LONDON (AP) — Britain is greeting the world with an extravagant celebration that includes Bond, the Bard and a Beatle — and a formal welcome from no less a figure than its jubilee queen.
London's seven-year countdown to the 2012 Olympic Games came to a crescendo Friday night with what promised to be a stunning, imaginative, whimsical and dramatic celebration of the host country.
One of Britain's most successful contemporary movie directors, Oscar winner Danny Boyle, was presiding over a three-hour stadium spectacular highlighting the U.K.'s history and impact on the world.
The parade of nations was expected to feature most of the roughly 10,500 athletes — some planned to stay away to save their strength for competition — marching behind the flags of the 204 nations taking part.
Greece had the lead, as the spiritual home of the games, and Team Great Britain was last, as host. The tradition of athletes marching into the stadium by nation at the opening ceremony began at London's first Olympics, in 1908.
It fell to Queen Elizabeth II to formally declare the games open. Last month, the nation put on a festive Diamond Jubilee — a small test run for the games — to mark her 60 years on the throne, a reign that began shortly after London's last Olympics, in 1948.
The Olympic cauldron will be lit with a flame that was kindled May 10, at the birthplace of the anciest Olympics in Greece, from a reflection of the sun's rays off a mirror.
Since then, 8,000 torchbearers, mostly unheralded Britons, have carried the flame on a 70-day, 8,000-mile journey from toe to tip of the British Isles, whipping up enthusiasm for a $14 billion Olympics taking place during a severe recession.
The identity of the last torchbearer, the one to light the cauldron, was kept secret — remarkable given the intense scrutiny at what have been called the first social media Olympics.
Speculation focused on Roger Bannister, the first man to run a four-minute mile, in 1954, and on rower Steve Redgrave, among others.
Boyle's $42 million show, with 15,000 volunteers, promised to take the expected global television audience of 1 billion on a rich and textured journey through British history.
There were live animals to portray a romanticized vision of a green and pleasant land and darker, grittier segments dwelling on the industrial might upon which Britain built a global empire and shaped world history.
Boyle's challenge was daunting: To be as memorable as Beijing's incredible, money-no-object opening ceremony of 2008.
He drew from Shakespeare, British pop culture, literature and music, and other sources of inspiration that will speak to — but perhaps at times baffle — not just Anglophiles but people across the globe.
One segment featured the actor Daniel Craig as James Bond, and former Beatle Paul McCartney was to lead a sing-along.
For Jacques Rogge, it was his last time as president of the International Olympic Committee to watch the Olympic flag being raised at an opening ceremony. He will step down in 2013 after completing the maximum two terms.
Besides the thousands of athletes and performers, 60,000 spectators were expected to pack Olympic Stadium. Political leaders from around the world, U.S. first lady Michelle Obama and her daughters, and a sprinkling of European and celebrity royalty were also attending.
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Items as small as a hairpin and as big as a chunk of the Titanic's hull are among 5,000 artifacts from the world's most famous shipwreck that are to be auctioned in April, close to the 100th anniversary of the disaster.
Nearly a century after the April 15, 1912, sinking of the ocean liner that hit an iceberg in the North Atlantic, a New York City auction is being readied by Guernsey's Auctioneers & Brokers.
This 1998 image provided by RMS Titanic, Inc., shows a 17-ton portion of the hull of the RMS Titanic as it is lifted to the surface during an expedition to the site of the tradegy. The piece along with 5,000 other artifacts will be auctioned as a single collection on April 11, 2012 100 years after the sinking of the ship. (AP Photo/RMS Titanic, Inc.)
That auction house has garnered headlines in the past by selling off such historical curiosities as prized Beatles photos, famous jewels of the late Princess Diana, beloved Jerry Garcia guitars and a police motorcycle used in the Texas motorcade when John F. Kennedy was slain. But nothing as titanic as the so-called Titanic collection.
On April 11, all of the salvaged items are to be sold as one lot in what Guernsey's President Arlan Ettinger describes as the most significant auction ever handled by that house.
"Who on this planet doesn't know the story of the Titanic and isn't fascinated by it?" he asked. "Could Hollywood have scripted a more tragic or goose-bump-raising story than what actually happened on that ship?"
"It is as poignant to my 12-year-old son as it is to me and generations before me. There's no end to the fascination about it."
The auction will be conducted 100 years plus a day after the Titanic set sail from Southampton, England, embarking on the ill-fated maiden voyage that had New York as its destination.
The collection was appraised in 2007 at $189 million, including some intellectual property alongside the myriad items plucked by remote controlled probes from the pitch-black depths, some 2 and ½ miles below the ocean's surface.
Those artifacts include the massive hull section called "The Big Piece" as well as personal belongings of passengers and crew, such as a mesh purse and eyeglasses. A bronze cherub that once adorned the Grand Staircase is also among the collection, as are fine china, table settings, bottles and ship fittings — even the stand upon which the ship's wheel stood.
