Royal Couple Begins Visit to Canada, U.S. Today

  Royal Couple Begins Visit to Canada, U.S. Today : LONDON - It sounds like a bit of a racket: $ 4,000 for a three-course meal and a chance to see a polo match up close.
It gets better when you throw in the chance to rub shoulders with the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge in southern California, where bragging about having a glass of wine with the new royal couple may be the ultimate Hollywood glamour trip.
The charity event at the Santa Barbara Polo & Racquet Club will be one of the highlights of the first official overseas trip by Prince William and the former Kate Middleton, which kicks off Thursday in Canada and takes them later to southern California.
There's no doubt the athletic prince and his fashion-forward bride have star power to burn. So far, about 1,000 VIP tickets have been sold to the polo match along with about 400 general admission passes, raising nearly $ 4.4 million for the July 9 charity event. William plans to play in the match, and his wife will award the trophy to the winning team.
"The members are thrilled to host the royal couple and the public's reaction to this special day and event has been fantastic," said club chairman Glen Holden, a former US ambassador to Jamaica who said he has never seen anything like it in his 38 years with the exclusive polo club.
In Canada, William and Kate will join in raucous Canada Day celebrations, open the Calgary Stampede, and canoeing in the vast northwest territories. They will meet veterans and their families, as well as youth groups in several parts of the country.
Canada's prime minister Wednesday unveiled a personal flag for use during William's visit. It is the first flag to be created by Canada for a member of the royal family since 1962, when Queen Elizabeth II adopted a personal flag for her own use in Canada.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper said the flag was approved by the queen and William.
William plans to demonstrate his skills as a helicopter rescue pilot by taking part in a water landing demonstration, and the couple also plan to put on aprons and take part in a cooking workshop in Quebec City.
They jet to Los Angeles on July 8 and will host a gala dinner there the next night to introduce up-and-coming British film talent to Hollywood executives.
It doesn't take a foreign venue to spark interest in the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, the formal royal titles the newlyweds received from the queen on their wedding day. Their first charity appearance, as guests of honor at a gala dinner in London earlier this month, raised hundreds of thousands of pounds (dollars) for a children's' charity and drew luminaries from Britain's film world.
The couple even managed to use their wedding day as a way to raise more than 1 million pounds ($ 1.6 million) for 26 designated charities. They urged guests, and well-wishers around the world, to make contributions to the charities rather than give them presents.
The innovative tactic was successful in focusing public attention on a number of groups that are usually overlooked, said Gareth Harper, managing director of the Peace Players, a Northern Ireland charity that was among the charities singled out by the royal couple.
The group, which uses basketball to bring together people from both sides of Northern Ireland's religious and cultural divide, received several direct donations from people heeding the couple's charity call. President Barack Obama (a noted basketball fan) and his wife, Michelle, sent the charity six Apple computers.
"We were flabbergasted," said Harper of the surprise gift. He said the royal couple took an active interest in a pre-wedding meeting with the charity's leaders.
"We don't know how we go on their list," Harper said. "We were very impressed by their knowledge of our program. They obviously had a hands-on role and they had a lot of enthusiasm for this initiative."
Palace officials said money donated to the central wedding charity fund will shortly be distributed to the 26 charities.
Jessica Dallyn, fundraising director for Combat Stress, a charity that helps military veterans cope with stress-related ailments and other problems, said she expects to hear in the coming weeks how much the group will receive from the central fund.
She said the royal couple probably chose to back the group because it has received strong support for years from Prince Charles, William's father.
"Charles has been very pro-active, and I'm sure his commitment has been passed down to his sons," she said. "And I think Princess Diana's commitment would have had a huge impact on both of them."

Obama honors Gates on last day as defense chief

Obama honors Gates on last day as defense chief :WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama has honored outgoing Defense Secretary Robert Gates' four decades of public service with the Presidential Medal of Freedom. It is the highest honor the president can give a civilian.

Gates' last day on the job is Thursday after 4 1 / 2 years at the Pentagon.
At a ceremony marking Gates' retirement, Obama called him a humble American patriot, a man of common sense and decency, and one of the nation's finest public servants.

Gates became defense secretary in December 2006 under Republican President George W. Bush. He is being replaced by outgoing CIA Director Leon Panetta.

Sharapova into Wimbledon final as Lisicki outgunned

  
 Sharapova into Wimbledon final as Lisicki outgunned  Maria Sharapova outgunned big-hitting German youngster Sabine Lisicki in straight sets Thursday to power into her first Wimbledon final for seven years.


The Russian fifth seed - the winner in 2004 - overcame a slow start to overwhelm wildcard Lisicki 6-4, 6-3 to advance to a final against Czech eighth seed Petra Kvitova on Saturday.


World number 62 Lisicki, who had stunned second seeded French Open champion Li Na during a fairytale run to the last four, was always in trouble after her powerful serve deserted her midway through the first set.


"It's amazing to be back in the final at Wimbledon, it's been a while," a delighted Sharapova said afterwards.


"I'm really happy even though I didn't play my best tennis today," added Sharapova, who totted up 13 double-faults during a patchy display.


"To be in the final is a great achievement for me but I still feel like I've got more to do. I hadn't been past the fourth round in a few years. So to be at this stage, I'm just thrilled to have the opportunity to go for it. "


Sharapova also took encouragement from the fact that she had successfully neutralised Lisicki's serve, which regularly topped 120 miles per hour.


