I want to beat Usain Bolt-GATLIN
The lure of beating undisputed sprint champion Usain Bolt has become the driving force behind American Justin Gatlin's training during the tough winter months.
The 30-year-old former Olympic champion is valiantly attempting to rebuild a career tainted by a four-year doping ban, and is using the quest to defeat the outstanding Bolt as his motivation.
He made the podium at the London Olympics this year, finishing third behind champion Bolt and Yohan Blake in the 100 metres.
"I want to beat Bolt. He's a stellar athlete but I think I can step up to the plate," a hopeful Gatlin said.
"He's the incentive to train even more for this season, him and the year I had last year when I only got beat one or two times. I've got world champion blood in me. It's not about times but about running to the line, being the first across it."
Another showdown with the Jamaican pair of Bolt and Blake looms at the World Championships in Moscow next August.
Tame finish
Gatlin is already familiar with the taste of World Championship glory, having taken the double at the 2005 edition in Helsinki when Bolt was not yet on the international radar.
His 2012 season finished tamely as he fought off illness, and after taking some time off to spend with family, he is ready to take aim at Bolt again.
"I've got the Gatlin guns to throw at the Lightning Bolt and the Beast (Blake), and Tyson Gay ...," Gatlin stressed.
His fall from grace through the doping scandal has not diminished his love for the sport. In fact, Gatlin said he is as motivated as ever to return to the pinnacle of athletics, despite the residual criticism stemming from the scandal.
"For me, running is an outer-body experience. It's like this crazy rush of blood and you zap back into your body at the end of it," he explained. "I want to compete until I can compete no more."
(CMC)
Barry strikes late for Man City
Gareth Barry struck in stoppage time yesterday to ensure Manchester City kept the pressure on Manchester United in the Premier League title race with 1-0 victory over Reading.
The defending champions were being frustrated by bottom-place Reading until Barry rose over Nicky Shorey to head in David Silva's cross.
"It's more important to score early on in games," City manager Roberto Mancini said. "My heart is not strong for these late goals."
City are three points behind United ahead of the leaders' match at Swansea today.
"It was difficult clearly, because we had a lot of possession and had the chances but didn't score," Mancini said. "Our supporters know we try until the last seconds - always."
In the tight tussle for the four Champions League spots, Arsenal climbed to third ahead of Everton, Tottenham and West Bromwich Albion on goal difference.
Mikel Arteta's penalty on the hour clinched Arsenal's 1-0 victory at relegation-threatened Wigan after Jean Beausejour was adjudged to have brought down Theo Walcott.
"It looked very, very soft because it's difficult to tell if there is contact or not," Wigan manager Roberto Martinez said.
But it gave resurgent Arsenal a third consecutive league win for the first time this season.
"We didn't find the same fluency going forward," Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger said. "And it was much more a win because we wanted the result than because we dominated the game."
Everton relied on a fortuitous goal to win 2-1 at West Ham, with Kevin Nolan's clearance from Leon Osman's cross inadvertently coming off Steven Pienaar in the 73rd minute.
Everton's comeback began 10 minutes earlier when Victor Anichebe's header canceled out a first-half goal from Carlton Cole, who was sent off shortly after the equaliser for a high-footed challenge on Leighton Baines.
Everton had midfielder Darron Gibson sent off in stoppage time, but held on to go fourth.
Tottenham have an inferior goal difference to Everton's and strikers Emmanuel Adebayor and Jermain Defoe were both frustrated against a stubborn Stoke side at White Hart Lane.
But West Brom's recent slump was halted by a 2-1 victory that ended Norwich's 10-match unbeaten run.
Romelu Lukaku headed in the late winner after Zoltan Gera ended West Brom's near six-hour goal drought just before the break to cancel out Robert Snodgrass' opener for Norwich.
While West Brom are sixth, seventh-place Chelsea can return to third with a victory over Aston Villa today.
