Van Persie 'could decide title'

Manchester City manager Roberto Mancini says the club's failure to sign striker Robin van Persie in the summer could cost them the Premier League title.

Mancini says he was "very close" to signing Van Persie, who has scored 14 goals in 20 games following a £24m move to Manchester United from Arsenal.

"Robin van Persie is a very important player for United," said Mancini, whose side trail United by seven points.

"He has changed their situation. He is the difference between us."

“We were very close three or four months before he joined United”

Roberto Mancini Van Persie, who scored 37 goals for Arsenal last season, was linked with City before deciding to sign for rivals United.

"We wanted Van Persie because we knew he could be an important player," added Mancini.

"He is totally different from our other strikers. We wanted him for the Champions League and for the Premier League.

"We were very close. We were sure he was for us but this did not happen and now we can do nothing. We were very close three or four months before he joined United."

Mancini said he knew why City failed in their bid to sign the Dutchman but would not elaborate. When asked if it related to money, the Italian said: "It is not the problem."

Mancini added he retained faith in his striker options of Sergio Aguero, Carlos Tevez, Edin Dzeko and Mario Balotelli despite the quartet struggling to find the back of the net recently.

"I am happy, very happy," he said. "Last year we were the team that scored the most goals in the Premier League.

"But when you can improve your team with another top player, this is important. With Van Persie we would play with three strikers sometimes."

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What are the big albums of 2013?

Page last updated at 01:37 GMT, Tuesday, 1 January 2013

2012 was about touring for Gaga. Her globe-straddling Born This Way jaunt grossed an impressive £77 million according to figures compiled by Billboard. But she's also been working on her third album, ARTPOP. She says it'll be best consumed as a "multimedia experience". The speed at which James Arthur scored his first no.1 suggests there's a huge appetite for new music from The X Factor 2012 winner. Fresh from being crowned he told us he'll have "complete creative control" over his debut. Jay-Z may be on baby-sitting duties in 2013, as Beyoncé readies her comeback. The star has already pencilled in a half-time performance at the Superbowl in February – a sure-fire hint that she wants to come back in a big way. Biffy Clyro's sixth studio album Opposites hits shelves in January. We say album, it’s actually two albums. An old skool double disc 22-track monster. Recorded in L.A, it could cement them as one of the UK's biggest rock acts. Having taken a break (five years) from making music in the mid-noughties Eminem is set to follow up 2010’s Recovery. His live tours are still few and far between, but he’s still seen by many as one of the biggest rappers on the planet. With rumours abound that Arcade Fire could headline a UK festival or two in 2013, they’ll return with their fourth album. Reports saying ex-LCD Soundsystem man James Murphy is producing make the prospect especially tantalising. Jessie J spent the second half of 2012 writing music for her second album. She’ll be back on BBC1 in the spring as a coach on The Voice but wants to have fresh material out in time for her rescheduled October headline arena tour. Californian sister-trio Haim caught the imagination of many music lovers in 2012 with tunes as bubbly as their personalities. After a couple of critically-acclaimed EPs, they’ll release their debut album in 2013. The very definition of prolific - based on her recent track record (four new albums in four years) you can almost guarantee Rihanna will come back with something new in 2013. She'll also embark on a huge world tour. With or without Robbie – Gary Barlow says he’s itching to get back in the studio to record new music with Take That. The challenge will be matching the record-breaking success that their 2011 Progress album brought them. Tinie Tempah had already named the follow up to Disc-overy by February 2012 (Demonstration) suggesting it would be out before too long. It never came - but that's only served to make his fans even more eager to hear new material. Surely it will come this year? Tips for success in 2013 don't come much hotter than 26-year-old Birmingham singer Laura Mvula. She'll release her debut album, Sing To The Moon, in March. She's already been compared to Amy Winehouse and Adele. The original Suga... sorry, new group Mutya Keisha Siobhan will release their debut soon. Ten years ago they were the first three members of a certain girl group. Now back together, they said: "All the fans wanted this to happen". 10 July 12Music

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The real story of Queen Victoria's 'domestic bliss'

