Racing began soon after the construction of the first successful petrol-fueled autos; before that time people raced in other vehicles such as horse-drawn buggies. The first race ever organized, by the chief editor of Paris publication Le Vélocipède, Messieur Fossier, was on April 28 1887 and ran 2 kilometers from Neuilly Bridge to the Bois de Boulogne.

British Stock car racing is a form of Short Oval Racing. This takes place on shale or tarmac tracks in either clockwise or anti-clockwise direction depending on the class, some of which allow contact. Races are organized by local promoters and all drivers are registered with BRISCA and have their own race number. What classes exist depends on the promoter, so events in Scotland at Cowdenbeath can be very different from an event at Wimbledon Stadium in London.

Racing School

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) –
A small group of Michael Jackson's dedicated fans have started an "awareness" campaign surrounding the upcoming movie "This is It," saying it covers up the grim reality of the dead pop star's final days.

The group represents fans from at least 10 countries who claim the movie, which hits theaters around the world on October 28 and is based on Jackson's rehearsals for a series of London concerts, conceals the "dire state" of his health while enriching its promoters that they hold partly responsible for his death on June 25.

"In the weeks leading up to Michael Jackson's death, while this footage was being shot, people around him knew that he looked like he might have died. Those who stood to make a profit chose to ignore it," the group says on its website, www.this-is-not-it.com.

Jackson was preparing for the concerts at the time of his sudden death, which was ruled a homicide by the Los Angeles County Coroner and attributed to an overdose of the powerful anesthetic propofol as well as the sedative lorazepam.

Police have focused their investigation into his death on the entertainer's personal physician, Dr. Conrad Murray. So far, no charges have been filed.

Kenny Ortega, the director of "This is It" who also was choreographing the concert rehearsals, told Reuters earlier this week that he saw no signs of drug dependency in Jackson, that the singer was excited to be performing and that the film was not intended to make a profit.

In a separate interview on Thursday, Ortega called the movie a "musical mosaic...that I think will help the fans come to appreciate and understand what Michael was putting into "This Is It", what his dreams were for it, what his goals were for it."

"It is a story of a master of his craft, a great genius in his final theatrical work and creative process," Ortega said.

The concert promoters, AEG Live, did not return calls for comment.

The group is made up largely of longtime Jackson fans, some of whom have spent time with the entertainer over the years and attended nearly every day of his 2005 child molestation trial.

They say they became so concerned about Jackson's health that on June 21, four days before his death, they wrote to him asking him to stop the tour if he was not up to it.

"It is our wish to help people understand where the responsibilities lie, pertaining to Michael Jackson's passing, in the hope that if they choose to watch the film, they will do so with critical eyes," the group said in a written statement.

"In fact, we believe that those around Jackson chose to look the other way when it was evident he was having problems," the fans said.

"We want to celebrate Michael Jackson and his amazing legacy, but we cannot do so until the truth comes out, justice is served and the lies are exposed."

The fans say they will hand out fliers promoting their cause at the premieres next week for "This is It."

(Editing by Bob Tourtellotte )

KINSHASA (Reuters) –
Congolese government soldiers killed at least 50 Rwandan civilian refugees during United Nations-backed operations against rebels in the east earlier this year, a U.N. investigator said on Thursday.

The report is likely to intensify pressure on the U.N.'s Congo peacekeeping force, which is already under fire for backing the army in operations against Rwandan rebels despite complaints about abuse by soldiers and the high number of civilians being caught up in the violence.

"I think the general details are fairly straightforward in terms of the (army) going into a camp which was occupied largely by women, children and the elderly, carrying out a determined attempt to eliminate everyone in the camp," said Philip Alston, the U.N.'s special rapporteur on extrajudicial executions.

Alston said the massacre happened when the soldiers, mainly former Congolese Tutsi rebels integrated into the army as part of a January peace deal, attacked the village of Shalio on April 27 during an offensive into South Kivu province.

"At least 50 people were killed. Some 40 women were abducted and raped. Some of those have not reappeared since," he added.

The killings provoked a reprisal attack by the Rwandan Hutu rebel Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) on the nearby village of Busurungi on May 10, in which least 96 civilians were killed.

The incident highlights the cycles of violence in Congo's east, three years after the U.N. helped the vast nation hold a poll meant to draw a line under a decade of war and chaos.

U.N. peacekeepers have a mandate to back Congo's government forces but often find themselves operating alongside a poorly-paid and ill-disciplined army cobbled together from a myriad of armed groups that took part in Congo's wars.

"WORSE CONSEQUENCES"

Congo's Information Minister Lambert Mende said authorities were aware of the massacre but they feared the repercussions of arresting a former Tutsi rebel commander known as Colonel Zimulinda, whom Alston blames for ordering the attack.

"Zimulinda's arrest would have had worse consequences than the crimes of which he is accused," he said, referring to fears it might destabilise the army's fragile integration of dozens of former rebel groups and militias during the January deal.

Congo launched operations against the FDLR, some of whose members participated in Rwanda's 1994 genocide, in January as part of efforts to heal ties with Rwanda, a former enemy during the country's 1998-2003 war.

U.N. Security Council member states unanimously approved military and logistical backing for the offensive to target the rebels, seen as a root cause of more than a decade of instability in the region.

Rights campaigners and humanitarian agencies want the U.N. to withdraw its support if civilians cannot be protected.

Over 1,000 civilians have been killed, more than 7,000 women and girls raped, and more than 900,000 people forced to flee their homes since the offensive began.

(Editing by David Lewis)

NEW YORK – A CBS producer accused of blackmailing David Letterman used pages from a former assistant's diary that described an affair with the "Late Show" host, a law enforcement official confirmed Monday.
Stephanie Birkitt, 34, works on the show and lived in Norwalk, Conn., with Robert Halderman until August. Halderman copied parts of Birkitt's diary, which contained details of her affair with Letterman, and tried to use it as blackmail fodder, said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing.
Halderman pleaded not guilty in a Manhattan court last week to a count of attempted first-degree grand larceny in the $2 million plot. Letterman divulged details of the alleged extortion caper during his show, including the admission that he had had affairs with women who worked for him on "Late Show."
Birkitt was an assistant to Letterman and frequently appeared on camera with the host in comedy bits. She has also worked at "48 Hours Mystery." Calls to her home and her mother's home in Plymouth, N.H., went unanswered; a message left at her father's dental office wasn't returned Monday.
She moved in August to Manhattan, to a second-floor apartment of an Upper West Side co-op building. Neighbors said they did not know her well, and never saw Letterman in the building.
"She seems like an enigma," said Iris Rutkoski. "Nobody seems to know her in the building."
Rutkoski said she might have said hello to Birkitt in passing, but "I wouldn't recognize her to fall over her. She was not the kind to chat with her neighbors."
Halderman apparently copied the pages before they broke up, using them together with other e-mails and information in a package left in Letterman's limousine that was intended to extort money from him, officials said.
Halderman's attorney, Gerald Shargel, said Monday the charge against his client is "so obviously out of character to the point of not making any sense." Shargel said that Letterman manipulates audiences for a living and that to think he "gave the entire story and there's nothing more to be said is simply wrong."
CBS said it had no comment.
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Associated Press Writer Karen Matthews in New York and AP photographer Jim Cole in Plymouth, N.H., contributed to this report.