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London 2012 damaging trade – Next - The Guardian

London 2012 damaging trade – Next - The Guardian

Fashion chain Next said the Olympics has hit trading in its London stores, as tourists and locals stay away leaving the capital a ghost town. Next is the first of the retailers to give a sense of current trading and will compound fears that the Games will fail to drag the UK out of recession by boosting the economy.

Next chief executive Lord Wolfson said its 23 shops in London had been "adversely affected" and he does not expect any kind of retail boost from the Olympics. "The two weeks of the Games for retail won't be good. As with any sporting event, people tend to stay in and watch them on television rather than go out shopping."

Next provided the formal wear for technical officials and athletes for the opening and closing ceremonies but said the contract did not affect its performance in the first half of 2012. "It's a nice thing to be able to do but it hasn't had a great impact either way," said Wolfson.

Instead, it was Next's barnstorming home-shopping business that helped drive sales up 4.5% in the first half, beating the chain's own forecasts. Despite the bleak economic environment, Next upped its targets for the year, forecasting sales growth of 2% to 4.5% this year, and pre-tax profits of £575m to £620m, compared with previous expectations of £560m to £610m.

Next Directory sales shot up 13.3% in the six months to July, as customers increasingly shop for clothes online. Wolfson said the growth in home shopping was not a result of the rain-soaked summer, and that online sales went up and down in line with sales in the shops. "The best weeks in the Directory were the warmest weeks in May. The main thing driving sales is whether people want summer clothing or not."

Sales in the high street stores were roughly the same as the first half last year, with a 0.2% increase. Like-for-like sales – which strip out any boost from new shops – dropped, but were offset by new store openings. Wolfson put that down to the "general consumer environment". "Virtually every retailer in the country will be planning for negative like-for-likes at the moment," he said.

He does not expect the economy to pick up in the second half of the year, but said it feels more resilient than was suggested by estimates that GDP fell by 0.7% in the second quarter.

"I don't believe the GDP numbers. We expect the economy to tread water for some time. The UK consumer has increased borrowing for about 15 years up until the credit crunch. The process of deleveraging [reducing debt] is going to be uncomfortable but not a disaster."

Eithne O'Leary of Oriel Securities said: "Even relative to heightened expectations, this morning's trading statement from Next is good." She praised Next's consistency and said, "Superior execution continues to distinguish Next Directory and the internet offering." The news sent Next shares up 6% on Wednesday morning to £34.22.

London 2012 badminton match-fixing 'not first time China have tried to manipulate results' - Daily Telegraph

"This does happen, statistics compiled last year by influential magazine Badzine saw that out of 99 all Chinese affairs, 20 of those were not completed or were walkovers," Gilmour said, "which suggests the Chinese head coaches have basically told their players that one of them would lose the match so the other would be fresh into the next round."

Boris Johnson invites Rupert Murdoch to London Olympics - BBC News

Boris Johnson invites Rupert Murdoch to London Olympics - BBC News

31 July 2012 Last updated at 14:10 ET

London Mayor Boris Johnson has invited News Corporation chief Rupert Murdoch to attend the Olympics.

Mr Murdoch and his wife Wendi Deng are expected to join Mr Johnson on Friday.

The meeting is part of Mr Johnson's drive to use the Games to promote London to leading business figures and encourage investment.

Labour members on the London Assembly have questioned the "appropriateness" of the invitation.

Mr Johnson has invited a number of business leaders to enjoy the sport with him, with tickets provided by the London & Partners organisation.

London & Partners raises money from sponsorship and the private sector to promote the capital.

Mr Murdoch is chairman and chief executive of News Corporation, which has been at the centre of political controversy over allegations of phone-hacking at the News of the World.

He is a supporter of British sports through sponsorship of Team Sky cyclists, including Tour de France winner and London Olympic medal hopeful Bradley Wiggins.

Mr Johnson and Mr and Mrs Murdoch are expected to see British swimming star Rebecca Adlington in contention for a medal in the 800m freestyle.

A spokesman for the mayor said: "The Mayor has always said he would use the Games to shamelessly promote London as the leading business hub in Europe.

"With that aim in mind he's meeting, and will continue to meet, a range of business and media executives at or on the margins of Olympic events to further London's drive for investment that will spur jobs and growth."

Len Duvall, leader of the Labour Group on the London Assembly, said: "There are serious questions as to the appropriateness of Boris Johnson taking Mr Murdoch to the Olympics.

"An internal City Hall investigation is still underway after it was discovered the mayor had failed to declare meetings with Mr Murdoch. I do not think it is appropriate for the mayor to be entertaining Mr Murdoch in this way."

Earlier this month Mr Murdoch resigned from a string of directorships controlling his News Corporation's UK newspapers.

London Olympics 2012: Twitter 'alerted NBC to British journalist's critical tweets' - Daily Telegraph

Twitter and NBC entered into a partnership to cover to Olympic Games this month, with the technology company featuring highlighted tweets from sports insiders in return for on-air promotions. No money was exchanged in the deal, according to reports.

Twitter instigating a ban against a journalist who has been critical about one of their commercial partners is likely to raise questions as to the neutrality of the microblogging site and further anger those opposed to Mr Adams’s suspension.

Responding to NBC's claims, Mr Adams said it runs contrary to the microblogging site's corporate values.

"If what NBC is saying is true, it undermines everything that Twitter stands for and is an absolute disgrace and will aggravate many millions of its users," he told The Daily Telegraph.

"Their whole corporate ethos is that they never interfere with the flow of tweets. Something has gone very very wrong here.”

Mr Adams has been told that if he would like his access reinstated he must write an apology and acknowledge that he had broken their rules – something some pundits have disputed as he posted a widely accessible corporate email address.

“I don’t understand their rules, I haven’t done anything wrong and I think it sets a very ugly precedent for me to promise not to do it again," he added.

London 2012: Michael Phelps becomes the greatest Olympian - The Guardian

Twenty years after he first began to swim in suburban Baltimore, as a seven-year-old boy whose mother thought a pool might be the one place where he could conquer his chaotic excess of energy, Michael Phelps officially became the greatest Olympian in history. At exactly 9.04on Tuesday night, during a tumultuous session at the Aquatics Centre in Stratford, Phelps won his 19th Olympic medal, and his first gold of these Games, in the 4x200m relay.

He had finally broken the record held by Larisa Latynina. The gymnast from the former Soviet Union was awarded the last of her 18 medals in 1964. But Phelps's extraordinary feat was layered with the ambivalence of earlier shock and disappointment – as a much younger and uncelebrated rival stripped away his old invincibility.

Phelps had equalled Latynina's tally an hour before he swept past it. But a twist was buried deep inside a moment that was meant to be swathed in glory. The 200m butterfly, the event that has belonged to him for over a decade, ended in defeat and a silver medal when the South African Chad le Clos produced a blistering finish that just beat Phelps to the wall.

It was a conclusion that defined the exhilaration and pathos of sport. One of his greatest triumphs as an Olympian was entwined with a loss in a discipline in which he was meant to be indestructible. Undefeated at every Olympic and world championship final in the 200m butterfly since 2001, Phelps had not found the expected refuge from recent doubts and disappointments. The familiar embrace of his old supremacy had been ripped away from him the 20-year-old Le Clos.

"The pool," Phelps once said, "is a safe haven. Two walls at either end, lane lines on both sides, and a black stripe on the bottom for direction."

For the first 170m it did not look as if this giant of the water needed any of those black-striped pointers. Phelps spread the full might of his 6ft 7ins-wide wingspan and appeared on course for another inevitable win with his favourite version of butterfly. But Le Clos could not be broken. Suddenly, as the South African's surge gathered momentum, his own huge arms held the attention. He edged closer and closer but, with just 10 metres of water left, Phelps looked as if he might hang on to his title. Le Clos, however, drove still harder and won in a time of 1.52.96 – five hundredths of a second ahead of Phelps.