In the relegation dogfight, Queens Park Rangers are five points behind Wigan but a point ahead of bottom-place Reading despite Harry Redknapp's unbeaten start as manager ended with a 1-0 loss to Newcastle.
Players' salaries
QPR only won their first match of the season last weekend against Fulham, and Redknapp is unhappy with the size of some players' salaries.
"There are a lot of players at this club who earn far too much money for what they are; far, far, far too much money for their ability and what they give to the club," Redknapp said. "I don't really want to see the owners have their pants taken down like they have in the past. There's a lot of agents made money out of them."
Fulham's loss to QPR was followed by a 4-0 drubbing at Liverpool yesterday, which enabled the Anfield outfit to climb to eighth in the standings.
Stewart Downing scored his first Premier League goal since joining Liverpool before the 2011-12 season.
The winger scored Liverpool's third goal at the start of the second half after setting up captain Steven Gerrard's strike before the break.
Martin Skrtel had put Liverpool ahead after just eight minutes while top-scorer Luis Suarez side-footed home his 14th goal of the season in stoppage time.
Messi scores 91st goal of yearin Barcelona win
Lionel Messi polished off his record year with his 91st and final goal of 2012 in Barcelona's 3-1 win at Valladolid yesterday, which the team dedicated to ailing coach Tito Vilanova.
Messi scored in the 59th by dribbling between a defender's legs before making it 2-0 after Xavi Hernandez had opened the scoring two minutes before half-time.
Barcelona's players wore T-shirts before the game with messages of support for Vilanova, who had throat surgery to remove a second tumour in two years on Thursday.
Barcelona remained perfect in nine away games and extended their record league start with their 16th win in 17 rounds.
US fiscal cliff: Boehner still hopes for deal
Republicans will keep working to avoid the so-called fiscal cliff of tax rises and spending cuts, House Speaker John Boehner has said.
Earlier, right-leaning Republicans rejected a plan by Mr Boehner to raise taxes on higher earners.
Mr Boehner said "significant spending cuts and real tax reforms" were needed.
President Barack Obama said he believed a deal could still be done to beat the 1 January deadline, and called for everyone to "give a little bit".
Analysts say the Republicans' rejection of Mr Boehner's plan has weakened his position in negotiations with the Obama administration.
Mr Boehner's plan would have had little chance of passing a Senate vote.
It was seen as an effort to tell the US public that the Republicans should not be blamed if a deal could not be reached.
The House is controlled by the Republicans, but the Senate is Democrat-led.
At a news conference, Mr Boehner conceded the House's failure to take up the tax bill was not the outcome that he wanted.
He said "God only knows" how the cliff would be avoided, but Republicans would keep working on a plan to protect families and small businesses.
"We only run the House. Democrats continue to run Washington," he said.
If politicians fail to agree new fiscal rules by the end of year, steep tax rises and deep spending cuts are meant to take effect automatically.
Analysts say the resulting "fiscal cliff" could take the US into recession.
The House of Representatives is not expected to meet until after Christmas, while the Senate was due to meet only briefly on Friday.
Although Mr Boehner's proposal would have ensured a tax cut for 99.8% of Americans, it would have imposed a rise on those earning more than $1m (£600,000).
Mr Boehner said he had been unable to garner sufficient votes to secure passage of the bill.
Mr Obama initially sought tax rises for those earning more than $250,000, but later offered a compromise threshold of $400,000.
He also offered a change to the way Social Security cost of living adjustments are made for some recipients, cuts from government healthcare programmes and a two-year extension of the debt ceiling.
Mr Boehner announced his bill on Tuesday, saying he would bring forward a measure that extended Bush-era tax cuts for those earning less than $1m per year - but would not address the automatic spending cuts.
On Wednesday, the Republican leadership added a companion bill that would replace the automatic cuts with a proposal to remove cuts from defence and government operating budgets. They would be offset by reductions elsewhere in the budget.
