London 2012: Liam Phillips wants Olympic medal despite crash - BBC News
BMX rider Liam Phillips believes he can still win an Olympic medal at London 2012 despite breaking his collarbone at last month's World Championships.
Phillips, 23, was officially named to Team GB last week despite major surgery after the crash three weeks ago.
"There are seven weeks until the first day of the competition, I should have quite a lot of time," said Phillips.
"I should be in fine form. I put myself in the bracket of five or six riders looking to go there and medal."
Phillips on his broken collarbone
"It's quite strange - it's not like any injury I've had in the past. I've had it plated and the collarbone feels normal. You go to pick up your bag of shopping and then remember your collarbone is still broken, so you have to be careful doing general day-to-day things. But it's allowed me to continue my training as planned, sleep well and doing everything that's expected this close to an Olympic Games."
Somerset's Phillips sustained the second collarbone break of his career on day two of the World Championships in Birmingham, having won time trial silver the previous night.
"For the first 15 minutes or so after I crashed, I was keeping my fingers crossed that it was just a broken collarbone - which does sound rather strange now," he told BBC Sport.
"But I understand that a collarbone can be healed. I had surgery and it was plated, which means I can get back to training almost immediately.
"I've been focusing on the London Olympics for a very long time. An injury 10 weeks out isn't ideal, but I've done so much work over the last few years that I'm not going to let an injury ruin it."
Phillips is currently ranked 48th in the world having spent most of 2011 inside the Manchester velodrome rather than on the BMX circuit.
He made the switch to track cycling in part because it eliminated many of the injury risks, but returned to BMX later that year.
"I do feel cursed [with injuries] but I race BMX bikes. I'm not going to look for any pity from anybody else," he said.
"Training with the track team was fantastic, spending seven months with some of the best riders in the world, but I missed the BMX.
"I overlooked the buzz I get from riding my bike each day and I soon learnt I was going to miss it more than I could ever have imagined."
Having made his comeback, Phillips looked to be in excellent shape at the World Championships inside Birmingham's National Indoor Arena at the end of May, but the crash wiped out his chances of a second medal - and of sampling the home atmosphere.
"That was the frustrating thing, it was a massive race in the UK and that's not something we get to experience very often," he said.
"It was surreal, it was fantastic to be there and have the crowd on your side. I'm looking forward to experiencing that again in London, seeing as I didn't get to experience too much at the World Championships."
London's take on Stonehenge for Summer Solstice - ITN
The iconic megaliths of Stonehenge have been recreated in central London ahead of the Summer Solstice on Wednesday evening.
Citihenge is a giant sculpture made from scrap cars and, unlike its neolithic name-sake, it is surrounded by urban landmarks rather than rural tranquility.
Each of the six, three-car henges is five metres wide and more than five metres high, and the whole thing weighs 36 tonnes.
It was designed by sculptor Tommy Gun over a three-month period.
He said: "It is made entirely from old car parts, which taps into my own childhood growing up on a farm where I used to love building and creating things with pieces of discarded machinery."
Citihenge will remain in London for two days before touring the UK, appearing at the Goodwood Festival of Speed in West Sussex from June 28 to July 1.
London trader and wife jailed for insider dealing - Reuters UK
LONDON |
LONDON (Reuters) - A British trader and his wife who helped fund a lavish lifestyle from illegal share dealing, were jailed on Wednesday in a landmark case pursued by prosecutors on both sides of the Atlantic.
James Sanders, who owned and was a director of now-defunct brokerage Blue Index, his wife Miranda and James Swallow, a Blue Index co-director, had last month pleaded guilty to a combined 18 counts of insider dealing between October 2006 and February 2008.
James Sanders, dubbed by Judge Peregrine Simon as "the driving force behind the criminality", was jailed for a record four years. Miranda Sanders - who was tipped off about imminent U.S. takeovers by her sister in America - was jailed for 10 months, as was Swallow.
The striking, sharply-dressed couple, who are both in their mid thirties and have two young children, saw their sentences cut by 25 percent after pleading guilty, although James initially argued his trades were legitimate stock picks.
They held hands while judge Peregrine Simon read out the case against them and kissed after sentencing. Miranda turned to smile and nod encouragingly at a woman in the court room's public gallery, who burst into tears on sentencing.
The Financial Services Authority (FSA), which brought the UK prosecution, said the three scooped almost 2.0 million pounds in profits from illegal share dealings, while Blue Index clients made around 10.2 million - a precursor to the Sanders' couple selling the business for around 8.0 million.
The FSA, which only started prosecuting notoriously tricky insider dealing cases in 2007 after being criticised for its "light touch" approach to regulation, had pushed for three custodial sentences despite the couple's young family.
