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Gallery: The 10 Coolest James Bond Cars Ever

: Sweet cars and amazing, if improbable, car chases have been essential elements of James Bond movies since the series began in 1962. The tradition continues in Quantum of Solace, which finds our favorite superspy behind the wheel of a hot Aston Martin DBS and — in a nod to these eco-conscious times — a Ford Edge that runs on hydrogen (in the film, if not in real life). But it takes more than a fuel cell to make the list of the 10 coolest Bond cars ever. Left: Aston Martin DB5 The quintessential Bond car appeared in Goldfinger, and it is both the most famous Bond car and one of the most iconic vehicles in the history of film. In addition to gorgeous lines and stunning speed, Bond's DB5 featured machine guns, a bulletproof shield, radar and that über-cool ejector seat that could villains flying at the push of a button. : This one's tricky because Bentley never produced a car called the Mark IV. Ian Fleming made that up. Bond drove a 1933 Bentley convertible with an Amherst-Villiers supercharger in the novel Casino Royale. Various Bentleys have appeared in Bond films, including From Russia With Love, in which our hero seduces Miss Sylvia Trench behind the wheel of a 1930 Bentley Derby similar to the one in this photo by Flicker user starpitti. : The Lotus Esprit from The Spy Who Loved Me is almost as famous as the DB5, if only because it could turn into a submarine at the flick of a switch. The car featured surface-to-air missiles, torpedoes and depth charges, all of which we find amazing given the shaky reliability of the electrical systems in British cars. : Strictly speaking, this wasn't Bond's car. It was driven by his assistant, Aki, in You Only Live Twice. But it makes the list because it was chock-full of cool gadgets ? including a television, a cordless phone and a voice-activated stereo ? that are commonplace today but the stuff of science fiction in 1967. Toyota built a GT without a roof because Sean Connery was too tall for the coupe. : Aston Martin returned to Bond's fleet in 2002 after the spy's brief dalliance with BMW in the late 1990s. The Vanquish that appeared in Die Another Day came with an ejector seat and a cloaking device that rendered the car invisible. We prefer the more muscular and understated DBS in Casino Royale because it's a better match for Daniel Craig's darker, more brooding Bond. : Yes, Bond drove a Mustang, albeit briefly, in Diamonds are Forever, and he looked almost as cool as Steve McQueen did driving his 'stang in Bullitt. Connery took the Mach 1 on a wild ride through Vegas, getting up on two wheels to squeeze through an alley. The film editors weren't so skilled: The car is shown entering the alley on one set of wheels and emerging on the other. : Pierce Brosnan drove the convertible Beemer in The World Is Not Enough, but it was a BMW in name only. The Z8 was still a prototype when filming started, so the film featured a Cobra kit car wearing BMW skin. We're still not sure where Q found room for the surface-to-air missiles, let alone the six cup holders, but now we know where they put the movie camera.: Bond stole this car from a dealership showroom to make an escape in The Man With the Golden Gun, making a spectacular corkscrew jump over a canal to elude his pursuers. The stunt was planned with help from a supercomputer at Cornell University, and it is the only time in history an AMC Hornet has ever looked cool.: This Whyte Industries jobby appeared in Diamonds Are Forever. It's a moon buggy. 'Nuff said.: Another Bond car that wasn't what it appeared to be. The 2CV couldn't outrun its own belching plume of exhaust, so the car in For Your Eyes Only was tricked out with a hotter engine, a modified transmission and a reworked frame. It still had trouble outrunning the humble Peugeots ? Peugeots ? pursuing it, so Bond had to resort to skilled driving and good luck to make his escape.

