BMW to sell luxury cars for less online

The BMW i3 concept car at the 2012 Detroit Auto Show in January. (John T. Greilick / Detroit News)

BMW will sell cars over the Web for the first time as the world's largest maker of luxury vehicles seeks an inexpensive way to reach more buyers to recoup spending on its electric models.

A direct online sales platform for BMW's new I sub-brand will be unique in an industry where, outside of small-scale experiments, competitors leave Internet orders for cars to dealers. BMW's range of strategies for the models, including a roaming sales force backing a limited showroom network, reflects the challenge carmakers face as low-emission vehicles trickle into dealerships to sluggish demand after years of development.

"There is considerable risk in BMW's approach of promoting the I brand so prominently," said Stefan Bratzel, director of the Center of Automotive Management at the University of Applied Science in Bergisch Gladbach, Germany. "There is the image risk, if they don't succeed as quickly as expected, and then there's the main risk of costs, which can only be countered with high deliveries."

BMW opened the I models' first showroom Tuesday in London, although only prototype cars and informational materials will be displayed at first because the vehicles themselves won't go on sale before next year. BMW is spending about $3 billion developing the i3 battery-powered city car and i8 plug-in hybrid supercar, according to an estimate by Frost & Sullivan. Industry sales of electric cars last year, at 43,000 vehicles, were only 57 percent of the 75,000 deliveries predicted by Sarwant Singh, a London-based automotive partner at the consulting company.

Starting prices posted

The four-seat i3, scheduled to reach the market in late 2013, will be priced at about 40,000 euros ($48,500), Bratzel estimated. That compares with a 23,850-euro starting price ($29,388) in Germany for the 1-Series, the cheapest BMW-brand car. The i8, targeted for sale in 2014, will cost more than 100,000 euros ($123,221), according to Ian Robertson, BMW's sales chief.

Details of how I-model buyers, the website and dealerships will interact are "still in the planning process" and will be communicated later, Linda Croissant, a spokeswoman at Munich- based BMW, said last week. Sales will be focused on the world's major urban areas, she said.

The online sales option is aimed at a generation of drivers used to making daily purchases over the Internet, and will be an extension of the car configuration that most automakers offer customers to view models with desired options such as interior colors, seat materials and roof styles.

Test drives not an option

The Internet platform may take a while to catch on because "many customers will still want to go somewhere to look at and drive the vehicle before buying," said Ian Fletcher, an auto analyst in London at research company IHS Global Insight.

"With new technologies, there may be even greater skepticism about buying a car over the Internet, as in many cases you'll have to win the confidence of customers that it works and there is support for them," Fletcher said in an email.

The setup may help BMW reduce expenses: Internet sales require less than half the cost of distributing through a dealership, according to Ferdinand Dudenhoeffer of the Center Automotive Research at the University of Duisburg-Essen in Germany. That allows online car prices to be 5 percent to 7 percent less than showroom tags.

Still, BMW sees standard dealerships as "the backbone of what we are doing in the interface with the customer" for the I models, Robertson said in June at a press presentation at the sub-brand's Park Lane showroom in London.

Dealer selection criteria

Outlets will be restricted to dealers with high BMW-brand sales volume who have floor space as well as capacity to work with I models' powering technology and carbon-fiber body material, Robertson said. The carmaker has chosen 45 of its approximately 200 dealers in Germany to sell the i3 and i8, a ratio that will probably be similar elsewhere, he said.

Dealers will be designated as agents for the I models, which provides an "advantage" by keeping the vehicles on the carmaker's books, the association of BMW distributors in Germany said in an email.

Electric vehicles' disadvantages versus conventional cars include costly battery packs, limited ranges and the time needed to recharge. Consumer reception to models like the Nissan Motor Co.'s Leaf and General Motors Co.'s Chevrolet Volt has been tepid.

"Currently available electric cars have a limited market success because they are a big compromise," said Arndt Ellinghorst, a London-based analyst at Credit Suisse AG. "Customers are not willing to compromise and spend a lot of money."

Carbon fiber bodies lighter

BMW Chief Executive Officer Norbert Reithofer started Project I at the end of 2007 as tighter emissions regulations threatened the viability of sporty sedans. BMW chose to create all-new vehicles that use expensive carbon fiber for a lighter body to make up for the weight of the battery system.

The approach contrasts with a decision by Daimler AG's Mercedes-Benz Cars division to convert existing models, such as the van-like B-Class or two-seat Smart, to electric power.

To make its electric vehicles more attractive, Stuttgart, Germany-based Daimler's Smart brand offers to lease the battery separately from the car. The automaker has a target of selling more than 10,000 of the models next year, with a starting price of 18,910 euros plus monthly battery rental at 65 euros.

