Leveson Inquiry: Media vilified me, Christopher Jefferies says

The landlord wrongly arrested over Joanna Yeates's murder has told the inquiry into media ethics that the media had "shamelessly vilified" him.

Christopher Jefferies' statement to the Leveson Inquiry told of a "frenzied campaign to blacken his character".
He said the tabloid press had decided he was guilty of the murder, which happened in Bristol in December 2010.
Some headlines over which Mr Jefferies successfully sued included "The Strange Mr Jefferies: Creepy".
In other evidence on Monday, ex-Army intelligence officer Ian Hurst told the inquiry his emails had been illegally accessed by a private investigator working for the News of the World (NoW).
Earlier, Robert Jay QC read a statement by Mr Jefferies to the inquiry, which is being held at the Royal Courts of Justice in London.
"The national media shamelessly vilified me. The UK press set about what can only be described as a witch hunt," it said.
"It was clear that the tabloid press had decided that I was guilty of Miss Yeates's murder and seemed determined to persuade the public of my guilt.
"They embarked on a frenzied campaign to blacken my character by publishing a series of very serious allegations about me which were completely untrue.
"Allegations which were a mixture of smear, innuendo and complete fiction."
Former teacher Mr Jefferies described how his reputation was left in tatters after police wrongly arrested him over the murder of landscape architect Miss Yeates.

Dutch engineer Vincent Tabak was convicted of her murder last month.

Miss Yeates, 25, was strangled in her Clifton flat by Tabak, her 33-year-old neighbour, Bristol Crown Court heard.
Her body was found at the roadside on Christmas Day, eight days after she had been reported missing.
Mr Jefferies said he had been "besieged" by the press after his release and had stayed with friends as he had been "very strongly advised" not to go out.
"If it had been apparent where I was staying, those friends would have been besieged by reporters and photographers," he said.
He said he had been "effectively under house arrest" for a period as if he was a "recusant priest at the time of the Reformation going from safe house to safe house".
He also said it had been suggested there was some sort of sexual motive for the murder of Miss Yeates and that he was gay.
'House arrest' "That created a bit of a problem as far as that line goes," he explained.
"There was another suggestion that I was a bisexual. The press were trying to have it every possible way."
The inquiry heard about a Daily Mirror article headlined "Jo Suspect Is Peeping Tom" and another asking "Was Jo's body hidden next to her flat?".

Ian Hurst secretly filmed the private investigator he claims illegally accessed emails on his computer

Mr Jefferies said the coverage had been "as sensational, as exploitative, as titillating to appeal in every possible way to people's voyeuristic instincts".
Later, former Army intelligence officer Ian Hurst discussed a BBC Panorama programme in which he was shown emails he alleges were hacked from his computer on behalf of the News of the World.
He was told that the paper had employed a private detective, who in turn employed a "specialist hacker" who had worked with Mr Hurst in the intelligence services for three years.
Mr Hurst said his computer had been hacked by a "Trojan horse" - a programme in which harmful code is contained inside apparently harmless data and allows a third party access to email exchanges.
Documents seized in 2007 by the police show the security on his computer had been compromised, but the Metropolitan Police did not tell M Hurst until October 2011.
Mr Hurst said Mr X, who was secretly film by the former intelligence officer, told him he had been targeted because of his work in Northern Ireland.
Blogger summoned Meanwhile, Lord Justice Leveson has summoned political blogger Paul Staines to appear before the inquiry.
Mr Staines, who runs the Order-Order political website under the name Guido Fawkes, supposedly published confidential evidence online.
It included a link to papers submitted to lawyers by former Downing Street communications chief Alastair Campbell. Mr Staines claims to have obtained the papers legally.
Mr Staines is due to give evidence to the inquiry later this week over the documents he published relating to Mr Campbell.
Singer Charlotte Church has started to give evidence and is likely to describe how a NoW story about her father having an affair almost led to her mother's suicide.
The inquiry has already heard that Ms Church has experienced journalists installing secret cameras in bushes and photographers trying to take pictures up her skirt.
Prime Minister David Cameron set up the Leveson Inquiry in July after it emerged that the NoW had hacked murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler's phone after she had disappeared. The paper was shut down within weeks.

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Ken Russell, Women In Love director, dies at 84

Film director Ken Russell, who was Oscar-nominated for his 1969 film Women In Love, has died at the age of 84.

His son, Alex Verney-Elliott, said he died in hospital on Sunday following a series of strokes.
During his career, he became known for his controversial films including Women In Love, which featured Oliver Reed and Alan Bates wrestling nude.
He also directed the infamous religious drama The Devils and The Who's rock opera, Tommy, in 1975.
"My father died peacefully, he died with a smile on his face," Mr Verney-Elliott said.

Russell's widow, Elize, said she was "devastated" by her husband's death, which had been "completely unexpected".

She said the director had recently agreed to direct a musical feature film of Alice In Wonderland and had been working on the script and casting.
"He also had just completed an article for The Times on a review of the re-release of his film The Devils, so he was keeping himself very busy," she added.
Glenda Jackson, who gave an Oscar-winning performance in Women In Love and starred in a number of Russell's other films including Music Lovers, told the BBC it was "just wonderful to work with him and to work with him as often as I did".
"He created the kind of climate in which actors could do their job and I loved him dearly."
Jackson added that she believed the director had been overlooked by the British film industry, saying it was "a great shame".
"It was almost as if he never existed - I find it utterly scandalous for someone who was so innovative and a film director of international stature," she said.
'Creative force' Joely Richardson, who starred opposite Sean Bean in Russell's 1993 BBC TV series Lady Chatterley, said: "I will forever feel privileged and honoured to have worked with the great Ken Russell.
"More than that, I was extremely fond of the man himself."
Film-maker Michael Winner hailed Russell's "duplicity of mind", adding he had made an "enormous contribution" to British cinema.
"He pushed the barriers completely and got away with it sometimes and didn't others, but he made some startling movies," said.
"He had an eye for the composition of each image on the screen - a great eye for imagery and then, of course, he had a great idea for the grotesque."

Film-maker Michael Winner pays tribute to the director Ken Russell

Lord Melvyn Bragg, who first worked as Russell's assistant in 1963 on BBC programme Monitor, said he was "an exceptional man".
"He was a glorious director at his best, his best films will be remembered. He was a tremendous ornament to the rather supine British film industry and he was the glory of the television arts industry," he said.
Friend and cultural commentator Norman Lebrecht said: "Among many achievements that spring to mind, he made British cinema less insular and self-referential.
"He was also a leading creative force in the history of British television. He will be widely mourned."
Russell later returned to more small budget, but no less flamboyant fare, including Crimes of Passion, Gothic, Salome's Last Dance and the cult horror-comedy The Lair of the White Worm, starring Hugh Grant.
The director also made an adaptation of DH Lawrence's The Rainbow followed by the gritty film, Whore, and even tried his hand at music videos, making Nikita for Sir Elton John.
Many of Russell's later films were dismissed as too eclectic and by the 1990s he found it almost impossible to get funding for his work.
He returned to the public eye in 2007, when he appeared on Celebrity Big Brother.
He lasted just four days before quitting the show after a disagreement with fellow contestant, the late Jade Goody.

