Argentina goes to UN over Falklands oil training brawl

Argentina will go to the United Nations today to protest over British oil exploration near the Falkland Islands.

The country"s foreign minister is to meet UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today as tensions rose over the disputed territory.

Jorge Taiana will meet Mr Ban at 3.30pm New York time (8.30pm British time), the office of the spokesman for the Secretary-General said.

Dispute: Desire Petroleum began drilling for oil near the Falkland Islands on Monday

The Argentinian foreign minister requested the meeting.

Meanwhile Argentina"s president spoke out at a regional summit,reiterating the country"s sovereignty claim to the islands and blamingthe Foreign Office for adding to tensions.

The moves follow support from a summit of Central and South Americancountries over the rig"s work 60 miles north of the islands.

The 32-strong Rio Group agreed to support "the legitimate rights of the republic of Argentina in the sovereignty dispute with Great Britain".

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"Argentina is not alone": Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez delivered a stern warning to Britain at the Rio Group summit in Mexico

Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez later sent a direct message to Buckingham Palace.

In his weekly broadcast, he said: "Queen of England, I"m talkingto you. The time for empires is over, haven"t you noticed? Return theMalvinas to the Argentine people."

Referring to the Falklands war of 1982, when the islands wererecaptured after an Argentine invasion, he warned: "If conflict breaksout, be sure Argentina will not be alone like it was back then."

Cuban president Raul Castro also pledged support, saying: "Cuba has always backed Argentina"s justified claims to the Islas Malvinas.

Protest: Aregntinians have made clear their anger over the latest tensions in the Falklands

"Today we firmly support the legitimate rights of our sister nation over her natural resources."

The Falklands have no proven onshore reserves, but oil companiesbelieve there are offshore fields holding billions of recoverablebarrels of oil.

The Desire Petroleum company began exploratory drilling on Monday.

In London, Foreign Secretary David Miliband again rejected the Argentine claims, insisting: "British sovereignty in respect of the Falklands is absolutely clear in international law. There is no question about it.

"The exploration is also fully within international law."

Mr Miliband said Falkland islanders had the right to build their own economic future.

Craig Kieswetter blasts England to feat in Bangladesh with a heartless 143 off 123 balls

Craig Kieswetter cracked a boundary-strewn century to lead Englandto a 112-run victory over a Bangladesh Cricket Board XI in his firstappearance for his adopted country.

The Johannesburg-born opener was a last-minute addition to theone-day touring party after some eye-catching displays for the EnglandLions and announced his senior credentials in the most emphatic fashionwith 143 off 123 deliveries.

Take that: Craig Kieswetter hits out during his 143

The innings was not without its good fortune, containing as it didfour dropped catches and a botched stumping, but the natural timing heshowed as he hit six sixes and 14 fours is just what team director AndyFlower has been looking for at the head of the innings.

Vice-captain Paul Collingwood was also in top form, crashing acare-free 109 in 74 balls and hitting six maximums of his own asEngland wracked up a mammoth 370 for seven in 50 overs.

Kevin Pietersen fared less well, harshly judged lbw off his firstdelivery, while spinner Graeme Swann impressed with the ball as hepicked up four for 44 as the home side closed on 258 for nine.

Having set such a formidable target, England were never in any realtrouble, although Ajmal Shahzad can be pleased with the scalp of Testcap Shahriar Nafees in the fifth over of the reply.

Shahzad, who removed both Pakistan openers in the first over of hisEngland debut against Pakistan last week, clean bowled the home skipperfor eight.

Things did not improve for the BCB when Graeme Swann entered the attack and removed Mahmudul Hasan in his second over.

Hasan had made a sprightly 22 but fell to a diving Luke Wright catch as he went aerial once too often.

Nasiruddin Faroq dug in alongside Roqibul Hasan to take his sideinto three figures, before James Tredwell was given a first chance toimpress.

Ton-derful: Paul Collingwood smashed a 66-ball hundred

The off-spinner, picked ahead of the likes of Adil Rashid and Monty Panesar as Swann"s deputy, failed to catch the eye.

Instead, Swann changed ends and promptly had Faroq lbw for 37, leaving the home side on 107 for three.

New batsman Naeem Islam soon turned the heat on Tredwell as he smashed him for a big straight six.

Tredwell did enjoy a breakthrough when Roqibul completely misjudged a premeditated shot and perished for 41.

Naeem (40) was next to go, lbw to Swann, who also removed Ariful Hoq (22) after twice being lifted over the long-on ropes.

Wright took one wicket at the end, while Plunkett picked up two - including top-scorer Sharifullah - in the final over.

It was a pleasing outing for tour captain Alastair Cook, leading the side for the first time over 50 overs.

He had earlier shared a first-wicket partnership of 127 withKieswetter, working the bowlers around the wicket well to make 56 atbetter than a run a ball.

England were helped in their innings by some poor fielding,Bangladesh missing at least seven catches as well as two stumpings,with all-rounder Wright the beneficiary three times in a scratchy 25.

More...Craig Kieswetter slams 143 and Paul Collingwood hits century as England run riot in Bangladesh opener Pietersen gives England new boy Kieswetter the Boklash lowdownEngland"s Collingwood could miss Indian Premier League over terror fear England"s dream wrecked by Razzaq as veteran steals glory from KP

U.S. ITC to examine Apple censure contra Nokia

SAN FRANCISCO Mon Feb 22, 2010 11:21am EST Related News U.S. agency to probe Kodak claim against RIM, AppleWed, Feb 17 2010UPDATE 3-US agency to probe Kodak claim against RIM, AppleWed, Feb 17 2010Google, Apple pile pressure on phone worldSun, Feb 14 2010Nokia, Motorola win smartphone share; outlook weighsFri, Jan 29 2010Apple shares slide in wake of iPad launchThu, Jan 28 2010

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - The U.S. International Trade Commission said on Friday it has agreed to investigate Apple Inc"s patent infringement complaint against Nokia Oyj, as the legal battle between the two technology heavyweights continues to play out.

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The companies have been locked in a legal tussle since last October, when Nokia sued Apple and said the iPhone maker was using its patented technologies without paying for them.

Apple countersued Nokia, and both companies have turned to the ITC, filing complaints with the trade body.

Apple is asking the ITC to block Nokia from selling some mobile devices in the U.S. Apple contends the products infringe upon nine of its patents.

The case will be assigned to one of the ITC"s six administrative law judges, who will hold an hearing on the evidence. The trade body will set a target date for completing its probe with 45 days after beginning the investigation.

The ITC agreed last month to investigate Nokia"s complaint against Apple. Nokia alleges Apple infringed seven of its patents.

The legal dispute between Nokia and Apple potentially involves hundreds of millions of dollars in annual royalties.

Nokia is the world"s largest mobile phone maker but has had trouble in the fast-growing smartphone market. Apple entered the smartphone market in 2007 but has seen huge success with the iPhone.

(Reporting by Gabriel Madway, editing by Gerald E. McCormick)

Technology Media

Singing helps cadence victims to speak again

Doctors have restored the power of speech to stroke victims by teaching them to sing words and phrases.

The pioneering technique has been tested successfully on dozens of patients left unable to talk after suffering damage to the left side of their brain.

Singing can restore the power of speech to stroke victims, say doctors

Some of the stroke victims --previously unable to put two words together - can now give speeches in public, researchers say.

Dr Gottfried Schlaug said the technique could work for thousands and be taught at home

Dr Gottfried Schlaug, a neurologist at Beth Israel Deaconess MedicalCentre and Harvard Medical School, said the technique could work forthousands of patients and be taught in the home.

Around 150,000people have a stroke in Britain each year. The condition occurs when ablood clot or burst blood vessel starves part of the brain of oxygen.

Doctorshave known for a century that stroke victims who can"t speak cansometimes sing clearly. This is because the part of the brain thatdeals with language is separate from the region that processes music.

Thetechnique was developed in the 1970s, but then ignored, Dr Schlaug toldthe American Association for the Advancement of Science. "We have takenit another step by taking this therapy and really proving the efficacyof this," he said.

Oracle CEO confident on discerning Sun distinction intensity

Sat Feb 20, 2010 6:28pm EST Related News BMW Oracle sail away with 33rd America"s CupSun, Feb 14 2010U.S. challengers close in on America"s CupSat, Feb 13 2010Bad blood continues ahead of 33rd America"s CupSat, Feb 6 2010Oracle seeks fast profit from SunThu, Jan 28 2010Deals of the day -- mergers and acquisitionsThu, Jan 28 2010 Stocks & &

* The $7.5 bln Sun Microsystems takeover closed in January

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* CEO Ellison: no plans to retire to focus on America"s Cup

SAN FRANCISCO, Feb 20 (Reuters) - Oracle Corp (ORCL.O) ChiefExecutive Larry Ellison said on Saturday he expected SunMicrosystems, the unprofitable hardware maker that he bought lastmonth for $7.5 billion, to be making a profit soon.

Oracle executives have previously declined to say how longit would take for Sun to start turning a profit, although theyhave promised it would add $1.5 billion to operating profitwithin a year. The company had posted losses of more than $2billion in the two years prior to its sale.

