<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <rss xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" version="2.0"> <channel> <title>News | guardian.co.uk</title> <link>http://www.guardian.co.uk/tone/news</link> <description>News | guardian.co.uk</description> <language>en-gb</language> <copyright>&amp;copy; Guardian News &amp; Media Limited 2009</copyright> <lastBuildDate>Thu, 30 Jul 2009 23:49:41 GMT</lastBuildDate> <docs>http://www.guardian.co.uk/webfeeds</docs> <ttl>15</ttl> <image> <title>News | guardian.co.uk</title> <url>http://image.guardian.co.uk/sitecrumbs/Guardian.gif</url> <link>http://www.guardian.co.uk/tone/news</link> </image> <item> <title>Tiger Woods makes slow start as he tries to shake off Open disappointment</title> <link>http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2009/jul/31/buick-open-tiger-woods-steve-lowery</link> <description>&lt;div class="track"&gt;&lt;img alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.20.3/29123?ns=guardian&amp;pageName=Tiger+Woods+makes+slow+start+as+he+tries+to+shake+off+Open+disappointmen%3AArticle%3A1256168&amp;ch=Sport&amp;c4=Tiger+Woods%2CGolf%2CSport&amp;c6=&amp;c8=1256168&amp;c9=Article&amp;c10=News&amp;c11=Sport&amp;c13=&amp;c25=&amp;c30=content&amp;h2=GU%2FSport%2FTiger+Woods" width="1" height="1" /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p&gt;• World No1 know he has to up game after scrappy round of 71 &lt;br /&gt;• Fellow American Steve Lowery leads on nine under par&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Steve Lowery took the opening-round lead at the Buick Open in Michigan as Tiger Woods made a slow start to his first tournament since missing the cut at the Open Championship. Lowery posted an opening-round 63 at the par-72 Warwick Hills Golf and Country Club in Grand Blanc to lead the early starters.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;His nine-under-par score was enough to hold off the afternoon wave also and Lowery will go into the second round with a one-stroke lead over Australia's John Senden, who shot a 64.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;He is eight strokes ahead of Woods, the world No1, who posted a scrappy one-under-par 71 that featured four birdies and three bogeys on a course on which he has twice won and twice finished runner-up. "Just one of those days," Woods said. "I've not only got to play well to make the cut, I've got to play well to get myself back into contention too. I've got to go low because the guys are going to continue to go low.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;"This is the way the golf course is playing right now this week. It's probably going to be 20-plus [under par] that's going to win the tournament.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;"I have to take advantage of the holes I'm supposed to take advantage of, a couple of the par fours, handle those and then sprinkle in a few more here and there and I'll come up with the number I'll need to come up with."&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Lowery played the back nine first and made the turn at two under par before changing up a gear on his inward nine of 29 for a 10-birdie, one-bogey round. "I obviously putted really well to shoot nine under, but the last nine holes I made all the putts, made seven birdies there on the last nine holes," the American said.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;"Some of them were tap-ins, but some of them were pretty good. The one on eight was probably about 20 feet or something like that. So it was a good combination."&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Australia's James Nitties, South Korea's Y E Yang and the Americans Vaughn Taylor and Brian Vranesh carded 65s to take a share of third place, while the 2010 US Ryder Cup captain Corey Pavin was one of six players a further shot back on six under.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Also shooting 66s alongside 49-year-old Pavin were fellow Americans Paul Goydos, Jeff Klauk, Troy Matteson, Chris DiMarco and the Australian Greg Chalmers, while there were 11 players in a tie for 13th place at five under, just four shots behind Lowery.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;At Turnberry earlier this month, Woods missed the cut for only the fifth time in his professional career. He bogeyed the par fours at the 2nd and 5th, on both occasions his putting letting him down. He three-putted from inside 12 feet at the 2nd while at the 5thh, having overshot the green with his second shot, he failed to convert a par putt from inside six feet.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Four birdies followed in the middle of the round before a bogey sent the world number back again at the 15th.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;A missed birdie opportunity on the par-five 16th, the easiest hole on the course, did not lighten his mood.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Four birdies over his last 10 holes got England's Greg Owen to four under par with an opening 68, while the world No9 Jim Furyk, the only top-10 ranked player in the field other than Woods, shot an opening, three-under-par 69.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Fredrik Jacobson, of Sweden, and the US Open runner-up David Duval, who is looking to make his first cut since that Bethpage Black finish in mid-June, did likewise. John Daly will have plenty of work to do if he is to avoid a second consecutive missed cut after shooting a four-over-par 76.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class="related" style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"&gt;&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/tigerwoods"&gt;Tiger Woods&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/golf"&gt;Golf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="guRssAdvert"&gt;&lt;a href="http://ads.guardian.co.uk/click.ng/richmedia=yes&amp;site=Sport&amp;spacedesc=rss&amp;system=rss&amp;transactionID=12489996052543343966274696377869"&gt;&lt;img src="http://ads.guardian.co.uk/image.ng/richmedia=yes&amp;site=Sport&amp;spacedesc=rss&amp;system=rss&amp;transactionID=12489996052543343966274696377869" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="terms"&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk"&gt;guardian.co.uk&lt;/a&gt; &amp;copy; Guardian News &amp; Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our &lt;a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html"&gt;Terms &amp; Conditions&lt;/a&gt; | &lt;a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/help/feeds"&gt;More Feeds&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p style="clear:both" /&gt;</description> <category domain="http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport">Tiger Woods</category> <category domain="http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport">Golf</category> <category domain="http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport">Sport</category> <category domain="http://www.guardian.co.uk/publication">guardian.co.uk</category> <category domain="http://www.guardian.co.uk/tone">News</category> <pubDate>Thu, 30 Jul 2009 23:49:41 GMT</pubDate> <guid>http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2009/jul/31/buick-open-tiger-woods-steve-lowery</guid> <dc:creator /> <dc:subject>Sport</dc:subject> <dc:date>2009-07-30T23:49:41Z</dc:date> <dc:type>Article</dc:type> <media:content height="84" type="image/jpeg" width="140" url="http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Sport/Pix/pictures/2009/7/31/1248997510516/Tiger-Woods-004.jpg"> <media:credit scheme="urn:ebu">Chris Graythen/Getty Images</media:credit> <media:description>Tiger Woods chips out of a bunker on the 14th hole. Photograph: Chris Graythen/Getty Images</media:description> </media:content> <media:content height="276" type="image/jpeg" width="460" url="http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Sport/Pix/pictures/2009/7/31/1248997507139/Tiger-Woods-001.jpg"> <media:credit scheme="urn:ebu">Chris Graythen/Getty Images</media:credit> <media:description>Tiger Woods chips out of a bunker on the 14th hole. Photograph: Chris Graythen/Getty Images</media:description> </media:content> </item> <item> <title>England to clear coast of barbed wire, blocked paths and irate landowners</title> <link>http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/jul/31/coastline-open-access</link> <description>&lt;div class="track"&gt;&lt;img alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.20.3/53676?ns=guardian&amp;pageName=Natural+England+takes+step+to+clear+barbed+wire%2C+blocked+paths+and+irate%3AArticle%3A1255932&amp;ch=Environment&amp;c4=Environment%2CMarine+life+%28environment%29%2CTravel%2CWalking+%28Travel%29%2CUK+news&amp;c6=Martin+Wainwright&amp;c8=1255932&amp;c9=Article&amp;c10=News&amp;c11=Environment&amp;c13=&amp;c25=&amp;c30=content&amp;h2=GU%2FEnvironment%2FMarine+life" width="1" height="1" /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p&gt;Maps detail 2,748 miles of coastal paths as Natural England prepares to open up shoreline to walkers&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The obstacle course of barbed wire, live ammunition and beetling cliffs facing England's planned coastal path is revealed in detail for the first time today.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Maps drawn up for the marine and coastal access bill, which is expected to become law in November, trace a vivid red and green snake round the 2,748 miles of mainland coast. Each of the red sections is either private, inaccessible or dangerous.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href="http://www.naturalengland.org.uk/ourwork/enjoying/places/coastalaccess/englandscoastpath/default.aspx" title="audit by Natural England and shoreline councils"&gt;audit by Natural England and shoreline councils&lt;/a&gt; is part of an effort to make all of England's coastline accessible to walkers. "There will be 10 years' work to be done before we can walk the whole way," said Paul Johnson, coastal access manager for Natural England, "but we reckon that the first rights of way between major seaside towns could be in place by 2013."&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The notion of a complete coastal ring goes back to at least the 18th century, although its supporters then were often landowners rather than ramblers seeking a right to roam. They came up with the nearest thing to the access bill's proposals: the "coastguard's path" which allowed customs officers to pounce on smugglers.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The prospect of extra visitors to coastal areas has won over all of the 53 councils involved in the mapping exercise, as well as most fishing and other coastal businesses. Natural England said that the South West Coast path, which takes an average of 56 days to complete, generates an estimated £300m annually.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The Natural England study found that 66% of the coast, excluding Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland which are working on their own access, can be walked safely. Much the best figure is 76% in the south-west where a 630-mile national trail, the longest in Britain, follows the coast between Minehead and Poole harbour.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;But even this still faces diversions 31 years after the last section was opened, including four military training areas. Johnson said that the bill's provisions would speed up and improve ways round such obstacles, which can take up to four years via current public inquiries. The new process will also keep unavoidable diversions as close as possible to the sea.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Access in other areas is much worse. Nowhere from Berwick-upon-Tweed to the Solway Firth currently offers more than two miles of walking without a barrier or diversion inland. And the Cleveland Way in Yorkshire, is 40 years old but still diverts walkers because of legal problems with landowners, on to a busy A-road along one stretch.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;"The challenge is to move ahead from the stop-start effect which shows in the maps we publish today," said Poul Christensen, acting chair of Natural England. The group's chief executive Dr Helen Phillips said: "The fact that the public lacks full access to nearly 1,000 miles of coastline is a sobering reminder of how much is at stake in the bill."&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The lop-sided ratio in the north-west, where 56% of the coast is closed, reflects industrial use on Merseyside and the Cumbrian coast from Barrow-in-Furness's shipyards to nuclear and chemical works as far as Workington. The figures are better on the North Sea coast but Natural England estimates that 13% of existing routes there will be lost to erosion in the next two decades.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;"The value of the new law will be allowing the coastal path to retreat naturally, in line with erosion," said Malcolm Hodgson, national trail officer for the Cleveland Way. The law will end controversial "make-do" arrangements such as a stretch between Robin Hood's Bay and Boggle Hole in North Yorkshire, where walkers trudge a straight line between two barbed-wire fences across a field used for grazing stock.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The arrangement followed failure to negotiate a path nearer the sea-cliffs, because erosion of up to three feet a year meant regular moving of the farmer's fence. Natural England has offered limited help in such cases, but the access bill is based on the argument that fences would have to retreat anyway, walkers or not.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The Country Land and Business Association (CLA), which represents 36,000 members, criticised the report for including &amp;nbsp;permissive access, which can be withdrawn by landowners, in the red zones. The group's president Henry Aubrey-Fletcher said: "It would have been better if the government did more to &amp;nbsp;improve the quality of existing access, such as with the provision of car parks &amp;nbsp;and toilets, rather than try to secure access to the entire English &amp;nbsp;coastline."