The BOA panel found that the selection procedure was flawed and potentially biased. Of particular concern was a sense that Cook’s coach may not have had a fair chance to make his case because he is outside the STUK high-performance programme. It was also concerned that too much weight was applied to a perceived change in the rules concerning head shots, which STUK believe favours Muhammad, but the world governing body says is not a significant change.
The BOA panel called on STUK to give equal weight to all criteria, and said Muhammad and Cook should have “equal and in-person representation before the selection committee, preferably by their personal coach”. It also called on all members to vote.
Performance director Gary Hall said: “It was a very tough decision between two exceptional athletes, but it was made by an expert panel of selectors in line with our selection procedures. The fact Aaron is outside our system had nothing to do with it. Our job is to win medals, so if you do the job you get the call regardless of where you train. We have no problem with Aaron at all.
“In terms of rankings, some people have an ambition to be ranked highly but we don’t chase rankings because the system is inaccurate.”
Source: www.telegraph.co.uk
London 2012 Chairman sees enthusiasm of athletes on forthcoming Games - Xinhua News Agency
FRANKFURT, May 31 (Xinhua) -- The London 2012 Chairman Thursday said the levels of efforts and enthusiasm among elite athletes to compete at the London 2012 Olympic Games were among the highest he had seen.
He made the remarks at a news conference here with Thomas Bach, German National Olympic Committee President and International Olympic Committe vice president. Bach announced the selection of the first athletes to represent Germany at the London 2012 Games.
Coe said the interest and desire to participate at the London Olympic Games was sky high. The triathletes in Tokyo, runners in rabat, swimmers in Los Angeles and gymnasts in Beijing have an unprecedented appetite among elite level competitors around the world to get to London, he said.
Bach expects an exciting and inspiring atmosphere and brilliant games in London. "On the sport side they will be the stage for the toughest Olympic competition ever," he said.
China and the U.S. will compete for the first place in the medal tally in London Olympics, probably followed by Russia in the third place, Bach predicted. He also added that the U.K., which is the host country of the Games, will probably take the fourth place in the medal tally.
There will be fierce competition for the fifth place, he said.
The news conference was attended by a popular German Olympic gold medalist fencer, Britta Heidemann who told Xinhua that she will try to secure a medal in London, pointing to strong competition from her Chinese and French competitors.
Coe said the Torch Relay is building momentum and excitement is continuing to increase in the countdown to the Games.
"We are on track to provide a memorable welcome that will inspire the athlete and the world," he added.
Source: news.xinhuanet.com
RFU Championship final: London Welsh 29-20 Cornish Pirates - BBC News
London Welsh sealed the Championship title and a chance of securing a Premiership place after beating Cornish Pirates 66-41 over two legs.
Welsh are now expected to take legal action over the Rugby Football Union's ruling that they are not eligible for promotion to the top flight.
Matt Evans went over for Pirates but Alex Davies' fifth penalty put Welsh ahead before Hudson Tonga'uiha's try.
Ryan Storer reduced the deficit but Jack Moates rounded off Welsh's win.
An RFU report said the Exiles had not achieved the minimum standards criteria to go up but the Richmond-based side are expeted to explore "all possible avenues" to gain promotion after seeing off Pirates in the final.
Having proposed to play their matches next season at Oxford United's Kassam Stadium, where the second leg of the final was played, an RFU statement said that not having primacy of tenure at their chosen ground was one of "various failures" in Welsh's promotion bid.
Three Premiership sides share grounds with football clubs; London Irish with Reading, London Wasps with Wycombe and Saracens with Watford, while Sale will share with Super League side Salford City Reds next season.
On Wednesday club president John Dawes said chairman Bleddyn Phillips would take the "ultimate" action to ensure Welsh do go up .
Having won at Pirates 37-21 last week , Welsh fought back from a seven-point deficit which threatened their first-leg advantage, to secure the Championship title having finished the regular season in fourth place.
Aaron Penberthy's drop goal had put Pirates ahead, Alex Davies then levelled for Welsh before Rob Cook's penalty and a second from Davies made it 6-6.
Evans gave Pirates a clear lead with the opening try of the match, picking up on a loose ball after Cook's punt forward bounced into open space deep in the Exiles' half.
