|  |  |  | | | | | The Guardian World News | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Phil Bryant said the denial of a wedding for Charles and Te'Andrea Wilson by a church has tainted Mississippi's image Mississippi governor Phil Bryant has said it was "unfortunate" that a predominantly white church in the state wouldn't allow a black couple to get married in its sanctuary, adding that the state should encourage the union of any couple – as long as it is made up of a man and a woman. Charles and Te'Andrea Wilson say they weren't allowed to marry in July at First Baptist Church of Crystal Springs, a small town south of Jackson. The Rev Stan Weatherford, pastor of the church, married the Wilsons at a church nearby. The wedding was moved after some congregants at First Baptist told Weatherford they opposed allowing black people to marry in the church. "As hard as we work to try to convince the rest of the world that Mississippi has changed – and, in fact, we have – to see an unfortunate situation like that occur is very disappointing," Bryant said on Thursday. The Republican governor spoke to reporters after he gave a speech at the Neshoba County Fair, an annual gathering in the red clay hills of east central Mississippi. The fair attracts tens of thousands of people, including extended families who live for several days, in the peak of summer heat and humidity, in more than 600 brightly painted, shotgun-style cabins. Bryant, who is Methodist, has campaigned throughout his career as a conservative who opposes same-sex marriage and abortions. He also has close ties to the Tupelo-based American Family Association, which boycotts corporations it believes embrace gay rights. Bryant said the denial of a wedding for a black couple at a the church has "tainted" Mississippi's image. "I'm sure there are very good people of Crystal Springs and in that Baptist church that don't feel that way and are supporting that effort," Bryant said of the Wilsons' desire to marry in the church. "Look, when people want to get married, we ought to let them get married," Bryant said. "We have enough people that won't go and get married. I want to make every opportunity I can for any couple that wants to, to go get married." But when asked if that should include couples where both partners are of the same sex, he added: "I wouldn't say gay couples, no," Bryant said. "I'd say a man and a woman. Let me make sure, let's get that right. When I say couples, I automatically assume it's a man and a woman." In the November 2004 general election, 86% of Mississippi voters approved an amendment banning same-sex marriage. Bryant, who was state auditor at the time, publicly supported the amendment.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Social networking site said fake profiles included millions created for pets and a large number of accounts it deems 'undesirable' Facebook has more than 83m fake profiles, including millions created for users' pets and a large number of accounts the company deems "undesirable", it has admitted. The figure emerged in Facebook's first quarterly report to US financial regulators since the world's biggest social network made its much-criticised stock market debut in May. The company said 8.7% of its 955m global users were not real. There were 83.09m fake users in total, which Facebook classifies into three groups. The largest is made up of almost 46m duplicate profiles, accounting for 4.8% of all accounts. The company defined that category as "an account that a user maintains in addition to his or her principal account". What were deemed "user-misclassified" profiles amounted to 2.4%, almost 23m, where Facebook says "users have created personal profiles for a business, organisation or non-human entity such as a pet". Finally, "undesirable" profiles accounted for the remainder, about 14m, which are deemed to be in breach of Facebook's terms and conditions. The company said this typically means accounts that have been set up to send spam messages or content to other Facebook users. In March, when Facebook last gave an estimate of the number of fake or duplicate accounts, it said the proportion was in the region of 5% or 6%, which at the time meant between 42m and 50m. The admission comes at a difficult time for Facebook as it attempts to rally following a disastrous stock market flotation, and convince shareholders it will be able to translate its extraordinary growth and global user base of nearly 1bn into a profitable and sustainable business. "We generate a substantial majority of our revenue from advertising," the company said in its filing. "The loss of advertisers, or reduction in spending by advertisers with Facebook, could seriously harm our business." This week, an online shopping platform provider, Limited Run, formerly known as Limited Pressing, published a lengthy post on its own Facebook page alleging its analytic software found that 80% of clicks on ads on the social networking site came from "bots", or fake users. Facebook shares launched on the stock market at $38, but the price has since slumped to just over half that at $20. In its quarterly announcement, the business reported revenues of $1.18bn and a loss of $157m for the three months to the end of June. The results were just ahead of Wall Street expectations, but Facebook's share price plummeted nonetheless as the company failed to convince investors it can transfer its hugely successful model to an increasingly mobile world. This was despite the social network increasing its number of mobile users 67% year-on-year to 543 million in the three months to the end June. Sir Martin Sorrell, chief executive of the world's largest marketing services company, WPP, said last month he remained unconvinced that the social network was a good advertising medium, providing branding opportunities but little else.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | US global financial services firm sees capital wiped out by software glitch as shares plunge 80% in two days. Knight Capital Group Inc is fighting for its survival after a $440 million (£283m) trading loss caused by a software glitch which has wiped out much of its capital, forcing Knight to seek new funding as its shares plunged as much as 80% in two days. Many of the company's biggest customers, including TD Ameritrade, the No 1 US retail brokerage by trading volume, and fund giants Vanguard and Fidelity Investments, stopped routing orders through Knight. One of the biggest fears is that the company will collapse, landing trading partners with losses. "They have about 48 hours to shore up confidence," said James Koutoulas, head of an advocacy group for former customers of failed brokerages MF Global and Peregrine Financial. Knight said it is "actively pursuing its strategic and financing alternatives", raising the likelihood the firm will be sold or face bankruptcy because of the loss and subsequent damage to business. As one of the leading market makers in US stocks, Knight is among the firms that are critical to smooth, orderly trading. Market makers match orders from buyers and sellers and often provide liquidity by stepping into the market themselves. The speed at which Knight has unravelled has been particularly unnerving for investors and markets. It resulted from problems with the firm's trading software that sent bogus, rapid-fire trades into the market for 45 minutes on Wednesday and left Knight with big losses on numerous stocks it bought at inflated prices. "This is like a nuclear reactor or aircraft," said Roy Niederhoffer, whose RG Niederhoffer Capital Management uses Knight. "There has to be some way of seeing the state of the whole system." He said that there was "no excuse" for Knight failing to act sooner. Knight is in talks with Silver Lake Partners-backed trading firm Virtu Financial LLC about a possible deal, according to The Wall Street Journal. Knight has approached