French Socialist Francois Hollande has been elected as new president, according to early estimates.
Francois Hollande got about 52% of votes in today’s run-off, according to projections based on partial results, against 48% for centre-right incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy.
He would be the first French socialist president since 1995.
Analysts say the vote has wide implications for the whole eurozone.
French Socialist Francois Hollande has been elected as new president, according to early estimates
Francois Hollande has vowed to rework a deal on government debt in member countries.
The estimates were carried by French media after all polling stations closed at 20:00.
Exuberant Hollande supporters have already converged on Place de la Bastille in Paris – a traditional rallying point of the Left – to celebrate.
Francois Hollande capitalized on France’s economic woes and President Nicolas Sarkozy’s unpopularity.
The socialist candidate has promised to raise taxes on big corporations and people earning more than 1 million Euros a year.
He also wants to raise the minimum wage, hire 60,000 more teachers and lower the retirement age from 62 to 60 for some workers.
Nicolas Sarkozy, a centre-right leader who has been in office since 2007, had promised to reduce France’s large budget deficit through budget cuts.
It is only the second time an incumbent president fails to win re-election since the start of France Fifth Republic in 1958.
The last was Valery Giscard d’Estaing – he 1981 was beaten by socialist Francois Mitterrand, who had two terms in office until 1995.
The new president is expected to be inaugurated later this month.
Protesters against Russian President-elect Vladimir Putin have clashed with police in the capital Moscow, ahead of his inauguration on Monday for a third term.
The protest was peaceful until a small group of demonstrators tried to break through the lines of riot police.
Opposition activists Alexei Navalny, Sergei Udaltsov and Boris Nemtsov have all been detained.
A rival demonstration in support of Vladimir Putin has also been taking place.
Organizers said about 20,000 people took part in the opposition march – to an island close to the Kremlin – although police put the figure at about 8,000.
Alexei Navalny urged protesters not to disperse until those arrested had been released.
Protesters against Russian President-elect Vladimir Putin have clashed with police in the capital Moscow, ahead of his inauguration on Monday for a third term
Speaking to a radio station by phone from a police van, Alexei Navalny also told the protesters to insist that the authorities carry out the reforms they have promised.
Police have been blocking the protesters from crossing a bridge over the Moscow River.
Clashes broke out when more people crowded towards the bridge and riot police wielding batons pushed demonstrators back towards the rally site, witnesses said.
Protesters launched a sit-in by the police lines.
They were refusing to leave unless Vladimir Putin’s inauguration was cancelled. They were also demanding an hour of TV airtime and new elections, our correspondent says.
Dozens of protesters are said to have been arrested.
TV images then showed police storming the stage of the rally where left-wing activist Sergei Udaltsov had been addressing protesters, and taking him to a waiting vehicle.
Before he was seized, Sergei Udaltsov had called for the inauguration to be cancelled and said through a loud-hailer: “We will not leave.”
The crowd chanted back: “We are the power.”
Russia’s Interfax news agency later reported that Alexei Navalny – an anti-corruption blogger and nationalist – had been arrested and Dozhd TV tweeted that liberal politician Boris Nemtsov had also been detained at the rally.
It was an embarrassing start for President Barack Obama’s re-election campaign yesterday as he held his first political rally of the 2012 race in a half-empty arena.
With First Lady dressed head to toe in campaign colors at his side, Barack Obama targeted swing states Ohio and Virginia that are critical for his bid to remain in the White House.
Barack Obama formally launched his Chicago-based re-election effort last year but his official political events have been confined to fundraisers since then.
That changed this weekend, however, with results which may have surprised Barack Obama.
The President, who was propelled to power in the 2008 election thanks in part to huge rallies across the nation, hoped to regain that momentum with events in large arenas in Columbus, Ohio and Richmond, Virginia.
Come game time, however, with his first event – which was free and open to the public – held at Ohio State University, his numbers appeared to fall flat, according to several reports.
One photo taken and posted to Twitter by Republican rival Mitt Romney’s campaign spokesman Ryan Williams showed the floor and seats with more space than people.
The venue holds 20,000 and according to figures from Barack Obama’s campaign, 14,000 attended the event – 70% of the stadium’s seating capacity.
According to the paper, event organizers busied themselves moving people from the stage’s surrounding seats to the arena’s floor to depict a better crowd to television cameras.
Barack Obama targeted swing states Ohio and Virginia that are critical for his bid to remain in the White House
Aiming to encourage his supporters, Barack Obama released an email prior to his rally reminding them to watch his first rally and donate money.
“The crowd’s starting to form in Columbus, and they’re ready to go,” he said in the email.
“In a little while, I’ll go on stage for the first rally of 2012.”
Barack Obama’s campaign is eager to get the president on the road and at the center of the political battle.
“We’re ready to go,” campaign manager Jim Messina told reporters in a recent conference call.
“While Mitt Romney has been busy endearing himself to the Tea Party and making promises he can’t keep, we’ve been busy building the largest grassroots campaign in modern American history.”
The Republican National Committee released their own email earlier Saturday morning, however, in the mocking form of fake prepared remarks for the president’s rally in Columbus.
“Ohio, thanks for the tepid welcome. I know I’m not as popular here as I once was, so I’ll take what I can get,” the RNC said in the imagined speech it dubbed “as prepared for reality”.
“It turns out the hope and change I promised didn’t work out. So, we’ve launched a new strategy: hype and blame,” the RNC’s email said.
Since Mitt Romney became his party’s presumptive nominee, Barack Obama has criticized his opponent in formal and informal situations – a sign that he is more than ready to launch the attacks that are expected to characterize a potentially ugly and negative campaign.
Republicans accuse Barack Obama of infusing politics into his official White House events and scoff at the notion that his campaigning is just starting.
The president has done official trips in recent months to highlight his energy record and to tout proposals to reduce costs for students. Young people are an important constituency for his campaign.
The Obama campaign has mapped out several scenarios to win the 270 electoral votes needed to capture the presidency, and the choice of states for his inaugural rallies was not coincidental.
Ohio, with its large cache of 18 electoral votes, is a particularly coveted prize.
No Republican has made it to the White House in the last century without winning the state. Barack Obama bested Republican rival John McCain there in 2008.
Ohio has struggled with a loss of manufacturing jobs, but its unemployment rate, at 7.5% in March, is below the national average, which was 8.2% in March and dipped to 8.1% in April.
That could help blunt Mitt Romney’s attacks on Barack Obama’s economic record. The president’s campaign also hopes to capitalize on union anger over an attempt by the state’s Republican governor, John Kasich, to limit collective bargaining rights for firefighters, police officers, and other state workers. The law was later repealed.
Polls show Barack Obama is leading Mitt Romney in Ohio and Virginia. An average of polls by RealClearPolitics showed the president ahead in Ohio by 4.2 percentage points and ahead in Virginia by 3.2 percentage points.
Virginia had an even lower unemployment rate in March, coming in at 5.6%.
The Obama campaign will also try to capitalize on an advantage with women voters in the state, where the governor – Republican Bob McDonnell – promoted legislation that would have required women to undergo an invasive trans-vaginal sonogram before getting an abortion.
Michelle Obama will also help attract the female vote. The popular first lady, who has done fundraisers across the country for her husband’s campaign, will be at his side for both rallies.
Scientists have found that dinosaurs may be partly to blame for a change in climate because they created so much flatulence.
Professor Graeme Ruxton of St Andrews University, Scotland, said the giant animals spent 150 years emitting the potent global warming gas, methane.
Large plant-eating sauropods would have been the main culprits because of the huge amounts of greenery they consumed.
