A new memorial commemorating the 255 British servicemen who died in the Falklands War is to be unveiled during a special service.

More than 600 veterans and their families are due to attend the National Memorial Arboretum for the event that comes 30 years after the British task force landings on the disputed South Atlantic Islands.

The service will end with a flypast of the UK's last airworthy Vulcan, which served in the islands.

It will be flown by Flight Lieutenant Martin Withers DFC - the pilot who led the Black Buck 1 raid on Port Stanley's runway.

The memorial has been built to honour the task force, remember the servicemen and merchant seamen who gave their lives in the conflict and inform visitors to the Staffordshire centre of remembrance about the historical event.

Incorporating a seven foot high curved wall of rugged Cotswold stone facing a rock from the Falklands, it has been built to reflect the Falklands' landscape and echoes the commemorative wall in San Carlos cemetery.

It also features two granite benches and a number of granite plaques, including one engraved with the names of three Falkland Islanders who lost their lives.

Liverpool's search for a new manager suffered a setback on Friday when Swansea boss Brendan Rodgers rejected the chance to talk to the Anfield club.

Rodgers is regarded as one of the best young managers in the Premier League and was high on Liverpool's list of potential candidates to replace Kenny Dalglish, who was sacked on Wednesday following a disappointing league campaign.

Fenway Sports Group, the Merseyside club's owners, have had an approach to speak to Wigan manager Roberto Martinez accepted and were also keen to interview Rodgers, but it was widely reported on Friday that the 39-year-old Northern Irishman has turned down the opportunity to speak to the Reds.

The Guardian reported that Rodgers believes Liverpool should already know enough about his qualities to offer him the job if they feel he is the right man, rather than involve him in a drawn-out interview process that may feature several managers.

He is also said to be keen not to be seen to chase other jobs out of respect to Swansea.

 

Three men arrested when police raided a Chicago apartment ahead of the Nato summit had been planning to attack President Barack Obama's campaign headquarters, US prosecutors have said.

They also allegedly plotted to hit Mayor Rahm Emanuel's home and other targets, including police stations and squad cars.

The men were arrested on Wednesday in a night raid in the Bridgeport neighbourhood on the South Side.

They are accused of trying to make Molotov cocktails ahead of the two-day Nato summit which starts on Sunday.

The three were charged with providing material support for terrorism, conspiracy to commit terrorism and possession of explosives.

The suspects were named as Brian Church, 20, of Fort Lauderdale, Florida; Jared Chase, 24, of Keene, New Hampshire; and Brent Vincent Betterly, 24, of Oakland Park, Florida.

 

 

A glittering lunch for the world's sovereigns to be held on Friday to celebrate the diamond jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II has been marked by a withdrawal and protests over the guest list.

Spain's Queen Sophia has pulled out of the event at Windsor Castle, west of London, amid tensions over Gibraltar, while there were protests over the invite of Swaziland's King Mswati III.

Rights groups are also angered that the guest list, released by Buckingham Palace on Friday, includes Bahrain's King Hamad, whose Gulf island country is in a state of civil unrest following a deadly crackdown on protests.

A Foreign Office spokeswoman said: "The sovereigns lunch is a matter for Buckingham Palace, but we understand all reigning sovereigns have been invited.

"The jubilee celebrations are about marking 60 years of the queen's reign, they are not a political event. 

"The palace is not releasing further details, including details of the guest list, until the day of the engagement."

Queen Sofia, the consort of King Juan Carlos, cancelled her trip due to tensions with Britain over the tiny Gibraltar peninsula, which Spain ceded to Britain in perpetuity in 1713.

Last week Madrid protested to London over a planned June 11-13 jubilee visit to Gibraltar on behalf of Queen Elizabeth by her youngest son Prince Edward and his wife Sophie, Countess of Wessex.

"The government considers it is hardly adequate that in the current circumstances, Queen Sofia take part in Queen Elizabeth's jubilee," a spokesman for the Spanish royal household said Wednesday.

The Spanish king and queen were due to attend the Windsor lunch, which is being held to mark Elizabeth's 60 years on the throne, but King Juan Carlos had already pulled out, recovering from hip replacement surgery after a fall during an elephant hunting expedition in Africa.