"When you find yourself in a position where you're not playing your best, you're playing against an opponent that has probably one of the best serves on the tour, to get that back and break her a few more times, gave me confidence. "


Sharapova got off to a horrendous start, double-faulting twice in her opening service game as Lisicki surged into a 2-0 lead.


Lisicki, regularly clocking serves timed at 120mph, coolly held to go 3-0 up and soon had Sharapova struggling in the next game.


The Russian favourite saved a crucial break point which would have put Lisicki 4-0 up before eventually holding to remain in touch at 3-1.


With her service game misfiring, Sharapova turned to her booming groundstrokes to try and find a way into the match, attacking Lisicki's suspect second serve to break back in the fifth game.


Sharapova held to level at 3-3 but Lisicki was soon back into her rhythm, holding comfortably to go 4-3 up.


Lisicki's serve unravelled in the eighth game however, and with Sharapova punishing her second serve mercilessly, the German suffered another break.


Sharapova wrapped up the first set with her first ace of the match, letting out a roar of delight as Lisicki trudged back to her chair.


Lisicki's problems deepened in the opening game of the second set as she double-faulted twice to gift Sharapova yet another a break.


With Lisicki in disarray, the 21-year-old appealed to the umpire as specks of rain began to fall on Centre Court in her next service game at 0-30 down.


Play continued however and Sharapova secured another break to go 3-0 up and from there the result was never in doubt.


Lisicki was given a glimmer of hope when she broke in the fourth, but Sharapova broke back immediately to regain the initiative before holding for 5-1. Lisicki secured a break in the eighth game to delay the inevitable, but Sharapova broke again to claim the win.

Transformers 3 "a spectacularly empty product

   Transformers 3 "a spectacularly empty product : LOSANGELES - When the 154-minute "Transformers: Dark of the Moon" finally ends, your feeling is one of exhaustion, not exhilaration.
Pleased with his first effort but downright apologetic about the second "Transformers" movie, director Michael Bay has thrown every imaginable visual effect, CG animation and physical stunt, all in 3D, into the battle for planet Earth. Bay really needed a gag shot where one alien transforms itself into the kitchen sink.
Make no mistake: Out of a line of Hasbro toys, Bay has created a world of his own. Call it Bay World. It has its own logic, which is movie logic cubed. It has its own heroes and villains, only try to tell the toys - sorry, action figures - apart. Is the machine that favors red colors a good machine or a bad one? And once you figure that out, does the damn machine switch sides?
The Paramount release opens Tuesday night and will be playing in much of the world by the weekend. That a huge worldwide audience is primed for this movie hardly needs stating. But the range of those actually enjoying the onslaught of technology at the expense of human drama might be narrower than Bay, Hasbro or Paramount think. The kick of the first movie was the pleasurable shock of humans and these transformative mechanical beings interacting. The third chapter is dedicated to little more than wanton destruction.
Then, too, Bay World has always felt misshapen. When these action figures take center stage, they are so huge and the humans so tiny that they don't comfortably inhabit the same visual space. The 3D, which is actually quite good for the most part, only exacerbates this sensation.
Bay and writer Ehren Kruger kick-start the demolition derby with a longish sequence that recasts America's space program of the '60s and '70s as an actual race between the US and the Soviets to reach the dark side of the moon, where an alien spacecraft has crashed.
What astronauts Buzz Aldrin - who later appears as himself - and Neil Armstrong brought back from that dark side suddenly becomes vitally important to the saving of the planet now that the bad robots' invasion is under way.
Which brings the movie back to its perennial hero, Shia LaBeouf's Sam Witwicky, who has a secret medal from the president for saving the world but can't get a job in Washington, DC What he does have is the town's hottest girlfriend in Rosie Huntington-Whiteley's Carly. Bay has her pirouette any number of times before the camera in any number of fetching outfits to drive home this point.
There's a lot of misplaced and misfired comedy about Sam's job-hunting with an over-the-top John Malkovich finally hiring him and about his increasing concerns about the attention paid to Carly by her boss, played by Patrick Dempsey, who seems out to match Malkovich in the mugging department. Not to be outdone are John Turturro and Frances McDormand, whose attitudes can be characterized as this: If you're going to be in a movie with robots, you might as well act circles around them. Chew the scenery before the action figures destroy it is their motto.
D.C. takes quite a licking - the poor Lincoln Memorial does not survive, it must be reported, and the Beltway is left in tatters. But Bay reserves near-total destruction for Chicago. The Battle for Chicago lasts for nearly a third of the movie. Or so it seems. Buildings crumble, streets buckle, humans incinerate, machines collapse and alien airships blast away at whatever is left.
What never makes any sense, though, is how LaBeouf and his hardy band of humans survive any of this. They emerge from sequence after sequence of utter chaos in full makeup with hardly a hair out of place. Talk about your action figures.
It was during this final battle that the 3D went badly out of focus, which might be a case of the poor projector getting overheated by the nonstop noise and pandemonium.
As mentioned, machines and people switch sides and transform loyalties with considerable frequency. It's telling that a viewer isn't going to much care. You're not heavily invested emotionally in these robots, and only the survival of LaBeouf and his hot girlfriend seems to interest the filmmakers.
Machines grinding and slicing their way through the Chicago downtown cityscape and one building cut nearly in half and tilting like that tower in Pisa are the money shots for Bay. The kitchen sink, if you will.
The millions of man hours put into producing this techno shock and awe must be staggering. Everyone got his job done, but somewhere along the way, the movie got lost.

