Sometimes romance shouldn't be discussed in the cockpit, and sometimes its vital that it is. That was the case on Wednesday when diamondback terrapins looking for romance began crossing an active runway at John F. Kennedy International Airport.

A couple of eagle-eyed American Eagle pilots blew the whistle on the amorous reptiles. Their call to the airport tower caused the temporary closing of the runway to relocate the critters on a mission to procreate. One of the pilots delayed by the closing can be heard on the radio frequency muttering, "Sufferin' succotash!" (So, so, mild, compared to what we've heard recently.)

John P.L. Kelly, a spokesman for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey told The New York Times, the turtles were crossing the runway to get to the other side because that's where they'd find an ideal place to "lay their eggs in the sand."

Photo courtesy Port Authority of NY and NJ

The turtle story is cute and has a happy ending. When it comes to wildlife interfering with flight operations, its not turtles but birds that are most likely to cause disaster.

Unlike bouts involving land critters, airplane versus bird encounters are usually at low-altitude. And the most dangerous time for this match is during takeoff, according to Richard Dolbeer, an ornithologist and aviation consultant who spoke to me after the successful Miracle on the Hudson landing of USAirways Flight 1549.

"On takeoff you’re trying to gain altitude and you’ve got critical decisions to make in terms of turning around and lining up on the runway. This is why bird strikes on takeoff are more likely to cause significant failures on the aircraft but also they’re more difficult for a pilot to manage,"  Richard said.

Try and imagine for example what it was like to be Roger Wutkl who was flying solo over Arizona when a bird crashed through the windscreen of his airplane, knocking his headset and glasses off and making a disgusting mess of the cockpit in November of 2009.

That was a busy month for bird strikes. From India to Brazil, Venezuela to Kenya airplanes were returning to airports in a hurry after flying into birds. (International Birdstrike Committee keeps a comprehensive list of events and a covey of related information on its website.)

Earlier this week Jim Hall, former chairman of the US National Transportation Safety Board wrote an opinion piece for the Times expressing alarm over the location of garbage transfer station very near New York's LaGuardia Airport. One does not need to be an expert in aviation or wildlife to know that some very big birds are attracted to garbage and this is going to cause problems at the airport.

I mentioned Jim's article while having dinner with Andy Lester, manager of New Zealand's Christchurch International Airport on Wednesday night which prompted Andy to invite me to see how his airport is minimizing bird hazards by planting bird and bug repellant grass in some of the fields adjacent to the runway.

Ford Robertson and endophyte grass at Christchurch airport

As I understand it, in a process developed by a Kiwi agricultural scientist working in cooperation with the airport, an endophyte fungus is introduced to a certain kind of grass called fescue and the end product is given the catchy name Grasslanz Technology.

It may look like grass but birds don't like it and neither, apparently do bugs, making fields of the stuff unlikely to attract bug eaters. This is the first full year of a large field test and Andy and Ford Robertson, manager of quality and security are monitoring it closely.

This afternoon, while Ford drove me around the perimeter of the airfield and I snapped photos, we saw several large magpies and some smaller birds on or near the airport but the Grasslanz test field was bird-free.  

Magpies hangin' at the airport

Christchurch airport officials are encouraged by their biological fix and consider themselves leaders in the development of an agricultural solution to an aviation issue.

Its not a silver bullet its not even romantic but it is a creative approach and one worth keeping an eye on, even an eagle-eye, for how it might be more widely applied in the future.

Police have verified they are making investigation into new charges against Hearts footballer Craig Thomson.

He was set on the sex criminal register prior this month after he acknowledged vulgar and libidinous deeds against young girls over the internet.

The club primarily stood by him, but he was suspended two days ago. Officers are evaluating into information they have got advising there may be witnessed of another sufferer.

A Lothian and Borders Police spokesman said: "We are carrying on investigation into the options that another person has grounds for complaint."

The 20-year-old was offender on 17 June at Edinburgh Sheriff Court for rude behavior towards two girls aged 12 and 14 on the internet.

On Friday the Scottish Premier League club said Thomson's "severe mistake of judgment" was due to "naivety and likely defective outside influence".

The full-back restarted training at the club instantly. He expressed regrets through the club website, stating he was "completely conscious that I have let everyone down".

