Spain vs Italy 4-0 All Goals and Highlights (UEFA EURO 2012 FINAL )

Japan switches on Ohi nuclear reactor amid protests

Many in Japan distrust the government's assurances that nuclear power is safe

Japan has restarted the first nuclear reactor since the meltdown at the Fukushima power plant last year.

Hundreds gathered near the plant in the town of Ohi to protest against the move, which has divided public opinion.
Last month, the prime minister urged support, saying a return to nuclear power was essential for the economy.
All 50 of Japan's nuclear plants were shut after the meltdown at Fukushima, which was triggered by a tsunami and earthquake.
The crisis was regarded as the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl in 1986.
Road blocked It will take until Wednesday before the No 3 reactor at Ohi, in Fukui prefecture on the west coast, can start supplying electricity.
The reactor is expected to be fully operational by the end of the week, the operator, Kansai Electric Power Co (Kepco) says.
About 100 of the 650 protesters at the nuclear plant blocked a nearby road overnight, but a Kepco spokesman said the reactivation was not affected, according to the Reuters news agency.

The restart of the 1,180-mW reactor follows an order by Mr Noda last month authorising the reactivation of both it and another reactor at Ohi - No 4 - following stress tests. Reactor No 4 is to be restarted on 14 July.
At the time, he called on the Japanese to support the move, saying it was needed to bolster the economy and prevent energy shortages over the summer.
The decision was welcomed by businesses who had voiced concern over the lack of power for industry.
Dissent On Friday, tens of thousands took part in anti-nuclear rallies in Tokyo outside Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda's official residence, chanting "Saikado hantai," or "No to nuclear restarts", in what correspondents say was a rare show of dissent in Japan.
The BBC's Mariko Oi, in Tokyo, says it was one of the largest demonstrations seen since the reactors at Fukushima were damaged in March 2011.

“Start Quote

The most important thing for us is sustainability of the Earth for the next generation”

Nobuhiko Shudo Tokyo protester

Reports differ on the number of attendees, but organisers say 200,000 people took part, our correspondent says.

The government is continuing to assess whether other nuclear plants are safe to be reactivated.
But demonstrators say they are not convinced by assurances over safety. They argue that Japan should take the opportunity to move to alternative energy sources.
Tokyo-based protester Nobuhiko Shudo told the BBC the problem of disposing of radioactive waste was key.
"The most important thing for us is sustainability of the Earth for the next generation so if we have some problems to keep the planet clean and beautiful, then we have to change the industrial structure" to foster alternative energy sources, he said.

Several dead in 'US drone attack' in Pakistan

Intelligence officials says a US drone strike has killed at least eight suspected fighters in North Waziristan region. Last Modified: 01 Jul 2012 10:23

Pakistani intelligence officials say a US drone strike has killed eight suspected fighters in the North Waziristan tribal region near the Afghan border. The missiles fired from an unmanned drone struck a house in Dre Nishter village early on Sunday, according to the officials. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to talk to the media. The officials said the house was being used by fighters loyal to commander Hafiz Gul Bahadur, and some foreigners were also among the dead. The US has criticised Pakistan for failing to crack down on fighters who stage attacks in Afghanistan and has stepped up drone attacks in the tribal region to combat them.

Source: Agencies

Israel's former hardline PM Yitzhak Shamir dies

Yitzhak Shamir, who served twice as Israel’s prime minister between 1983 and 1992, has died at the age of 96. As part of the hard-line wing of the Likud party, Shamir was opposed to any compromise with the Palestinians.