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DR Congo votes amid delays and violence

Voters in DR Congo are choosing their leaders in elections marred by violence and logistical difficulties.

At least four people have died after gunmen attacked polling stations in the second city, Lubumbashi, officials say.
Voting has been delayed in some areas because of a lack of ballot papers in polls contested by President Joseph Kabila and 10 other candidates.
It is the second election since the end of successive wars which left some four million people dead.
At least three people were killed on Saturday in election clashes, leading to a police ban on final campaign rallies in this mineral-rich country, which is two-thirds the size of Western Europe.
Ahead of the vote, international organisations appealed for calm.
Etienne Tshisekedi, 78, seen as the strongest opposition candidate, has accused President Kabila, 40, of planning to rig the election.
Some 22,000 UN peacekeepers are stationed around the country and are expected to help prevent any outbreaks of violence.
Helicopter deliveries Election officials have been scrambling to get ballot papers distributed to all 60,000 of the polling stations in this vast country which has very little transport infrastructure.

In many inaccessible areas, voting material was delivered by helicopter.

Despite calls for the election to be delayed to give time to improve the preparations, election officials said on Sunday that everything was 99% ready.
Polling stations opened at 0600 local time. Because of the time difference in this continent-sized country, this was 0400 GMT in eastern areas and an hour later in the west.
The BBC's Mamadou Moussa Ba in the south-eastern mining capital of Lubumbashi says gunmen - suspected to belong to a secessionist movement - attacked two polling stations in the city.
But the AFP news agency quotes a military spokesman as saying that two policeman and a civilian were killed and two soldiers wounded.
"The two police were killed at point blank range and a female voter was hit by a deadly stray bullet," the spokesman is quoted as saying.
He also said that some attackers had been killed.
"I can't say how many, we are collecting the bodies."
The governor of the local Katanga province, Moise Katumbi, told Reuters news agency that three attackers had been killed and seven arrested.
Two vehicles carrying election materials were also attacked overnight just outside Lubumbashi, our reporter says.
The attackers wounded one driver and a security officer and set voting material on fire, election officials said.
Our reporter says there are lengthy delays at some polling stations, which had failed to open six hours after voting was due to start, although polling began on time in other areas.
'Serious impediment' The BBC's Christophe Pons in Kinshasa says all the voting material is in place at the polling stations he has visited and the election is proceeding smoothly although not many voters are braving the heavy rains.

However, the AP news agency reports that voting has been delayed due to a lack of ink in some areas, while some voters have told the BBC they have been unable to cast their ballots - either because they cannot find their names on the electoral register, or because someone had already voted in their place.

As well as the 11 presidential candidates, more than 18,000 are vying for seats in the 500-member parliament.
In some areas, the ballot paper runs to several pages and resembles a newspaper because there are so many parliamentary candidates.
This is likely to cause some confusion in a country where one-third of adults cannot read or write.
Following Saturday's violence, police blocked Mr Tshisekedi at Kinshasa airport for seven hours on Sunday to prevent him going ahead with a rally.
The European Union observer mission criticised both the police and the various candidates over the pre-election violence.
Delaying Mr Tshisekedi from leaving the airport had been "a serious impediment" to his right to campaign, the mission said.
The United Nations too, criticised the security forces.
"The security forces should refrain from any acts that could heighten tensions and create any difficulties on the eve of elections," Reuters news agency quoted Mounoubai Madnodje, spokesman for the UN peacekeeping mission in DR Congo, as saying.
The last election, in 2006, was marred by weeks of street battles led by supporters of the losing candidate, Jean-Pierre Bemba.
A former rebel leader, he is now on trial at the International Criminal Court in The Hague.
BBC East Africa correspondent Will Ross says that whether it is peaceful or not this time will depend to a great extent on the behaviour of the candidates and whether the losers are willing to accept defeat.

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The former Penn State coach at the centre of a child abuse investigation that has shocked the US has admitted in an interview showering with young boys, but denies being a paedophile.

Jerry Sandusky told NBC News that he had "horsed around with kids", hugged them and touched their legs, but was innocent of the charges against him.
In a phone interview, he said he should not have showered with the children.
Mr Sandusky, 67, is accused of abusing at least eight boys over 15 years.
According to grand jury testimony, a witness saw him raping a boy as young as 10 in the Penn State showers in 2002.
'Sexually attracted?' In an interview with NBC News' Rock Center programme broadcast on Monday night, Mr Sandusky said: "I have horsed around with kids. I have showered after workouts.
"I have hugged them and I have touched their legs without intent of sexual contact."
When asked if he had done anything wrong, he said: "I shouldn't have showered with those kids."

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Child abuse in America

Every five hours a child dies from abuse or neglect in the US.
The latest government figures show an estimated 1,770 children were killed as a result of maltreatment in 2009.
A recent congressional report concludes the real number could be nearer 2,500.
In fact, America has the worst child abuse record in the industrialised world. Why? The BBC investigates.
 

Asked if he was a paedophile, he said: "No".

The former defensive co-ordinator for the Penn State Nittany Lions was also asked if he felt sexual attraction to underage boys.
"Sexually attracted?" Mr Sandusky said. "You know, I enjoy young people. I love to be around them. But no, I'm not sexually attracted to young boys."
In an interview with CNN on Monday evening, Mr Sandusky's lawyer, Joe Amendola, described his client as a "big overgrown kid" and said athletes have a culture of showering together.
Mr Amendola said his client had been "destroyed" by the charges - that bricks had been thrown through the windows of his home.
The lawyer added: "We have an answer for every allegation."
Mr Sandusky was formerly assistant to Penn State head coach Joe Paterno, who was fired last week amid criticism he did not do enough about the allegations.
On Monday, Mr Paterno's name was taken off the Stagg-Paterno Championship Trophy, also known as the Big Ten.
Meanwhile, the president of Mr Sandusky's charity for disadvantaged children resigned. Jack Raykovitz said he hoped his exit would help restore faith in the organisation.
Mr Sandusky - who was arrested a week ago - allegedly groomed victims through the Second Mile, which he founded in 1977.
He retired from Penn State in 1999, but continued to use the university's facilities for his work with the charity.
It emerged on Sunday that the judge who granted Mr Sandusky unsecured bail had donated to the charity and worked as a volunteer for the group.
State College District Judge Leslie Dutchcot did not immediately respond to questions about whether she would recuse herself from the case.
The Penn State scandal also claimed the job last week of the university's president, Graham Spanier.
Meanwhile, Penn State athletic director Tim Curley and senior vice-president Gary Schultz deny charges they covered up the alleged abuse.