Hearts issued two announcements on the issue on their website. The first read: "The club outlooks this matter very gravely and does not overlook the behavior of the player. Suitable action to avoid any further progress of illegal tricks has been taken.

"On adopting this choice, the club acknowledged that there are substantial justifying conditions that give major pledges that the player's conduct, no matter how offensive, was the consequence of a severe mistake of judgment due to naivety and possible wrong outside influence before anything more evil and it will not be continued."

Then, early on Friday evening, the club issued another announcement which quotes to "outside influences on players and the club".

The club's earlier supporting of Thomson was broadly condemned.

The authorize supporters' club of the Scottish Premier League outfit, charity Children's 1st and Scottish representatives were amid those calling for Hearts to take legal action against the player.

And Hearts' water sponsor postponed its agreement with the club on Monday.

The club then terminated him on Tuesday.

A Hearts spokesman said they were attentive of the newest blames but were giving no remarks.

Two French news reporters detained hostage by the Taliban in Afghanistan for 18 months are reached in France, flying into an airport near Paris.

Cameraman Stephane Taponier and reporter Herve Ghesquiere were released in conditions that remain not clear.

Both were abducted with Afghan fellows near Kabul in December 2009 while on task for French TV. Mr. Ghesquiere said they were both in fine health. "We were never endangered with death, never torture," he said.

The two French national, who were running for French state television network France-3, had become some of the longest-detention Western prisoners in Afghanistan.

"There are numbers of jails in the world, I think for those who are detain hostage, and those who passed away in actions when they attempted to save them," the 47 year-old journalist added.

"Up till now you have been a prisoner, you can't think but I certainly feel for them because it is over for us but still going for them."

Both the journalists, who had been set in with French troops in Afghanistan, firmed combine material from an area recognized locally as "the Black Hole".

In April 2010, after unveiling a video of the prisons on the internet, the Taliban said they had presented a list of detainees to French officials that they desired released in exchange for the two journalists.

Mr. Taponier, 46, and Mr Ghesquiere and one of the three Afghan companions with whom they were captured, interpreter Reza Din, were freed on Wednesday. French authorities have said that no money was paid for the men.

The other two Afghan interpreters had been freed some time ago, French authorities said.

After stepping on to the tarmac, the two holds waiting family members and shook hands with French President Nicolas Sarkozy and his wife.

Mr. Ghesquiere, who was capture in lonely imprisonment for the previous eight months, said he did not regret over his choice to work in Afghanistan.

"It's what I forever desired to do. I don't want to return to Afghanistan tomorrow but I want to do this job now in excess of ever."

TORONTO - Royal watchers should wear lots of sunscreen if they're going to join Prince William and Kate at Canada Day celebrations on Parliament Hill.

The country's weather guru says Ottawa couldn't have asked for better weather for Friday's 144th birthday bash.

"All eyes will be gazed on Ottawa come Friday and they're going to see blue skies and sunny conditions," said David Phillips, Environment Canada's senior climatologist.

"Ottawa, with the royal couple coming there, may just have the most delightful weather in all of Canada, a high of 28 degrees, sunshine and no rain," he added.

The sunshine will follow the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge to Montreal on Saturday, where temperatures are expected to reach 29.

While there's a 60 per cent chance of showers for Quebec City on Sunday, Monday will bring clear skies in Prince Edward Island and temperatures of 21 as the couple tours Province House. Calgary is also looking good later in the week, said Phillips.

But on Parliament Hill, he suggests monarchy buffs hoping to snap a photo of the young royals should lather up the sunscreen, wear sunglasses, wide brim hats and long sleeves as the UV index will be high.

Ottawa has had fickle Canada Day weather in the past. A decade ago, revellers attending fireworks displays bundled up as the high reached only 10 degrees under rainy skies. Snow flurries were even reported.

The next year, some people succumbed to heat stroke when the mercury shot up to 32 degrees with a humidex of 43.

Most Canadians heading to the cottage or outdoor celebrations for Canada Day will see a pleasant day on July 1, as sunshine will stretch from Alberta to Quebec City, although some areas on the East and West Coasts will get showers. No severe weather is expected, said Phillips.

