Argentina confrontational – No 10
Two cruise ships were denied mooring in Argentina, apparently because they had visited the Falklands Downing Street has accused Argentina of pursuing a "policy of confrontation" over the Falkland Islands.
It comes amid reports that top Argentine companies are being told by their government to stop importing goods from the UK.
PM David Cameron's spokesman said the move was "counterproductive" and was a misreading of British resolve over the disputed islands.
Tension has been rising ahead of the 30th anniversary of the Falklands War.
According to the state news agency Telam, industry minister Debora Giorgi called the bosses of at least 20 firms to urge them to replace imports from Britain with goods produced elsewhere.
Meanwhile, Argentina's top diplomat in the UK - Osvaldo Marsico - was summoned to the Foreign Office on Wednesday to explain the import ban.
A Foreign Office spokesman said: "We made clear that such actions against legitimate commercial activity were a matter of concern not just for the UK, but for the EU as a whole, and that we expect the EU to lodge similar concerns with Argentine authorities."
Officials were also expected to discuss Argentina's decision to turn back two cruise ships from the Argentine port of Ushuaia on Monday, apparently because they had visited the Falklands - which Argentina claims as the Malvinas.
Mr Cameron's spokesman told reporters at a regular briefing in Westminster: "It is clearly very sad that Argentina continues with their policy of confrontation instead of co-operation.
"We think that is counterproductive and also a complete misreading of Britain's resolve on this issue.
"The UK is also a major investor in Argentina and we import goods from Argentina. It is not in Argentina's economic interest to put up barriers of this sort.
"The right approach here is one of co-operation, not confrontation," he added.
Buenos Aries has complained to the United Nations of British "militarisation" of the south Atlantic after the deployment of a new Royal Navy warship to the Falklands and Prince William's tour of duty on the islands.
The UK, which has controlled the Falklands since 1833, says there can be no negotiations on sovereignty as long as the 3,000 Islanders wish to remain British.
On 2 April, both nations will mark the 30th anniversary of the Falklands War, which began with an Argentine invasion of the islands and ended in victory for a British task force sent to recover them.
Guilty plea from ‘high value’ Guantanamo prisoner
GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba (AP) — A former Maryland resident pleaded guilty Wednesday to helping al-Qaida plot attacks from his native Pakistan, reaching a plea deal with the U.S. government that limits his sentence but that his lawyers say could put him and his family in jeopardy.
A lawyer entered the plea on behalf of Majid Khan at the U.S. base in Cuba. Asked by the judge if he understood the plea, Khan answered in English, "Yes, sir."
The plea deal, the first reached by one of the military's "high-value" detainees at Guantanamo, says Khan, 32, could serve less than 19 years in prison as long as he provides "full and truthful cooperation," to U.S. authorities building cases against other prisoners, according to Army Col. James Pohl, the military judge.
His attorneys wanted details of the plea deal kept confidential. Wells Dixon, one of his civilian lawyers, said Khan feared for the safety of family members in the United States and abroad. "There is a specific, historical basis for the concern," he told the judge.
Pohl rejected the request, saying the fact that he had agreed to cooperate was already in the public domain.
Khan had faced up to life in prison if convicted on all charges, which include conspiracy, murder and spying. Documents released before Wednesday's hearing had said the pretrial agreement capped his sentence at 25 years. The judge said his sentencing would be delayed for four years, giving him time to provide testimony against other detainees, and that the Convening Authority, the Pentagon legal official who oversees the tribunals, would not approve a total sentence that exceeds 19 years.
Khan would get credit for time served until his sentencing but not for the nine years he has already been in custody. The judge told him that there was nothing in the agreement that specificially prevents the U.S. from continuing to detain him after he completes his sentence, though there are no indications that would happen.
"I am making a leap of faith here sir," Khan told the judge in response. "That's all I can do."
Khan is the seventh Guantanamo prisoner to be convicted of war crimes and he is considered the most significant. He is the first prisoner who was held in clandestine CIA custody overseas — where prisoners endured harsh treatment that lawyers and human rights groups have labeled torture.
Andrea Prasow, a Human Rights Watch lawyer who was at the hearing as an observer, said Khan could have gotten a longer sentence if convicted at trial, but the U.S. government now gets the benefit of his assistance and can avoid confronting allegations that Khan and other prisoners were tortured. "They get a lengthy sentence, minimum 19 years with cooperation, and no one has to hear about what happened to him when he was in CIA custody," she said outside the court.