1 January 2013 Last updated at 01:18 GMT To the outside world Queen Victoria, Prince Albert and their family seemed the embodiment of domestic bliss, but the reality was very different, writes historian Jane Ridley.
The marriage between the two first cousins - the young Queen and the clever, handsome German prince - was a love match. Over 17 years, nine children were born: four boys and five girls.
Paintings and photographs projected an image of a virtuous, devoted young couple surrounded by obedient, fair-haired children.
Though sexually infatuated, the young couple were locked into a power struggle. Albert took over more and more of Victoria's work as queen as her pregnancies forced her to step aside. Victoria was conflicted: she admired her "angel" for his talents and ability but she deeply resented being robbed of her powers as queen.
There were terrible rows and Albert was terrified by Victoria's temper tantrums. Always at the back of his mind was the fear she might have inherited the madness of George III. While she stormed around the palace, he was reduced to putting notes under her door.
Though she was a prolific mother, Victoria loathed being pregnant. Repeated pregnancies she considered "more like a rabbit or a guinea pig than anything else and not very nice".
Breastfeeding she especially disliked, finding it a disgusting practice. And she was not a doting mother - she thought it her duty to be "severe". She didn't do affection.
Relations with her eldest son Bertie, later Edward VII, were especially fraught. From the start he was a disappointment for Victoria.
Like all the royal princes, he was educated at home with a tutor. Bertie did badly at lessons and his parents considered him a halfwit. Victoria remarked: "Handsome I cannot think him, with that painfully small and narrow head, those immense features and total want of chin."
When Bertie was 19, he spent time training with the army in Ireland and a prostitute named Nellie Clifden was smuggled into his bed. When the story reached Albert, he was devastated and wrote Bertie a long, emotional letter lamenting his "fall".
He visited his son at Cambridge and the two went for a long walk together in the rain. Albert returned to Windsor a sick man and three weeks later he was dead.
Albert probably died of typhoid. Another theory is that he suffered from Crohn's disease, but for years afterwards Victoria blamed Bertie for his death. She could not bear to have him near her. "I never can or shall look at him without a shudder," she wrote.
Continue reading the main story  Queen Victoria was born on 24 May 1819Her reign saw huge industrial expansion and the growth of a worldwide empireIn 1877 she became empress of India. Her empire included Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and large parts of AfricaFor the next 40 years - the rest of her life - Victoria wore black mourning and only appeared in public rarely and reluctantly. To her people, the tiny "widow of Windsor" seemed a pathetic, grief-stricken figure. The truth was very different.
Though Victoria was invisible, her need to control her children was almost pathological. She set up a network of spies and informers who reported back to her on her children's doings.
When Bertie married the Danish princess Alexandra, Victoria instructed the doctor to report back on every detail of her health, including her menstrual cycle. Court balls were scheduled so that they did not coincide with Alexandra's periods.
Victoria's eldest daughter Vicky married Fritz, the heir to the throne of Prussia, when she was 17. She was the mother of Kaiser William II.
Even in faraway Germany, Vicky could not escape her mother's interfering. Victoria wrote almost daily and her micromanaging made her daughter ill with worry.
When Vicky announced she was pregnant, Victoria replied: "The horrid news... has upset us dreadfully".
Vicky and her younger sister Alice, also married to a German prince, colluded to defy their mother. Secretly, they breastfed their babies. When Victoria discovered, she was furious and called them cows.
 Prince Albert is credited with popularising Christmas trees in Britain - putting one up at Windsor in 1841
Being a daughter of Queen Victoria was like playing an endless game of musical chairs - there was always one who was out of favour. There was always a favourite, too.
Victoria's changes of mind were bewildering and her rages could be terrifying. She was not only her children's mother but also their sovereign and she never let them forget it.
She kept her youngest child Beatrice (known as Baby) at home; she was terrified of her mother.
Victoria wanted Beatrice to remain unmarried. When Beatrice announced that she was engaged to a handsome German prince, Victoria refused to speak to her for six months and agreed only on condition that the couple lived with her.
The rebel was Louise. Flirtatious, attractive and feisty, she refused to marry a German prince. Instead, she chose Lord Lorne, the son of the Duke of Argyll. This turned out to be a mistake - the marriage was childless and unhappy and Lorne was rumoured to be gay.


