Spectacular Eclipse Of The Moon Sunday March 4, 11:02 AM Thousands of people gazed in awe as the skies remained clear for the most spectacular lunar eclipse in more than a decade. The first total eclipse of the moon in three years was visible across England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland last night thanks to crisp weather. The surface of the full Moon first went dark before turning a coppery red, to the delight of people who had stayed up to watch the display. The Moon started to become obscured from 20:18 and was at its height between (Advertisement) 22:44 and 23:48. The phenomenon occurred because the Earth passed directly between the Moon and the Sun. Light scattering through the Earth's atmosphere was reduced to predominantly-red wavelengths, which reflect off the lunar surface. In ancient times a "blood Moon" was viewed with dread and seen as an omen of disaster or great change. This year's lunar eclipse could be seen most clearly from Europe, Africa and the Middle East. The event was regarded by astronomers as one of the most memorable in more than 15 years. After the eruption of Mount Pinatubo in 1992, so much volcanic ash was released into the atmosphere that the eclipsed Moon that year was nearly invisible. Since the Earth has not had a major eruption for some years, last night's eclipse was a more impressive sight. Robin Scagell, from the Society for Popular Astronomy, said: "This is one of the best lunar eclipses from Britain for years. "It was fascinating to watch the Moon's graceful movement through the shadow of the Earth and check its coppery glow."
The prototypes for two flying cars that will make it easier to carry out emergency rescues, are being developed by an Israeli firm. CEO of Urban Aeronautics, Rafi Y Li, said the vehicles are the first to be designed for use in densely-populated areas and for emergency evacuations. He said: "Unlike a helicopter it does not have big, exposed rotors overhead. So all the rotors of this vehicle are contained inside the fuselage. "More and more combat is done in urban areas. There is a need to fly combatants into the area and then extract them out." The larger of the vehicles, the X-Hawk, is roughly the size of a small truck and can seat 12 people while the smaller aircraft, the Mule, is designed to transport the wounded or supplies. Neither of the vehicles are airborne yet but the company has secured a patent for the technology. The cars will be able to reach a maximum speed of 155mph and could cost up to £3.1 million
And Mills Divorce: Round 2 Thursday March 1 Sir Paul McCartney and Heather Mills are back in court for the latest round in their divorce battle. The former Beatle looked relaxed as he arrived at the High Court in London - his wife looked serious and ignored the waiting media. According to The Sun, Mills stormed out yesterday after the first day of the hearing went badly for her. The paper says she was livid after Mr Justice Bennett threw out many of the lurid claims made against her estranged husband in a leaked document. The judge is deciding which of the allegations against Sir Paul will be allowed. Mills was reported to have been led out of court by a rear entrance, while Sir Paul emerged smiling 20 minutes later. She is said to have rejected a £25m offer put forward by Sir Paul three weeks ago. Mills was accompanied to the hearing by her solicitor, Anthony Julius, who won £17m for Princess Diana in her divorce from Prince Charles. The five-hour court appearance was held in private - no names were pinned up outside and the case was identified only by its number. Mills has accused Sir Paul of being violent during their four-year marriage - a claim he vehemently denies.
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Welcome to Revealed, a TV and Web program that gets under the skin of the world's brilliant thinkers, creative champions and inspirational leaders. Revealed offers a glimpse of the private people behind their public profiles in the run up to important moments in their lives. This month: Claude Nobs
1.Pictured with the singer Van Morrison, then 52.
2. Nobs and Neil Young
3; With the band R.E.M
4, Nobs and Jamiroquai frontman Jay Kay
5. Nobs, left, and Chuck Berry
6, Nobs, center, flanked by Nesuhi Ertegun, left, and jazz impresario Norman Grantz.
7. With David Bowie
8. Quincy Jones and Nobs. The pair co-produced the Montreux Jazz Festival
25th Anniversary in 1991.
Revealed: Rocco Forte Part 01 Charles Forte's only son is restoring the family brand to its former luster.
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Bush: 'We're Going Forward'
More Troops Called The Only Iraq Option By Michael A. Fletcher Washington Post, January 15, 2007;
Faced with substantial opposition both in Congress and among the American public to their Iraq plans, President Bush and Vice President Cheney vowed yesterday to forge ahead with the deployment of more than 21,000 additional troops. In an interview broadcast last night on CBS's "60 Minutes," Bush said he has the authority as commander in chief to move ahead with the deployment, regardless of what the Democratic-controlled Congress does in opposition.
"In this situation, I do, yeah," Bush said. "I fully understand they could try to stop me from doing it. But I've made my decision. And we're going forward." National security adviser Stephen J. Hadley said yesterday that the money is already in place to begin moving additional troops to Iraq. "We have authority in the -- we have money in the '07 budget, which has been appropriated by the Congress, to move these troops to Iraq, and the president will be doing that," he said on ABC's "This Week." The addition of troops in Iraq, announced by Bush last week in a nationally televised speech, is part of an administration strategy aimed at quelling the sectarian violence there and at salvaging an unpopular war effort that the president himself has said is not succeeding. Bush said on "60 Minutes" that the only option besides boosting troop levels would be to withdraw -- a move supported by some Democrats but one he called tantamount to defeat. "I began to think, well, if failure is not an option and we've got to succeed, how best to do so? And that's how I came up with the plan I did," Bush said. That plan has run into fierce opposition among Democrats and a growing number of Republicans, and a clear majority of the public now advocates a withdrawal of U.S. troops. Some congressional critics are advocating the idea of a nonbinding resolution to reflect their conviction that more troops will not provide the answer in Iraq. Sen. Carl M. Levin (D-Mich.), chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said yesterday on CNN's "Late Edition" that such a resolution, drawing bipartisan support, "would be a strong message to the president to put pressure on the Iraqis to reach a political solution." Earlier yesterday, Cheney said on "Fox News Sunday" that a resolution would not influence how the administration executes its policy. "Congress, obviously, has to support the effort through the power of the purse, so they have got a role to play and we certainly recognize that," Cheney said. "But also, you cannot run a war by committee."
Despite the concerns by the Human Rights Watch of Saddam Hussein's execution and plans to execute two of Saddam's top aides, his half brother and former intelligence chief Barzan Ibrahim and the former head of Iraq's Revolutionary Court, Awad Hamed al-Bandar., they werer exwecuted on 15-01-07 in Iraq without any prior warning in an effect media blackout prior to the ececutions.
Monday January 8, 2007 4:46 AM
1 NEW YORK (AP) - The Iraqi prime minister's vigorous defense of Saddam Hussein's execution and plans to execute two of Saddam's top aides show the government's ``disregard for human rights and the rule of law,'' Human Rights Watch said in a statement for release Monday.
Despite a growing intern1ational outcry over the sectarian taunts leveled at Saddam as he stood on the gallows with a noose around his neck, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has stood firm on his view that justice was done.
``The execution of the tyrant was not a political decision, as the enemies of the Iraqi people say. The verdict was implemented after a fair and transparent trial, which the dictator never deserved,'' al-Maliki said on Saturday.
Human Rights Watch called on the Iraqi government to halt the upcoming executions of two top aides to Saddam - his half brother and former intelligence chief Barzan Ibrahim and the former head of Iraq's Revolutionary Court, Awad Hamed al-Bandar.
``The tribunal repeatedly showed its disregard for the fundamental due process rights of all of the defendants,'' said Richard Dicker, director of Human Rights Watch's International Justice Program. ``The execution of these two, however heinous the crimes involved, is cruel and inhuman punishment that will only drag a deeply flawed process into even greater disrepute.''
Human Rights Watch said Saddam's hanging and the executions planned for two of his top aides only serve to obscure the former regime's record.
``The haste and vengeance infusing Saddam Hussein's hanging should prompt the Iraqi government to halt these executions,'' Dicker said. ``Saddam Hussein's hanging, which obscured his unspeakable human rights record, shocked the world and is raising questions about this government's commitment to fundamental human rights.''
and you click on the usaweeklnews heading on their home page which normally links to their other site www.internationalnewslimited.com
instead of obtaining the www.internationalnewslimited.com site ended up seeing this instead, I thought that this would be interesting to you to see. Did you know if this has happened to any other USA or American web sites. Obviously this person does not like the USA or George Bush and is impliying that they are going to try and kill George Bush this year by saying that his life span is from 1946 to 2007. I take this as a definite threat that George Bush should be told about as I think his life is in danger and should be warned. It may be necessary for someone ti try and find out who did this hacking and from where. I do not know why they haver done this to this particular site, But it is important that this be brought to public attention through your newspaper.
I think the situation is very serious
best regards
a concerned citizen
At approximately 11am Sunday January 14th, one of NetRegistry's webservers was maliciously compromised. We were aware of the fact within approximately 15 minutes, at which time we initiated our basic internal security process. The exploit was terminated, the vunurablity was identified and patched and the extent of the effect to client sites assessed. Only a relatively small number of the total sites NetRegistry hosts were affected. For these sites we initiated a diversion to a maintenence page whilst we undertook restoration of effected files from backup. This restoration process continued into Sunday evening at which time files (as they) were restored. As files were restored, the sites were individually bought back online. NetRegistry apologizes for the inconvenience to affected clients and we appreciate your patience and support through this event.