The team calculated the animals would have collectively produced more than 520 million tons of methane a year – more than all today’s modern sources put together.
It is thought these huge amounts could easily have been enough to warm the planet.
Scientists have found that dinosaurs may be partly to blame for a change in climate because they created so much flatulence
One of the animals, a 90-ton argentinosaurus, which measured 140 ft in length, would have consumed at least half a ton of food in one day.
After breaking down in the animal’s stomach it would have produced thousands of litres of the greenhouse gas compared with a modern cow which only produces 200 litres of methane daily.
Methane is up to 20 times more effective in trapping heat in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide (CO2).
It is created from a variety of natural and human-influenced sources which include landfills, natural gas, petroleum sources and agricultural activities.
Scientists claim humans have pushed levels of the gas up 2.5 times higher than they should be and estimate this is responsible for 20% of modern global warming.
Cows and other livestock currently only emit about 100 million tons of methane a year.
According to Prof. Graeme Ruxton and his co-researcher David Wilkinson, of Liverpool John Moores University, this is only a fifth of what was produced when Dinosaurs walked the Earth.
“In fact, our calculations suggest these dinosaurs may have produced more methane than all the modern sources, natural and human, put together,” said David Wilkinson to the Sunday Times.
The research is due to be published in an academic journal this week.
Greek main parties have suffered dramatic losses in the parliamentary election, according to exit polls.
The latest polls put centre-right New Democracy in the lead with 19-20.5% of the vote, down from 33.5% in 2009.
Centre-left Pasok is put in third place with 13-14%, down from 43.9%. Syriza, a left-wing coalition, is put ahead of it in second place with 15.5-17%.
Pasok and New Democracy, in coalition since last November, were expected to lose support to anti-austerity parties.
There is widespread anger across Greece to harsh measures imposed by the government in return for international bailouts.
Syriza opposes the government’s austerity measures.
The neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party could enter parliament for the first time if the exit poll prediction of it winning 6.5 -7.5% of the vote comes to fruition.
Greek main parties have suffered dramatic losses in the parliamentary election, according to exit polls
The first official results are expected later on Sunday night.
“The truth is here – the reality of this result is that at the moment this produces no government,” said Theodoros Pangalos, outgoing deputy prime minister and senior Pasok official.
“It is not a question at the moment of who gets a little more or a little less.”
If no party wins enough votes to form a government, the winner will have to seek a coalition with rivals.
Coalition negotiations can take place over three days. If they fail, the party in second place can try to form a coalition, and if still unsuccessful, the third party will receive the mandate.
If still no coalition emerges, Greece will go to another election – a prospect which would alarm Greece’s international creditors.
The ability of any new government to carry on with the austerity programme will be crucial for Greece’s continued access to bailout funds from the EU, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund – the so-called Troika.
Any political instability may prompt fresh questions over the country’s place in the eurozone.
Under the current plan, a further 11 billion Euros of savings in spending are due to be found in June.
Othan Anastasakis, director of south-east European studies at Oxford University, said it would be “incredible” if no party won more than 20% of the vote.
“This is really unprecedented,” he said.
“The whole landscape becomes even more unpredictable after the election. We don’t know if there will be a coalition or how long it will survive. I don’t see it surviving very long.
“Greeks are sending a very strong message abroad, which is <<enough with austerity>>.”
The ultimate millionaire’s toy is a $190,000 flying hovercraft, which is able to glide over land and water and soar through the air.
Available through U.S luxury goods firm Hammacher Schlemmer, the bright yellow amphibious and airborne vehicle features a 130 horsepower twin-cylinder, liquid-cooled engine and can hit speeds of up to 70 mph.
The craft can take to the air in short bursts and reach heights of fifty-feet above the water, ice or land.
This ability makes the flying hovercraft unique, enabling the pilot to simply hop over insurmountable obstacles that would stump a normal craft.
Available through U.S luxury goods firm Hammacher Schlemmer, the bright yellow amphibious and airborne vehicle features a 130 horsepower twin-cylinder, liquid-cooled engine and can hit speeds of up to 70 mph
Turbocharged and fuel-injected, the craft’s integrated wings are propelled by a 60 inch wood/carbon composite turbine and a 1,100-rpm fan inflates the nylon skirt around the craft used for hovering.
The durable vehicle is able to operate on sand, mud, grass, swamp, desert, ice and snow.
Capable of traveling 160 miles on one tank, the flying hovercraft is perfect for the customer who is unsure whether they want to travel by the water or air to their destination.
Steady in winds of up to 25 miles per hour, the hovercraft can also take to the water in waves of up to six feet.
Able to accommodate up to three passengers with a combined weight of no more than 600 pounds, the flying hovercraft even comes with a PVC roof to make sure that no one gets sprayed.
Controlled via a main joystick, the pilot simply pushes, twists and pulls to accelerate, turn and brake.
Even though the craft can fly, according to Hammacher Schlemmer it must be registered as a boat.
BBC Top Gear presenter Jeremy Clarkson sparked a new controversy by suggesting that long queues at airport control could be solved by “a bit of racism”.
Jeremy Clarkson said that delays were caused because immigration officials could no longer use their discretion to wave certain passengers through.
“Nobody is waved through any more. Immigration officials are not allowed to use their discretion,” Jeremy Clarkson said.
“Common sense has been erased from the system. And the result is plain for all to see. There’s a two-hour wait. And come the Olympics they’re saying that time frame will double.
“Net result: Immigration officials have to assume that the nice family of four coming back from their holiday in Sardinia is going to cheat the social out of millions then blow up during the 100 metres final.”
Jeremy Clarkson sparked a new controversy by suggesting that long queues at airport control could be solved by “a bit of racism”
Jeremy Clarkson then went on to say there is a possible solution to the problem.
“Nobody likes a racist. Nobody likes prejudice. It has no place at work, at play or on the terraces of a football stadium. It has no place at school, or in government.
“But at Heathrow airport? Hmmm.”
However, a spokesman for the Public and Commercial Services Union, which represents Border Force workers, said: “Clarkson is an idiot.”
Meanwhile, some Twitter users took to the social networking site to express their views.
Some said they agreed with his views. A woman known only as Alice said: “Jeremy clarkson (sic) has summed up what will go wrong this summer. GO JEREMY! He is brilliant.”
Jeremy Clarkson used his weekly column in The Sun to highlight the problem of long waits for those coming through border control at Heathrow airport.
He said that since security checks were tightened by Home Secretary Theresa May, officials have been prevented from only targeting those deemed “high risk”.
Jeremy Clarkson, who is no stranger to controversy and has become known for his provocative comments, hit the headlines in December after he suggested that striking public sector workers should be shot in front of their families.
The gaffe came when he appeared on the BBC’s The One Show during Britain’s biggest public sector strike for the past 30 years.
The BBC was also forced to apologize about an item on BBC2’s Top Gear which led to the Mexican ambassador complaining about the “outrageous, vulgar and inexcusable insults” made about Mexicans by Jeremy Clarkson and his co-hosts James May and Richard Hammond.
In February 2009, Jeremy Clarkson famously insulted then-prime minister Gordon Brown by calling him a “one-eyed Scottish idiot” – a reference to the fact he is blind in one eye.
The previous year the BBC also received nearly 2,000 complaints when Jeremy Clarkson joked about lorry drivers murdering prostitutes.
Joan Ritchie Silleck and Robert Ritchie, the heirs of Richard Ritchie, the man who developed the formula for Pepsi-Cola in 1931, have sued snack and beverage giant Pepsico Inc. on Friday.