Le Clos's disbelief was plain and he only seemed able to fathom the depth of his victory when Phelps eventually paddled across the lanes to congratulate him. Le Clos, with his mixture of tears and laughter, could be forgiven for thinking only of his own first Olympic medal – rather than Phelps's iconic 18th.

This has been a strange and often uneasy Olympic Games for Phelps. He had cut a dejected figure on the opening night of London 2012 when he finished in a dispiriting fourth place in the 400m individual medley. The winner of that race, his team-mate Ryan Lochte, was hailed again as the new king of the pool. Meanwhile the old monarch, Phelps, reacted bluntly. "It was just a crappy race," he said.

It was the first time Phelps had failed to win a medal in an Olympic final since his debut at the age of 15 in 2000. At those Olympics in Sydney, Phelps's mother, Debbie, knew that his diagnosed ADHD (attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder) was helped by a total immersion in swimming. His anger towards his father, Fred, who had separated from his mother, was also soothed in the pool.

"I've always felt most at home in the water," Phelps once said at the height of his powers. "I disappear from the world. That's where I belong."

The long slow buildup to these Olympics had suggested the opposite. In the years after the record haul in Beijing in 2008, it often looked as if Phelps had grown bored of laying waste to rivals. Clearly, he was sick of the unremitting training schedule that underpinned his great prowess. The boy who once could not concentrate for long on anything had become a man of singular focus – but, in the wake of Beijing, and the six gold and two bronze medals he had also won in Athens in 2004, Phelps had almost had enough of a fixation with victory.

Somehow, a gluttonous craving still lingered and Phelps, in a surreal if telling suggestion, said of his quest to win still more medals in London: "It is really how many toppings do I want on my sundae? That's what I'm doing."

Phelps scooped up his first silver-coloured topping at London 2012 on Sunday night in the 4x100m freestyle relay. Swimming much more powerfully than the previous night Phelps, in the second leg, carved out a sizeable lead for the US – only to share everyone's surprise when Lochte was blitzed over the last 100m by France's Yannick Agnel. Phelps managed to sound as if he had found some pleasurable novelty in finishing second. "It's my first silver medal," he said in a soft exclamation as he looked at a colour which has since become more familiar.

The medal that shattered Latynina's record was a more fitting gold – as the US gained a measure of revenge over France. Significantly, Phelps was chosen to swim the last leg against Agnel, who had already won two golds at these Games.

But Lochte, Conor Dwyer and Ricky Berens presented Phelps with a relatively simple task. He began his own four lengths of the pool with a comfortable lead and even Agnel, who swam faster than Phelps, could not do more than eat into a small chunk of that gap.

As he touched the wall first Phelps knew that he had picked out two prize cherry-toppings for his big Olympic sundae. He had also enshrined his legacy with another historic seal. Some critics, many of whom have rarely had the privilege of watching Phelps swim in the blurring flesh, will continue to argue that it has been somehow "easier" for him to win such a dizzying amount of medals in a sport like swimming. But seeing him compete voraciously over the years in styles and distances which have tested his speed, endurance and desire has provided an unforgettable insight into his monumental achievement.

At the end, as victory settled over him in the pool, Phelps looked up at the curving arch of the Aquatic Centre and shot a small fountain of water from his mouth into the air.

Then, wearily but happily, he draped himself over the red lane divider and treaded water with his size 14 feet. His team-mates whooped and held their arms in the air. Phelps, before joining the celebrations, looked across his gleaming kingdom of water. The end is almost upon him as a swimmer; but, on a night of tangled and intense emotion, Olympic history finally belonged to Michael Phelps.

Ghost town London: Roads and rail deserted, shops and hotels empty as the Games put off visitors - Daily Mail

• Games have pulled 100,000 foreign tourists into the capital, much lower than the 300,000 expected in a typical summer
• Leading London attractions see visitor numbers fall by 35 per cent
• Hotel bookings in London 'very substantially down'
  
• Businesses near sailing venues in Weymouth and Portland say this year's summer tourist season is the worst in half a century
  

By James Chapman and Hugo Duncan

PUBLISHED: 17:55 EST, 30 July 2012 | UPDATED: 18:56 EST, 31 July 2012

Overblown warnings of Olympics travel chaos are turning key sites into ‘ghost towns’ and threatening Britain’s economic recovery, say business leaders.

Messages to stay away from London and other key venues have worked too well, with visitor numbers suffering catastrophic falls.

Incredibly, almost a third of the five million people employed in the capital are expected to heed official advice to work from home at some point over the fortnight to avoid disruption which has failed to materialise.

Bare: Overblown warnings of Olympics travel chaos are turning key sites into 'ghost towns' and threatening Britain's economic recovery, say business leaders. This image shows an empty Westfield shopping centre at Shepherds Bush at lunchtime yesterday

Empty: Messages to stay away from London and other key venues have worked too well, with visitor numbers suffering catastrophic falls. A usually heavily congested Blackwall Approach is virtually deserted

Leading attractions, meanwhile, are reporting visitor numbers down by a third on the same period  last year.

Experts insist that even if the short-term economic benefits of hosting the Games do not materialise, Britain will enjoy ‘incalculable’ longer-term benefits in terms of increased trade and tourism.

But pressure is growing for transport bosses to alter their advice to travellers and make it clear Britain is open for business.

Ministers are also facing calls  to rethink their decision to allow hundreds of thousands of civil servants to work from home while the Games are on.

Pleas: Pressure is growing for transport bosses to alter their advice to travellers and make it clear Britain is open for business. Oxford Street in London appears to be empty yesterday afternoon

Worrying: Restaurants in Covent Garden are suffering a down turn in trade as customers stay away from the area

No custom: Ministers are also facing calls to rethink their decision to allow hundreds of thousands of civil servants to work from home while the Games are on. This picture shows an empty Spitalfields Market during lunchtime

Bernard Donoghue, of the Association of Leading Visitor Attractions, which represents venues ranging from London Zoo to St Paul’s Cathedral, said: ‘There are  two groups of people missing.

'The first are general visitors to London, who are staying clear because  of the perception that it will  be busy.

‘The second are Londoners and Brits who have been warned there will be a transport nightmare. Our message to them is that while it may be sensible to avoid certain peak times and locations, transport is running very smoothly.

‘Ironically there has never been a better time to visit our attractions because the queues are shorter and opening times have been extended.’

Mr Donoghue said advice to travellers should be amended, adding: ‘As long as you avoid peak times and stations, London is surprisingly accessible and open for business.’

According to the world’s largest hotel survey, details of which were published yesterday, a promised influx of visitors is not having the bumper effect on UK businesses for which many were hoping.

One disillusioned hotelier told TripAdvisor that ‘the negative impact of the Olympic Games’ was a nasty surprise for business.

Where is everyone? An unusually quiet Regent Street in London. Businesses say the centre of the city has become a 'ghost town' during the Olympics

Shunned: The Games has attracted 100,000 foreign visitors to London, but this is well below the estimated 300,000 who come during a typical summer

Down the Tube: Olympic stewards wait to give tourists assistance at an unusually quiet Piccadilly Circus

Quiet: Streets in the central shopping area of Greenwich looked almost deserted as the final stages of the team equestrian event got under way

Steve McNamara, of the Licensed Taxi Drivers’ Association, said  cab drivers had also been hit  hard. He said: ‘Normally about 90 per cent of our customers are Londoners but they’ve all left the city and haven’t been replaced by tourists.

'I don’t know where all these tourists are or how they’re getting about, but London is like a ghost town.’

London Mayor Boris Johnson insisted: ‘Things are going really well. Many, many thousands of  people are flowing into London,  the hotels are busy, the Olympic venues are attracting huge numbers and people are enjoying the brilliant live sites, a raft of free events for all the family and the free sport as well, with hundreds of thousands out over the weekend for the cycling.’

