|  |  |  | | | | | The Guardian World News | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Failure of Proton-M carrying Russian and Indonesian satellites latest in series of mishaps for Moscow's space programme An unmanned Russian rocket and its payload of two communications satellites has failed to reach orbit, the latest in a series of failures that has dogged Moscow's space programme. The Russian space agency Roscosmos said on Tuesday that a secondary booster module of the Proton-M rocket carrying Russian and Indonesian satellites switched off earlier than expected minutes after it took off from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan late on Monday. The error replicates a mishap that scrapped the Express AM-4 satellite last summer, at a cost of $265m (£170m), casting doubt on the reliability of the workhorse Russian rocket. Roscosmos said in a statement that the Briz-M booster had fired its engines on schedule, but they had burned for only seven of the programmed 18 minutes and 5 seconds needed to push the satellites into their planned orbit. "The chances that the satellites will separate from the booster and reach the designated orbit are practically non-existent," a space industry source told the state news agency RIA. Launches of such Proton rockets will most likely be suspended pending expert analysis of the failure, the Russian industry source said. Moscow, which carries out around 40% of global space launches, is struggling to restore confidence in its industry after a string of mishaps last year, including the failure of a mission to return samples from the Martian moon Phobos. Indonesia's Telkom-3, the first satellite Jakarta has purchased from Moscow, was built by Russia's ISS-Reshetnev with communication equipment made by French-led satellite maker Thales Alenia Space. It had a capacity of 42 active transponders to cater to the growing demand of Indonesia's satellite business service. Russia's Express MD2 was a small communication satellite, made by the Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Centre, for the Russian Satellite Communications Company (RSCC).
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | UK-based bank denies US claims it illegally moved $250bn of Iranian money around financial system, but investors take flight More than £6bn has been wiped from the stock market value of Standard Chartered bank, as its shares crashed following US allegations that the bank had illegally moved $250bn of Iranian money around the financial system. The share price fall on Tuesday puts the top management of the bank — described by the US authorities as a "rogue institution" — under intense pressure. The shares slumped by 18%, losing 264p to £12.06 and wiping £6.2bn from its stock market value. This follows the sudden 6% slide on Monday in the final seconds of trading when the damning accusation that the bank had left the US "vulnerable to terrorists, weapon dealers, drug kings and corrupt regimes" was first published. Even though the highly regarded London-based bank denied the accusations made by the New York state department of financial services, investors took fright following a spate of banking scandals which have unseated management at rival banks. Standard Chartered had attempted to calm nerves overnight by issuing a statement at midnight refuting the allegations. Until now, the bank has been the only global bank regarded as having a reputation untarnished by the growing number of scandals. Top management was stunned by the scale of the allegations, of which it had no prior warning before late Monday afternoon. The US regulator's 30-page report reproduces emails and conversations between Standard Chartered staff, including a remark from a London-based director when warned by a US colleague of potential problems in dealing with Iran. "You fucking Americans. Who are you to tell us, the rest of the world, that we're not going to deal with Iranians," the director said. The director is not named but the exchange is said to have taken place when the bank's chief executive for America warns, among others, the head group executive director for risk. At the time, October 2006, this title was held by Richard Meddings, who was promoted to finance director the following month. The bank would not comment on individuals. Meddings and Peter Sands, who was promoted from finance director to chief executive in November 2006, are highly regarded and respectively regarded as potential candidates for top jobs at Barclays and as the next governor of the Bank of England. Until November 2006 Mervyn Davies had been chief executive – a role he held since 2001 – until he was elevated to chairman. He later became Lord Davies when the joined the Labour government during the financial crisis and left the bank. Among others to have sat on the board are Lord Turner, who was a non-executive director for two years until he left in late 2008 to become chairman of the Financial Services Authority. While the US authorities said that $250bn had been hidden for nearly a decade, Standard Chartered conceded that "under $14m" had breached so-called U-turns which were transactions that US authorities allowed to take place as long as the money did not end up in Iranian banks. The bank stopped dealing with Iran five years ago. "As we have disclosed to the authorities, well over 99.9% of the transactions relating to Iran complied with the U-turn regulations. The total value of transactions which did not follow the U-turn was under $14m," Standard Chartered said. In 2010, 2011 and only last week when it published another rise in profits the bank has admitted it was in discussions with US regulators about historic breaches of sanctions. But it appears to have been wrong footed by the New York regulator which it had expected to co-ordinate with other US agencies. Standard Chartered is also in discussions with the department of justice, the office of foreign sssets control, the Federal Reserve group of New York and the district attorney of New York. Standard Chartered said it had "voluntarily approached all relevant US agencies" in January 2010 and "informed them that we had initiated a review of historical US dollar transactions and their compliance with US sanctions". "This review focused primarily on transactions relating to Iran in the period 2001-2007, and in particular, their compliance with the U-turn framework established by the US authorities to enable ongoing US dollar trade with Iran by other countries." Several thousands of pages of documents and interview notes, plus analysis of approximately 150m payment messages were handed over. The New York regulator accuses Standard Chartered of hiding the transactions by wiping out codes used in the payment system that would have identified Iranian clients. "The group does not believe the order issued … presents a full and accurate picture of the facts. The analysis, that the group shared with all the US agencies, demonstrates that throughout the period the group acted to comply, and overwhelmingly did comply, with US sanctions and the regulations relating to U-turn payments," said the bank. Its review of its Iranian payments also did not identify a single payment on behalf of any party that was designated at the time by the US government as a terrorist entity or organisation," it said. "The group takes its responsibilities very seriously, and seeks to comply at all times with the relevant laws and regulations. It is in this spirit we initiated this review and have engaged with the US agencies," the bank said.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | • Canada 3-4 USA (aet)
• Alex Morgan's 123rd-minute header takes US through to final The USA, the reigning Olympic champions who have appeared in every final since women's football entered the Games in 1996, are on course for a fourth gold after overcoming Canada in a sensational semi-final at Old Trafford. Three times the Canadians led in normal time thanks to the remarkable Christine Sinclair and three times the USA clawed them back, with Abby Wambach controversially equalising late on from the penalty spot. The winner came even later, with 122 minutes and 28 seconds on the clock, as Wambach's admirable strike partner Alex Morgan headed Christie Rampone's cross over the top of the despairing goalkeeper, Erin McLeod. It was a semi-final where both sides threw caution to the wind and the crowd of 26,630 at Old Trafford was captivated. When it was over, the reigning champions were simply relieved to be through and happy that their hopes of avenging last summer's World Cup final defeat by Japan were still alive. Canada, inspired by the outstanding Sinclair, were on the floor in tears and disbelief. Their coach, the Newcastle-born John Herdman, was aghast at the performance of the Norwegian referee, Christiana Pedersen. Canada led 3-2 when Pedersen penalised McLeod for holding on to the ball for more than six seconds. Megan Rapinoe's subsequent free-kick struck the arms of both Diana Matheson and Marie-Eve Nault and, while the penalty was justified, Herdman was not happy about the original sanction. "It was taken from us," said Herdman. "Normally you would see a booking in that situation [for McLeod] but there was no kidology, she wasn't cheating, she was waiting for her full-back to tuck in. We didn't want to launch it. The referee will have to live with it. We'll move on from this but I wonder if she will be able to." What could not be disputed was the indefatigability of the USA, a side renowned for dramatic comebacks and late victories. Sinclair, who scored in the quarter-final defeat of Team GB, opened the scoring following a flowing move involving Nault and Melissa Tancredi. A determined USA team levelled first when Rapinoe's corner struck Lauren Sesselmann guarding the near post and rolled over the line. Then came four goals in 11 breathless minutes. A towering Sinclair header from Tancredi's left-wing cross restored Canada's advantage. Four minutes later the USA equalised when Rapinoe collected a cross-field pass on the corner of the penalty area and struck a superb shot in off the far post.Within two minutes Canada were ahead again, courtesy of an outstanding header from Sinclair from a corner. Then Wambach scored from the spot before Morgandelivered the final word.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | FBI takes charge of 'possible domestic terrorism case' as Sikhs grapple with aftermath of tragedy The FBI is examining ties between white supremacist movements and a US army veteran who killed six people as they gathered at a Sikh place of worship in Wisconsin on Sunday. The police identified the gunman as Wade Michael Page, 40, who served in a US army psychological operations unit before he was discharged in 1998 for a pattern of misconduct, including being drunk on duty. President Barack Obama said on Monday that Americans need to do more "soul searching" to find ways to reduce violence in the wake of the shooting, which is being treated by the FBI as an act of "domestic terrorism". Page was shot dead by a policeman after badly wounding another officer at the Sikh temple in Oak Creek. The authorities said Page was the only gunman. An earlier "person of interest" who was said to have appeared at the scene has been identified and ruled out of the inquiry. The Oak Creek police chief, John Edwards, said it is premature to ascribe a motive, but some in the Sikh community said they feared Page confused them for Muslims. Witnesses to the shooting described him as wearing a tattoo commemorating 9/11. Photographs also show him posing in front of a Nazi flag. "Maybe he hated our community for the wrong reasons," Amrit Dhaliwal, a local doctor and member of the Oak Creek temple, told the Guardian. "He may have thought putting a turban on was something else. We want to know: why did it happen?" In the days following the 9/11 attacks, there were four attacks on Sikhs in the Milwaukee area. "It's pretty much a hate crime," Ven Boba Ri, one of the temple's committee members, told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. "It's sad – I don't know how to describe it. Sikhism is such a peaceful religion. We have suffered for generations, in India and even here." The Southern Poverty Law Center, which monitors extremist groups, suggested the community might have been targeted by Page because of a broader prejudice as it described him as a "frustrated neo-Nazi who had been the leader of a racist white-power band" called End Apathy. Witnesses said Page "did not speak – he just began shooting". Using a semi-automatic pistol, he fired shots in rapid succession. He was carrying several magazines of bullets. Some of the congregants hid in cupboards. Children cowered downstairs and several women barricaded themselves in the building's kitchen. The victims included an 84-year-old man and a 41-year-old woman. Four of the dead were found inside the temple and three outside. Among the dead was the temple president, Satwant Kaleka, who arrived in the US in 1982 largely penniless and built a successful petrol-station business. His son, Amardeep, said Kaleka, 65, was shot twice after tackling Page and then hid in a room where he died. Kaleka was a founder of the temple, which opened five years ago to accommodate the area's expanding Sikh community. "It was like a second home to him," said Amardeep Kaleka. "He was the kind of person who, if he got a call that a bulb was out at 2am he'd go over to change it." Two custodians, or granthi, were also killed, including Parkash Singh, who recently brought his wife and children from India to live in Wisconsin. Another victim who was hit stumbled to a nearby house, where Jim Haase opened the door to find an elderly man covered in blood from a bullet wound. "He couldn't speak English but he was pointing at it [the wound]," Haase told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinal. Haase, a former soldier, laid the man on his lawn and pressed a towel on the wound to stem the bleeding. The four men killed were named as Bhai Seeta Singh, 41; Bhai Parkash Singh, 49; Bhai Ranjit Singh, 39; Subegh Singh, 84. The dead woman was identified as Parmjit Kaur Toor, 41. Of the six victims, four were Indian nationals, the country's ambassador to the US, Nirupama Rao, was told by the FBI. The police officer wounded by Page was named as Lieutenant Brian Murphy, 51. Murphy was ambushed by the shooter as he went to tend to a wounded person. He was shot eight or nine times at close range. Edmonds commended his heroism as it emerged that he urged colleagues to help others, despite being seriously injured himself. Steve Saffidi, the mayor of Oak Creek, said that what he called the "heroic action of the police" prevented many more people being killed. Kuldip Singh, president of US chapter of United Sikhs, an international non-profit organisation, who has spent the past day in Oak Creek, said there was to find and send trauma counselors, preferably Sikhs, who could speak to a community grappling with fear and insecurity. Singh said: "The wife of a victim was so shattered – she had seen her husband in a pool of blood and could not even speak. I met others who are too scared to say anything, too scared to go out of their homes. People in the community are asking, 'Why did this happen, why us?'" Singh also named two people at the temple on Sunday morning, Punjab Singh and Santosh Singh, as being among those critically injured and receiving medical treatment. "Punjab Singh had arrived not very long ago from Amritsar, India. He would do the discourses at the gurudwara," Singh said. Earlier in the day, US secretary of state Hillary Clinton spoke to India's external affairs minister S M Krishna and expressed her shock and sadness over the killings. The Indian embassy's spokesperson in Washington, Virender Pau, told the Guardian that officials from the Indian consulate in Chicago had visited the community, were working with US authorities, and would extend consular assistance to the affected families. 'Soul searching'In Oak Creek, police said Page bought the weapon and bullets legally, and there was no bar to him owning a gun. But the shooting again raises question about the ease with which powerful guns can be purchased in the US, questions that were sidestepped after James Holmes shot dead 12 people and wounded 58 others in a Denver suburb last month. Holmes was carrying several semi-automatic weapons. Another man responsible for a mass killing, Jared Loughner, who shot dead six people including a nine-year-old girl in a failed attempt to assassinate an Arizona congresswoman, Gabrielle Giffords, last year is expected to plead guilty on Tuesday after reaching a deal with prosecutors that will save him from the execution chamber. Speaking at a bill-signing ceremony in Washington, Obama said: "All of us recognise that these kinds of terrible, tragic events are happening with too much regularity." He said elected officials and community leaders must come together to discuss what should be done. The president said federal authorities had not yet determined what motivated the gunman but that if it turned out to be the "ethnicity of those who were attending the temple, I think the American people immediately recoil against those kinds of attitudes". The Sikh Coalition, a group set up after 9/11 as a response to hate crimes and bias against Sikhs, said it had partnered with other Milwaukee organizations to set up an assistance fund. Contributions made to it would be used to to extend financial assistance towards victims of the shooting, including the injured police office. Satjeet Kaur, a coalition representative, told the Guardian: "The fund has collected over $30,000 already. People from across different communities have reached out in support, saying they want to help." The coalition's executive director, Sapreet Kaur, also issued a statement on the shootings. "While we continue to be cautious about rushing to judgment, it is important to note that this is only one of a growing number of incidents of violence that Sikhs have experienced in recent years. Freedom of religion is a fundamental tenet of democracy and it's incredibly sad that victims were shot down while exercising that right in the peace of their gurdwara [place of worship]."