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Libyan factions in deadly clashes near Zawiya

Several days of fighting between rival factions near the Libyan coastal city of Zawiya have left at least seven people dead, reports say.

The BBC's Karen Allen in Libya says rival communities have been fighting for an area previously controlled by Gaddafi loyalists.
The interim government said the fighting had been resolved.
However analysts say the violence raises questions about stability in post-Gaddafi Libya.
The country is still awash with weapons and armed groups following the rebellion that led to the collapse of Col Muammar Gaddafi's rule.
Interim Libyan leader Mustafa Abdul-Jalil said the ruling ruling National Transitional Council (NTC) had brought together elders from the feuding areas - Zawiya and the nearby tribal lands of Warshefana - and that the dispute has been resolved over the weekend.
"I want to assure the Libyan people that everything is under control," he said on Sunday.
However, witnesses said some fighting was still taking place as he spoke.
Reports said trouble flared up on Thursday when fighters from Warshefana set up a checkpoint on a highway near Zawiya, challenging fighters from the city.
Fighters from Zawiya reportedly accused their Warshefana counterparts of having links to the old government.

A fighter from the capital Tripoli, quoted by AP news agency, said the two sides had been battling for control of a military camp of the ousted government on the main road between Tripoli and Zawiya.
Witnesses reported hearing heavy gunfire and the explosions of rocket-propelled grenades.
At least seven people were killed although one report quoting medics in the Warshefana region put the toll at 13 - four from Zawiya and nine from Warshefana.
Mr Abdul-Jalil said the trouble had been started by "young men behaving irresponsibly" and that the NTC had established a committee to address the grievances of both sides.
NTC leaders have said they cannot quickly disarm the various armed factions across the country.
Mr Abdul-Jalil said there was high unemployment among the armed men and that the new government had to offer alternatives such as jobs, education and training.

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Australia's Gillard urges U-turn on India uranium sales

Australia's prime minister has called for the country's ban on selling uranium to India to be overturned.

Julia Gillard wrote in a newspaper column that it made no sense to sell nuclear material to China, Japan and the US, but not to India.
Ms Gillard's Labor Party introduced the ban in 2008 because India had not signed the non-proliferation treaty.
Australia holds about 40% of the world's proven reserves of uranium and supplies about 20% of the world market.
The country has no nuclear power facilities itself but allows the export of uranium for peaceful purposes.
'Dynamic, democratic India' India has a long-standing nuclear power programme, but also has nuclear weapons.
Delhi has refused to sign the non-proliferation treaty, arguing that it is discriminatory because only countries that had tested nuclear weapons before 1967 are allowed to legally possess them.
Despite this, the US recently signed a deal with New Delhi to co-operate on its civil nuclear programme.
Ms Gillard, writing before the Labor Party conference next month, urged her colleagues to drop their support for the ban, describing India as a close partner.
"It is time for Labor to modernise our platform and enable us to strengthen our connection with dynamic, democratic India," she wrote.
"We must, of course, expect of India the same standards we do of all countries for uranium export - strict adherence to International Atomic Energy Agency arrangements and strong bilateral undertakings and transparency measures that will provide assurances our uranium will be used only for peaceful purposes."
She said lifting the ban would bring jobs and growth to Australia.
Analysts say Ms Gillard's plan is likely to face stiff opposition from politicians on the left of her party, but she is likely to have enough support to force the issue through.
India is planning to build some 30 reactors in the next 30 years and is aiming to get a quarter of its electricity from nuclear energy by 2050.

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Occupy Wall Street: New York police clearing protest

Police in New York have launched a pre-dawn operation to clear the Occupy Wall Street camp in Zuccotti Park.

The city mayor's office said on Twitter that the protesters should "temporarily leave and remove tents and tarps" but could return once the park was clear.
Occupy Wall Street was set up in September to protests against economic inequality and had been followed by dozens of protests around the world.
A camp in Oakland, California was cleared overnight on Monday.
The New York Times said that as the operation in Zuccotti Park began at about 01:00 (06:00 GMT), police gave an announcement, saying: "The city has determined that the continued occupation of Zuccotti Park poses an increasing health and fire safety hazard."
Leaflets were also handed out saying protesters would be allowed to return once the clearance had taken place, but not to bring camping equipment.
Occupants were told to "immediately remove all private property" and that they would be arrested if they interfered with the operation, said the notice. Any belongings left behind would be put into storage.
The BBC's Laura Trevelyan on the edge of the park says riot police are blocking entrances but that while protesters are frustrated the scene is calm outside the camp.
However, the overnight action clearly took the camp by surprise, our correspondent says.
Protesters were discussing regrouping in nearby Foley Park in lower Manhattan and believe the manner of the clearance will only amplify their message, our correspondent adds.
The protesters' live web stream from the park showed crowds chanting "all day, all week, Occupy Wall Street" and "the whole world is watching" as police moved into the camp, close to New York's financial district.
"The police are forming a human shield, and are pushing everyone away," protester Rabbi Chaim Gruber told AP.
They released a statement saying: "Liberty Square (Zuccotti Park), home of Occupy Wall Street for the past two months and birthplace of the 99% movement that has spread across the country and around the world, is presently being evicted by a large police force."
Police spokesman Paul Browne said most people had begun leaving the park once the order to vacate was given but that a small group of people were refusing the leave.
He said the park was not heavily populated at the time, the Associated Press reports. At least one person was arrested for disorderly conduct.
The city authorities and Mayor Michael Bloomberg have come under pressure from local businesses to shut down the camp, which has numbered about 200 occupants as it nears its two-month anniversary.
The ban on camping equipment will effectively put an end to people sleeping in the park, says our correspondent.
Camp deaths The Occupy movement, inspired by the Arab Spring uprisings and economic protest camps in Spain, is calling for a more equal distribution of wealth.