JPMorgan Chase & Co for financing, according to a report on Fox Business Network. A spokesman for JPMorgan declined to comment. Spokeswomen for both Knight and Silver Lake also declined comment. Late on Thursday, the firm planned to set up a data room for potential bidders to comb through its books, according to a source familiar with the situation. Some private equity firms were weighing whether to look at the company, the source added, saying that the situation was fluid. A Bloomberg report said the firm had hired Sandler O'Neill and Goldman Sachs to advise it on next steps. Goldman and Sandler O'Neill officials declined to comment. "You have to find someone who is willing to move pretty quickly," the source said. "It is a confidence issue." Knight's $440m trading loss has reignited debate over whether technology has elevated risk in trading to unacceptable levels. The US Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday said it would consider whether new measures might be necessary to safeguard markets. "We continue to closely review the events surrounding yesterday's trading and discuss those events with other regulators as well as Knight Capital Group," said SEC spokesman John Nester. "We also are considering what, if any, additional steps may be necessary, beyond the post-Flash Crash measures that limited the impact of yesterday's trading," Nester said. Advocates of trading systems that can pump thousands of shares across Wall Street in milliseconds say the fault lies not in the systems but in the lack of controls at individual firms. Knight blamed its technology breakdown on new software that routed a flood of erroneous orders to the New York Stock Exchange on Wednesday, but offered no explanation as to why traders didn't immediately intervene to arrest the obvious errors.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | • American wins in 1:54.27, 0.63 ahead of team-mate
• Phelps claims 16th Olympic gold and 20th medal overall Two days out from the very end of his 12-year career, Michael Phelps summoned up one of the great swims of his life to beat Ryan Lochte in the final of the 200m individual medley. Don't call it a comeback. It was the 20th Olympic medal of his career, which is as many as, to pluck one example from several, India have won in 112 years of competition. It was also his 16th gold. No one else has even made it into double figures. Staggering as they are, such numbers alone tell little of the story. Phelps had already lost the two individual finals he was competing in at the Games, beaten by Lochte in the 400m IM last Saturday night, and by South Africa's Chad le Clos in the final of the 200m butterfly on Tuesday. The one gold he had won came in the 4x200m freestyle relay, when his three team-mates, Lochte among them, gave him such a large advantage that he could coast to victory in much the same way that he looked to be coasting through these Games. Until Thursday night, that is. Phelps's time was 1min 54.27sec, the third-quickest in history. Only he and Lochte have gone faster, and that was in the final of this same event at the world championships in Shanghai last year. Lochte was quicker off the blocks but Phelps beat him to the turn in the fly, and again in the backstroke. At that point he was two-tenths inside Lochte's world record. Phelps beat him in the breaststroke leg too. Lochte came back at him hard in the final 50m of freestyle, but not hard enough. It has been a good 24 hours for Phelps. On Wednesday night he took a call from Barack Obama. The first he knew about was when he picked up his phone and was told to "please hold for the president". He would not reveal what they had talked about, only that Obama had signed off by saying "Tell your Mum I said 'Hi'." Where do you go from there? Phelps has, in all likelihood, two competitive races left. On Friday night he will go in the 100m butterfly, against one old rival in Milorad Cavic and one young one in Le Clos. Five minutes after he had stepped down from the top of the podium he was back in the pool swimming in the semi-finals. He destroyed the field in that too, finishing in 50.86sec. It was the fastest time in the world this year, the eighth-quickest in history, and more than half a second better than anyone else. After that, on Saturday night, he will surely get one final send-off in the 4x100m medley relay. He is not going quietly. Lochte had an even tougher task. He was trying to double up in the 200m backstroke and the medley. Caught between the two, he did not swim as well as he was can in either. He finished third in the backstroke, behind his team-mate Tyler Clary and Japan's Ryosuke Irie. Clary, funnily enough, would have been attempting the same double himself if he had not finished third to Lochte and Phelps at the US Trials. As it was, he had the advantage of a light schedule, and it showed. Lochte lead for the first 150m but Clary powered past him in the final 25m. Irie, the consummate technician who trains with a bottle of water balanced on his head to minimise unnecessary movement, eased past him too. Clary finished in an Olympic record of 1:53.41, .43 ahead of Lochte. Until now Clary had been in the headlines only for calling out Phelps as "somebody that has basically been asking to get beat for the longest time". Turns out he was wrong about that. After the finish, Lochte looked over and said to him simply "good job". There were just 29 minutes between Lochte's two races, and he spent them swimming lazy lengths in the dive pool. Similar feats have been done before – Germany's Kornelia Ender won the 100m butterfly and the 200m freestyle in the space of just 27 minutes in 1976. But this was far from Lochte's ideal preparation. He normally likes to spend his time shooting the breeze. He tends to talk a lot in the call room, and has had to get used to the fact no one wants to talk back to him because they are all so focused on the race ahead. Lochte has never been that way. Lochte's father, Steve, tells a story about how once, at a state championships in 2001, his son went missing before a big final. Frantic, he found him in a nearby gym, shooting hoops in his racing suit. Steve bawled his son out. "I said, 'Ryan, what the heck are you doing? You're up in the next heat!'" Lochte replied: "One more shot, Dad." He makes the basket, says "Yeah!" grabs his cap and goggles and runs out of the gym. Lochte won the race by more than 10sec, in a personal best. Lochte has won five medals at these Olympics, two golds, two silvers and one bronze. Added to those he won in Athens and Beijing, it gives him a tally of 11. But after this week, there is no doubt: he will go down as the second-greatest swimmer of his generation, behind only the greatest of all time. The two of them left the pool together, smiling, laughing, friends and rivals.