science and technology committee who appears to have "missed science class". Romney was also quick to distance himself from the Missouri candidate, stating that the comments were "inexcusable" and calling on Akin to step aside for another Republican candidate. But the Senate candidate has defied party bigwigs, and repeatedly refused to step away from the Senate race. "This is an election, not a selection," he said on Friday, in an apparent swipe at those within the GOP higher echelon who have been demanding that he go. His refusal to bend to party demands will likely act as an irritant to Romney as he heads to the Republican convention in Tampa, which starts on Monday.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Shootings appear be the result of a confused running gunbattle as police opened fire when car entered anti-crime area The Mexican navy said Friday that federal police opened fire on a US embassy vehicle carrying two US government employees, after the vehicle entered an area where the Mexican officers were conducting anti-crime operations. The two US embassy employees were hospitalized, one with a wound to the leg and the other hit in the stomach and hand, according to a government official who spoke on condition of anonymity. The US embassy said it could not release details of the shooting or the names of the victims. The navy said at least four vehicles opened fire on the Americans' sport utility vehicle on a road south of Mexico City, but did not make clear if any of the four carried federal police officers. The shootings appeared to have been the result of a confused running gunbattle that broke out on a rural road in a mountainous area that has been used by common criminals, drug gangs and leftist rebels in the past. The navy said the embassy personnel were heading down a dirt road to a military installation when a carload of gunmen opened fire on them and chased them, along with a navy officer accompanying them. The Americans' vehicle tried to escape, but three other cars joined the original vehicle in pursuing them down the road. Occupants of all four vehicles opened fire, and the navy captain called more help. Federal police officers and Mexican army troops then showed up on the road. The statement does not make clear whose bullets injured the US workers The US vehicle appeared to have been armored and had diplomatic plates The government official said the wounded were not agents of the Drug Enforcement Administration or FBI, but did not identify which agency they work for. "We are working with Mexican authorities to investigate an incident this morning in which two employees of our embassy in Mexico City came under attack by unknown assailants. They are receiving appropriate medical care and are in stable condition. We have no further information to share at this time," said Victoria Nuland, a State Department spokeswoman in Washington. The Mexican naval captain in the vehicle was not injured. The vehicle was riddled with bullets, most concentrated around the passenger-side window, indicating possible involvement by experienced gunmen. The scene of the shooting was cordoned off and guarded Friday by more than 100 heavily armed marines and soldiers, and the highway was closed. Investigators examined what appeared to be shell casings left at the scene. Attacks on diplomatic personnel in Mexico were once considered rare, but this is the third attack in two years. In 2011, one US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent was killed and one wounded in a drug gang shooting in northern Mexico. A drug-gang shooting In 2010 in the border city of Ciudad Juarez killed a US consulate employee, her husband and another man. While Mexico City has largely been spared the drug violence that hit other parts of the country, Cuernavaca has been the scene of drug gang turf battles involving remnants of the Beltran Leyva cartel.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Court filing alleges James Holmes discussed murder with a classmate four months before shootings that killed 12 people Accused Colorado gunman James Holmes had conversations with a classmate in March about wanting to kill people, four months before the attack in which 12 moviegoers were shot dead, a court document showed on Friday. "Evidence gathered so far indicates ... the defendant had conversations with a classmate about wanting to kill people in March 2012, and that he would do so when his life was over," prosecutors wrote in the filing. Holmes, a former neuroscience PhD student, is accused of opening fire on 20 July at a midnight screening of the recent Batman movie The Dark Knight Rises in Aurora. In addition to those who died, 58 people were wounded in the attack. The new document builds on a picture that prosecutors have painted in court of Holmes as a young man whose once promising academic career was in tatters as he failed graduate school oral board exams in June and one of his professors suggested he may not have been a good fit for the competitive PhD program. Prosecutors told the court on Thursday in a hearing on whether they can have access to his university records that Holmes had been "making threats and those threats were reported to police." In the newly published court document, prosecutors added that he lost his access to the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus after making unspecified threats to a professor on 12 June, after which he began a voluntary withdrawal from his program. Prosecutors said Holmes began "a detailed and complex plan" to commit murder and obtain an arsenal of guns and protective armor after he was denied access to the campus. University spokeswoman Jacque Montgomery said on Thursday that Holmes was not banned from the campus but that withdrawing students typically have their access badges deactivated, effectively denying them access to facilities such as laboratories. Holmes' attorney Daniel King has said his client suffers from an unspecified mental illness and had tried to get help before the shooting. Local media have reported he saw at least three campus mental health professionals before leaving the program. Holmes, charged with 24 counts of first degree murder and 116 counts of attempted murder, is being held without bond in solitary confinement at the Arapahoe County jail. Prosecutors have not yet decided whether they will seek the death penalty.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Obama campaign accuses Romney of pandering to rightwing 'birther' movement with remark during speech in home state Mitt Romney was mired in controversy again just days before the Republican convention when he made a joke about the Barack Obama "birther" conspiracy. Romney, on the campaign trail in his home state Michigan, told a rally near Detroit that no-one had ever asked to see his birth certificate – seen as a reference to conspiracy theorists who claim Obama was not born in the United States. "I love being home, in this place where Ann and I were raised, where both of us were born," Romney said. "Ann was born in Henry Ford hospital. I was born at Harper hospital. No-one's ever asked to see my birth certificate. They know that this is the place that we were born and raised." The crowd laughed and cheered. His comment come after years in which Obama has been dogged by conspiracy theorists such as Donald Trump, who argue that Obama was not born in the US and is therefore not eligible to be president. Frustrated with the way the theory kept surfacing, the White House eventually released his birth certificate showing he was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, in 1961. Romney's comment will be marked down, at best, as further evidence of his tendency to make gaffes, or at worst, as an indication that he is seeking to re-ignite the birther controversy. Kevin Madden, a Romney campaign spokesman, insisted Romney was not intending to align himself with rightwing conspiracy theorists. Madden stressed that the presidential candidate had repeatedly said he believes Obama was born in the US. Madden added that Romney had not sought to make a link with the birther controversy, only to draw attention to the fact that he was back in his home state. The Obama campaign jumped on the remark. Ben LaBolt, an Obama campaign spokesman, said: "Throughout this campaign, governor Romney has embraced the most strident voices in his party instead of standing up to them. "It's one thing to give the stage in Tampa to Donald Trump, Sheriff Arpaio, and Kris Kobach. But Governor Romney's decision to directly enlist himself in the birther movement should give pause to any rational voter across America."
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Calls for debate on multiculturalism as far right extremist is sentenced for killing 77 in twin attacks on Utøya island and Oslo The darkest chapter in Norway's recent history came to a close, as judges delivered a sentence that is likely to see Anders Behring Breivik spend the rest of his life in prison, before they read out harrowing accounts of the gun and bomb attacks he perpetrated last year. An Oslo court found that Breivik, whose twin assaults killed 77 people, was sane – the verdict that he and most Norwegians had wanted. The conclusion of Norway's most high-profile judicial case for decades provoked immediate calls for the country to engage in a more rounded and open debate on multiculturalism. Survivors and relatives welcomed the court's decision, saying they were now able to move on with their lives, 13 months after Breivik detonated a bomb in Oslo and embarked on a shooting rampage on Utøya island. More than half of those shot were teenagers. The 33-year-old, who had earlier admitted the attacks that traumatised the peaceful country, smirked as the court's verdict was delivered. He was given the maximum sentence of 21 years, but with a "preventive detention" clause that means his time in jail can be extended as long as he is deemed a threat to society. It is unlikely he will ever be released. In a final parting shot, clearly designed to offend, Breivik used his chance to address the court by apologising to "militant nationalists" across Europe, apparently for not killing more people during his two attacks. More than 60 relatives and survivors of the attacks nodded silently in the Oslo courtroom as the verdict was delivered by Judge Wenche Elisabeth Arntzen. Later they could be seen embracing one another. Most of the Norwegian public had hoped for a "sanity" verdict, eager that the killer should be made accountable for what they viewed as a political crime. Breivik sought the same outcome, believing it would legitimise the ideology that inspired his attacks. Away from the courthouse, a feeling of closure was soon evident throughout the nation. Bjørn Kasper Ilaug, a rescue worker at Utøya, said: "The verdict is positive toward a situation where we can start moving forward. That is very important. This has been a heavy burden for many people for 13 months." Breivik had targeted a summer camp of the youth wing of the country's ruling Labour party, which was taking place on the island. Another Utøya survivor, Frida Holm Skoglund, 20, said: "I'm going to fully live the first day of the rest of my life." Skoglund had remained so shaken by her ordeal that, in May, she requested that Breivik leave the courtroom before she could deliver her witness testimony. Others described a sense of instant calm. Per Balch Sørensen, whose daughter was killed on Utøya, said: "Now we can have peace and quiet. He doesn't mean anything to me. He is just air." Within moments of the verdict, lawyers for the victims were being inundated with celebratory emails. Mette Yvonne Larsen, who represented some of those affected, said: "This is what we hoped for. I have already received many messages from clients telling me this is justice served and they are happy it's over and will never have to see him [Breivik] again." The killings induced a period of introspection for a nation of 5 million which had prided itself as a safe and stable society, and also raised questions about the prevalence of far-right views in a country where oil wealth has encouraged one of the fastest immigration rates in Europe. Many Norwegians believe their country must use the verdict as a platform to instigate an examination of the virtues or otherwise of mass immigration for its society. Breivik said that he had deliberately targeted those he felt encouraged multiculturalism, and that he wanted to overcome an "invasion of Muslims". Jo Stigen, professor at the department for public and international law at the University of Oslo, said: "It was a political attack. Now we can focus on how to avoid this in the future." Mads Andenæs, a lawyer and professor at the university, who lost a student during Breivik's killing spree, said: "Everybody is happy with this as the end of the process. Discussion about immigration and racism and how [Breivik's] attitude was possible to develop can now start." Chief among the issues to be explored will be how Breivik could emerge in a society with one of the lowest homicide rates