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Stephen Crowley/The New York Times

Members of the White House senior staff watched as President Obama announced his selection of Judge Sonia Sotomayor for the Supreme Court.

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By PETER BAKER and ADAM NAGOURNEY

Published: May 27, 2009

WASHINGTON — President Obama’s aides were laying down the law. They had invited liberal activists to the White House two weeks ago to discuss his coming Supreme Court selection, but they were not asking for candidates.

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Key People in Sotomayor’s Selection

Sotomayor’s Opponents and Allies Prepare Strategies (May 28, 2009)

For Republicans, Court Fight Risks Losing Hispanics to Win Conservatives (May 28, 2009)

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Instead, they told the activists not to lobby for their favorites in the news media or talk down candidates they opposed. The message, as one surprised visitor heard it, was “get on board or get out of the way.”

In the months leading up to Judge Sonia Sotomayor’s selection this week, the White House methodically labored to apply lessons from years of nomination battles to control the process and avoid the pitfalls of the past, like appearing to respond to pressure from the party’s base or allowing candidates to be chewed up by friendly fire.

The selection process for Mr. Obama’s first Supreme Court nomination brought together a group that had been thinking about this moment for a long time, from a president who taught constitutional law to a vice president who voted on the confirmation of every member of the current court. Sitting in the room were advisers like Ronald A. Klain and Cynthia Hogan, who have been involved in nomination fights going back to Clarence Thomas.

Even before Justice David H. Souter publicly announced nearly four weeks ago that he was retiring, Rahm Emanuel, the White House chief of staff who lived through two nominations during Bill Clinton’s presidency, commissioned a strategy memorandum from Mr. Klain intended to dictate the process. Secrecy was paramount. As the decision neared, aides disguised meetings on the subject even on the president’s internal schedule by blocking out time under the label “Chief of Staff Strategy.”

From the beginning, Mr. Obama had been focused on Judge Sotomayor, a federal appeals court judge from New York, officials said Wednesday. She had a compelling life story, Ivy League credentials and a track record on the bench. She was a Latina. She was a woman. She checked “each of the grids,” as Mr. Obama’s team later put it. And by the time the opportunity arrived, it became her nomination to lose.

Over the course of the last four weeks, Mr. Obama nursed doubts about Judge Sotomayor and entertained alternatives, aides said. He called around, asking allies about her reputation for brusqueness. At times, he grew increasingly enamored of other candidates, particularly Judge Diane P. Wood, whom he knew from Chicago. But by the time Judge Sotomayor left the White House last Thursday after what Mr. Obama told aides was a “dense discussion” of constitutional law, he was pretty much sold.

“You had to knock her off the pedestal,” Mr. Emanuel said, “and nobody did.”

The selection process got its start in the weeks after Mr. Obama’s election last fall when he gathered advisers in a conference room in downtown Chicago one day. The court was on his mind.

“Just because we don’t have a vacancy right now doesn’t mean we shouldn’t work on it,” he told the group, according to participants. “The day we get a vacancy, we want to have a short list of people ready.”

Mr. Obama already had one in mind and threw out several names, including Judge Sotomayor, aides said. His new White House counsel, Gregory B. Craig, got to work assembling more names. In mid-April, the White House privately got word from Justice Souter that he was preparing to retire at the end of the term in June, and preparations accelerated.

By the time Justice Souter’s decision leaked on April 30, officials said, the White House had full dossiers on nearly all of the major candidates and within days Mr. Obama was given 10-page memorandums on each of them to study over the weekend. By the next week, Mr. Craig’s office gave him 60- to 70-page memorandums on each prospect.

Mr. Obama, who was president of the law review at Harvard and married a Harvard Law School graduate, recently said he became so engrossed in the memorandums that he missed a basketball game one night.

“He didn’t need a Constitutional Law 101 primer to prepare for this,” said Charles J. Ogletree, a Harvard law professor who spoke with Mr. Obama about the process in early May.

“There were five things that were on his mind: age, experience, independence, confidence and diversity,” Mr. Ogletree recalled. “And when I say diversity, it’s not just background and race; I mean diversity of experience, of character, of judgment and of points of view.”