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Islamabad's high commissioner believes the US should hand over control of the attacks to his government One of Islamabad's most senior diplomats is warning that CIA drone strikes in Pakistan's tribal areas are weakening democracy and risk pushing people towards extremist groups. Wajid Shamsul Hasan, the high commissioner to London and one of Pakistan's top ambassadors, also accuses the US of "talking in miles" when it comes to democracy but "moving in inches". In an interview with the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, Hasan, four years into his second stint in the post, argues that US drone strikes risk significantly weakening Pakistan's democratic institutions. "What has been the whole outcome of these drone attacks is that you have directly or indirectly contributed to destabilising or undermining the democratic government. Because people really make fun of the democratic government – when you pass a resolution against drone attacks in the parliament and nothing happens. The Americans don't listen to you, and they continue to violate your territory," he said. But he accepts that Pakistan has little power to stop the strikes other than through public opinion: "We cannot take on the only superpower, which is all-powerful in the world at the moment. You can't take them on. We are a small country, we are ill-equipped." The high commissioner's comments appear to be part of a major PR offensive by a Pakistani government keen to see an end to the unpopular drone strikes. Last week, Sherry Rehman, Islamabad's ambassador to the US, said: "We will seek an end to drone strikes and there will be no compromise on that." The heads of Pakistan's army and ISI spy service are also lobbying Washington to allow Pakistani forces to carry out any actual strikes against terrorists, based on US intelligence. The reason, says Hasan, is that anti-US sentiment is reaching dangerously high levels. "Even those who were supporting us in the border areas have now become our enemies. They say that we are partners in these crimes against the people. By and large you will hardly find anybody who will say a word in support of the United States, because of these drone attacks." Hasan insists his country is committed to the war against al-Qaida and extremism, noting the thousands of Pakistani civilians and soldiers who have died in terrorist attacks since 9/11. "We're not opposed to eliminating these al-Qaida chaps. We were not opposed to eliminating Osama bin Laden, because he was declared an international terrorist. If I were there I would have killed him myself." The issue, he insists, is the continued violation of Pakistan's national sovereignty by US drones. "This is a violation of the UN charter, it is a clear violation of our territorial sovereignty and national integrity. These drone violations have been taking place since 2004. And the attacks have killed 2,500 to 3,000 people," he said. Hasan is also scathing about what he sees as the US's weak commitment towards democracy in Pakistan and Afghanistan, implying there are those in the US government who would still prefer to be dealing with a dictator. "They talk in miles in support of democracy, but they move in inches. They say, 'We are fully for democracy, we want democracy, we support the Arab spring, we are opposed to military interference in Egypt'. "All of these things are very good. But when it comes to real politics they are different. [The US secretary of state] Hillary Clinton has really supported democracy. But she is one person. There are so many pillars of power in the United States, and they act differently." nd he added: 'Ten years down the road you have not even allowed democratic parties to be active, you are not allowing political parties to exist in Afghanistan. How can you have democracy if you don't have political parties? He argues that Pakistan can still play a key role in negotiating peace with the Taliban — but that the US has shown little interest in offers of aid: 'When we have been telling them that you must have a dialogue with the Taliban, good or bad, they never listen to us. Now they have started back-door diplomacy and all these backtracks through the Saudis and others. But again they're forgetting one thing. Pakistan has been one of the major players in the region, ever since the Soviets occupied Afghanistan. We have had the best relationship with those Afghans, the Taliban or whatever in the past. Couldn't we be a better option for them to deal with those people? No — they never bothered.' 'Drone strikes won't end the violence' With the US and Nato intending to withdraw from Afghanistan by 2014, Hasan insists that Pakistan will continue the fight against al-Qaida – but that it cannot accept US drone strikes. "Bush's state department said a fortnight before 9/11 that they were opposed to targeted killing [in Israel] because they don't end the violence. And drone strikes won't end the violence, they won't end extremism, they won't end the Taliban and won't end al-Qaida. "What you have to do is win the hearts and minds of the people, to solve the local problem there in Afghanistan, to stop the drone attacks in Pakistan so the people can see that yes, they have been stopped, now let's build a relationship, yes let's try to resolve this terrible issue. Let's fight terrorism. "And we are a very resilient people, we can fight it."
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Former News International chief executive formally charged over alleged phone hacking and will appear in court next month Former News International chief executive Rebekah Brooks was formally charged with phone hacking and will appear in court next month, Scotland Yard have said. Brooks, 44, answered bail at Lewisham police station and will appear at Westminster magistrates court on 3 September. Six other journalists from the News of the World, including David Cameron's former spin doctor Andy Coulson, have been officially charged and will appear at the same court on 16 August. The seven stand accused of one general charge of alleged phone hacking between October 2000 and August 2006 that could affect as many as 600 victims. Brooks, of Churchill, Oxford, and Coulson face specific charges of illegally accessing the voicemail of murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler. The other former NoW staff who face court action are ex-managing editor Stuart Kuttner, former news editor Greg Miskiw, former head of news Ian Edmondson, ex-chief reporter Neville Thurlbeck and former reporter James Weatherup. In a statement issued last month, Brooks insisted she was innocent, adding: "The charge concerning Milly Dowler is particularly upsetting, not only as it is untrue but also because I have spent my journalistic career campaigning for victims of crime. I will vigorously defend these allegations." Brooks is already facing three counts of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice, linked to the investigation into phone hacking. She and five others, including her racehorse trainer husband Charlie, who faces one count of the same offence, are due to appear at Southwark Crown Court in London on 26 September.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Former News International chief executive formally charged over alleged phone hacking and will appear in court next month Former News International chief executive Rebekah Brooks was formally charged with phone hacking and will appear in court next month, Scotland Yard have said. Brooks, 44, answered bail at Lewisham police station and will appear at Westminster Magistrates' Court on 3 September. Six other journalists from the News of the World, including David Cameron's former spin doctor Andy Coulson, have been officially charged and will appear at the same court on 16 August. The seven stand accused of one general charge of alleged phone hacking between October 2000 and August 2006 that could affect as many as 600 victims. Brooks, of Churchill, Oxford, and Coulson face specific charges of illegally accessing the voicemail of murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler. The other former NoW staff who face court action are ex-managing editor Stuart Kuttner, former news editor Greg Miskiw, former head of news Ian Edmondson, ex-chief reporter Neville Thurlbeck and former reporter James Weatherup. In a statement issued last month, Brooks insisted she was innocent, adding: "The charge concerning Milly Dowler is particularly upsetting, not only as it is untrue but also because I have spent my journalistic career campaigning for victims of crime. I will vigorously defend these allegations." Brooks is already facing three counts of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice, linked to the investigation into phone hacking. She and five others, including her racehorse trainer husband Charlie, who faces one count of the same offence, are due to appear at Southwark Crown Court in London on 26 September.
