Lance Armstrong's legacy hangs over sport's future path
Lance Armstrong was ditched from the Tour de France record books on Monday but the question of whether cycling should forget his tarnished legacy or use it as a force for change must be urgently addressed.
The International Cycling Union (UCI) has ratified the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency's decision to strip Armstrong of his seven titles, leaving a crater in the Tour annals from 1999-2005.
"He deserves to be forgotten," UCI president Pat McQuaid told a news conference in front of more than a 100 journalists.
But can the retired American and his legacy really be forgotten for the sport to move on and try to forge a doping-free future?
As McQuaid said himself, his tenure as UCI president from 2005 has been riddled with doping scandals from the Floyd Landis affair in 2006 when the American was stripped of the Tour title through Alberto Contador's troubles where the Spaniard too lost his 2010 crown.
The cheats all followed in Armstrong's footsteps whether they knew the whole truth about the American or not and riders who worked with the 41-year-old are still in the peloton.
Many American riders who testified against him and themselves to USADA received reduced bans and they will be back to race having vowed never to dope again.
The USADA report also showed riders other than Armstrong who wired large sums of money to sports doctor Michele Ferrari, who was banned for life for masterminding the former rider's doping programme.
"We haven't got to this stage of looking for other stuff that's in that report," said McQuaid.
"We are also awaiting news from Padua in Italy (another investigation into an alleged doping ring) which might implicate some riders."
‘MORE ACTION’
For cycling to truly move on it has to use the Armstrong affair to further promote change rather than banish it as uncomfortable evidence of a bygone age when cheats ruled the roost.
"There must be more action to combat the system that took over the sport," Travis Tygart, the head of USADA, said in a statement.
"It is important to remember that while today is a historic day for clean sport, it does not mean clean sport is guaranteed for tomorrow.
"Only an independent Truth and Reconciliation Commission can fully start cycling on the path toward true reform and provide hope for a complete break from the past."
UCI lawyer Philippe Verbiest suggested that such a commission would be good "for all sports".
Cycling has indeed made great strides in combating doping in recent years but has received bad press because it is catching cheats, albeit sometimes slowly, while other sports struggle to match cycling's complex anti-drug procedures.
Irishman McQuaid, who confessed he never turned professional as a young rider in the 1970s because he feared he would have to dope, nevertheless sees a positive future for his beleaguered sport.
"As JF Kennedy said, quoting a Chinese saying: 'When written in Chinese, the word crisis consists in two characters: one represents danger, one represents opportunity'," he remarked.
"The fight against doping advances and the tools available to international federations in the fight against doping advance, and the tools available to us in the UCI now are much more advanced than in the early 2000s."
‘TRUE CHAMPION’
A culture shift has happened too, he believes, something born out by the strong anti-doping stances of many teams and the passionate verbal blasts handed out by 2012 Tour champion Bradley Wiggins to anyone who questioned his good faith.
"Many riders are saying they don't want to be involved in the culture of doping, even ones who were witnesses in this affair admitted they did not want to be involved. The riders today have a different attitude," McQuaid added.
"We have to have faith in the riders today, the sponsors are heavily involved in the sport ... We lost a very important sponsor, Rabobank, last week, that's true, but I'm quite confident that this sponsor will be replaced and the sponsors we have to understand what is going on."
However, cycling has been at a crossroads before and not acted sufficiently to spare it from ridicule.
In 1998, the sport was plunged into a major crisis with the Festina doping affair and it failed to prevent Armstrong from then implementing what was regarded by USADA as the most sophisticated doping programme ever seen.
The culture has also not changed completely. Some riders still regard Armstrong as a true champion.
"It was difficult for the UCI to have another response," France coach and former tour of Spain winner Laurent Jalabert told French radio station RTL.
"Anyway, he was a great champion. Whatever he could have taken, there were not that many riders at the same level. He had a huge talent. He may have made a mistake, he got caught, he has been punished for it.
"He is not the first but, whatever, he had outstanding skills."
