Mitt Romney has regained his undisputed front-runner status in the race for the Republican nomination, according to the latest Fox poll. The poll of Republican primary voters found Romney holding steady at 23%, while Rick Perry was down 10% from a month ago, dropping into second place with 19%, Reuters…
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The experimental module will stay in orbit for two years as part of China’s ambitious space station project China has launched an experimental module to lay the groundwork for a future space station, underscoring its ambitions to become a major space power. Tiangong-1 was shot into space from the Jiuquan launch centre on the edge of the Gobi desert aboard a Long March 2FT1 rocket. After moving it into orbit, China plans to launch an unmanned Shenzhou 8 spacecraft to practice docking manoeuvres with the module, possibly within the next few weeks. Two more missions, at least one of them manned, are to meet up with it next year for further practice, with astronauts staying for up to one month. The 8.5-tonne module, whose name translates as heavenly palace, is to stay aloft for two years, after which two other experimental modules are to be launched for additional tests before the actual station is launched in three sections between 2020 and 2022. “This is a significant test. We’ve never done such a thing before,” Lu Jinrong, the launch centre’s chief engineer, was quoted as saying by the official Xinhua news agency. The space station, which is yet to be formally named, is the most ambitious project in China’s exploration of space, which also calls for a moon landing, possibly with astronauts. China launched its first manned flight in 2003, joining Russia and the United States as the only countries to launch humans into orbit. However, habitual secrecy and the space programme’s close links with the military have inhibited co-operation with other nations – including with the International Space Station. China Space guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Rio Ferdinand loses ‘kiss and tell’ privacy case against Sunday Mirror
September 29, 2011 No Comment
Footballer’s claim is dismissed as judge’s ruling favours defendant’s right to freedom of expression Footballer Rio Ferdinand on Thursday lost his privacy action over a “kiss and tell” story published by the Sunday Mirror. The England and Manchester United star was not at the high court in London to hear Mr Justice Nicol dismiss his claim against Sunday Mirror publisher Mirror Group Newspapers. Ferdinand will pay MGN’s legal costs. Ferdinand brought his case for misuse of private information over an April 2010 Sunday Mirror article in which interior designer Carly Storey gave her account of their 13-year relationship in return for £16,000. The judge said: “Overall, in my judgment, the balancing exercise favours the defendant’s right of freedom of expression over the claimant’s right of privacy.” After the judge’s ruling, Sunday Mirror editor Tina Weaver said in a statement: “The Sunday Mirror is very pleased that the court has rejected Rio Ferdinand’s privacy claim. “The judge found that there was a justified public interest in reporting the off-pitch behaviour of the then England captain and discussion of his suitability for such an important and ambassadorial role representing the country. “We are pleased the judge ruled that Mr Ferdinand had perpetuated a misleading public image and the Sunday Mirror was entitled to correct this impression. “There has never been greater scrutiny of the media than now, and we applaud this ruling in recognising the important role a free press has to play in a democratic society.” Ferdinand, who has three children with wife Rebecca, had told the judge at an earlier high court hearing that he was “extremely upset to read the story, particularly because it came out of the blue”. “It has been stressful and embarrassing for me to have to explain it to fellow professionals as well as family members and friends, and it has inevitably put a strain on my relationship with my wife,” he said. “People also started shouting things out at me in the street after the article was published – things like, ‘Where’s your new bird?’” Ferdinand added that he had not met the woman named in the Sunday Mirror story for six years by the time it was published. “Although I am a well-known person I make a clear distinction between my public and private life and do not seek publicity for my personal life,” he said. “I do not see why I should not be entitled to a private life just because I am a famous footballer.” •
Continue reading …A war of words between Julian Assange and publisher Canongate generated plenty of free publicity for Julian Assange: The Unauthorized Autobiography but that hasn’t translated into sales. The book—which the WikiLeaks founder worked on with a ghostwriter before withdrawing from the project earlier this year—sold only 644 copies…
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Scotland Yard investigates how home secretary’s diary went missing but insists security has not been compromised Scotland Yard has been called in after the home secretary’s personal engagements diary was mislaid. The Metropolitan police are looking into the circumstances of how Theresa May’s diary went missing, but insisted that security has not been compromised. A Met spokesman said: “We are aware that a document was misplaced and are looking into the circumstances of how this occurred. “The paper was not protectively marked. Security was not compromised.” Keith Vaz MP, the Labour chairman of the Commons home affairs select committee, said: “It’s serious that someone with the security importance of the home secretary should have her security compromised in this way. “It is very disappointing that this has happened.” It is understood the diary was left at a Glasgow concert hall on Sunday where May was attending the National Police Memorial Day to remember fallen officers, which was also attended by the Prince of Wales. Theresa May Conservatives Police guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …In two rare glimmers of good news for the economy, first-time claims for jobless benefits dropped significantly last week, and the government said GDP grew faster than previously thought during the second quarter. Initial claims for unemployment benefits sank last week to 391,000, a hefty drop of 37,000 from a revised 428,000, the government said.