There were four previous plea bargains at Guantanamo and Prasow expects more. "There is a stronger incentive to plea bargain in Guantanamo if you have no idea how long you will be held or if you will ever be released or if you will ever get a fair trial," she said.
Khan's appearance Wednesday, dressed in a dark blazer and tie and with neatly trimmed hair and beard, was the first time he has been seen in public since his capture in March 2003.
Prosecutors said Khan plotted with the self-proclaimed mastermind of the Sept. 11 attack, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, to blow up fuel tanks in the U.S., to assassinate former Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf and to provide other assistance to al-Qaida.
Khan moved to the U.S. with his family in 1996 and was granted political asylum. He graduated from Owings Mills High School in suburban Baltimore and worked at several office jobs as well as at his family's gas station.
Military prosecutors say he traveled in 2002 to Pakistan, where he was introduced to Mohammed as someone who could help al-Qaida because of his fluent English and familiarity with the U.S. Prosecutors say that at one point he discussed a plot to blow up underground fuel storage tanks.
Prosecutors say Khan later traveled with his wife, Rabia, to Bangkok, Thailand, where he delivered $50,000 to the Southeast Asian terror group Jemaah Islamiyah, an al-Qaida affiliate, to help fund the Aug. 5, 2003, suicide bombing of the J.W. Marriott hotel in Jakarta, Indonesia. The attack killed 11 people and wounded at least 81 more.
The U.S. military holds 171 prisoners at Guantanamo, and officials have said about 35 could face war crimes charges.
James Murdoch gives up News International role
(Reuters) - James Murdoch resigned as executive chairman of News International on Wednesday, raising new doubts he can succeed his father Rupert as CEO of parent company News Corp in the wake of a phone hacking scandal at the unit he oversaw.
It also raises the possibility that one of his older siblings -- Elisabeth or Lachlan -- could emerge as an eventual contender for the top job, according to people familiar with the matter.
Other sources suggested a contrarian view of James' departure from News International, interpreting the move to focus him on operations based out of corporate headquarters in New York as Rupert defying his doubters by bringing his embattled son closer to the company's power centre. That would dovetail with another counterintuitive move the elder Murdoch made recently: launching a Sunday edition of his tabloid The Sun newspaper in London last week amidst an investigation that had led to the arrest of several journalists at that paper in addition to those of the now-defunct News of the World.
The younger Murdoch, once seen as heir apparent to his 80-year-old father, has been under pressure since the phone-hacking scandal erupted last summer at the British newspapers. His resignation is the latest in a flurry of senior executive resignations from News International since the scandal came to light.
Thousands of celebrities and everyday citizens had their voice mails hacked by journalists at News International newspapers before James took over but he has been heavily criticized for his handling of the affair afterwards. The company has paid out millions of dollars in settlement fees to date with more expected to come.
"We won't miss him," said a News International insider who asked not to be named. "His contribution to dealing with this whole (hacking) issue has been unimpressive at best as well as his lack of ability to see what was going on himself and to do anything about it."
James will remain deputy chief operating officer of News Corp with a focus on its international TV business, a New York-based post he was promoted to last year.
Analysts said the move was unsurprising in one sense because Rupert Murdoch would be keen to distance his son from the troubles in London.
"It makes sense to get James as far away from News International as possible, if he is to have any hope of re-establishing his position in the company," said Steve Hewlett, a London-based media analyst.
"The more revelations there are about phone hacking and all the rest of it, the sharper the focus on what he knows or didn't know will become. There's no suggestion he is involved in any of it; it's all about what he knew."
James Murdoch has already made a move to his new job in New York, though his family is still based in London for now. He stepped down as a director of London-based GlaxoSmithkline last year. Analysts pointed out that despite moving to New York he would still need to answer to any charges or UK government inquiries that might arise related to the hacking case.
The move appears to further strengthen the position of News Corp President Chase Carey, who is now favoured by investors to take the top job at the Murdoch family controlled media conglomerate.
"It clarifies the management hierarchy and clarifies Chase Carey as the person who's both No. 2 and No. 3 behind Rupert Murdoch," said Collins Stewart analyst Thomas Eagan. "That's a good thing. I think the operations are going well."
News Corp's shares hit a new 52-week high on Wednesday morning of $20.35. Analysts and investors have remained ambivalent to the phone hacking scandal throughout the last year, noting that newspapers make up only a tiny portion of News Corp's overall business.