Diana Death As ‘An Unlawful Killing’

Diana Death As ‘An Unlawful Killing’: The tragic deaths of Princess Diana and Dodi Al Fayed in 1997 stunned the world and an inquest into the fatal car crash is the subject of a controversial new film called Unlawful Killing.
The film’s director Keith Allen, father of pop star Lily, is evidence that a Paris car crash has been determined, it was no accident that the jury at the investigator in the Royal Court, although the sentence was available to them.
In fact, the ruling by the jury of eleven people after deliberating for over a week at the inquest was “unlawful killing.” Unlawful killing is defined as manslaughter or homicide
Film financed by Mohamed Al Fayed, Dodi’s father, a friend of Diana at the time, also shows the controversial “death photos” of the princess, one of the reasons the film was banned in the UK.
Prince William-Through years
Journalist Piers Morgan, now a man of his prime time show on CNN, said: “I thought it was a very strange inquiry from a legal point of view of procedure, the guy presiding over it declared de facto, from the outset, it is not. Murder Is it should not be left to the jury? ”
Michael Mansfield, a lawyer for Fayed in the inquest said. ”Do you have a solution in which the public and the media is always wrong verdict was not the actions they chose to unlawful killings, they have defined it in terms of these related vehicles. What do we know these vehicles were not paparazzi? It is not so.”
After the protests of the photos on the Cannes Film Festival this year, the director said, “will not be sharp breath when you see a photograph of Princess Diana is nowhere near as sensational and revealing how people did it. Be. It could also have had their lives saved if certain steps were taken. ”
Attorney Mark Lane, the author of popular books about the murder of John F. Kennedy, Rush, the court, recently viewed movies and said he was “astonished” and wrote an essay defending it. He said the documentary shows that the evidence was covered, and the truth is distorted, according to News NY Daily.
Lane said the paparazzi trailing the car were not responsible for the accident and that the driver of a white Fiat with alleged ties to the MI6 intelligence agency was the culprit.

Miranda Lambert

.Miranda Lambert: New country music trios the Pistol Annies have released their first single, “Hell on Heels,” today on iTunes, Amazon and other digital retailers.
The band consists of Tishomingo country music star Miranda Lambert and fellow singer-songwriters Ashley Monroe and Angaleena Presley.
The band debuted in the spring during the AFM “Night Out Girls: Superstar Women’s Country” TV special, where they performed “Hell on Heels,” the anthem of the country-blues in the Maneater.
In May, Lambert took her cohorts in their native Texas, where she received her fourth annual “Cause for Paws” Benefit at the Festival on the Square in Tyler. Annis played song of hope “Better Days” in front of more than 7,000 people who packed the city center to enjoy the music, Lambert, armies, and special musical guests Stoney LaRue and Josh Kelley. Through ticket sales, sponsorship and live auction items, “Cause for Paws” raised $ 294,000 for MuttNation, Lambert foundation that supports animal shelters and humane societies of East Texas.
Lambert then asked her fellow Annies to help her close out the CMA Music Festival June 12 in front of a packed stadium at LP Field in Nashville, Tenn.  Lambert’s blistering, 30-minute set included her No. 1 singles, “White Liar,” “The House That Built Me” and “Heart Like Mine,” along with the trio’s self-penned song, “Hell On Hells.” Before today.
Lambert set to be among those featured in the TV special “CMA Music Festival: Night of the country rock,” airing August 7th on ABC.
Pistol Army worked on their debut album and pointed to last week’s sell-out show at Joe’s bar in Chicago that they have signed a record deal with Columbia Nashville, the label Lambert. They searched a few tracks from his new album, including “One drink, his smoking, his pills” and “Boys from the south.”
Each of the band members have nicknames: Monroe known as “Hippie Annie”, as Presley’s “Holler Annie” and Lambert, as «Lone Star Annie.”
Of course, Lambert is also known as Mrs. Blake Shelton, and it will appear on Wednesday at the live season finale of the hit TV reality show “The Voice”, which includes Shelton, Christina Aguilera, Cee Lo Green and Adam Levine. Lambert will perform a duet with Dia Frampton, a finalist for the team Blake. (NBC confirmed today that the Tulsa native Ryan Tedder of OneRepublic do a duet with finalist team Xtina Beverly McClellan, Stevie Nicks of Fleetwood Mac with the team of Adam finalist Xavier Colon and Pat Monahan of Train with a team of Cee Lo Vicci Martinez finalist of the season finale, airing at 7:00 pm on Wednesday.)
Then Lambert will join her idol, Merle Haggard and LaRue weekend’s Independence Day show Friday at the Fort remained in Oklahoma.

Iran fires medium-range missile in war game.

  Iran fires medium-range missile in war game TEHRAN: Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards fired 14 missiles in an exercise Tuesday, one of them a medium-range weapon capable of striking Israel or US targets in the Gulf, state media said.  
In response, the US State Department accused Tehran of "bragging" rather than complying with its international obligations. 