By court order, the items cannot be sold individually and must go to a buyer who agrees to properly maintain the collection and make it available for occasional public viewing. The sale is subject to court approval.
Ettinger and officials with RMS Titanic Inc., which salvaged the artifacts from the Titanic wreck, spoke to The Associated Press in advance of a media preview Thursday in New York. The AP first reported on the auction Dec. 29, based on financial filings by RMS Titanic.
The planned sale also could include a trove of archaeological data and visuals of the wreck, as well as the only detailed map of the vast ocean floor where all the artifacts were scattered after the Titanic's sinking.
The Titanic's sinking claimed the lives of more than 1,500 of the 2,228 passengers and crew. An international team led by oceanographer Robert Ballard located the wreckage in 1985, about 400 miles off Newfoundland, Canada.
The research materials could be a road map to future salvage expeditions because of the new information they provide on the wreck site.
"We are opening the door of opportunity for the future of the Titanic," said Brian Wainger, a spokesman for Atlanta-based Premier Exhibitions Inc., of which RMS Titanic is a division.
But the clock is ticking on thousands of additional artifacts embedded in a 3-by-5-mile section of ocean floor around the wreck, an area subject to a century of extreme ocean conditions such as cold temperatures and treacherous currents.
"I think it's fair to say that we have only touched the surface," Wainger said.
The deteriorating hulk of the Titanic is off limits to salvage.
The auction is subject to approval by a federal judge in Virginia whose jurisdiction for years has given oversight to legal issues governing the salvage of the Titanic. The Titanic treasures were amassed during seven risky and expensive trips to the wreck.
U.S. District Judge Rebecca Beach Smith, who has overseen the case from her Norfolk courtroom, has called the Titanic an "international treasure." She has approved covenants and conditions that the company previously worked out with the federal government, including a prohibition against selling the collection piecemeal.
The court conditions also require subsequent owners to make the artifacts available "to present and future generations for public display and exhibition, historical review, scientific and scholarly research, and educational purposes."
Wainger and Ettinger declined to speculate on who might bid on the collection.
"You hate to be in the position of being a fortune teller or clairvoyant," Ettinger said. "I, for one, would be very surprised if there wasn't international interest."
Wainger said, "Any individual can fall in love with any of the different artifacts because so many of them are personal. When you read the personal stories you recognize the tragedy."
Premier Exhibitions has been displaying the Titanic artifacts in exhibitions worldwide. The items were recovered from the shipwreck in expeditions in 1987, 1993, 1994, 1996, 1998, 2000 and 2004.
RMS Titanic, which has overseen the artifacts for 18 years, said the public company decided to auction the collection in response to shareholders' wishes that the "company go out and make money."
"It's better to be in the hands of a private institution that doesn't have the same short-term profit obligations that a public company has," he said.
In 2010, RMS Titanic collaborated with some of the world's leading experts in the most technologically advanced expedition to the Titanic, undertaking the first comprehensive mapping survey of the vessel with 3-D imagery from bow to stern.
The most striking images involved the 3-D tour of the Titanic's stern, which lies 2,000 feet from the bow.
A camera in a remote-controlled submersible vehicle skimmed over the stern, seemingly transporting viewers through scenes of jagged rusticles sprouting from the deck, a length of chain, the captain's bathtub, and wooden elements that scientists had previously believed had disappeared in the harsh, deep ocean environment.
The expedition fully mapped the wreck site, documenting the entire debris field for the first time.
"Titanic" director James Cameron also has led teams to the wreck to record the bow and the stern.
The Titanic exhibit is among several operated by Premier Exhibitions, which bills itself as "a major provider of museum-quality touring exhibitions." Its offerings have included sports memorabilia, a traveling Star Trek homage and "Bodies," an anatomy exhibit featuring preserved human cadavers.
The BBC's Jon Sopel says protesters entered Panton House - report includes protester footage from inside the building
Anti-capitalist protesters have attempted to occupy a building near Piccadilly Circus in central London.
Protesters got on to the roof of the Panton Street building
About 60 protesters, thought to be part of Occupy London Stock Exchange (OLSX), tried to get into Panton House on Panton Street, off Haymarket.
Riot police entered and cleared the building and 21 arrests have been made.
An OLSX spokesman said protesters were targeting Mick Davis, chief executive of mining company Xstrata, which has offices in the building.
He said they were targeting Mr Davis because he was one of the highest paid chief executives from FTSE 100 companies in the past year.
Occupy London supporter Karen Lincoln said: "Mick Davis is a prime example of the greedy 1% lining their own pockets while denying workers pensions."
An Xstrata spokeswoman said: "All executive pay is approved by the company's shareholders and is linked to company and individual performance.