in the world. Utøya survivor Eivind Rindal was among those who warned that Breivik's ideological, far-right discourse was far from unique. "There are many who shared his extreme views in our society," she said. The judges agreed, noting that Breivik's anti-immigration views were shared by a nexus of like-minded individuals and disparate groups. However, they found no evidence that the Knights Templar, the modern-day crusader network that Breivik claimed to belong to, exists. The killer appeared to blush each time the organisation was mentioned during the court hearing. One aspect of the judgment was seemingly to make sure Breivik's actions were not forgotten, with the judges delivering a harrowing reminder of his attacks as they documented, over several hours, each of the gunshot and bomb-blast injuries suffered by those killed and the 242 wounded. The court heard some women were shot up to eight times, many cold-bloodedly with bullets to the head. As the details were described, Breivik could sometimes be seen frantically writing notes; at other times, he looked flustered. Legal experts said the detailing of his crimes was intended to provide a final, graphic reminder of his actions, should he ever appeal to be released. One of the judges, Arne Lyng, revealed that the 950kg fertiliser bomb Breivik detonated outside the government headquarters could have been significantly more devastating. "It was pure luck that not many more were killed," she said. The killer refused to express remorse, arguing that his victims were brainwashed "cultural Marxists" whose political activism would adulterate pure Norwegian blood, and stating that he would commit his attacks again. The court's verdict signalled closure for Norway in another way: its finding of sanity means that Breivik will not appeal against his jail term. Geir Lippestad, his lawyer, was unequivocal: "He told me he will accept this verdict." As the hearing continued, some felt the mood of the proceedings tangibly lift as it sank home that it might be Breivik's last public appearance. Ali Esbati, Swedish survivor on Utøya remarked that the courtoom did not feel as "oppressive" as it usually had throughout the 10-week trial. "Many must feel that today marks a certain end to the process," she said.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | With 10% of Americans having no opinion of him, Romney needs to deliver an image that will stick through to November Tens of thousands of Republicans are beginning to gather in Tampa, Florida, for the party convention beginning Monday, at which Mitt Romney, still largely unknown to many Americans, has to sell himself as the next president. He has four days to define himself and, in front of a viewing audience of 20 million plus, to deliver the speech of a lifetime. At the end, he will be looking for a 'bounce', a poll lead that will last through to November 6. The size of that bounce, if any, will be the first serious indicator of how the election is likely to turn out. The pressure on Romney – currently in a statistical dead heat with Barack Obama nationally, according to the Real Clear Politics average of polls, but trailing in most of the swing states – is enormous. It is not just the prospect of the convention being disrupted by tropical storm Isaac, which could hit Tampa early next week, or controversies such as the Todd Akin rape-abortion row. It is that Romney is generally an uninspiring orator. "I suspect I'm like a lot of voters in the middle who are still waiting to see some signs of life, humanity, conviction, personality, biography, vision. Just show me more than the one-dimensional 'I'm not Obama' campaign we've seen so far," Mark McKinnon, a campaign adviser to both George W Bush and the 2008 presidential candidate John McCain, wrote on the Daily Beast website. He added: "No pressure, Mitt. But your chances of winning the presidency may rest entirely on the ability to stand and deliver in Tampa." Conventions were once synonymous with unpredictable dramas. In 1976, Ronald Reagan tried unsuccessfully to remove Gerald Ford as the Republican candidate. In 1980 Ted Kennedy challenged Jimmy Carter at the Democratic convention. These days there is little of that kind of drama and instead the events tend to be meticulously choreographed and scripted showcases for the candidate. That is reflected in the fact that the major television networks will be carrying only an hour of live coverage in primetime each evening. But for Romney, this is a crucial moment. He and his campaign team have four days to counter the image created by a $120m Democratic ad onslaught over the summer portraying him as an ultra-rich businessman who made his fortune at Bain Capital off the backs of workers whose companies were closed. Norm Ornstein, an independent analyst at the American Enterprise Institute headquarters in Washington, said: "The Obama campaign defined him before he had a chance to define himself". After the convention, the only guaranteed primetime events will be the three presidential debates with Obama. Romney needs a good convention. Although he has been on the campaign trail constantly since January, polls show many Americans have only a hazy notion of his background and what he stands for. About 10% of Americans say they have no opinion of him at all. So expect lots of pictures of Romney with his family, wife Ann, and his five sons, five daughters-in-law and 18 grandchildren. Conscious of the image of Romney as aloof, the campaign team and the designers they have enlisted for the event say they have organised a schedule and put together a stage aimed at creating a sense of intimacy. Republican officials showed journalists around the convention centre earlier this week, the centrepiece of which is a $2.5m backdrop, 13 giant cubes, each with a large-screen. The convention theme is fairly anodyne: 'A Better Future'. Romney's campaign team, previewing the convention, said he will attempt to turn his time at Bain into a plus, portraying it as evidence of his credentials for running the economy. He will also confront another potential negative. Rather than downplay his Mormonism as he has in the past, a member of the Mormon Church will deliver the invocation on the day of his nomination speech and, as part of Romney's profile, his role as a bishop in the church will be highlighted. There are other areas of his life his advisers say he will fill in, including his four years as governor of Massachusetts, a period he tends not to talk about much, mainly because he introduced healthcare reforms similar to Obama's. Writing in the Wall Street Journal, Karl Rove, George W Bush's campaign strategist, said: "The moment is coming when what each candidate says about himself and his plans is more important than what he says about his opponent." Romney's campaign team has organised a list of party luminaries whose main task is to talk up Romney. These speakers, along with expensively-shot videos to be broadcast throughout the week, have only one mission: to build up an alternative profile of Romney to the one the Obama campaign has been creating over the last few weeks. Ornstein emphasised the importance of Romney's speech, scheduled for Thursday night. "He will have to hit the nerves that will get the convention excited but also reassure swing voters." "It's going to be his first introduction to all the American people, so he's got to hit it out of the park," Craig Shirley, the conservative author, told Newsmax this week. "This has got to be a grand slam." Romney needs a repeat of the Republican convention in New Orleans in 1988 when George Bush Sr, with a reputation, like Romney, of being an uninspired speaker, was under similar pressure to perform. He did and, from trailing Michael Dukakis at the start of the convention, he went on to win the election, mainly on the back of a negative campaign. Ornstein cautioned against expecting much of a bounce, given the problems confronting him. "He might get a little but not a significant bounce," he said. Part of the problem for the Republicans is that the Democratic convention follows, and then it will be Obama's turn for three days of primetime coverage and a potential Democratic bounce. An estimated 35,000 Republicans have signed up to attend the $120m convention. About 15,000 journalists have asked for credentials to cover it. On top of this there will be thousands of lobbyists who have paid for stands and will be throwing lavish parties. Outside, behind the barricades, police predict there will be about 15,000 protesters. Tampa police are being reinforced by officers from 57 other law enforcement agencies from round the state. ABC reported that police, given $50m by Congress to provide security, have spent $2.3m on close-circuit cameras, $5.9m in upgraded police radios and more than $790,000 for a fleet of new vehicles, including an armored truck. Apart from Romney, the convention speakers are made up of his former primary and caucus rivals such as Rick Santorum, who has one of the unfavourable early slots on Tuesday. One of Romney's most stubborn rivals, Ron Paul, is taking an army of supporters to the convention and could have created trouble, but party officials hope they have largely deflected trouble. The officials agreed on Thursday to an eccentric compromise, to include in a document representing official Republican policy one of Paul's main campaign themes, a promise to tie the dollar to gold. The opening day of the Republican convention is relatively low-key, with speeches by senator Rand Paul, South Carolina governor Nikki Haley, and, potentially the most entertaining, former governor Mike Huckabee. The dominant news of the day could be Romney formally passing the magic number of 1,144 delegates, the majority needed to make him the Republican presidential nominee. That would allow him to begin unleashing the millions of dollars he has been accumulating for the White House campaign. Ann Romney was scheduled to be the main speaker on Monday evening but, with the networks refusing to provide live primetime coverage that night, she may be moved to Tuesday night alongside Chris Christie, the New Jersey governor whose outspoken rhetoric makes him a party favourite even though he is at odds with them in lots of policy areas, including his support for some gun controls. On Wednesday, there is a strong warm-up team for the vice-presidential contender Paul Ryan. Among them is former presidential candidate John McCain, former Florida governor – and possible presidential contender in 2016 – Jeb Bush, former Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty and former secretary of state Condoleezza Rice. One of the highlights in 2008 was whether Palin was capable to delivering a good speech: she was. There will not be the same concern about Ryan. Like Palin, he fires up the base: the question is whether, like Palin, he will alienate independents, and whether the media will exploit his policy differences with Romney.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Former CBS news anchor and convention veteran Dan Rather talks to Gary Younge about the changes he's witnessed at the Republican and Democratic conventions