The Guards' aerospace commander, Brigadier General Amir Ali Hajizadeh, insisted Iran's missile programme posed no threat to European nations but was merely intended to provide defence against Israel and US forces in the Gulf. 


"Today, on the second day of the exercise, we fired Zelzals , Shahabs (Meteors) 1 and 2, and the Ghadr (Power)," a medium-range missile which is a modified version of the Shahab-3, Hajizadeh told state television. 


He said the missiles were not a threat to European nations. 


"Iran's missiles have a maximum range of 2,000 kilometres  and are designed to reach US targets in the region and the Zionist regime," the official IRNA news agency quoted him as saying. 


"The Zionist regime is 1,200 kilometres away from Iran and we are able to target this regime with our 2,000 kilometre range missiles from Semnan and Damghan (in central Iran)," he said. 


"We have the technology to build missiles with a longer range but we do not need them and we are not seeking to build such missiles." 


Iran has said that its latest exercise is not aimed at any country but carries "a message of peace and friendship." IRNA said the Guards fired nine Zelzals, two Shahab-1s, two Shahab-2s and a single medium-range Ghadr on the second day of their Great Prophet-6 exercise. 


Iran unveiled the Ghadr, which has a range of 1,800 kilometres, following a successful test in September 2009. 


The Zelzal is an unguided surface-to-surface missile with a maximum range of 400 kilometres. 


The Shahab-1 and -2 have a range of 300 to 500 kilometres and are based on the Soviet-designed Scud. 


On the first day of the exercise on Monday, the Guards unveiled an "underground missile silo" which they said was designed for launching their medium-range missiles, state television reported.


The broadcaster showed footage of a facility at an unknown location, containing a missile it identified as a Shahab-3. 


"The technology to build these silos is completely indigenous," the state television website quoted the exercise's spokesman, Colonel Asghar Ghelich-Khani, as saying. 


State television also showed a missile launch, without specifying its type or when the firing took place. 


Iran's missile programme, which is under the control of the powerful Guards, along with its space projects, has been a mounting source of concern in the West. 


Western governments fear Tehran is developing a ballistic capability to enable it to launch atomic warheads which they suspect Iran is seeking to develop under cover of its civil nuclear programme. 


Tehran denies any such ambition. 


In Washington, State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said Iran's actions "do not give anybody any confidence that they are moving in the direction of coming back into compliance with the demands of the international community." She said "Iran, rather than getting itself back in the good graces of the international community ... seems to be bragging about its capabilities, conducting secret programmes, parading new missiles in front of the press. 


"So that's not taking us in the direction that we want to go with Iran," she added. 


Nuland said UN Security Council resolution 1929 prohibits Iran from activity related to the development of missiles capable of carrying nuclear weapons, but did not say whether Washington thought the tested missiles were nuclear capable.

Clinton to visit Spain on Europe tour

  Clinton to visit Spain on Europe tour : WASHINGTON: US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will travel to Spain to discuss Afghanistan, the Middle East and economic issues following stops in Eastern Europe, her spokeswoman said Tuesday.
During her visit to Madrid on Friday and Saturday, the chief US diplomat will meet Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero and Foreign Minister Trinidad Jimenez, spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said.

They will "discuss a range of issues including Afghanistan, North Africa, and the Middle East, and trade, investment and the economy," she added in a statement.

Leaving Washington on Wednesday, Clinton will be in Budapest for Thursday's opening of the Lantos Institute, named after the late US congressman Tom Lantos, a Hungarian-born Holocaust survivor and outspoken global human rights advocate who died in 2008.

The top US diplomat will also meet with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and Foreign Minister Janos Martonyi, US officials said.

Later Thursday, Clinton will travel to Vilnius for the Community of Democracies ministerial meeting that will bring together senior government officials, parliamentarians, non-government organizations, women and youth leaders, as well as the private sector.

She will also meet President Dalia Grybauskaite, Prime Minister Andrius Kubilius and other Lithuanian officials, according to US officials.