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | • American wins in 1:54.27, 0.63 ahead of team-mate
• Phelps claims 16th Olympic gold and 20th medal overall Two days out from the very end of his 12-year career, Michael Phelps summoned up one of the great swims of his life to beat Ryan Lochte in the final of the 200m individual medley. Don't call it a comeback. It was the 20th Olympic medal of his career, which is as many as, to pluck one example from several, India have won in 112 years of competition. It was also his 16th gold. No one else has even made it into double figures. Staggering as they are, such numbers alone tell little of the story. Phelps had already lost the two individual finals he was competing in at the Games, beaten by Lochte in the 400m IM last Saturday night, and by South Africa's Chad le Clos in the final of the 200m butterfly on Tuesday. The one gold he had won came in the 4x200m freestyle relay, when his three team-mates, Lochte among them, gave him such a large advantage that he could coast to victory in much the same way that he looked to be coasting through these Games. Until Thursday night, that is. Phelps's time was 1min 54.27sec, the third-quickest in history. Only he and Lochte have gone faster, and that was in the final of this same event at the world championships in Shanghai last year. Lochte was quicker off the blocks but Phelps beat him to the turn in the fly, and again in the backstroke. At that point he was two-tenths inside Lochte's world record. Phelps beat him in the breaststroke leg too. Lochte came back at him hard in the final 50m of freestyle, but not hard enough. It has been a good 24 hours for Phelps. On Wednesday night he took a call from Barack Obama. The first he knew about was when he picked up his phone and was told to "please hold for the president". He would not reveal what they had talked about, only that Obama had signed off by saying "Tell your Mum I said 'Hi'." Where do you go from there? Phelps has, in all likelihood, two competitive races left. On Friday night he will go in the 100m butterfly, against one old rival in Milorad Cavic and one young one in Le Clos. Five minutes after he had stepped down from the top of the podium he was back in the pool swimming in the semi-finals. He destroyed the field in that too, finishing in 50.86sec. It was the fastest time in the world this year, the eighth-quickest in history, and more than half a second better than anyone else. After that, on Saturday night, he will surely get one final send-off in the 4x100m medley relay. He is not going quietly. Lochte had an even tougher task. He was trying to double up in the 200m backstroke and the medley. Caught between the two, he did not swim as well as he was can in either. He finished third in the backstroke, behind his team-mate Tyler Clary and Japan's Ryosuke Irie. Clary, funnily enough, would have been attempting the same double himself if he had not finished third to Lochte and Phelps at the US Trials. As it was, he had the advantage of a light schedule, and it showed. Lochte lead for the first 150m but Clary powered past him in the final 25m. Irie, the consummate technician who trains with a bottle of water balanced on his head to minimise unnecessary movement, eased past him too. Clary finished in an Olympic record of 1:53.41, .43 ahead of Lochte. Until now Clary had been in the headlines only for calling out Phelps as "somebody that has basically been asking to get beat for the longest time". Turns out he was wrong about that. After the finish, Lochte looked over and said to him simply "good job". There were just 29 minutes between Lochte's two races, and he spent them swimming lazy lengths in the dive pool. Similar feats have been done before – Germany's Kornelia Ender won the 100m butterfly and the 200m freestyle in the space of just 27 minutes in 1976. But this was far from Lochte's ideal preparation. He normally likes to spend his time shooting the breeze. He tends to talk a lot in the call room, and has had to get used to the fact no one wants to talk back to him because they are all so focused on the race ahead. Lochte has never been that way. Lochte's father, Steve, tells a story about how once, at a state championships in 2001, his son went missing before a big final. Frantic, he found him in a nearby gym, shooting hoops in his racing suit. Steve bawled his son out. "I said, 'Ryan, what the heck are you doing? You're up in the next heat!'" Lochte replied: "One more shot, Dad." He makes the basket, says "Yeah!" grabs his cap and goggles and runs out of the gym. Lochte won the race by more than 10sec, in a personal best. Lochte has won five medals at these Olympics, two golds, two silvers and one bronze. Added to those he won in Athens and Beijing, it gives him a tally of 11. But after this week, there is no doubt: he will go down as the second-greatest swimmer of his generation, behind only the greatest of all time. The two of them left the pool together, smiling, laughing, friends and rivals.
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Social networking site said fake profiles included millions created for pets and a large number of accounts it deems 'undesirable' Facebook has more than 83 million fake profiles, including millions created for users' pets and a large number of accounts the company deems "undesirable", it has admitted. The figure emerged in Facebook's first quarterly report to US financial regulators since the world's biggest social network made its much-criticised stock market debut in May. In a return published this week, the company said 8.7% of its 955 million global users are not real. There were 83.09 million fake users in total, which Facebook classifies into three groups. The largest is made up of almost 46 million duplicate profiles, accounting for 4.8% of all accounts. The company defined that category as "an account that a user maintains in addition to his or her principal account". What were deemed "user-misclassified" profiles amounted to 2.4%, almost 23 million, where Facebook says "users have created personal profiles for a business, organisation or non-human entity such as a pet". Finally, "undesirable" profiles accounted for the remainder, about 14 million, which are deemed to be in breach of Facebook's terms and conditions. The company said this typically means accounts that have been set up to send spam messages or content to other Facebook users. In March, when Facebook last gave an estimate of the number of fake or duplicate accounts, it said the proportion was in the region of 5% or 6%, which at the time meant between 42 million and 50 million. The admission comes at a difficult time for Facebook as it attempts to rally following a disastrous stock market flotation, and convince shareholders it will be able to translate its extraordinary growth and global user base of nearly 1 billion into a profitable and sustainable business. "We generate a substantial majority of our revenue from advertising," the company said in its filing. "The loss of advertisers, or reduction in spending by advertisers with Facebook, could seriously harm our business." This week an online shopping platform provider, Limited Run, formerly known as Limited Pressing, published a lengthy post on its own Facebook page alleging its analytic software found that 80% of clicks on ads on the social networking site came from "bots", or fake users. Facebook shares launched on the stock market at $38, but the price has since slumped to just over half that at $20. In its quarterly announcement, the business reported revenues of $1.18bn and a loss of $157m for the three months to the end of June. The results were just ahead of Wall Street expectations, but Facebook's share price plummeted nonetheless as the company failed to convince investors it can transfer its hugely successful model to an increasingly mobile world. This was despite the social network increasing its number of mobile users 67% year-on-year to 543 million in the three months to the end June. Last month Sir Martin Sorrell, chief executive of the world's largest marketing services company, WPP, said he remained unconvinced that the social network is a good advertising medium, providing branding opportunities but little else.