Central reservations: Foreign visitors in Trafalgar Square, with the National Gallery in the background. Major attractions have reported a fall in attendance around the Olympic period

Subdued: The normally bustling Carnaby Street in London's Soho has looked very different since the Olympics began at the weekend

The Prime Minister, meanwhile, has predicted 13billion of economic investment should flow from the Games over four years, some of it from tourism.

Analysis by the Bank of England suggests that the Olympics could add up to 0.25 per cent to gross domestic product in the third quarter, following a slide into a double-dip recession.

But independent economists warned the Games could in fact damage the economy – denting hopes of a short-term Olympic boost.

George Buckley, economist at Deutsche Bank, said: ‘Yes,  there are more people here so there might be more spending, but Oxford Street is quite quiet and there are plenty of people who  are at work but have their feet  on desks watching the Olympics  on TV.

Empty: The scene on Millbank, outside Westminster Palace, at 6pm, when the roads are normally congested

Roomy: Pedestrians walk on the pavement but there was a surprising lack of cars on London Bridge at 2pm

Incredible: London Bridge Underground station was also totally clear during the supposed rush hour

Clear run: Despite a packed Games schedule coinciding with the start of the working week, London's usually packed roads were at times as empty as they are on Christmas Day

'That will hit productivity.’  Andrew Goodwin, economic adviser to the Ernst & Young Item Club, predicted a ‘small positive’ from the Olympics. ‘But it is not going to be the silver bullet that people were hoping for.’

■ The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development has warned that the UK economy will shrink this year – making it the first major international watchdog to forecast a year of contraction.

The economy crashed 0.7 per cent in the second quarter, leaving Britain trapped in the longest downturn for 100 years and the worst double-dip for more than half a century.

Easy rider: This biker practically has the road to himself. The surprising turn of events was partly credited to staff being allowed to work from home

Spot the car: Drivers heeded official advice to stay out of the centre of the capital during the Games fortnight

Happy: In a further attempt to show the world how well the Tube is coping, David Cameron tweeted a picture of himself in a carriage on the way to watch the synchronised diving

Bare: The surprisingly empty roads was credited to staff being allowed to work from home and the decision to open some of the Olympic carriageways to other drivers. This shows the A4 close to Earl's Court

Change of plan: Officials turned off some Games Lanes after Olympic VIPs opted to use public transport

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Some businesses have only themselves to blame for lack of trade. I heard on the radio yesterday morning of a cafe in Covent Garden that is now charging almost £16 for a meal that cost just under £9 two weeks ago. Not only are they not getting the expected extra trade, they are also losing their regular customers, who quite rightly are refusing to play along with such blatant profiteering. The same goes for some hotels, who added in the region of 30% to their prices. The recession hasn't gone away just because the Olympics are on.

- Fiona, London, 01/8/2012 02:39

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i went to Piccadilly circus today and it was packed and the trains were packed and when did they take these pics????

- Jaz , Uk, 01/8/2012 02:35

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MD, Yorks, 31/7/2012 20:13-------------------------------you didn't watch dispatches or panorama did you and you are talking out of your backside. go and read the story about ESA accessment in this paper on how the person has been sacked. I hope you are never ill and need help because you will cry foul. disgusting how the people were treated in the programmes.

- Tory Party is the EVIL Party, London, 01/8/2012 02:31

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thats what u get london. loosing out cas you outed yr own people in driving lanes.....hahah how ironic. usa would never paint olympic signs and take away our street5 just for the olympics. here u either leave early to get where yr goin or u just dont get there...... - tina, iowa usa, 1/8/2012 2:22....... to marry your 13 year old cousin?

- Stu Pidd, Smarter than the average DM reader, 01/8/2012 02:28

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So much for the economy boost! Only to be expected though, bad planning and organisation and repressive sponsorship regimes. Speaks volumes and costs billions!

- jwt, Wolverhampton, 01/8/2012 02:26

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thats what u get london. loosing out cas you outed yr own people in driving lanes.....hahah how ironic. usa would never paint olympic signs and take away our street5 just for the olympics. here u either leave early to get where yr goin or u just dont get there......

- tina, iowa usa, 01/8/2012 02:22

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I blame Thatcher.

- Commie Kevin, Career benefit scrounger, 01/8/2012 02:17

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Lots of reasons. People sick of the rain and bad weather so have gone abroad. Overpriced UK. I can stay in a villa abroad for a week as apposed to a b and b here. Grubby accomodation and crime blighting every town. Need I go on?

- Rob, Swanscombe UK, 01/8/2012 02:17

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I blame the Lie-bore government for the fiasco, especially eurofanatic PM Clement Attlee who let in millions of Bulgarians to live it up on the dole while I work 70 hours for one shilling and ninepence a week. As for Stafford Cripps, Herbert Morrison, and all those other commies, go back to your paymaster Stalin in Moscow! Get us out of the EUSSR by 1946. Vote UKIP.

- Nigel 'Euronator' Farage, Parallel Universe, 01/8/2012 02:10

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Yeh that's right DM. The 12 million people who live in London are all on holiday and no tourists have arrived here either. Honestly what rubbish. It's only day 6 of the Olympics and you're already desperately clutching at straws to prove .... what exactly ... because London is thriving and those pics were taken first thing in the morning. The poor photographer must've been darting down different streets annoyed that people were actually walking through them LOL. Go on red arrow me you whingey, moany, depressing DM readers. You love to wallow in negativity so don't let me down!

- Cathy, UK, 01/8/2012 01:59

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Smith says London Games might be his last as British gymnast revels in bronze medal - Daily Mail

By Sportsmail Reporter

PUBLISHED: 06:16 EST, 31 July 2012 | UPDATED: 06:28 EST, 31 July 2012

Great Britain gymnast Louis Smith is still revelling in Monday's Olympic bronze medal-winning success but revealed London might be his last Games.

The 23-year-old was part of the five-man team who wrote their place in the history books when they claimed Britain's first men's team Olympic medal in a century in a dramatic day at the North Greenwich Arena.

Smith, Max Whitlock, Daniel Purvis, Sam Oldham and Kristian Thomas scored a total of 271.711 as they produced a stunning team performance which exceeded all expectations ahead of the competition.

Can you believe it?: Smith admits the London Games might be his last Olympics

They had initially been awarded silver but a successful appeal by the Japanese team saw their marks increased and they moved to second, pushing Team GB down to third and leaving the Ukraine empty-handed by dropping to fourth as China won gold.

'We're very ecstatic about what we've done. We've overcome a lot of people thinking we couldn't do it,' Smith told ITV's Daybreak.

'We went out there, we had fun and we became Olympic bronze medallists.

'I don't know if I'll be there in four years' time, but I'm sure some of these young ones will be. In four years' time, I'll be 27 - I want kids by then.'

Balance: The British star helped Team GB achieve bronze during Monday's event

Oldham and Whitlock, both 19, along with 20-year-old Purvis look set to keep Britain's gymnastics revival growing apace.

A decade ago Britain were nowhere near the powerhouses of China, Japan and Russia and were ranked 23rd in the world. Now, they have won Olympic bronze, adding to the European team gold they claimed earlier this year.

Liverpool-born gymnast Purvis, who will compete in tomorrow's individual all-around event alongside Thomas, hailed his team-mates following their achievement.

In the medals: The British quintet celebrate bronze in Monday's team event

'There was always an outside chance of us getting a medal, especially with this team of boys - it's like a wolf pack really,' Purvis said.

'After this I think I'm just going to try and enjoy the all-around more.

Dan's the man: Purvis competes on the rings

'There's the possibility of a medal there as well but now I've got one here it will hopefully affect my performance in a better way and make me more relaxed.'

Oldham, reigning Youth Olympic high bar champion, who recovered from a broken collarbone and torn pectoral muscle suffered late last year to compete at the Games, believes this is only the start for success in British gymnastics.

