Championship Season Preview 2006/07 - Leicester City

The release of the only man convicted of blowing up a Pan Am flight in 1988 has brought high drama and controversy: the jeering mob outside a Scottish prison, the cheering crowd at a Tripoli airport, the furious families of the 270 people who died in the Lockerbie bombing.

Britain on Friday condemned the “upsetting” scenes of jubilation in Tripoli at the return of Abdel Baset al-Megrahi and considered canceling a royal visit to Libya as a sign of displeasure. President Barack Obama said the warm welcome in Libya was “highly objectionable.”

Despite the strong words, the diplomatic end of the decades-long Lockerbie saga is unlikely to damage steadily warming relations between the West and Libya, a country once reviled as a pariah state.

Bolt’s spirits got a boost before the start when teammate Melaine Walker added the world title to her Olympic gold in the women’s 400 hurdles, another success for the Caribbean island with outsized performances at the championships.

After defending champion Tyson Gay had withdrawn because of injury, Bolt’s main competitor stood beyond the finishing line - a huge track clock painted in the same colors as his Jamaican jersey.

With a new take on President Kennedy’s famous Cold War quote “Ich bin ein Berliner,” Bolt pleased the locals with a training jersey saying “Ich bin ein Berlino,” referring to the bear mascot of the championships.

His running was even better than his show. From Lane 5, he gobbled up all opposition by the end of the curve, and then let loose those huge arms and legs in a whirl of unmatched speed.

Once across the line, he stuck out his tongue much in the manner of basketball great Michael Jordan. and in track, he now has the same exalted stature.

Bolt took off his orange shoes, which had taken him though through eight races in six days, and he started celebrating on the eve of his 23rd birthday.

It was the first sultry evening in Berlin, with temperatures exceeding 90 degrees, reminiscent of that same day, exactly one year ago, in Beijing.

“I definitely showed people that my world records in Beijing were not a joke,” Bolt said.

During warmups, Bolt faked knocking out Spearmon, with the American happily playing along as he also was sucked up by the Bolt aura. Afterward, Spearmon could do nothing but applaud greatness.

Ahead of Bolt’s magic, Yusuf Saad Kamel of Bahrain and Kenenisa Bekele of Ethiopia started their chase for their own doubles. After winning the 10,000 on Monday, Bekele was dominant again and crossed first in his heat of the 5,000.

The Ethiopian great won a long-distance double at the Beijing Olympics and adding two more golds in Berli would establish him as perhaps the greatest distance runner Africa has had.

The Jamaican sprinting great captured the 200-meter gold medal in 19.19 seconds Thursday, yet another world record. Gritting his teeth, he pointed to the clock as soon as the time flashed.

His time in the 200 slashed 0.11 seconds off the mark he set last year at the Beijing Olympics and came four days after he broke his 100 record by the same margin.

“I was running my heart out,” Bolt said. “I got my start right and that was the key. And when I got the start I knew was fine.”

And, never shy to dream, he had a thought: What if Queen Elizabeth knighted him Sir Usain Bolt?

“That sounds very nice,” Bolt said.

Bolt is now 5 for 5 in major sprint events. He won the gold in the 100, 200 and sprint relay in Beijing’s Bird Nest, each time with a world record. Now he is one race away from doing likewise in Berlin.

Alonso Edward of Panama was second, a distant 0.62 seconds behind Bolt. Wallace Spearmon of the United States took bronze.

“Just coming out there, I’m just waiting for the lights to flash ‘game over,’ cause I felt like I was in a video game,” said Shawn Crawford, who finished fourth. “That guy was moving - fast.”

Starbucks Corp. is raising prices on certain harder-to-make beverages — and cutting the costs for simpler ones like a plain cup of coffee, the company said Thursday.

The price hikes, on average between 10 and 15 cents and as much as 30 cents, went into effect Thursday.

“This is as a part of our comprehensive approach to providing the value while balancing our business responsibilities,” said spokeswoman Valerie O’Neil.

The increases will be added to “complex” drinks, like the company’s frothy blended frappuccino.

More basic beverages — the latte and plain coffee, among others — will see prices decreased by 5 to 15 cents.

Still, more prices will increase under the plan than will be lowered or remain the same.

Starbucks won’t say how many cities were affected by Thursday’s increase but said the price hikes will eventually roll out nationwide in the coming months.

Officials at the Seattle-based coffee giant said prices will vary by region to cover higher labor and material costs.

Starbucks shares rose 10 cents to $19.22 in trading Thursday.

Oil prices spiked Wednesday after the government reported a huge draw of crude oil from U.S. stockpiles.

The report was surprising because the demand for energy has been knocked down so badly by the recession. Crude withdrawn from storage facilities last week wiped out a buildup in supplies over the past two weeks.

Benchmark crude for September delivery jumped $3.23 to settle at $72.42 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. That contract expires Thursday, and most of the trading has already shifted to the October contract, which climbed $2.74 to settle at $73.83.