"Last year Xstrata delivered its second best financial performance since inception, with an 86% increase in profits, record cost savings, improved safety performance and total shareholder returns substantially greater than the FTSE 100 average."
Police said the incident was isolated and not related to the march and rally in support of public sector workers "which passed off peacefully".
A total of 21 people were arrested for a variety of offences including burglary, aggravated trespass, criminal damage and assault on a police officer.
'Shame on you'
The protesters gathered at Piccadilly Circus just before 15:30 GMT.
Most were held at bay by police but a few got inside and went on to the roof, where officers moved in to clear them.
Police vans were seen pulling up at the scene in Haymarket while protesters were contained in the area outside Panton House.
Police sealed off the area around Panton Street and marched through the 200 to 300 protesters, to shouts of "shame on you".
Police told the protesters by megaphone announcement from a van: "You are being contained because we fear an imminent breach of the peace will occur.
"You will be released as soon as possible."
Police said they were in the process of making a number of arrests for aggravated trespass.
A Scotland Yard spokesman said: "At approximately 15:50 GMT a containment was put in place outside Panton House, Haymarket, to prevent disorder by a group of protesters outside the building.
"Some protesters have entered the building and officers are in the process of making arrests for aggravated trespass."
Since the Occupy movement protests began in New York, in September, a protest camp has been set up by the group in the City of London.
The City of London Corporation is currently taking legal action to move the protesters from outside St Paul's Cathedral.
Members of the group have also taken over an empty office block in Hackney, east London, belonging to Swiss Bank USB.
The group say they are protesting against capitalist greed.
LONDON (AP) — Britain ordered Iran on Wednesday to remove all its diplomats from the U.K. within 48 hours following attacks on its embassy and a residential compound in Tehran — one of the most significant diplomatic retaliations against Iran since the 1979 U.S. embassy crisis.
Iranian protesters break the windows of a British Embassy building, in Tehran, Iran, Tuesday, Nov. 29, 2011. Dozens of hard-line Iranian students stormed the British Embassy in Tehran on Tuesday, bringing down the Union Jack flag and throwing documents from windows in scenes reminiscent of the anger against Western powers after the 1979 Islamic Revolution. The mob moved into the diplomatic compound two days after Iran's parliament approved a bill that reduces diplomatic relations with Britain following London's support of recently upgraded Western sanctions on Tehran over its disputed nuclear program. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
Foreign Secretary William Hague told the House of Commons that Britain had also withdrawn its entire diplomatic staff from Iran after angry mobs hauled down Union Jack flags, torched a vehicle and tossed looted documents through windows.
The rare move to kick out a country's entire diplomatic corps marks a significant souring of ties between Iran and the West, amid deepening suspicions over Tehran's pursuit of nuclear weapons. Tensions were heightened in October when U.S. officials accused agents linked to Iran's Quds Force — an elite wing of the powerful Revolutionary Guard — of a role in an alleged plot to kill the Saudi ambassador to the U.S.
Germany, France and the Netherlands all recalled their ambassadors from Iran late Wednesday for consultations on further action in response. Norway closed its embassy in Tehran as a precaution.
For many, the hours-long assault Tuesday on the British embassy in Tehran was reminiscent of the chaotic seizure of the U.S. embassy there in 1979. Protesters replaced the British flag with a banner in the name of a 7th-century Shiite saint, Imam Hussein, and one looter showed off a picture of Queen Elizabeth II apparently taken off a wall.
"The idea that the Iranian authorities could not have protected our embassy or that this assault could have taken place without some degree of regime consent is fanciful," Hague told lawmakers.
Iran currently has 18 diplomats in Britain, according to Britain's foreign ministry.
Britain previously ordered Iran to remove its diplomats in 1989, when the two nations broke off ties over a fatwa, or religious edict, ordering Muslims to kill British author Salman Rushdie because his novel "The Satanic Verses" allegedly insulted Islam.
The White House strongly condemned the attacks and European Union foreign ministers were meeting Thursday to consider possible new sanctions. Hague also praised Poland, Russia, China and the UAE for offering support and expressing their concern.
The French foreign ministry said it was moved to act "in the face of this flagrant and unacceptable violation of the Vienna Convention on diplomatic relations and the gravity of the violence."
Italy's foreign minister Giulio Terzi said Rome was also evaluating whether to keep its diplomatic presence in Iran.
Austrian Foreign Minister Michael Spindelegger said Iran was placing itself "outside of the framework of international law," Hague said.
France's budget minister, Valerie Pecresse, said the EU should consider a total embargo on oil exports, or a freeze on Iranian central bank holdings. British officials said the U.K. would likely support new measures against Iran's energy sector.
Hague claimed those involved in Tuesday's attack were members of a student group allied with the Iranian Revolutionary Guard's paramilitary Basij organization, which recruits heavily on university campuses.
"We should be clear from the outset that this is an organization controlled by elements of the Iranian regime," he said.