Eight in 10 seriously harmed children 'missed' by agencies

More than 80% of children who are killed or seriously injured as a result of abuse or neglect are missed by the national child protection register, the Guardian can reveal.In the week that social workers from Haringey in London were lambasted over the horrific killing of a 17-month-old known as Baby P, and Manchester social services staff faced questions over the deaths of three-month-old Delayno Mullings-Sewell and his two-year-old brother, Romario, the findings show that scores of children who die at the hands of relatives are not on the radar of social services departments, even though in some cases injured babies have had medical treatment.The figures, obtained from unpublished government-commissioned research, show a widespread pattern of missed opportunities where police, social workers and health professionals fail to communicate or act on evidence of potential abuse. Postmortem case reviews included in the research where children died in the care of their families reveal that midwives, hospital staff and social workers saw evidence of abuse while the children were still alive but councils did not place them on the child protection register. Despite signs of the abuse being clear to authorities, infants who died from forced starvation, broken ribs and smashed skulls were all missed off the register, which lists 29,200 children "known to be suffering harm". Just 33 of the 189 children whose death or serious injury prompted a local authority serious case review between 2005 and 2007 were on the register, according to the analysis of the most serious cases to be submitted to ministers next spring.The research has raised concerns that, across the country, procedures that should result in children at risk being protected by the government's flagship anti-child abuse system are not being followed, leading to deaths that could be avoided. The number of serious cases in the period 2005-2007 rose 17% on the previous two years.Concerns about the state of child protection have been exposed after the case of Baby P sparked furious clashes in the Commons and triggered two separate government inquiries, one to examine social services in Haringey, the other to revisit the national system established after the case of Victoria Climbié, who was murdered in the same north London borough eight years ago. Yesterday at the Old Bailey the three people convicted of involvement in the Baby P case were warned that they face substantial jail terms.Marion Brandon, a University of East Anglia academic who is leading the analysis of serious case reviews, said social workers often struggled to respond appropriately because they found cases frightening and confusing. "They make an early assessment, and don't tend to change their minds," she said. "They keep looking for evidence that supports their view and that can be very dangerous. They might stick to saying it is a case of neglect when it is actually abuse."Between 2003 and 2005, 45% of children who were killed or seriously injured through abuse or neglect were not known in any way by the social services but may have been on the radar of other public authorities. "In cases where the authorities saw evidence that a child may have been abused, an investigation should have taken place which could result in the child being placed on the register," said Sally Trench, an independent social work consultant who works with local authorities. "There will inevitably be a number of neglected and abused children we don't know about, and I feel particularly concerned about babies and toddlers, who may rarely be seen by any professionals."Between 2005 and 2007, the majority of serious cases involved a baby under the age of one. In most of those cases, they were younger than six months old. Almost a quarter of cases involved children over 11, with a significant minority aged between 16 and 18. These included suicides, sometimes following a history of abuse, missing persons and some teenagers who were victims of violence from non-family members."There are two peaks of vulnerability and danger - babies and older teenagers," said Brandon. "The smallest number we have found is between the ages of six and 10 which is the age bracket of Victoria Climbié [who died aged eight] and it was the inquiry into her death which has led to most of the recent learning. Our attention may have been deflected from the greater risks that we know are posed to babies. Since health visitors and midwives routinely work with babies they need to work more closely with social workers so that together they can offer better protection to these very young and potentially vulnerable children."This month it emerged that three-year-old Tiffany Wright was starved to death in a room above a Sheffield pub despite concern being raised by a midwife and pub regulars. She was not on the child protection register and was found dead from bronchopneumonia and covered in insect bites. In another case, Jessica Randall, from Kettering, lived for just two months and was referred to hospital several times, at least once with bruising. Her parents were known to social workers, but she was not on the child protection register either. She eventually died from a "massive skull fracture with subdural bleed" and her ribs had been broken.Councils denied they were being negligent by missing similar cases off the register. "Quite a proportion of those deaths and serious injuries are unpremeditated and appear to come out of the blue," said Colin Green, director of children's services at Coventry city council speaking on behalf of the Association of Directors of Children's Services. "The parent may suffer an acute psychotic episode or there could be an adult suicide which is preceded by the murder of the children. It would have been extremely difficult to discern any threat to children in those cases."He said the register was considered a "draconian intervention in family life" and that while some children may display bruises or other signs of harm, investigations could be inconclusive. "Judgments need to be made and they are not always going to be right," he said.According to the most recent mortality statistics, 84 boys and 64 girls under the age of five died in 2006 from "injuries, poisoning and certain other consequences of external causes".The causes of death in 38 cases were injuries to the head and neck including fatal fractures of the skull and facial bones and injuries to the thorax. Thirteen infants died from "injuries involving multiple body regions", 15 from the "effects of a foreign body entering through a natural orifice" and 14 from a "foreign body in the respiratory tract". A further 18 died from asphyxiation.A previous study of serious case reviews found that one in three families suffered a combination of domestic violence, mental illness and substance abuse. A third of cases showed evidence of poor living conditions. "We have to understand more about what makes these complicated families tick," Brandon said. "Until we do that, we won't be able to properly grapple with them."Concern emerged this week that government policy has discouraged councils from decisive intervention in suspected cases of abuse and neglect. Ofsted, the government agency that rates local authority children and young people's services departments, docks marks if children remain on the register for more than two years. Child protection lawyers also believe a steep rise in legal fees associated with taking children into care is putting children at risk. In May the court fee for a local authority to bring such a case to court rose from around £100 to £2,225.Child protectionCrimeguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Doctor alerted police to 'distressed' mother hours before child killings

