Rio de Janeiro restaurant blast kills three
A suspected gas explosion at a restaurant in central Rio de Janeiro has left three people dead and at least 13 injured, Brazilian officials say.
The powerful blast early in the morning caused widespread damage to the restaurant, located in a multi-storey building on Tiradentes Square.
Those killed - who are believed to be staff - were flung out of the building by the force of the blast.
Among the injured, three people are in a serious condition, reports say.
The explosion happened at about 07:30 local time (10:30 GMT), the officials say.
The facade of the building was completely destroyed, and seven floors damaged, Brazilian media reported.
'Smell of gas'
Officials are now checking the building to see if there is a risk of collapse.
Rio de Janeiro Mayor Eduardo Paes said most of the injured were passers-by.
"It was not a greater tragedy because the shops had only just begun to open," he said.
The explosion showered Tiradentes Square with debris and disrupted rush-hour traffic.
The cause of the blast is being investigated, but fire officials say a strong smell of gas was reported just before the incident.
City fire official Ronaldo Alcantara said the restaurant had been closed on Wednesday, which was a holiday, the Associated Press news agency reports.
The official added that gas had probably leaked throughout the day and night, and the restaurant's employees on Thursday morning may have somehow caused a spark that led to the blast.
Syria uprising: UN says protest death toll hits 3,000
The United Nations has said the death toll in seven months of protests in Syria against the rule of President Bashar al-Assad has reached 3,000.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said at least 187 children were among the dead and that 100 people had died in the past 10 days alone.
The UN also says hundreds of Syrians have been arrested.
Ms Pillay warned that Syria's "ruthless repression" threatened "full-blown civil war".
The government in Damascus blames armed "terrorist gangs" for the trouble, and says 1,100 members of the security forces have been killed.
Resolution vetoed
Ms Pillay said: "The onus is on all members of the international community to take protective action in a collective manner."
UN spokesman Rupert Colville added that hundreds of Syrians had been detained and tortured or had disappeared.
He said that families who supported the opposition had been targeted by the Syrian government both inside the country and abroad.
A European-drafted UN resolution threatening "measures" against the Syrian regime if it did not end its repression of the protests was vetoed this month by China and Russia.
But both Beijing and Moscow have also recently urged Damascus to adopt promised reforms swiftly - a sign, correspondents say, that they too may be losing patience with the Assad government.
Mr Colville said that the diplomatic moves so far were "not producing results and people continue to be killed every single day".
He added: "Just hoping things will get better isn't good enough, clearly."
In its reports of violence from Thursday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights group said that at least 36 people had been killed, including 25 soldiers.
The worst violence was in the north-western town of Banash.
It said there were also deaths in Daraa, south of Damascus, and the central city of Homs, which has been one of the biggest flashpoints of the uprising.
Although there has been some trouble in its suburbs, Damascus has not been so greatly affected.
Thousands of people rallied in the capital on Wednesday to back the president.
Italy PM Silvio Berlusconi faces confidence vote
Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is facing a key confidence vote in parliament amid questions over his handling of the economy and personal scandals.
Mr Berlusconi is expected to survive but the margin could be narrow.
Italy's government credit rating was recently downgraded and parliament failed to back a key part of the budget this week, triggering the vote.
Mr Berlusconi also faces trial on sex, bribery and abuse of power charges.
'Cohesive majority'
The BBC's David Willey in Rome says Mr Berlusconi remains characteristically upbeat about his chances of winning the vote, although some members of his governing Freedom Party have left their support in doubt.
The environment minister has said she will not support the government after she learned that her ministry is to be abolished as part of Italy's new austerity package.
Our correspondent says that even if Mr Berlusconi survives, most Italians are betting on a general election as early as next spring.
Mr Berlusconi needs a simple majority of 316 of the 630 MPs. His Freedom Party and main coalition ally, the Northern League, have a combined 293 seats. The vote is expected to begin at about 10:30 GMT.
The confidence vote was forced after parliament on Tuesday failed to approve one article of the budget by a single vote. It later emerged that the finance minister had failed to meet the ballot deadline by 30 seconds.
Demanding the confidence vote, opposition leader Pierluigi Bersani said: "The government is not coping with the situation. The problems have all been laid out, but he only knows how to stay nailed to his seat by using tricks."
Mr Berlusconi, 75, insisted he had a "cohesive majority" in parliament.
"There is no alternative to this government. Early elections would not solve the problems we have. A political crisis now would mean victory for the party of decline, catastrophe and speculation."
Despite facing three trials - including for allegedly paying for sex with a 17-year-old girl - and an all-time-low approval rating of 24%, Mr Berlusconi has shown remarkable staying power. He has always maintained his innocence.
On Saturday, he also faces a mass demonstration in Rome - similar to recent ones in New York and Madrid - against austerity measures and financial mismanagement.
Italy is considered vulnerable in the current eurozone crisis, with the highest public debt in the grouping.
The country approved an austerity package last month to balance the budget by 2013 but its central bank chief this week urged the government to introduce more measures to stimulate growth.