 

Officials said the Oakland camp was cleared amid fears of violence

Organisers in the US say most of the country's money is held by the richest 1% of the population and that they represent the other 99%.
They have received widespread support, including from many authority figures, but there have been concerns about safety and hygiene, while critics of the movement say it has failed to suggest a viable alternative economic system.
The New York action comes after police arrested 33 people in Oakland, California as they raided the protest camp in Frank Ogawa Plaza early on Monday morning.
The camp had been marred by recent outbreaks of violence in and around it, including a fatal shooting last week. However, camp residents had said the killing was unconnected to their protest.
Police had declared the plaza a "crime scene" shortly they entered.
Oakland Mayor Jean Quan said she had to act after "repeated violence and this week a murder".
"We had to bring the camp to an end before someone else got hurt."
Oakland police had said they sympathised with the protesters' cause, but urged them to "leave peacefully, with your heads held high, so we can get police officers back to work fighting crime in Oakland neighbourhoods".
A similar raid ended with police in riot gear arresting 50 people in Portland, Oregon on Sunday evening.
Police in a Vermont city have also evicted protesters after a man fatally shot himself last week inside a tent.
A number of other US cities have seen protests camps spring up in the past two months, and the Occupy movement has also spread to Europe, South America and Asia.

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Euro crisis 'opportunity for UK' to reclaim powers - PM

 

The current turmoil in Europe is an opportunity for the UK to "refashion" its relationship with Brussels, David Cameron has said.

In a speech in London, the prime minister argued powers should "ebb back" from Brussels to Westminster as part of "fundamental" future reform.
Although the EU is "out of touch" on many issues, he said it is not in the UK's national interest to exit.
The PM is under pressure from many of his MPs to renegotiate UK membership.
Some Conservatives want to go further and leave the EU altogether.
The prime minister's authority was directly challenged last month when 81 Tory MPs defied the leadership and voted for a referendum on the UK's continued place in the EU.
'Outward looking' Mr Cameron used a major foreign policy speech in the City of London to argue that the eurozone financial crisis has challenged longstanding assumptions about how the EU should evolve and its 27 members must now ask what kind of union they want in the future.

Claiming that the EU is too often seen as an "abstract end in itself" and detached from economic reality, he outlined his vision for a more "outward looking", "flexible" and "diverse" union which puts advancing its citizens living standards above all else.

"We have a right to ask what the European Union should and should not do and change it accordingly," he said.
"As I said, change brings opportunities. An opportunity to begin to refashion the EU so it better serves this nation's interests and the interests of its other 26 nations.
"An opportunity, in Britain's case, for powers to ebb back instead of flow away and for the European Union to focus on what really matters to underpin prosperity, stability and growth.
"That is the kind of fundamental reform I yearn for."
Staying inside Mr Cameron has been urged to spell out what powers he wants to claw back from Brussels and when negotiations on this might begin but he has appeared to rule out such a possibility in the short term and his Lib Dem coalition partners are wary of such a step.
But Tory MPs have said negotiations on amending EU treaties to allow for closer fiscal integration among eurozone members could start as early as next month and the UK must be prepared for this.
In his speech, the prime minister warned that Europe is "slipping behind" other economic powers and that unless it becomes more competitive, it will remain a "continent in trouble".
But he insisted that the UK's future remains within the EU, not outside it.
"Leaving the EU is not in our national interest," he will argue. "Outside, we would end up like Norway, subject to every rule for the single market made in Brussels but unable to shape those rules.
"Believe me, if we weren't in there helping write the rules they would be written without us - the biggest supporter of open markets and free trade - and we would not like the outcome."
'We sceptics' The BBC's political correspondent Robin Brant said this was a strong message about what the PM saw as the limits of ever-closer union with Mr Cameron referring at one point to "we sceptics".
Labour indicated earlier on Monday it was prepared to consider the case for "rebalancing" the division of powers between the UK and Europe but said this should not be a priority amid continuing efforts to stabilize the euro and the need to secure the future of the single market.

Shadow Treasury minister Chris Leslie said despite Mr Cameron's rhetoric, the government had actually been "sitting on the sidelines" in crucial debates about Europe's future.
In a wide-ranging address, the prime minister also defended the UK's intervention in Libya and said the new Libyan authorities had found evidence of chemical weapons hidden by the Gaddafi regime.
He also revealed that the UK plans to host an international conference on Somalia next year, saying it is a "failed state that directly threatens British interests".
The event will look at ways of dealing with piracy off the coast of Somalia, protecting ships in the Gulf of Aden, challenging extremist groups in Somalia and the risk of UK citizens being radicalised there.

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Dozens killed in Syria as Jordan king tells Assad to go

Dozens of people are reported to have died in continuing unrest across Syria, as the king of neighbouring Jordan urged President Assad to stand down.

In one incident, about 20 troops were killed in a clash with army defectors in a southern town near the Jordan border, activists say.
King Abdullah became the first Arab leader to openly urge Mr Assad to quit.
He told the BBC that if he were in Mr Assad's position, he would start talks to ensure an orderly transition.
"I would step down and make sure whoever comes behind me has the ability to change the status quo that we're seeing," King Abdullah stated in an exclusive interview with BBC World News television.
He said: "If Bashar [al-Assad] has the interest of his country [at heart] he would step down, but he would also create an ability to reach out and start a new phase of Syrian political life.
"That's the only way I would see it work and I don't think people are asking that question."

King Abdullah added: "Whenever you exert violence on your own people, it is never going to end well."

Many Arab leaders have condemned the crackdown on months of protests in Syria. Dozens of deaths have been reported in the latest unrest on Monday.
The Arab League voted on Saturday to suspend Syria's membership.
A Syrian spokeswoman in Washington, Roua Sharbaji, told the BBC that Syria expected neighbouring Arab states to adopt a more constructive role in helping to solve the crisis.
The UN says more than 3,500 people have died since the start of the protests in March. The Syrian authorities blame the violence on armed gangs and militants.

In the latest violence, the Local Co-ordination Committees - a network of opponents to President Assad's rule - said 51 civilians had been killed on Monday, including 21 in the restive s'If there is a life after Bashar, what is it?'outhern province of Deraa and 13 in the city of Homs.

In a separate report, Reuters news agency quotes activists as saying 40 people were killed in the town of Khirbet Ghazaleh near the border with Jordan.
The activists say about half were members of the security forces killed by defectors from the army.
Such claims are impossible to verify as the Syrian government has severely restricted access for foreign journalists.
Defiance Many Western powers have urged President Assad to stand down. Both the EU and the US have said he has lost legitimacy but have ruled out military intervention.
On Monday, the European Union on Monday tightened its sanctions on Syria.
EU foreign ministers meeting in Brussels added 18 Syrian officials to a list of people affected by a travel ban and asset freeze. This brings to 74 the number of President Assad's inner circle who have been blacklisted.
The ministers also approved the freezing of loans to Syria from the European Investment Bank.

French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said he hoped the UN would finally impose its own sanctions on Syria.