The family of a baby and his two-year-old brother who were stabbed to death at home expressed their complete devastation yesterday at the loss of their "beautiful, innocent" children.A senior police officer described the scene inside the home in Cheetham Hill, Manchester, as "something no human being should ever have to see in their life". Police and ambulance crews who attended the house have been offered counselling. The boys, Romario Mullings-Sewell, two, and his three-month-old brother Delayno, were discovered at 6pm on Wednesday, a few hours after a family doctor had called police to express concerns at the erratic behaviour of their mother, Jael Mullings. The brothers had single stab wounds to their abdomens.As Mullings, 21, was arrested on suspicion of murder and sectioned under the Mental Health Act yesterday it emerged the family was known to social services, though the children were not on the at-risk register. The admission that the family was on the radar of social services is likely to once again focus attention on the efficiency of child protection measures in the wake of the death of Baby P in Haringey, north London.The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) was assessing whether to launch a full inquiry after it was contacted by Greater Manchester police. The IPCC is already to investigate whether two officers who called at the house following the doctor's telephone call could have done anything to prevent the deaths.Teddy bears and floral tributes were left at the house yesterday as neighbours and friends struggled to understand what had happened. Melissa Bell, a 23-year-old friend of Mullings, said: "They were just gorgeous, beautiful, the three-month-old had just started to get a personality of his own."Details of the hours leading up to the murders emerged yesterday. Greater Manchester police received a phone call at 1.20pm on Wednesday from a GP who had been contacted by Mullings and was concerned for her and her children. Officers arrived at the house 90 minutes later as they had been given four separate addresses for Mullings. Unable to get an answer, they left after checking the back of the house and the surrounding area.A neighbour told police Mullings had been pushing a double buggy at a nearby shopping centre in a distressed state. Mullings then went to her mother's house. A police spokesman said: "While we were making these inquiries, we got a 999 call which suggested that the children were back in the house, dead."At 5.45pm paramedics were called to Mullings' home where they found the bodies of the children. The boys' family described their complete devastation in a statement released through Greater Manchester police."This family had two beautiful, innocent children called Romario, who was just two years old, and his brother, Delayno, who had only been born in July this year," they said."We ... are struggling to come to terms with the tragic events ... We cannot even begin to understand what happened. We hope that wherever the boys have gone to, they are at peace."Mullings and her children were known to social services but it is understood they were signed off from their care in January Pauline Newman, the director of children's services at Manchester city council, said an urgent review of her team's involvement with the family was under way. "This is an appalling tragedy and we offer our sincere condolences to the family and friends of these two young children," she said."Children's social care were not currently involved with the family, however in recent months the family were in receipt of community support services including nursery and childminding provision, whilst mother was attending higher education classes."Detective Superintendent Shaun Donnellan said his officers had been met by a scene no human should ever witness. The family, he said, were shellshocked."This is a lovely family, a fairly close family with two young children who everybody adored and doted on." He said police were alerted because people were worried by Mullings' demeanour and because an "unpleasant" situation was arising.Neighbours said Mullings had been troubled in recent months. They noticed her shouting in the street and talking to herself on Wednesday morning.Sandra Barnes, 41, said: "She was shouting 'Are you going to bomb me? Are you going to shoot me?' People were bringing their kids inside."Donna Rawson, 31, said: "At around 4pm all the kids were outside as they were getting ready for a school disco. She was on her own shouting at them asking if they were laughing at her. She was not with her kids. It makes me feel sick what has happened."TimelineMorning Neighbours notice that Romario and Delayno Mullings-Sewell's mother, Jael Mullings, shouting in the street and talking to herself.1.20pm A family doctor calls police to express concerns at her erratic behaviour.2.50pm With four separate addresses for Mullings, police officers eventually arrive at the boys' home in the Cheetham Hill area of Manchester, but leave after getting no answer. They later receive a 999 call to say the children are in the house.5.45pm Police and paramedics reach the house, where they find the children's bodies.Later Mullings is arrested and sectioned under the Mental Health Act.Child protectionMental healthguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