Source:BBC
Two Charged with Attempted Murder in the TCI
The Royal Turks and Caicos Islands Police, Criminal Investigation Department in Providenciales have charged two males for the following offences namely Attempted Murder, Possession of Unlicensed Firearm, Possession of Firearm with intent to commit a serious offence, Possession of Firearm with intent to endanger life and Possession of ammunition with intent to enable endangerment of life. Those charges are in connection with an incident which occurred in Kew Town Providenciales on Friday night 7th October 2011.
The two males are schedule to appear in the Providenciales Magistrate’s Court # 2 on Friday 14th October 2011 to be arraigned.
Two others charged along with Kartel
Deejay Vybz Kartel, who was further remanded in the Gun Court section of the Corporate Area Resident Magistrate's Court yesterday, has been charged jointly with two other men.
THE Jamaican STAR understands that Nigel Thompson and Linberg McDonald have also been jointly charged for the July murder of Barrington Burton in Gregory Park, St Catherine.
Kartel, whose real name is Adidja Palmer, along with Thompson and McDonald are expected to face the court tomorrow.
THE STAR understands that a bail hearing for Kartel is also set for that date.
He has been charged with murder, conspiracy to murder and illegal possession of a firearm.
The controversial artiste was charged on October 3.
It is alleged that on July 11, Kartel along with other men conspired to murder Barrington 'Bossie' Burton, a 27-year-old businessman/promoter of a Gregory Park address in St Catherine.
Burton was murdered while he was standing with friends along Walkers Avenue in Gregory Park.
Source: The JA Star
Stern says Christmas games in doubt if no deal
Commissioner David Stern said his "gut" tells him there will be no NBA basketball on Christmas without a labor agreement by Tuesday.
That day, when owners and players are scheduled to meet with a federal mediator, is a "really big deal," he added.
Owners will then open two days of board meetings Wednesday, and without an agreement to bring them, Stern believes further cancellations are coming.
"Right now, Tuesday, Tuesday, Tuesday, just before my owners come into town, having brought in the labor relations committee and Billy (Hunter) having brought in his executive committee, it's time to make the deal," Stern said Thursday. "If we don't make it on Tuesday, my gut -- this is not in my official capacity of canceling games -- but my gut is that we won't be playing on Christmas Day."
Stern canceled the first two weeks of the regular season on Monday when the sides couldn't reach a deal before a deadline he had set.
Christmas is traditionally the first big day of the NBA season. This year's three-game schedule features the NBA finals rematch between the Dallas Mavericks and Miami Heat.
The sides will need to act quickly to save it. The talks have stalled over the structure of the salary cap system and the division of revenues between owners and players.
They will meet Tuesday with George Cohen, the same mediator who tried to resolve the NFL's labor dispute months before it eventually ended.
Asked if Cohen had the ability to move the sides toward a deal, Stern said: "I'm hoping he does because I think that if we don't make a deal by the time my owners meetings come in Wednesday and Thursday, after we've met with the mediator on Monday and then met with each other on Tuesday, then I despair.
"Because we will have lost two weeks for sure on our way to losing more games, offers will get worse, possibly on both sides, and the deal's going to slip away from us, as may the season," he added. "So this is the time to make a deal."
Hunter is meeting with players on Friday in Los Angeles. The union has balked at owners' proposal to replace their hard salary cap plan by making the luxury tax much more punitive. Players believe it would become such a deterrent to spending that it would essentially work as a hard cap.
The sides also have to decide how to divide up about $4 billion in annual revenues. Players were guaranteed 57 percent of basketball-related income in the previous collective bargaining agreement and have proposed lowering it to 53 percent. Owners are seeking the same 53-47 split in their favor.
The parties have discussed a 50-50 split, which the players rejected. In the radio interview, Stern repeated a claim he made Monday that the original discussion of an even split was initiated by the players.
They also are still clashing over the length of the agreement, with players not wanting to go beyond six years and owners seeking a 10-year deal but offering the players an opt-out after six. Player contract lengths, luxury tax payments and the use of spending exceptions are among the other big items remaining.
"We haven't even addressed many of the issues," Stern said.
So there is a lot left -- and now perhaps just a few days to save basketball in this calendar year.
"Deal Tuesday, or we potentially spiral into situations where the worsening offers on both sides make it even harder for the parties to make a deal," Stern said.
Source:AP
Former Fifa vice-president Jack Warner is caught on tape offering 'gifts’ of £25,000 to Caribbean delegates.
Jack Warner has been caught on tape apparently urging fellow Caribbean officials to accept cash gifts from Mohamed Bin Hammam, the disgraced former presidential candidate.
Telegraph Sport has seen the remarkable footage in which Warner, the controversial former vice-president of Fifa, appears to be recorded telling other members of the Caribbean Football Union members they must decide whether to accept the “gifts” of $40,000 (£25,000) each, and urging them to vote for Bin Hammam rather than Sepp Blatter in the Fifa presidential elections.
