Capello: This is still my England team - ESPN.co.uk
Fabio Capello believes England are capable of enjoying a successful summer and says he has regrets over his departure.
Capello had enjoyed an excellent start to life as England manager as he led the country to the 2010 World Cup amid a wave of expectation, but the dismal performance in South Africa led to criticism of the Italian's management and -- despite securing the country's place at Euro 2012 -- he resigned in February following a feud over John Terry's captaincy.
Roy Hodgson, who officially took charge of England on May 14, has since led England to two friendly victories and a 1-1 draw in the Euro 2012 opener against France, and Capello acknowledges that he now has regrets over his departure.
"When England's players ran out against France, of course there was an emotion -- I felt it," he told the Daily Mail. "England is part of me now. The job was an attraction -- the chance to win something after so long. Everybody wants it for this reason.
"That is why it is the job I wanted, that is why it is the job Roy Hodgson, my friend, wanted. It is difficult watching on television when you want to be on the bench of the national team. It is a big difference. The dream is to win trophies, to make people back home happy. I miss it. This is normal."
He added: "This is my squad. They qualified under me and I know many of them so well. It is difficult to accept, but it has happened. England are part of my heart. I worked with the players and the people in the country for four years."
Although many felt England had performed above expectation against France, they have received some criticism for their defensive approach in the match, but Capello feels both sides were cagey in the opener and that Hodgson's men have enough ability.
"Neither team took any risks," he said. "They didn't have the confidence to do that because it was the first match of the tournament. England defended well.
"Joe Hart is an excellent goalkeeper and he made some really important saves. They have key players in important positions. Steven Gerrard is dangerous from long distance and free-kicks and John Terry is the spirit of the team. He drives the players in front of him."
England, as well as a spate of injuries, had to cope with the absence of Wayne Rooney against France. The forward was sent off for kicking out in the final qualifier against Montenegro -- "a really stupid or silly mistake," Capello says -- but will return after Friday's match against Sweden.
Capello feels his availability for the game against co-hosts Ukraine will be a substantial boost to England's chances of progress.
"During training I had to stop him: 'Please, Wayne'. But he would say: 'Boss, I want to shoot, I want to practise penalties, I want to do this'. I would have to say again: 'No Wayne!' I like that about him so much. He had so much enthusiasm.
"His best position is the one he plays in for Manchester United, playing as the link man. He can attack the space from there, but also he has the quality to score goals. He is a special player. He has certain qualities and he is one of the best players in the world. Technically he is gifted. For England he can be the difference and he can show that in the last group game against Ukraine."
Capello, who turns 66 this month, also stressed that he remains open to offers of work, though he is not desperate to return to management.
"I have had some offers, but some were too far away and my wife does not want me to go so far," he said. "If something interesting comes up at either international or club level then I am ready. If not, then I will be a television commentator."
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Poles frustrate Russians, Czechs bounce back at Euro 2012 - Football
Published: 13 Jun 2012 - 02:47:18
Russia's hopes of becoming the first side to make it into the Euro 2012 quarter-finals were dashed on Tuesday as co-hosts Poland fought back to draw 1-1 in their Group A clash.
With Czech Republic keeping their hopes alive with a 2-1 win over Greece, gaining some revenge for their painful semi-final loss to the Greeks in Euro 2004, it means that the Poles will have to beat the Czechs in their final match on Saturday.
The Poles, though, may well be boosted by the fact there are serious doubts over whether Czech captain Tomas Rosicky will be fit for the match as he was unable to play in the second-half because of a suspected Achilles tendon problem.
Russia, who had their national day celebrations dampened by the draw, just need a point against the Greeks, whose hopes hang by a thread.
The Russians looked as if they were well set for the last eight when their young star 21-year-old Alan Dzagoev headed in a first-half goal - his third of the tournament - only for a stunning effort by Polish captain 'Kuba' Blaszczykowski in the 57th minute to give the Poles a deserved point.
Russia's coach Dick Advocaat praised Poland for their performance but added he was happy with the point.
"Poland played very well tonight being under the risk of losing the chance to win a place in the last eight if they lost," he said.
"Meanwhile, we allowed them to create too many chances in attack.
"That means we still need to strengthen our defence. We also played well and scored before the break and had many chances in the second but we missed them all. In general, I'd say the draw is a good result for us," said the 64-year-old Dutchman.
His Polish counterpart Franciszek Smuda was proud of his players, who have only had a series of friendlies to fine tune their preparations.
"We've played many good matches... in 2011 we started to build a team and it proved that we are improving and playing better and better.