Victoria controlled her sons just as tightly. Leopold, who inherited haemophilia, suffered especially. Victoria described him as "a very common-looking child".
Continue reading the main story

Bertie never broke off relations with his mother - and when he eventually succeeded her as king at the age of 59, he did a very good job”

End Quote She tried to make him live the life of an invalid, wrapping him in cotton wool. As a boy, he was bullied by the Highland servant who looked after him, but Victoria refused to listen to Leopold's complaints. She wouldn't let him leave home but he finally won the long battle to study at Oxford. He died aged 32.
Victoria wanted her sons to grow up like Prince Albert. The only one who resembled his father was Prince Arthur, the third of the boys, later Duke of Connaught. He was her favourite - he did what he was told and had a successful military career.
The son with whom Victoria quarrelled most was the eldest, Bertie. She once remarked that the trouble with Bertie was that he was too like her. She was right. Like his mother, Bertie was greedy and highly sexed, with an explosive temper. But he possessed one supreme gift - personal charm.
As Prince of Wales, Bertie lurched from one scandal to another. In spite of his repeated requests, Victoria never allowed him access to government documents.
But the story had an unexpected ending. Bertie never broke off relations with his mother. When he eventually succeeded her as king at the age of 59, he did a very good job.
He modernised the monarchy, which was one reason why the British monarchy survived World War I when so many others did not. Perhaps Queen Victoria was not such a bad mother after all.
Jane Ridley's Bertie: A Life of Edward VII is published by Chatto & Windus. Queen Victoria's Children is broadcast on BBC Two on Tuesday 1, Wednesday 2, and Thursday 3 January at 21:00 GMT
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UN imposes sanctions on DRC group

1 January 2013 Last updated at 00:15 GMT M23 rebels mutinied from the Congolese army in April in eastern DRC The UN Security Council has imposed sanctions on leaders of the M23 rebel movement in DR Congo.

The sanctions freezes assets of those linked to the group, and its alleged allies in Rwanda, the FDLR, and bars them from travel, diplomats told AFP.

Made up of deserters from the army, the M23 captured Goma - on DRC's eastern border with Rwanda - from government and UN troops last month.

It later withdrew from the city, following international condemnation.

The New Year's Eve sanctions come the day before Rwanda joins the Security Council for a two-year term.

The UN and DR Congo government accuse Rwanda and Uganda of backing the rebels, an allegation they strongly deny.

Rwanda is widely seen as having backed armed groups in the east of DR Congo as a way to fight Hutu rebels who fled there after the genocide of the 1990s.

It has been accused of using militias as proxies in an on-going battle for the region, which is rich in minerals. The Rwandan government strenuously denies the accusations.

The M23 rebellion started when a militia that had been absorbed into the Congolese army mutinied and went on the rampage in the eastern part of the country.

Since then nearly half a million people have been displaced by fighting between the M23 and the army.

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US Senate approves key tax deal

1 January 2013 Last updated at 08:58 GMT President Obama said a larger deal could be accomplished "in several steps"

The US Senate has approved a deal to avert general tax hikes and spending cuts known as the "fiscal cliff".

The bill, which raises taxes for the wealthy, came after lengthy talks between Vice-President Joe Biden and Senate Republicans.

The House is due to consider it later. Spending cuts have been delayed for two months to allow a wider agreement.

Congress missed the deadline to pass a bill, but few effects will be felt as Tuesday is a US public holiday.

Tax cuts approved during the presidency of George W Bush formally expired at midnight (05:00 GMT).

Without approval in the House, huge tax rises for virtually all working Americans will kick in automatically.

Analysts warned that if the full effects of the fiscal cliff were allowed to take hold, the resulting reduction in consumer spending could spark a new recession.

The compromise deal reached on Monday seeks to avoid this by extending the tax cuts for Americans earning under $400,000 (£246,000) - up from the $250,000 level Democrats had originally sought.

