London 2012: GB women's hockey team beaten by South Africa - BBC News
A Great Britain women's side missing key players lost 3-1 to South Africa in the opening match of the London Cup, their final pre-Olympic tournament.
GB were without Alex Danson, Crista Cullen and Sarah Thomas through injury, while captain Kate Walsh was omitted.
South Africa took advantage with goals from Sulette Damons, Bernie Coston and Jen Wilson making the game safe before Susie Gilbert replied for GB.
"Missing 25% of our Olympic squad is a tough ask," said coach Danny Kerry.
"But the reality was that we still got enough chances in the game to get a result.
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Visit the London 2012 official website to find out which teams are playing in which session.
"Once we were down, we went after the game really well and generated opportunities. We know which areas to improve on."
Britain's next game in the tournament, taking place in Chiswick in west London, is against Germany on Thursday evening.
In the other match on Tuesday, Olympic champions the Netherlands came from behind to beat Australia 2-1 through two goals from Maartje Paumen.
The GB women's squad, ranked fourth in the world, open their London 2012 campaign against Japan at 19:00 BST on 29 July, with further matches against South Korea, Belgium and China, before taking on the Netherlands in their final group match.
They won the recent Olympic test event, defeating Argentina in the final.
Crowds jam London for solo queen's jubilee finale - msnbc.com
LONDON (Reuters) - Cheering crowds thronged the streets of London on Tuesday for the grand finale to four days of festivities marking Queen Elizabeth's Diamond Jubilee attended by millions across Britain.
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The 86-year-old herself cut a subdued figure as she attended a thanksgiving service at St Paul's Cathedral and a celebratory lunch without Prince Philip, her husband of 64 years who was taken ill with a bladder infection on Monday.
It was one of the few grand state occasions in her life when he has not been present, taking some of the gloss of what is widely seen as a triumphant jubilee that has cemented the queen's popularity.
"Our prayers and thoughts are very much with him this morning," Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury and spiritual leader of the Anglican church, said in his sermon.
Millions have attended street parties, watched a spectacular 1,000-vessel pageant on the River Thames in London on Sunday and a concert in front of Buckingham Palace on Monday, all held in honor of Elizabeth II, the only British monarch other than Queen Victoria to have reigned for 60 years.
In a rare move, the queen, who usually only appears on TV screens for a short message on Christmas Day, will deliver a special broadcast be aired at 1700 GMT to thank the nation.
Crowds began massing in huge numbers on the wide Mall avenue towards Buckingham Palace, turning the famous road into a sea of red, white and blue, for the jubilee finale when the royal family will appear on the balcony, with a fly-past by modern and former Royal Air Force aircraft.
POMP AND PAGEANTRY
After the celebrity glitz of the pop concert, Tuesday's events were more typical of the formal displays of ceremony for which British royalty is known across the globe.
Courtiers in an array of ceremonial red and golden tunics and mounted soldiers wearing shining helmets and breastplates dating from centuries past when Britain was an imperial power accompanied a parade through central London.
With Philip absent, the queen led the horse-drawn carriage procession to Buckingham Palace in an open-top 1902 State Landau with heir-to-the-throne Prince Charles and his wife Camilla, while military bands played and a 60-gun salute was fired.
Charles's sons Prince Harry and Prince William with his wife Kate, in an Alexander McQueen dress, followed behind in other carriages.
Earlier Elizabeth - dressed in a fine silk tulle outfit, embroidered with tiny mint green star-shaped flowers embellished with silver thread - had arrived at Paul's Cathedral to shouts of "God save the Queen" from crowds lining the route.
A trumpet fanfare played as the monarch headed into the grand Christopher Wren-designed church, making her way up the aisle past bowing and curtsying members of the congregation.
Commentators said the church service for Elizabeth, who came to the throne aged 25 in 1952, would hold particular poignancy for the queen who as titular head of the Church of England holds her religious role close to her heart.
"We are marking today the anniversary of one historic and very public act of dedication - a dedication that has endured faithfully, calmly and generously through most of the adult lives of most of us here," said Rowan Williams.
"We are marking six decades of living proof that public service is possible and that it is a place where happiness can be found," he told the congregation, which also heard a reading from Prime Minister David Cameron.
Afterwards the royals enjoyed a lavish lunch at Westminster Hall, the oldest part of the Houses of Parliament and the site for the lying-in-state of her mother, the Queen Mother, after her death in 2002.
The guests, including current and former senior politicians, enjoyed a menu featuring salmon from Uist Island north of Scotland and saddle of Welsh Cambrian Mountain lamb, along with an aptly named Jubilee sauce.
SUCCESS AND POPULARITY
The long weekend dedicated to the diamond jubilee has been seen as a success story for the monarchy, their media team and Elizabeth personally, and even typically inclement weather has failed to dampen enthusiasm of many of her subjects.