With Mr. Craig also dealing with national security issues, Mr. Emanuel recruited Mr. Klain and Ms. Hogan from Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s office to run the day-to-day process. Mr. Klain, the vice president’s chief of staff, had been involved in nomination fights in the Clinton White House and on Mr. Biden’s Senate staff, while Ms. Hogan, the vice president’s counsel, worked for the Judiciary Committee during three confirmations.

“We wanted people who had been through this before,” said David Axelrod, the president’s senior adviser. “This was not an accident.”

Recalling nominations that had foundered on poor research, the White House team assigned two inside lawyers to vet each candidate’s public speeches and rulings and recruited outside law firms to examine each candidate’s personal finances, taxes, medical history and ethics.

In the end, the White House considered nine candidates. In addition to Judges Sotomayor and Wood, officials said they were Solicitor General Elena Kagan; Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano; Gov. Jennifer M. Granholm of Michigan; Chief Justice Leah Ward Sears of the Georgia Supreme Court; Justice Carlos R. Moreno of the California Supreme Court; Judge Merrick B. Garland of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit; and Judge Ruben Castillo of Federal District Court in Illinois.

Mr. Obama quickly found himself being lobbied by fellow Democrats. In an interview, Representative Jose E. Serrano of New York described a campaign he and his colleague Representative Nydia M. Velázquez conducted on behalf of Judge Sotomayor that included a personal plea at the Cinco de Mayo celebration at the White House.

Design on a Shoestring: High, Low and Eccentric

Jonathan Player for The New York Times

Russell Lewis, a graphic designer, decorated the hallway with prints by British street artists. More Photos >

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By AUDREY TEMPELSMAN

Published: May 27, 2009

RUSSELL LEWIS, a 37-year-old graphic designer, really liked his one-bedroom apartment in Leigh-on-Sea, a fishing village an hour east of London. It was hardly extravagant — a rubber plant, a fish tank and an old recliner were his main possessions. But the apartment, on the first floor of a white-brick town house, is uphill from the ocean and offered plenty of light.

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RAW: Bedroom fireplace and Lewis's collage wall in Russell Lewis and Gemma Ahern's apartment. More Photos »

Then his girlfriend moved in.

“It was dreadful,” said the girlfriend, Gemma Ahern, 36, recalling the mildewed bathroom, mushroom-brown carpet and outdated kitchen. “It was very much a bachelor pad.”

Luckily, Ms. Ahern had recently switched jobs; she had been a freelance florist, then became a design assistant at her sister’s home furnishing and interior design shop in London, called Atelier Abigail Ahern.

Short on cash, the couple tinkered with the apartment in stages. They tore out the musty carpet, tossed the plants and donated the beat-up armchair to a recycling center. Borrowing hand-me-downs from Ms. Ahern’s parents, they also experimented with different furniture, like vintage wrought-iron chairs and a Muji couch.

But no matter what they tried, the sterile white walls and bland kitchen still brought to mind a bachelor pad. Nothing short of a total makeover, they decided, would do. So they pooled their savings — about £6,500, or $10,300 — to overhaul the entire 1,200-square-foot apartment, starting in May 2007.

With so tight a budget, they started by using every designer’s money-saving tool: fresh paint. Choosing a dark, almost funereal color by the British paint company Farrow & Ball called Down Pipe, they transformed the lifeless walls and the floors into a dramatic, lead-gray backdrop.

“Dark paint really cozies up a space, making rooms look far more luxurious and sophisticated than they really are,” said Abigail Ahern, who picked the color and is known for mixing upscale designer pieces with salvaged vintage finds.

Next, the couple dressed up the kitchen. They replaced the white cabinet doors with slender plywood panels bought at a hardware store and painted ocean blue. And for furniture, they bought an old dining table for £30 ($48) at a flea market in West Sussex and spray-painted it glossy black.

The new kitchen cost just £1,000 (about $1,600) — half of which was spent on a hand-blown black glass lamp from Prandina, an Italian lighting company, that hangs over the eating nook. “One or two really wild pieces make everything come together,” Gemma Ahern said.

The whimsical mix of high and low is also on view in the den, where a designer chandelier made of recycled glass hangs over a window seat with views of the tree-lined street. The deer skull above the fireplace, also a flea market find, is a wry reference to the old English manor house cliché.

The bedroom also got the high-low treatment, with an elegant ballroom chandelier and a large Australian bus sign found on eBay. In the bathroom, a new shower was decorated with clay-colored mosaic tiles.