Continue reading …U.S. District Judge Sharon Blackburn sided with the state of Alabama on Wednesday on two key sections of the state’s wide-ranging crackdown on illegal immigrants. Blackburn refused to enjoin a law that will compel elementary and secondary school administrators to demand their students provide birth certificates to prove they were born in the United States,
Continue reading …George Wright, murderer, hijacker, and American fugitive, was known as Jorge Santos, easygoing immigrant from Guinea-Bissau during the decades he hid in a Portuguese village. The 68-year-old, who was recaptured earlier this week , married a local woman and raised two children, now in their early 20s, after settling down in…
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Photographer Dale Sutton uses infra-red technology to capture familiar UK animals in stunning details
Continue reading …Amanda Knox ‘crucified’ for crime she did not commit, lawyer tells court
September 29, 2011 No Comment
US student wrongly convicted of murdering Briton Meredith Kercher thanks to flawed evidence, counsel tells judge and jury Amanda Knox has been “crucified, impaled in the piazza” for a crime she never committed, her lawyer told the court hearing her appeal against a 26-year sentence for murdering British student Meredith Kercher. Carlo Dalla Vedova was speaking after another lawyer called the University of Washington student an “enchanting witch” in a case shot through with religious and occult imagery Dalla Vedova said Knox, 24, had spent more than 1,000 days in prison on the basis of “evidence that cannot stand up to other hypotheses”. How many times, he asked rhetorically, had he and other members of her legal team heard her say: “Why won’t they believe me?” The prosecution, and the lawyer for the Kercher family – who have joined themselves to the case – repeatedly emphasised in their final submissions the horror of the crime and the suffering of the victim’s relatives. But that was not the point, said Dalla Vedova. “Be respectful of the pain caused by the death of Meredith Kercher,” he said. “But don’t make the mistake of keeping two innocent people in jail. Pain is not a legal argument.” A verdict is expected on Monday. Knox has been joined in her appeal by her former boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, an Italian jailed for 25 years for his part in what the court decided was a drug-fuelled, sexually-motivated killing. A third defendant, Rudy Guede, was convicted separately. The appeal is based on the argument that Kercher was killed by Guede alone after the Ivory Coast-born drifter broke into the flat she shared with Knox. Dalla Vedova began a point-by-point examination of the case against Knox by looking at her statement, made to police after an all-night interrogation, that she had been at the scene of the crime. She had not been given any legal assistance and, at the time she was no more than a “ragazzina” – a young girl – with scant knowledge of Italian on her first trip abroad, he said. Knox had come to Italy less than a month before that date to study, along with Kercher, at Perugia’s university for foreigners. Much of the prosecution case, claimed Dalla Vedova, was based on “conjecture” and unreliable “low copy number” DNA evidence. He cited by way of example the acquittal in 2007 in Belfast of the Omagh bombing defendant Sean Hoey, who had been indicted on the basis of low copy number DNA testing. Meredith Kercher Amanda Knox Italy Europe United States John Hooper guardian.co.uk
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