US rejects Kremlin's call to scrap missile shield

Antagonism between the Kremlin and the Bush administration over the deployment of missile systems in Europe deepened yesterday after the US defence secretary, Robert Gates, accused President Dmitry Medvedev of "provocative, unnecessary and misguided" plans to station short-range ballistic missiles in Russia's Baltic exclave, Kaliningrad.Speaking on a visit to Estonia, Gates said the plans to place Iskander-M missiles in eastern Europe were "hardly the welcome a new American administration deserves".Medvedev revealed his intention to move Iskander-M tactical missiles into Kaliningrad during his first annual speech to parliament on November 5 - hours after Barack Obama was elected. He said the deployment was necessary to "neutralise" interceptor missiles and a radar station that Washington wants to site in Poland and the Czech Republic. The announcement caused anger in Washington, with Nato and the EU both expressing trenchant opposition. There were attempts at conciliation at the weekend, when Medvedev and Obama spoke on the telephone, expressing a wish to meet soon and mend relations. Separately, the Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, and the US secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, met on the sidelines of Middle East peace talks in Egypt for what the state department described as "good and productive" discussions.But yesterday Gates bluntly criticised Medvedev's announcement on moving Iskanders into Kaliningrad, saying: "Such provocative remarks are unnecessary and misguided." The US defence secretary rejected calls by the Kremlin for Washington to throw out its European missile shield plans, saying the shield was vital to meet threats from rogue states such as Iran, which had made "active efforts" to develop nuclear weapons."Frankly I'm not sure what the [Russian] missiles in Kaliningrad would be for," he told journalists in the Estonian capital, Tallinn. "After all, the only real emerging threat to Russia's periphery is Iran, and I don't think the Iskander missile has the range to get there from Kaliningrad."Moscow has made clear that its weapons in the Baltic exclave would be pointed at the US defence shield, which it believes could be used offensively against Russia. However, earlier yesterday Medvedev suggested in an interview with French journalists that the Kremlin might review its Kaliningrad deployment if Washington backed off on its missile defence plans."We could reverse the decision if the new US administration re-examined the effectiveness of deploying these rockets and radars," Medvedev said. "In particular, how adequate a means they would really be for reacting to threats from so-called rogue states."Gates also pushed strongly yesterday for Ukraine to be given a roadmap to Nato membership at a meeting of the alliance's ministers next month. The Germans and French are strongly opposed to this. But Jaak Aaviksoo, the Estonian defence minister, told the Guardian after seeing Gates: "The US was very persistent on this."He said of Moscow's threat to deploy missiles in Kaliningrad: "When you put missiles near our borders, it's not a friendly move. I think the Russians will reconsider."In a nutshellIn a reminder of tensions over Georgia yesterday, an adviser to French president Nicolas Sarkozy revealed details of a conversation between his boss and the Russian prime minister, Vladimir Putin. The two met in Moscow on August 12, just days after war had erupted between Russia and Georgia over breakaway South Ossetia. "I am going to hang Saakashvili by the balls," Putin said of the Georgian leader, Mikheil Saakashvili. Sarkozy responded: "Hang him?" Putin responded: "Why not? The Americans hanged Saddam." Sarkozy replied: "Yes, but do you want to end up like Bush?" Putin said: "You have scored a point there."US foreign policyRussiaUnited Statesguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

New radar helps predict rainfall

A team of Oxfordshire scientists develop new technology which will help forecast rain more accurately.