Cycling has much more work to do.
Tropical Storm Sandy’s downpours to drench the South
The National Meteorology Office, Onamet, predicts downpours Tuesday tonight Tropical Storm Sandy, while the Emergency Operations Center (COE) issued alerts for residents in high risk areas of Barahona, Bahoruco, San Juan de la Maguana, Azua, Pedernales, Independencia, Elías Piña, Dajabón and Santiago Rodríguez provinces.
The National Hurricane Center in Miami Monday night said Sandy remained stationary in southwest Caribbean Sea, 615 kilometers south of Kingston, Jamaica, with sustained winds of 75 mph with higher gusts, and additional strengthening is forecast during the next 48 hours.
Onamet said the large cloud mass associated with the storm will bring showers and thunderstorms, especially the Southwest, Central Mountains and the border area. "The sea conditions on the Caribbean sea will become dangerous starting Tuesday.”
Apple reveals iPad Mini starting at US$329
Apple Inc is refusing to compete on price with its rivals in the tablet market — it’s pricing its new, smaller iPad well above the competition. Yesterday the company revealed the iPad Mini, with a screen that’s about two-thirds the size of the full-size model, and said it will cost US$329 and up.
Apple starts taking orders for the new model on October 26, said marketing chief Phil Schiller at an event in San Jose, California. Wi-Fi-only models on November 2. Later, the company will add models capable of accessing “LTE” wireless data networks.
The price fits into the Apple product lineup between the iPad 2 at US$399 and the latest version of the iPod touch at US$299. But company watchers had been expecting Apple to price the iPad Mini at US$250 to US$300 to counter the threat of less expensive tablets like Amazon.com Inc.’s Kindle Fire, which starts at US$159. Barnes & Noble Inc.’s Nook HD and Google Inc.’s Nexus 7 both start at US$199.
Apple shares fell US$14.83, or 2.3 per cent, to US$619.20 when the price was announced. Shares of Barnes & Noble Inc jumped 91 cents, or 6.3 per cent, to US$15.35. Shares of Amazon.com Inc were down 12 cents, or less than 0.1 per cent, at US$233.66 while the rest of the stock market was in retreat.
When pre-orders start on October 26, the iPad Mini will be competing for the attention of gadget shoppers with the release of Windows 8, Microsoft’s new operating system. The screen of the iPad Mini is 7.9 inches (20 centimetres) on the diagonal, making it larger than the 7-inch (17.7-centimetre) screens of the competitors. It also sports two cameras, on the front and on the back, which the competitors don’t.
The iPad mini is as thin as a pencil and weighs 0.68 pounds (0.31 kilograms), half as much as the full-size iPad with its 9.7-inch (24.6-centimetre) screen, Schiller said. The screen resolution is 1024 by 768 pixels, the same as the iPad 2 and a quarter of the resolution of the flagship iPad, which starts at US$499.
“It’s not just a shrunken-down iPad, it’s an entirely new design,” Schiller said. Apple’s late founder, Steve Jobs, attacked the whole idea of smaller tablets in his last appearance on a conference call with analysts, in October 2010.
“The reason we wouldn’t make a 7-inch tablet isn’t because we don’t want to hit a price point. It’s because we don’t think you can make a great tablet with a 7-inch screen,” Jobs said. “The 7-inch tablets are tweeners, too big to compete with a smartphone and too small to compete with an iPad.”
Apple senior vice president Eddy Cue had a different opinion at the time. He had come to the conclusion that a 7-inch tablet would work well, and tried to convince Jobs that it was a product the company should pursue. In an internal email sent in January 2011, he said Jobs was starting to come around. The email surfaced as part of Apple’s patent trial against Samsung Electronics Co this year. Jobs died last October.
Company watchers have been expecting the iPad Mini for a year, and most of the details, except the price, had leaked out. More surprisingly, Apple also said it’s upgrading its full-size iPad tablet just six months after launching a new model, doubling the speed of the processor. Previously, the company has updated the iPad once a year.
