England break records in draw with Australia

 

Alastair Cook and Jonathan Trott set a series of records as England hit an extraordinary 517-1 on the final day of the first Ashes Test before declaring.

The match finished in an expected draw, Australia replying with 107-1 having been set 297 to win from 41 overs.

Cook's 235 not out was the sixth best Ashes score by an Englishman and he also surpassed Sir Don Bradman for the highest Test score at the Gabba.

Cook and Trott (135no) put on 329, the ninth highest England stand in history.

Australia ended a tough last couple of days on a positive note with Ricky Ponting hitting 51 not out and Shane Watson unbeaten on 41, but England will hope to take more confidence with them to the second Test at Adelaide.

US condemns Wikileaks diplomatic cables release

Christopher Hill said US diplomats would be more careful about their cables

The US has strongly criticised the release by the website Wikileaks of thousands of extracts from US diplomatic messages.

Among the revelations is a report Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah urged the US to destroy Iran's nuclear facilities.

The founder of Wikileaks, Julian Assange, said the US authorities were afraid of being held to account.

But the White House said the release was "reckless" and put the lives of diplomats and others at risk.

One Republican congressman called for Wikileaks to be designated a terrorist organisation.

Peter King, a member of the House of Representatives Homeland Security Committee, said the latest release "manifests Mr Assange's purposeful intent to damage not only our national interests in fighting the war on terror, but also undermines the very safety of coalition forces in Iraq and Afghanistan".

Meanwhile, Pakistan's foreign ministry condemned what it called "the irresponsible disclosure of sensitive official documents".

The US Department of Defence says it is making its computer systems more secure to prevent future leaks.