Cook then added the extras before Davies failed with a penalty attempt on the stroke of half-time.
The Exiles fly-half was successful with his next two attempts with the boot after the break, closing the gap to one point and putting the hosts nine points ahead on aggregate.
Davies added a fifth penalty before Tonga'uiha, who had scored in the first leg, broke through the Pirates defence to touch down and Davies then added his first of two conversions.
Pirates responded with a consolation try as replacement prop Ryan Storer forced his way over after a scramble on the line before Cook added the extras.
But Welsh were not yet done as a fine move saw Ed Jackson feed the ball to Jack Moates, who crossed over to add the gloss to their victory.
LINE-UPS
London Welsh: A. Davies, Ajuwa, J. Lewis, Tonga'uiha, Scott, Ross, R. Lewis, Lahiff, George, Tideswell, Mills, Corker, Beach, Denbee, Jackson.
Replacements: Ma'asi, Moss, Bateman, Purdy, Russell, Moates, Jewell.
Cornish Pirates: Cook, Evans, Pointer, Locke, D. Doherty, Penberthy, Cattle, Rimmer, Ward, Paver, McGolone, Nimmo, D. Ewers, Burgess, Maidment.
Replacements: Storer, Elloway, Myerscough, Marriott, Kebsel, Cooper, McAtee.
Referee: David Rose (RFU)
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
Hammersmith Apollo in London sold by HMV to Stage C - BBC News
Entertainment venue Hammersmith Apollo which has held concerts by bands from The Beatles to Queen, has been sold by its owner HMV.
HMV agreed to sell the west London art deco venue to American-German joint venture Stage C for £32m.
The 9,000-capacity venue was taken over by entertainment retailer HMV in 2010.
HMV chief Simon Fox said: "The Hammersmith Apollo is an iconic London venue and it has been a privilege to own it over the last three years."
The venue opened in 1932 as the Gaumont Palace cinema, as part of a wider turnaround.
It has played host to many famous performances, including David Bowie's last concert as alter-ego Ziggy Stardust in 1973.
It is also the eponymous venue in the BBC stand-up comedy series Live at the Apollo.
Stage C is jointly owned by London's indigO2 operator Ansco Music Club, a subsidiary of US company Anschutz Entertainment, and a subsidiary of Munich-based CTS Eventim.
The sale is conditional on banking approvals, shareholder approval and Stage C securing regulatory approvals.
With 252 stores in the UK, HMV said the sale allowed it to focus on its core retail business, while the proceeds from the disposal would be used to reduce the group's outstanding debt.
The sale follows a decision to place its HMV Live division, which runs 13 venues and a number of festivals including Lovebox in London and Global Gathering near Stratford-upon-Avon, under review.
The entertainment retailer recently surprised the City by forecasting a return to profit in 2013 despite estimated losses of about £19m for the past financial year.
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
Kent man jailed for alleged rape of minor - Akron Beacon Journal
A Kent man was arraigned on Tuesday for the alleged rape of a 13-year-old on Sunday.
Source: www.ohio.com
Turner's Kent 'Very Unhappy' With Ratings Dive at CNN - Broadcasting Cable
Backs Cooper, Morgan, Burnett, but other shows may be replaced
By Jon Lafayette -- Broadcasting & Cable, 5/31/2012 1:14:53 PM
Turner Broadcasting CEO Phil Kent admitted to being "very unhappy" with CNN's primetime ratings, but said it won't resort to tricks to increase viewership.CNN ratings hit a 20-year low in May and speaking at the Nomura U.S. Media & Telecom Summit Thursday, Kent said the company had plans to improve the quality of its broadcasts and increase viewership.
Kent said the ratings problems had two causes, some he called environmental and the others "self-inflicted."
Over the years, CNN has benefited from breaking news and in the first five months of this year, there have been few big stories, especially compared to last year's rush of unrest in the Middle East, tsunamis, reactor meltdowns and earthquakes.
Even the election has been "pretty boring to people," said Kent, who expects interest in politics to heat up.
"This is not an excuse. It's just a fact," said Kent, calling those factors about half the problem.