Hague told Parliament the private quarters of staff and Britain's ambassador were trashed in the attack and that diplomats' personal possessions were stolen.
"This is a breach of international responsibilities of which any nation should be ashamed," he said.
Some were alarmed by Hague's tough tone. David Miliband, Britain's former foreign secretary, said he hoped the robust words would not become "part of the very unwelcome drumbeat of war."
About 24 British embassy staff and dependents were based in Tehran. They are all adults because Britain will not post diplomats with small children to Iran for security reasons.
Iran's government has expressed regret about the "unacceptable behavior" of protesters, whose attacks began after anti-British demonstrations apparently authorized by authorities.
But Iran's Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani said the "wrath of (students) resulted from several decades of domination-seeking behavior of Britain."
Iran's tensions with Britain date back to the 19th century, when the Persian monarchy gave huge industrial concessions to London, which later included significant control over Iran's oil industry. In 1953, Britain and the U.S. helped organize a coup that overthrew a nationalist prime minister and restored the pro-Western shah to power.
More recently, Iran was angered by Britain's decision to honor Rushdie with a knighthood in 2007, and over its involvement in Western scrutiny of Iran's nuclear program.
In March 2007, Iran detained 15 British sailors and marines for allegedly entering the country's territorial waters in the Gulf — a claim Britain denies. The 15 were released after nearly two weeks in captivity.
On Sunday, Iran's parliament approved a bill to downgrade relations with Britain, vowing to expel the country's ambassador.
Protesters worldwide have joined the "Occupy Wall Street" movement in a cry of rage against bankers, financiers and politicians they accuse of ruining global economies and condemning millions to poverty and hardship through greed.
Dozens of cities across the world - from Tokyo to Alaska via London, Frankfurt and Washington - are holding demonstrations on Saturday, in a show of solidarity with the rallies that began last month in downtown New York.
In depth coverage of US financial crisis protests
"On October 15th people from all over the world will take to the streets and squares ... to initiate the global change we want," proclaimed the website United for #GlobalChange.
"We will peacefully demonstrate, talk and organize until we make it happen. It's time for us to unite; it's time for them to listen."
Melbourne, Australia's second-largest city, saw the day's first demonstration, when at least 1,000 people, including children, gathered at City Square.
"We face similar problems with our democracy here in Victoria and Australia as people face in most other developed nations," the Occupy Melbourne website said. "Our democracy is unwell."
In Sydney, about 2,000 protesters including representatives of Aboriginal groups, communists and trade unionists, protested outside the central Reserve Bank of Australia, at Martin Place in the central business district time.
'Occupy Asia'
Demonstrations of various sizes took place in Asia, namely in Japan's Tokyo, the Philippines' Manila, Taiwan's Taipei, South Korea's Seoul and China's Hong Kong.
Several protests and rallies were held simultaneously in various locations at the Japanese capital.
Hundreds of demonstrators marched to the headquarters of Tokyo Electric Power Co. and the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry to show dissatisfaction over the handling of the nuclear disaster triggered by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.
Despite heavy rains in Seoul, the South Korean capital, members of more than 30 civic groups congregated outside the Financial Services Commission in Yeouido, the city's financial district.
Activists wearing Guy Fawkes masks staged performances to express their frustration with the growing income gap in Seoul, and chanted "We are the 99 per cent" - one of the seminal slogans of the Wall Street movement.
In Manila, about 100 members of Bayan, an alliance of various left-wing groups in the Philippines, marched to the US embassy, waving banners that read: "Down with US imperialism" and "Philippines not for sale", broadcaster APTN reported.
They took Saturday's occupy protest to voice support for the New York movement and to express their cricism of US troop presence in the country's south.
One man was seen carrying a placard that read: "Genuine people's democracy lives in the streets."
In Hong Kong, more than 200 people gathered at Exchange Square Podium in the city’s central shopping and business district.
Some pitched tents to stay overnight at the site while others later migrated to the HSBC building nearby.
Taipei, the Taiwanese capital, saw a smaller turnout of near 100 people than the expected 1,500, at the city's landmark skyscraper Taipei 101, home to the Taiwan Stock Exchange.
#GlobalChange
The Occupy South Africa website announced "Operation Ubuntu", a Nguni word used to describe unity for a common purpose through an African worldview that people can only find fulfilment through interacting with other peoples.
Protests are scheduled in the country's major cities of Capetown, East London, Durban and Johannesburg for later on Saturday.
Greek protesters aligned with Spain's "Indignant" movement called an anti-austerity rally in Athens' Syntagma square, the focal point of many demonstrations during Greece's financial meltdown.
Cath Turner reports on Wall Street activists' defiance
In Germany, the financial centre of Frankfurt and the European Central Bank was expected to be a focus of marches called by the Real Democracy Now group.
"What is happening in Greece now is the nightmare waiting other countries in the future," Real Democracy said in a statement.