&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;He added that the CLA was pleased that the bill gave landowners a legal right to appeal against new or altered coastal routes."&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The new path will not be hemmed in by health and safety precautions along wild clifftops, dunes and seashore. Johnson said: "Landowners with the path crossing their land will actually face less liability when the bill becomes law. It will be almost impossible to sue after accidents, which unfortunately are bound to happen from time to time."&lt;/p&gt;&lt;h2&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Regional figures:&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;br /&gt;North West 421 miles 44% access&lt;br /&gt;North East 183 miles 67%&lt;br /&gt;Yorkshire and Humber 174 miles 70%&lt;br /&gt;East Midlands 98 miles 61%&lt;br /&gt;East of England 534 miles 68%&lt;br /&gt;South East 569 miles 63%&lt;br /&gt;South West 768 miles 76%&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;h2&gt;A long and literary history of the struggle for coastal access&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;p&gt;It was the finest moment in England's long struggle for coastal access: when Elfrida Swancourt knotted her underclothes into a rope and hoisted her lover back on to what Natural England calls the "satisfactory, legally secure path".&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Thomas Hardy caught it all: the sense of wild, wide open space, exultant freedom above the crashing sea, the buzz of freedom and, of course, the pouring rain. Add the glitch which sends Henry Knight sliding to near-doom in A Pair of Blue Eyes and you have the complete experience; for obstacles have always been a given in coastal walking.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;These days private notices, red flags on gunnery ranges, even the scary yellow-and-black propellor thing warning of a Nuclear Zone are what impedes many a coastal ramble. No one in England lives more than 70 miles from the sea, but when we go there, we are lucky to walk much more than a mile along the coast before we are blocked.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;For many, this is a stimulus to exploration and ingenuity and if you have checked the tide tables, the beach is best; the foreshore with its pebbles and shells and coils of grainy sand-eel spoil is ours to tramp for keeps.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;That still leaves naval bases, ports, chemical works and plunging cliffs like Elfrida's with no beach below them, but orienteering can be even more stimulating there. Paul Theroux's circuit of the coast described in Kingdom by the Sea showed how an alley in Cardiff or a street of bungalows in Peacehaven are part of the coast-walking experience, and a fascinating one.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Grumbly landowners are the only inexcusable blockage, and the one which the new bill will hopefully remove.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;• &lt;a href="www.guardianbookshop.co.uk/BerteShopWeb/viewProduct.do?ISBN=9781845134679" title="Martin Wainwright is author of Coast to Coast Walk."&gt;Martin Wainwright is author of Coast to Coast Walk.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class="related" style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"&gt;&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/marine-life"&gt;Marine life&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/walkingholidays"&gt;Walking holidays&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="guRssAdvert"&gt;&lt;a href="http://ads.guardian.co.uk/click.ng/richmedia=yes&amp;site=Environment&amp;spacedesc=rss&amp;system=rss&amp;transactionID=12489996052582388556710445010836"&gt;&lt;img src="http://ads.guardian.co.uk/image.ng/richmedia=yes&amp;site=Environment&amp;spacedesc=rss&amp;system=rss&amp;transactionID=12489996052582388556710445010836" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="terms"&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk"&gt;guardian.co.uk&lt;/a&gt; &amp;copy; Guardian News &amp; Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our &lt;a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html"&gt;Terms &amp; Conditions&lt;/a&gt; | &lt;a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/help/feeds"&gt;More Feeds&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p style="clear:both" /&gt;</description> <category domain="http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment">Environment</category> <category domain="http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment">Marine life</category> <category domain="http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel">Travel</category> <category domain="http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel">Walking holidays</category> <category domain="http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk">UK news</category> <category domain="http://www.guardian.co.uk/publication">The Guardian</category> <category domain="http://www.guardian.co.uk/tone">News</category> <pubDate>Thu, 30 Jul 2009 23:41:19 GMT</pubDate> <guid>http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/jul/31/coastline-open-access</guid> <dc:creator>Martin Wainwright</dc:creator> <dc:subject>Environment</dc:subject> <dc:date>2009-07-30T23:41:19Z</dc:date> <dc:type>Article</dc:type> <media:content height="604" type="image/gif" width="456" url="http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/maps_and_graphs/2009/07/30/Coast.path.460.gif"> <media:credit scheme="urn:ebu">Guardian</media:credit> </media:content> <media:content height="1234" type="image/gif" width="938" url="http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/maps_and_graphs/2009/07/30/Coast.path.940.gif"> <media:credit scheme="urn:ebu">Guardian</media:credit> </media:content> </item> <item> <title>Ministers must assume war footing to defeat Taliban - army chief</title> <link>http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/jul/30/afghanistan-taliban-army-general-dannatt</link> <description>&lt;div class="track"&gt;&lt;img alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.20.3/81264?ns=guardian&amp;pageName=Ministers+must+assume+war+footing+to+ensure+victory+over+Taliban+%E2%80%93+army+%3AArticle%3A1256088&amp;ch=UK+news&amp;c4=Military+UK%2CUK+news%2CAfghanistan+%28News%29%2CDefence+policy%2CTaliban%2CWorld+news&amp;c6=Richard+Norton-Taylor&amp;c8=1256088&amp;c9=Article&amp;c10=News&amp;c11=UK+news&amp;c13=&amp;c25=&amp;c30=content&amp;h2=GU%2FUK+news%2FMilitary" width="1" height="1" /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p&gt;• Success not discretionary, says General Dannatt&lt;br /&gt;• UK casualty rate highest since 2001, MoD reveals&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;General Sir Richard Dannatt, chief of the general staff, called yesterday for the government to be put on a "war-like footing" over Afghanistan. Success in the battle against the Taliban was "not discretionary", he said.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;On the day Dannatt delivered his final public speech as head of the army, senior army medics also said British surgeons were so exhausted they had to be reinforced by American colleagues at the main UK field hospital in southern Afghanistan, while the defence secretary, Bob Ainsworth, said British troops hadn't given enough support at the start of conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Figures released by the Ministry of Defence showed that British forces in Afghanistan were suffering their highest casualty rate since the conflict there began almost eight years ago.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;They showed that 57 British soldiers were wounded in action during the first two weeks of this month, 16 of whom were what the MoD calls "seriously" or "very seriously" injured: those with life-threatening injuries who had to be treated immediately. It was the first time the MoD has published a full list of those wounded in action in Afghanistan. The figure of 57 wounded does not take into account the whole of the recent Operation Panther's Claw offensive, which also resulted in the deaths of 10 British soldiers.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;But the figure of 57 is higher than all the previous monthly totals of soldiers wounded in Afghanistan. The MoD's figures also show that last month 30 new patients were flown to the centre for defence medicine at Selly Oak hospital in Birmingham or the Headley Court rehabilitation centre, which treats soldiers with amputated limbs. A total of 140 soldiers wounded in action were being treated at these two places last month.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Surgeon Rear Admiral Lionel Jarvis, assistant chief of defence staff responsible for health, said: "As a result partially of the exhaustion of the surgeons and the very long hours that they were working, in theatre we talked to our coalition colleagues and a surgical team from one of the US facilities has moved temporarily down to reinforce the facility in Bastion."&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Colonel Peter Mahoney, defence professor of anaesthesia and critical care, Royal Centre of Defence Medicine, who has just returned from Camp Bastion's field hospital, said: "It is naturally stressful, it is always very emotional, particularly when you are cutting off camouflage you recognise as your own [the British army's]."&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The MoD's figures showed that a total of 199 British soldiers have been wounded in action so far this year. Since 2001, 753 have been wounded in action and 230 very seriously or seriously wounded. Dannatt described Afghanistan as being "truly war among the people, about the people and for the people". He added: "And we are succeeding in spite of the tragic losses that we have suffered".&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;In his speech at the International Institute for Strategic Studies he said: "But there is still a long way to go and critically this is not just a military campaign. Perhaps for the first time we truly understand that this must be an increasingly joint and inter-agency campaign … and that all across Whitehall have an important part to play."&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;He added: "We should be under no illusion: we are at war and if we want to succeed, which we must, we must get on to a war-like footing … even if not everyone in our nation realizes that".&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Success in Afghanistan would come only with the "right commitment" and against the background of a defence budget which, he said, was already under "huge pressure". The general continued: "We need to get on to a warlike footing. It is very much in our national interest to do this."&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Ainsworth told the Daily Telegraph the government did not do enough to support British troops at the start of the conflicts. He said military personnel had been justified in complaining about a lack of interest in their work during the early years of the campaigns and improvements over the past two years had been "absolutely essential".&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Dannatt said the defence review must be driven by what was in Britain's interest, and what equipment was "relevant" to current and future conflicts – mainly against failed states and insurgents.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class="related" style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"&gt;&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/military"&gt;Military&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/afghanistan"&gt;Afghanistan&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/defence"&gt;Defence policy&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/taliban"&gt;Taliban&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="guRssAdvert"&gt;&lt;a href="http://ads.guardian.co.uk/click.ng/richmedia=yes&amp;site=News&amp;spacedesc=rss&amp;system=rss&amp;transactionID=1248999605266959680138792073375"&gt;&lt;img src="http://ads.guardian.co.uk/image.ng/richmedia=yes&amp;site=News&amp;spacedesc=rss&amp;system=rss&amp;transactionID=1248999605266959680138792073375" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="terms"&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk"&gt;guardian.co.uk&lt;/a&gt; &amp;copy; Guardian News &amp; Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our &lt;a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html"&gt;Terms &amp; Conditions&lt;/a&gt; | &lt;a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/help/feeds"&gt;More Feeds&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p style="clear:both" /&gt;</description> <category domain="http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk">Military</category> <category domain="http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk">UK news</category> <category domain="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world">Afghanistan</category> <category domain="http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics">Defence policy</category> <category domain="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world">Taliban</category> <category domain="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world">World news</category> <category domain="http://www.guardian.co.uk/publication">The Guardian</category> <category domain="http://www.guardian.co.uk/tone">News</category> <pubDate>Thu, 30 Jul 2009 23:40:00 GMT</pubDate> <guid>http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/jul/30/afghanistan-taliban-army-general-dannatt</guid> <dc:creator>Richard Norton-Taylor</dc:creator> <dc:subject>UK news</dc:subject> <dc:date>2009-07-30T23:40:32Z</dc:date> <dc:type>Article</dc:type> <media:content height="84" type="image/jpeg" width="140" url="http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2009/7/30/1248980224486/A-surgeon-operates-at-Cam-003.jpg"> <media:credit scheme="urn:ebu">Marco Di Lauro/Getty Images</media:credit> <media:description>A surgeon operates at the British Army Field Hospital in Camp Bastion. Photograph: Marco Di Lauro/Getty Images</media:description> </media:content> <media:content height="276" type="image/jpeg" width="460" url="http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2009/7/30/1248980222899/A-surgeon-operates-at-Cam-001.jpg"> <media:credit scheme="urn:ebu">Marco Di Lauro/Getty Images</media:credit> <media:description>A surgeon operates at the British Army Field Hospital in Camp Bastion. Photograph: Marco Di Lauro/Getty Images</media:description> </media:content> </item> <item> <title>Wall Street bonuses under fire as bailed-out banks pay billions to executives</title> <link>http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/jul/31/wall-street-bonuses-bailout</link> <description>&lt;div class="track"&gt;&lt;img alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.20.3/7309?ns=guardian&amp;pageName=Wall+Street+bonuses+under+fire+as+bailed-out+banks+pay+billions+to+execu%3AArticle%3A1256167&amp;ch=Business&amp;c4=Executive+pay+and+bonuses+%28Business%29%2CBusiness%2CBanking+%28Business%29%2CCitigroup%2CGoldman+Sachs%2CMorgan+Stanley%2CJP+Morgan%2CBank+of+America%2CMerrill+Lynch&amp;c6=Phillip+Inman&amp;c8=1256167&amp;c9=Article&amp;c10=News&amp;c11=Business&amp;c13=&amp;c25=&amp;c30=content&amp;h2=GU%2FBusiness%2FExecutive+pay+and+bonuses" width="1" height="1" /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p&gt;Bailed-out banks pay billions of dollars in bonuses to thousands of executives, New York's attorney-general reports&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;Citigroup, one of the biggest recipients of US government bailout money, gave employees $5.3bn (£3.2bn) in bonuses for 2008, with 738 staff getting more than $1m each, an investigation into the bonus culture on Wall Street has found.