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | • Canada 3-4 USA (aet)
• Alex Morgan's 123rd-minute strike takes US through to final USA's residency in the Olympic final remains intact. Just. The reigning Olympic champions, who have appeared in every final since women's football entered the tournament in 1996, survived a remarkable semi-final against Canada to book a fifth consecutive final appearance on Thursday against Japan. Three times the Canadians led in normal time thanks to the prolific Christine Sinclair and three times the USA clawed them back, Abby Wambach equalising late on from the penalty spot to level Sinclair's stunning total of 143 international career goals. Wambach also headed against the bar with two minutes remaining in extra time before her strike partner Abby Morgan nodded Christie Rampone's cross home with 120 minutes and 28 seconds on the clock. It was a semi-final that abandoned caution and captivated a crowd of 26,630 at Old Trafford. When it was over the reigning Olympic champions were through, their hopes of avenging last summer's World Cup final defeat by Japan alive and Canada, inspired by the outstanding Sinclair, were on the floor in tears and disbelief. A stunning hat-trick from Christine Sinclair appeared to have secured Canada's place in Thursday's final against Japan but the USA, beaten by Japan in last summer's World Cup final and seeking a fifth Olympic final, refused to be beaten. Canada's coach, the Newcastle born and St James' Park bred John Herdman, had accused his opponents of underhand tactics before kick-off in an obvious attempt to influence the Norwegian referee Christiana Pedersen. His team responded to the opening whistle by flattening two United States USA players with their first two touches, setting the tone for a physical confrontation and suggesting Herdman, apart from toying with the referee, spent his impressionable younger days on the Gallowgate End studying Billy Whitehurst play. A robust opening did not unsettle the favourites, who showed they could also leave a foot in while controlling most of the first half. Their patient, probing performance rarely troubled a disciplined Canadian defence, however, and their authority counted for nothing when an incisive attack put Canada ahead. The goalscorer would have been no surprise to Hope Powell and Team GB, nor indeed the entire women's game as Sinclair scored her 141st international goal. As well as fascinating the whole of north America, the semi-final had pitted two of the finest goalscorers in the game against each other in Sinclair and Abby Wambach of the USA.Wambach had entered the game on 142 goals, and Sinclair moved closer still when Marie-Eve Nault and Melissa Tancredi combined. From Tancredi's flick, Sinclair cooly stepped inside two defenders and kept her composure to beat Hope Solo into the bottom corner. Sophie Schmidt could have doubled Canada's lead moments later but sent a back-post header straight at Solo. The USA then recovered from the shock of falling behind. Alex Morgan glanced a header just wide from Megan Rapinoe's free-kick and created the first opening of the night for Wambach when she escaped from Nault down the left. The prolific striker could only turn an awkward diving header wide. The half-time whistle signalled a sprint for the tunnel from the entire USA team as their pensive coach, Pia Sundhage, followed lost in thought. They re-emerged in determined fashion, dominating play once again and levelling through good fortune and poor defending when Megan Rapinoe's corner struck Lauren Sesselmann guarding the near post and rolled over the line via the Canada central defender. USA had earlier appealed for a penalty when Wambach tumbled under Sesselmann's challenge, a legitimate one as the referee correctly called it, and escaped a genuine call from Canada when Rapinoe handled inside her own area. And then the fun really started. A towering Sinclair header from Tancredi's left wing cross restored Canada's advantage in the 68th minute, bringing her level with Wambach on 142 international goals. Two minutes later the USA were level once more when Rapinoe collected a cross-field pass on the corner of the penalty area and struck a superb shot across goal and in off the far post. Within three minutes Canada were ahead again, and again courtesy of an outstanding header from Sinclair as she soared above the USA defence to convert a corner. 143. The fourth goal in 11 breathless minutes arrived in controversial fashion after the Canadian goalkeeper Erin McLeod was adjudged to have handled outside her area as she launched a clearance upfield. The free-kick was harsh but there was no disputing the penalty that followed, when Rapinoe's effort struck both Diana Matheson and Nault on the arm. Wambach, looking to tie the game and Sinclair's tally of 143 goals, hammered the spot kick into the bottom corner. Both sides could have won the game in normal time. Wambach shot wide of an open goal at full stretch following a fine run from Morgan and Solo saved well from Sophie Schmidt in the final minute from close range but the match went into extra time.
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Pop star said during a concert tour of Russia: 'I'm against censorship, so I hope that the judge is lenient with them' Madonna has voiced hope that three feminist Russian rockers from the band Pussy Riot who are on trial for performing a "punk prayer" against Vladimir Putin are released soon. The pop star told the Associated Press during her concert tour of Russia: "I'm against censorship, so I hope that the judge is lenient with them and that they are freed soon." Two weeks before Putin's return to the presidency in March's election, Pussy Riot danced in Moscow's main cathedral while singing "Virgin Mary, drive Putin away!" The three were arrested, and have spent five months in custody on charges of hooliganism. They face seven years in prison if convicted. International rights groups have called them prisoners of conscience. The case against Pussy Riot, which has been marked by procedural abnormalities and conducted extremely rapidly, is expected to conclude this week. Very public declarations of support have been made by a number of leading bands, such as the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Franz Ferdinand, touring Russia this summer.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Free Syrian Army strategy seemingly anchored more in hope than vision as regime counter-assault intensifies The attack came just after 2pm on Monday; two Soviet era Mig fighter jets swept in low from the west, then banked and made a run at the schoolhouse. The impact of the bombs was devastating on the two homes they struck. Fabricated concrete spilled across the street and a nine-year-old girl lay dismembered in the ruins. The first stronghold established by the Free Syrian Army (FSA) in the war-torn city of Aleppo had been hit by regime jets, in an attack that failed to take out the rebel leadership but instead killed nine members of a family in a nearby house. For the past week rebel fighters and leaders had been coming and going from the school, which they had commandeered in the city's north-east. They had brought prisoners there, built up a large arsenal of looted weapons on a lower floor and brazenly parked a tank and anti-aircraft gun outside. The regime troops that were engaged in pitched battles with guerillas barely one kilometre away probably knew where the poorly-disguised base was. The Syrian jets overhead certainly did. By nightfall only five bodies had been recovered. There was no hope for the other four, who rescuers were trying to dig out with their hands and basic tools. The rebel unit's bid to win the hearts and minds of nearby residents has not gone well, not helped perhaps by the brazen way in which they made the nature of their stronghold so obvious. On Sunday the group's commander was finalising details of a flyer he had prepared, outlining what steps his men would take to end the sense of paralysis that cripples Aleppo. Less than 24 hours later a large unexploded bomb from one of the jets lay on the steps of the schoolhouse and all the men inside were packing to leave to set up a new base. On nearby main roads mountains of household rubbish remains uncollected and order is yet to return to the city, more than a fortnight after the Free Syrian Army obtained a foothold. The reach of the guerilla force has since extended to what they claim is more than 60% of the city. But the rebels seem to be driven by little more than enthusiasm. Planning to hold their gains in the face of an imminent regime counter-assault is haphazard at best. Strategy seems anchored more in hope than vision. "What can we do when all these so-called officers run away to Turkey and drink beer in refugee camps," said Major Abu Firad, who defected to the rebels six weeks ago and has insisted on a new rank of corporal in the unit with which he fights in the suburb of Salahedine. "Every decision on the ground is up to us," he said. "These officers who speak on the television from their comfortable camps over the border have no authority to speak for us. If they were real officers they would come back and fight." Salahedine is at the vanguard of the Free Syrian Army's defences. And on Monday the rebels there were weathering assaults from recently arrived loyalist units. "They have brought in tank units from the Golan Heights," said Major Abu Firad. "I know that because I was a tank commander and we can monitor their radio frequencies." Other key Syrian military units are also thought to have arrived on the city's southern outskirts and started readying for battle. Regime jets have returned to the countryside north of Aleppo, where rebels ousted loyalist forces in 10 days of fighting from 19 July. One Mig made at least eight bombing runs from 1am to 4am early on Monday over one of the towns below, causing panic among residents and resignation among others. "They are trying to force the guys to come back to town to defend their families and leave Aleppo exposed," said a cleric, Sheikh Omar, in the town of al-Bab. "But this fight is something that can't be avoided." Aleppo is proving to be harder going for regime forces than the capital Damascus, in which they were able to chase rebels from areas they had seized in July in less than 10 days. Despite large numbers of captured weapons, a constant stream of deserters coming their way, and news of high profile political defections, much of the rebel force acknowledges that their campaign has a long way to go. Rebels are continuing to reinforce positions in Aleppo. So too are loyalists. "Around 20,000 moved into Aleppo [on Sunday night] said Major Abu Firad. "They are planning to first take back this neighbourhood and then move into the rest of the city." Shells thundered into Salahedine, a middle-class neighbourhood of apartment buildings, throughout Monday. Guerillas there claimed to have captured three locals – thought to be the only residents to have remained there – whom they accuse of spying for the regime. As another rebel group left for the fight on Sunday night, a young student of Sharia law, who had joined the rebel ranks, urged the 30 men in front of him to treat prisoners well and not to harm civilians. "We must be very clear about this. God has told us to behave with honour as warriors." The departing rebels in Aleppo had adopted different methods. Screams from some captives, particularly those thought to have been members of the loyalist Shabiha militia, have echoed throughout the night in recent days. Late on Monday one of the alleged spies was brought in, a terrified woman in her late 20s whose hair had been cut leaving unruly strips on an almost bald scalp. The residents wandering the streets near the schoolhouse hours before breaking their fast didn't seem to mind that the rebels were leaving.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Riyad Hijab is most high-profile figure to defect but opinion is split over how far move will harm Assad regime Syria's prime minister on Monday became the most high-profile political figure to quit the regime of Bashar al-Assad – a propaganda coup for the opposition as the country's crisis continued to escalate. News of Riyad Hijab's dramatic move broke shortly after a bomb blast hit state TV in the centre of Damascus and reports from the northern city of Aleppo pointed to an imminent government offensive. The first stronghold established by the Free Syrian Army (FSA) in Aleppo was also hit by government aircraft in an attack that killed nine members of a family in a nearby house and forced the rebel fighters to move to a new base in the city. In Damascus, the FSA, the opposition's main armed wing, threatened to kill 45 Iranian pilgrims it had kidnapped, claiming they were Iranian Revolutionary Guards who were helping the Syrian regime crush unrest. Hijab is the most senior civilian politician to defect since the uprising against Assad began 17 months ago. "I announce that I am from today a soldier in this blessed revolution," he said in a statement issued in his name in the Jordanian capital Amman. Opposition supporters hailed the news as damaging to the regime but there was little sense that it would quickly alter the balance of forces inside Syria. Later Hijab was reported to be heading for the Gulf state of Qatar, an outspoken supporter of the Syrian opposition, to avoid embarrassing Jordan. The defection is a PR defeat for Assad, but not necessarily one that will have a major impact on the running of the regime. Real power remains with Assad and the coterie of military and security chiefs and relatives who surround him. The killing of four of Assad's top security chiefs last month – including his brother-in-law Assef Shawkat – was a far more devastating blow. Hijab, a former minister who had a reputation as a loyal Ba'athist, was only appointed in June after widely boycotted parliamentary elections. "It's humiliating and shows that Assad doesn't know any more on whom he can count," said Rime Allaf, a Syrian analyst at London's Chatham House thinktank. An exiled opposition activist dismissed it as a "PR blow, nothing more". But Hassan Abdel-Azim, head of the opposition national co-ordination bureau in Damascus, called it a "qualitative shift". Hijab's defection certainly undermines the regime's ability to convey the impression that everything is under control as it battles what it calls "armed terrorist gangs" supported by what it says is a western-Arab conspiracy. It suggests too that the ubiquitous Mukhabarat secret police is failing. "Syrian governments have always been a facade for what is actually an intelligence-run structure," an activist of the local co-ordination committees told the Guardian. In Washington a White House spokesman claimed it was evidence that the regime was "crumbling from within". It was telling that once rumours of Hijab's arrival in Jordan began to circulate, Syrian state media announced his "resignation" without offering further details. It is telling, too, that he is reported to have been accompanied by 10 members of his family, who would have faced retribution if they had remained in Syria. State media said he was replaced by his deputy, Omar Ghalawanji, who immediately pledged to confront the "conspiracies" facing the country. Hijab, a Sunni Muslim from Deir al-Zour, may have been influenced by rising anti-regime sentiment in his home area, near the border with Iraq. Nawaf al-Fares, Syria's ambassador to Iraq and the most senior diplomat to defect, is also from there. Like the defection of Manaf Tlass, a brigadier general in the elite Republican Guard, Hijab's move will trigger speculation about others who may follow. Hijab's spokesman said the defection had been co-ordinated with the FSA over the two months since his appointment. That suggests there is truth to claims that the rebels have cultivated significant figures within the regime whose departure may eventually help bring it down. Opposition sources also announced the defection of Ya'aroub al-Shar'a, described as head of information for political security – one of Syria's intelligence agencies. But the loyalist al-Dunya TV said Shar'a, a nephew of vice-president Farouq al-Shara'a in fact worked in the statistics section of the traffic department. An FSA spokesman said that three of the 48 Iranians it has been holding in Damascus since Saturday had been killed in shelling by government forces and threatened to execute the remaining 45 unless the firing stopped. Tehran insists that they are all bona fide pilgrims and has asked Qatar and Turkey to intervene. "The tightening of the regime circle even more closely around the Assads resembles the beginning of the end of the Gaddafi regime in Libya," said IHS Jane's Middle East analyst, David Hartwell. "Although the dynamics in Syria are very different, Damascus will face the same problem of trying to explain away the desertion of senior government officials at the same time as trying to claim that its rule remains unchanged. The perception that the Syrian regime is on its last legs has now never been stronger and it is likely that other senior political and military figures in the country are asking themselves how much longer they will either be party to or allow the fighting to continue."
