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Croatia crush England Euro dreams

LONDON, England — Croatia demolished England’s dreams of a place in the Euro 2008 finals with a dramatic 3-2 triumph at Wembley that sent Russia through as Group E runners-up.

England coach Steve McClaren saw his selection gamble backfire in a big way when rookie goalkeeper Scott Carson handed Croatia an early goal.

And McClaren is certain to pay for the multi-million pound defeat with his job after England proved second best on nthe night in almost every department.

McLaren sent off David Beckham for his 99th cap along with Jermaine Defoe at the start of the second half and they briefly featured in a revival that saw England draw level.

At that point they were back on course for the finals with only a point required, but Croatia struck again — and Russia confirmed their qualification with a slender 1-0 victory in Andorra.

There was an expectant atmosphere inside Wembley following the life-line thrown to England by Israel after their win over Russia on Saturday.

But all that changed after eight minutes when a glaring error by 22-year-old keeper Scott Carson handed Croatia the lead on a pitch left partly waterlogged by a torrential pre-match downpour.

Niko Kranjcar tried his luck on the unpredictable surface with a speculative 25-yard effort and Aston Villa’s Carson allowed the dipping drive to bounce in front of him and skid into the net.

Carson was surprisingly thrown into the deep end by McClaren in place of regular keeper Paul Robinson having only made his debut in last Friday’s friendly international in Austria.

The home fans were stunned by Carson’s howler but England tried to retaliate in a positive manner.

Crouch set up a great chance Shaun Wright-Phillips but his angled drive from 10 yards was straight at keeper Stipe Pletikosa.

The wasted opportunity was put into sharp focus after 14 minutes when another breakaway saw Ivica Olic double Croatia’s lead.

Eduardo da Silva made a weaving run to the edge of the England box and the Arsenal player timed his pass to perfection as Olic beat the offside trap.

He kept his cool and calmly rounded Carson before sidefooting the ball into the left-hand corner.

McClaren sat shell-shocked in his dug-out as England looked to be throwing away the life-line handed to them by Israel after their win over Russia — and they left the field at half-time to a chorus of boos.

England’s plight became more desperate with the news that Russia were leading in Andorra and McClaren made a double substitution, bringing on Beckham and Defoe. Wright-Phillips and Gareth Barry were the men replaced.

And Defoe was quickly into the thick of the action, earning England a penalty after 56 minutes when he had his shirt tugged by Simunic inside the box.

Lampard kept his cool and sent Pletikosa the wrong way as he steered his spot kick into the left hand corner to spark an unlikely comeback.

Croatia twice came close to regaining their two-goal advantage in the space of 60 seconds. First Bridge was relieved when his attempted clearance under pressure from Olic went over the head of Carson and clipped the top of the crossbar.

Then Carson partially atoned for his earlier error with a fine save from point-blank range to keep out a header from Olic. England were again fortunate when Olic got the better of Bridge but this time Carson was able to cling on to his low drive away to his right.

After 65 minutes, Wembley erupted when Crouch brought England back on level terms with his 14th goal for his country, superbly chesting down a superb cross from Beckham drilling past the keeper.

A draw was enough to put England through, but back came Croatia to cruelly smash their dreams with a third goal from substitute Mladen Petric after 77 minutes. E-mail to a friend

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CNN.com readers share tales of terrible travel, pleasant surprises

(CNN) — Some CNN.com readers make it a policy to stay home for the holidays, while for others, a tumultuous day at the airport is a small price to pay for turkey in the company of loved ones.

We asked readers to share their holiday travel tales and their reasons for braving the airport. Below is a selection of their responses, some of which have been edited for length and clarity.

AJ of Milwaukee, Wisconsin I work on the ramp for a major airline and it’s amazing just how busy it gets, and I’m not even at a major international airport, so I can’t imagine the stress one must go through in a large airport with the lines and security. I feel for you people! The only downside is the unnecessarily heavy 80-100 lbs. bags. Is it really necessary to pack so heavy? Take a few minutes to really think about what you need to take, plus you’re saving yourself money because most airlines charge fees for heavy bags. With that, wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving and safe travels!

Alan of Detroit, Michigan I have logged approximately 13 flight segments since July of this year. I also have flown Northwest because of Detroit being one of its main hubs. Outside of long lines at security I have not had many problems traveling for business and pleasure this year.

A few tips from a frequent flyer: Read the TSA recommendations on their Web site; don’t take change in your pockets; and put your keys in your carry-on. This will help get through security faster.