It was a joint effort. Mr. Lewis lent his streetwise, urban sensibility to the mix. In the living room, he hung colorful prints by the street artists Dicy from England and C215 from France. He also created a kind of graffiti collage in the bedroom, layering spray paint and cutouts from newspapers and magazines. It was designed to evoke the surfaces of London train tunnels, crusted with wheat paste.

By the time the renovations were completed last December, all traces of the bachelor pad were gone. “There’s not a single element that we didn’t discuss and spend time together finding,” Mr. Lewis said. “Now it really feels like our space.”

U.S. Manufacturing Orders Rose Sharply in April

The government said on Thursday that demand for big-ticket manufactured goods soared by the largest amount in 16 months in April, the second increase in the last three months.

The Commerce Department said orders for durable goods rose 1.9 percent in April, more than four times the 0.4 percent increase that had been expected.

But the government is revising down its estimate for new orders in March to show a drop of 2.1 percent, a much bigger fall than the 0.8 percent decline previously reported.

Still, new orders have risen in two of the last three months after having recorded six consecutive declines. Analysts believe this could be signaling that the deep recession in manufacturing may be bottoming out. But they believe a sustained rebound is still some distance away.

The 1.9 percent April increase was the largest one-month gain since orders advanced by 4.1 percent in December 2007, the month that the recession began. Since that time, American manufacturers have struggled with falling demand at home and in foreign markets.

Excluding the volatile transportation sector, new orders posted a 0.8 percent increase, also much better than expectations. New orders excluding transportation fell 2.7 percent in March.

The overall economy, as measured by the gross domestic product, shrank at annual rates of 6.3 percent in the fourth quarter and 6.1 percent in the first quarter. It was the worst six-month performance for the G.D.P. in a half-century.

But many analysts believe that the worst part of the recession is coming to an end. They expect G.D.P. to decline by a smaller 2 percent to 3 percent in the current quarter and then turn slightly positive in the second half of this year.

The strength for durable goods orders in April came in several areas. Transportation orders rose 5.4 percent as orders for motor vehicles and parts jumped by 2.7 percent, the biggest one-month gain since July 2007. However, even with the increase orders for motor vehicles remain at depressed levels as the nation’s car companies continue to struggle.

Orders for commercial airplanes fell 6.8 percent in April but orders for military aircraft were up 1 percent.

Other areas of strength in April were defense capital goods which soared by 23.2 percent and machinery orders which were up 2.7 percent. Orders for primary metals such as steel rose by 1 percent and demand for communications equipment rose by 6.9 percent.

In other economic news, the government reported that the tally of newly laid-off people seeking jobless benefits fell last week, a sign that companies are cutting fewer workers.

The Labor Department said the number of initial claims for unemploymentinsurance dropped to a seasonally adjusted 623,000, from a revised figure of 636,000 in the previous week. That was below analysts’ expectations of 635,000.

Auto-related layoffs elevated the claims numbers in recent weeks, but a Labor Department analyst said no states cited job cuts in that sector this week.

The number of people continuing to receive unemployment benefits increased to 6.78 million, the largest total on records dating back to 1967 and the 17th straight record week.

On Sotomayor, Some Abortion Rights Backers Are Uneasy

WASHINGTON — In nearly 11 years as a federal appeals court judge, President Obama’s choice for the Supreme Court, Sonia Sotomayor, has never directly ruled on whether the Constitution protects a woman’s right to an abortion. But when she has written opinions that touched tangentially on abortion disputes, she has reached outcomes in some cases that were favorable to abortion opponents.

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News Analysis: Nominee’s Rulings Are Exhaustive but Often Narrow (May 27, 2009)

Sotomayor’s Appellate Opinions Are Unpredictable, Lawyers and Scholars Say (May 28, 2009)

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Now, some abortion rights advocates are quietly expressing unease that Judge Sotomayor may not be a reliable vote to uphold Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 abortion rights decision. In a letter, Nancy Keenan, president of Naral Pro-Choice America, urged supporters to press senators to demand that Judge Sotomayor reveal her views on privacy rights before any confirmation vote.

“Discussion about Roe v. Wade will — and must — be part of this nomination process,” Ms. Keenan wrote. “As you know, choice hangs in the balance on the Supreme Court as the last two major choice-related cases were decided by a 5-to-4 margin.”