Russia and China last month vetoed a Western-sponsored UN Security Council resolution condemning Damascus.
The US welcomed the moves by the Arab League and the EU.
"We're going to continue to consult not only with the Arab League, but also with the EU and our other partners as we move forward in trying to find ways to increase the pressure on Assad," State Department spokesman Mark Toner told reporters.
Earlier on Monday, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Muallem reacted defiantly to the Arab League's suspension. He said the decision was illegal and vowed to overcome "conspiracies" against Damascus.
The Arab League is set to hold another meeting to discuss Syria on Wednesday.
Russia on Monday condemned the suspension. "Someone really does not want the Syrians to agree among themselves," Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in Moscow.

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Syria defiant over Arab League suspension

 Opposition supporters rallied in the Syrian town of Hula on Sunday

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Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Muallem has reacted defiantly to the Arab League's suspension of Syria over its crackdown on protesters.

He denounced the move as a "dangerous step" and said it was an illegitimate decision prompted by US incitement.

He said Syria would not budge from what he called its strong positions, adding that all "plots" against it would fail.

The Arab League voted on Saturday to suspend Syria's membership over its repression of months of protests.

It is set to hold another meeting to discuss Syria on Wednesday.

At a televised news conference, Mr Muallem said: "Today there is a crisis in Syria which pays the price of its strong positions. Syria will not budge and will emerge stronger... and plots against Syria will fail."

He also apologised for attacks by Assad loyalists on foreign embassies in Damascus.

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"It is important... that this does not repeat itself. The protection of the embassies is part of our responsibilities. For this reason, I apologise for what happened," Mr Muallem told a news conference in the Syrian capital.

Crowds attacked the embassies of France, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Turkey on Saturday. Qatar and Saudi Arabia were among the countries that voted to suspend Syria from the Arab League.

Mr Muallem also played down the prospect of any Western military intervention in Syria.

"Syria is not Libya. The Libyan scenario will not be repeated; what is happening in Syria is different from what happened in Libya and the Syrian people should not worry," he said.

When the UN Security Council voted earlier this year to approve military action against Libya, China and Russia abstained.

More sanctions

Mr Muallem's statement came as European foreign ministers gathered in Brussels to discuss tightening sanctions against Syria, on which a preliminary deal has been reached.

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The sanctions are set to target more individuals associated with the crackdown and to prevent Syria getting funds from the European Investment Bank.

French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe has said it was time to look at increased protection for Syria's civilians and urged the UN Security Council to take a stand.

"Today the time has come to see how we can better protect the population. I hope the Security Council too will finally take a position," Mr Juppe said.

The UN says more than 3,500 people have died since the start of the protests in March while the Syrian authorities blame the violence on terrorists

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Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi is in a coma at his Tripoli home in Libya, it is being reported.

CNN said Megrahi appeared to be "at death's door" in the care of family. He is technically on licence but his whereabouts were thought to be unknown.
Megrahi was freed from a Scottish prison in 2009 on health grounds. There have been calls for him to be returned to jail in the UK or tried in the US.
But Libyan rebel leaders have said they do not intend to allow his extradition.
Megrahi had been jailed in 2001 for the bombing of a US plane over Lockerbie, with the loss of 270 lives, before he was diagnosed with terminal prostate cancer and freed.
Scotland officials had tried to contact him following the rebel advance into Tripoli.
'Unhelpful speculation' Megrahi technically remains a Scottish prisoner released on licence and is obliged to remain in regular contact with East Renfrewshire Council.

On Friday, the Scottish government said he had not been due to contact them for some time yet but social workers from East Renfrewshire Council had been endeavouring to contact him.

After reports Megrahi had been found, the government and council issued a statement saying they had been in contact with his family over the weekend and his licence had not been breached.
"Speculation about al-Megrahi in recent days has been unhelpful, unnecessary and indeed ill-informed," they said.
"As has always been said, al-Megrahi is dying of a terminal disease, and matters regarding his medical condition should really be left there," they said.
"Any change in al-Megrahi's circumstances would be a matter for discussion with the National Transitional Council as the legitimate governing authority in Libya."
CNN reported on Sunday that Megrahi was "comatose" and "near death... surviving on oxygen and an intravenous drip" and not eating.
"We just give him oxygen, nobody gives us any advice," Megrahi's son, Khaled, told the US broadcaster.
"There is no doctor. There is nobody to ask. We don't have any phone line to call anybody."

Megrahi is the only person to be convicted over the 1988 Lockerbie bombing

CNN reporter Nic Robertson said he last saw Megrahi two years ago and described his appearance as "much iller, much sicker, his face is sunken... just a shell of the man he was".
Megrahi is the only person to have been convicted in connection with the bombing of Pan Am flight 103 over Scotland in 1988.
The victims of the bombing were mainly US nationals and the decision to release him, taken by Scottish Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill, sparked an angry reaction in the United States.
The former US ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton told BBC Radio 5 live Megrahi should have been given the death penalty and was lucky to be alive.
Mr Bolton said Megrahi should be in jail and called for him to extradited.
"To me it will be a signal of how serious the rebel government is for good relations with the United States and the West if they hand over Megrahi for trial," he said.
"He killed 270 people. He served roughly 10 years in jail before he was released by British authorities. Do the math - that means he served roughly two weeks in prison for every person he killed. Two weeks per murder. That is not nearly enough."
Stephanie Bernstein, whose husband Michael was one of those killed, told BBC Radio 5 live that Megrahi's death would bring some regret to the victims' families.
"He was one person in a long line of people who I'm sure was responsible for the bombing and when he dies, some of the knowledge about what happened will go with him," she said.
'Tissue of lies' She added that she hoped the rebels' National Transitional Council would be committed to finding out what happened.
Bob Monetti, the father of another victim, said Megrahi was a source of embarrassment to Scotland but "sort of irrelevant".
"Mr Megrahi just probably put the bomb on the plane, but somebody else made it, and somebody else told him to do it, somebody else planned the whole thing out," he told the BBC.

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The BBC's Wyre Davies says most of the fighting in Tripoli has now stopped

"I'd like to find out who those people were, and find out a lot more of the details about what went on and why they did it."
But Dr Jim Swire, whose daughter Flora was killed in the blast, said he believed Megrahi was innocent and hoped he was getting decent pain relief at home with his family.
"I feel extremely resentful that the murder of my lovely elder daughter Flora should be embedded in what I'm satisfied is in fact a tissue of lies which led to a politically useful outcome," he said.
Mohammed al-Alagi, justice minister for the new leadership in Tripoli, earlier refused to countenance handing Megrahi over.
"We will not hand over any Libyan citizen to the West," he said.
"And from points A, B and C of justice, Abdelbaset al-Megrahi has already been judged once, and will not be judged again.
"We will not hand over any Libyan nationals, it's Gaddafi who hands over Libyan nationals."
The National Transitional Council is now recognised by Britain as the sole governmental authority for Libya.