By News Wires (text)

 

AP - Former Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir, who clung throughout his life to the belief that Israel should hang on to territory and never trust an Arab regime, has died. He was 96 years old.
Israeli media said he died at a nursing home in Herzliya Saturday, while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a statement mourning Shamir’s death.
Shamir served as prime minister for seven years, from 1983-84 and 1986-92, leading his party to election victories twice, despite lacking much of the outward charm and charisma that characterizes many modern politicians.
Barely over five feet (1.52m) tall and built like a block of granite, Shamir projected an image of uncompromising solidity at a time when Palestinians rose up in the West Bank and Gaza, demanding an end to Israeli occupation.
Defeated in the 1992 election, he stepped down as head of the Likud party and watched from the sidelines as his successor, Yitzhak Rabin, negotiated interim land-for-peace agreements with the Palestinians.
The agreements, including Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat’s recognition of Israel, did nothing to ease his suspicion.
In a 1997 interview with the New York-based Jewish Post, he declared: “The Arabs will always dream to destroy us. I do not believe that they will recognize us as part of this region.”
He embraced the ideology of the Revisionists - that Israel is the sole owner of all of the biblical Holy Land, made up of Israel, the West Bank and Jordan.
The Labor movement, in power for Israel’s first three decades, agreed to a 1947 U.N.-proposed partition plan to allow the creation of the Jewish state alongside a Palestinian entity. To Shamir and other Revisionists, that was tantamount to treason.
In later years, asked his view of territorial compromise for peace, Shamir said often that Israel had already given up 80 percent of the Land of Israel - a reference to Jordan.
Born Yitzhak Jazernicki in Poland in 1915, he moved to pre-state Palestine in 1935. He joined Lehi, the most hardline of three Jewish movements resisting British mandatory authorities, taking over the Lehi leadership after the British killed its founder.
Captured twice, he escaped from two British detention camps and returned to resistance action. The second camp was in Djibouti, in Africa.
After Israel was founded in 1948, Shamir was in business for a few years before entering a career in Israel’s Mossad spy agency. In the mid-1960s he emerged to join the right-wing Herut party, which evolved into the present-day Likud.
Shamir succeeded Menahem Begin as prime minister in 1983 in the aftermath of Israel’s disastrous 1982 invasion of Lebanon.
His term was marked by the Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation, and the 1991 Gulf war, when Iraq fired 39 Scud missiles at Israel.
During the Gulf war, Shamir went along with American demands not to retaliate for the Iraqi missile strikes. After the war, the United States stepped up pressure to start a Middle East process that could lead in only one direction - compromise with the Arabs.
Exasperated by Shamir’s stubborn refusal to go along with their plans for a regional settlement, then-U.S. Secretary of State James Baker once went on television, recited the switchboard number of the White House and told Shamir to call when he got serious about peace.
In the end, American pressure bent even Shamir. Despite his deep mistrust of Arab intentions, he agreed to attend the 1991 Middle East peace conference in Madrid, sponsored by the United States and Russia.
Shamir hotly rejected the deals his successors made with the Palestinians, in which Israel turned over control of some West Bank land to the Palestinians.
His pleasure at the 1996 election victory of Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu soured when Netanyahu continued to negotiate with the Palestinians and carry out land-for-security deals.
Before the 1999 election, Shamir resigned from the Likud and joined a new right-wing block called National Union, headed by Begin’s son, Ze’ev Binyamin.
The party, which rejected any turnover of land to the Palestinians, won only four seats in parliament, though it had seven members of the outgoing legislature on its list.
In 2001, Shamir was given his nation’s highest civilian honor, the Israel Prize awarded annually to outstanding citizens in several fields.
No date has yet been set for a funeral.

Vince Cable calls for criminal investigation into Barclays bankers

Business secretary backs demand for police inquiry into bank fined £290m for role in manipulating City interest rates

Andrew Sparrow, political correspondent
guardian.co.uk, Sunday 1 July 2012 13.28 BST

Vince Cable said the public 'can’t understand why people are thrown into jail for petty theft and these guys just walk away'. Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/PA