Residents in Atlantic Canada and the B.C. coast might want to pack their umbrellas as showers could spoil fireworks displays, picnics and parades, depending on their timing, said Phillips.

But Halifax will see a sun-cloud mix and a high of 21. There's a 30 to 60 per cent chance of showers on the B.C. coast and cooler than normal temperatures will be felt in the B.C. Interior.

Waterlogged Prairie residents who've endured their wettest spring ever will see dry, sunny weather on Friday. But they'll want to keep a jacket handy due to cooler-than- normal temperatures.

Central Canada will be a few degrees warmer than normal. Winnipeg and Toronto should reach a high of 27 with sunshine but Toronto could get some rain on Saturday. Montreal will have a mix of sun and cloud with a slight chance of showers but not enough to spoil the festivities, said Phillips.

The hot spot for Canada Day? Windsor, said Phillips, at 31 degrees. That's a far cry from nippy Whitehorse, which will see temperatures of three degrees in the morning and only reach a high of 14.

Online search gigantic Google has started a new social networking website in its current effort to engage Facebook, which now assets more than 500m users.

Google+ allows persons to share images, messages and comments but also combines the company's maps and photos into the service.

It also purposes to assist users easily manage contacts within groups.

But some critics say Google has only re-created aspects of Facebook while adding a video chat function.

Google, which handles about two out of every three internet searches in the US, has taken numerous attempts at Facebook in current years.

But its earlier stabs finished in failure, with both Google Wave and Google Buzz proving disliked with users.

The new version of Google+ has only been released to approach to few numbers of users, but the company has said it soon expects to make the social network accessible to the millions of individuals that use its services every day.

"Online sharing requires a serious re-consider, so it's time we got initiated" Vic Gundotra, senior vice president of engineering at Google, said in a press release.

"Other social networking tools make choosy sharing within small groups difficult," she added, taking what appears to be a stab at Facebook's recent grouping function.

But some experts have said Google could have a tough time exchanging Facebook fans to their new social network.

"People have their social rings on Facebook - inquiring them to produce another social circle is testing," Debra Aho Williamson, principal analyst with research firm eMarketer, told the Associated Press news agency.

"The complete idea of a Google social network... they've been throwing stuff against the wall for many years and so forth nothing has jammed," she added.

In April, Google adopted an out-of-court settlement with a US policy group over its level out Google Buzz, a prior social effort.

The legal action asserted Google deceived users and dishonored its own privacy policy by automatically enrolling all Gmail users in its Buzz social network without looking for prior authorization.

NEW YORK -- A high school football star was attempted and afterwards died in a clash with parking assistants over whether something was stolen from his family's car during his graduation ritual, police said. His father was accused Wednesday with attack stemming from the fight.

Isayah Muller, 19, a star running back who led his team to the Public Schools Athletic League championship, was hurried to a close by clinic Tuesday by his family and girlfriend and was later announced dead, said Paul Browne, the New York Police Department's chief spokesman.

The youngster's father, Andre Muller, was alleged with attack stemming from the fight in which he waved a weapon, police said. He was also alleged with criminal control of a weapon but wasn't charged of assaulting his son.

The officials were struggling to evaluate what kind of a weapon Muller used, police said.

Police were inquiring two parking assistants as the inquiry carry on.

The family arrived at the lot on Jerome Avenue in the Bronx at about 9 a.m. Tuesday and reached to the campus of Lehman College, where graduation was being held for students from Harry S. Truman High School. Subsequent the ceremony, the family headed back to the car, Browne said.

The clash blown up at first between Muller's father and parking attendants, whom he blamed of stealing something from his auto, Browne said. The father’s seen the property missing from the car while the family was en route to a celebratory meal Tuesday afternoon on City Island, a fishing hamlet on the northern tip of the Bronx.

Annoyed over the lost property, Andre Muller turned the car around and headed back to the parking lot, Browne said. The clash blown up and Isayah Muller was attacked in the chest, though it's not clear by whom. The father and son escape to the family car where his mother and girlfriend were coming up and they drove him to the clinic. Muller was later shifted to a hospital where he was declared dead shortly before 6 p.m., Browne said.

It's undisclosed how many persons were involved or who delivered the deadly blow. There was no reply at the garage early Wednesday.

