Motor racing-Focus on safety after second death

Motorsport was plunged into more grief and introspection on Sunday by a second death in a week amid intensified concern for safety standards in all forms of racing around the world.

Just hours before a public memorial service for IndyCar driver Dan Wheldon was due to start in Indianapolis, where the Briton twice won the famous Indy 500 race, Italian MotoGP rider Marco Simoncelli died after an horrific crash at the Malaysian Grand Prix in Sepang.

The 24-year-old Italian was widely admired as a rising hope and his death, confirmed at the circuit medical centre, came as a deep shock to a sport still reeling from Wheldon's accident.

Motor racing, on two wheels and four, was left facing its greatest safety inquest for a generation.

Simoncelli's fellow Honda rider Dani Pedrosa said: "At times, we forget how dangerous the sport is. These are things that should not happen, but this is sport."

Wheldon, 33, was killed last Sunday in a high-speed 15-car crash during the opening laps of the IndyCar season finale at Las Vegas.

His funeral took place on Saturday in St. Petersburg, Florida where family, friends and neighbours attended an emotional service.

Many gathering in Indianapolis were shocked by the news from Malaysia where Simoncelli lost control on the second lap and was hit by the bikes of Colin Edwards and Valentino Rossi as he slid on his Honda.

His helmet was knocked off in the incident and the season's penultimate race was stopped immediately with a red flag and then cancelled.

Casey Stoner, who won his second MotoGP title at his home Australian Grand Prix last week, said: "As soon as I saw the footage it just makes you sick inside. Whenever the helmet comes off that's not a good sign."

The loss of his helmet will be the first -- and most important -- area for immediate focus in the investigations that follow Simoncelli's death, the first in premier motorcycle racing since another Honda rider Daijiro Kato was killed at the 2003 Japanese Grand Prix.

WAIVER FORMS

Shoya Tomizawa also died in a similar crash to Simoncelli in Moto2, the class below MotoGP, at last year's San Marino Grand Prix since when motorcycling bosses and riders have been working hard to improve safety.

But even on an open, modern circuit like Sepang, a purpose-built facility designed by German specialist Hermann Tilke and opened in 1999, little can be done to reduce the dangers implicit in high-speed close-proximity racing -- especially when riders, or cars, collide and are hit by others.

Even if the circuit is built to the highest levels of contemporary safety standards, racing itself remains dangerous as participants and spectators are informed when they sign their waiver forms and buy tickets.

Following Wheldon's death, drivers questioned the wisdom of running the IndyCar finale on a very fast, high-banked oval, which had not staged an event in the series for 11 years, with a 34-strong field that included several part-time drivers.

Other observers suggested that overall safety standards in IndyCar racing were 20 years behind those practiced in Formula One, in which a major revision was instigated following the deaths of Ayrton Senna and Roland Ratzenberger in 1994.

Simoncelli's death was the first at Sepang. Circuit chairman Mokhzani Mahathir said: "We had our standard operating procedure ... this is one-of-a-kind freak incident where the helmet came off and I am sure FIM [International Federation of Motorcycling] and MotoGP will be looking into this."

All Italian sports events on Sunday were set to observe a minute's silence in memory of Simoncelli, who was a big fan of soccer club AC Milan.

In their Serie A fixture against Lecce, Milan wore black armbands and recovered a three-goals deficit to win 4-3.

Now motorsport has to recover from a double blow that has asked questions of its ethics and safety standards.

Jobs death caused by respiratory arrest, cancer

A copy of Steve Jobs' death certificate made public Monday indicates that the Apple Inc. co-founder died of respiratory arrest resulting from pancreatic cancer that had spread to other organs.

Jobs died last Wednesday at age 56. Apple did not disclose his cause of death, but Jobs had been in poor health for a number of years.

He battled pancreatic cancer in 2004 and underwent a liver transplant in 2009 after taking a leave of absence for unspecified health problems. He took another leave of absence in January — his third since his health problems began — and resigned in August, handing the CEO job over to his hand-picked successor, Tim Cook.

The death certificate, released by the Santa Clara County Public Health Department and obtained by The Associated Press, said Jobs had a metastatic pancreas neuroendocrine tumor for the past five years. It listed his immediate cause of death as respiratory arrest.

He died at his home in Palo Alto. No autopsy was performed, and he was buried on Friday. Details of the certificate were reported earlier by Bloomberg News.

The certificate listed Jobs' occupation as a high-tech entrepreneur. Jobs started Apple Inc. in his parents' Silicon Valley garage with friend Steve Wozniak in 1976. Both men left Apple in 1985 — Jobs following a clash with then-CEO John Sculley.