Use curbside check-in and print your boarding passes before you go to the airport. I am traveling alone today to Charlotte [North Carolina] from Detroit and I will be at the airport three hours early with my boarding pass in hand. I will check my bags at the curb and then go park my car. Easy. Join a frequent flyer plan and try to stay on the same airline and fly nonstop whenever possible. I will be at the airport this afternoon four hours before my flight leaves hanging out in the WorldPerks club. Delays can happen but I guess I’ve been lucky to not have a delay longer than 30 minutes for any of my flights around the U.S. this year. Pre-planning helps a bunch. Have a great and safe Thanksgiving!

Bill of Tyler, Texas Happy Thanksgiving to one and all! For those of you traveling, have a safe trip and enjoy the relatives.

Just wanted to pass on something I have been doing for some time now. When I am scheduled for a trip, even a weekender, and am going to fly to my destination, I ship my luggage to the destination via UPS; same for the return. You can ship what you want and need, only leaving you a small carry-on bag on your trip. Works great and doesn’t really cost that much. Sure makes the trip easier.

Joe of Buffalo, New York I travel every week for my job and have for the last four years. It does keep getting worse. For example, I was on six different flights and two different airlines last week. Guess what? Each and every one of them was delayed or cancelled and the shortest delay was about two hours. The airline as an industry is in trouble and I do not see any light at the end of the tunnel. The government needs to step in and regulate these airlines that have begun to use all of these delays to their advantage!!!

Brent of Washington, D.C. It’s time people started thinking differently about their lives. Why do we all need to do holidays and go visit family on the same days? Why do so many of us work the same times (9 - 5)? Traffic, line waits and such get worse and worse every year because of this crush of people that insist on running their lives on this accepted schedule. It’s time we thought of alternative ways to alleviate this problem. Thanksgiving is just a day like any other day; it is no different if you celebrate it tomorrow or next week. Workplaces should be given tax incentives to encourage alternate working hours and vacation times. The years I worked 3 p.m. - 11 p.m. were the most stress-free of my life.

Jean of Azle, Texas To the person who says Thanksgiving is just another day, boy do you have it wrong. It is the day we publicly give thanks for what we have been blessed with. Every day we should give thanks but on Thanksgiving it is a special day to gather as friends and family to do so. Maybe you like to work 3 - 11 p.m. but the rest of the world lives in real time. Many of us live great distances from family and want to be with them on the holidays. It is time for those who agree to step up to the plate and say so.

James of Windsor, Canada Gas prices high? Stay out of Canada; here it is $4.00 per gallon!

Lisa of Richmond, Virginia If people have not figured out by now that holiday travel is likely to be stressful and fraught with obstacles, then maybe they should stay under their rocks and not even attempt it. Such is the nature of the season!

Kyle Hendricksen of Chicago, Illinois I decided to travel on Tuesday instead of Wednesday. I was going home from many months of travel. I arrived at DFW [Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas, airport] only to learn the flights into Chicago, Illinois, were all delayed due to weather. I was early for my 1644 hours flight and the Chicago flight that was supposed to leave at 1400 hours was still at the gate. The United agent immediately offered to put me on the earlier flight and within 45 minutes I was in the air (90 minutes earlier than expected and three hours earlier than my original flight took off). I travel a great deal and know this isn’t normal, but I wanted to share a good experience since so many bad ones will come in today.

Mark Perkins of Eunice, Louisiana Just in case you didn’t know, I-10 in south Louisiana has been closed because of a well blowout since last week and is not supposed to re-open until December 4. Yesterday they had traffic backed up for 10 miles on the detour routes.

Brian Ock of Denver, Colorado Trying to get from Denver to South Texas by car — Snowing in Denver with multiple car accidents from Denver to Colorado Springs, Colorado.

Larry Droguett of Bainbridge Island, Washington After all the reports of travel crowds, I was pleasantly surprised to find my local smaller airport in Burbank, California, totally empty with not one person in the security line last Saturday, November 17. Apparently the day all holiday traffic was to start, everyone was scared away.

Rick Martinez of Miami, Florida I’m at Miami International Airport watching [CNN] Headline News and am extremely impressed with how calm and empty the airport feels. Security was very surprisingly the smoothest and quickest I’ve seen it in years (and I’m a frequent flyer!). Only bump in the road: I must give kudos to airport security for catching me with a 3.2 oz bottle of cologne by looking at X-ray alone. Took it back to my car, got back in line, was back on the way to my gate in just a few minutes. I expect a surprisingly smooth and great traveling day.

Johnny Rassmuller of Texas There are so many MORE commercial flights these days (but the same wintry weather every year and same number of airports every year). Of course, the number of delays will rise. Add more airport security measures and you could not pay me to fly commercial anymore; it’s not worth the indignities.

No wonder the major airlines are frightened to death of competition from the new small charter jets. No long lines, no hub-and-spoke connections, direct to small airports actually close to where I live and where I need to go, and I’m actually treated as a person.