The I models' new technology poses risks for BMW, "but they have no choice if they want to keep their premium and image as an innovation leader," Ellinghorst said.

The i3 and i8 will probably be among BMW's lowest-selling models through 2024, alongside the existing Z4 roadster, according to IHS estimates. In 2014, the first full year of production, BMW will probably deliver 31,380 i3s, compared with 564,760 of the best-selling 3-Series model and 18,101 Z4s, a study by the research company shows.

BMW's stance is that the models should produce earnings from the start, sales chief Robertson said.

"We clearly, as a company, go into any product launch with the view of making profit, which is no different with the I brand," Robertson said. "This is a car line just as every other car line, and we intend to make profit from Day 1."

Invasion of the pickpockets

Britain is in the grip of a pickpocketing epidemic as Eastern European gangs descend on London ahead of the Olympic Games.

A surge in sneak street thefts means more than 1,700 people fall victim every day – an increase of nearly a fifth in only two years, according to official crime  figures released yesterday.

At the same time, police warned that professional gangs from Romania, Lithuania and even South America who operate in capitals across Europe are heading to Britain, intent on cashing in on unwitting tourists at London 2012.

How they do it: A member of the pickpocket gang approaches a BBC reporter investigating the rise in thefts ahead of the Olympics

Keeping him occupied: The man speaks to the victim on the pretense of needing directions while another gang member approaches from behind

A BBC investigation exposed the tactics used by Romanian thieves, who were previously operating in Barcelona, to dupe their victims.

The criminals boasted of their ‘one-second’ theft techniques which leave targets unaware that anything has happened until  it is too late. They can make £4,000 a week taking wallets, smartphones and laptop bags. The goods are then shipped back to Romania and sold on the black market.

 Scotland Yard has made more than 80 arrests already and warned thieves the capital will be a ‘hostile environment’ in the coming weeks.

The Met has even drafted in a team of Romanian police officers to deal with the problem and patrol in the West End of London and Westminster during the Games. They will not have arrest powers.

Distracted: An accomplice (left) then plays drunk so he can get close enough to the target to strike

 

Sleight of hand: The 'drunk' man jostles around with the BBC reporter, making it harder for him to notice what is going on

 

 

Rich pickings: The sneering thief walks away with the wallet from the unsuspecting victim

Teamwork: The thief quickly hands the wallet to another member of the gang, who spirits it away

 

Mayor of London Boris Johnson said: ‘These Romanian officers will prove to be a huge asset in cracking down on certain criminal networks who are targeting tourists in central London.’

Official statistics released yesterday showed pickpocketing thefts rose 17 per cent in the past two years.

In 2011/12, a total of 625,000 people fell victim, the Crime Survey of England and Wales showed.

That is an increase of more than 102,000 since 2009/10.

The vast majority of the total are classified as ‘stealth thefts’, but in 83,000 cases the victims’ possessions were ‘snatched’.

BBC sells Television Centre for £200m

The BBC has sold its historic Television Centre premises in west London in a deal worth £200m. The historic doughnut-shaped building, which dates back to 1960, has been bought by property developer Stanhope plc, the corporation confirmed on Monday. BBC director general Mark Thompson said the deal was secured after the First Night of the Proms on Saturday. TV Centre – once the home of TV classics from Top of the Pops to Blue Peter and which once bore the blast from a car bomb – was put up for sale last year as part of the BBC's latest cost-cutting drive. Thompson said its sale "represents another milestone in the way the BBC is changing" from a number of broadcasting bases to key HQs in the capital and around the country, including the newly-refurbished Broadcasting House in central London and BBC North in Salford. The BBC's chief financial officer, Zarin Patel, said the corporation's property footprint had been reduced by a third, although in the short term spending on property has increased, by £37m to a total of £187m. Spending on technology was also up, according to the corporation's annual report published on Monday. Many programmes have already left TV Centre, including Blue Peter which was relocated along with its famous garden and the rest of the BBC's children's output to Salford. The sale did not go down well with everyone, however. Newsnight presenter Jeremy Paxman criticised the decision in February, saying: "What organisation – at a time when it has no money, allegedly – would move from cheap square footage in west London to Oxford Circus?" In a statement, the BBC said TV Centre had been sold to Stanhope plc "for a total price in the order of £200m. Full details of the sale will be available on completion." The sale of the site, parts of which were given Grade II listed status by English Heritage in 2009, prompted an outpouring of nostalgia on Twitter, including many who worked there and one who had slept under her desk. "Carpet stank," wrote @TellyDubby. "The BBC without BBC Television Centre is like the Royal Family without Buckingham Palace. Sad times," said @CameronYardeJnr. The 14-acre site will be empty by 2015 with staff moving to the newly-refurbished Broadcasting House in central London as well as the BBC North HQ in Salford. The BBC originally announced it wanted to sell the building, which opened in 1960, in 2007. Among the shows recorded in its studios were Fawlty Towers and Monty Python's Flying Circus, Doctor Who and Strictly Come Dancing. Previous Stanhope projects include Tate Modern and BSkyB's Osterley HQ. The company has not revealed its plans for the site and declined to comment.