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Olympics 2012 Women's soccer: Live minute by minute coverage of the semi-final between the USA and Canada, from Old Trafford, Manchester
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| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | FBI takes charge of 'possible domestic terrorism case' and look for other 'person of interest' who appeared at Wisconsin temple The FBI is examining ties between white supremacist movements and a US army veteran who killed six people as they gathered at a Sikh place of worship in Wisconsin on Sunday. The police identified the gunman as Wade Michael Page, 40, who served in a US army psychological operations unit before he was discharged in 1998 for a pattern of misconduct, including being drunk on duty. He was shot dead by a policeman after badly wounding another officer at the Sikh gurdwara in Oak Creek. Teresa Carlson, the head of the FBI office in Milwaukee, which has taken charge of the investigation, said: "We're working it as a possible domestic terrorism case". The authorities said Page was the only gunman, but added that they are seeking another "person of interest" who appeared at the scene and was behaving suspiciously. The FBI has a photograph of the man at the gurdwara immediately after the shootings, who appears to be in his twenties and is wearing black shorts and a black and red T-shirt, but not his name. The Oak Creek police chief, John Edwards, said it is premature to ascribe a motive, but some in the Sikh community said they feared Page confused them for Muslims. Witnesses to the shooting described him as wearing a tattoo commemorating 9/11. "Maybe he hated our community for the wrong reasons," Amrit Dhaliwal, a local doctor and member of the Oak Creek gurdwara, told the Guardian. "He may have thought putting a turban on was something else. We want to know: why did it happen?" In the days following the 9/11 attacks, there were four attacks on Sikhs in the Milwaukee area. "It's pretty much a hate crime," Ven Boba Ri, one of the gurdwara's committee members, told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinal. "It's sad – I don't know how to describe it. Sikhism is such a peaceful religion. We have suffered for generations, in India and even here." The Southern Poverty Law Centre, which monitors extremist groups, suggested the community might have been targeted by Page because of a broader prejudice as it described him as a "frustrated neo-Nazi who had been the leader of a racist white-power band" called End Apathy. Witnesses said Page "did not speak – he just began shooting". Using a semi-automatic pistol, he fired shots in rapid succession. He was carrying several magazines of bullets. Some of the congregants hid in cupboards. Children cowered downstairs and several women barricaded themselves in the building's kitchen. The victims included an 84-year-old man and a 41-year-old woman. Four of the dead were found inside the gurdwara and three outside. Among the dead was the gurdwara president, Satwant Kaleka, who arrived in the US in 1982 largely penniless and built a successful petrol-station business. His son, Amardeep, said Kaleka, 65, was shot twice after tackling Page and then hid in a room where he died. Kaleka was a founder of the gurdwara, which opened five years ago to accommodate the area's expanding Sikh community. "It was like a second home to him," said Amardeep Kaleka. "He was the kind of person who, if he got a call that a bulb was out at 2am he'd go over to change it." Two custodians, or granthi, were also killed, including Parkash Singh, who recently brought his wife and children from India to live in Wisconsin. Another victim who was hit stumbled to a nearby house, where Jim Haase opened the door to find an elderly man covered in blood from a bullet wound. "He couldn't speak English but he was pointing at it [the wound]," Haase told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinal. Haase, a former soldier, laid the man on his lawn and pressed a towel on the wound to stem the bleeding. The four men killed were named as Bhai Seeta Singh, 41; Bhai Parkash Singh, 49; Bhai Ranjit Singh, 39; Subegh Singh, 84. The dead woman was identified as Parmjit Kaur Toor, 41. The police officer wounded by Page was named as Lieutenant Brian Murphy, 51. Murphy was ambushed by the shooter as he went to tend to a wounded person. He was shot eight or nine times at close range. Edmonds commended his heroism as it emerged that he urged colleagues to help others, despite being seriously injured himself. Edwards said Page bought the weapon and bullets legally, and there was no bar to him owning a gun. But the shooting again raises question about the ease with which powerful guns can be purchased in the US, questions that were sidestepped after James Holmes shot dead 12 people and wounded 58 others in a Denver suburb last month. Holmes was carrying several semi-automatic weapons. Another man responsible for a mass killing, Jared Loughner, who shot dead six people including a nine-year-old girl in a failed attempt to assassinate an Arizona congresswoman, Gabrielle Giffords, last year is expected to plead guilty on Tuesday after reaching a deal with prosecutors that will save him from the execution chamber.
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | British bank named in scathing report by regulators which claims SCB helped Iranian clients skirt US financial sanctions Standard Chartered Bank ran a rogue unit that that schemed with Iran's government to hide more than $250bn in illegal transactions for nearly a decade, according to a scathing report by New York regulators. According to the report filed by the New York state department of financial services (NYSDFS), when challenged a US colleague, a Standard Chartered executive caustically replied: "You fucking Americans. Who are you to tell us, the rest of the world, that we're not going to deal with Iranians." Some 60,000 transactions were involved and the bank was "apparently aided" by its consultant Deloitte & Touche in hiding details from regulators. The bank could lose its license to trade in New York, a potentially devastating blow, and has been summoned to a meeting with the regulator on 15 August. Shares in the London-listed bank dropped sharply in the final seconds of trading when the report was published just as London's stock market was closing. The shares had been higher before they slumped 6% to £14.70 to the biggest faller in the FTSE 100. The attack on Standard Chartered – accused of "willful and egregious violations of law" – is a severe blow to the reputation of the bank, which until last night had been regarded as the most solid of any of the London-listed banks after the 2008 taxpayer bailouts, the more recent Libor rigging scandal at Barclays, and the money laundering offences at HSBC. Its top management team – chief executive Peter Sands and finance director Richard Meddings – have been held in such regard that only last week they were fending off questions about their potential candidacies for governor of the Bank of England or joining Barclays in the wake of the Libor scandal. The 27-page report claims Standard Chartered bankers helped Iranian clients skirt US financial sanctions against their country for close to a decade. Benjamin Lawsky, superintendent of the NYSDFS, said a Standard Chartered subsidiary in New York had also sought to do business with other US sanctioned countries including Libya, Burma and Sudan. Financial transactions with Iran have been subject to US sanctions since 1979. Limited, highly scrutinised transactions known as "U-turns" were allowed as long as the money ends up in non-Iranian banks. In 2008 the US treasury revoked authorisation for U-Turn transactions because it suspected Iran was using its banks to finance its nuclear weapons and missile programmes and to finance terrorist groups, including Hezbollah and Hamas. According to Lawsky, Standard Chartered set up an operation known as "Project Gazelle" aimed at helping Iranian banks put money through the US financial system. According to the report: For almost 10 years, SCB [Standard Chartered Bank] schemed with the government of Iran and hid from regulators roughly 60,000 secret transactions, involving at least $250bn, and reaping SCB hundreds of millions of dollars in fees. SCB's actions left the US financial system vulnerable to terrorists, weapons dealers, drug kingpins and corrupt regimes, and deprived law enforcement investigators of crucial information used to track all manner of criminal activity … In short, SCB operated as a rogue institution.