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Fierce fighting in Aleppo grabs most of the attention but pro-Assad forces have intensified their efforts in the capital With Syria's second city, Aleppo, consumed by violence, war has returned with a vengeance to its capital. But in Damascus, the regime, rather than rebel groups, is on the attack. The summer offensive that rebel leaders envisaged is, so far, not going to plan. Nationwide, the intensity of violence and number of dead and wounded is now at its highest level since the uprising began more than 18 months ago. Western officials, activists and rights groups estimate that close to 5,000 people have died during the past month alone. "It was a good Ramadan for the regime," said one western official. "If you can call 5,000 dead people good." In Aleppo, savage fighting along several front lines is claiming around 30-60 victims per day, including government soldiers. The city looks and feels abandoned. Most citizens who live in the rebel-held eastern half have either left, or have bunkered down in their homes, where few supplies are reaching them from regime-held areas to the south. Siege is crippling the opposition areas of the city. And a well-chronicled withering rain of shells from tanks and jets is wearing down both fighters and the few residents who have remained. As Aleppo has been burning, however, Damascus has also re-ignited, but with much less attention. The rebel insurrection in the capital, which struck fear into the heart of the regime from 18 July, with the killing of three security chiefs, was put down by loyalist forces around 10 days later, and does not at present appear to have lived up to expectations. The assault on the capital had led to large numbers of desertions and defections and sharply bolstered rebel morale in other areas of the country, especially in Aleppo where the charge was led by forces who had rapidly ousted loyalists from security bases in the hinterland. For the first time since the start of the uprising, the regime had appeared rattled. Its inner sanctum, watertight for four decades, started to creak and the number of defectors or deserters from Syria's 300,000-strong army is believed by Turkish and western observers to have topped 50,000. Since then attacks on rebel strongholds in Damascus have intensified and the opposition's capacity to counter them seems to have tapered off. "We don't know what's going on in Damascus," said one rebel leader in Aleppo this week. "All we know is that there's a big fight happening here." While rebel forces have shown more of an ability to co-ordinate operations – the summer offensive on the two leading cities is a case in point – they remain unable to make effective use of the officers who held command and control positions in the regime army and who have since sided with them. "These officers cross the border into Turkey and then we don't see them again," said Sheikh Tawfiq Abu Sleiman, who commands a Free Syria Army unit in northern Aleppo. "They never come back to the battlefield to join us. And even if they did, many people here would not accept them." Neither are defecting soldiers on the Aleppo battlefield being used as reinforcements. "They go to Turkey," said Radwan Surmeidi, a rebel who had just received three regime defectors last weekend. "They don't join us straight away. And maybe never." The rebel forces' inability to receive reinforcements is not helping them against a standing military that continues to outman and outgun them. Nor are new weapons coming their way, after the flush of guns and bombs taken in raids on regime depots abandoned by fleeing forces in late-July. A trickle of assault weapons and ammunition comes over the border from Turkey, with the help of Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkish intelligence officials. However, the heavy weapons that rebel leaders have been calling for, especially anti-aircraft guns, have not arrived. The few anti-aircraft guns that opposition forces do have in Aleppo are strapped to the back of utility trucks. And there has to be a good reason to fire them. On Monday, as a Syrian air force helicopter lumbered into range over the suburb of Saif al-Dawli, one such gun truck was driven out from under a shed into the middle of an intersection. The gunner strapped to a seat let fire with a short burst, and the truck then retreated. "We don't have the ammunition to fire any more," he said. The helicopter banked to the east and flew away. In Damascus, the lack of weapons to combat tanks and jets is also seriously limiting the rebel campaign. Even more troubling for opposition supporters, though, is the intensity of the regime assault on areas that had not long ago been considered rebel strongholds. "Everyone is being arrested, or killed," a resident of the Damascus suburb of Midan told the Guardian. "There was a time when the regime made a distinction between residents and gunmen. Now they treat everyone as one and the same." At least three areas of Damascus endured their 10th consecutive day of heavy shelling on Friday. The town of Zabadani to the west of the city was pounded by artillery and tanks for a 12th straight day. Rights groups reported several dozen bodies on Damascus streets on Friday, all of which seemed to be the product of executions. "Assad wants a battle in Damascus now," said Wissam Tarif from the global campaigning group, Avaaz. "They know that the FSA has been storing weapons in Damascus. The level of provocation is intensive. It has been non-stop for the past nine days day and night. They are killing people at checkpoints. They want the FSA to overstretch themselves. They want to test their resolve. The borders from Lebanon are completely locked down now so all the reinforcements need to come from the north. "They have opened two battles and they think they have the FSA's measure." With fighting also continuing to rage in Syria's other cities of Homs, Hama, Idlib and Deir Azzor, the Syrian army too would appear to be at risk of overstretch. However, Aleppo and Damascus remain the key battlegrounds for both sides. "When we win Aleppo we will go to Damascus," claimed the rebel leader Sheikh Tawfiq. "And if they lose Damascus they can't send anyone else to fight us here."
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | 'Disgruntled employee' Jeffrey Johnson, 53, shot dead by police after attack in midtown Manhattan that left nine others injured A laid-off clothing designer killed his former manager before being shot dead by police in New York on Friday after a workplace dispute escalated into a shootout near the Empire State Building. At least nine people were wounded during the attack, in one of the most crowded areas of Manhattan. Some of those injured may have been shot by police. The shooting led to panic in the tourist-heavy streets around the Empire State Building, with fears that another mass shooting was under way. However, it became clear that the incident was not a random attack when police revealed that the victim had been targeted. Police named the suspect as Jeffrey Johnson, a 58-year-old who had been employed for six years as a designer of women's accessories at Hazen Imports, a business that operates from premises in midtown near the Empire State Building. New York police commissioner Raymond Kelly said during a press conference that he was laid off as part of a downsizing at the firm. Kelly described the gunman as a "disgruntled former employee" who came back to confront his former manager, a 41-year-old man who has not been named. "He shot and killed the former co-worker, striking him three times," Kelly said. After shooting his manager, the gunman began walking towards the Empire State Building. He was trailed by a construction worker who managed to alert two police officers on patrol at the building. Johnson pulled his gun – a .45 caliber handgun – from a black bag he was carrying, and fired on the officers. "The [police] tape clearly shows that the gunman had the gun out and was trying to kill the officers," Bloomberg said. They returned fire, killing Johnson on the streets outside the entrance to the Empire State Building. In the exchange of bullets, at least nine people were injured – four women and five men. All were taken to city hospitals with gunshot wounds, but none are believed to be in a life-threatening condition. New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg – a vocal critic of America's lax firearm controls – said: "Once again, there are an awful lot of guns out there." He added that although homicides in New York were on the decline, "we are not immune to the problem of gun violence". The incident took place at about 9am as the Manhattan streets was filled with rush-hour traffic, employees going to work and tourists. A witness, Kay Hudson, told the Guardian that she saw part of the incident. She heard the noise of a gun and saw a man fall to the ground. Hudson said she shouted "run" – and sprinted east along 33rd St towards her office. She said there were many tourists at the scene who didn't understand her shouts. "I can't even process. I had to walk back to be sure that I saw what I was seeing," she said. Adrianne Lapar, 27, who works in the Empire State Building, said: "People started running, saying someone had a gun, so I just ran the other way. I was scared." Dahlia Anister, 33, who works at an office nearby, said: "I heard the gunshots. It was like pop, pop, pop. It was definitely in a bunch." Police shut down nearby streets as forensic teams checked the gunman's body. The FBI were quick to confirm that the attack was not an act of terrorism. Kelly said the incident was not related to the Empire State Building itself. In 1997, a gunman opened fire on the 86th floor observation deck, killing one tourist and wounding six others. City officials were quick to praise the response by police and the construction worker who followed Johnson from the site of the initial shooting. Bloomberg said: "We all use the word 'hero' – he did what he should have done." The mayor added: "He saw something, he said something" – the phrase has become the backbone of efforts to get New York residents to be vigilant ever since the September 11 attacks. The actions of both the worker and police officers may have prevented further injuries, Bloomberg and Kelly said. The incident puts gun crime in America back in the spotlight. As with other high-profile summer shootings in the US – at a movie theatre in Colorado on July 20 and at a Sikh Temple in Wisconsin earlier this month – it is thought unlikely that Barack Obama or Mitt Romney will address the issue in an election year.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | 'Disgruntled employee' Jeffrey Johnson, 58, shot dead by police after attack in midtown Manhattan that left nine others injured A laid-off clothing designer killed his former manager before being shot dead by police in New York on Friday after a workplace dispute escalated into a shootout near the Empire State Building. At least nine people were wounded during the attack, in one of the most crowded areas of Manhattan. Some of those injured may have been shot by police. The shooting led to panic in the tourist-heavy streets around the Empire State Building, with fears that another mass shooting was under way. However, it became clear that the incident was not a random attack when police revealed that the victim had been targeted. Police named the suspect as Jeffrey Johnson, a 58-year-old who had been employed for six years as a designer of women's accessories at Hazen Imports, a business that operates from premises in midtown near the Empire State Building. New York police commissioner Raymond Kelly said during a press conference that he was laid off as part of a downsizing at the firm. Kelly described the gunman as a "disgruntled former employee" who came back to confront his former manager, a 41-year-old man who has not been named. "He shot and killed the former co-worker, striking him three times," Kelly said. After shooting his manager, the gunman began walking towards the Empire State Building. He was trailed by a construction worker who managed to alert two police officers on patrol at the building. Johnson pulled his gun – a .45 caliber handgun – from a black bag he was carrying, and fired on the officers. "The [police] tape clearly shows that the gunman had the gun out and was trying to kill the officers," Michael Bloomberg said. They returned fire, killing Johnson on the streets outside the entrance to the Empire State Building. In the exchange of bullets, at least nine people were injured – four women and five men. All were taken to city hospitals with gunshot wounds, but none are believed to be in a life-threatening condition. New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg – a vocal critic of America's lax firearm controls – said: "Once again, there are an awful lot of guns out there." He added that although homicides in New York were on the decline, "we are not immune to the problem of gun violence". The incident took place at about 9am as the Manhattan streets was filled with rush-hour traffic, employees going to work and tourists. A witness, Kay Hudson, told the Guardian that she saw part of the incident. She heard the noise of a gun and saw a man fall to the ground. Hudson said she shouted "run" – and sprinted east along 33rd St towards her office. She said there were many tourists at the scene who didn't understand her shouts. "I can't even process. I had to walk back to be sure that I saw what I was seeing," she said. Adrianne Lapar, 27, who works in the Empire State Building, said: "People started running, saying someone had a gun, so I just ran the other way. I was scared." Dahlia Anister, 33, who works at an office nearby, said: "I heard the gunshots. It was like pop, pop, pop. It was definitely in a bunch." Police shut down nearby streets as forensic teams checked the gunman's body. The FBI were quick to confirm that the attack was not an act of terrorism. Kelly said the incident was not related to the Empire State Building itself. In 1997, a gunman opened fire on the 86th floor observation deck, killing one tourist and wounding six others. City officials were quick to praise the response by police and the construction worker who followed Johnson from the site of the initial shooting. Bloomberg said: "We all use the word 'hero' – he did what he should have done." The mayor added: "He saw something, he said something" – the phrase has become the backbone of efforts to get New York residents to be vigilant ever since the September 11 attacks. The actions of both the worker and police officers may have prevented further injuries, Bloomberg and Kelly said. The incident puts gun crime in America back in the spotlight. As with other high-profile summer shootings in the US – at a movie theatre in Colorado on July 20 and at a Sikh Temple in Wisconsin earlier this month – it is thought unlikely that Barack Obama or Mitt Romney will address the issue in an election year.