After the lunch, Prince Charles, the heir to the British throne, and his wife Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, are hosting a dinner for the foreign sovereign monarchs at Buckingham Palace in London.

 

Bolton captain Kevin Davies hopes Fabrice Muamba can boost his side's survival bid by attending Wednesday's home game against Tottenham.

Muamba is making a miraculous recovery from the cardiac arrest he suffered in the abandoned FA Cup tie at Tottenham last month and Davies, who scored twice to earn a valuable 2-2 draw at Sunderland on Saturday, hinted the midfielder could be about to make his first appearance at a match since his horrific collapse.

Davies believes the sight of Muamba watching from the stands would provide a major boost to both his team-mates and Bolton's fans as Wanderers try to climb out of the Premier League relegation zone.

"There's talk he could be coming. It would give us a huge lift," Davies said.

While Muamba's presence would be a lift, Bolton manager Owen Coyle believes his team must follow the example of Davies to preserve their 11-year Premier League status.

Coyle, whose side remain in the bottom three, revealed the 35-year-old striker has played through the pain barrier in Bolton's battle against relegation.

 

 

Voters in North Carolina approved a state constitutional amendment explicitly forbidding gay marriages, civil unions and domestic partnerships.

The measure was passed by 61 percent against 39 percent as of 0230 GMT, according to preliminary results from the North Carolina State Board of Elections.

Similar state constitutional amendments have been approved in some 30 US states.

The amendment solidifies and expands already enacted North Carolina law forbidding same-sex marriage.

Money from national interest groups poured into North Carolina ahead of the election -- the National Organization for Marriage contributed $425,000 to the Vote for Marriage campaign, according to the latest reports, and the Human Rights Campaign contributed some $257,000 to the opposition, the Coalition to Protect All N.C. Families.

The Rev. Billy Graham, an evangelical preacher who was born and lives in North Carolina and at 93 remains enormously influential, took out full-page newspaper ads across the state supporting the ban.

"At 93, I never thought we would have to debate the definition of marriage," Graham said in the ads.

 

Police are investigating reports that the woman raped by footballer Ched Evans has been named and abused on a social networking site.

It follows a complaint to North Wales Police by a leading rape charity, which said the alleged comments on Twitter were "profoundly disturbing".

Sheffield United and Wales striker Evans, 23, was jailed for five years at Caernarfon Crown Court on Friday after being found guilty of raping the woman who was "too drunk to consent".

A spokeswoman for North Wales Police said: "We are aware of some comments made on social media sites and we are collating all relevant information."

Rape and other sexual assault victims are guaranteed the legal right to lifetime anonymity. But victims' groups fear the current criminal justice rules could be inadequate to guarantee anonymity in the age of social media.

 

Encyclopaedia Britannica is to stop publishing print editions of its flagship encyclopaedia for the first time since the sets were originally published more than 200 years ago.

The book-form of Encyclopaedia Britannica has been in print since it was first published in Edinburgh in 1768. It will stop being available when the current stock runs out, the company says.

The Chicago-based company will continue to offer digital versions of the encyclopaedia.

It said the end of the printed, 32-volume set had been foreseen for some time.

"This has nothing to do with Wikipedia or Google," Encyclopaedia Britannica Inc president Jorge Cauz said. "This has to do with the fact that now Britannica sells its digital products to a large number of people."

The top year for the printed encyclopaedia was 1990, when 120,000 sets were sold, Mr Cauz said. That number fell to 40,000 just six years later in 1996. The company started exploring digital publishing the 1970s. The first CD-ROM version was published in 1989 and a version went online in 1994.

 

The world's leading brewer Anheuser-Busch InBev, maker of Budweiser, Beck's and Stella Artois, posted on Monday a 75 percent jump in first quarter net profit to $1.69 billion (1.28 billion euros).

The Belgium-based company attributed the increase to a strong operating performance, lower net finance costs and a lower effective tax rate, one year after recording profits of $964 million over the same period.

The first quarter 2012 result was well above the $1.39 billion forecast by analysts polled by Dow Jones Newswires.

AB InBev recorded a 6.2 percent rise in turnover to $9.33 billion in the first quarter, "driven by good performances" in North America, Latin America and the Asia Pacific region, the company said in an earnings statement.

The company's three global brands, Budweiser, Stella Artois and Beck's, performed well with growth of 4.8 percent.