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Apple's holiday not looking great, could be worse

Preliminary estimates of Apple's performance amid one of the worst economic periods in years indicate no one has a magic bullet for recession, but some fare better than others.

Bullet work named top invention

A technique, developed in Northamptonshire, to find fingerprints on bullets is named a top invention of 2008.

My 35-year fight to find Pinochet torturers who killed my brother

In recent years a determined, Anglo-Chilean woman has become a common sight in the streets of Valparaíso, the port city that was the power base of General Augusto Pinochet. She has spoken to judges, lawyers and ordinary Chileans. Gradually, in a remarkable tale of courage and perseverance, she has pieced together the grisly events that took place over 30 years ago, when she lost her brother to the brutality of the Pinochet regime. Nineteen former naval officials have just been arrested as a result of Patricia Bennetts's efforts. Four vice-admirals, several captains and other Chilean Navy officers face being put on trial. More importantly, justice appears finally to be possible for her brother Michael, a young priest who fell foul of one of the most notorious dictatorships in 20th-century history.Michael Woodward was an idealistic young Englishman, a Roman Catholic priest swept along by the hopeful currents of a new radical 'liberation' theology. He saw his future as helping the poor raise themselves from poverty through the power of prayer and politics. It was a vision that took him back to Chile in the early Seventies, the country where he was born in 1932.There he began to work and live among the people of Cerro Placeres, a working-class neighbourhood of Valparaíso. It was a world away from his privileged childhood as a British public schoolboy. Chile was undergoing a political transformation after the election of the charismatic new Socialist President, Salvador Allende, in 1970. General Augusto Pinochet and his military henchmen brought that experiment in Latin American socialism - and Woodward's ministry to the poor - to an abrupt and violent end. Within 10 days of the 1973 coup, Woodward had disappeared. Eventually his family heard he was dead, though no one could tell them how, why or where his body was buried. Thirty-five years later, as a result of the indefatigable efforts of his sister, that wall of silence is being demolished. Woodward's younger sister, Patricia, a mild-mannered 70-year-old, has returned to Cerro Placeres and set about finding the answers to the questions no one would provide all those years ago.In a country where the deceased dictator still casts a dark and occasionally sinister shadow, she has encountered intimidation and fearful silences. 'The investigation has uncovered a lot of things,' she said. 'Other cases have come to light. It has been discovered that all this was planned before the coup.'Death threats, break-ins, thefts of documentation and angry demonstrations by Pinochet supporters have all formed part of a concentrated attempt to intimidate Bennetts and those helping her. However, her single-minded pursuit of those who kidnapped, tortured and killed her brother has borne fruit. Supported by justice officials operating in an increasingly liberal atmosphere under Socialist President Michelle Bachelet, herself a torture victim, Bennetts has uncovered many of the painful and tragic details of her brother's fate. Father Michael Woodward was almost certainly shot dead. A bullet was fired into his chest - possibly while being held on an elegant, four-masted navy training ship, the Esmeralda. Two witnesses have spoken of a chest wound. His death followed 10 days of brutal torture. The revelation places extra pressure on the investigating judge to bring those arrested to trial. That judge, Eliana Quezada, regularly receives death threats and needs a police bodyguard. 'Judge Quezada has been receiving death threats for a long time. In recent times it has got a lot worse,' Patricia Bennetts said. 'I think it is because of this case.'A state human rights lawyer helping prosecute the case, Karina Fernández, recently had her house broken into and her laptop computer, containing documents about the case, stolen. 'She was away from home for several hours and somebody got in and stole it,' Bennetts explained. 'They purposely left her jewellery, money and cheque stubs on her bed as if to say, "This is the only thing we wanted".'Patricia Bennetts has also needed police escorts at Valparaíso's courthouse as groups of well-heeled, jeering, pro-Pinochet protesters jostled her. 'It has been very hostile,' she said. 