Because Judge Sotomayor is the choice of a president who supports abortion rights at a time when Democrats hold a substantial majority in the Senate, both sides in the debate have tended to assume she could be counted on to preserve the Roe decision.

Immediately after Mr. Obama announced his selection on Tuesday, leaders of several other abortion rights groups spoke out in support of Judge Sotomayor, and several conservative groups opposed to abortion rights attacked her, saying they were convinced that the president would not nominate someone who opposed abortion rights.

But in his briefing to reporters on Tuesday, the White House spokesman, Robert Gibbs, was asked whether Mr. Obama had asked Judge Sotomayor about abortion or privacy rights. Mr. Gibbs replied that Mr. Obama “did not ask that specifically.”

Presidents have miscalculated in their assumptions about the abortion views of Supreme Court nominees before. When the first President Bush nominated David H. Souter in 1990 to fill the seat that Judge Sotomayor would assume if confirmed, Mr. Souter was known as a “stealth nominee” with no paper trail on abortion.

But conservative and liberal advocates alike believed that Justice Souter would vote to overturn Roe v. Wade, so much so that abortion rights advocates protested outside his confirmation hearing with signs reading “Stop Souter, or Women Will Die.” Then, two years later, Justice Souter shocked the political world by voting to uphold abortion rights.

As president, Mr. Obama has sought to avoid being drawn into the culture wars of the last several decades and has encouraged each side in the abortion debate to be respectful of the other’s opinions. But there are clear political advantages to his choice for the court not being perceived as having a strong position on abortion rights.

Judge Sotomayor’s views on abortion rights could still become clear if a past writing comes to light. During Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr.’s confirmation process in late 2005, for example, the National Archives released an old Justice Department job application in which he said the Constitution does not protect a right to an abortion.

But at this point, Judge Sotomayor’s views are as unknown as Justice Souter’s were in 1990, said Steven Waldman, the editor in chief of BeliefNet.com, a religious Web site, where he has blogged about her lack of an abortion rights record.

“Everyone is just assuming that because Obama appointed her, she must be a die-hard pro-choice activist,” Mr. Waldman said, “but it’s really quite amazing how little we know about her views on abortion.”

None of the cases in Judge Sotomayor’s record dealt directly with the legal theory underlying Roe v. Wade — that the Constitution contains an unwritten right to privacy in reproductive decisions as a matter of so-called substantive due process. Several of her opinions invoke substantive due process in other areas, however, like the rights of parents and prisoners.

She has also had several cases involving abortion-related disputes that turned on other legal issues. While those cases cannot be taken as a proxy for her views on the constitutionality of abortion, she often reached results favorable to abortion opponents.

In a 2002 case, she wrote an opinion upholding the Bush administration policy of withholding aid from international groups that provide or promote abortion services overseas.

“The Supreme Court has made clear that the government is free to favor the anti-abortion position over the pro-choice position,” she wrote, “and can do so with public funds.”

In a 2004 case, she largely sided with some anti-abortion protesters who wanted to sue some police officers for allegedly violating their constitutional rights by using excessive force to break up demonstrations at an abortion clinic. Judge Sotomayor said the protesters deserved a day in court.

Judge Sotomayor has also ruled on several

immigration

cases involving people fighting deportation orders to China on the grounds that its population-control policy of forcible abortions and birth control constituted persecution.

Sotomayor Pick a Product of Lessons From Past Battles

Stephen Crowley/The New York Times

Members of the White House senior staff watched as President Obama announced his selection of Judge Sonia Sotomayor for the Supreme Court.

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By PETER BAKER and ADAM NAGOURNEY

Published: May 27, 2009

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Key People in Sotomayor’s Selection

Sotomayor’s Opponents and Allies Prepare Strategies (May 28, 2009)

For Republicans, Court Fight Risks Losing Hispanics to Win Conservatives (May 28, 2009)

Times Topics: Sonia Sotomayor

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“You had to knock her off the pedestal,” Mr. Emanuel said, “and nobody did.”

The selection process got its start in the weeks after Mr. Obama’s election last fall when he gathered advisers in a conference room in downtown Chicago one day. The court was on his mind.

“He didn’t need a Constitutional Law 101 primer to prepare for this,” said Charles J. Ogletree, a Harvard law professor who spoke with Mr. Obama about the process in early May.

“We wanted people who had been through this before,” said David Axelrod, the president’s senior adviser. “This was not an accident.”