Richard Ritchie’s daughter, Joan Ritchie Silleck, and his son, Robert Ritchie said they wanted to erase any doubt that his documents were theirs to share with historians, collectors and film producers.
A lawsuit filed in Manhattan federal court by the two states that they wanted to “tell their father’s extraordinary life story without interference or the threat of litigation” from Pepsi.
The lawsuit asks the court for undisclosed damages for what it called Pepsi’s “improper interference with their rights in the Ritchie invention and the Ritchie documents”.
They alleged that the documents had been “physically and legally” controlled by a member of the Ritchie family for more than 50 years.
The estate of Richard Ritchie’s late son, Richard, was also identified as a plaintiff.
The heirs of Richard Ritchie, the man who developed the formula for Pepsi-Cola in 1931, have sued giant Pepsico Inc. on Friday
Richard Ritchie was a chemist with the Loft Candy Company when he developed the Pepsi-Cola formula for Loft in 1931.
He stayed with Pepsi-Cola after it became independent, but joined Cantrell & Cochrane Company in 1962.
Richard Ritchie retired in 1982 and died in January 1985.
According to the lawsuit “the heirs are the rightful owners of the Ritchie invention because, inter alia, Pepsi failed to require that Mr. Ritchie transfer ownership to the Ritchie invention to Pepsi despite knowing that he had developed the Pepsi-Cola formula while working as an employee of another company”.
The case is Joan Ritchie Silleck, the estate of Richard James Ritchie and Robert Ritchie vs. Pepsico Inc, in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.
Los Angeles police are searching for Gavin Smith, a missing movie executive who disappeared on Tuesday.
Gavin Smith, 57, a longtime 20th Century Fox employee, was last seen driving his black 200 Mercedes 420E sedan between 9 and 10 p.m. near his Oak Park family home, according to a police bulletin.
He has worked in the film corporation’s distribution department in Calabasas for nearly 18 years.
The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department enlisted the public’s help in its search for Gavin Smith, branch manager for theatres in Dallas and Oklahoma City, in a special bulletin distributed on Friday.
Fox distribution president Chris Aronson told The Hollywood Reporter there was no indication of problems that might have led to his disappearance.
“We are very concerned about Gavin. We are actively doing what we can to assist the L.A. Sheriff’s department,” Chris Aronson said.
Los Angeles police are searching for Gavin Smith, a missing movie executive who disappeared on Tuesday
The executive’s son Evan Smith, a basketball player at the University of Southern California, logged on to Twitter to ask the public for help finding his father today.
“Please help me find my Dad. Retweet to get the word out please,” he wrote, with a link to a story about Gavin Smith’s disappearance.
Gavin Smith is described by the sheriff’s department as being 6ft 6in tall and weighing 210 lbs.
He has grey hair with blonde highlights, green eyes and a goatee; he also has a 5in scar on his calf and a 4in scar on his inner right wrist.
Investigators say he was last seen wearing purple pants and black and grey shoes.
The Sheriff’s Department asks that anyone with information contact its Homicide Bureau, Missing Person’s detail.
Kim Kardashian’s lawyer, Laura Wasser, accused Kris Humphries of attempting to prolong the proceedings to dissolve their marriage for publicity’s sake during a brief hearing Friday morning.
But Kris Humphries is not intimidated, according to Radar Online, and he is pressing for a divorce trial rather than an out-of-court settlement in order to get the truth out.
“The only way that this case won’t go to trial is if Kim publicly apologizes to Kris and admits that she only married him for television ratings,” revealed a source close to Kris Humphries.
“Kris just wants the truth to come out and Kim is just absolutely livid that she isn’t getting her own way. Kris wants Kim to answer questions about their relationship, under oath.”
The source continued: “Kris is ready for a fight and he has said that Kim should <<bring it on>>. Kris won’t be silenced and he isn’t after her money, he doesn’t want one dime from her.
“It’s just about the truth coming out, something that Kim’s camp seems to be petrified about.”
Kris Humphries is pressing for a divorce trial rather than an out-of-court settlement in order to get the truth out
Kris Humphries, 27, wants to know what happened to one of their wedding presents – a $325,000 white Ferrari – given to the couple by a wealthy Malaysian businessman, among other things.
“Kris is ready to be deposed and answer questions under oath. He looks forward to Kim being deposed and he will be there when it happens,” the source said.
Earlier this week, Kim Kardashian tweeted her approval of a radio show that was publicly criticizing Kris Humphries.
The hosts of the Cipha Sounds and Rosenberg radio show on Hot 97 approved of Kim Kardashian’s new boyfriend rapper Kanye West and called Kris Humphries a “nobody” on the air.
“He went from being an unknown NBA player to one of the most talked about players, just because of dating Kim,” said Rosenberg, adding: “He even became a better basketball player after dating and marrying her.”
Kim Kardashian, who has 14 million followers and was just recognized as the number one most-followed person on Instagram, immediately took to her Twitter page to comment.
She wrote: “Was listening to Hot 97 this morning! Thanks for the shout out lol! I love those guys!!!”
It’s a move that Kris Humphries allegedly considers really low since he has never “stooped” to the same tactics.
“Kris wasn’t listening to the show but he would never support anyone speaking unkindly or maliciously about Kim. It’s just not who he is as a person,” the source told Radar Online.
“It’s disappointing that Kim has chosen to embrace that sort of negativity about their relationship. Kris has moved on and even if she continues to behave in this manner he won’t change who he is and sink to her level, it’s just not necessary.”
Kim Kardashian infamously split from Kris Humphries and filed for divorce just 72 days into their union last October.
Kris Humphries is seeking an annulment. However his legal team argued they need more time to gather information to decide whether to pursue allegations that the couple’s marriage was a fraud.
Superior Court Judge Stephen Moloney told both sides to return to court on August 15 for a status hearing.
Experts say antipsychotic drugs are seen as the most effective treatment of psychotic episodes, but they are also recognized to have devastating side effects.
Doctors say many patients don’t like taking medication long term, but a study published in the Lancet suggests that taking antipsychotic medication more than halves the risk of relapse in schizophrenic patients.
David Strange was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia when he was 25. He was sectioned and given antipsychotic drugs, which he says made him feel “a bit better for a while,” but gave him a succession of unpleasant side effects.
But without medication, the voice he hears is a constant stream of abuse that “comments on what other people are thinking and the horrible things they want to do to me”.
“I used to see nasty, dirty rat-like things running around when I went outside, I could see people in the streets screaming abuse at me and making obscene and threatening gestures.
“I was hearing a voice that was saying all kinds of nasty things about me. I was terrified, I tried to kill myself.”
Professor of psychiatry Stefan Leucht, from the Technische Universitat in Munich, led the latest research. He also found that fewer patients on antipsychotic drugs were readmitted to hospital – one of the highest costs associated with mental illnesses.
David Strange says taking antipsychotic drugs for 14 years has helped him deal with his hallucinations and the voices he hears. They are still present but they no longer dominate his life.
One of the many drugs David Strange was given was thioridazine, which gave him an irregular heartbeat, something which can be potentially fatal. He remembers lying down with his heart beating really fast, thinking he did not have long left to live.
“Some drugs made me so anxious I tried to kill myself and ended up getting locked up in hospital.”
Even what he refers to as the “good ones” give him muscle and joint pain, jerkiness similar to the symptoms of Parkinson’s disease and severe sexual dysfunction.
But he says he would still rather take the drugs than try and function without them.
“Being unmedicated is an unliveable hell. I’m happy to put up with all of this just to be more functional and less scared.”