News Corp Chairman Rupert Murdoch said in a statement his son would still play a key role at the company.
The elder Murdoch has spent most of the last two weeks in London overseeing The Sun's Sunday launch. The move was seen as an effort to boost staff morale following an ongoing internal investigation into his newspapers' journalistic operations.
"I think it is clearly regrettable that any of this happened but it did and as a shareholder I believe the company has behaved very responsibly to find the people who were responsible," said Larry Haverty, a portfolio manager at Gabelli Multimedia Funds.
FAMILY POWER STRUGGLE
A source familiar with internal company machinations said that even before Rupert Murdoch left for his latest trip to London it was becoming apparent that James Murdoch's prospects to succeed his father at the head of the News Corp empire were fading.
Powerful company insiders close to the internal investigation News Corp set up to clean up the company's UK newspapers have come to question James' record heading the unit, according to the source. They also question his responses to the phone hacking scandal as it unfolded.
As a consequence, Rupert's eldest son, Lachlan, who dropped out of contention as heir apparent as a result of a brutal corporate power struggle that forced him out of the company in 2005, appeared at his father's side in London last week. But James was nowhere in sight even though he nominally remained executive chairman of the British newspaper interests.
Company sources cautioned, however, that Lachlan is content to continue building his own business back in his native Australia and is uninterested in returning to News Corp at the moment. Still, his father has repeatedly tried to entice Lachlan back into the fold with numerous job offers.
Sources said that daughter Elisabeth Murdoch, whose independent London-based television production company, Shine, was acquired by News Corp last year, has been waiting quietly in the wings and is regarded by some as the current favourite to succeed her father, if any family member ultimately is allowed to make that move.
James Murdoch's resignation comes after a new spate of embarrassing revelations in London at the judge-led Leveson Inquiry into press standards, which was ordered by British Prime Minister David Cameron in the wake of the phone hacking scandal.
A police officer heading three criminal inquiries into reporting practices at News International testified on Monday that there was a "culture of illegal payments" to corrupt public officials at the company's flagship Sun newspaper.
The Inquiry also brought to light an email from a top in-house lawyer at News International that showed senior managers had been told as far back as 2006 that illegal phone hacking was not confined to one "rogue reporter," as the company maintained for years afterward, but was likely to have been far more widespread, as later proved to be the case.
(Reporting By Yinka Adegoke in New York and Mark Hosenball in London,; Additional reporting by Sinead Carew in New York; Paul Sandle and Estelle Shirbon in London; Editing by Peter Lauria, Derek Caney, Phil Berlowitz and Bernard Orr)
N. Korea promises nuclear moratorium for food
U.S. negotiator Glyn Davies speaks with journalists in Beijing Feb. 23, 2012 ahead of talks with North Korea. …The United States announced a diplomatic breakthrough with North Korea Wednesday.
Under an agreement reached in direct talks in Beijing last week, North Korea has agreed to allow the return of nuclear inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency, and has agreed to implement a moratorium on long-range missile tests, nuclear tests, and nuclear activities at Yongbyon, including uranium enrichment activities, the State Department said. In return, the United States will provide North Korea with a large food aid package.
"To improve the atmosphere for dialogue and demonstrate its commitment to de-nuclearization, the DPRK has agreed to implement a moratorium on long-range missile launches, nuclear tests and nuclear activities at Yongbyon, including uranium enrichment activities," State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said in a press statement Wednesday. "The DPRK has also agreed to the return of IAEA inspectors to verify and monitor the moratorium on uranium enrichment activities at Yongbyon and confirm the disablement of the 5-MW reactor and associated facilities."
Despite the breakthrough, "the United States still has profound concerns regarding North Korean behavior across a wide range of areas," Nuland's statement cautioned. But she added that "today's announcement reflects important, if limited, progress in addressing some of these."
In return, the United States will "move forward with our proposed package of 240,000 metric tons of nutritional assistance along with the intensive monitoring required for the delivery of such assistance," she said.
U.S. envoy on North Korean affairs Glyn Davies last week held the first face-to-face talks with his North Korean counterpart Kim Kye Gwan since the death of North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il in December.
Davies' Feb. 23-24 discussions in Beijing asserted several points, Nuland's statement said. Among them, "the United States reaffirms that it does not have hostile intent toward the DPRK" and that U.S. sanctions are not targeted against the livelihood of the North Korean people.