AP
Canada pledges more help to Jamaica
Canadian Prime Minister Steven Harper says his country will continue to pursue efforts to boost trade and investments in order to help Jamaica get out of its current economic hardships.
Harper made the disclosure yesterday morning while addressing a joint press briefing with Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller, who is on a five-day official visit to Canada.Following an impressive welcome ceremony, featuring a military parade, at the Parliament building in the Canadian capital, Ottawa, Simpson Miller and Harper met for close to 30 minutes before facing journalists.
Harper emphasised that Jamaica's best strategy is to grow its way out of the prevailing challenges and pledged to assist the country through trade, agriculture and investments in order to boost Jamaica's recovery.
Meanwhile, Simpson Miller, who is on her first visit to Canada as Jamaica's prime minister, thanked Harper and the people of Canada for their continued support to Jamaica.
In addition, she thanked Harper and the Government of Canada for using their position on the board of the International Monetary Fund to speak on Jamaica's behalf and to articulate the flaws and consequences of the decision by global financial powerhouses to continue their classification of Jamaica as a middle-income country.
That designation prevents Jamaica from accessing many benefits available to lower income countries.
Simpson Miller also spoke to the success of the employment programme, under which many Jamaican farm workers and artisans benefit from work in Canada.
After the press conference, both prime ministers met again, following which Simpson Miller was scheduled to travel to Toronto for a series of engagements with other Government representatives, members of the Canadian private sector and the 300,000-strong Jamaican diaspora.
PM to cut Canada visit short
Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller will be truncating her official four day visit to Canada to return to Jamaica given the tropical storm now threatening the island.
Finance Minister Dr Peter Phillips, making a statement in Parliament today, said the prime minister was expected in the island later this evening.
Simpson Miller, who engaged in talks with the Canadian government over the last two days, was originally expected to return to the island on Thursday.
Today Dr Phillips said she was "cutting her visit short" to return to take charge of the current hurricane preparations.
-JA.Observer
Jamaica braces for Sandy, which could ruffle South Florida later in week
A strengthening Tropical Storm Sandy, set to slam Jamaica on Wednesday as a dangerous and drenching Category 1 hurricane, also could bring foul weather to South Florida later in the week.
While Sandy’s most damaging winds were expected to remain offshore, forecasters said its sprawling outer bands could brush closely enough to put the Florida Keys and Southeast Florida under a tropical storm watch, possibly as early as Tuesday night. As Sandy churns through the Bahamas Thursday and Friday, it could spin off 25- to 35-mph winds, with gusts to 50 mph, as well as pounding, beach-chewing waves and fast-moving thunderstorms along much of the South Florida coast.
The impact could be considerably worse in Jamaica and eastern Cuba, both under hurricane warnings for the late-season storm. In Kingston, where gray clouds were darkening the sky at midday, the capital city’s streets were jammed with traffic as residents rushed to stock up on food, fill gas tanks and pick up children at schools ordered closed early.
In the northeastern parish of Portland, resident Ryan Amos joined neighbors in stocking up on canned goods and other emergency supplies. He was bracing for a direct hit from a storm that forecasters said could dump six to 12 inches across much of the mountainous island, with 20 inches or more in spots — volumes that have triggered deadly river overflows, flash floods and mudslides in past storms.
“Portland has a tendency to have massive floods throughout the parish,” Amos said. “The sense that I am getting is that people fear that this storm is going to hit us directly and no one is taking any chances.”
At 5 p.m., the National Hurricane Center said the storm, with maximum sustained winds of about 50 mph, was centered about 260 miles south-southwest of Kingston. Sandy, crawling north-northeast at 6 mph, was expected to pass over Jamaica on Wednesday, possibly as a Category 1 hurricane with 80 mph winds, and remain a hurricane as it hits eastern Cuba later that night.
The government of Cuba issued a hurricane warning for much of eastern Cuba including Guantanamo. Tropical storm warnings were posted for Haiti and the Central and Southeastern Bahamas, where the worst weather was expected to kick up Thursday.
