Al Qaeda issues message about September 11th

 

 Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri, pictured here in a 2006 file photograph, has called for fresh attacks on the United States

 

Americans commemorated this week the loss of those who died at the hands of al Qaeda terrorists on September 11, 2001. Their leader chimed in a day later with new threats against the United States.

Ayman al-Zawahiri called on his followers in an audio message posted on the Internet on Thursday to "land a large strike on it, even if it takes years of patience for this."

9/11 anniversary: 'Our hearts still ache,' Obama says

Al-Zawahiri has headed al Qaeda, since a U.S. military operation killed his predecessor and al Qaeda's founder, Osama bin Laden, in May 2011 in Pakistan.

In his message, he claimed victory against the United States in Iraq and Afghanistan. He called on terrorists to continue the battle on American soil.

Al-Zawahiri named the Boston Marathon bombings on April 15 as an example of such an attack.

He encouraged his followers to provoke the United States into spending more on security, in order to "bleed America economically."

In August the Obama administration closed 19 embassies and consulates across the Middle East and North Africa after intercepting communications between al Qaeda leaders indicating possible strikes on U.S. interests.

In a message between al-Zawahiri and a top ally in Yemen, Nasir al-Wuhayshi, the leader of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, the terror chief told the Yemeni commander to "do something," which U.S. officials inferred to mean an attack.

In his audio message Thursday, Zawahiri also claimed victory over the United States in Yemen.

But extensive drone attacks there allegedly carried out by the United States over the past two years have whittled away at al Qaeda's infrastructure and killed key leaders, diminishing its ability to carry out attacks.

 

US and Russia agree Syria chemical weapons deal in Geneva

Syria's chemical weapons must be destroyed or removed by mid-2014, under an agreement between the US and Russia. 

US Secretary of State John Kerry outlined a framework document under which Syria must hand over a full list of its stockpile within a week.
If Syria fails to comply, the deal could be enforced by a UN resolution backed by the threat of sanctions or military force.
The US says the Syrian regime killed hundreds in a gas attack last month.
The government of Bashar al-Assad denies the allegations and has accused the rebels of carrying out the attack on 21 August.
In a joint news conference with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Mr Kerry called on the Assad government to live up to its public commitments.
"There can be no room for games. Or anything less than full compliance by the Assad regime," he said.

Mr Kerry and Mr Lavrov said if Syria failed to comply, then a UN resolution would be sought under Chapter VII of the UN charter, which allows for the use of force.

Russia and the US have agreed on an assessment that the Syrian government possesses 1,000 tonnes of chemical agents and precursors, according to a US official.
The US believes the materials are located in 45 sites, all in regime hands, half of which have useable quantities of chemical agents, the official added.
However, it is thought that Russians have not agreed the number of sites, nor that they are all under control.
'Important advance' The agreement says initial on-site inspections must be complete by November.
It also stipulates that production equipment be destroyed by November, with "complete elimination of all chemical weapons material and equipment in the first half of 2014".
Mr Kerry outlined six points to the agreement:

1. The amount and type of chemical weapons must be agreed and "rapidly" placed under international control
2. Syria must submit within one week a comprehensive listing of its stockpiles
3. Extraordinary procedures under the Chemical Weapons Convention will allow "expeditious destruction"
4. Syria must give inspectors "immediate, unfettered access" to all sites
5. All chemical weapons must be destroyed, including the possibility of removing weapons from Syrian territory
6. UN will provide logistical support, and compliance would be enforced under Chapter VII

France and the UK both welcomed the agreement.
French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said it was an "important advance". France was the only country willing to join the US in taking military action in Syria.
British Foreign Secretary William Hague said: "The onus is now on the Assad regime to comply with this agreement in full. The international community, including Russia, must hold the regime to account."
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon also welcomed the news of the agreement and in a statement pledged "the support of the United Nations in its implementation".
However, the military leader of the anti-Assad Free Syrian Army rejected the deal and promised to continue fighting.
"There is nothing in this agreement that concerns us," said Gen Salim Idriss, describing it as a Russian initiative designed to gain time for the Syrian government.

Mr Kerry said he hoped the deal would help kick-start a wider peace process.

"We could also lay the groundwork for further co-operation that is essential to end the bloodshed that has consumed Syria for more than two years," he said.
"What we agreed on here today could conceivable be the first critical concrete step in that direction."
Mr Lavrov suggested there could be another international peace conference on Syria by October.
"The main thing is to make sure that all Syrian sides are represented at the conference," he said.
Over the years there have been several conferences, some of which have included the Syrian opposition and excluded the government.
More than 100,000 people have died since the uprising against President Assad began in 2011.
Millions of Syrians have fled the country, and millions more have been left homeless by the fighting.

Syrian crisis: Keeping up with key developments

 

 

Russian President Vladimir Putin warned a U.S. strike would throw the international system "out of balance."

 

Diplomacy designed to end the Syrian civil war entered a new chapter Thursday as U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry began talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Geneva, Switzerland.

The high-stakes discussions center on a Russian initiative to avert a U.S.-led strike by having the Syrian government put its chemical weapons stockpile under international control.

They are expected to come up with a blueprint on how to implement the idea and when to do it. Kerry is bringing a team of experts to deal with "identifying the mechanics" of how the plan will work.

World powers are hoping that the initiative will eventually lead to a political solution to end the deadly civil war.

LATEST DEVELOPMENTS THURSDAY:

Al-Assad applauds Russian diplomacy

The role of military force in Syria talks

Who is Putin speaking to in that op-ed?

McCain: Would have attacked 2 years ago

• At least 94 people were reported dead Thursday across Syria, including 24 in Daraa province, according to the opposition Local Coordination Committees of Syria. This figure includes 27 deaths in Daraa province and another 26 in Aleppo province.

• The same group documented shelling that struck nearly 500 locales, along with almost 50 military jet attacks.

PREVIOUS DEVELOPMENTS:

KERRY-LAVROV GENEVA MEETING:

• The talks in Geneva between U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov possibly could extend to Saturday.

• Speaking in Geneva, Kerry said the military option is still on the table. "We are serious, as you are, about engaging in substantive, meaningful negotiations even as our military maintains its current posture to keep up the pressure on the Assad regime."

• Kerry said the U.S.-Russia efforts to pursue a transfer of Syria's chemical weapons to international control "is not a game." He said it has to be "comprehensive," "verifiable," and "implemented in a timely fashion," warning there must be consequences if Syria doesn't follow through.

• Syria has said it wants to pursue the Russian initiative of placing its chemical weapons under international control, but Kerry said "the world wonders and watches closely whether or not the (Bashar al-) Assad regime will live up to its public commitments that it's made to give up their chemical weapons and whether two of the world's most powerful nations can, together, take a critical step forward in order to hold the regime to its stated promises."

• The Russian delegation "has put some ideas forward and we're grateful for that," Kerry said. "We respect it. and we have prepared our own principles that any plan to accomplish this needs to encompass. Expectations are high. They are high for the United States, perhaps even more so for Russia to deliver on the promise of this moment."

• Lavrov said his meeting with Kerry will "proceed from the fact" that a solution to the problem will make "unnecessary any strike on Syria."

ON THE GROUND:

• Syrian state TV is reporting that the army is making significant gains to retake the historic Christian town of Maaloula. But a video posted by rebels shows fighters cheering "God is greater" and they deny the government claim.

• SANA, Syria's official news agency, tweeted that the Army "eliminates terrorists" -- the term the government uses for rebel fighters -- in Daraa, Deir Ezzor and Hasaka, among other locales.

• U.S. officials estimate that at least 2,000 members of Hezbollah -- a pro-Syrian group based in Lebanon that the United States has designed as a terrorist organization -- are in Syria fighting on behalf of President Bashar al-Assad and his government.

REBELS:

• Gen. Salim Idriss, head of the opposition Free Syrian Army, told CNN's Christiane Amanpour on Thursday that he has intelligence Syria's government has began "to move chemical materials and chemical weapons to Lebanon and Iraq." Idriss' claim could not be independently verified.