But Ellison, asked by reporters how the Sun integration wasgoing on the sidelines of a news conference on Saturday in SanFrancisco, said: "I think it"s going really well and we expect tobe profitable right away."

Some analysts are skeptical that Ellison will be able toquickly turn around Sun, which never fully recovered from thebursting of the dot-com bubble in the early 2000s that savageddemand for its high-end computers.

He made the comments in his hometown after returning fromValencia, Spain, to show off the trophy he won for defeatingrival billionaire Ernesto Bertarelli in the America"s Cup sailingrace.

Ellison vowed to defend his title. But the 65-year-old, whofounded Oracle more than 30 years ago, also said he has nointention of retiring from his position at the helm of Oracleto focus on sailing.

"I love Oracle and I love sailing, and I think I can do both,"he said, after accepting a key to the city from San FranciscoMayor Gavin Newsom, who, like Ellison, wants to see the nextAmerica"s Cup race held in San Francisco Bay.

"It certainly makes commuting easier," joked Ellison, whoseRedwood City-based company is about 25 miles (40km) south of SanFrancisco. (Reporting by Braden Reddall in San Francisco and Jim Finkle inBoston; Editing by Bill Trott)

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Ferguson says Rooney needs predators instincts to compare former Manchester United legends

Sir Alex Ferguson has told Wayne Rooney he still has to develop the predatory instinct of some of Manchester Uniteds greatest goalscorers if he is to become the best player in the world.

United manager Ferguson has heaped praise on Rooney this season as the 24-year-old has taken on the mantle left by Cristiano Ronaldo to become the clubs most important player.

But even the 25 goals Rooney has scored so far have not been enough to earn the England striker unreserved adulation, with Ferguson insisting he must learn from Ruud van Nistelrooy, Andy Cole and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer if he is to become the perfect player.

Main man: Ferguson has been heaping praise on his top scorer this season

Ferguson said: ;Where I hope he improves is with his predatory instincts in the penalty box. Hes done great this year. But he has still got to get to the levels of Solskjaer and Cole and Van Nistelrooy. If he got to that level, hed be the best in the world.

;I think a lot about energy and how that should be channelled in the right way, and Wayne should be [playing] through the middle.

;Yes, sometimes he drops in there, its a natural thing at times. I dont have a problem with that but his great energies desire, purpose, courage all the great strikers, Denis Law, John Charles, had that courage to be in there, take the hits and score the goals .

;I know theres more to be developed, and I know he can do that.

Ferguson also reveals how Rooney had to be reminded of his talents to allow him to reach the heights he has scaled this season.

Perfect 10?: Ferguson says there is still room for improvement

;When Rooney first came to us he was the best Ive ever seen at turning round a defender and running at him, said Ferguson in an interview in yesterdays Observer.

;But there was a period, whether it was a transition, or whether he was trying to mentally change what type of player he was, when he stopped doing that. So we spoke to him and said, "Get back to turning on the defender". Its as if he has walked in another door.

Rooney was part of the United team who lost 3-1 at his old club Everton on Saturday. Everton boss David Moyes revealed last week that Rooney had called him to apologise for comments made in his autobiography and Ferguson believes this is a sign of growing maturity.

He added: ;His temperament has improved. Hes not rushing about doing silly things. Hes maturing well in that way and its great to see that. Hes a fantastic boy. Hed give you anything. Hed give you his last penny. Hes that type. Hes generous in everything.

;Hes a one-off in terms of the modern type of fragile player were getting today, cocooned by their agents, mothers and fathers, psychologists, welfare officers.

;Rooney is a cut to the old days. Hes a throwback. I dont think he has any inhibitions about that. He knows what he is.

Ferguson revealed Rooney likes to second-guess him over team selection. He said: ;Hes the best at asking, Whats the team? I say, Youre not playing. He says, Come on, give me your team. I say, No, I wont, Im still thinking about it. Then he says, Ill give you my team. Hes never far wrong. He knows the game.

United"s titanic league and cup battles with neighbours City have grabbed the nations attention this season. But Ferguson warns City that their wealthy owners will never be able to buy a spirit to match that of Old Trafford.

Role model: Ferguson wants Rooney to match van Nistelrooy"s predatory instincts

Ferguson said: ;This is a club with so much wealth they could buy every player in the world, but can they buy a team, can they buy a Manchester United spirit?

;I dont expect City to be bigger than us. I really dont. The problem with all that money is you buy indiscriminately. Sunderland in the 1950s. The Bank of England club. Relegated. I wouldnt wish relegation on City.

He may be determined that nothing gets in the way of Manchester Uniteds bid for a 19th title, but Ferguson admits publicity about the clubs 700million debt has unsettled people at Old Trafford.

Ferguson has never publicly criticised the clubs owners, the Glazer family, and he points to the 10million purchase of Fulham defender Chris Smalling as proof that he continues to be backed in the transfer market.

He said: ;Theyre difficult circumstances when I keep reading things about the debt. And the debt has concerned a lot of people.

David Gill [United chief executive] has had a lot of chats with the staff to reassure them everything is fine. As far as I am concerned, I bought Smalling for big money. So, for me, life goes on.

United fans ;Green and Gold protests, based on the colours of founder club Newton Heath, will be present again when West Ham visit Old Trafford in the Premier League tomorrow .

Ferguson said: ;Im never against protest. But my problem is Ive got owners who have never caused me any bother.

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Twitter dating for tech-savvy singles

Irene Kuan TORONTO Wed Feb 17, 2010 11:38am EST Related News Hopeful singles tweet their way to a Valentine"s dateFri, Feb 12 2010

TORONTO (Reuters) - For tech-savvy singles who are unlucky in love, shy or just looking for a new way to meet people, Flitter could be the answer.

Oddly Enough

Hundreds of singles attended the first Flitter parties across the Canada last week in the latest dating game which is a play on words of the microblogging site Twitter and flirting.

Each guest wore a white sticker with a number and gazed closely at their iPhones and Blackberrys in a dimly lit room in Toronto, their thumbs tapping away at their mobile devices on Twitter.

They were Flittering and trying to catch the attention of other tweeters who were flying solo on the eve of Valentine"s Day.

"#129, you"re so fine, but #152, you"re hot too. Man oh man, what will #72 do?" tweeted one guest as the comment showed up on a giant projector screen set up inside the venue.

Will Lam, a 27-year old banking professional and Twitter fanatic, attended the event because he was interested in seeing how Flitter worked.

"I was just wondering how they would leverage Twitter and facilitate interaction between people," said Lam, who found the tweeting to be awkward and distracting in his attempts to strike up conversations with women.

"I actually tweeted #19 was really cute, but I can"t even find her anymore," he said.

But Halley Trusler, a 23-year old event co-ordinator who recently moved to Toronto, found Flittering to be a great way to meet people.

"It allows people who are a little more shy to put themselves out there," she said.

Trusler received plenty of tweets offering to buy her drinks and revealed she may have someone in mind by the end of the night.

The tweeter can choose to sign off with his, or her, assigned number or send an anonymous message or compliment. The recipient can respond and meet the tweeter if interested, or just read the anonymous compliment and move on.

All senders must end the tweet with the word "Flitterme."

Justin Parfitt, founder and CEO of Fastlife, the Canadian-based dating service provider, originated Flitter singles events in Australia and introduced them to North America.

He thought there must be some way of getting people to interact using work devices, such as their Blackberrys or iPhones, to make people feel social as oppose to anti-social.

The Flitter parties, which were also held in Vancouver, Ottawa and Montreal, were advertised on the Internet.

(Reporting by Irene Kuan; Editing by Patricia Reaney)

Oddly Enough

EU CO down on softer appetite increasing assent supply

LONDON Fri Feb 19, 2010 10:06am EST Related News EU CO2 eases, ignores UN climate head departureThu, Feb 18 2010EU carbon prices slide under 13 eur/tWed, Feb 17 2010EU carbon at 8-day low on weak energy, bank sellingMon, Feb 15 2010EU carbon drops on weak energy, German GDP figuresFri, Feb 12 2010EU carbon steady as oil, stocks supportThu, Feb 11 2010

LONDON (Reuters) - European carbon emissions futures edged lower on Friday, as German power and gas prices softened and imminent new supply put pressure on prices., traders said.

EU Allowances for December delivery were down 11 cents or 0.85 percent at 12.85 euros ($17.42) a tonne at 0806 GMT, with light volume at 464 lots.

"Carbon seems to find support around the 12.85-12.95 level," an emissions trader said.

Open interest on the Dec-10 contract has been increasing since January. Wednesday"s total rose to 131.5 million, suggesting players were building medium to long-term positions.

Demand for EUAs has been low due to milder weather and more wind power supply for the next few days. 2010 EUAs will be distributed next week, which is also putting pressure on prices, traders said.

British gas prices eased on Thursday, despite ongoing high demand and tightening supply, as milder weather in continental Europe and warmer temperatures expected for Britain next week helped allay concerns about a strike at a liquefied natural gas (LNG) port.

German Calendar 2010 baseload power on the EEX was down 41 cents at 47.55 euros per megawatt hour.

U.N.-backed certified emissions reductions were slow to trade.