If the October contract ends the week at that price, it would set a new high for 2009.

The Energy Information Administration said crude in storage fell by 8.4 million barrels last week. Gasoline held in storage fell as well.

The banking unit of Wells Fargo & Co. is facing a lawsuit claiming it illegally reduced the size of customers’ home equity lines of credit.

The suit, which was filed in Illinois, claims Wells Fargo failed to accurately assess the value of customers’ houses before deciding to cut the size of their credit lines. San Francisco-based Wells Fargo is being accused of using unreliable computer models that wrongly valued home prices too low to justify cutting the size of customers’ loans.

Home equity lines of credit are similar to credit cards in that a customer has a credit limit and can continue to borrow money until the limit is reached. Once a portion is paid off, it again becomes accessible to borrow. But, home equity lines of credit are backed by a borrower’s property, whereas credit cares are unsecured.

Michael Hickman, who filed the lawsuit on behalf of himself and is seeking class action status for it, claims Wells Fargo also did not provide proper notice that the bank was reducing the size of the credit lines.

 The White House plans to announce the federal deficit will be about $262 billion less than officials predicted earlier this year — in part because the administration has provided less aid than expected to Wall Street.

The federal deficit this year will total $1.58 trillion, a senior White House official said late Wednesday. That’s three times more red ink than last year. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the report before its release next Tuesday while President Barack Obama will be on vacation in Massachusetts.

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office is expected to release its mid-session review the same day. It estimated in June that it expected a deficit of $1.825 trillion.

The report for the budget year that ends Sept. 30 also will predict Washington to spend $3.653 trillion this year, the official said. Revenue, however, would reach only $2.074 trillion.

The new deficit numbers are record shattering, but would give the administration the opportunity to say that its policies have avoided a more extreme financial crisis and eliminated the need for further bank infusions.

Still, the deficit amount is a tremendous obstacle for an administration trying to undertake massive policy overhauls in health care and the environment.

 Limited Brands Inc., which operates Victoria’s Secret and Bath and Body Works, said Wednesday that its second-quarter profit fell 27 percent as sales slipped, but cost-cutting helped it earn more than Wall Street expected.

The specialty retailer boosted its yearly outlook Wednesday, and its shares rose 22 cents, or 1.5 percent, to $14.80 in trading after hours.

Profit for the three months that ended Aug. 1 fell to $74.3 million, or 23 cents per share, from $102 million, or 30 cents per share a year earlier. Excluding a gain of 4 cents per share on selling a joint venture, Limited’s earned 19 cents per share.

That beats the 16 cents per share analysts polled by Thomson Reuters predicted on average. Analyst estimates typically exclude one-time items.

As reported earlier this month, Limited Brands’ July same-store sales fell 10 percent to $2.07 billion from $2.28 billion a year ago. Analysts predicted revenue of $2.06 billion.

As public pitchman, President Barack Obama accuses special interests of fighting to block his health care overhaul. “They run their ads. And let’s face it, they scare people,” he told one weekend audience.

Yet Obama has spent months assembling a formidable lineup of special interests of his own, an essential element of a plan to remake the health care system and succeed where President Bill Clinton memorably failed.

“We have the American Nurses Association, we have the American Medical Association on board,” Obama told the weekend crowd in Grand Junction, Colo. “We have an agreement from drug companies to make prescription drugs more affordable for seniors. … The AARP supports this policy.”

In the parlance of Washington, the organizations on both sides are special interests — the insurance industry and business groups strongly opposed to the direction health care legislation is taking in Congress, as well as the groups of doctors, nurses, drug makers and labor unions working to pass an overhaul despite any misgivings they may have.

Part of the permanent landscape in the capital, they all lobby Congress and federal agencies on the issues they care most about. Many purchase political ads in campaign season or try to turn out their own memberships to vote for preferred candidates. They have enormous sums at stakes in the outcome of the struggle over Obama’s proposed remaking of the health care system.

The U.S. pulled back the veil on Switzerland’s famed tradition of banking secrecy Wednesday, winning an agreement for banking giant UBS AG to disclose the names of 4,450 American clients suspected of hiding assets in Swiss accounts.

The news is expected to prod thousands more UBS clients in America to voluntarily disclose their financial details to the Internal Revenue Service, lest they be pursued later.

The accounts held $18 billion at one time, though many have since been closed, said IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman.

“This agreement sends an unmistakable message to people hiding income and assets offshore,” Shulman said. “The IRS will vigorously pursue tax cheats around the world, no matter how remote or secret the location.”

The Swiss, known worldwide for keeping bank accounts secret, said UBS had no real choice in turning over the names.

Justice Minister Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf told a news conference in Bern that the deal lifts the threat of criminal prosecution against UBS, which not only would have endangered the bank’s existence but would have dealt a severe blow to the Alpine nation’s economy.