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The bank paid the bonuses despite losing more than $18bn in 2008 and more than $35bn since the start of the financial crisis, according to a study by Andrew Cuomo, New York's attorney-general.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Goldman Sachs, which reported earnings of $2.3bn, paid out $4.8bn in bonuses while receiving $10bn in rescue funding from the US government. Rival investment bank Morgan Stanley earned $1.7bn, but paid $4.5bn in bonuses. It also received $10bn in rescue funding. The findings were expected to fuel fierce debate in the US and add support to the &lt;a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/feb/04/obama-bank-salary-cap" title="government's clampdown on bonuses"&gt;government's clampdown on bonuses&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Barack Obama's administration has targeted the bonus culture on Wall Street with the appointment of &lt;a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenneth_Feinberg" title="Kenneth &lt;00ad&gt;Feinberg "&gt;Kenneth Feinberg &lt;/a&gt;to oversee compensation given to the highest paid employees at banks and other firms that received the largest government bailouts.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The UK's main City watchdog has shied away from reviewing bonuses. A review of banking practices by &lt;a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/sir-david-walker" title="Sir David Walker"&gt;Sir David Walker&lt;/a&gt; recommended that banks give some details of the pay of their highest paid staff in pay bands by next year, but left it to the banks themselves to judge pay awards.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Cuomo said that JP Morgan Chase and Goldman Sachs paid the most million-dollar bonuses – 1,626 and 953, respectively. Cuomo's office focused on bonuses paid for work in 2008 at the initial nine banks that received loans under the US government's Troubled Asset Relief Programme (Tarp). "There is no clear rhyme or reason to the way banks compensate and reward their employees," Cuomo said in the report, noting banks had not in recent years tied pay to performance as they claimed when describing their compensation programmes.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Cuomo added that when banks' performance deteriorated significantly, "they were bailed out by taxpayers and their employees were still paid well".&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Citigroup paid bonuses of at least $3m to 124 of its 778 million-dollar staff, even after it lost $18.7bn during the year, Cuomo's office said.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The New York-based bank received $45bn in government money and guarantees to protect it against hundreds of billions of dollars on potential losses from risky investments.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Bank of America, which also received $45bn in Tarp money, paid $3.3bn in bonuses, with 172 employees receiving at least $1m. Of those, 28 received bonuses of more than $3m. BoA acquired Merrill Lynch during the credit crisis and agreed as part of the takeover to maintain bonus payments.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class="related" style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"&gt;&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/executive-pay-bonuses"&gt;Executive pay and bonuses&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/banking"&gt;Banking&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/citigroup"&gt;Citigroup&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/goldmansachs"&gt;Goldman Sachs&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/morganstanley"&gt;Morgan Stanley&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/jpmorgan"&gt;JP Morgan&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/bank-of-america"&gt;Bank of America&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/merrill-lynch"&gt;Merrill Lynch&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="guRssAdvert"&gt;&lt;a href="http://ads.guardian.co.uk/click.ng/richmedia=yes&amp;site=Business&amp;spacedesc=rss&amp;system=rss&amp;transactionID=12489996052763292048985588268212"&gt;&lt;img src="http://ads.guardian.co.uk/image.ng/richmedia=yes&amp;site=Business&amp;spacedesc=rss&amp;system=rss&amp;transactionID=12489996052763292048985588268212" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="terms"&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk"&gt;guardian.co.uk&lt;/a&gt; &amp;copy; Guardian News &amp; Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our &lt;a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html"&gt;Terms &amp; Conditions&lt;/a&gt; | &lt;a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/help/feeds"&gt;More Feeds&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p style="clear:both" /&gt;</description> <category domain="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business">Executive pay and bonuses</category> <category domain="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business">Business</category> <category domain="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business">Banking</category> <category domain="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business">Citigroup</category> <category domain="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business">Goldman Sachs</category> <category domain="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business">Morgan Stanley</category> <category domain="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business">JP Morgan</category> <category domain="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business">Bank of America</category> <category domain="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business">Merrill Lynch</category> <category domain="http://www.guardian.co.uk/publication">guardian.co.uk</category> <category domain="http://www.guardian.co.uk/tone">News</category> <pubDate>Thu, 30 Jul 2009 23:31:13 GMT</pubDate> <guid>http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/jul/31/wall-street-bonuses-bailout</guid> <dc:creator>Phillip Inman</dc:creator> <dc:subject>Business</dc:subject> <dc:date>2009-07-30T23:33:20Z</dc:date> <dc:type>Article</dc:type> <media:content height="84" type="image/jpeg" width="140" url="http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2009/7/31/1248996436483/Sunrise-on-Wall-Street-004.jpg"> <media:credit scheme="urn:ebu">Mark Lennihan/AP</media:credit> <media:description>People walk to work on Wall Street, where million-dollar bonuses are in the spotlight. Photograph: Mark Lennihan/AP</media:description> </media:content> <media:content height="276" type="image/jpeg" width="460" url="http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2009/7/31/1248996434164/Sunrise-on-Wall-Street-001.jpg"> <media:credit scheme="urn:ebu">Mark Lennihan/AP</media:credit> <media:description>People walk to work on Wall Street, where million-dollar bonuses are in the spotlight. Photograph: Mark Lennihan/AP</media:description> </media:content> </item> <item> <title>Exhausted Manchester United fall to defeat in Audi Cup penalty shoot-out</title> <link>http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2009/jul/31/manchester-united-bayern-munich-audi-cup</link> <description>&lt;div class="track"&gt;&lt;img alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.20.3/92603?ns=guardian&amp;pageName=Exhausted+Manchester+United+fall+to+defeat+in+penalty+shoot-out%3AArticle%3A1256165&amp;ch=Football&amp;c4=Manchester+United+%28Football%29%2CBayern+Munich+%28Football+club%29%2CSir+Alex+Ferguson%2CFootball%2CSport&amp;c6=Tim+Rich&amp;c8=1256165&amp;c9=Article&amp;c10=News&amp;c11=Football&amp;c13=&amp;c25=&amp;c30=content&amp;h2=GU%2FFootball%2FManchester+United" width="1" height="1" /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p&gt;• Owen finds Bayern Munich defence a different proposition&lt;br /&gt;• Sir Alex Ferguson to give players three days of recuperation&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;The shadow of Manchester City has hung over Manchester United's summer tour and, by one of those curious ironies, they were denied their first trophy of the season by a man once very briefly of Eastlands. By the current standards of Manchester City's spending, Daniel van Buyten was more of a Kia than an Audi but the Belgian at least maintained one of football's great traditions, German invincibility in penalty shoot-outs, scoring the winning spot-kick as Bayern Munich triumphed 7-6 on penalties after a goalless draw.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;With an aircraft waiting at Franz Josef Strauss Airport, Sir Alex Ferguson and his team were not inclined to linger to discuss an Audi Cup final that threw up rather more questions than it answered. It is one of the great curiosities that in their six matches on tour Wayne Rooney and Michael Owen, whom Sven-Goran Eriksson forged into England's first-choice strike partnership, have not played a minute together.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;In front of 69,000 in the Allianz Arena, Owen, who had feasted on the softer defences of the far east, suddenly looked as lost and irrelevant as he had as Newcastle plunged towards the Championship. He did, however, have one chance when put clean through but drove his shot into Michael Rensing's body.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Dimitar Berbatov struck the post with an overhead kick, Nani was one of the few to sparkle in a dreadful first half and, since the position of club penalty-taker is up for grabs, it is worth recording he struck his spot-kick astonishingly well. Patrice Evra and Jonny Evans, however fared less well with theirs.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;In both the semi-final with Boca Juniors and last night's final United sometimes looked desperately weary.Ferguson will give his players three days' rest before their next friendly, at home to Valencia. He admitted that for the opening 45 minutes in Munich, Bayern were dominant and had Mario Gómez not struck the post, the need for penalties might not have arisen.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;"I don't think we were competitive at all in the first half," Ferguson said. "We did better afterwards and we should have won the game – we certainly created enough chances. We need a break; and the players deserve that. I played Darren Fletcher as a right-back tonight because there is a limit to how many games you can expect John O'Shea to play.When you go to the far east, you know it is an exhausting business and you have to be prepared for that."&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;And that, really, is the irony of these vast tours. All of the sides who took part in the Audi Cup admitted to deep weariness. They may be wealthier, but when the season begins, they will all be considerably more tired.