Israel rejeita pedido dos EUA para congelar assentamentos

Israel rejeitou os pedidos americanos para o congelamento dos assentamentos judaicos na Cisjordânia e vai permitir a continuidade de obras nesses locais, segundo afirmou nesta quinta-feira um porta-voz do governo israelense.

Segundo o porta-voz Mark Regev, o futuro dos assentamentos judaicos na Cisjordânia deverá ser decidido somente quando forem feitas negociações de paz com os palestinos.

"Enquanto isso não acontece, temos que permitir que a vida normal continue nessas comunidades", afirmou.

As declarações israelenses são uma resposta ao pedido da secretária de Estado americana, Hillary Clinton, que disse na quarta-feira que não deve haver exceções sobre os pedidos do presidente Barack Obama para a interrupção da ampliação dos assentamentos.

Em declarações após um encontro com o ministro das Relações Exteriores do Egito, Hillary Clinton disse que Obama foi "muito claro" durante seu recente encontro com o premiê israelense Binyamin Netanyahu ao dizer que Israel deve congelar todos os assentamentos.

"Não alguns assentamentos, não postos avançados, não a exceções para o crescimento natural. Acreditamos que é do melhor interesse para os esforços de paz que nos comprometamos à interrupção da expansão dos assentamentos", afirmou a secretária de Estado.

Esta foi a primeira vez em vários anos que autoridades americanas expressam um pedido tão firme para o congelamento dos assentamentos nos territórios palestinos.

Os comentários de Hillary Clinton foram feitos poucas horas antes do encontro entre Obama e o presidente palestino, Mahmoud Abbas, nesta quinta-feira na Casa Branca.

Crescimento natural

A rejeição ao congelamento dos assentamentos já havia sido expressa no domingo pelo próprio premiê israelense. Segundo Netanyahu, novos assentamentos estão proibidos, mas o governo deve permitir o crescimento natural das colônias já existentes.

"Não temos como dizer às pessoas que não tenham filhos ou que forcem os jovens a se mudar para longe de suas famílias", disse ele durante reunião de gabinete no domingo.

Netanyahu prometeu, porém, desativar postos avançados na Cisjordânia - pequenas colônias, algumas com poucas pessoas - que o próprio governo israelense considera ilegal.

"Cuidaremos deles, se possível por meio do diálogo", disse ele. "Não há dúvidas de que nos comprometemos a lidar com eles."

Obstáculos

A questão dos assentamentos judaicos na Cisjordânia é um dos maiores obstáculos que o presidente Barack Obama encontra para o reinício do processo de paz no Oriente Médio.

A Autoridade Nacional Palestina diz que descarta a retomada do diálogo com Israel a menos que o país congele as atividades nos assentamentos e remova todos os bloqueios nas entradas à Cisjordânia.

Abbas deve reiterar essas condições em seu encontro com Obama nesta quinta-feira.

Cerca de 500 mil colonos judeus vivem em mais de cem assentamentos construídos por Israel desde a ocupação da Cisjordânia e de Jerusalém Oriental, em 1967.

Os assentamentos são considerados ilegais pela comunidade internacional, mas Israel rejeita essa determinação.

De acordo com o plano de paz para a região apresentado pelos Estados Unidos em 2003, Israel é obrigado a interromper todas as atividades relacionadas aos assentamentos, incluindo o crescimento natural.

O plano também exige que a Autoridade Nacional Palestina controle os militantes que promovem ataques contra israelenses.

Crise econômica agravou abusos contra os direitos humanos, diz ONG

Anistia elogiou decisão de Obama de fechar Guantánamo

A crise econômica internacional agravou abusos aos direitos humanos, desviou a atenção deles e criou novos problemas, afirma um relatório anual divulgado nesta quinta-feira pela organização não-governamental Anistia Internacional.

De acordo com o documento, intitulado "O Estados dos Direitos Humanos em 2009", que traz dados relativos a 2008, "os direitos humanos estão sendo relegados a segundo plano em nome da recuperação econômica."

"O mundo precisa de uma nova ordem mundial em termos de direitos humanos, não de promessas de papel, mas do comprometimento e ações concretas de governos para neutralizar esta bomba relógio", afirma Irene Khan, secretária-geral da Anistia.

