The 15 British sailors seized in the Gulf may face trial and legal moves have been launched, Iran's ambassador to Moscow has said.
"It is possible that the British soldiers who entered into Iranian waters will go on trial for taking this illegal action," Ambassador Gholamreza Ansari told a Russian television channel.
"The legal phase concerning these British soldiers has started and if charges against them are proven, they will be punished," said Ansari.
Earlier US officials said they would not exchange five Iranians seized by American forces in Iraq for the 15 British sailors.
Thought to be members of Iran's Revolutionary Guard, the five were seized in January in the Iraqi city of Irbil.
Britain denies Iran's claims that the UK crew were in its waters when seized on 23 March.
The five Iranians were caught in a raid along with equipment which the Americans say reveals clear Iranian links to networks supplying Iraqi insurgents with technology and weapons.
US officials have condemned Iran's actions and publicly supported the UK.
Prime Minister Tony Blair condemned Iran for "parading" the UK crew on television in a way which would only "enhance people's sense of disgust".
In a broadcast on Iranian television, sailor Nathan Thomas Summers said: "I would like to apologise for entering your waters without permission."
He was shown alongside two colleagues, including Leading Seaman Faye Turney, 26, from Shropshire, who was broadcast apologising to Iran earlier in the week.
If your like me and you still enjoy the it's so stupid it's funny type humor then you will love Blades of Glory. The movie was very funny Will Ferrell... Full Review
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Get a life! Will is a comic genius! The same people that bash Will probably go watch Woody Allen movies. They must watch Dry a$$humor and... Full Review
Well I expected to see the typical funny, pointless Will Ferrell movie and was not only not disappointed but really surprised to find myself laughing as hard as I was... Full Review
I liked Anchorman and Talladega but this blew them both away simply because it was simple and got to the laughs. Ferrell and Heder were extremely hilarious and comitted to... Full Review
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By MARCUS WOHLSEN, Associated Press Writer Sat Mar 31 SAN FRANCISCO - A peregrine falcon shrieked as scientists snatched three eggs from his precarious perch beneath the Bay Bridge to save the chicks from a deadly fall or car collision when they hatch. University of California, Santa Cruz, biologist Brian Latta on Friday removed the eggs from a narrow beam about 200 feet above San Francisco Bay. "It's the most dangerous place in the world for them," said Latta. Latta moved in after the female parent left the male parent alone to defend the nest, a two-inch depression in a wind-blown pile of dirt. Peregrines are known for their ferocity when their nests are invaded, and the male parent swooped and circled as the eggs were removed. "When the female comes back, he's going to have a lot of explaining to do," Latta said. The parent falcons, dubbed George and Gracie, had nested for years on the 33rd floor ledge of a downtown skyscraper, where they raised several clutches of chicks. The pair relocated to the bridge this year at the same spot where George hatched in 1999 and was rescued in a similar operation before he was old enough to fly. If the eggs were allowed to hatch under the bridge, crosswinds could send the fledglings plummeting into the bay or hurtle them under the wheels of passing cars when they left the nest for their first flights. George and Gracie are celebrities among San Francisco bird watchers, who have followed their progress in past years via a Web camera near the previous nest at Pacific Gas and Electric Co.'s city headquarters. The peregrine falcon, which can reach speeds of more than 200 mph in its hunting dive, has taken up residence in many U.S. cities. Tall buildings mimic the steep cliffs that are the birds' natural habitat, and pigeons provide a plentiful source of food. By removing the eggs from the nest, scientists hope George and Gracie will return to their old nesting site and lay new eggs within a few weeks. A digital monitor detected a heartbeat in two of the three eggs, which were packed in foam in separate plastic tubes after the rescue.Biologists at the university's Predatory Bird Research Group planned to incubate the eggs and turn the hatchlings over to adoptive peregrine parents until they are ready to return to the wild.The peregrine falcon was removed from the federal government's endangered species list several years ago but remains fully protected under California law.
Kobe, Kobe, Kobe. Love him or hate him, the guy generates excitement, both on and off the court.
That's why the overwhelming majority of your latest emails dealt with Kobe Bryant in one way or another.
I knew as soon as I wrote that Kobe might be "the most complete offensive player ever" that I'd be stirring up some controversy. Whether it was Jordan backers calling me crazy or Kobe fans thanking me for my comments, it seemed that everyone had something to say.
So here you go, NBA fans: It's your time to be heard.
While you bring up a good question whether Kobe Bryant should be considered as the best offensive player in the history of the NBA, your statement that "plenty" of players rank ahead of him as the "best" player seems out of place. Many NBA coaches and scouts will attest he is the game's best player today and are even comparing him to Michael Jordan, arguably the best NBA player in history. So, based on those comparisons, it would not be proper to say there are "plenty" of players that rank ahead of him as the best of all time. Kobe has three championship rings, yes with Shaq as his partner when they were together. That is more than Wilt had in his career and same as Larry Bird of the Celtics dynasty. When his playing days are over, I believe Kobe will rank in the top three and definitely top five players of all time.
Syin Chao Honolulu
Syin, I made a mistake when I said that there are "plenty" of players who are considered better players than Kobe overall. Perhaps the word I should have used is "several." Plenty of you picked up on this and let me have it in your emails, and you're right. The list of players who I consider better than Kobe is not a long one, but here you go: Jordan, Bird, Magic, Kareem, Oscar and Jerry West. Six names do not make "plenty." But it is more than several, isn't it? Does anyone out there have the word I'm looking for?
Kobe the best offensive player ever? You have to be kidding me! In the 80's and 90's, you could play defense. Nowadays they have switched all the rules due to the inability of the players to make a hoop. You can't even sneeze close to a player [without being] called for a foul. Now Kobe is thriving in this new system. I would like to see a Dennis Rodman or Scottie Pippen type of defense on Kobe and see if he would score 10 points. If Dennis Rodman or Scottie Pippen would be playing today, they would foul out in five minutes.
Jose Winston-Salem, N.C.
Jose, you bring up a good point. The hand checking rule has made life much easier on perimeter players these days. But for the past 20 years or so, I've had a front-row seat watching the world's best players, and I'm telling you that Kobe would have been fantastic in any era. I'm sure Rodman and Pippen would have given Kobe a good challenge, but Byrant would have scored on those guys at will, too. He has no weaknesses, and he's incredibly competitive.
I would have to probably agree with you, Steve, on Kobe being the best complete offensive player of all time. And that's saying a whole lot, since we've had some great ones from Wilt Chamberlain, Elgin Baylor, George Gervin, Kareem Adbul-Jabbar all the way down to Mr. Jordan himself. I haven't seen anyone this skilled in a long time. I think he's even more skilled than M.J. was in his prime. Michael was just a better leader on the floor in terms of getting everyone to step up their play. Let me know what you think on that comment.
Eric Robinson Detroit
Eric, when I wrote that Kobe may be the most complete offensive player of all time, I was referring to his overall skill set. His dribbling and long-range shooting are better than M.J.'s were, and his creativity and athleticism are practically on par. But I agree with you about the leadership comment. Michael figured out how to lift up the level of his teammates' play, and his defense and overall game management were better than Kobe's. And M.J. won six titles, none with a dominant big man to play next to. That's why ultimately there's no argument that Jordan was the better player.
Steve, how can you legitimately suggest that Kobe Bryant is the most skilled offensive player in the history of the game when you played with the greatest player of all time in Michael Jordan? I think you have forgotten how great Michael was, especially when the rules of the game allowing hand checking made it more difficult to score. Also, the league was more talented and defensive-minded during M.J.'s greatness. Finally, is it not clear to you that Kobe sets out to score and take over the game instead of letting the game come to him and his teammates? Kobe -- great player, yes. But I'm not impressed.
Glenn K. Aurora, Ill.
Glenn, I feel the Chicago love coming through! Don't worry. I'm still an M.J. guy. I'd better be, because if it weren't for him I never would have had the career that I did. (Or the one that I have now, for that matter.) But the fact is, there are facets of Kobe's game that are better than Michael's – in particular, dribbling and perimeter shooting. Michael was more explosive, and he's by far the greatest player ever, but in baseball parlance, Kobe's "stuff" might be a little better.
MORE KOBE
I'm just wondering: Isn't Kobe hurting his team right now? Despite his scoring burst and the accompanied wins and the fact the Los Angeles Lakers might just make the playoffs, isn't it time to start building the team and get chemistry to survive during the playoffs? Lamar Odom and Luke Walton are the important parts on this team to get playoff wins, and they aren't as involved as they should be. It looks like the team is watching a Kobe highlights show from the floor and staring in amazement. Thanks.
Sven Belgium
Hi Sven, I saw a quote from Phil Jackson after his team lost to Memphis Tuesday night and he said something about how his team would have to start playing together now and stop relying on Kobe so much. But that doesn't mean Kobe was hurting his team. When his recent hot streak began, the Lakers had lost seven games in a row. He had to lift his team on his shoulders. Now that the ship has been righted, and now that Walton and Odom are healthy, it's time for Kobe to get back into his "team groove."
I know you haven't played for a few years, but if you were in the NBA right now, which five current players would you most like to play with, and why?
Shabab Lubbock, Texas
Shabab, love the question: short, succinct and intriguing. Steve Nash is No. 1. Everyone he plays with seems to put up career numbers, thanks to all the open looks Nash provides. Tim Duncan is on the list. He's an incredible teammate – unselfish, hardworking, modest and a winner. Shaquille O'Neal, because he changes games with the double teams he commands. (And he's also a fun guy to be around.) Luke Walton, who has as good a feel for the game as anyone in the league. He plays a beautiful game. And No. 5 would be Kobe Bryant. I played with Michael Jordan, and it was amazing to watch the show he put on night after night. Kobe is similar in that he provides amazing entertainment – for fans and players alike.
One thing perhaps missing from your article about team preferences for matchups in the playoffs: Do you think that the Dallas Mavericks are rooting for the Los Angeles Clippers since Golden State seems to have their number? Don Nelson would love to beat Dallas and just might be able to pull it off. The Don Nelson-Dallas relationship goes back a long way, longer than most people realize. Don was a very close friend of Norm Sonju, the founder of the Mavericks. After Don went to Golden State the first time, the friendship ruptured somehow and it was only after Norm was gone as Dallas G.M. and part owner that Don was brought to Dallas. Now it seems that Don is somewhat on the outs with a second Dallas owner. Anyway, I always enjoy reading your articles. Keep up the good work.
David Welch Quanzhou, Fujian Province, China
Hey David, Golden State versus Dallas would be intriguing on two levels. No. 1, the Nellie factor. And No. 2, the Warriors have given Dallas all kinds of trouble the last couple of seasons. But in the playoffs, everything changes. There's more time to prepare game plans, more rest between games and more time to make adjustments. The better team almost always wins regardless of matchups. If the two teams face each other in the first round of the playoffs, I'd be shocked if Golden State won more than one game.
Hey, Steve – loved your article on the five things to watch for as the playoffs approach. I had one thought, though – might some of the better Eastern teams (like the Detroit Pistons and Cleveland Cavaliers) want to play the Miami Heat earlier in the playoffs rather than later in hopes of playing before Dwyane Wade returns (or after he returns and before he gets back into his zone)? I imagine, whenever he returns, he'll get better as the playoffs go on.
David Joyner Tucker, Ga.