Muller was lead to Nassau Community College in Garden City, Long Island, in the drop, according to his Facebook page.

He was a star running back who quickly for 285 yards during the high school championship game in November, winning 23-20 over the high-seeded Beach Channel. His progress was the talk of newspapers and television, and he was honored by his team fellows.

"Isayah Muller is the kind of player who steps up when the game is on the line," Truman coach John-James Shepherd told the Daily News of New York after the winning Nov. 28 game. "The more pressure he has the more calm he is."

Team quarterback Xavier Hamilton told newspapers and blogs that Muller was the team's go-to guy.

The "American Idol" alum drops by the NBC show and delivers some music news.

 Ruh roh, is Katharine McPhee crossing to the enemy’s side? The American Idol Season 5 runner-up dropped by Idol's rival singing competition The Voice on Tuesday to talk about her new series, Smash, plus she announced she would be doing her own version of one of the coaches' hits.

STORY: 'The Voice': Stevie Nicks, Train's Pat Monahan and OneRepublic's Ryan Tedder to Perform

It’s never too early to get some promotion out there – especially with 12 million viewers tuned in. McPhee talked up NBC’s new musical drama, which she’s costarring in with Will & Grace’s Debra Messing and FlashForward’s Jack Davenport. The series will be the lead in to The Voice on Mondays this winter.

She also talked about doing her own version of Christina Aguilera’s “Beautiful” on her new show, which the coach performed with her team’s finalist, Beverly McClellan, on Tuesday’s show. Now, that’s synergy.

Watch Aguilera and McClellan's duet on "Beautiful" below.

What are the chances? That's got to be what the pilots of Delta Flight 277 were asking each other after a cracked windshield forced them to put their Boeing 747 down at Henderson Field on the Midway Islands where - before landing - the darn thing flew into a big ole albatross.

The pathetic photo sent to me tonight shows just how much damage a large bird can do. But don't blame the albatross, they live here. In fact, they're nesting at Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge  an island with "the world's largest population of Laysan Albatrosses." 


Back in the 1930s, this little island was one of the places Pan Am clippers used to stop for refueling. Now its an emergency airport for trans Pacific flights.

The crew of Delta Flight 277 from Honolulu to Osaka, Japan found themselves in need of an emergency airport on the evening of June 23 when the windshield developed a crack. According to the Delta operations manual this calls for descent to below 14,000 feet, maintaining a cabin pressure differential of 2psi or less and landing at the nearest suitable airport.

The manual warns pilots of the higher risk of bird strikes at lower altitudes and that's without even knowing the  kind of bird this particular flight was likely to encounter. Are you ready? Its almost three feet high with a six foot wingspan.

Unfortunately for Delta and for the birds the albatross feeds at night and nests by day. This explains why Sue Schulmeister, manager of the refuge said despite the fact that birds were on the ground, "we didn't have a choice in this case because they needed to land."

Ms. Schulmeister said the plane hit one albatross which damaged the leading edge of the wing, but a small white tern was also found "in the airport sweep following the landing."

Henderson Field has a 7,800 foot runway and is owned by the US Fish and Wildlife Service. Until 1993 it was a Naval Air Facility.

There’s never a Tardis around to whisk a girl away when she needs one.

Doctor Who star Karen Gillan could have done with just that when she reportedly got stranded naked in a hotel corridor at 7am after a night partying.

The flame-haired beauty, 23, who plays the Time Lord’s assistant Amy Pond, was allegedly found trying another guest’s door while she was on the week-long promotional junket.

One claimed Karen was “whimpering” at his door. He said: “I went to the peephole then I saw this woman naked, trying to wrap towels around her and not having much luck. She started to whimper and knock on my door.

“Seeing that she wasn’t getting anywhere, she lay down with the towels covering her.” Suzanne Leonara, another resident at New York’s Ace Hotel, said: “She looked as though she hadn’t been to bed.”

Show boss Stephen Moffatt and Matt Smith, who plays the Doctor, were also on the trip.

Last night, a spokesman for BBC Worldwide, the corporation’s commercial arm, said: “We’re unaware of this alleged incident.”

A BBC source added: “BBC Worldwide does not use licence fee income to operate – so this international publicity trip was not funded by the licence fee payer.”

