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Reuter site - Ugandan takes marathon, U.S. wins most golds
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http://mobile.reuters.com/article/sportsNews/idUSBRE87B01G20120812
Ugandan takes marathon, U.S. wins most golds
Sun, Aug 12 12:24 PM EDT
By Mark Trevelyan and Matt Falloon
LONDON (Reuters) - Stephen Kiprotich of Uganda broke away from two Kenyan rivals to win the men's marathon near Buckingham Palace on Sunday in front of vast crowds enjoying the climax to 16 days of Olympic competition and drama.
After running side by side with world champion Abel Kirui and Wilson Kipsang, the 23-year-old put in a powerful kick to shake off the Kenyans six kilometers from the end of the 42km race. He crossed the finish line draped in the red, black and yellow Ugandan flag, which he knelt to kiss.
The dense throngs that lined the route through central London on a sweltering day were a sign of the huge enthusiasm the Games have generated in a host country where many had been skeptical about the cost and potential disruption.
Britain's best medal haul for a century, the record-breaking exploits of swimmer Michael Phelps and the sprint pyrotechnics of Usain Bolt, who won his third London gold when Jamaica smashed the 4 x 100 meters world relay record on Saturday, have made for a memorable Olympics.
"I will say history has been written by many athletes. The Games were absolutely fabulous. London has absolutely refreshed the Games," International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge told reporters.
On the 16th and final day of competition, Cuba, Ukraine and Kazakhstan picked up golds for boxing and Japan and the United States for wrestling.
Hungarian Adrienn Toth was leading in the women's modern pentathlon, a combination of fencing, swimming, horse riding, shooting and running, which was the last event due to finish.
Starting Sunday on 44 gold medals, six ahead of China, the United States were already unassailable at the top of the overall table and added a 45th when Jake Varner won the 96 kg freestyle wrestling.
They were looking to go one better as their basketball "Dream Team" defended the title against a Spanish team looking for revenge for defeat in the final at Beijing four years ago.
"We all know what's on the line," said U.S. player Kevin Durant. "They're going to come out and give us their best shot. We got our work cut out for us."
Women's modern pentathlon will be the last event to round off the two-week extravaganza of sport before some of Britain's best-known pop acts, including The Who and George Michael, play out the closing ceremony.
The U.S. basketball team will find it hard to top Saturday's spectacle on the track when Bolt anchored the Jamaicans to relay gold and Britain's Mo Farah claimed the 5,000 to go with his 10,000 title.
"CONFIDENCE BOOST"
Bolt added the relay crown to the 'double double' he won in the 100 and 200, defending both after his Beijing triumphs and writing his way into Olympic history as one of the finest - and zaniest - sprinters the world has known.
As he crossed the line, Bolt made his hands into an 'M' shape above his head - a nod to Farah's famous celebration while the Briton later copied Bolt's well-known lightning strike pose as two of the stand-out performers of the Games had fun.
Farah, contributing to Britain's 28 golds, is the seventh man to win the 5,000 and 10,000 titles at the same Olympics.
British Prime Minister David Cameron hailed his heroics as well as the country's response to the Games as a whole.
"It's an enormous confidence boost about who we are as a country, what we can do, what we stand for, and the fact that we can make our way in a very tough and competitive world," he said.
The final moments of Olympic glory in track and field on Saturday brought a close to an eventful penultimate day of the Games in which startling athletic prowess did not completely dominate the headlines.
China bowed out of the Games with a swipe at the critics who had accused teenage swimming sensation Ye Shiwen of doping after her times rivaled the top U.S. men.
Aged just 16, Ye set a world record, a Games record and won two gold medals in the women's individual medleys, but her victories were overshadowed by questions and insinuations of cheating. There was no evidence that she had broken any rules.
The head of the Chinese delegation to London, Liu Peng, said the accusations were totally unfounded and stressed that China was strongly opposed to any doping "misbehavior".
"This is really unfair. This is groundless," Liu told a news conference on Sunday.
"There are individuals and media that are accusing, unfounded, our Chinese athletes. These people should respect sporting persons' dignity and their reputation."
Syrian athlete Ghfran Almouhamad, who competed in the women's 400 meters hurdles, on Saturday became the 11th athlete to be excluded from the Games since July 16 after testing positive for a banned substance.
On Sunday, two Egyptian wrestlers were disqualified for arriving late for the start of their competition. No one had told them that Sunday's bouts started earlier than usual because of the closing ceremony later in the day.
"FEELGOOD GAMES"
Despite concerns about the creaky transport system and a shortfall of private security guards, which forced the government to call in thousands of extra troops to help screen visitors, the Games have so far passed by fairly trouble-free.
A furor over empty seats at several Olympic venues blew over, especially once the track and field showcase kicked in and drew capacity crowds.
Even the weather improved as the Games wore on. Bright sunshine has graced the closing weekend of a festival that has helped to lift the gloom in recession-hit Britain.