'We've got incredible juniors coming up and hopefully we can do this in four, eight, 12 years time,' Oldham said. 

'The support we've got from everyone in the audience, the British public. Hopefully it's raised the profile of the sport.

'I want to just enjoy this experience and try and take it all in because it's just unbelievable.'

Whitlock, who still has the pommel horse final to come with Smith, said the team was thrilled with getting a medal of any colour.

'We're not annoyed about it. We had no expectations of getting a medal,' he said.

'We wanted to get out there and have fun, and we did.

'First of all we thought we had a silver medal, but silver or bronze medal - it doesn't matter really. We made history.'

Wolverhampton's Thomas admits it will take time for the enormity of what they have achieved to sink in.

He said: 'I'm hoping once the next week or so is out of the way we can just sit down, relax and take a moment just to think that we have just achieved one of the greatest things in history in our sport.'

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Getting tired of the DM's agenda, and not letting you comment on certain stories now. Had to post it here because I can't post it on the story I want. Pathetic.

- RossD89, Lancashire, 31/7/2012 20:52

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Fruity.

- pete, sheffield, 31/7/2012 18:52

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Surely he can have kids and be an Olympian?

- Lauren, Manchester,UK, 31/7/2012 14:58

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Well of you do not return in 2016 olympics you will go out on a massive high! So proud of you Louis Smith & men gymnastics team GB!!!!

- Sian, Kent, 31/7/2012 13:13

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Career over by 27? I swear I saw a Bulgarian in the gymnastics that was touching 40

- marlon Rains, Bromley, 31/7/2012 13:12

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London 2012 Olympics: Ye Shiwen hits out at doubters after claiming second swimming gold medal amid doping row - Daily Telegraph

She won in a thrilling race. Ye, the reigning world champion, went in as the strong favourite, having qualified quickest but she had to fight for the gold.

At the 150m turn from the breaststroke into the freestyle she trailed the American Caitlin Leverenz and Alicia Coutts, of Australia.

She went surging through on the freestyle, however, winning the race convincingly with Coutts second and Leverenz third. Britain’s Hannah Miley came in seventh.

Ariana Kukors, who finished fifth in the lane next to Ye, gave her a hug over the lane rope. It was a display of solidarity but perhaps also a gesture born out of relief: Kukors’s world record of 2-06.15 remained intact.

Ye’s performances have come under scrutiny following the revelation that the time of her final 50m freestyle split in winning the 400m medley in world record time on Saturday night was faster than that recorded by Ryan Lochte in winning the men’s race earlier that evening.

John Leonard, the executive director of the World Swimming Coaches Association, described the way Ye broke the world record as “disturbing”, and said she “looks like superwoman. Any time someone has looked like superwoman in the history of our sport they have later been found guilty of doping”.

Ye said her improvement was down to good coaching – she said she had been training for five hours a day for nine years. “A teacher in my kindergarten noticed I had a good physique for swimming so they picked me,” Ye said.

“I want to thank my coaches and team-mates, they have been helping me a lot. They have made me strong, which is why I have not been affected by the outside noise.”

Leonard’s suspicions have prompted a backlash at the Games. Lord Moynihan, the chairman of the British Olympic Association, said: “Ye Shiwen has been through the World Anti-Doping Agency programme and she’s clean.”

He was backed up by Lord Coe, chairman of the Olympic Organising Committee. “You have to be very careful jumping to the conclusion that a great breakthrough in sport is down to anything other than great coaching, hard work and formidable talent,” he said. “I think you have to be respectful.”

Adrian Moorhouse, who won Olympic gold in the 100m breaststroke at the 1988 Games in Seoul, called Leonard’s comments “insulting”. “Ye Shiwen is no overnight sensation as she won gold at the World Championships last year,” he said.

“There are a lot of people in China and the base of their pyramid is so wide that if they train thousands and thousands of kids, they might have just found their Michael Phelps.”

Bill Bowman, who coaches Phelps, said: “It is a natural cynicism that results from the history of what has happened with China in this sport.

"Having said that it is unfair to immediately jump on someone who has had an extraordinary swim because it is something that happens. She is beautiful technically.”

Ye revealed that Phelps was her “idol” growing up.

The head of China’s anti-doping programme said Ye had been singled out by biased critics.

“It is not proper to single out Chinese swimmers once they produce good results. Some people are just biased,” said Jiang Zhixue. “We never questioned Phelps when he won eight golds in Beijing.”

Jiang said the performances of China’s swim team were down to sheer hard work. “The Chinese athletes, including the swimmers, have undergone nearly 100 drug tests since they arrived here,” Jiang said.

“Many were also tested by the international federations and the British anti-doping agency. I can tell you that so far there was not a single positive case.”

London trick is to keep up investment - mayor - Reuters UK

By Avril Ormsby

LONDON | Wed Aug 1, 2012 12:47am BST

LONDON (Reuters) - Boris Johnson, the most colourful cheerleader for the 2012 Games, said on Tuesday that the trick will be to maintain momentum once the Olympics are over and the world's attention has moved on.

The Mayor of London, who was first spotted on the world stage, hand in pocket, taking the Olympic flag from the host city Beijing four years ago, is attempting to schmooze international businesses and persuade them to invest in the capital.

"This is the summer to be in London," Johnson told Reuters in an interview. "It's all getting better and better. It's just a great crescendo of excitement.

"There will be, and there are already significant benefits, from hosting the Olympics but the trick is going to be to keep up the momentum."

The mayor's infectious ebullience has already persuaded private companies to sponsor some of his ideas, including a cable car over the River Thames, a self-service bicycles for hire scheme and an orbital tower in the Olympic Park that partly resembles a helter skelter.

Now Johnson hopes that about 100 new foreign companies will come to London, creating an initial 3,000 jobs and 350 million pounds ($548.38 million) of economic benefit.

London & Partners, partly funded by the mayor, is hosting a series of business events during the Games based around creative industries, finance, environmental companies and technology firms.

It is particularly focusing on companies based in China, India and the United States who currently do not have a large presence in the capital city.

KICKING DOWN DOORS

The mayor told a meeting of creative business leaders at the Design Museum, on the River Thames, on Tuesday evening: "We hope to attract more and more people from around the world to invest here and to build up their businesses here, your enterprises.

"We are here to kick down doors for you, help with visas, get things moving."

Johnson told Reuters that investment in the city's infrastructure, including transport, would continue to deliver long-term returns and that there was an "optimism and a confidence now that is fantastic".

About 40,000 jobs have been created on the back of the Games, he said, and a previously neglected part of east London where the Games is being staged has been regenerated.

"We think the long-term benefits to be secured from the Olympics and the Olympic investments will be delivering jobs and growth for London for a long time to come," said the mayor.

Some local politicians criticised Johnson on Tuesday for having invited News Corp boss Rupert Murdoch to an Olympic swimming event despite one of its News International newspapers, the News of the World, being at the centre of a phone-hacking scandal.

"I have a big programme of engagements and it is the right thing to do," the mayor said.

"It's harder to think of anybody who's done more to sponsor and support British sport by the way."

BSkyB sponsors Britain's highly successful cycling team, Team Sky.

Johnson, whose ruffled blond hair, apparent disrespect for the politically banal, and, some say, affected bumbling manner, has made him a household name in Britain and a much touted future British prime minister.

He is so well known that people and the media refer to him simply as Boris.

His profile, and that of London, has risen during the past 12 months after the royal wedding involving Prince William and Kate Middleton and Queen Elizabeth's Diamond Jubilee to mark her 60 years on the throne.

When asked if Londoners can expect a Boris premiership in the future, he said: "No, no, no, that is never going to happen".

($1 = 0.6382 British pounds)

(Editing by Tony Jimenez)

London tourist trade suffers from Olympic effect - Reuters UK

By Paul Casciato and James Davey

LONDON | Tue Jul 31, 2012 9:03pm BST

LONDON (Reuters) - Tube trips are surprisingly easy, shopping on the high street is down in central London, hotel bookings and prices are off their peak, while theatres and London cafes suffer the Olympic effect.

