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Global survey shows drop in support for Barack Obama

International approval of US President Barack Obama's foreign policy has dropped sharply during his term in office, a Pew Research survey suggests.

Among the 21 countries surveyed, the largest drop in approval - from 57% to 27% - was seen in China, the Global Attitudes Project reveals.
Most respondents in almost all countries opposed US drone strikes.
The figures come months before the president seeks re-election, with polls showing a close race with Mitt Romney.
Foreign policy does not traditionally play a key role in US presidential elections, but Mr Obama's campaign has trumpeted his foreign policy record - including killing Osama Bin Laden - amid ongonig criticism of his record at home.
Despite the drop in overall support, confidence in Mr Obama remains high among US allies, especially in Europe, the Pew survey shows.
"I think where you see the real disappointment is when you deal with specific policies," said Richard Wike, associate director of the Pew Global Attitudes Project.
He added that the survey showed big gaps between expectation levels and action over Mr Obama's policies on climate change and treatment of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Economic power
According to Mr Wike, confidence in Mr Obama and approval of his international policies has trended downward during the course of his presidency, but has not dropped sharply in a single year.

Besides China, the largest declines in foreign policy approval by 2012 included long-term ally Japan and neighbour Mexico.

Among five European countries surveyed both in 2009 and 2012, approval of Mr Obama's international policies dropped from 78% to 63%. In five Muslim countries surveyed in both years, the approval rate dropped from 34% to 15%. Russia also joined the countries with double-digit declines, from 40% of respondents approving US international policies to 22%, an 18% decrease.
While Mr Obama generally has higher approval ratings than President George W Bush did at the end of his second term, their approval ratings are now matched in Pakistan and Mr Obama's remain only slightly better in Lebanon.
Among the countries surveyed there was widespread opposition to US drone strikes. At least 50% of respondents in 17 countries disapproved of such strikes, with the largest percentages in the Middle East, Mexico and Greece.
In recent weeks, Mr Obama has become more closely associated with the US drone programme, with a New York Times report noting he personally approves each strike, and that the US keeps a "kill list" of potential strikes against militants.
In addition to changes in sentiment towards Mr Obama and his policies, the survey records a shift in the way economic power is perceived.
Majorities in Germany, Britain, France and Spain now regard China as the world's leading economic power, not the US. In the UK, this percentage has doubled since 2008.
Mr Wike told the BBC the US had seen a downward trend in its perceived economic power since the 2008 financial crisis and subsequent recession, despite Mr Obama receiving "reasonably good marks on global economic issues".
However, American "soft power" gets higher marks, especially among young respondents.
The American way of doing business is popular in the Middle East, with more than 50% in Lebanon, Tunisia, Jordan and Egypt saying they like this part of US image.
Majorities or pluralities in 18 of 20 countries admire US science and technology, according to the survey. American ideas about democracy are more popular among respondents under 30 in several countries, including Tunisia and China.

Mitt Romney's Mormon roots in northern England

It's well-known that Republican contender for the US presidency Mitt Romney is a Mormon - but not that his family was converted in England. He doesn't mention it on the campaign trail, but his great-great-grandfather, a Preston carpenter, became one of the first British Mormons, 175 years ago.

"This is the spot - this is where it all started," says historian Aidan Turner-Bishop pointing down to a small, unmarked and unprepossessing, shingle beach.
The sun is just starting to set over the banks of the River Ribble in Preston. The birds are singing gently. It is an idyllic scene.
"On a hot summer's day, this is where the kids come to play," says Turner-Bishop.
This is the site where the very first Mormon baptisms outside North America took place.
And it is almost certainly the spot where the Romney family were baptised into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) in the late 1830s, at the start of a wave of 19th Century Mormon conversions in England.
"In order to compete to be the first people to be baptised, some of the men began to run, to race each other, down to the little beach… People were just carried away by the sheer excitement of it," says Turner-Bishop.

"There would be crowds on top of the bridge and crowds around here. It was a big event. And they'd stand and watch these exciting, unusual American evangelists baptise people in full immersion in the waters of the river."
The church, founded in the US in 1830 by Joseph Smith, faced intense persecution in its early years, so it was a bold move, when - just seven years later - it sent missionaries across the Atlantic Ocean.