'One lady tried to kick me.'Patricia and Michael were born to an English father and Chilean mother. They spent their childhood in Latin America while their father worked as a manager for British American Tobacco. They were sent home to Britain to attend school. Michael went to Downside, a Catholic public school in Somerset. He studied engineering in London but eventually returned to Chile, became a priest and ended up in Valparaíso, a navy town north-west of Santiago.Liberation theology swept through Latin America during the Sixties, as many Catholic priests decided their faith required a commitment not just to God but also to social justice and political action. Michael Woodward was among them and, by the early Seventies, he had joined a Christian Marxist group called the Movement for United Popular Action, or MAPU. The group supported Allende when he came to power in 1970, amid hopes that he would transform Chile. Woodward had already been suspended by a conservative church hierarchy when Chile violently lurched from socialism to right-wing dictatorship.In September 1973 the army commander General Pinochet rebelled, together with other military and police chiefs. Allende and a handful of supporters held out briefly in Santiago's La Moneda palace, but were surrounded by tanks and attacked from the ground and the air. Allende is believed to have turned his own gun on himself as troops entered the palace. The dream of a socialist Chile died with him.Pinochet, a man whose ruthlessness, dark glasses and German-style military uniforms helped earn him a reputation as the world's archetypal Latin American despot, took control and stayed in power for 17 years.It was only after Pinochet stepped down as head of the armed forced in 1998 that Chileans began to hope that they might seek justice for crimes committed in his name. 'Before, people could not speak without fearing for their lives,' Bennetts explained.Pinochet's 1998 arrest in London, after Spanish magistrate Baltasar Garzón requested his extradition, raised hopes further - although legal arguments over his British victims concentrated on the killing of stockbroker William Beausire and the torture of British doctor Sheila Cassidy. His death two years ago, when he was being investigated for hundreds of deaths and corruption, removed many of the remaining obstacles. Even now, however, amnesty laws make it hard to get sentences passed for murder. 'The people who are being indicted are being held for kidnapping, not for murder,' said Bennetts. 'If they were indicted for murder, they could appeal to the law of amnesty and be freed.'Bennetts's investigations have helped Chileans piece together the horror of what happened in Valparaíso in the weeks that followed the coup. Her lawyers have shown how navy units took control of the city and set up torture and detention centres in at least three places. These included the Navy War Academy, the Federico Santa Maria University and the Esmeralda.She has also pieced together the terrible saga of her brother's detention, which saw him pass through all three places before, almost certainly, being shot and buried in an anonymous grave. Woodward was picked up ten days after the coup, when he returned to his house in Cerro Placeres. He went into hiding after the coup and naval units had already ransacked the house. It was, in retrospect, rash to go home, but Woodward insisted he had nothing to hide. Few people realised what was happening to those picked up by the military.His ordeal began almost immediately. Witnesses now say that they saw him at the university detention centre. There he was subjected to torture sessions in the swimming pool. 'There were witnesses to say he was sunk and lifted inside the pool,' said his sister.From there he was taken to the Navy War Academy. 'That is where he got most of the torturing,' Bennetts said. 'He was tied to a chair and tortured for an hour with lots of people looking on to see how it was going.' Torturers wrapped their fists in damp towels so that the beating left fewer external marks. He was eventually taken to the Esmeralda. 'There was violence 24 hours a day. Prisoners were taken out, beaten and tortured, returning bruised and vomiting blood,' a former detainee, María Aliane Comene, said. 'They took me out every night to interrogate me. They hit me on the ears with their hands, they applied electric currents to my tongue and my vagina. They took us out to amuse themselves, to abuse us sexually. They raped us.' Sergio Vuskovic, a former Valparaíso mayor, was tortured for seven days. 'They applied electrical discharges to my penis, my testicles, my torso and my back,' he said.Captain Carlos Fanta, the senior naval officer in Valparaíso on the day Woodward died, has admitted that a navy doctor ordered his evacuation from the Esmeralda after certifying that he would die of the internal bleeding caused by his beatings. By then, Chilean navy officials had planted a newspaper story claiming that the 'pseudo-priest took part in various attacks on police... and sexually abused an indeterminate number of young girls'. On the same day a death certificate was signed, saying Woodward had died of a 'cardio-respiratory arrest' on a road.Reaction to the case has been mixed. 'We have more important things to worry about than stupidities like this,' said Ricardo Bustamante, the head of the students' union, when told that the private Federico Santa Maria University had been used as a torture centre.Carlos Portales, a lawyer representing the accused, used a recent celebration of the Pinochet coup 'and the things that happened afterwards' to claim that the courts were now in Marxist hands. 'With Marxists there is no way of reaching an honourable understanding,' he said. 