"This was a case of systematic abuse by approved people of their privileged position in the market - we are determined to stamp out such abuse," said Tracey McDermott, acting head of enforcement at the Financial Services Authority (FSA).
"No doubt as they prepare to spend their first night behind bars, they will be reflecting on the consequences of their greed. Others, who might be tempted to do the same, should be in no doubt about our continued commitment to use all of the tools at our disposal to tackle those who abuse the market."
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The FSA was first alerted to possible insider dealing after spotting unusually heavy trade in U.S.-listed staffing services company Kronos ahead of its takeover by private equity house Hellman & Friedman Capital Partners in 2007.
Calling on the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), its U.S. peer, the regulator eventually pieced together the links between the Sanders couple and Miranda's San Francisco-based sister and brother-in-law, an M&A partner at accountancy firm Deloitte, "Annie and Arnie" McClellan.
In a tortuous case that involved trawling through 26 million emails and 800,000 phone calls recorded on Blue Index's office lines, regulators focused on dealings in five takeover targets: Kronos, Per Se, aQuantive, ChoicePoint and Getty Images.
McDermott told a journalist briefing there were "whoops of joy" in the FSA's offices when in one recorded telephone call, James Sanders' father Tim asks: "Is this not insider dealing?" James answers: "No, not really. Well ...". When his father laughs and says: "Try proving it", James says: "Yes, exactly".
A consummate trader, James Sanders told a newspaper in 2008 his mantra was: "Buy at the point of maximum fear" after snapping up a 5 million pound property in London's exclusive Kensington district for a 22 percent discount at the height of the credit crunch.
The FSA found what they called his "life plan" in his kitchen, in which he documented his plans to pay off his mortgages and luxury cars and resign from Blue Index by placing one 200,000 pound tip a year.
In a scribbled account, he put aside 100,000 pounds for a "car fund" and 50,000 for a watch, clothes, holidays and wine.
Blue Index was a specialist brokerage of contracts for differences (CFD), a tax-efficient trade that allows dealers to speculate on short-term price fluctuations of assets such as stocks by buying a percentage of their value, or "margin".
The FSA said the insider in the case was Miranda's brother-in-law Arnold McClellan, a senior partner at the San Francisco branch of Deloitte. It said Miranda's sister Annabel or Arnold leaked privileged, price-sensitive information to the British couple about U.S. securities listed in New York.
James Sanders then disclosed information to James Swallow and encouraged Blue Index clients to trade in those stocks.
Annabel McClellan has already been jailed for 11 months without parole and fined $1.0 million after being pursued by the SEC, Department of Justice (DoJ) and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). No charges were brought against Arnold, who has now retired.
James Sanders, meanwhile, has been forced to park the Ferrari and has been disqualified as a director for five years. The court will decide on confiscation orders at a later date.
The FSA, which said it spent "millions" on pursuing the Blue Index case, is prosecuting 11 others for insider dealing - an offence that carries a maximum jail term of 7 years in the UK.
"This case really does demonstrate the FSA's determination to deliver criminal prosecutions for insider dealing," said Tim Dolan, a lawyer at Pinsent Masons.
"While the FSA have still brought relatively few criminal actions, and have not always been successful, results like this should go some way to deterring insider dealing in the future."
(Editing by Douwe Miedema and Jon Loades-Carter)
Vauxhall introduces new Zafira Tourer Tech Line - easier.com
Vauxhall has expanded its Tech Line trim aimed at company car drivers to include the award-winning Zafira Tourer MPV with prices starting from £19,785 on-the-road.
Joining the Tech Line line-up of Astra, Insignia and the recently-announced Mokka SUV, Zafira Tourer Tech Line benefits from exceptional levels of standard spec combined with low P11D pricing and attractive Benefit-In-Kind charges.
The Zafria Tourer Tech Line comes with generous levels of standard equipment, including the Navi 600 satellite navigation system, Bluetooth and 17-inch alloy wheels. This is in addition to premium features such as chrome lower window mouldings, silver roof rails and high gloss black B-pillar and black mirror accents, and dark tinted rear glass.
Company car drivers have the choice of four engines: a 1.4 Turbo and 1.8-litre petrol or one of two 2.0-litre diesel units with 130PS or 165PS. The most eye-catching engine for company car drivers will be the 2.0 CDTi (130PS) ecoFLEX start/stop engine combining 119g/km of CO2 with 62.8 combined mpg.
“An array of eye-catching standard features paired with exceptional P11D values make the new Zafria Tourer Tech Line really stand out from the competition,” said James Taylor, Fleet Sales Director. “Zafira Tourer joins Astra, Insignia and the Mokka SUV in our Tech Line range aimed at company car drivers.”
The Zafira Tourer Tech Line is available to order now with first vehicles arriving in showrooms in September.
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