Athletes are sleepy, hungry and need to pee. Could we get to the Olympic Village please?

An embarrassing shortage of security guards, fears over airport queues and questions about the capital's creaking transport system have overshadowed preparations for the Games. And two stories from American and Australian athletes did little to dispel the sense of farce. US 400m hurdler Kerron Clement, twice a world champion, claimed he spent four hours on a bus after the driver got lost on the way to the London 2012 Olympic village. Games organisers are expecting a busy day with hundreds of athletes checking in but it's not all been smooth running according to Clement - who takes on Dai Greene, Great Britain's current world champion, in the 400m hurdles next month. "Um, so we've been lost on the road for 4hrs. Not a good first impression London," he tweeted. "Athletes are sleepy, hungry and need to pee. Could we get to the Olympic Village please?"

A Muslim university student was held for seven days without charge as a suspected terrorist after police "made up" evidence against him.

Rizwaan Sabir was accused by police of downloading an al-Qaida training manual for terrorist purposes. Photograph: Rizwaan Sabir

 

Documents from the professional standards unit of West Midlands police reveal that officers fabricated key elements of the case against former University of Nottingham student, Rizwaan Sabir.

The highly controversial case generated a debate over the extent of Islamophobia within UK universities and also an international furore over academic freedom led by renowned US scholar Noam Chomsky.

Sabir was researching terrorist tactics for a master's at the University of Nottingham in 2008 when he was detained under the Terrorism Act and accused by police of downloading an al-Qaida training manual for terrorist purposes.

The 27-year-old, however, had downloaded a manual from a US government website for his research which could be bought at WH Smith, Waterstones and Amazon as well as the university's own library. After seven days and six nights in police custody, Sabir was released without charge or apology.

The incident so incensed the university's sole terrorism expert Dr Rod Thornton, a lecturer at its department of Politics and International Relations that he published an article condemning the University's handling of the arrest and treatment of Sabir.

In a paper prepared for the British International Studies Association, he alleged the university attempted to smear the student. Following publication of the article, Thornton was suspended by the university in Spring 2011 provoking an international outcry over academic freedom with an international coalition of professors and doctors, including Chomsky, demanding his "immediate reinstatement".

The 67 figures, from universities around the world, said they were "deeply concerned" and called for an inquiry into the affair.

Documents released under the Freedom of Information Act also reveal that the arrests were mentioned in a report, cited and disseminated by the Home Office, called Islamist Terrorist Plots in Great Britain: Uncovering the Global Network.

Now, however, the results of the internal West Midlands police professional standards investigation into the affair following complaints by Thornton over the police's handing of the case is complete. It found that officers effectively invented what Thornton, the university's sole terrorism expert, told them about the al-Qaida training manual in a police interview.

During the interview Thornton said that he merely told police that Sabir was studying al-Qaida, but was never asked to discuss the manual. Thornton says that officers invented claims that he had concerns over the manual which he says are an apparent attempt to justify the arrest and police anti-terror operation, codenamed Minerva.

The findings of the force's standard's inquiry upheld Thornton's claim that officers "made up what he said about the al-Qaida manual."

It also states that the actual minutes of the Gold Group meeting of the detectives assigned to the case "incorrectly recorded" their conversation with Thornton.

Internal notes from the Gold Group meeting, dated May 17 2008, actually reveal police quoting Thornton as believing the manual was a "tactical document" and could not be considered relevant to Sabir's academic research into terrorism.

Thornton has now referred the police treatment of him to the IPCC. The standards board, however, says that no officers will be investigated for misconduct.

Thornton, a former counter terrorism officer in the British army who earlier this year left his post at Nottingham University by mutual agreement, said: "The police were totally unprofessional. After their mistakes they tried to cover them up. I've seen some altered police notes, I've seen evidence made up. The whole thing seems to be a complete tissue of lies, starting from the cover up of their mistakes in the first place."

Sabir, now a PhD student at The University of Bath, said: "I have known that the police lied and deceived in order to justify my arrest and treatment and this has now been proven.

"What should raise alarm bells is how and why the police think it is acceptable to make up information to send innocent Muslims to prison as terrorists. The onus is now on the IPCC to conduct a full and proper investigation into this matter."

West Midlands police chief inspector Julian Harper, from the force's Professional Standards Department, said: "While certain aspects of his complaint were upheld, investigating officers found there was no case to answer in respect of misconduct.