This newapaper is concerned about hackers like this can completely remove a whole website and replace it with their own statement. ait is considered it preferable to leavre this statement by this person up on the web so that there is no need for this hacker to remove this whole web site/ The President of the USA Goerge Bush has been informed so that his powerful security team can investigate this incident and try and find out the source of the threat.
Western Europe is facing the possibility of renewed energy problems after a pipeline carrying oil through Belarus to Poland and Germany from Russia was shut down.
EU demands explanation for oil pipeline shutdown The European Union is demanding an explanation for the shutdown of a pipeline carrying oil from Russia through Belarus. Germany and Poland, whose oil supplies have been cut as a result, have both expressed concern at the situation. Russia's Druzhba pipeline stopped pumping overnight in a trade dispute between Moscow and Minsk over energy prices and transit fees. Pipeline monopoly Transneft said it took action to stop Belarus siphoning off oil - payment in kind for its new oil transit duty. The German Economy Minister Michael Glos has called on the two countries to meet their energy transit and delivery responsibilities as soon as possible: "It's unacceptable that we have to accept such shutdowns of our supply. This incident shows once again, we can't rely on energy supplies from Eastern Europe alone. For high reliability, we need mixture of energy sources," Michael Glos said. Poland's deputy Economy Minister Piotr Naimski said his country had enough oil reserves to last 80 days but still he condemned the decision to cut supplies: "This situation would seem to show that deliveries from Eastern Europe are unreliable. The suppliers can't be trusted," Piotr Naimski said. The stoppage is the latest development in an increasingly bitter dispute, which has seen Moscow impose duties on oil sales and double prices of gas supplies to Minsk.
Austrian parties seal leadership pact - Austria's main parties have agreed on a ruling coalition. The deal between the centre-left and conservatives comes three months after a closely fought general election. Social Democratic leader, Alfred Gusenbauer, will become chancellor in the so-called "grand coalition". He replaces Wolfgang Schuessel who narrowly lost the election after more than six years in power in alliance with a far-right party.
Swedish prosecutors target Bildt shares -Sweden's Foreign Minister, Carl Bildt, is facing corruption allegations over his share options in a gas and investment company. Prosecutors have reportedly decided to launch an inquiry into whether the remuneration could be seen as inappropriate. The investigation could later form the basis of criminal proceedings - an outcome welcomed by Bildt who says that will make the situation clear. When Bildt was named foreign minister last October he retired from the board of Vostok Nafta, whose assets consists almost entirely of shares in the Russian gas giant, Gazprom. But critics say his continued ownership of stock options may help Gazprom's bid to build a controversial pipeline under the Baltic Sea. For Green Party leader, Peter Eriksson, there is no question that Bildt is politically unfit to remain in his post. "He's chosen greed over his credibility," he says. Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt has backed his foreign minister and will no doubt be reluctant to lose another high profile member of his cabinet over a scandal. Both the Culture and Commerce ministers have been forced to resign for non-payment of taxes.
Moroccan jailed for role in 9/11 attacks A German court has jailed a Moroccan friend of the September 11 hijackers for 15 years for being an accessory to mass murder. Mounir el Motassadeq, 32, was a member of a group of radical students in Hamburg who organised the plot which claimed almost 3,000 lives. In November last year, Germany's top appeals court confirmed Motassadeq's conviction - overturning an earlier verdict that found him guilty only of belonging to a terrorist organisation. He is the second person to be convicted in connection with 9/11. Frenchman, Zacarias Moussaoui is serving life in the US for his role.
Spanish PM seeks all-party anti-terror pact- Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero met with the Opposition leader for talks aimed at forming an all-party pact against terrorism. It was their first meeting since a bombing in Madrid nine days ago killed two people. The government, after planning talks with Basque separatist group ETA, had called off the peace process in response to the attack. Popular Party leader, Mariano Rajoy, called for renewed efforts to overcome ETA, saying the bombing showed negotiations were impossible. The leader of ETA´s so-called political wing pleaded with the militants to "maintain their ceasefire". Batasuna chief, Arnaldo Otegi, called on ETA to "keep to objectives and commitments set out in its statement of March 22" - the date the militants had vowed to give up their fight. The banned organisation, Batasuna, had not before condemned the attack, nor commented on ETA´s role in it. Forensic work continued at the airport, where a car bomb went off on December 30, destroying a multi-level parking garage. Two Ecuadorian immigrants who had been sleeping in cars inside were killed. Around the capital, people stopped for a five minute silent vigil in the memory of Carlos Palate and Diego Estacio. Their bodies have been sent home for burial. ETA has not yet claimed responsibility for the blast but the man who made a warning call said he represented the group. The bombing
John Prescott has described leaked video footage of Saddam Hussein just before he was executed as "deplorable". Speaking on the Today programme, the deputy prime minister said whoever carried it out should be "condemned".
Iraq investigates Saddam footage
Saddam Hussein was taunted and insulted in his last moments which was shown world wide on mobile phone footage...
The Iraqi government has launched an inquiry into unofficial mobile phone footage showing the execution of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. The mobile phone footage showed he exchanged taunts and insults with witnesses at his hanging on Saturday. The grainy video showed the former leader being told to "go to hell" by someone attending the hanging. UK Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott said the circumstances of the execution were "deplorable". Do you consider this bravery? Saddam Hussein, on new video.
The Iraqi authorities fear the footage, released on the internet hours after the execution, could contribute to a dramatic rise in sectarian tensions between Iraq's Sunni and Shia communities. "There were a few guards who shouted slogans that were inappropriate and that's now the subject of a government investigation," an adviser to Prime Minister Nouri Maliki, Sami al-Askari, told Reuters news agency.
Chants and insults
Saddam Hussein, a Sunni Muslim, was sentenced to death by an Iraqi court on 5 November over the killings of 148 Shias from the town of Dujail in the 1980s. He was executed before dawn on Saturday in Baghdad and buried near his hometown of Tikrit a day later.
I think whoever was involved and responsible for it should be ashamed of themselves John Prescott
Death scenes 'deplorable'
The Iraq authorities released official footage of the execution, to prove to the public that Saddam Hussein was dead. But that film did not include any sound and did not show the actual moment of death. The grainy mobile phone footage that emerged hours later was shot from below the gallows.
"I lived through the bloody war that Saddam started with Iran. But still I am not happy with Saddam's execution "Alireza Pahlavani, Tehran
As Saddam Hussein is led towards the trapdoor, one of the unseen observers shouts "go to hell". Others can be heard chanting the name of Shia cleric Moqtada Sadr and of Muhammad Sadiq Sadr, his father who was murdered by Saddam Hussein's agents. In response Saddam Hussein is sarcastic, asking "do you consider this bravery?"
'Unacceptable'
In a BBC interview, John Prescott called it "deplorable" and "totally unacceptable" that video clips of the execution had surfaced on the internet. Mr Prescott is in charge while Prime Minister Tony Blair is on holiday. "I think the manner was quite deplorable really," he said. "I don't think one can endorse in any way that, whatever your views about capital punishment. "Frankly, to get the kind of recorded messages coming out is totally unacceptable, and I think whoever was involved and responsible for it should be ashamed of themselves."
Saddam Hussein to Be Hanged Within 30 Days After Appeal Denied Bloomberg.comTue, 26 Dec 2006 1:22 PM PST Dec. 26 (Bloomberg) -- Former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein is set to be hanged within the next 30 days after losing a court appeal of his death sentence, an Iraqi judge said.
Saddam Hussein Will Be Executed Within 30 Days, AFP Reports Bloomberg.comTue, 26 Dec 2006 8:51 AM PST Dec. 26 (Bloomberg) -- Saddam Hussein's appeal against his death sentence failed and the former Iraqi dictator will be executed within 30 days, Agence France-Presse reported, citing the appeals court judge.
Iraqi appeals court mandates hanging for Saddam Hussein Los Angeles TimesTue, 26 Dec 2006 8:32 AM PST Iraq's highest appeals court today upheld Saddam Hussein's death sentence and said he must be hanged within 30 days for the killing of 148 Shiites in the central city of Dujail.
Saddam Hussein Execution Expected Within Month Crosswalk.comTue, 26 Dec 2006 9:59 AM PST (CNSNews.com) - Saddam Hussein, the Iraqi dictator who the United States deposed in its 2003 invasion of Iraq, could be executed at any time during the next 30 days, following the rejection of his appeal on a conviction of crimes against humanity.
Iraqi appeals court upholds death sentence for Saddam Hussein Boston HeraldTue, 26 Dec 2006 7:08 AM PST BAGHDAD, Iraq - Iraq's highest court rejected Saddam Hussein's appeal Tuesday and said the former dictator must be hanged within 30 days for his role in the 1982 slayings of 148 Shiite Muslims...