"Today's match proved that we are able to win against the Czechs. Our team sees this chance of being promoted to the knockout phase and we'll try to do that," said Smuda, who would not be drawn on whether he would restore Wojciech Szczesny as goalkeeper as he returns from suspension.
As for Blaszczykowski it was a case of the enormous character the squad has that always sees them fight to the bitter end.
"We have this character and charisma. We're still in the game, we have two points. We're tired but we're happy. We'll recover and do everything that we can," he said.
Czech coach Michal Bilek praised his players' ability to cope with the pressure but bemoaned the fact he and veteran striker Milan Baros had been jeered by their supporters.
"I know that I am not popular, but what do you want me to do?
"For Baros, well he did not deserve that, he has after all scored 41 goals for the national side.
"I am sorry that they whistled, because our supporters created a great atmosphere, but that is really pathetic."
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Vestas sells factory to Titan Wind Energy - Reuters
COPENHAGEN |
COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - Danish wind turbine maker Vestas Wind Systems (VWS.CO) is to sell a tower factory in Denmark to Chinese group Titan Wind Energy 002531.SZ for an undisclosed sum, allowing the world's biggest wind turbine maker to cut costs.
"Our new towers facility here in Denmark increases our possibilities of servicing and expanding our global customer base," Yan Junxu, founder and chief executive of Titan Wind Energy, said on Wednesday.
"Europe is the region that offers the most promising outlook for the development of offshore wind energy," Junxu said.
The wind power industry has been hit by overcapacity, rising costs and cutbacks in support for renewable energy by governments trying to plug deficits.
The deal came ahead of a state visit by Chinese President Hu Jintao to Denmark on Thursday. Titan Wind Energy is China's biggest manufacturer of wind turbine towers, with annual production capacity of 1,600 towers.
Vestas said the deal to sell the factory, which has 120 employees, was signed on Tuesday and should be approved by Chinese authorities shortly.
Last month, Vestas reported a larger than expected first-quarter loss due to delayed deliveries and rising costs.
Vestas shares were up 0.6 percent at 03:53 a.m. EDT (753 GMT), compared with a 0.3 percent higher Copenhagen benchmark index .OMXC20.
(Reporting by Mette Fraende; Editing by Dan Lalor)
Rebekah Brooks in court over hacking scandal - Reuters UK
LONDON |
LONDON (Reuters) - Rebekah Brooks, a trusted confidante of Rupert Murdoch and friend to a succession of prime ministers, appears in a London court on Wednesday accused of hindering a police investigation into phone hacking and corruption by staff at his British tabloids.
Huge media interest is guaranteed for the first appearance in the dock of the 44-year-old, a former editor of two of Britain's top-selling newspapers who counts the upper echelons of the British establishment and senior politicians in her network of friends.
Those include Prime Minister David Cameron whose close relationship with Brooks and other figures in Murdoch's media empire will come under the microscope when he appears before a public inquiry into press ethics on Thursday.
Brooks is charged with concealing material from detectives carrying out a major inquiry into alleged criminal activities at News International, the British newspaper arm of Murdoch's News Corp where she was chief executive until last year.
Police say she schemed to remove boxes of archive records from its London headquarters, concealing material from detectives, and hiding documents, computers and other electronic equipment.
Brooks, her racehorse trainer husband Charlie, her secretary and three other staff from News International are due to appear at London's Westminster Magistrates Court on Wednesday to face charges of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice.
Instantly recognisable for her mane of flame-red hair, she and her husband have already vigorously denied the charges and claimed she was being made a scapegoat. If found guilty, they face a probable jail term.
"I have grave doubts that my wife will ever get a fair trial, given the volume of biased commentary which she has been subject to," Charlie Brooks said.
The charges the group face are the first brought by detectives since they reopened an investigation in January 2011 into claims journalists at Murdoch's News of the World tabloid illegally accessed voicemails on mobile phones.
Officers are also examining if reporters bribed public officials including police officers to get stories.
Some 50 people have since been arrested, including many senior figures from the News of the World and News International.
FRENZY
Amid public anger at the scale of phone hacking which reached a frenzy last July when it was reported that reporters had illegally accessed the voicemail of a murdered schoolgirl, Murdoch closed the 168-year-old News of the World, one of the tabloids which Brooks used to edit.
He also had to withdraw a major takeover bid for lucrative TV group BSkyB while Brooks was forced to quit her job running News International.
Before that, she had been considered one of the most powerful women in Britain, and was particularly friendly with Cameron, who went to the exclusive Eton College school with her husband.