Living on the frontline of the new cold war

The Soviet-era radio station is visible from the road. Rising above a forest of tall pines and birches, the radio masts near the town of Bolshakova were a listening post during the cold war. Up the road is Lithuania. In the other direction is Poland.Two decades later, the Soviet Union has gone. But the town with its pretty German cottages and gardens full of geese is now on the frontline of a new cold war. On Wednesday Russia's president, Dmitry Medvedev, said he would deploy Iskander nuclear missiles in Kaliningrad - the small Baltic Sea chunk of Russian territory encircled by what are now Nato countries.The hardware would be pointed at US missile defence and radar bases in Poland and the Czech Republic, Medvedev said. Russia would use sophisticated radio jamming equipment to sabotage the Pentagon's ambitious missile defence system, helped by its Baltic fleet in the port of Baltiysk.Residents in Kaliningrad - the former German city of Königsberg seized by Stalin after the second world war - say they support Medvedev's uncompromising stance. Russia had little choice but to react following its hostile encirclement by the US and the new countries of Nato, they suggested."This is the right step. Nato isn't behaving properly," said Ivan Radin, 72, leaning on a banner embossed with a portrait of Lenin. Radin, a communist supporter who turned up yesterday to a rally commemorating the 90th anniversary of the 1918 Bolshevik revolution, said the west tricked Russia when the Soviet Union fell apart."When Gorbachev met Reagan, Reagan promised that Nato wouldn't expand to the east. We got rid of the Warsaw pact bloc. But now we see Nato in Europe, the Baltics, Ukraine and even in Georgia," he said. "Russia is like a wolf that has been trapped by hunters."The Kremlin shares that view. After bitterly criticising the Bush administration's move, Moscow is now reanimating the nuclear infrastructure of the cold war. Last time, Russia placed its short-range missiles in communist East Germany and Czechoslovakia. This time they are deployed in Kaliningrad, Russia's westernmost point.Analysts predicted yesterday that the truck-based Iskander missiles would soon trundle through Kaliningrad's rustic forests - past a landscape of grass-filled meadows and small villages. Here, there are abandoned German churches and Gothic towers. The missile's range is 500km (310 miles), sufficient to destroy the US's proposed missile base (which was a Soviet base when Poland was communist) just down the Baltic coast.Yesterday the French presidency of the EU expressed "strong concern" at Medvedev's plan to station missiles near Poland's border. "This does not contribute to the establishment of a climate of trust and to the improvement of security in Europe, at a time when we wish for a dialogue with Russia on questions of security in the whole of the continent," it said.The US claims its system is aimed not at Russia, but at Iran. Russia says this is nonsense, arguing that the system is aimed at its still formidable nuclear arsenal. Not everyone, however, believes the deployment means that a third world war is now inevitable."The Soviet and US leaders didn't want to commit suicide. I think the new leaders won't do it either," said Vladimir Abramov, a political scientist at Kaliningrad's Immanuel Kant University. The missiles stationed here during Soviet times were far more potent, he said. "Back then we had SS-20s. They were capable of wiping out everything in Europe. The Iskander missiles are much smaller. Essentially they are symbolic. It's a political action. It's designed to show Nato that the US missile plan is a red line for Russia, and that can't be crossed."For Kaliningrad to find itself on the frontline of two empires is not new. Founded in 1255 by a group of Teutonic knights, the region was ethnically German for 700 years - marking out the eastern boundary of the Prussian state and then the German Reich. In 1944, British aviation destroyed most of historic Königsberg, with the Red Army seizing the town in April 1945 and evicting its German citizens.Today there are a few ghostly reminders of the German past. Several handsome Jugendstil mansions survive north of the centre, past the German-built zoo and football stadium. A statue of the German philosopher Immanuel Kant - the town's most famous former resident - stands next to the university in a quiet chestnut-lined park. For some reason Kant is holding a tricorn hat.And yet these days modern Kaliningrad is a booming part of capitalist Russia. With its European-style plazas, Japanese restaurants, and dinky ice-cream bars, the city is thriving economically, a sort of Russian Hong Kong. Its proximity to the EU means that locals are more westernised than elsewhere, though to drive to nearby Riga or Gdansk they need a Schengen visa.Back in Bolshakova, an hour's drive from Kaliningrad, local people said the activities of the radio station were not exactly a secret. During the evening, villagers trying to make a telephone call heard a strange buzzing on their lines. Sometimes even metal objects vibrated."You can hear a radio noise," Elena Kochkova, a shopworker, said.Other residents said they were confident that Kaliningrad would get through this latest standoff. "In the past capitalist countries surrounded us. We got through that. Now it's the same situation," said Nikolay Perov, 82, taking part in yesterday's communist rally. The answer was socialism, he suggested. "With capitalism war is inevitable. Only socialism can deliver peace and friendship."RussiaPolandCzech RepublicUS foreign policyUnited StatesNatoguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Pilot struck blind in flight shepherded to safe landing by RAF