Sorry, but the days of holding pens and being treated as cattle through chutes are over for me. It’s worth the extra to actually have a pleasant trip. Even Al Gore concedes that the environment comes in second to a pleasant flight on a private jet so no emotional guilt for me.

Hope Gramlich of Florida Weather or not, communications problems or not, Mr. President, opening more air space from the military for commercial traffic will only make for more danger. It will allow more planes in the air with nowhere to land them. Holding patterns will be larger and fuel will get lower. We need more runways and more air traffic controllers to watch them. But in the past five years you have not listened to what anyone said so I guess I will go now and just watch all the delays. Thank God I am not flying.

John of Tennessee People just need to stay where they are. They should stay at home and enjoy the holidays instead of traveling during this time of year. All you hear is complaints about airline delays and traffic jams. Just stay at home and you can avoid this!

Kristin of Pennsylvania John, some people don’t have the luxury of living in the same city and/or state as our immediate family and thus have to travel in order to stay home and enjoy the holidays. For those of us that spend months looking forward to spending our few days off with those we love, it’s worth the trouble.

G.T. Mason of New York John, for those of us who live alone and far from our family, the travel troubles of the holidays are a small price to pay for seeing our families and spending time with loved ones whom we don’t see often. I think your response is appropriate to people who whine and complain about the travel problems, but please don’t give everyone a blanket solution like, just stay wherever you are for the holidays. You never know … a visit with family and loved ones may the last.

Janelle of Massachusetts I agree with G. T. Mason, spending time with family is worth it all. I may not always enjoy the travel experience, but just the thought of being together once more with friends and loved ones each year I count a blessing. E-mail to a friend

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Ex-aide: Bush, Cheney involved in misleading media

WASHINGTON (CNN) — Former White House spokesman Scott McClellan says top administration officials — including President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney — were involved in his unknowingly passing along false information about the leak of a CIA operative’s identity.

In October 2003, as controversy grew about the leak of Valerie Plame’s name, McClellan stood at the White House podium and said that Karl Rove, the president’s top political adviser, and I. Lewis Scooter Libby, Cheney’s chief of staff, had not been involved.

There was one problem. It was not true, McClellan writes in his new book, What Happened, which is to be released in April.

The excerpt — three paragraphs from a 400-page book — reads in full:

The most powerful leader in the world had called upon me to speak on his behalf and help restore credibility he lost amid the failure to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. So I stood at the White House briefing room podium in front of the glare of the klieg lights for the better part of two weeks and publicly exonerated two of the senior-most aides in the White House: Karl Rove and Scooter Libby.

There was one problem. It was not true.

I had unknowingly passed along false information. And five of the highest ranking officials in the administration were involved in my doing so: Rove, Libby, the vice president, the president’s chief of staff, and the president himself.

McClellan has not given any specifics about how he believes Bush, Cheney, Libby, Rove and then-Chief of Staff Andrew Card were involved in the dissemination of false information.

Asked about the released excerpt, White House spokesman Scott Stanzel said, The president has not misled his spokespeople, nor would he.

McClellan, who was White House press secretary from July 2003 until April 2006, said he’s still writing the book and that his publisher had highlighted the excerpt to build interest.

Peter Osnos, founder and editor at large of PublicAffairs Books, said Wednesday that the book won’t say Bush deliberately lied.

Scott’s not suggested that the president was himself party to a conspiracy to mislead. But it’s pretty damn clear that other people knew what they had done and didn’t tell the truth, Osnos said.

Osnos said the excerpt was released at this time because the company’s book catalog came out Tuesday and reporters had begun asking questions.

Card appeared frustrated Wednesday that McClellan was not releasing more information to clarify the issue.

I would never, cannot imagine that I would have knowingly asked Scott McClellan to say something that’s a falsehood, Card said.

Plame, who has filed a civil suit against Cheney, Libby and Rove over the leak, issued a statement saying she was outraged to learn that McClellan had confirmed he was sent out to lie to the press corps and the American public.

McClellan’s revelations provide important support for our civil suit against those who violated our national security and maliciously destroyed my career, she said. (A federal judge threw the lawsuit out in July on jurisdictional grounds; Plame’s husband, Joe Wilson, said they are in the process of appealing, and hope the suit will be heard early next year.)

Wilson said Wednesday the excerpt shows Bush is out of touch or an accessory of obstruction of justice before the fact and after the fact. Watch why Wilson says his wife was a victim of the Bush administration

Wilson, a former U.S. ambassador who accused the Bush administration of misrepresenting intelligence on Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction in the run-up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq, called for a new congressional investigation.

I think it would be helpful to have congressional hearings on this matter, Wilson said. This is a betrayal of the national security of the country.

In March, Libby was convicted of perjury and obstruction of justice for lying to investigators and a federal grand jury about his contacts with reporters concerning Plame.