"Solidarity is people's weapon."
In Britain, about 4,000 people have signalled their intent to attend a peaceful demonstration that will start at noon today in the City of London -- a leading international financial centre -- under the banner "Occupy the Stock Exchange", according to organisers.
In the United States, the founding "Occupation Wall Street" movement has urged more people and cities to join them on Saturday.
There have also been calls for occupations similar to that in Manhattan's Zuccotti Park to take place in dozens of US cities.
In Houston, Texas, protesters plan to tap into anger at big oil companies.
Alert for violence
The protests are billed as peaceful. But in a sign of what may happen, a group of students stormed Goldman Sachs' offices in the Italian city of Milan on Friday.
The students managed to break into the hall of the Goldman Sachs building in the heart of Milan's financial district.
The protests were quickly dispersed but red graffiti was daubed on its walls expressing anger at Silvio Berlusconi, the Italian prime minister, and saying "Give us money".
Demonstrators also hurled eggs at the headquarters of UniCredit, Italy's biggest bank.
Italian police were on alert for thousands to march in Rome against austerity measures planned by Berlusconi's government.
Human rights activists have condemned the public execution of eight Bangladeshi migrant workers in Saudi Arabia.
According to reports, the eight men were beheaded in Riyadh on Friday following conviction for the alleged killing of an Egyptian national in April 2007. Three other Bangladeshis who were also convicted of murder, were sentence to prison terms and flogging.
Ain O Salish Kendra (ASK), a Bangladeshi legal aid and human rights organization, said that while the executions were carried out under Saudi laws, such a punishment will cause grave suffering to the families of the condemned men. ASK also pointed out that foreign workers in Saudi Arabia often don’t understand the nuances of Saudi law, do not understand the Arabic language, and frequently fail to secure effective legal representation.
ASK has urged the Bangladeshi government in Dhaka to provide legal assistance to countrymen who find themselves in serious trouble in foreign countries.
According to Sultana Kamal, executive director of ASK in Dhaka, the Bangladeshi government did not even inform the families of the executed men – they learned of it through newspaper reports.
“They [migrants] are poor people they go there [Saudi Arabia] for economic reasons and we are not sure whether they were given enough opportunity to defend themselves and why weren't the families informed?,” she told Radio Australia.
However, it is unlikely that Bangladeshi officials will do much to pressure the Saudis – there are an estimated 2 million Bangladeshi workers in Saudi Arabia and their cash remittances home are important to the impoverished nation’s economy.
Similarly, the London-based human rights organization Amnesty International is also outraged by the mass beheading, citing that since the end of the Holy month of Ramadan, executions have resumed in Saudi Arabia at an alarming rate.
Amnesty stated that the Saudis have now executed 58 people this year, more than double the rate for all of last year.
“Court proceedings in Saudi Arabia fall far short of international standards for fair trial and news of these recent multiple executions [are] deeply disturbing,” said Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, Amnesty’s Deputy Director for Middle East and North Africa.
“The Saudi authorities appear to have increased the number of executions in recent months, a move that puts the country at odds with the worldwide trend against the death penalty. The [Saudi] government must establish an immediate moratorium on executions in the Kingdom and commute all death sentences, with a view to abolishing the death penalty completely.”
Amnesty also pointed out that many of those who are executed in Saudi Arabia are foreign workers from poor countries who can neither afford lawyers, nor even understand the Kingdom’s court system.
“Defendants often have no defense lawyer and are unable to follow court proceedings in Arabic,” Amnesty stated. “They are also rarely allowed formal representation by a lawyer, and in many cases are not informed of the progress of legal proceedings against them. They, and many of the Saudi Arabians who are executed, also have no access to influential figures such as government authorities or heads of tribes, nor to money, both crucial factors in paying blood money or securing a pardon in murder cases.”
Meanwhile, the Saudi ambassador to Bangladesh, Abdullah. N. Al Bussairy, told the Daily Star newspaper of Bangladesh, insisted that his government tried to help Dhaka officials pay blood money to the family of the murdered man in Egypt (whose forgiveness might have spared the convicted men, under Sharia law).
This is a unseen video. This is one footage you will never see on major news networks
There is nothing more wrong than a government lying to its people about wars, then asking these same citizens to put their lives and their taxes on the line for those lies. If a war is justified, then tell the truth and the people will decide whether to support it.