Antipsychotic drugs are seen as the most effective treatment of psychotic episodes, but they are also recognized to have devastating side effects
The longer antipsychotic drugs are taken, the more chronic the side effects become. The nature of mental illness means patients are often prescribed medication for the rest of their lives.
Daniel Levy, 54, has bipolar disorder and has been taking antipsychotic drugs for nearly 30 years. During that time he has been sectioned and has also attempted suicide.
“The drug chlorpromazine made me tremble, it also made me dribble. When I first became ill I was warned there are certain drugs that weaken the lower lip, even now I still dribble.
“I don’t know I’m doing it until I notice it on my clothes. It looks absolutely terrible.”
But the drug did help him to stay out of hospital and was effective in controlling his symptoms.
“The side effects are the price I pay for keeping out of hospital,” says Daniel Levy.
“It’s a balancing act – doctors never know in advance how you will react to a particular drug.”
Newer “atypical” antipsychotic drugs show fewer of the physical tremor-inducing side effects and are commonly prescribed to patients starting treatment for the first time, says Dr. Oliver Howes from the Institute of Psychiatry, UK.
These still often lead to severe weight gain, increasing the risk of diabetes, blood clots and cardiovascular diseases. The risk is especially high for patients who stay on medication for many decades.
“We have no way of knowing in advance if a given drug is going to suit a patient – so sometimes patients have to try several before they find one that both helps them and is tolerable,” says Dr. Oliver Howes.
Unfortunately the drugs with the most side effects are also the ones which have been shown to be the most effective and are supported by many years of research, says Prof. Stefan Leucht.
He says that if a patient experiences unpleasant side effects, their clinician should always try another drug, but acknowledges that this is not always possible in practice as some doctors are afraid to change their patient’s medication if it appears to be working well.
Dr. Oliver Howes says the side effects of antipsychotics need to be put into perspective.
“Mental health illnesses are devastating. There is a substantial loss of life associated with illnesses such as schizophrenia, predominantly from suicide. We want to prevent that.”
• Antipsychotic medication helps weaken delusions and hallucinations. It can control (but not cure) symptoms in about four out of five people
• Older antipsychotics work by reducing the action of a chemical in the brain called dopamine. They can cause side effects such as stiffness, shakiness, restlessness, sexual problems and unwanted movements, mainly of the mouth and tongue
• Newer antipsychotics work on different chemicals in the brain. These are less likely to produce unwanted movements but can cause weight gain, diabetes, tiredness and sexual problems
France is prepared for the second round of presidential election that could see a socialist winner for the first time since 1988.
In the first round socialist Francois Hollande won 28.6% of the vote, ahead of incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy on 26.2%.
Rising unemployment and the euro crisis have dominated the campaign.
Nicolas Sarkozy says he averted recession and will preserve a “strong France”. Francois Hollande contends the country is in “serious crisis” and needs change.
Polls in mainland France and Corsica will be open from 08:00 to 18:00, with voting stations in big cities remaining open for another two hours.
On Wednesday the two rivals took part in a testy debate, watched by an estimated 17.9 million people, and continued to campaign until Friday.
Francois Hollande – who has long been regarded as favorite – said turnout on election day could affect the result.
Nicolas Sarkozy said no election had ever been so “undecided”.
Nicolas Sarkozy says he averted recession and will preserve a "strong France” while Francois Hollande contends the country is in "serious crisis" and needs change
In the final days, each stepped up his appeals to voters who backed far-right leader Marine Le Pen and centrist Francois Bayrou in the first round.
Marine Le Pen, who attracted 6.4 million voters, has said she would cast a blank ballot but called on supporters to “vote according to their conscience”.
Francois Bayrou, who attracted almost 9% of the first-round vote on 22 April, said he would back Francois Hollande in the second.
The socialist candidate has also been endorsed by hard-left candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon, who won 11% of the vote.
President Nicolas Sarkozy, who has been in office since 2007, has promised to reduce France’s large budget deficit and to tax people who leave the country for tax reasons.
Francois Hollande, for his part, has promised to raise taxes on big corporations and people earning more than 1 million Euros a year.
He wants to raise the minimum wage, hire 60,000 more teachers and lower the retirement age from 62 to 60 for some workers.
If elected, Francois Hollande would be France’s first left-wing president since Francois Mitterrand, who completed two seven-year terms between 1981 and 1995.
It would also be the first time an incumbent president has lost a re-election bid in France since Valery Giscard d’Estaing in 1981.
The presidential vote will be followed by a parliamentary election in June.
2012 Olympics stadium has been officially opened by nine-year-old Niamh Clarke-Willis at a ceremony in east London.
Niamh Clarke-Willis joined LOCOG head Lord Sebastian Coe to hit a button which launched balloons into the sky above the venue for this summer’s Games.
Around 40,000 members of the public were at the Olympic Stadium in Stratford to witness the opening, which included a laser light show.
The “2,012 hours to go” event tested the park’s management and security.
Lord Sebastian Coe said: “It’s a fantastic feeling. The seven years have just flown by. Tonight is only the start of the story.
“We want thousands of young people to be inspired to take up sport. We hope that for a few of them it will be the start of their journey.
“I’m grateful to everyone who came here tonight to celebrate this moment in history.”
Niamh Clarke-Willis joined LOCOG head Lord Sebastian Coe to hit a button which launched balloons into the sky above London Olympic Stadium for this summer's Games
Spectators had to queue to enter the venue after airport-style security checks.
Simon Levy, who came to the Olympic Park for the first time on Saturday, said: “It’s not a problem, really. It’s much quicker than the airport and it’s good to be checked because now we know we’re safe.”
Police helicopters flew over the park and armed police patrolled the area.
Adrian Casy, a security guard at the Olympic Stadium, said Saturday’s events were among the main rehearsals for the games, particularly in moving and managing the crowds of spectators from the park and from one venue to another.
“Honestly, so far, so good, although we’re still trying hard to make it run smoother,” said Adrian Casy, adding that some spectators were wearing “insufficient clothing” to cope with the weather conditions.
TV presenters Vernon Kay and Gabby Logan hosted the event which saw entertainment from impressionist Jon Culshaw, actor Hugh Bonneville, singer and former Spice Girl Melanie C, rapper Chipmunk and comedian Jack Whitehall.
Some 140,000 people are expected at the Olympic site over six days.
The celebrations are part of the British Universities and Colleges Sport Outdoor Athletics Championships and the Visa London Disability Grand Prix which are test events for the venue.
London 2012 hopefuls Perri Shakes-Drayton and Holly Bleasdale are competing at the BUCS event which runs from 4-7 May.
Later in the week, the Olympic Stadium will also play host to the Sainsbury’s 2012 School Games, for 1,600 school-aged elite athletes.
Supermoon has graced the skies, appearing bigger and brighter than usual, as it comes closer to the Earth – and is likely to bring higher tides.
The phenomenon, known as a perigee full moon, means the Moon appears up to 14% bigger and 30% brighter than when it is furthest from the planet.
The optimum effect was seen – cloud permitting – at 04:30 BST (03:30 GMT).
The Royal Astronomical Society’s Dr. Robert Massey said the Moon’s size may be more obvious than its brightness.
“The eye is so good at compensating for changes in brightness that you simply don’t notice (that element) so much,” said Dr. Robert Massey.
Supermoon has graced the skies, appearing bigger and brighter than usual, as it comes closer to the Earth
When the Moon appears at its biggest it will be just 356,400km (221,457 miles) away, compared to its usual distance from Earth of 384,000km (238,606 miles).
Dr. Robert Massey said: “When the Moon is closest to the Earth and full or new, you get an increase in the tidal pull in the ocean because the gravity of the moon and the sun line up.”