Just before Libby was to report to a federal prison in July to serve 30 months behind bars, Bush commuted his sentence, although the president stopped short of a full pardon and Libby still had to pay a $250,000 fine.

Rove, who left the White House staff at the end of August, was not charged in the case. His attorney has acknowledged he was one of two sources cited by syndicated columnist Bob Novak, who first disclosed in July 2003 that Plame worked for the CIA shortly after Wilson wrote a critical op-ed piece for The New York Times.

Former Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage has since acknowledged he was Novak’s original source for the information that Plame worked at the CIA, although he said the disclosure was not deliberate and he did not know at the time she was a covert agent.

Because deliberately leaking a CIA operative’s name can be a federal crime, a special prosecutor, Patrick Fitzgerald, was appointed to investigate the case.

No one was charged in connection with the leak itself; Libby’s charges resulted from statements he made during the investigation.
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King on walkoff: ‘I have seen it all now’

ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) — It was a moment tailor-made for live television: The plastic surgeon who operated on Kanye West’s mother agrees to talk to Larry King but then walks off the set almost as soon as the interview starts.

The bizarre turn of events had even CNN’s King scratching his head. In his 50-plus years in broadcasting, King has never had a guest agree to appear but then disappear while still on the air.

It was as crazy a night as you can imagine, King said Wednesday from New York. I have seen it all now.

The interview-that-never-was almost didn’t even begin. As showtime arrived Tuesday night, Dr. Jan Adams — who arrived late at the CNN studio due to airline delays — told King’s producers that he had received a letter from West’s family. Adams said the family was asking him not to go on the air.

So, after the show had begun, Adams came on to the set — to say he would not be doing the show.

I’m going to respect their wishes, Adams told King. And I’m going to apologize to you, because I think I’m taking up your airtime, but I will not be on the show.

And then Adams pulled out his earpiece, disconnected his microphone and stood up.

King recalled the moment he realized his guest was walking off.

I was thinking, ‘This isn’t happening … I see it, but I don’t believe it,’ King said.

I have had fires in the studio. I have had people fight. I have had people hit each other on the set … punch each other, he added. But this was a first. Watch King discuss the strange scene

The interview with King was supposed to be the plastic surgeon’s first on-air interview since the death of Donda West, the 58-year-old mother of the hip-hop star.

West died November 10 after she was found unresponsive and in respiratory distress at her home, the Los Angeles County coroner’s office said. Her funeral was held Tuesday in Spencer, Oklahoma.

CNN entertainment correspondent Lola Ogunnaike was backstage at the King show. She and others were expecting to appear briefly later in the program to discuss the Donda West case.

And then Adams walked off the set.

We were all stunned, Ogunnaike said Wednesday. We had no idea that was going to happen. Watch Ogunnaike describe the backstage drama

Ogunnaike said she was particularly surprised because Adams has spoken about the case in the past.

She said the letter from West’s family apparently gave the plastic surgeon pause. I think this letter really spooked him, Ogunnaike said. Watch the surgeon walk off the set

Wendy Walker, senior executive producer of Larry King Live, said the turn of events was almost like being in a fire drill.

Show staffers were already on edge as travel delays threatened to scrub Adams’ appearance, Walker said. But then, just minutes before airtime, word came that the surgeon was in the building.

There was a huge sigh of relief, Walker said. And then all of a sudden I hear he’s not doing the show.

Walker said she asked Adams if he could appear on the show and explain why he would be unable to discuss the case. He agreed.

We didn’t know how long he was going to stay, Walker said. But we certainly didn’t think he would take his earpiece off and walk out.

King said Adams was courteous despite his abrupt about-face on the air.

He hung around for the whole show, King said. And at the end of the show, he hugged me.

Adams did tell King that he would make it up to him.

Walker said Adams really wanted to do the show. He really wanted to answer the questions. And we are hoping that he will come back at some point.

Summing up the evening’s show and its surprising twists, King said: All you can do is all you can do. The only way you can act is the only way you can act.

Technically, nothing happened last night to shed light on the Donda West case, King said. But it wasn’t dull.
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Lawmaker slaps journalist on live television

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — A Venezuelan lawmaker repeatedly slapped a journalist in the face during a television program Tuesday, accusing him of slander after he wrote about the death of her infant son years ago. Watch video of the slapping here

Congresswoman Iris Varela stormed onto the set of Gustavo Azocar’s morning program on Tachira Regional Television, shouting: I’m demanding a right of reply from this man who has offended me all the time on this program.

The on-air confrontation, in which Varela slapped Azocar several times and then hit him with the microphone, grabbed national attention in Venezuela and is likely to generate a wider debate in the country about free speech issues and the news media.

Azocar is an outspoken critic of President Hugo Chavez, and Varela is one of Chavez’s close allies in the National Assembly. E-mail to a friend

Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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