The self-inflected problems stems from the fact that "we haven't put the best shows on the air," he said.
Kent said CNN's current primetime lineup still has "very high potential." He called Anderson Cooper a television news star who "at this moment is not getting a star's ratings and that's because of lead-ins."
But Kent also offered support for Erin Burnett and Piers Morgan, whose shows lead in to Coopers'.
He calls Burnett "a great get for us," but said "that show should be doing better. I think that show can do better. I think it's just a question of a terrific talent with the right staff around her playing as much to her strengths as possible."
Kent also said the company believes strongly in Morgan, who replaced CNN mainstay Larry King. "I think he's a tremendous interviewer," he said, adding that "it seems to be that when he is interviewing people that are in the news in a meaningful way, the show works better than a typical celebrity interview. I don't really know what to make of that yet."
Of the rest of CNN's lineup, "we have some other shows that probably need to be replaced. This is an execution issue and to me, this is TV 101."
Kent said the challenge of raising CNN's ratings is unique because "there are lots of ways to get ratings and every local news director has some tricks up their sleeve to get ratings. We choose not to do that."
He said that, contrary to some published reports, his boss, Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes has not been hammering him about CNN's ratings.
"The pressure on all of us, on me, on the CNN management from me is to raise the quality and the consistency of the quality," he said. "I am a firm believer that if we raise the quality of these shows and make them a little surprising -- sometimes also it's also a little repetitive throughout the day -- if we raise the quality and we do it with consistency the ratings will be just fine. I can't tell you that we'll beat this one or that one. But they'll be a hell of a lot better than they are right now and we'll be fine."
Kent said CNN ratings have not been a factor in recent carriage negotiations with distributors.
He said he's expecting TNT's ratings to rebound in the second half of the year, as TBS' already have, and that the company will be recording significant increases in carriage fees as its deals with cable operators expire between 2014 and 2016.
Turner's fees have been undervalued since it gave up the NFL. Now after increasing spending on original programming and sports deals for key events like the NCAA Men's College Basketball Tournament, it has more must-have programming, Kent said.
But Turner prefers not to negotiate in public or take out ads telling consumers that they might lose some of their favorite channels.
"That's led to a misperception we're too passive," Kent said. But he said Turner has already gotten "significant growth" in sub fees on the back of the NCAAs and other programming investments.
Source: www.broadcastingcable.com
Made in London: the city's local entrepreneurs in profile - Daily Telegraph
Jon Penn, 32; Creative Design Products
Jon is the director and co-founder of Spinning Hat, a London-based company that designs gifts and toys, and of recently launched Goodfibres, a company that prints T-shirts with designs chosen by members of its online community. His first success came after he designed the Bottle Spy, a bottle opener with an electronic dial that logs the number of bottles it has opened. It won the eco-friendly Gift of the Year award in 2008 and Jon has been designing products ever since. Spinning Hat's products have been made available in over 30 countries; major stockists include Next, John Lewis and Paul Smith. Penn now has offices in Hong Kong and the US, as well as a main base at the Silicon Roundabout at Old Street. He attributes part of his companies’ success to their London base: “It’s certainly good for creativity; it’s very much the place to be for creative minds. It’s a buzzing place at the moment.” Global sales for Spinning Hat are this year forecast at over £3.5 million.
Preston Benson, 31; Real Estate
A business studies graduate of the University of Notre Dame in Indiana, American Preston Benson quit his unfulfilling job at a Chicago accountancy firm to move to London and pursue a career in real estate. Without any contacts, he began working directly with individual families and concentrated on negotiating high-end property deals. He ultimately developed Go Native, a company that provides temporary housing solutions to businesses operating internationally; it turns over more than £29m annually. Preston is now commercial director of Bursha Holdings, a property investment company with a portfolio estimated at around £60m. Preston’s entrepreneurial drive began at the age of six. His parents were strict with pocket money and so he set up his first business “literally the cliché of selling lemonade on the street in America”. He links his success as an adult to his childhood desire to earn enough money for “that WWF action figure”.
Yuvraj Jatania, 25, and Virraj Jatania, 23; Discount and Cashback Card Business
Virraj Jatania, left, and Yuvraj Jatania.