Earthquakes rally to beat Galaxy

Chris Wondolowski scored his MLS-leading 14th goal to cap a wild comeback and the San Jose Earthquakes beat the Los Angeles Galaxy 4-3 Saturday.Wondolowski broke away from his marker and deftly redirected a 61st-minute corner kick from Marin Chavez to complete San Jose's rally from a 3-1, first-half deficit.Steven Lenhart, Victor Bernardez and Sam Cronin also scored for the Earthquakes (11-3-3), who maintained their hold on the league's best record with their third consecutive win.David Beckham and Landon Donovan sandwiched scores around an own goal by San Jose defender Jason Hernandez in the space of 10 minutes to put Los Angeles (6-9-2) ahead by two goals, but the Galaxy had their three-game winning streak broken when they couldn't hold that lead.Cronin outraced onrushing LA goalkeeper Josh Saunders to a pass of nearly 50 yards fromSteven Beitashour, touching the ball home from 15 yards in the 47th minute.Bernardez hammered home a Chavez corner kick with a full-blooded volley in the 44th minute to bring San Jose within a goal at the half.Lenhart opened the scoring in the seventh minute by tapping home a loose rebound spilled by Saunders, who couldn't handle a dipping drive from Chavez.Backup San Jose goalkeeper David Bingham, pushed into action after starter Jon Buschsuffered a swollen eye in a collision with Bernardez, pushed aside a 74th-minute shot from Beckham.Earthquakes left back Justin Morrow snuffed out a pair of chances in the 85th minute, walling off Galaxy substitute Chad Barrett to prevent him from reaching a loose ball on the doorstep, then blocking a shot by David Junior Lopes.Donovan scored his fourth goal in the past three matches to put Los Angeles up 3-1 in the 41st minute, completing a sequence initiated by an ill-advised back pass from Hernandez.Hernandez also put the ball in his own net in the 36th minute, trying to deflect a cross fromHector Jimenez.Beckham delivered a scintillating free kick in the 31st minute, leaving Busch flat-footed, to make it 1-1.
The game drew 50,391 to sold-out Stanford Stadium.

Barclays bank chairman Marcus Agius to resign

Marcus Agius is to resign as the chairman of Barclays in the wake of the Libor lending rate scandal.
BBC business editor Robert Peston says Mr Agius will admit to an "unacceptable standard of behaviour" at Barclays when he makes the announcement on Monday.
It comes after Barclays was fined £290m ($450m) for attempting to manipulate the Libor inter-bank lending rate.
Earlier, it emerged RBS had sacked four traders over their alleged involvement in the Libor-fixing scandal.
The dismissals happened at the end of last year.
Our correspondent says Mr Agius made his decision to quit on Saturday night.
In his resignation statement he is expected to say the scandal had been a "devastating blow to the bank's reputation" and apologise to staff, customers and shareholders.
MPs' questions
Barclays was fined after the Financial Services Authority (FSA) found its traders had lied about the interest rate other banks were charging it for loans. Investigations are also under way at RBS, HSBC, Citigroup and UBS.

Spain join Germany atop the EURO podium

Having become the first team to successfully defend the UEFA European Championship, Spain have joined Germany as the only three-time winners of the continent's greatest prize.Spain's class of 2012 have etched their country's name on to the Henri Delaunay Cup for a third time with their record 4-0 victory against Italy in Kyiv.
Vicente del Bosque's men won the 14th edition of the UEFA European Championship at the Olympic Stadium, denying their opponents a second title in the process. Spain were previously crowned European champions on home soil in 1964 and in Austria/Switzerland four years ago and they now join Germany (1972 and 1980 as West Germany, 1996) as the only country with three titles.
France (1984, 2000) have claimed the cup twice; the Soviet Union (1960), Italy (1968), Czechoslovakia (1976), Netherlands (1988), Denmark (1992) and Greece (2004) complete the nine-strong list of former winners.

David Silva scored Spain's opening goal in the final victory against Italy

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Bridleway Signpost

Ambiguous signposts:

 I was taking a break from training course preparation Saturday afternoon and Julie was in London attending an examination meeting.  So Estelle and I decided to go out for a walk on outskirts of Romsey. First part was straightforward as it was one Estelle has done before, but she normally did it as a out and back again. It looked to me like we could turn it into a circular one so we carried on even though I hadn’t got my Garmin GPS hike navigator with me.

Our reasonable sense of direction meant that we navigated OK and succeeded despite quite a few decision points along the way. We could have done with a few little trail signposts to confirm we were heading in the right direction so I got quite excited when I saw a signpost coming up, only to be met by the most useless 3 way fingerpost in the world. OK, I suppose if you were on a horse it would confirm you could continue on your horse, but I felt the need to take a snap of it.