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Baghdad mosque attack:

Suicide bomber kills at least 28 in bagdad masque.

A suicide bomber has killed at least 28 people and wounded at least 30 more after blowing himself up inside a Sunni mosque in the Iraqi capital Baghdad, local officials say.

The attack took place during prayers in the Umm al-Qura mosque in west Baghdad, the city's largest Sunni mosque.
Officials said parliamentarian Khalid al-Fahdawi was among the dead in the strike, the Associated Press reported.
The attack comes towards the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
The mosque is the main headquarters of the Sunni Endowment, which is responsible for maintaining Sunni Muslim religious sites across Baghdad.
"A suicide bomber entered the main area of the mosque and blew himself up," said Qutaiba al-Falahi, a spokesman for the group, according to Reuters news agency.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for Sunday's bombing.
There has been a recent flurry of violence across Iraq, although it is much reduced since a peak in 2006-2007.
On Friday at least 13 people were killed in a series of attacks across the country - in Basra, Falluja and Baghdad.

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Beyonce reveals pregnancy at MTV Music Video Awards

Beyonce revealed her baby bump after performing - courtesy MTV Video Music Awards

Singer Beyonce Knowles has outlined a baby bump to photographers after months of speculation she might be pregnant.

The R&B star, 29, used her hands to frame her baby bump under a loose-fitting dress as she arrived at the MTV Music Video Awards in Los Angeles.
Beyonce did not talk to media but her publicist later confirmed the pregnancy, Associated Press reported.
It will be the first child for Beyonce and her husband rapper Jay-Z, who married in 2008.
Beyonce was competing for the MTV Best Female Video Award for Run the World (Girls). She also performed at the awards.
Her other hits include Beautiful Liar and Single Ladies. She has sold more than 75 million albums worldwide.
Jay-Z performed Otis with Kanye West at the awards. Other performers included Lady Gaga, Lil Wayne, Pitbull and Chris Brown.

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Irene: US East Coast left counting cost after storm

The US East Coast has begun clearing up after the devastation of tropical storm Irene, which killed at least 21 people.

The storm is now lashing Canada's north-east, after causing severe flooding in the US and leaving some five million homes without power.
But New York was not nearly as badly affected as state officials had feared.
President Barack Obama has warned that the impact of the storm will be felt for some time and that the recovery effort will last for weeks.
Flooding and power cuts are still a risk as swollen rivers could burst their banks, he said on Sunday.
The brunt of Irene's impact was felt by towns and suburbs from New Jersey to Vermont. Driving rains and flood tides damaged homes and cut power to more than three million people in New Jersey, Connecticut and New York.
The BBC's Steve Kingstone in New York said insurance and rebuilding costs would run into billions of dollars.
Irene was earlier downgraded to a tropical and then a post-tropical storm.

At 03:00 GMT, Irene was moving north-north-east at a speed of 26mph (43km/h). An increase in speed is expected over the next couple of days, with the centre of the storm moving over eastern Canada on Monday, the National Hurricane Center in Miami says. Irene brings high winds near 50mph (85km/h) with higher gusts, it adds.

The storm, downgraded from a hurricane, passed New York on Sunday.
More than 300,000 people evacuated from low-lying areas in New York City are heading home.
New Yorkers will attempt to return to work on Monday, but the subway service will be limited while the tracks are inspected, says the BBC's Laura Trevelyan in New York. Most of the commuter rail services feeding the city were out indefinitely, reports say.
The New York Stock Exchange said it would be open for business on Monday and officials at the 9/11 memorial at the World Trade Center site said they had not lost a single tree.
Airlines said about 9,000 flights had been cancelled, but services into New York and Boston were due to resume on Monday.
In Philadelphia, officials lifted the city's first state of emergency since 1986. Several buildings were destroyed by the storm, but there were no deaths or injuries.

Vermont lashed
Widespread flooding is reported in Vermont where hundreds of people have been told to leave the capital, Montpelier.

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President Obama: "The impact of the storm will last for some time"

The city faces flooding, once from Irene, and again if the local water company decides to release water to save the Marshal Reservoir, a local dam where waters are reaching record levels.
"It's very serious for us at the moment in Vermont. The top two-thirds of the state are inundated with rapidly rising waters, which we anticipate will be an issue for the next 24 hours," said Robert Stirewalt, a spokesman for Vermont Emergency Management Agency.
Further south in North Carolina, Governor Beverly Perdue said some areas of the state were still unreachable. TV footage showed fallen trees and power lines.
Officials in Virginia began the clear-up, but said the damage was not a bad as feared.
The north-eastern seaboard is the most densely populated corridor in the US. More than 65 million people live in major cities from Washington DC in the south to Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York and Boston further north.
Irene was classified as a category-three hurricane, with winds of more than 120mph (192km/h), when it swept through the Caribbean last week.

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why man and women fall in love: by MOINKHAN

people like all sweet things.women just like this.

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Arnold Schwarzenegger museum opens in Austrian hometown

Bethany Bell takes a look around the new museum in Arnold Schwarzenegger's childhood home

Arnold Schwarzenegger's childhood home in Austria has opened as a museum.

It came as the former Mr Universe, who went on to be a Hollywood star and governor of California, turned 64.
On display at the museum are his childhood bed, a motorbike from one of the Terminator films, some of his first dumb-bells, and a copy of the desk he used as governor of California.

 

The family lived in the first floor flat with no electricity or running water

Mr Schwarzenegger left the village of Thal, near the city of Graz, in 1966, but has given the project his blessing.
A plaque by the door reads "Arnold Schwarzenegger's Birth House Museum," although one of the locals later told me he was born in a nearby hospital.
He lived with his family in the modest first floor flat from his birth in 1947 until 1966 when he left to pursue his dreams of winning the Mr Universe competition.
Pit toilet It was a humble beginning. The flat had no electricity and no running water.
The museum shows the house's original pit toilet, and a 1950s kitchen, with a washstand and jugs for collecting water.
In one of the rooms, the star's childhood bed is on display. "This is where he first started to dream of success," the curator, Peter Urdl told me.
It was while he was living in Thal, that he first started pumping iron.

 

Schwarzenegger found early success as a bodybuilder

As well as trophies and photographs from his early days of bodybuilding, the museum also has some of his first dumb-bells.
And it has his original home work-out machine, a pulley with weights attached which hung in a door frame inside the flat.
The museum charts his obsessive training routine and describes how his success at bodybuilding led him eventually to Hollywood.
And it has a collection of Schwarzenegger movie memorabilia, including a Harley Davidson motorbike from one of the Terminator films and a sword from Conan the Barbarian.

Visitors to the museum can pose next to a life-size model of Arnie as the Terminator.