In one example from 2001 detailed in the report Standard Chartered was approached by Iran's CBI/Markazi, Iran's central bank, to act as recipient for daily oil sales from the National Iranian Oil Company. Iranians warned the bank that disclosure of their identities to US banks would cause "unacceptable delays in clearing funds," according to the report. The bank took legal advice and was told it "should ascertain that the payments are authorized". Instead it "conspired with Iranian clients to transmit misinformation to the New York branch by removing and otherwise misrepresenting wire transfer data that could identify Iranian parties," the report claims.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Rolling report: Follow all of the latest track and field action in the Olympic Stadium with Barry Glendenning
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Beijing accuses Washington's intervention in the region of 'fanning the flames and provoking division' China's state-run media has lambasted the United States over its intervention in the South China Sea row, highlighting the alarming escalation of a long-running dispute. Furious commentaries ordered Washington to "shut up" and accused it of "fanning the flames and provoking division" in the region. The foreign ministry in Beijing called in a senior US diplomat at the weekend over the State Department comments. Analysts fear the South China Sea has become a major potential flashpoint, as tensions have risen sharply between China – which claims almost all the sea – and Vietnam and the Philippines. Brunei, Taiwan and Malaysia also lay claim to parts of the sea, which contains valuable energy reserves and fisheries and sees an estimated $5 trillion of cargo – half the world's shipping tonnage – pass through its sea lanes annually. "While the likelihood of major conflict remains low, all of the trends are in the wrong direction, and prospects of resolution are diminishing," the International Crisis Group warned in a recent report on the six-party dispute. Beijing's most recent moves include offering oil and gas exploration blocks for bidding and establishing a new city, Sansha, which boasts at most a few thousand residents and 5 square miles (13 square kilometres) of land spread over several tiny islands – yet lays claim to 772,000 square miles (2 million square kilometres) of sea and its own military garrison. It prompted the US to publicly reenter the row, with a statement expressing concern at the growing tensions and singling out Beijing's role. The city and garrison "run counter to collaborative diplomatic efforts to resolve differences and risk further escalating tensions in the region," said Patrick Ventrell, acting deputy spokesperson at the State Department. Beijing responded by calling in the US deputy chief of mission and state media ran a spate of hostile pieces. "We are entirely entitled to shout at the United States, 'Shut up'. How can meddling by other countries be tolerated in matters that are within the scope of Chinese sovereignty?" asked a commentary in the overseas edition of the People's Daily, the official Communist party newspaper. The domestic version accused Washington of "fanning the flames and provoking division" in the region. State media say Beijing's moves are a response to the actions of Manila and Hanoi, such as a new law requiring all foreign ships passing through the disputed waters to notify Vietnamese authorities. In Chinese eyes, it is – as deputy foreign minister Cui Tiankai recently described it – a "victim", not the instigator. Though its far smaller neighbours bristle at such a description, the new ICG report notes: "China is not stoking tensions on its own. South East Asian claimants ... are now more forcefully defending their claims – and enlisting outside allies – with considerable energy." Shading the row is concern about the Obama administration's refocusing of foreign policy in a "pivot to Asia". The US says it has no territorial ambitions in the Sea and no position on the competing claims to land features, but has a national interest in freedom of navigation and maintaining peace and stability. But Chinese hawks warn of an attempt to encircle and contain China while others argue that, at a minimum, its rivals are exploiting the US shift. A Xinhua commentary this weekend accused the US of double-dealing and urged Washington to show it was not seeking "to clip China's wings and shore up the United States' cracking pedestal in the Asia-Pacific". In a speech quoted by the Global Times, Zhou Fangyin of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences noted: "Countries with territorial disputes with China believe that the costs and risks of provoking China have largely dropped ... China's rapid rise may also make [them] realize that their chances of reaping and consolidating benefits by encroaching upon Chinese territories would be smaller in the future." In any case, argues Rory Medcalf of Australia's Lowy Institute, "It has become academic to ask who started it ... What we see now is an action-reaction cycle." The multitude of Chinese agencies involved has stoked tensions, the ICG has argued, with poor coordination and some actors seeing it as a way to increase their power and budget. Increasing militarisation of the dispute makes it harder to resolve skirmishes, but could also raise the threshold for armed conflict, it noted. "More immediate conflict risks lie in the growing number of law enforcement and paramilitary vessels playing an increasing role in disputed territories without a clear legal framework", it added. Domestic nationalism in other claimant countries adds to the difficulties. No one wants military conflict, not only because of the inevitable disruption of trade. The smaller countries would have to take on mighty China, while such a conflict "would undermine [Beijing's] peaceful rise thesis, cause irreparable damage to its image and foreign policy in Asia and push other countries far closer to the US. Clearly none of that is in China's interests," said Ian Storey, of the Institute of South East Asian Studies in Singapore. Yet should it come to an exchange of fire, even the US could feel compelled to become involved – with great reluctance – to defend its credibility as an ally not only to the Philippines but countries across Asia, argued Medcalf. Analysts see little hope of resolving the dispute and say the best-case scenario is now the agreement of measures to handle clashes. "I don't think any of the claimants have any good options. They have all painted themselves into a corner," said Storey.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Netherlands-based sports car maker alleges GM sabotaged Saab deal with Chinese investors to avoid competition General Motors deliberately drove Saab into bankruptcy, the Swedish car firm's former owner claimed in a $3bn lawsuit filed on Monday. Spyker NV, which bought Saab from GM in 2010 for $74m, filed the claim in the US firm's home state of Michigan. Saab declared bankruptcy just over a year after the deal was done, unable to pay its suppliers or employees and leaving debts of $2bn. According to the Netherlands-based sports car manufacturer, GM sealed Saab's fate by sabotaging a deal with Chinese investors in order to prevent Saab from competing against the US firm in China, a fast-growing market for the car firm. "This lawsuit seeks redress for the unlawful actions GM took to avoid competition with Saab Automobile in the Chinese market," Spyker said in a statement. "GM's actions had the direct and intended objective of driving Saab Automobile into bankruptcy, a result of GM's tortuously interfering with a transaction between Saab Automobile, Spyker and Chinese investor Youngman that would have permitted Saab Automobile to restructure and remain a solvent, going concern," Spyker said. GM said it was reviewing the document and would respond in due course.
"They [GM] had it coming," Spyker chief executive Victor Muller told Reuters. "They never thought we would survive. Well Spyker's still here. They assumed Spyker would end up in the graveyard with Saab and obviously that didn't happen." As Saab headed for bankruptcy Spyker tried to set up rescue deals with various investors, including China's Pang Da Automobile Trade Co, and Zhejiang Youngman Lotus Automobile Co. GM effectively ended the investment after it said it would stop supplying technology and vehicles to Saab's owners. Muller told reporters that the $3bn claim was based on what Saab would have been worth if a deal with Chinese investors had gone ahead. "GM created the appearance of initially encouraging Saab to enter into a deal with Chinese investors to save the company, only later to unlawfully pull the rug out from under Saab, driving it into bankruptcy liquidation," Spyker said in its complaint, filed in United States district court in Michigan. "Indeed, it was GM's intent by whatever means necessary to quash any financing or investment deal that could save Saab from liquidation, because GM simply sought to eliminate Saab from competition, particularly in the Chinese automobile market," the complaint said. GM bought 50% of Saab in 1989 for $600m, exercising an option to become its full owner in 2000. But attempts to introduce new models to the US market met with failure and by 2008, as GM struggled across its businesses, the brand was put under review. Talks with firms including BMW, Fiat, Hyundai and Tata Motors went nowhere and the company went into bankruptcy, as did GM. "We owe it to our stakeholders and ourselves that justice is done and we will pursue this lawsuit with the same tenacity and perseverance that we had when we tirelessly worked to save Saab Automobile, until GM destroyed those efforts and deliberately drove Saab Automobile into bankruptcy," said Muller.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Police and FBI comb gunman's house in Cudahy, as speculation grows over shooter's alleged links to white power groups A gunman who killed six people at a Sikh place of worship in Wisconsin has been identified as a 40-year-old former soldier with alleged links to racist groups. The white, heavy-set shooter – who some witnesses suggested carried tattoos marking the 9/11 terrorist attacks – was named as Wade Michael Page, an former serviceman once stationed at Fort Bragg in North Carolina. Officials have yet to confirm the killer's identity. Meanwhile, the Southern Poverty Law Center – an organisation that monitors the activity of extremist groups – claimed on its website that the shooter was a "frustrated neo-Nazi who had been the leader of a racist white-power band". Forensic experts spent Monday searching the gunman's home in Cudahy, just a few miles from Oak Creek, where the Sikh gurdwara is located. Oak Creek police chief John Edwards has already confirmed that the suspect had a military background. It is thought Page was dismissed from the US army in 1998 for "patterns of misconduct", including being drunk on duty. Edwards told CNN that the gunman "lived in a community neighbouring ours", and said authorities were "doing a 24-hour back-check, just to get any idea what he was up to, what he was doing". "Right now there is no indication that there were any red flags," he said. Sunday's attack is being investigated as an act of "domestic terrorism", police have said. The suspect began shooting shortly before 10.30am local time as dozens gathered at the gurdwara. After killing people inside the building, the gunman fought with officers outside, critically injuring one. A second officer was able to "put down" the suspect, police said. The killer was pronounced dead at the scene. The wounded officer, named on Monday as lieutenant Brian Murphy, a 21-year veteran of the force, was taken to hospital for surgery. He was in a critical condition on Monday. Emergency response teams found the bodies of four victims inside the gurdwara. Three more bodies lay outside the building, including that of the suspect. Three others – including the policeman – were injured and taken to a nearby hospital. All were said to be in a "critical condition". At a press conference on Sunday, Oak Creek police chief John Edwards said the "heroic actions" of the two officers "stopped this from being worse than it could have been". Authorities said the gunman had used a 9mm semi-automatic pistol. The weapon, recovered at the scene, is thought to have been obtained legally, but police are still trying to track its origin. Among those shot in the attack were prominent members of the local Sikh community. Jatin Der Mangat, 38, of Racine, said his uncle Satwant Singh Kaleka was one of those wounded, but he didn't know how serious his injuries were. "It was like the heart just sat down," he said. "This shouldn't happen anywhere." Sukhwindar Nagr, also of Racine, said he called his brother-in-law's phone. A granthi at the temple answered and told him that his brother-in-law had been shot, along with three granthi. It is thought that around 50 people were in the gurdwara at the time of the attack. The identification of the gunman has increased concerns that the attacker had a racist motive. The SPLC reported that Page was a known member of the white power music scene, and some witnesses said the suspect had a tattoo marking September 11. Some Sikhs had been targeted after 9/11, apparently mistaken for Muslims by people carrying out revenge attacks. Authorities confirmed the dead suspect had tattoos, but said they were not sure exactly what they illustrated. Police said it was too early to suggest a motive. But some Sikh members of the community told media that they feared that it was a hate crime. Others, however, have cautioned against jumping to conclusions. Sapreet Kaur, executive director of the Sikh Coalition, the largest Sikh American civil rights organisation in the US, said: "There have been multiple hate crime shootings within the Sikh community in recent years and the natural impulse of our community is to unfortunately assume the same in this case." "Let's let law enforcement investigate the case and as new facts emerge the dialogue can change." The shooting came just 16 days after 12 people were killed and nearly 60 injured in a mass shooting at a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado, during a midnight screening of The Dark Knight Rises. Wisconsin, like Colorado, has some of the most permissive gun laws in the country. Last year it passed a law allowing citizens to carry a concealed weapon. The second mass shooting in two weeks will likely intensify pressure on US lawmakers to address the issue gun controls. President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney have been largely silent on guns. However, in a statement delivered after Sunday's shooting, Obama said he was "deeply saddened" by the incident. Words of condolences also came from leaders overseas, with Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh, a Sikh, expressing his shock and sadness. Singh said: "That this senseless act of violence should be targeted at a place of religious worship is particularly painful."