- Julian Assange
Wikileaks deserves protection, not threats and attacks
LONDON (AP) — Four of the high-profile media organizations that have collaborated with WikiLeaks on its release of secret documents on Friday condemned the group's disclosure of its entire archive of uncensored U.S. State Department cables. WikiLeaks announced that it had posted the last of its collection of 251,287 U.S. Embassy cables, a trove of diplomatic material whose exposure has embarrassed officials and laid bare examples of corruption and double-dealing around the globe. But unlike previous releases, many if not all the newly-posted documents appeared to have been left uncensored — meaning that names and other details of people quoted in the often-sensitive cables are now freely available to all. A joint statement published on the Guardian's website Friday said that the British publication and its international colleagues — The New York Times, Spanish daily El Pais and German newspaper Der Spiegel — "deplore the decision of WikiLeaks to publish the unredacted State Department cables, which may put sources at risk." Le Monde, the French daily which also published some of WikiLeaks' documents, will join other media partners in signing the statement, according to executive editor Sylvie Kauffmann.
FILE - In this July 14, 2011 photo, Wikileaks founder Julian Assange talks to members of the media during a news conference in central London. Anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks said Thursday that its massive archive of unredacted U.S. State Department cables had been exposed in a security breach which it blamed on its one-time partner, Britain's Guardian newspaper. (AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis)
WikiLeaks members of staff have not returned repeated requests for comment sent in the past two days. But in a series of messages posted to Twitter, the group seemed to suggest that it had no choice but to post the archive to its website because copies of the document were already circulating freely online following a security breach at the site. WikiLeaks has blamed the Guardian for the breach, pointing out that a sensitive password used to decrypt the files was published in a book put out by David Leigh, one of the paper's investigative reporters and a collaborator-turned-critic of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. But the Guardian, Leigh and others have rejected the claim, suggesting that the real problem was that WikiLeaks posted the encrypted file to the Web by accident and that Assange made the elementary mistake of reusing an old password. The U.S. State Department has also condemned the latest release.
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
LONDON (AP) — Facial recognition technology being considered for London's 2012 Games is getting a workout in the wake of Britain's riots, a law enforcement official told The Associated Press on Thursday, with officers feeding photographs of suspects through Scotland Yard's newly updated face-matching program.
The official said that the Metropolitan Police's sophisticated software was being used to help find those suspected of being involved in the worst unrest the force has faced in a generation, although he cautioned that police had a host of other strategies at their disposal.
"A lot of tools are being used to hunt down these criminals, and that's just one of them," the official said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak about an ongoing investigation. "The issue is that you have to have a good picture of a suspect and it is only useful if you have something to match it against. In other words, the suspect already has to have a previous criminal record."
A press officer with Scotland Yard — who also spoke anonymously, in line with force policy — confirmed Thursday that facial recognition technology was at the police's disposal, although he gave few other details. He said that generally the technology would only be used to help identify those suspected of serious crimes, such as assault, and that in most cases disseminating photographs to the general public remains a far cheaper and more effective way of identifying people.
Chief Superintendent Simon Ovens, left, commander of the Westminster Burglary Squad, and another officer apprehend a suspect following a raid by police in an attempt to recover property stolen during the recent civil disturbances. Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron promised vigorous and wide-ranging measures to restore order and prevent riots erupting again on Britain's streets - including taking gang-fighting tips from American cities. Cameron told lawmakers there would be no "culture of fear" on Britain's streets, as police raided houses to round up more suspects from four days of rioting and looting in London and other English cities. (AP Photo/Nigel Howard/Evening Standard, pool)
To that end the police have released two dozen photos and videos to the picture-sharing website Flickr, where they've already gathered some 400,000 hits. Some of those photographs have also been published by Britain's brash tabloid press. The Sun recently plastered them across its front page, along with a headline urging readers to denounce looters to the police.
The photographs on Flickr are mainly grainy images pulled from closed circuit television cameras, which may not be of much use to face-matching software. But other pictures — taken by police surveillance teams, published in the media or snapped by passers-by — could provide higher-resolution images.
Both officials said that the quality of images would be key.
The facial-recognition technology used by police uses a face like a grid, measuring the distance between a person's nose, eyes, lips and other features. It has recently been upgraded, according to an article published last year in Scotland Yard's internal publication, "The Job."
According to the March 2010 article, the new program has been shown to work far better than older versions of the face-matching technology. One expert cited by the article said it had shown promise in matching high-quality, face-on shots taken from surveillance photographs, mobile phones, passports or even off the Internet.
A person with the Olympic planning committee recently told the AP that facial recognition software was being considered for use during the Olympic Games, although he would not go into details about the specific technology being used.
He spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of security preparations.
Source: APNewsBreak Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
LONDON (AP) — British Prime Minister David Cameron vowed Thursday there would be no "culture of fear" on Britain's streets, as police raided houses to round up more suspects from four days of rioting and looting in London and other English cities.
Cameron told lawmakers that the government was "acting decisively" to restore order after riots, which shocked the country — and the world.
"We will not allow a culture of fear to exist on our streets," Cameron said. "We will not let a violent few beat us."
Lawmakers were summoned back from their summer vacations for an emergency session on the riots as government and police worked to regain control, both on the streets and in the court of public opinion. Calm prevailed in London overnight, with a highly visible police presence watching over the capital.
