Get other Tessa Barclay here When jewelery designer Jo Radcliffe is asked to create a necklace using stones from the priceless Fieldingley Necklace Jo is intrigued. The rubies were among the first sold abroad after Britain conquered Burma in the 1850s and now Betsey Fieldingley has to sell them to clear her debts. When the rubies are found to be fakes Jo finds herself under attack.
Comments (0)
Get other Tony Hays here Britain’s leaders have come to elect a new supreme king and Arthur is favored. But when a young woman is brutally murdered and the blame is placed at Merlin’s feet Arthur’s reputation is at stake and his enemies are poised to strike.
Comments (0)
Get other Popular Fiction hereGet other Dewey Lambdin here The roguish Captain Alan Lewrie returns in the 15th tale in the smashing naval adventure series that finds Lewrie headed toward Russia in Britain’s last attempt to stave off war between the nations.
Comments (0)
Get other Popular Fiction hereMemory Cougan black and in her twenties has a successful career and an adoring fiance. But at her engagement party she panics. Brought to London aged five she has no recollection of Africa or why she left. Leaving Adam behind she returns to a place she no longer recognises — and to Max the coffee planter who may have the answers. But Memory’s journey of discovery is not hers alone to make. For Max hardened by years in the bush her arrival will reawaken memories of the most intense time in his life and of his beloved aeroplane Hotel Juliet. For Elise her adoptive mother Memory’s flight threatens to reveal the truth of what really happened in Africa all those years ago. And for Paul Cougan’s sacrifice will finally be recognised. Moving from Britain to Africa over twenty years Hotel Juliet combines pathos and tragedy with the possibility of glorious redemption to tell the poignant story of a passionate love triangle that resonates down to th
Comments (0)
.
A French embassy employee detained in Tehran on espionage charges has been released from prison but she will still face prosecution, a statement from the office of French President Nicolas Sarkozy said on Tuesday.
Sarkozy office greeted the release of French-Iranian national Nazak Afshar with great joy and relief.
» Focus: Is Iran using Reiss as a pawn?
Afshar, employed at the French embassy cultural section, will face prosecution at a mass trial in connection with widespread public protests that erupted in the weeks following the disputed June 12 re-election of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
France has dismissed the charges as baseless and has called for both women release .
A second French national, 24-year-old teaching assistant Clotilde Reiss, remains behind bars, accused of spying and involvement in a Western plot to destabilise the Iranian regime. France criticised Iran for failing to inform its embassy in advance that either woman would be appearing in court, which French authorities say flouted international regulations and the rules of consular protection.
The two women appeared in court on Saturday along with several other detainees.
» Turmoil elicits differing analyses
» Neda: a young woman's death becomes a rallying cry
» Duelling claims for power
» Mousavi, improbable leader of the green wave
A diplomatic source told on Saturday that it was surprising to know Reiss was in the court, saying he had learned it from television only that morning.
Reiss was initially accused of spying for taking a photograph of a demonstration in Isfahan and emailing it to a friend in Tehran. We were not informed previously, he said.
Iran ambassador to France, Seyed Mehdi Miraboutalebi, told French radio station RFI on Tuesday that the Iranian authorities had offered to let Reiss stay in the French embassy pending her trial if the French government promised she would remain there, but that Paris had declined to respond to the offer. According to Iran state-run IRNA news agency, Reiss admitted in court that she had filed a report on protests in the city of Isfahan at the cultural department of the French embassy in Tehran. We refute them categorically, the ministry said in a statement.
The French foreign ministry denied the allegation, saying that Miraboutalebi comments suggesting the French authorities were not doing everything they could for Reiss release were incorrect.
Presumption of innocence
Miraboutalebi said that France had been told not to publicise Reiss case in the media, and warned against jumping to conclusions before her trial.
Presumption of innocence
Miraboutalebi said that France had been told not to publicise Reiss case in the media, and warned against jumping to conclusions before her trial.
As in France, the Iranian judiciary is totally independent, he added. In other words, they took the place of the Iranian judges.