U.N. climate chief Yvo de Boer said on Thursday he will step down in July to join a consultancy group, saying a new

U.N. climate chief Yvo de Boer said on Thursday he will step down in July to join a consultancy group, saying a new era of diplomacy was starting after the Copenhagen summit fell short of agreeing a new treaty.

Me and my propagandize photo: Phyllida Law remembers her childhood as an evacuee

Actress Phyllida Law, 77, lives in London. She is the widow of Eric Thompson the creator of the famous children"s TV series, The Magic Roundabout. She has two daughters the actresses Emma and Sophie Thompson and three grandchildren.

This is me, aged seven, with my older brother, James, on our way, as evacuees, to our new school in Lenzie, Lanarkshire, in September 1939.

Strangely, we weren"t sent far from our Glasgow home. We were certainly near enough to be bombed. My father, William, a journalist, was in the RAF, and my mother, Meg, worked in a dress shop in Glasgow during the war. They eventually separated.

After nursery school I only remember the climbing frame I went to Glasgow Girls High, a large, daunting school, until I was seven. I didn"t enjoy it much, but being evacuated was different. I missed my mother terribly, but it was exciting.

Phyllida Law aged seven, with her older brother James in September 1939

School was a Victorian villa, where ten children studied in the dining room. I was not liked because I was an evacuee, so the elastic under my hat was always twanged, and it hurt.

My brother was miserable and ran away. He went home and was allowed to stay, but I was more fortunate. The family I stayed with were friends of my mother. I called them Aunt Avril and Uncle Douglas.

Douglas was a cartoonist on a Scottish newspaper. We had to keep quiet when whoever wrote the words rang him at lunchtime, and then he did the drawing. I was happy there, up to a point, but I was still seen as an evacuee.

I caught fleas in their house, but no one was to mention it because that would just add to my reputation as a dirty little person from Glasgow. I discovered how to catch those fleas. You whipped off the bedclothes and rushed at the sheets with a damp bar of soap.

I always slept through the air raids, so I was never dressed in time to run to the end of the garden and hide in the Anderson shelter. We had to put on huge leather army coats, left over from World War I.

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Every time you breathed, they creaked so loudly we couldn"t hear the all-clear, so you had to hold your breath and count to ten. One day, flames were seen skimming over the top of the fells.

A neighbour ran over to tell us about it. We later learned it was Rudolf Hess, who had flown to Scotland to see the Duke of Hamilton to try to negotiate peace. He"d made a crash landing, which he survived, and was arrested by a farmer with a pitch fork.

Three years later, I was moved on to a slightly more sophisticated school. I was sent down the Clyde again, not such a safe haven. You could see the grey destroyers going up and down the river.

Phyllida Law: "Acting was a happy mistake - like most of my life"

There were eight of us in the classroom, and I was the only boarder. The school was very progressive.

The idea was to tailor each student"s program to his needs, abilities and interests, so you could do almost as you pleased. No school bells rang.

There was a supervisor to tick off your finished work for the day but, otherwise, you"d go to a shelf, pick out the appropriate assignment and study in your own time. It taught you to concentrate and take responsibility.

At 13 I passed an entrance exam for Badminton School in Bristol, and off I went as a boarder.

Some of the pupils had been prisoners of war and had numbers tattooed on their arms and there were Indians and Nigerians.

In fact, Indira Gandhi had been to that school. I thought Miss Sanderson, who taught Classics, was very fine.

She gave fascinating talks, which I listened to carefully, even though I had a secret pet mouse that used to run up around inside my jumper.

Despite the mouse, I was hideously well behaved. I did, however, get into trouble when I gave a nightclub performance in the dormitory after lights out, using soot from the fire and paint for make-up.

I wore my bathing costume and a bath mat, and sang a jaunty song about cocaine, which some frightful cousin had taught me. I had no idea what I was saying, but I liked the tune.

We also had a terrible time when we were discovered with a midnight feast and had to eat it all at breakfast. Cruel. I was determined to study medicine and save the human race.

Why? Well, at 13, I"d decided that I had VD. You were constantly warned it could be caught from lavatory seats, and there were huge posters about it in every public loo. I was sure I"d slowly go mad. I left the school at 17 with all the right qualifications to study medicine, but I was still too young.

I was offered the option of taking a year off or going to university to read French and Literature. I tried to become an au pair in France and Italy, but no one would employ me, so I took the place at university.

I was miserable, so I left, and eventually auditioned for the Bristol Old Vic. I had a mild flair for drawing and, having realised I might not have VD, I now hoped to be a stage designer. But technical students had to spend a year on the acting course first. I got in and then got a scholarship, so I stayed on for the full two years.

Acting was a happy mistake like most of my life, really. One of my first jobs, after leaving college, was at The Old Vic in the French farce, The Italian Straw Hat, for which we had to learn the can-can.

Because of the dance, the show was discussed in Parliament one MP thought the play was scandalous and should be banned. We found that rather fun.

Notes To My Mother-In-Law by Phyllida Law (Fourth Estate, 12.99) is out now.

A Kentucky Derby debate of the Churchill Downs and a ambience of scotch at Buffalo Trace

We were leaning on the fence rail looking at a frisky yearling on its way to the auction ring. Around us in the sunshine were groups of well-groomed locals, milling tourists, families on a day out. Beyond the immaculate fenced yard, acres and acres of prime groomed pasture and paddocks stretched away into the distance.

"Nice-looking horse," I said to my neighbour speculatively (not, in truth, knowing whether it was bound for Derby-winning immortality or dog food).

He turned to me and in what I thought was a broad local accent, said: "Where you from?" "Oxford, England," I replied. "I came over from Hartlepool in the Sixties, nice to meetcha," he said.

Fillies on show: The Kentucky Derby on May 1 is the highlight of Churchill Downs

Welcome to Kentucky - state motto Unbridled Spirit, which pretty well covers twin obsessions - from the hills and mines in the east to the world-beating caves in the west: horses and bourbon.

For visitors who think the U.S. is made up of New York, Florida and California, a few days among the grounded, charming, normal folk of mid-America is a must. And for fans of nags and whiskey(Americans add an "e"), this is the place.

The horsey obsession reaches its zenith with the world-famous Kentucky Derby, to be held this year on May 1, when more than 150,000 cheering, mint julep-fuelled punters gather at the Churchill Downs racecourse in Louisville to cheer on the 20 finest two-year-olds in the world Churchill Downs is in the suburbs of Louisville.

Its famous twin towers were once surrounded by fields, but are now hemmed in by houses on all sides.

Best in show: The Louisville suburbs host 150,000 people once a year for the Derby

I joined an out-of-season tour one crisp early morning. Over the dirt track, thousands of dollars of horseflesh were being trotted and galloped back and forth by jockeys who work every day of the year.

The expert insight into what the horses were doing as they careered round was fascinating - "You see! The jockey is changing the leg as he passes the corner, there. . . there!"

I learnt more in an hour than I have learned in a lifetime of watching Grand Nationals.

But, apart from the Derby Museum, Churchill Downs is rather charmless when the crowds aren"t thronging.

For a better sense of what horses mean to Kentucky, I took the Old Frankfort Pike towards Lexington, and ended up at the Keeneland race track. Past immaculate fields and wealthy farmsteads, I arrived at this very conservative, low-rise, beautifully laid out and landscaped horsey mecca.

This is the site of the world"s most expensive animal sales. In the auction rooms to the rear, the annual yearling sales are conducted in something akin to a courtroom, to the incomprehensible high-speed jabbering soundtrack of the auctioneer. The big money simply flies in to the airfield across the road and takes its prizes home.

And so to the whiskey, which is always in season. On my first night, I joined a tour at Buffalo Trace - the oldest continuously operating distillery in Kentucky. Even Prohibition could not stop Buffalo Trace: whiskey was manufactured for medicinal purposes only.

From the outside, Buffalo Trace is a forbidding-looking complex of large warehouses, of the sort that might have hosted a shoot-out in The Untouchables. The smell is extraordinary: yeasty and intoxicating.

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A tour begins with an inspection of the enormous vats, where mashed corn is added to water and boiled, from where it is pumped to more vast vats and added to the yeasty starter. It is then left to bubble into alcohol. That liquid is pumped into a vast heated stainless-steel still stretching up to the high warehouse ceiling and the clear alcohol drawn off into barrels.

This is where the most mystical interactions occur. Bourbon barrels must be new white oak, which have been charred on the inside to open them up to the liquor and to impart their flavours - from vanilla and cinnamon to perfume.

Louisville, sitting on the Ohio River, is the former industrial and trading hub of the state. The city"s most famous son is Muhammad Ali and the centrepiece of the developing museum district is the new Muhammad Ali Center.

This traces the great boxer"s life, from humble beginnings to Olympic Gold Medal, conversion to Islam, refusing the draft, world championships and superstardom, superbly laid out over five floors of interactive, video and photo displays - including a mock-up of a Louisville cafe in the Sixties, where you experience first-hand the racist reception the all-conquering Clay received on his return home.

