British gold medalist dies during America's Cup practice

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- A 72-foot-long Swedish sailboat capsized Thursday in San Francisco Bay while practicing for the upcoming America's Cup races, killing an Olympic gold medalist from the United Kingdom and injuring another sailor, authorities said.

Artemis Racing said Andrew ''Bart'' Simpson died after the capsized boat's platform trapped him underwater for about 10 minutes around 1 p.m. PDT.

Simpson served as the Swedish team's strategist and had won one Olympic gold medal and one silver medal. He was 36 years old, according to San Francisco Fire Department officials.

Artemis said doctors ''afloat'' with the team and on shore couldn't revive Simpson after he was freed from the wreckage.

''The entire Artemis team is devastated by what happened,'' CEO Paul Canyard said in a statement posted on the team's website. ''Our heartfelt condolences are with Andrew's wife and family.''

Simpson and another sailor were injured when the Artemis Racing catamaran capsized near Treasure Island, a former naval station in the bay, Fire Department spokeswoman Mindy Talmadge said.

Both were brought to shore and taken to the St. Francis Yacht Club, where paramedics performed CPR on Simpson. He was pronounced dead a short time later, fire officials said.

The other sailor suffered minor injuries, and the rest of the crew of 13 was accounted for and taken back to their dock in Alameda in a boat operated by Oracle Racing, which is defending its 2010 America's Cup title in San Francisco this summer.

The Swedish-based team and two other yacht clubs are scheduled to compete with each other for the honor of challenging Team Oracle for the America's Cup, sailing's most prestigious trophy.

The boat that capsized is a specially built catamaran that can reach speeds of 45 mph.

Coast Guard Lt. Jeannie Crump said the agency did not know the extent of the damage to the boat. She said a commercial salvage boat was at the scene and would tow the vessel to Clipper Cove, between Yerba Buena Island and Treasure Island.

Crump added that Coast Guard officials weren't sure what caused the boat to capsize. The Swedish team has two boats, she added.

The America's Cup race is scheduled to run from July through September, and the teams are training in the bay.

The Louis Vuitton Cup for challengers starts July 4, with the winner facing Oracle in the 34th America's Cup beginning Sept. 7.

This is the second time a sailor has died during training for the America's Cup.

In 1999, Martin Wizner of the Spanish Challenge died almost instantly when he was hit in the head by a broken piece of equipment.

Artemis has had its share of upheaval in the buildup to the 34th America's Cup. Late last year, skipper Terry Huthinson of Annapolis, Md., was released. He was replaced by Nathan Outteridge of Australia, who won a gold medal at the London Olympics.

Artemis has had technical problems, as well. Last fall, Artemis said the front beam of its AC72 catamaran was damaged during structural tests, delaying the boat's christening. A year ago, Artemis' AC72 wing sail sustained serious damage while it was being tested on a modified trimaran in Valencia, Spain.

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Associated Press writers Paul Elias and Garance Burke in San Francisco, and Bernie Wilson in San Diego contributed to this report.

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British judge upholds ban on Christian group's "gay cure" ads

By Estelle Shirbon

LONDON (Reuters) - A British judge upheld on Friday a decision to ban a Christian group from placing adverts on London buses that suggested people could be cured of homosexuality.

The group, Core Issues Trust, wanted to place adverts on the side of London's distinctive red double-decker buses that read: "Not gay! Ex-gay, post-gay and proud. Get over it!"

The proposed adverts were a response to a campaign by gay rights group Stonewall, which had run adverts on London buses that read: "Some people are gay. Get over it!"

In a 35-page ruling, High Court judge Beverley Lang dismissed Core Issues Trust's claim for a judicial review into the ban on the adverts imposed by Transport for London (TFL).

"(The advert) was not a contribution to a reasoned debate," she wrote, saying that the group's freedom of expression was counter-balanced by the risk of causing grave offence to gay people and increasing homophobic attacks.

Core Issues Trust said it would appeal, arguing the judgment was "likely to stifle open and free debate" about homosexuality and discriminate against "those who reject a 'gay' identity".

The group says it aims to help "people who voluntarily seek to change from a 'gay' lifestyle to a gender-affirming one".

Stonewall welcomed the judgment, saying the decision to ban what it described as "voodoo 'gay cure' adverts" was correct.

TFL, the public body in charge of the bus network, decided in April 2012 to stop Core Issues Trust from running the adverts on the grounds that they went against its "commitment to a tolerant and inclusive London".