The EU presidency said the prosecution of the three was an act against the whole European Union .
The EU presidency had joined Britain and France in calling upon the Iranian authorities to release Afshar, Reiss and Hossein Rassam, an Iranian political analyst employed by the British embassy who has been detained since late June. .
Tehran has responded strongly to Western criticism of the mass trial of the detained protesters, vowing to resist what it called foreign intervention in its domestic affairs
.
A Chinese factory worker who reported an upcoming iPhone prototype missing was so scared of the wrath of his bosses and Apple that he committed suicide by jumping out of a 12th-floor window.
Apple’s unusually secretive company culture has helped it gain an edge on competitors and maintain unparalleled pre-launch buzz for its products. .
His job involved shipping iPhone prototypes from Foxconn to Apple.
VentureBeat, which broke the news, and Chinese media report that Sun worked at Apple’s manufacturing partner Foxconn, based in Shenzhen.
His apartment was searched by Foxconn employees after he reported the device missing on July 13.
Sun, a recent university graduate, had ordered 16 prototype phones from Foxconn’s assembly line on July 9 but, within days, he noticed that one of them was missing.
Three days later Sun was dead.30am on July 16. Surveillance footage from his apartment showed he had jumped out of a 12th-floor window at 3.
Apple has confirmed the incident, telling reporters that it was “saddened by the tragic loss of this young employee”.
Some Chinese media reports alleged the apartment search was illegal and quoted former classmates saying that Sun told them he was beaten and harshly interrogated by his superiors.
Foxconn told Chinese news sites that it apologised for the death and admitted that some of its employees might have used “inappropriate interrogation methods”.
It said it was awaiting the results of the investigation into Sun’s death but stressed it required suppliers to treat all workers with “dignity and respect”.
A plethora of gadget sites lap up even the most insignificant Apple-related rumours, forcing the company to put extra pressure on partners to maintain its cult of secrecy.
A plethora of gadget sites lap up even the most insignificant Apple-related rumours, forcing the company to put extra pressure on partners to maintain its cult of secrecy.
One, owned by Foxconn and located in Longhua, housed 100 low-paid workers per dorm room with all visits from people outside the plant barred.
In 2006, the technology world was shocked when Britain’s Daily Mail published photographs and details of the harsh working conditions in the Chinese factories where iPods are made.
A worker told the paper: “It’s like being in the army.
Workers toiled for up to 15 hours a day and were ruled with an iron fist by bosses. If we move we are punished by being made to stand still for longer. They make us stand still for hours.
.”
Apple responded by launching a 10-week investigation into the Foxconn plant, which found that, while Foxconn was complying with the “majority” of Apple’s policies, some issues needed to be addressed
.Frenchman Marc Gicquel has further compounded a losing season for once-promising Ernests Gulbis, hammering the Latvian 6-2, 6-3 to reach the second round at the Indianapolis Championships.
Uzbek eighth seed Denis Istomin staged a comeback to eliminate American Kevin Kim 2-6, 6-4, 6-4, in another first-round match at the hardcourt tournament.
Gicquel, ranked 82nd, had little to fear from his number 65 opponent, moving through in 61 minutes with a love game on his final service before a break of Gulbis to earn the victory.
Gulbis, a childhood Munich tennis academy friend of world number four Novak Djokovic, has gone badly off the boil this season, losing for the eighth time this year in a first round.
Gulbis stands a miserable 10-18 on the season and has not won two matches in a row since Cincinnati last August when he reached the quarter-finals against Djokivic.
The 20-year-old Latvian was playing for the first time in close toly a month after going out in the Wimbledon second round to another ex-junior rival, Britain’s Andy Murray.
The tournament is reeling from the late injury pullout of Wimbledon finalist Andy Roddick, still claiming the hip flexor injury which bothered him in his All England club finals loss a fortnight ago to Roger Federer. .
–
.