Though its “dirty side” and strongest winds will be well out to sea, forecasters said South Florida also will feel at least some ripple effect from the storm, with the impact depending on how large Sandy’s wind field grows and how close it tracks to South Florida.
From there, Sandy’s future is less certain, said NHC forecaster Todd Kimberlain, with computer models at the moment split on whether it turns harmlessly out into the cooler Atlantic as a broad “extra-tropical’’ storm or veers more toward the upper East Coast as a major and potentially damaging “nor’easter” storm. The official track calls for the path out into the Atlantic.
Jamaica hasn’t been hit directly by a hurricane since Gilbert in 1988 but the island has endured a string of damaging and deadly strikes over the last decade, including a battering close call from Ivan in 2004 and impacts from tropical storms in 2007, 2008 and 2010.
Sandy’s projected track across the middle of the island could expose the waterfront capital city to damaging storm surge and the government warned residents in low-lying areas to prepare to evacuate. The island’s two major airports were also ordered closed by Wednesday morning.
Jamaica’s Meteorological Service also advised fishermen who spend months camping on Pedro Cays, small islands off the southern coast, to evacuate. But not everyone listened.
One woman who fishes on the Cays said only about four of approximately 100 residents had evacuated. But boats had been secured in the harbor and residents were taking refuge in ramshackle wooden shacks waiting for the storm to pass. In Haiti, puddles were already developing in the streets of flood-prone Les Cayes but the government wasn’t yet anticipating ordering the large-scale evacuations conducted during Tropical Storm Isaac.
Rain was expected across much of the country, including in rural communities in the northwest, where the ground is already saturated and more rain could isolate communities and ruin crops.
Edgar Celestin, a spokesman with Haiti’s Office of Civil Protection said the operations center would be activated Wednesday.
“We are following developments,” he said.
Miami Herald correspondent Daraine Luton
IMF talks continue in line with timetable in Jamaica
Finance and Planning Minister Dr. Peter Phillips said there is no delay in the negotiations with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the government was proceeding in accordance with the timetable originally set out.
“It is also the case that the essential outlines of the programme to be concluded with the Fund have been settled and we are at the point of discussing the contents of a draft letter of intent,” Dr. Phillips announced in Parliament today.
He said this include a programme and timetable for pension reform. Important structural benchmarks for tax reform, including improvement to tax administration, and the legislative framework regarding tax reform have also been settled.
Dr. Phillips said the white paper setting out the government’s comprehensive policy stance on tax reform has been considered by Cabinet and further work is being done prior to it being laid in Parliament in November.
The Minister said, however, that there are some important technical issues which remain to be finalized.
“The primary issue centres upon the shared view that given the generally precarious conditions within the world economy and the risks that this negative outlook entails for indebted and vulnerable economies such as ours, there is a need for us to construct buffers for such eventualities,” Dr. Phillips said.
“Discussions regarding such buffers continue and we are exploring issues regarding the possibility, for example, of additional debt initiatives such as debt for assets swaps with public sector bondholders and debt for nature swaps,” he added.
However, he said the government was not considering a second debt exchange.
Explosions, Fire Reported At Sudan Arms Factory
A huge fire was reported early Wednesday following explosions at the site of an arms factory near Sudan's capital Khartoum.
News reports quote witnesses as saying they heard explosions late at night before the fire broke out.
Initial media reports said the site of the incident was the Yarmouk ammunition factory.
The reason for the explosions is not yet clear and there are no immediate reports of casualties.
The Sudanese military has not made any statements yet on the matter.
Obama, Romney Push to Win Over Undecided Voters
With two weeks until the election, President Barack Obama and his Republican challenger Mitt Romney are making a final appeal to voters who still have not made up their minds.
Polls show the presidential race tied, and winning support of uncommitted voters, especially in so-called swing states, is crucial.