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class="related" style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"&gt;&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/manchester-united"&gt;Manchester United&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/bayernmunich"&gt;Bayern Munich&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/sir-alex-ferguson"&gt;Sir Alex Ferguson&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="guRssAdvert"&gt;&lt;a href="http://ads.guardian.co.uk/click.ng/richmedia=yes&amp;site=Football&amp;spacedesc=rss&amp;system=rss&amp;transactionID=12489996052781676700180154871183"&gt;&lt;img src="http://ads.guardian.co.uk/image.ng/richmedia=yes&amp;site=Football&amp;spacedesc=rss&amp;system=rss&amp;transactionID=12489996052781676700180154871183" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="terms"&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk"&gt;guardian.co.uk&lt;/a&gt; &amp;copy; Guardian News &amp; Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our &lt;a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html"&gt;Terms &amp; Conditions&lt;/a&gt; | &lt;a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/help/feeds"&gt;More Feeds&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p style="clear:both" /&gt;</description> <category domain="http://www.guardian.co.uk/football">Manchester United</category> <category domain="http://www.guardian.co.uk/football">Bayern Munich</category> <category domain="http://www.guardian.co.uk/football">Sir Alex Ferguson</category> <category domain="http://www.guardian.co.uk/football">Football</category> <category domain="http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport">Sport</category> <category domain="http://www.guardian.co.uk/publication">The Guardian</category> <category domain="http://www.guardian.co.uk/tone">News</category> <pubDate>Thu, 30 Jul 2009 23:17:44 GMT</pubDate> <guid>http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2009/jul/31/manchester-united-bayern-munich-audi-cup</guid> <dc:creator>Tim Rich</dc:creator> <dc:subject>Football</dc:subject> <dc:date>2009-07-30T23:18:10Z</dc:date> <dc:type>Article</dc:type> <media:content height="84" type="image/jpeg" width="140" url="http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Sport/Pix/pictures/2009/7/30/1248994560793/bayern-munich-004.jpg"> <media:credit scheme="urn:ebu">Miguel Villagran/Bongarts/Getty Images</media:credit> <media:description>Bayern Munich players Mark van Bommel, left, Hamit Altintop and Daniel van Buyten celebrate their Audi Cup final win over Manchester United. Photograph: Miguel Villagran/Bongarts/Getty Images</media:description> </media:content> <media:content height="276" type="image/jpeg" width="460" url="http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Sport/Pix/pictures/2009/7/30/1248994558438/bayern-munich-001.jpg"> <media:credit scheme="urn:ebu">Miguel Villagran/Bongarts/Getty Images</media:credit> <media:description>Bayern Munich players Mark van Bommel, left, Hamit Altintop and Daniel van Buyten celebrate their Audi Cup final win over Manchester United. Photograph: Miguel Villagran/Getty Images</media:description> </media:content> </item> <item> <title>Spectait is one to watch at scene of biggest win</title> <link>http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2009/jul/31/horse-racing-spectait</link> <description>&lt;div class="track"&gt;&lt;img alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.20.3/60083?ns=guardian&amp;pageName=Spectait+is+one+to+watch+at+scene+of+biggest+win%3AArticle%3A1256161&amp;ch=Sport&amp;c4=Horse+racing%2CSport&amp;c6=Malcolm+Heyhoe&amp;c8=1256161&amp;c9=Article&amp;c10=News&amp;c11=Sport&amp;c13=&amp;c25=&amp;c30=content&amp;h2=GU%2FSport%2FHorse+racing" width="1" height="1" /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;The summer jumps season may seem a strange place to start in search of the winner of this afternoon's valuable Totesport Mile Handicap, but the excellent form of Jonjo O'Neill's horses over the sticks points to a big run from the yard's &lt;strong&gt;Spectait (3.25) &lt;/strong&gt;in one of the Flat season's flagship mile handicaps.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Now and then, a horse pops up in one of the big handicaps that appears to have been overlooked by the bookmakers and that is certainly the case with Spectait. Jonjo O'Neill's gelding is cracking each-way value at odds of 12–1 in what seems an ordinary renewal of this race.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Of course, the seven-year-old has already won the race, three years ago on his sole appearance at Goodwood when trained by Sir Mark Prescott, who had the gelding at the peak of his powers. A lot has happened to Spectait since that memorable day but the form book suggests that his powers are undiminished and, after winning three races on the all-weather early this year, he ran a blinder to finish fourth from a poor draw behind Extraterrestrial, another of today's rivals, in Newbury's Spring Cup.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;This time, the draw has been kind to Spectait and stall 16 is a huge boost to his chances. By contrast, the uneasy market-leader Acrostic has been lumbered with a disadvantageous low draw. A similar fate has befallen Mark Johnston's penalised runner Dubai Touch, who was beaten just over a length into third by Fifteen Love in this race a year ago.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Acrostic's trainer, Luca Cumani, has won two of the past five runnings of the Glorious Stakes and bids for a third success with Basaltico, who had smart form in Italy but ran disappointingly in Dubai over the winter. Preference is for the sharply progressive &lt;strong&gt;Warringah (2.10)&lt;/strong&gt;, the type of older horse with which trainer Sir Michael Stoute excels throughout the season.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;There is a sense that Stoute has barely shown his hand with the Galileo gelding, who was a six lengths winner at Windsor on his penultimate start before being caught in the last stride at York after his jockey had committed for home a shade too early. Ridden with more restraint, he can improve again in a race that looks there for the taking.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Richard Hannon, who holds a strong hand with his juveniles and landed the Molecomb Stakes earlier in the week with Monsieur Chevalier, unleashes another speedy two-year-old in the exciting &lt;strong&gt;Dick Turpin (4.00)&lt;/strong&gt;, who is fancied to complete a hat-trick at the expense of his main rival, Showcasing.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Richard Hannon's youngster was never headed when breezing through the gears at Windsor on his debut in June and was even more impressive when routing his field by six lengths at Salisbury last time. He handled the rain-softened surface on that occasion and, given the way the ground has eased slightly in the wake of some torrential downpours, Dick Turpin should be at home in these conditions.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Parisian Pyramid (2.45)&lt;/strong&gt; landed a nursery at this meeting 12 months ago and his trainer's patience in waiting for this competitive race can be rewarded at decent odds. Progressive last season, Parisian Pyramid represents sprint king David Nicholls, five times a winner of this prize in the past decade.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;This consolation race for those that miss the cut in the Stewards' Cup is one of the most difficult contests of the week for punters to call correctly and, though a low draw seemed a bonus in the Audi Stakes over 5f on Thursday, there is no guarantee how this race will pan out, now that the rain has fallen.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class="related" style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"&gt;&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/horse-racing"&gt;Horse racing&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="guRssAdvert"&gt;&lt;a href="http://ads.guardian.co.uk/click.ng/richmedia=yes&amp;site=Sport&amp;spacedesc=rss&amp;system=rss&amp;transactionID=12489996052791980563998198143269"&gt;&lt;img src="http://ads.guardian.co.uk/image.ng/richmedia=yes&amp;site=Sport&amp;spacedesc=rss&amp;system=rss&amp;transactionID=12489996052791980563998198143269" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="terms"&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk"&gt;guardian.co.uk&lt;/a&gt; &amp;copy; Guardian News &amp; Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our &lt;a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html"&gt;Terms &amp; Conditions&lt;/a&gt; | &lt;a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/help/feeds"&gt;More Feeds&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p style="clear:both" /&gt;</description> <category domain="http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport">Horse racing</category> <category domain="http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport">Sport</category> <category domain="http://www.guardian.co.uk/publication">The Guardian</category> <category domain="http://www.guardian.co.uk/tone">News</category> <pubDate>Thu, 30 Jul 2009 23:10:03 GMT</pubDate> <guid>http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2009/jul/31/horse-racing-spectait</guid> <dc:creator>Malcolm Heyhoe</dc:creator> <dc:subject>Sport</dc:subject> <dc:date>2009-07-30T23:10:03Z</dc:date> <dc:type>Article</dc:type> </item> <item> <title>Kingsgate back with a bang after stud flop</title> <link>http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2009/jul/31/horse-racing</link> <description>&lt;div class="track"&gt;&lt;img alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.20.3/91314?ns=guardian&amp;pageName=Kingsgate+back+with+a+bang+after+stud+flop%3AArticle%3A1256163&amp;ch=Sport&amp;c4=Horse+racing%2CSport&amp;c6=Greg+Wood&amp;c8=1256163&amp;c9=Article&amp;c10=News&amp;c11=Sport&amp;c13=&amp;c25=&amp;c30=content&amp;h2=GU%2FSport%2FHorse+racing" width="1" height="1" /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;Had Kingsgate Native's reproductive system worked as nature intended, Stan Moore might be celebrating a Group Three winner this morning. Instead, the Lambourn trainer's Total Gallery could finish only second in the Audi Stakes behind a horse whose working days were, until earlier this year, thought to be a thing of the past.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Kingsgate Native "retired" at the end of last season with two Group One wins to his name but, after covering nearly three-dozen mares in a brief spell on the stallion roster at Cheveley Park Stud, his strike-rate was an embarrassing nil from 32.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;He can still cut the mustard on the turf, however, and after yesterday's comfortable success over one of the fastest five-furlong tracks in the country, a swift return to Group One company is likely, probably in the Nunthorpe Stakes at York next month.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;"Obviously it was disappointing and frustrating that he could not fulfil his commitments at stud, as he had great support from breeders," Chris Richardson, Cheveley Park's managing director, said, "but luckily we had this option.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;"He's only four and there will be an option to review things with veterinary advice later in the year, but from what we have been told, it is highly unlikely that he will ever be a stallion."&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Yesterday's race was just the second of Kingsgate Native's resurrected racing career, following a disappointing seasonal debut in the Golden Jubilee Stakes at Royal Ascot, a race he won last year.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;"I think he took his time to get his muscle tone back, and there were other excuses at Ascot too," Richardson said. "I know it was only a Group Three today, but there were an awful lot of good horses."&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Low numbers were favoured in this race, with the first three home drawn two, one and three respectively, but David Nicholls, who has six of the 28 runners in tomorrow's Stewards' Cup, favoured high stalls at the draw ceremony yesterday morning.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Striking Spirit, the second name out of the hat, was placed in stall 27 by his trainer, while Sonny Red, the sixth horse drawn, will be in stall 26.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class="related" style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"&gt;&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/horse-racing"&gt;Horse racing&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="guRssAdvert"&gt;&lt;a href="http://ads.guardian.co.uk/click.ng/richmedia=yes&amp;site=Sport&amp;spacedesc=rss&amp;system=rss&amp;transactionID=12489996052803484616496413002139"&gt;&lt;img src="http://ads.guardian.co.uk/image.ng/richmedia=yes&amp;site=Sport&amp;spacedesc=rss&amp;system=rss&amp;transactionID=12489996052803484616496413002139" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="terms"&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk"&gt;guardian.co.uk&lt;/a&gt; &amp;copy; Guardian News &amp; Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our &lt;a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html"&gt;Terms &amp; Conditions&lt;/a&gt; | &lt;a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/help/feeds"&gt;More Feeds&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p style="clear:both" /&gt;</description> <category domain="http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport">Horse racing</category> <category domain="http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport">Sport</category> <category domain="http://www.guardian.co.uk/publication">The Guardian</category> <category domain="http://www.guardian.co.uk/tone">News</category> <pubDate>Thu, 30 Jul 2009 23:10:02 GMT</pubDate> <guid>http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2009/jul/31/horse-racing</guid> <dc:creator>Greg Wood</dc:creator> <dc:subject>Sport</dc:subject> <dc:date>2009-07-30T23:10:02Z</dc:date> <dc:type>Article</dc:type> </item> <item> <title>Cup counts as big success for Godolphin</title> <link>http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2009/jul/31/horse-racing-goodwood</link> <description>&lt;div class="track"&gt;&lt;img alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.20.3/71692?ns=guardian&amp;pageName=Cup+counts+as+big+success+for+Godolphin%3AArticle%3A1256162&amp;ch=Sport&amp;c4=Horse+racing%2CSport&amp;c6=Greg+Wood&amp;c8=1256162&amp;c9=Article&amp;c10=News&amp;c11=Sport&amp;c13=&amp;c25=&amp;c30=content&amp;h2=GU%2FSport%2FHorse+racing" width="1" height="1" /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p&gt;• Schiaparelli gives team fourth Group Two in 2009&lt;br /&gt;• Arc may be the aim after prep run in Germany&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;Even in their difficult times, Goodwood has often been generous to Godolphin and once again the track provided a lift for the royal blue colours yesterday as Schiaparelli took the Goodwood Cup by a length. A gleaming chestnut, the winner looked magnificent as he pounded down the hill in a brief moment of sunshine, but that alone could not disguise the fact that he is just the fourth Group Two winner for Godolphin in Europe this season.