Dmitry Tursunov, the California-based Russian who won here in 2007 and lost last year’s final to Gilles Simon of France, took the top seeding ahead of Israeli Davis Cup player Dudi Sela with American Sam Querrey the number three
.Thomas Voeckler has handed the hosts their first reason to celebrate in this year’s Tour de France, claiming his maiden victory in the race’s fifth stage from Cap d’Agde to Perpignan.
Saxo Bank’s Fabian Cancellara retained the race leader’s yellow jersey with a 0.22sec lead over American Lance Armstrong, ahead of the sixth stage from Gerona to Barcelona in Spain.5km stage which led to six riders building maximum lead of around 10 minutes on the bunch.
Voeckler, who famously wore the yellow jersey for 10 days in 2004, launched an attack in the first kilometres of the 196.8km as the peloton left it too late to close the gap, Voeckler stunned the three remaining breakaway companions after he dropped down a gear and launched an unassailable drive for the finish.
In the final 4.
Having struggled to live up to his famous yellow jersey spell since 2004, Voeckler was only too happy to get the monkey off his back.
“I crashed and broke my collarbone 10 days before Armstrong did.
“I’ve been chasing this victory for so long!” said Voeckler, who is only just finding real form having broke his collarbone only 10 days before Armstrong at the Paris-Nice race in March.
“This is really the proof that if you work hard and stick to it, the victories will come. We were both racing at the Giro d’Italia but it was hard race for me.
Cancellara finished with all the race favourites.”
Britain’s Mark Cavendish, in the points competition’s green jersey, crossed the finish line seven seconds behind Voeckler.
The Swiss has now set a national record for wearing the race’s yellow jersey, a fact that he is more than proud of. .”
Throughout the stage Cancellara’s Saxo Bank and Armstrong’s Astana were among the teams which worked in conjunction with the sprinters’ teams – both to close the gap and to try and leave some of their respective rivals behind.
“Whether we’ll keep it tomorrow or the day after is another story but to wear the yellow jersey every day like this in France makes me happy, and very proud.
His team leader at Rabobank, Tour of Italy champion Denis Menchov, was also caught in one of the several groups that had formed because they could not keep pace as Saxo Bank and Astana drove the pace hard.
That tactic caused problems for some riders, including Dutchman Robert Gesink, who was forced to dig deep to keep up after a nasty crash.
Gesink, who is set for a hospital scan, trailed in second from last at 9:35.
The Russian eventually made it back to the main peloton, but once again his yellow jersey credentials were tested to the full.7 km to race the peloton had closed the gap to just 46 secsonds but this time they met with a headwind and that was the closest they got to the frontrunners.
With 38.
“Then when I heard through my race radio that Astana were leading the chase with Saxo Bank I knew the wind conditions must have changed and that the sprinters’ teams had lost interest.
“I thought we’d be caught in the final 30km,” added Voeckler.”
Their lead increased again, and only began dropping in the final 10km when Mikhail Ignatiev first tested his breakaway companions with an acceleration inside the closing 6.”
Their lead increased again, and only began dropping in the final 10km when Mikhail Ignatiev first tested his breakaway companions with an acceleration inside the closing 6.5km which Voeckler easily chased down.
When the Russian tried again Voeckler let FDJeux pair Yauheni Hutarovich and Anthony Geslin do the work before he launched his attack coming up the inside of a roundabout with around 4.8km to race.
In the last kilometres Albert Timmer of Skil-Shimano went off on an ambitious counter-attack but the young Dutchman was soon struggling.
Ignatiev eventually finished second, just ahead of Cavendish, his sprint rivals and all the main favourites.
-
.
AFP – French police detained around 200 undocumented migrants, many of them Afghans, on Tuesday in a major operation in the Channel port of Calais, regional state authorities said.
Thousands of migrants pass through Calais and its squatter camps every year trying to cross the Channel from France illegally to seek new lives in Britain.
Police cordoned off a major camp in Calais itself and seized some 150 people, while picking up a further 33 in motorway rest stops outside the city and 11 in the close toby town of Saint Omer, a state spokeswoman said.
It’s an attempt to dismantle people trafficking networks.