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | • American also handed lifetime ban by US Anti-Doping Agency
• Decison not to contest charges triggered decision, says Usada
• Matt Seaton: Lance Armstrong gives up the fight The US Anti-Doping Agency has stripped Lance Armstrong of his seven Tour de France titles, erasing one of the most impressive sporting achievements of all time after deciding he had used performance-enhancing drugs to do it. Armstrong, 40, who retired a year ago, was also hit with a lifetime ban from cycling. An athlete who became a hero to thousands for overcoming cancer and for his foundation's fight against the disease is now officially a drug cheat in the eyes of his nation's anti-doping agency. Usada said Armstrong's decision not to take the charges against him to arbitration triggers the lifetime ineligibility and forfeiture of all results from 1 August 1998 through to the present, which would include the Tour de France titles he won between 1999 and 2005. Armstrong has strongly denied doping and contends Usada was on a "witch hunt" without any physical evidence against him. He had decided not to contest the charges on Thursday. The Usada statement read: "Usada announced today that Lance Armstrong has chosen not to move forward with the independent arbitration process and as a result has received a lifetime period of ineligibility and disqualification of all competitive results from August 1, 1998, through the present, as the result of his anti-doping rule violations stemming from his involvement in the United States Postal Service (USPS) Cycling Team Doping Conspiracy (USPS Conspiracy). "Following the dismissal of Mr Armstrong's lawsuit on Monday, August 20, 2012, by the federal court in Austin, Texas, Mr Armstrong had until midnight on Thursday, August 23, to contest the evidence against him in a full evidentiary hearing with neutral arbitrators as provided by US law. However, when given the opportunity to challenge the evidence against him, and with full knowledge of the consequences, Mr Armstrong chose not to contest the fact that he engaged in doping violations from at least August 1, 1998, and participated in a conspiracy to cover up his actions. "As a result of Mr Armstrong's decision, Usada is required under the applicable rules, including the World Anti-Doping Code under which he is accountable, to disqualify his competitive results and suspend him from all future competition."
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | • American also handed lifetime ban by US Anti-Doping Agency
• Decison not to contest charges triggered decision, say Usada
• Matt Seaton: Lance Armstrong gives up the fight The US Anti-Doping Agency has stripped Lance Armstrong of his seven Tour de France titles, erasing one of the most impressive sporting achievements of all time after deciding he had used performance-enhancing drugs to do it. Armstrong, 40, who retired a year ago, was also hit with a lifetime ban from cycling. An athlete who became a hero to thousands for overcoming cancer and for his foundation's fight against the disease is now officially a drug cheat in the eyes of his nation's doping agency. Usada said Armstrong's decision not to take the charges against him to arbitration triggers the lifetime ineligibility and forfeiture of all results from 1 August 1998 through to the present, which would include the Tour de France titles he won between 1999 and 2005. Armstrong has strongly denied doping and contends Usada was on a "witch hunt" without any physical evidence against him. He had decided not to contest the charges on Thursday. The Usada statement read: "USADA announced today that Lance Armstrong has chosen not to move forward with the independent arbitration process and as a result has received a lifetime period of ineligibility and disqualification of all competitive results from August 1, 1998 through the present, as the result of his anti-doping rule violations stemming from his involvement in the United States Postal Service (USPS) Cycling Team Doping Conspiracy (USPS Conspiracy). "Following the dismissal of Mr. Armstrong's lawsuit on Monday, August 20, 2012, by the federal court in Austin, Texas, Mr. Armstrong had until midnight on Thursday, August 23, to contest the evidence against him in a full evidentiary hearing with neutral arbitrators as provided by US law. However, when given the opportunity to challenge the evidence against him, and with full knowledge of the consequences, Mr. Armstrong chose not to contest the fact that he engaged in doping violations from at least August 1, 1998 and participated in a conspiracy to cover up his actions. "As a result of Mr. Armstrong's decision, USADA is required under the applicable rules, including the World Anti-Doping Code under which he is accountable, to disqualify his competitive results and suspend him from all future competition."
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Televisión Española to air 'short but symbolic' series of bullfights after new rightwing government took control of board Live bullfighting is returning to Spain's public broadcaster Televisión Española (TVE) after six years of viewers being unable to watch, in real time, the last few minutes of a bull's life. A fight at the bullring in Valladolid is set to be broadcast on 5 September, allowing bullfight fans to see half a dozen animals fought and killed on the sand of the city's arena. The decision to show live bullfighting comes after the conservative People's party (PP) of prime minister Mariano Rajoy took control of the broadcaster's board and changed its senior management. TVE will not pay the three bullfighters involved or the company that runs the Valladolid bullring, though it will bear the cost of setting up the multi-camera broadcast. Top matadors Julián López – known as El Juli – José María Manzanares and Alejandro Talavante have waived their royalties as part of a campaign to stop growing anti-bullfight sentiment that has already succeeded in getting the practise banned in the autonomous eastern region of Catalonia. "TVE believes that the potential audience that might be attracted to this lineup is, in itself, a sufficient reason for broadcasting it," a spokesman said. "This will be the first of a short but symbolic series of bullfights … which Spain's public television channel plans to programme," TVE added. TVE pulled bullfighting from its schedules last year, saying it contravened its code of conduct for programmes before Spain's late evening watershed hour. Bullfights mostly start at 6pm or 7pm, falling into children's viewing hours. Furious fans had accused the broadcaster of shunning a key part of Spanish popular culture. "This means that TVE, which belongs to us all, will deprive us of something that over the centuries has formed part of the cultural patrimony of many Spaniards, both of the political right and the left," columnist Andrés Amorós wrote in the conservative daily ABC. But Rajoy's PP, which swept to power in November, is involved in a controversial reform of the broadcaster and is accused of removing senior journalists who are seen as too leftwing. The section preventing children from watching live bullfights was removed from its code of conduct earlier this year. "Management has acted accordingly," a senior TVE source said. TVE had not banned bullfighting completely, and continued to cover it on late night television and radio programmes devoted exclusively to what fans consider to be an art form – newspapers cover it in their arts pages. Regular live broadcasts of the major bullfighting festivals from Madrid, Seville and elsewhere stopped in 2006, after TVE was priced out of the market by private broadcasters. "Now the bullfighting lobby seems prepared to do anything in order to bring live fights back to our public television channel, even if that means trampling over European Union television rules," the Animalist party, which lobbies against bullfighting, said. TVE sources denied that any such rules were being broken.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Televisión Española to air 'short but symbolic' series of bullfights after new rightwing government took control of board Live bullfighting is returning to Spain's public broadcaster Televisión Española (TVE) after six years of viewers being unable to watch, in real time, the last few minutes of a bull's life. A fight at the bullring in Valladolid is set to be broadcast on 5 September, allowing bullfight fans to see half a dozen animals fought and killed on the sand of the city's arena. The decision to show live bullfighting comes after the conservative People's party (PP) of prime minister Mariano Rajoy took control of the broadcaster's board and changed its senior management. TVE will not pay the three bullfighters involved or the company that runs the Valladolid bullring, though it will bear the cost of setting up the multi-camera broadcast. Top matadors Julián López – known as El Juli – José María Manzanares and Alejandro Talavante have waived their royalties as part of a campaign to stop growing anti-bullfight sentiment that has already succeeded in getting the practise banned in the autonomous eastern region of Catalonia. "TVE believes that the potential audience that might be attracted to this line-up is, in itself, a sufficient reason for broadcasting it," a spokesman said. "This will be the first of a short but symbolic series of bullfights … which Spain's public television channel plans to programme," it added. TVE pulled bullfighting from its schedules last year, saying it contravened its code of conduct for programmes before Spain's late evening watershed hour. Bullfights mostly start at 6pm or 7pm, falling in to children's viewing hours. Furious fans had accused the broadcaster of shunning a key part of Spanish popular culture. "This means that TVE, which belongs to us all, will deprive us of something that over the centuries has formed part of the cultural patrimony of many Spaniards, both of the political right and the left," columnist Andrés Amorós wrote in the conservative daily ABC. But Rajoy's PP, which swept to power in November, is involved in a controversial reform of the broadcaster and is accused of removing senior journalists who are seen as too leftwing. The section preventing children from watching live bullfights was removed from its code of conduct earlier this year. "Management has acted accordingly," a senior TVE source said. TVE had not banned bullfighting completely, and continued to cover it on late night television and radio programmes devoted exclusively to what fans consider to be an art form – newspapers cover it in their arts pages. Regular live broadcasts of the major bullfighting festivals from Madrid, Seville and elsewhere stopped in 2006, after TVE was priced out of the market by private broadcasters. "Now the bullfighting lobby seems prepared to do anything in order to bring live fights back to our public television channel, even if that means trampling over European Union television rules," the Animalist Party, which lobbies against bullfighting, said. TVE sources denied that any such rules were being broken.