Controversy The museum also has a section dedicated to his time as governor of California, including a facsimile of his desk.
Although he lives half a world away, Schwarzenegger's exploits are closely followed in Austria.
A number of his policies as governor were controversial here, including his support for the death penalty.
His name was taken off a stadium in the neighbouring town of Graz in 2005, when he rejected pleas to spare the life of a California gang leader.

 

 

The museum bills itself as the world's only Schwarzenegger museum

But while Austrians are not always comfortable with his politics, many of them are nonetheless fascinated.
"He was a little farm boy and his career was so exciting and so special and I think the Austrian people are really proud," Helga Forstner, the museum co-ordinator told me.
"He always comes to visit Thal when he is in Austria," she said. "He came here on 21 June and he was really excited about the exhibits."
Thal continued to play a role in his life, years after he left home. One photograph shows the rowing boat in which he proposed to his now estranged wife, Maria Shriver, on a nearby lake.
But the exhibition does not touch on her recent filing for divorce. Mr Schwarzenegger recently admitted fathering a child with the couple's long-time housekeeper.

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Italian committee approves face veil ban bill

An Italian parliamentary committee has passed a draft law which will ban women from wearing veils which cover their faces in public.

The bill, which has the backing of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's central-right coalition, would prohibit the wearing of a burka, niqab or any headwear which covers the face.
The bill will go to a parliamentary vote after the summer recess.
Belgium and France have already banned the full-face veil in public.
'Annihilates dignity' If passed, those who defied the ban would face a fine of 150-300 euros ($213-426; £130-260) and some kind of community service, according to Ansa news agency.
For those who forced someone else to wear the covering, the penalty would be 30,000 euros and up to 12 months in jail, Ansa reports.
Lawmaker Barbara Saltamartini, from Mr Berlusconi's People of Freedom party, said she welcomed the move.
"Final approval will put an end to the suffering of many women who are often forced to wear the burka or niqab, which annihilates their dignity and gets in the way of integration," Ms Saltamartini said in a statement.

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Norway attacks: Breivik makes 'unrealistic' demands

The man who has confessed to killing 77 people in Norway has made a list of "unrealistic" demands, his lawyer says.

Anders Behring Breivik wanted the government to resign and Japanese specialists to assess his mental health, Geir Lippestad told reporters.
The far-right extremist admits killing eight people with a bomb in Oslo and shooting dead 69 on Utoeya island.
Meanwhile, the leader of the right-wing Progress Party has warned that Norway still faces a serious Islamist threat.
"All the debates that we had prior to 22 July will come back. All the challenges that Norway was facing and the challenges that the world was facing are still there. Al-Qaeda is still there," Siv Jensen told the AFP news agency.
"The new thing is that we have been in a horrible way reminded of the fact that terrorism can come in many different forms, with different rhetoric behind it, with different crazy ideas behind it."
Ms Jensen also said in another interview that the anti-Muslim views of Mr Breivik, who was a member of the Progress Party between 1999 and 2006, were "perversely unique" and that it was not aware of his plans.
"It was impossible for us to foresee at the time. He obviously changed in recent years without anyone knowing," she told the Associated Press.
Mr Breivik blames the governing Labour Party for increased immigration in Norway. Its youth wing was on Utoeya for a summer camp when the attack took place, while the bomb was set-off near government buildings.
'Impossible' Mr Lippestad said Mr Breivik's list of demands was "far from the real world" and "completely impossible to fulfil" and showed "he doesn't know how society works".

 

 

The 22 July attacks have traumatised Norway

"His demands here includes the complete overthrowing of both the Norwegian and European societies," he told the Associated Press. "But it shows that he doesn't understand the situation he's in."
The 32-year-old had linked his demands to his willingness to share information about other alleged terrorist cells, Mr Lippestad said.
Norwegian police have previously cast doubt on Mr Breivik's claims that he was part of a broader network but said they would investigate them.
A court has appointed two psychiatrists to try to examine Mr Breivik's actions, with a mandate to report back by 1 November.
Mr Lippestad said Mr Breivik had asked that he also be examined by Japanese mental health specialists as he believes "the Japanese understand the idea and values of honour" and would understand him better than Europeans.
The lawyer has previously said his client is probably insane.
Mr Lippestad added that a second list from his client requested items like cigarettes and civilian clothes.
Terrorism charges Mr Breivik has been charged under the criminal law for acts of terrorism. The charges include the destabilisation of vital functions of society, including government, and causing serious fear in the population.
At a court appearance on 25 July, Mr Breivik admitted carrying out the attacks but did not plead guilty to the charges. He was remanded in custody for eight weeks, with the first four to be in solitary confinement.
The attacks on 22 July traumatised Norway, one of the most politically stable and tolerant countries in Europe.
The government plans to set up an independent "July 22 Commission" to examine the attacks, including investigating whether police reacted too slowly to the shootings at Utoeya.

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Four Ethiopian UN peacekeeping troops have been killed by a landmine in Sudan's disputed region of Abyei.

A UN spokesman said seven other peacekeepers were injured by the blast in Mabok, south-east of Abyei town, which was occupied by northern forces.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon was "saddened" by the deaths, he added.
The deaths come less than a week after the 4,200-strong Ethiopian peacekeeping force arrived in Abyei, claimed by the governments of Sudan and South Sudan.
UN spokesman Martin Nesirky said Mr Ban had expressed his condolences to the Ethiopian government, and the family and friends of those killed.
The injured have been airlifted to Kadugli, in the Sudanese state of South Kordofan.
The village where the landmine exploded had been occupied by troops loyal to the government in Khartoum, which has signed the Ottawa Treaty banning the use of anti-personnel mines.
Buffer zone Northern forces had occupied Abyei in May, raising fears of a renewal of Sudan's 21-year, north-south conflict.
After the offensive, more than 100,000 people fled the territory, mainly to South Sudan, which gained independence on 9 July.

But in June, both north and south agreed to withdraw their troops from Abyei, leaving a 20km (12-mile) buffer zone along the border.
A week later, the UN Security Council voted unanimously to send a 4,200-strong Ethiopian peacekeeping force to Abyei to monitor the withdrawal, as well as human rights.
The resolution established a new UN peacekeeping force, the United Nations Interim Security Force for Abyei (Unisfa).
It also ordered Unisfa to protect civilians and to "protect the Abyei area from incursions by unauthorised elements".
Sudan's permanent representative to the UN, Daffa-Alla Elhag Ali Osman, said northern forces would withdraw as soon as the Ethiopian troops had been deployed.

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Armed forces cuts prompt defence committee concerns

Cuts to the UK's armed forces may leave them unable to fulfil required tasks after 2015, a report by MPs has warned.