Good question, David. I think what every team is hoping for is to avoid Miami for as long as possible, and that someone else knocks the Heat off. The reality is, the playoffs are about surviving and advancing, simple as that.
Steve, I keep reading that Dallas has beaten the Phoenix Suns in the last two playoffs. I am pretty sure we beat the Mavs two seasons ago, in six, and they won last year, in six, when we went without Amare, Kurt and finally Raja. … For the sake of desert dwellers, could you straighten these folks out?
Randy Claybourn Phoenix
Phoenix and Dallas have met twice in the last two years in the playoffs, and each team won one series. The Suns won a Western Conference semifinal series in 2005 in six games, and Dallas returned the favor in the 2006 West finals. Hopefully people will jog their memories!
Good day Steve. If the playoff rankings for first – third place are normally for the top teams in each division, i.e. Detroit, Toronto and Washington in the Eastern Conference – then why is Cleveland ranked No. 2? If that's the case, why aren't the Chicago Bulls up there as well, as they also have a better win percentage than the Wizards and Raptors.
Justin Kendall Hamilton, Bermuda
Justin, the standings can be a little confusing, but they represent the seeding change the NBA decided upon after last season. The way it works is that in each conference, each division leader is guaranteed a top-four seed. But if a team that is in second place in its division has a better record than the other division leaders, it moves up to the two seed. (That's why Cleveland is a two right now). For the Bulls to move up from five, they would have to move past the Cavs or Detroit. In effect, if you're third in your division, it's impossible to be seeded higher than fifth. But in the playoffs, home-court advantage goes to the team with the better record, regardless of seed. If things stay the way they are now, the Bulls would face Toronto in the first round, with the first two games in Chicago.
Hi Steve, do you think the Golden State Warriors will get into the playoffs this season? What do you think that will block them from having this chance this year?
Phillips Huynh Union City , Calif.
Phillips, I predicted on our Yahoo! Sports webcast last week that the Warriors would make the playoffs, but it's going to be tough. Golden State has a brutal schedule coming in, and the Clippers are playing surprisingly well without Sam Cassell and Shaun Livingston. I think for the Warriors to get in, they'll have to get some help from the Clippers.
\Will the Mavericks win the NBA Finals?
Ashwath
A short question deserves a short answer. … Yes.
AWARDS TALK
Steve I have a question. I know my answer but I need some proof from a good source. Who votes for MVP? If the answer is sports journalists, as I presume it is, Kobe will never win MVP (unless he happens to save 10 children and a box of kittens from a burning building). I have heard many announcers and read from too many sports journalists that he has a "smugness about him" or he's "cocky" or too "arrogant." And some of these words were spewed from your mouth! So, automatically he is a villain, sort of a Darth Kobe in contrast to a Steve "Skywalker" Nash. And no one likes the villain of the story so there is a bias already set up. What must Kobe do to win MVP?
Raymond Delacruz McAllen, Texas
Raymond, The MVP award is voted on by journalists around the country. I have never had a vote in the process, but my TNT partner Marv Albert does every year. I think you have a point about Kobe's image hurting his chances to win the award, but I also think he's come a long way the past two years and has changed the way people think of him. My belief is that to win the MVP award, you have to be on a really good team. When was the last time an MVP award was given to a player whose team didn't win at least 50 games? For as long as I can remember, the award has gone to players on excellent teams – Nash, Garnett, Duncan, Shaq, Jordan, Bird, Magic, etc. I don't think Kobe's image is hurting his MVP chances anymore. I think his team's won-loss record is.
The way LBJ – I'm sure Lyndon and Lady Bird must love this – has played in the second half, would he be the no-miss MVP winner if he played this way the whole year?
Mark Chicago
Mark, if Lebron Jameshad played the entire season the way he's played since the all star break, I do believe we would be talking about him in the same breath as Nash, Nowitzki and Kobe. But the fact is, his play for the first few months of the year was indifferent. He didn't play with the fire he's showing now. And that cost him a shot at the award. Still, I'm pretty sure he would have taken either LBJ – Lyndon Baines or Lady Bird – in a one-on-one.
Hi Steve, the subject of my inquiry is Jerry Sloan, and why he hasn't won the Coach of the Year award. Quite frankly, he doesn't give a rat if he wins it or not, but he is as deserving as any coach out there who has EVER won it. … I would very much like your viewpoint, preferably publicly on Yahoo! Sports, why you do or do not feel Sloan deserves the award this year. It is obvious that most will vote for Avery Johnson, and he is definitely a worthy candidate. However, how do you think Sloan would do with talent like that?
Kelly Burton Portland, Ore.
Kelly, the Coach of the Year award always seems to go to the coach of an overachieving team. For most of Sloan's career, the Utah Jazz have been so solid that they haven't surprised anyone. They always seem to be in the middle of things, and so voters haven't really given him his due. It's the same reason Phil Jackson has only won the award once. Personally, if I had a vote, I'd vote for Sloan this season. In fact, I would have voted for him many times over the years. His teams play so hard, and they execute their offense beautifully and compete every night. Those are the hallmarks of a great coach.
MISCELLANEOUS MAIL
I am enthralled to see your columns on Yahoo! Sports, and more often than not agree with what you say. However, lately, you have been anointing inconsistent teams with outrageous possibilities (such as taking home the title), despite only mediocre potential from them in reality. In particular, you seem to flip-flop vehemently with the Cleveland Cavaliers and Los Angeles Lakers. One week you praise their teamwork, defense and ball movement, saying they can go all the way, and two weeks later you say quite the opposite by questioning their liability as a team to fear. … Write zealously to proven teams, with all due respect.
Omar Bayraktar
Omar, I can't argue with you on that one. I have written conflicting columns about several teams this season. But that's my job – to write what I see on a weekly basis. The truth is, teams like Cleveland, Denver and the Lakers have at times looked awesome this season and at other times average at best. What you have to remember is these teams all have talent and potential, so they're going to attract my attention more than some of the weaker clubs. Whether they can reach that potential this season, well, that's the question. I try to provide as many different views as possible, based on what I see. And hey, don't forget that last season the Heat won the whole thing after looking mediocre for much of the regular season.
Hi Steve, you stress the talent the Denver Nuggets have by pointing out that they have two of the top-five scorers in the league. In another recent column, you said that, in the absence of LeBron James, Cleveland "had been forced to move the ball" because they had nobody else to create offense on his own. I completely disagree with your understanding of basketball. I actually think that this prevalent conception of basketball is the ultimate reason of American basketball falling behind that of Europeans'. Moving the ball to create offense shouldn't be an alternative in the absence of top scorers; it should be the primary tool to create offense. As evidence, see how the Philadelphia 76ers improved the moment Iverson was sent to Denver and Andre Miller was brought in as his replacement.
Jake
Jake, I think you misunderstood what I wrote. The Cavaliers were "forced" to move the ball with LeBron out because they couldn't rely on him. My take is this: Imagine how good they'd be if they moved the ball when he is in the game! I think NBA players today are more talented than ever, but I think their collective understanding of the game is lacking. The players in the 80's moved better without the ball, and there was less individual play. Watch a Lakers-Celtics finals game in the 80's on classic sports and you'll see how impressive the ball movement was.
Five East teams in the top 10? Hmmm, I thought the East sucked and the West was supreme? I guess the conventional wisdom is often wrong. The Pistons smashed the Suns and played the Mavericks close without Chauncey Billups. Oh, and the East has won two of the last three championships, all the while being called the "weaker conference." (We Pistons fans don't forget.) Thanks for giving the rust belt some love.
Irwin Baker Grand Rapids, Mich.
Irwin, you're right. The Western Conference has lost a lot of luster, mainly due to the struggles of the Lakers, Nuggets and Clippers. All three teams were expected to be better than they have been, but because of their poor play, the West doesn't look so scary. Of course, the East doesn't look that great, either. Other than your Pistons, it's tough to find a team that looks like championship material. (I'm assuming Wade isn't part of the Heat's equation). I'd say overall, the league isn't that good this year. There are five or six good teams, and everyone else is mediocre at best.
"Most G.M.'s would rather have Deron Williams than Chris Paul" … Are you INSANE? I'd like to see a list of these so-called G.M.'s. Paul is a better scorer, defender, three-point shooter, free-throw shooter and a vastly better rebounder, not to mention a much better ball handler (3.4 assist-to-turnover ratio), passer (averaging 8.8 assists with the Hornets' offensively challenged unit is much more impressive then Deron averaging 9.2 with the likes of Mehmet Okur and Carlos Boozer to pass to). Oh yeah, and Chris Paul is also a full year younger! Again, show me this list of general managers because I say you are making this up!!
Trevor Jefferson Detroit
Trevor, take a deep breath, my man. I've spoken with several general managers who have told me they like Williams better than Paul. (I can't tell you who they are because none of them would want to be quoted on the subject.) The truth is, Williams and Paul are both terrific and I'd take either one to be my point guard for the next 10 years. I personally think Williams is a little better based on his shooting touch. He's a more feared scorer than Paul, especially in the half court. I also think he's a bit better defensively as well. But as I said, they're both awesome. And the stats show.
Steve Kerr is Yahoo! Sports' NBA analyst. Send Steve a question or comment for potential use in a future column or webcast.
AP Photo: Marie Osmond speaks in this 2005 file photo in Little Rock, Ark. Osmond announced that...
LOS ANGELES - Marie Osmond and husband Brian Blosil are divorcing after 20 years of marriage, the pair announced Friday. Osmond, 47, and Blosil, a record producer, have eight children, some of whom are adopted. The two married in a Mormon ceremony in October 1986, and briefly separated in 2000. "Though our marriage is ending, we continue to have a very amicable relationship. Our marriage has always been a faithful one and neither of us is assigning fault for the divorce," they said in a statement released by Osmond's publicist."Our children, as always, are our top priority and in our deep love for them we will continue to jointly fulfill our roles as active parents in their daily lives," they said.Osmond earned fame at age 13 with the hit song "Paper Roses," and starred with her brother, Donny Osmond, on television's "Donny and Marie Show" during the 1970s.She and her first husband Stephen Craig divorced in 1985. Osmond also owns a successful collectibles doll company.
First-time buyers frustrated by their inability to get a foot on to the property ladder in the UK are looking increasingly further afield in a bid to become homeowners, according to recent research. Countries such as Bulgaria, France and Portugal have been attracting investment from Britons who cannot raise the funds to buy a property in the UK, with many planning to rent out their overseas properties for a few years before selling up and using the equity for a deposit on a home in the UK.
A recent survey from Hiscox, the specialist insurer, found that the perceived advantages of buying abroad among young Britons included the prospect of a better rental income, a simpler purchasing process and the fact that they might be able to combine renting with using the property as a holiday home.
Steve Langan, UK Managing Director at Hiscox, said: "More young people than ever before are finding their route into the UK property market blocked and are turning to overseas property investment as a more affordable and potentially lucrative investment option."
Not all first-time buyers looking to invest abroad plan to rent their properties out, however. A recent survey from UCB Home Loans revealed that many of the growing number of young people considering buying abroad would rather skip establishing a career in the UK altogether and head elsewhere to begin their working lives.