A huge spending cut that would see $1.2tn cut from the federal budget over 10 years has been deferred for two months, allowing Congress and the White House to reopen negotiations.

The Senate approved the compromise bill by 89-8.

In addition to the income tax rates and spending cuts, the package includes:

• Rises in inheritance taxes from 35% to 40% after the first $5m for an individual and $10m for a couple

• Rises in capital taxes - affecting some investment income - of up to 20%, but less than the 39.6% that would prevail without a deal

• One-year extension for unemployment benefits, affecting two million people

• Five-year extension for tax credits that help poorer and middle-class families

Continue reading the main story On 1 January 2013, tax increases and huge spending cuts are due to come into force - the so-called fiscal cliff Deadline was put in place in 2011 to force president and Congress to agree ways to save money over the next 10 yearsDate coincides with expiry of Bush-era tax cuts, which would affect all income groups and many businessesFear is that raising taxes while massively cutting spending will have a huge impact on households and businessesExperts believe it could push the US into recession, and have a global impact on growthImperfect solution President Barack Obama welcomed the Senate vote.

"Leaders from both parties in the Senate came together to reach an agreement that passed with overwhelming bipartisan support today that protects 98% of Americans and 97% of small business owners from a middle class tax hike," he said in a statement.

"While neither Democrats nor Republicans got everything they wanted, this agreement is the right thing to do for our country and the House should pass it without delay."

The BBC's Mark Mardell in Washington says many House Republicans - who dominate the lower chamber - dislike the deal and may stand on their principle.

Speaker John Boehner said the House would consider the deal but left open the possibility of amending the Senate bill - which would spark another round of legislation.

"Decisions about whether the House will seek to accept or promptly amend the measure will not be made until House members... have been able to review the legislation," Mr Boehner and other House Republican leaders said in a statement.

The current House can legislate until Wednesday, when it is replaced by a new chamber chosen during last November's election.

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Connecticut school shooting: Children among 27 killed

President Obama: "Heal the broken hearted and bind up their wounds"

Continue reading the main story

Connecticut school shooting

• Live: US school shooting
• Obama: 'Heal the broken-hearted' Watch
• Governor: 'Unspeakable tragedy' Watch
• Newtown victims face years of healing Watch

A gunman has killed 20 children and six adults at a primary school in the US state of Connecticut, police say.

The gunman, who also died, has not been formally identified by police.
But officials told US media that the killer at Sandy Hook Elementary School, in Newtown, was a 20-year-old son of a teacher. He is thought to have killed her before the attack.
It is one of the worst-ever US school shootings, with a toll close to the 32 who died at Virginia Tech in 2007.
Early reports named 24-year-old Ryan Lanza as the gunman, but anonymous officials later said his brother Adam, 20, was the suspect.
He is believed to have killed their mother, Nancy Lanza, at her home before heading to Sandy Hook school. Investigators say it is unclear whether she worked there.
Ryan Lanza of Hoboken, New Jersey, was being questioned by police, US media reported, but has not been named as a suspect.
'Safest place in America' Police Lt Paul Vance said 18 children were pronounced dead at the school, and two died after being taken to hospital. Six adults were also killed, and the gunman died at the scene, apparently after shooting himself.

Continue reading the main story

“Start Quote

Our hearts are broken today, for the parents, grandparents, sisters and brothers of these children”

Barack Obama US President

• Governor: 'Evil visited our community'

One person was also injured, and police were investigating a second crime scene in Newtown, where another victim was found dead - understood to be the gunman's mother.

Dressed in black and wearing a bullet-proof vest, the gunman is thought to have had several weapons.
These included two handguns - a Glock and a Sig Sauer - and a .223-calibre rifle, reports said.
The killings took place in two rooms within a single section of the school, police have said.
One parent, Stephen Delgiadice, whose eight-year-old daughter was at Sandy Hook School on Friday but was not harmed, said the shooting was traumatic for the small town.
"It's alarming, especially in Newtown, Connecticut, which we always thought was the safest place in America," Mr Delgiadice told AP.
At a memorial service in Newtown people crowded outside the doors of the church as Connecticut Governor Dannel Malloy addressed those gathered.
He called the attack a "tragedy of unspeakable terms", saying "you can never be prepared" for an event like this.
In Washington, about 200 people held a candlelight vigil for the victims outside the White House, whilst others protested there to call for gun controls.