Pride of Kentucky: Boxing legend Muhammad Ali hails from Louisville

I asked the local tourist office for something completely different. They sent me an hour-and-a-half from Louisville to the Mammoth Cave National Park, the world"s largest underground complex, which stretches for more than 300 miles.

"It"s like the Grand Canyon with a roof on," as director of interpretation services, Mike Adams, put it, leading me down.

Along the broad avenues of the first silent caverns run networks of hollow wooden pipes. These were used to mine saltpetre for gunpowder in the War Of Independence, when the British blockade made supplies impossible. Fascinating stuff.

That evening it was back to the hard stuff. The quaint little town of Bardstown runs the bourbon festival for a week every September, featuring country music, historical tours, ballooning and an awful lot of whiskey and paraphernalia.

The finale is a gala dinner in a large warehouse nearby, with the chance to sample unlimited quantities from eight distilleries.

From spicy Wild Turkey Rye, to silky smooth Woodridge - the official bourbon of the Derby - surrounded by black-tied aficionados and ladies with the state"s red rose emblem "tatooed" on their shoulders, this gets you closer to that "unbridled spirit" than anything else possibly could.

Travel Facts

America As You Like It (020 8742 8299, www.americaasyoulikeit.com) offers a seven-night Kentucky Traditions itinerary, inc visits to Lexington, Louisville and the chance to visit the Bourbon Trail from 715pp inc flights, accommodation and car hire. Muhammad Ali Center: 6 pp to book www.alicenter.org or call 001 502 584 9254. For further details on Kentucky visit www.kentuckytourism.com.

Telecoms aristocrat Carlos Slim Helu is worlds richest man

Alexandra Frean, US Business Correspondent & , : {}

The Mexican telecoms lord Carlos Slim Helú has been declared the worlds richest man, with a net value of $53.5 billion (36 billion), the initial time since 1994 that the No 1 mark has been hold by a non-US citizen.

The annual billionaires list published by Forbes repository shows that the series of billionaires increasing from 793 to 1,011.

Recovering monetary markets and line and clever mercantile expansion from a little Asian-Pacific and Latin American economies helped to enlarge the common resources of the worlds richest by $2.4 trillion to $3.6 trillion.

This functions out at $3.5 billion each, up from $3 billion last year.

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Mr Slim combined $18.5 billion to his net worth. He kick Bill Gates by $500 million, even though the Microsoft authority increasing his happening by $13 billion to $53 billion.

It is the initial time since 1995 that Mr Gates has not surfaced the list.

He would be value scarcely $80 billion had he not since billions to gift by the Bill Melinda Gates Foundation.

Mr Slims climb is piece of a ubiquitous change of resources afar from the United States.

Although the US still dominates the list with 403 billionaires, they have up 40 per cent, opposite 45 per cent last year.

The Asia-Pacific segment cumulative an 80 per cent benefit in the series of billionaires, bringing the total for the segment to 234.

Of the 97 billionaires creation their debut, 62 are from Asia. Mainland China has the majority billionaires outward the US with 64.

What is distinguished is that Middle East is heading the comeback, pronounced Steve Forbes, the magazines arch senior manager and editor-in-chief.

Lakshmi Mittal, of India, moves 3 places to No 5 as his net value rose by $19.3 billion to $28.7 billion.

The Brazilian iron ore aristocrat Eike Batista done the greatest gains, from $19.5 billion to $27 billion.

Bernard Arnault, head of the oppulance products association LVMH, is Europes richest person, at No 7. His happening rose $11 billion to $27.5 billion.

Britain has twenty-nine billionaires on the list, 4 some-more than last year.

The Duke of Westminster is the highest-placed Briton, with a net value of $12 billion, up $1 billion. He is 45th on the full list.

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Charming and chilling: Osama bin Ladens bodyguard

Victoria Clark & , : {}

"More tea? The man kindly refilling my crater is Nasir al-Bahri, Osama bin Ladens former arch bodyguard, the chairman the worlds majority longed for militant entrusted with the ethereal tasks of procuring him a Yemeni fourth mother and sharpened him if he was ever in risk of being prisoner alive.

His demeanour is gentle and lively, detailed with expressive palm gestures and flashes of a gorgeous smile. Charming, amiable and ready to go in a creatively pulpy shirt, costly watch and thoughtfully patterned futa (sarong), al-Bahri is far private from any Western thought of a aroused jihadist. I can usually pretence that he has seen the blunder of his ways and entirely reinvented himself.

At the Sanaa home of a mutual acquaintance, in a room lined in the gentle Middle Eastern approach with floorlevel cushioned seating, we have been whiling afar an afternoon in accessible review about his life. The actuality that I am an titular Yemeni by trait of carrying been innate in 1961 in Aden right away Yemens second city but afterwards still a British cluster has helped the conversation.

A southern Yemeni himself, al-Bahri has referred to that he was additionally innate in a unfamiliar pier city, in Jedda, where both his father and his grandfather worked as mechanics for the bin Laden building a total company. I have detected that he left Saudi Arabia in 1990, at the age of 18, after conference Osama bin Laden preach, to quarrel jihad opposite the Russians in Afghanistan. In Bosnia, where we both outlayed time in the early 1990s he as a jihadist, me as a contributor al-Bahri was concerned in checking the eremite motivations of jihadist recruits to the Bosnian Muslim cause. He assimilated bin Laden in Kandahar in 1996 but was out of Afghanistan by Oct 2000, carrying depressed out with a little of his companions when he was arrested and locked up in Sanaa following the conflict on the USS Cole in Aden. A goldmine of report for on vacation US interrogators stuffing in the credentials to the 9/11 plot, he was expelled after similar to bear a march of eremite re-education and creation a guarantee to God that he would do zero to repairs President Salehs Government. Since 2002 his activities have enclosed begetting 4 of his five children, taxi-driving, 3 meetings with the President and courses in marketing, sales and the select quasi-science of neuro-linguistic programming.

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Now this man who once begged bin Ladens accede to take piece in a putting to death operation has an sparkling commercial operation thought to share with me. News has reached him that President Obama will destroy to keep his guarantee to close down the barbarous Guantánamo Bay jail stay for suspected jihadists by Jan 2010. Without organization guarantees that the superfluous 215 or so detainees will be jailed or closely supervised once behind home guarantees that Yemen, over 90 of whose adults have up the largest inhabitant organization in the camp, has shown itself unqualified of on condition that America deems the risk concerned in emptying the stay as well great.

Obamas maze has got al-Bahri thinking: if Americas President cannot certitude President Saleh to keep Yemeni detainees out of jihad trouble, since should not he commission him, Nasir al-Bahri, to settle and run a secure reconstruction and re-education centre for them? Who improved than an ex-jihadist right away versed with his neuro-linguistic powers of notice to assimilate and assistance alternative jihadists? If the review had finished there, I competence have been swayed of the viability of such a plan. But it did not, and what al-Bahri went on to contend referred to that, friendly and enterprising as he was, he was not a man the United States could do counter-terrorism commercial operation with.

My doubts did not aspect immediately, since al-Bahri was positively not alone in notice that Yemen was moulding up in to a second Afghanistan, a opening that al-Qaeda would have no difficulty exploiting and filling. But I began to notice the joviality with that he was laying out a wider vision, of a Saudi Arabia trapped in a antagonistic pincer transformation in between an Iraq in that jihadists had filled the opening left by vacating US infantry and a not prolonged ago combined Islamist state of Yemen, with Somalia opposite the Red Sea going the same way. Then itll be youre possibly with us or opposite us, similar to Bush said, he declared, his eyes splendid with enthusiasm. You see, via the Islamic universe al-Qaeda is the usually organization with a awake programme for the future. We instruct the total Muslim universe to be joined and on a standard with the West and China and India!

Wait a minute, Nasir, I interrupted, astonished. How can you be meditative of re-educating jihadists for the Americans? Why arent you still with bin Laden in Waziristan, or wherever he is?

You are right to ask that question! I openly confess that I am weak, he said, fixation a palm over his heart to emphasize his sincerity. I do instruct right away that I had never left Afghanistan, that I was still with my sheikh.

So you were in foster of your sheikhs attacks on America?

Yes, he replied, charity me the batch rationale, since it was time for Western societies to ambience a little of the sourness that the Muslim universe is tasting. But we are opposite the governments, not the people.

What about all those trusting people dropping out of the identical tiwn towers?

Westerners are free to reinstate their governments when they dont similar to what they do, he countered. I goal that one day I will be means to lapse to jihad but if I dont, I goal that my son will quarrel jihad.

Is he display any seductiveness yet? No, he laughed, hes usually 11. Right now, he wants to be a mechanic. Enlightening as it had been, my afternoon with al-Bahri left me confused and uneasy. Clearly conjunction ridiculous nor naïve, he was forcing me to dual conclusions: first, that being an ex-jihadist was not the same as being a reformed jihadist, and second, that enthusiastically embracing Western commercial operation practices and forgetful of a stipulate with the US Government was no healthy separator to committing divinely authorised atrocities opposite the same US Government and the American people. Not for the initial time, I had been reminded of how Yemen manages to plea and hasten the judicious progressions and tidy narratives that Westerners cite to understanding in.