Putin?s Assertive Diplomacy Is Seldom Challenged New York TimesTue, 26 Dec 2006 7:50 PM PST Buoyed by oil and gas riches, Russia has become so confident that it has become impervious to the criticism that once might have modified its behavior.
Bush in Texas to rethink Iraq course AP via Yahoo! NewsTue, 26 Dec 2006 7:47 PM PST President Bush went to his ranch Tuesday to rethink U.S. involvement in Iraq as his spokesman hailed a Baghdad court's decision upholding the death sentence for former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.
Iraq, Elections Topped Political News of 2006 Fox NewsTue, 26 Dec 2006 6:08 PM PST Democrats and the war in Iraq dominated politics news in 2006 while immigration, a White House shake-up and an accidental shooting involving the vice president also grabbed headlines.
Iraq quagmire erodes Bush's confidence and power AFP via Yahoo! NewsTue, 26 Dec 2006 6:39 AM PST A 12-year Republican lock on Congress came to an abrupt end in 2006, as voters punished US President George W. Bush for the quagmire in Iraq.
White House Applauds Ruling Upholding Saddam Death Sentence Fox NewsTue, 26 Dec 2006 1:53 PM PST Press office says ruling to hang former Iraqi leader within 30 days marks 'important milestone' in efforts to turn Iraq toward rule of law.
Byron Williams: What Exactly is Foreign Policy Experience? HuffingtonPostTue, 26 Dec 2006 10:53 AM PST As we titillate ourselves with the possibility of a Barack Obama presidential campaign, the one lingering question will be his foreign policy experience. After almost a generation of being a secondary consideration (remember, "It's the economy, stupid!"), foreign policy has returned as a political priority for those applying for the temporary job known as commander-in-chief. And for all of his ...
Rants: Lies, Damn Lies, Semantics Wired NewsTue, 26 Dec 2006 12:52 PM PST Readers set the record straight on drunken antics, torture words and evil. Plus: Links to our most popular blogs.
Britain has failed to win UN support for a statement deploring Iran's detention of 15 UK sailors and marines and calling for their immediate release. A senior Iranian official suggested Iran may put the British captives on trial.After three hours of talks, ambassadors from the 15 UN Security Council nations were still trying to agree on a watered-down press statement.One compromise that would take note the council's concern about the detentions and call for their immediate release was rejected by Russia, diplomats said. Russia proposed instead that the statement take note of the general situation and call for humanitarian access The nation, which has strong commercial links with Tehran, raised serious objections to the thrust of the original British statement.The sailors and marines were seized after they allegedly went into Iranian waters - but Britain has insisted the servicemen and woman were in Iraqi waters.The UK had wanted the council to say it deplores Iran's actions, to state that the incident took place in Iraqi waters, and demand the Britons' immediate release of the Britons.Russia's UN Ambassador Vitaly Churkin, said only that he had made "constructive suggestions" and hoped members could agree on a statement.
Amy's Shock Confession (Wednesday March 28, 2007 07:41 AM)
She has been known for her volatile behaviour in the past... But recent pictures of her cut arm sparked concerns for Amy Winehouse. And now she's admitted that she did self-harm when she was younger.
She told Q magazine: "It's a funny thing, morbid curiosity.
Six out of 10 women think size zero is attractive, according to a new survey - despite warnings that ultra-thin celebrities are risking their health. The poll for New Woman magazine found that the majority of British women find the look desirable. The survey also found that almost all women (97%) believe size 12 is "fat". The same number would rather have friends who are fatter than them, and 76% admit they are jealous of slimmer friends. Half of the 5,000 women surveyed said they h ad gone without food all day before a big night out in order to fit into a dress.And the pressure to be slim comes from other women.Six out of 10 surveyed said friends had criticised their body shape and four out of 10 said their mothers had urged them to lose weight.Four out of five said they would be "much happier" if they lost weight and one-third said they had tried dieting by eating less than 500 calories a day.The survey also showed the lengths women will go to in order to lose weight.Almost half have taken slimming pills or diet drugs while one in five have taken laxatives.Some 13% confess to taking speed or cocaine to speed up their metabolism and suppress their appetite.
Gerrard rescues England soccer team from brink of disaster
Wed 28 Mar, 10:25 PM
BARCELONA, Spain (AFP) - Steven Gerrard pulled England back from the brink of humiliation as Steve McClaren's side laboured to a 3-0 win over Group E minnows Andorra in a Euro 2008 qualifier here on Wednesday.
Gerrard's second-half double and a last minute strike by substitute David Nugent, who bundled the ball over the line after Koldo Alvarez had fumbled Jermain Defoe's shot, ensured England emerged with the three points and a respectful enough scoreline.
But in reality it was another woefully disjointed display that will only have exacerbated the pressure on McClaren as he battles to salvage his job and England's chances of reaching next year's finals in Austria and Switzerland.
A training ground injury to Frank Lampard had relieved McClaren of his main selection dilemma -- whether or not to drop the Chelsea midfielder.
With the issue resolved by the hairline wrist fracture Lampard suffered in training earlier this week, Gerrard was restored to his favoured role at the sharp end of a midfield diamond.
It was the Liverpool captain who provided England's first serious threat, a long-range effort that swerved dangerously in the swirling wind and drew a good save from Koldo in the 18th minute.
The Andorra goalkeeper must have been agreeably surprised however that that was the only save he had to produce in an opening half hour in which England appeared every bit as devoid of ideas as they had been in the first half of Saturday's goalless draw in Israel.
Wayne Rooney's desperation to get back on the goal track for his country was reflected in the way he grabbed the ball for a 12th minute free-kick. But so too was his recent form as the dead ball was curled a good two yards wide from barely 20 yards out.
Andy Johnson was giving the Andorrans more problems. Having turned his marker before sending a 27th-minute effort narrowly over, the Everton striker forced Koldo to get down sharply to his left for his second save of the night, six minutes before the interval.
Minutes earlier, Stewart Downing had got on the end of Micah Richards' cross from deep on the right but the Middlesbrough winger's effort sailed over the bar, sparking the first chorus of jeers from the England supporters who had braved the miserable conditions to support their underperforming side.
The start of the second half brought a marked increase in England's tempo. Hargreaves fired one effort narrowly wide and Downing forced another good save from Koldo before Gerrard finally put them ahead, nine minutes after the restart.
The Andorran defence failed to deal with Lennon's cross from the right and when the ball fell to Rooney, he was able to flick a sideways pass to Gerrard, who thumped his shot into Koldo's bottom right-hand corner from the edge of the penalty box.
That should have been the signal for England to relax and begin to make their superiority tell. Instead, Rooney got himself embroiled in a spat with Oscar Sonejee that earned him his second yellow card in as many matches.
The United forward, who will be suspended for the June trip to Estonia as a result, was hauled off five minutes later to be replaced by Defoe at the same time as Kieron Dyer came on for the injured Richards.
The Newcastle midfielder should have doubled England's lead with just over 20 minutes left, shanking his finish wide from the edge of the six-yard box after Lennon had wriggled to the byline and cut the ball back into his path.
Gerrard finally made the result safe 14 minutes before the end, combining with Defoe in the inside-left channel before slotting a side-footed shot past Koldo.
Nugent's late strike ensured the scoreline was given a respectable edge but it came too late to stop the visiting supporters from spending the closing minutes chanting "we want McClaren out."
After this display, McClaren's employers at the Football Association must be moving towards the same conclusion.
CALVERT, Md. - Toby, a 2-year-old golden retriever, saw his owner choking on a piece of fruit and began jumping up and down on the woman's chest. The dog's owner believes the dog was trying to perform the Heimlich maneuver and saved her life. Debbie Parkhurst, 45, of Calvert told the Cecil Whig she was eating an apple at her home Friday when a piece lodged in her throat. She attempted to perform the Heimlich maneuver on herself but it didn't work. After she began beating on her chest, she said Toby noticed and got involved."The next think I know, Toby's up on his hind feet and he's got his front paws on my shoulders," she recalled. "He pushed me to the ground, and once I was on my back, he began jumping up and down on my chest."That's when the apple dislodged and Toby started licking her face to keep her from passing out, she said."I literally have pawprint-shaped bruises on my chest. I'm still a little hoarse, but otherwise, I'm OK," Parkhurst said."The doctor said I probably wouldnt be here without Toby," said Parkhurst, a jewelry artist. "I keep looking at him and saying 'Youre amazing.'"
How does the new BMW 3 Series Convertible compare to its rivals? The small executive class was pretty much invented by BMW when it first launched the 3 Series. There are plenty of contenders to the throne nowadays, though BMW still makes one of the best. The 3 Series Convertible has also been a success and the latest generation has just gone on sale in Britain. It's rather good too. How do its rivals compare?
BMW moves the game on
BMW 3 Series Convertible It must still have been a difficult decision for BMW to ditch the 3 Series Convertible's traditional fabric roof in favour of a heavier and bulkier hardtop.