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Syrian peace mission impossible because of militarisation on the ground and lack of international unity, says former head of UN International disarray over the bloody crisis in Syria has been starkly underlined when the UN envoy Kofi Annan announced that he was resigning because of the failure of what he said had become a "mission impossible". The former UN secretary general said it had been a "sacred duty" to take up the position five months ago to try to find a solution to the conflict. But growing militarisation and a lack of unity among world powers had changed the circumstances. "At a time when we need – when the Syrian people desperately need action – there continues to be finger-pointing and name-calling in the security council," Annan said on Thursday in a sometimes bitter and frustrated statement he made at the UN's Geneva headquarters. Annan's six-point plan for peace in Syria was already moribund but his dramatic resignation will serve as its death certificate. It leaves the international community without an effective grip on the most violent chapter of the Arab spring, now morphing into a civil war that has already cost an estimated 20,000 lives. Sluggish and ineffective diplomacy has been outpaced by a fast-moving and increasingly dangerous situation with the current focus on fighting for Aleppo, the country's second city. Ban ki-Moon, the current UN chief, said he would appoint another envoy when Annan leaves at the end of August. The White House said his resignation showed the failure of Russia and China to act at the UN security council. "President Assad, despite his promise to abide by the Kofi Annan plan, continues to brutally murder his own people," spokesman Jay Carney told reporters aboard Air Force One. Britain said Annan's scheme remained valid. But it is unclear what any envoy can do without any readiness by Assad's regime or the rebels to negotiate a peaceful transition that would stop the killing. David Cameron highlighted the difficulty after his talks with the Russian president Vladimir Putin in London, when he called for tougher UN resolutions to pressure Assad over the "appalling bloodshed" in Syria. Russia has already used its security council veto three times to block any UN action and Putin gave no sign he was ready to change position. Assad, Annan said, would have to leave office "sooner or later" – a position that was not endorsed by the security council at a meeting in Geneva on 30 June. Syria said it regretted his departure. Critics had assailed Annan's plan from the start on the grounds that it allowed Assad to pay lip service to diplomacy and haggle over the terms while pursuing a violent crackdown on the opposition. Apart from a few days in April, the Syrian government ignored calls for a ceasefire and the withdrawal of forces from cities. Few prisoners were released, access for humanitarian workers and the media was limited and political dialogue proved impossible as positions polarised. UN monitors charged with observing the ceasefire moved agonisingly slowly, taking six weeks to deploy to full strength of 300 men who could report on the aftermath of increasingly frequent massacres but were powerless to stop them. If the failure was of the mission rather than the man, it will still be a blow for the veteran Ghanaian diplomat who has often been criticised for his role as head of UN peacekeeping operations at the time of the Rwandan genocide in 1994 and the massacre of Bosnian Muslims by Serbs at Srebrenica the following year. "You have to understand: as an envoy, I can't want peace more than the protagonists, more than the security council or the international community for that matter," he said . "My central concern from the start has been the welfare of the Syrian people. Syria can still be saved from the worst calamity – if the international community can show the courage and leadership necessary to compromise on their partial interests for the sake of the Syrian people." Ban, he said, might find a replacement. "Let me say that the world is full of crazy people like me, so don't be surprised if someone else decides to take it on." Annan foreshadowed his resignation in an interview with the Guardian last month when he complained of "destructive competition" between world powers over Syria.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | International mediator announces his resignation as international envoy to Syria
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Rolling report: Join Scott Murray as Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte go head-to-head at the Aquatics Centre, where there are four finals
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Rolling report: Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte went head-to-head at the Aquatics Centre - and the old boy won. Scott Murray was watching
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | • Douglas wins USA's third straight Olympic women's title
• Russia's Viktoria Komova and Aliya Mustafina second and third The USA underlined their place at the top of world gymnastics as Gabrielle Douglas took her country's third consecutive women's all-around gold, ahead of Russia's Viktoria Komova and Aliya Mustafina. Britain's Rebecca Tunney gave a fine display to finish 13th, but there was disappointment for Hannah Whelan, who finished last – her vault score was wiped when she fell face first on landing. The four favourites – which included USA's team captain, Aly Raisman – were in the same group, guaranteeing a nail-biting finish and the ghost in the room was Jordyn Wieber, the reigning world champion who was forced to watch from the sidelines despite a fantastic qualifying performance because of the limit of two finalists per nation. The US duo came here on the back of a team gold won in ruthless style and were once again their errors were few in number. Douglas top-scored on vault and put in a signature flying routine on bars to put her first place halfway round. She stayed ahead of Komova on beam, by just 0.3 of a point, and had the advantage of finishing on her best piece, the floor, where she bought her Olympic title with a score of 15.033 and an electric, crowd-pleasing show. Russia's president, Vladimir Putin, was here to watch Komova, who had been the highest qualifier for the competition. She seemed miserable after her first piece, the vault, landing slightly askew and stepping off the mat with a grim expression. But she scored a huge 15.966 in bars, the apparatus in which she holds European and world titles, a display that will certainly give Beth Tweddle something to think about. The British women began, for the third time this week, on the nerve-racking beam, but they had their most confident start yet, with Whelan – the European champion in this discipline – putting in an assured performance. Two floor routines, full of character, thoroughly earned the cheers of the home crowd and Tunney's sprightly vaulting was another highlight. But day belonged to Douglas, who, as well as being the third consecutive American to take gold at the Olympics in the women's all-around competition, is also the first black athlete to win the all-around women's gymnastics gold. Known for her playfulness and daring style in competition, Douglas has shown single-minded purposefulness outside of it. She left her native Virginia just two years ago to train with coach Liang Chow, who also coached 2008 gold medalist Shawn Johnson, in Des Moines, Iowa. Thursday's gold medal capped a stunning ascent through the gymnastics scene. Douglas competed in her first elite meet in 2010 and whose inconsistent performances in competition placed her behind Wieber as a favourite for a gold in the all-around. Douglas showed flashes of brilliance, however, coming out ahead of Wieber in the Olympic trials when she combined a soaring routine on the uneven bars with a willowy, graceful performance on the balance beam. The combination reappeared without slip-ups in London on Thursday and was enough for the gold.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | The Obama campaign makes a sustained attack on Mitt Romney's tax proposals
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | The Obama campaign makes a sustained attack on Mitt Romney's tax proposals - live coverage
