Mitt Romney clinches nomination in Texas primary

 cheap abercrombie outlet ukMitt Romney has secured his place as the Republican challenger to Barack Obama in November's US presidential election, following a primary in Texas.Near-complete results show he easily cleared the benchmark of 1,144 delegates to secure the nomination.Mr Romney said he was "humbled". He is the first Mormon from a major party to contest the presidential election. He is set to be officially anointed as the Republican nominee at the party convention in Florida in late August.Mr Romney has been the presumptive nominee for several weeks as his rivals withdrew or suspended campaigning.With 1,086 delegates secured as he entered the Texas race, Mr Romney only needed 58 to pass the 1,144 mark. Texas awards 152 delegates proportionally.In near-complete returns, Mr Romney captured 63% of the vote, according to the Associated Press, more than 10 times as many as his closest rival, Ron Paul. He will surpass his father, George Romney, a former Michigan governor who ran unsuccessfully for the Republican nomination in 1968. Mitt Romney is locked in an extremely close race with Mr Obama in November.Birther row "I am honoured that Americans across the country have given their support to my candidacy and I am humbled to have won enough delegates to become the Republican Party's 2012 presidential nominee," Mr Romney said in statement.As polls closed, the former Massachusetts governor was attending a fundraiser in Las Vegas with real estate tycoon Donald Trump.He spent the day campaigning in Colorado and Nevada. The video seeks to draw a contrast between Mr Romney and Senator John McCain, the 2008 Republican nominee, who once corrected a woman after she called Mr Obama a Muslim."Why won't Mitt Romney do the same?" asks the clip.On Monday, Mr Romney stopped short of condemning Mr Trump's comments."I don't agree with all the people who support me. And my guess is they don't all agree with everything I believe in," Mr Romney told reporters.

 abercrombie uk outletThe Obama campaign video against Mr Trump is the latest in a series of attack ads.On Tuesday Mr Romney also met casino tycoon Sheldon Adelson, who gave millions to supporters of Newt Gingrich's campaign during the primary season.Experts say the outcome of November's election could depend on what happens in a handful of battleground states, including Colorado and Nevada, as the candidates vie for the support of independent voters.The next question of the campaign is who Mr Romney will pick as his vice-presidential running mate.The Republican candidates are all vying for the votes of members of the Republican party in the upcoming state primaries and caucuses. The Republican base is comprised of many disparate factions, like evangelical Christian social conservatives, centrists, and members of the Tea Party movement. To what extent are the major factions likely to support each candidate?The BBC has asked five political pundits to assess the strength of each candidate among four major factions, from zero to five stars.Yet today, Wadi Hanifah shows few signs of its polluted past.At Al Elb, on Riyadh's scorched northern outskirts, I walked along Wadi Hanifah beside high desert bluffs.Palm trees now shade a line of carefully designed picnic pods, each comprising a horseshoe of roughly finished limestone slabs, offering secluded valley views. More slabs, laid horizontally, create steps down to the valley floor, where children scamper along nature trails and families lounge under the acacias."Riyadh has no open space," says engineer Saud Al Ajmi. "Wadi Hanifah has become a place to breathe."Since 2001 the ArRiyadh Development Authority has been restoring and redeveloping the valley, clearing rubbish, grading the banks, landscaping and replanting native flora.

 abercrombie and fitch ukIn other big cities you might head up to high ground for a breath of air. In Riyadh, you head down. Wadi Hanifah acts like a flue, drawing cool breezes over the city to disperse smog and temper the heat. It is a very long, very thin oasis.Negotiating Riyadh's ceaseless traffic brought me to the project's defining idea. Overlooked by crisscrossing flyovers, a new facility is transforming urban run-off into water clean enough for irrigation and fishing.It uses bioremediation - applying natural processes to repair environmental damage. Canadian landscape architects, working with British engineers, have created a linked series of wetland habitats. Within three large ponds, algae form the basis of a food web that includes fish, insects and molluscs. Aided by natural oxygenation, it effectively removes harmful bacteria and other pollutants from the water flowing through.It is a startling process to observe, where dirty water enters and clean water departs, without human intervention in between. It has also never before been attempted on this scale.Indeed, now that bioremediation has been proved to work in Riyadh, scientists are studying how to transfer the technology to other cities.The Wadi Hanifah scheme has benefited the environment and the economy, and brought gentrification to previously unfashionable neighbourhoods alongside the valley - but it has also reconnected the Saudi capital with a key aspect of its self-identity. Wadi Hanifah is where Riyadh was born, yet for years it was a source of shame. The clean-up has restored pride.There is an element of what some call "greenwash" to all this. Almost $1.5bn (￡1bn) has been sunk into a headline-making scheme for a city where, I was told, up to a third of households remain unconnected to mainline sewerage.