Will Eaton, a 33-year-old computer programmer who lives near Courchevel in the French Alps, was not a first-time buyer when he decided to move to France. He can, however, understand why so many young people are choosing to decamp overseas. Eaton said: "I bought a house in Sheffield, where I went to university, just over 10 years ago. However, when I sold it in 2004 I used the capital to purchase a house in France. I was already living in France at the time, and I couldn't see any reason to go back to the UK.
"I think my current home, which I bought for 250,000 euros, has gone up about 25% in value over the last three years, although I haven't had it valued. You can buy a house for much less in other parts of France. However, the downside from an investment point of view is that few areas have such a bouyant property market as Courchevel." According to property market commentators, house price inflation in the country you choose to buy failing to keep pace with the UK is one of the main potential pitfalls of buying abroad. Other disadvantages include more complicated legal processes and, of course, the language barrier. Ray Boulger of mortgage broker John Charcol said: "It is potentially a very dangerous option. You need a deposit of at least 20% and the different legal processes can prove very challenging. It's not always easy to resell an overseas property and those who fail to do so may find it very difficult to get a mortgage for a property in the UK." Such issues are one of the main reasons why a growing number of those priced out of the market where they live are choosing to invest in a cheaper part of the UK instead. Research from National Savings and Investments, a government-funded savings account provider, suggests that while a quarter of Britons would consider moving to another country to live more cheaply in order to save for a deposit on a home in the UK, almost the same percentage would be happy to move to a cheaper part of the country for the same reason. Among young people of between 16 and 354 years of age, the percentage that would consider this option jumps to more than a third. This is hardly surprising when you consider the immense difference between, for example, the City of London, where the latest Land Registry figures show the average property price as topping £425,000, and Sunderland, where a typical home costs £128,137. The problem for many cash-strapped youngsters, however, is that even cheaper areas of the UK have become out of reach over the last few years. Boulger said: "Getting on the property ladder has always been difficult, but particularly so in the last few years as house prices have risen in excess of earnings. The average property in the UK now costs £200,000 while the average first-time buyer shells out around £150,000 for their first home." Worse still, despite indications that house price inflation is slowing in the wake of a spate of interest rate rises, the cost of buying continues to rise with the latest Halifax house price index recording a 1.8% jump in UK house prices last month alone. Martin Ellis, chief economist at mortgage lender Halifax, said: "A shortage of both new and secondhand properties available for sale has continued to push house prices up so far in 2007, particularly in London. There are some signs that the increase in interest rates is dampening housing demand, but this is yet to feed through to prices themselves." It is not, therefore, difficult to see why the prospect of buying in Crete, where the average property costs about £60,000, or Bulgaria, where you can snap up a typical house or flat for under £25,000, must seem very appealing to those struggling to get a foot on the ladder. Investment group Cretan Life claims that about 40% of UK inquiries for land or property in Crete now come from first-time buyers, up from just 7% a year ago.
Andreas Theocharides of Cretan Life said: "The combination of cost and complexity is causing first-time buyers to give up on Britain and invest overseas. With no end in sight to spiralling costs and red tape it looks like this trend is set to gather pace."
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The 15 British sailors seized in the Gulf may face trial and legal moves have been launched, Iran's ambassador to Moscow has said. "It is possible that the British soldiers who entered into Iranian waters will go on trial for taking this illegal action," Ambassador Gholamreza Ansari told a Russian television channel. "The legal phase concerning these British soldiers has started and if charges against them are proven, they will be punished," said Ansari. Earlier US officials said they would not exchange five Iranians seized by American forces in Iraq for the 15 British sailors. Thought to be members of Iran's Revolutionary Guard, the five were seized in January in the Iraqi city of Irbil.Britain denies Iran's claims that the UK crew were in its waters when seized on 23 March. The five Iranians were caught in a raid along with equipment which the Americans say reveals clear Iranian links to networks supplying Iraqi insurgents with technology and weapons. US officials have condemned Iran's actions and publicly supported the UK. Prime Minister Tony Blair condemned Iran for "parading" the UK crew on television in a way which would only "enhance people's sense of disgust". In a broadcast on Iranian television, sailor Nathan Thomas Summers said: "I would like to apologise for entering your waters without permission." He was shown alongside two colleagues, including Leading Seaman Faye Turney, 26, from Shropshire, who was broadcast apologising to Iran earlier in the week.
The fate of convicted Australian terrorist and al-Qaeda foot soldier David Hicks is expected to be announced soon. The eight member jury of US military officials has begun deliberating over the sentence for the Adelaide-born Muslim convert, who has pleaded guilty to a charge of providing material support for terrorism. US prosecutor Lieutenant Colonel Kevin Chenail asked the jury to sentence Hicks to seven years, which was the maximum jail term under the plea deal agreed to with Hicks' lawyer, Major Michael Mori. Major Mori asked the jury to sentence Hicks to 20 months' jail. Hicks will not earn a time served discount for the five years and four months he has already spent in the US military's Guantanamo Bay prison system. But the deal allows for at least part of the sentence to be suspended. The jury heard contrasting arguments from the prosecution and defence, with Major Mori describing Hicks as a "wannabe" soldier who never shot or hurt anyone in Afghanistan. In a statement read to the court by Major Mori, Hicks apologised to his family, to Australians and Americans for his conduct with the al-Qaeda terror group in Afghanistan. Lt Col Chenail painted Hicks as someone "who possesses terrorism tools" and could blend into Western society because of his western appearance. The prosecutor, during his address to the jury, referred to Hicks as Muhammed Dawood, the alias he used while training and fighting with al-Qaeda. "What should be done?" the prosecutor asked the jury. "Muhammed Dawood should not experience freedom for another seven years."If Hicks is sentenced to a jail term, it will be spent in an Australian jail as part of his plea agreement.The agreement orders Hicks to be transferred to Australia within 60 days from the day his sentence is announced.Hicks will not be able to make a cent out of selling his story to the media as his sentencing agreement includes a gag order. He is also banned from talking to the media for free for a year from the day his sentence is announced.Hicks's conviction on the charge of providing material support for terrorism makes him the first of the hundreds of suspects held for years at the controversial detention centre on Cuba's east coast to be convicted.
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Hicks early release won't happen: Downer
Australian political activists expecting to push for the early release of self-confessed terrorist David Hicks will be wasting their time, Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer has warned. Under a plea bargain, Hicks will be sentenced to serve no more than seven years at an Australian prison under a prisoner transfer agreement with the United States His trial and sentencing process before the US military commission at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba has now reached a jury deliberation stage. Hicks' US military defence lawyer, Major Michael Mori, has asked for Hicks to serve one year and eight months, but the US prosecutor has asked for the full seven year sentence to be imposed. Mr Downer welcomed the conviction which he said brought "to an end a long saga." He would not comment on what he thinks the final sentence will be, but said the Australian government will honour the sentence if Hicks' applies to serve out his time in Australia. "We have a prisoner transfer agreement with the United States," Mr Downer told ABC Radio."If Hicks applies to be brought back to Australia we can agree to that, which we would do, and he could serve out any sentence that is needed to be served here in Australia."But of course this is an international agreement, and to the sort of Free David Hicks campaign and people may wish once he gets back to Australia to start trying to get him out of prison immediately, we won't be facilitating that because we have an agreement with the United States."He also ruled out the Australian government commuting Hicks' sentence."If any Australian gets involved in terrorist activities, they get no sympathy from us," he added."The sentence would be carried out fully, and I say that with a bit of passion because we take a very strong stand against terrorism."Mr Downer expects Hicks to serve his sentence in an Adelaide prison if he applies to be brought back to Australia.The Adelaide-born Muslim convert, who says he has now given up Islam, has been held at Guantanamo Bay since a month after he was captured by US-backed Northern Alliance soldiers in December 2001.
"[Ferrell and Heder] play figure skating competitors, and the endless hilarity is visual: those awkward, self-conscious hetero male bodies, ill-formed and quaking with reluctance, thrown into a gossamer flutter of swanlike routines, clumsily syncopating themselves to the fantasy that they are light and graceful when, as all can see and laugh at, they are hopeless, clueless and graceless."
FAMILY FILMGOER ';Meet the Robinsons' Welcomes All There are a few dry patches, and grown-ups may find the movie too crammed with characters and visual details. But supple-brained kids 6 and older will have no problem.
» Listen | The innaugural tech podcast features a sneak peek of Mike Musgrove's At-Play column, which will appear in Sunday's Business section. Listen Online | Download.
How to Back up Your iPod — Without iTunes Your precious iPod—your friend, your status symbol, your companion during good times and bad. It comes with you wherever you go; until one day, it disappears without a trace. Here's a cautionary tale, plus some tips on how to preserve your tunes if this nightmare scenario happens to you.For me, there's no better time for cranking my iPod than while cruising at 35,000 feet; nothing whiles away the hours faster than dialing up a few podcasts or the odd TV show. But what if you leave your ice-white buddy on the plane? Not good. Unfortunately, it just happened to Shiny Shiny editor Susi Weaser, who had about 3,000 tracks on her iPod that weren't saved on her PC and now faces the task of rebuilding her extensive music collection from scratch. Ouch. The moral of the story, of course, is to back up your iPod. Now, most of us essentially do just that every time we sync our iPods using iTunes, but if you're a power user like Weaser and you have untold thousands of songs on your iPod from multiple sources, the standard iTunes sync won't cut it. Luckily, The Gadgets Page has compiled a thorough list of iPod backup utilities that promise to keep your music safe and sound. Even better, these apps can transfer songs from your iPod back to your PC if, say, the hard drive on your system suffers a meltdown (which happened to me last year). Just remember that these backup programs aren't sanctioned by Apple, and that using them to rip songs from your buddy's iPod to your PC or Mac is, of course, a no-no
why can't we put songs from someone else's iPOD on our PC? its pretty much the same as borrowing a CD from them except its on a hard drive not a standard disk. I keep my iTUNES library backed up to DVD, so if I have a crash I don't have to recompile my whole music collection. and yes, I have let friends borrow the discs to put some songs on their computers, is that a crime?
actually, there is away you can kind of do this. If I were to go to my friends house and plug my ipod in, and take their music it would be stored on my ipod, correct? If you use the ipod as a removable drive, and click and drag the music files to the removable drive (your ipod)in the my computer folder. When you go home you can click and drag the music off the ipod (plug it in, my computer, select the drive...double click it and the files should be there) and put them in your music folder and load into your itunes.
Actually there is a way to do this. When i like a song or a few hundred songs that my friend has on his ipod, i just use my friends ipod and sync it with my computer even though he has a totally differnt play list and it doesnt remove his songs and when im done. i pop in my ipod and my original songs and his songs are now sync with my ipod. i use CopyPod. Works great and lets just say my pc with my songs crashes. i can use the software to sync with any computer and transer all my songs and files from my ipod to that new computer.
As a follow-up to these previous stories on Dell's flirtation with Linux for its PC customers, the company is finally making it official: Linux will be rolling out in the near future, though the company has not set a date for the launch nor has it picked a distribution it will be offering. Ensuring drivers work properly is probably the company's next big challenge: Many may have to be created from scratch, depending on which flavor of Linux the company goes with, and how many peripherals it plans to support by default.
Reader Jason Beech writes: I have a new PC with a GX2 video card. Is it possible to buy a second monitor, keyboard, and mouse and have two true desktops? Different users of course... so I can be surfing the net and my wife can be working on Photoshop at the same time?