Chinese communist site now a bastion for capitalism

 Chinese communist site now a bastion for capitalism :SHANGHAI - The grey brick building where China's Communist Party held its first congress 90 years ago in the glitzy former French Concession area of ​​Shanghai doesn't betray any trace of its peasant-proletariat past. Instead, the memorial site, thronged by busloads of party cadres to mark the anniversary of the founding of the party on Friday, sits in the shadows of Shanghai's fashionable tourist enclave of Xintiandi, a potent symbol of China's growing wealth and entrepreneurial brand of socialism. Xintiandi, which means New Heaven and Earth in Chinese, is among the priciest pieces of real estate in China's financial capital. Until the 1990s, the area consisted of low-rise "Shikumen" or typical Shanghai stone-arched gate houses in narrow alleys.Today, the heritage buildings have been conserved and the neighborhood transformed into an affluent playground of trendy restaurants, bars and boutiques. "Xintiandi is emblematic of what China represents today, entrepreneur-based and ruled by a Communist doctrine. It seems to work pretty well," said architect Benjamine Wood, who designed Xintiandi with Nikken Sekkei International. COMMUNIST SHOWPIECE Sandwiched in the middle of Xintiandi, the museum of the First National Congress of the Communist Party of China  is itself a showpiece of how far China has progressed in its economic transformation. The museum showcases years of struggle of the CPC led by Mao Zedong through its hundreds of revolutionary relics, documents and photos. A waxworks hall reproduces the scene of the historic first political meeting. On July, 1921, thirteen members held their first national congress of the CPC to mark the birth of the party. Few at the museum interviewed on a recent afternoon seemed bothered by the apparent contradiction of a Communist icon residing in one of Shanghai's most capitalist districts. "Capitalism is just a way for the economy, while Communism is political. Economics and politics are not opposite. A Communist country can also develop a capitalist economy," said Fu Songtang, a Communist Party member, 47, from Jilin province. Fu said the museum's proximity to Xintiandi reflects the successful leadership of the Communist Party. In the lead-up to the 90th anniversary celebrations marking the founding of the CPC, convoys of tour buses brought Chinese tourists from outlying provinces to the site to pay homage. Long lines of tourists, many affiliated to the CPC, posed for photographs with the red Communist Party flag. Leading a big group of government officials from Guangdong province was tour guide, Gu Yi, 37. He said that when Hong Kong's Shui On Land bought the old houses for commercial development around the memorial, he didn't see the sense in redeveloping the birthplace of the CPC in the midst of the commercial glitz. "Now I can understand," said Gu. "It's a commercial society after all. The Communist Party had very good foresight 90 years ago to choose this place for their first meeting, this fashion icon."

NATO-Afghan raid ends hotel assault; 19 dead

 NATO-Afghan raid ends hotel assault; 19 dead :KABUL, Afghanistan - NATO helicopters fired rockets before dawn Wednesday at Taliban gunmen who stormed one of Afghanistan's premier hotels, ending a brazen, nearly five-hour assault that left 19 people dead - including all eight attackers. 
The strike against the Inter-Continental was one of the biggest and most complex to have occurred within Kabul and appeared designed to show that the insurgents are capable of striking even in the center of power at a time when US officials are speaking of progress in the nearly 10-year war. It occurred less than a week after President Barack Obama announced the beginning of an American withdrawal and the transfer of security responsibility to the Afghans in several areas, including most of Kabul province. Militants who had managed to penetrate the hotel's security measures began the attack around 10 pm Tuesday, on the eve of a conference about the transfer of security responsibilities. After hours of fighting, two NATO helicopters opened fire at about 3 am on the roof of the five-story hotel where militants had taken up positions. U.S. Army Maj. Jason Waggoner, a spokesman for the US-led coalition fighting in Afghanistan, said the helicopters killed three gunmen and Afghan security forces clearing the hotel worked their way up to the roof and engaged the insurgents. A final explosion occurred a few hours later when one of the bombers who had been hiding in a room blew himself up long after ambulances had carried the dead and wounded from the hotel, which sits on a hill overlooking the mountain-rimmed capital. Latifullah Mashal, the spokesman of the Afghan National Directorate for Security, said eight suicide attackers were involved and all had either blown themselves up or been killed by Afghan or coalition forces. The 11 civilians killed included a judge from an unnamed province, five hotel workers and three Afghan policemen, Mashal said. He said no foreigners were killed, but two foreigners were among 14 people wounded in the attack. He did not disclose their nationalities. Nazar Ali Wahedi, chief of intelligence for Helmand province in the south, called the assailants "the enemy of stability and peace" in Afghanistan. "Our room was hit by several bullets," said Wahedi, who is attending the conference elsewhere in the capital. "We spent the whole night in our room." As the helicopters attacked and Afghan security forces moved in, there were four massive explosions. Officials at the scene said the blasts occurred when security forces either fired on suicide bombers or they blew themselves up. After the gunmen were killed, the hotel lights that had been blacked out during the attack came back on. Afghan security vehicles and ambulances were removing the dead and wounded from the area. Hours later, however, the last of the suicide bombers, who had been injured and was holed up in a room, blew himself up, Kabul Police Chief Gen. Mohammad Ayub Salangi said. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the rare nighttime attack in the capital - an apparent attempt to show that they remain potent despite heavy pressure from coalition and Afghan security forces. Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid later issued a statement claiming that Taliban attackers killed guards at a gate and entered the hotel. "One of our fighters called on a mobile phone and said: 'We have gotten onto all the hotel floors and the attack is going according to the plan. We have killed and wounded 50 foreign and local enemies. We are in the corridors of the hotel now taking guests out of their rooms - mostly foreigners. We broke down the doors and took them out one by one. '" The Taliban often exaggerate casualties from their attacks. The attackers were heavily armed with machine guns, anti-aircraft weapons, rocket-propelled grenades, hand grenades and grenade launchers, the Afghan officials said. Afghan police rushed to the scene and firefights broke out. "We were locked in a room. Everybody was shooting and firing," said Abdul Zahir Faizada, head of the local council in Herat province in western Afghanistan, who was in town to attend the conference. "I heard a lot of shooting." A few hours into the clashes, an Afghan National Army commando unit arrived at the hotel. Guests inside the hotel said they heard gunfire echoing throughout the heavily guarded building. Jawid, a guest at the hotel, said he jumped out a one-story window to flee the shooting. "I was running with my family," he said. "There was shooting. The restaurant was full with guests." Before the attack began on Tuesday, officials from the US, Pakistan and Afghanistan met in the capital to discuss prospects for making peace with Taliban insurgents to end the nearly decade-long war. "The fact that we are discussing reconciliation in great detail is success and progress, but challenges remain and we are reminded of that on an almost daily basis by violence," Jawed Ludin, Afghanistan's deputy foreign minister, said at a news conference. "The important thing is that we act and that we act urgently and try to do what we can to put an end to violence." The Inter-Continental - known widely as the "Inter-Con" - opened in the late 1960s, and was the nation's first international luxury hotel. It has at least 200 rooms and was once part of an international chain. But when the Soviets invaded Afghanistan in 1979, the hotel was left to fend for itself. It was used by Western journalists during the US-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001. On Nov. 23, 2003, a rocket exploded nearby, shattering windows but causing no casualties. Twenty-two rockets hit the Inter-Con between 1992 and 1996, when factional fighting convulsed Kabul under the government of Burhanuddin Rabbani. All the windows were broken, water mains were damaged and the outside structure pockmarked.Some, but not all, of the damage was repaired during Taliban rule. Attacks in the Afghan capital have been relatively rare, although violence has increased since the May 2 killing of Osama bin Laden in a US raid in Pakistan and the start of the Taliban's annual spring offensive. On June 18, insurgents wearing Afghan army uniforms stormed a police station near the presidential palace and opened fire on officers, killing nine. Late last month, a suicide bomber wearing an Afghan police uniform infiltrated the main Afghan military hospital, killing six medical students. A month before that, a suicide attacker in an army uniform sneaked past security at the Afghan Defense Ministry, killing three people. Other hotels in the capital have also been targeted. In January 2008, militants stormed Kabul's most popular luxury hotel, the Serena, hunting down Westerners who cowered in a gym during a coordinated assault that killed eight people. An American, a Norwegian journalist and a Philippine woman were among the dead. A suicide car bomber in December 2009, struck near the home of a former Afghan vice president and a hotel frequented by Westerners, killing eight people and wounding nearly 40 in a neighborhood considered one of Kabul's safest. And in February 2010, insurgents struck two residential hotels in the heart of Kabul, killing 20 people including seven Indians, a French filmmaker and an Italian diplomat.