"As is standard practice, we advised the complainant that he could appeal this decision through the Independent Police Complaints Commission.

"As he has chosen to take this course of action, it would be inappropriate for us to comment any further."

As pre-Olympic panics go, it's a pretty big one: the fastest man in the world, perhaps the biggest single star of the entire Games, is no longer even the fastest man in his own training group.

 

Usain Bolt - clown prince of track and field, the athlete who changed the paradigm for how sprinters behave and blew apart the record books with four runs so far beyond the possible that the times still barely make sense - suddenly has some serious problems on his king-sized plate.

“You see people on TV false start and you think, that must be bad luck. And then you feel how bad it is. It's awful”

Usain Bolt

Those two defeats to Yohan Blake over 100m and 200m at the Jamaican Olympic trials last month, while seismic, were not the start or end of it.

From the moment he clocked 10.04 seconds in Ostrava at the end of May - the slowest 100m of his senior career - the whispers began that some of the old showboating magic might be missing.

Bolt appeared as nonplussed as the watching world. "My legs kind of felt dead," he admitted afterwards, "and I don't know the reason."

There were stories of late nights out, of tight hamstrings and a troublesome back, of a return to the parties and fun times of previous post-seasons rather than hard yards and fast times that took him to the top.

Many of them were nonsense or exaggeration. Bolt's celebrity and charisma is such that he attracts rumours and hangers-on like no other track star in the world.

A week after that sluggish start in Ostrava, he ran a blistering 9.76 secs in Rome - 15 hundredths of a second faster than he had run by the same point in his record-breaking season of 2009.

Even now, with less than two weeks to go until the start of the London Olympics, he has three of the five fastest 100m times in the world this year, with that showing in Rome, into a headwind of 0.1 ms, probably worth more than Blake's season's best of 9.75 secs with a 1.1ms tailwind.

For any other athlete that would be enough to still the alarm bells and send them to Stratford with a smile on their face and a strut in their step.

See how the men's 100m and 200m sprint world records have progressed over time with BBC Sport's Olympic graphics.

• How have sprint world records changed?

But Bolt is not any other athlete. When you have won the sprint double at the previous Olympics by margins so vast your rivals were barely in the freeze-frame (he took the 100m in Beijing by 0.2 secs, the 200m by a staggering 0.66 secs) you inhabit a stage all of your own.

Few remember that Richard Thompson took 100m silver four years ago, or Shawn Crawford silver in the 200m. Should Bolt finish second in either, no-one will forget in an age.

Before the Jamaican trials, Bolt hadn't lost a 200m in four years. When Blake defeated him, not only by three hundredths of a second but by coming through and past when Bolt had led with 50 metres to go, it left spectators trackside with hands on heads and mouths agape.

Blake, of course, had beaten Bolt to 100m gold at the World Championships in Daegu last summer. But that, after the most famous false-start in the history of the sport, had felt different - the story almost entirely the disqualification, rather than the coronation.

As Blake celebrated in Kingston, Bolt was on the ground, receiving treatment from his physio for tight hamstrings.

A few days later he flew to Munich to see celebrated sports doctor Hans-Wilhelm Müller-Wohlfahrt - a session described as a routine check-up by his agent - but when followed by his withdrawal from the Diamond League meeting in Monaco on 20 July, his final competitive outing before the Olympics, it appeared to take on greater significance.

Leading 100m times in 2012

• 9.75 seconds - Yohan Blake
• 9.76 - Usain Bolt
• 9.79 - Usain Bolt
• 9.80 - Justin Gatlin
• 9.82 - Usain Bolt
• 9.84 - Yohan Blake
• 9.85 - Asafa Powell
• 9.86 - Keston Bledman
• 9.86 - Tyson Gay
• 9.86 - Usain Bolt

On numbers alone Bolt does not appear to be in vastly different shape than he was in his biggest years.

By the middle of June in the last Olympic year of 2008 his fastest 100m time was 9.72 secs, just four-hundredths faster than his Rome showing a fortnight earlier this time around. In 2009, the year he went to the Worlds in Berlin and blitzed even those Beijing records to bits, his quickest run at the same point was just 9.91 secs.

So what is different this year?

There are rivals out there who know how to beat him - Blake, Tyson Gay. There are others who, years after their supposed peaks, will quietly be fancying their chances anew - former world record holder Asafa Powell; Justin Gatlin, the disgraced former Olympic champion back from his doping ban.

Then there is Bolt himself.

At the peak of his powers, laughing into the pre-race cameras, beaming on the blocks as others shook, he didn't appear to feel the same pressure as the others. It all seemed part of a wonderful game, and his exultant performances felt like part of the same glorious show.

Now? Now we're not quite so sure, and neither is he.

That World Championship final 11 months ago in Daegu may have triggered a more lingering malaise than many realised.