Arms control experts welcomed the signs of progress in U.S. efforts to engage Pyongyang. But U.S. North Korea experts advised high caution in assessing Pyongyang's intent, given its track record of abrupt reversals.
"These steps are modestly significant," Richard Bush, director of Northeast Asian studies at the Brookings Institution, said in a statement Thursday. However, he noted, they "are only what negotiators call 'confidence-building measures.' They could indeed be an initial step on a path towards serious negotiations ... Or they could simply be a ploy to get nutritional assistance and meddle in South Korean politics. North Korea's record suggests the latter, but we shall see."
The new agreement "appears to be an important step on a long and difficult path," Rep. Howard Berman (D-CA), ranking Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, told Secretary of State Hillary Clinton at a hearing Thursday. "However, I'm sure you don't need me to remind you that we've been down this road before, and it remains to be seen whether the North will keep its promises this time."
The announced measures are "an important step toward a verifiable freeze of the most worrisome North Korean nuclear activities," Daryl Kimball, of the Arms Control Association, wrote in an analysis of the announced agreement. "President Barack Obama and Amb. Glyn Davies ... need to maintain the momentum in the weeks and months ahead."
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Steven Gerrard will captain Liverpool against Cardiff City in the Carling Cup final at Wembley. Photograph: Scott Heavey/Getty Images
Steven Gerrard switches to auto-pilot when asked to revisit the 2005 final. "As I've said many times, it was the best night of …" Awkwardly, he has to be cut off. It is that year's Carling Cup final on the agenda. "Oh that," he says, and there is an interminable silence as he trawls through the buried file of the memory bank. "Nightmare."
It was not just logic-defying comebacks and Champions League glory for the Liverpool captain in 2005. Before the header past Dida at the Ataturk Stadium there was a head rub from José Mourinho at the Millennium, where the then Chelsea manager gave Gerrard a consoling pat following Liverpool's 3-2 defeat in their last Carling Cup final appearance.
The gesture enraged Liverpool supporters almost as much as the finger to the lips from Mourinho that greeted Chelsea's equaliser that Cardiff day. It had, to the Liverpool midfielder's despair, arrived unwittingly from his head with Rafael Benítez's team 11 minutes from victory. Given the renewed interest from Stamford Bridge in signing Gerrard at the time, conspiracy theorists had a field day.
Even now the recollections have to be coaxed from the 31-year-old. "It was a nightmare. An own-goal. I felt suicidal. It was bad, one of the worst days I have had, especially against Chelsea. I was linked with them for a while before that cup final. Then to go and score an own-goal – there were Liverpool fans who probably thought I meant it at the time because I was linked with them – and to get the defeat was a nightmare for me and the team."
And they say the Carling Cup does not matter – "they" being those not in the final.
That Carling Cup final defeat was one of eight visits Liverpool made to Cardiff in the six years Wembley was under construction and one of only two defeats suffered during the cups' residency in Wales. It was a fertile period Liverpool have not recaptured since, although a regret for Gerrard is that Sunday's final against Cardiff City will be his debut at the national stadium for his boyhood club and a first opportunity to lift a trophy at Wembley as captain.
"The first time I went as a fan we got beaten by Man U and Cantona scored, 1-0 [1996], so that was not good," says Gerrard, who may be back at Wembley next week as England captain for the friendly against Holland.
"The good memories were from watching the club in finals on TV but as a Liverpool fan going down, only bad ones. I was thinking whether I would get to play at Wembley with Liverpool when I was at Cardiff for cup finals. I was slightly gutted, if you like, that they were not at Wembley because when you're growing up you want to walk up those steps and lift the cup above your head in front of everyone. So this final is going to be a bit extra special because it's back at Wembley."
It matters more to Gerrard that Liverpool are back in a final, not where it is staged. They were almost routine for the midfielder between 2001 and 2007 yet there have been moments in the past five years, particularly when the club was tearing itself apart under the ruinous ownership of Tom Hicks and George Gillett, that he feared the grand occasion had passed him by forever.
He admits: "There were days when you wondered, will I ever get to a major cup final or will I experience more success as a Liverpool player? But you always have to believe and have confidence that things will turn around if you keep working hard and doing the right things. That's what we have all done. We have stuck together. I think the experience and hurt from the lows helps you to get to places like this final.