Economists have long warned that the Olympics may not provide much of a boost at this stage for Britain's recession-hit economy as most of the construction work and investment has been done in the run-up to the Games. Now, early evidence appears to be bearing this out.

Warned repeatedly for months about the strain London's transport system would experience with the expected arrival of 11 million visitors to the Games, Londoners and the usual non-Olympic seasonal visitors appear to have vanished from the underground train system, the shopping districts, theatres, hotels and abandoned other traders who benefit from tourism.

The British government's budget watchdog OBR pointed out in March that some visitors may cancel or delay trips to London in order to avoid the crowds and potential travel disruptions.

"Given the uncertainties and the relatively small size of any possible effects, we assume that, apart from the ticket sales effects, the Olympics will not have a material effect on the quarterly path of GDP," the OBR said.

Britain's government is trying to boost foreign investment and stimulate the private sector, while keeping to a strict austerity budget, and hopes the Olympic Games - the first to be held in Britain since 1948 - will showcase Britain as a business destination.

Prime Minister David Cameron hopes that will help assuage critics who see the 9.3 billion pound (14.5 billion) cost of hosting the Olympics as too expensive given Britain's strained finances.

London's much criticised public transport system, the busiest in Europe, won early gold for easily carrying a million spectators through an unusually quiet early rush hour on the first full working day of the Olympics on Monday.

Travellers said buses and trains were working surprisingly smoothly with only a few hiccups, confounding dire forecasts of a transport meltdown in a city once notorious for slow trains, late buses and incoherent delay announcements.

London's transport bosses expect an extra 3 million journeys per day during the Games on top of the usual 12 million, an Olympian test for an underground train network whose infrastructure in parts dates back to 1863.

"I've noticed how easy it has been to travel. With the influx of one million people for the Games, it's made me wonder, where are they?" Paul Richardson, a 37-year-old photographer, told Reuters on Monday at London Bridge, which the authorities had warned commuters to avoid.

WORKING FROM HOME

Part of the lighter load has come from those office workers who have been instructed or allowed to work from home while the Olympics are on.

Consultancy firm KPMG told Reuters that it expected some 50 percent of its 5,500 staff in London to work flexibly at some point during the Games.

"That could mean working from home, or a different office, or varying hours," a KPMG spokesman said.

Most theatres in London's West End have not seen traffic increase or fall for advanced August bookings and shut down last Friday to avoid clashing with an opening Olympic ceremony, which starred Britain's Queen Elizabeth, Society of London Theatre President Mark Rubinstein told Reuters on Tuesday.

He said the anecdotal evidence was that there seemed to be a lot of people on the streets of London, but much of the seasonal London tourist traffic seems missing from the West End.

"There's been fewer people buying tickets on the day," Rubinstein said.

Britain's two biggest airports said they had seen no significant increase in the number of passengers flying abroad while Eurotunnel said outward bound bookings on Channel Tunnel trains were slower than usual.

More than 10 million people braved torrential rain and then scorching summer temperatures to see the Olympic flame on its 8,000 mile (12,870 km) journey across the length and breadth of the United Kingdom, according to Games organiser LOCOG.

Only one in 10 travellers is leaving London to avoid the Games, according to a survey by the Association of British Travel Agents. Seven out of 10 Londoners were even looking forward to the Games, the survey showed.

"Numbers taking holidays at this time are fairly consistent with past years," said ABTA spokeswoman Victoria Bacon.

"While some have chosen to forgo a summer holiday during the Games, these have been balanced by those wanting to get away," she said.

That statistical and anecdotal evidence contrasts with the doomsday predictions by some of the British media that Londoners would flock to foreign shores to avoid the security checks, crowds and chaos of the Olympics.

DISAPPOINTED RETAILERS

Retailers in central London have also reported disappointment with the Olympic effect so far.

Jace Tyrrell, spokesman for New West End Company, which represents more than 600 retailers, property owners and businesses in central London, said they expected a change in trading patterns, but that advice from Transport for London (TfL) warning commuters may be working better than intended.

"TfL's advice in terms of capacity on the network has almost been too successful," Tyrrel told Reuters, adding that shopper numbers were down but there were more high-spenders in the British capital.

"We need to change the messaging there, in terms of there aren't the difficulties on the network that we thought there would be."

However, retail areas near the Olympic Park such as the vast Westfield shopping centre at the entrance were booming.

John Lewis, Britain's biggest department store group, said its store at Westfield Stratford, which borders the Olympic Park, saw sales double in the week to July 28.

Other London tourist attractions also complained that there has been a 30 to 35 percent drop in visitor numbers at the height of their summer high season, when schools are out and many people take their vacations.

Bernard Donoghue, chief executive of The Association of Leading Visitor Attractions, the body representing London's top tourist attractions such as the London Zoo, St Paul's Cathedral and Westminster Abbey said the statistics apply to overseas and domestic visitors.

"We and all of our members are incredibly positive about London and Britain hosting the Olympics not least because the tourism legacy of hosting the Olympics and having that global TV advertisement for Britain to the world's largest TV audience will be brilliant for British tourism in the long term."

HOTELS AND CAFES

Hotel wholesaler JacTravel said room rates are back to normal levels, as an early peak in prices has faded as LOCOG returns previously booked rooms to the market and as the Olympic Games deters normal London tourists.

Restaurants and other hospitality business owners such as cafes have also been bemoaning the quiet streets of London.

"It is very quiet," said Duli Konjuhi, who runs a coffee stall right at the exit of Aldgate tube station in London's City, the old banking district, where usually bankers and office workers line up for their after-lunch shot of caffeine.

"For us the Olympics are negative," he said. "One of my friends, who runs a car wash near-by, said he made just 60 quid yesterday."

An elderly British man, finishing a meal at a near-empty restaurant in the central Russell Square area where hordes of media catch coaches to Olympic venues every day asked the head waiter: "Where are all your customers?"

The waiter explained that many Londoners were working at home or avoiding the city for the duration of the Games.

"It's a disaster for us," he said.

(Additional reporting by Avril Ormsby, Sven Egenter, William Maclean and Brenda Goh)

London 2012 Olympics: day four – as it happened - The Guardian

Good morning and welcome to day four of the London 2012 Olympics.

China has become embroiled in the first doping controversy of the London Games after one of the world's most respected coaches, the American John Leonard, executive director of the World Swimming Coaches Association, described the swimming prodigy Ye Shiwen's gold medal performance as "unbelievable" and "disturbing".

China is currently top of the medal table with nine golds. The USA is second with five, and France is third with three.

Britain is in 20th place with one silver and two bronzes, following yesterday’s stunning third-place finish for the male gymnasts – which was so nearly a silver.

There are 15 medals up for grabs today, so all this could change dramatically by the end of the day. Or China and the USA could win lots more medals.

Coming up today:

• 9am onwards: Kobe Bryant and his team-mates on the US basketball team continue their campaign for gold, today taking on Tunisia. Meanwhile, Britain, who lost their opening match against Russia, need to beat Brazil to keep alive their hopes of progressing.

• 10am: Fencing: the men’s individual foil gold medal will be decided at the North Greenwich Arena today. Three British athletes will be competing, with the highest hopes for James David and Richard Kruse.

• 10.30am: The fourth and final day of the eventing competition. Can Zara Phillips win the first royal Olympic medal? The individual honours look out of her reach, but the British riders – including Mary King and world No 1 William Fox-Pitt – are well-placed to challenge for the team gold.

• 11.30am onwards: At Wimbledon, Venus Williams plays Canada’s Aleksandra Wozniak in the second round on centre court, followed by Andy Murray v Jarkko Nieminen of Finland. After that Andy Roddick plays Novak Djokovic, and then Britain’s Laura Robson plays Maria Sharapova. On court one, Maria Kirilenko of Russia plays Britain’s Heather Watson, among other matches. In the doubles, Jonathan Erlich and Andy Ram of Israel play Roger Federer and Stanislas Wawrinka of Switzerland.