On that Sunday morning in South Korea Bolt was 20-1 on with some bookmakers to retain his 100m crowd. When he jumped the gun - not by a flinch, but by a street - we saw something new on his face, alongside the disbelief and despair: doubt.

"I just couldn't believe it," he tells a BBC One documentary to be shown on Monday. "You see people on TV false start and you think, that must be bad luck. And then you feel how bad it is. It's awful.

"I was in great shape, I was running fast, I was good. I was sure I was going to get my medal.

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Bolt out before Blake takes gold in Daegu

"To know it's going to happen and then lose - not even lose, not make it to the finish line - it's hard, very hard.

"I pretty much squandered it, I'd say. All I could hear was something saying GO! in my head, and I just went, and after I thought, 'What the hell just happened?'"

Bolt's start, something he had turned from average to respectable over the previous three seasons, remains his greatest weakness.

He is a remarkable 3-1 with the bookies to be disqualified for a false-start in this year's Olympic final; as Michael Johnson, his predecessor as world 200m record holder and now BBC pundit says: "I am absolutely concerned that we could lose a Bolt."

Bolt is currently lying low in west London, living near Heathrow and training at nearby tracks as he does most summers before he heads, this year, to Jamaica's Olympic holding-camp in Birmingham early next week.

He has always talked of his desire to make history by retaining both Olympic sprint titles. Carl Lewis, who knows a thing or two about such things, isn't entirely convinced he will do so.

"The reason it hasn't been done is because it's hard to stay at that level for a long period of time," says Lewis. "People are always trying to beat you when you are a champion.

"Blake has beaten Bolt two years in a row now after the World Championships in 2011, and we don't know what Bolt's head is like when he loses."

No-one is writing Bolt off. A man who has defied logic and precedent as he has done lives under different rules of physics to the rest of us.

"Last 10 metres, you're not going to catch me," insists Bolt.

"No matter who you are, no matter what you're doing, no matter how focused you are, no matter how ready you think you are, you're not going to catch me, because that last 10 metres is going to take me three and a half strides to pass the finish line."

Athletes arriving for Olympic Games

The BBC's Luisa Baldini at Heathrow Airport in London: ''This is a very challenging time for the airport''

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• Olympic Route Network interactive map
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Athletes and officials are arriving at the Olympic Village, with 11 days to go until the London Games open.

Heathrow Airport is expecting its busiest day on record and on the main route out - the M4 - the first priority "Games Lane" is in operation.

Work is also starting at the lab which will conduct some 6,000 drugs tests.

Meanwhile, it has emerged police have had to deploy extra officers from nine UK forces at short notice to help with security work for London 2012.

This follows the news last week that 3,500 troops had been drafted in to plug gaps after private security firm G4S failed to recruit enough guards for the Games.

In the Commons, Home Secretary Theresa May answered an urgent question on Olympics security from shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper saying that it was "untrue" that ministers knew last year that there would be a shortfall in the numbers of security personnel they had been promised.

"G4S repeatedly assured us that they would overshoot their targets," she said.

Mrs May said the government had taken immediate action after becoming aware of the shortage last Wednesday.

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Not a good first impression London”

Kerron ClementUS athlete

Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner Chris Allison said: "Whilst some of the activity police officers are undertaking was not anticipated, plans were put in place to allow us to do this.

"Forces are making sure they make the best use of their resources locally to do all they can to minimise the impact on local policing."

The forces involved include Dorset, Surrey, Hertfordshire, Northumbria, South Wales, Strathclyde, West Midlands, Thames Valley Police, and Greater Manchester Police.

In Salford, only 17 of an expected 56 G4S staff turned up for work at an Olympic team hotel and front-line officers had been pulled in to cover, the chairman of the Greater Manchester Police Authority said.

G4S said measures were being taken that should lead to the withdrawal of officers from private security roles "over the coming days".

The Olympic hurdler Liu Xiang has proved as quick in fleeing poorweather as he is over the hurdles, abandoning his British training camp in London due to the cold

China's Olympic hurdler Liu Xiang, who won gold in Athens 2004. Photograph: Adrian Dennis/AFP/Getty Images

The Olympic hurdler Liu Xiang has proved as quick in fleeing poorweather as he is over the hurdles, abandoning his British training camp in London due to the cold, Chinese media have reported.

The gold medallist appears to have done what many in the UK long to do, escaping the British summer in search of sunnier climes – as have other Chinese athletes, his coach claimed.

Liu arrived in London late last week and was due to train at St Mary's University College in Twickenham, where members of the South African, Japanese and Irish teams are also preparing.

But days later he turned around and headed to Germany instead, the Xinmin Evening News reported.