About 300 French officers were involved in Tuesday’s sweep, she said, which came two days before Immigration Minister Eric Besson was due to visit Calais for talks on the situation following complaints from local lawmakers.
» Police arrest 150 migrants in Calais
A volunteer working at a care station for the migrants complained that the area had been under siege for more than a week before the raid. It’s an operation to destabilise the networks and try to find the smugglers, she said, adding that a security cordon had been thrown up around a migrant camp.
We’re trapped.
Many of those arrested identified themselves as Afghans, the official said. Democracy is doing its job, Jean-Claude Lenoir remarked, in a bitter reference to the political pressure brought to bear on the police.
Besson last visited Calais on January 27 and promised that he would come up with a permanent solution to the problems posed by the migrants by May 1. They have been taken into custody in the cities of Calais, Boulogne and Lille on the orders of the Boulogne state prosecutor.
Then interior minister Nicolas Sarkozy, who has since become president, closed the centre following pressure from London, which said it encouraged migrants to make the illegal and dangerous trip across the Channel.
Until November 2002, many of the arrivals from Asia, the Middle East and Africa crossing France en route for what they believe would be an easier life in Britain were housed at an organised camp in Sangatte, close to Calais.
Since then, however, travellers have continued to arrive in the region hoping to sneak on board trucks and trains using the ferries and tunnel to southern England, or to pay traffickers to arrange the crossing.
Since then, however, travellers have continued to arrive in the region hoping to sneak on board trucks and trains using the ferries and tunnel to southern England, or to pay traffickers to arrange the crossing.
France – human trafficking – immigration – police
.
Archaeologists will begin excavating sites in Egypt next week in an attempt to solve a mystery that has stymied historians for hundreds of years: Where is the final resting place of doomed lovers Cleopatra and Mark Antony?
Archaeologists looking for the tombs of the celebrated queen of Egypt and the Roman general, who committed suicide in 31 BC, will begin excavating three sites at a temple where tombs may be located, Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities said.
Cleopatra and Mark Antony, whose relationship was later immortalised by William Shakespeare and then in a movie with Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, could have been buried in a deep shaft in a temple near the Mediterranean Sea, the council said.
The three sites were identified the previous month during a radar survey of the temple of Taposiris Magna, the council said.
Archaeologists last year unearthed the alabaster head of a Cleopatra statue, 22 coins bearing Cleopatra’s image and a mask believed to belong to Mark Antony at the temple. They found a number of deep shafts inside the temple, three of which were possibly used for burials. The temple is located near the northern coastal city of Alexandria and was built during the reign of King Ptolemy II (282-246 BC)
Teams from Egypt and the Dominican Republic have been excavating the temple for the last three years.
The lovers committed suicide after being defeated in the battle of Actium. The lovers could be buried in a similar shaft, the statement said. . Mark Antony is said to have killed himself with his sword, while Cleopatra is believed to have clutched a poisonous asp to her chest.
Zahi Hawass, Egypt’s top archaeologist, said the Cleopatra statue and coins – which show an attractive face – debunk a recent theory that the queen was “quite ugly.
“I don’t really see why there should be a particular connection between that site and Antony and Cleopatra,” Baines said. .”
“The finds from Taposiris reflect a charm. and indicate that Cleopatra was in no way unattractive,” said Hawass, according to a statement. . Their conclusion was based on Cleopatra’s depiction on a Roman coin that shows her as a sharp-nosed, thin-lipped woman with a protruding chin.
Academics at Britain’s University of Newcastle concluded in 2007 that the queen was not especially attractive. They have also discovered 27 tombs – including a total of 10 mummies.
Excavators at the site near Alexandria have already discovered a large previously unknown cemetery outside the temple enclosure. The presence of the cemetery also indicates that an important person – possibly royalty – could be buried inside the temple.
According to the statement, the style of the tombs indicates they were built during the Greco-Roman period.
– AP
Ad Feedback –>
loadAd(’300×250′,’STORYBODY’,300,250);