• Iraq denied Idriss' claim completely, with Ali al-Moussawi --- an adviser to Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki -- speculating "there is a political agenda" behind it. " We were the victims of chemical weapons under Saddam (Hussein's) regime, and we will never allow to let any country to transfer chemical materials to our lands at all," al-Moussawi said.

• In the same interview with CNN's Amanpour, Idriss said he'd recently talked U.S. Secretary of State Kerry, who told him "if our friends discover that the regime is trying to play games and waste time, the threat of the strikes is still on the table."

"We are getting now a lot of support from our American friends," Idriss added, "but I can't talk in detail about all kinds of the support."

• U.S.-funded weapons have begun flowing to Syrian rebels, a U.S. official told CNN. The weapons, which are not American-made although are funded and organized by the CIA, started to reach rebels in the last two weeks, according to the source. The artillery provided were described as light weapons, some anti-tank weapons and ammunition. This is in addition to the nonlethal aid that the U.S. has been providing.

• Kerry spoke Thursday with two top Syrian opposition leaders ahead of his meeting with Lavrov. He told the leaders he is seeking tangible commitments that the Russians are interested in achieving a credible agreement to rapidly identify, verify, secure, and ultimately destroy al-Assad's chemical weapons stockpile, according to a senior State Department official. He reiterated that President Obama's threat of military action very much remains on the table.

• There's uncertainty about the makeup of opposition fighters. One U.S. official says "only a minority are extremist," referring specifically to those belonging to the al Qaeda-linked al-Nusra Front. Yet U.S. officials familiar with intelligence assessments say many more rebel fighters than belong to that group may want to establish an Islamic state in Syria.

Kerry said last week that 15 to 25% rebel fighters could be considered Islamic extremists, though one U.S. official disputes that claim. "Most of the military opposition is Islamist in orientation," he said, "and the bulk of the main (rebel) fighting forces fall somewhere in the moderate-to-conservative Islamist category." Previously, a senior U.S. military official said, "We do not see the clear division between moderates and extremists that some have suggested."

THE UNITED NATIONS:

• Britain believes that Syria, even after it signs on to the chemical weapons convention affirming its commitment not to use such arms, should still be subject to a U.N. Security Council resolution, a spokesman at the UK mission to the United Nations said. Such a measure should "establish ... a strengthened, accelerated and mandatory mechanism for securing and destroying Syria's chemical weapons," the spokesman said.

• The U.N. report on last month's alleged chemical attack outside Damascus will "probably" be published on Monday and there will "certainly be indications" pointing the origin of the attack towards the Assad regime, French foreign minister Laurent Fabius said during a live interview on French radio RTL in Paris on Thursday.

• A diplomatic source familiar with negotiations over a text of a possible U.N. Security Council resolution said it is less of a French initiative now and more of a joint proposal between France, the United Kingdom and the United States. The resolution is still under Chapter 7, which refers to all "necessary measures" to achieve humanitarian goals and called for a 15-day timeline under which the Syrian government would have to declare its chemical weapons. The resolution also retains the early French demand that the perpetrators of the August 21 chemical weapons attack be put on trial at the International Criminal Court.

• Syria has formally asked to join the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, Syrian U.N. Ambassador Bashar Ja'afari said Thursday. "With this, the chapter of the so-called chemical weapons should be ended," Ja'afari added.

• The letter from Syria's government has been sent to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and is being reviewed by U.N. lawyers to determine whether it meets requirements to join the chemical weapons convention, U.N. spokesman Farhan Haq said. If it does, Ban would register the letter and Syria would officially be a member state in the convention.

• Ja'afari explained that Syria had chemical weapons -- something it didn't publicly admit until this month -- as "a mere deterrent against the Israeli nuclear arsenal."

• The ambassador cautioned reporters against jumping to conclusions, including on what U.N. inspectors will determine with respect to the investigation into an August 21 chemical weapons attack outside Damascus. "The media might be a weapon of mass destruction, too," Ja'afari said.

BASHAR AL-ASSAD INTERVIEW:

• Syria's decision to place its chemical weapons arsenal under international control was the result of Russia's proposal rather than the threat of a U.S. military strike, al-Assad told a Russian TV channel Thursday. "Syria is handing over its chemical weapons under international supervision because of Russia," al-Assad said in an interview with state-run news channel Russia-24. "The U.S. threats did not influence the decision."

• Al-Assad laid out the timeline for applying to the convention in an interview with Russian TV on Thursday, the first step being sending the application to the United Nations with the necessary technical documents. Next: beginning work that will lead to the signing of the convention. "After that, the convention will go into effect and, in my opinion, the agreement will begin to apply within one month of signing it. And Syria will begin to give international organizations data about the stores of chemical weapons. This is a standard process which is expected and we will abide by it," al-Assad said.

• The Syrian president added that his government's signing of the international agreement is not "unilateral." It is contingent, he said, on the United States ceasing its threats of military action and the acceptance of Russia's proposal to transfer the arms to international control. "When we see that the United States really wants stability in our region, and will stop threatening and striving to attack, and will stop proving weapons to the terrorists, then we will consider that we can carry out these necessary processes to the end. And they (the processes) will put into effect by Syria," al-Assad said. "The most important role belongs to the Russian government because we do not trust the United States and have no contact. Russia is the only government that can carry this out right now."

DIPLOMACY:

• Russian President Vladimir Putin took to The New York Times to argue against military intervention in Syria and jab his U.S. counterpart. Striking Syria would have many negative ramifications, Putin argued, including the killing of innocent people, spreading violence around the Middle East, clouding diplomatic efforts to address Iran's nuclear crisis and resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and "unleash(ing) a new wave of terrorism."

• Senate Foreign Relations Chair Robert Menendez told CNN he "almost wanted to vomit" after reading the piece. "The reality is I worry when someone who came up through the KGB tells us what is in our national interests and what is not. It really raises the question of how serious this Russian proposal is," he said.

• President Obama said he is "hopeful" that Kerry's meeting with Lavrov "can yield a concrete result." "John Kerry is overseas meeting on a topic we have been spending a lot of time on the last several weeks -- the situation in Syria -- and how we can make sure that chemical weapons are not used against innocent people."

• House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers, R-Michigan, said he thinks it's possible chemical weapons in Syria can be destroyed. "I think it can happen. And we can get rid of sarin gas now. In the old days, it was a much more complicated process. New technology would mean you could get in and do a lot of destruction in a short period of time in a way that's safe and final, especially on sarin gas. Mustard gas and other things, still gonna take longer. You gotta build incinerators to burn."

• State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf joined fellow U.S. officials in rallying behind efforts to "destroy the entire stockpile" of Syria's chemical weapons, saying it is "obviously the preference" to do that peacefully. She also stated -- as President Barack Obama's administration has said before -- that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad "has no legitimacy and can no longer be leader of Syria."

• White House spokesman Jay Carney fired back Thursday at comments by Sen. Bob Corker, a Tennessee Republican, questioning Obama's ability to be commander in chief. "I think that the American people, at least in my assessment, appreciate a commander in chief who takes in new information and doesn't celebrate decisiveness for the sake of decisiveness," Carney said.

INTERNATIONAL REACTION:

• British Foreign Secretary William Hague said the United Kingdom is heartened by the Russian "diplomatic opening." But he warned that "any commitment" from Syria's Bashar al-Assad regime to hand over its chemical weapons "must be treated with great caution." "This is a regime that has lied for years about possessing chemical weapons, that still denies it has used them, and that refused for four months to allow U.N. inspectors into Syria."

• The top leaders of Turkey, one of Syria's neighbors, weighed in on the latest diplomacy. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the Syrian regime has fulfilled none of its "commitments" and has broken promises to gain time to carry out its actions. President Abdullah Gul said a handover of chemical weapons would be an "important development," but it should be an "overall disposal" and not just a "tactic."