Home is where the heart is for world's tallest man
Wednesday March 28, 09:28
BEIJING (Reuters) - The world's tallest man, whose search for a bride covered the world, ended up marrying a woman from his home town nearly half his age and more than two feet shorter, Chinese media reported on Wednesday. Bao Xishun, 56, a 2.36-metre (7-ft, 9-inch) herdsman listed by Guinness World Records as the tallest living man, married a 29-year-old saleswoman, the Beijing News said. Both come from Chifeng in Inner Mongolia. "After sending out marriage advertisements across the world and going through a long selection process, the efforts have finally paid off," the newspaper said. It was the first wedding for Bao and his bride, Xia Shujuan, a mere 1.68 metres (5 ft 6 inches) tall. Bao reached his height in a seven-year spurt that began in his teens and which doctors have yet to explain, according to Guinness. After a career in the army, where he was recruited for a basketball team, he returned to Inner Mongolia. He now herds livestock and hires himself out for publicity stunts. In December, Bao saved the lives of two dolphins by reaching deep into their stomachs with his 1.06-metre (42-inch) long arm to pull out pieces of plastic, according to Chinese media.
British officials are waiting to see if they will be given access to the 15 sailors and Marines being held in Iran.
The country's foreign minister Manouchehr Mottaki said diplomats could meet the service personnel but only if the Government admits they entered Iranian waters.
"We have accepted that, there is no problem. Measures are under way. They can meet them," he said.
"First they have to admit that they have made a mistake. Admitting the mistake will facilitate a solution to the problem."
Mr Mottaki also appeared to back away from earlier suggestions that Leading Seaman Turney was about to be released.
He spoke after footage of the captured Briton was broadcast on Iranian television.
Leading Seaman Turney, the only woman among the sailors and Marines, was shown wearing a black headscarf and smoking a cigarette while a letter purportedly written by her to her family said the group had "trespassed" into Iranian waters.
The other 14 members of the group were shown by Al-Alam television in their uniforms apparently well and eating a meal off plastic plates.
The Foreign Office denounced the broadcast of the pictures as "completely unacceptable".
"There is no doubt that our personnel were seized in Iraqi waters and were entitled to be there," said a spokesman.
"We await further details from the Iranian government on their undertaking to act on our request for consular access to the Royal Navy personnel.
"We continue to press strongly for their immediate release."
The Government's reforms of NHS dentistry have failed to achieve their stated aims, the British Dental Association (BDA) said.
The biggest shake-up of dentistry in 50 years was intended to remove dentists from the "drill and fill" treadmill, improve patient access and lead to a greater focus on preventative work.
But one year after a controversial new dental contract was introduced, the BDA said the anticipated benefits have failed to materialise.
Its research found that 85% of 394 dentists surveyed believe the new contract has not improved patient access to NHS dentistry.
Almost all (97%) think it has not removed dentists from the work "treadmill" and 93% feel the new system does not encourage a more preventative approach.
Furthermore, 95% of dentists questioned felt less confident about the future of NHS dentistry than they did two years ago.
Under the new contract introduced last April, dentists are paid for carrying out a set number of units of dental activity (UDAs) over the course of the year.
But last month, a Department of Health memo, reported in the Health Service Journal, suggested patients may have to resort to emergency care or find an alternative practice because their dentists have fulfilled their annual contracts too soon.
Health minister Rosie Winterton said: "We have made a significant extra investment over the last three years - with annual budgets increasing by £400 million (in real terms).
"The overall picture is that, despite the speculation, the number of dentists is growing and rather than leaving they are actually keen to expand their work for the NHS - hardly indicative of a failing system."
BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - Argentine soccer great Diego Maradona was taken to a Buenos Aires hospital in an ambulance on Wednesday after falling ill and was undergoing tests, the hospital said.
Maradona, who led Argentina to the 1986 World Cup title, has battled cocaine addiction and in recent weeks appeared overweight.
A statement from the Guemes hospital did not specify what Maradona was suffering from, but said his hospitalization was "not related to an addiction to dangerous drugs."
Dr. Alfredo Cahe, Maradona's personal physician, told Radio Mitre the 46-year-old former star was "fine" but "has had problems for some time with food, (alcoholic) drinks and tobacco." Maradona was likely to remain hospitalized for several days, he added.
Maradona's return to a hospital was a reminder of the repeated health problems -- many of them drug-related --- he has faced since retiring from the game in 1997.
Cahe had said just days ago that Maradona had put on weight and smoked too many cigars, and was planning a trip to Switzerland to get himself back into shape.
Television images showed an ambulance pulling up to a back entrance at the hospital. Moments later, Maradona's two teen-age daughters entered the building.
In 2000, Maradona was hospitalized with a severe heart problem while vacationing in Uruguay and tested positive for cocaine before undergoing drug rehabilitation in Cuba.
Four years later, he spent 10 days in intensive care with heart and breathing problems and reentered rehabilitation.
He underwent a stomach-stapling operation in 2005, shedding around 30 kgs (66 lbs) and said he was fully recovered and went on to briefly host his own television program.
Since then, he has played in several promotional soccer games with other retired players from across Latin America.
Maradona was suspended for drugs while playing in Italy in 1991 and kicked out of the 1994 World Cup in the United States after failing a drug test, which he blamed on his coaching team for buying the wrong over-the-counter medicine.
Based on the best-selling novel by Neil Gaiman, Stardust takes audiences on an adventure that begins in a village in England and ends up in an imaginary world. Watch our exclusive clip starring Michelle Pfeiffer and Robert De Niro.
To celebrate Danny Boyle's fabulous new movie, we want you to submit your sunshine-inspired photos. The winner - who will be picked by Danny himself - will win a holiday to Tromso, Norway where there's 24 hours of sunshine for 3 months!
Arrrr me hearties! Captain Jack and his merry bunch of men are back for another fun-filled installment. This time round, Elizabeth and Will must team up with enemy Captain Barbossa in a quest to free Jack from Davy Jones' locker.
Prepare to battle with our 300 movie special! Download warrior wallpapers, watch gruesome clips, check out premiere photos and watch our interviews with the star of the movie Gerard Butler and the director Zach Synder.
Do you ever think you're family is weird? Wait until you meet The Robinsons then! Lewis is introduced to them when Wilbur Robinson takes him away in a time machine.
As the official Comic Relief movie this year you're guaranteed a few laughs along the way - join in the fun now and watch our clip from the film with interviews from the cast.
Mr Fantastic Ioan Gruffudd is fantastic in a different way as William Wilberforce who led the attempts to abolish slavery in 18th-century England. Watch him in our clip now.
Move over Torville And Dean, the latest hot pairing on the ice are Chazz Michael Michaels and Jimmy MacElroy. Find out how the pair came together in our look at their rise to fame.
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Al Qaeda Threat to Kill Harry In Iraq. Terrorists have vowed to kidnap or kill Prince Harry when he fights in Iraq, it is reported. The 22-year-old is due to be sent out in May with colleagues from the Blues and Royals regiment. Threats have been posted on extremist websites since his deployment was revealed, The Sun says. One message said: "Prince Harry will be sent to Iraq to be killed by Muslims." Another added: "May Allah give him what he deserves - like his fellow crusaders." Army officials fear the Prince will be paraded on television if he is kidnapped. A Blues and Royals source told the paper: "Officially Harry is being treated just like any other soldier but in reality everyone knows how desperate the insurgents out there will be to get their hands on him." Internet terror expert Neil Doyle was quoted as saying: "Harry would be the ultimate prize for one of these insurgent groups. "He would be worth his weight in gold in propaganda terms if killed or captured." From the end of May, the prince will be patrolling in Scimitar armoured reconnaissance vehicles in Maysan. Harry will this week pose as a hooded hostage in a special training exercise, the paper says. His men will use tear gas and stun grenades to free him. More than 100 UK soldiers have been killed since the 2003 invasion.
British judge seen "no evidence" Diana was murdered LONDON (Reuters) - The judge investigating the death of Princess Diana said on Monday she had not seen "a shred of evidence" to back claims that she had been murdered. Coroner Elizabeth Butler-Sloss was responding to a request from lawyers representing Mohamed al Fayed, whose son Dodi died alongside Diana in a Paris car crash 10 years ago, to delay a long awaited inquest into the their deaths.
This article appears in the July 7, 2000 issue of Executive Intelligence Review.
This article appeared in the June 12, 1998 issue of Executive Intelligence Review.
Nearly three years after the Paris car crash that claimed the lives of Princess Diana and Dodi Fayed, the cover-up of that tragedy has taken a deadly turn, prompting some experts to recall the pileup of corpses that followed the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Over the course of four years, after President Kennedy was shot on Nov. 22, 1963, at least 37 eyewitnesses and other sources of evidence about the crime, including one member of the infamous Warren Commission, which oversaw the cover-up, died under mysterious circumstances.