The stipulations this critical inequality imposes on an outsiders capability to assimilate the republic and the people might in piece insist since Yemen is conjunction as scrutinised nor as accepted as beside Saudi Arabia and the alternative Gulf states. Security concerns might be an additional contributing factor. Currently rated by Western governments as as well dangerous for any one but necessary commercial operation there to visit, the lowest and majority genealogical state on the Arabian Peninsula is awash with weaponry, corruptly governed and racked by dual done at home insurgencies, one of them spilling over in to Saudi Arabia. For so prolonged quickly discharged in group headlines reports as Osama bin Ladens genealogical homeland, Yemen was autocratic some-more of the worlds courtesy by the commencement of 2010 than ever before.

On Yuletide Day 2009, a would-be self-murder bomber attempted but unsuccessful to move down a moody from Amsterdam over Detroit. The tract was traced behind to Yemen, where, according to the suspect, he had been lerned and armed with the device he attempted to set off on house the plane. Now second usually to Pakistan and Afghanistan in the commercial operation of breeding, precision and sheltering terrorists, Yemen is eventually seen as presenting a critical hazard to tellurian security. Much has been created and pronounced about how the United States await for Israel and greeting to 9/11 have acted as recruiting sergeants for the movement; most less about the grant done to the widespread of jihadism by conditions in the heartlands. The subject of how or if such a republic or, for that make a difference Pakistan, Afghanistan or Somalia can be governed as a complicated republic state has a consequential temperament on the rulers capability to fight jihadism.

If, as President Saleh likes to protest to unfamiliar journalists, statute Yemen is as ethereal and dangerous as dancing on the heads of snakes, the implications for the West are serious. Yemens utility as an fan of the West in the tellurian debate opposite aroused jihad is firm to be really limited. But President Saleh might, as most Yemenis believe, simply be perplexing to change the censure for his own failings as a personality on to them.

The story of Yemens last half-millennium can be quickly epitomised as a array of unsuccessful attempts on the piece of outward powers to surrogate Yemenis audacious genealogical structures and values with those of initial Ottoman and British imperialism, afterwards Nasserite Arab patriotism and Soviet-style Marxism. Although the finish of the Cold War enabled Yemenis to combine their fragmented fortunes in a singular state at last, the over-hasty partnership concluded by Sanaa and Aden in 1990 had led to a short, pointy polite fight by 1994.

Six years after the contingency on the Republic of Yemen successful were being drastically extended again by the widespread of jihadism. The multiple of Yemens deepening misery and the night before of President Salehs thirty years of order are fuelling a renouned restlessness that is personification true in to the hands of a combined and abounding informal organization that has done the home bottom in Yemen al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.

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Sainsbury beats 50% taxation rate

Kate Walsh & , : {}

J SAINSBURY will accelerate reward payments for all staff in a move that equates to staff receiving home some-more than 150,000 will equivocate profitable the 50% taxation rate that comes in on Apr 6.

This will dramatically urge the compensate packets of the supermarkets 1,200 tip earners, together with Justin King, the arch executive, who was paid some-more than 2m in pay, grant and bonuses last year. Now staff will compensate the stream rate of 40%.

Changing the timing of payments breaks no manners but is expected to exasperate those in the promissory note zone who were warned opposite perplexing to equivocate profitable the asset taxation levied on their bonuses for last year.

A orator insisted the shift was not related to the new taxation rate but was a hearing to cut the time staff waited for bonuses after the bondage year-end, that falls on Saturday.

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It is fairer for the suit of reward awards formed on Sainsburys opening to be paid, and taxed, in suitability with rates that practical opposite the year they were earned, the orator said.

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Kidnapped boys father has returned to UK

Times Online & , : {}

The father of a five-year-old British kid hold serf in Pakistan has returned to the UK, sources pronounced yesterday.

Sahil Saeed, from Oldham in Greater Manchester, was grabbed by gun and grenade-wielding raiders from his grandmothers residence in Punjab a week ago. His father, Raja Naqqash Saeed, was with him on the outing and had remained in the nation among efforts to rescue the boy.

Police appeared to be no closer to anticipating Sahil as Mr Saeed arrived behind in Britain. But the BBC reported that military in Pakistan had longed for Mr Saeed to stay in the nation as a witness.

Sources at Manchester Airport pronounced that Mr Saeed arrived behind in the UK on a moody from Islamabad at 6.30pm on Tuesday.

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A crony of the family pronounced her hermit was on the same moody as Mr Saeed. Speaking outward the family house, she said: The family know nothing. They are only in there praying for the boy. They are you do 125,000 request cycles and they are 3,000 in.

The raiders struck as Sahil and his father were scheming to fly home, violation in to the family home in Jhelum and subjecting the family to a six-hour ordeal. Money and trinket were stolen, and five-year-old Sahil was abducted for ransom.

The Pakistani Prime Minister, Yousuf Raza Gilani, called Sahils father at the week finish to assure him the family had the full await of his Government.

On Sunday the boys mother, Akila Naqqash, done a approach interest to the abductors from the family home in Oldham to finish their distress and let her son go.

In a summary to the kidnappers, Ms Naqqash, 31, said: I only wish my son back. All is forgiven, I will pardon you. You might have young kids yourself. I pardon you.

Sources close to the family in Shaw, Oldham, pronounced they were unknowingly that Mr Saeed had returned to the UK or because he would select to do so as the track to find his son continues in Pakistan.

The family has been in unchanging hit with Sahils father given the boys disappearance. The stream locale of Mr Saeed were unknown.

A Foreign and Commonwealth Office orator said: We go on to yield consular benefit to the family.

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10 ways to mark a pretended restaurant

Tony Turnbull & , : {}

You have to feel for Ryan Simpson, until this week head cook at The Goose, in Britwell Salome, Oxfordshire. He slaves afar to win a Michelin star and inside of the month is out of a pursuit since the beer hall owners thinks his food is as well poncey and wants to go behind to basics.

I have never been to The Goose, so cant contend whos right and whos wrong (even if I did similar to the receptive to advice of Simpsons roasted timber seagul and carpaccio of Chiltern Hills muntjac) but if it was usually half full on a Saturday night, as the owners claims, it contingency have been similar to a morgue on a Tuesday, and no series of Michelin stars can sort that out. Clearly something was wrong, and the easiest thing to censure is regularly the food.

There is zero wrong with whim in progress or, indeed, grave have use of if that is what commercial operation want. The complaint comes when a restaurants aspiration is hopelessly at contingency with reality, when both front of residence and the kitchen tumble behind on a quiescent idea of what excellent dining should be in alternative words, they review to ponciness. Watch out for the revealing signs:

The nod Hospitality should be the slogan of any great restaurant, and this is their possibility to put you at your ease. That doesnt engage creation you mount there similar to an haven seeker whilst they check if your name is in truth on their reservations list. Would it harm to take you at your word? Beware additionally the pompous, Would sir caring to have a splash in the living room club first?

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Its ostensible to receptive to advice all frolicsome and loose and modest but the usually a obvious try to pin you with a club bill.

Atmosphere Decor-wise there are no tough rules. Heston Blumenthals Fat Duck in Bray has 3 Michelin stars but it still looks to me similar to a provincial pasta corner (in a great way, Heston, in a great way). Equally, I have had riotously great evenings among the Art Deco elegance of The Berkeley. What you are seeking for some-more than looks is noise. There is zero some-more spreading than overpower in a dining room, and zero kills an ambience similar to it. You wish to be surrounded by a low hum of fad and anticipation.

Dress formula Well, there usually shouldnt be one, should there? I mean, if I ask you spin to my house, I goal you wouldnt representation up in your PJs but Im not going to spin you afar if you do. You usually might not be invited back. Dress codes should be self-regulated by mankinds enterprise to heed and if someone does skirt inappropriately it will give us all something to speak about, that can usually be a great thing (see above).

Menu It used to be that the certain indicator of due was a menu created in French, but not even French places do that any more. The complicated clich is that peculiar, no-nonsense, Ur-British shorthand so renouned now: Rabbit, peas, artichoke, or Black pudding, scallop, bacon. Mind you, at slightest these get it right in tying the image to 3 main flavours. Any some-more and, unless you are in the hands of a majority clever chef, you are in for a disappointment. Too most chefs think that spending 3 months washing pots at Claridges creates them the new Gordon Ramsay. It doesnt.

Presentation This is the difficulty in that a restaurants ponciness can go off the scale. Dribbles of this, towers of that a small chefs think that each image contingency be a teenager work of art. While I determine that we eat initial with the eyes, lets not lose steer of what is unequivocally critical here: the taste. The some-more artfully tweaked a dish, the longer it has outlayed underneath the feverishness flare and the some-more closely the cook has breathed over your plate. And, as the customer, Im usually going to disaster it up anyway, and feel a distressing klutz.

Service Staff in scrupulously intelligent restaurants do the unclothed minimum. They take your order, they move food to your table, they take afar the dull plates. Please note, they do not ceaselessly refill your booze glass; keep asking if all is all right; point to your image with their small finger and discuss it you that the salmon is the salmon and the shellfish veloute is the shellfish veloute (I know, I systematic the damn thing). They additionally grin occasionally.