Karen’s agent declined to comment. 

An officer has been treated in hospital subsequently the losses of two police dogs who were left in a car on one of the hottest days of the year.

The dogs were found misshapen in an unaired vehicle at the Met Police's training centre in Keston, south-east London, on Sunday.

An officer was afterward found by companions in the Newham area suffering a hand wound.

The Directorate of Professional Standards has initiated an investigation.

Officers enforced their way into the car after being attentive.

The working Belgian Malinois and a German Shepherd puppy were in used from the dog training centre to an crisis vets, where both afterward died.

Police have not named the officer associated to the happening, but verified a policeman was found with wounds following the finding of the dead canines.

It is not identified if they were self-wreaked.

The Met Police spokesman added: "The officer was situated in Newham borough anguishing a hand injury.

"He was taken to an east London hospital as a preventative measures and is currently receiving medical aid."

The RSPCA, which is also prosecuting the incident near Bromley, where temperatures reached almost 30C on Sunday, suggested people not to leave dogs in vehicles "for any extent of time" during hot weather.

The Independent Police Complaints Commission has been made alert of the incident and the following inquiry.

Myanmar - The military-based rulers of Myanmar has deported Hollywood actress Michelle Yeoh, who stars as pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi in a forthcoming movie, authorities said Tuesday.

The Malaysian actress here in the country's key city, Yangon, on June 22 and was expelled the same day because she was on a blacklist, a government authorities said.

The official, who refused to be known because he was not allowed to talk to the press, did not articulate why Yeoh was on the list. But Myanmar's exploitive government has commonly discarded visa requests of journalists and seemed critics for years.

Suu Kyi spokesman Nyan Win verified Yeoh was extradited but had no other explanations.

The Luc Besson movie about Suu Kyi's life, "The woman," is due out later this year, and Yeoh has said she thinks her representation of Suu Kyi will enhance attentiveness about the Nobel Peace Prize winner's story.

Suu Kyi, 66, spent most of the last twenty years arrested by the previous military junta. She was freed last year, just days after an election that her party rejected and in which she was banned from being a candidate.

The vote was the nation's first in two decades, and in March, the junta offered power to a civilian government. But opponents say little has changed and the new government is solely a front for sustained rule by the army, which has been in power here since 1962.

Yeoh called Myanmar in December and used up time with Suu Kyi for the film, which was filmed in neighboring Thailand.

Yeoh, an ex-Miss Malaysia, shot to worldwide distinction when she costarred with Pierce Brosnan in the 1997 James Bond film "Tomorrow Never Dies" as a hard but beautiful Chinese spy. She has also starred in "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" and "Memoirs of a Geisha.

See more details through below link:

"Aung San Suu Kyi

For those of you who'd missed it on TV today, this is but the mere preamble to Bernie Sanders' second orgasm of outrage of 2011. If you have the time and patience to read his entire speech, you can read it here.

There's not really much that a layman like me can add to this without descending into mere opinionating and commentary but let's break down some of the numbers of Sen. Sanders' proposed 13 part plan for reducing this supposedly runaway deficit.

1) Taking away Bush's tax cuts for the wealthiest 2%, which would save us $70 billion a year. It makes no fiscal or moral sense to continue to keep these silk-swaddled ticks on the links while there are still 5 unemployed Americans for every job and 45,000 Americans are dying in the US each year through lack of health insurance.

2) A 5.4% surtax on these same golf club-swinging parasites would put $38.3 billion more into the Treasury each year. As Sen. Sanders points out, 81% are all for the idea. Think about what a 5.4% surtax would be on a billion dollar private ocean liner like the ones these leeches are having built for them.

3) $58.2 billion a year would be slashed from the deficit if we but closed the tax loophole on corporations that outsource jobs overseas and move their HQs outside the jurisdiction of the IRS. Obama made a little noise about this on the campaign trail and a little more after he became the President but nothing about this in a long time. Time to put our money where his big mouth is.

4) We could shave a bit more off the deficit by simply ending tax breaks and subsidies for the petroleum racket, $4 billion annually, to be exact. At a time when much of the country is still paying up to $4 for a gallon of unleaded and blaming the skyrocketing oil prices on the Libyan invasion, it doesn't make sense to not bite into the white, pasty flesh of the fat fucks in places like Exxon's "God Pod" by taking away these incomprehensible tax breaks since they're not putting any real money and effort into R&D for alternative energy sources, their one biggest reason for the continuance of these tax breaks and subsidies.