He added: “The Moon is always beautiful and a full moon is always dramatic.”
Scientists have dismissed the idea the perigee could cause strange behavior – like lycanthropy – or natural disasters.
The Moon’s distance from Earth varies because it follows an elliptical orbit instead of a circular one.
The Associated Press has apologized for sacking Ed Kennedy, a war reporter who broke the news that World War II had ended one day before the agreed embargo.
Ed Kennedy defied the military censors to report the Nazi surrender on the night of 7 May 1945 in France.
The US and the UK had agreed to suppress the announcement for a day so that Russia could stage a second surrender ceremony in Berlin.
AP has now said Ed Kennedy did the right thing in breaking the embargo.
“It was a terrible day for the AP. It was handled in the worst possible way,” said president and CEO Tom Curley.
Ed Kennedy defied the military censors to report the Nazi surrender on the night of 7 May 1945 in France
Ed Kennedy was one of 17 reporters taken to witness the formal surrender of German troops to the Allies at 02:41 on 7 May 1945.
The group was sworn to secrecy by US military commanders, told not to report the news until 15:00 on the 8th – a full 36 hours later.
But when Ed Kennedy heard that German radio had announced the surrender at 14:41 on the 7th, he went ahead and published his story an hour later – a day ahead of the competition.
Ed Kennedy was one of 17 reporters taken to witness the formal surrender of German troops to the Allies at 02.41 on 7 May 1945
For this, Ed Kennedy was first rebuked by AP, then fired.
“The absurdity of attempting to bottle up news of such magnitude was too apparent,” he would later write.
Ed Kennedy died in a traffic accident in the US in 1963, at the age of 58.
His daughter, Julia Kennedy Cochran, told AP she was “overjoyed” by the apology.
“I think it would have meant a lot to him,” Julia Kennedy Cochran said.
Tom Curley, who retires later this year, has co-written an introduction to Ed Kennedy’s newly published memoir, Ed Kennedy’s War: V-E Day, Censorship & The Associated Press.
He now says the reporter should have been commended rather than sacked.
“Once the war is over, you can’t hold back information like that. The world needed to know.”
Sixty-seven years ago, in May 1945, the Nazi regime collapsed being squeezed ever more tightly between two fronts – the Soviet Union on one side and the Western Allies on the other.
But which of these fronts was the most important?
Throughout the Cold War, and ever since, each side has tended to see its own contribution as decisive.
“In the West, for some time… public opinion has taken the view that the Soviet Union played a secondary role,” said the Russian historian Valentin Falin.
On the other hand, opinion polls show that two-thirds of Russians think the Soviet Union could have defeated Hitler without the Allies’ help, and half think the West underestimates the Soviet contribution.
Richard Overy, professor of contemporary history at King’s College London, noted that after the war, Adolf Hitler’s foreign minister Joachim von Ribbentrop listed three main reasons for Germany’s defeat:
• Unexpectedly stubborn resistance from the Soviet Union
• The large-scale supply of arms and equipment from the US to the Soviet Union, under the lend-lease agreement
• The success of the Western Allies in the struggle for air supremacy.
Opinion polls show that two-thirds of Russians think the Soviet Union could have defeated Hitler without the Allies' help, and half think the West underestimates the Soviet contribution
Richard Overy said that for decades Soviet historians underplayed the significance of US and UK lend-lease in the Soviet Union’s success, but that Russia has recently shown just appreciation.
Valentin Falin, however, says Russians never forgot the help they received from their allies.
“You ask any Soviet person, whether he remembers what a Dodge or a Willis is!” he said.
“The Americans supplied us with 450,000 lorries. Of course, in the final stages of the war this significantly increased our armed forces’ mobility, decreased our losses and brought us, perhaps, greater success than if we had not such help.”
Richard Overy accepts that the Western powers played a smaller role on the battlefield itself than the Soviet forces but says their bombing campaigns made a huge contribution.
“Bombing diverted a lot of manpower and military equipment from the front in Russia, while it restricted the expansion of the German war economy,” he said.
He also agreed that the West still only has a weak understanding of the Soviet Union’s role.
“Because Britain and the US had to invade Europe by sea [Italy in 1943, and France in 1944] they have more of a sense of <<liberating>> a German-conquered Europe,” he said.
Valentin Falin, meanwhile, argued that the war could have been brought to an end more quickly if the second front, in France, had been opened before 1944.
“How many millions of people would have remained alive?” he asks.
“Many death camps reached full power precisely in the second half of 1943 and in 1944.”
Richard Overy said that the West has a view of the war as a global conflict, because of its fight against Japan, for example, whereas the Soviet view is of a “national crusade to repel the invader”.
Valentin Falin cited figures suggesting that German forces suffered 93% of their casualties on the Soviet front and argued that this shows the Soviet contribution was decisive.
But he added that every single US, UK, Canadian or other Allied soldier who died “made a big, important and necessary contribution to the victory, which was a shared victory”.
Kim Kardashian decided to tweet past sexy photos of herself when she was a blonde.
Kim Kardashian, 31, wrote on her Twitter page: “I’m bored. Oh hiiiiii!” along with a recent photograph of herself.
“Oh hiiiii” was a frequent catchphrase as Kim Kardashian posted photo after photo after photo.
The reality star tweeted two photographs of herself as a blonde back in 2009.
Kim Kardashian resembled Jennifer Lopez with her honey-toned highlights.
Kim Kardashian tweeted photographs of herself as a blonde back in 2009
In one shot she poses in seductive bondage-style gear, while in another she didn’t appear to be wearing any trousers.
It’s hard not to admit that Kim Kardashian, who posted the caption “Gluten free is the way to be” did look amazing in her stiletto boots and black bikini.
The now-brunette beauty also added a snap of herself with sister Kourtney Kardashian.
She looked lovely in a royal blue jumpsuit, while her older sibling donned an embellished top.
Kim Kardashian wrote: “Can u spot who is wearing Kardashian Kollection & who is wearing KDash???”
Though bored, Kim Kardashian doesn’t look as upset as one might assume she should given that her lawyer believes ex-husband Kris Humphries is deliberately delaying their divorce proceedings.
Laura Wasser told a Los Angeles judge yesterday that she believes Kris Humphries’ “personal feelings and maybe some media drive is keeping the case alive”.
She added: “Certainly they’ve been separated longer than they’ve been married.”
In other family-related news, stepfather Bruce Jenner just admitted how clueless he is on national television.
According to a study in facial recognition, white babies aged just nine-months-old show signs of racial bias.
Researchers at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst found that by the young age the babies were already discriminating against those of different races in their ability to recognize faces and emotional expressions.
They analyzed 48 Caucasian babies with little to no experience of African-American or black individuals.
Split into a group of five-months-olds and another of babies aged nine months, they were tasked with differentiating between faces of their people within own race and then of those belonged to another, unfamiliar, race.
Babies from the five-month-old group were far more adept at distinguishing faces from different races, while the nine-month-olds were able to tell apart two faces within their own race with greater ease.
In a second experiment the babies’ brain activity was detected using sensors.
They were shown images of faces of Caucasian or African-American races expressing emotions that either matched or did not match sounds they heard, such as laughing and crying.
Brain-activity measurements showed the nine-month-olds processed emotional expressions among Caucasian faces differently than those of African-American faces, while the 5-month-olds did not.
The shift in recognition ability was not a cultural thing, rather a result of physical development.
Researchers at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst found that by the young age the babies were already discriminating against those of different races in their ability to recognize faces and emotional expressions
Researchers found that the processing of facial emotions moved from the front of the brain to regions in the back of the brain in the older age group.