Polls suggest the crown and the queen herself are more popular than they have been for decades, with one suggesting the hereditary monarch was more in touch with her people than Cameron and his ministers.
Meanwhile the younger generation of royals, especially William, Harry and Kate, have become the darlings of the British press, once notoriously hostile to the monarchy as it threatened to implode in the 1990s following marital infidelities and the death of Charles's hugely popular first wife, Princess Diana.
Republicans have been vocal in their opposition during the jubilee but have drawn few obvious signs of public backing, although they hope that apathy to the royals felt by some could turn to hostility when the queen is gone and the less popular Charles becomes king.
If nothing else, commentators said the royals had once again provided Britons, suffering through financial hardships, deep public spending cuts and rising unemployment, an excuse to forget their woes and enjoy a party.
"With the economy and one thing or another, this has just been the most fantastic celebration," said designer Sheree Charalampous, 53, who had made her own crown, strung with pearls, pictures of corgis and a portrait of the queen.
"I really think the monarchy is now back in favor again, which is wonderful. Nobody does this sort of thing like us. It has been an amazing four days, just fantastic."
(Additional reporting by Peter Griffiths; Editing by Paul Casciato)
(c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2012. Check for restrictions at: http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
London 2012 security operation investigating 500,000 people - The Guardian
The backgrounds of up to 500,000 people are being scrutinised in an unprecedented security screening designed to stop the Olympic Games being disrupted by criminals or terrorists, the Guardian has learned.
In what is understood to be the biggest vetting process since the second world war, the Home Office has so far refused about 100 applications for Games accreditation, mostly because of concerns about the extent of people's criminal records.
However, some people have been denied accreditation on the advice of MI5, which has to assess whether a person might pose a significant threat to national security.
The 500,000 figure includes anyone seeking employment at the Games, as well as athletes, coaches and officials from more than 200 competing nations.
The Guardian has been told the threshold for refusing accreditation has been set high, which means some of those working at the Olympics this summer will have "come to the notice of" the police or MI5 in the past.
"To be rejected, they have to pose a significant potential threat to the safety of the Games," said a source. "They won't be rejected on the basis that information is held about them.
"A judgment has to be made, not on the basis that there is an official record, but does this person pose a significant threat to security."
Police and MI5 have been taking a careful look at all those who may end up working at the Olympic sites. It is an obvious way for would-be terrorists to gain access to venues, and police are aware that terrorists may masquerade as casual workers looking for temporary jobs.
However, those involved in the security of the Games say they have found no evidence so far that al-Qaida sympathisers have tried to infiltrate the civilian workforce.
The vetting process began in earnest last October and officials are more than two-thirds of the way through the process, which is expected to be completed in the coming weeks.
It has been one of the core tasks of counter-terrorism officials but the scale of the operation, and the depth of the checks required, has made it a drawn-out affair.
Among those still to be vetted are many of the 10,000 security guards who will be employed by G4S, the private firm which is contributing 23,700 personnel at the Olympic venues.
A big recruitment drive was launched by G4S when the number of guards it was expected to provide grew from 2,000 to 10,000, after it emerged that the Games organisers, Locog, had seriously underestimated the number required. The 70,000 volunteers recruited by Locog, who are considered crucial to the success of the Games, are also being screened.
Home Office officials said that many of the 10,500 athletes taking part in the Games and those accompanying them were used to travelling to international events and were unlikely to pose any security problems.
There remain outstanding questions surrounding a handful of high-profile individuals, including members of the Syrian Olympic committee with close links to the Assad regime.
It is believed that discussions are continuing over whether to bar General Mofwaq Joumaa, the president of the Syrian national Olympic committee, from entering the UK.
Scotland Yard and MI5 are understood to have hundreds of investigations "live", with the Olympic security operation likely to reach a new pitch as teams arrive for training before the event.
It is understood that the security service has not set up a separate Olympic security unit, believing it would be wrong to draw a distinction between terrorism and Olympic terrorism.
The security service is said to be bracing for a possible deluge of intelligence from foreign police forces and intelligence agencies, who will not want to sit on any information just in case it reveals a potential threat to the Games. MI5 remains confident it will be able to cope, and the Home Office said it will leave nothing to chance when it comes to security.
"We are undertaking stringent checks on all those seeking accreditation," a Home Office spokesman said. "This rigorous process has been designed to ensure those working at the Games are fit to do so. We will leave nothing to chance in our aim to deliver a safe and secure Games that London, the UK and the whole world will enjoy."
South African Airways to scrap London-Cape Town service - Daily Telegraph
The airline will close the route, which it has operated for more than 20 years, in August, leaving it with just one remaining service to the UK, between Johannesburg and Heathrow.
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