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Islam Afifi, editor of opposition paper charged with insulting President Morsi, released after president issues decree The editor of an independent Egyptian daily has been released from jail, just hours after the country's Islamist president issued a law that bans the imprisonment of journalists accused of media-related offences. The case against Islam Afifi sparked an outcry from journalists and intellectuals, who viewed the lawsuit as an attack on free speech similar to the sort of legal manoeuvring used by the former regime of Hosni Mubarak, ousted in last year's popular uprising, to silence its opponents. Afifi, who is the editor-in-chief of al-Dustour newspaper owned by the leader of the opposition Wafd party, had been charged with insulting the president and harming public interest with inflammatory articles. He was also banned from travelling abroad. A Cairo court on Thursday ordered Afifi to remain in jail pending trial in September. Hours after the court's decision, President Mohamed Morsi issued a law that bans imprisoning journalists for media-related charges until court verdicts are handed down. Afifi, who still faces trial, was photographed smiling and being greeted by newspaper staff after his release. The decree affecting those awaiting trial for offences such as libel, defamation and slander is the first law Morsi has issued since assuming legislative powers earlier this month in the absence of a parliament, and following a decision to retire a cadre of generals with whom he had shared powers. Morsi, who is a member of Egypt's powerful Muslim Brotherhood, became the country's first freely elected civilian president in late June. Since Morsi took office, al-Dustour has regularly published articles warning of alleged Brotherhood plots and conspiracies to turn Egypt into a fundamentalist Islamic state. It also promoted an anti-Brotherhood demonstration on Friday, initially calling for the torching of Brotherhood offices but later amending its call and instead urging protesters to hold peaceful rallies in Cairo. The protests held on Friday against the Brotherhood were small, but were seen as a significant test of how Morsi will respond to the opposition. The case against Afifi is one of several lawsuits brought forward mainly by Islamists against journalists in Egypt, accusing them of inflammatory coverage and inciting the public against the Brotherhood. The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists hailed the new law, but urged authorities to halt "an alarming rise in repression that has included newspaper confiscations, criminal prosecutions, and assaults against journalists".
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | US government does not believe military inquiry was 'thorough, credible and transparent', as family await verdict in civil suit The US ambassador to Israel has told the family of an American pro-Palestinian activist who was killed in Gaza in 2003 that the US government remains dissatisfied with the Israeli army's decision to close its official investigation into the incident. Rachel Corrie, 23, an activist with the International Solidarity Movement, was crushed to death as she tried to stop an Israeli army bulldozer from destroying Palestinian houses in Rafah, on the Egypt-Gaza border. In 2005 Corrie's family filed a civil suit in the Haifa district court against the Israeli government over the incident. A verdict is expected on Tuesday. At a meeting at the US embassy in Tel Aviv last week, the ambassador, Dan Shapiro, told Corrie's parents and her sister that the government did not believe the Israeli military investigation had been "thorough, credible and transparent", as had been promised by Israel. The investigation concluded that Corrie's death was an accident and that she had endangered herself by entering a combat zone. "The lawsuit is just a small step in our family's nearly decade-long search for truth and justice," said Craig Corrie, Rachel's father. "The mounting evidence presented before the court underscores a broken system of accountability. "We're responsible as a family to do whatever we can to get at the truth of what happened to Rachel and to try to get some accountability. It's been a very difficult process for us. The testimony by the defence witnesses has been erratic. Their stories never agreed with each other. We hope the judge will reach a reasonable conclusion."
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Texas analytics firm sifting through Americans' personal information to identify potential wealthy donors, AP learns Happening at 12pm ET today: 'this week in politics' LIVE chat with Ana Marie Cox and Jim Newell on Todd Akin rape row and Romney's tax issues -- Mitt Romney's success in raising hundreds of millions of dollars in the costliest presidential race ever can be traced in part to a secretive data-mining project that sifts through Americans' personal information – including their purchasing history and church attendance – to identify new and likely wealthy donors, the Associated Press has learned. For the data-mining project, the Republican candidate has quietly employed since at least June a little-known but successful analytics firm that previously performed marketing work for a colleague tied to Bain Capital, the management-consulting firm that Romney once led. The head of Buxton Co of Fort Worth, Texas, chief executive Tom Buxton, confirmed to the AP his company's efforts to help Romney identify rich and previously untapped Republican donors across the country. The Romney campaign declined to discuss on the record its work with Buxton or the project's overall success. The project shows that the same strategies corporations use to influence the way we shop and think are now being used to influence presidential elections. The same personal information that we give away, often unwittingly when we swipe our credit cards or log into Facebook, is now being collected by the people who might one day occupy the White House. There are no records of payments to Buxton from Romney's campaign, the Republican national committee or a joint fundraising committee. Under federal law, companies cannot use corporate money or resources, such as proprietary data analysis, for in-kind contributions to campaigns. The effort by Romney appears to be the first example of a political campaign using such extensive data analysis. President Barack Obama's re-election campaign has long been known as data-savvy, but Romney's project appears to take a page from the Fortune 500 business world and dig deeper into available consumer data. Buxton said he's working for the Romney campaign because he wants "to be on the winning team." He once worked with a former Romney business partner to provide insights, for example, about where Petco should open a new pet-supply store to maximize profits. In addition to Buxton, the data-mining project was described to the AP by a Romney fundraiser who spoke on condition of anonymity because the fundraiser did not want to face repercussions for describing internal campaign processes. Businesses use those kinds of analytics firms to answer key questions for clients, such as where to build a retail store or where to mail pamphlets touting a new product. The analysis doesn't directly bring in campaign contributions, but it generates the equivalent of sales leads for Romney's campaign. The project relies upon a sophisticated analysis by powerful computers of thousands of commercially available, expensive databases that are lawfully bought and sold behind the scenes by corporations, including details about credit accounts, families and children, voter registrations, charitable contributions, property tax records and survey responses. It combines marketing data with what is known in this specialized industry as psychographic information about Americans. An early test analyzed details of more than 2m households near San Francisco and elsewhere on the west coast and identified thousands of people who would be comfortably able and inclined to give Romney $2,500 or more. An AP analysis this week determined that Romney's campaign has made impressive inroads into even traditionally Democratic neighborhoods, collecting more than $350,000 this summer around San Francisco in contributions that averaged $400 each. High-dollar donors have been essential to Romney's election effort, unlike Obama, who relies on more contributors giving smaller amounts. Romney and the GOP have outgunned Obama's fundraising efforts for the past three months. The fate of the presidency may depend on who raises more money in the campaign, whose cost for the first time is approaching $2bn. That figure includes hundreds of millions of dollars spent by "super" political committees that accept unlimited and in some cases effectively anonymous contributions from millionaires, companies, labor groups and others to pay for television campaign advertisements across the nation. Buxton confirmed that the data-mining project began with the help of Dick Boyce, Romney's former Bain colleague, after Romney joined fundraising forces with the Republican National Committee. Buxton expressed such confidence in his business and analysis methods that, in nearly two decades of running his firm, he told AP he has always been able to answer essential questions for customers. "I can look at data of any kind and say, 'I want to know who that $100 donor could be,'" Buxton said. "We look at data of any kind." Obama's campaign employs its own form of data analysis to lure potential supporters, via Facebook and Twitter, to fine-tune messages for supporters and potential donors. The Obama campaign declined to comment on its internal fundraising practices, although Buxton said it doesn't work with Obama's campaign. Romney's campaign has also been secretive about how it raises its money, and most fundraising events have been closed to the press. Unlike Obama, Romney's campaign has declined to publicly identify the names of major fundraisers, known as bundlers, who have helped amass much of its money. Details of this project have not been made public until now, as payments to Buxton aren't reflected in federal campaign expense reports. Buxton is not listed as a vendor in any of the campaign's reports submitted to the Federal Election Commission, although some campaigns do not report expenses until the vendor sends them a bill. When AP initially asked Buxton about its work for Romney, it declined to acknowledge that it helped raise money for the RNC, even as its own website displayed a prominent log-in page for "2012 presidential donor prospecting". That web address contained the letters RNC – a common abbreviation for the Republican national committee. After the AP's continued questioning, the company replaced the RNC letters in the web address with a generic "campaign" the next day. This is not Buxton's first foray into politics. In 2006, the company produced 1,000 names for a Connecticut campaign to meet a write-in ballot requirement, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram then reported, and 900 of them signed up. Few in Washington campaign circles recognized the work of Buxton, although it lists thousands of other clients in the public and private sector, including hospitals and local governments.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Texas analytics firm sifting through Americans' personal information to identify potential wealthy donors, AP learns Mitt Romney's success in raising hundreds of millions of dollars in the costliest presidential race ever can be traced in part to a secretive data-mining project that sifts through Americans' personal information – including their purchasing history and church attendance – to identify new and likely wealthy donors, the Associated Press has learned. For the data-mining project, the Republican candidate has quietly employed since at least June a little-known but successful analytics firm that previously performed marketing work for a colleague tied to Bain Capital, the management-consulting firm that Romney once led. The head of Buxton Co of Fort Worth, Texas, chief executive Tom Buxton, confirmed to the AP his company's efforts to help Romney identify rich and previously untapped Republican donors across the country. The Romney campaign declined to discuss on the record its work with Buxton or the project's overall success. The project shows that the same strategies corporations use to influence the way we shop and think are now being used to influence presidential elections. The same personal information that we give away, often unwittingly when we swipe our credit cards or log into Facebook, is now being collected by the people who might one day occupy the White House. There are no records of payments to Buxton from Romney's campaign, the Republican national committee or a joint fundraising committee. Under federal law, companies cannot use corporate money or resources, such as proprietary data analysis, for in-kind contributions to campaigns. The effort by Romney appears to be the first example of a political campaign using such extensive data analysis. President Barack Obama's re-election campaign has long been known as data-savvy, but Romney's project appears to take a page from the Fortune 500 business world and dig deeper into available consumer data. Buxton said he's working for the Romney campaign because he wants "to be on the winning team." He once worked with a former Romney business partner to provide insights, for example, about where Petco should open a new pet-supply store to maximize profits. In