During day-long questioning at the inquiry into media standards last month, Brooks said she and Cameron had frequently exchanged text messages and that he would occasionally sign them off "LOL", by which he meant "lots of love".
Cameron has already had the embarrassment of seeing his former communications chief Andy Coulson being charged with perjury, after denying in court any knowledge of phone hacking at the News of the World which he had also edited.
Both Coulson and Brooks are amongst those still being investigated by detectives over the phone hacking allegations and possible corruption offences, and could face further charges.
(Editing by Jon Hemming)
Study: TSA full-body scanners pose little risk - eTaiwan News
Full-body scanners used for security screening at the nation’s airports do not expose passengers to dangerous levels of radiation, according to a new independent analysis of the devices.
The study by the Marquette University College of Engineering concluded that radiation from so-called backscatter scanners passes beyond a passenger’s skin to reach 29 organs — including the heart and brain. But the radiation levels are considerably lower than those of other X-ray procedures such as mammograms, the study said.
The findings will be published in the next issue of Medical Physics, an international journal of medical physics research produced by the American Assn. of Physicists in Medicine.
The study, believed to be the first independent review of the scanners, is not likely to put to rest years of heated debate over the health risk of the machines operated by the Transportation Security Administration.
The TSA has submitted the scanners for testing by the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health, the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory and the U.S. Army Public Health Command. The tests concluded that the scanners posed no significant risk to passengers, but TSA critics have called for more independent studies.
The author of the Marquette study, assistant professor of biomedical engineering Taly Gilat Schmidt, did not test the actual machines. Instead, she based her conclusions on scanner radiation data released publicly by the TSA. She ran the numbers through simulation software that modeled how X-ray photons travel through a body.
The study estimated that the scanners expose a passenger to less than a third of the maximum recommended dose of 0.25 micro-sieverts, a standard established by the American National Standards Institute.
Gilat Schmidt said the results of her test suggest that the risk to passengers is negligible even for children, frequent fliers and pilots.
“Even the risk analysis experts will tell you it’s negligible,” she said.
But Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, ranking member of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, questioned the Marquette study because it was based on data provided by the TSA.
“We do not truly know the risk of this radiation exposure over multiple screenings, for frequent fliers, those in vulnerable groups, or TSA’s own employees operating the machines,” she said in a statement.
Bomb attack in Iraq kills at least 35 people - CBC
Co-ordinated vehicle bombs in four Iraqi cities targeting Shiite pilgrims killed at least 56 people and wounded dozens more on Wednesday in Iraq's latest wave of sectarian-fuelled violence, officials said.
The death toll was expected to rise in the attacks, which included car bombs that tore into Shiite religious processions at four different locations across Baghdad. It was the third attack in the capital this week targeting the annual pilgrimage commemorating the 8th century death of a revered imam.
Two police officers said the first bomb struck pilgrims in a procession at around 5 a.m. in the northern Baghdad neighbourhood of Taji, killing seven and wounding 22 people.
Within hours, three more explosions hit other processions in different parts of the Iraqi capital, killing at least 19 people and wounding more than 50, police officers said. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.
In the city of Hillah, 95 kilometres south of Baghdad, two car bombs exploded minutes apart at dawn in the centre of town, killing 21 people and wounding 53, according to two police officers and one health worker.
Nearby, in the southern city of Karbala, a parked car exploded at about 8 a.m. near another group of Shiite pilgrims, killing two people and injuring 22 others, a police official and health official said. Karbala is 90 kilometres south of Baghdad.
In the Shiite town of Balad, two simultaneous car bombs killed seven pilgrims and injured 34 others, a police official and health official said. Balad is 80 kilometres north of the capital, near the city of Tikrit.
The bombs went off as the pilgrims started to make their way to Baghdad for the commemorations marking the death of al-Kadhim, one of the 12 principal Shiite saints, who is said to be buried in a shrine there. The attacks were launched against the backdrop of a prolonged sectarian-based political crisis that some fear is opening the door to renewed violence.
Last year's pilgrimage to the al-Kadhim shrine passed without incident, and Iraqi security officials at the time hailed their troops' work as a huge success.
However, Shiite pilgrims have been frequent targets of attack by Sunni insurgents, some with links to al-Qaeda. Iraq's bloodiest wave of sectarian fighting was triggered by a bomb blast in February 2006 that ravaged a Shiite shrine in the city of Samarra.
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, a Shiite, has been accused of amassing power and cutting coalition partners, mainly minority Sunnis and Kurds, out of decision making. Disgruntled coalition politicians have been trying to unseat al-Maliki with a vote of no confidence in parliament, but so far have been unable to muster the necessary backing.
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