'We need to change the way we act. We have been too passive.'For years, Patricia Bennetts has campaigned to stop the Esmeralda, also known as The White Lady, being allowed to visit ports in Britain or elsewhere in the world until the Chilean Navy publicly recognised and apologised for its use as a torture centre. However, it was not until 2004 that the navy accepted that 100 prisoners were tortured and raped on board. Navy officials still claim today that only a minority of officers and sailors were involved.Bennetts is now satisfied that many of those involved in the arrest and torture of her brother have been found. She hopes that sentences will be passed before the end of the year. She and her husband, Fred Bennetts, now spend much of their time in Cerro Placeres among the people her brother had tried to help. 'It is encouraging to see how people in the street react,' she said. 'They stop and ask us how it is going. We feel their support.' The final piece of the puzzle, however, has yet to be put into place. Woodward's body is thought to have been sneaked into the city's Playa Ancha cemetery at night by naval personnel. Two years ago Bennetts persuaded Judge Quezada to dig up a section of the cemetery after a tip-off. Her brother's corpse was not found, however.Now the family is in possession of new information. A former grave-digger has said that he was forced at gunpoint to bury three men together, all of whom had been shot in the chest. 'The location of the grave has been pinpointed within a relatively small area,' said Fred Bennetts. 'The area is just a few metres away from another grave in which a skull with a bullet wound was found next to a bullet casing of a calibre used only by the armed forces. I saw the skull and the bullet casing myself.'For the moment, Patricia Bennetts is concentrating on the court case. She says that she will not be put off by the small crowd of former naval personnel who try to intimidate her at the courthouse doors. Nor, like her brother before her, will she respond in kind.'We will keep our cool,' she said. 'We certainly won't shout.'The Dictator and the Priest1915 Augusto Pinochet born in Valparaíso, Chile.1932 Michael Woodward born in Chile.1947-1953 Woodward attends Downside school, then studies engineering at King's College London.1954 Woodward returns to Chile and enters a seminary.1961 Woodward ordained.1970 Socialist Salvador Allende becomes President of Chile. Woodward has joined the Marxist Christian MAPU group.1973 Allende dies in coup led by Pinochet. Woodward tortured and killed by naval personnel in Valparaíso.1990 Pinochet stands down as President but remains commander-in -chief.1998 In March Pinochet steps down as commander-in-chief. Arrested in London on a Spanish court order in October.2000 Home Secretary Jack Straw sends Pinochet home in March on grounds of ill-health.2006 Pinochet dies days after being stripped of immunity to prosecution.2008 Nineteen former naval personnel charged in Woodward case.Augusto PinochetChileHuman rightsguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Witnesses tell of the systematic slaughter of civilians by Nkunda's Tutsi rebels

Jumy Kasereka told his mother the Tutsi rebel soldiers would not harm him. After all, he was a schoolteacher, not a fighter, and they would see he was too sick from malaria to move. Kasereka begged his mother to leave with the tens of thousands of others who Laurent Nkunda's rebels ordered out of the town of Kiwanga after they seized it from Hutu fighters. But Felista Maska refused to go. Hours later, one of Nkunda's soldiers arrived at the door of the small earth and wicker home, pushed his way in, and, without a word, dragged the 26-year-old teacher out. He shot Kasereka through the head."The soldiers didn't ask any questions. They just shot him," said Maska as her son was lifted on to a blanket and carried for burial yesterday. "I think the object of the mission was to finish off all the young men. He was a teacher. I tried to tell them. They still shot him."Others in Kiwanga offer similar accounts of the systematic killings of adult men - some of them dragged from bed because they were too sick to walk - who remained in the town after Nkunda's forces ordered it emptied.The Tutsi rebels said those men who remained were enemies, including members of the Mai Mai traditional militia and Rwandan Hutu forces responsible for the 1994 genocide in their country.Some were fighters. But many of the dead - the local Red Cross said the toll probably runs into the hundreds - included teachers, United Nations workers and elderly farmers who were too sick to leave or mistakenly thought the rebels would have nothing against them. Moving through the backstreets of Kiwanga, about 45 miles north of Goma, the distinct smell of human flesh decomposing in Congo's tropical heat wafted from behind closed doors. Some bodies remained on the street. Others were removed by families who returned to bury them, leaving behind bloodstained patches as markers on the earth street.George Nbavumoya was tending his vegetables in a field when he heard fighting in the town. Others lay down in the crops, but the 58-year-old agriculturalist, who was respected in his community as a supervisor at the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation, had two daughters at home. He feared for their safety and so headed back into town.His family said that as Nbavumoya walked through the door, one of Nkunda's soldiers came in, pushed his Kalashnikov up the man's nose and pulled the trigger. It blew the back of Nbavumoya's head off. He was buried in the back of the family plot yesterday.Nbavumoya's daughters, a teenager and a 24-year-old student, are missing.In a one-room home across the earth