A light aircraft pilot who went blind in mid-air after suffering a stroke at 4,500 metres (15,000ft) was shepherded in to land by an RAF aircraft.Jim O'Neill, 65, was flying his four-seater Cessna over North Yorkshire when he lost his sight and called for help.O'Neill was flying home to Essex from a holiday in Scotland when he had the stroke, and descended to 1,500ft. With the instrument panel a blur, he failed four times to land at Full Sutton airstrip near York, and was diverted to Linton-on-Ouse.Wing Commander Paul Gerrard escorted O'Neill in to land in his Tucano T1. Sergeant Richard Eggleton, a radar operator, talked to O'Neill via the radio throughout.Wing Cdr Andy Hynd, operations commander at Linton-on-Ouse, said: "We routinely practise shepherding, but it's usually for lost aircraft, not blinded pilots, which is what makes this amazing."Eggleton said O'Neill thought he had been dazzled by sunlight. But when the Cessna dipped into cloud, the pilot, who has 18 years' flying experience, realised he was unwell and sent out a mayday."I was just about to hand him on to the next control tower at Humberside airport, when he started turning and descending sharply without instructions from me," said Eggleton.Gerrard was alerted in the Tucano training aircraft which he had taken up from the base an hour earlier."He altered course and took up position alongside the Cessna, as close as it was safe for him to go," said Hynd.As the two planes descended, O'Neill reported glimpses of both his panel and the airfield as his vision came and went. The RAF record of the two planes' communication has Gerrard gently giving instructions to stay below the low cloud.Aircrew watching at the base said the Cessna had bounced heavily but stayed upright and ran to a halt on the long runway. Medical staff boarded the plane, and O'Neill was transferred to Queen's hospital in Romford, Essex. He remains seriously ill but in a stable condition.His son, Douglas O'Neill, said the stroke had left his father blind in one eye and with limited vision in the other.He said: "If you were walking down the road or driving a car it would be bad enough, but at 14,000ft it's a whole different ball game. He thought: 'If I don't land the plane I will be dead' - but he showed incredible determination."Militaryguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Mexico moves to quell foul play rumors in deadly plane crash

Authorities released radar images Wednesday in a bid to show that the plane crash that killed two top drug war officials Tuesday night was an accident, not sabotage.

What's With All the Synchronized Swimming in Ads?

Couple things about featuring synchronized swimming water ballet in ads: First? Don't. Second? Don't. Unless they look like the real U.S. Olympic synchronized swim team pictured here from a Radar gallery, or you're going for laughs like the Klassic Martin Short SNL skit. (Back when SNL was funny.)