On May 5, 2000, police in the south of France found a badly burned body inside the wreckage of a car, deep in the woods near Nantes. The body was so charred that it took police nearly a month before DNA tests confirmed that the dead man was Jean-Paul "James" Andanson, a 54-year-old millionaire photographer, who was among the paparazzi stalking Princess Diana and Dodi Fayed during the week before their deaths.
From the day of the fatal crash in the Place de l'Alma tunnel, that killed Diana, Dodi, and driver Henri Paul, and severely injured bodyguard Trevor Rees-Jones, Andanson had been at the center of the controversy.
Mohamed Al-Fayed, the father of Dodi Fayed, and the owner of Harrods Department Store in London and the Paris Ritz Hotel, has labelled the Aug. 31, 1997 crash a murder, ordered by the British royal family, and most likely executed through agents and assets of the British secret intelligence service MI6--with collusion from French officials, whose cooperation in the cover-up would have been essential.
At least seven eyewitnesses to the crash said that they saw a white Fiat Uno and a motorcycle speed out of the tunnel, seconds after the crash. Forensic tests have confirmed that a white Fiat Uno collided with the Mercedes carrying Diana and Dodi, and that this collision was a significant factor in the crash. Several eyewitnesses told police that they saw a powerful flash of light just seconds before the Mercedes swerved out of control and crashed into the 13th pillar of the Alma tunnel. That bright light--either a camera flash or a far more powerful flash of a laser weapon--was probably fired by the passenger on the back of the speeding motorcycle. Both the motorcycle and the white Fiat fled the crash scene, and police claim they have been unable to locate either vehicle, or identify the drivers or the passengers.
Andanson's White Fiat
Andanson had been in and around Sardinia during the last week of August 1997, as Diana and Dodi vacationed in the Mediterranean. He joined several dozen other paparazzi, who were stalking the couple's every move. He was back in France on Aug. 30, the day that Diana and Dodi flew to Paris. And that is where the facts about Andanson's activities and whereabouts get very fuzzy.
For reasons that he never revealed, sometime before dawn on Aug. 31, 1997, less than six hours after the crash in the Alma tunnel, Andanson boarded a flight at Orly Airport near Paris, bound for Corsica. Andanson claimed that he was not in Paris earlier in the evening, when the crash occurred, but he never produced any evidence, save a receipt for the purchase of gasoline elsewhere in France (which he could have doctored or obtained from another person), to prove he was not in the city.
His son James and his daughter Kimberly told police that they thought their father was grape-harvesting in the Bordeaux region. Andanson's wife Elizabeth claimed that she had been at home with her husband all night, at their country home, Le Manoir de la Bergerie, in Cher, until he abruptly left for Orly, at 3:45 a.m., to catch the crack-of-dawn flight to Corsica.
Pressed on her version of the story, Mrs. Anderson later admitted to reporters and police that her husband was constantly on the run, and she could have been mistaken about the night in question. She told The Express, a British newspaper, "It was always very difficult to recall James's precise movements because he was always coming and going. The family was very used to that and so never paid a great deal of attention to the times he came and went."
What makes Andanson's precise itinerary the night of the fatal crash so vital is this: He owned and drove a white Fiat Uno. The car was repainted shortly after the Aug. 31, 1997 Alma tunnel crash, and was sold by Andanson in October 1997. And, although the official report of the French authorities investigating the crash concluded that Andanson's car was not involved in the crash, French forensic reports made available to The Express told a very different story.
One report in the files of Judge Hervé Stephan, the chief investigating magistrate in the Diana-Dodi crash probe, described the tests on Andanson's Fiat: "The comparative analysis of the infrared spectra characterizing the vehicle's original paint, reference Bianco 210, and the trace on the side-view mirror of the Mercedes shows that their absorption bands are identical." In laymen's terms, the paint scratches from the Fiat found on the side-view mirror of the Mercedes were identical to the paint samples taken from the matching spot on Andanson's Fiat.
The report continued: "The comparative analysis between the infrared spectra characterizing the black polymer taken from the vehicle's fender, and the trace taken from the door of the Mercedes, show that their absorption bands are identical."
In short, despite the French investigators' endorsement of Andanson's alibi, the forensic tests strongly suggested that his car may have been the white Fiat Uno involved in the fatal crash.
John Macnamara, the Harrods director of security, and a retired senior Scotland Yard supervisor of investigations, told reporters: "Mr. Andanson had for some time been a prime suspect who had relentlessly pursued Diana and Dodi prior to their arrival in Paris. We have always believed that Andanson was at the scene and that more investigation should have been done into his possible involvement."
Macnamara added, "We believe that his death is no coincidence and that this is a line of inquiry which may help to discover the truth. Was Mr. Andanson killed because of what he knew? That is a question we want answered."
The `Suicide' Soap Opera
Needless to say, Andanson's death stirred up renewed interest in Diana's death at a most inopportune time for the British royals, and those in France who abetted the cover-up. Sometime in September, an appellate court in Paris will rule on Al-Fayed's motion to order Judge Stephan to reopen the crash probe, based on the fact that Stephan shut down his probe before certain vital avenues of inquiry were fully explored, and in contradiction to his own interim report, which cited several glaring paradoxes in the evidence that remained unresolved at the point that he abruptly closed down his investigation last year and blamed the crash on driver Henri Paul.
For example, U.S. intelligence agencies, including the National Security Agency, the Central Intelligence Agency, and the Defense Intelligence Agency, have all acknowledged, in response to Freedom of Information Act queries, that they have thousands of pages of documents on Princess Diana. Those documents, for the most part, remain under lock and key. In addition to those documents and other relevant evidence, it has been recently exposed that a secret U.S.-U.K. joint surveillance program, code-named "Project Echelon," had apparently been involved in round-the-clock monitoring of Princess Diana's telephone conversations, while she was at home in England and travelling around the globe.
Until the contents of these U.S. government files and electronic intercepts have been reviewed by French investigators, Al-Fayed's lawyers have argued, the probe cannot be considered complete. And the U.S. Justice Department continues to stonewall on indicting three Americans who were involved in an attempted $20 million extortion of Al-Fayed in April 1998, centered around purported "CIA documents" proving that British intelligence assassinated Diana and Dodi. While the "CIA documents" seized from one of the plotters have been confirmed to have been clever forgeries, questions remain about the accuracy of the content of the documents.
In a flagrant effort to dampen interest in the Andanson factor, the June 11 Mail on Sunday, a pro-royalist tabloid, ran a story proclaiming "Wife's Affair Led to Paparazzi Man's Car Blaze Suicide." The Mail on Sunday dutifully peddled the French government's cover story: "The millionaire photographer who trailed Diana, Princess of Wales in St. Tropez just days before her death, committed suicide when he discovered his wife was cheating on him, French police have revealed. . . . The eccentric millionaire--who was hailed by colleagues as one of the godfathers of paparazzi photography, and who flew a Union Flag over his house to show his love of Britain--was facing a family crisis at the time of his death."
Mail on Sunday reporter Ian Sparks quoted an unnamed colleague of Andanson's at the Sipa Agency in Paris, making the preposterously contradictory claim that Andanson "was desperate to save his marriage. We would never have guessed he would do something so terrible." He committed suicide to save his marriage! Right.
A French police spokesman told Sparks, "He took his own life by dousing himself and the car with petrol and then setting light to it."
Andanson's widow Elizabeth, and their son James have rejected the idea that Andanson's death was suicide. Sources close to the family told EIR that they have pressed French officials to conduct a murder investigation into Andanson's death 400-miles from his home. The sources dismiss the bogus "marital problems" story and additionally report that Andanson was in high spirits over his new job with the Sipa Agency.
The Plot Thickens
Just after midnight on June 16, just one week after Andanson's death was first made public, three masked men armed with handguns, broke into the Sipa office in Paris, shooting a security guard in the foot. The three assailants dismantled all of the security cameras in the office, and proceeded to enter several specific offices, clearly aware of exactly what they were looking for. They made off with several cameras, laptop computers, and computer hard drives.
Sipa's office employs more than 200 people, and operates 24-hours a day. The three invaders spent three hours in the office, holding other employees hostage. According to one of the hostages, the men were never concerned about the French police arriving at the scene. This hostage was convinced that the three "burglars" were themselves working for some branch of the French Secret Service. Furthermore, the source confirmed that Andanson had worked for French and, undoubtedly, British security agencies.
The owner of Sipa, Sipa Hioglou, has worked closely with French intelligence, and, not surprisingly, has been one of the primary sources of the "marital problems/suicide" cover story about Andanson's death, "confessing" to French police and reporters that Andanson had confided in him that he planned to take his own life. Hioglou, in the days following the bizarre break-in and hostage siege of his office, also told police that he suspected that the raid was done on behalf of a disgruntled celebrity who was angry that her picture had been taken by a Sipa paparazzo without her permission.
In stark contrast, other Sipa employees have told the police that the idea that Andanson committed suicide was preposterous, and that they suspect that the break-in was related to his death.
What Is Going On?