The proposal would cut food stamps, benefits for federal workers and some social services programmes.
That bill was narrowly passed.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Mr Boehner's plans were "non-starters in the Senate", while White House spokesman Jay Carney called them a "multi-day exercise in futility at a time when we do not have the luxury of exercises in futility".
Analysts have painted a grim picture of the consequences of going over the cliff, with some warning that the impact could push the US back into recession.
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) said in its latest economic outlook that the recession from the cliff could become global.
Digicel, Marriott break ground on Haiti hotel
Construction crews on Wednesday began to build what is touted as Haiti's first four-star branded hotel, a US$45 million project expected to help boost the country's economy.
The resort will be owned by Unigestion Holding SA, a subsidiary of Digicel Group Limited, and managed by Marriott, Digicel announced last November.
The hotel will create some 200 jobs and is scheduled to open in early 2015, officials said. It will feature 175 rooms and will be located in the Turgeau area of Port-au-Prince.
The hotel is one of several planned for the capital and surrounding areas as Haiti tries to recover from a devastating 2010 earthquake that officials say killed 300,000 people.
"This is a huge vote of confidence in the future of Haiti," Prime Minister Laurent Lamothe said at the groundbreaking ceremony.
Officials said the Marriott hotel will feature a large ballroom that can seat up to 500 people.
"Not only will this be a solution to the lodging issues in the city, it will also create jobs, attract foreign visitors and communicate a positive outlook for the future of Haiti," said Denis O'Brien, chairman of Digicel Group.
Arne Sorenson, president and CEO of Marriott International, said the company also is working with Haiti's tourism and education officials to improve hospitality training.
"We believe we can make a difference in Haiti by creating jobs and developing the human talent that can help lift this country over time back to its rightful place as one of the top destinations in the Caribbean," he said.
The hotel, along with others that are still in planning stages, are not targeting tourists but rather contractors, foreign aid workers and diplomats. Many have struggled to find accommodations, with nearly 850 hotel rooms destroyed in the earthquake.
Steve Jobs' high-tech yacht impounded over bill dispute
Venus, the minimalist high-tech yacht commissioned by the late Apple founder Steve Jobs, has become embroiled in a row over a disputed bill.
French designer Philippe Starck claims Mr Jobs' heirs still owe him 3m euros of a 9m euro fee for the project, according to Dutch paper Het Financieele Dagblad.
Mr Starck called in the debt collectors and had the yacht impounded,
The Port of Amsterdam confirmed that the boat is not allowed to leave.
Jeroen Ranzijn, spokesman for the Port of Amsterdam told the BBC: "The boat is brand new but there is a 3m euro claim on it. The parties will have to fight it out."
Roelant Klaassen, a lawyer representing Mr Starck's company, Ubik, told the Reuters news agency that the boat would remain in port pending payment by lawyers representing Mr Jobs' estate.
"These guys trusted each other, so there wasn't a very detailed contract," he said.
Mr Starck was unavailable for comment.
Gerard Moussault, the lawyer representing the owners of the Venus told the BBC: "I cannot comment at all on this, sorry."
The sleek, 260ft-long (80m) aluminium super-yacht cost 105m euros ($138m; £85m) and was launched in October, at Aalsmeer, The Netherlands.
Mr Starck is known for his striking designs for the Alessi company, including an aluminium lemon squeezer that is shaped like a spaceship.
He collaborated with Steve Jobs for five years on the project, describing the boat as "showing the elegance of intelligence."
The vessel is minimalist in style and is named after the Roman goddess of love and its windows measure 3m (10 feet) in height.
Mr Starck has said that Venus "looks strange for a boat" but said its shape comes from design ideas he shared with Mr Jobs.
Mr Jobs died of pancreatic cancer in 2011 and never saw his boat go to sea.
Bank reform plans should be tougher, Banking Commission says
Government plans to ring-fence the banks - protecting retail banking from the riskier investment side - "fall well short of what is required", a report has warned.