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Obama administration under growing pressure to end support for corn ethanol as gas and food prices continue to rise The worst drought in 50 years has intensified across the US midwest, not only condemning this year's corn crop but threatening the prospects for next year's too, new figures showed on Thursday. The political fallout intensified as well, with growing pressure for the Obama administration to end its support for corn ethanol. Critics say diverting food to fuel for corn ethanol production risks a global food crisis, tightening supplies and driving up prices. Nearly a third of Congress members signed on to a letter calling on the Environmental Protection Administration to scale down its support for corn ethanol. The latest drought map, released on Thursday by the National Drought Mitigation Center, showed the drought intensifying across the grain belt in the midwestern and plains states. "It's hard to believe that it's getting worse, but it is, even with some rain in the region," Brian Fuchs, a climatologist and drought monitor author at the National Drought Mitigation Center, which is based at the University of Nebraska, said in the release. "Drought continues to intensify through the midwest and plains states." Good rains in eastern Tennessee, northern Colorado, west Texas, and West Virginia helped contain the overall footprint of the drought, which shrank slightly to 52.65% of the country, down from 53.44% the week before. But the drought tightened its hold on Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, and Arkansas, pushing up the area in exceptional drought to 38.12%. The intensifying drought has deepened fears of a global food crisis, with reduced stocks abroad and higher prices for US consumers at home. About 48% of the corn crop is now rated poor or very poor, the US department of agriculture said on Wednesday. About 37% of the soybean crop was rated poor or very poor. The crop failures have already raised fears of price rises later in the year. The department of agriculture said dairy, poultry and meat prices would go up by about 4%. Meanwhile, gas prices have already started climbing, going up 5% in July, because of higher prices for corn-based ethanol. And there is little prospect of relief for the drought in this growing season, Mark Svoboda, another climatologist at the center, said. What matters now is whether there will be enough rain to get next year's crops off to a good start. "This drought isn't going anywhere," he said. "The damage is already done. What you are looking for is enough moisture to avert a second year of drought," he said. However, Svoboda conceded that might require a freak event, especially in the mid-west which has already passed its rain season. "In the entire corn belt, from Indiana to Nebraska to the Dakotas, we have already reached the maximum precipitation periods for year. From here on in, it's all downhill," Svoboda said. "As far as widespread general relief for the whole region it would take a really freakish dramatic change to make that happen. That doesn't appear to be in the cards, given the time of year we are in."
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Political infighting is threatening US growth, IMF report finds, with potentially disastrous consequences for world economy Political infighting over the "fiscal cliff" threatens to wipe out the US's fragile recovery with "very bad" consequences for the rest of the world, a senior International Monetary Fund economist warned Thursday. Updating its annual report on the US economy, the IMF said the recovery remained "tepid", and risks to that recovery had intensified, "including from the worsening of the euro area debt crisis as well as the uncertainty over domestic fiscal plans." The IMF is particularly concerned about falling off the fiscal cliff. Unless a deal is struck by 31 December, Bush-era tax breaks will be dropped and a series of draconian spending cuts imposed. The tax rises and cuts to areas including defense could wipe 3.9% off the US's growth rate next year, according to the congressional budget office. In a conference call Gian Maria Milesi-Ferretti, who heads the IMF's US team, said arguments over the so-called "fiscal cliff" had the potential to wipe out growth in the US next year and push the country back into recession. "That would be a very bad outcome for the US economy and the rest of the world," he said. The IMF is predicting 2.25% growth in US gross domestic product next year. "If you go from two and quarters to zero or negative, that's a sizeable shock," said Milesi-Ferretti. The fiscal cliff "can be avoided and it should be avoided," he said. The IMF published its annual checkup of the US economy, known as the Article IV consultation, last month. The latest update comes after it has been assessed by member countries including China and the UK and follows a set of dispiriting reports on jobs growth and manufacturing in the US. On Wednesday the US Federal Reserve said it had noted further weakening in the US and was prepared to act but stopped short of doing so. The move disappointed US investors and led to a selloff in US markets. The IMF's directors said the Fed had room to further ease monetary policy but a number of directors noted "the effectiveness of additional monetary easing could be limited in the prevailing very low interest rate environment." Europe's woes would continue to weigh on the US recovery, said Milesi-Ferretti, slowing exports and strengthening the dollar to levels that make US goods less attractive. Milesi-Ferretti sounded an optimistic note for the medium term and said rising demand for housing would eventually lead to a recovery in the US housing market. The US is now building around 700,000 new homes a year and will need to build 1.5m a year in the near future, he said. But he estimated recovery could take three to five years.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Three commuter jets narrowly avoided mid-air crash at a Reagan Washington airport after air traffic control incident Civil air authorities said investigators are looking into an incident in which three commuter jets narrowly avoided a mid-air collision near the US capital. The near-miss involving three planes operated by US Airways happened on Tuesday in skies close to Reagan Washington National Airport. First reported by the Washington Post, the incident was reportedly caused by confused air traffic controllers who launched two outbound flights directly at another aircraft that was preparing to land. According to the Post, two of the planes were within 12 seconds of crashing into each other. Having realised their mistake, the tower ordered an incoming pilot to take an abrupt turn to avoid impact The three planes were reportedly carrying 192 passengers and crew members at the time of the incident. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) acknowledged that it was aware of the incident. In a statement, it said that "appropriate action to address the miscommunication" would be taken. The FAA added that due to bad weather, air traffic controllers switched landing and departing operations and miscommunication "led to a loss of the required separation" between the jets. US Airways spokesman Todd Lehmacher said in an email to the Associated Press that the airline is "currently investigating and working with the FAA to determine what occurred". The near-miss comes a year after two passenger planes were forced to land without help from the tower at the same airport, after the lone air traffic controller on duty fell asleep. That incident led to a review of staffing levels and worker fatigue at US airports.