Vince Cable has called for a criminal investigation into the conduct of the Barclays bankers responsible for rigging key interest rates.
The business secretary said the public would not understand why people were jailed for petty theft while bankers were getting off, "having perpetrated what looks like conspiracy".
And he said he agreed with Lord Blair, the former Metropolitan police commissioner, who said there appeared to be evidence that Barclays employees were engaged in conspiracy to defraud.
In an interview with Sky's Dermot Murnaghan, Blair said: "There have to be police inquiries into this.
"Anybody, the youngest detective, would say this is conspiracy to defraud. It can mean nothing else. And therefore someone has to launch a criminal inquiry into this behaviour."
Speaking on the same programme, Cable said "his instincts" were to agree with Blair, and that members of the public would expect a criminal investigation too.
"They just can't understand why people are thrown into jail for petty theft and these guys just walk away having perpetrated what looks like conspiracy," Cable said.
Barclays has been fined £290m in the UK and the US for its "serious, widespread" role in manipulating two City interest rates used to determine the cost of borrowing. Investigations into other banks are continuing.
In a statement to the Commons on Thursday, the chancellor, George Osborne, played down the prospects of any of those involved facing criminal prosecution because rigging Libor [the London interbank offered rate] is not a criminal offence under the City's regulatory regime.
As well as expressing his personal support for a criminal investigation, Cable said he had been told that the Serious Fraud Office was having "a fresh look" at the evidence produced by the Financial Services Authority (FSA) investigation into Barclays.
He also said there was "an awful lot of cleaning up still be be done" in the City.
In a separate interview on Sunday, on the BBC's The Andrew Marr Show, Lord Turner, the chairman of the FSA, said regulation needed to be tightened "considerably" in this field.
"If you go back over 20 years, we started with, in these sort of areas, a very light-touch, self-regulatory approach. And slowly over the last 15 years or so we have toughened our approach," Turner said.
"The 1997 act was a toughening. Further steps were made a few years ago to give us the ability to bring criminal charges in particular areas of market abuse. But they did not cover the Libor market.
"I think we now have to look further and see whether we should strengthen these powers considerably on top of what we have now got at the moment."
Osborne told MPs last week the government would consider creating new criminal sanctions "for the directors of failed banks where there is proven criminal negligence".
Turner said he also understood the government would accept an FSA proposal saying that in future, if a bank fails, there should be a presumption against the directors being allowed to carry on working in the industry again.

Controversy hits France's crackdown on drink driving

A new French law that came into force on Sunday July 1 demands all motorists in France, including tourists, to carry a breathalyser kit in their vehicle. Opponents of the ruling say it is more about lining pockets than saving lives.

By FRANCE 24 (text)

A new French law came into force Sunday forcing drivers to carry a breathalyser kit in the car at all times.
But just days before the new law came into force, a road safety group was accused of trying to profit from the law.
It has emerged that the chief of the road safety group that persuaded Nicolas Sarkozy’s government to adopt the ruling is also a senior executive with the leading manufacturer of the blow-in-the-bag test kits.
French daily Sud Ouest revealed on Wednesday that Daniel Orgeval, the president of the anti-drink driving lobby group I-Test, also works for Contralco, the leading manufacturer of the equipment.
I-Test was formed just eight months before Sarkozy’s government adopted the new law in March last year.
Contralco, one of only two companies who produce a test-kit of the required standard, was reportedly in financial difficulties until the law was approved. But since then it has taken on over 100 staff, thanks in no small part to a demand for five million test kits a month.
Sud Ouest’s exposure of Orgeval’s double role has led to an angry response from other motorist groups.
“Everyone is a winner except the road user,” said Chantal Perrichon of the French League against Road Violence.
Perrichon told Europe 1 radio station the breathalyser only serves to “make the manufacturers rich”.
“They used their address book and they achieved their goal and you can only congratulate them,” Perrichon said sarcastically. “But the 37 million drivers who are forced to buy the chemical breath tests can only lament the government’s inability to make the right choice.”
€11 fine
Former President Sarkozy had vowed to cut the number of deaths on France’s roads, nearly a third of which are due to drink-driving, according to France’s road safety authority. In the UK the number stands at 17 percent and in Germany at 12 percent.
Orgeval hit back at his critics on Wednesday, claiming he had acted completely within the law.
“We play a proactive role,” Orgeval told Europe 1. “If this is lobbying then I say yes, because we lobbied for road safety and for road users. And if it helps create jobs for a French company then so much the better.”
The law is aimed at encouraging drivers to test themselves before driving. The drink-driving limit in France is set at 50mg of alcohol in 100ml of blood, which is lower than the legal limit in Britain (80mg/100ml).
Critics of the scheme say the test kits do not give accurate readings and are worthless because most drivers who pose a risk will know they are over the limit without blowing into a bag.
Anyone caught without a breathalyser kit in their car will be liable for an €11 on-the-spot fine, although a period of grace means those motorists who flout the law will not be forced to pay the penalty until November.
Tourists visiting France from Britain have been warned to purchase the kits before they arrive in France as police have threatened to crack down on the major routes leading to and from France’s ports.