You'll have to trust me what this news story says: Japan is set to ban wireless gaming on airplanes. Both the Sony PSP and Nintendo DS have features that let you play against other players with the same hardware, wirelessly. That's set to change, as fears over how the low-power signals could interfere with plane electronics.
You paid for your software, that means you can use it forever, right? Hahahaha no. Virtually all those license agreements (EULAs) you never read make it clear that all software purchases are actually long-term leases, and the companies that sell the products can change the terms of your usage whenever they like. The courts continue to refine whether EULAs are enforceable or not, but in the meantime, companies like Microsoft and Intuit are having fun with them. Most recently, Intuit has said it is disabling several features in Quicken 2004 (only three years old!), a rather shameless ploy to force you to upgrade to Quicken 2007.
Reader Tami writes: My laptop takes forever to open Windows and there are MANY unused program icons on the bottom blue bar, next to the time. How do I get rid of them?
I'm not just a contractor for Yahoo!, I'm also a client, having recently moved to Yahoo! Mail for my primary email account. (And lest you think I get special treatment, I pay the $20 a year for Yahoo! Mail Plus just like everyone else. As always, all opinions in this blog post are my own, though Yahoo! owns and operates the site you're reading.) And with my long-winded intro out of the way, here's the news you've probably already heard: Unlimited storage at Yahoo! Mail, starting in May.
Reader Brett Featherstone writes: I was wondering if you could recommend a graphics card to me. I want something that i will be able to play all PC games on and will not be outdated in six months. I don't want to spend a whole lot of money: at the maximum, $280. As I was looking at different cards I saw something about DirectX 10, I was wondering what it is, and do I need it. I have a PCI Express slot in my computer. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Wired magazine writer Fred Vogelstein recently wrote a piece on Microsoft's Channel 9 project, an internal skunkworks kind of deal that the company launched to communicate with the outside world, all without corporate intervention or oversight. So far so good: MSFT's tech nerds love it, and Channel 9 is reinventing the company as a potentially cool place to work. Vogelstein's full story is here.
A number of you wrote to say how much you enjoyed the digital camera advanced tricks post I wrote last week, but a few offered a complaint: What about tips for absolute beginners who can barely figure out how to turn on the flash, much less do a long exposure and muck with the white balance. I talked to my pals at Digital Photography School, and together we came up a good list of beginner photography topics. (All of these link to DPS pages for extra detail, so click away.)
I live for multitasking. I would get nothing done without it. I watch TV while I'm writing, read a story in another window, keep a magazine propped to one side, and answer emails/the phone/the doorbell on the side. And according to a new study this is all going to lead to my ruin.
By LAURENCE JOAN-GRANGE, Associated Press Writer Fri Mar 30, 7:31 PM ET
PARIS - A French architect claimed Friday to have uncovered the mystery about how Egypt's Great Pyramid of Khufu was built — with use of a spiral ramp to hoist huge stone blocks into place. The construction of the Great Pyramid 4,500 years ago by Khufu, a ruler also known as Cheops, has long befuddled scientists as to how its 3 million stone blocks weighing 2.5 tons each were lifted into place.Ending eight years of study on the subject, architect Jean-Pierre Houdin released his findings and a computerized 3-D mockup showing how workers would have erected the pyramid at Giza outside Cairo.The most widespread theory had been that an outer ramp had been used by the Egyptians, who left few traces to help archeologists and other scientists decode the secret to the construction.Houdin said he had taken into account the copper and stone tools available at the time, the granite and limestone blocks, the location of the pyramid and the strength and knowledge of the workers.According to his theory — shown in a computer model available at http://www.3ds.com/khufu — the builders put up an outer ramp for the first 140 feet, then constructed an inner ramp in a corkscrew shape to complete the 450-foot structure.Houdin also postulated that King's Chamber was hoisted into place through a system of counterweights.Houdin said he plans to verify his theories through non-invasive tests on site.
What's the best part of the online dating phenomenon? It has to be that you're no longer confined to dating the people in your own narrow social circle, because suddenly, the whole world is full of potential partners! But what happens when you spot your dream date and you discover that they live 300 kilometres away from you? This happened to a friend of mine that entered into an online relationship with a girl from Newcastle. This London lad loved her photo so much that he simply had to email her. She responded with an email that was just as sweet, warm and witty as her profile suggested (and she liked him, too!). They've been together over a year now. When she came down to visit him at the weekend, we all went out for drinks and I had to ask them: 'How do you cope with a long-distance relationship?' Here's what I found out... When two people enter into a LDR (so common it has its own acronym), they need to be prepared for some ups and downs. For example, LDR couples sometimes go for long periods of time without a mere peck on the cheek. But, on the other hand, they're a lot more excited to see each other than CPR (Close Proximity Relationship) couples. Okay, a friend made up the CPR acronym, but we're hoping it'll catch on... If you're currently in a LDR or thinking of starting one, you need to keep a few things in mind:
Weekend cramming Most LDR couples have a similar visiting schedule: it starts Friday night with tears of joy and ends Sunday night with tears of sadness. That's not a lot of time in between tears — you've got to fit in a lot of activities, right? Not necessarily. You're in an LDR, not on your deathbed. Instead of rushing from the zoo to miniature golf to a candlelight dinner, try relaxing on the sofa with a film and a packet of crisps (a very CPR-type activity). Chill out and enjoy each other's company. There's no need to be on the go all the time.
P.S. — I miss you There are all sorts of ways to keep in touch with your long-distance love: phone, email and nothing says "I love you" like a good old text. But these can all get stale and routine — the usual emails to plan the next weekend, the mandatory chat after 9 p.m. when you have free mobile minutes... Try snail mail. Who doesn't love to get a card in the midst of all their bills?
Get a life You must have something going on in that town of yours if it's keeping you away from your significant other — a great job, your family, a lease that isn't up for another two years. Remember to keep that part of your life going, too. You can't spend Sunday through Thursday holed up in that unbreakable-lease flat of yours.
Have a little faith If you're going to get involved in the LDR, you have to realise you can't keep an eye on partner all the time — even if you do have a web cam. So what can you do? Trust them. If you don't, you'll become paranoid every time you call and get the voicemail. Then you'll start typing furiously, frantically trying to send an emergency 'don't forget me' text! All of these are important to keep in mind because they'll get you through this temporary stage. That's right. All LDR's should be temporary. The two of you need to make a plan to live in the same city at some point. Yes, one of you is going to have to give up that successful dream job or see your hometown friends and family a lot less. But it will all be worth it. Because eventually, we all need a little CPR.
Friday March 30 A TV boss has been humiliated after an email she sent to colleagues was leaked. Amanda Ross, 44, producer of Richard And Judy, sent the email after not getting the opportunity to sign a colleague's birthday card. Her rant was then circulated across dozens of TV companies after the email was leaked by an angry member of staff. Ross is joint managing director of Cactus TV, an independent production company recently in the headlines over the You Say, We Pay phoneline scandal on Richard and Judy's show. In the email, dated October 2005, she says: "I did not get to see or sign Maryam's card. "Can I remind you that the Cactus birthday tradition is mine, and I effectively pay for it, so if you can't make it happen that I get to sign the card, then I will stop it." She adds: "You are not to circulate any cards to anyone before I have signed them. "This 'sounds draconian' but you have forced me to be that way, as you cannot make the simple system work. I am upset about this as I implemented the birthday tradition to show staff that Simon (Ross, her husband and colleague) and I care about them." A spokeswoman for Ms Ross said: "The employee in question was upset that Amanda and Simon had not had the chance to sign the card. She (Amanda) was disappointed to not have been able to." Ross is credited with turning books into a TV phenomenon with the Richard and Judy book club, launched three years ago. The books selected for discussion each year have gained increases in sales that most authors only dream of, turning some of the featured writers into multi-millionaires. Related TV News
Unconvincing England overcome Irish by 48 runs Fri 30 Mar
view photo GEORGETOWN, Guyana (Reuters) - Paul Collingwood's late flurry with the bat and some tight bowling gave England a 48-run win over rank outsiders Ireland in their World Cup Super Eights match on Friday. Collingwood smashed 90 off 82 balls to help England add 65 runs in the last five overs and amass 266 for seven after they had looked set for a meagre score against the World Cup debutants. Ireland's reply stated badly with Jeremy Bray and Eoin Morgan falling early and despite Niall O'Brien's 63 they never threatened England's total and were bowled out for 218 as they hit out late on. Andrew Flintoff grabbed four wickets. England pick up their first two points of the Super Eights having failed to carry any through from the group stage following a defeat to New Zealand. Ireland have no points.
400,000 UK Workers May Not Get Paid -Friday March 30
Up to 400,000 people are facing delays in their salary payments because of a problem with an electronic banking system. The Banks Automated Clearing System has been running slowly and has not sent out all payments in time. The BACS is responsible for processing financial transactions. A spokeswoman for payments association Apacs said affected workers should be paid by Monday.Sandra Quinn said any customers who were concerned should contact their bank immediately. Banks are trying to ensure direct debits are paid as usual although the transactions can be refused if it means an account becoming overdrawn. Ms Quinn said there was no pattern to the glitch and any company that had been affected by the problem should have informed its employees.She added employees would be refunded any charges if their accounts were overdrawn or if they breached their overdraft limit as a result of the problem.She advised people who needed cash for the weekend to withdraw it over the counter, as cash machines could refuse the withdrawal."The entire banking and payments industry is extremely sorry that this has happened and we are working to resolve the issue and limit the impact on individual customers," she said.
HAVANA (AFP) - Cuban leader Fidel Castro signaled a possible comeback Thursday as he blasted US President George W. Bush for promoting biofuels in his first article since surgery eight months ago. In an article in the official daily Granma, Castro said that "more than three billion people in the world" have been condemned to premature starvation due to Bush's policies."It is not an exaggerated figure. It is very cautious," Castro wrote. "I have meditated on this a lot since President Bush's meeting (Monday) with American automobile makers.""The sinister idea of converting food into fuel has been definitely established as the economic line of US foreign policy," he wrote.Castro, 80, temporarily handed over power in July to his brother Raul while recovering from a gastrointestinal operation.The iconic Cuban leader, who has led the country since 1959, has been seen on official Cuban television and newspaper photographs while recovering. The article was distributed to reporters before it appeared on the front page of Granma, the Communist Party's official newspaper.Reducing energy consumption and recycling "is a fundamental and urgent necessity for all humanity," Castro wrote."The tragedy is not reducing these wastes of energy, it is the idea of converting food into fuel."Bush has promoted the use of ethanol, which is made from corn or sugarcane, as an alternative fuel as part of his effort to wean the United States off its dependence on foreign oil.Earlier in the month Bush signed an agreement with Brazil to cooperate in promoting ethanol. The United States and Brazil account for 70 percent of the fuel's production.Bush has proposed setting mandatory fuel requirements that would quintuple the current consumption of renewable and alternative fuels to 35 billion gallons (133 billion liters) by 2017.Castro warned that 320 million tonnes of corn would be needed to produce that ethanol, leaving millions of people without food.Castro's health has been the subject of feverish speculation over the past months, with US officials at one stage suggesting their longtime nemesis had just days left to live.Much to the chagrin of hardline Cuban exiles in Miami, who had prematurely danced on his grave, video footage of Castro broadcast on January 30 showed him healthier and more alert than in the previous pictures released by Cuban authorities.Some believe Castro could return to power, more likely as a leader who sets directions for the country than a day-to-day manager."His decisions will carry decisive weight in the country's affairs independent of whether he appears more or appears less," a member of the illegal but tolerated opposition, Oscar Espinosa Chepe, told AFP.Marta Beatriz Roque, another opponent, was blunt about her displeasure with the article. "I would like them to worry more about the Cuban people than for the world. Worst things are happening here," she said.Officials, families and friends have given upbeat updates about his health in recent weeks.Fidel's older brother, Ramon, 82, said Wednesday that the Cuban leader was "very well" and "in one piece."A top Cuban official indicated last week that Castro could soon resume a more active role."What we are expecting is that we will have him back (at work) with us, in a more active way, soon," Communist Party Politburo member and Basic Industry Minister Yadira Garcia told reporters on March 20.Although no comeback date has been announced, Bolivian President Evo Morales said that Castro would appear on April 28 at a Havana meeting of the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA), a group supported by Cuba.