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The fact that the third came just five days previously, when Kirklees took the York Stakes, offers Godolphin some hope that the second half of the season will be an improvement on the first. Nonetheless, had Frankie Dettori not decided some time ago to extend his flying dismounts to Group Two winners as well as Group Ones, it would not have been seen on a British track since May last year.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Schiaparelli was tried in the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe last October, but could finish only 13th of 16. If he can maintain a winning thread, though, that race could be the target once again, particularly if the ground comes up soft.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;"There's a chance he may stay at two miles for the Doncaster Cup but it's more likely that he'll step back to a mile and a half for the Grosser Preis at Baden Baden," Simon Crisford, Godolphin's racing manager, said. "If he ran really well in that, he could go back for the Arc.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;"Frankie didn't want to give him too hard a race and he's had ongoing foot problems, which probably explains why he must have cut in the ground.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;"The team are in better form now and we were just lacking a top three-year-old before Delegator [the 2,000 Guineas runner-up] joined the stable. He will come here [to Goodwood] for the Celebration Mile [on 29 August]."&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Mourilyan, who attracted plenty of support before the off, looked as if he might get past the 6-4 favourite in the final furlong. Schiaparelli, though, was probably just idling, while Mourilyan was hanging in behind like a horse with an aversion to being in front.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;"He won like a nice stayer," Dettori said. "I had a little look and saw Ryan [Moore] coming but we weren't slowing down and I knew we would be very hard to pass. He's a versatile horse, he stays well but he also gets a mile and a half on soft ground. I think he's going to have a big future."&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Dettori was also celebrating his 50th winner at Glorious Goodwood. "It's taken me 22 years but I'm glad to have done it," he said. "Hopefully, we will have a good second half of the season and I'm going to keep riding for as long as I can. I'm only 38, with school fees to pay and five hungry children at home."&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Mourilyan was quoted for the Ebor Handicap, in which he is among the top weights, after yesterday's race, but is more likely to run in the Melrose Stakes at next month's big meeting at York.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;"It was his first run for a long time and the winner's got first run on him," Gary Moore, his trainer, said. "The winner's a four-time Group One winner, whereas this fellow isn't."&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The runners had barely pulled up after the Goodwood Cup when a storm broke over the course, which did little for the atmosphere on Ladies Day but did get into the ground just in time for Henry Cecil's Sevenna to take the Group Three Moet Hennessy Fillies' Stakes.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;"It was a big step up for her, but we know she relishes this ground and she's acted around Goodwood before, so we thought this might be her day," said Mike Marshall, Cecil's assistant.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Mark Johnston saddled his third winner at this year's meeting when Roman Republic took the Summer Vase Handicap at the top of the card, while Suruor took the seven-furlong handicap, thanks in part to a typical Goodwood hard-luck story endured by backers of Shamwari Lodge, the favourite.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Richard Hughes tried to engineer an opening several times on Shamwari Lodge in the straight before finally getting out and after Suruor, but by then it was about half a dozen strides too late.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class="related" style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"&gt;&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/horse-racing"&gt;Horse racing&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="guRssAdvert"&gt;&lt;a href="http://ads.guardian.co.uk/click.ng/richmedia=yes&amp;site=Sport&amp;spacedesc=rss&amp;system=rss&amp;transactionID=12489996052801470459458263697847"&gt;&lt;img src="http://ads.guardian.co.uk/image.ng/richmedia=yes&amp;site=Sport&amp;spacedesc=rss&amp;system=rss&amp;transactionID=12489996052801470459458263697847" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="terms"&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk"&gt;guardian.co.uk&lt;/a&gt; &amp;copy; Guardian News &amp; Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our &lt;a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html"&gt;Terms &amp; Conditions&lt;/a&gt; | &lt;a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/help/feeds"&gt;More Feeds&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p style="clear:both" /&gt;</description> <category domain="http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport">Horse racing</category> <category domain="http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport">Sport</category> <category domain="http://www.guardian.co.uk/publication">The Guardian</category> <category domain="http://www.guardian.co.uk/tone">News</category> <pubDate>Thu, 30 Jul 2009 23:10:02 GMT</pubDate> <guid>http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2009/jul/31/horse-racing-goodwood</guid> <dc:creator>Greg Wood</dc:creator> <dc:subject>Sport</dc:subject> <dc:date>2009-07-30T23:10:02Z</dc:date> <dc:type>Article</dc:type> </item> <item> <title>Celtic Crusaders humiliation was the jolt that kick started Wigan's season, says Noble</title> <link>http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2009/jul/31/brian-noble-wigan-warriors</link> <description>&lt;div class="track"&gt;&lt;img alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.20.3/14819?ns=guardian&amp;pageName=Celtic+Crusaders+humiliation+was+the+jolt+that+kick+started+Wigan%27s+seas%3AArticle%3A1256159&amp;ch=Sport&amp;c4=Wigan+Warriors+%28Rugby+League%29%2CSuper+League%2CRugby+league%2CSport&amp;c6=Gareth+Walker&amp;c8=1256159&amp;c9=Article&amp;c10=News&amp;c11=Sport&amp;c13=&amp;c25=&amp;c30=content&amp;h2=GU%2FSport%2FWigan+Warriors" width="1" height="1" /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p&gt;Brian Noble, the Wigan Warriors coach, says he is pleased by his team's run of form after a shock defeat to Celtic Crusaders&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;Brian Noble believes he can pinpoint the moment that inspired his Wigan side to embark on the five-match winning run that takes them into tonight's derby against league leaders St Helens.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;A turbulent couple of months has seen Warriors' England back-row Gareth Hock fail a drugs test and the side lose several players to injury including the captain, Sean O'Loughlin. Yet Wigan have somehow clawed their way into contention and Noble points to a forgettable night in south Wales by way of explanation.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Wigan's hopes of a genuine push towards the Grand Final looked in tatters when they became the second team to lose to bottom club Celtic Crusaders on 13 June; the Super League newcomers recording a 22–16 win. With speculation surrounding Noble's future reaching its peak at that time, the Warriors chances of making any impact on the 2009 campaign looked minimal. Six weeks and five wins later and Noble's side have climbed to fifth. With a Challenge Cup semi-final against Warrington following tonight's St Helens clash, the next eight days could define their season.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;"Form can be temporary, but there's no doubt the Celtic game was a shock to the system in relation to our attitude," said Noble. "No disrespect to Celtic, but if you put our same team out for the next six days after that result, then we'd have beaten them. But the reality is sometimes you have to take a slip on the mountain to realise you might fall off. The players have been exemplary since that. Our commitment's been very, very good and we've coped with a little bit more adversity since then and it hasn't deflected our focus. Personally, the belief issue has never been a problem for me – I know there's a good team here and I've said that all year long. I knew once we got into a run of form, we'd be capable of shaking the competition up."&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Noble said the revelations about Hock may have had some impact on his squad, but insisted other factors have been more prominent. "Maybe that might have played a small catalytic part but in the main the guys like each other and they're working hard. Week in, week out this competition is tough; the administrators wanted that and they've got it now. We've been matching that for the last five weeks.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;"I've mentioned before about the game of snakes and ladders on the table, and I'm sure there's a few more snakes out there waiting for us to tread on. But in the main we've been taking short, incremental steps with our form, and that's all you can ask at this time of year."&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Tonight's opponents, St Helens, have also faced adversity this season through injuries with Sean Long, Jason Cayless, Maurie Fa'asavalu and James Roby all on the sidelines. With Long to join Hull next season and Keiron Cunningham approaching the end of his career, this year has been described as something of a transitional campaign for the most successful club in the summer era, but Noble isn't being drawn in as he prepares to face Mick Potter, who he was on the coaching staff with at Bradford in the mid-1990s.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;"It's not a bad transition is it?" Noble said of the table-topping Saints. "He's clever is Mick, I like him and we're genuinely good friends. We've coached together and I know he's an astute and a cute operator. They might be in transition but they've got the right bloke to get them through that. Look at the 17 that turn out for Saints – they will be a good team, they know each other and they know they're in a local derby, as we do. It's important that we focus on what's out there, and not what's not out there."&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class="related" style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"&gt;&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/wiganwarriors"&gt;Wigan Warriors&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/superleague"&gt;Super League&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/rugbyleague"&gt;Rugby league&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="guRssAdvert"&gt;&lt;a href="http://ads.guardian.co.uk/click.ng/richmedia=yes&amp;site=Sport&amp;spacedesc=rss&amp;system=rss&amp;transactionID=12489996052824974103943530074719"&gt;&lt;img src="http://ads.guardian.co.uk/image.ng/richmedia=yes&amp;site=Sport&amp;spacedesc=rss&amp;system=rss&amp;transactionID=12489996052824974103943530074719" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="terms"&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk"&gt;guardian.co.uk&lt;/a&gt; &amp;copy; Guardian News &amp; Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our &lt;a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html"&gt;Terms &amp; Conditions&lt;/a&gt; | &lt;a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/help/feeds"&gt;More Feeds&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p style="clear:both" /&gt;</description> <category domain="http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport">Wigan Warriors</category> <category domain="http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport">Super League</category> <category domain="http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport">Rugby league</category> <category domain="http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport">Sport</category> <category domain="http://www.guardian.co.uk/publication">The Guardian</category> <category domain="http://www.guardian.co.uk/tone">News</category> <pubDate>Thu, 30 Jul 2009 23:10:01 GMT</pubDate> <guid>http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2009/jul/31/brian-noble-wigan-warriors</guid> <dc:creator>Gareth Walker</dc:creator> <dc:subject>Sport</dc:subject> <dc:date>2009-07-30T23:10:01Z</dc:date> <dc:type>Article</dc:type> </item> <item> <title>Martin O'Neill to avoid touchline ban after making up at the Peace Cup</title> <link>http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2009/jul/31/aston-villa-martin-oneill-escape-ban</link> <description>&lt;div class="track"&gt;&lt;img alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.20.3/3022?ns=guardian&amp;pageName=Martin+O%27Neill+to+avoid+touchline+ban+after+making+up+at+the+Peace+Cup%3AArticle%3A1256158&amp;ch=Football&amp;c4=Martin+O%27Neill+%28football%29%2CAston+Villa+%28Football%29%2CPremier+League+%28Football%29%2CFootball%2CSport&amp;c6=Stuart+James&amp;c8=1256158&amp;c9=Article&amp;c10=News&amp;c11=Football&amp;c13=&amp;c25=&amp;c30=content&amp;h2=GU%2FFootball%2FMartin+O%27Neill" width="1" height="1" /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p&gt;• Aston Villa manager to be in stands against Porto&lt;br /&gt;• O'Neill will not be banned at start of league season&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;Martin O'Neill is expected to be banished to the stands for tonight's Peace Cup semi-final against Porto following his sending-off in Málaga on Wednesday, but the Aston Villa manager will be relieved to learn that he is unlikely to face a touchline ban for the start of the Premier League season.