Date created : 27/06/2012 

Anti-poverty candidate leads as presidential poll kicks off

Mexico

Mexico votes Sunday to elect a new president, with the Institutional Revolutionary Party candidate leading on an anti-poverty platform that makes little mention of the drug violence that has plagued the tenure of outgoing President Felipe Calderon.

 

By News Wires (text)

 

AFP - Voters in Mexico, tired of rampant drug violence and 12 years of conservative leaders, go to the polls Sunday to elect a new president -- likely the candidate from the party that ruled for decades.
Pre-vote surveys show Enrique Pena Nieto -- the well-coiffed, dapper-dressed candidate for the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) -- heading for a slam-dunk victory in the country of 112 million people.
"My priority will be to battle the poverty in our country at its roots," Pena Nieto, a former state governor, told a cheering crowd at his final campaign stop Wednesday in Toluca, just west of Mexico City.

Mexico elections 2012 MEXICO-USA Can twin elections spell change along Rio Grande? MEXICO Critics fear PRI party revival in Mexico MEXICO Mexico student protests trip up presidential frontrunner

Hundreds of party candidates are likely to benefit from Pena Nieto's predicted electoral tidal wave.
The candidate did not mention the violence plaguing the country, which has left more than 50,000 dead since outgoing President Felipe Calderon deployed the military to crack down on drug cartels in late 2006.
Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador from the leftist Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) still believes he can pull an upset by attracting voters who want to prevent the PRI from returning to power.
For decades synonymous with the Mexican state, the PRI governed through a mix of lavish patronage and selective repression, and by isolating political foes through rigged elections and skewed media coverage.
Peru's Mario Vargas Llosa once dubbed it "the perfect dictatorship."
Lopez Obrador would know: he is one of the prominent left-wing PRI members who split with the party after the controversial 1988 election and co-founded the PRD.
The PRI was in power for 71 years until 2000, when Vicente Fox from the conservative National Action Party was elected president. Fox was followed by Calderon, a fellow PAN member.
Lopez Obrador, often referred to by his initials AMLO, lost the 2006 presidential vote by less than one percentage point.
Outraged at perceived voter fraud, he closed down Mexico City with street protests for more than a month.

MEXICO Female candidate stirs up Mexican presidency battle

This year a kinder, gentler Lopez Obrador, now 58, talked about leading a "republic of love" on the campaign trail. Critics laughed, but in the last weeks support among voters for AMLO began to rise.
In order to win, Lopez Obrador will need to peel votes away from PAN candidate Josefina Vazquez Mota -- an unlikely task, given their divergent political philosophies.
Vazquez Mota, 51, is the first female presidential candidate of a major Mexican party, but her campaign failed to excite voters, in part because she lacked bold proposals and in part due to her association with the unpopular Calderon, who by law cannot run for re-election.
It is hard for Pena Nieto, 45, not to shine with his glamorous TV star wife on his arm and three gorgeous children in tow when compared to his older, lackluster rivals.
Pena Nieto is a former governor of the densely populated state of Mexico. He is married to Angelica Rivera, star of the hit telenovela "Distilled Love," and ran a model campaign with tightly-staged photo ops and slick ads.
Neither his bland performance in two televised presidential debates, nor a student movement prematurely dubbed the "Mexican Spring," nor leaked documents alleging that he paid for years of glowing media coverage dented Pena Nieto's lead in the polls.
Even though security is a top concern in Mexico -- where in vast regions kidnappings are rampant, drug hits are common and gang warfare has left a grisly trail of dismembered bodies -- the candidates have only proposed slight modifications to Calderon's disliked policies.