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Electronics store has been hurt by competition with online retailers like Amazon as well as scandals within the company The founder of Best Buy, the troubled big-box electronic retailer, has made a bid to take the company private. The world's largest electronics store chain has seen off its major real world rivals including Circuit City but has struggled to compete with online retailers like Amazon. Richard Schulze, the company's former chairman, owns more than 20% of the chain and his offer values Best Buy at $8.84bn. "There is no question that now is the moment of truth for Best Buy and that immediate and substantial changes are needed for the company to return to its market-leading ways," Schulze said. "After assessing all of my options, it is my strong belief that Best Buy's best chance for renewed success is to implement with urgency the necessary changes as a private company." Best Buy said it would comment "in due course". Schulze, who was chief executive for 36 years, said in June he would step down as chairman and resign from the company's board to explore his options. The offer, worth $24 to $26 a share, represents a premium of 36% to 47% to Best Buy's closing price Friday. Shares rose by more than 17% to $20.56 in early trading. The Best Buy chain started life in 1966 as a single stereo shop called the Sound of Music in St Paul, Minnesota. Schulze turned that store into the world's largest consumer-electronics retailer with 167,000 employees and $5bn in annual sales. In 2008 the chain made a $1.34bn (then £1bn) investment in Carphone Warehouse in the UK, as part of a plan to open branches of Best Buy across Britain. The venture failed and it shut its larger Best Buy stores in the UK. The two companies retain a joint venture called Best Buy Europe. Best Buy posted a net loss of $1.23bn on revenue of $50.7bn for the year that ended in March, its first annual loss since 1991. It is in the process of shutting 50 larger locations across the US and shedding 2,400 jobs. The company has come under more pressure recently after scandal felled former chief executive Brian Dunn. An internal investigation found Dunn had exhibited "extremely poor judgment" in his "extremely close personal relationship" with a female employee. Schulze too was criticised in the report for failing to act when he learned of the affair.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Move may lead to era of co-operation in face of growing confrontation over South China Sea, say Philippine officials The US is helping the Philippines to modernise and improve its military capability in the face of a growing confrontation with China over supremacy in the South China Sea. The Americans have already agreed to transfer two naval vessels to an underpowered Philippine navy, and deployment of fighter jets, a coastal radar system and even increased numbers of American troops on the ground in the Philippines are under discussion. The Philippines has several territorial disputes with China in the South China Sea, and while all sides know its armed forces will never be a match for China, the military moves are designed to give the country a "minimum credible defence position", officials say. The US has transferred to its Pacific ally two decommissioned coastguard ships. The first, the Gregorio del Pilar, arrived August 2011 and replaced a second world war vessel as the Philippine navy's biggest and newest ship. The second is expected to arrive this year. Officials familiar with defence and security policy have told the Guardian this may be the beginning of an era of greater military co-operation. Rodolfo Biazon, chair of the Philippine house committee on national defence, told the Guardian there were plans to buy "big-ticket items for the air force and navy". Lieutenant Colonel Miko Okol, spokesman for the Philippine air force, says surface attack aircraft, attack helicopters, long-range patrol aircraft and radar are among the items already approved for purchase and soon to be put up for bid. He says, "I cannot give you a specific, like a specific aircraft, or what country we're gonna get them from. But these are the things we will be getting in the next two or three years." A request for a squadron of F-16 aircraft has been made to US defence officials, but Okol is unsure of where it will lead: "We have told officials we would like to get these items as part of the things we might ask them [for] in terms of our defence co-operation with them". The Philippines may also receive help in upgrading its military equipment from US allies such as Japan, South Korea and Australia. Ricky Carandang, the presidential communications secretary, says that talks are being held with Japan to acquire 12 patrol boats for the coastguard. The US is also understood to be considering increasing its troop presence from current levels of around 600. The developments come as the scramble intensifies for control of the South China Sea, a crucial expanse of ocean with coastline in China, Vietnam, the Philippines, Taiwan, Malaysia and Brunei. China has been asserting its military power in recent years, claiming territorial rights over Scarborough Shoal and other island groupings deep in the 200-mile maritime exclusion. Smaller regional powers have felt cowed in the face of a superpower flexing its muscles, and are turning to the other global superpower for support. But Carandang says territorial issues are not the main reason for the drive to upgrade military capability. "If you look at our configurations, there is always a focus on primarily fighting internal threats since the late Marcos era," he explains. "Basically, we have allowed our external defence capabilities to deteriorate. Whether or not there was an issue with China, there was that need and the president recognised it." Prof Rommel Banlaoi, vice president of the Philippine Association for Chinese Studies, mentions the other threats which would be reasons for the country to build up its maritime domain: "It can also mean against other international terrorist groups, maritime pirates, smugglers of arms, drug smugglers, human traffickers, and other forms of transnational organised crimes using the South China Sea, the Celebes Sea, the Sulu Sea." But Banlaoi says access to the sea lanes in the South China Sea is also an issue. Although the US says it does not take a position on competing territorial claims, it does have an interest in maintaining freedom of navigation in the area for American ships, whether military, civilian or commercial. "In my opinion the US is doing this because of the China challenge," says Banlaoi. "Of course it will not admit it – the US also has interests in keeping a cordial relationship with China as an economic power. The US fears that if China increases its influence in the area then it will affect the unhampered use of the waters in the South China Sea." According to Banlaoi, the support given to America's former colony is part of President Obama's "pivot towards Asia" is an attempt to strengthen all its existing alliances in Asia- including Australia, Japan, South Korea and Thailand. Banlaoi says that the Philippines needs the assistance most: "Among American allies in Asia the Philippines is the only country with no credible capabilities. We are very ill equipped, in fact the Philippines is what I call belonging to the weakest link in the US alliances in Asia." The United States is also assisting the Philippines with a system to better monitor the archipelago's Western coast. Details as to the timeframe of such a project are unclear but according to Carandang, "It's going on ..its moving, it's happening." Rep. Biazon details the form such assistance might come in: "You need not only the radar systems, but including communication systems. You can't operate the aircraft without a radar. That will be part of the package. And probably even armaments." But debate exists as to whether or not these efforts to modernize the military with new equipment will really make a difference. Neri Colmenares, party list representative for the leftist Bayan Muna movement, believes efforts to make Philippines defence "credible" are in vain and will only serve to increase dependence on the US: "We can spent a hundred years' budget on the armed forces of the Philippines and it will not make our defence credible against China," he says. "An increase in budget or capabilities is not the way forward … because the armed forces itself has not been reformed. It's still a corrupt and politicised body." Academics such as professor Benito Lim, a China specialist who teaches political science at Ateneo de Manila University, questions the sincerity of American help, pointing out that China's defence system is stronger than all the military weaponry of the Asean countries combined. Referring to the Gregorio del Pilar, which was stripped of most of its weapons, he says: "Suppose the Americans know that China owns a machine gun, but they give the Philippines a kitchen knife – it makes the Philippines look ridiculous when confronted with the Chinese in the Scarborough Shoal. "Suppose they see Chinese ships enter the area of the contested islands. What can the Philippines do? Can they drive them out? They will probably just to do what they are doing now – say 'The Chinese are bullying us!'"
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Move may lead to era of cooperation in face of growing confrontation over South China Sea, say Filipino officials The US is helping the Philippines modernise and improve its military capability in the face of a growing confrontation with China over supremacy in the South China Sea, according to people familiar with defence and security policy in the Asian nation. The Americans have already agreed to transfer two naval vessels to an underpowered Philippine navy, and there are discussions on everything from fighter jets, a coastal radar system and even increased numbers of American troops on the ground in the Philippines. While all sides know that the Philippine armed forces will never be a match for the Chinese superpower, with whom they have several territorial squabbles in the South China Sea, the military moves are designed to furnish the Philippines with a "minimum credible defence position," officials say. The US has already transferred to its Pacific ally two decommissioned coast guard cutters. The first, the Gregorio del Pilar, arrived August 2011 and replaced a second world war era vessel as the Philippine navy's biggest and newest ship. The second is expected to arrive this year. Filipino officials familiar with defense and security policy have told the Guardian this might just be the beginning of an era of enhanced military cooperation. Rep. Rodolfo Biazon, chair of the House Committee National Defense, told the Guardian there were plans to buy "big ticket items for the air force and Philippine navy." Lieutenant Colonel Miko Okol, spokesman for the Philippine air force, says surface attack aircraft, attack helicopters, long range patrol aircrafts and radars are among those items already approved for purchase and soon to be put up for bid. He says, "I cannot give you a specific, like a specific aircraft, or what country we're gonna get them from. But these are the things we will be getting in the next two or three years." A request for a squadron of F16 aircraft has also been made to U.S defense officials but Okol is unsure of where it will lead: "We have told officials we would like to get these items as part of the things we might ask them [for] in terms of our defense cooperation with them." The Philippines may also receive help in upgrading its military equipment from US allies such as Japan, South Korea and Australia. Presidential communications secretary Ricky Carandang has confirmed that discussions are being held with Japan to acquire 12 patrol boats for the coast guard. The Americans are also understood to be considering increasing their troop presence from current levels of around 600. The closer cooperation comes as the scramble intensifies for the South China Sea, a crucial expanse of ocean with coastline in China, Vietnam, the Philippines, Taiwan, Malaysia and Brunei. China has been asserting its newfound military clout in recent years, claiming territorial rights over Scarborough Shoal and other island groupings deep in the 200-mile maritime exclusion. Lesser regional powers have felt cowed in the face of a superpower flexing its muscles, and are turning to the other global superpower for support. But Carandang stresses that territorial issues in the South China Sea are not the main reason for this renewed drive to upgrade military capabilities. "If you look at our configurations, there is always a focus on primarily fighting internal threats since the late Marcos era", he explains. "Basically, we have allowed our external defense capabilities to deteriorate.Whether or not there was an issue with China, there was that need and the president recognised it." Professor Rommel C. Banlaoi, vice president of the Philippine Association for Chinese Studies, mentions the other threats which would be reasons for the country to build up its maritime domain: "It can also mean against other international terrorist groups, maritime pirates, smugglers of arms, drug smugglers, human traffickers,s and other forms of transnational organized crimes using the South China Sea, the Celebes Sea, the Sulu Sea." But Banlaoi says the timing of this increased cooperation reflects a much bigger geo-political picture: access to the sea lanes in the South China Sea. Although the US says it does not take a position on competing territorial claims, they do have an interest in maintaining freedom of navigation in the area for all American ships, military, civilian or commercial. "In my opinion the US is doing this because of the China challenge," says Banlaoi. "Of course they will not admit it – the US also has interests in keeping a cordial relationship with China as an economic power. "The US fears that if China increases its influence in the area then it will affect the unhampered use of the waters in the South China Sea." According to Banlaoi, the support given to America's former colony is part of President Obama's "pivot towards Asia" is an attempt to strengthen all its existing alliances in Asia- including Australia, Japan, South Korea and Thailand. Banlaoi says that the Philippines needs the assistance most: "Among American allies in Asia the Philippines is the only country with no credible capabilities. We are very ill equipped, in fact the Philippines is what I call belonging to the weakest link in the US alliances in Asia." The United States is also assisting the Philippines with a system to better monitor the archipelago's Western coast. Details as to the timeframe of such a project are unclear but according to Carandang, "It's going on ..its moving, it's happening." Rep. Biazon details the form such assistance might come in: "You need not only the radar systems, but including communication systems. You can't operate the aircraft without a radar. That will be part of the package. And probably even armaments." But debate exists as to whether or not these efforts to modernize the military with new equipment will really make a difference. Rep. Neri J. Colmenares, party list representative for the leftist Bayan Muna movement, believes efforts to make Philippines defence "credible" are in vain and will only serve to increase dependence on the USA: "We can spent a hundred years' budget on the armed forces of the Philippines and it will not make our defense credible against China," he says. "An increase in budget or capabilities is not the way forward … because the armed forces itself has not been reformed. It's still a corrupt and politicised body." Academics such as professor Benito Ong Lim, a China specialist who teaches political science at Ateneo de Manila University, questions the sincerity of American help, pointing out that China's defense system is stronger than all of the military weaponry of the ASEAN countries combined. Referring to the Gregorio del Pilar, which was stripped of most of its weapons, he says: "Suppose the Americans know that China owns a machine gun, but they give the Philippines a kitchen knife – it makes the Philippines look ridiculous when confronted with the Chinese in the Scarborough Shoal." "Suppose they see Chinese ships enter the area of the contested islands. What can the Philippines do? Can they drive them out?" he continues. "They will probably just to do what they are doing now – say 'The Chinese are bullying us!'"