5) Burning down tax shelters overseas would save taxpayers a whopping $100,000,000,000 a year (not ten years, a year). That fact alone shows how rotten and corrupt the current tax code is.

6) Bringing back the speculation fee on Wall Street, which was first enacted in 1914 and doubled under Hoover and helped help pay for the New Deal, would add another $10 billion a year to the national coffers. Sanders is actually proposing a minor tax of less than 1%, which you could probably find at any one time between the cushions in Goldman Sachs' waiting room.

7) Taxing capital gains and dividends the way they ought to be taxed in a nation not ruled by avaricious psychopaths would trim another $73 billion annually from our deficit. In case you don't know, capital gains tax had withered during the Bush years (2003, to be exact) to a mere 15%. Until Congressional Republicans cut capital gains taxes in 1978, the rate was 35%. Ah, the good old days.

8) Raising the estate tax on 0.3% of the richest estates would add another $7 billion to the Treasury each year. But Republicans would have you believe the Deeeeeaaaaattttthhhhhh Tax would affect everyone, if your definition of "everyone" excludes 99.7% of the population.

9) Waste at the Pentagon costs us about $10 billion a year. For instance, we still have a huge discretionary budget for arms programs to combat a USSR that hasn't existed in 20 years. Lord only knows how much more we can save by simply cutting off war profiteers like Blackwater, Halliburton and Bechtel, to name but a few.

10) Allowing Medicaid to negotiate drug prices with Big Pharma would put another $15.7 billion into the budget every year. Plan D was one of the biggest Bag Over the Head con jobs in this nation's history. It's hard to imagine Billy Tauzin's beloved mother actually having to survive on the clusterfuck that is Medicare's Plan D.

11) $6.8 billion more annually could be trimmed from the deficit if we give everyone the option of signing up for the much more streamlined and cost-efficient Medicare, at least Medicare as we now know it and not the joke of a voucher system that cock heads like Paul Ryan want to turn it into.

12) We could make a cool $50 billion a year if we slap a fee on China every time they further imbalance the trade deficit by manipulating their currency. Of course, this will never come to pass since the Reds essentially own half the United States and would take out all their money in this country and call in the note for the trillions we've borrowed to float the deficit largely created by Bush's tax cuts.

13) $20 billion more could be saved if we just get rid of the corruption, waste and outright fraud in all our government agencies. Personally, I think this is a severely low estimate.

All told, Sen Sanders' modest and fair proposals would save the United States $473,000,000,000 each year, or nearly $5 trillion over the next decade.

It would be nice to see the Obama administration tout these numbers and force the Republicans to come up with arguments as to why these measures are unreasonable. It's getting kind of obvious to even hardheaded Republicans that liberals and Tea Baggers alike are finally finding common ground and are opposing the Ryan Spanish Inquisition of a budget and that any Republican or Democrat who supports even part of it will put them on the unemployment line along with 9.1% of us.

But of course, the Obama administration will completely ignore Sen. Sanders' powerful speech, his very real numbers and his commonsensical and very humane 13 Point Plan for deficit reduction because Tom Donohue and Andy Brietbart will say nasty things about him. Then again, it's said that the President, unlike his predecessor, can actually read so please sign Sen. Sanders' petition if you haven't already. 3000 people have already signed the letter since I began this post an hour ago.

WIMBLEDON, England — After watching Serena Williams come back from career-threatening health problems and after watching her save four match points in grand style against Marion Bartoli on Monday, it was beginning to seem like nothing was capable of keeping her down at Wimbledon this year.

But logic eventually prevailed on Court 1 as Bartoli, to her feisty and full-swinging credit, stared down all of Williams’s evident desire and closed out her 6-3, 7-6 (6) victory with a flat service winner to the corner.

In a normal year, this would have been considered a massive upset, but this has been far from a normal year for Williams, the 29-year-old defending champion who missed nearly 11 months of competition and only returned to action at the grass-court tournament in Eastbourne the week before Wimbledon.