"I wouldn't say it feels like two different clubs now but the atmosphere is completely different. Going back to the time under George and Tom, you'd suffer a defeat at Anfield and then go out to do the warm down and there would be thousands still in the stands, singing and shouting to get the owners out. Not good. Then to beat Manchester City, who were clear favourites to knock us out over two legs [in the semi-final], and it's completely different atmospheres and experiences. For the better. A lot better."
A change in ownership helped restore financial stability and a sense of direction at Liverpool but it was the change in the manager's chair last January that, as far as Gerrard is concerned, has dragged the club from woe to Wembley.
"I think it is down to the Kenny factor," the captain explains. "This time last year the season was over and there was doom and gloom around the place. Kenny coming in gave everyone a big lift and slowly brought belief and confidence back. I was delighted he got the job. Kenny's a hero of mine and even more for my dad, because he was around when he played. He is a lot closer to the players, he's a very good man manager.
"I don't think there's a problem with managers who are distant. I have worked with managers who handle players differently. With Kenny it's like he still thinks he's a player, still trying to get a game on the training ground, still laughing and joking with the players.
"But from a serious point of view he's very loyal and honest with the players and that's all you can ask for. As a player you want to deliver something back for him, which we have done by getting to the Carling Cup final. We want to do the same in the FA Cup and it would be nice to get to May with two trophies in the bag and a top-four finish. That would be a dream season for us in Kenny's first full year."
Liverpool have won the League Cup a record seven times and always when it has been sponsored by a drinks manufacturer – the Milk Marketing Board (1981-84), Coca-Cola (1995) and Worthington (2001 and 2003). As with the Worthington Cup win over Birmingham City in 2001, Gerrard believes victory over Cardiff, another Championship club, "can be a catalyst for this team".
He explains: "The feeling is quite similar to 2001. Before we won the [cup] treble we were improving slowly with new players settling in well and I think that is happening here.
"But I also think we are a bit further away than that team, and it's a lot more difficult now to win the league than it was back in 2001. Then there were probably three major forces in the league and there are five or six now. We are still a little bit off that but winning the cup competitions gives you the belief and confidence. Back in 2001 there was not really a Chelsea or a City about, so it's a lot more difficult now."
Wembley is a reward on a personal level too, with Gerrard having missed much of 2011 through a series of serious and dispiriting injuries. "Last year was the toughest of my career so far and I worked so hard to get back for days like this so all that hard work is paying off."
Sunday also brings him face-to-face for the first time in his professional career with his cousin Anthony Gerrard, the Cardiff defender. The pair are close. Up to a point. "He's playing in his first major final," says the Liverpool captain with a hint of pride, "but I'm hoping to send him home like I felt in 2005."
Greece launches long-awaited debt offer
ATHENS (Reuters) - Greece formally launched a bond swap offer to private holders of its bonds on Friday, setting in motion the largest-ever sovereign debt restructuring in the hope of getting its messy finances back on track.
The swap is part of a second, 130-billion-euro rescue package to claw Greece back from the brink of a disorderly default that had threatened to send shockwaves through the financial system and punish other weak euro zone members.
The complex deal was finalized this week after months of tortuous negotiations between Greece and its bondholders that were complicated by European partners driving a hard bargain, hedge funds holding out for a default and pressure on public creditors like the European Central bank to chip in.
The swap, in which investors will trade bonds for lower-value debt securities, aims to slice 100 billion euros off Greece's over 350 billion euro debt load.
The head of the International Institute of Finance (IIF), a bank lobby group that negotiated on behalf of the private sector, expressed optimism that the exchange would attract high participation from investors.
"We remain quite optimistic that once investors study this proposal ... there will be high take up," Charles Dallara, IIF managing director, said at the G20 meeting in Mexico City.
Greece's announcement Friday confirmed terms of the swap released earlier this week when the deal was struck.
Banks, insurers and other investors holding about 206 billion euros of Greek government bonds will take a 53.5 percent loss in the face value of their securities, with actual losses estimated at 73 to 74 percent.
As part of the swap, investors will pocket longer-dated Greek bonds worth 31.5 percent of their holdings and short-term paper issued by the European Financial Stability Fund (EFSF) equal to 15 percent of their old bonds.
The new bonds will carry an average coupon of 3.65 percent over the 30-year period and be governed by English law.
DOUBTS REMAIN
The debt swap, also known as private sector involvement, is designed to cut Athens' debt load to 120.5 percent of its gross domestic product by 2020 from 160 percent, in the hope that it would open the way for its eventual return to bond markets.