street from where Kasereka's body fell lay the corpse of 49-year-old Kapazata Katchuva, a carpenter. His brother, William, had returned to bury the body."When the soldiers came here, he stayed in the house and locked the door. The soldiers kicked it in and dragged him out. He stayed because he wasn't strong enough to move. I found his body outside. They shot him in the side of the head. I can't know why they did it."In another home nearby a crucifix hung on an apparently bullet-pocked wall. On a wooden table, a metal kettle stood surrounded by rags and pamphlets. On the floor four members of the same family lay, their limbs touching, entwined in death. Some houses were crowded with bodies. One had 12 corpses, another had five.Some of the dead were government soldiers and others appeared to be Hutu militiamen. The bodies of two young men wearing military-style trousers lay on a street corner. Locals said Nkunda's fighters put the trousers on the bodies. That may be true. Both were wearing civilian trousers underneath, an unusual amount of clothing in Congo's heat. But no one could say who the young men were, suggesting they were not local.Most of Kiwanga is deserted now after its 35,000 residents were forced from their homes, leaving pigs free to roam. Some who fled locked their doors with padlocks, but a number were kicked in and the homes looted.In a tiny house with a bed and one chair, the dresser on which the most precious items were displayed - a few glasses, a bowl, a religious print - had been upturned and everything smashed.Only the centre of Kiwanga is crowded, mostly by people who are refugees in their own town.Nkunda's forces seized Kiwanga when they took the neighbouring town of Rutshuru last week. Kiwanga was packed with Hutus and others who fled years of fighting to the north and west. The renegade Tutsi leader regarded Kiwanga has a hotbed of Hutu subversion. Nkunda says he has the support of the people by liberating them from an ineffectual government and Hutu militias who have plundered the local population. But that is not how it is seen among those forced from their homes.A small crowd grows larger, and furtive comments become denunciations as anger pours forth against Nkunda's National Congress for People's Defence."The CNDP told everybody to get out. They took some young men away and shot them. Others they took and we don't know what happened to them," said one man. "The CNDP killed the people who didn't leave their houses. They saw a man on the street, they killed him. CNDP said everybody who stayed is considered Rwandan militia or Mai Mai."Another man interrupted. "We don't want the CNDP here. We don't believe in CNDP. We want the government here."People are less outspoken in other areas recently seized by Nkunda. In Rugare, Joseph Rulenga has been appointed the new chief by the CNDP. Tutsi rebel forces stood by as villagers attended a meeting where Rulenga said he was instructing them on matters of development and security. As the crowd sat immobile and sullen, he ranted against Congo's enemies. High on the list was France, which is pushing for European intervention to protect Goma from Nkunda. "France is the first enemy of the people of Congo. The special envoy of the UN who came to Goma is from France and he said something bad about us. If he comes here, we will eat him."But many Congolese regard Nkunda and his army as the foreign problem."They are Tutsis and we all know the Tutsis come from Rwanda. They should go back there," said a man in Kiwanga.That is not true, but Nkunda's close ties to Rwanda, after he served in its army, have left many Congolese believing he is serving Rwanda's interests. So has the fact that many of his soldiers do not speak French. In the town of Kibumba yesterday, Nkunda's soldiers lined up dozens of local men by the road. Many are being used by the fighters to carry supplies. The soldier in charge offered a "good morning" and a few more words of English. Then he thought better of it, perhaps fearing it would give away that his origins are not Congolese and that he is a Rwandan Tutsi who grew up in exile in English-speaking Uganda.CongoInternational aid and developmentguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Full Steam Ahead for California's High-Speed Rail

Before the final ballots had even been tallied, high-speed rail advocates in California were getting down to work, laying the foundation for a bullet train that will link San Francisco and Los Angelesas early as 2020. Voters on Tuesday approved the Safe, Reliable High-Speed Passenger Train Bond Act,more commonly known as Proposition 1A, by a margin of 52 percent to 47 percent. The law authorizes the Legislature to issue almost $10 billion in bonds to fund the first phase of an 800-mile high speed rail link between Northern and Southern California. Advocates of high-speed rail hailed the victory as a watershed for high-speed rail in America. "I've been a big fan of this proposal [Prop 1A] for a long time," former Massachusetts governor and Amtrak board member Michael Dukakis told Wired.com. "It's a no brainer, and the fact that it passed makes me hopeful about rail in this country." Getting the ballot measure passed was the easy part. Now the hard work begins. It begins almost immediately. Quentin Kopp, chair of the California High-Speed Rail Authority, told Wired.com the agency will deliver a revised