• Midday: In the sailing, Britain’s Ben Ainslie has a great chance of gold in the Finn class, as does Paul Goodison in the Laser. The regattas continue today, with the medal races at on Sunday and Monday.

• 1.30pm: Britain’s David Florence, a silver medallist in Beijing, hopes to go one better this afternoon when he lines up in the men’s canoe slalom. The semi-finals and finals take place today.

• 2pm: The Royal Artillery barracks will host the men’s skeet shooting finals, where the world record holder Vincent Hancock of the US will defend his title.

• 2.10pm: Olympic champions Hungary play Montenegro in the water polo. Britain is also playing, at 10am against Serbia.

• 4.30pm: Gymnastics. Team GB’s women – including uneven bars expert Beth Tweddle and 15-year-old Rebecca Tunney, the squad’s youngest and shortest member – face tough competition in today’s team final. The US achieved the highest qualification score to participate.

• 4.15pm: A geopolitical grudge match as Serbia play Croatia in the men's handball preliminary round. Serbia are fourth in the world rankings to Croatia's 13th.

• 7.30pm onwards: And there’s a dramatic evening ahead in swimming finals at the Aquatics Centre. American arch-rivals Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte will team up at 8.45pm for the 4x200m freestyle relay final, less than an hour after Phelps – who is hoping to overtake gymnast Larisa Latynina as the most decorated Olympic athlete in history – has taken part in the 200m butterfly final. Meanwhile the US’s Missy Franklin and perhaps also Britain’s Caitlin McClatchey will race in the 200m freestyle final at 7.40pm.

• 7.45pm: Great Britain – who have been very impressive so far – play Brazil in their final group-stage match in the women’s football tournament. Britain have won both their previous group matches so are already through to the quarter-finals, but both teams tonight will want to top the table to avoid meeting world champions Japan in the quarter-finals. The brilliantly-named Brazilian Marta has been Fifa’s world player of the year five times. Elsewhere in women’s football, New Zealand play Cameroon, Japan play South Africa, the USA play North Korea, Canada play Sweden, and France play Colombia.

London 2012 Workers stay at home to avoid the crush - Daily Telegraph

London 2012 Workers stay at home to avoid the crush - Daily Telegraph

One MP said: “The economic effects of the Games — on public finances and GDP — could well be negative and I think this is something that people should turn their attention to after the Games.”

The Government has set a target for half of all London-based civil servants to either work from home, work from another office, change their working hours or alter their route to work during the games. An estimated 800 Ministry of Justice staff worked from home yesterday, while around 400 London-based Department for Work and Pensions staff relocated to offices outside London.

Thousands of staff at taxpayer-owned RBS are expected to work from home during the Olympics. A spokesman for the bank said: “Some of our staff have the option of working from home on the 'exceptionally busy’ days which have been highlighted to us by the Olympics organisers. Flexible working is already part of our culture within RBS, so this will not be particularly new for employees.”

Critics said staff should be at their desks “getting on with their jobs” so soon after the bank saw an IT meltdown leave customers unable to make payments.

Priti Patel, MP for Witham, said: “In light of everything that’s been going on with banking and RBS, I would have thought the only focus should be on getting on with doing their jobs in the office.”

Train companies said routes into central London from areas such as Brighton, Kent and the South West were quieter than usual yesterday.

As well as fewer workers travelling into London, almost two million residents of the capital are expected to leave the city during the Olympics.

According to Experian, a travel website, around 10 per cent fewer people visited London’s West End last Friday and Saturday compared with the same weekend last year.

Gang plots crime spree in Bristol and steals... a torch - Bristol Evening Post

A BUNGLING gang of Scousers who drove to Bristol for a crime blitz managed to steal just a torch and some cigarettes, a court heard.

The men stole a Vauxhall Vivaro van from Bolton on May 7 and also took a Ford Fiesta which had been parked in Portishead, Bristol Crown Court was told.

1. Bristol Crown Court

They then attempted to rob White Cot Stores in Portishead and Tinknell Country Store Ltd in Congresbury, but only snatched £3,000 worth of tobacco in the first raid and a torch in the second.

When police gave chase the gang drove up the wrong side of the M5, with police looking on as they drove alongside them on the right side.

The gang ejected bags of garden waste and "metallic objects" from the van before stopping and fleeing into woods, where they were rounded up by a police dog.

Five men pleaded guilty to two burglaries on May 9.

They were: Daniel Ryan, 24, of Prescot, Merseyside, who was driving the van, and Kirby men Kevin McCabe, 19, Anthony Keating, 24 and Kevin Burke, 25.

The fifth gang member was Jordon Lytollis, 18, of no fixed abode.

All pleaded guilty to taking the Ford Fiesta without authority on May 9.

Ryan pleaded guilty to aggravated vehicle taking and driving the Vauxhall Vivaro dangerously on the A38, Portway and M5, and driving while disqualified on May 9.

Lytollis, McCabe, Keating and Burke pleaded guilty to aggravated vehicle taking of the Vauxhall Vivaro, being carried as passengers.

The recorder Mr Michael Parroy QC sentenced teenagers Lytollis and McCabe to two years each in a young offenders' institution.

He jailed each of the older men for three and a half years.

He said: "To describe this as an utterly horrendous event is something of an under-statement. You tried to get away. Thankfully, you did not."

Ryan was banned from driving for ten years.

Julian Howells, prosecuting, said witnesses disturbed by an alarm saw the gang outside the first shop, from where they forced their way in and grabbed cigarettes.

CCTV captured the masked intruders before they drove off in the Fiesta, abandoning the car elsewhere in Portishead.

Half an hour later the gang managed to steal a torch from the second shop, having failed to snatch an angle grinder, and were seen once again as they drove off in the Vauxhall.

Mr Howells said police liaised with the force helicopter as they pursued the gang.

He told the court: "A stinger device was deployed but the van was able to avoid it. They went on towards Avonmouth, through a red light, and went on the wrong side of the dual carriageway, the wrong way round a roundabout and the wrong way up the M5."

The court heard at one stage the van collided with a police car and a hammer smashed the windscreen of another.

After some 20 miles police instigated a controlled stop of the van and cordoned off an area between the M5 and Cribbs Causeway before a dog tracked the gang down, Lytollis having to be zapped with a stun gun.

Charlotte Kenny, defending McCabe, Lytollis and Burke, said all three men had drug habits and conceded they had travelled south to commit crime.

Daniel Travers, defending Ryan and Keating, said Ryan's drug misuse had led him to offend. He said Keating was in a relationship with a dentist who was attempting to make him lead a decent, law-abiding life.

London 2012 Olympics 'empty seats' row: Q&A - Daily Telegraph

_{Copper Box Hall has empty seats for the women's handball as South Korea take on Spain (Picture: AFP/ GETTY IMAGES)}

Why is there such public anger?

The sight of entire blocks of seating remaining empty during some of the most popular events has prompted a huge backlash from the public. Row of empty seats, usually in premium front-row positions have become a familiar Olympic fixture for more than a decade. Athletes who had been unable to get tickets for their families to watch them compete says it is “absurd” and “ridiculous” that whole blocks of seats remained empty at some venues. Fans have also been left angered that, despite spending hours upon hours trying to buy tickets to events, they have been left empty-handed yet they can see rows of empty seats. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has been aware of the problem for more than a decade but successive presidents have failed to address the issue. 2012 officials had pledged to fill all the stadiums after a similar fiasco at the 2008 Beijing Olympics forced China to bus in spectators.

_{Empty seats during the Egypt v New Zealand Group C match at Old Trafford, Manchester. (Picture: PA)}

What is being done about it?