"Due to the low temperatures in London many Chinese athletes and other sports teams have chosen to look for other training bases. Liu Xiang is not the only one," his coach Sun Haiping said, according to the newspaper. It added that St Mary's did not have an inside track.

Most of the Chinese team are training in Leeds, but the newspaper said there were too many people there and conditions were not suitable for Liu. Düsseldorf was chosen for the broadly similar climate and minimal time difference to the UK and because he has trained there before. He will return to Britain in early August.

Liu became a national hero as the first Asian man to take gold in an Olympics track event, winning the 110m hurdles at Athens in 2004.

But at the Beijing Games he stunned and disappointed his compatriotsby pulling up injured before he had reached even the first hurdle of the opening race, shocking spectators into silence.

He quit the Diamond League final in London on Friday because of a back injury, but his coach said he had pulled the athlete out for the sake of caution and that Liu would "fight to the end" in the Olympics.

A spokesman at the State General Administration of Sport in Beijing said staff had read news of Liu's move but could not comment, as the body had little contact with athletes while they were in Europe.

St Mary's has yet to respond to requests for comment.

It is unclear whether Liu's new base will be an improvement; this week'sweather forecast for Düsseldorf looks much the same as that for London.

Wu Feng, a coach for the track team, told the Xinmin Evening News that the weather would not pose a problem for Liu when it came to the actual event. He pointed out that the hurdler's impressive performance in Eugene, Oregon, in June – which appeared to equal the world record, but was disallowed due to wind assistance – came on a rainy day.

nine police forces are drafted in to plug G4S Olympic security gap

Only 17 of an expected 56 G4S staff turned up for work, according to Paul Murphy, chairman of the Greater Manchester Police authority. This forced Greater Manchester Police (GMP) to reassign officers from front-line duties so they could guard athletes staying at the Marriot Worsley Park hotel over the weekend. GMP's Assistant Chief Constable Terry Sweeney said: "On Saturday, Greater Manchester Police became aware of a shortfall in security services for athletes participating in the 2012 Olympic Games. "On Sunday, policing operation was set up by GMP officers to assist with the security operation to protect athletes staying at the main Olympic team hotel in Worsley. "At no point was their a failure to provide security for the athletes.

Three people suffered injuries after being stabbed during Swedish House Mafia's show in Milton Keynes on Saturday (July 14).

Photo: PA

The gig, which took place at Milton Keynes Bowl, was marred by three incidents in which two 23-year old men and one 24-year old man were stabbed. 

According to Thames Valley Police, a 23-year-old man from the West Midlands area is currently in Milton Keynes General Hospital and is being treated for a punctured lung. 

Another, a 24-year-old man from the West Midlands, received a cut to his head and arm but has been discharged from hospital. Another 23-year old man was treated for minor injuries onsite by St John's Ambulance. 

Speaking about the incident, Detective Chief Inspector Justin Fletcher said: "This appears to have been an isolated incident, and overall we are very pleased with how the event passed off, but we would like to trace the person responsible for this assault."

Police have also said that they are keen to speak to a man who is described as white, aged in his early 20s, wearing a blue Nike T-shirt, a black jacket and black jogging bottoms, in connection with the assault.

A police spokesman said: "Anyone who witnessed the incident, particularly if they captured it on their camera or mobile phone, is requested to contact the police."

During the concert, three people were also arrested on suspicion of possession with intent to supply class-A drugs. They are a 19-year-old man from Liverpool, a 26-year-old man from London, and a 37-year-old man from Ipswich.

This is the second time in a week that a Swedish House Mafia show has been marred by stabbings. Nine people suffered injuries after being stabbed during their show in Dublin last Saturday (July 7) and a man passed away after a drug overdose. 

Swedish House Mafia are currently completing their farewell tour.

Hundreds of police officers are drafted in as security guards after G4S fails to provide staff at dozens of Olympic venues.

Police officers in several forces have been asked to help security

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Police forces where Olympic Games venues are located have been asked to provide extra security, after G4S failed to provide enough staff.

Sky News understands that nine out of 12 police forces have been drafted in to help the embattled firm ensure the Games are kept secure.

The forces providing additional personnel include Strathclyde, West Midlands, Thames Valley, Greater Manchester and Dorset.

Sky News home affairs correspondent Mark White said: "The police say at this stage they have deployed hundreds of officers rather than thousands, but that could change in the coming days as more Olympic venues go into security lockdown."

"The need for extra officers will depend on whether G4S can meet its security commitment in the coming days and whether the military can deploy to those venues in time."

Only 15% of G4S staff allocated to the Gateshead Hilton arrived for duty

Assistant Commissioner Chris Allison, the Police National Olympic Security Coordinator, told Sky News: "Whilst some of the activity police officers are undertaking was not anticipated, plans were put in place to allow us to do this.