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Mitt Romney and the Republicans gained a staggering $101m in July fundraising, besting Obama's $75m
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Mitt Romney and the Republicans gained a staggering $101m in July fundraising, besting Obama's $75m
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Internal documents obtained by the LA Times show blacklist intended to protect scouts from abusers was frequently breached Internal documents from the Boy Scouts of America reveal more than 125 cases in which men suspected of molestation allegedly continued to abuse scouts, despite a blacklist meant to protect boys from sexual predators. A Los Angeles Times review of more than 1,200 files between 1970 and 1991 found suspected abusers regularly remained in the organization after officials were first presented with sexual misconduct allegations. Predators moved from troop to troop because of clerical errors, computer glitches or the Scouts' failure to check the blacklist, known as the "perversion files," the newspaper said. In at least 50 cases, the Scouts expelled suspected abusers, only to discover they had re-entered the organization and were accused of molesting again. In other cases, officials failed to document reports of abuse in the first place, letting offenders stay in the program until new allegations came to light, the Times reported. One scoutmaster was expelled in 1970 for sexually assaulting a 14-year-old boy in Indiana. After being convicted of the crime, he went on to join two troops in Illinois between 1971 and 1988. He later admitted to molesting more than 100 boys, was convicted of the sexual assault of a scout in 1989 and was sentenced to 100 years in prison, according to his file and court records. In 1991, a scout leader convicted of abusing a boy in Minnesota returned to his old troop shortly after getting out of jail. In response to the Times' findings, the Scouts issued a statement that said in part: "The Boy Scouts of America believes even a single instance of abuse is unacceptable, and we regret there have been times when the BSA's best efforts to protect children were insufficient. For that we are very sorry and extend our deepest sympathies to victims. "We are committed to the ongoing enhancement of our program, in line with evolving best practices for protecting youth." The "perversion files" naming suspected child molesters include admissions of guilt as well as unproven allegations. They are used to vet applicants for volunteer and paid positions. The confidential documents have come to light in recent years in lawsuits by former scouts, accusing the group of failing to detect abuses, exclude known pedophiles or turn in offenders to authorities. Scouting officials say they have used the files to prevent hundreds of men who had been expelled for alleged sexual abuse from returning to the organization. The Boy Scouts have fought in court to keep the records from public view, saying confidentiality was needed to protect victims, witnesses and anyone falsely accused. Many of the files will soon be made public as a result of an Oregon supreme court decision. The Associated Press, the New York Times, the Oregonian and other media outlets petitioned for the release of 1,247 files from 1965 to 1984 that had been admitted as sealed evidence in a 2010 lawsuit. The Times analyzed a set of files that were submitted in a California court case in 1992. Their contents vary, but often include biographical information on the accused, witness statements, police reports, parent complaints, news clippings, and correspondence between local Boy Scout officials and national headquarters, according to the newspaper.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Being free of injuries helped the Jamaican beat his rivals and his calm under extreme pressure helped too 1) Size matters ...It's obvious, sure, but it doesn't make it any less true. Being 6ft 5in tall allows Usain Bolt to take wider (and thus fewer) steps over a 100m race than his smaller rivals. On Sunday night he took 41 steps to win the Olympic final. Yohan Blake took 46 steps and Justin Gatlin took 42.5 steps. 2) ... but it's also about strength and elasticity tooWhat makes Bolt special is that he also possesses great strength and flexibility, which allows him to accelerate quickly and maintain a very high top speed. As Dr Ross Tucker of The Science of Sport website explains: "I've not seen such an elastic runner before. Bolt's advantages stem from a superior stretch-shortening cycle function, which allows energy to be stored and used more effectively. We know from research that power output is proportional to the amount of energy that can be stored and released from the muscle-tendon junction during the muscle contraction." 3) He was injury freeThe news that Bolt had a "slightly tight hamstring" in the run-up to the Games led some to speculate whether the Jamaican would be at his best in London. But those close to his camp insist that he was able to put in six weeks of hard training beforehand. That ensured he was back to peak condition for the Games. And a fit Bolt is an almost unstoppable Bolt, providing he gets his start right. 4) He was more chilled than refrigerated Ting sodaTwo scenes, six weeks apart, to compare and contrast. First, Bolt at the Jamaican trials: he had his business-face on, looked fretful before the start and failed to pass Blake, who started like a Lamborghini and finished like a tank. Second, Bolt entering the arena before the men's 100m final on Sunday night: he was smiling while everyone else was stony-faced, pogo-ing down the track in his warmup with the energy of a 70s punk, and then destroyed the rest of the field in the second fastest time in history. 5) Bolt's startAfter the race, Bolt admitted that he was worried about a false start and so "sat on the blocks a bit" while he waited for the gun. His reaction time of 0.165sec, however, was actually faster than Blake (0.179sec) and Gatlin (0.178sec). As usual, Bolt was slower to build up to top speed than his nearest rivals, but his fast reaction time meant that although Gatlin was ahead of him early on, he was always within catching distance. Bolt could keep calm, and let his long legs do the rest.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Channel shows purported confessions by more than a dozen suspects in connection with the killing of five nuclear scientists Iranian state television on Sunday broadcast purported confessions by more than a dozen suspects in connection with the killing of five nuclear scientists since 2010. The broadcast showed some of the suspects re-enacting the assassinations in different districts of the capital, Tehran. The 14 suspects shown on TV included eight men and six women. The TV showed pictures from a military garrison it said was a training camp outside Tel Aviv in Israel. It said the suspects took courses there, including how to place magnetic bombs on cars – the method used in the killing of the scientists. Iran says the attacks are part of a covert campaign by Israel and the west to sabotage its nuclear programme, which the US and its allies suspect is aimed at producing nuclear weapons. Iran denies that. Iran's intelligence chief, Heidar Moslehi, had promised recently to provide detailed TV pictures about the case. Iran has blamed the Mossad as well as the CIA and MI6 for the assassinations, with support from some of Iran's neighbours. The US and Britain have denied involvement in the killings. Israel has not commented. The TV report said CCTV in a Tehran street recorded one of the operations, providing clues for Iran's intelligence agencies to identify and arrest the suspects. One of the suspects, Behzad Abdoli, claimed that he received training in Israel, along with several others. "I entered Turkey and then was taken to Cyprus by ship. From there, I entered Israel and [then] Tel Aviv ... They [Israelis] said that this group is being supported financially by the US and Israel," he said. Another suspect, Arash Kheradkish, said he received training in attaching magnetic bombs to moving cars. "There was a motorcycle racing complex [in Tel Aviv] where we received training. We were told we needed to improve our skills so that we would be able to attach magnetised bombs to moving cars ... We were given time bombs that we had to push the start button when we attached it," he said. "At the end of the training course, members [of the group] were given money. They arranged our return [to Iran]." The broadcast said Jamali Fashi and Arash Kheradkish got the highest grades during training in Tel Aviv and were chosen to lead the operations. Maziar Ebrahimi, another suspect, said there were three groups involved in the bombings: two on a motorbike, a car driving in front to slow the target car and a third support team waiting nearby to help if necessary. "The assassination control room was in Tel Aviv, but it was receiving the orders from Washington and London," the TV report said. The TV report did not say if the 14 suspects have already stood trial or when they would be tried. In May, Iran hanged Majid Jamali Fashi, 24, sentenced to death for the 2010 killing of Tehran University physics professor Masoud Ali Mohammadi. Fashi, who said in televised confessions that he was recruited by the Mossad, was convicted last August. At least five Iranian nuclear scientists, including a manager at the Natanz enrichment facility, have been killed since 2010. Officials say that the campaign includes the abduction of Iranian scientists, the sale of faulty equipment and the planting of a destructive computer worm known as Stuxnet, which briefly brought Iran's uranium enrichment activity to a halt in 2010. The broadcast said Iran reserves the right to pursue the case through legal channels at international bodies.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Scientists hail mission's early success as robot lands without a glitch and beams back first images of Martian landscape The first images from Mars were small, grey and grainy, but they verged on miraculous for the elated Nasa scientists, who hugged, cheered and high-fived on hearing they had pulled off the most daring landing ever attempted on another world. The US space agency's Curiosity rover touched down on Mars at 6.14am (BST) on Monday after an apparently perfect entry and descent dubbed the "seven minutes of terror" by Nasa staff. The period referred to the anxious moments during which the spacecraft punched into the Martian atmosphere at 13,000mph, performed a series of exquisite manoeuvres, and came to a standstill on the ground, all without human intervention. In the event, the entry was swift and went without a glitch. In the final stage of landing, the spacecraft fired up eight retrorockets to slow its descent, before its "sky crane" lowered the 900kg (1,984lb), car-sized Curiosity rover to the ground on nylon ropes. The conditions on Mars, where the wind can gust to 90mph, were calm, and the rover touched down at 1.5mph, more softly than expected. Seconds later, the rover beamed its first images back to Earth, the pictures taking nearly 14 minutes at the speed of light to reach mission control at Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in California. "It's absolutely incredible. It doesn't get any better than this," Charles Bolden, the Nasa administrator, told reporters in a press conference after the safe landing was confirmed. "We were sitting there saying, we know we're on the ground, we just don't know what shape we're in. To hear everything was OK was great." The first pictures, taken from a low-resolution camera aboard the rover, suggested the vehicle had touched down away from large rocks. In one, one of the rover's wheels was visible. In another, the rover cast a shadow over the floor of the Gale crater. The images prompted whoops of delight from blue-shirted mission scientists who could barely believe the landing was so clean. Speaking at a press conference an hour after Curiosity touched down, John Grunsfeld, a former astronaut and Nasa's associate administrator for science, said: "Mars is hard and success is not guaranteed. There are many out in the community that say Nasa has lost its way, that we don't know how to explore, that we've lost our moxie. I want you to look around tonight at all those folks in the blue shirts and think about what we've achieved. I think it's fair to say Nasa knows how to explore, we've been exploring, and we're on Mars." Curiosity is the largest and most sophisticated rover Nasa has ever sent to another planet. Over the next 98 weeks – or one Martian year – the six-wheeled vehicle will trundle around the ancient Gale crater and scale its central mound, the three mile-high Mount Sharp, examining rocks and soil for evidence that the planet was once hospitable to life. Aboard the rover are 10 scientific instruments that will scour the Martian surface for rocks that formed in the presence of water, and other geological clues that the planet was once habitable. John Bridges, a planetary scientist at Leicester University, who was at JPL for the landing, told the Guardian: "From cruise stage separation, atmospheric entry at 6km per second, parachute deployment, slowing down, then sky crane deployment, it went without a hitch. The first images have already got us talking." Adam Steltzner, a former rocker who heads the entry, descent and landing team, told reporters he was humbled by the experience. "In my life, I am, and will be, forever satisfied, if this is the greatest thing that I've ever given," he said. Powered by radioactive plutonium and lithium-ion batteries, the rover will now explore the Gale crater and Mount Sharp for one Martian year, or 687 Earth days. It will climb up the shallow sides of the mountain, following a path drawn up from maps created using images taken by Mars orbiters. Scientists hope the mountain will be a window into the planet's past. At the bottom of the crater are rocks thought to be more than 3.5bn years old, but higher up, the deposits are ever younger. As the rover climbs, the measurements it makes will reconstruct the planet's habitat from the ancient past until now. Curiosity has a robotic arm, with a scoop and drill, which can collect samples for analysis on board the rover. On a central mast, the rover holds a camera and laser that can vaporise rock surfaces and study their makeup from nearly 10 metres (33ft) away. The Nasa team will now take 10 Martian days – each one being 24 hours and 40 minutes – to run checks on the rover and ensure it is healthy before exploration begins in earnest. For the first three months on the planet, the surface operations team will work on Mars time to make best use of the robot. "Tonight is just the landing. Tomorrow we are going to start exploring Mars. And next week, next month and next year we are going to bring you new discoveries. We are going to continue not only exploring Mars, but exploring the solar system and exploring the universe, because our curiosity has no limit," said Charles Elachi, director of the Nasa laboratory.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Police scour apartment of unnamed gunman who was killed in shooting spree near Milwaukee that left six worshippers dead Police have searched the home of a gunman who killed six people at a Sikh temple in southern Wisconsin, looking for clues to his motive. A police officer called to the scene shot dead the gunman before he could fire on more worshippers as they prepared for Sunday services at the temple in Oak Creek, south of Milwaukee. Three other people were in hospital with serious injuries, including a police officer who had also responded to the scene. Authorities said they were treating the attack as an act of domestic terrorism. The identity of the tall, bald, white suspect in his 40s was not immediately released. The names of the victims also were not made public pending notification of relatives, although members said the president of the congregation and a priest were among the victims. CNN, citing a law enforcement source involved in the investigation, said the gunman was a US army veteran. Authorities said the gunman had used a 9mm semi-automatic handgun, which was recovered at the scene. They were trying to track the origin of the weapon. Wisconsin has some of the most permissive gun laws in the country and passed a law in 2011 allowing citizens to carry a concealed weapon. Jagjit Singh Kaleka, the brother of the president of the temple, who was among the six Sikhs killed, said he had no idea about the motive for the attack. "But we know the more assault weapons we distribute the more situations like this we will have," he said. A US ban on certain assault weapons expired in 2004. Early on Monday, police were searching an apartment at a duplex in the Cudahy district near Milwaukee, presumed to be the home of the gunman. Generators and floodlights were set up along the street and a bomb squad was on the scene. The attack came just over two weeks after a gunman killed 12 people at a cinema in Aurora, Colorado, where they were watching a screening of The Dark Knight Rises. In January 2011, a gunman killed six people in an attack on an event held by the then congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords in Tucson, Arizona. Giffords was shot in the head but survived. American Sikhs say they have often been singled out for harassment, and occasionally violent attack, since the 9/11 attacks. Sikhs are not Muslim but many Americans do not know the difference, members of the Sikh community say. Some witnesses to the Wisconsin shooting said the suspect had a tattoo marking the attacks on 11 September 2001. Authorities confirmed he had tattoos but said they were not sure exactly what the tattoos illustrated. There are 500,000 or more Sikhs in the US but the community in Wisconsin is small, with about 2,500 to 3,000 families, said local Sikhs. The Sikh faith is the fifth largest in the world, with more than 30 million followers. It includes belief in one God and that the goal of life is to lead an exemplary existence. The temple in Oak Creek was founded in October 1997 and has a congregation of 350 to 400 people. "These people were going to church. Two weeks ago, it was people going to a movie. When is it going to end?" said Ray Zirkle, who came from Racine, Wisconsin, with his wife to light votive candles near the site of the shooting.