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LONDON: Two well-dressed thieves walked into a London Bond Street jewelry store last week and, after brandishing handguns at shop workers, made off with $65 million worth of gems in one of Britain’s biggest jewelry heists, police said Tuesday.
Security camera footage released by police shows two men in crisp suits entering Graff Diamonds’ flagship store Thursday afternoon. It was the third time a Graff store in London had been targeted in a high-profile raid in the past six years.
The men stole dozens of high-end rings, bracelets, necklaces and watches worth 40 million pounds, or $65 million, and fired two gunshots into the ground as they escaped in a series of getaway cars, police said. No one was hurt.
It was among the biggest heists in British history — far outstripping the 1963 Great Train Robbery in which 2 million pounds were lost.
Last week’s theft, however, was topped by the 2006 robbery of 53 million pounds in cash from a security company depot in southern England, and was rivaled by the 1987 theft of an estimated 40 million pounds from the Knightsbridge Safe Deposit Center in London.
Police declined to rank Thursday’s robbery, saying only that it was one of the country’s biggest. Items stolen included a pair of white diamond double hoop earrings, a flowing flower necklace with yellow diamond petals, a platinum white Marquise diamond ring and a Chronograff watch, police said.
Graff’s store, a classical stucco and stone town house in London’s jewelry district, has been targeted by thieves in the past.

NEW DELHI: The death toll from Influenza A (H1N1) virus, or swine flu, rose to 14 with three deaths being reported from Maharashtra, two in Pune and one in Nashik.
Rupesh Gangurde, a doctor at the Nashik Civil Hospital, died, the city’s first and the nation’s 14th victim from the swine flu virus.
Shrawani Deshpande (29) was India’s 13th swine flu victim. She too died at Pune’s government-run Sassoon General Hospital.
Earlier, a 35-year-old man succumbed to the swine flu virus at the Sassoon Hospital.
The total number of swine flu casualties in Maharashtra has now gone up to 10.
Two more people have died of swine flu in Gujarat and one each in Kerala and Tamil Nadu.
Meanwhile, with death toll continuing to mount the authorities have stepped up efforts to curb the spread of the contagious virus.
The total number of swine flu casualties in Maharashtra has now gone up to 10.
Two more people have died of swine flu in Gujarat and one each in Kerala and Tamil Nadu.
Currently, there are five critical patients at Pune’s Sassoon Hospital and another two critical patients in a Mumbai hospital.

Taiwan: Typhoons pummelling East Asia have killed at least 70 people, with rescuers in Taiwan battling to find survivors of a mudslide that may have buried about 100 villagers, officials said Tuesday.
A total of 50 people were confirmed dead in Taiwan and 58 were listed as missing, not counting the mudslide victims, after Typhoon Morakot unleashed the island’s worst flooding in half a century over the weekend.
At least 20 were killed as landslides and flooding left a trail of destruction in China and Japan, where officials feared more damage after a powerful earthquake loosened rain-soaked ground southwest of Tokyo.
A helicopter carrying three rescue personnel involved in typhoon relief efforts crashed in heavy fog in southern Taiwan, an official said, without giving details of casualties.
The Taiwanese government’s National Fire Agency said “about 100 people may have been buried alive” in the remote village of Hsiaolin, which could only be reached by helicopter with all road access to the mountainous area severed.
Rescuers said they had airlifted roughly 500 people to safety in southern Taiwan, including about 70 from Hsiaolin.
One Hsiaolin survivor, Wong Ruei-chi, said he had lost 10 relatives in the mudslide.
“I’ve lived in the village for 46 years and I had seen strong winds and rain, but I’ve never seen anything as terrible as this,” he told the Apple Daily newspaper.
Morakot lashed Taiwan with three metres (118 inches) of rain over the weekend, submerging entire streets and bringing down bridges, said the fire agency.
Rescue missions were in full swing with authorities rushing out supplies by helicopter to cut-off areas in the centre and south of the island.
In Pingtung county in southern Taiwan, thousands of people remained trapped in three coastal townships without electricity or drinking water.
The Apple Daily said one man in a flooded Pingtung town had single-handedly rescued about 100 people with a bamboo raft over the past two days.
In eastern China, a massive landslide triggered by torrential rain from Typhoon Morakot toppled seven older houses in one town, killing two people and injuring four, firefighters and residents said.
The four-storey buildings collapsed around 10:00 pm Monday night in the town of Pengxi in the coastal province of Zhejiang.
Local resident Tang Zhonghai, whose house sits opposite the collapsed buildings, said he was startled awake by the landslide.
“At about 10 o’clock at night I heard a very loud noise. I thought it was an earthquake but I saw through the window that the old buildings had fallen down,” Tang told French news agency.
“When I saw what had happened, I left home and tried to help the rescue.”
Typhoon Morakot has left a further six people dead and three missing on the Chinese mainland, the civil affairs ministry said late Monday, adding it also destroyed more than 6,000 houses.
Japan, following its early-hours 6.4 magnitude tremor, rushed out about 400 troops after Typhoon Etau brought floods and landslides that killed at least 14 people and left 18 missing, police and officials said.
Heavy downpours have drenched Japan since the weekend and caused flooding in the worst-hit city of Sayo, in western Hyogo prefecture, where 12 of the deaths were reported after a swollen river burst its banks.
Typhoon Etau was Tuesday churning through the Pacific Ocean but veering east and away from Japan’s coast.