Cameron promised tough measures to stop further violence and said "nothing should be off the table," including water cannons and plastic bullets.
Metropolitan Police officers prepare to carry out a raid on a property on the Churchill Gardens estate in Pimlico, London during an operation where police hope to recover property stolen during the recent disturbances in the capital Thursday Aug. 11, 2011. British Prime Minister David Cameron says the government is "acting decisively" to restore order after riots that shocked the country. Cameron told lawmakers that "we will not allow a culture of fear to exist on our streets." (AP Photo/Anthony Devlin/PA Wire) UNITED KINGDOM OUT
He said riot-hit businesses would receive help to get back on their feet, and promised to look to the United States for help in fighting the street gangs he blamed for helping spark Britain's riots.
Cameron told lawmakers that he would look to cities like Boston for inspiration. He also mentioned former Los Angeles and New York Police Chief Bill Bratton as a person who could help offer advice.
The government, police and intelligence services were looking at whether there should be limits on the use social media sites like Twitter and Facebook to spread disorder, he said.
Meanwhile the number of people arrested in London rose to 922 since trouble began on Saturday, with 401 suspects charged.
Deputy Assistant Commissioner Stephen Kavanagh said raids to round up suspects began overnight, and more than 100 warrants would be executed.
Hugh Orde, head of the Association of Chief Police Officers, said there would be "hundreds more people in custody" by the end of the day.
Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg said the "sociological debate" about the origins of the violence was for the future.
"Right now it's important that people are reassured that their streets are made safe, their homes are made safe and society is allowed to move on," Clegg told BBC radio.
The London police said it would keep up the huge operation — involving 16,000 officers — for at least one more night.
Tensions remained high even in the absence of any major incidents.
There was a brief outbreak of trouble in Eltham, southeast London, where a group of largely white and middle-aged men who claimed to be defending their neighborhood pelted police with rocks and bottles. Police said the incident had been "dealt with" and a group was dispersed.
There were chaotic scenes at courthouses, several of which sat through the night to process scores of alleged looters and vandals, including an 11-year-old boy.
The defendants included Natasha Reid, a 24-year-old university graduate who admitted stealing a TV from a looted electronics store in north London. Her lawyer said she had turned herself in because she could not sleep because of guilt.
Also due to appear in court were several people charged with using social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook to incite violence.
Other cities where looters had rampaged earlier this week also came through the night largely unscathed, though for the first time minor disturbances were reported in Wales.
Tensions flared in Birmingham, where a murder probe was opened after three men were killed in a hit-and-run incident as they took to the streets to defend shops from looting.
Chris Sims, chief constable of West Midlands Police, said a man had been arrested on suspicion of murder. Police on Thursday were given more time to question him.
"We needed a fightback and a fightback is under way," Cameron said in a somber televised statement outside his Downing Street office after a meeting of the government's crisis committee. He said "nothing is off the table" — including water cannons, commonly used in Northern Ireland but never deployed in mainland Britain.
Senior police officers, however, indicated they had no plans to use water cannons.
The violence has revived debate about the Conservative-led government's austerity measures, which will slash 80 billion pounds ($130 billion) from public spending by 2015 to reduce the country's swollen budget deficit.
Cameron's government has slashed police budgets as part of the cuts. A report last month said the cuts will mean 16,000 fewer police officers by 2015.
London Mayor Boris Johnson — like Cameron, a Conservative — broke with the government to say such cuts are wrong.
"That case was always pretty frail and it has been substantially weakened," he told BBC radio. "This is not a time to think about making substantial cuts in police numbers."
Scenes of ransacked stores, torched cars and blackened buildings have frightened and outraged Britons just a year before their country is to host next summer's Olympic Games, bringing demands for a tougher response from law enforcement.
Britain's soccer authorities were talking with police to see whether this weekend's season-opening matches of the Premier League could still go ahead in London. A Wednesday match between England and the Netherlands at London's Wembley stadium was canceled.
Britain's riots began Saturday when an initially peaceful protest over a police shooting in London's Tottenham neighborhood turned violent. That clash has morphed into general lawlessness in London and several other cities that police have struggled to halt.
While the rioters have run off with goods every teen wants — new sneakers, bikes, electronics and leather goods — they also have torched stores apparently just to see something burn. They were left virtually unchallenged in several neighborhoods, and when police did arrive they often were able to flee quickly and regroup.
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Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
LONDON (AP) — A few miles from the worst violence to hit the city in 25 years, beach volleyball players dived headlong in the sand, the most summery of Olympic sports on display less than a year before the London Games.
The matches were played under the shadow of the London Eye big wheel, and not far from Buckingham Palace and No. 10 Downing Street. Yet no historic backdrop could block the images of rioting and looting that have swept the city the past three days and left a mark on British sports.