 

Halting Heartburn at Home

Halting Heartburn at Home


f you're one of the 50 million Americans diagnosed with heartburn, you may very well know the agony: that painful burning feeling under your breastbone; the discomfort of chest pain just after bending over, lying down or eating; trouble swallowing, or the ever-annoying classic – that hot, sour nastiness at the back of your throat. That's heartburn for you.

Sure, there are plenty of medicines and over-the-counter treatments available that can provide relief, even in cases where heartburn is chronic or severe, but why a trip to the doctor and the pharmacy? Check out these 10 home remedies for heartburn.

1. Pay Close Attention to What You Eat

Just by the sound of it, you know a jalapeno taco burger is a bad idea. Still, there are lots of specific foods that can trigger heartburn. To keep heartburn in check, monitor your diet closely, and know what's in the foods you eat. Some stealthy heartburn generating culprits are peppermint, caffeine, sodas, chocolate, citrus fruits and juices, tomatoes, onions, and high-fat foods.

2. Avoid Eating Too Much Food

Q: When is heartburn is mostly likely to occur?

A: After overindulging on food! With respect to heartburn, the volume of what you eat is critical. If your belly is too full, your stretched stomach can put pressure on the muscles that keep stomach acids in place. After a wonderful meal, the last thing you want is a late, great heartburn haunt. It's best to keep your portions reasonable.

3. Bid Farewell to Fried and Fatty Foods

Fatty foods linger in your stomach, causing it to produce excess acid. This acid overload irritates the digestive system. Remember those stomach acid-controlling muscles? High-fat foods make them fall asleep on the job, allowing that foul stomach acid to occasionally make its way back up through your esophagus to splash around in the back of your throat.

4. Lose Weight/Maintain a Healthy Weight

Losing weight is daunting; but it can mean relief for people plagued by heartburn. The idea behind weight loss/maintenance as a heartburn management strategy is to keep a healthy weight; it will eliminate abdominal stress caused by carrying extra pounds, especially since excess belly fat creates pressure that can force acids back into the esophagus.

5. Think Before You Drink!

These drinks listed lend themselves to heartburn flares: coffee (regular or decaffeinated), caffeinated tea, colas (and other carbonated soft drinks), and alcohol. Caffeine in some drinks increases acid production in the stomach; sodas cause bloating and alcoholic beverages relax stomach acid-regulating muscles, all of which can lead to heartburn misery.

6. Write It Down

Keep a food journal to keep heartburn at bay. When heartburn occurs, jot down what you've eaten and done so you can pinpoint and avoid foods, beverages, and activities (such as lying down after eating) that may trigger heartburn. Once a pattern appears, you can take proactive steps to avoid things that activate heartburn.

7. Quit Smoking

Smoking can reduce the effectiveness of the muscles that keeps acids in the stomach. Stomach acids are made to help break down food. While the stomach is naturally protected from the acids it produces, the esophagus is not. Smoking weakens the acid-restraining muscles in the stomach. Over time, acid flow into the esophagus can cause injury and damage.

8. Avoid Acidic Foods

Tomatoes, tomato-based products, citrus fruits, vinegar, and vinegar-based foods are all major heartburn triggers. Citrus fruits like oranges, grapefruits, lemons, and limes can trigger serious heartburn, especially if eaten by themselves. Vinegar, often a main ingredient in salad dressings, also can provoke heartburn.


9. Eat Dinner Early and Avoid Nighttime Snacking

Turning in for the night while your belly is full will increase the chance of a heartburn attack. An engorged stomach puts pressure on the stomach valve that keeps acid in place. It's best to finish your last meal two to three hours before bedtime to give food a chance to digest. Avoid nighttime snacking to prevent the stomach from having to digest food overnight.

10. Prop Up

Invest in a wedge pillow! A wedge pillow is a slanted pillow that is designed to prop up the upper body during rest. When the upper body is slightly raised, simple gravity keeps stomach acid in place and out of the esophagus. Wedge pillows are great for propping, but if you find that you need an extra boost, stuff wooden blocks under your mattress for a few added inches.

Keep In Mind...

A common theme that has been consistent throughout this piece is to keep stomach acid from migrating into the esophagus, and to avoid foods, drinks, habits, and behaviors that provoke or exacerbate heartburn. These drug-free tips and tricks suggest small diet and lifestyle changes you can make to help manage severe, chronic, occasional, or pregnancy-induced heartburn. Good luck!

What is Prostatitis

What is prostatitis?

Prostatitis is the general term used to describe prostate inflammation (-itis). Because the term is so general, it does not adequately describe the range of abnormalities that can be associated with prostate inflammation. Therefore, four types of prostatitis are recognized.

What are the types and symptoms of prostatitis?
There are four types of prostatitis:

acute bacterial prostatitis
chronic bacterial prostatitis
chronic prostatitis without infection
asymptomatic inflammatory prostatitis

Acute bacterial prostatitis causes and symptoms

Acute bacterial prostatitis is an infection of the prostate that is often caused by some of the same bacteria that cause bladder infections. These include E. coli, Klebsiella, and Proteus. While it may be acquired as a sexually transmitted disease, the infection can also spread to the prostate through the blood stream, directly from an adjacent organ, or as a complication of prostate biopsy.

Patients with acute bacterial prostatitis present with signs of an infection and may have:

fever,
chills, and
shakes.

Commonly there is urgency and frequency of urination and dysuria (painful or difficult urination).

Chronic bacterial prostatitis causes and symptoms

Chronic bacterial prostatitis is an uncommon illness in which there is an ongoing bacterial infection in the prostate. Chronic bacterial prostatitis generally causes no symptoms, however, on occasion; the low grade infection may flare and be associated with a bladder infection.

Chronic prostatitis without infection causes and symptoms

Chronic prostatitis without infection, also known as chronic pelvic pain syndrome, is a condition where there is recurrent pelvic, testicle, or rectal pain without evidence of bladder infection. There may be difficulties with painful urination or ejaculation, and erectile dysfunction. The cause of chronic prostatitis without infection is not clearly understood.

Asymptomatic inflammatory prostatitis causes and symptoms

Asymptomatic inflammatory prostatitis is exactly as its name describes. There are no symptoms. The cause of asymptomatic inflammatory prostatitis is not clearly understood.

How is prostatitis diagnosed?

The diagnosis of prostatitis relies on a careful history and physical examination by the health care practitioner.

The most important laboratory test is a urinalysis to help differentiate the types of prostatitis. The need for other blood tests or imaging studies like ultrasound, X-ray, and computerized tomography (CT) will depend upon the clinical situation and presentation.

Acute bacterial prostatitis diagnosis

After taking a history, the health care practitioner will likely have a directed physical examination concentrating on the scrotum, looking for inflammation of the testicle(s) or epididymis, and the flank and mid-back, where the kidney is located. If a rectal examination is performed, the prostate may be swollen and boggy, consistent with acute inflammation.

Laboratory testing may include urinalysis, looking for white blood cells and bacteria, signifying infection. The urine may also be cultured to identify the bacteria that are responsible for the infection, but results will take up to seven days to return. The results will help confirm that the antibiotic chosen is correct and may help choose an alternate antibiotic should the illness progress.

Chronic bacterial prostatitis diagnosis

The diagnosis is made by finding an abnormal urinalysis. Sometimes, a urinalysis is collected after prostate examination. This may allow some prostatic fluid to be expressed into the urine and cultured.

A blood test called PSA (prostate surface antigen) may be elevated in this type of prostatitis. While PSA is used as a prostate cancer screening tool, it can also be elevated whenever the prostate is inflamed.

Chronic prostatitis without infection diagnosis

To make the diagnosis of chronic prostatitis without infection, symptoms should be present for at least three months. The cause of chronic prostatitis without infection (chronic pelvic pain syndrome) is not known.

This is a frustrating condition for the patient and the health care practitioner since there is controversy as to the aggressiveness of testing, and exactly what tests should be done. Often, this is a diagnosis of exclusion, meaning that blood tests, urine tests, x-rays and ultrasounds tend to be normal, yet the patient continues to suffer.