"Líderes mundiais precisam investir em direitos humanos com o mesmo propósito com que investem na economia", defende a secretária.

Na avaliação de Khan, de Gaza a Darfur, da República Democrática do Congo ao Sri Lanka, "o número de mortos em conflitos é alarmante" e a reação da comunidade internacional, "chocante".

A secretária ainda cita contradições em países como a Somália, onde enormes esforços são investidos na luta contra a pirataria ao mesmo tempo em que é crescente o fluxo de armas que contribui para a morte de civis no país.

"Ignorar uma crise para focalizar em outra é uma receita para agravar as duas. A recuperação econômica não será sustentável ou igualitária se os governos falharem em combater abusos que aprofundam a pobreza ou conflitos armados que geram novas violações".

Guantánamo

O relatório ainda critica a liderança do G-20, grupo que reúne as 20 maiores economias do mundo. Na avaliação da Anistia, a liderança do grupo está "arruinada" por abordagens equivocadas em relação aos direitos humanos.

"Abusos, retórica sem ações e promoção dos direitos humanos no exterior ao mesmo tempo em que se esquece de fazer o dever de casa não conferem confiança necessária à liderança do G20".

A Anistia Internacional diz que a China e a Rússia "são provas de que economias abertas não levam a sociedades abertas".

A ONG, no entanto, elogiou a decisão do presidente dos Estados Unidos, Barack Obama, de fechar, no prazo de um ano, o centro de detenção de Guantánamo, em Cuba.

O relatório defende que os responsáveis por crimes relacionados ao terrorismo sejam levados à Justiça, salientando que a decisão de Obama "fortalecerá, em vez de enfraquecer, a segurança global e a autoridade moral dos Estados Unidos".

O relatório anual da Anistia Internacional avaliou a situação dos direitos humanos em 157 países, incluindo o Brasil, de janeiro a dezembro de 2008.

Earls given nod for Lions opener

Venue: Royal Bafokeng Sports Palace, Rustenburg
Date: Saturday, 30 May Kick-off: 1400 BST (1500 local time)
Coverage: Live text commentary and score updates on BBC Sport website; Score updates on BBC Radio 5 Live

Earls, 21, is the youngest player currently on tour with the Lions

Ireland's Keith Earls will be among nine debutants in a British and Irish Lions side featuring seven Welshmen for Saturday's tour opener in South Africa.

He joins captain Paul O'Connell, Ronan O'Gara and fellow Irish debutant Tommy Bowe against a Royal XV in Rustenburg.

Lee Byrne, Jamie Roberts, Andy Powell, Matthew Rees, Adam Jones, Scot Mike Blair and English flanker Joe Worsley will also play their first Lions match.

England duo Andrew Sheridan and Simon Shaw complete the tourists' line-up.

Five more players - Wales duo Mike Phillips and Alun-Wyn Jones, Ireland flanker Stephen Ferris plus England pair Riki Flutey and Lee Mears - could also taste their first action as a Lion off the bench.

The lads are raring to go...and will be anxious to get the tour off to the best possible start

Lions coach Ian McGeechan

With Wales' 20-year-old wing Leigh Halfpenny yet to join the tour, Earls, 21, is currently the youngest player in the squad.

The Munster centre or full-back, who won his first two caps last autumn, played no part in Ireland's Six Nations Grand Slam campaign but emerged as a Lions 'bolter' after some strong displays for his province.

With Brian O'Driscoll among seven players not considered after their involvement in European finals last weekend, Saturday is an early chance for Earls to stake a claim at outside centre.

Shane Williams, Tommy Bowe and Lee Byrne form an all-Ospreys back three

"I think it is really exciting we have a lot of players making their debuts," said head coach Ian McGeechan.

"I remember my debut for the Lions against Western Transvaal in 1974, and it is a career highlight.

"For young men such as Keith Earls and Jamie Roberts it will be a day to remember and they will be thrilled to get an early taste of match action on the tour.

"While we have a lot of players making their Lions debuts, there is a huge amount of international experience in the team. The average age is 28 and that reflects the maturity we have in the squad."

Martyn Williams, Ronan O'Gara and Simon Shaw are all are on their third Lions tour, while Shane Williams, Andrew Sheridan and O'Connell, plus replacements Stephen Jones and Phil Vickery, are on their second.

"They know exactly what is in store in terms of the provincial matches," McGeechan added.