YANGON: A Myanmar court has found pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kui guilty of violating her house arrest, but the head of the military-ruled country says she can serve out a 1 1/2-year sentence under house arrest.
The court initially sentenced Suu Kyi on Tuesday to a three-year prison term. But after a five-minute recess, the country’s home minister entered the courtroom and read aloud a special order from junta chief Than Shwe.
The order said Than Shwe was cutting the sentence in half to 1 1/2 years and that it could be served under house arrest.
Suu Kyi has been in detention for 14 of the last 20 years, mostly under house arrest.
The court also sentenced American John Yettaw to seven years in prison, including four years at hard labor, for entering pro-democracy leader’s home while she was under house arrest.
The 53-year-old Yettaw was found guilty Tuesday of violating the terms of Suu Kyi’s detention by swimming to her lakeside home uninvited and staying for two days.
The court sentenced Yettaw to three years in prison for breaching Suu Kyi’s house arrest, three years in prison with hard labor for an immigration violation and another year in jail with hard labor for swimming in a restricted zone.
It was not clear if the prison terms would be served concurrently.

TAIPEI : At least 38 people were killed and another 62 missing in Taiwan’s worst flooding in half a century after Typhoon Morakot battered the island, rescuers and officials said on Tuesday.
Some 35 people were also injured as the typhoon lashed the island with a record three metres (118 inches) of rain over the weekend, submerging houses, streets and bringing down bridges, said the National Fire Agency.
Rescue missions were in full swing Tuesday with the authorities rushing out helicopters to remote areas cut off by fallen bridges or raging rivers.
Reports said up to 600 people were still trapped in a village devastated by mudslides but authorities would not confirm the number.
“My house is gone. We have been trapped for four days and we are scared,” a man from Hsiaolin village, in southern Kaohsiung county, told reporters after being airlifted to safety.
Armoured vehicles and marine landing craft, as well as rubber dinghies, were mobilised in a rescue operation involving nearly 6,000 troops, Taiwan’s defence ministry said.
In central and southern Taiwan, heavy rain caused widespread floods and mudslides, particularly in the county of Pingtung, where thousands of people had been trapped in three coastal townships.
Pingtung county government said residents from worst-hit areas took shelter in government facilities as the region is still without electricity and water despite receding floodwater.
Typhoon Morakot has caused at least five billion Taiwan dollars (156 million US) in agricultural damage while 61,000 houses were left without power and 850,000 homes without water, according to officials.
Among the missing were 14 workers who disappeared when their makeshift shelter beside a river in Kaohsiung was washed away by rising floodwaters early Sunday.
A typhoon that struck Taiwan in August 1959 killed 667 people and left some 1,000 missing.