“These results suggest that biases in face recognition and perception begin in preverbal infants, well before concepts about race are formed,” said study leader Lisa Scott in a statement.
“It is important for us to understand the nature of these biases in order to reduce or eliminate [the biases].”
This is similar to how babies learn language, medicalxpress.com reported. Early in infancy babies do not know yet which sounds are meaningful in their native language, so they treat all sounds similarly.
As they learn the language spoken around them, their ability to tell apart sounds within other languages declines and their ability to differentiate sounds within their native language improves.
The results further earlier research which found that adults have more difficulty recognizing faces that belong to people of another race, indicating that the disparity begins sooner than previously realized.
The report is published in the May issue of the journal Development Science.
Vogue magazine has been the world’s fashion bible for decades, its pages adorned with beautiful clothes – all too often modeled by painfully thin women.
Now, in a groundbreaking move, Vogue has pledged it will no longer use photographs of dangerously underweight models.
In a statement published across all of its 19 international editions on Thursday, Vogue’s editors promised not to picture models under the age of 16 or those who they believe have an eating disorder.
Vogue’s editors said the six-point pact, called The Health Initiative, aims to encourage a healthier approach to body image within the fashion industry, which has been lambasted for promoting anorexia.
Alexandra Shulman, editor of British Vogue, said: “As one of the fashion industry’s most powerful voices, Vogue has a unique opportunity to engage with relevant issues where we feel we can make a difference.”
Vogue also promised to take more measures to look after models, including protecting their privacy and giving them healthy food and drinks backstage at shoots and fashion shows.
In a statement published across all of its 19 international editions on Thursday, Vogue’s editors promised not to picture models under the age of 16 or those who they believe have an eating disorder
Editors agreed to be “ambassadors” for a healthy image and “not knowingly work with models under the age of 16 or who appear to have an eating disorder”.
They added: “We will work with models who, in our view, are healthy and help to promote a healthy body image.”
Girls under the age of 16 have already been banned from catwalks in London and the US, but this is the first time a magazine has issued its own standards.
In 2009, Alexandra Shulman spoke out against the practice of designers providing tiny sample sizes.
She sent a strongly worded letter to fashion houses saying she had been forced to hire girls “with jutting bones and no breasts or hips” so they could get into the clothes.
The letter also revealed Vogue regularly re-touched pictures to make models look healthier.
And in their statement, Vogue editors said they would encourage designers “to consider the consequences of unrealistically small sample sizes of their clothing, which limits the range of women who can be photographed in their clothes, and encourages the use of extremely thin models”.
Vogue will also ask modelling agencies not to send underage girls, and for them to check models’ ages when they are photographed for shoots.
The health of catwalk models was brought into the spotlight five years ago, when two young South American models died from what appeared to be complications related to eating disorders.
Their deaths lead to the British Fashion Council banning the use of models under 16, but they are still used in magazines.
Proposals for medical checks were shelved because they were seen as too intrusive.
And Britain has not gone as far as countries including Italy and Spain, which ban catwalk models whose body mass index is below a certain level.
Sara Ziff, 29, a former teen model and the founder of The Model Alliance, a US union which aims to improve working conditions in the fashion industry, welcomed the move.
She said: “Most editions of Vogue regularly hire models who are minors, so for Vogue to commit to no longer using models under the age of 16 marks an evolution in the industry.”
In a survey, Sara Ziff found more than half of models start working between the ages of 13 and 16.
“Vogue editors around the world want the magazines to reflect their commitment to the health of the models who appear on the pages and the wellbeing of their readers.”
In addition to agreeing not to knowingly work with models under 16 or with eating disorders, the Vogue pact says the magazines will help “structure mentoring programmes” for younger models and raise awareness of the problem of model health.
The publisher of Vogue, Conde Nast, is also responsible for several other magazines, including Glamour and Allure, but a spokesperson said there are no current plans for these guidelines to be adopted across the company.
A new Australian study has found that fertility treatment used to help infertile men become fathers can raise the risk of birth defects in babies.
Research on more than 300,000 babies found those born using Intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) had a significantly higher risk of developing abnormalities than those conceived naturally.
Researchers linked a census of more than 6,100 births that occurred as a result of fertility treatment in South Australia to a registry of more than 300,000 births and 18,000 birth defects.
The report by the University of Adelaide published in the New England Journal of Medicine shows that on average defects were present in 8.3% of pregnancies that involved fertility treatment compared to 5.8% of those conceived naturally.
According to the study, in vitro fertilisation (IVF) posed the least risk to women opting for assisted conception, with defects occurring in only 7.2% of pregnancies.
ICSI is primarily used for male fertility problems and this risk is decreased using frozen eggs, according to the study’s lead author, Associate Professor Michael Davies.
“I don’t want to scare people,” he said because the majority of babies were born healthy.
“But this may be due to developmentally compromised embryos failing to survive the freeze/thaw process,” he said.
“While assisted reproductive technologies are associated with an increased risk of major birth defects overall, we found significant differences in risk between available treatments.”
Research on more than 300,000 babies found those born using Intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) had a significantly higher risk of developing abnormalities than those conceived naturally
More than 3.7 million babies are born each year through assisted reproduction.
Methods include everything from drugs to coax the ovaries to make eggs to artificial insemination and IVF. Fertility treatments account for about 4% of births in Australia and as many as 8% of them in Denmark, where costs are widely covered, Michael Davies said.
In the United States, more than 60,000 babies were born in 2009 from 146,000 IVF attempts. About three-quarters of them used ICSI, or intracytoplasmic sperm injection.
ICSI was developed because of male infertility. But half the time, it was not done for that reason but to improve the odds that at least some embryos will be created from an IVF attempt.
In 2005, the last year for which data was available, 5,935 babies were born as a result of IVF treatment compared to 5,265 babies born with the help of ICSI.
One surprising find within the research was a tripling of risk among women who used the drug clomiphene citrate to stimulate ovary production, though this was among a small group within the study.
The drug is cheap and easily available through the internet, raising the possibility of abuse, but it is known to cause foetal abnormalities if the woman taking is not aware she is already pregnant.
The drug is prescribed after a mandatory pregnancy test in a clinical setting, but this can be avoided in self-medication.
Associate Professor Michael Davies said: “While confined to a small group in our study, this is of particular concern as clomiphene citrate is now very widely available at low cost, and may easily be used contrary to manufacturers’ very specific instructions to avoid use if pregnant, as it may cause fetal malformations.
“This aspect of the study will need additional confirmation from future research.
“A history of infertility, either with or without assisted conception, was also significantly associated with birth defects.
“While factors associated with the causes of infertility explained the excess risk associated with IVF, the increased risk for a number of other treatments could not readily be explained by patient factors.
“ICSI, for instance, had a 57% increase in the odds of major defect, although the absolute size of the risk remained relatively small.”
Supermoon – the nickname for a perigee full moon, closer to the Earth than usual – could cause tides to rise around the world as the moon’s close “fly past” exerts 42% more tidal force.
The moon will appear bigger and brighter tonight – sky-watchers promise this supermoon will be 16% brighter than most when it begins today at 3:35 p.m. GMT, 11:35 a.m. EDT.
At 11:34 p.m., the moon will be about 221,802 miles from Earth – about 15,300 miles closer than average.
Full Moons vary in size because of the oval shape of the Moon’s orbit. It is an ellipse with one side (perigee) about 50,000 km closer to Earth than the other (apogee).
Nearby perigee moons are about 14% bigger and 30% brighter than lesser moons that occur on the apogee side of the Moon’s orbit.