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Israeli border security under question following fatal gun attack by militants that left at least 15 guards dead Egypt will impose full control over the Sinai, its new president has pledged, as the Israeli government warned of a deteriorating security situation after gunmen killed around 15 Egyptian border guards and hijacked armoured vehicles to launch an attack across the border in Israel. Mohamed Morsi said: "Those who carried out this crime will pay dearly." In a speech on Egyptian state television, he added: "Clear orders have been given to our armed forces and police to chase and arrest those who carried out this assault on our children. The forces will impose full control over these areas of Sinai." The president convened an emergency meeting with military and security leaders in the aftermath of the assault, which he described as a "serious challenge to the Egyptian sovereignty". Following the attack, which was launched just after sunset on Sunday, the Israeli defence minister, Ehud Barak, said it had "again raise[d] the need for determined Egyptian action to enforce security and prevent terror in the Sinai". He said Israel had contacted the Egyptian authorities to offer help. "We hope this will be a fitting wake-up call for the Egyptians to take things in hand on their side more forcefully," he told the Israeli parliament's foreign affairs and defence committee on Monday. Israel has become increasingly concerned about a security vacuum in the Sinai in the 18 months since Hosni Mubarak, the former president and staunch ally of Israel, was deposed in the Egyptian revolution. There have been a number of attacks and attempted attacks on Israel from across the border. Israel says some militant groups in Gaza have joined forces with Islamists operating in the Sinai. It describes the Sinai militants as "global jihadists" or connected to al-Qaida. Since the revolution, Israel has permitted the Egyptian government to station more troops in the Sinai than is provided for under the 1979 peace treaty to increase security. Israel is prohibited from launching military operations in the Sinai, and such action would risk a major diplomatic crisis. The assault began at around 8pm, as security personnel at a checkpoint in the Egyptian town of Rafah, where the borders of Egypt, Israel and Gaza converge, were breaking the Ramadan fast. According to a spokesman for the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF), eight armed men launched an attack, killing around 15 men and injuring another seven. The militants commandeered two armoured vehicles, which they drove towards the Israeli border. One vehicle exploded on the Egyptian side of the border, and the other broke through the security fence near the Kerem Shalom border crossing and was targeted by Israeli air force planes. The Israeli government spokesman Ofir Gendelman said seven militants had been killed, four on the Israeli side and three in Egypt. The Israeli military instructed Israeli civilians to stay inside their homes while combing the area for other militants who might still be on the Israeli side of the border. Officials say Egypt has deployed at least two helicopter gunships to the Sinai in the hunt for the militants behind the checkpoint attack. Security and military officials said on Monday that more aircraft were expected to arrive in the town of El-Arish before a military campaign against the militants in the area. Egypt and Israel blamed the attack on Islamist militants from both Gaza and the Sinai. Hamas, the Islamist organisation which rules Gaza, issued a statement condemning the attack. It has made efforts to contain militant activity since the end of its war with Israel three and a half years ago. "Hamas condemns this ugly crime which killed a number of Egyptian soldiers and extends its deep condolences to the families of the victims and to the leadership and the people of Egypt," it said. Islamic Jihad and the Popular Resistance Committee, both of which have frequently launched rockets into southern Israel, also condemned the attack. Israeli intelligence services said they had information about an impending infiltration and sent aircraft to strike at the second car the militants had seized from the Egyptian forces. "We were prepared for it, so there was a hit," said the Israeli military spokesman Brig-Gen Yoav Mordechai. The military "averted a major attack on southern Israel", he said. The Egyptian authorities closed the Rafah crossing to Gaza following the attack. Earlier on Sunday, a militant in Gaza was killed and another injured in an Israeli air strike on a motorcycle travelling near the Egyptian border. The IDF said in a statement that it had targeted a "global jihad-affiliated terrorist squad in the southern Gaza Strip" which was responsible for an attack on the Israel-Egypt border in June in which an Israeli civilian was killed. Another attack was being planned, the IDF said. However, the two incidents were not connected, according to an IDF spokesman.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | At 06.14 BST Nasa's Curiosity rover touched down safely in Gale Crater on Mars following a complex landing sequence, leading to scenes of jubilation at mission control. Follow the landing, as it happened, here . 05.44am: Good morning and welcome to our live blog of one of the most hair-raising landings ever attempted by Nasa: the Mars Science Laboratory mission and its intrepid Curiosity rover. 5.45am: During the descent, the spacecraft must shed tungsten weights to shift its centre of gravity, fly through the Martian atmosphere, pop a huge parachute, fire retrorockets, and finally lower the car-sized rover to the ground. In these "seven minutes of terror", the spacecraft will go from 13,000mph to a standstill on the Martian surface. Touchdown is due at 6.31am BST. 5.53am: The Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft is now within 10,000km (6,200 miles) of the planet. The probe accelerates as it arrives at Mars, then slows as it ploughs into the atmosphere. One of the first moves the spacecraft makes pulls the heat shield into a forwards position. Friction with the atmosphere will raise the temperature of the shield to more than 2000C. 5.57am: The spacecraft is now inside the orbit of the Martain moon, Phobos. During the entry, landing and descent phase, some 76 pyrotechnic charges will be fired aboard to probe to release weights and release the parachute. Shedding twin 75kg tungsten weights on arrival allows the spacecraft to get aerodynamic lift: instead of dropping like a stone, it can fly through the thin Martian atmosphere. The spacecraft has to sense its position and atmospheric conditions and use small onboard thrusters to steer its way to the landing site. 6.00am: Adam Stelzner, NASA's lead scientist for the Entry, Descent and Landing Phase has just given brief thanks to his team for getting Mars Science Laboratory so far so smoothly. He said:
Curiosity is in great shape...See you on the other side, on Mars.
6.03am: Mars is around half the size of Earth, but the planet has a similar land mass. The target landing spot for Curiosity is the Gale Crater, which is thought to be around 3.5billion years old. The Curiosity rover will spend most of its Martian year exploring Mount Sharp, an enormous mound in the centre of the crater that rises 5km above the ground. The spacecraft is now 20 minutes from entry. 6.07am: It takes just under 14 minutes for radio signals to reach Earth from Mars. So when mission controllers hear that Curiosity has entered the atmosphere, it will already have been on the ground - safely or otherwise - for seven minutes. The gravity on Mars is 38% as strong as Earth's. 6.12am: More Mars trivia: The canyon system of Valles Marineris on Mars is the largest and deepest known in the solar system. It extends for more than 2,500 miles (4,000km) and in places reaches 10km from floor to the surrounding plateaus. 6.13am: If the rover lands safely, what will we see first from the surface? This is from Curiosity's mission pages: The very first images are likely to arrive more than two hours after landing, due to the timing of NASA's signal-relaying Odyssey orbiter. They will be captured with the left and right Hazcams at the back and front of the rover, and they will not yet be full-resolution (the two images arriving on Earth first are "thumbnail" copies, which are 64 by 64 pixels in size). The Hazcams [Hazard-Avoidance cameras] are equipped with very wide-angle, fisheye lenses, initially capped with clear dust covers. The covers are designed to protect the cameras from dust that may be kicked up during landing; they are clear just in case they don't pop off as expected.
6.17am: The spacecraft has separated from its cruise stage. Small thrusters on the back shell of the probe have now fired to halt the two-revolutions-per-minute spin that the spacecraft maintains during flight. The thrusters fire next to bring the heat shield into position, in a move called "turn to entry". A tweet from Curiosity: I'm inside the orbit of Deimos and completely on my own. Wish me luck! In case you were wondering, Deimos is the outer of Curiosity's two moons. 6.22am: The spacecraft is still accelerating under the planet's gravitational pull and will reach 13,000 mph before it starts to feel the outer atmosphere of the planet. The atmospheric pressure on Mars is about one hundredth that on Earth. Surface winds are typically up to 20 miles per hour, with gusts up to 90mph. The atmosphere is 95.3 per cent carbon dioxide, 2.7 percent nitrogen and 1.6 per cent argon. The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, is tracking the probe. 6.24am: Geraint Jones, a planetary scientist from UCL's Mullard Space Science Laboratory in Surrey, is here in the office with me. In answer to a question left on the blog earlier, he says: @wwwwwlllll: The surface winds expected at the landing site are around 0-32 km/h. MSL is designed to cope with much stronger gusts than that if they arise. There was a dust storm spotted towards the end of last week around 1000km away, but this isn't causing the team any worries.
6.25am: One minute to entry. "We are now beginning to feel the atmosphere," says Nasa scientist. Tweet from Brian Cox
Now admit it,this is more exciting than the 100m last night #MSL 6.28am: Early days, but all looking good. The spacecraft is "heading directly to the target", according to Nasa scientist. The seven minutes of terror are underway! 6.30am: Parachute deployed. The probe is decelerating. 6.32am: The probe is being monitored by Mars Odyssey. Now around 4km from the surface. The retrorockets are firing. Velocity is 50metres per second. Standing by for sky crane - the amazing system that lowers the rover by nylon ropes. 6.32am: The sky crane is now lowering the rover. 6.33am: "Touchdown confirmed. We are safe on Mars!" 6.34am: Scenes of complete jubilation in NASA's mission control. That was extraordinary. Images are on their way. 6.36am: "It's the wheel!" exclaims one of the NASA scientists. The first image from Mars Curiosity has arrived. More pictures are on their way. We'll be grabbing those images to post as soon as we can. 6.38am: "We have just blown dust all over the place with our descent engines," says one NASA scientist. A high resolution image showing the horizon and dust particles on the camera have just arrived. Amazing stuff. Extraordinary to see this work so smoothly. The landing was the complex ever attempted on an alien world. 6.39am: And here is the first picture from Curiosity after touchdown. 6.42am: I've not seen scenes of such joy since CERN found the Higgs boson. Worth waiting for will be the video feed from underneath the spacecraft as it flew to its target and began lowering the Curiosity rover on those nylon ropes. That will be truly extraordinary to see. The NASA Curiosity team will now spend a good while on Mars time so they can synchronise their operations with the rover. This is the live stream of Nasa TV, courtesy of Ustream. 6.50am: Here's one of the first pictures to arrive from Mars Curiosity. 6.52am: The first pictures from Mars are now on NASA's website. 6.53am: Lovely picture - the shadow of Curiosity in Gale Crater. 6.57am:As Geraint Jones, planetary scientist at UCL, who is here with me today, says: The good news is that there are no big rocks. That'll make it easier to drive around.
6.59am: Tweet from Brian Cox Absolutely wonderful. What a year! First the Higgs, now the search for Life on Mars begins ! #MSL Of course Mars Curiosity is famously not looking for life on Mars, but for signs of ancient habitable environments. This is a prospecting mission. The first job is to find areas where life may have survived had it ever evolved on Mars. Once those places are found - if they exist - scientists will know where to send future missions to look for direct signs of past life on the planet. 7.03am: Celebrations at NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab in California as the Mars Curiosity rover touches down on the red planet. A huge success for the US space agency. 7.08am: NASA is holding a press conference on the Mars Curiosity landing at 7.30am UK. So far the mission has gone without hitch, and there was plenty of opportunity for failure. The rover - the largest ever built by NASA - will spend the next year exploring the Gale Crater and its central mountain in the hope of finding geological evidence that Mars was once hospitable to life. 7.12am: Measurements from Mars point to a gentle landing for the Curiosity rover, the nearest thing to an SUV that has ever been sent to another planet. The impact speed was just 0.67 metres per second, or 1.5mph. The sideways drift of the rover was a minuscule 0.044 metres per second, less than 0.1mph. 7.15am: Susanne Schwenzer, a postdoc at Open University, has sent this: Curiosity is on Mars. Seven minutes of landing went by very fast, it was so intense. The parachute deploy was the moment I took the first deep breath, thinking this may work. And it did. How exciting! We now have the chance to explore Gale crater. This unique place on Mars, which contains a series of geological features, which we now can start investigating with the most advanced rover ever. For me as a mineralogist it will be especially interesting to find out more about the formation conditions of the clays, that have been seen from orbit. They will tell us more about past water and the potential for habitability. Personally, being part of Dr. John Bridges participating scientist team is a unique, probably once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to be part of exploration of Mars. I am looking forward to the science to come - and in the short term to the first panorama image after mast deploy in the days to come.
7.27am: John Bridges at Leicester University blogs: Lots of very happy and excited people in this room! What an opportunity we have now to explore this fascinating planet.
7.28am: Charles Bolden, the NASA administrator, tells the press conference that the President's science adviser, John Holdren "nearly threw-up", presumably with the stress and excitement of the landing. 7.34am: This just in from John Bridges at University of Leicester: From cruise stage separation, atmospheric entry at 6 km/s, parachute deployment - slowing down - then Skycrane deployment , it went without a hitch. The first images have already got us talking...
The press conference is settling down now... 7.35am: Charles Elachi, director of Jet Propulsion Lab, is having a nightmare trying to calm everyone down for the press conference. 7.38am: Great NPR interview with Adam Stelzner, head of the Entry, Descent and Landing phase for Mars Curiosity here. I was sort of studying sex, drugs and rock and roll in high school," says Steltzner. It wasn't just the long hair. "I liked to wear this strange Air Force jump suit. And my first car was a '69 Cadillac hearse. I put a bed in the back.
7.44am: Tom Watson MP tweets:
Am I misguided to think that humankind landing a robot on Mars -on Mars! - is the biggest story of the day? Got to follow: #MSL While Stuart Clark, Guardian space blogger, adds: Let us enjoy and celebrate achievement. This is Olympian science. Years of dedication and effort - paying off. 7.49am: Adam Steltzner, head of the Entry, Descent and Landing phase team, is overwhelmed by the success. I am terribly humbled by this experience. I, forever, secretely, have felt I do not deserve to be in the position of leading the team I lead...In my life I will be forever satisfied if this is the greatest thing I have ever given.