"CENSORSHIP"

The Christian group argued in court that the real reason for the ban was that London Mayor Boris Johnson disagreed with the view expressed and thought the adverts could hinder his re-election campaign. A mayoral election was due three weeks later.

Core Issues Trust based the accusation on a TFL press statement dated April 12, 2012, which said the mayor "was strongly of the view that this ad should not be run".

Judge Lang dismissed the accusation that Johnson had abused his position as TFL chairman to advance his political interests. She said TFL had acted in its own interest to avoid causing offence, an objective shared but not imposed by Johnson.

Stonewall Chief Executive Ben Summerskill said Johnson had been right to express his objections to the proposed adverts.

"In a city where over half of gay young people face bullying at school, and where tens of thousands of gay people are subjected to hate crimes every year just because of the way they were born, it's perfectly proper for a mayor to object to the use of such advertising in an iconic public setting," he said.

However, Lang's judgment contained some criticism of TFL, suggesting that it had not considered whether it was perhaps applying double standards by banning Core Issues Trust's adverts after it had allowed Stonewall's "Get over it!" campaign.

Christian groups supporting Core Issues Trust seized on that part of Lang's judgment, which referred to the Stonewall adverts as "controversial, sensitive and potentially offensive".

"As soon as a Christian group responds to Stonewall's provocation and dares to challenge the reigning political orthodoxy, the message is banned," said Andrea Minichiello Williams, director of a group called the Christian Legal Centre.

"This case demonstrates the huge asymmetry and censorship that characterises public debate at the moment," she said.

(Editing by Pravin Char)

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Despite free treatment, British health rankings decline

LONDON (Reuters) - Years of universal healthcare, rising health spending, cancer screening, immunization and anti-smoking laws have failed to stop Britain falling behind in reducing early death and disease, a study showed on Tuesday.

Researchers who compared Britain's health performance since 1990 with 14 European Union countries plus Australia, Canada, Norway and the United States said its pace of decline in premature death was "persistently and significantly" behind the average - a finding they described as "startling".

Chris Murray, who led the work at the University of Washington, said Britain's poor performance was partly due to dramatic increases in Alzheimer's disease and in drug and alcohol abuse problems, and to a failure to tackle leading killers such as heart disease, strokes and lung diseases.

"Concerted action is urgently needed," said Murray, director of the university's Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation.

Using data from a vast study called the Global Burden of Diseases, headline findings of which were published last year, researchers analyzed patterns of ill health and death in Britain, calculated the contribution of various preventable risk factors, and ranked it among high-income countries that spent similar amounts on health in 1990 and 2010.

They found that only in men older than 55 years had Britain seen significantly faster drops in death rates than other nations over the last 20 years.

Britain's ranking in premature mortality rates for adults aged between 20 and 54 had "worsened substantially", they found.

This was partly due to dramatic growth in problems linked to drugs and alcohol, which were ranked among the least important causes of death in this age group in 1990 - ranked 32nd and 43rd respectively - but rose to sixth and 18th place in 2010.

"WAKE-UP CALL"

Kevin Fenton, Director of Health and Wellbeing at Public Health England, who worked with Murray on the study, said the findings were "both a wake-up call and an opportunity".

"While it's encouraging that overall the health of the UK has improved substantially since the last report the pace of improvement is not enough," he said in a statement.

Overall, the study found, Britain's eight leading causes of death have changed little in the last 20 years, with heart disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, stroke, lung cancer and lower respiratory infections remaining the top five.

There has also been a startling increase Alzheimer's disease - which rose from 24th to 10th place - in cirrhosis, which is linked to alcohol abuse, and in drug use disorders. They rose from 14th to 9th position and from 64th to 21st respectively.

The study found that in 2010, Britain had significantly lower premature death rates from diabetes, road injuries, liver cancer and chronic kidney disease on average than other nations.

But it had not kept pace on rates of early death from other conditions such as heart and lung diseases, breast and esophageal cancer and preterm birth complications.

Commenting on the findings, Edmund Jessop from the UK Faculty of Public Health in London, said there was "plenty of room for bold action by politicians".

He said ministers should introduce tighter health policies such as plain packaging for cigarettes, a minimum price for alcohol, a ban on trans fats, improved control of hypertension and a greater focus on psychiatric disorders.

"Alternatively, the UK can continue to languish at the bottom of European league tables," he said.

(Reporting by Kate Kelland; editing by Andrew Roche)

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