606: DEBATE

I think it would be a mistake to make any assumptions at all about the Test line-up on the basis of this team

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"Following excellent preparations and a period of acclimatisation in South Africa, I know the lads are raring to go against the Royal XV and will be anxious to get the tour off to the best possible start."

The quartet of Leinster players - O'Driscoll, Rob Kearney, Luke Fitzgerald and Jamie Heaslip - plus Leicester's Tom Croft and Harry Ellis and Northampton prop Euan Murray were rested for the opening match after their exertions last weekend.

But they are likely to be involved in the second match against the Golden Lions in Johannesburg next Wednesday.

The tourists' opening opponents are largely drawn from the Griquas, the winners of South Africa's second-tier domestic tournament the Vodacom Cup.

Lions team v Royal XV:

Lee Byrne (Ospreys/Wales), Tommy Bowe (Ospreys/Ireland), Keith Earls (Munster/Ireland), Jamie Roberts (Cardiff Blues/Wales), Shane Williams (Ospreys/Wales); Ronan O'Gara (Munster/Ireland), Mike Blair (Edinburgh/Scotland); Andrew Sheridan (Sales Sharks/England), Matthew Rees (Scarlets/Wales), Adam Jones (Ospreys/Wales), Simon Shaw (London Wasps/England), Paul O'Connell (Munster/Ireland - captain), Joe Worsley (London Wasps/England), Martyn Williams (Cardiff Blues/Wales), Andy Powell (Cardiff Blues/Wales).
Replacements: Lee Mears (Bath/England), Phil Vickery (London Wasps/England), Alun-Wyn Jones (Ospreys/Wales), Stephen Ferris (Ulster/Ireland), Mike Phillips (Ospreys/Wales), Stephen Jones (Scarlets/Wales), Riki Flutey (London Wasps/England).

Opel talks break down in Berlin

Negotiators failed to reach agreement on a way forward for GM Europe

All-night talks in Berlin about the future of Opel and Vauxhall have broken down without reaching a decision about who should buy GM's European unit.

Officials blamed the delays on the revelation that Opel would need an extra 300m euros ($415m; £260m) in short-term funding.

The German government wanted more information from GM and the US Treasury before choosing a preferred bidder.

But one of the bidders has pulled out, leaving Fiat and Canada's Magna.

The US investor Ripplewood Holdings has withdrawn from the process.

There had also been a last-minute expression of interest from Beijing Automotive Industry Corp (BAIC), but German officials said that their focus was on Fiat and Magna.

Tim Weber, business editor, BBC News website

German politicians are furious, regardless of party affiliation. They believe that both GM and the US Treasury took them for a ride.

Berlin was ready to do a deal. The money was on the table; all decision makers were in the Chancellery.

But GM, German politicians say, ambushed the meeting by suddenly asking for another huge bridging loan. The US Treasury representative, meanwhile, is being described as "third-rate", without any authority to do a deal.

The breakdown of talks has damaged not just GM's reputation, but trust in the US government as well.

Anger over Opel talks breakdown

Bankruptcy threat

The German government expects to receive the extra information it needs by Friday.

But there are tight deadlines involved, with the sale of GM Europe a key part of General Motors' reorganisation plans.

GM has a 1 June deadline from the US government to either restructure its debt or declare bankruptcy.

The rejection of GM's plans by its bondholders has made bankruptcy a more likely option.

'Pretty scandalous'

German Economy Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg was critical of the late request for extra money.

"GM again confronted us with new figures," he said, describing the tactics as "pretty scandalous".

He also criticised the level of involvement of the US Treasury Department, describing it as "marginal, to put it politely".

It will be up to GM to decide to whom to sell its European division, but the German government is being seen as highly influential in the process because of its offer of hefty financial assistance for the eventual winner.

Union criticism

See GM production centres in Europe

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The German government is particularly concerned about potential job losses, especially because it is an election year, with half of GM Europe's 50,000 workers based in Germany.

Berlin is looking to set up a temporary holding company, into which it would inject 1.5bn euros to keep GM Europe operating until the next German election later this year, said Simon Dorris at Lansdowne Consulting.

The German government could then look at a full restructuring programme, which could involve loan guarantees of 7bn euros.

European ministers are meeting on Friday to discuss the short-term bridging loan, with the Germans unlikely to reconsider any investment until they know the outcome of the meeting, said Mr Dorris.