The Sipa raid, the obvious work of French Secret Service assets, raises some very troubling questions. If Macnamara and Al-Fayed are right, and Andanson was at the crash site on Aug. 31, 1997, and his white Fiat was the car that collided with the Mercedes, what documentation exists of his presence at the tunnel? What photographs exist of the crash scene, and what do they reveal? Was some of this material seized from the Sipa offices in the recent break-in, to assure that it never sees the light of day?
Evidence has recently come to light, that within hours of the crash, British and French secret service agencies carried out a series of similar break-ins at the homes and offices of several photo-agency personnel, in a desperate search for photos of the crash site that may have been transmitted in the hours immediately after the Alma tunnel collision, and before word of Princess Diana's death was made public.
EIR has obtained copies of sworn statements from two London-based photographers, Darryn Paul Lyons and Lionel Cherruault, which reveal that British intelligence was hyperactive in the hours immediately after the Alma tunnel crash, desperately seeking any revealing photographs that might have been spirited out of Paris.
Lyons identified himself as the "Chairman of `Big Pictures,' . . . an international photographic agency in London, New York, and Sydney, specializing in obtaining and selling unique and exclusive celebrity-based photographs." At 12:30 a.m. on Aug. 31, 1997, Lyons received a phone call from a Paris paparazzo, Lorent Sola, who said that he had a dozen photographs of the accident at the Alma tunnel. Sola offered to electronically transmit the photos to Lyons immediately, and Lyons rushed off to his office, receiving the high-resolution photographs at approximately 3 a.m. Lyons immediately began negotiating with several large news organizations in the United States and Britain to sell the pictures for $250,000.
Lyons and Sola conferred after word of Diana's death was made public, and they decided to withdraw the offer of the pictures. Copies of the photos were placed in Lyons' office safe.
Sometime between 11 p.m. on Aug. 31 and 12:30 a.m. on Sept. 1, the electricity at Lyons' office was mysteriously cut, although no other power outages in the office building or the neighborhood occurred. Lyons, convinced that either the office was being robbed, or bombed, called the police. In his sworn statement, Lyons declared that he believed that secret service agents had broken into his office and either searched the premises or planted surveillance and listening devices.
Lionel Cherruault, a London-based photo journalist for Sipa Agency, in his sworn statement, reported that, at 1:45 a.m. on Aug. 31, 1997, he received a call at his home from a freelance photographer in Florida, informing him that he was expecting to soon be in possession of photographs of the tunnel crash. Cherruault told the Florida contact that he was interested. After word of Diana's death was announced, the deal fell through.
But Cherruault, who was in contact with his boss at Sipa, stated that, at approximately 3:30 a.m. on Sept. 1, while he and his wife and daughter were asleep, his home was broken into, his wife's car was stolen, and his car was moved. Computer disks used for transmitting photographs, and other electronic equipment, were stolen, and the front door of their home was left wide open. Even though cash, credit cards, and jewelry were visible in the study where the burglars stole the computer equipment, none of those valuables were taken, making it clear that this was not an ordinary break-in. The next day, a police officer came to Cherruault's home and confirmed that the break-in was clearly the work of "Special Branch, MI5, MI6, call it what you like, this was no ordinary burglary." The officer said that the home had "been targetted." The man, whose name Cherruault was unable to recall, assured him "not to worry, your lives were not in danger," according to the sworn statement.
The official police report of the Cherruault break-in, which has been reviewed by EIR, confirmed that "The computer equipment stolen contained a huge library of royal photographs and appears to have been the main target for the perpetrators."
Another Thread of the Cover-Up
One of the other still-unresolved issues in the Alma crash probe, three years after the fact, revolves around the medical evidence. Al-Fayed has been battling in court in Britain for the right to participate in the official inquest into the death of Princess Diana, arguing that since both Diana and Dodi died in the crash, therefore he should be entitled to officially participate in both inquests. The courts have preliminarily ruled that he has the right to contest the Royal Coroner's rejection of his participation in the Diana inquest, which will only occur after the French appellate process has been completed, sometime later this year.
However, in April of this year, the attorneys representing Al-Fayed received a copy of a suppressed memorandum, prepared by Professors Dominique Lecomte and Andre Lienhart, two French forensic pathologists working for Judge Stephan, suggesting that British authorities, including the Royal Coroner, Dr. Burton, had interceded to conceal some aspects of the official British autopsy. The two French doctors were in London on June 23, 1998, where they met with British coroners Drs. Burton and Burgess, forensic pathologist Dr. Chapman, and Scotland Yard Superintendant Jeffrey Rees. They were given copies of the English autopsy report on Princess Diana, but, according to their contemporaneous notes on the meeting, were told that the document was provided for their "private and personal use," and that it should not be included in the formal file of Judge Stephan.
Any material in that official investigative file was automatically made available to attorneys representing all the interested parties in the French probe, including Al-Fayed's attorneys.
This two-and-a-half year suppression of the Lecomte-Lienhart memorandum has once again raised serious questions about the legitimacy of the "official" autopsy of the Princess of Wales, including questions that arose at the time of her death, as to whether she was pregnant.
The mayhem surrounding the deaths of Diana and Dodi, and now Andanson, raises questions about the circumstances in Paris on that night in late August 1997--questions that the House of Windsor in general, and Prince Philip in particular, have long sought to suppress. The time may be fast approaching that the well-orchestrated three-year cover-up is about to blow apart, and at least part of the truth about the death of the "People's Princess" see the light of day.
And that is something that the Windsors and the mandarins of MI6 may not be able to survive.
Get it by Tuesday, Mar. 6, if you order in the next 14 minutes.
New `Diana Wars' in Britain Put Focus on LaRouche
by Jeffrey Steinberg On June 4, the London Daily Telegraph, the flagship publication of the British monarchy and the Club of the Isles' Hollinger Corp., published a crass slander against Lyndon LaRouche, headlined "U.S. Cult Is Source of Theories." The article charged that LaRouche, EIR, and the New Federalist newspaper were all behind a "Diana conspiracy industry," and that LaRouche, in league with London-based billionaire Mohamed Al Fayed, was "accusing the Queen of ordering the assassination of Diana, Princess of Wales."
Apart from the fact that the article was pure fiction, there were two significant things about the story--which accompanied a much longer article that trashed a British Independent Television (ITV) documentary, entitled "Diana: The Secrets Behind the Crash," which had aired the previous night, and which had been followed by a live televised debate on the Princess's death:
First, the Daily Telegraph smear was authored by Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, an avowed British Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) stringer, who spent from late 1992 through the spring of 1997 in Washington, D.C. orchestrating a similar slander campaign against President Bill Clinton. Allowing Evans-Pritchard's by-line to appear on the "icebox" slander of LaRouche was a blunder of strategic significance, which underscored the truth behind LaRouche's charge that all of President Clinton's enemies, including in the upper echelons of the British oligarchy, are also enemies of LaRouche.
The blunder also underscored the fact that there is a "battle royal" under way within the British ruling class, which goes far beyond the issue of the death of Princess Diana. The battle touches on matters of global geopolitics, and how the British oligarchy intends to survive the worst, systemic financial breakdown crisis in modern history.
The "Torygraph" slander also marked a decisive break in the Club of the Isles' policy of keeping LaRouche's name out of print in Britain. It has been long-recognized by the City of London-centered financier oligarchical grouping headed by the Royal Consort, Prince Philip, that LaRouche and EIR have been a powerful factor in exposing their dirty machinations worldwide, and have also been an important contributing factor in an eruption of political warfare against the Windsors, even from among the British elites.
The LaRouche role in the Windsors' troubles came to the surface in 1994, when EIR published "The Coming Fall of the House of Windsor," a Special Report exposing the role of Prince Philip and his World Wildlife Fund (WWF, now the World Wide Fund for Nature), in triggering the worst genocide in modern history in the Great Lakes region of Africa. Even as EIR's exposés of the Windsors circulated throughout the world diplomatic community and among factions of the British establishment, with rare exceptions, the name "LaRouche" was banned from the British press.[FIGURE 1]
All that changed, beginning with the June 4 Evans-Pritchard diatribe. The article not only accused LaRouche and EIR of heading the "conspiracy industry," and of accusing "the Queen of being the world's foremost drug dealer." But also, it linked LaRouche to Mohamed Al Fayed, Harrods department store owner and the father of the late Dodi Fayed, in a campaign, Evans-Pritchard wrote, "aimed at discrediting Tiny Rowland, Mr. Al Fayed's longtime business rival, ... according to Francesca Pollard, a former operative for the Fayed security machine." As EIR revealed in its 1993 unauthorized biography of Rowland, Pollard, whose family was robbed of its fortune by Rowland, was threatened and then paid off by Rowland, to be a source of trash against Al Fayed. Following the Aug. 31, 1997 car crash in Paris that claimed the life of Princess Diana, Dodi Fayed, and their driver, Henri Paul, Rowland was deployed by the British royal family to lead a slander and harassment campaign aimed at silencing Mohamed Al Fayed, who has stated publicly that he is "99.9% certain" that Diana and Dodi were the victims of a murder plot.