Syria activists meet, call for change to avert crisis

Syria activists meet, call for change to avert crisis: AMMAN - Syrian activists called on Monday for sweeping political changes that could end 41 years of Assad family rule in a rare meeting in Damascus allowed by the authorities under pressure from a three-month popular uprising. "The solution to this crisis has to address its root causes. This regime must be toppled and replaced with a democratic system," said leading Syrian writer Michel Kilo, who spent three years as a political prisoner. The meeting at a Damascus hotel includes noted critics of President Bashar al-Assad who are respected in opposition circles, as well as some supporters of Assad. Organizers said the gathering had approval from a senior aide to Assad, who has sent troops to crush protests across the country while promising dialogue in an effort to contain an uprising for political freedoms that has posed the gravest threat to his rule since he succeeded his father 11 years ago. Other speakers in the conference, attended by 150 people in a Damascus hotel, adopted a softer tone but said demands of street protesters after decades of autocratic rule must be met. Syrian writer Louay Hussein, who was also a political prisoner, said repression in the last four decades have undermined Syria as a whole while emphasizing that peaceful means must be found to meet popular demands. Hussein said the meeting would try to explore "ending the state of dictatorship, and a peaceful and safe transition into a desired country, one of freedom, justice and equality." Monther Khaddam, an academic from the coastal city of Latakia, said a wider national dialogue is needed but that intellectuals were "behind street demands until the end." Organizers of Monday's conference described it as a platform for independent figures searching for a way out of the violence Main opposition figures had said the meeting could give political cover to Assad, with human rights groups saying that security forces have killed over 1,300 civilians and imprisoned 12,000 since the uprising began in southern Syria. Economist Aref Dalila, a major figure behind the gathering, pulled out at the last minute, saying that he did not want to participate in a conference that could be used by the authorities while mass killing and arrests continue.