People ------------- which makes ------------- * history repeat
There are saying [ "the Iraq war and the Vietnam War are alike" ] and two similarity "the policy of the Bush Administration resembles the policy of Reagan Administration" in being well pointed out about the situation of the present United States. These two kinds of similarity has a deep meaning the place which I look at. for the United States, any war is unnecessary and, moreover, one of the similar points of the Iraq war and the Vietnam War calls it at the United States -- fabricating -- it is having opened war. Although the outbreak-of-war reason of the Iraq war was the exaggerated information that Iraq held mass-destruction weapons, within the U.S. government, it was repeatedly pointed out to beforehand from CIA etc. that Iraq does not hold mass-destruction weapons. Similarly, the cause to which the U.S. Forces converted the intervention in Vietnam into war is the incident of the Gulf of Tonkin incident in 1964 which the U.S. side fabricated. The point that the U.S. Forces repeated torture and human rights abuse is also alike to people of Iraq where two war became a battlefield, or Vietnam. It feels it uneasy whether the Iraq war will finish it as the dramatic defeat similar to the "Saigon surrender" of the Vietnam War from now on, and this point is also alike.
The strategy of doing too much and failing intentionally
The fundamental reason why did it fabricate and come out and a self-destructive war came by my analysis besides such a similar point is also alike in two war. Any war has occurred in conflict of the "U.S.-British (Israel) center principle" of the U.S. center, and a "multi-electrode principle." Multi-electrode principle persons have got the result in which carry out like the partisans of a U.S.-British center principle, and do too much excessively, as a result break the organization of a U.S.-British center principle, and the world is brought towards multipolarization. After the Second World War, although the United States tried to build the world organization of the multi-electrode principle symbolized by the permanent-member-of-the-Security-Council system of the United Nations, against this, U.S.-British center principle persons, such as Britain, started the cold war, and opposed the U.S. and Soviet. Although the multi-electrode principle person groped for making Mao Tse-Tung's China into an American ally, the U.S. and China were deterministically opposed by the Korean War from 1950. The United States and The Soviet Union,China confronted each other over the long period of time, and the Korean Peninsula became the place which makes a cold war continue indefinitely. Intervention of the U.S. Forces to Vietnam was started in order to make the place which can continue a cold war like the Korean Peninsula indefinitely not only to the Chinese east side but to on the south. although the multi-electrode principle person of the U.S. center cooperated in the strategy of the U.S.-British center principle person who wants to continue a cold war indefinitely officially positively, he says that decomposition of the South Vietnam government and cruelty are puffed up and he increases the Vietnamese's anti-American sentiment on the reverse side -- "-- doing -- passing -- " -- war was made to go wrong repeatedly intentionally In the place where failure of war became irreversible, the Kissinger multi-electrode principle person developed the policy which it appears as a "realist", he lets the reason "the United States cannot but become reconciled with China which has influence on Vietnam in order to retrieve failure of the Vietnam War" pass, and Nixon visits China, and approaches with China, and made the windhole in the cold war. On the other hand, the Iraq war has occurred as counteraction of intrusion by the U.S. center by Israel which became strong from around 1997. Israel has such strong influence under the Bush Administration that nobody of the U.S. political world can take an anti-Israel-attitude. Israel desired to make the U.S. Forces invade Iraq, to divide Iraq, to leave on a civil war state for a long time, not to be a threat of Israel and to carry out. Vice-President Cheney and a neo-conservative made the U.S. Forces invade Iraq in the form which meets the request of this Israel, and changed Iraq into the civil war state. But, they repeat an intentional failure that it is one of these and people of Iraq or other Middle East increase anti-American sentiment, and made support of people local [ to the Islamic extremists who hang up anti-Americanism and the outline of anti-Israel ] increase rapidly, and when the United States exhausted and withdrew to the Iraq occupation, subsequent Israel made the situation which bushfighting is devised by guerrilla groups, such as Hamas and Hizbollah, and may be crushed. He wasted U.S. hegemony power, Cheney and the rest crypto multi-electrode principle person made the U.S.-British Israel center principle destroy completely, induced rise of China or Russia, and has multipolarized the world while he pretends to have acted in response to the mind of Israel and makes Israel lapse into a national life or death crisis. Kissinger who directed the multipolarization after the Vietnam War is moving this time also. For example, it is the policy of disassembling the Iraq army of the Hussein Administration age, and Paul Bremer of the 2nd generation (CPA) director general of the Iraq occupation-forces government who made a stalemate of the Iraq occupation decisive is the person who was working for a long time in Kissinger's office. Although the founder was the former military man closely related with the Israel right called Jay Garner, the occupation-forces government director general was suddenly dismissed by the determination of the White House in May, 2003 one month after assumption of office, and took the place of Paul Bremer http://rightweb.irc-online.org/profile/1184
It hides and he is multi-electrode principle person Shultz.
The Clinton administration of the predecessor of a bush tended to eliminate the influence of Israel somehow, and received the attack from the parent Israel influence inside the United States -- the Monica Lewinsky incident is caused conversely in 1998. Not only Clinton but the Carter Administration of the 1970s which became the President from the Democratic Party before that tended to avoid the right of Israel, tended to strengthen the left, and the Democratic Party has failed in it. In contrast with the Democratic Party which tried the orthodox approach of containment and has failed in it to Israel, although the Republican Party Administration, such as the present bush and Reagan of the 1980s, takes the posture which officially sides with Israel positively, it is continuing taking a complicated and secret strategy [ say / producing the situation which becomes disadvantageous for Israel as a result ] by making the strategy of the Israel liking go wrong intentionally secretly. Although written to the former report (http://tanakanews.com/070313oil.htm), the oil crisis which broke out in 1973 of the Republican Party Nixon Administration last stage was also one of the strategies which produce the disadvantageous situation for Israel secretly. After that, Israel developed the strategy which eats into a U.S. center using a Zionist organization in the U.S., and sent in parent Israel influence (neo-conservative) as a high official of Reagan Administration. In Reagan Administration, it is thought that George Shultz who became the Secretary of State from 1982 hid, and was a multi-electrode principle person. Shultz's father also has indication that he was a man very near the capitalist layer of New York which is wanting to advance multipolarization in the world. http://www.larouchepub.com/other/2004/site_packages/econ_hitmen/3148shultz1.html He was serving as the president of Bechtel, Inc., oil and a major construction related company, until he was invited to Reagan Administration in 82, after President Nixon resigned from Shultz by the Watergate in summer of 74. That is, Shultz is the so-called persons involved in "oil rights", and was regarded as parent Arab and anti-Israel, it became the Secretary of State of Reagan Administration, and the artifice of the parent Israel influence in political power was resisted at the time of the beginning. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_P._Shultz
The Iran-Contra affair is the Israel hook measure.
But, on it resisting and going wrong that AIPAC of a parent Israel political organization moved Congress to 82 ends of the year, and made it decide on the increase in the economical support for Israel at them, Shultz converts to parent Israel from anti-Israel, and came to take a parent Israel-posture positively strangely after that. And the Iran-Contra affair in 1986 occurred. http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Ronald_Reagan/Israel_Contras_TICC.html It is a plot with commonsense generally having given the price income illegally to the right-wing guerrilla "contra" of Nicaragua, and having carried out arms purchase while smuggling out arms to Iran illegally, in order that the Iran-Contra affair may rescue [ Reagan Administration ] the U.S. soldiers caught by the guerrilla "Hizbollah" of the Iran system of Lebanon. however, this incident -- a veneer -- existence of Israel is that it is pure in sight everywhere. Israel had smuggled out arms to Iran regardless of the United States from the first. Although Iran of those days was anti-Americanism and the national policy of anti-Israel after the Islamic revolution, simultaneously, Iran is continuing the Iran-Iraq War from 80 years, and was likely to lose Iraq in it. It was a big threat that Iraq beats Iran and becomes the leader of Arab for Israel using the dignity. Therefore, Israel smuggled out arms to Iran consistently from the early stages of the Iran-Iraq War, and the half of the total imports of the arms of Iran was from Israel. http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Ronald_Reagan/Irangate_Israel_TICC.html When I wanted Israel to admit that Israel exports arms to Iran to the United States, it asked. On the other hand, Israel was requested to carry out the Reagan Administration side instead of the ransom for releasing the American prisoner of war (hostage) caught by Hizbollah, if arms will be smuggled out to Iran at any rate in 1985. Although the export of arms of the Israel side was carried out to Iran in the form according to a U.S. request at the beginning and some hostages were released, it came to refuse to carry out export of arms to Iran as an American representative soon. Although the reason is not clarified, in the United States, the export of arms to Iran is made illegal after the Islamic revolution, and it can be surmised that it is because it feared "scratch". [ which will be convicted as Israel participated in the illegal act ] After Israel refuses vicarious execution, although directly carried [ came ] out from the United States, it is exposed and condemned for the export of arms to Iran as the Iran-Contra affair after all.
Also contra support Israel was also offering independently support to the Nicaragua antigovernment guerrillas "contra" who are another field of the Iran-Contra affair at first. The United States was offering support to right-wing guerrillas, such as contra, till the first half of the 1970s in order to weaken a Central American leftist government, but the Carter Administration took the foreign policy of human-rights serious consideration at the second half of the 70s, and the direct support to a right-wing guerrilla was illegalized. Israel which the countries of parent Arab increased in number globally, and lapsed into the plight after the oil crisis was supporting to a Central American right-wing guerrilla instead of the United States, and it maintained diplomatic relations with the countries in Central America while it deepened the relation with the right of the U.S. political world. El Salvador and Costa Rica were a few countries which establish a ? Israel embassy in Jerusalem which the United Nations does not accept as a capital instead of Tel Aviv till recently (both countries moved the embassy to Tel Aviv in response to the strong ball of the global anti-Israel feeling last year in autumn). http://www.israeltoday.co.il/default.aspx?tabid=133&view=item&idx=1138 (Taiwan not only the Central American right but after U.S.-China normalization of diplomatic relations between China and Indonesia, South Africa under apartheid organization, etc. are that the United States sells arms etc. to the partner who cannot associate officially, and Israel supported the dark part of a U.S. foreign policy) Although Reagan Administration passed to contra the price of the arms sold to Iran and it became an incident, this will be made into an evil deed as a result of the United States's intervening in the support enterprise to Iran and the contra which Israel was doing. Although the parent Israel influence included in the center of Reagan Administration probably planned to make the United States probably support the enterprise of Israel, it is that political power centers, such as Secretary of State Shultz, hide, and a multi-electrode principle person develops this into a scandal conversely, and it is surmised whether it was going to weaken the influence of Israel to the United States.