Tableware I have spin plates and bowls at home. I have use of them for all sorts of things: soup, pasta, fish, meat, puddings. Curiously, I dont have octagonal plates, I dont have block plates, I dont have crescent-shaped bowls or huge-rimmed bowls similar to the sombreros of Mexican midgets. Come to think of it, I dont know how I manage.

Freebies At a small places you design a couple of inter-course freebies. Its all piece of the multi-starred experience and creates the 300 check usually a little bit simpler to swallow. But, lets be honest, they are never a deal-breaker and no volume of truffled cauliflower cappuccino is going to have up for a common meal. Unless they are honestly innovative, they are usually a pretended affectation.

Loos In the really smartest restaurants a waiter will chaperon you to the loo. This is hardly sufferable in The Ritz; in a obtuse investiture it is definitely freaky, but it doesnt stop them perplexing occasionally. Leave us alone. And whilst were at it, dont be coy: Ladies and Gents causes so most less annoyance than a design of a peacock and a hen.

The farewell Curiously, the some-more up itself the restaurant, the worse they are at observant goodbye. The maître d who so studiously abandoned you on attainment will still have his nose in the reservations book, you do his really critical business. Every dish should begin and finish with a smile. Is that as well most to ask?

Leading Tories perspective comparison military as small some-more than new Labour stooges

Sean O"Neill & , : {}

In the 1980s the military were met with the sneer at Maggie Thatchers foot boys when their ranks were deployed to raid the rivalry within.

The Thatcher Government laid on an overtime excavation during the miners set upon from that thousands of Metropolitan Police officers did unequivocally nicely. The military were seen as complicated handed in the policing of anti-government protests, from CND marches and anti-apartheid vigils right up to the pitched battles of the 1990 check taxation riots.

Baroness Thatcher is still something of a brave woman for majority officers; she was lauded as the guest of honour last Dec at the annual cooking for late Met detectives. But her party, the normal hold up of law and order, has depressed out of love with the Police Service.

Today majority heading Tories perspective the military and generally the arch military officer cadre as small some-more than new Labour stooges. It is right away slight for Conservative spokesmen to rail opposite the prolongation of peremptory military powers, protest about the prolongation of the DNA database or closed-circuit radio cameras, and to direct larger domestic carry out over forces.

Pinpointing just when and where things changed is difficult. The foxhunting proof in 2004, when military wielded batons opposite a rebel throng in Parliament Square, antagonised majority normal Tory supporters. But at domestic care level, things unequivocally changed at the commencement of 2005 when Sir Ian Blair became the Metropolitan Police Commissioner.

Sir Ian, who was caricatured as being some-more meddlesome in minority rights than slicing crime, was customarily referred to as new Labours prime cop.

Controversy stalked Sir Ian, but maybe the majority poignant domestic assign came when he actively concerned comparison officers in lobbying Parliament for increasing militant apprehension powers to catch suspects but assign for 90 days. His preference dragged the military in to the domestic discuss and caused a large backlash.

Three years later, when Boris Johnson, the Conservative Mayor of London, suspended Sir Ian as Met Commissioner in a domestic coup, the policing universe was shocked. Sir Norman Bettison, arch of military in West Yorkshire, pronounced that the sacking was a proof of domestic will and Sir Ken Jones, afterwards boss of the Association of Chief Police Officers, warned that the move had essentially changed the notice of policing independence.

The Tories were delighted, however. Mr Johnson had got absolved of the PC-PC in a wilful step that met with mostly enlightened open reaction. Everything augured well for the Conservative process of entrusting military burden to inaugurated internal people.

On Sir Ians last day at Scotland Yard, however, the attribute took an additional turn when counter-terrorism officers arrested the Tory frontbencher Damian Green during an review in to the leaking of Home Office secrets.

The exploration was subsequently forsaken and no charges brought, but arresting, fingerprinting and DNA-testing a probable destiny apportion over the leaking of papers to newspapers shop-worn an already formidable relationship.

Repair work is underneath way. In London, the tensions in between Scotland Yard and the Mayors bureau have abated and late last week Chris Grayling, the Shadow Home Secretary, met Sir Hugh Orde, the boss of ACPO, for the initial time in multiform months. But absolute people at Tory debate domicile sojourn dynamic to plunge into the issue of military reform.

Senior military military officer calls for village use to reinstate short prison sentences

Charlene Sweeney & , : {}

One of Scotlands majority comparison military officers has called for a larger have use of of village use orders as an pick to short-term jail sentences.

Detective Chief Superintendent John Carnochan, head of the Violence Reduction Unit, the inhabitant anti-violence military initiative, pronounced that short sentences contributed to the shake of offenders who were locked up repeatedly.

Before dismissing [this approach] give it the wholehearted await that we give to putting people in jail, Mr Carnochan said. It cant be any worse.

Mr Carnochan is the ultimate comparison military officer to await village sentencing, that the SNP favours in place of jail conditions of 6 months or less.

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This week David Strang, arch deputy at Lothian and Borders Police, called for progressing involvement to forestall crime, and for the tougher enforecement of village sentences.

Mr Carnochan pronounced that he was entirely in await of Mr Strang. We need to be meditative about some-more suitable interventions at those teachable moments when they can have a difference, he said.

He referred to that village use orders had unsuccessful to remonstrate critics since they had not been monitored adequately. Breaches, he said, should be punished with an evident send to jail. There needs to be effect and I dont think there has been, he said.

Its about how we manipulate people and the comparative measure of supervision. If you get 3 guys portrayal a blockade they get picked up at 8am, they get a half-hour mangle and at the finish of the day they are taken away. If they are not there the subsequent day, they go behind to court. Its not the soft option." Mr Carnochan pronounced that appropriation would be indispensable to urge supervision, but he claimed that it would assistance to instil certainty in the system.

Kenny MacAskill, the Scottish Justice Secretary, believes that short-term sentences do not movement as a halt to offenders. Labour and the Conservatives, though, have refused to behind the Criminal Justice Bill, that intends to proviso out jail sentences of less than 6 months.

The Labour probity spokesman, Richard Baker, said: Labour is in foster of village use where it is appropriate, but it needs to be scrupulously resourced and movement contingency be taken to revoke the high series of village use orders that are breached.

"We dont await the SNPs process of scrapping jail sentences of less than 6 months since it will meant that muggers, residence breakers, blade criminals and even sex offenders will evasion jail.

John Lamont, the Conservative village reserve spokesman, said: Prison numbers will usually be scrupulously cut when crime is cut. David Strangs comments currently will be seen by the SNP and Lib Dems as a possibility to call upon again their dangerous plans of abolishing jail sentences of 6 months or less. This would simply be a immature light for a total host of criminals to lift on offending.

The Liberal Democrat probity orator Robert Brown said: The answer to rebellious reoffending is to residence what causes people to dedicate crime in the initial place. That is because the Liberal Democrats wish to see really short-term jail sentences transposed with difficult new village sentences. Instead of carrying a behest fight as to who can close up the majority offenders, the Tories and Labour should attend to this expert.

Alistair Darling clashes with City over resting proceed to Budget

Suzy Jagger, Politics and Business Correspondent & , : {}

Alistair Darling is at loggerheads with commercial operation leaders since of his viewed resting proceed to the last Budget prior to the election.

The Treasury has affianced to separate Britains 178 billion necessity by 2014, but the CBI pronounced that the Chancellor had unsuccessful to yield enough item about a convincing amends schedule.

Mr Darling insisted yesterday that he would not be pushed in to accelerating the rate and scale of his plans when he delivers the Budget, entrance on Mar 24.

The Institute of Directors additionally called for evident spending cuts to revoke the deficit, but the Chancellor pronounced that to go serve and faster in jeopardy to repairs the amicable fabric and the economy.

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The Budget will not embody minute allocations for Whitehall departments for the years ahead, though Mr Darling pronounced that the Government longed for to strengthen health and education.

Richard Lambert, the Director-General of the CBI, told The Times that commercial operation and collateral markets longed for a shorter time support and some-more item about how Labour would revoke Britains borrowing. We need justification of how we get there, he said. The plans are as well leisurely.

Miles Templeman, Director-General of the Institute of Directors, said: We are assured that we need quick movement to plunge in to the Budget deficit. This equates to creation poignant spending cuts in 2010. The evidence that early cuts would imperil the liberation is mistaken. We hold that reduce spending is approaching to trigger a array of certain developments that will support growth.

The separate in between the commercial operation chiefs and the Chancellor represents a progress for George Osborne who has prolonged argued that necessity rebate should begin this year.

Paying off Britains overdraft and the cost-cutting measures compulsory to account the move have turn a key issue in the entrance ubiquitous election, entrance to be hold on May 6.

Last month the Shadow Chancellor said: A convincing plan is not unequivocally convincing unless youre rebuilt to have a begin on it this year. Yesterday Mr Osborne said: This is a really poignant impulse in the choosing debate. The voices of British commercial operation are right away observant what we Conservatives have been saying: progressing movement on the necessity is a key to securing the recovery.

There is an rising accord that Gordon Browns mercantile proceed is simply not credible. By melancholy the credit rating and higher seductiveness rates, it is melancholy jobs and prosperity.