Troops and students have been given places at a number of Olympics venues as the controversy continued about empty seats. As public anger mounted, the organisers of London 2012 announced more tickets will be made available to the public on a daily basis. The London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (Locog) has scrambled to find ways of filling empty seats including putting more tickets on sale at the end of every day.

_{Individual Dressage Equestrian event on day one of the London 2012 Olympic Games at Greenwich Park (Picture: GETTY IMAGES)}

How can I get tickets?

Locog has now started clawing back unsold and unused tickets to sell on to the British public, with 3,000 released on Sunday night and thousands more to go on sale each day as they become available. The tickets will be sold through the official London 2012 website, on a first come, first served basis. All 3,000 tickets released on Sunday were quickly snapped up. Locog has now started clawing back unsold and unused tickets to sell on to the British public, with 3,000 released on Sunday night and thousands more to go on sale each day as they become available. The tickets will be sold to British customers through the official London 2012 website, on a first come, first served basis. All 3,000 tickets released on Sunday were quickly snapped up.

_{A view of the empty seats during the Women's Gymnastic qualification (Picture: ACTION IMAGES)}

How do I get tickets from inside the Park?

There are three way fans can try and get more tickets. There is a “Wimbledon-style” returns process available at venues or in the Olympic Park subject to demand with prices at £5 for adults and £1 for children. These tickets come up when people leave early and return their tickets

What events can I watch for free?

Free sporting events have proved the biggest success of the London Olympics so far, with around a million spectators turning out to watch the cycling road races and many more expected at forthcoming contests. No tickets have been needed to join the excited crowds who lined the roads between The Mall in central London and Box Hill in Surrey to cheer on Britain’s Mark Cavendish and Lizzie Armitstead in the men’s and women’s road races at the weekend. Over the coming fortnight, sports lovers will not have to pay a penny to soak up the atmosphere at the cycling time trial, where Tour de France winner Bradley Wiggins will go for gold, the marathon or the triathlon. Other events that can be watched for free include the race walk through central London, the marathon swimming in the Serpentine in Hyde Park and the sailing in the seas off Weymouth and Portland in Dorset.

_{A race about the start at the Aquatics Centre and there are lots of empty seats (Picture: IAN MCILGORM/NOPP}

London wins early "gold" for slick rush hour - Reuters UK

By William James and Alessandra Prentice

LONDON | Mon Jul 30, 2012 5:18pm BST

LONDON (Reuters) - London's much criticised public transport system, the busiest in Europe, won early gold for easily carrying a million spectators through an unusually quiet early rush hour on the first full working day of the Olympics on Monday.

Travellers said buses and trains were working surprisingly smoothly with only a few hiccups, confounding dire forecasts of a transport meltdown in a city once notorious for slow trains, late buses and incoherent delay announcements.

London's transport bosses expect an extra 3 million journeys per day during the Games on top of the usual 12 million, an Olympian test for an underground train network whose infrastructure in parts dates back to 1863.

"I've noticed how easy it has been to travel. With the influx of one million people for the Games, it's made me wonder, where are they?" Paul Richardson, a 37-year-old photographer, told Reuters at London Bridge, which the authorities had warned commuters to avoid.

As the voice of London mayor Boris Johnson boomed through the station with a pre-recorded message warning of delays, rush hour regulars all praised the slickness of their commute.

"They've done a good job. The journey has been very straightforward and even the sun is shining," said Michael Taylor, a commuter at the station.

Even Prime Minister David Cameron left his official armoured Jaguar cars at home on Monday, taking the underground to check the travel situation with his own eyes.

Some travellers did say they would reserve judgment until they saw how the system coped with several days of Olympic rush hours, including the evening crunch.

The capital's higgledy-piggledy public transport system is often berated by Londoners and employers, who complain that the jumble of grimy buses and delayed trains damages London's reputation as one of the world's premier cities.

But commuters all across London reported that the cramped and sweaty crush that is the daily fare of London life had been replaced by near-empty trains and serene bus journeys.

FASTER THAN EXPECTED

"The trains were all excellent today, we had no trouble," said Hugo Brown from Ely in Cambridge, who travelled to the Olympics to support British table tennis player Paul Drinkhall.

"We had given ourselves extra time to get here and we've actually gotten here in less time than expected."

The fact that trains and buses appeared exceptionally quiet suggested that some travellers might be following different routes or dusting down their bicycles or walking boots, as authorities and the mayor have been urging for weeks. Some took vacations, worked from home or just took the day off.

Bike sheds in the City of London financial district were fuller than usual, and there were swarms of cyclists in luminous yellow tops at many junctions.

"It's nothing like they warned it would be, they said we'd have to queue 30 minutes just to get on the Tube but I ended up getting to work an hour early," said Letizia, an Italian living in London, at London Bridge station.

Chris Round, 23, from Boston, Massachusetts, took the Underground and Docklands Light Railway to watch the judo.

"It was real easy to get to," he said. We just got on the first train that came. It was kinda crowded but it wasn't bad."

Such were the fears of a meltdown that the bosses of the transport system set up a web page, www.GetAheadoftheGames.com, which warned Londoners to avoid busy stations.

"The traffic in London has not - touch wood - been badly affected by the Games, or certainly not as badly as some people were predicting," Mayor Johnson wrote in a column in the Daily Telegraph about why people should feel cheerful about the Games.

"The Tube has performed pretty well so far," he said. "Buses are running more or less to time."

Johnson said the authorities were frequently allowing drivers to use special Games lanes.

A spokeswoman for Transport for London said the transport system was working well for spectators and commuters alike, appearing unusually happy to be giving positive quotes instead of trying to explain the latest mishap.

(Additional reporting by Reuters staff in London; Writing by Guy Faulconbridge; Editing by Kevin Liffey)

Opel loses new design chief - Reuters UK

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GM Dismisses Ad Chief Joel Ewanick, Opel/Vauxhall Designer Dave Lyon - Automobile

News rarely breaks on a Sunday afternoon, but General Motors announced late yesterday that both Joel Ewanick, its global marketing chief, along with designer Dave Lyon, are no longer employed with the company.

Ewanick, 52, startled many in the industry when he was named North American chief marketing officer in May 2010. Prior to the announcement, he had held a similar title at Nissan for all of six weeks, having been recruited from Hyundai where he spearheaded the company’s North American marketing efforts, and helped usher in the famed Hyundai Assurance program.

During his tenure at GM, Ewanick rattled many cages, including eschewing GM’s longtime ad agencies – including Campbell-Ewald – in favor of purchasing all its marketing from a single source. Ewanick also helped usher in Chevrolet’s latest brand mantra (“Chevy Runs Deep”), and controversially moved the company away from Facebook advertising – a move the Wall Street Journal claims irked many of his superiors.

GM, for its part, isn’t saying much on the matter. An official statement from the automaker notes only that Ewanick has “elected to resign effective immediately.” Ewanick turned to his Twitter account, saying “it has been a privilege & honor to work with the GM Team and to be a small part of Detroit’s turnaround. I wish everyone at GM all the best.” Alan Batey, GM’s vice president of U.S. sales and service, will assume Ewanick’s duties on an “interim basis” until a replacement can be found.

Lyon’s sudden change of employment is equally cryptic and surprising. Lyon, 43, was supposed to have assumed responsibility for Opel and Vauxhall design on August 1^st. Mark Reuss, GM’s president of North American operations, told Automobile Editor-in-Chief Jean Jennings that he was dismissed on matters of “policy and integrity.”

Cardesignnews.com reports that Lyon was ushered out of the GM Design building in Warren, Michigan, by an HR chief on Thursday. No public statement on Lyon’s departure has been issued, but according to CDN, an email circulated to employees by Ed Welburn, GM’s Vice President of Design, simply read “Effective immediately, David Lyon is no longer an employee of General Motors.”