Combination of the centrists and neo-conservative who see to "Balkan" So far, I explained the old complicated incident of Iran Contra at full length because the composition and connections of this incident had breathed also for the present Bush Administration. Shultz who played the important role by the Iran-Contra affair is the wirepuller which one more person hid, ranked with Vice-President Cheney who is a multi-electrode principle person, and opted for the cabinet-members personnel affairs of the Bush Administration. The bush which was a Texas governor those days visited the house of Shultz whom Stanford University had, and consulted about it about candidacy for a presidential election in spring of 1998. On that occasion, the Condleezza Rice which was acting as the professor of Stanford University as well as [ those days ] Shultz was also called. In the Republican Party center, the rice which is Shultz's pupil will take the post of the position which considers the diplomatic maneuver of an unacquainted bush to diplomacy, and the Assistant to the President specializing in [ of the 1st term ] a security and the 2nd term are acting as the Secretary of State. Centering on rice, Shultz and Cheney are a generation's younger than themselveses specialists of a security (war), and decided to construct the cabinet members of the Bush Administration. Eight specialists of a security gathered centering on rice, and it discussed about the diplomatic maneuver as a close-attendants candidate of a bush the basis of guardianship of Shultz and Cheney, and in the beginning [ before the presidential contest in 2000 starts / 99 ]. They gave the name of "Balkan" (Vulcans) to their group, and called themselveses. It is the symbol of the iron industry (blacksmith) and arms manufacture (armaments industry), and it is God of the fire which comes out to Roman mythology, and it is [ Balkan (Valcãnus) is struck as military experts' group name, and ] the price. Since the huge Balkan image is in town Alabama Birmingham of iron manufacture of the ancient times which are the hometowns of rice, it is said that this name was given. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Vulcans
Centrists [ persons / of "Balkan" / eight ] (realist), such as Rice and Armitage, and hard-liners (neo-conservative), such as Paul Wolfowitz and Richard Peal, are intermingled. Although the Stephen Hadley which became the vice-minister of Rice by one person of Balkan in the White House was raised into centrists, such as Kissinger and Scowcroft, from the first, by the papa Bush Administration, it serves as Wolfowitz's subordinate, develops hard-liners' policy, and, now, is regarded as a neo-conservative's partisans. Although convinced of people as description, in fact, it is almost meaningless to classify the military strategists of the Republican Party system into "centrists" and a "neo-conservative", so that this may be symbolic. Rather, Shultz and Cheney are showing the composition the policy being determined, blending centrists and a neo-conservative with a safficient degree into the high officials of the Bush Administration, and centrists and a neo-conservative disagreing, and are thought whether to have drawn from the beginning the scenario of giving people of mass communications or the political world a feeling of conviction. Also in Balkan, as centrists Robert Black Will who promoted the German integration with rice by the papa Bush Administration, and Dove Zakheim which was present in the Department of Defense by the neo-conservative system were negative for riding on the scenario of Shultz or Cheney and performing, by the Bush Administration, it did not take the post of an important post, but it has seceded from it on the way.
Superfluous war currently assumed from the beginning Although Balkan was made as a group who assists a bush, for seven persons other than the Robert Zerick which was the specialist of a trade policy, all the members are a security, i.e., diplomacy, or the specialist of war. The specialist of finance or finances thought as important by the Clinton age does not have one person, either. As for the scenario of the Bush Administration which Shultz and Cheney considered, it is natural to think that "war" was assumed from the beginning. From the end of the cold war to 911 incidents, an enemy was not in the United States, either, and the concern involved in war did not have the United States. because the strategy supposing war is taken under such circumstances -- "a pre-emptive strike" like the Iraq invasion -- "-- an outbreak-of-war reason -- fabricating -- " -- it is needed or "a mass terror incident generated by not defending intentionally" like 911 incidents is needed. It is thought that the intermittent self-destructive thing of the similarity of the Vietnam War and the Iraq war, Nixon, Reagan, and the Republican Party connected with a bush which the Iraq war will finish with a U.S. crushing defeat and hegemony loss if it hides and a multipolarization strategy is considered is not failure of a scenario, but is deployment as a scenario rather. http://tanakanews.com/c0128wtc.htm The mass communications of the recently United States "within the Bush Administration, Vice-President Cheney's authority falls and Secretary of State Rice's influence is being improved instead. The "interpretive article" of therefore, the United States conceding in North Korea, or wanting to advance Middle East peace" is often seen. But, it thinks from the circumstances since political power inauguration, and Rice is earnest to Cheney and should not revolt against him. Cheney is giving "a supervisor and player" of going into political power and acting as a neo-conservative's boss while being the setting person of a scenario. The scene where Rice exceeds Cheney is the scenario with a multi-electrode principle the Republican Party since Nixon and Reagan hides and traditional "do and fail that the hard-liners of a U.S.-British Israel center principle tend to do, and a multi-electrode principle-policy is obtained and lost in a colander as relief measures."
Iran Contra repeated There is one more relation between the Iran-Contra affair and the Bush Administration. Vice-President Cheney makes the former high officials by whom were prosecuted for the Iran-Contra affair or bad-fellow treatment was done in mass communications come back as a high official of the Bush Administration one after another, and, moreover, it is as essentially as the once Iran-Contra affair involving in Israel and developing the same secret strategy. Two years ago, Cheney assembles only the former high officials who were involved in the Iran-Contra affair, holds a private meeting, and is making former high officials have developed Iran Contra type military operation since then in the Middle East. http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/IC15Ak01.html It is the former high official who was involved in the Iran-Contra affair, and people, such as John Negroponte, the Eliot Abrams, Otto Reich, and John Poindexter, became the high official of the Bush Administration. http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,539429,00.html It is Negroponte that it is a high order most, and after successively holding the ambassador to the United Nations of the Bush Administration, a ? Iraq ambassador, and the first national intelligence director generals, it is acting as the Deputy State Secretary now. He is acting as the Honduras ambassador in Reagan Administration, and had achieved the duty which carries out military aid to the Honduras government which supports the right-wing guerrilla "Contra" who aims at overthrow of the left government of neighboring-country Nicaragua in the composition of the Iran-Contra affair. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_D._Negroponte Next, it is the Eliot Abrams that it is a high order, and it is taking charge of the "world forcible democratization strategy" of the Bush Administration now as a President vice-[ specializing in a security ] adviser (Deputy National Security Advisor). It was the "human-rights charge" for hiding the fact that he successively holds the Under Secretary of State assistant human-rights charge and for Central America in Reagan Administration, and human rights abuse of a slaughter etc. is performed in El Salvador or Nicaragua. Although he became that it is likely to be prosecuted for disclosure of the Iran-Contra affair, plea bargaining was allowed and he was acquitted. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elliott_Abrams Negroponte and Abrams took charge of two kinds of separate Iran Contra type strategies within the Bush Administration. It says it "sweeps [ the civil war state which kills a Sunni Muslim, Shiah Muslims and a Muslim's moderate party and extremists is made, and ] away anti-American extremists" away for all, and is extension of the once Contra support of "giving a local right-wing guerrilla military training, and beating the leftist government of the country." Negroponte's strategy is developed in Iraq from 2004 whose he was a Iraq ambassador to 05 years, and the strategy of Abrams is developed in Lebanon and Palestine now. http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/IA11Ak03.html
Al-Qaeda of Iraq is supported by the U.S. Forces. Negroponte's strategy was called the "Salvador option" (Salvador Option) in the meaning that strategy which was alike once in El Salvador of Central America was held, and the advisory group of the U.S. Forces trained Shiah Muslims of Iraq, and a Kurdish national guardsman, it is making the guerrilla of a Sunni Muslim, and a guerrilla supporter's average citizen murder, and it planned the weakened Sunni Muslim guerrilla who was anti-Americanism most. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6802629/site/newsweek/ In Iraq, an officer called James Steele (James Steele) of the U.S. Forces which trained the right-wing guerrilla once in El Salvador, and commanded left murder as Negroponte's subordinate stuck, and he commanded guerrilla training of Iraq. Although the average citizen killed by the guerrilla has increased rapidly in Baghdad since 04, it was the "result" of this strategy. http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0112-22.htm Although Negroponte already finished this duty and it moved to the Department of State, also after that, this strategy is continued in Iraq. It is the strategy in it being leading there although it has elaborated on the exit strategy which the Bush Administration predicts [ exit strategy ] the defeat in recently and Iraq, and evacuates the U.S. Forces from Iraq "the Salvador option is restrengthened, the Shiah Muslims guerrilla is trained, and you carry out the civil war of the Sunni Muslim, and make it balanced, and the U.S. Forces withdraw in the meantime." http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article2152463.ece although the U.S. Forces are training the guerrilla of Shiah Muslims based on this strategy -- the saddle of anti-Americanism [ guerrillas / many of / Shiah Muslims / back ] -- there being a teacher and training them means that Iraq based on [ after the U.S. Forces withdraw ] Shiah Muslims becomes the country of anti-Americanism and parent Iran under the influence of a saddle. Negroponte is self-destructive -- it hides and contributes to the multipolarization strategy. Moreover, having been clarified in the newspaper of Iraq recently is that there are many organizations which the U.S. Forces are supporting not only Shiah Muslims but the guerrilla of a Sunni Muslim in secrecy, are supported by the U.S. Forces and CIA in fact in the Sunni Muslim guerrilla influence currently called "al-Qaeda" in Iraq, and are moving. http://uruknet.info/?p=m31543&s1=h1 If the U.S. Forces withdraw, since al-Qaeda loses backing, it is according to the old Baath Party system influence of a Sunni Muslim and it will vanish, I predict that the civil war of a Sunni Muslim and Shiah Muslims becomes in the subsided direction. Into the civil war in the world, there is much what will be solved if intervention of external influence, such as the U.S. and Britain, is lost, and the civil war right-wing [ Central American ] and left is also subsided after the Iran-Contra affair.