The debt exchange and the new bailout also buy time to stabilize the 17-nation euro zone currency bloc and shield it against a Greek default, which remains a long-term threat.
Despite offering some relief to Greeks and policymakers fretting about an imminent bankruptcy, the deal has yet to quell doubts about the viability of Greek debt and whether the stricken nation can get back on its feet.
The overall bailout package comes at the price of painful austerity measures that ordinary Greeks say have impoverished them. A mix of tax hikes and wage and pension cuts have sent unemployment soaring, shuttered businesses and brought thousands of Greeks out on the streets for near-daily protests.
Athens has said it wants to conclude the transaction by March 12. Focus now turns to the participation rate in the swap, with Athens also predicting a high take up.
"There is optimism in the government that there will be big participation in the swap," a Greek government official said.
Greece said it was not obliged to carry out the swap unless it had 90 percent participation. If the participation was below 90 percent but above 75 percent, then Greece would consult with its public creditors.
If the rate was less than 75 percent and it did not receive required consents, it would not go through with the deal, it said.
Greece has passed legislation introducing so-called collective action clauses (CACs) that allow it to force all bondholders to proceed with the swap once it has secured a specified level of approval.
Based on the recently approved law, the exchange will go ahead once 50 percent of bondholders have responded to the offer and the CACs will be activated once a two-thirds majority of that quorum has voted in favor of the swap.
"In my discussions ... no decision has been made on whether or not they will activate those collection action clauses," Dallara said. "Should they decide to activate, of course it does raise concern, including other sovereign issues."
Under the deal, investors will also get separate GDP-linked securities which will provide annual payments of up to 1 percent of the notional amount of the new bonds if the country's economic growth rate exceeds a certain threshold.
Greece appointed Deutsche Bank and HSBC to act as closing agents.
(Additional reporting by Harry Papachristou, Writing by Deepa Babington; editing by Ron Askew)
Three killed in fifth day of Afghanistan protests
KABUL (Reuters) - Three people were shot dead by Afghan security forces on Saturday as protests over the burnings of the Muslim holy book at a NATO base raged for a fifth day, provincial officials and a Reuters witness said.
The burning of the Korans at the Bagram compound this week has deepened public mistrust of NATO forces struggling to stabilize Afghanistan before foreign combat troops withdraw by end-2014.
Despite an apology from U.S. President Barack Obama and a call for restraint from Afghan leader Hamid Karzai, thousands took to the streets after 12 people were killed and dozens wounded on Friday, the bloodiest day yet in demonstrations.
A protester was shot dead in Logar province south of Kabul after hundreds of protesters, many chanting "Death to America!" - a slogan heard at protests throughout the week -- charged at police. Two people were wounded.
In the restive northern Kunduz province, two protesters were shot dead by Afghan security forces as they set alight shops and buildings, senior police detective Ghulam Mohn Farhad told Reuters. Several people were wounded.
Twenty people were wounded when demonstrators hurled stones in eastern Laghman province, health official Abdul Qayumi said.
The capital, Kabul, was calm, with police and security forces deployed across the city.
Muslims consider the Koran to be the literal word of God and treat each copy with deep reverence. Desecration is considered one of the worst forms of blasphemy.
The Koran burnings underscore the deep cultural divide that still exists more than 10 years after U.S. troops invaded to oust the Taliban and have deepened public mistrust of the West.
The protests could dent plans for a strategic pact that Washington is considering with Kabul, which would allow a sharply reduced number of Western troops to stay in the country, well beyond their combat exit deadline.
(Writing by Amie Ferris-Rotman, editing by Ron Popeski)
Manchester City v Porto – live!
Manchester City players celebrate after scoring against Porto in the first leg. Photograph: Jose Manuel Ribeiro/ReutersHalf-time: An enjoyable game. City could have been ahead by more, but Porto could also have been level - at least - if they had a cutting edge to complement their nimble build-up play.
Man City
Hart; Richards, Kompany, Lescott, Clichy; De Jong, Barry; Nasri, Yaya Toure, Silva; Aguero.
Subs: Subs: Pantilimon, Zabaleta, Savic, Milner, Pizarro, Dzeko, Balotelli
Porto Helton; Maicon, Otamendi, Rolando, Alex Sandro; Fernando, Moutinho, Lucho Gonzalez; James Rodriguez, Hulk, Varela.