business plan by the end of this week and then begin a comprehensive engineering plan. "We're going to need to do things like dig tunnels through mountains and navigate the Pacheco Pass," he explains. "This is intricate engineering, and it's a crucial part of the project." Kopp says that the state will also spend $3 to $4 billion this fiscal year buying right-of-way land for the project. The Authority plans a network that will stretch from Sacramento to San Francisco and on to Los Angeles and San Diego via Fresno, Bakersfield, and other cities in the Central Valley. Trains would use the same wheel-on-rail technology found in France, Spain, Korea and China and reach speeds of more than 200 mph. Proponents say the project is essential for a state choking on jammed highways and crowded airports, and predict that a well-planned north-south rail link could draw over 115 million riders a year by 2030. Gov. Schwarzenegger, one of the initiative's biggest advocates, argued high-speed rail will not only solve California's infamous gridlock, it will give the Golden State an economic competitive advantage. The Los Angeles Times endorsed the measure, heralding it as the dawn of a more transit-friendly environment. "We think voters should give in to the measure's gleaming promise, because it's in their long-term interest," the paper wrote. The San Francisco Chroniclealso got on board, calling Prop 1A "an ambitious vision that is well-tailored to the state's transportation and environmental needs." But The San Diego Union-Tribune arguedthat California's massive financial problems make spending billions of dollars on a massive transportation project a reckless move. It called the measure a "goofy mix of speculation, pie-in-the-sky dreaming and funny math," and predicted it would make Boston's Big Dig look like a "routine government fiasco." Fiasco or not, the voters seem willing to give it a shot, and Dukakis thinks California might just be the beginning. "People are way ahead of the government on this issue," he says. "They want a rail system that works, and it seems that we're beginning to move in that direction." Images and video by California High-Speed Rail Authority

The King Mountain Nationals presentation/bid/proposal

The King Mountain Nationals presentation/bid/proposal There seemed to be a lot of buzz at the USHPA's BOD meeting about Lisa's Power Point presentation regarding the King Mountain Nationals. I now have a hard copy of that presentation, and I'm wondering, what was all the excitement. Was it the pilot breakfasts (?) or the free camping (not free showers)? Photos as backgrounds, and bullet points. Is that all it takes to get a Nationals? Is there any substance to the proposal? Lisa's proposal starts with five letters (from the City of Arco, Butte County Chamber of Commerce, Lost River Economic Development, Lost Rivers Tourism Council, City of Moore) "supporting" the King Mountain bid, but no indication at all if there is actually any support from these entities. In fact that letters are just pro-forma letters saying essentially, "Hey, come on down, enjoy yourselves, and spend your money here." There is no indication at all that these entities are going to do anything substantial to actually help the competition and support the pilots (I assume that Moore is happy to allow them to camp in their "park."). No promises have been made, as far as these letters are concerned. There are no letters from the "proposed sponsors." No letters re media exposure. Two big elements that seemed to weigh heavily on the decision to make King Mountain, the Nationals. What else is missing? No discussion of the safety issues re King Mountain. This is a big issue for the USHPA Competition Workgroup, but it is ignored in this proposal. I wonder why. No discussion of who is going to fill the positions in the organization. Meet director, Safety Director, Launch Directors, etc. No budget? This again is a big issue for the USHPA Competition Workgroup, but why is it missing here when it was a big issue for David Glover for the 2008 Big Spring meet? The King Mountain site is referred to as "World renowned." I suggest "Idaho and California renowned" would be a more accurate description. No indication that Lisa is applying for CIVL sanctioning (I assume that she is.) A point made in favor of the meet is that it has a computerized scoring system. Like which competition doesn't have this? The presentation is big on showing the routes from King Mountain. The routes go over high mountain ranges in high wind conditions. Cool pictures, scary flying. What is good about the proposal? Cheap, $125. Breakfasts available, free camping, tee-shirt, color maps, shower truck at the Moore City Park (donations requested). (At Big Spring you get cheap camping, cheap hotels, two free dinners, a tee-shirt, showers at no additional cost and awesome flying.) I fail to see what was so great about the presentation that it made this bid for the Nationals a slam dunk. The BOD and Competition Committee does not represent the interests of those pilots who are interested in competition, but of what they think is the vast majority of USHPA members who could go to a cheap competition. The "silent majority." Discuss The King Mountain Nationals presentation/bid/proposal at the Oz Report forum   link»

Roman Abramovich court ruling reveals world of yachts, villas and a costly football hobby