Brothers Yuvraj and Virraj Jatania are co-founders and managing directors of Pockit, the first prepaid card provider, which enables users to make savings on household essentials in high-street stores by providing discount codes and cashback on purchases. Virraj began the business directly after leaving university and his elder brother left Ernst & Young to join him. Together, they took six months to put together a business plan and Pockit launched officially in November 2011. They currently have approximately 2,000 cardholders and expect to have around 40,000 members by the end of the year. They have already secured discount deals from companies such as Aviva, TalkTalk and M&S. The recession has proved a blessing of sorts for the brothers. It has meant that consumers are looking for new ways to save money and the company is securing large numbers of new members every day, Virraj is optimistic about Pockit’s future: “it’s very exciting times.”
Smruti Sriram, 25, Charity Student Award Scheme
Smruti founded the Wings of Hope achievement award in 2004 when she was 18 and on a gap year. The award scheme assists school students in setting up businesses that make contributions to good causes; it earns proceeds from these businesses and corporate sponsors. Smruti pitched the idea to countless head teachers and the project was accepted by 25 schools. It is now active in 400 schools and 20,000 students have participated in the programme over the course of five years. Current corporate sponsors include PWC, and Wings of Hope workshops have been led by individuals such as the CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi. Students are allowed free rein in the types of endeavours they undertake and the structure of the scheme has been redeveloped to take the participants’ ages and interests into account: “When we used to get dropouts of different schools participating in the scheme, we had to really analyse, because students can be quite fickle, and can’t be bothered if they don’t see quick wins”.
Alexander Amosu, 36; Luxury Products
Alexander is the founder of Amosu Luxury Ltd, a company that sells high-end bespoke exclusive products for “the elite”. It is most famous for making the world’s most expensive suit at £70,000 and a diamond-encrusted mobile phone costing £125,000. He has also recently ventured into Africa with a company called Kamson Luxury Group, which is introducing established brands into the African market. It is currently involved in the Nigerian launch of OK! magazine. Alexander moved with his family to the UK from Nigeria when he was three years old and grew up on a council estate in Kilburn. Aged 18, he set up a cleaning company for pregnant women. It generated revenues of £3,500 a month and provided him with capital for his next enterprise, R&B Ringtones. He founded the company after he learned how to compose ringtones on his mobile phone at the age of 21. Selling ringtones that resembled popular songs, the company earned £6.6m over four years and was sold for £9m in 2004. Alexander was a millionaire by the time he was 25.
In conversation: read about the group's thoughts on why London is an exciting place to do business and what makes a successful entrepreneur here.
Source: www.telegraph.co.uk
London Underground | Digging the Serpentine Pavilion - New York Times Blogs
The Serpentine Gallery Pavilion has, over the last 13 years, established itself as a must-see architectural event of the London summer season, not only for its experimental structures — which have allowed A-list architects like Zaha Hadid, Frank Gehry and Jean Nouvel to realize their first built projects in this city — but also for the glitzy parties and intellectually rigorous event marathons that accompany the structures.
The latest pavilion, which opens to the public tomorrow, responds to the history of previous pavilions on the site (a lawn adjacent to the gallery, in Kensington Gardens) and imagines an archaeological dig through the remnants of structures past to reach groundwater, celebrating the unseen natural water level below the city. Humble but daring, this romantic approach is the result of a collaboration between the Swiss architects Herzog & de Meuron and the Chinese artist Ai Weiwei, who are known for their design of the Beijing National Stadium for the 2008 Olympic Games. (While this is not, in fact, Herzog & de Meuron’s first completed work in London — their Tate Modern opened in 2000 — it is Ai’s first building project there.)
The landscape created by the dig — the interior of the pavilion, which contains seating for visitors and events — is lined in cork to create a soft, surreal environment shaped by the “ghosts” of pavilions past. Eleven columns, each of which represents a previous pavilion (there was no pavilion in 2004), and one that represents the new structure, support the roof, a floating platform with a circular pool of water that reflects the sky (and which can be drained for special events). As in past years, the pavilion will be the site of Park Nights, the gallery’s public events program, as well as its annual Serpentine Marathon, a series conceived by the gallery’s co-director Hans-Ulrich Obrist. A new twist, however, is that the gallery, which has sold past pavilions to recoup the costs of their construction but has never publicly identified the buyers, announced that this year’s pavilion has been purchased by the billionaire Indian steel magnate Lakshmi N. Mittal and his wife, Usha.