Asymptomatic inflammatory prostatitis diagnosis

There are no symptoms with this type of prostatitis, however, when routine lab tests are performed, white blood cells (a sign of inflammation) are found in the urine, but there are no associated bacteria or infection.

What is the treatment for prostatitis?
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Acute bacterial prostatitis treatment

Treatment for acute bacterial prostatitis is a prescription for antibiotics by mouth, usually ciprofloxacin (Cipro) or tetracycline (Achromycin). Home care includes drinking plenty of fluids, medications for pain control, and rest.

If the patient is acutely ill or has a compromised immune system (for example, is taking chemotherapy or other immune suppression drugs or has HIV/AIDS), hospitalization for intravenous antibiotics and care may be required.

Chronic bacterial prostatitis treatment

Chronic bacterial prostatitis treatment is with long-term antibiotics, up to eight weeks, with ciprofloxacin (Cipro, Cipro XR), sulfa drugs [for example, sulfamethoxazole and trimethoprim, (Bactrim)], or erythromycin. Even with appropriate therapy, this type of prostatitis can recur. It is uncertain as to why, but it may be due to a poorly emptying bladder. A small amount of stagnant urine allows the potential for recurrent infection to occur. This situation can be caused by benign prostatic hypertrophy (BPH), bladder stones, or prostate stones.

Chronic prostatitis without infection treatment

Chronic prostatitis without infection treatment addresses chronic pain control and may include physical therapy and relaxation techniques as well as tricyclic antidepressant medications.

Other medication possibilities include alpha-adrenergic blockers. Tamsulosin (Flomax) and terazosin (Hytrin) are drugs that block the non-heart adrenaline receptors and are used in treating BPH and bladder outlet obstruction. Allowing better bladder emptying may help minimize symptoms.

Asymptomatic inflammatory prostatitis treatment

Treatment is not required for this type of prostatitis.

In patients undergoing infertility assessment, this inflammation may be treated with a course of either a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory medication (ibuprofen, Motrin, Advil) or antibiotics.

What is the prognosis for prostatitis?

    Acute bacterial prostatitis is curable with a short course of antibiotics.
    Chronic bacterial prostatitis is often recurrent even with appropriate therapy. Fortunately, the disease tends to be asymptomatic.
    Chronic pelvic pain syndrome will be challenging for the patient and the health care practitioner. Symptoms tend to linger and be difficult to control.
    Asymptomatic inflammatory prostatitis is not clinically significant and does not require treatment.

Malian troops in first clash with MNLA rebels since truce

The truce between Malian troops and Tuaregs paved the way for elections

Malian government forces have clashed with separatist Tuareg rebels in the first fighting since the two sides signed a peace accord in June.


The fighting took place near the western town of Lere, close to the Mauritanian border, leaving three soldiers injured.
Both sides have accused the other of provoking the attack.
A Malian army spokesman has warned that such fighting could jeopardise the truce.
A spokesman for the MNLA rebels told the BBC that government soldiers shelled positions that rebels had agreed to occupy under the ceasefire deal.
However, the army says a group of rebels refused to co-operate with an army patrol and opened fire first.
"An army patrol came across some gunmen in four-wheel drives. They refused to follow the army's orders and opened fire," said spokesman Capt Modibo Naman Traore.
He added: "It could throw into question the entire accord. That's the danger here."
Capt Traore said three soldiers suffered minor injuries and were evacuated for treatment.
Reconciliation The violence comes a week after President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita was sworn in.
Under the ceasefire deal, President Keita has 60 days from the naming of his government last Sunday to start talks with the rebels, who want independence for the deserts of northern Mali, which they call Azawad.
Mr Keita has promised national reconciliation and an end to the cycles of uprisings.
The BBC's Thomas Fessy in neighbouring Senegal says the clashes come as a reminder that tension in Mali is still high and that the path to peace will not be easy.
Rebel forces, which included Tuareg separatists and militant Islamists, took advantage of a coup last year to seize the vast north of the country.
France sent more than 4,000 troops in January and together with West African troops regained control of towns and cities, paving the way for elections in July and a run-off between the two main candidates in August.

Kenya's William Ruto formed an army for war, ICC hears

Anna Holligan explains why William Ruto is in court, in 60 seconds

 Kenya's Deputy President William Ruto formed an army prior to the elections in 2007 "to go to war for him", the prosecution has alleged at his trial. 


He pleaded not guilty to crimes against humanity charges as the trial began at the International Criminal Court (ICC).
Mr Ruto and President Uhuru Kenyatta are accused of orchestrating violence after elections in 2007, and are being tried separately at The Hague.
Mr Ruto becomes the first serving official to appear at the ICC.
The two trials are seen as a crucial test of the ICC's ability to prosecute political leaders.

This is a politically controversial trial with a complex legal history, says the BBC's Anna Holligan in The Hague.

Mr Kenyatta and Mr Ruto were on opposite sides during the 2007 election and are accused of orchestrating attacks on members of each other's ethnic groups.
They formed an alliance for elections in March, saying they were an example of reconciliation.
Analysts say the ICC prosecutions bolstered their campaign as they portrayed it as foreign interference in Kenya's domestic affairs.
'Influential network' Mr Ruto watched and smiled during proceedings and pleaded not guilty to each of the three counts of murder, persecution and forcible transfer of people, our correspondent says.
Mr Ruto's defence lawyer, Karim Khan, accused the prosecution of building its case on "a conspiracy of lies".
"We say that there is a rotten underbelly of this case that the prosecutor has swallowed hook, line and sinker, indifferent to the truth, all too eager to latch on to any... story that somehow ticks the boxes that we have to tick [to support charges]," Mr Khan said.

Kenya's violent elections

• Then-President Mwai Kibaki declared the winner of December 2007 elections - Raila Odinga cries foul
• Opposition protests lead to clashes with police and degenerate into ethnic violence across the country
• Some 1,200 killed and 600,000 flee homes
• Incumbent President Uhuru Kenyatta in Kibaki camp; accused of orchestrating violence against ethnic groups seen as pro-Odinga
• Incumbent Deputy President William Ruto in Odinga camp; accused of targeting pro-Kibaki communities
• Power-sharing deal signed in April 2008 after mediation by ex-UN chief Kofi Annan
• Mr Kenyatta and Mr Ruto form alliance and win March 2013 election
• Mr Ruto's trial started on 10 September; Mr Kenyatta's due in November

 

 

He downplayed claims his client was driven by ethnic hatred, telling the judges that two of Mr Ruto's sisters of the Kalenjin ethnic group were married to members of the rival Kikuyu group.

Chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda said Mr Ruto had planned violence over an 18-month period prior to the 2007 elections, exploiting existing tensions between his Kalenjin group and Mr Kenyatta's Kikuyu group.
Mr Ruto used his power to procure weapons, secure funds and co-ordinate the violence, Ms Bensouda said.
A group of Kenyan MPs and other supporters welcomed Mr Ruto and his co-accused Joshua arap Sang as they arrived for the trial, AFP reports.
He is the head of a Kalenjin-language radio station and is accused of whipping up ethnic hatred.
In Kenya, many people are following the case closely and opinion is split with opposition supporters welcoming the trial and government supporters opposed to it, says the BBC's Caroline Karobia in the capital, Nairobi.
Some 1,200 people were killed and 600,000 forced from their homes in weeks of violence after the disputed December 2007 election.
More than 40,000 people are estimated to be still living in camps, which Mr Kenyatta last week promised to close by 20 September.
On Sunday, he gave cheques worth more than $4,500 (£3,000) per family so they could move out of camps and rebuild their lives.
Ex-UN chief Kofi Annan said, in an article in The New York Times, that the trials were not an assault on Kenya's sovereignty but the "first steps toward a sustainable peace that Kenyans want, deeply".