The City and corporate Britain are increasingly shaken after argent fell to a ten-month low last week, among fears that Britain could lose the Triple A credit rating. The 3 main rating agencies Fitch, Standard Poors and Moodys have in outcome betrothed to hold off any preference until after the election. But they have warned that but a possibly and minute plan they would hillside the rating, forcing up the cost of borrowing.That would meant the Government would have to find some-more income to use the inhabitant debt. A climb in seductiveness rates would additionally affect homeowners with non-static debt deals.

Mr Darling denied that the tumble in the bruise was triggered by a check ten days ago that lifted the probability of a hung Parliament. He said: If you see at what is function in the markets at the moment, they are febrile. Its not surprising. The world, us included, is entrance by one of the deepest downturns weve seen. Everybody knows that we need to get the borrowing down.

We will do it. Make no disbelief about it, we are positively committed to you do that since the piece and parcel of creation certain that we can get a secure future.

Mr Darlings perspective was upheld by the British Chambers of Commerce, that argued that serious spending cuts carried a high risk of pulling the economy behind in to a recession.

Fun and games as web giants fool around catch-up Rob Fahey

Rob Fahey & , : {}

Today, tens of millions of people around the universe will log in to Facebook and engage themselves in the trivia of stand revolution and animal husbandry. They are all personification Farmville, a cute, charming diversion where players take on the purpose of a rancher a diversion whose unusual success is forcing experts to rethink the destiny of the internet and amicable media.

Farmville is a sincerely harmless concept, one that draws heavily on the normal universe of house games for inspiration. Given the charge of caring for and expanding their land and livestock, players have a sure series of movement points each day, that they can outlay on given the farm. They can even traffic with neighbours Facebook friends who additionally fool around the game.

The romantic, sanitised version of plantation hold up that it presents full of friendly, lovable animals and but a sniff of fertiliser in the air spurs a nurturing instinct in players that keeps them entrance at the back of day after day.

The numbers at the back of this elementary judgment are jaw-dropping. More than 80 million people fool around each month roughly thirty million logging in each day to check the standing of their practical allotment. It is free to play, but consumers can outlay genuine income on practical products to make use of on their farms.

Combined with promotion income together with a small argumentative income from promotion deals, that users protest are small some-more than selling scams this creates Farmville in to a blurb operation value hundreds of millions of dollars.

For years, games have lain on the periphery of the internet. Playing games online has been renouned in in between immature men for some-more than a decade but this was never seen as a blurb wake up that could have a poignant stroke on services such as Facebook or MySpace, let alone Google or Apple.

The success of Farmville, to that some-more than a entertain of Facebook users have sealed up, hurdles that assumption. Furthermore, it is heading a new call of online games that are rewriting the majority simple ideas about what videogames are, and who plays them.

The majority unusual statistic to arise from the investigate in to this fast-growing materialisation is the form of the normal player of amicable videogames namely, 43 years old and female. Young men hardly get a see in some-more than 60 per cent of people personification amicable games on Facebook are elderly in in between thirty and 60.

What has captivated this startling new assembly to videogames? In part, the the theme make a difference of the games themselves that ranges from Farmvilles concentration on nurturing and flourishing to the addictive puzzles of games such as Bejeweled. Equally critical is the amicable aspect of Facebook. No longer is personification games a unique office instead, the something you do with friends, severe them to kick your scores or collaborating to assistance each alternative out.

Half of those who fool around amicable games such as Farmville explain that they revisit Facebook each day privately to play. Suddenly, Facebook isnt only a apparatus for staying in hold with friends the additionally a height for games and entertainment. While Facebooks owners are positively gay at the success of Farmville, there contingency additionally be a clarity of unease. After all, with a diversion this successful right away on condition that so majority of Facebooks traffic, to what extent, exactly, are Farmvilles creators, Zynga, gratified to Facebook and clamp versa?

Its a view that resonates opposite the industry. Apple, for years a videogames refusenik whose Mac computers supposing small await for diversion developers, was forced to publicly welcome gaming last year as it became transparent that amicable videogames were by far the majority commercially successful products on the iPhones App Store. Microsoft and Sony, meanwhile, have had a feet in the doorway of the videogames marketplace for years.

This is the new bridgehead in the fight for hearts, minds and wallets being fought in in between the worlds record giants. The millions of acres of practical land being ploughed by Farmvilles players each day are respirating new hold up in to an old proverb where theres muck, theres money.

Premier League relegation: who will follow Portsmouth in to the Championship?

By Steve Wilson 224PM GMT twenty-four March 2010

Anxiety government Iain Dowie, Brian Laws and Gianfranco Zola are feeling the aria of a relegation dog quarrel Photo PA/ACTION IMAGES

Hull City P thirty PTS twenty-four GD -35Remaining fixtures Fulham (H), Stoke (A), Burnley (H), Birmingham (A), Aston Villa (H), Sunderland (H), Wigan (A), Liverpool (H)

On the up or going down? Five defeats on the rebound together with a loss to Portsmouth tells the own tale. Memories of last seasons last day shun will give them goal but the actuality they are right afar managed by Iain Dowie, who was on the losing finish of that Houdini action as a manager at Newcastle, might exam their faith. Winnable home games opposite Fulham, Burnley and Sunderland will need to be exploited as will a potentially wilful outing to Wigan on the penultimate day of the season.

Premier League fixtures Zola West Ham fans should collect on me not players West Ham 1 Wolves 3 Carlton Cole clashes with fan Premier League list Wolves beat West Ham

Hopes That one of West Ham, Wigan and Wolves will fool around the Newcastle United purpose from last season.

Fears That nothing of West Ham, Wigan and Wolves will fool around the Newcastle United purpose from last season.

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Burnley P 31 PTS twenty-four GD -33Remaining fixtures Blackburn (H), Man City (H), Hull City (A), Sunderland (A), Liverpool (H), Birmingham (A), Tottenham (H)

On the up or going down? Under Owen Coyle Turf Moor saw heady victories over Manchester United and Everton and points taken from Aston Villa and Man City. But those days appear a long, prolonged time ago. The extraordinary preference to put Brian Laws in assign looks similar to a large mistake. Defeats to Wigan and Wolves in new weeks feel similar to surrender. A home win over hated rivals Blackburn could speak up appetite in to the presence bid; defeat, however, would all but kill it.

Hopes Somewhere in in between slim and none.

Fears They wouldnt be behind again for a small time.

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West Ham United P 31 PTS twenty-seven GD -16Remaining fixtures Stoke (H), Everton (A), Sunderland (H), Liverpool (A), Wigan (H), Fulham (A), Man City (H)

On the up or going down? Not fit to wear the shirt, according to the nervous locals, during a mauling by Wolves that leaves certainty in between the West Ham patrol at a belly-of-a-snake low. On their day West Ham are a really decent group but such days have been integrate of and far in in between lately. Five true defeats though that enclosed Manchester United, Arsenal and Chelsea sees Gianfranco Zolas men in a nearby deadly decrease and the tie list stays unkind.

Hopes Robert Green and Carlton Cole find their England form again and fast and the locals get behind, rather than on the backs of, the team.

Fears A truth geared towards personification flitting football is not concordant with a relegation dog fight.

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Wigan Athletic P 31 PTS 31 GD -30Remaining fixtures Man City (A), Fulham (A), Portsmouth (H), Arsenal (H), West Ham (A), Hull City (H), Chelsea (A)

On the up or going down? Depends that Wigan we are articulate about. The side that did for Chelsea and Liverpool or the one that lost 4-0 to Bolton and Portsmouth and suffered that mauling at Tottenham. Two wins from their games opposite Portsmouth, West Ham and Hull should see them safe.

Hopes They have sufficient essential element about them to win a integrate of games even after they humour an unavoidable battering or dual along the way.

Fears Needing something from the last day of the deteriorate and a outing to Stamford Bridge.

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Wolves P 31 PTS 31 GD -22Remaining fixtures Everton (H), Arsenal (A), Stoke (H), Fulham (A), Blackburn (H), Portsmouth (A), Sunderland (H)

Looking up or down? If one group in the relegation brew is creation a plain box for presence it is Wolves. Seven goals and 7 points from their last 3 afar matches suggests bold health. The movement is with Mick McCarthys side and, the subsequent dual fixtures notwithstanding, a comparatively soft run-in awaits.

Hopes They have timed their scurry to the finish to perfection.

Fears Four of their last 7 games are at Molineux where they cant measure for toffee.

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Bolton P 31 PTS 32 GD -20Remaining fixtures Man United (H), Aston Villa (H), Chelsea (A), Stoke (A), Portsmouth (H), Tottenham (A), Birmingham (H)

Looking up or down? On the face of it Bolton have small to be concerned about 14th, eight points transparent of the dump zone, anticipating their form underneath Owen Coyle but a nasty seeking run-in equates to they are not protected only yet. Three uncommonly losable fixtures are up subsequent and disaster to take limit points from matches with Stoke and Portsmouth would siphon them right behind in to it.

Hopes They can scrape sufficient points in Apr to keep their heads on top of water.

Fears Complacency that the pursuit has already been done.