But though she proved capable of some inspirational tennis at the All England Club, she was not capable of defending her title and her fourth-round defeat was her earliest here since 2005, when she was upset — truly upset — by her fellow American Jill Craybas. She will drop well out of the top 100 in the rankings after the loss.

Bartoli, seeded ninth, has played and won many more matches of late than Williams, reaching the semifinals at the French Open and winning in Eastbourne. She has had a wild ride at Wimbledon, however. She had to save three match points in the second round against Lourdes Dominguez Lino and then asked her parents to leave the court in the third round after she lost the opening set to Flavia Pennetta.

“For 10 seconds I lost my mind,” said Bartoli, who later apologized to her parents.

But Bartoli’s father, Walter, who has been her coach since childhood, was back in the stands Monday and got the chance to watch his daughter play one of the finest matches of her career.

“I think this match against Flavia helped me today to step up and during those tough moments really play some great points,” said Bartoli, 26, who was a surprise finalist here in 2007.

Bartoli lost to Williams’s older sister Venus in that final. But she has now beaten a Williams at Wimbledon, and one of the keys was her serve. She finished with 10 aces to Williams’s 8 and was able to consistently surprise her taller, more powerfully built opponent.

But Bartoli faltered when she served for the match at 6-5 in the second set and led, 40-15. But Williams saved the first match point when Bartoli missed a backhand at the end of an extended rally. Williams saved the second by crushing a backhand return winner off a second serve. She saved a third match point by finishing off another extended rally with an overhead.

They were soon in a tiebreaker, where Williams saved another match point with an ace to get to 6-6. But Bartoli was able to respond once more. Williams missed her first serve on the next point and then hit a backhand in the net. Bartoli had her fifth match point, and after a practice swing and a leap in the air, she delivered her flat first serve.

Though Williams touched it with her frame, she could not touch it with her strings.

“You cannot say because I beat Serena I’m going to win the whole thing,” said Bartoli, who will now face wild-card Sabine Lisicki on Tuesday. “I know tomorrow is going to be another day.”

WATERLOO, Iowa – Republican Michele Bachmann is throwing herself as the "bold choice" in the 2012 presidential battle.

The blunt congresswoman and tea party preferred officially launched her bid Monday in her Iowa birthplace, after first making her aims clear at a debate earlier this month.

Outside a historic house in Waterloo, Bachmann says she's paying the campaign "not for egotism." Instead she says voters "must make a courageous choice if we are to safe the undertake of the future."

Bachmann goes into the race as an Iowa poll appears her near the front of the pack in the first in the nation caucus state.

Bachmann played up her tea party binds but also made reveal of her Democratic roots.

The International Criminal Court has issued a detained warrant for Libyan leader Col Muammar Gaddafi, blaming him of crimes against civilization.

The court had grounds to consider he had ordered assaults on civilians during Libya's four-month unrest, it said.

The Hague-based court also issued warrants for two of Col Gaddafi's top advisers- his son Saif al-Islam and intelligence chief Abdullah al-Sanussi.

Thousands of people are considered to have been died in the quarrel.

Anti-Gaddafi forces said on Monday they had started a new push towards Tripoli, with serious combating near the strategic town of Bir al-Ghanam, to the south-west of capital.

The insurgent defense minister told that the forces against to Col Gaddafi may also make a shift on the capital from the east.

The ICC arrest warrants pass on to early weeks of the unrest, from 15 February until "at least 28 February".

The statement, read out by presiding judge Sanji Monageng, said there were "rational grounds to consider" that the three men were "illegally responsible" for the murder and harassment of civilians.

As the "documented and undisputed leader of Libya", said the court, Col Gaddafi had "complete, final and unquestioned organize" over the state.

He initiated a state policy "aimed at putting off and quelling by any means, including by the use of force, the protestors of civilians against the rule", the court supposed.

The warrant says that as Saif al-Islam Gaddafi has no authorized position in Libya, he is "the most powerful person" in Col Gaddafi's internal circle.

Mr. Sanussi, said the court, had "ultimately educated the troops to assaults civilians protesting" in Benghazi, the city that has become the revolutionary' stronghold.