GM EUROPE BIDDERS' PLANS

Fiat: Italian carmaker; plans 10,000 job cuts in Europe; could close one of four Opel factories in Germany

Magna: Canadian-Austrian car parts group; Plans 2,500 job cuts in Germany; pledges to inject between 500m and 700m euros into Opel; 10% of the new company would be owned by Opel employees; GM would keep a 35% stake in the company; bid in connection with Russia's state-run Sberbank and Oleg Deripaska's truck firm Gaz

The possible buyers of Opel

If an agreement cannot be reached, then GM Europe will become embroiled in GM's administration process, should the US parent company declare bankruptcy, which could happen before the 1 June US government deadline, he added.

But there has been concern from other countries that contain GM Europe factories.

The Belgian government, fearing for the future of Opel's plant in Antwerp, has called for more of a say in the choice of a preferred bidder.

British unions have criticised the UK government's level of involvement in the process.

GM Europe owns Vauxhall in the UK which employs 5,500 people and has plants at Luton in Bedfordshire and Ellesmere Port in Cheshire.

Guardiola praises Barca bravery

Barcelona manager Pep Guardiola said the Champions League victory over Manchester United was down to hard work and bravery rather than flair.

"If you attack and are daring you have more chances of winning," said Guardiola, who also won the trophy as a Barcelona player in 1992.

"We have not been cowards, never in the match. There's nothing more dangerous than not taking risks.

"We have worked many, many hours this season and this is our payment."

Guardiola, who has won an historic Spanish league and cup as well as the Champions League in his first season in charge, paid tribute to Lionel Messi, scorer of the second goal against United.

"Messi went back into midfield because we wanted to be superior in possession," Guardiola said.

"Without the ball we are a disastrous team, a horrible team, so we need the ball.

"We are not the best team in history but we have played the best season in history to win the three titles."

Barcelona president Joan Laporta said Johan Cruyff's "Dream Team" of the early 1990s laid the foundations for the club's triumph.

But Laporta also lavished praise on Guardiola, saying the former Spain midfielder, 38, had taken that base and fashioned it into something even more special.

FOOTBALL BLOG

United will regroup... but Barcelona are the best team in Europe. And, on this compelling evidence, by some distance

Phil McNulty

Like Guardiola, Cruyff was a former Barca player who returned to coach the famous Catalan side. The Dutchman led them to one European Cup victory and four straight Spanish league titles with a thrilling brand of attacking football.

Guardiola, the midfield linchpin of that side, has now carried off the first ever "treble" for a Spanish club.

"Pep and the players have played the best season in the history of Barca and they have demonstrated that they are the best team in history of Barca," said Laporta.

"Pep in one year has really created a genius team. It has roots in Cruyff's philosophy but at the same time he himself has created something."

Barcelona striker Thierry Henry agreed his side's 2-0 defeat of United was down to doggedness as well as style.

"Apart from the way we play it is also down to the way we fought all season," said the former Arsenal star.

"In the first 10 minutes we were kind of lucky and playing against a United side who are difficult to beat. But we fight and we never give up."

I want to thank the fans and hope they enjoy the moment. The last few years haven't been great. They have fought and suffered the same as we have

Barca skipper Carles Puyol

Henry, who lost to Barca in the 2006 final when playing for Arsenal, added: "I struggle to describe what we have achieved this year. No team has ever done this treble in Spain, it's something amazing.

"You always remember winners, that's the difference. You can play good football, pass the ball well but unless you win silverware sometimes it doesn't count."

On his final defeat with the Gunners, Henry added: "I will always have disappointments from Arsenal because they are in my heart and in my blood."

Barca captain Carles Puyol said: "I want to thank the fans and hope they enjoy the moment. The last few years haven't been great. They have fought and suffered the same as we have."

Midfielder Andres Iniesta, whose 93rd-minute strike against Chelsea in the second leg of the semi-final sent Barca through to the final, said: "We are speechless. It is the perfect finish to a spectacular season.

Barca fans celebrate Champions League win

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Israel rejects US call over settlement work

Israel will continue to allow some construction in West Bank settlements despite US calls for a freeze on its work, a government spokesman says.

Mark Regev said the fate of the settlements should be decided in peace negotiations with the Palestinians.

His remarks appear to be a rebuff to US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who said all such activity should cease.

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