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | It's one of the US's most controversial policies; one that resulted in large numbers of civilian deaths overseas. So why does Bradley Strawser see targeted killing as a moral obligation? At first sight, Bradley Strawser resembles a humanities professor from central casting. He has a beard, wears jeans, quotes Augustine and calls himself, only half in jest, a hippie. He opposes capital punishment and Guantánamo Bay, calls the Iraq invasion unjust and scorns neo-conservative foreign policy hawks. "Whatever a neocon is, I'm the opposite." His office overlooks a placid campus in Monterey, an oasis of California sun and Pacific zephyrs, and he lives up the road in Carmel, a forested beauty spot with an arts colony aura. Strawser has published works on metaphysics and Plato and is especially fond of Immanuel Kant. Strawser is also, it turns out, an outspoken and unique advocate for what is becoming arguably the US's single most controversial policy: drone strikes. Strawser has plunged into the churning, anguished debate by arguing the US is not only entitled but morally obliged to use drones. "It's all upside. There's no downside. Both ethically and normatively, there's a tremendous value," he says. "You're not risking the pilot. The pilot is safe. And all the empirical evidence shows that drones tend to be more accurate. We need to shift the burden of the argument to the other side. Why not do this? The positive reasons are overwhelming at this point. This is the future of all air warfare. At least for the US." His forceful defence of the military use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), as drones are also called, is largely the reason he has landed a tenure-track post as assistant professor of philosophy at Monterey's Naval Postgraduate School, an elite college which gives master's and PhD courses to military officers, academics and policymakers. The newly created post, part of the school's defence analysis department, underlines a belief that drones and military ethics are set to become ever more fraught topics in Washington, Islamabad, Kabul and other capitals. "The school wanted a voice in that conversation, so they hired me. My job talk was on the ethics of drones. It's what I've become most known for." Strawser, 33, a married father of two young children, just moved here from his previous post as resident research fellow at the Stockdale Center for Ethical Leadership in Annapolis, Maryland. He has yet to unpack boxes and properly furnish his office but there is little doubt he will be a vocal, and in some quarters reviled, voice in the debate. He has edited a book – Killing By Remote Control: The Ethics of an Unmanned Military – to be published soon by Oxford University Press. Drones, controlled by air force operators in Nevada and New Mexico who track targets on screens, have become Washington's main weapon against Islamist militants in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia and Yemen. The US reportedly has 7,000 drones operating – more than manned aircraft – and 12,000 more on the ground. Strained relationsThe American Civil Liberties Union estimates strikes have killed 4,000 people, a significant number of them civilians, since 2002, with the tempo sharply accelerating under President Barack Obama. Figures from the London-based Bureau of Investigative Journalism show that CIA drones stuck Pakistan 75 times in 2011, causing up to 655 fatalities, including as many as 126 civilians. Pakistani authorities reported that 19 people died last Friday in an attack in the Dattakhel region in North Waziristan, further straining relations with Washington which has ignored protests from Islamabad. Christof Heyns, the UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial killings, recently said some strikes may constitute "war crimes" and that they would encourage other states to flout long-established human rights standards. Jimmy Carter, the former president, echoed unease amid reports detailing White House "kill lists". "The US can no longer speak with moral authority on human rights," Carter said. Strawser, who calls himself "doveish" on foreign policy, has proven an unexpected and forthright champion for the barrage of Hellfire missiles. His background may partly explain it. He is a self-described "army brat", the son of an academic father who worked on air force computer systems, and grew up on air force bases. After obtaining a bachelor's degree in history and English, he followed his father's footsteps and served seven years in the air force as an administrator – he did not see combat – before taking graduate night courses and "falling in love" with philosophy. He taught ethics courses while obtaining a PhD. His dissertation was on just war and moral responsibility, a recurring topic in his work. Strawser now lives in the same town as Clint Eastwood and may soon become known as philosophy's answer to Dirty Harry. With an affable tone, he methodically blasts objections to the drone strikes taking place 7,000 miles away. "When I started studying this topic I didn't know this would be my conclusion. But that's where my analysis led me." 'What matters to me is whether the cause itself is justified'One objection sometimes posited is that there is something wrong or ignoble in killing through such lopsided asymmetry. "I share the kind of gut feeling that there's something odd about that. But I don't see the ethical problem. What matters to me is whether the cause itself is justified. Because if the operation is justified and is the right thing to do – and by the way I'm not claiming all US military strikes are – then asymmetry doesn't matter." In an analogous case of police officers in a shootout with bank robbers you would want the former to have bullet-proof vests, Strawser says. "It's a moral gain, not a moral problem." Another objection is that risk-free remote killing degrades traditional conceptions of valour. "You hear that from within the military and the average American on the street. That's a real concern, I share it. But when you speak to these pilots – or operators, there's a debate over the correct term - they'll tell you it's a very stressful job. Several of them have had PTSD. Think about
what they see all day … you're watching people die on your screen." "I think it does take a certain type of intellectual bravery and perhaps some moral courage to fly drones in good conscience and believe in the mission you're doing. We are called cowards for this. Coward or not, if it's the right thing to do, to not risk a soldier when you don't have to, and you think the cause is just, I just feel that that normative force is too powerful to overcome." Strawser makes an analogy of not risking human bomb disposal teams if robots could do their job just as well. Strawser said a third objection, that drones encouraged unjust operations by reducing the financial and political cost to the US, was serious but surmountable. "There could be an upside. There are cases when we should go to war and we don't, especially in humanitarian case like Rwanda. More generally, this objection is highly predictive about our future moral behaviour. It's like saying: I'm going to do something which I know is wrong now to prevent me from doing something wrong later." Strawser says cases where drone strikes allegedly killed innocents would be unjustified, but did not render the technology illegitimate. "If the policy to begin with is wrong then of course we shouldn't do it. It's irrelevant if we use drones, a sniper rifle or a crossbow." He says he considers poison gas and nuclear weapons inherently wrong because they did not discriminate – unlike drones. "The question is whether drones will tempt us to do wrong things. But it doesn't seem so because we have cases where drones were used justly and it seems they actually improve our ability to behave justly. Literally every action they do is recorded. For a difficult decision (operators) can even wait and bring other people into the room. There's more room for checks and oversights. That to me seems a normative gain." Straswer says he understands why many shuddered over revelations of the so-called White House "kill lists" but believes it, in fact, shows accountability at the highest level, unlike Abu Ghraib, when authorities pinned blame on lower ranks. He acknowledges why many called the strikes assassinations, or extra-judicial killings, but says they could be deemed "necessary and proportionate" to save lives. "People can make themselves liable to be killed by a drone strike in defence of the non-liable people they are threatening." Strawser is at pains to stress he is no hawk. But if a particular operation was just, and if using a drone could avert risk to a pilot without compromising the operation, the US had a duty to use drones, he says. "The cost-savings, the ethical gain by better protecting the war fighter, increased capability: add all that together." In the fall, Strawser will start teaching military ethics to classes which are likely to include colonels, generals, admirals, diplomats and policy-makers. He worries that hawks could adopt his arguments about drones without taking account of his caveats. "It's the thought that keeps me up at night. Because if my arguments were going to be misused.." The voice trails off and he shakes his head. "In that case you could say maybe I should just keep quiet." Silence is unlikely. Strawser and the Naval school are mutually delighted with the appointment. "I wanted to be a working philosopher and here I am. Ridiculous good fortune."