The Kenyan view

Gabriel Gatehouse BBC News, Nairobi

William Ruto and Uhuru Kenyatta have been successful in linking their personal legal problems with the national interest, in the Kenyan public imagination.
There are plenty who agreed with the Ethiopian Prime Minister, Hailemariam Desalegn, when he said in May that the ICC is "hunting Africans". The notion that the court has a racist, neo-colonialist agenda is gaining currency.
But there are others who remember how the Kenyan parliament failed repeatedly to pass legislation that would allow the suspects to be tried at home. Many believe that, even with a reformed judiciary, the Kenyan courts do not have the teeth to put an entrenched political elite on trial.
Then there are the thousands of victims of the post-election violence, still living in camps some five years after they were chased from their homes. Many of these people see little connection between the proceedings at The Hague, and their own efforts to seek justice and redress.
 

 

"Making clear that no one is above the law is essential to combat decades of the use of violence for political ends by Kenya's political elite," he wrote.

Mr Annan brokered the peace deal that brought an end to the brutal killings.
It included an agreement that those responsible for the violence must be held to account.
A commission was set up to investigate the violence and it recommended that if efforts to establish special tribunals in Kenya failed, the matter should be sent to The Hague.
Kenya repeatedly failed to set up such tribunals and so the ICC indicted those it said bore the greatest responsibility for the violence.
The ICC on Monday said the two trials would not clash, after Mr Kenyatta warned that the constitution prevented the two men from being abroad at the same time.
The president is due to go on trial in November. He also denies charges of fuelling violence.
The judges said the two cases could be heard alternately - in blocks of four weeks.
On Thursday, Kenya's parliament passed a motion calling for the country to withdraw from the ICC.
The court said the cases would continue, even if Kenya withdrew.
In May, the African Union (AU) accused the ICC of "hunting" Africans because of their race and urged it to drop the Kenyan cases.
The ICC says it pursues justice impartially and will not allow perpetrators of violence to go unpunished.
The court was set up in 2002 to deal with genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and the crime of aggression.
It has been ratified by 122 countries, including 34 in Africa.

9/11: The man who 'plotted' America's darkest day

 

Relatives of the dead gathered in New York to mark the 12th anniversary of 9/11. Meanwhile, 1,400 miles away, the man who says he masterminded the attacks awaits his trial.  

 

 halid Sheikh Mohammed walked into a courtroom in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, one morning in August. The door stayed open for a moment and sunlight fell across the floor. Laura and Caroline Ogonowski watched him from a gallery behind three plates of glass. They are daughters of John Ogonowski, the 50-year-old pilot of American Airlines Flight 11, the first plane that crashed into the World Trade Center on 11 September 2001.
Tom and JoAnn Meehan were also there. They lost their daughter, Colleen Barkow, 26, in the World Trade Center. Rosemary Dillard's husband, Eddie, 54, died in the jet that crashed into the Pentagon.
The room was quiet.
Mohammed adjusted his turban with both hands, as if it were a hat. He was short and overweight, and he walked in a jerky manner - like a Lego Star Wars character, someone in the gallery remarked later.
"He has a high voice," says the court illustrator, Janet Hamlin. "I expected a baritone. Darth Vader."
Mohammed and the other four defendants, Walid bin Attash, Ammar al-Baluchi (also known as Abd al-Aziz Ali), Ramzi Binalshibh and Mustafa Ahmed al-Hawsawi are accused of helping to finance and train the men who flew the jets into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a Pennsylvania field.
They face charges that include terrorism and 2,976 counts of murder, and they could be executed.

Ali Abd al-Aziz Ali, Waleed bin Attash, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Mustafa Ahmad al-Hawsawi, Ramzi Binalshibh

 

US v Mohammed has been described as the trial of the century. At the centre of the drama is the world's most notorious al-Qaeda member.
"If we were a different country, we might have taken him out and shot him," says a spokesman for the Guantanamo detention facility, Capt Robert Durand, during the hearing.
The legal proceedings against Mohammed provide a chance for people in the courtroom and others to observe him and also to deepen their understanding of al-Qaeda. In addition, his public image reflects the different ways that people have looked at al-Qaeda over the years.
"History consists not only in what important people did," wrote David Greenberg in Nixon's Shadow: The History of an Image, a book that looks at the ways that President Nixon has been perceived over the years, "but equally in what they symbolised".
Mohammed, a 48-year-old mechanical engineer, is thought to be a mastermind of al-Qaeda violence and a brilliant, bloody tactician. He was captured in Pakistan on 1 March 2003, less than three weeks before US troops entered Iraq.
People in the US were on edge. They wondered when al-Qaeda would strike again. Meanwhile Pentagon officials were preparing for a military intervention in Iraq. Bush administration officials spoke of a link between Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda. "The evidence is overwhelming," Vice-President Dick Cheney said in a television interview.
Like other widely-held ideas about al-Qaeda, this one turned out to be untrue.

 

 Twelve years after the attacks, the Obamas attend a 9/11 memorial in Washington

 

In 2009, US Attorney General Eric Holder announced that Mohammed would be put on trial in New York, setting off a political firestorm. The controversy reflected an ongoing and emotionally charged debate regarding national security - is al-Qaeda a serious threat?
President Barack Obama and his deputies were trying to move the nation beyond an age of fear. Not everyone believed the threat had diminished, though.
Conservatives were outraged, saying Mohammed was a danger to Americans and should be tried in a military court. Holder eventually gave up his plans, and prosecutors in Guantanamo filed charges against Mohammed in 2011.
Since that time Mohammed has in the public eye become a comical figure, a man who attempted to re-invent the vacuum cleaner while in prison. "A shoo-in for the Gitmo science fair", said late-night television host David Letterman.
Meanwhile Mohammed and the other defendants were supposedly reading EL James' 50 Shades of Grey. This turned out to be a rumour.

Nevertheless the attempts to ridicule him show how the public's view of al-Qaeda has softened. An essayist for the Washington Post called him "the Kevin Bacon of terrorism", alluding to a parlour game, Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon, in which players find different ways Bacon is connected with other actors.

Once an icon of terror, Mohammed has been turned into an object of derision.
Mohammed's image has also gone through a transformation within al-Qaeda. He was "popular" in the 1990s, according to the authors of The 9/11 Commission Report. (It was compiled by members of a bipartisan federal commission chaired by a former New Jersey governor, Thomas Kean, and a former Indiana congressman, Lee Hamilton.)
Mohammed's colleagues described him as "an intelligent, efficient, and even-tempered manager", wrote the authors.
His reputation "skyrocketed" after 9/11, says Marc Sageman, a former CIA officer and the author of Understanding Terror Networks. When Mohammed was arrested, he became a "martyr". He can no longer communicate with al-Qaeda, though, and consequently has little influence on the organisation.

Attorney General Eric Holder said that Mohammed should be tried in a civilian court in New York

The legal proceedings against him are unfolding in a corrugated-metal building in a compound known as Camp Justice. Prosecutors want the trial to start in one year. Defence lawyers baulk, saying that it will take much longer to resolve the legal issues surrounding the case.
Mohammed's lawyers say that he was tortured while he was held in CIA-run "black sites", reportedly in Poland and Romania. The evidence against him is tainted by the brutality of these interrogations, the lawyers say, and therefore the charges should be dropped.
On a more fundamental level the defence lawyers say that the military commissions are not legitimate. The court, they claim, favours the prosecution.
Mohammed, suntanned and wearing glasses, rifled through legal papers in the courtroom during a hearing last month. He had an e-reader, and he seemed comfortable in the courtroom - and with his fate.
He is a "death volunteer", a capital defendant who wants to become a martyr, at least that is what he claimed in 2008. He has not entered a formal plea - though he has talked at length about his role as an al-Qaeda mastermind. The court treats the situation as if he has pleaded not guilty.
Al-Qaeda commanders aim to broadcast a message, whether through violence or other means. One of their most important weapons is propaganda.
As a PR director for al-Qaeda, Mohammed attempts to shape his own image and that of al-Qaeda. He dyed his beard reddish-orange with berry juice, and he wore a tunic and a military-style camouflage jacket.
Wearing "camo" sends a message - he is a soldier.