Supermoon, the nickname for a perigee full moon, closer to the Earth than usual, could cause tides to rise around the world
A perigee full Moon brings with it extra-high “perigean tides”, but this is nothing to worry about, according to America’s NOAA space-weather predicting agency.
In most places, lunar gravity at perigee pulls tide waters only a few centimeters (an inch or so) higher than usual.
“To view this weekend’s supermoon to best effect, look for it just after it rises or before it sets, when it is close to the horizon. There, you can catch a view of the moon behind buildings or trees, an effect which produces an optical illusion, making the moon seem even larger than it really is,” said Space.com, which reported the phenomenon.
Local geography can amplify the effect to about 15 cm (six inches) – not exactly a great flood.
The Moon looks extra-big when it is beaming through foreground objects – a.k.a. “the Moon illusion”.
Indeed, contrary to some reports circulating the Internet, perigee Moons do not trigger natural disasters. The “super moon” of March 1983, for instance, passed without incident. And an almost-super Moon in December 2008 also proved harmless.
The Moon is bigger than usual, but can we really tell the difference? It’s tricky. There are no rulers floating in the sky to measure lunar diameters. Hanging high overhead with no reference points to provide a sense of scale, one full Moon can seem much like any other.
The best time to look is when the Moon is near the horizon. That is when illusion mixes with reality to produce a truly stunning view.
For reasons not fully understood by astronomers or psychologists, low-hanging Moons look unnaturally large when they beam through trees, buildings and other foreground objects.
Violet D’Mello, a British tourist who tried to protect a girl being mauled by captive cheetahs, has told of how the animals then turned on her.
Violet D’Mello, 60, from Aberdeen, said she survived by “playing dead” at the Kragga Kamma Game Park in Port Elizabeth, South Africa last weekend.
She and another family had entered the enclosure for a photo next to the cats when the child was attacked.
She stressed that the animals were not being “vicious” when they attacked her.
“It was, I think, a playful attack. I just remember something biting my head and dragging me down.
“But even then I was just thinking of the children [in the enclosure]. We were told they would never attack adults, it was the children we were concerned about.”
Earlier, Violet D’Mello told the Port Elizabeth Herald the incident was a “nightmare”.
She had intervened when one of the cheetahs grabbed the girl from the family.
“They weren’t being vicious,” she told the newspaper.
“You could tell they were just excited, but it became serious very quickly.
“It all happened so fast. After his sister was free, another boy tried to make a run for it.
“As I stopped him, something jumped me from behind.”
Violet D'Mello said she survived by "playing dead" at the Kragga Kamma Game Park in Port Elizabeth, South Africa last weekend
A park guide pulled the cheetah off but another cat then attacked the 60-year-old.
Other people on the scene managed to get both cats off and everyone escaped the enclosure.
Violet D’Mello suffered injuries to her head, stomach and legs during the incident, which happened during a holiday with her husband Archie.
She added: “Something inside me just said, <<Don’t move. Don’t move at all. Don’t react, just play dead>>.”
“This was meant to be a holiday, but it’s really turned into a nightmare.”
Violet D’Mello’s husband, Archie, took photos of her ordeal and he said the park’s guide seemed to be caught unawares by the attack.
“I was about five to 10 feet away. We didn’t expect anything to happen like this. I don’t think even the guide knew what to do. She didn’t have any weapons, or stick or Taser, until somebody from the outside gave us a stick and the guide used it on the cheetah’s head to release the hold on my wife.”
He also said his wife has “multiple bite injuries”.
He added: “She has had a lot of stitches to both her eyes. Her scalp itself was the worst because the tooth had penetrated between the skull and the scalp [which] was peeled backwards. She lost a lot of blood from the head. She had to spend the first 48 hours in bed.
“The worst bit was her left eye. There was a claw mark on it. Her eyelid was bruised and bleeding and completely closed up but [the tooth] hadn’t penetrated the eyelid.
“She was very lucky in that respect. No major arteries were damaged. The animals themselves seemed playful, they did a lot of damage.”
The enclosure at the park has been closed while the incident is investigated.
Park manager Mike Cantor said the hand-reared cheetahs, brothers Mark and Monty, were “tame”.
He said: “It’s not something we’ve ever really experienced. It’s obviously very unfortunate, and we’re looking into what may have startled or riled up the cheetahs.
“We’ve had these animals for four years, dozens of people have come through here and seen them and fallen in love with them, so it pains us to hear about something like this.
“From what we’ve been told, there was a lot of commotion at the scene, which, unfortunately, most likely aggravated them somewhat. We’re also considering the possibility that a female in heat in one of the neighboring enclosures might have played a role here, but we can’t be sure at this stage.”
9/11 “mastermind” Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other men accused of plotting the 2001 attacks are appearing before a US military tribunal at Guantanamo Bay to be formally charged.
An earlier attempt to try the four in a civilian US court was halted in 2009.
New rules for Guantanamo trials have been since introduced, including a ban on evidence obtained under torture.
However, defense lawyers still say the system lacks legitimacy, because of restricted access to their clients.
President Barack Obama tried to shut Guantanamo at the beginning of his term. But his efforts to hold Khalid Sheikh Mohammed’s trial in New York foundered in the face of political and public opposition.
A small number of victims’ relatives are attending Saturday’s hearing at the military complex.
Self-proclaimed 9/11 “mastermind” Khalid Sheikh Mohammed is being tried with four others – Waleed bin Attash, Ramzi Binalshibh, Ali Abd al-Aziz Ali and Mustafa Ahmad al-Hawsawi.
They are accused of planning and executing the terror attacks of 11 September 2001, which saw hijacked planes strike New York, Washington and Shanksville, Pennsylvania and left a total of 2,976 people dead.
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and other four men are accused of planning and executing the terror attacks of 11 September 2001, which left a total of 2,976 people dead
At Saturday’s arraignment, they face charges including terrorism, hijacking, conspiracy, murder and destruction of property.
Waleed bin Attash appeared in court while restrained in his chair. His lawyer asked for the restraints to be removed.
But when asked if the suspect would “behave” if unrestrained, the lawyer said he could not give that assurance.
The five are expected to be asked to enter a plea for the first time. The charges can carry the death penalty.
Ahead of the hearing, Jim Harrington, the civilian lawyer for Ramzi Binalshibh, told Associated Press that although his client had previously said he was “proud” of his role in the attacks he had “no intention of pleading guilty”.
“I don’t think anyone is going to plead guilty,” he added.
The decision to hold a military rather than a civilian trial remains controversial and follows a lengthy legal wrangle over where the five men would face justice.
Another of the defendants’ lawyers, James Connell, predicted the trial would take years to complete.
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who is of Pakistani origin but was born in Kuwait, was captured in Pakistan in 2003 and transferred to the Guantanamo base in Cuba in 2006.
During an earlier, controversial attempt to try him before a military tribunal in 2008, he said he intended to plead guilty and would welcome martyrdom.
In 2009 the Obama administration tried to move their trial into US civilian courts, but reversed its decision in 2011 after widespread opposition.
The five were eventually charged in June 2011 with offences similar to those they were accused of by the Bush administration.
The Pentagon has previously said Khalid Sheikh Mohammed admitted he was responsible “from A to Z” for the 9/11 attacks.
US prosecutors allege that he was involved with a host of other terrorist activities.
These include the 2002 nightclub bombing in Bali, Indonesia, the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, the murder of American journalist Daniel Pearl and a failed 2001 attempt to blow up an airliner using a shoe bomb.
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed has alleged that he was repeatedly tortured during his detention in Cuba.