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Rolling report: The USA and Russia are expected to do battle for gold in the individual gymnastics. Follow the action with Sean Ingle
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Rolling report: The USA and Russia are expected to do battle for gold in the individual gymnastics. Follow the action with Sean Ingle
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Explosives found during arrests of men interior minister says were planning an attack in Spain or elsewhere in Europe Spanish police have arrested three suspected violent Islamists who had enough explosives to blow a bus apart, according to Spain's interior minister, Jorge Fernández. The explosives were found at the home of one of those arrested, a Turkish national who lived in San Roque, southern Spain, with his Moroccan wife, but crossed the border every day into Gibraltar, where he worked. Police were trying to determine the nationalities of the others, but believed that they were from somewhere in the former Soviet Union – possibly Chechnya. All three had received training in Pakistan or Afghanistan, according to Spanish police, and had been seen using a motor-power paraglider. "The explosives … would have been especially damaging if shrapnel had been added," said Fernández. The three men had been plotting an attack somewhere in either Spain or elsewhere in Europe, he said. Two were arrested as they waited to board a bus to the French border at Irún, northern Spain. They had been in Spain for the past month, but had reportedly been tracked by western security services for months. Spanish police believe the three men are somehow connected to Lashkar-e-Taiba, the group India blames for the 2008 attacks in Mumbai in which 166 people died. The arrests come amid increasing concern in Spain about the growth of al-Qaida-supporting groups in the Sahara region. Spain evacuated NGO workers from camps in the Tindouf area of the western Sahara this week, claiming it had intelligence that Islamist radicals were planning kidnappings.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | America's largest car firm made $1.5bn in the second quarter of 2012, with European division reporting operating loss of $361m General Motors' profits fell 41% in the second quarter as troubles in Europe undercut strong sales in North America. America's largest automaker made $1.5bn in the second quarter of 2012, compared with $2.5bn for the same period last year. Revenue fell to $37.6bn from $39.4bn in the second quarter of 2011. The results exceeded analysts' estimates, but further underlined Europe's drag on the US economy. "Our results in North America were solid, but we clearly have more work to do to offset the headwinds we face, especially in regions like Europe and South America," said GM chairman and CEO Dan Akerson. "Despite the challenging environment, GM has now achieved 10 consecutive quarters of profitability, which is a milestone the company has not achieved in more than a decade." GM's European division reported an operating loss of $361m, compared with an operating profit of $102m a year ago. GM is attempting to restructure the unit and recently replaced several of its top executives in Europe. The company is planning to close at least one plant in Europe by 2016, but Dan Ammann, GM's chief financial officer, said there were no immediate plans to announce more job cuts or factory closings in Europe. In North America, GM reported an operating profit of $1.97bn, which compares to a profit of $2.25bn for the same period a year earlier. The company posted a loss of $19m in South America during the second quarter, and made a profit of $557m in its international division, primarily in China. While GM's North America sales remain strong there are signs that the slowdown in the US economy is taking its toll. On Wednesday, GM and Ford announced that sales had slipped in July; GM deliveries fell 6.4% and Ford 3.8%, according to statements. Chrysler increased deliveries by 13%. GM's fortunes have recovered dramatically since its emergence from bankruptcy in 2009. The firm said it sold 2.39m cars during the quarter, compared with 2.32m a year ago. GM had $32.6bn in cash reserves and other liquid assets at the end of the quarter. Its government-backed bailout has become a political hot topic. Mitt Romney has been a persistent critic of the bailout and is running ads that highlight the plight of auto dealerships closed as a condition of the government-managed bankruptcies. In turn, president Barack Obama has consistently championed the bailouts for saving over a million US jobs and criticised Romney for his 2008 New York Times editorial entitled "Let Detroit Go Bankrupt."
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Follow live updates as scores of bodies are found in two suburbs of Damascus amid fears of an all out assault on Aleppo
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Follow live updates as Kofi Annan announced his resignation as international envoy to Syria
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Intelligence agents raid compound east of capital leaving seven dead after discovering militants were massing weapons Afghan forces killed seven insurgents who were planning to attack Kabul in an early morning gun battle on Thursday just outside the capital, an official said. Intelligence agents discovered that the insurgents were massing weapons at a compound east of the city and ambushed the men when they returned to the site around 1am to prepare for the attack, said intelligence agency spokesman Latifullah Mashal. A gun battle broke out and five of the insurgents blew themselves up with explosives. Police shot and killed the remaining men a few hours after dawn, Mashal said. The agents found three cars full of explosives and ammunition in the compound, along with rocket launchers and machine guns, Mashal said. He said the agents believed the men were planning to attack three sections of Kabul – a neighbourhood near the parliament building, and areas downtown that house embassies and businesses. No Afghan forces or civilians were killed in the fighting, Mashal said. "This was a really big plan. Thank God we were able to stop it," he said. Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid rejected the account, saying the Afghan forces had staged the fight as propaganda. Separately, two Nato service members were killed in a bomb attack in the south of the country on Thursday, the international military coalition said. Nato did not provide the nationality of the dead or any details on the bomb blast. The latest deaths makes six international service members killed in the first two days of August. Meanwhile, Pakistan's military says the top US and Nato commander in Afghanistan is scheduled to visit and hold discussions with the country's army chief. The military statement says General John Allen's meeting on Thursday with General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani will partly focus on ways to improve co-ordination with forces on either side of the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. It is Allen's first visit since Pakistan ended its seven-month blockade of supplies for Nato troops in Afghanistan in early July.
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