From a small fleet of luxury yachts to mansions and chateaux scattered among the world's most exclusive resorts, the opulent lifestyle of Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich has been laid bare.In a 134-page ruling at the Royal Courts of Justice in London, Mr Justice Christopher Clarke gave an intriguing glimpse into the lives of the super-rich, revealing a wealth of detail - from the Chelsea owner's labyrinthine business holdings to his intercontinental property portfolio and even the number of days he spent in the UK last year: 57."Abramovich is a billionaire," said Clarke. "His overall wealth is said to be such that the £30m that he spent on [property in Knightsbridge] represents less than 0.5% of his estimated net worth."The judgment came in the latest of a series of cases in English courts that have explored the opaque dealings of the billionaire Russian oligarchs who divide their time between London, Moscow and continental Europe.Abramovich, 42, was facing claims by the energy company Yugraneft that it was cheated out of its 50% stake in an oilfield in Siberia. Abramovich successfully fought off the £2.5bn claim after the high court ruled that he was neither "resident" nor "domiciled" in Britain and therefore the case could not be heard here."He spends more time in Russia than anywhere else and his business and personal interests are focused on Russia," said the judge. "Virtually all of the business associates with whom he is said to have dealt in these proceedings are Russian."To underpin the detailed legal argument the judge delved into the tycoon's private life, listing a host of multimillion-pound properties, yachts and planes to demonstrate the global nature of his business empire.Clarke said that seven years ago Abramovich had owned "a chateau in France, some real estate in England and, elsewhere, a yacht, a plane and a helicopter".Fast-forward to 2008 and his empire has expanded, according to the ruling delivered last week. "[His assets are now] worth hundreds of millions of dollars, with properties acquired and renovated in the UK, France, Sardinia, the US and St Barts in the Caribbean, and Chelsea FC."Among his homes, three of four multimillion-pound properties in the UK were given to his ex-wife, Irina, as part of their divorce settlement last year.At one address in Lowndes Square, Knightsbridge, the court heard that the Russian has bought "eight or nine flats" which he reportedly plans to turn into a £150m house with bullet- and blast-proof windows and separate housing for staff and bodyguards. But the oligarch's English homes are just the tip of his international estate. The ruling revealed that outside the UK Abramovich also owns:? Two ski chalets in Colorado? A villa in St Barts? A French chateau? "A grand historic house" rented from the Russian government? Leonid Brezhnev's former home in MoscowAbramovich has a hectic schedule, flitting between Russia, the UK and Europe. In 2007, the court heard, he spent an average of just over a day and a half at a time in the UK, with his longest stay stretching 11 days, during which he attended four football matches. "Such visits are not the sort that suggest an intention to make England one's usual or settled place of abode," noted the judge. "In 2007 he spent only 57 full days here, virtually all in connection with football matches."The judge said a "very large" percentage of his visits to England were connected with Chelsea which he bought in 2003, rather than any personal or professional ties. Abramovich has poured hundreds of millions into the club but Clarke described his involvement as a "hobby and a leisure interest ... It is not a business investment. The sums that Mr Abramovich has given to the club far exceed any return that could possibly be expected".To facilitate his globetrotting trips between Stamford Bridge, Russia and the Caribbean, Abramovich makes use of private jets, helicopters and supercars. The court ruling said that he "charters several yachts" and "leases aircraft for use when he is in England". And according to press reports, his latest extravagance is entering its final phase in a German shipyard. For now, it simply goes by its codename, Project M-147, but when the covers come off the Eclipse in a few months' time, the 550ft-long, 12,000-tonne vessel is expected to be the world's largest privately-owned.The road to richesRoman Abramovich, who came to public attention in Britain when he bought Chelsea in 2003, made his fortune in post-Soviet Russia. He became involved in oil export deals and in 1995 entered the ranks of the super-rich when with Boris Berezovsky he took over oil company Sibneft for a fraction of its market value. Abramovich gained increasing control over the business and got most of the money when it was sold in 2005 for £7.5bn. More recent acquisitions include stakes in Russian steelmaker Evraz Group and a piece of the UK mining company Highland Gold. Since buying Chelsea, in a deal worth £140m, he is thought to have invested £578m in the club. He has an interest in art and was revealed as the buyer of Lucian Freud's Benefits Supervisor Sleeping (£17m) and Francis Bacon's Triptych (£43m). He is 15th in the Forbes rich list, with £14.6bn.Holly Bentley RussiaChelseaguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Supersonic Rocket Car Aims For 1,000 MPH