The Banking Standards Commission wants the government to "electrify" the fence so banks won't try to "game" the rules.
That means regulators having the power to fully break up a bank if it does not follow the ring-fence proposals.
The bank reforms will go before Parliament early next year.
The Parliamentary Commission on Banking Standards, known as the Banking Commission for short, was asked by Chancellor George Osborne to study the draft version of the government's Financial Services (Banking Reform) Bill.
This follows last year's recommendation by the Independent Commission on Banking, which was led by Sir John Vickers.
Sir John concluded that ring-fencing was the best way to protect "core" retail banking activities from any future investment banking losses, such as were seen during the global financial crisis.
The Governments proposed bill hinged on three main aspects:
- ring-fencing or protecting retail banking
- ensuring that bank losses fall on bank creditors and not depositors or taxpayers
- making banks better able to absorb losses
But the government's draft legislation was a watered-down version of the Vickers report which proposed quite a high degree of separation, said Andrew Tyrie, chairman of the Banking Standards Commission.
"The proposals as they stand [in the Bill], fall well short of what is required," he said.
"What we've done with the Commission proposals is to put back some of that stiff separation into the ring-fence and then make clear that the key problem - that banks are going to be at the ring-fence all the time, which will be a nightmare for regulators - needs to be dealt with," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.
"And the way to do that is to say to banks 'If you don't try to game this ring-fence we won't see the need to separate you.'
"Then they will have a massive incentive to get to a point where banks have certainty [not to be broken up]."
"That is why we recommend electrification. The legislation needs to set out a reserve power for separation - the regulator needs to know he can use it."
Under the draft bill, ring-fencing would ensure that retail services of a struggling lender can be carried on independently and smoothly even if authorities let the rest of the group fail.
For example, in the case of a failing banking group, regulators could sell off its core activities - thereby maintaining continuity for depositors - while allowing the rest of the organisation to go through a bankruptcy process.
Secondly, retail deposits (but not pension liabilities) would be ranked ahead of the claims of other bank creditors in the event of a bank insolvency.
Thirdly, banks are to hold a sufficient capital buffer - as outlined by global regulators - which means that if banks do fail, losses can be absorbed by shareholders and other creditors rather than the taxpayer.
Ring-fenced banks would also be prohibited from carrying out a range of investment and wholesale banking activities, including the sale of complex derivatives, which are highly complicated contracts designed to hedge borrowers against certain risks but can lead to heavy losses if they go sour.
But in a concession, the Banking Commission proposal agreed to the use of simple derivatives, such as currency hedges, for banks within the ring-fenced body.
Under the draft legislation, the Treasury would have the authority to decide which banks ring-fencing should apply to, as well as specific activities to be undertaken within ring-fenced banks.
The Prudential Regulation Authority, which will become the UK's regulator for deposit-taking institutions in April under the Bank of England, would have the power to ensure the ring-fenced bank to carry on with its business.
Mr Tyrie has also called on independent reviews of the effectiveness of the ring-fence proposals across all banks to take place at least once every four years.
-BBC
Google Video executives' Italian conviction overturned
An Italian court has overturned the conviction of three Google executives found guilty of breaking Italian law by allowing a video of a bullied teenager to be posted online.
The clip was uploaded in 2006 and had featured a boy with autism.
The employees were given six-month suspended jail sentences in 2010.
Google had appealed against the ruling, saying it had removed the video within two hours of being notified by the authorities.
The three employees - global privacy counsel Peter Fleischer, chief legal officer David Drummond and former Google Italy board member George De Los Reyes - had been convicted of privacy violations, but absolved of defamation in the original case.
The offending video clip was a mobile phone upload showing four students at a school in Turin bullying the victim. Prosecutors had highlighted that it had been online for two months despite several users posting comments calling for its removal.
At the time Google had said it would be impossible to pre-screen every film posted to its sites to check their contents.