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The Football Association would only consider punishing O'Neill if a report was received from their counterparts in Spain, and there appears to be little chance of that happening. O'Neill apologised after the match for his behaviour during the first half against Atlante, when he thrust the ball into the chest of one of the opposition players in front of the dug-out. He has since tried to make contact with the tournament organisers to reiterate that he regretted the incident.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The loss of Stilian Petrov early on in that match hardly helped O'Neill's mood; yesterday the midfielder flew back to the Midlands for a scan on his dislocated shoulder to determine the severity of the injury. The Bulgaria international, who was Villa's player of the year last season, was in considerable discomfort as he left the field and he seems almost certain to miss the start of the league campaign, which opens on 15 August.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;It remains to be seen whether the former Celtic player, who signed a four-year contract at the end of last season, has damaged the ligaments and tendons. If so, Petrov could require an operation and face an extended lay-off, which would further deplete O'Neill's resources.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Ashley Young, whom the Villa manager described as "immense" following his second-half performance against Atlante, has reaffirmed his commitment to the club. The England international has been linked with moves to Liverpool, Chelsea, Tottenham Hotspur and Barcelona but insisted he was "exceedingly happy" at Villa and expects to stay at the club for the remainder of his contract, through to 2012.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;"It is flattering to be linked with such big clubs but I'm a Villa player," said the 24-year-old, who claimed that he has never felt the need to discuss interest from other clubs with O'Neill this summer. "I'm exceedingly happy here. I have two and a half years left on my contract and I'm delighted to be playing for the club. Of course I can [stay for the rest of that contract]. I'm delighted with the way things have gone since I came. The ambition is bigger and bigger."&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Tonight's Peace Cup semi-final against Porto and a possible final against Real Madrid or Juventus on Sunday would give Young another opportunity to showcase his ability in front of some of Europe's leading clubs, but he insists he is not thinking of life beyond Villa. "It does not enter my head whether Barcelona or Real Madrid are watching me or not," he said. "As long as I'm playing well for Villa and I'm happy and the manager is happy, that's the main thing. I don't need anyone else to tell me that I'm doing well unless it's the manager here or the England manager."&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Villa's spirits were dampened a little when they returned to the team hotel in Marbella following the 3–1 victory over Atlante and discovered thieves had broken into three of the players' rooms. Little of significant value was taken. Those involved reported that a pair of fake designer sunglasses, a laptop and a set of keys were missing.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class="related" style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"&gt;&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/martin-o-neill"&gt;Martin O'Neill&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/aston-villa"&gt;Aston Villa&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/premierleague"&gt;Premier League&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="guRssAdvert"&gt;&lt;a href="http://ads.guardian.co.uk/click.ng/richmedia=yes&amp;site=Football&amp;spacedesc=rss&amp;system=rss&amp;transactionID=12489996052842413256019969389130"&gt;&lt;img src="http://ads.guardian.co.uk/image.ng/richmedia=yes&amp;site=Football&amp;spacedesc=rss&amp;system=rss&amp;transactionID=12489996052842413256019969389130" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="terms"&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk"&gt;guardian.co.uk&lt;/a&gt; &amp;copy; Guardian News &amp; Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our &lt;a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html"&gt;Terms &amp; Conditions&lt;/a&gt; | &lt;a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/help/feeds"&gt;More Feeds&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p style="clear:both" /&gt;</description> <category domain="http://www.guardian.co.uk/football">Martin O'Neill</category> <category domain="http://www.guardian.co.uk/football">Aston Villa</category> <category domain="http://www.guardian.co.uk/football">Premier League</category> <category domain="http://www.guardian.co.uk/football">Football</category> <category domain="http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport">Sport</category> <category domain="http://www.guardian.co.uk/publication">The Guardian</category> <category domain="http://www.guardian.co.uk/tone">News</category> <pubDate>Thu, 30 Jul 2009 23:10:01 GMT</pubDate> <guid>http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2009/jul/31/aston-villa-martin-oneill-escape-ban</guid> <dc:creator>Stuart James</dc:creator> <dc:subject>Football</dc:subject> <dc:date>2009-07-30T23:10:01Z</dc:date> <dc:type>Article</dc:type> <media:content height="84" type="image/jpeg" width="140" url="http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Football/Pix/pictures/2009/5/26/1243359045015/Martin-ONeill-003.jpg"> <media:credit scheme="urn:ebu">Clive Rose/Getty Images</media:credit> <media:description>Martin O'Neill is a manager in demand Photograph: Clive Rose/Getty Images</media:description> </media:content> <media:content height="276" type="image/jpeg" width="460" url="http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Football/Pix/pictures/2009/5/26/1243359043386/Martin-ONeill-001.jpg"> <media:credit scheme="urn:ebu">Clive Rose/Getty Images</media:credit> <media:description>Martin O'Neill was sent off during Aston Villa's match against Malaga. Photograph: Clive Rose/Getty Images</media:description> </media:content> </item> <item> <title>Assisted suicide: The ball is now in the politicians' court</title> <link>http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/jul/31/law-lords-ruling-assisted-suicide</link> <description>&lt;div class="track"&gt;&lt;img alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.20.3/26686?ns=guardian&amp;pageName=Assisted+suicide%3A+The+ball+is+now+in+the+politicians%27+court%3AArticle%3A1256150&amp;ch=UK+news&amp;c4=Law+%28News%29%2CUK+news%2CAssisted+suicide+%28Society%29%2CSociety%2CPolitics%2CHouse+of+Lords&amp;c6=Afua+Hirsch&amp;c8=1256150&amp;c9=Article&amp;c10=News&amp;c11=UK+news&amp;c13=&amp;c25=&amp;c30=content&amp;h2=GU%2FUK+news%2FLaw" width="1" height="1" /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p&gt;Yesterday's decision forced swift action from the director of public prosecutions, but also gave parliamentarians much to think about in settling issues around the assisted suicidelaw. Keir Starmer, the DPP, made clear that he would, in the first instance, set out in detail the factors taken into account in favour of, or against, prosecution. That process will be followed by a more detailed permanent policy next spring.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;But while the law lords' decision has set prosecutors to work on a policy on assisted suicide, it is outside their constitutional power to dictate its content, or to cause parliament to respond.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Politicians must decide whether the existing 1961 Suicide Act needs to be revisited. Peers said yesterday that a further private member's bill proposing to change the law seemed certain.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;However, there is no doubt the ruling marks also a legal turning point for assisted suicide, and for human rights law on which Debbie Purdy heavily relied. Purdy said that the lack of clarity on the likelihood of her husband's prosecution violated article 8 of the European convention on human rights – the right to a private and family life.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The law lords paid great attention to the "dilemma" facing those in Purdy's predicament – where the risk of prosecution if her husband accompanies her could compromise her ability to have the death of her choosing. "[People in Purdy's] situation have chosen to travel without close family members to avoid the risk of their being prosecuted", said Lord Hope. "Others have given up the idea of an assisted suicide altogether and have been left to die what has been described as a distressing and undignified death. It is patently obvious that the issue is not going to go away."&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The law lords were clear that the right to a private and family life encompasses the right to autonomy – extending to the manner of one's death. But in the 2002 case of Diane Pretty, the first time the Lords considered the questionof assisted suicide, they refused to recognise the application of those rights to questions of dying.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;That refusal was overturned by the European court of human rights. "In an era of growing medical sophistication combined with longer life expectancies, many people are concerned that they should not be forced to linger on in old age or in states of advanced physical or mental decrepitude which conflict with strongly held ideas of self and personal identity" the Strasbourg court ruled.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The judgment marks a willingness by the UK's highest court to revisit the issue of the scope of an individual's rights when it comes to their death.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The case is also a reflection on changing views on suicide. In the Pretty case Lord Bingham spoke of "the undesirability of anything which could appear to encourage suicide", citing concern that a change in the law on assisted suicide might encourage the elderly to take their lives.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;But yesterday Baroness Hale took a different approach. "It is not for society to tell people what to value about their own lives", she said. "If we are serious about protecting autonomy we have to accept that autonomous individuals have different views about what makes their lives worth living". &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Afua Hirsch is the Guardian's legal affairs correspondent&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class="related" style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"&gt;&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/law"&gt;Law&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/assisted-suicide"&gt;Assisted suicide&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/lords"&gt;House of Lords&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="guRssAdvert"&gt;&lt;a href="http://ads.guardian.co.uk/click.ng/richmedia=yes&amp;site=News&amp;spacedesc=rss&amp;system=rss&amp;transactionID=12489996052867174973042177588668"&gt;&lt;img src="http://ads.guardian.co.uk/image.ng/richmedia=yes&amp;site=News&amp;spacedesc=rss&amp;system=rss&amp;transactionID=12489996052867174973042177588668" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="terms"&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk"&gt;guardian.co.uk&lt;/a&gt; &amp;copy; Guardian News &amp; Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our &lt;a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html"&gt;Terms &amp; Conditions&lt;/a&gt; | &lt;a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/help/feeds"&gt;More Feeds&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p style="clear:both" /&gt;</description> <category domain="http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk">Law</category> <category domain="http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk">UK news</category> <category domain="http://www.guardian.co.uk/society">Assisted suicide</category> <category domain="http://www.guardian.co.uk/society">Society</category> <category domain="http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics">Politics</category> <category domain="http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics">House of Lords</category> <category domain="http://www.guardian.co.uk/publication">The Guardian</category> <category domain="http://www.guardian.co.uk/tone">News</category> <pubDate>Thu, 30 Jul 2009 23:05:54 GMT</pubDate> <guid>http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/jul/31/law-lords-ruling-assisted-suicide</guid> <dc:creator>Afua Hirsch</dc:creator> <dc:subject>UK news</dc:subject> <dc:date>2009-07-30T23:05:54Z</dc:date> <dc:type>Article</dc:type> </item> <item> <title>BBC on collision course with FA over free-to-air internationals</title> <link>http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2009/jul/31/home-nations-fa-bbc-itv-sky</link> <description>&lt;div class="track"&gt;&lt;img alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.20.3/33369?ns=guardian&amp;pageName=BBC+on+collision+course+with+FA+over+free-to-air+internationals%3AArticle%3A1256117&amp;ch=Football&amp;c4=England+football+team%2CScotland+football+team%2CNorthern+Ireland+football+team%2CWales+football+team%2CWorld+Cup+2010+%28Football%29%2CFootball%2CSport%2CBBC%2CITV%2CBSkyB%2CESPN%2CMedia&amp;c6=Owen+Gibson&amp;c8=1256117&amp;c9=Article&amp;c10=News&amp;c11=Football&amp;c13=&amp;c25=&amp;c30=content&amp;h2=GU%2FFootball%2FEngland" width="1" height="1" /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p&gt;• BBC and ITV want qualifying matches involving home nations&lt;br /&gt;• Such a move would be opposed by pay-tv broadcasters:&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;The BBC hasset itself on a collision course with the Football Association by joining ITV in calling for all qualifying matches involving home nations to be reserved for live broadcast on free-to-air television.