Battle of the Documentaries
The trigger for the slanders against LaRouche was the airing of the ITV documentary on the evening of June 3, followed by a live TV debate, which featured this author. The ITV documentary provided dramatic new evidence supporting the case that Diana and Dodi were murdered (see "New Holes in Cover-Up of Diana Murder Plot," EIR, June 12, 1998), and highlighted several investigative leads that were first published in EIR, including the possibility that driver Paul was blinded by an anti-personnel laser.
During the live TV round-table debate, this author discussed Princess Diana's decade-long war with the House of Windsor, including the impact of her November 1995 BBC Panorama interview, in which she charged that her estranged husband, Prince Charles, was unfit to be King; and, the reaction of the establishment to her actions, which amounted to a collective shriek, "Off with her head!" Rowland's personal involvement in the campaign to cover up the truth about the Paris crash, and to destroy Mohamed Al Fayed, was also aired, much to the chagrin of the producer and host of a Channel 4 "Dispatches" documentary on the Diana death that aired the following night. Channel 4 tried to dismiss as fantasy every piece of evidence refuting the "drunk driver" theory.[FIGURE 2]
The Channel 4 "Dispatches" program included a slander of this author and EIR that was even more explicit on the question of Prince Philip. Although this author was interviewed on camera for more than two hours by Channel 4 host Martyn Gregory, less than one minute of that interview was shown on the hour-long "Dispatches" diatribe. And, that brief segment waxed hysterical about EIR's refusal to "rule out" the possibility that Prince Philip ordered the murder of Diana and Dodi. Indeed, British press accounts of the relationship between Prince Philip and Lady Diana, particularly during the brief period of her relationship with Dodi Fayed, revealed that the Royal Consort was in a constant blind rage over Diana's public disdain for the Windsors, and particularly her implicit challenge to their legitimacy on the British throne.
Gregory was given several pages in the Sunday Telegraph on June 7, to continue denouncing LaRouche, EIR, and Al Fayed. In an article regurgitating the "Dispatches" disinformation, Gregory wrote: "The numerous hares Mohamed Fayed has set running in the colours of sundry conspiracy theories are typified by Geoffrey [sic] Steinberg, chief reporter of Executive Intelligence Review, a small-circulation American magazine that specializes in conspiracy theories. He was yet another guest on the side of the motley crew supporting ITV's Wednesday night programme.
"This is the man who told Dispatches he `could not rule out the possibility' that Prince Philip was involved in the `murder of Diana.' We decided not to take Steinberg seriously at all."
Defending `Mr. Big'
Not so for MI5, another British intelligence agency. On June 10, Francis Wheen, a writer for MI5's favorite leak sheet, the political satire magazine Private Eye, penned another anti-LaRouche diatribe, in the London Guardian. Wheen, who had published smears against LaRouche in 1996, fixated on EIR's targetting of Prince Philip, whom Wheen affectionately referred to as "Mr. Big." "Many weird characters enjoyed their 15 minutes of fame during last week's flurry of TV programmes about Princess Diana," Wheen began, "but none was weirder than Jeffrey Steinberg, who appeared on Wednesday night's `studio debate' and again on Channel 4's Dispatches the next evening. There was, he admitted, `no smoking-gun proof' that Prince Philip ordered British intelligence to assassinate the Princess; nevertheless, `I can't rule it out in all honesty.' "
Wheen complained, "So who is he? For some reason, viewers were not informed that the grand-sounding Executive Intelligence Review is in fact the weekly propaganda magazine of Lyndon H. LaRouche." Wheen almost got it right, when he noted, "Executive Intelligence Review has supported Al Fayed in his vendetta against Tiny Rowland and Lonrho; and when Michael Howard refused Al Fayed's application for British citizenship, LaRouche published a defamatory article about the family connection between Howard and Harold Landy, the former chairman of a Lonrho subsidiary." Wheen then digressed into the ID-format slander that was perfected by the mid-1980s dirty tricks slander salon, run by Wall Street Anglophile spook banker John Train, as part of the "Get LaRouche" task force of the U.S. Justice Department and private agencies that framed up and railroaded LaRouche to prison. Wheen recited the litany of smears: LaRouche says "the Queen runs an international cocaine smuggling cartel," that "Henry Kissinger is a communist agent," and, interestingly, that "the Italian banker Roberto Calvi was murdered by the Duke of Kent." (Calvi was himself a member of the extended royal family.)
International terrorism
Wheen then touched on another sore spot of the House of Windsor and Club of the Isles: the British hand in sponsoring and harboring international terrorism. He tried to twist EIR's exposé of London's role in safe-housing dozens of major terrorist organizations, a fact the U.S. State Department and the CIA have acknowledged in written documents. "In recent years," Wheen wrote, "LaRouche and Steinberg have been pursuing another `unique' theory--that `international terrorism' is masterminded by none other than Lord [William] Rees-Mogg and the Daily Telegraph reporter Ambrose Evans-Pritchard.... LaRouche claims [that] Rees-Mogg and Evans-Pritchard are part of a `powerful London-centerd apparatus that declared war on the United States immediately after the inauguration of President Clinton.' Whitewater, Troopergate, Paula Jones, Monica Lewinsky--all these scandals can be traced back to our double-barreled desperadoes.... But Rees-Mogg and Evans-Pritchard are merely servants of the `powerful London-centered apparatus.' The Mr. Big whose orders they obey is Prince Philip.... The intention, according to LaRouche, is to discredit, and destabilise the U.S. until it is forced to become a British colony once again, thus taking the House of Windsor another giant stride on its road to world domination."
Wheen continued, "Only one person in Britain was powerful enough to thwart the conspiracy--Princess Diana, who had `declared war' on the royal family in her Panorama interview. And so she had to be killed."
Wheen ended on a curious, slightly ominous, note: "This alliance between Al Fayed and Lyndon LaRouche seems risky, to say the least. Why should a prominent public figure aid and abet such an unscrupulous fantasy-merchant? If LaRouche doesn't wish to sully his reputation, he must disown Al Fayed forthwith," Wheen wrote.
A half-dozen other slanders followed the Guardian article, in the Scotsman, on BBC-4 Radio, and even in the Danish press. One factor that clearly got the royals' blood boiling was that, according to the major British TV rating service, 12.5 million Britons watched the ITV documentary, and most of them also watched the studio debate that followed the evening news. On June 4, German national television aired the entire ITV broadcast, and major German dailies published lengthy excerpts from the transcript. In contrast, fewer than 3 million British viewers watched the Channel 4 smear the following evening. And, a Mirror newspaper poll, published on June 7, suggested that an overwhelming majority of Britons are convinced that there was more to the death of Diana than a traffic accident.
The Strategic Battle
As EIR has said from day one, the death of Princess Diana is the scandal that could hasten the fall of the House of Windsor. But, the future of the Club of the Isles oligarchy hangs in the balance today in a number of ways. The probe in Paris of Diana's death, if it turns up compelling evidence of a murder, or even of aggravated manslaughter caused by a paparazzi mob notorious for its links to British intelligence and the Crown apparatus, would certainly bring down both the Windsors and the current Socialist government in France, which also is deeply implicated in the crash and the cover-up.
On other fronts, the British establishment is torn over how to deal with the onrush of the financial collapse. Prince Philip and his circle have no compunctions about throwing the world into decades of chaos and genocide, in order to retain oligarchical control. But other, less insane forces within the City of London financial elite are apparently asking, "What do we get out of such chaos and destruction?" and may be seeking a new political alliance, perhaps with the United States, and sane forces on the continent who are opposed to the suicidal Maastricht Treaty.
Other issues that are causing divisions among the British elites include Britain's stance on the European Monetary Union, and the euro single curency. Furthermore, factions on the continent that share Prince Philip's impulse to play "chaos warfare," may be pressing for a new assault on the Asian currencies, including the Japanese yen, through the major continental banks and their offshore hedge funds, even though such a move at this moment would almost certainly trigger a global financial explosion with unpredictable consequences.
Within the extended European oligarchy, which has, for decades, been under the boot of Prince Philip's Club of the Isles, there is intensive in-fighting and factional warfare, adding further to the crisis atmosphere spreading across Eurasia. The common point of agreement among the "chaos" factions within the British and continental oligarchies, is that the power of the United States, as the pillar of the nation-state system, must be destroyed in the immediate period ahead, lest LaRouche's ideas for a nation-state-centered New Bretton Woods solution to the present global mess, be adopted, along with LaRouche's vision for a Eurasian Land-Bridge plan of global economic reconstructed.
Shortly after midnight, on Aug. 30-31, 1997, David Laurent, an off-duty senior French police official, was driving alone in his car on the right bank of the Seine River, heading toward the Place de l'Alma tunnel where, moments later, Diana Princess of Wales, her companion Dodi Fayed, and driver Henri Paul would die in a car crash. As he drove, Laurent was passed by a speeding white Fiat Uno, according to accounts he provided nine months ago to French Criminal Brigade police probing the Diana crash. As he approached the tunnel, Laurent noticed that the Fiat Uno that had sped by him, was now crawling along in the right traffic lane, almost at a standstill, just before the tunnel entrance.