addition to Buxton, the data-mining project was described to the AP by a Romney fundraiser who spoke on condition of anonymity because the fundraiser did not want to face repercussions for describing internal campaign processes. Businesses use those kinds of analytics firms to answer key questions for clients, such as where to build a retail store or where to mail pamphlets touting a new product. The analysis doesn't directly bring in campaign contributions, but it generates the equivalent of sales leads for Romney's campaign. The project relies upon a sophisticated analysis by powerful computers of thousands of commercially available, expensive databases that are lawfully bought and sold behind the scenes by corporations, including details about credit accounts, families and children, voter registrations, charitable contributions, property tax records and survey responses. It combines marketing data with what is known in this specialized industry as psychographic information about Americans. An early test analyzed details of more than 2m households near San Francisco and elsewhere on the west coast and identified thousands of people who would be comfortably able and inclined to give Romney $2,500 or more. An AP analysis this week determined that Romney's campaign has made impressive inroads into even traditionally Democratic neighborhoods, collecting more than $350,000 this summer around San Francisco in contributions that averaged $400 each. High-dollar donors have been essential to Romney's election effort, unlike Obama, who relies on more contributors giving smaller amounts. Romney and the GOP have outgunned Obama's fundraising efforts for the past three months. The fate of the presidency may depend on who raises more money in the campaign, whose cost for the first time is approaching $2bn. That figure includes hundreds of millions of dollars spent by "super" political committees that accept unlimited and in some cases effectively anonymous contributions from millionaires, companies, labor groups and others to pay for television campaign advertisements across the nation. Buxton confirmed that the data-mining project began with the help of Dick Boyce, Romney's former Bain colleague, after Romney joined fundraising forces with the Republican National Committee. Buxton expressed such confidence in his business and analysis methods that, in nearly two decades of running his firm, he told AP he has always been able to answer essential questions for customers. "I can look at data of any kind and say, 'I want to know who that $100 donor could be,'" Buxton said. "We look at data of any kind." Obama's campaign employs its own form of data analysis to lure potential supporters, via Facebook and Twitter, to fine-tune messages for supporters and potential donors. The Obama campaign declined to comment on its internal fundraising practices, although Buxton said it doesn't work with Obama's campaign. Romney's campaign has also been secretive about how it raises its money, and most fundraising events have been closed to the press. Unlike Obama, Romney's campaign has declined to publicly identify the names of major fundraisers, known as bundlers, who have helped amass much of its money. Details of this project have not been made public until now, as payments to Buxton aren't reflected in federal campaign expense reports. Buxton is not listed as a vendor in any of the campaign's reports submitted to the Federal Election Commission, although some campaigns do not report expenses until the vendor sends them a bill. When AP initially asked Buxton about its work for Romney, it declined to acknowledge that it helped raise money for the RNC, even as its own website displayed a prominent log-in page for "2012 presidential donor prospecting". That web address contained the letters RNC – a common abbreviation for the Republican national committee. After the AP's continued questioning, the company replaced the RNC letters in the web address with a generic "campaign" the next day. This is not Buxton's first foray into politics. In 2006, the company produced 1,000 names for a Connecticut campaign to meet a write-in ballot requirement, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram then reported, and 900 of them signed up. Few in Washington campaign circles recognized the work of Buxton, although it lists thousands of other clients in the public and private sector, including hospitals and local governments.
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Two dead and nine injured in shooting near the Empire State Building in New York. Follow live coverage here
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | At least eight people shot and several reported dead in a shooting at the Empire State Building in New York. Follow live coverage here
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | By refusing to mount defence in doping case, Armstrong all but concedes he won his seven Tour de France titles by doping So no judge in a court of arbitration will ever be called to read sentence in the case of Lance Armstrong. But for anyone with eyes to see and ears to hear, the jury was never out. By refusing to mount a defence in the US Anti-Doping Agency's case against him, Lance Armstrong has – whatever equivocation and claims of persecution he persists in – all but conceded that he won his seven Tour de France titles by doping. And by walking away from a defence he has ceded those yellow jerseys and lost his status as the most remarkable serial winner in the history of the sport. There may be some small fraternity of true believers who still need the master-narrative of the heroic cancer survivor-turned-sports superstar and still cling to a conviction that he could have beaten the rap if the world had not conspired against him. Armstrong's statement repeats a familiar litany of disingenuous indignation – his record of wins, a lack of physical evidence, the "nonsense" of this "witch-hunt" and so on – but by this decision, Armstrong has excommunicated himself from the Church of Lance: he no longer believes in the plausibility of his own denials. The aggression that kept accusers in check and witnesses silent for so long has been replaced by weariness and resignation. "There comes a point in every man's life when he has to say, 'Enough is enough.' For me, that time is now," his statement reads. Yet even a dope cheat still needs to be a master tactician to win the Tour de France: if Armstrong decided to quit the fight it was because this was the least worst option remaining to him. This pre-emptive retreat allows him to avoid the formal process of prosecution and conviction, and the humiliation that would have gone along with that. Perhaps his Livestrong foundation, and what remains of his tarnished brand, can thus survive in some netherworld of unreason. Where does that leave cycling? With many unresolved questions. We may never know who were all the former team-mates of Armstrong that USADA had ready to testify against him about the years of EPO use, steroids, blood-doping techniques and whatever else that delivered that unbroken string of Tour victories, though we can guess at their identities. And we will have to wait and see whether Armstrong's longtime team manager, Johan Bruyneel, will attempt a defence, though the percentage must be in his folding quietly and taking a ban. We may never finally know what deals were done to hush up the alleged positive tests Armstrong gave, though we have our suspicions. And we can only wonder who might now be deemed to have won the Tour de France from 1999 to 2005, though we must assume that the Tour authorities would rather award no result than attempt the fool's errand of seeking retrospectively a clean cyclist in the top 10 of any of those years. Better to look forward and learn. There is no doubt that the anti-doping agencies have won the upper hand since Lance Armstrong's heyday in the fight to rid the sport of performance-enhancing drugs. Many do still cheat, though they are fewer and more are caught. Teams keep sponsors by staying clean; they lose them when riders are discovered doping. The governing body, the UCI, has abandoned its shameful connivance of the EPO era. But there's no reason for complacency. It will only take a tangential advance in medical science for some new substance to become available for which there is no test; then the cheats will be ahead in the pharmacological arms race once more. The most important lesson of the Lance Armstrong story, though, is the hardest to prepare for and guard against: our own gullibility and willing complicity. What is astounding and disturbing is that one man – a dominant personality as well as a dominant athlete – was able to enforce his will, isolate, bully and silence his doubters and critics, and win the world's top cycling event year after year and make people believe in him, despite there being, apparently, dozens of witnesses to its utter phoniness. Too many people had too much invested in the Lance Armstrong story, and the power of persuasion followed the money. The moral of the story is that if a cyclist looks too good to be true, then he probably is. But if a cyclist looks too good to be true and has an entourage of lawyers, press flaks, doctors and bodyguards, then he definitely is.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Court decides confessed killer was not psychotic when he went on rampage in Oslo and Utøya island that left 77 people dead Anders Behring Breivik, the Norwegian far-right extremist, has been sentenced to at least 21 years in prison after a court declared he was sane throughout his murderous rampage last year that killed 77 people and wounded 242. The Oslo district court declared its verdict that the 33-year-old was not psychotic while carrying out the twin attacks, including the shooting of dozens of teenagers attending a political camp. The court's decision will have delighted Breivik, who had hoped to avoid what he called the humiliation of being dismissed as a madman. The mass killer had desperately hoped the court would find him criminally culpable for the killings, claiming they were "cruel and necessary" to protect Norway from becoming overrun by Muslims. After two months of deliberations, the five-judge panel said they considered the perpetrator of last year's gun and bomb attacks, the worst in the country's history, mentally fit enough to be held criminally responsible for the attacks. As the verdict was delivered to a packed, hushed courtroom, Breivik, dressed in a black suit, white shirt and grey tie, smirked. Among the 40 or so relatives and survivors in attendance, some nodded silently as the panel of judges shared their unanimous verdict. Many of those most directly affected by the attacks had wanted Breivik judged of sound mind and sent to prison. During the hour after delivering the verdict, Breivik stared impassively at the panel of judges, blushing only when details of his fictional Knights Templar organisation were read out. The morning session has been spent largely describing Breivik's meticulous preparations for last year's twin attacks and how he became obsessed with far-right ideology and computer games. As details were read out of the injuries sustained by each of the 77 who died and the 242 wounded , Breivik stared across the room. The force of his 950kg Oslo bomb was soon starkly evident to the courtroom, as a number of victims suffered amputations and spent lengthy periods in a coma. Meanwhile, the court heard fresh details of the killings on Utøya. Breivik was described as acting "frantic" upon arriving on the island dressed as a police officer. At the time, 536 people had gathered on the island for the Labour party's annual summer camp. During a killing spree lasting over an hour, Breivik fired 121 shots with his pistol and 136 with a semi-automatic rifle. Many of the victims were executed with close-range shots to the head. One 26-year-old woman was shot six times, including a fatal shot to her head. Many young victims hyperventilated as they tried to flee. Earlier it had rained and many stumbled and fell on slippery slopes as they ran down to the water's edges in an attempt to escape. Emotional problems have been recorded among those who managed to survive and a number of teenagers remain unable to study and are on sick leave, the court heard. Breivik is almost certain to end his life in prison. Although Norway has a maximum prison sentence of 21 years, Breivik could be sentenced to "preventive detention", which can be extended for as long as an inmate is considered dangerous to society. The verdict of the most high-profile criminal trial in Norway since Nazi collaborators were prosecuted following the second world war is certain to provoke a strong response. Most Norwegians, including the victims' families, had wanted Breivik to be found sane so he could be held accountable for what they view as a political crime. The decision also means there will be no appeal. Breivik's lawyer, Geir Lippestad, promised the gunman will not contest a jail sentence. Breivik has readily admitted carrying out the twin attacks that shocked the famously peaceful country on 22 July 2011. After setting off a car bomb outside government headquarters in Oslo, Breivik went on a shooting rampage on Utøya. Eight people died in the bombing and 69 – 34 of them aged between 14 and 17 – were killed on the island. The gunman, who has shown no remorse throughout his 10-week trial, has described how he reloaded his semi-automatic rifle while victims sat waiting for him to kill them. The decision overrides the findings of a report by court-appointed psychiatrists submitted before the start of the trial, which claimed Breivik suffered from paranoid schizophrenia. That claim, if it had been accepted by the court, would have relieved Breivik of his legal responsibility for the crime and ensured his detention in a specially built psychiatric unit inside Ila prison, just outside Oslo. He will still serve his sentence in the same jail, where he has been held in isolation for most of the time since his arrest. It is understood he could challenge a preventive detention sentence every five years. One of the reasons Breivik's attacks were presented in such graphic detail during the trial was so that the horror of Oslo and Utøya would be well-documented for the day Breivik asks to be released.