Subs: Bracali, Cristian Rodriguez, Kleber, Djalma, Sapunaru, Defour, Podstawski.
Referee: Wolfgang Stark (Germany)
Preamble:Hats off to Roberto Mancini for refusing to belittle the Europa League. Then again, Blackburn fans might interpret his decision to field his strongest-possible side tonight as a slur on City's next Premier League opponents. But let's not be silly and instead acclaim the Italian for realising that although City may have more wealth than a Glastonbury dung beetle, they are not so high and mighty that they can afford to turn their noses up at a perfectly decent tournament without coming across as complete schmucks. Not to suggest that he has picked a line-up to polish City's public image, more likely it is because he believes that silverware is golden when it comes to embedding a culture of glory. A culture of glory is precisely what Porto have, of course, and the holders arrive in Manchester intent on overturning their 2-1 deficit from the home leg. This, then, could be the biggest cracker since Robbie Coltrane.Paul will be here from 4.30pm but until then why not read the latest on Carlos Tevez?
Carlos Tevez has issued an unreserved apology "to everybody I have let down" at Manchester City following his five-month battle with the club and declared his hope that Roberto Mancini will now allow him to return to action.
The striker had a dramatic fallout with his manager after refusing to warm-up during a Champions League group game at Bayern Munich on 27 September and then went awol, returning to his homeland in Argentina without permission for three months. Although Mancini is yet to see Tevez since the latter returned to the club last week, the manager is said to be at ease with the development.
Tevez said: "I wish to apologise sincerely and unreservedly to everybody I have let down and to whom my actions over the last few months have caused offence. My wish is to concentrate on playing football for Manchester City."
It is understood that Tevez, who has been training in the afternoons away from the first-team squad as he regains fitness, met the director of football, Brian Marwood, at the club's Carrington complex and other members of staff on Tuesday afternoon. Mancini had already left when Tevez arrived at around 3.30pm for the session, that included a two-hour work-out before gym work, but was kept fully informed.
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Microsoft files E.U. complaint over Google, Motorola
A variety of logos hover above the Microsoft booth on the opening day of the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas January 10, 2012.
Credit: Reuters/Rick WilkingBy Foo Yun Chee and Sinead CarewBRUSSELS/NEW YORK | Wed Feb 22, 2012 12:01pm EST
BRUSSELS/NEW YORK (Reuters) - Microsoft has asked EU antitrust regulators to intervene in a patent dispute with Google and Motorola Mobility as it stepped up its battle against the Internet search giant.
Microsoft complained that Motorola Mobility was trying to block its products by charging too much for using its patents in Microsoft products.
The complaint came a week after the European Commission -- the EU's executive arm -- and the U.S. Justice Department approved Google's $12.5 billion acquisition of Motorola Mobility.
"Earlier today, Microsoft filed a formal competition law complaint with the European Commission against Motorola Mobility and Google," Microsoft deputy general counsel Dave Heiner said in a blog post on Wednesday.
"We have taken this step because Motorola is attempting to block sales of Windows PCs, our Xbox game console and other products," he said.
Heiner had initially named Motorola Mobility in the blog post but in an update said the complaint also included Google.
Antoine Colombani, a spokesman for competition affairs at the EU Commission, said the regulator had received the complaint and will examine it.
Apple has also complained to the EU Commission about Motorola Mobility's patent charges, Motorola Mobility said in a regulatory filing last week.
Heiner said Motorola had filed lawsuits in the United States and in Europe demanding Microsoft take its products off the market, or else remove their standards-based ability to play video and connect wirelessly.
"The only basis for these actions is that these products implement industry standards on which Motorola claims patents," he said. "Motorola is on a path to use standard essential patents to kill video on the web, and Google, as its new owner, does not seem to be willing to change course."
EXCESSIVE CHARGES?
Microsoft said that Motorola asked it to pay a royalty of $22.50 for a laptop computer worth $1,000 for its use of 50 Motorola patents that apply to a video technology standard.
It said that this compares to a 2 cent royalty charged by a group of 29 companies that offer the use of more than 2,300 patents for products following the same video standard.
Google declined to comment. Motorola Mobility, which was not available for comment, makes cellphones and set-top boxes and does not compete in the market for game consoles and computer operating systems.
EU regulators are also investigating whether Samsung Electronics has infringed EU antitrust rules in its patent disputes with Apple in courts across Europe.