At this point, GM has no official replacement for Lyon at Opel/Vauxhall. CDN claims Mark Adams, the current head of Opel/Vauxhall design who was to transfer to Buick and Cadillac design as part of GM’s design leadership shake-up, will allegedly continue his duties on an interim basis until GM appoints a full-time leader for its European design studios.

Source: GM, Wall Street Journal, CarDesignNews.com

London passes Olympic travel test - Financial Times

Last updated: July 30, 2012 7:43 pm

By Mark Odell, Transport Correspondent

Passenger killed as car plunges from bridge and lands upside down on the busy dual carriageway below - Daily Mail

By Daily Mail Reporter

PUBLISHED: 05:39 EST, 30 July 2012 | UPDATED: 10:39 EST, 30 July 2012

A 26-year-old man has died after a car plummeted off a bridge and landed upside down on the busy dual carriageway below.

The horrific crash happened just after rush hour on Friday night with the man and a 25-year-old women left trapped inside the upturned blue Vauxhall Astra.

Firefighters managed to free the pair from the car on the A429 Swindon Road in Cirencester, Gloucestershire, soon after.

Horrific: A blue Vauxhall Astra plunged off a bridge to crash upside down on a busy road below

The man, who has not been named, was airlifted from the scene of the crash, which happened around 6.15pm, to the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford but he died the next morning.

The female was taken by road ambulance to Gloucestershire Royal Hospital but later transferred to the Frenchay Hospital in Bristol where she is receiving treatment for fractures to her pelvis and spine.

Inspector Joseph Tierney, of Gloucestershire police, said: 'Unfortunately the 26-year-old man has passed away as a result of injuries sustained in the incident when a Vauxhall Astra left Beeches Road bridge and landed on the A429 dual carriageway.'

A 26-year-old man and a 25-year-old woman were left trapped inside the vehicle on the A429 dual carriageway in Cirencester, Gloucestershire

The pair were freed by firefighters and the 26-year-old was airlifted to the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford but died the next day

All three emergency services attended the scene and the road remained closed until the early hours of Saturday morning.

A spokesman for Gloucestershire Fire and Rescue Service said: 'The vehicle had veered off a bridge crossing the A429, as a result the car was on its roof on the carriageway with two people trapped inside.

'Fortunately at this time rush hour had passed and the road was not very busy. Crews managed to extricate both the male and female casualties.'

Police are continuing their investigations into the cause of the crash.

Injured: The woman, 25, suffered fractures to her pelvis and spine but is recovering in hospital

Under examination: Gloucestershire Police are still investigating what caused the crash

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If the male is the passenger, then the woman is the driver??

- Alvin, Shetland, 30/7/2012 14:48

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Ouch that looks pretty bad. HOpe the driver is okay.

- Elliot, Londoninium, 30/7/2012 14:26

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How did anyone survive this! Another young life lost, so sad.

- kaz, bath, 30/7/2012 14:22

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What a horrific sight. This is my worst nightmare as I travel across a bridge like this most days. So very sad to see and sad to hear someone has lost their life in such a horrific way.

- Sasha, UK but raining again., 30/7/2012 14:14

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How the hell did she survive?

- Dee Miller, Johannesburg, South Africa, 30/7/2012 13:56

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I love the arrowed diagram but i think its very obvious what happened from reading the headline. RIP to the poor young man who died.

- sam, a place once called ireland, 30/7/2012 13:18

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How very sad. A young man has lost his life and a young woman lies injured in Hospital. I hope she gets better soon. Condolences to the man's family. May he rest in peace.

- Charlotte , Bristol, 30/7/2012 13:17

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Was the arrow REALLY needed?

- KatieB, Ashington, 30/7/2012 13:17

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You didn't need to add the arrow.

- Honesty is the best policy, Uk, 30/7/2012 12:48

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London 2012: Decision yet to be made on Cancellara's time trial defence - The Guardian

Swiss cyclist Fabian Cancellara, who suffered a nasty fall in Saturday's 250km road race, could not train on Sunday due to the pain Link to this video

The Olympic time-trial champion, Fabian Cancellara, still felt pain on a bruised shoulder caused by a crash in the men's road race while training for the defence of his title in London, the Swiss team said on Monday.

Unable to ride the day after Saturday's nasty fall, the Swiss four-times time-trial world champion has yet to make a final decision on whether he will compete in the 44km event on Wednesday.

"Fabian Cancellara trained today for the first time since his crash in Saturday's road race. After two hours of training on his time trial bike over 70 kilometres, the Swiss still feels pain in his right shoulder," Swiss Cycling said in a statement.

"Because of the pain he feels in the time-trial position, he will have to make changes to his positioning on the bike. Whether he takes part in the time trial will be announced on Wednesday [at]the latest."

Cancellara bruised his collarbone after hitting the safety barriers with about 15km to go in the 250km road race, raising fears about his fitness, but he said it was part of the sport.

"I'm a hard man. I've had a lot of things already this year," Cancellara, nicknamed "Spartacus" for his build and strength, told a news conference earlier on Monday.

Cancellara fractured his right collarbone in four places in April when he fell in the Tour of Flanders and said the pin which doctors put in it after that crash had ultimately saved his Olympic hopes following his latest tumble.

"I had the same feeling as Flanders. I was waiting for all the tests and the doctor said 'It's lucky you had a pin in'. I think that saved me from not breaking my collarbone.

"It feels almost broken. I feel a bit better with every hour that is passing. The pain was still there most of yesterday. But I think I'm in good hands. I have a good crew around me.

"I'm optimistic. I have to think positive otherwise I could have flown home already yesterday ... The treatment is important but the most important thing is the head."

Access all areas: Vauxhall’s open door policy - Belfast Telegraph

Convenience counts for a lot when choosing a family vehicle – a factor that’s making Vauxhall’s Meriva a winner in its class.

The key is the clever touch of rear-hinged back doors that swing in the opposite direction to normal, at an angle of almost 80 degrees – providing dramatically enhanced access for rear seat passengers. It’s clever and unique, except that is on the ridiculously expensive and very rare Maybach, which costs more than 30 times as much.

There are further benefits when transporting children as the larger door opening and free space around the B-pillar mean parents can lift children towards the rear-mounted, second-stage child seats without having to contort themselves around the door. The Meriva’s high roofline helps too.

A lot of thought has also gone into interior design. Vauxhall’s FlexiRail system provides owners with a variety of modular storage and comfort solutions, swallowing up variety of everyday items, from handbags and magazines to MP3 players, CDs and colouring books.

The latest Merida’s count of cubbyholes and storage bins, with such features as a 1.5-=litre bottle-holder in each of the front doors, make it one of the most practical offerings in the small MPV class that it defined when its first version launched, back in 2003.

Rear seat comfort has also been enhanced, now offering the biggest range of adjustment in class.

New for this latest model is a panoramic sunroof that comes as standard on SE versions.

Engine choices are between three 160-valve 1.4 petrol units of from 75 to 140 PS output and four diesel variants, including a 1.7-litre CDTI. Two versions are available with six-speed automatic gearboxes.

The 1.3-litre Meriva Exclusiv CDTi ecoFLEX I drove has fuel-saving stop-start technology making for a highly economical 68.9 sec combined cycle fuel consumption figure yet still offering a 104-mph top speed potential.

The 19,845 base price of the test car was swollen to a still competitive 21,700 by the addition of such extra cost options as 17-inch five spoke alloys, a sat-nav system, electrically heated front seats and steering wheel and a sliding centre storage module between the two front seats – the parking brake now being operated by a space-saving electric switch rather than a lever.

Now with a longer wheelbase, the latest Meriva lifts itself out of the small MPV sector to become a five-seat compact MPV ready to do sales battle against such rivals as the Citron C4 Picasso, Renault Scenic and Ford C-Max.

In six years. UK buyers have turned the keys of more than 112,000 Merivas. Given its entry into a wider market sector, Vauxhall are convinced they can expand substantially on such success.