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Prince Harry has put the city's riotous pool parties on the map – and, unusually, the best take place in daylight hours. So where can you make the biggest splash? In case you live in a cave and missed the story, last weekend Prince Harry was spotted getting wet and wild with dozens of bosom buddies at the alcohol-fuelled pool parties in Las Vegas. Over the past few days it's been hard to ignore all the pap shots of him getting on down at the Wynn Hotel's XS nightclub, challenging American Olympic champion swimmer Ryan Lochte to a race in his jeans, and wearing a "let's get wild" vest belonging to someone called Lauren's bachelorette party. Well, if it's good enough for British royalty, it's good enough for me, and in fact I was one step ahead of the party prince, having visited the city's pool party scene earlier this summer. The Vegas pool party concept launched in 2004 with the original day club, Rehab at the Hard Rock Hotel, and is now the focal point of wild weekends for America's youth, in much the same way as young Brits descend upon Magaluf or Mykonos. The craze has taken off in recent years, with all the major hotels along the strip now boasting party pools. I had a few concerns. It wasn't just the possibility of booze-sozzled drowning, and getting wrinkly fingers. "Where do these party people go when they need a wee?" my mother had asked. A valid point, but not one that lingered in my mind as I reclined in the 40C heat on my sunbed at Encore (another club where Harry partied), mojito in hand, nodding my head to the skittering electronic beats cascading from the two-metre high speaker stacks across a scene that brought to mind the saying "only in America". Cocktail waitresses with six-inch stilettos, pearly white smiles and tiny bikinis walked by, carrying trays laden with pitchers of frozen margarita. A six-foot, six-packed beefcake bellowed into my face that his wife would like to take a picture with me. Well, fine, you don't have to shout. Sun-kissed girls gyrated to the music, arms raised, saluting the blue skies. Resident DJ Morgan Page scrutinised his Mac Notebook and blended one heavily remixed chart hit into another. My natural instinct was to find a quiet spot away from the din to tune in to Test Match Special on long wave. But this was Vegas. They've never even heard of cricket. It was time to put the Englishness on hold. Before I knew it, somebody had tossed me a rubber ring, handed me a rubber duck filled with Bacardi and pinched my bottom. Then I was floating away into a writhing mass of oiled bodies. Las Vegas weekends usually revolve around nighttime forays into a hedonistic world. Casinos don't have windows or clocks on the walls, so weary punters don't know it's time to hit the hay, and just keep on pumping money into the slot machines. Lately, however, they've discovered a new way of partying, and one that doesn't lead to vitamin D deficiency – it's called day clubbing. My pool odyssey began at the Marquee day club at the Cosmopolitan hotel, on a terrace packed with sunbeds, Jacuzzis, liposuctioned bodies and a moderately sized pool, overlooked by palm trees and glitzy 60-storey hotels, iridescent in the sun. After walking there through the hot desert winds, from my suite at the stylish Vdara hotel (with views of the Strip and the hills of the Mojave desert), I was glad to jump straight into the pool. At its edge, as well as $500-a-day sunloungers, Grand Cabanas are available for $3,500-$5,000 a day. These soft-seated chillout zones seat up to 15 people; they are open sided, with sun shades, flatscreen TVs, minibars loaded with beer, water and soft drinks, and private infinity pools. A pitcher of margarita or mojito costs $48, a beer or bottle of water $8. Kaskade, in the DJ booth, banged out standard Vegas fare – US chart meets Balearic-style beats and soaring synths – but the music was really just a background soundtrack to the people-watching. And unlike in, say, Paris or St Tropez, at Vegas pool parties people look around to check whether other people are looking back at them. And it was the men, rather than the women, who were the real attention- seekers. The dress code for the guys is long Bermuda shorts and taut, rippled torsos. For women it's micro bikinis, wedges and tattoos. Shades obligatory. I asked the manager whether he sees wild stuff happening here. "Oh yeah, we positively encourage it." Drugs? I ask. "Oh, no, drugs aren't allowed." Sex? "No sex either." I wonder if he's just being on message … I'm pretty sure that boy and girl over by the palm trees aren't just shaking hands … In contrast to Marquee's laidback but expensive vibes, the mayhem at Encore Beach Club was mind-blowing. With 1,000 people in attendance on any given Sunday (swelling to its 3,000-capacity on a big holiday weekend) this sprawling mass was something to behold. In the booth next to us, six scantily clad 40-something all-American gals told me they visited every year to have some time away from their husbands and show off their tummy tucks, boob jobs and belly-button piercings. Around us, a huge crowd fell about, drinks in hand, posing, flirting, laughing and grinding like extras on a Yo! MTV Raps video shoot. Around the DJ booth, stick-on tattoos of the DJ, Morgan Page, were in evidence. Kids were going wild. Even the lifeguards were bopping their heads. Where does Page rank among the international DJs that come to Vegas, I asked Shaun, a seasoned dayclubber from Ohio. He fired off a list of big names: Tiësto, Deadmau5, SkyBlu from LMFAO, Benny Benassi – they all play here on the big weekends, and clubbers need to book ahead for these. Memorial Day at the end of May is the biggest weekend, but Labor Day in September and Spring Break are traditionally frantic. On a normal day, Encore entry costs $50 for men and $40 for women, but those doing it in style will get a big group together and hire an upper-tier bungalow, for $15,000 to $30,000 a day. This includes a private pool party and a vista from on high of an ocean of writhing bodies. Sundays are the big day for pool parties, and Wet Republic at the MGM Grand – where Prince Harry was spotted – is one of the biggest. When I arrived, the army of bouncers at the door appeared to be in the midst of an almighty power trip. One was complaining that all the "hoes" in the "line-up" (queue) were "pissing him off". His colleague suggested he take a break. He should try working a Friday night at Oceana in Watford. While door policies are no more restrictive than at nightclubs back home, and you're unlikely to be turned away, Mark Kmetz, a promoter at Liquid day club at the Aria hotel, told me the best bet for a guaranteed good weekend is to ring your hotel before arriving and book a senior host or promoter for your stay, to guarantee smooth entry to all the clubs and reserved sun loungers. Vegas is many things, but it is not restrictive: if you go there to party you'll be welcomed. Inside, there were plenty of washboard stomachs on display, and flab too. However, the cabanas overlooking the pool and main stage were populated with what can only be described as supermodels and sports stars. A contestant from US TV show The Bachelor was partying hard in the pool, surrounded by a harem of girls. What to do amid such a scene? Float in the pool, dance to DJ Bad Boy Bill's set of hip-hop classics, have a water-pistol fight? Or simply hire a daybed (which accommodates three to four people), sip my Corona and take it all in. I wouldn't be seeing this back in Southend-on-Sea. • Visit Las Vegas (visitlasvegas.co.uk) provided the trip. British Airways (ba.com), which provided the flights, flies from Heathrow to Las Vegas from £597 return. A new flight from Gatwick starts on 29 October, costing from £569 return. Doubles at the Vdara hotel (vdara.com) cost from $140. A day pass for the Encore Beach Club, bought in advance, costs from $20 for women, $30 for men; Marquee at Cosmopolitan, from $20/$30; Wet Republic at the MGM Grand, from $30/$50
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Daughter of Rupert Murdoch says it would be sad if newspapers could not publish something so freely available on the internet Rupert Murdoch's daughter has defended the Sun's right to publish pictures of Prince Harry naked, saying it would be "sad" if newspapers could not print something that was so freely available on the internet. Elisabeth Murdoch said the Sun's decision to publish, 24 hours after it acquiesced to the demands of St James's Palace not to proceed, was not the "death of integrity". "It would be very sad if you lived in a world where you can't publish that picture," she said on Friday, adding that she herself had gone online to "check out" the photos when they first emerged on the US showbiz website TMZ. "We have all seen the pictures online. If newspapers can't participate in that, it asks questions of where print and online go." Murdoch, who is chair of the TV production company Shine, which is owned by News Corp, was talking in a formal question and answer session on Friday morning at the Edinburgh International TV Festival after giving the festival keynote speech on Thursday night. She said she felt the prince had been stitched up by the young woman who snapped the shots of him cavorting naked in Las Vegas. "I feel sad for him – take the mobile phones away; he's a young guy having fun." Around 60 complaints have been made to the press watchdog about the Sun pictures. The Press Complaints Commission (PCC) said all the complaints came from members of the public and none had come from St James's Palace or any other representatives of the prince. The palace said it had no further comment on the matter. The Sun's decision to publish had come after Prince Charles's aides threatened legal action against newspapers if they published the images, even though they had already been circulated online. One of the two pictures of Harry naked is splashed across the paper's front page with the headline: "Heir it is!", a day after a male reporter and a female intern posed in a mock-up. In an editorial, the Sun claimed there was a "clear public interest" in publishing the photographs "in order for the debate around them to be fully informed". It added: "The photos have potential implications for the prince's image representing Britain around the world. "There are questions over his security during the Las Vegas holiday. Questions as to whether his position in the army might be affected. Further, we believe Harry has compromised his own privacy." The grainy mobile phone pictures of the prince's antics were first published online by TMZ early on Wednesday. Clarence House confirmed their authenticity but royal aides moved quickly to warn British media organisations not to republish the embarrassing photographs, with newspapers complying until the Sun broke ranks on Thursday night. A Press Complaints Commission spokesman said on Thursday: "This was an editorial decision taken by the Sun. Should the PCC receive a complaint, it will investigate it following normal procedures." The Sun's managing editor, David Dinsmore, said the paper had "thought long and hard" about whether to use the pictures and said it was an issue of freedom of the press rather than because it was moralising about Harry's actions. He said: "This is about the ludicrous situation where a picture can be seen by hundreds of millions of people around the world on the internet, but can't be seen in the nation's favourite paper read by 8 million people every day. "This is about our readers getting involved in discussion with the man who's third in line to the throne, it's as simple as that." There was a mixed reaction to the publication of the photos. Media lawyer Mark Stephens said: "There is no public interest in publishing these pictures, even the Sun can't come up with a public interest in publishing these pictures, and the fact that they are available in foreign media doesn't make English law any less applicable. They have broken the law cynically, and obviously with a view to obtaining publicity." Former deputy prime minister Lord Prescott said: "The Sun's actions proves that as of this morning, self-regulation is now dead. This [story] is not in public interest, it is in the self-interest of Murdoch to earn money by breaching the privacy of anyone he wants, to sell his newspapers. "The argument that just because it is all over the internet is spurious at least. There are lots of offensive images and extreme material on the web which international papers don't print." But Louise Mensch, a Conservative member of the culture committee, said: "There is a clear, demonstrable public interest: the royal family receives money from the civil list; Prince Harry in inviting people to his room [had] the expectation of privacy so there's questions of judgment and questions of security."