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;In its submission to the government's review of the so-called "crown jewels" list of sporting events reserved for broadcast free to air, being conducted by a panel led by former FA executive director David Davies, the BBC also called for Six Nations and autumn rugby internationals in Wales to be added to the list.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;"We suggest the advisory panel considers adding to the A List … the live nations' home and away qualifiers for the World Cup and European Championship [in each nation]. We feel this strikes a balance between public sentiment and market impact," it said.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;But mandating all the home associations to only sell their rights to free-to-air broadcasters would drastically reduce competition in the market and thus drive down prices. Such a move would also be opposed by Sky, ESPN and other pay-TV broadcasters. Under its current deal, the FA realised £425m from ITV and Setanta, although it is now faced with retendering part of the contract following the collapse of the pay-TV broadcaster.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The BBC has commissioned a weighty survey to support its call for the list to be maintained, arguing that ensuring events such as the World Cup, Olympics and the FA Cup final remained on free-to-air television benefits society as a whole. Its research shows that one in five adults claim that watching at least one sport on TV motivated them to participate. As revealed by the Guardian earlier this month, the BBC has decided not to call for the return of Test cricket to the "A-list" of events that must be shown live on free-to-air TV, partly due to scheduling problems. Instead, it asks for the Cricket World Cup final and World Twenty20 final to be added to the list. That was a compromise solution favoured by former culture secretary Andy Burnham, but he has since been replaced by Ben Bradshaw.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The review has triggered a frantic round of lobbying from broadcasters on both sides of the debate, and from sports bodies that would like to see the rules liberalised. Uefa and Fifa have argued they should be free to sell group stage matches during major tournaments that do not involve home nations to the highest bidder.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;"The list works. Why would you want to mess with something that works. There is a lot of lobbying going on from some very powerful people. We have to hope the panel will stand up to Uefa, Fifa, the IOC and Sky," said Dominic Coles, the chief operating officer of BBC Journalism.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;"This isn't about what is best for the BBC, it's about what is best for the British public. You could end up with the World Cup taking place in England in 2018 and a quarter-final between Brazil and Argentina only available on Sky."It is understood that the BBC considered calling for the Ashes alone to be listed, but decided against it in light of the fact the next available series would not be until 2017 and in acknowledgement that the market had moved on since the England and Wales Cricket Board agreed an exclusive £300m deal with Sky for live action, sparking a bitter war of words with the corporation.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class="related" style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"&gt;&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/england"&gt;England&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/scotland"&gt;Scotland&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/northernireland"&gt;Northern Ireland&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/wales"&gt;Wales&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/worldcup2010"&gt;World Cup 2010&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/bbc"&gt;BBC&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/ITV"&gt;ITV&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/bskyb"&gt;BSkyB&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/espn"&gt;ESPN&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="guRssAdvert"&gt;&lt;a href="http://ads.guardian.co.uk/click.ng/richmedia=yes&amp;site=Football&amp;spacedesc=rss&amp;system=rss&amp;transactionID=12489996052904391785869269330918"&gt;&lt;img src="http://ads.guardian.co.uk/image.ng/richmedia=yes&amp;site=Football&amp;spacedesc=rss&amp;system=rss&amp;transactionID=12489996052904391785869269330918" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="terms"&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk"&gt;guardian.co.uk&lt;/a&gt; &amp;copy; Guardian News &amp; Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our &lt;a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html"&gt;Terms &amp; Conditions&lt;/a&gt; | &lt;a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/help/feeds"&gt;More Feeds&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p style="clear:both" /&gt;</description> <category domain="http://www.guardian.co.uk/football">England</category> <category domain="http://www.guardian.co.uk/football">Scotland</category> <category domain="http://www.guardian.co.uk/football">Northern Ireland</category> <category domain="http://www.guardian.co.uk/football">Wales</category> <category domain="http://www.guardian.co.uk/football">World Cup 2010</category> <category domain="http://www.guardian.co.uk/football">Football</category> <category domain="http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport">Sport</category> <category domain="http://www.guardian.co.uk/media">BBC</category> <category domain="http://www.guardian.co.uk/media">ITV</category> <category domain="http://www.guardian.co.uk/media">BSkyB</category> <category domain="http://www.guardian.co.uk/media">ESPN</category> <category domain="http://www.guardian.co.uk/media">Media</category> <category domain="http://www.guardian.co.uk/publication">The Guardian</category> <category domain="http://www.guardian.co.uk/tone">News</category> <pubDate>Thu, 30 Jul 2009 23:05:49 GMT</pubDate> <guid>http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2009/jul/31/home-nations-fa-bbc-itv-sky</guid> <dc:creator>Owen Gibson</dc:creator> <dc:subject>Football</dc:subject> <dc:date>2009-07-30T23:05:49Z</dc:date> <dc:type>Article</dc:type> <media:content height="84" type="image/jpeg" width="140" url="http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Football/Pix/pictures/2009/3/28/1238265551871/David-Beckham-in-action-f-003.jpg"> <media:credit scheme="urn:ebu">Mike Egerton/Empics Sport/PA Photos</media:credit> <media:description>David Beckham in action for England against Slovakia. Photograph: Mike Egerton/Empics Sport/PA Photos</media:description> </media:content> <media:content height="276" type="image/jpeg" width="460" url="http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Football/Pix/pictures/2009/3/28/1238265550023/David-Beckham-in-action-f-001.jpg"> <media:credit scheme="urn:ebu">Mike Egerton/Empics Sport/PA Photos</media:credit> <media:description>The BBC and ITV want the FA to give them qualifying matches involving the home nations. Photograph: Mike Egerton/Empics Sport/PA Photos</media:description> </media:content> </item> <item> <title>Bank regulation reform 'needs to be more radical'</title> <link>http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/jul/31/banking-financial-services-authority-fsa</link> <description>&lt;div class="track"&gt;&lt;img alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.20.3/47113?ns=guardian&amp;pageName=Bank+regulation+reform+%27needs+to+be+more+radical%27%3AArticle%3A1256129&amp;ch=Business&amp;c4=Banking+%28Business%29%2CFinancial+Services+Authority+%28FSA%29%2CBank+of+England+%28Business%29%2CFinancial+crisis+%28Business%29%2CMervyn+King%2CCredit+crunch+%28Business%29%2CSavings+%28Money%29%2CMoney%2CNorthern+Rock+%28Business%29%2CGeorge+Osborne%2CVincent+Cable%2CBusiness%2CPolitics&amp;c6=Phillip+Inman&amp;c8=1256129&amp;c9=Article&amp;c10=News&amp;c11=Business&amp;c13=&amp;c25=&amp;c30=content&amp;h2=GU%2FBusiness%2FBanking" width="1" height="1" /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p&gt;Cosmetic banking regulation reforms will not end muddle, says Treasury select committee&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;An opportunity to impose fundamental reforms on banks at the heart of the credit crunch is being lost as ministers indulge in "cosmetic" reforms that do little to end the muddle of financial regulation, a powerful group of MPs says today.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The Treasury select committee has accused the government of rushing to endorse the current regulatory system, with minor adjustments, before considering the remedies needed to keep banks from returning to reckless dealmaking and lending.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;In a hard-hitting report released today, the all-party group of MPs said it was unacceptable to allow banks to grow in value to several times the national income and be "too big to fail". Instead the government's approach should be based on there being no banks that are "too big to save'".&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;John McFall, chairman of the committee said: "The tripartite structure of regulation is in a state of flux at the moment: change and coordination are clearly needed to clarify responsibilities, but the picture is constantly moving. Institutional reforms should wait until the macroprudential tools themselves have been designed. When the dust settles though, we cannot afford to have any ambiguity over who is in charge, and who is responsible if something goes wrong."&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Opposition parties endorsed the committee's criticisms, which they said revealed a government quick to cover up its past mistakes with a hurried review of the problem and a &lt;a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/jul/07/banking-regulation-mortgages-pensions" title="White paper on banking reform"&gt;white paper &lt;/a&gt;containing only minor reforms.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Conservative Treasury spokesman George Osborne recently called for banks to be broken up and &lt;a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/jul/20/george-osborne-banking-reform-fsa" title="Osborne plan"&gt;regulation of the sector to be shifted to the Bank of England&lt;/a&gt;. As part of sweeping reforms of City regulation, he said the Financial Services Authority should be disbanded.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;However, the committee, which has a Labour majority, conspicuously refused to back these proposals, calling instead for a more sophisticated solution.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Despite almost two years of persistent criticism of the FSA, the committee agreed that a radical overhaul under new chairman Lord Turner had put the main City watchdog in the running to maintain its status. Unlike the Tories and the government, it argued that a decision on which agencies monitor banks should be delayed until there was agreement on the eventual size and scope of the banks that have an implicit government guarantee.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Vincent Cable, Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesman, said the report showed the folly of Tory plans to abolish the FSA. "The committee is right to say that more fundamental issues need to be agreed before rushing to scrap the FSA," he said.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;McFall said increasing the amount of banks' capital may on its own prevent a repeat of the crisis, "but we should not rule out more drastic action, such as forcibly shrinking the banks or separating out the riskier functions".&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The chancellor, Alistair Darling, said in the white paper last month that he wanted to re-establish Britain's banking sector on a sound financial footing and put in place higher capital requirements to prevent a repeat of the crisis.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;However, he ruled out a cap on bankers' pay or breaking up the biggest City institutions. He pointed to the importance of 1m jobs in financial services and the £250bn of tax generated by the sector in the past nine years when he rejected demands for major reforms also called for by the Bank of England governor Mervyn King.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The Treasury select committee has largely supported King's criticisms of the banks and regulation before the collapse of Northern Rock in September 2007. MPs on the committee said they were dismayed King had been excluded from drafting the white paper.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;"The committee was extremely perturbed by the evidence from the governor of the Bank of England that he &lt;a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/blog/2009/jul/16/gordon-brown" title="King kept in the dark "&gt;was kept in the dark &lt;/a&gt;over the contents of the white paper to the extent that he had 'no idea' what it would contain, or even when it would be published, only a fortnight before publication," the report said.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;This sense that the tri-partite group of regulators was already a dysfunctional unit, with the Bank of England governor excluded from major decisions, was deeply concerning, the committee said.