CIA documents confirm that he was subjected to simulated drowning, known as waterboarding, 183 times.
Japan has decided to switch off its last working nuclear reactor, as part of the safety drive since the March 2011 tsunami triggered a meltdown at the Fukushima plant.
The third reactor at the Tomari plant, in Hokkaido prefecture, is shutting down for routine maintenance.
The move leaves Japan without energy from atomic power for the first time for more than 40 years.
Until last year, Japan got 30% of its power from nuclear energy.
Hundreds of people marched through Tokyo, waving banners to celebrate what they hope will be the end of nuclear power in Japan.
Since the Fukushima disaster, all Japan’s reactors have been shut down for routine maintenance. They must withstand tests against earthquakes and tsunamis, and local authorities must give their consent in order for plants to restart.
So far, none have.
The third reactor at the Tomari plant, in Hokkaido prefecture, is shutting down for routine maintenance
Two reactors at the Ohi plant in western Japan have been declared safe. The government says they should be restarted to combat looming shortages.
However, regional authorities would still have to give their approval.
Ministers have warned Japan faces a summer of power shortages.
The government could force the issue, but so far has been reluctant to move against public opinion.
Organizers of the anti-nuclear march in the capital estimated turnout at 5,500.
Demonstrators carried banners shaped as giant fish. The “Koinobori” banners, traditionally the symbol of Children’s Day, have been adopted by the anti-nuclear movement.
“There are so many nuclear plants, but not a single one will be up and running today, and that’s because of our efforts,” campaigner Masashi Ishikawa told the crowd.
Engineers began the process of shutting down the final Tomari reactor, inserting control rods to bring the fission process to an end.
All operations at the plant will have stopped by 14:00 GMT, a spokesman told Associated Press.
Japan will then be without nuclear power for the first time since 1970.
Businesses have warned of severe consequences for manufacturing if no nuclear plants are allowed to re-start.
In the meantime, Japan has increased its fossil fuel imports, with electricity companies pressing old power plants into service.
If the country can get through the steamy summer without blackouts, calls to make the nuclear shutdown permanent will get louder.
The six-reactor Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant was badly damaged by the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami.
Blasts occurred at four of the reactors after the cooling systems went offline, triggering radiation leaks and forcing the evacuation of thousands of people.
A 20 km (12 miles) exclusion zone remains in place around the plant.
Osama Bin Laden’s documents released on Thursday provide an insight into the workings of the mind of the slain al-Qaeda chief, but they reveal precious little about his family life during the years in hiding in Pakistan.
According to other sources, during their 10-year stay in Pakistan Osama Bin Laden and his family travelled all across the country, had access to medical and maternity services, and were in constant communication with the outside world.
Nearly two dozen women and children were recovered from the compound in Abbottabad where the world’s most wanted man was killed in the raid by US Navy Seals a year ago.
After being held by the Pakistani intelligence services for more than nine months in secret confinement, some of them were tried for illegally residing in Pakistan. Then last week, all the members of Osama Bin Laden’s family – some 14 of them, including three wives – were deported to Saudi Arabia.
But there were others living in the compound too.
Osama Bin Laden’s son, Khalid, was killed in the raid as were his Pakistani host and trusted courier, Ibrar alias Arshad Khan alias Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti, and Khan’s wife, and his brother, Ibrahim alias Tariq Khan. Other members of his family survived, their present location being a closely guarded secret.
Osama Bin Laden spent six years in a house which CNN’s Peter Bergen – the only journalist to have been given a tour of the compound in Abbottabad – describes as a squalid, “long-term but makeshift camping site”.
He was surrounded by cooped-up children, only rarely allowed out to play cricket, and possibly bickering wives.
The youngest wife, Amal Abdal Fattah, a Yemeni citizen, gave a sketch of her life with Osama Bin Laden to Pakistani interrogators.
In their report, recently leaked to the media, Amal Abdal Fattah is quoted as saying that she married the al-Qaeda chief in the Afghan city of Kandahar in 2000, and lived there with his two other wives until the 9/11 attacks.
At that point, the family split and she went to Karachi, where she stayed with her baby daughter until the middle of 2002, when she rejoined Osama Bin Laden.
During their 10-year stay in Pakistan Osama Bin Laden and his family travelled all across the country, had access to medical and maternity services, and were in constant communication with the outside world
Brigadier Shaukat Qadir, an ex-army officer who conducted an investigation into the Bin Laden killing, writes that in 2002 the couple spent some time in a village south of Peshawar.
Osama Bin Laden was treated there for a medical condition, Amal Abdal Fattah told investigators, and received a visit from Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the Kuwait-born Pakistani now on trial in the US for masterminding the 9/11 attacks.
Osama Bin Laden, Amal Abdal Fattah and Amal’s children appear to have moved to Shangla, near Swat, some time in late 2003 or early 2004. Then, in the summer of 2004, they moved to Haripur, before finally settling at the Abbottabad compound in late 2005 or early 2006.
Amal Abdal Fattah told her interrogators that between 2003 and 2008 she gave birth to four more children – all delivered at government-owned hospitals.
Less is known about the travels of Osama Bin Laden’s two other wives, after the family split up in 2001.
According to Brigadier Shaukat Qadir, Shareeja Seeham, a Saudi citizen, and her three children, joined Osama Bin Laden and Amal in Haripur in 2004, and stayed with them until Bin Laden’s death.
She was the mother of Khalid, aged 24 when he was killed along with Osama Bin Laden in the raid on 2 May last year.
Brigadier Shaukat Qadir writes that she is a teacher by profession, and stayed with the family to “ensure that children were not denied education, since they were not going to enter any educational institution”.
Osama Bin Laden’s eldest wife, Khaeriah Sahaba, also a Saudi citizen, appears to have drifted into Iran along with her five sons when the family split up in the wake of 9/11, and was taken into custody in 2003 or 2004.
She was released in September 2010 as part of a prisoner swap involving an Iranian diplomat, Hashmatullah Atherzadeh, who had been kidnapped by militants in Peshawar in 2008.
While her sons dispersed to unknown locations, she made her way to Osama Bin Laden’s top lieutenant, Attiya Abdur Rahman, in the Waziristan region of Pakistan. She then joined Osama Bin Laden in Abbottabad in early 2011.
According to Brigadier Shaukat Qadir, she was known to be extremely jealous of the youngest wife, Amal.
“OBL, by this time, was bedding [sleeping with] only Amal,” he writes.
“Why therefore should Khaeriah choose to brave another hazard to rejoin a husband she had been separated from for many years and no longer had any relationship with?”
He suspects that she might have played a role in leading the Americans to Osama Bin Laden’s lair.
It seems Pakistani investigators may have found it hard to get any useful information from her, though. Shaukat Qadir quotes one ISI investigator as saying: “She is so aggressive that she borders on being intimidating. Short of torturing her, we cannot get her to admit to anything.”
Osama Bin Laden was able to leave the crowded Abbottabad compound at least once, as he strove to assert authority over an increasingly unwieldy organization with wayward affiliates.
In May 2010, he even ventured out to the Waziristan region. This was at a time when drones were raining missiles there and several operations by the Pakistani military were under way.
He apparently went to touch base with his operational commanders and assess the situation first-hand. He then penned an assessment of the region in a long memo to Attiya Abdur Rahman, advising him to shift operatives to a safer location.
The memo, written in October 2010, is among the documents declassified by the US military on Thursday.
These documents also suggest that Osama Bin Laden was wary of the Pakistani intelligence services, and advised extreme caution when Khaeria made that possibly fateful trip from Waziristan to the compound in Abbottabad.