He grew up in a religious family in a suburb of Kuwait City. He is a citizen of Pakistan, though, and his relatives come from Baluchistan.
At age 11 or 12 he started watching Muslim Brotherhood programmes on television. Later he went to youth camps in the desert - and became interested in jihad.

His family sent him to the US to study. After earning an engineering degree from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University in 1986, he fixed hydraulic drills on the front lines in Afghanistan, according to a December 2006 US defence department report.

At the time he was helping the US-backed mujahedeen. He says he later became "an enemy of the US", according to the defence department.
"By his own account", wrote the authors of the 9/11 Commission Report, he hated the US not because of anything he saw during the years he lived in the US - but because of US policies towards Israel.
By this time the Muslim Brotherhood brand of jihad was too tame for him. He wanted violence, according to government documents. He chose targets for the 2001 attacks based on their capacity to "awaken people politically".
He had originally planned for the hijacking of 10 commercial jets, according to the authors of the 9/11 Commission Report. He wanted to land one of the jets himself.
"After killing all adult male passengers on board and alerting the media", he would then "deliver a speech excoriating US support for Israel, the Philippines, and repressive governments in the Arab world."
"This is theatre, a spectacle of destruction with KSM as the self-cast star - the super-terrorist," wrote the authors.
Several months after the attacks, the Wall Street Journal's Daniel Pearl arranged to interview a militant, Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, a former London School of Economics student, in Karachi. It was a ruse - Pearl was kidnapped and beheaded.
Mohammed says that he held the knife, "with my blessed right hand". He made this comment in court, testimony of how he had decapitated Pearl.

 

Mohammed spoke to another journalist about the 9/11 attack. "The attacks were designed to cause as many deaths as possible and to be a big slap for America on American soil," Mohammed told the journalist at a hideout in Pakistan.
Mohammed spoke proudly of his leadership role in the attacks, and an account of the conversation was published in the Sunday Times in September 2002.
Seven months later, Mohammed was seized in Rawalpindi and then taken to Poland. A group of men, wearing black masks "like Planet-X people", waited for him at an airport, he says, according to a leaked copy of an International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) report.
He was taken to a cell, "about 3m x 4m with wooden walls", in a CIA black site. During the interrogations, he worked as a propagandist, offering some insight into al-Qaeda, and a lot of misinformation.
"I later told the interrogators that their methods were stupid and counterproductive," he said, according to the ICRC report. "I'm sure that the false information I was forced to invent in order to make the ill-treatment stop wasted a lot of their time and led to several false red-alerts being placed in the US."
He had lied, exaggerating the threat that al-Qaeda posed to Americans. On other occasions he has been a stickler for accuracy. He is something of a control freak - and tries to ensure that messages are transmitted properly.
In military hearings, he corrected the spelling of his name.
Through his lawyer, he chided Hamlin for a sloppy drawing. "I was like, 'Oh, no, he's right,'" she says. She fixed his nose, working in pastel.
Mohammed also mentioned at one of the hearings that the journalist who had interviewed him for the Sunday Times had got things wrong.
"You know the media," he said.

Mohammed said that his nose was poorly drawn in the original version of this illustration

 

He does not refute previous statements about his role in the 2001 attacks, though. Indeed, he has reinforced them.
"I was responsible for the 9/11 operation, from A to Z," he said in a March 2007 hearing. He described himself and other al-Qaeda members as "jackals fighting in the night".
Still, he says he feels remorse. "I don't like to kill people," he said. "I feel very sorry there had been kids killed in 9/11."
In the mornings during the August hearings he was escorted to the courthouse from his holding cell, "a little, one-person supermax", says a military official. Barbed wire stretched like a giant Slinky along the top of a fence. Green sand bags were scattered around, along with Joint Task Force barricades marked "restricted area".
Mohammed walked past an army officer with handcuffs tucked in his waistband. Soldiers with Internal Security badges hovered near the door.

Illustrator Janet Hamlin, shown with a sketchpad, and family members of victims sit in a gallery 

 

Mohammed took off his glasses and put them on the table. He had a prayer blanket folded over the back of his chair, and a box decorated with an American flag is on the floor.
He is "well-travelled", says one of his lawyers. According to government accounts, he has spent time in Qatar, Indonesia, India, Malaysia and other countries.
The authors of The 9/11 Commission Report described him as "highly educated and equally comfortable in a government office or a terrorist safehouse".
During the hearings he expressed sympathy to his lawyers because they have to spend time away from their families. "He's a very gracious individual," says one lawyer.
Dillard and the others who lost family members in the 2001 attacks sit behind sound-proof glass. They listen to an audio feed that is delayed by 40 seconds so officials can block statements that are classified. This includes information about the interrogations.
For a year or so after the 2001 attacks, US officials acted as though Mohammed and other suspects had super-human intelligence and strength, as if only individuals who were larger than life could carry out the attacks.

Before detainees arrived at Guantanamo, for example, Richard Myers, then chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff "warned that any lapses in security might allow the detainees, endowed with satanic determination, to 'gnaw hydraulic lines in the back of a C-17 to bring it down,'" wrote Karen Greenberg in her book The Least Worst Place: Guantanamo's First 100 Days.
This mythology can still be seen in the courtroom. Steel chains, each comprised of 12 links, were fastened to the floor near the detainees' chairs. Each of the chains was arranged in a straight line, and they were installed so that they could be used to restrain unruly detainees. The chains were heavy and thick, sturdy enough for a "super-villain", as one military official tells me.
In the courtroom Mohammed waved over a legal assistant, a woman with blonde hair tucked under a headscarf. He sliced his hand through the air. He had surprisingly thin wrists, and his "blessed right hand" was pale.
It is hard to imagine that he once cut off Pearl's head. Later I mentioned this to one of Mohammed's lawyers. He was sitting at a picnic table outside the courthouse, near a metal sign that said: "No classified discussion area".
"It's inconceivable that this person could do that," said the lawyer, nodding. "That sets up a number of scenarios for us to investigate."

Mohammed has spoken openly about al-Qaeda operations during his confinement at Guantananmo

The lawyer and his colleagues are exploring possibilities for their clients' defence.
Sitting at the picnic table, the defence lawyer made a case for Mohammed's innocence - he confessed to crimes he did not commit while "under the tender mercies of the CIA".
I pointed out that he has spoken freely about his role in the crimes - frequently, and with journalists and others who do not work for the CIA. I mention the beheading.
"You keep going back to that," said the lawyer, looking impatient. He said that Mohammed is not being charged with Pearl's murder.
Then he changes tactics. He says that if Mohammad had carried out these crimes, he would have had a reason.
Mohammed is a principled man, the lawyer explained. Someone like him might commit crimes if he believed they were in the service of a greater good. Moreover these acts would carry a personal cost.
"You're sacrificing your life, your family and any future happiness for what you perceive as the good of the defence of your community," said the lawyer.

Even if Mohammed did plan the terrorist attacks and murder Pearl, the lawyer said, these acts do not make him special. "You may have had the opportunity of being in a press conference with George W Bush. He's responsible for about 5,000 deaths."

Many people would like to close the chapter on al-Qaeda and the global war against terrorism. Yet not everyone is ready to move on - or has that luxury.
Dillard said that she wants both the defence and the prosecution to "be very, very careful to maintain the integrity of the trial - so that there's no space for an appeal".
On the last day of the hearing, Dillard walked to a makeshift media-operations centre in an aeroplane hangar. In front of a microphone, she talked about her husband - and about Mohammed and the other accused men.
"I don't want them to ever see the sunshine," she said. "I don't want them to have fresh wind hit their face." She walked back to the side of the room and stood with others who have lost family members.
The next pre-trial hearing at Guantanamo starts on Monday.

Daniel Levy: Football's [Soccer] toughest negotiator?