Angola: U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton heads to the Democratic Republic of Congo on Monday to target an epidemic of sexual assault in the violence-torn nation after wrapping up a trip to Angola where she pushed democratic reform and trade.
Clinton will leave Angola after signing a new agreement with Angolan health officials to fight HIV/AIDS and meeting President Eduardo dos Santos, who has ruled for 30 years and has been criticized for postponing a presidential vote scheduled for this year.
In the Congolese capital of Kinshasa, she will visit a hospital founded by former NBA star Dikembe Mutumbo, a native of Congo, and hold a town hall meeting. On Tuesday, she travels to the devastated east of the country to meet victims of rampant rapes and other sexual crimes.
While in the eastern city of Goma, Clinton also plans to meet Congolese President Joseph Kabila to press him and his government on democratic reform and fighting corruption in the wake of a brutal conflict that at its height drew in a half dozen of the country’s neighbors.
Clinton delivered a similar message in oil-rich Angola, which is struggling to rebuild after 27 years of war that ended in 2002.
On Sunday, she urged Angola’s government to build on successful legislative elections held in 2008 — the first in 16 years — by holding presidential elections as soon as possible and dealing with the legacy of 27 years of civil war.
“We look forward to Angola building on this positive step, including the adoption of a new constitution, investigating and prosecuting past human rights abuses and holding a timely, free and fair presidential election,” she said.
“So, Mr. Minister, we have our work cut out for us,” she said.
Clinton stressed the need for greater accountability and transparency in Angola’s petroleum sector, particularly with revenue from exports, which account for nearly 60 percent of the country’s gross domestic product, according to officials traveling with her.
Clinton came to the Angolan capital on the third leg of a seven-nation trip to reinforce America’s presence in a country where it increasingly is competing for energy resources with China. Beijing has loaned Angola billions of dollars in recent years without pressing reform.

(CNN) -- Typhoon Morakot lashed Taiwan with high winds and heavy rains Friday as the outer edge of the storm began to move across the island. As of 10:30 a.m. ET, Morakot was about 15 miles (24 miles) from Hualien, on Taiwan's eastern coast, according to the Joint Typhoon Warning Center.
It was packing winds of up to148 kmh (92 mph), with gusts up to 185 kmh, the center said.
CNN forecaster Mari Ramos reported that it would take about a day for the storm to move over the island before moving across the Taiwan Strait and toward mainland China. iReport.com: See balcony view of heavy rains

Lunar Eclipse August 5 2009 Time, Tonight in the United States, there will be a lunar eclipse: August 5, 2009.
The eclipse will occur at 13 degrees of Aquarius at 8:55pm EDT. Here on the east coast, this lunar eclipse will take place shortly after sunset with the moon looming over the horizon.
This is a unique lunar eclipse in that it’s the third lunar eclipse of the season, and second this summer.
For horoscope and astrology lovers, this rare occurrence will bring out the Aquarian influences in your life.
This full moon lunar eclipse brings the sun’s rays shining in its home sign of Leo ruling matters of creativity, children, playfulness, leisurely activities, and love affairs; while the Moon will occupy Aquarius, the sign known for its futuristic take on life, humanity, science, knowledge, and social groups.
While it’s possible that no major event may occur during this special time, your sensitivities are heightened as some lingering events may come to a close…quite unexpectedly.