Although the behavior of the Fiat driver was a bit bizarre, Laurent drove on. It was, after all, Saturday night on the final weekend of the summer, and there were a lot of strange goings-on on the streets of Paris. Less than a moment later, however, Laurent heard a loud explosion from inside the tunnel, as he was driving a short distance ahead.
It was not until the next morning that Laurent realized that the explosion he had heard from inside the tunnel was the crash that claimed the lives of Diana and her companions. And it was not until several weeks later that police forensic tests confirmed that the crash had been caused by a collision between the Mercedes 280-S carrying Diana, Fayed, Paul, and bodyguard Trevor Rees-Jones, the sole survivor of the crash, and a Fiat Uno. Within hours of the crash, police at the scene had gathered up evidence--a side mirror and fragments of a tail light--suggesting that a two-car collision had occurred. A police sketch, drawn at the crash site, labeled a section of the tunnel the "collision zone." Several witnesses, interviewed during the first week after the crash, had described a small hatchback car, cutting in front of the Mercedes at the tunnel entrance, jamming its breaks inside the tunnel, fleeing the crash scene, and so on.
But, until Laurent's critical piece of the story became public in early June, the role of the Fiat had remained ambiguous--despite the fact that the car and its driver have disappeared. Was the missing Fiat tragically in the wrong place at the wrong time, or was it critical to the most spectacular vehicular homicide in history?
Laurent's description of the Fiat, speeding to a spot near the tunnel entrance, less than a minute ahead of Diana's car, which was under chase from several other cars and motorcycles, strongly suggests the latter possibility.
For reasons yet unexplained, Laurent's crucial eyewitness account was withheld from the chief investigating magistrate, Hervé Stephan, for months.
This is not the first time that the French police in charge of the investigation have tampered with evidence. Within hours of the crash, French police had told reporters that the Mercedes carrying Diana had been travelling at speeds of more than 120 miles per hour. How did they know? They told reporters that the speedometer of the mangled Mercedes had been frozen at more than 120 mph. EIR investigators determined that the French "leak" had to be a lie. Daimler Benz safety experts had told EIR reporters that, in any crash, the speedometer immediately goes back to zero. Two weeks later, the French police "corrected" the error; but this time, the media scarcely reported the correction. Similarly, French police had lied to reporters that Diana had been pinned in the rear compartment of the Mercedes, and saying that this was why it took so long to get her into an ambulance and to a hospital. Photographic evidence and eyewitness accounts later proved that it, too, was a premeditated lie by the French police.
In the case of the Laurent testimony, sources tell EIR that the police have claimed that they have withheld certain vital evidence from Magistrate Stephan, to avoid the information falling into the hands of the attorneys for the paparazzi. The police allegedly claimed that their investigation "would be jeopardized" if the paparazzi were to learn crucial details.
The Laurent revelation, which was leaked to the London Daily Mirror on June 4 by a well-placed French police source, was not the only new piece of evidence to emerge in early June. On June 3, the British independent television network ITV aired a one-hour investigative report, "Diana: The Secrets Behind the Crash," that seriously discredits French police claims that driver Henri Paul was drunk at the time of the crash.
The assertion that Paul was drunk and high on two prescription drugs is pivotal to the ongoing effort, by the French government and the British establishment, to cast the crash as nothing more than a case of reckless, drunk driving. The claim that Paul had blood alcohol levels three times the legal limit at the time of the crash, was based solely on tests conducted by French coroners within hours of the crash. Independent forensic experts, including Dr. Peter Vanesis of the University of Glasgow, who reviewed the autopsy report, had harsh criticisms of the post mortem on numerous technical grounds.
The ITV report revealed that the forensic tests also showed a near-lethal level of carbon monoxide as well. EIR has independently learned that it was a separate toxicological test on Paul's blood sample, that revealed a carbon monoxide level of more than 30% at the time of the crash.
Yet, Dodi Fayed had no carbon monoxide in his blood. Is it possible that Paul could have had high levels of alcohol, traces of two prescription drugs, and toxic levels of carbon monoxide in his blood at the moment of the crash, and yet Fayed had no carbon monoxide present? Not if the carbon monoxide was inside the passenger cabin of the Mercedes.
Furthermore, if Paul had been somehow poisoned with carbon monoxide sometime prior to getting behind the wheel of the Mercedes, experts interviewed by ITV say he would have shown obvious signs, such as dizziness, loss of balance, loss of depth perception, and an unbearable, throbbing pain in his temple. Security camera video footage of Paul, taken in the lobby of the Ritz Hotel between 9 p.m. and midnight, and aired in the ITV documentary, clearly showed that Paul had none of the tell-tale signs of being drunk or suffering from the effects of carbon monoxide.
In a live television interview, aired one hour after the ITV broadcast, the documentary's host, Nicholas Owen, stated that he believed that the blood sample used in the post mortem was probably not taken from Paul. There were a dozen other corpses in the Paris city morgue at the time that Paul was brought in. This startling conclusion by Owen, adds further weight to EIR's charge that the French police--as distinct from chief investigating Magistrate Stephan--have been running a vicious cover-up of the events surrounding the crash.
The ITV documentary also cited several eyewitness accounts that a powerful burst of light inside the tunnel, seconds before the crash, may have blinded Paul. Owen showed a commercially produced anti-personnel laser, that he purchased in a Paris shop for $300, to buttress the possibility that such a device was used in the vehicular attack.
EIR Counterintelligence Director Jeffrey Steinberg appeared along with Owen and a half-dozen other investigators and expert analysts on the nationally televised interview show. Details of that broadcast and the vortex of media controversy, sparked by the ITV show and a second documentary, aired on June 4 on Channel Four TV in Britain, will appear in a forthcoming EIR (see also, the Editorial in this issue).
In a move that promises to raise even more questions about what happened in the Paris tunnel on Aug. 31, 1997, Magistrate Stephan convened an extraordinary group interrogation, or "confrontation," on June 5, at the Justice Ministry in Paris. Mohamed Al Fayed, Dodi's father and a civil party to the case, was invited to participate, as were a dozen eyewitnesses to the crash. The nine paparazzi who stand to be prosecuted for manslaughter and interference in the rescue effort, were also interrogated by Stephan. Details of what took place are not yet available.
This article appears in the June 19, 1998 issue of Executive Intelligence Review.
PRESS RELEASE
EIR Reveals How Diana Murder Cover-up Has Turned Deadly
June 30, 2000 (EIRNS)--The July 7, 2000 issue of Executive Intelligence Review features a detailed report on the mysterious death of French paparazzo James Andanson, one of the pivotal figures in the Aug. 31, 1997 fatal car crash in Paris, that claimed the lives of Princess Diana, Dodi Fayed, and Henri Paul. Andanson's body was found in a desolate forest in the south of France, burned beyond recognition, on May 5, 2000.
A week after his bizarre death, which French authorities have attempted to label a "suicide," three armed, masked men broke into the Paris offices of the Sipa Agency, the photography agency where Andanson was working at the time of his death, and stole computer disks, laptops, and cameras. The three men were believed to be agents of the French secret service, hunting for possibly incriminating photographs of the crash site that Andanson may have been hiding.
The EIR story details the fact that Andanson, who owned a white Fiat Uno at the time of the 1997 crash, was a prime suspect in the Diana and Dodi wrongful deaths, yet French investigators accepted his alibi that he was not in Paris at the time of the crash. Tests of the paint and bumper scratches on his Fiat matched those on the side of the Mercedes carrying Diana and Dodi, according to forensic reports contained in the files of chief investigating magistrate, Herve Stephan. EIR also uncovered other break-ins and surpression of crucial evidence by both British and French intelligence services.
Nearly three years after the fatal crash, the true circumstances are still being covered up, and the EIR story breaks new ground in exposing that cover-up. This story is "must" reading for anyone who has been attempting to get to the bottom of the Diana-Dodi deaths. As one specialist told EIR, "The death of Andanson may very well signal a new, deadly turn in the cover-up of the death of Princess Diana. It is reminiscent of the pile of corpses that littered the landscape following the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, when scores of individuals with knowledge about the President's death, died under mysterious circumstances."
This article appears in the June 19, 1998 issue of Executive Intelligence Review.
Helen reveals youthful looks secret Oscar winner Dame Helen Mirren has revealed the secret to her youthful looks - being happy. Dame Helen, 61, told GMTV: "I'm quite a happy person. I always have been. My tendency is to smile." She added: "I don't drink enough water. I don't do enough exercise." Dame Helen, who was pictured tucking into a burger after she won an Oscar for her performance in The Queen, said: "I eat fairly healthily but not that healthily, as everyone who saw me munching into a burger will know. "It was my first for four years. I don't eat burgers regularly. I don't think people should." The former Prime Suspect actress said she was more nervous at the Baftas ceremony than at the Oscars because it was "home territory".
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