London 2012 Olympics venues: Velodrome and BMX Circuit - Daily Telegraph
Hosting: Track cycling, BMX, Paralympic track cycling
Schedule:
Track Cycling: Aug 2 – Aug 7
BMX: Aug 9 – Aug 10
Paralympic track cycling: Aug 30 - Sep 2
Capacity: 6,000
Fact: Sir Chris Hoy was involved in the design process of the Velodrome.
Post games: a new mountain bike course and road-cycle circuit will be added to develop VeloPark for local community, sports clubs and top athletes.
Test event: Feb 17-19, 2012: Cycling (Track), UCI Track Cycling World Cup Classic
Transport: Stratford (National Rail, London Underground, DLR), West Ham (London Underground, National Rail)
Ukraine Olympic official resigns in wake of London 2012 ticket scandal - The Guardian
One of Ukraine's leading Olympic figures has resigned after he was filmed offering London 2012 tickets for sale on the black market.
Volodymyr Gerashchenko, the 66-year-old general secretary of the Ukraine National Olympic Committee (NOC), has quit but said he will co-operate with the independent investigation commission that was launched last week.
The Ukrainian NOC president, Sergey Bubka, said: "The Ukraine National Olympic Committee takes accusations very seriously and that is why we have acted so swiftly to address the recent BBC reports."
Gerashchenko, the head of Ukraine's NOC since 1997, was filmed by BBC London News offering to sell 100 tickets worth several thousand pounds to an undercover reporter posing as a ticket tout. Legislation brought in since London won the vote to host the Games in 2005 makes it a criminal offence to sell Olympics tickets on the black market, with a fine of up to £20,000 for each offence.
Gerashchenko was filmed telling the undercover reporter: "I understand you're a dealer – that's why for me, you are priority number one, the top, the person, in case we have extra tickets to contact you, we contact you." The official also asked to be paid in cash for the tickets.
Walsall? No thanks! One London borough fails in attempt at 'social cleansing' to solve housing crisis - Daily Mail
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A London council pledged yesterday to stop moving its tenants out of the area to towns offering cheaper housing.
Labour-controlled Waltham Forest said few people wanted to leave for a new life in Walsall.
London boroughs, under severe pressure to find housing, have been encouraging residents to move out of the capital.
Waltham Forest council has been unsuccessful in moving council tenants from homes like this tower block in E11, to areas such as Walsall in the Midlands
But Waltham Forest housing chief Marie Pye told the BBC: ‘The majority of people we offered this to just turned it down.
‘Most say they would rather stay on their mum’s floor so their kids could go to the same school. We need to redouble efforts to find accommodation in east London.’
The search for suitable state-subsidised housing has been made trickier because of the Coalition’s cap on housing benefit.
Jobless tenants cannot claim more than 250 to pay rent on a one-bedroom flat or 400 for a four-bedroom house. Critics claim the curbs will lead to ‘social cleansing’ of poor families.
Boroughs have been trying to persuade residents of the advantages of a move to cheaper areas.
Labour Newham has approached a housing association in Stoke-on-Trent about finding accommodation for its homeless people.
The lack of affordable housing in the borough, like this shared ownership scheme in Waltham Forest, has forced the council to try and rehouse tenants in another part of the country
But Waltham Forest said people were unenthusiastic about moving to various destinations including Luton, Margate and Walsall.
Instead it pledged to look more closely at where tenants worked, where their children go to school and where family ties are when allocating housing.
Ministers have warned councils that relocation is unnecessary and may be illegal if applied to people with strong local links.
However one mother said she was happy with her move from Waltham Forest to Walsall.
‘I was living in temporary accommodation and the condition was very bad,’ she told the BBC. ‘I prefer it here. In London everything is too expensive.’
'Judgement Day killer thought London imam antichrist' - BBC News
A blind Muslim cleric was strangled by a man who told police he had killed the "antichrist" and that it was Judgement Day, a court has heard.
Hamza Boutouil, 25, attacked Maymoun Zarzour with an ornamental rope at Muslim Welfare House in Finsbury Park, north London, on 2 September last year, the Old Bailey heard.
His defence claims that he was criminally insane at the time and should receive hospital treatment.
He was living in the country illegally.
Picked up pigeonThe imam, known as Sheikh Maymoun, had been blind from a young age from injuries he suffered in his native Lebanon.
After the killing, as witnesses were giving descriptions to the police, Algerian Boutouil returned to the centre and was "raving", the court heard.
Prosecutor Jonathan Turner QC told the court: "Among the things he was saying, which bystanders translated from Arabic so the police could understand, was that he had killed the antichrist, and that by that he meant the imam, and that this was Judgement Day."
It is accepted that Boutouil killed Sheikh Maymoun.
The prosecution argues that he should be found guilty of manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility.
In the hours before the killing, between 02:00 and 04:00 BST, Boutouil was seen behaving strangely on CCTV.
Covered in bruisesHe confronted a man and then two girls in the street before picking up a pigeon and walking off with it.
Later he went to the welfare centre and was heard shouting "Allahu akhbar" (God is great) repeatedly and was behaving strangely during morning prayers.
At about 08:40 BST he spent about an hour alone with the imam and killed him, the jury heard.
The primary cause of death was strangulation. Sheikh Maymoun was also covered in bruises consistent with a struggle.
Mr Turner said: "Whatever else had happened in that room, the imam had not sold his life cheaply. He had fought back, despite his blindness."
Boutouil, who entered the country last July, was living in a squat near Wood Green, north London.
If the government is paying for you to live then basically I don't think you have much rights to say which town you want to live in. People are greedy. Accept the houses in Walsall or Luton and be glad you've got somewhere to live
- Me, reading this, Uk, 29/5/2012 03:43
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