New York: More than two months after the Tamil Tigers were decimated, Sri Lankan Tamils living abroad remain bitter about the support China and India extended to Colombo during the war.
The Tamil Diaspora is livid that Beijing provided tonnes of arms and ammunition to Sri Lankan security forces battling the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).
The anger against India is rooted mainly in New Delhi’s diplomatic backing to Colombo when it came under Western fire over human rights abuses.
On Monday, Sri Lankan Tamils staged a rally outside the Chinese mission to the UN to protest “China’s assistance to Sri Lanka towards ethnic cleansing and genocide of Tamils”.
Around 50 Tamil Americans from around the East Coast came out with placards that read: “China, Stop helping Sri Lanka’s Ethnic Cleansing of Tamils.”
The group chanted slogans like “China don’t fund Sri Lanka’s war crimes.”
The campaigners claim that Colombo’s attacks on Tamil areas were facilitated by Chinese weapons. Beijing supports abuses against the Tamils through economic and military assistance to Sri Lanka, they said.
The rally was organised by Tamils Against Genocide (TAG), a NGO based in Maryland that is protesting against alleged atrocities committed by Sri Lanka.
A spokesman for TAG expressed dismay at New Delhi’s support for Sri Lanka’s military campaign that ended in the killing of LTTE founder leader Velupillai Prabhakaran and his top lieutenants in May.
“India has done an extreme form of treachery to the Tamils,” the spokesman said. “We need India to do justice to the Tamils.”
In May, India supported a resolution passed by the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva which commended the Sri Lankan government on its defeat of the Tamil Tigers and its efforts to address the needs of the displaced.
The resolution was slammed for ignoring the tactics used by the Sri Lankan army that led to massive human rights violations.
Brazil, Cuba, India and Pakistan blocking a stronger resolution that called for accountability.
The Tamil separatist campaign claimed over thousands of lives since July 1983. The end of the war was followed by accusations of human rights violations against the Sri Lankan authorities.
Human rights groups are also calling for the release of 280,000 displaced Tamil civilians living in relief centres which critics say are no better than “detention camps”.
TAG said it supports the goal of an “independent state” for Tamils through peaceful means and diplomacy.
“The violent form of struggle is dead in the new world order,” said its spokesperson, who asked not to be named because of the sensitive nature of the matter.
“We want an economic boycott from the one million strong Tamil Diaspora,” he added. “The struggle will continue in one form or the other.

3.2 Patch Notes, WoW has multiple independent sources confirming the release of Patch 3.2 tomorrow (Tuesday August 4th in the US) and we’re happy to pass that information along to you.(3.2 Patch Notes)
There are no patch notes available yet; however, they will no doubt be made available within the next few hours. But really, the patch notes are not going to deviate a terrible amount from the PTR patch notes, so this evening is a good time to familiarize yourself with everything.
The patch will also bring with it some rather significant extended maintenance as well.
WoW.com has compiled everything we’ve written into a very large and complete patch guide, WoW.’s Guide To Patch 3.2.

special police team from the Central Province had uncovered 50 bombs with white phosphorous, six LTTE suicide boats, high powered explosives, suicide kits and a large number of war material buried in Vellamulliwaikkal in Mullaitivu.
The detection was made by the police on Friday. The search operation was conducted on a tip-off from a senior LTTE cadre who was taken into custody from an IDP camp in Vavuniya.
It was found that he had been among those who had planned the Sea Tiger attacks on Galle, Trincomalee and Colombo Port.
Among the arsenal of weapons discovered were four RPG weapons, four suicide kits, six claymore mines, 1000 kilos of C4 explosives, 50 bombs with white phosphorous, 15 T56 weapons.
Police said these weapons and explosives had been
Further investigations are conducted by Central Province Senior DIG Gamini Navaratne, Central Province DIG Pujitha Jayasundera, Kandy SSP Ranjith Kasthuriratne and Central Province Terrorist Investigation Division OIC, K.M. Bowala.

TBILISI: Georgia’s Foreign Ministry has accused Russia of trying to take more territory outside the breakaway province of South Ossetia as tensions rise before the first anniversary of the Russian-Georgian war last summer.The Foreign Ministry says Russian troops have entered the village of Kveshi near South Ossetia and erected posts marking a new border. It condemned the Russian action as a deliberate provocation in Monday’s statement.
The Russian Defense Ministry spokesman wouldn’t make any immediate comment on the Georgian claim.
The August war began when Georgia launched an offensive to regain control over Moscow-backed South Ossetia, and Russia sent thousands of troops and tanks which quickly routed the Georgian military.