Gareth Bale may have been the big star of Europe's summer transfer window, but behind the scenes it was his former club chairman Daniel Levy who emerged as one of the most formidable characters.

The Tottenham supremo has long been known as one of the toughest negotiators in football, and he cemented that status with the manner in which he handled the Bale sale. Not only did he demand a massive fee  – possibly even a world record – for a player largely untested at the highest level, but he played the European transfer market with all the strategic flair of a chess Grandmaster.
Throughout the summer, I received plenty of messages from fans around the world, telling me that the Welsh winger wasn’t worth anything like the astronomical figures being quoted, and maybe he’s not. But in any market, the value of any commodity  – be it a piece of real estate or a bale of hay  – is only decided by the two negotiators around the table.
If you want it bad enough, you’ll pay what I say.
On Sunday, social media sites were alive with armchair micro-analysis of the trade and much of the comment was commending Levy’s role. With his business acumen he should take over as Britain’s finance minister, the narrative went, or with his negotiating skills he should represent terrorist organizations. Clubs who are struggling in the transfer market should just sign Levy ahead of any new players and – apparently  – he never loses at monopoly, because anyone landing on his properties ends up having to pay three times what they’re worth.
Read: Spanish lessons for Gareth Bale
Bale was by far and away Tottenham’s best player last season, swaggering his way to three individual player awards and scoring 26 goals, none of which were tap-ins – many of which were 30-yard netbusters. Spurs didn’t have to sell their prize asset and nor did they particularly want to, but having just missed out on Champions League qualification for a third year in four, and with Bale already seduced by the idea of a dream move to Spain, the time was now right to make the most of an opportunity.
England’s top three teams changed their managers in the summer, a perfect time for Spurs to strike. Aided and abetted by his new director of football Franco Baldini, Levy identified several key targets early on, quickly sewing up deals for Paulinho, Roberto Soldado, Etienne Capoue and Nacer Chadli. While English Premier League rivals Arsenal and Manchester United were idling in the market, Spurs were organized and decisive, breaking their own transfer record – twice.

Click to watch video

Levy wasn’t finished. Chelsea may have snatched Willian from under his nose, but he broke the club’s record transfer fee for a third time in just a matter of weeks by landing the Bale-esque Erik Lamela, and he also signed Christian Eriksen and Vlad Chiriches  – all while Bale remained a Tottenham player.
A world record deal was "imminent" for the last fortnight of August, but it didn’t actually go through until the penultimate day of the window.
Naturally Tottenham wanted to have their own targets under contract, but in assessing the landscape around him, Levy was particularly shrewd. He knew that Real would unload several players to accommodate Bale’s arrival, but they couldn’t risk doing so until they knew he was coming for sure.
It just so happens that Arsenal wanted to sign one or both of Real's Angel di Maria and Mesut Ozil. By holding on until last Friday it meant they couldn’t get them before the North London derby against Spurs on Sunday, after which the Bale deal was finally confirmed.
Levy knows very well that Arsenal represent arguably the biggest threat to his club's aspirations of a top-four finish. In the end, the Gunners got Ozil on deadline day but we may never know if they could have had more.
I interviewed Levy for World Sport a few years ago; it was a rare chance to speak with the 51-year-old, who prefers to keep a low profile in the media. His record isn’t perfect, but he’s learned from his mistakes. He thoroughly frustrated Madrid when they last went after one of his players, making them pay through the nose for Luka Modric in late August 2012, and he had no hesitation in cutting manager Harry Redknapp adrift when he became too greedy in his contract negotiations.
Levy doesn’t take kindly to anyone who pushes him too hard on a deal. When Real had the arrogance to build a stage upon which they were going to parade Bale, Levy made them take it down – nothing had yet been signed.
Of course it all counts for naught if Spurs again fail to push on up the table before mixing with Europe’s elite in the Champions League. But there is only so much a chairman can do. It’s now up to manager Andre Villas Boas and the men on the field to follow their chairman’s example: don’t take any prisoners and make sure you’re not the first to blink.

Leicester fire deaths: Murder probe starts after family killed

 
The family lived in Wood Hill, Leicester

 Police have launched a murder investigation after a mother and her three children were killed in a house fire in Leicester.

Detectives are investigating the possibility that the fire was linked to the murder of a man on Thursday.
The family's mosque said the mother who died was Shehnila Taufiq, her daughter was Zainab Taufiq, and her sons were Jamal Taufiq and Bilal Taufiq.
They were found dead in upstairs bedrooms at their house in Wood Hill.
The children's father, Dr Muhammad Taufiq Al Sattar, worked as a neurosurgeon at Beaumont Hospital in Dublin, and neighbours said the family had recently moved to Leicester.
Assistant Chief Constable Roger Bannister said Leicestershire Police was examining the possibility of the blaze being a revenge attack.
He said the murdered man was "in his 20s and lived locally".
He was assaulted in Kent Street, less than a mile away from the scene of the fire, at about 17:30.
"These are obviously both very serious incidents and investigations have begun to establish if there are any links between them," said Mr Bannister.
"I understand the level of concern there may be in the city and would ask things not to escalate.
"I invite people, that if they have any concerns, to speak to the officers at the scene or call the police."

Local shop owner Sattar Raidhan, who knew the family, said he was "hurt" by the news of the fire

Emergency services were called to the fire at about 00:35 BST.
Mr Bannister said the mother who died in the fire was thought to be in her late 40s, her daughter was 19, and her two sons were 17 and 15.
Neighbours said the family worshipped at the nearby mosque. They said the father was away in Ireland at the time of the fire.
Zeeshan Bawany, a family friend, said the father "couldn't believe what was being said to him" when he was told what had happened.
Mr Bawany said he was asked by the family to go to the house and check it was true.
A statement from Beaumont Hospital said: "The board and staff of Beaumont Hospital have learned, with shock, of the tragic loss suffered by our colleague Mr Taufiq Sattar.
"We wish to express our sincere condolences to Mr Sattar and assure him that our support and thoughts are with him at this terrible time."
'Family wiped out' Labour MP Keith Vaz, who represents Leicester East, met community members near the police cordon sealing off Wood Hill.
"The father is a doctor and is being comforted by members of the community - a community who are clearly in grief," Mr Vaz said.
"A whole family wiped out in this way, with only the father remaining, is a big shock and a real tragedy."
Leicester mayor Peter Soulsby said he had been briefed about the murder in Kent Street and described it as "a stabbing".
A post-mortem examination on the murdered man is due to take place later.
BBC Radio Leicester's Kamlesh Purohit was in the area shortly after the assault and saw a man lying on the floor.
"What I saw right next to my car was a car parked in the middle of the street and just in front of the car was a man lying on the floor," he said.
"He appeared to be of West Indian origin and at that stage I thought perhaps there had been a car accident."

Thousands warned to evacuate amid Colorado floods

Footage showed bridges, roads and cars washed away by floodwaters
 Thousands of people have been warned to evacuate the Boulder area of Colorado and a mountain hamlet as flooding swells creeks to dangerous levels.


Storm rains have killed at least three people in the state and caused severe damage to property.
Water levels in the Boulder Canyon are reportedly rising rapidly because of debris and mud blocking its mouth.
President Barack Obama has signed an emergency order approving federal disaster aid for Boulder County.
Towns such as Jamestown, Lyons and Longmont are said to have been reduced to islands by the swirling floodwaters.
'Biblical' Officials set up road blocks to prevent residents fleeing in their vehicles on to flooded roads.
The raging torrent - dubbed a "100-year flood" by officials - has hampered rescue crews trying to reach communities stranded downstream.

Lyons resident Howard Wachtel joked to the Associated Press news agency: "This is more like something out of the Bible. I saw one of my neighbours building an ark."
Some 4,000 people living along Boulder Creek were sent notices to move to higher ground late on Thursday, reported Boulder's Daily Camera newspaper.
Another 500 inhabitants of Eldorado Springs were urged to leave due to a threat from South Boulder Creek, an official told the Associated Press early on Friday.
Low-lying areas beyond the Rocky Mountains are also at risk, with up to 3,000 people previously ordered to leave the Commerce City district of Denver.
'Staggering rainfall' Emergency notifications have been issued to 8,000 telephone numbers in areas along Boulder Creek.
Governor John Hickenlooper told local radio there had been "a staggering amount" of rainfall.