7.51am: Wonderful panoramic view of the press conference, where people are now captivated by the team describing their thoughts on touchdown. 7.52am: Adam Steltzner, head of NASA JPL's Mars landing team, describes himself on his twitter feed as "Master of Mars" 7.55am: Steltzner emphasising the data that has come in to date is preliminary. He says the landing "looked to be extremely clean", with the rover coming down in conditions that were calmer than they had prepared for. "Our powered flight appeared to be excellent." The spacecraft landed with 140kg of fuel left over. "Looks like we landed in a nice, flat spot. Beautiful." 7.58am: Second question of the press conference...
"Can you tell us the file type and compression used to send the image back?" Steltzner saves us all with: "I absolutely cannot" He goes on to say: "Curiosity is perhaps the central defining human attribute." 8.00am: NASA Administrator, Charles Bolden, writes: I am so proud of the NASA team that has made tonight's challenging milestone possible. However, tomorrow we begin to plan for the next great challenge -- and start compiling incredible scientific data from Curiosity. For the past 50 years, NASA has specialized in doing the hard things. Thanks to the ingenuity of our teams across America and the world, we are poised for even greater success.
8.04am: Geraint Jones, planetary scientist from UCL, who is here at the Guardian, says: Very keen amateurs have started looking at the images taken after the landing - there's a curious cloud-like feature that appears in images taken by two separate cameras. Some are suggesting that it might be a cloud of dust thrown into the air when the descent stage hit the ground a few hundred metres away after delivering the rover to the surface.
8.15am: Project scientist John Grotzinger says they are in no hurry to get to Mount Sharp. "The place we landed looks pretty darn interesting" 8.22am: Hi folks. James Randerson taking over for a while as Ian puts together a news story. If you have any specific questions about the mission, we have Dr Geraint Jones with us, planetary scientist at UCL who can try to answer them. 8.26am: An update on the MSL blog from Dr John Bridges out in Pasadena: The next data relay via Mars Odyssey is at 12.30 am PDT (add 8 hours for BST). We will start the process of checking the instruments. That doesn't have the drama of landing but its why we are on Mars... The mission PI stresses that we need to be patient.
8.30am: Some reaction pulled together by the Science Media Centre in London: Dr Stephen Lewis, the Open University: This is a spectacular technological achievement and opens the way to ambitious exploration of Mars with more sophisticated spacecraft than was previously possible. Mars Curiosity science will tell us much more about the past history of Mars, its climate, how it changed and whether it was ever habitable.
Professor Sanjeev Gupta, Imperial College London: Now that the MSL has landed we can get to grips with some remarkable science. The area the rover will be exploring, with its large areas of exposed rock and variety of landforms will take us on a journey through geological time. With the extraordinary volume of data MSL can produce we will be able to reconstruct how the rocks and climate of this region have changed through time.
Dr John Bridges, University of Leicester:
The science community has been given a very valuable chance to move forward our understanding of how Mars has evolved. How long did wet conditions last and were there standing bodies of water on Mars? I hope the effective combination in MSL of science objectives and space engineering will point the way towards more exploration of the Solar System and technological innovations.
Sue Horne, Head of Exploration at the UK Space Agency: The fact that NASA have managed to successfully demonstrate such a novel landing system is an inspiration for everyone involved in space exploration. Now we can breathe a sigh of relief and look forward to the exciting scientific discoveries to come from Curiosity. The mission paves the way for future Mars exploration, and hopefully the future of Mars Sample Return.
8.47am: • The Mars Science Laboratory mission safely landed the car-sized rover Curiosity on Mars at 6.14am BST (it took a few minutes for the signal from the rover to reach Earth). The touchdown followed a complex landing sequence involving a parachute, retro-thrusters and a sky-crane - a system that lowered the rover to the surface on nylon ropes. • Curiosity announced its arrival with a tweet: "I'm safely on the surface of Mars. GALE CRATER I AM IN YOU!!!" Its impact speed was just 0.67 metres per second, or 1.5mph. • The flawless landing was followed by scenes of jubilation at mission control as the rover sent back four low-resolution black and white images of its surroundings. One showed curiosity's own shadow. • Adam Steltzner, head of the Entry, Descent and Landing phase team said he was "terribly humbled" by the experience. "In my life I will be forever satisfied if this is the greatest thing I have ever given," he said at a press conference following the landing. 8.53am: More images on the way. 9.01am: Prof Jim Al-Khalili, physicist at the University of Surrey and presenter of Radio 4's The Life Scientific tweets: Wondering whether the silly moon landing sceptics doubt this latest NASA mission. After all, Mars is 3 orders of mag further away.
9.17am: OK, I'm going to pull out a few of your comments on the mission from below the line: LeBeerO says: I truly hope I live to see the day that human beings set foot on Mars. Moments like this fill me with hope and joy and optimism. Sadly, that optimism is increasingly tempered by my realisation that that feat, a human being travelling millions of miles to set foot upon a completely different planet that no human has ever seen with their own eyes, seems more likely than creating a peaceful and equal society here on our home planet...I'm filled with a bittersweet feeling about this achievement. It's truly inspirational to see what humans can do when we work together, and truly saddening to see how often we don't.
RhysGethin writes: Bloody fantastic! I must admit I never thought this was going to work in a million years, well done NASA!
kingmaker says: If you had written that landing procedure for a movie you would have been kicked out of Hollywood. Awesomely brilliant job by all those involved.
ILikeChips objected to the jingoistic tone of the press conference: The whooping of the press conference was a little grating. However, I suspect all the "with american leadership the world can be a better place" stuff was largely a plea to the suits in Washington not to cut NASA budgets.
More from Dr Geraint Jones, at the Mullard Space Science Laboratory at University College London: As Earth is below the horizon as seen from Curiosity's landing site, the data taken during the landing was gathered by the orbiting Mars Odyssey spacecraft as it passed overhead and it passed the information directly on to Earth. It's currently passing on more data; it's been once around Mars since the landing and is crossing the sky again as seen from Curiosity. Two other spacecraft can also listen to Curiosity: NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), and the European Space Agency's Mars Express. Any data they picked up from MSL as it landed has been stored onboard and will be transmitted to Earth later. There could be spectacular images on the way not only from Curiosity itself but also from MRO: there's a 60% chance that it managed to take images of Curiosity with its extremely powerful camera as the rover was descending to the surface.
9.27am: In case you missed the moment of touchdown or would like to re-live it. Here it is: 9.36am: More from Dr Geraint Jones on expected future Mars missions: The next two landings on Mars should both be parts of the European Space Agency-led ExoMars project. There will be a static lander launched in 2016, followed by a rover in 2018. NASA were going to be ESA's partner on ExoMars, but they withdrew from the project due to budget constraints. The Russian Space Agency are now likely to play a major role in the mission instead - the formal agreement for this is expected to be signed this November.
. 9.51am: The latest image from Curiosity. Project scientist John Grotzinger described it earlier as a "beautiful sunset on Mars".
"Those hills in the background should be crater rim - I'm just taking a guess here," he said. 10.31am: Dr Geraint Jones has this on another image we are expecting to see later today: Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter had been commanded to attempt to image Curiosity as it was descending to the surface. Apparently the spacecraft has now sent data back to Earth and the images have been processed. We probably won't see the result until later today; NASA will hold its next press conference at 5pm UK time.
10.36am: The Mars Science Laboratory and Curiosity rover in pictures. 10.37am: Here's what happened during the land sequence - what NASA called Curiosity's "seven minutes of terror". 10.38am: More background on the mission: the Guardian's new space blogger Dr Stuart Clark on why Curiosity isn't looking for live on Mars. You can follow him on twitter @drstuclark. 10.40am: We're recording a podcast on today's amazing landing. It should go live around mid-afternoon. You can look out for it here. 10.48am: OK folks. It's been quite a morning and I need a coffee (I suspect the NASA folks are having something stronger). Thanks for joining us and for your comments. We're going to wrap up the blog now, but please do continue the discussion below.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Follow live updates as state TV announced that Syria's prime minister has been sacked after activist claimed he defected to Jordan
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Follow live updates as state TV announced that Syria's prime minister has been sacked after activist claimed he defected to Jordan
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Follow live updates as a bomb hits the third floor of Damascus state TV building and rebels in Aleppo are braced for a major assault
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Lightning strikes twice was the headline of choice, while Jamaica celebrated both independence and a London champion As Jamaica readies itself to celebrate 50 years of independence, its most famous son blasted to 100m gold in the capital of the country's former colonial rulers – a point made by the Jamaica Gleaner who thank both Usain Bolt and the silver-medallist Yohan Blake for a "birthday gift". Eschewing the lightning headlines scattered liberally elsewhere, The Gleaner instead dubbed the sprinter 'Hurricane Bolt', noting that the hurricane "Ernesto might have spared Jamaica, for the most part, but the world felt the effects of 'Hurricane Bolt'". Later in the report comes a quote from Blake, who says: "Jamaica, we likkle but we tallawah". Elsewhere, the Jamaica Observer simply cries: "Bolt is a legend!". In America, Tim Layden of Sports Illustrated makes the point that Bolt's win in London outstripped his 2008 victory in Beijing, adding that while his China gold was sealed with "playful arrogance" as part of the "Bolt Show", "the scent of vulnerability trailed him into London". This time, writes Layden, Bolt had a fight on his hands with both a strong field, recent injury and poor form to contend with. "He walked onto the track at 9:41 Sunday night, energizing a stadium that had struggled to rise again to the manic level of the previous night, when Great Britain won three gold medals in 46 minutes. Bolt gave them the juice they needed to rise again." Layden concludes that Bolt is wrong to say he's "one step closer to being a legend" because "he is already there, larger than life and larger than his sport." In the New York Times, Campbell Robertson reports from The Electric club in Brixton, scene of an impromptu Jamaican carnival and "the closest thing to a hometown crowd [Bolt] can get 4,700 miles from home." "'Who won the race?" the D.J. shouted at the crowd on Sunday night. 'Who won the race?' 'Bolt, Bolt, Bolt, Bolt, Bolt!' the crowd shouted back. With that fact established, Bob Marley's 'One Love' came over the speakers. And two hours before Jamaica's 50th anniversary of independence from Britain, the Jamaican outpost of Brixton began to celebrate the success of its countryman Usain St. Leo Bolt, the fastest man in London and anywhere else." In Italy, Gazetta Dello Sport, reckon Bolt "literally unplugged' Justin Gatlin saying that "the fastest man on earth" won the race his way: "not superb, but not disastrous". They add that, by the second half of the race "Bolt was just so impregnable that at the finish line he allowed himself a hint of a sideways glance to make sure everything was in order." In Germany, Eurosport celebrated "The Bolt Show", likening his trademark celebration to an archer drawing back a bow. "Gold, gold again! Olympic champion Usain Bolt was the 'Archer', bouncing with the Jamaican flag on the track of his dreams, and then turning a cocky somersault. What a night, what a time! As the fastest man in the world shot across the finish line in the 100 meter final, thousands of cameras flashed as the hurricane in the London Olympic stadium reached its peak." Around the world, and closer to home, variations on "Lightning strikes twice" was the headline of choice. "Who says lightning can't strike in the same place?" says The Australian. "The Lightning Bolt, it's back, baby," says USA Today. "Lightning strikes twice," adds The Wall Street Journal, while Agence France Presse says: "Lightning Bolt flashes to London gold". There were few striking sour notes, though China Daily managed to point out that, though Bolt was the fastest in the 100m, when it came to the medals table China was "back to top". Perhaps it's the fierceness of that medal race that got to the AP sports columnist Jim Litke. The American called our Olympics "overhyped and increasingly over-budget" before pointing out that Bolt's 100m display "saved" everyone with a stake in the Olympics, including the IOC, Locog and the American TV channel NBC. Oddly, one of the places to carry Litke's piece was an NBC channel itself: "It took [Bolt] longer to get down on both knees and kiss the track than it did to glide over the most important 100 meters of it. Yet it's everyone else with a stake in this overhyped and increasingly over-budget extravaganza – the International Olympic Committee, the London organizers, NBC, his sport and even his fellow competitors – who should be kissing the ground Usain Bolt walks on. He saved their games." An odd point, perhaps, on a day in which the rest of the world seemed ready to celebrate Bolt's remarkable run.
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