The U.S. Forces which encourage a guerrilla in oil smuggling of Iraq Abrams which is the other Iran Contra system high official offers arms support at the national army of the pro-American government of Lebanon, and is advancing the strategy of making it fighting with an anti-American guerrilla's Hizbollah, and the strategy of offering arms support in pro-American sentiment political party Fatah of Palestine, and making it fighting with an anti-American guerrilla's Hamas, in simultaneous parallel from last year. http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/articles/070305fa_fact_hersh Although carried out by the Fatah reinforcement strategy in Palestine of Abrams obtaining cooperation of neighboring countries, such as Israel, and Egypt, Jordan, all are strong with this strategy and neighboring countries have expressed concern. Even if it supplies arms to Fatah with the intention of making it fighting with Hamas, when it confers on Fatah and Hamas, they come to attack Israel and the people from Palestine improve skills after all, it is because it is connected with the antigovernment force of the Islamic compatriot team of Egypt, the Islamic principle person of Jordan, etc. and a political power overthrow of Egypt or Jordan may be planned. http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/IA09Ak03.html It is indicated that the source of revenue of these arms support is the smuggling price of the oil from Iraq to neighboring countries. The oil of Iraq was smuggled out by the anti-American guerrilla and it had become a guerrilla's source of funds from before, and even if the U.S. Forces did their best and controlled, it was indicated that smuggling was not lost easily. In fact, however it might have become the source of revenue of the secret strategy of Negroponte or Abrams and a button man's soldier may control smuggling of oil, since the boss was making the guerrilla smuggle the smuggling price of oil, smuggling of it should not be lost. http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/IC15Ak01.html Moreover, although it was indicated that a part of oil price paid to Saudi Arabia from the United States flowed back in the Department of Defense or the organization affiliated with CIA, and it was used for a secret source of revenue, this composition also existed in the Iran-Contra affair. Passing a part of the income to the American government who is speculators' friend because Saudi is earned on oil price lifting by the speculators of New York cannot say that it is disagreeable, if it does not become disadvantage but is asked from the U.S. high official for Saudi. That the United States strengthened the Central American right-wing guerrilla with the Iran Contra system, and agitated the civil war once made anti-American sentiment bear against Central American people after that, and it has induced the result to which the leader of the anti-American populist represented by Chavez of Venezuela sweeps over the countries in Central America, and makes U.S. influence decline. The United States is also losing the hegemony in the Middle East like it as a result of the Iran Contra system which Cheney is developing in the Middle East. an involvement-[ Israel ] downfall -- or it is pressed for an alternative whether to large-concede in the Arab side.
The dollar fall in which the Bush Administration also occurs someday Each of three Republican Party Administration called the Nixon Administration, Reagan Administration, and the Bush Administration hid, and had connoted the multi-electrode principle. When the connections-flow from Kissinger to Shultz, Cheney, Rice, and a neo-conservative is seen, a repetition of three political power is the result of the political power management in alignment with the scenario skillfully set up so that it might be visible to natural deployment instead of an accidental product. Although it does not seem to have decided the scenario to details, many scenarios are prepared and hard landing, a soft landing, etc. are conjectured that there is also change of a scenario on the way. The way of the "realist" since Kissinger performs flexible scenario deployment. A strategy also with self-destructive financial aspects is developed, as a result "Nixon Shock" in 1971 called collapse of the gold standard happens by the Nixon Administration, and three political power is performing the "Plaza Accord" in 1985 which determined a weak dollar and circle mark quantity in Reagan Administration. It is predicted that the Bush Administration also has the large fall of a dollar someday, and IMF expresses from before "You have to equip a dollar sudden drop with every country in the world, especially East Asia and the Middle East oil producing countries which are likely to play a role of a lead of the future world economy by the monetary union of an area etc." many times, and has repeated the manifestation recently also. http://www.reuters.com/article/hotStocksNews/idUSL2423658320070324http://tanakanews.com/g0502IMF.htm This report was put also on the website. http://tanakanews.com/070327GOP.htm
Iranian television has showed pictures of three of the British sailors held in Iran, one of whom apologised for entering Iranian waters. "The treatment has been very friendly," said the sailor on state-run Al-Alam television. "I deeply apologise for entering your waters." The Foreign Office angrily condemned the broadcast of the latest pictures. "Using our military personnel for purposes of propaganda like this is outrageous," a spokesman said. The latest televised appearance came after Iran dismissed a statement from the UN over the 15 detained British service personnel as unhelpful. In a watered down message the Security Council has expressed grave concern over the crisis. The UN Security Council expressed "grave concern" over the detention of the sailors and Marines and called for the crisis to be resolved as soon as possible. But the statement, agreed by all 15 members after more than three hours of negotiations in New York, fell short of "deploring" Tehran's actions and demanding the detainees' immediate release. The British Embassy in Tehran has also received a formal note from the Iranian government. The Foreign Office refused to release details but the text of the note was later released by the Iranian embassy in London. The note said: "According to the information received from relevant authorities of the Islamic Republic of Iran, two British naval vessels manned by 15 fully-equipped crews trespassed on Iran's territorial waters on March 23 2007. "Since similar acts had taken place in the past and prior warning had been given against the repetition of such acts, the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran protests strongly against this illegal act in violating Iranian territorial waters. "It emphasizes the respect for the rules and principles of international law concerning the sovereignty and territorial integrity of states, underlines the responsibility of the British Government for the consequences of such violation, and calls for the guarantee to avoid the recurrence of such acts."
Former Australian captain Ian Chappell believes India's star batsman Sachin Tendulkar should review his future in cricket. "At the moment, he looks like a player trying to eke out a career and build on his glittering array of statistics," Chappell wrote in an Indian newspaper. "If he really is playing for that reason and not to help win as many matches as he can for India, then he is wasting his time and should retire immediately. "Before anybody else makes a decision on what will happen to Tendulkar, the player himself has to have a good long look in the mirror and decide what he's trying to achieve in the game." The 33-year-old holds numerous records in both forms of the game and is one of the superstars of the game. India tumbled out of the World Cup in the first round with Tendulkar failing against Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, while scoring a half century against Bermuda. Chappell's brother Greg is the current coach of the Indian team.
Bargain store TK Maxx has been targeted in what is thought to be the world's biggest ever credit card fraud.More than 45 million customers in Britain and the US have had their details stolen by hackers.Customers who shopped at TK Maxx between January 2003 and June 2004 are most at risk.Banks and card companies have already found "preliminary evidence" of fraud using the data stolen from TJX and law enforcement authorities are investigating possible cases.The numbers were accessed on the company's systems in Watford, Herts, and Framingham, Massachusetts.The firm did not know how many of the cardholders affected were shoppers at TK Maxx's 210 stores in Britain and Ireland, although more of them were likely to be American.Last week police charged six people in Florida with using credit card numbers that investigators believe were stolen from a TJX database to buy about £500,000 worth of electronics and jewellery with Wal-Mart gift vouchers. Detectives have said they believe the suspects were not the actual hackers but had bought the card numbers from someone else.
Huge Fine For Paddington Disaster -Friday March 30
Network Rail has been fined £4m for "systemic and unacceptable" safety failures leading to the Paddington train crash which killed 31 people and injured more than 400. The disaster, likened to a "senseless and unnecessary" terrorist attack, occurred against a background of what the judge described as "incompetent management and inadequate process". Its catalogue of failures spanned several years and flowed from the culture at the top of the company, London's Blackfriars Crown Court heard. They culminated in the tragedy early one autumn morning in 1999. Shortly after leaving Paddington station, a local Thames train passed a partially-obscured red light and smashed head-on with a closing speed of 130mph into a London-bound First Great Western express near Ladbroke Grove. The first carriage of the intercity express burst into flames almost immediately. Thirty-one people, including the two drivers, died. The many injured included author Jilly Cooper - who had to be pulled from the wreckage - and badly-burned Pam Warren, whose masked face became a symbol of the crash.Network Rail, successor to Railtrack and the body in existence at the time, admitted breaching the 1974 Health and Safety at Work Act.Network Rail chairman Ian McAllister apologised for the failings of Railtrack. He said: "Network Rail took over from Railtrack in 2002 and completed the installation of an automatic train braking system that would have prevented the Ladbroke Grove tragedy. "This system, called the Train Protection Warning System (TPWS), will automatically apply a train's brakes if it passes a signal at red or approaches one too quickly." The risk of accidents caused by trains passing red signals had been reduced by 93% compared to 2001, he added. The chairman of the Paddington Survivors Group says the fine should serve as a message to other companies. Jonathan Duckworth said: "It was very clear from the evidence that the corporate culture at Railtrack was very poor indeed when it came to safety. It was not just individuals who were at fault. It was the whole company."Rail union leaders said the fine should be taken from the bonuses of senior Network Rail managers.
The UN Security Council has expressed its "grave concern" over the Iran hostage crisis and called for the 15 British service personnel to be released. But the has fallen far short of the strong condemnation Britain had wanted. The UK is continuing to demand that the captives be freed immediately. The Foreign Office has said the British Embassy in Tehran has received a note from the Iranian government, although a spokeswoman refused to reveal the note's contents. She said: "We can confirm that, as reported in the Iranian. media, the Iranian government has sent a formal note to the British Embassy. "Such exchanges are always confidential so we cannot divulge any details but we are giving the message serious consideration and will soon respond formally to the Iranian government." Meanwhile two more of the captured Royal Navy personnel have been named by the Sun newspaper. It says Marines Adam Sperry, 22, and Joe Tindell, 21, are being held along with 13 other British soldiers and sailors. They are both from the Fleet protection Group based at the Clyde Naval Base near Helensburgh in Scotland, the paper added, and good friends. Marine Sperry's widowed mum Sandra, told The Sun: "I'm very proud of my son, but I just want him to come back home. Please let him go. "Adam was just trying to help the people of Iraq by stopping the smuggling. "He's a Marine, he was just there doing his job. "Yesterday the Foreign Secretary criticised Iran for releasing a purportedly from captive British sailor Faye Turney calling for the UK to withdraw its forces from Iraq. Margaret Beckett said: "We have not seen this letter but we have grave concerns about the circumstances in which it was prepared and issued. "This blatant attempt to use Leading Seaman Turney for propaganda purposes is outrageous and cruel."Analysts immediately doubted the validity of the letter, saying the wording was not likely to have been thought up by the 26-year-old sailor. The letter coincided with the release of of the sailors and marines being seized by Iranian gunboats in the Gulf. In the video clips, gunshots are heard and a helicopter is shown hovering above inflatable boats in choppy seas. Vessels close in then the 15 captured Britons are shown seated in a gunboat. The arrest footage was preceded by a senior Iranian officer using maps to explain how the Britons had "crossed into Iranian territory". But the UK has maintained the crews were in and were wrongfully seized.
NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. soccer might be hoping for a surge in popularity with the arrival of English star David Beckham, but some fashion critics are also hoping he can teach U.S. sports stars a thing or two about clothes. "Hopefully it will inspire them to lift their game," said Adam Rapoport, style editor at men's fashion magazine GQ. "I think athletes respond to competition well. If someone's looking better than them they want to get on par with them." Beckham, 31, has signed a $250 million five-year deal to moved to the United States later this year and play for the Los Angeles Galaxy soccer team, but even before he has arrived he has graced the covers of U.S. fashion magazines. So is the U.S. sports scene in need of a style icon? "Desperately. And they're in need of a tailor," said Wendell Brown, senior fashion editor at Esquire magazine. "I hope Beckham has a major impact." Rapoport agreed, saying there had been a fashion void on the U.S. sports scene since the 2003 retirement of basketball star Michael Jordan, who is now one of the world's wealthiest former athletes with endorsement contracts and business interests. "I don't think anyone's stepped up to the plate since Jordan retired and I think they could use one. It's going to be interesting to see if Beckham can be that guy," he said. But Beckham's iconic style status doesn't appear to have U.S. sports stars shaking in their boots. "It's not going to put pressure on me. I'm not competing with him," Philadelphia Eagles football player Jevon Kearse said with a laugh, while attending the launch of Jared M, a clothing line designed especially for big, tall sports stars. But he did add that Beckham's popularity could pressure other athletes to lift their fashion game. Los Angeles Lakers basketball player Jim Jackson said that while he believed Beckham would likely have an impact on U.S. sports stars fashion, most National Basketball Association (NBA) players were already "dressing the part." "They made it mandatory for NBA players to dress up," Jackson said. "I think guys really accepted that and really took it as a challenge to step up their game." In October 2005 the NBA implemented a dress code for its players, requiring them to wear "business casual" when off the court and taking part in team or league activities. Sleeveless shirts, short, t-shirts, sunglasses indoors, headphones and chains and pendants over clothing were all banned. In defense of U.S. football and basketball stars, Esquire's Brown said that for many of them size impeded their style. "One of the things that nobody really mentions about David Beckham is that the clothing is so geared to his shape," Brown said. "He is the perfect size to wear Dolce and Gabbana and Versace and Prada and Gucci."