Edgy Bachmann plows into 2012 bid from native Iowa

      WATERLOO, Iowa - Michele Bachmann, a Minnesota congresswoman with deep tea party appeal, was ready Monday to officially plow into the Republican presidential primary with a conservative and often freewheeling message honed to the party's base. 
Greeted in her native Iowa with a new poll predicting she'll be a force in the state that opens the GOP nomination contest, Bachmann hopes to reshape both the 2012 GOP field and how she's viewed in the eyes of voters. After the formal Iowa kickoff, she planned to shift her focus to New Hampshire and South Carolina, other states with cherished traditions of separating the viable contenders from the political also-rans. Bachmann, 55, has many wondering if the edgy side that turned her into a conservative star will be the one she shows on the presidential campaign trail. Her say-anything approach has earned her a loyal following but also plenty of guff from detractors who see her as a fringe politician. Past missteps have only redoubled her me-against-the-world view of politics. "Her trick is going to be to maintain that boldness and to somehow rein it in and discipline it so it works for her and not against her," said GOP pollster Mike McKenna, who isn't working for any 2012 presidential candidates. For this campaign, she has surrounded herself with no-nonsense veterans of national politics, some of whom have deep ties to the political establishment Bachmann typically eschews. They include a trio of Eds: campaign manager Ed Rollins, pollster Ed Goeas and consultant Ed Brookover. In Iowa and New Hampshire, she's recruited aides who worked on the campaigns of previous presidential hopefuls Mike Huckabee and John McCain. Bachmann insists the larger political stage won't mean a new, less-provocative style. "I've been consistent, nothing but consistent," she said. "I don't say things for political value. I'm authentic in what I say." Bachmann's unswerving style provides a sharp contrast with the more measured way of 2012 rivals, such as former Govs. Mitt Romney, Tim Pawlenty and Jon Huntsman and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich. Others vying for the nomination are ex-Sen. Rick Santorum, Texas U.S. Rep. Ron Paul and businessman Herman Cain. Possible late entrants include Texas Gov. Rick Perry and 2008 vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin. A Des Moines Register poll published Sunday showed Bachmann and Romney far out front of the others in Iowa. Bachmann's own climb has been swift, brushing off a school board race defeat just 12 years ago and moving rapidly from Minnesota's state Senate to Congress. In three terms in Washington, Bachmann vaulted to prominence by trying to block and now promising to repeal President Barack Obama's health care law. She has also tangled with GOP House leaders over her concerns they are too timid on federal spending cuts. She's staunchly conservative on social issues, too, calling for more abortion restrictions and constitutional amendments to ban gay marriage. In her latest national introduction, Bachmann has played up a softer side by highlighting her role in raising five children and 23 foster kids. But she's also gone hard at Obama, laying federal debt and deficits at his feet and accusing him of pushing the nation toward socialism. David Strom, a Republican long involved in Minnesota politics, said it would be a mistake for Bachmann to sand down her edginess. "She's not a maneuverer. At the end of the day she is going to distinguish herself by going out there and trying to draw people to her. I don't think she will try to become more nuanced as politicians tend to do," he said. Those who have opposed Bachmann say she doesn't budge on her views, even in tough races. Democrat Elwyn Tinklenberg, who lost to her in a 2008 congressional race, said he was frustrated that the more controversial Bachmann came off, the stronger she seemed to get. Her comments often fuel a fundraising machine that netted her $ 13.5 million for her last election. "She can say something that's just outrageous and just completely wrong and move on and never skip a beat," Tinklenberg said. Given the rise of the tea party movement, there may be even less reason for her to slide toward the political middle. Tea party members are seeking purity from the GOP candidates and have reacted skeptically to those largely linked to the party power brokers, particularly Romney. "Truthfully, she's a hell of a lot closer to where the party is right now than where they are," McKenna said.

South African unions attack Zuma's "zig-zagging"

      MIDRAND, South Africa - South Africa's powerful union movement fired a warning shot at President Jacob Zuma on Monday, telling him not to take its support for granted in next year's elections for leader of the ruling ANC. At its four-yearly strategy conference this week, the two million-strong Congress of South African Trade Unions  also ripped into Zuma's leadership of Africa's biggest economy, accusing him of presiding over "wild zig-zagging" in policy. COSATU was instrumental in Zuma's rise to power, throwing its weight behind him in a 2007 ANC power struggle. But after clashes over graft, growing income inequality and a lack of basic leadership, COSATU said its support was not set in stone. "We need to ask if there are any reasons to compel us to do as we did at that time," organization president Sidumo Dlamini told the conference. Taking the podium moments later, a tired-looking Zuma hit back, telling the union umbrella group's leaders not to overstate their role in an official ANC-led governing alliance. "Members of powerful organisations believe they can deal with things the way they want and not the way situation demands," he said. "Strength becomes a problem if it is not understood correctly politically and can become a disadvantage." In its conference literature, COSATU did not pull its punches. It described the last 3-1/2 years as the most volatile since the end of white-minority rule in 1994, with "deepening contradictions and wild zig-zagging in the political direction of the country." It also poured scorn on the emergence of "a powerful, corrupt, predatory elite" using populism to advance its own interests - a thinly veiled reference to ANC Youth League leader Julius Malema's push for nationalization of mines. COSATU has previously accused Zuma and his close family members of engaging in a "feeding frenzy" by using political connections to secure lucrative mining deals. Unions are also suspicious that the Youth League push for nationalization is a front for black affirmative action investors who want government aid for struggling ventures. "The ANC leadership have committed a number of mistakes which have made it difficult for COSATU to effectively mobilize support of its constituency," it said. The ANC chooses its candidate for a 2014 presidential election at a party conference next year, and any successful runner needs to count on union backing. Zuma is favorite to win the ticket, which would virtually assure him another five years in power, although an unremarkable first two years in office have fueled speculation of a leadership challenge.

Intern'l judges order arrest of Moammar Gadhafi

         THE HAGUE, Netherlands - The International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants for Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, his son and his intelligence chief for crimes against humanity in the early days of their struggle to cling to power.
Judges announced Monday that Gadhafi is wanted for orchestrating the killing, injuring, arrest and imprisonment of hundreds of civilians during the first 12 days of an uprising to topple him from power after more than four decades, and for trying to cover up the alleged crimes.
The warrants turn Gadhafi, his son Seif al-Islam Gadhafi and intelligence chief Abdullah al-Sanoussi into internationally wanted suspects, potentially complicating any efforts to mediate an end to more than four months of intense fighting in the North African nation.