The firm described the appeal ruling as a "victory".
"We're very happy that the verdict has been reversed and our colleagues' names have been cleared," said a spokesman,
"Of course, while we're all delighted with the appeal, our thoughts continue to be with the family who have been through the ordeal."
Giovanni Maria Riccio, professor of IT Law at the University of Salerno, described the ruling as a "landmark decision" since it signalled that internet services were not obligated to monitor all their content.
Egyptian constitution 'approved' in referendum
Egyptians appear to have approved a controversial new constitution in a referendum, unofficial and preliminary results indicate.
Results reported by state media suggest that some 63% of voters backed the charter over two rounds of polling.
Critics say the document, which has triggered mass protests, betrays the revolution that toppled Hosni Mubarak.
President Mohammed Morsi's mainly Islamist supporters say it will secure democracy and encourage stability.
Official results are not expected until Monday, after appeals are heard. If the constitution passes, parliamentary elections must take place within three months.
Turnout was estimated at 30%. The opposition said voting in both rounds had been marred by abuses.
Violations in the second round on Saturday included polling stations opening late and Islamists seeking to influence voters, the opposition said.
The second round was held in the 17 provinces that did not vote in the first round on 15 December. Some 25 million people were eligible to vote.
The Islamist Muslim Brotherhood movement, which supports Mr Morsi and the new constitution, said early on Sunday that, with most second round votes counted, more than 70% were in favour.
The opposition National Salvation Front also said the "yes" vote appeared to have won, though spokesman Khaled Daoud said the Front felt "empowered".
"We proved that at least we are half of society [that] doesn't approve of all this. We will build on it," he said.
In the first round, on 15 December, turnout was reported to be just above 30% with unofficial counts suggesting some 56% of those who cast ballots voted in favour of the draft.
Opponents have said the draft constitution fails to protect the freedoms and human rights that they sought in the uprising that ended Mr Mubarak's rule last year.
They accuse the president of pushing through a text that favours Islamists and does not sufficiently protect the rights of women or Christians, who make up about 10% of the population.
One Egyptian, 19-year-old law student Ahmed Mohammed, said he voted "yes" because Egypt "needs a constitution to be stable".
But at the same polling station in Giza, south-west of the capital, 50-year-old housewife, Zarifa Abdul Aziz, said: "I will vote 'no' a thousand times. I am not comfortable with the Brotherhood and all that it is doing".
Egypt's official state news agency Mena said that at least two judges had been removed for encouraging voters to cast "yes" ballots
Just hours before voting ended on Saturday, Vice-President Mahmoud Mekki announced his resignation.
Mr Mekki, a former judge who was appointed vice-president in August, said the "nature of politics" did not suit his professional background.
Over the past month, seven of President Mohammed Morsi's 17 top advisers have resigned.
Mr Mekki said he had tried to resign on 7 November, but his decision had been delayed by the Israeli conflict in Gaza and President Morsi's controversial decree on 22 November granting himself sweeping new powers.
Mr Mekki's resignation statement indicated he had no prior knowledge of the decree, which stripped the judiciary of powers to question the president's decisions.
After an outcry, the president revoked much of the 22 November decree, but he refused to back down on the draft constitution.
The text was rushed through by a constituent assembly dominated by Islamists and boycotted by liberal and left-wing members, and facing a threat of dissolution by the country's top court.
Egypt has seen large demonstrations by both sides, which have occasionally turned violent, ever since.
South Korea Lights Border Christmas Tree
South Korea has allowed a Christian group to light a massive steel Christmas tree tower near the country's tense border with North Korea.
The holiday display is thought to be in response to North Korea's recent launching of a long-range rocket that South Korea and the U.S. say was a test of banned missile technology.
The lighted structure was decorated by church groups and will be on display until early January.
Pyongyang considers the tower to be propaganda warfare, but has not responded to this year's holiday tree lighting.
The tree was not lit last year to avoid tensions following the death of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il.