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class="related" style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"&gt;&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/banking"&gt;Banking&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/financial-services-authority-fsa"&gt;Financial Services Authority (FSA)&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/bankofenglandgovernor"&gt;Bank of England&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/financial-crisis"&gt;Financial crisis&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/mervyn-king"&gt;Mervyn King&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/credit-crunch"&gt;Credit crunch&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/savings"&gt;Savings&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/northern-rock"&gt;Northern Rock&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/georgeosborne"&gt;George Osborne&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/vincentcable"&gt;Vincent Cable&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="guRssAdvert"&gt;&lt;a href="http://ads.guardian.co.uk/click.ng/richmedia=yes&amp;site=Business&amp;spacedesc=rss&amp;system=rss&amp;transactionID=12489996052951219387884063522480"&gt;&lt;img src="http://ads.guardian.co.uk/image.ng/richmedia=yes&amp;site=Business&amp;spacedesc=rss&amp;system=rss&amp;transactionID=12489996052951219387884063522480" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="terms"&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk"&gt;guardian.co.uk&lt;/a&gt; &amp;copy; Guardian News &amp; Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our &lt;a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html"&gt;Terms &amp; Conditions&lt;/a&gt; | &lt;a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/help/feeds"&gt;More Feeds&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p style="clear:both" /&gt;</description> <category domain="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business">Banking</category> <category domain="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business">Financial Services Authority (FSA)</category> <category domain="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business">Bank of England</category> <category domain="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business">Financial crisis</category> <category domain="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business">Mervyn King</category> <category domain="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business">Credit crunch</category> <category domain="http://www.guardian.co.uk/money">Savings</category> <category domain="http://www.guardian.co.uk/money">Money</category> <category domain="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business">Northern Rock</category> <category domain="http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics">George Osborne</category> <category domain="http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics">Vincent Cable</category> <category domain="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business">Business</category> <category domain="http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics">Politics</category> <category domain="http://www.guardian.co.uk/publication">The Guardian</category> <category domain="http://www.guardian.co.uk/tone">News</category> <pubDate>Thu, 30 Jul 2009 23:05:28 GMT</pubDate> <guid>http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/jul/31/banking-financial-services-authority-fsa</guid> <dc:creator>Phillip Inman</dc:creator> <dc:subject>Business</dc:subject> <dc:date>2009-07-30T23:05:28Z</dc:date> <dc:type>Article</dc:type> </item> <item> <title>It's all grim news – except for the share prices</title> <link>http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/jul/31/share-prices-ftse-market-forces</link> <description>&lt;div class="track"&gt;&lt;img alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.20.3/2621?ns=guardian&amp;pageName=It%27s+all+grim+news+%E2%80%93+except+for+the+share+prices%3AArticle%3A1256156&amp;ch=Business&amp;c4=Market+forces+column%2CBT+Group+%28Business%29%2CRolls-Royce+Group+%28Business%29%2CFTSE%2CBusiness&amp;c6=Katie+Allen&amp;c8=1256156&amp;c9=Article&amp;c10=News&amp;c11=Business&amp;c13=&amp;c25=&amp;c30=content&amp;h2=GU%2FBusiness%2FMarket+forces+column" width="1" height="1" /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;Their outlooks are grim, cautious at best. But the companies reporting yesterday managed to surprise markets in a positive way and big swings for big names such as BT and Rolls-Royce pushed the &lt;strong&gt;FTSE 100&lt;/strong&gt; to within a whisker of its highest close this year.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The index of leading shares ended 84.1 points, or 1.9%, higher at 4631.61 – the highest since this year's peak close of 4638.92 on January 6.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;BT&lt;/strong&gt; was the biggest riser, up more than 12% to a six-month high of 126.9p following its forecast-beating results. Engine maker &lt;strong&gt;Rolls-Royce&lt;/strong&gt; was not far behind, up 8.7% at 408p as predictions of a slow recovery in trading conditions were outweighed by rising profits.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Early gains for the FTSE after the morning rush of company news were extended in afternoon trading when Wall Street opened in a bright mood on the back of positive results from mobile phone maker Motorola.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Economic data also highlighted an upbeat mood in equity markets, with traders on both sides of the Atlantic apparently determined to put a positive spin on almost any news out yesterday.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;US government data showed that the number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits rose slightly more than expected last week. But the markets focused on the four-week moving average, considered to be a better gauge of underlying trends, which fell to the lowest level since late January.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;That helped lift the Dow Jones industrial average more than 1.5% to above 9221 by the time London closed. Amid the confident mood, market players foresee more rises for the FTSE 100.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;"The next big test for the London market will be the 4700 level – the one that successfully stopped rallies in the last quarter of 2008," said David Jones, chief market strategist at IG Index. "But the way momentum is at the moment, and with the ease that US markets have shrugged off the downbeat jobs news this afternoon, traders and investors alike seem happy to take the view that there are even more gains to come."&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Further down the market, mid-cap &lt;strong&gt;United Business Media &lt;/strong&gt;was under pressure, falling almost 4% to 371.25p ahead of its results today and weighed down by rival &lt;strong&gt;Reed Elsevier&lt;/strong&gt;'s woes.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Reed was the biggest FTSE 100 faller, down 12.6% at 420p. &lt;strong&gt;BAE Systems&lt;/strong&gt; was next, down 4.9% at 312p as news of a sharp rise in its pension deficit overshadowed in-line earnings and an upbeat outlook.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;a href="mailto:katie.allen@guardian.co.uk" title=""&gt;&lt;em&gt;katie.allen@guardian.co.uk&lt;/em&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class="related" style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"&gt;&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/marketforces"&gt;Market forces column&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/btgroup"&gt;BT&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/rollsroycegroup"&gt;Rolls-Royce&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/ftse"&gt;FTSE&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="guRssAdvert"&gt;&lt;a href="http://ads.guardian.co.uk/click.ng/richmedia=yes&amp;site=Business&amp;spacedesc=rss&amp;system=rss&amp;transactionID=12489996052983990622082804992703"&gt;&lt;img src="http://ads.guardian.co.uk/image.ng/richmedia=yes&amp;site=Business&amp;spacedesc=rss&amp;system=rss&amp;transactionID=12489996052983990622082804992703" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="terms"&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk"&gt;guardian.co.uk&lt;/a&gt; &amp;copy; Guardian News &amp; Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our &lt;a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html"&gt;Terms &amp; Conditions&lt;/a&gt; | &lt;a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/help/feeds"&gt;More Feeds&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p style="clear:both" /&gt;</description> <category domain="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business">Market forces column</category> <category domain="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business">BT</category> <category domain="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business">Rolls-Royce</category> <category domain="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business">FTSE</category> <category domain="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business">Business</category> <category domain="http://www.guardian.co.uk/publication">The Guardian</category> <category domain="http://www.guardian.co.uk/tone">News</category> <pubDate>Thu, 30 Jul 2009 23:05:18 GMT</pubDate> <guid>http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/jul/31/share-prices-ftse-market-forces</guid> <dc:creator>Katie Allen</dc:creator> <dc:subject>Business</dc:subject> <dc:date>2009-07-30T23:05:18Z</dc:date> <dc:type>Article</dc:type> </item> <item> <title>Wanted: Volunteers to grin for Britain</title> <link>http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2009/jul/30/psychologist-experiment-make-britain-happier-recession</link> <description>&lt;div class="track"&gt;&lt;img alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.20.3/31970?ns=guardian&amp;pageName=Wanted%3A+Volunteers+to+grin+for+Britain%3AArticle%3A1256014&amp;ch=Science&amp;c4=Psychology+%28Science%29%2CUK+news%2CInternet&amp;c6=Ian+Sample&amp;c8=1256014&amp;c9=Article&amp;c10=News&amp;c11=Science&amp;c13=&amp;c25=&amp;c30=content&amp;h2=GU%2FScience%2FPsychology" width="1" height="1" /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p&gt;A public experiment designed to send waves of smiles across the country hopes to banish the washed-out summertime blues&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Thousands of people are being sought to grin their way through next week as part of an ambitious attempt to lift the nation's spirits.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Volunteers will be asked to try out one of several strategies designed to make themselves more cheerful in the hope that their new-found glee spreads to those around them.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The five-day-long experiment is thought to be the first to investigate whether some techniques for boosting jollity are better than others. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;"If someone is cheerful, they tend to cheer up those around them," said Professor Richard Wiseman, a psychologist at the University of Hertfordshire. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;"If we can get enough people, perhaps we cheer up the whole UK. It's a mad idea, but it's worth a go," he said.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Wiseman is hoping to recruit at least 5,000 people to take part in the experiment which begins on Monday. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;After completing an online happiness survey, participants will be shown one of four videos describing a common mood-enhancing technique. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;One urges volunteers to force themselves to grin as they go about their daily routine. Another suggests they perform random acts of kindness, such as giving money to the homeless. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The two other mood-boosting videos encourage people to focus on something that went well in the past 24 hours, or to express gratitude for something good in their life.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Those taking part in the experiment at www.ScienceOfHappiness.co.uk will be asked to rate their mood before and after the experiment by answering a range of psychological questions.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;From previous studies, Wiseman has highlighted several tips to make people more cheerful. They include meeting up with old friends, exercising regularly and avoiding the news.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;A review of happiness research by Sonja Lyubomirsky at the University of California, Riverside, found that being cheerful made people more sociable, improved their relationships with others and even boosted their immune system.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class="related" style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"&gt;&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/psychology"&gt;Psychology&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/internet"&gt;Internet&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="guRssAdvert"&gt;&lt;a href="http://ads.guardian.co.uk/click.ng/richmedia=yes&amp;site=Science&amp;spacedesc=rss&amp;system=rss&amp;transactionID=12489996052994945844805683417390"&gt;&lt;img src="http://ads.guardian.co.uk/image.ng/richmedia=yes&amp;site=Science&amp;spacedesc=rss&amp;system=rss&amp;transactionID=12489996052994945844805683417390" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="terms"&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk"&gt;guardian.co.uk&lt;/a&gt; &amp;copy; Guardian News &amp; Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our &lt;a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html"&gt;Terms &amp; Conditions&lt;/a&gt; | &lt;a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/help/feeds"&gt;More Feeds&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p style="clear:both" /&gt;</description> <category domain="http://www.guardian.co.uk/science">Psychology</category> <category domain="http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk">UK news</category> <category domain="http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology">Internet</category> <category domain="http://www.guardian.co.uk/publication">guardian.co.uk</category> <category domain="http://www.guardian.co.uk/tone">News</category> <pubDate>Thu, 30 Jul 2009 23:05:16 GMT</pubDate> <guid>http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2009/jul/30/psychologist-experiment-make-britain-happier-recession</guid> <dc:creator>Ian Sample</dc:creator> <dc:subject>Science</dc:subject> <dc:date>2009-07-30T23:05:25Z</dc:date> <dc:type>Article</dc:type> </item> </channel> </rss>