Floodwaters erupt out of a sewer on Canon Avenue in Manitou Springs, Colorado.

1/5

"Given the drought situation we've had, it was almost a year's worth of rain," he said on the KBCO radio station.

The rain was forecast to continue until midday on Friday (18:00 GMT).
Emergency officials have reported at least three deaths: a man in Colorado Springs; one when a building collapsed in Jamestown; and a man in Boulder, who died after getting out of a car to help a woman who was swept away from the same vehicle. She was still missing.
"There is water everywhere," Andrew Barth, emergency management spokesman in Boulder County, told Reuters news agency. "We've had several structural collapses. There's mud and muck and debris everywhere. Cars are stranded all over the place."
National Guard troops have reportedly been dispatched north of Boulder to the cut-off town of Lyons, which is said to be without fresh water, power or phone lines.

Footage showed rescuers saving one man from his swamped car

Part of the problem is that US Highway 36 has been washed out by floodwater.
A 20ft (6m) wall of water was reported in Left Hand Canyon, north of Boulder, according to National Weather Service meteorologist Bob Kleyla.
Two areas south-east of the town of Estes Park were ordered to evacuate after an earth dam gave way in the area.
Classes at the University of Colorado, Boulder, were cancelled until Friday at least, while schools in the area are also closed.
Standing water on a road caused some traffic delays into Denver International Airport, but not to flights.
Officials told NBC that water reached as high as first-floor windows in some parts of Boulder, while cars were seen floating in the streets.
The prolonged rain has been blamed on a low-pressure system stationed over Nevada, which is drawing moist air out of Mexico into the Rockies' foothills.

Brazil protests disrupt Independence Day celebrations

Protesters in Brazil have disrupted Independence Day celebrations, demanding better public services and an end to corruption. 

n Rio de Janeiro, some 200 protesters interrupted the traditional Seventh of September military parade, shouting anti-government slogans.
They clashed with police, who threw tear gas and arrested dozens of people.
There were further clashes in the capital, Brasilia, where President Dilma Rousseff was giving a speech.
She said there was "still a lot to be done" in Brazil and that there were "urgent problems to be addressed and the population has the right to demand changes".
But she said the country had "progressed as never before in the last few years".
The official ceremony went ahead without incident, but hundreds of demonstrators later clashed with police outside the Congress building.
Demonstrators also attempted to make their voices heard outside the Mane Garrincha stadium ahead of a friendly match between the Brazilian football team and Australia.

Police prevented demonstrators from approaching the stadium where Brazil played in the capital

Police stopped the march, which degenerated into violence. Some 50 arrests were made.
Many demonstrators accused the police of using excessive force.
"They never spoke to us. They came in in great numbers and began throwing tear gas canisters," student Leticia Hellen told Agencia Brasil.
Tear gas In Rio, people who had gone to the parade with their families were caught up in the violence.
"I never thought I would go through this. My God! In such a beautiful country," said 63-year-old Josefa da Silva, who had been affected by tear gas.
The protests continued into the evening near the Rio de Janeiro state governor's palace.

Police used tear gas to try to disperse demonstrators in Rio's city centre

Police stopped demonstrators from approaching the building, in the Laranjeiras district, arresting some 50 people.
Streets were blocked off for several hours and a metro station was closed due to the violence.
Activists had used social media to call for protests in more than 150 cities.
Most of them went ahead peacefully, but there were clashes in a number of other protests, including those in Fortaleza and Curitiba.
In Brazil's largest city, Sao Paulo, police said around 2,000 people took part in a march calling for social justice.

Activists vandalised bank branches at the end of a march in Sao Paulo

The demonstration were largely peaceful, but towards the end activists attacked police officers and vandalised shops and bank branches.
Brazil saw a big wave of protests in June, as the country prepared to host the football Confederations Cup.
Initially, demonstrators demanded that a hike in bus and underground fares be revoked.
But the demonstrations grew into a much larger movement against corruption and excessive spending in preparations for next year's World Cup and the 2016 Olympics, which Rio will host.

Mario Balotelli winner secures Italy's passage to World Cup finals

Italy and the Netherlands sealed their places in the World Cup finals in Brazil next year while England survived an uncomfortable night in Kiev against Ukraine in key qualifying matches Tuesday.

Mario Balotelli scored the winner as Italy came from behind to beat the Czech Republic 2-1 to seal Group B, while the Dutch had a pair of Robin van Persie goals to thank for a 2-0 win in Andorra to wrap up Group D of European qualifying.

Roy Hodgson's England battled to a goalless draw to maintain their leadership of Group H, one point clear of Ukraine and Montenegro with two rounds of matches remaining.

It was an unconvincing performance and visiting goalkeeper Joe Hart was the busier goalkeeper in a match of few clear cut chances, but Frank Lampard, making his 100th appearance for England nearly grabbed the winner with a headed effort in injury time.

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Italy fell behind to a 19th minute Libor Kozak volleyed strike in Turin, but the Azzurri struck back through Giorgio Chiellini in the 51st minute before Balotelli stepped up to hit the winner past Petr Cech from the spot three minutes later to set the four-time champions on the road to Brazil.

Milan's Balotelli had a mixed night, wasting several chances to put his side firmly in control, before winning the penalty as he was crudely fouled by Theodor Gebre Selassie.

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To complete an ultimately disappointing night for the Czechs, Daniel Kolar was given his marching orders near the end.

"We've qualified and we're really satisfied," said Italy coach Cesare Prandelli.

"Tonight there were spells in which we suffered physically but we also played some quality football. This squad has a lot of quality," he told AFP.

Fellow powerhouses Germany need just a single point from their final two matches to join them after a 3-0 win in the Faroe Islands, with Per Mertesacker, Arsenal new boy Mesut Ozil and Thomas Muller scoring the goals.

Sweden still have a mathematical chance of overhauling the Group C leaders after Zlatan Ibrahimovic's first minute goal in the 1-0 win in Kazakhstan, but the Germans can seal qualification next month when they play the Republic of Ireland.

Switzerland are also all but assured of a finals place, five points clear of Iceland in Group E as a pair of Fabian Schar goals saw off Norway 2-0.

France revived their hopes by breaking a scoring drought which had lasted 526 minutes in a fighting 4-2 win in the Belarus.

Franck Ribery canceled out a Egor Filipenko opener for the hosts and then equalized for the second time after Timofei Kalachev's effort.

Samir Nasri and Paul Pogba grabbed vital late goals to clinch victory for the French, who draw level with world champions Spain on points in Group I.

Spain, who have played a game less, were salvaging a 2-2 draw with Chile in a friendly in Geneva, equalizing for the second time in added time through Jesus Navas.

Eduardo Vargas netted twice for the South Americans, with Tottenham striker Roberto Soldado canceling out his first effort.

Wales' 3-0 home defeat to Serbia in Group A was notable for the appearance of Real Madrid's new world record signing Gareth Bale, who played for half an hour as a second half substitute and almost scored with a late free kick.

Bale has not played since a pre season friendly for his former side Tottenham, nursing a foot injury.

Earlier, Jordan won a marathon penalty shootout 9-8 with hosts Uzbekistan to qualify for an intercontinental playoff, with the winners reaching next year's finals.

They will play South America's fifth placed team after a topsy turvy contest in Tashkent.

The home side went ahead through Anzur Ismailov and dominated much of the first half, only for Saeed Murjan to level with a stunning half volley strike just before the interval.

Despite several chances for either side, the match went into extra time, which was delayed for 18 minutes by a floodlight failure.

The penalty drama was intense until the unfortunate Ismailov failed to convert his effort to leave the visitors celebrating.