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Court decides confessed killer was not psychotic when he went on rampage in Oslo that left 77 people dead Anders Behring Breivik, the Norwegian far-right extremist, has been sentenced to at least 21 years in prison after a court declared he was sane throughout his murderous rampage last year that killed 77 people. The Oslo district court declared its verdict that the 33-year-old was not psychotic while carrying out the twin attacks, including the shooting of dozens of teenagers attending a political camp. The court's decision will have delighted Breivik, who had hoped to avoid what he called the "humiliation" of being dismissed as a madman. The mass killer had desperately hoped the court would find him criminally culpable for the killings, claiming they were "cruel and necessary" to protect Norway from becoming overrun by Muslims. After two months of deliberations, the five-judge panel told a packed Oslo courtroom they considered the perpetrator of last year's gun and bomb attacks, the worst in the country's history, mentally fit enough to be held criminally responsible for the attacks, which also left 242 wounded. Breivik is almost certain to end his life in prison. Although Norway has a maximum prison sentence of 21-years, Breivik could be sentenced to "preventive detention", which can be extended for as long as an inmate is considered dangerous to society. The verdict of the most high-profile criminal trial in Norway since Nazi collaborators were prosecuted following the second world war is certain to provoke a strong response. Most Norwegians, including the victims' families, had wanted Breivik to be found sane so he could be held accountable for what they view as a political crime. The decision also means there will be no appeal, Breveik's lawyer, Geir Lippestad, having promised the gunman will not contest a jail sentence. Breivik has readily admitted to carrying out the twin attacks that shocked the famously peaceful country on 22 July 2011. After setting off a 950kg car bomb outside government headquarters in Oslo, Breivik went on a shooting rampage on Utoya island, where youth members of the governing Labour party had gathered for their annual summer camp. Eight people died in the bombing and 69 – 34 of them aged between 14 and 17 – were killed in an attack that lasted over an hour. The gunman, who has shown no remorse throughout his 10-week trial, has described how he reloaded his semi-automatic rifle while victims sat waiting for him to kill them. The decision overrides the findings of a report by court-appointed psychiatrists submitted before the start of the trial, which claimed Breivik suffered from paranoid schizophrenia. That claim, if accepted by the court, would have relieved Breivik of his legal responsibility for the crime and ensured his detention in a specially built psychiatric unit inside Ila prison, just outside Oslo. Breivik will, however, still end up in the same jail, where he has been held in isolation for most of the time since his arrest. It is understood he could challenge a "preventive detention" sentence every five years. One of the reasons Breivik's attacks were presented in such graphic detail during the trial was so that the horror of Oslo and Utoya would be well-documented for the day Breivik asks to be released.
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Court decides confessed killer was not psychotic when he went on rampage in Oslo that left 77 people dead Anders Behring Breivik, the Norwegian far-right extremist, has been sentenced to at least 21 years in prison after a court declared he was sane throughout his murderous rampage last year that killed 77 people. The Oslo district court declared its verdict that the 33-year-old was not psychotic while carrying out the twin attacks, including the shooting of dozens of teenagers attending a political camp. The court's decision will have delighted Breivik, who had hoped to avoid what he called the "humiliation" of being dismissed as a madman. The mass killer had desperately hoped the court would find him criminally culpable for the killings, claiming they were "cruel and necessary" to protect Norway from becoming overrun by Muslims. After two months of deliberations, the five-judge panel told a packed Oslo courtroom they considered the perpetrator of last year's gun and bomb attacks, the worst in the country's history, mentally fit enough to be held criminally responsible for the attacks, which also left 242 wounded. Breivik is almost certain to end his life in prison. Although Norway has a maximum prison sentence of 21-years, Breivik could be sentenced to "preventive detention", which can be extended for as long as an inmate is considered dangerous to society. The verdict of the most high-profile criminal trial in Norway since Nazi collaborators were prosecuted following the second world war is certain to provoke a strong response. Most Norwegians, including the victims' families, had wanted Breivik to be found sane so he could be held accountable for what they view as a political crime. The decision also means there will be no appeal, Breveik's lawyer, Geir Lippestad, having promised the gunman will not contest a jail sentence. Breivik has readily admitted to carrying out the twin attacks that shocked the famously peaceful country on 22 July 2011. After setting off a 950kg car bomb outside government headquarters in Oslo, Breivik went on a shooting rampage on Utoya island, where youth members of the governing Labour party had gathered for their annual summer camp. Eight people died in the bombing and 69 – 34 of them aged between 14 and 17 – were killed in an attack that lasted over an hour. The gunman, who has shown no remorse throughout his 10-week trial, has described how he reloaded his semi-automatic rifle while victims sat waiting for him to kill them. The decision overrides the findings of a report by court-appointed psychiatrists submitted before the start of the trial, which claimed Breivik suffered from paranoid schizophrenia. That claim, if accepted by the court, would have relieved Breivik of his legal responsibility for the crime and ensured his detention in a specially built psychiatric unit inside Ila prison, just outside Oslo. Breivik will, however, still end up in the same jail, where he has been held in isolation for most of the time since his arrest. It is understood he could challenge a "preventive detention" sentence every five years. One of the reasons Breivik's attacks were presented in such graphic detail during the trial was so that the horror of Oslo and Utoya would be well-documented for the day Breivik asks to be released.
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Seoul court orders companies to take some iPhone, iPad and Galaxy products off shelves in South Korea A South Korean court has fined both Apple and Samsung, ruling that each infringed the other's patents in building their mobile devices and banning some of their products from sale in the country. The Seoul central district court ordered Apple to remove the iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPad 1 and iPad 2 from shelves in South Korea, citing they infringed two of Samsung's telecommunications patents. The court also ruled that Samsung infringed one of Apple's patents related to the screen's bouncing back ability and banned sales of the Galaxy S2 and other products in South Korea. Sales of devices recently released by Samsung and Apple including the iPhone 4S and the Galaxy S3 smartphones were not affected. The court also ordered the two parties to pay monetary compensation to each other. Samsung must pay Apple 25m won (£14,000/$22,000) while Apple must pay its rival 40m won (£22,000/$35,000). The lawsuit is part of a global multibillion dollar fight between the world's two largest smartphone makers. The highest stakes are in the US, where the two companies are locked in a federal court struggle over patents and innovation. California-based Apple sued Samsung in 2011 in the US, alleging that some of the South Korean company's smartphones and computer tablets are little more than illegal copies of Apple's iPhone and iPad. Samsung denies the allegations and argues that all companies in the industry mimic each other's successes without crossing the legal line. Apple is suing South Korean-based Samsung for $2.5bn (£1.5bn), making the case one of the biggest technology disputes in history. Jury deliberations are continuing after three weeks of testimony concluded on Wednesday. Days after Apple filed its suit in the US, Samsung filed a lawsuit on its home turf and in other countries, accusing Apple of breaching its telecommunications patents.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Follow live updates as France calls for a no-fly zone amid continued fighting
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Follow live updates as France calls for a no-fly zone amid continued fighting
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Trip to Beijing to meet Chinese leaders would be North Korean leader's first visit abroad after death of his father, Kim Jong-il The North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, is seeking an ice-breaking trip to key ally Beijing next month to meet China's outgoing and new leaders, according to a source with ties to both countries. It would be Kim's first trip abroad since he assumed power after the death of his father, Kim Jong-il, in December. It follows the recent high-profile visit to Beijing by Kim's uncle, Jang Song-thaek, who is effectively the second most powerful figure in North Korea. "It will be a get-to-know-you trip," the source told Reuters. The source has correctly predicted events in the past, including the country's first nuclear test in 2006and Jang's ascension. "It will be a state visit. This was one of the most important missions of Jang Song-thaek's visit," said the source, who has direct knowledge of the request. The source said Pyongyang was likely to repeat its threat to carry out a third nuclear test unless Washington and Seoul agree to its longstanding demand to sign a permanent peace treaty to replace the armistice that ended the 1950-53 Korean war. "There is no doubt North Korea has the capability [for a third nuclear test], but China is strongly opposed to it," the source said. "North Korea wants a permanent peace treaty to replace the armistice in exchange for dropping plans for a third nuclear test. It's been 60 years and it is time to [formally] end the war with a peace treaty," the source added. The Chinese foreign ministry declined to comment.
  | | | | | | | | | |  | |  | |  |
Aucun commentaire:
Enregistrer un commentaire