The Commons defence committee rejected the prime minister's assurance of a "full spectrum" defence capability.
The committee warned that without firm commitments to improved funding in the very near future, politicians risked "failing" the country's military.

Defence Secretary Liam Fox said the idea that the military was not being funded for its role was "not true".
'Wish list' Last year's strategic defence and security review (SDSR) outlined the future shape and size of the UK's armed forces.
It said Army numbers were to be reduced by 7,000, and the Royal Navy and RAF by 5,000 each.
And it saw the cancellation of equipment including Nimrod MRA4 reconnaissance planes and the early withdrawal of HMS Ark Royal and Harrier jump-jets.
The committee said the National Security Strategy, also unveiled last autumn, was in danger of becoming no more than a "wish list" unless the necessary money was committed to deliver the future armed forces envisaged for 2020 and beyond.
Last month it was announced that spending on equipment would increase by 1% above inflation each year after 2015, to pave the way for the so-called Future Force 2020.
However, the committee said it was "not convinced that, given the current financial climate and the drawdown of capabilities arising from the SDSR, UK armed forces will be able do what is asked of them after 2015".

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Defence Secretary Liam Fox says the government plans to ''reshape and rebalance'' the armed forces

It noted "mounting concern" that the military was falling below the minimum capacity needed to fulfil current commitments, let alone tasks it may face between 2015 and 2020, when ministers acknowledge there will be "capability gaps".
And it said plans to increase funding after 2015 were merely "government aspiration, not government policy".
The committee urged the government to outline its plans to manage the gap left by the loss of certain capabilities, and lay out detailed plans for their regeneration.
Committee chairman James Arbuthnot said: "If the ambition of a real-term funding increase is not realised, we will have failed our armed forces."
He warned that failure to maintain spending on the armed forces put the UK's influence in the world at risk.
"The government appears to believe that the UK can maintain its influence while reducing spending in defence and at the Foreign Office," said Mr Arbuthnot.

He said MPs on the committee "do not agree" with this.

'Real budgets' But Mr Fox rejected the accusation that the UK risked failing its military.
The defence secretary said: "We have set out real plans with real budgets, quite different from the previous government, and that will enable us to continue to invest in the defence capabilities we require in the years ahead.
"When we have asked the military to do more, for example in Libya, excess funding is available and we are able to take that from the Treasury Reserve.
"That does not come from the core MoD budget. And so the idea that we are asking the military to do things without funding simply isn't true."
However, shadow defence secretary Jim Murphy said the report was "damning".
"The rushed defence review has been much criticised, but now those who were disappointed will be dismayed and the anxious will be angry," he said.
"The capability gaps and budgetary black hole left by the rushed defence review have limited Britain's reach in the world."
'Rightly assessed' The UK's most senior military officer, Chief of the Defence Staff General Sir David Richards, said "some tough decisions" had to be taken and the UK "will remain a formidable fighting force on the world stage".

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General Sir Nick Houghton said it was ''necessary to cut one's cloth...so that we do not overstretch ourselves''

"We are continually working with our international allies to share operational requirements," he said, which are "measures we rightly assessed in the SDSR could be relied upon to mitigate capability gaps".
General Sir Nick Houghton, Deputy Chief of the Defence Staff, said the report was "quite well balanced and quite constructive," adding that he did not feel there had been "scathing criticisms".
He said there had simply been "quite a lot of serious constructive counsel" in the report.
And, when asked about concerns that the UK's stature would diminish as a result of the cuts, he said: "We will remain the fourth biggest defence spending country."
In May, senior military figures voiced fears of the impact the SDSR would have on the UK's standing.
The heads of the Army, Royal Navy and RAF told the Commons defence committee that the UK could no longer aspire to the "full spectrum" of military capabilities in its wake.

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Oxygen finally spotted in space

"Hidden" oxygen may be released from dust grains and ice in star-forming regions

One of astronomy's longest-running "missing persons" investigations has concluded: astronomers have found molecular oxygen in space.

While single atoms of oxygen have been found alone or incorporated into other molecules, the oxygen molecule - the one we breathe - had never been seen.
The Herschel space telescope spotted the molecules in a star-forming region in the constellation of Orion.
The find will be published in the Astrophysical Journal.
Oxygen is the third most abundant element in the cosmos, after hydrogen and helium. Its molecular form, with two atoms joined by a double bond, makes life on Earth possible - but this form had never definitively been seen in space.
A 2007 effort from the Swedish Odin telescope, published in the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics, claimed a discovery of oxygen in a nearby star-forming region, but the discovery could not be independently confirmed.
One possible location for the missing oxygen is locked onto dust grains and incorporated into water ice.
The team chose a star-forming region in the constellation Orion, believing that oxygen would be "baked off" from the ice and dust in a warmer, more turbulent part of space.
Instruments on the Herschel telescope, sensitive to infrared light, picked up small signatures of the elusive molecular oxygen.
"This explains where some of the oxygen might be hiding," said Paul Goldsmith, principal investigator on the Herschel Oxygen Project.
"But we didn't find large amounts of it, and still don't understand what is so special about the spots where we find it. The Universe still holds many secrets."

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Data of Sun website users stolen

Thousands of people who entered competitions on The Sun website have been warned that their personal information may have been stolen.

The paper's publisher, News Group, said the data was taken when the site was hacked on 19 July.
Some of the details, including applications for the Miss Scotland contest, have been posted online.
The company said it had reported the matter to the police and the Information Commissioner.
News International, News Group's parent company, issued a statement that said: "We take customer data extremely seriously and are working with the relevant authorities to resolve this matter.
"We are directly contacting any customer affected by this."
Miss Scotland The stolen information is believed to include names, addresses, dates of birth, email addresses and phone numbers.
No financial or password data was compromised, the company said.
A sampling of the stolen details was posted on the document sharing site Pastebin.
The file contained the names and mobile numbers of 14 applicants to the 2010 Miss Scotland contest.
It also included lengthy biographies written by the women, outlining why they should be selected.
One entrant, who did not want to be named, told BBC News: "I'm not happy at all. I'm kind of worried - because that's everything about me.
"[This data] should have been locked up, this was last year's, so they didn't need to keep my details."
Lulz connection The original hack on The Sun's website resulted in anyone trying to access it being redirected to a bogus news story about Rupert Murdoch's death.
Hacktivist group Lulz Security (LulzSec) claimed responsibility for the attack. At the time, it was thought to be limited to vandalism.
LulzSec has not offered any comment on the latest developments and its Twitter account has been silent since 28 July when its alleged spokesman was arrested.
However, another Twitter user called Batteye appeared to be the source of the information on the data breach.
In one message, they wrote: "I'm not really with anonymous... but then again I sort of am, aren't I?", referring to the LulzSec affiliated group Anonymous.

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