The Britons who built the first car to break the sound barrier are back with plans to shatter their own record in a jet-powered land-rocket they're betting will be the first car to top 1,000 mph. Royal Air Force pilot Andy Green will make his run for the record strapped into the Bloodhound SSC, a 42-foot-long missile powered by a rocket bolted to a jet engine. With 45,000 pounds of thrust available at full throttle, Bloodhound will hit 1,050 mph in just 41 seconds and cross the salt faster than a speeding bullet. "There has never been anything like Bloodhound SSC before," says team leader Richard Noble, who set a land speed record of his own in 1983. "It is undoubtedly the most stimulating and challenging program I've ever been involved with. The next three years are going to be tough, testing and damned exciting." The announcement comes 11 years after Noble and Green set the current land speed recordof 763.035 mph in the Nevada Desert and continues a British tradition for speed that dates to the 1920s and '30s, when Sir Malcolm Campbellset several records on land and sea. Britain has held the land speed record for 58 of the 109 years since Count Gaston de Chasseloup-Laubatof France reached a blistering 39 mph in a suburb of Paris. More than bragging rights are at stake in the ambitious project announced today. Noble and Lord Drayson, Britain's minister of state for science and innovation, hope the three-year project will inspire children to pursue careers in engineering, mathematics and science, so they might solve the world's most pressing problems. The project will use YouTube videos, Twitter feeds and other social networking tools to keep kids ? and others ? around the world up-to-date on Bloodhound's progress and encourage them to engage with the team. "Ultimately, I hope that this iconic British project will encourage the next generation of scientists and engineers, as we will depend on them to find the solutions to everything from climate change to growing population pressures," Drayson says. Drayson, himself a race-car driver, was Britain's defense minister when he approached Noble and asked if he had any ideas that would capture the imaginations of the nation's children. Drayson fears kids are losing interest in science and engineering, and he's worried about the impact it will have on the United Kingdom. "The consequences if we don't inspire the next generation are that we will wither as a country," he told BBC News. Noble quickly signed on and set his sights on surpassing 1,000 mph on four wheels. He knows a thing or two about land speed records, having designed the ThrustSSC. That vehicle set the current land speed record in 1997 when Green crossed Nevada's Black Rock desertat 763.035, becoming the first driver to break the sound barrier. Noble has spent 18 months developing the Bloodhound concept ? the car hasn't been built yet, and won't make its run for the record until 2011 ? from a clean sheet of paper. "The target is 1,000 mph," he says. "That's a 31 percent jump (over ThrustSSC), and there is no way Bloodhound SSC is going to look like anything we have seen before." Noble calls Bloodhound "a jet and hybrid rocket." A Falcon rocket generating some 25,000 pounds of thrust will get the car up to the speed of sound (340.29 meters per second, or 761.2 mph). At that point Green will use a Eurojet EJ200 jet engineproducing 20,000 pounds of thrust to take Bloodhound the rest of the way to 1,000 mph. A V12 engine will drive Bloodhound's hydraulic system, serve as a starter motor for the EJ200 and pump high test peroxidefuel through the rocket at the rate of one ton every 22 seconds. All that power is useless without aerodynamics, and Noble says "the Bloodhound SSC shape is completely different to anything seen before. We need to minimize the cross-sectional area to minimize drag, but we also need a supersonic intake and a smart suspension system, which will enable the car to run smoothly over the rough salt surfaces." Bloodhound is 42 feet long, 9 feet tall and will weigh 6.4 tons. With the rocket mounted above the jet engine, the center of gravity is so high, the rear wheels must be suspended on outriggers. In the past, that would have created excessive drag, but Noble says computational fluid dynamics allowed him to find the optimal shape for aerodynamic efficiency. Bloodhound also uses an unusually small rear fin, but Noble is confident he's achieved the best compromise between the stability of a large fin and the aero efficiency of a small one. Small winglets above the front wheels can be adjusted on the fly to maintain a constant level of downforce as the vehicle approaches Mach 1.4. Downforce takes on a new meaning when you're shooting for 1,000 mph ? a speed Noble estimates Green will need 4.5 miles to achieve (it'll take about that far to bring it to a stop afterward). The air pressure bearing down on Bloodhound's carbon fiber and titanium body at Mach 1.4 will exceed 12 tons per square meter and its 35.8-inch rear wheels will be spinning at more than 10,000 RPM. They'll be made of titanium to keep them from flying apart. At that speed, Green will be covering about 400 yards a second, or about 50 meters in the blink of an eye. He admits it'll be risky, but says Bloodhound will be designed to maximize safety. "Does that make it zero risk?" he told BBC News. "No. Is life with zero-risk interesting? No." Images and video by Bloodhound Programme Ltd.