Cameron has tried to use the Olympics to woo investment to Britain, hoping they would give the economy a much-needed boost, although some London businesses complained that warnings about overcrowding from the Games had driven customers away.
The Spice Girls and One Direction are among those expected to play the closing ceremony as London prepares to bid goodbye to what The Guardian newspaper dubbed the "feelgood Games".
As well as a "hit list" of more than 30 popular songs, the show will feature thousands of athletes and volunteers and a section devoted to the next summer Olympic hosts, Brazil.
"I think it's a gift that we've got Rio next because their eight minutes is so wonderful and really full of that samba beat," artistic director Kim Gavin said of the 2016 hosts.
(Reporting by Reuters Olympic team, Editing by Mark Trevelyan)
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Reuter site - Russian female punk band trial hurtles towards verdict
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http://mobile.reuters.com/article/entertainmentNews/idUSBRE87406S20120805
Russian female punk band trial hurtles towards verdict
Sun, Aug 05 08:03 AM EDT
By Gleb Bryanski
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Three young women from the punk band Pussy Riot could face sentence this week in a trial over their "protest prayer" in a church that has transfixed Russia and opened President Vladimir Putin to new accusations of a crackdown on dissent.
The first week of hearings divided the mainly Russian Orthodox country. Some believers want tough sentences but many others are calling for leniency, even though few approve of the unsanctioned performance at the altar of Moscow's main church.
The trial for hooliganism, punishable by up to seven years in jail, resumes on Monday in the same Moscow courtroom where oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky faced the second of two trials after defying Putin by taking an interest in politics.
His 13-year sentence has for Putin critics become a symbol of political pressure on the court system, and defense lawyers fear Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, 22, Yekaterina Samutsevich, 29, and Maria Alyokhina, 24, are not getting a fair hearing.
"This trial will define the development of the country as a whole. Either we move toward 'Orthodox sharia law' or remain in a situation of 'velvet authoritarianism'," defense lawyer Nikolai Polozov said.
The trial started on July 30 and lasted late into the evening each day until Friday, with only brief breaks for the defendants - confined to a courtroom cage - and lawyers.
On one day, Alyokhina felt ill and received medical attention, but the defense's complaints that the trio were being deprived of sleep and food were ignored.
The defense team says the court hopes to finish the trial quickly, while many Russians' attention is diverted by summer vacations, and that a verdict is likely this week. Few people in Russia have much faith in the independence of the judiciary.
Putin faces international condemnation over the trial, and the organizers of the biggest protests since he rose to power in 2000 see it as part of a crackdown that includes a tightening of control over foreign-funded lobby groups, a toughening of rules governing the Internet and a sharp rise in fines for protesters.
Putin, who began a six-year term in May, said in London on August 2 that there was "nothing good" in the trio's performance, in which they burst into Christ the Saviour Cathedral on February 21 and urged the Virgin Mary to "throw Putin out!".
But Putin said the three women "should not be judged too harshly" over the protest, which they said was not intended to offend believers but to highlight the close relationship between the church and state.
LAWYERS FEEL "CHEATED"
The band's lawyers initially seemed heartened by his remarks but later suggested they were intended to appease an international audience.
"Putin cheated us yet again," Polozov said on the social networking site Twitter on Friday. "The court continues pressurizing the defendants and ourselves."
The trial has mixed drama and farce, dividing Russian society into those who see the young women and heroes and others who see the three as blasphemers who should be punished.
"They spat on my soul," Lyubov Sokologorskaya, who sells candles and icons at the cathedral told the court on Monday, complaining that she could see under the women's skirts when they kicked their legs up in "aggressive" dance moves.
Alyokhina, Tolokonnikova and Samutsevich have often looked tired and grim, but at other moments burst into laughter - such as when Judge Marina Syrova read out obscenities from their songs.
Some guards turned to the wall to conceal their laughter when defense lawyer Violetta Volkova said an expression used by the band in a song was not meant as an insult for church goers.
"This expression is a mere translation of the English 'Holy shit!', which, according to the Cambridge dictionary, means 'unpleasant surprise'," Volkova said, adding that the expression was often used in programs broadcast on Russian television.
Volkova also questioned the prosecution's references to rules on church behavior set by a Church Council held in Constantinople in 692, saying that the same council prohibited Christians from taking a bath with Jews.
The complaints of the defense team, who at times shouted at the judge, have often been met by silence from the prosecutors, who rolled their eyes in disbelief at some of their motions.
"They are sticking their necks into the noose themselves," one member of the prosecution team told another while discussing the defense team's plea for the judge to read out all 2,500 pages of the prosecution's case.
A group of Russian journalists published an open letter on Sunday complaining they were pushed and bullied at the court by black-uniformed bailiffs who carry automatic weapons designed for combat in confined spaces.
(Additional reporting by Nastassia Astrasheuskaya, Alissa de Carbonnel and Maria Tsvetkova, Writing by Gleb Bryanski, Editing by Timothy Heritage)
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