Continue reading the main story

Deadly US mass shootings

• 1984: James Oliver Huberty shoots dead 21 people at a McDonald's in California
• 1986: Postal worker Pat Sherrill kills 14 people at post office in Oklahoma
• 1991: George Hennard kills 23 people at a cafeteria in Texas
• 1999: Two students at Columbine high school kill 13 and injure 20, before killing themselves
• 2007: A student kills 32 and injures dozens more at Virginia Tech university
• 2009: 13 people are killed in a mass shooting at Ford Hood military base in Texas

'Innocence torn away'

Friday's shooting is the third major gun attack in the US in 2012.

In July an attacker killed 12 people at a premiere of a Batman film in Aurora, Colorado. In August six people died at a Sikh temple in Wisconsin.
Just this week two people died in a shooting at a shopping mall in the state of Oregon.
At the White House, an emotional President Barack Obama cited those incidents as he called for "meaningful action... regardless of politics".
"Our hearts are broken today, for the parents, grandparents, sisters and brothers of these children, and for the families of the adults who were lost."
Mr Obama offered condolences to the families of survivors too, saying "their children's innocence has been torn away from them too early, and there are no words that will ease their pain".
He wiped tears from his eyes as he spoke of the "overwhelming grief" at the loss of life.
The American flags on Capitol Hill were lowered to half-mast in the wake of the attack.
Schools locked down Police arrived at the school soon after 09:40 local time (14:40 GMT) on Friday, answering reports that a gunman was in the school's main office and one person had "numerous gunshot wounds".
Witnesses reported hearing scores of shots fired, with one suggesting there "must have been 100 rounds" in an interview with CNN.
Parent Richard Wilford said his seven-year-old son Richie described a noise that "sounded like what he described as cans falling".
Mr Wilford said his son's teacher locked the classroom door and told the children to huddle in a corner until the police arrived.

The authorities said they mobilised "every possible asset" in their response to the shooting. Teams of officers, some with dogs, combed the school and evacuated the building.
Firefighters reportedly told children to close their eyes and run past the school's office as they left the building.
Sandy Hook School - described by correspondents as a highly rated school has more than 600 students - spanning the ages five to 10.
Witness Mergim Bajraliu, 17, said he heard the gunshots ring out from his home and ran to the school looking for his nine-year-old sister, who was not hurt.
He spoke of an emotional scene at the school as anguished parents rushed to find their children.
"Everyone was just traumatised," he said.

* Sri Lanka to launch its first satellite

Thu, Oct 18, 2012, 10:24 am SL Time, ColomboPage News Desk, Sri Lanka.
Oct 18, Colombo: Beginning a new era in communication Sri Lanka's first communication satellite will take to orbit on November 22 from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in China and it will be positioned over Sri Lanka.
At a media briefing yesterday, R. M. Manivannan, Chairman of SupremeSAT said the launch will take place around 9:30 p.m. local time and the satellite will be positioned above the country in the Geo-Stationary orbit at 87.5 degrees East in just seven minutes.
The satellite will be operational for commercial purposes in the region by early June 2013, he said.
Sri Lanka's Board of Investment (BOI) earlier this year entered into a partnership agreement with SupremeSAT (Pvt) Ltd. to launch its own communication satellite at a cost of US$ 320 million.
The total investment for the project is estimated at US$ 360 million which also included the construction of a satellite Content Management Station and a Space Academy in Kandy which is now in progress.
Sri Lanka will be the 45th country in the world to own a communication satellite and the third in South Asia. India and Pakistan have their own satellites.
SupremeSAT will make history by becoming the 27th private company in the world to own a satellite. The company is currently negotiating with the Maldives and Afghanistan to build satellites for them.
SupremeSAT has entered into an exclusive partnership agreement with China's State-owned China Great Wall Industry Corporation (CGWIC) for the design, manufacturing and launching of the satellite.