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Black WWII pilots honored by Congress By BEN EVANS, Associated Press Writer
AP Photo: President Bush, center, greets Tuskegee Airmen Lt. Col. Alexander Jefferson, left, during a ceremony in...
WASHINGTON - President Bush and Congress awarded the Tuskegee Airmen one of the nation's highest honors Thursday for fighting to defend their country even as they faced bigotry at home. "For all the unreturned salutes and unforgivable indignities ... I salute you for your service to the United States of America," Bush told the legendary black aviators, standing in salute as some 300 of them stood to return the gesture. At a ceremony in the sun-filled Capitol Rotunda, Bush then joined congressional leaders and other dignitaries in awarding the veterans — most of them in their 80s — the Congressional Gold Medal. "We are so overjoyed," said Ret. Capt. Roscoe Brown Jr., after he and five other airmen accepted the medal on behalf of the group. "We are so proud today, and I think America is proud today. " Nearly 1,000 fighter pilots trained as a segregated Army Air Corps unit at the Tuskegee, Ala., air base. President Franklin D. Roosevelt had overruled his top generals and ordered that such a program be created. Even after the black airmen were admitted, many commanders continued to believe they didn't have the intelligence, courage and patriotism to do what was being asked of them. Not allowed to practice or fight with their white counterparts, the Tuskegee Airmen distinguished themselves by painting the tails of their airplanes red, which led to them becoming known as the "Red Tails." Hundreds saw combat throughout Europe, the Mediterranean and North Africa, escorting bomber aircraft on missions and protecting them from the enemy. Dozens died in the fighting; others were held prisoners of war. "You caused America to look in the mirror of its soul and you showed America that there was nothing a black person couldn't do," said Colin Powell, a retired Army general and Bush's former secretary of state. Powell, who is black, thanked the airmen for paving the way for his career. Charles "A-Train" Dryden, 86, a retired lieutenant colonel from Atlanta, expressed mixed feelings that the honor came so long after the war and that many of his colleagues had died without knowing that Americans appreciated their service. Just a couple of days ago, he said, a fellow pilot was hospitalized in Atlanta and couldn't attend the ceremony. "So many of the guys have passed on," he said. Dryden recalled his pride in returning from Africa and Europe after serving in Tuskegee's original 99th Fighter Squadron, only to be stationed in Walterboro, S.C., where he saw German prisoners of war get privileges in theaters and cafeterias that were denied to black soldiers. "That was the low point of my career," said Dryden, who uses a wheelchair. Thursday's medal has helped convince him that the country recognizes the airmen's contributions."It's really something," he said at a breakfast before the ceremony.Congress has awarded gold medals to more than 300 individuals and groups since giving the first one to George Washington in 1776. Originally, they went only to military leaders, but Congress broadened the scope to include authors, entertainers, notables in science and medicine, athletes, humanitarians, public servants and foreign officials.The medal for the airmen, made possible through legislation by Rep. Charles Rangel (news, bio, voting record), D-N.Y., and Sen. Carl Levin (news, bio, voting record), D-Mich., and signed last year by Bush, will go to the
"It means a lot to a lot of people," said Ret. Maj. George M. Boyd, 80, of Wichita, Kan., a Tuskegee pilot and adjutant who served 28 years in the military, including in World War II, the Korean War and Vietnam. "There was so much resting on our success or failure."
Final touches put on Legoland Las Vegas By ALLISON HOFFMAN, Associated Press Writer Thu Mar 29, 12:48 AM ET CARLSBAD, Calif. - What happens in Legoland Las Vegas will stay in Legoland Las Vegas — if the designers have anything to say about it. With just hours to go before the official grand opening of a $1-million-plus scale model of the famed Las Vegas Strip, builders spent Wednesday snapping and glue-gunning the final few thousand bricks into place on replicas of 10 casinos — from the smooth black Luxor pyramid to the towering 20-foot Stratosphere, complete with a tiny working roller coaster shuttling green-faced passengers up and down the central spire. Piles of little 3- to 4-inch Lego figurines — including scantily clad women, men handing out girlie fliers and partygoers toting neon green hurricane drinks — were stacked in bins and on the roofs of the waist-high casino buildings awaiting placement. "We've got to get 2,000 little people in there this afternoon," design manager Pat DeMaria said as he surveyed the team of landscapers and engineers who were digging holes for tiny cacti and preparing to fill empty pools with water. After years of complaints about the Disneyfication of Las Vegas, the famed Strip is getting the theme park treatment from DeMaria's designers. The new, 2-million-brick model recreates a handful of landmarks in intricate detail, from the bas-relief carvings on the campanile of the Venetian to the chic Tangerine bar set into the facade of the newly remodeled Treasure Island hotel. The scale starts at 20-to-1 at the base, so the brick people don't seem dwarfed, and shrinks to 60-to-1 at the top, designers said. About the only thing missing is any hint of gambling. Fiber-optic light boards advertise the Mirage dolphins and fake cabaret shows — in some cases headlined by the Lego designers' alter egos — but the constant jangle of slots and video poker machines is absent from the set. Instead, there is a water-spitting Lego elephant, a two-track Lego monorail and automated Lego limousines that disappear into hotel-registration carports and then reappear on the other side. Kids can punch a button to see a parade of newlyweds come out of the Strip's infamous Little White Wedding Chapel — some in white gowns and tuxes, others in less formal nuptial garb. "We wanted to make it kid-friendly," said Kristi Klein, the lead designer. "So there are lots of interactive elements for them, like the exploding Mirage volcano and the Treasure Island pirate ship." Young Lego fans, drawn by the bright colors and all the moving parts, peered over yellow barricades that blocked off the new installation until its official opening Thursday. The Las Vegas Miniland was built by a team of 15 designers in Carlsbad and at Lego headquarters in Billund, Denmark, over three years. It is the biggest scale model in the Legoland park, located 40 miles north of downtown San Diego, though the model Chrysler Building on the shiny New York New York casino is dwarfed by the plastic version rising a few yards away in the Lego Manhattan area. "It's plastic replicas of fake copies of these great buildings," DeMaria said. "You have to take it a little tongue in cheek."
Millions Of Credit Card Details Stolen Hackers have stolen the bank card details of millions of British and American shoppers in what is thought to be the world's biggest credit card theft. The crooks stole 45.7 million credit and debit card numbers from the US and British-based computer systems of the American retailer that owns bargain chain TK Maxx.The data was accessed on TJX's systems in Watford, Herts, and Massachusetts over a 16-month period and covers transactions dating as far back as December 2002.The company said it did not know how many of the cardholders affected were shoppers at TK Maxx's 210 stores in Britain and Ireland, although more of them were likely to be American Some banks and card companies have already found what they consider to be "preliminary evidence" of possible fraud.TJX said the intruder first accessed its systems in July 2005 and on subsequent dates in 2005 and from mid-May last year to mid-January this year.No customer data was stolen after December 18 last year.The company has set up a UK helpline for concerned customers.A special section on its website dealing with the security breach advises customers to scrutinise their bank statements for evidence of fraud.Scotland Yard said it had been informed of the theft by the TJX but that any investigation would fall under the jurisdiction of Hertfordshire Police.The FBI, the US Secret Service and state law enforcement agencies are all investigating in America.Last week police charged six people in Florida with using credit card numbers that investigators believe were stolen from a TJX database to buy about £500,000 worth of electronics and jewellery with gift vouchers. Detectives have said they believe the Florida suspects were not the actual hackers but bought the card numbers from someone else.The company has issued a helpline to UK customers who fear they may have been caught up in the scam:
British officials are waiting to see if they will be given access to the 15 sailors and Marines being held in Iran.The county'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."
Ricky Gervais was subjected to a foul-mouthed tirade from TV presenter Richard Madeley last night, because he poked fun at the phone vote scam which has embroiled the chat show host's programme. The Extras star was accepting the British Book Award for Children's Book Of The Year for his cartoon Flanimals Of The Deep via satellite link, when ceremony host Madeley told the comedian to "f**k off" and branded him an "ungrateful f**king b**tard".In his acceptance speech, Gervais quipped, "This is voted for by the public, isn't it? Well, tell them to stop voting now 'cos otherwise it will be another phone con!"Talk show Richard + Judy, which Madeley presents with his wife JUDY FINNIGAN, was at the centre of a phone vote scandal earlier this year when it was revealed viewers had been encouraged to enter competitions after a winner had already been chosen.
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.
Matt Damon, Julia Stiles and Joan Allen are back for the third chapter of the Bourne series. The Bourne Ultimatum sees Jason Bourne desperately searching for the truth about his identity. More info…
WORLD EXCLUSIVE PREVIEW
It may not be out until 17th August but you can watch the world exclusive trailer here on Yahoo! Movies first.
Supermodel Naomi Campbell may have to scrub dirty toilets as part of her punishment for hitting her maid on the head with a mobile phone, it was revealed as she started her community service.
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."
Tube bosses have condemned a man who filmed himself skiing down the longest escalator of the London underground network.
The man posted on YouTube a 60-second video of himself zooming down the 200ft (60m) escalator at Angel station with a camera strapped to his head.
He can be seen climbing the escalator, putting the skis on and beginning his high-speed descent of the north London station.
But Tube bosses were unimpressed, saying: "This is a dangerous, stupid and irresponsible act that could have resulted in serious injury or death to not only the individual concerned but also other passengers.
"London Underground will press for the police to take the strongest possible action against anyone attempting a similar act on the tube network."
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.
Matt Damon, Julia Stiles and Joan Allen are back for the third chapter of the Bourne series. The Bourne Ultimatum sees Jason Bourne desperately searching for the truth about his identity. More info…
WORLD EXCLUSIVE PREVIEW
It may not be out until 17th August but you can watch the world exclusive trailer here on Yahoo! Movies first.
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.
It's a Bond-fest! Check out gorgeous Bond girls, watch clips from the new Casino Royale DVD and enter our competition to win a top-of-the-range Sony digital camcorder.
Sienna Miller recently denied her sex scene in Factory Girl with co-star Hayden Christensen was real. If you've seen the movie, let us know your views in our user rating section.
If you love movies, you'll love the birthday celebrations happening at Disneyland Paris this year. Find out more and go behind the scenes in our special clip.
Comedy genius Jerry Seinfeld brings his humour to this fabulous animated movie about a bee who decides to sue humans for eating honey! It's not out until December - get a sneak preview!
A Yahoo! User: This film is the best hirotical war film to come along in a long time it is definitley worth seeing for the effects and battle sequences if you love this genre or not! The conversion form comic to… read full review
A Yahoo! User: To say this is a fantastic film is an understatement.This film has some of the best visual scenes i have ever had the pleasure of viewing. Some of the best fight sequences are shot in a way that… read full review
A Yahoo! User: the 300 is the best film ever and it has the best fighting sequence the world has ever seen they have even got monsters on the persian side but the spartans fight much cooler than the the persians.read full review