France beats Nigeria 1-0 in World Cup opener

 SINSHEIM, Germany - The Women's World Cup has opened its three-week showcase, with France beating Nigeria 1-0.
Marie-Laure Delie scored in the 56th minute before a boisterous crowd of more than 25,000 fans at Rhein-Neckar-Arena.
In Sunday's other Group A game, host Germany plays Canada at Berlin's Olympic Stadium, the official opener to the 16-team tournament.
Germany is the two-time defending champion and is looking to become the first nation to win three World Cup titles.

Pop artist Ruscha channels Kerouac in latest work

   LOS ANGELES - Ed Ruscha has spent the last 50 years creating some of the most acclaimed works of the conceptual art movement, and he now reveals he's had a roadmap for much of that time - Jack Kerouac's seminal novel "On the Road." The breakthrough book, written nearly nonstop over a matter of days on a 120-foot scroll, not only gave birth to a new style of prose, but sent thousands of artists, writers and others on a journey of self-discovery across the highways of America. "I first read it in 1958, I guess, and I felt like this is almost my story," Ruscha recalled recently. "These restless people moving from one place to another and experiencing the highway and everything in between." The artist was discussing "Ed Ruscha: On the Road," an exhibition of his photographs, paintings and drawings that pay homage to the book that launched the beat generation. The collection is currently on display at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles. Shortly before "On the Road's" publication in 1957, Ruscha himself hit the highway, climbing into a car and heading west to Los Angeles to study art. Left in his rear-view mirror was Oklahoma City, where as a precocious fourth-grader, he'd painted a mural for his elementary school that commemorated the land rush of the 1890s. He would spend much of the next 10 years criss-crossing the country, just as his heroes of "On the Road" did. Like them, sometimes he'd drive, other times hitchhike. Along the way he would gain inspiration for such celebrated works as the paintings "Burning Gas Station," "Hollywood Sign" and "Sex at Noon," as well as such photo books as "Every Building on the Sunset Strip" and "Twenty- six Gasoline Stations, "the latter a paean to the final days of America's Mother Road, Route 66. He says now those peripatetic travels were inspired in part by Kerouac. "The attitude that he spread with this idea of ​​young and restless has affected a lot of people, generations of people, and I guess I was one of them," Ruscha said by phone from his Southern California studio as he took a respite from a day of painting. That influence led him to produce a limited-edition, illustrated version of "On the Road" in 2009 that included photos taken by himself and others. Then he decided why stop there. He went on to create eight large paintings (oil on canvas and acrylic on canvas), as well as nearly a dozen drawings and several more black-and-white photographs embossed on paper.The works, along with several framed plates of the 2009 book's illustrated pages, went on display at the Hammer earlier this month. The paintings of skylines, snowcapped mountains and the like are done in the detailed style Ruscha honed when he studied as a graphic artist at the Chouinard Art Institute.They also incorporate the signature style found in his "word paintings," as he includes phrases from "On the Road," setting them off in precise letters that make them appear to hover over the landscapes he's painted. Among the words he chose are descriptions from the book that reflect the fascination of its fictional narrator, Sal Paradise, with the idiosyncrasies he found on the road, including his encountering the word manana - Spanish for tomorrow. "Sure baby, manana. It was always manana. For the next week that was all I heard, manana, a lovely word and one that probably means heaven." The Hammer exhibition, which runs through Oct. 2, is the first such display of Ruscha's work for the Westwood museum, and its chief curator, Douglas Fogle, says he jumped at the chance to put it together. "Ed's a senior statesman of the Los Angeles arts community," said Fogle. "For a very established artist he's still making amazing work. And while it's reiterating interest he's had over the years, it's still branching out and pushing into new territory." Variously described as either a pop artist or conceptual artist, Ruscha dismisses such labeling, although he adds it doesn't offend him. "If you call me a pop artist I'm proud," he says jovially. "It stems from the word popular. The media and imagery and iconography from everyday life is what is the basis of my work, so I guess I'm a pop artist. But I don't refer to myself as that. And then peoplehave said, `Well, you're really a conceptual artist. ' I'll say, `OK, I'm that too. '" He was one of a circle of artists, including Andy Warhol, who came to prominence as leaders of the pop movement through exhibitions at Los Angeles' Ferus Gallery in the 1960s. Unlike Warhol, however, he spurned New York, choosing to stay in Los Angeles. He acknowledges that likely limited his stature in the art world during his early years. "The art world at the time was all pretty much centered in New York and it was like LA was the Australia of the art world. I mean it was just so far away that it was not worth recognizing," he says of the attitude critics had. "I knew that that was a falsehood but it wasn't up to me to champion Los Angeles in any way, shape or form. It's not my thing to do that." Instead he just kept working, turning out an amazingly prolific and eclectic body of work. "Today I'm painting on the side of a book and I'm painting the letters PDQ. Like pretty damn quick," he says. When finished, it will likely be included in an exhibition planned for the Kunsthaus museum in Bregenz, Austria, next year that is to fill four of the museum's floors with his art. Meanwhile, he continues to work in a variety of media, creating whatever comes to mind. "I never really know," he says, chuckling. "There's no real plan for anything."