"Forces are making sure they make the best use of their resources locally to do all they can to minimise the impact on local policing.

"Delivering a safe and secure Games is a priority, but we will not compromise on keeping our local communities safe."

The details emerged after Northumbria Police were called in to help G4S with Olympic football security.

Sky Tyne and Wear discovered that less than 10 G4S guards reported for duty out of an expected 58 staff, as Northumbria Police Federation called the security firm's blunder "shambolic".

Chairman Charlie Munro said: "We are an emergency service and of course we will provide cover. The situation really is shambolic.

"I really think G4S needs to be looked at. They are a very big organisation and they've had long enough to plan for this. It really doesn't fill us with confidence."

G4S boss Nick Buckles (c) is under pressure over the security chaos

A spokesperson for G4S said: "As the games get closer, security is being tightened at venues around the UK, before the full complement of accredited staff have been assigned.

"Some venues are being supported by police in the short-term while the private security workforce is being mobilised.

"This situation is being rectified over the coming days, which should lead to the withdrawal of police from those roles assigned to private security."

The new revelation comes as Home Secretary Theresa May told the Commons about details behind the Olympic security crisis.

She said G4S only revealed last Wednesday that it had a staffing problem and the Government "took immediate action" in response.

"I want to be clear, this was the first time G4S told any minister about not being able to fulfil the contract," Mrs May told Parliament.

"G4S had repeatedly assured us it would overshoot their targets."

Defence minister Andrew Robathan told the Commons that the Olympic security situation was a "debacle".

The crisis has escalated since it was revealed last week that thousands of troops were needed to provide venue security after G4S admitted it may not be able to provide its full complement of 10,400 staff.

Mrs May said 20,000 G4S staff had been vetted and accredited, however the main problem was a shortfall when the company tried to allocate staff among venue.

She confirmed that no member of the armed forces would be out of pocket or losing leave entitlement over the need to deploy and supplement G4S staff.

The G4S share price plunged around 10% on Monday as investors fled the firm and newly-appointed chairman John Connolly agreed to meet key City investors to discuss the crisis and its impact on the company.

Meanwhile, embattled CEO Nick Buckles appears increasingly likely to become a victim of the debacle, which has been estimated to cost the firm £50m.

Some experts, however, expect the damage to be much deeper than the company has calculated and G4S' plans to nearly double its UK Government outsourcing are now under threat.

The company has been advertising for a new HR director, to be paid a six-figure sum, to manage 3,500 staff as they launch "ambitious plans" to reach a turnover of £400m by 2015.

Labour MP Keith Vaz has called into question the firm's role in outsourcing and said the company has "let down" the country.

Bankers face the prospect of jail as Serious Fraud Office launches criminal probe into interest-rate fixing at Barclays

Hearing: Former chief executive Bob Diamond left Barclays over the matter, before appearing before MPs this week

A criminal investigation has been launched into alleged rigging of the Libor rate within the banking industry, the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) confirmed today.

SFO director David Green QC formally accepted the Libor issue for investigation after Barclays was fined by the Financial Services Authority (FSA) last week for manipulating the key interbank lending rate which affects mortgages and loans.

The claims ultimately led to the resignation of Barclays boss Bob Diamond and have become the focal point of a fierce political debate over ethics in the banking sector.

The investigation could ultimately lead to criminal prosecutions and bankers facing charges in court.

The SFO's update came after it revealed earlier this week that it had been working closely with the FSA during its investigation and would consider the potential for criminal prosecutions.

The Government department, which is responsible for investigating and prosecuting serious and complex fraud, said on Monday the issues surrounding Libor were "complex" and that assessing the evidence would take time.

Under fire: Barclays former chairman Marcus Agius (right) with former CEO Bob Diamond (centre), and former chief executive John Varley (left)

As the SFO prepares its investigation, Labour leader Ed Miliband continued to push for an independent inquiry into the banking scandal despite MPs rejecting the demands.

The Labour leader said that while the party would cooperate with a parliamentary investigation, its remit was too "narrow" and a judge-led probe was still needed.

Mr Miliband also defended the conduct of Ed Balls after the shadow chancellor engaged in a bitter war of words with his opposite number George Osborne in the Commons.

