ANTIQUES SHOPS

With Mark Cavendish missing the final sprint after failing to sustain the pace on the brutal climb to the Mont St Clair, Wiggins made an unexpected move for a team leader, let alone a yellow jersey holder.

"That was just the last kilometer, slightly downhill. It was the safest place to be and I wanted to try to repay a friend of mine," Wiggins told reporters.

The move helped Wiggins "“eliminate chances" in a potentially treacherous finale.

"Sometimes it is just best to be in the front, it is best to do the effort in first position than further down the peloton in 20th, especially when there are chances of splits in the bunch," he said.

Wiggins is taking nothing for granted as he continues his bid to become the first Briton to win cycling's most prestigious race.

"You have to pay attention to every single day, even a day like today because of the bends in the last 400 meters," he said. “"You have to be careful every day until Paris."

(Editing by Ed Osmond)

The day after G4S said it would incur a loss of up to 50 million pounds ($77.7 million), its chief executive Nick Buckles hit the airwaves and TV studios to express remorse for the problem which has forced the British government to put 3,500 extra troops on standby to fill the gap.

"We are bitterly disappointed and we certainly are very sorry for what's happened over the last week or two," Buckles told BBC TV.

On Thursday, the government said it would deploy additional troops after it became clear G4S was unlikely to provide the expected 10,400 guards it was contracted to do because of problems processing applicants.

Buckles said the FTSE 100-listed company, whose shares have fallen in the past 24 hours to their lowest level for almost a month, realised there would be a shortfall only "eight or nine days ago".

"Clearly we aren't going to deliver on our element (of the security operation) and we're very, very disappointed about that and embarrassed," he said.

He said at the moment they had 4,000 trained guards in place with another 9,000 in the pipeline.

The failure has dominated news headlines in Britain with the Games starting in less than two weeks, on July 27, and many of those recruited by G4S have contacted the media to say the recruitment and training process had been a shambles.

"They have been hiding behind a 'need-to-know basis' and saying they do not want to tell people what is happening because it is a security threat," a would-be G4S employee, who has had two weeks' training on X-ray scanning equipment, told Reuters.

"But, in essence, they just do not know."

SECURITY CONCERN

Security has always been a major issue for organisers and a source of great concern for the government.

In July 2005, the day after London was announced as the venue for the 2012 Olympics, four young British Islamists carried out suicide bomb attacks on the capital, killing 52 people.

The security operation is the biggest planned in peacetime in Britain, and the government, the London 2012 organisers LOCOG and G4S say they are still confident there will be sufficient measures in place to protect athletes and spectators.

As part of this, restrictions on the airspace over London and much of south-east England were brought in on Saturday, with fighter jets on standby to shoot down any rogue aircraft should it be deemed necessary.

"I think together (with the military) we certainly are going to provide a safe and secure Games," said Buckles, who has been summoned to give evidence to parliament next week explaining how the crisis was allowed to happen.

Penalties included in G4S's contract, worth an estimated 284 million pounds, and paying for the extra military involvement, will now cost the firm between 35 million to 50 million pounds.

"After the Games are over there are hundreds of questions to be asked and answered about how this situation arose," said Tessa Jowell, Olympic spokeswoman for the opposition Labour Party.

"With less than two weeks to go the focus now has got to be on nailing this down and ensuring the integrity and resilience of the security plan."

About 23,000 security guards were due to protect venues, providing airport-style checks to search and screen spectators, handle queue management and protect the perimeters.

A call-up of the additional 3,500 troops would take the armed forces tally at the Games to 17,000, more than the 9,500 currently deployed in Afghanistan.

($1 = 0.6432 British pounds)

(Editing by Pravin Char)

The CD contains the names and bank details of some 1,000 wealthy Germans who are customers of the Zurich branch of Coutts, the private banking arm of Britain's Royal Bank of Scotland best known as banker to Britain's Queen Elizabeth, the paper said, citing inside information.

It can be assumed that these customers avoided paying large amounts of tax, the paper said.

"We are aware of the continued media speculation regarding a potential breach of client data secrecy at Coutts," a spokeswoman for Coutts said.

"Following thorough investigation, we have no evidence to suggest any such breach has taken place," she added.

The state finance ministry neither confirmed nor denied that it had purchased the CD.

"We have no indication that this is correct," said Mario Tuor, spokesman for the Swiss governmental unit tasked with negotiating the tax dispute.

The origin of the CD was not clear but in 2010 several German states including North Rhine-Westphalia said they had bought CDs containing Swiss banking data from whistleblowers to help identify German tax evaders. This led thousands of Germans to declare their financial holdings to avoid risking jail sentences.

North Rhine-Westphalia paid 3.5 million euros for the CD, according to the FTD, in a move which threatens to further sour already strained relations between the two countries on tax issues.

Germany reached an agreement with Switzerland last September to levy taxes on German assets in Swiss bank accounts that is due to come into effect next year pending German parliament approval. As part of the deal Germany will no longer be allowed to buy CDs containing tax data.

"We cannot agree to the planned tax agreement with Switzerland as it stands and without the approval of states ruled by the Social Democrats and Greens, it cannot come into effect," said Norbert Walter-Borjans, finance minister of the North Rhine-Westphalia, which is run by Social Democrats.

"It is therefore only logical that we don't need to act as if the agreement already applied," he told Reuters.

German tax authorities raided Credit Suisse clients and French officials searched the homes of UBS employees this week, deepening the crackdown on foreigners hiding money in Swiss offshore accounts to dodge taxes.

Walter-Borjans said the raids showed it was necessary to obtain information by purchasing CDs in order to uncover tax evasion. (Reporting by Michelle Martin, Catherine Bosley and Tom Kaeckenhoff; writing by Michelle Martin; editing by Keiron Henderson)

Benjamin Malbrancke was abducted on April 21 near the town of Hodeida.

Referring to an al Qaeda-linked cell, ICRC spokesman Hicham Hassan told Reuters in Geneva: "He was handed over to ICRC representatives by Ansar al-Sharia on Friday. We don't know who the abductors were."

Ansar al-Sharia swears allegiance to al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, which U.S. officials have called the most dangerous offshoot of the militant network.

Asked whether any ransom had been paid for his release, Hassan said the ICRC had a clear policy of not paying ransom. "We did our best through regular means and channels of communication to find a positive resolution to this crisis."

In June, a Yemeni employee of the ICRC was killed by an air strike in Abyan province.

A local official told Reuters at the time that the Yemeni air force had conducted the strike that killed the aid worker who he said had been trying to contact al Qaeda militants in order to negotiate the release of his French colleague.

The ICRC had not previously named Malbrancke. It deploys more than 200 aid workers, including 60 expatriates who deliver medical and other assistance, perform surgery on war wounded, and visit detainees across Yemen.

"We are relieved and extremely happy to have our colleague back with us, in good health. His return marks the end of many long, hard days, full of anxiety for him and his family, as well as for the team here in Yemen and for his friends," said Eric Marclay, who heads the ICRC operations in the country.

(Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay; Editing by Alison Williams)