 abercrombie and fitch outletAnd, of course, there was no public consultation. As one adviser delicately put it, Riyadh is "able to provide a green light for schemes that might take a lot longer in other countries".And the creation of a green corridor of parkland and lakeside promenades through the middle of the Saudi capital is also having unexpected social consequences. The authorities are realising that they simply cannot police such a large area. By tradition Riyadh has no public entertainment - no cinemas, theatres or music - so the only leisure venues are shopping malls and parks. Picnicking is big in Saudi Arabia. And down in the cool, shaded Hanifah valley, beside flowing water, there are signs of unusual change. Saudis and foreigners are starting to mix, in a way unthinkable before. Women are even unveiling with impunity.Environmental conservation in Saudi Arabia has the potential, it seems, to offer benefits not just to birds and animals. It was fitting that coach Josep Guardiola said farewell to FC Barcelona on Friday night with a win and his 14th trophy. But as jobless queues lengthen and economic unrest increases, his departure compounds anxieties in debt-ridden Catalonia.Half-time beer breaks can be an interesting gauge of social mobility. Alvino stands by the staircase of the Vicente Calderon football stadium in Madrid, sipping on a plastic cup next to his 32-year-old son. His face portrays a mixture of pride, anxiety and melancholy, as he watches his beloved Barcelona beat Athletic Bilbao 3-0 to win the Copa del Rey, the Spanish "King's Cup"."There is a lot of suffering within families in Catalonia with the financial situation at the moment. I think for such a productive region we are getting an unjust share of the pie in Spain," he says solemnly.Josep "Pep" Guardiola is Barcelona's most successful coach. In just four years, he has moulded not just one of the world's greatest ever football teams, but also created a new style.

 abercrombie outlet His emphasis on attractive, possession-based football has come in the midst of a crisis in which many Spaniards have seen huge job losses and their incomes dwindling. Guardiola has built one of the most exciting attacking sides in history while Spain finds itself increasingly on the defensive as it strives for economic survival. His record of 14 titles in four years symbolises a boom-era bubble of perfection which has fast become an illusion in crisis-struck Spain. This is his last game. It comes in the same city where the Spanish government fights against the current banking and debt crisis. On the same day over at the prime minister's residence of La Moncloa, Catalan politician Josep Antoni Duran was engaged in extensive talks with Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy. Catalonia represents one-fifth of the Spanish economy. It has to take out 13bn euros (￡10.4bn; $16.3bn) of loans this year to refinance maturing debt, not to mention funding whatever deficit it has for the current year.It was widely reported that it was running out of options and asking the central government for a bailout. But Mr Duran repeatedly emphasised that Catalonia needs no rescue package, although he admits it finds itself in a "very difficult situation". The Catalan word "patidor" (suffering) is a re-surfacing concept in Barcelona these days. "When the economic situation is bad, to have an escape from depression in the form of football can mean the world for us," Alvino admits. He has been a member of the club for 32 years. Next to him, his son represents the generation of those most affected by the unemployment blighting Spain. "We have always been a club of suffering, of fear. The concept 'patidor' sums up this feeling which has always accompanied this club. But Guardiola has given us hope, he has let us dream. He represents a job well done, and has brought happiness to the club members." Forty-five minutes later, the era of Guardiola has finished as he enters his last press conference through a little red door.