 

 

Diabetes drug makes brain cells grow

The widely used diabetes drug metformin comes with a rather unexpected and alluring side effect: it encourages the growth of new neurons in the brain. The study reported in the July 6th issue of Cell Stem Cell, a Cell Press publication, also finds that those neural effects of the drug also make mice smarter. See Also: Health & Medicine Brain Tumor Stem Cells Nervous System Mind & Brain Brain Injury Intelligence Neuroscience Strange Science Reference Neural development Stem cell treatments Diabetes mellitus type 2 Embryonic stem cell The discovery is an important step toward therapies that aim to repair the brain not by introducing new stem cells but rather by spurring those that are already present into action, says the study's lead author Freda Miller of the University of Toronto-affiliated Hospital for Sick Children. The fact that it's a drug that is so widely used and so safe makes the news all that much better. Earlier work by Miller's team highlighted a pathway known as aPKC-CBP for its essential role in telling neural stem cells where and when to differentiate into mature neurons. As it happened, others had found before them that the same pathway is important for the metabolic effects of the drug metformin, but in liver cells. "We put two and two together," Miller says. If metformin activates the CBP pathway in the liver, they thought, maybe it could also do that in neural stem cells of the brain to encourage brain repair. The new evidence lends support to that promising idea in both mouse brains and human cells. Mice taking metformin not only showed an increase in the birth of new neurons, but they were also better able to learn the location of a hidden platform in a standard maze test of spatial learning. While it remains to be seen whether the very popular diabetes drug might already be serving as a brain booster for those who are now taking it, there are already some early hints that it may have cognitive benefits for people with Alzheimer's disease. It had been thought those improvements were the result of better diabetes control, Miller says, but it now appears that metformin may improve Alzheimer's symptoms by enhancing brain repair. Miller says they now hope to test whether metformin might help repair the brains of those who have suffered brain injury due to trauma or radiation therapies for cancer.

Spanish Tourism Industry Prepares for Difficult Summer

Spain's tourism industry is bracing itself for a painful slowdown in bookings this summer, driven by a steep decline in local tourism, according to the country's leading hotel association. Reservations by Spanish vacationers for the month of July are 30% lower than last year, amid persistently high unemployment and a protracted economic recession, said Juan Molas, president of the Spanish Confederation of Hotels and Tourist Accommodations. An influx of visitors from Russia and other countries in Eastern Europe has compensated somewhat for the decline in local tourism, but weak local demand is expected to weigh on an industry that accounts for about 11% of Spain's annual economic output. Hotel owners are concerned that the government may raise the industry's value-added tax to 18% from the current 8%, in a bid to reduce its yawning budget deficit, making Spain less attractive to foreign tourists compared with other less expensive destinations "If the VAT rises to 18%, it will be absolutely catastrophic for the sector," Mr. Molas said at an event Thursday in Madrid. Spain's government is working to secure €100 billion ($126 billion) in aid for its struggling banking sector from the European Union and plans to meet with EU officials next week to discuss new measures to improve its public finances. Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has already implemented €45 billion in austerity measures, but weak tax revenue threatens to undermine his administration's goal of trimming its shortfall this year to 5.3% of gross domestic product from 8.9% last year. Sentiment in the hospitality industry is at its lowest level since 2009, according to an index developed by the hotel association and consulting firm PwC. Based on a survey of hotel firms, 57% of operators expect international tourism will hold steady this year, while 76% expect domestic tourism to decline. "The parts of the country that will suffer the most are those that cater to national tourists," Mr. Molas said.

Holidaymakers in Spain this summer are facing a surprise new airport tax imposed by the Spanish government

Holidaymakers in Spain this summer are facing a surprise new airport tax imposed by the Spanish government as it tries to balance its books. Some airlines are passing the new departure tax on to passengers, even if they booked their flights months ago. Some passengers have received emails telling them either to pay an extra charge of up to seven euros (£6) per person - or to cancel their flights. Other airlines are deciding whether to absorb the cost themselves. The budget airline Ryanair said Spain's 2012 budget, passed into law at the end of June, obliged airlines to pay increased taxes. Spain is implementing drastic measures to try to slash its budget deficit to 5.3% from 8.5% in 2011. It has been promised bailout funds of up to 100bn euros for its banks, but wants to avoid a full state bailout. Retrospective The European travel agents' association ECTAA said the amount of the extra levy varied depending on which airport people used. It said the average rise in the tax was 18.9%, but at some of the larger airports it would almost double. For instance, at Madrid-Barajas the tax would rise from 6.95 euros to 14.44, while at Barcelona's El Prat airport it would rise from 6.12 euros to 13.44. Ryanair said it would pass the cost on to passengers, even those who had already paid in full for their flights, because the tax applied "retrospectively to customers who booked flights before 2 July 2012 and are travelling from 1 July onwards". It said for bookings made on or after 2 July, the increased tax would have been included in the price. The Spanish low-cost airline Vueling is also passing on the cost. It sent emails to passengers giving them seven days to cancel their flight, or the extra payment would be debited automatically from the card they used to book. British Airways and Iberia told the BBC they had not yet decided whether to pass on the cost or absorb it. ECTAA said in a statement it was "dismayed" by the rise, which was imposed "without proper consultation of airport users nor appropriate implementation time". It said travel agents faced a "technical and financial nightmare to recover the extra charge".