The Serpentine Gallery Pavilion 2012 will be on view through Oct. 14.
Source: tmagazine.blogs.nytimes.com
London students demonstrate in solidarity with Quebec protests - Socialist Worker
Issue: 2305 dated: 2 June 2012
News
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posted: 5.41pm Thu 31 May 2012
This article should be read after: Half a million march to defy Quebec's Bill 78 anti-protest laws
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A banner tied to the entrance to the Canadian Embassy (Pic: Nina Power)
As huge student protests continued to rage in Quebec, over 100 people demonstrated in solidarity outside Canadian government buildings in London last night (Wednesday).
The solidarity event, organised by Defend the Right to Protest (DTRTP), began at Canada House in Trafalgar Square with a noisy demonstration. It then wove its way through central London to the Quebec Government Office off Regents Street and the Canadian Embassy in Grosvenor Square.
Over 300,000 students in Quebec have been on strike for three months now against increases in tuition fees. The Quebec authorities have responded with draconian restrictions on the right to protest.
Rachel Harger, a DTRTP activist, told Socialist Worker that students who had protested against tuition fees in Britain understood the experiences of police intimidation and violence.
“People wanted to show support for the thousands arrested on the Quebec protests and those who have suffered injuries from the police,” she said. “Students in Britain received solidarity from around the world when we took to the streets. So it comes naturally for students here to do the same.”
The following should be read alongside this article:
Half a million march to defy Quebec's Bill 78 anti-protest laws
© Socialist Worker (unless otherwise stated). You may republish if you include an active link to the original.
Source: www.socialistworker.co.uk
London house prices could be halved by Euro crisis - The economic choice
The recent rush of money seeking a safe haven has pushed the price of luxury London homes up during the recent financial crisis, but this could quickly be reversed if the Eurozone breaks up leaving many with homes worth 50% of what they paid for them.
The research by the property firm Development Securities (Prime Central London: In a Class of its own?) covers seven postcode areas where the average house price is a cool £1.2 million.
The inflow of money into the capital by safe haven investors has pushed the price of PCL property up by 75% says the report, with 60% of them going to foreign buyers. But this could all change should the Euro fail. “A break up of the single currency is perhaps the single greatest threat to PCL” says the report.
Now, if a particular PCL house was worth say £1 million a few years ago and it went up in value by 75% it would now be worth £1.75 million. If it then drops in value by 50% it will be worth just £875,000. That is it will be worth less than the buyer paid for it! The later 50% drop is greater than the earlier 75% gain. Food for thought?
The report argues that the PCL property market is different from the rest of the country for several reasons.
It says that PCL property attracts investors from around the world, including the UK, who would never consider buying in any other part of the country. Because of this 90% of their price movement is caused by “…a combination of: changes in global equity prices; changes in the sterling exchange rate; and changes in those factors to do with risk and uncertainty that underpin the relative attractiveness of sterling assets more widely.”
This means that a Euro collapse, which would bring with it strengthened sterling and a collapse in global equity prices, would ‘undermine’ the wealth of those that would normally buy PCL property. But the report does say that after a time this trend would begin to reverse as the markets began to settle after the turmoil.
Michael Marx, Chief Executive of Development Securities, said “Safe-haven flows associated with fears about a messy end to the euro debt crisis have boosted PCL property prices over the past two years. And yet we end this report by arguing that a break-up of the single currency area is perhaps the single greatest risk to PCL prices. In the worst-case scenario, we estimate that PCL prices could fall by 50% following a break-up of the single currency area.”
Then we could see house prices across the country eventually following suit, despite PCL prices being ‘different’.
Queen's Grove, St John's Wood - by Stephen McKay
Image by Stephen McKay [CC-BY-SA-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
------ Other articles of interest ------
Tags: House Prices, london, News, property
Source: www.economicvoice.com
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