During a rally Tuesday in Florida, one of those states that could decide the election, President Obama accused Mr. Romney of changing his mind on major issues, including the operation to kill Osama bin Laden. He called Mr. Romney's Monday night debate performance a “severe outbreak” of “Romnesia” .
Mr. Romney told a crowd of supporters in Las Vegas, Nevada that attacks on him are not a political agenda. He said after four debates, including one vice presidential debate, the Obama campaign is “taking on water” while his campaign has been energized by the debate and is “full steam ahead.”
Both campaigns claim their candidate won Monday night's debate, which focused on foreign policy. But some major opinion polls say President Obama was the winner.
PRESIDENT OBAMA:
“During the debate, he said he didn't want more troops in Iraq, but he was caught on video saying it was unthinkable not to leave 20,000 troops in Iraq, troops that would still be there today. Last night, he claimed to support my plan to end the war in Afghanistan. I'm glad he supports it, but he's opposed to a timeline that would actually bring our troops home. Early in this campaign, he said he'd do the opposite of whatever I did in Israel, but last night I reminded him that cooperation with Israel has never been stronger. (applause) Last night, he said he always supported taking out Osama bin Laden, but in 2007, he said it wasn't worth 'moving heaven and earth' to catch one man. Now, we've come up with a name for this condition. It's called Romnesia. ”
MITT ROMNEY:
“We can handle two more weeks of the attacks coming from Barack Obama, but we cannot handle four more years of what he's given us. I mean, can you handle four more years of 23 million Americans looking for a good job? Can you afford four more years of housing prices going down and hitting bottom? Would you like to have four more years of the doubling of the gasoline prices you're paying?
Russian Opposition Activist Charged With Plotting Riots
Russian investigators say they have charged an opposition activist with plotting riots, based on evidence from a pro-Kremlin television documentary.
Russia's Investigations Committee formally brought charges against Leonid Razvozzhayev, a senior leader of the Just Russia party. A committee spokesman, Vladimir Markin, says Razvozzhayev turned himself in Sunday in Ukraine and admitted to involvement in organizing mass disturbances in Russia.
“Razvozzhayev explained in detail how, together with Sergei Udaltsov, Konstantin Lebedev and other people, they prepared the organization of mass disturbances on the territory of the Russian Federation. In that same document (confession), he reported that the same people were involved in the mass disturbances on Moscow's Bolotnaya Square on May 6. What is also important is he indicated that the funding was carried out by Givi Targamadze.”
But Razvozzhayev's supporters, among them opposition lawmaker Illya Ponomaryov, say he was kidnapped while in Ukraine, smuggled back into Russia and tortured into confessing.
“He (Leonid Razvozzhayev) was certainly kidnapped in violation of all international agreements and all international conventions. I have serious grounds to suspect that this so-called confession was obtained under torture.”
The Kyiv office of the U.N. refugee agency confirmed Monday that Razvozzhayev disappeared after registering with the agency last week.
Razvozzhayev was featured in a pro-Kremlin documentary in which he and other activists appeared to plan mass riots and a coup in an effort funded by Georgian politician Givi Targamadze.
He faces up to 10 years if convicted, along with opposition activist Sergei Udaltsov and his aide, Konstantin Lebedev. Authorities launched a criminal probe against the two last week on charges they organized riots in May in Moscow.
Udaltsov was released and ordered to stay in Moscow, but Lebedev is in police custody.
Since starting his third mandate earlier this year, Russian President Vladimir Putin has pushed for laws restricting civic freedoms and foreign influence. The lower house of parliament, or Duma, on Tuesday passed a new bill widening the definition of high treason in what critics say is part of the Kremlin's crackdown on dissent.
Current law describes high treason as espionage or other assistance to a foreign state damaging Russia's external security. The new bill expands it to include moves against Russia's “constitutional order, sovereignty and territorial and state integrity.''
The bill, drafted by the Federal Security Service, also changes the interpretation of treason to include activities such as financial or consultative assistance to a foreign state or an international organization.
The bill is certain to pass easily in the upper house before President Putin signs it into law.