The soccer game between England and the Netherlands at Wembley was the biggest casualty. And as IOC officials arrived to review progress leading to the 2012 Games, they were greeted by a forbidding landscape a short way from where the Olympics will unfold.
Plumes of smoke rose from run-down neighborhoods. Businesses closed early — many of them boarded up — as authorities struggled to contain the country's worst unrest since race riots set London ablaze in the 1980s.
It was hardly the image Britain hoped to present to the world. This was a time when fans should have been reveling in the expectation of a successful Olympics and the start of English soccer season.
Canada's Jamie Lynn Broder and Ashley Voth, front, against Britain's Denise Johns and Lucy Boulton during FIVB Beach Volley International Olympic test event tournament at Horse Guards Parade in London, Tuesday, Aug. 9, 2011. Horse Guards Parade will host the London 2012 Olympic beach volley competition. (AP Photo/Sang Tan)
Instead, athletes fielded calls from worried relatives watching TV footage of burning buildings and vehicles. Officials tried to downplay the impact of the violence that began Saturday night in the Tottenham area of north London following the fatal shooting of a local man by police.
"My friends and family have been calling," Canadian beach volleyball player Heather Bansley said. "They keep checking in to make sure we're OK. It's not a great thing to be happening to London."
The disorder comes less than two weeks after London celebrated with great fanfare the one-year countdown to the opening of the games on July 27, 2012.
On Monday, the violence spread to Hackney, one the boroughs encompassing the Olympic Park in east London. The unrest took place about four miles from the park, site of the main Olympic Stadium and other key venues.
Prime Minister David Cameron and London Mayor Boris Johnson cut short their vacations to head back to the capital as organizers defended security planning and pressed ahead with preparations for the world's biggest sports festival.
"We have a commitment to deliver a safe and secure games and we will do so," Olympics Minister Hugh Robertson said. "All the evidence shows this trouble is low-level criminality driven by messages on social networks and not some new, emerging security threat."
More than 500 people have been arrested in London and more than 100 charged so far.
With police needed elsewhere, Wembley Stadium was deemed not safe enough to host Wednesday's soccer game. With 70,000 tickets sold for the visit of a Dutch team that reached last year's World Cup final, the Football Association will take a financial hit because of ticket refunds.
Tuesday's game between Ghana and Nigeria in neutral Watford, 20 miles northwest of London, was also called off. The Premier League said it was still talking with police before deciding whether this weekend's season-opening matches at Tottenham, Fulham and Queen's Park Rangers could proceed. Two domestic cup games set for Tuesday also were abandoned.
Tottenham was the scene of the shooting that sparked the initial violence and one of the areas hardest hit by riots. One of the ticket offices at the north London club's stadium was closed because of damage.
With the mayhem spreading outside London, dozens of people attacked shops in Birmingham's main retail district. England's cricketers were warned to stay in the team hotel after dark as they prepared for their match against India on Wednesday. Rival captains Andrew Strauss and Mahendra Singh Dhoni supported the decision to play.
"This is an opportunity for cricket to maybe put a feel-good factor back into the newspapers and show that not everything's bad out there at the moment," Strauss said.
But, for now, it's the outlying areas of London such as Hackney that are suffering.
Amid the tourist haunts of historic central London, only the rock music pumping from the speaker system drowned out the polite applause of spectators at a temporary beach volleyball court made up of 2,274 tons of imported sand.
About half the seats at the sold-out event went unfilled. And because of worries that night would bring renewed violence, officials wrapped up the opening day almost three hours early so fans, staff and volunteers could get home before dark.
FIVB Beach Volleyball Director Angelo Squeo, who was on site during the Olympic Park bombing at the 1996 Atlanta Games, said he consulted with high-ranking London Olympic organizers and police before making the decision.
"I will do whatever in order to not put in danger — not even risk putting in danger — anybody here," Squeo told The Associated Press. "In Atlanta, we had the bomb and I was left with 11,000 people outside the venue and I did not know if I had the green light or red light."
Brittany Hochevar hopes to qualify for the U.S. volleyball team and return next year for the Olympics. Her sport will be played on a site that hosted jousting tournaments during the reign of Henry VIII.
"When you're a competitor and you're a warrior, when you know that competitions have taken place here for generations and generations, it gives me goose bumps — it really does," '' Hochevar told the AP. "I said my prayers last night. Now, I have a vision of what it could be like getting back here in 2012 in all it's glory."
But is she concerned for her safety?
"Not really, I live in L.A.," Hochevar said. "It's nothing I haven't seen myself."
Other scheduled test events this week include a cycling road race that will go through the streets of London on Sunday and a marathon swimming competition at Hyde Park on Saturday. The world badminton championship are taking place at the Olympic venue of Wembley Arena in north London.
"I don't feel I know enough about the riots and how close they are to us," said Jens Grill, who is in charge of the British badminton team. "But last night we walked back together and the players walked back in groups just to be on the safe side."
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Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