Jobs returned in 1997 as interim CEO after Apple, then in dire financial dire straits, bought Next, a computer company he started. That was the start of Apple's remarkable turnaround, which continues today with the popularity of products such as the iPhone, iPod and iPad.

Jobs died the day after Apple announced its latest iPhone, the 4S, which will go on sale Friday. Some fans and investors were initially disappointed that Apple didn't come out with a smartphone that is radically different from the existing iPhone 4. But Apple said first-day pre-orders of the device on Friday topped 1 million — higher than the record set by the iPhone 4 when it was released last year.

Apple employees will hold a memorial service to celebrate Jobs' life on Wednesday, Oct. 19 at 10 a.m. at the company's Cupertino, Calif., campus, according to an email sent out by Cook. An Apple spokesman said that the company will not be holding any public services.

Anwar al-Awlaki: Obama hails al-Qaeda death in Yemen

US President Barack Obama has said the death of US-born al-Qaeda leader Anwar al-Awlaki is a "major blow" to the organisation.

Awlaki was killed by a US drone strike in the Jawf province of Yemen, along with several of his associates.
He is believed to have taken a leading role in a number of attempts to attack the US, including plots to blow up US airliners.

Awlaki, who is of Yemeni descent, has been on the run in Yemen since 2007.

Mr Obama said that as a leading figure in al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), Awlaki had taken the lead in "planning and directing efforts to murder innocent Americans" and was also "directly responsible for the death of many Yemeni citizens".

The death "marks another significant milestone in the broader effort to defeat al-Qaeda and its affiliates", he said.
He also paid tribute to the work of both the US intelligence agencies and Yemeni security officials who had co-operated on the killing.

"This is further proof that al-Qaeda and its affiliates will find no safe haven anywhere in the world," he said, but warned that AQAP "remains a dangerous though weakened terrorist organisation".

'Online inspiration'

In a brief statement on Friday, Yemen's defence ministry statement said Awlaki had been killed in Khashef in Jawf about 140km (87 miles) east of the capital, Sanaa, "along with some of his companions".

US and Yemeni officials later named one of those as Samir Khan, also a US citizen but of Pakistani origin, who produced an online magazine promoting al-Qaeda's ideology.

US officials said Awlaki's convoy was hit by a US drone and jet strike.

BBC security correspondent Gordon Corera says the killing is significant because Awlaki's use of modern media meant he was able to reach out and inspire people susceptible to radicalisation.

He is accused of

• recruiting and preparing Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the Nigerian man who tried but failed to bomb a Detroit-bound airliner on Christmas Day 2009
• overseeing a failed plot to blow up two US-bound cargo planes in 2010 with explosives hidden in printer cartridges
• encouraging US Maj Nidal Malik Hasan to carry out the 2009 US army base killings in Fort Hood, Texas which killed 13 people
• inspiring the man who carried out a failed bombing in New York's Times Square in 2010
• inspired a British women to stab her MP Stephen Timms over his support for the war in Iraq
• plotting to use poisons including cyanide and ricin in attacks
• repeatedly called for the killing of Americans, saying in a 2010 video online that they were from the "party of devils"

Mr Obama is said to have personally ordered Awlaki's killing in 2010, but the al-Qaeda leader has survived several attempts on his life.

Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula

• Formed in January 2009 by a merger between al-Qaeda in Saudi Arabia and Yemen

• Based in eastern Yemen

• Led by Nasser al-Wuhayshi, a Yemeni former aide to Osama Bin Laden. Deputy leader is Saudi ex-Guantanamo inmate Said al-Shihri

• Aims to topple Saudi monarchy and Yemeni government, and establish an Islamic caliphate

• Came to prominence with Riyadh bombings in 2003, and 2008 attack on US embassy in Sanaa

• Says it was behind an attempt to blow up US passenger jet in December 2009

Late last year, he survived an air strike in Shabwa province in which at least 30 militants were killed. He was also the target of a US drone attack on 5 May which killed two al-Qaeda operatives in southern Yemen. 

The death comes amid concerns in Washington about the impact of Yemen's political crisis on its ability to tackle al-Qaeda militants.

President Ali Abdullah Saleh is facing a widespread protest movement, along with an armed insurrection by renegade army units and tribal fighters.

Mr Saleh, who was injured three months ago when his residence was shelled, returned last week after treatment in Saudi Arabia.

In an interview published on Thursday, he said he would not stand down, as promised in a deal brokered by Gulf States, if his opponents are allowed to stand in elections to succeed him.