Vatican accepts abdication of Irish Catholic bishop John Magee World headlines

Bishop John Magee give up the day-to-day using of parishes opposite farming Cork in Mar last year. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images

The Vatican has supposed the abdication of an Irish bishop who was once the personal cabinet member to 3 popes, it was voiced today.

The papacy pronounced Bishop John Magee was stepping down over his mishandling of allegations of ecclesiastic sex abuse in his Irish diocese.

Although Magee give up the day-to-day using of parishes opposite farming Cork last March, it has taken the Vatican bureaucracy a year to rigourously endorse his resignation.

The cleric, creatively from Northern Ireland, faced sardonic critique after the church"s watchdog found he had taken minimal movement over accusations opposite dual of his priests.

He served as personal partner to Pope Paul VI, Pope John Paul I and Pope John Paul II in Rome.

There have been most calls for Magee"s abdication given the inform in to the Cloyne parish progressing this year.

The proclamation of his central abdication was done in matter expelled by the Irish Catholic Bishops" conference.

"His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI has supposed the abdication of the Most Reverend John Magee, Bishop of Cloyne," it read.

In a summary released from the Cloyne diocesan centre, Magee welcomed the acceptance of his resignation.

He lengthened his "sincere apologies" to any chairman who was abused by "any priest" during his time as bishop "or at any time".

"To those whom I have unsuccessful in any way, or by any repudiation of cave have done suffer, I desire redemption and pardon," his matter said.

"As I pronounced on Yuletide Eve 2008 after the announcement inform of the National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church in Ireland, I take full shortcoming for the critique of the government of issues contained in that report."

Magee pronounced he would go on to be accessible to the Irish government"s commission of review in to kid insurance procedures in the parish "at any time".

He combined that he "sincerely hopes" the work and the commentary of the commission "will be of a little assistance towards healing for those who have been abused".

In January, the Archbishop of Dublin, Diarmuid Martin, welcomed Father Michael Mernagh, one of Magee"s strongest critics, to Dublin"s Pro Cathedral. The call in was seen as a impugn to the former pope secretary.

Israel and Britain: when friends tumble out

By Stephen Pollard 753AM GMT twenty-four March 2010

Comments twenty-two |

One of the feign British passports that caused the difference in in in in in in between Britain and Israel

Yesterday afternoon, David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, was due to be guest of honour to one side the Chief Rabbi, Lord Sacks, at the reopening after refurbishment of the Israeli Embassy.

But he had another, some-more pressing, rendezvous that prevented his attendance, and that was rather less renouned with the Israeli supervision his make a difference in the House of Commons. Confirming the "compelling evidence" of Israeli shame in cloning UK passports, he told MPs that an Israeli shrewd person had been expelled.

US starts new Middle East assent descent Palestinians contend allotment bargain would be unsuitable Israel to set up some-more homes notwithstanding seductiveness by Barack Obama Israel to suggest proxy allotment freeze Israels Lieberman rejects US calls for allotment freeze

So in one sense, Anglo-Israeli family are in truth "in crisis", as is being at large reported. You do not ban a deputy of one of your country"s warmest allies but an unusual reason, and but causing at the really slightest a serious cooling off. Indeed, it would have been inconceivable for the UK Government not to conflict when presented with justification by the Serious Organised Crime Agency of Israel"s culpability.

But yesterday"s events are not the full story. What looks on one turn to be a tactful predicament is, in the bigger context of what is function in the Middle East at the moment, a bagatelle a square of tactful pro forma poise that amounts to small some-more than a slapped wrist. Ron Prosor, the Israeli ambassador, stays in situ. An official, wholly expendable, has been sent home. And that"s it.

The genuine story is not about who cloned passports, but since Israel indispensable them in the initial place. The idea that Israel is singly guilty the usually nation that uses disguise and subterraneous activities to urge itself from apprehension is risible. Is there any one in the know who could say with a true face the line that the UK"s comprehension and counterclaim services have never cloned a pass or stolen an temperament as piece of their clandestine operations?

So when Israeli politicians take to the UK airwaves to credit us of hypocrisy, as they did yesterday, they are simply saying a fact.

Indeed, it is mocking that the UK Government has right away diminished a shrewd person from one of the key allies in the quarrel opposite terror, but lets Islamist hatred preachers sojourn in the UK and pull the benefits that concede them to work to grasp their goals at the taxpayers" expense.

But some-more than any of this, the tenderness of the Israeli greeting to the UK"s outrage, however feigned, is that their conflict opposite apprehension is a quarrel for their country"s really survival. Israel faces existential troops and apprehension threats from each corner, possibly it is from Hamas and Hizbollah, a newly armed forces sounding Syria or the greatest hazard of all Iran, that not usually reserve Hamas and Hizbollah with their weapons but additionally instructs them in their operations and which, of course, is right away fast coming chief capability.

Israel is intent in the front line of the conflict that we are fighting plainly in Iraq and Afghanistan but clandestine elsewhere. And we are closely associated with Israel in that fight. Colonel Richard Kemp, the former commander in chief of British forces in Afghanistan, has suggested that the Israeli Defence Forces gave the British Army, underneath his command, useful recommendation in traffic with self-murder bombers, shaped on years of Israeli experience. That recommendation shaped the basement of the central British Army discipline right away used by soldiers in Afghanistan.

Yesterday"s tactful kerfuffle will have no stroke on this sort of on-the-ground co-operation, that is long-standing, critical and based, as are the infancy permanent alliances, on mutual self-interest.

But the story is really opposite when it comes to governing body and the associate, diplomacy. If there is no love lost in in in in in in between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Gordon Brown dual men of some-more sundry temperaments or domestic views it could not be harder to find afterwards the attribute in in in in in in between Mr Netanyahu and President Obama is, as the together predicament over building a whole a whole work in East Jerusalem shows, one of not even suppressed mutual loathing.

Mr Netanyahu, who lived for a little time as a kid in the US, and complicated as a postgraduate at MIT and Harvard, has prolonged prided himself on his good dialog with Americans and bargain of US politics. Much good it seems to have finished him. It unsuccessful him in his initial tenure as Prime Minister, when President Clinton took an present be vexed to him. And he appears to have had no instinct at all for President Obama"s approach, that has been to viewpoint Israel as the stumbling retard to assent and action accordingly, fixation all final for gestures of good conviction on Israel such as the 10-month building a whole freeze on settlements, to that Mr Netanyahu in the future concluded and no final on the Palestinians.

The genuine problems in in in in in in between Israel and the US began last June, 6 months in to President Obama"s term, when he gave a debate in Cairo that had the solitary design of courtship the Muslim world. That was fine; a US that is not despised competence be no bad thing. But he done no try possibly before, to one side or after the debate to encourage Israelis that he did not courtesy them and their nation as the problem.

Israeli governing body is as far from unvaried as it is probable to imagine. Its pristine PR complement equates to that roughly each strand of opinion, however small, is represented in the Knesset, the Israeli Parliament. Indeed, keeping border parties on house coalitions is one of the main tasks of a budding minister, and that can be a big complaint when it comes to receiving wilful stairs in any direction. But on a little issues there is a extended mass of support. One is the need for a two-state solution, with a Palestinian Authority sitting in assent to one side Israel. In a new poll, 78 per cent of Israelis pronounced a two-state resolution is possibly "essential", "desirable", "acceptable" or "tolerable". Only twenty-one per cent called it "unacceptable".

In alternative words, the good infancy of Israelis await what the President is perplexing to achieve. But 75 per cent of Israeli Jews hold his poise toward Israel is unjustified. Why the disconnect? Because instead of receiving any caring from the opening to insist the administration"s on all sides and plans to the Israeli public, to attend to their concerns, and afterwards to try to work with them, they have simply abandoned the Israeli perspective. The outcome is that when President Obama speaks, he is seen not as a crony of Israel perplexing to poke the nation towards serve concessions, but as an rivalry who has no seductiveness in genuine Israeli concerns.

So instead of Israelis gravitating towards a personality who shares not usually their own prophesy of dual states but additionally the administration"s coercion such as Tzipi Livni, the Kadima personality and former unfamiliar minister, or her celebration opposition Shaul Mofaz, the former counterclaim apportion they give ever larger await to Mr Netanyahu. A check last week found that 71 per cent of Israeli Jews hold that Mr Netanyahu"s warding off to sequence a freeze in building a whole in East Jerusalem shows that he is a clever leader. And Kadima"s await falls by the day.

Indeed, even if Mr Netanyahu longed for to have the box to Israelis for a freeze on building a whole a whole in East Jerusalem that is regarded by roughly all Israelis as piece of Israel itself, rather than as a allotment on assigned land he could not, since the President has queered that pitch.

The predicament in family in in in in in in between the UK and Israel, in alternative words, is not of fast interest, let alone impact. It will shortly be forgotten, in piece since the UK is usually a bit-part player in the Middle East. It is a opposite make a difference in in in in in in between the US and Israel.

And that predicament is not about assassinations in Dubai or pass cloning, but the really piece of statehood and security. The fright is that both the US and Israel are right away led by men whose utterance is suited usually by their hyperbole, conjunction of whom appear able of traffic with the needs of the region.