Fate of America's First Bullet Train Rests With California Voters

High-speed rail advocates in California have long dreamed of the day when bullet trains would revolutionize transportation, and they're counting on voters to pony up nearly $10 billion to bankroll what would be the nation's first true high-speed rail line. Proponents have been pushing high-speed rail for 25 years and always fallen short. But they say a confluence of events -- rising fuel prices, gridlocked roads, jammed airports and concern about global warming -- present the best chance yet to bring bullet trains to America. "We have a perfect storm ... those four factors make a perfect case for high-speed rail," Ron Diridion of the state's High Speed Rail Authority, recently told the San Francisco Chronicle.  We've heard this before. There once was talk of a bullet train between Los Angeles and San Diego, and of a line linking L.A. and Las Vegas. Both were shot down. Will things be any different this time, and will America finally follow Europe and Japan in embracing high-speed rail? If it does, it will require changing how we live and how our cities grow.Proposition 1A would authorize $9.95 billion in bonds to finance the first phase of an 800-mile high-speed rail line that would connect the San Francisco Bay Area with Los Angeles. Several transportation, environmental and business groups say it would offer a faster, cheaper and greener travel while easing the strain on California's notoriously backed-up highways and airports. Trains would make the 400-mile run between the two cities at about 220 mph (considerably faster than the 150 mph top speed attained by the Acela Express linking Washington, D.C. with Boston). The trip would take about 2 1/2 hours and cost riders $55, according to the High Speed Rail Authority. The project is expected to cost $32 billion, with extensions to San Diego and Sacramento adding another $10 billion. State officials are banking on taxpayers, Uncle Sam and private investors sharing the costs equally. Construction could begin as early as 2011 and trains might be running by 2020. Advocates claim the largest public works project in state history would create as many as 160,000 construction jobs and spur 400,000 more jobs once the system is up and running. Some opponents warn the final tab could be closer to $80 billion. Regardless of the final cost, taxpayer advocates and the California Chamber of Commerce argue California can't afford it. Repaying the $9.95 billion bond issue over 30 years would cost $19.4 billion, with annual payments hitting $647 million. That's a lot of coin for a state that already spends 6.1-percent of its budget on debt service. Opponents also say final tab might be closer to $80 billion. Even some rail advocates and transportation experts say the current proposal would never work. "It's technologically impossible to do what the High Speed Rail Authority claims can be done, for any amount of money," Prof. James Moore, director of the transportation engineering program at the University of Southern California, told the Los Angeles Times. "When it comes to predicting the actual cost of systems like this, I just say a zillion and leave it at that." Voters may be leery of spending any money, given the state of the economy, the collapse of Wall Street and California's budget deficit. And then there's the fact a Metrolink commuter train crashed in L.A. last month, killing 25 people. That could make the high-speed line a tough sell. Of course, it isn't enough to simply build a high-speed rail line. As the Chronicle notes this morning, if bullet trains are going to work here like they do in Europe and Japan, California -- and, by extension, America -- must develop and live in denser cities while expanding public transportation. "It's a lifestyle change we're talking about," Noriyuki Shikata of the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs says. "It affects how people lead their lives." It remains to be seen whether people are pony up for high-speed rail, let alone make the changes that might be needed to ensure its success, but polls show the proposition passing by a slim margin. Post updated 11:45 a.m. and 1:00 p.m. PST. Image by California High Speed Rail Authority.