"We are too delighted that the entire world has unified in impeaching Gaddafi for the crimes he has stanched" rebel council spokesman Jalal al-Galal told Reuters news agency from the rebel stronghold Benghazi. "The people think justified by such a response."

The warrants had been demanded by chief ICC investigator Luis Moreno-Ocampo in May. He has said Col Gaddafi must be detained in order to secure the civilians.

But the Libyan officials have prior said they do not know the court and are not worried by the threat of a warrant.

On Sunday, government spokesman Moussa Ibrahim said the court was overly anxious with chasing African leaders and had "no authenticity at all".

The ICC declaration came as the international air operation in Libya, meant at shielding civilians, enters its 100th day.

It was greeted by Nato Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen, who said the court's verdict highlighted the growing isolation of the Libyan rule.

"It reinforces the reason for Nato's mission to protect the Libyan people from Gaddafi's forces," said Mr Fogh Rasmussen in Brussels.

UK Foreign Secretary William Hague said the court's decision further demonstrated "why Gaddafi has lost all legitimacy and why he should go immediately".

Mr Hague called on people within the Libyan regime to abandon the leader and said those responsible for "atrocities" must be held to account.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy echoed those sentiments, saying of the Libyan leader: "After 41 years of dictatorship, it is perhaps time to stop, for him to leave power."

The James Bond star Daniel Craig has wedded the actress Rachel Weisz in a covert ceremony in New York.

 

Craig's publicist verified that the wedding had taken place, but did not give any explanations.

The British couple, who will play husband and wife in imminent movie Dream House, have been quietly dating in genuine life.

According to media reports, they married last Wednesday in New York, with only Craig's teenage daughter Ella, Weisz's five-year-old son Henry and two family friends as guests.

Craig, 43, rose to international celebrity in 2006 when he became the sixth actor to play James Bond in the movie contract.

He will take on the role of the polished secret agent for the third time in the 23rd movie, which will be released in October next year.

His other film recognitions include Elizabeth, Layer Cake and impending film The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.

Weisz, 41, has emerged in movies including The Mummy and About A Boy.

Her role in 2005 film The Constant Gardener made her an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress.

The actress's son is from a prior relationship with Black Swan director Darren Aronofsky.

A hacker group that has hit numerous impressive websites over the last two months has declared that it is closure.

Lulz Security made its statement through its Twitter account, describing no basis for its decision.

A statement published on a file-sharing website said that its "intended 50-day sail has expired".

The group leapt to fame by carrying out assaults on companies such as Sony and Nintendo.

Presenters Fox and PBS, the CIA, and the United States Senate have also been cyber-assaulted by the group.

As a leaving shot, the group released a selection of documents actually including confidential material taken from the Arizona police department and US telecoms giant AT&T.

Correspondents say LulzSec's declaration could be a sign that its members are worried because of recent police inquiries, including the detention of a British man alleged of links to the group, and attempts by rival hackers to expose them.

The group's characters remain unidentified and it has not been possible to call its members directly to verify its statement.

The statement said that "our crew of six wishes you a happy 2011".

"So with those last considerations, it's time to say bon voyage," it added.

"Our designed 50 day cruise has finished, and we must now sail into the detachment, leaving behind - we hope -stimulation, fear, denial, happiness, approval, disapproval, mockery, embarrassment, thoughtfulness, jealousy, hate, even love. If something, we hope we had a microscopic impact on someone, somewhere."

But LulzSec advised its followers to keep on.

"We hope, wish, even beg, that the movement patents itself into an uprising that can continue on without us," the statement said.

"Please don't discontinue. Together, united, we can stomp down our common tormentors and imbue ourselves with the power and freedom we justify."

The group had earlier told that it desired to hit the "higher ups" who write the rules and "bring them down a few notches".

In an online Q&A, the hacker recognized as Whirlpool, who illustrated himself as "captain of the Lulz Boat", said that while the group had begun hacking "for snickers" - for which the word "lulz" is cyber-slang - it changed into "politically aggravated moral hacking".

A LulzSec member said the group had at least five gigabytes of "government and law enforcement data" from around the world, which it intended to release in the next three weeks.

Ryan Cleary, 19, from Wickford, Essex, was detained as part of a Scotland Yard and FBI probe into LulzSec and indicted with hacking the website of the UK Serious Organized Crime Agency.