This was Microsoft's second complaint with EU antitrust regulators involving Google. Last March, it accused the company of systematically thwarting rivals.
Microsoft was the target of antitrust action for two decades in Europe and the United States. EU regulators imposed fines of more than a billion euros on the company for breaching EU antitrust rules.
(Editing by Charlie Dunmore; and David Cowell)
Famed war reporter killed in Syria
Colvin in 2007. (Getty)
An American-born reporter for the London Sunday Times, Marie Colvin, along with a young French photographer, Remi Ochlik, were killed in Syria on Wednesday morning, according to several news reports. Colvin, one of the most celebrated war correspondents in the U.K., happened to be a guest on Anderson Cooper's CNN show last night.
On the program, Colvin reported that a two-year-old baby had been killed in an attack on another home and she had witnessed the child die.
"There's been constant shelling in the city," Colvin said. "So, Anderson, I have to say, it's just one of many stories ... It's chaos here."
"Every civilian house on this street has been hit," she continued. "We're talking about--this is a very kind of poor popular neighborhood. The top floor of the building I'm in has been hit, in fact, totally destroyed. There are no military targets here. There is the Free Syrian Army. Heavily outnumbered and out-gunned."
Colvin added: "It's a complete and utter lie they're only going after terrorists. The Syrian Army is simply shelling a city of cold, starving civilians."
The two journalists were killed in a similar shelling on a makeshift media center where they were staying to cover the Homs battle. At least three other journalists, including Paul Conroy, a freelance photographer traveling with Colvin, were wounded.
Their deaths come less than a week after Anthony Shadid, a Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times reporter, died from an apparent asthma attack in Syria while covering the conflict there.
Last week, Colvin mourned the death of Shadid.
"Shocked by the news of the death of Anthony Shadid," she wrote. "A brilliant journalist and writer whose work glowed with his humanity and was always so kind and gentle. He will be so missed at a time when he was the best person to shed light on this strange new Middle East."
Like Shadid, Colvin had secretly entered Syria.
"I entered Homs on a smugglers' route, which I promised not to reveal, climbing over walls in the dark and slipping into muddy trenches," Colvin wrote in an article published by the Sunday Times on Feb. 19. "Arriving in the darkened city in the early hours, I was met by a welcoming party keen for foreign journalists to reveal the city's plight to the world. So desperate were they that they bundled me into an open truck and drove at speed with the headlights on, everyone standing in the back shouting "Allahu akbar" — God is the greatest. Inevitably, the Syrian army opened fire."Like Shadid's death, Colvin's passing has led to an outpouring of remembrances from colleagues and fellow journalists.
"Marie was an extraordinary figure in the life of The Sunday Times, driven by a passion to cover wars in the belief that what she did mattered," John Witherow, editor of the paper, wrote. "She believed profoundly that reporting could curtail the excesses of brutal regimes and make the international community take notice. Above all, as we saw in her powerful report last weekend, her thoughts were with the victims of violence.
"Marie had fearlessly covered wars across the Middle East and south Asia for 25 years for The Sunday Times," Rupert Murdoch, News Corp. chairman and owner of the paper, said in a statement. "She put her life in danger on many occasions because she was driven by a determination that the misdeeds of tyrants and the suffering of the victims did not go unreported."
"This morning I looked at the video of her body in a house in Homs. Her head down. Her voice silenced," wrote ITV's Bill Neely. "We are all the poorer for that. Bless you, Marie."
According to Jean-Pierre Perrin, a journalist for the Paris-based Liberation newspaper who had been with Colvin in Homs last week, told London's Telegraph that Syrian forces had threatened to kill journalists there.
"A few days ago we were advised to leave the city urgently and we were told: 'If they find you they will kill you,'" Perrin said. "I then left the city with the journalist from the Sunday Times but then she wanted to go back when she saw that the major offensive had not yet taken place."
Perrin said he was told the Syrian Army "issued orders to 'kill any journalist that set foot on Syrian soil.'"
Colvin was known for her eye-patch, which she wore after losing sight in her left eye while reporting during an attack in Sri Lanka in 2001.
Writing in the Times following that incident, Colvin vowed to continue reporting in war zones despite the risks.
"So, was I stupid? Stupid I would feel writing a column about the dinner party I went to last night," she wrote. "Equally, I'd rather be in that middle ground between a desk job and getting shot--no offense to desk jobs."
Watch Colvin's segment with Cooper below.
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