The recording was made on May 11, the day after the money is alleged to have offered the money in individual brown envelopes, and is being used as evidence at a Fifa hearing this week at which 16 officials from the Caribbean Football Union are accused of violating Fifa’s code of ethics.
Warner himself is no longer under investigation by Fifa after resigning on June 20, while Bin Hammam, who was forced to withdraw his challenge for the presidency in the wake of the scandal, has been banned for life by Fifa.
The 16 officials facing investigation this week have each been passed the footage of Warner’s address, which also features withering attacks on both Blatter and Uefa president Michel Platini, whom Warner warns will turn Fifa into a “French province forever” if he succeeds Blatter.
Warner begins the meeting by asking: “Is there media here?” On being told there are no journalists present, he explains the detail behind Bin Hammam’s “gifts” but stresses they should not be seen by the outside world to have come from Bin Hammam.
Source:Sakapfet
Agent asked for $1.2M to 'lose' cricket match, court hears
A court in London has heard recordings of a phone conversation in which an agent acting for several members of the Pakistani cricket team allegedly discussed deliberately losing a cricket match in exchange for $1.2 million.
Mazhar Majeed, a 36-year-old businessman from London, England was recorded talking to an unknown contact in India, as part of a secret investigation by the former UK tabloid newspaper, the News of the World, in August 2010.
As the match between Pakistan and England at the Oval ground in London was coming to a conclusion, Majeed is heard telling the contact it is "not a problem" to fix the result, adding: "Boss, you know how many [players] I have got, you know that they do it."
Majeed is a central figure in a trial arising from the newspaper's investigation, which sees two Pakistani international cricketers, Salman Butt, 27, and Mohammed Asif, 28, charged with conspiracy to cheat and conspiracy to accept corrupt payments.
Prosecutors accuse both men of taking part in a betting scam, allegedly arranged by Majeed, during a subsequent match between Pakistan and England, played a week later, at the Lord's cricket ground, also in London.
On Tuesday, the court was played a series of audio and video recordings of conversations and meetings between Majeed and a reporter from the newspaper, who was posing as a rich Indian businessman. One of the recordings showed the reporter handing over $140,000 in a London hotel room that had been fitted with secret cameras.
Majeed is heard to give the reporter precise details of events in the match, due to start the following day, that would be rigged by the Pakistani players. Specifically, he describes three no-balls -- illegal deliveries -- that the Pakistani bowlers would concede at particular points in the match.
The price of fixing a no-ball, Majeed was heard to say, is $10,000; he went on to tell the undercover reporter that his contact in India made four to five times that amount by betting on no-balls.
The jury was then shown extended clips from the Lord's match, during which the Pakistani bowlers did exactly as Majeed had promised. Before one of the no-balls, the cameras even showed Butt, who was captaining the Pakistani team, consult with the bowler, Mohammed Amir.
Earlier in the trial the jury was told the betting market in the Asian subcontinent is "breathtaking' in size." Conservative estimates, the prosecution said, puts the value of the market at between $40 to $50 billion dollars per year.
Alan Peacock, an anti-corruption official at the International Cricket Council, told the court that the betting market had developed over the years from a focus on fixing match results, to spot-fixing: contriving small events within the game, like no balls, or particular patterns of scoring.
Asif and Butt deny the charges and will have the opportunity later in the trial to take the stand themselves.
Majeed and Amir are not on trial; the jury has been told there is "nothing sinister" about this apparent inconsistency.
The case continues.
Source:CNN
Wayne Rooney banned for three England Euro 2012 matches
England striker Wayne Rooney will miss the Euro 2012 group stage after being banned for three matches for his sending off against Montenegro.
Uefa's disciplinary panel, which described the incident as an "assault", decided on the punishment at a meeting on Thursday.
Rooney, 25, was sent off for kicking Miodrag Dzudovic in the 2-2 draw in Podgorica last Friday.
It is understood the Football Association will appeal.
BBC Sport has also learnt that Rooney is "shocked" and "disappointed" at the punishment and that he will do whatever he can to support the FA's appeal, should it choose to make one.
In the Premier League, the punishment for violent conduct is an automatic three-match ban.
But Uefa's policy is to suspend the player for one game, with a panel deciding on a case-by-case basis what, if any, additional punishment there should be.
Instead of issuing a longer ban, Uefa had the option to hand out a warning or a fine.
Officials take into account the referee's report, representations from the player and national body and the player's disciplinary history.
A statement from the Football Association said: "Further to Uefa's decision to impose a three-match suspension on Wayne Rooney, the FA awaits the full reasons from the disciplinary committee, and will give full consideration to the decision internally, before deciding on any response to Uefa or making any further public comment."
BBC Sport understands there is a risk that should the FA lose its appeal against Rooney's ban that Uefa could increase the length of the suspension to four games.
Former executive director of the FA, David Davies, believes England would be correct to lodge an appeal.
"There's no doubt that there was a feeling around Europe that this was a serious offence," he told BBC Radio 5 live.
Source:BBC
Andy Murray reaches Shanghai last eight but Rafael Nadal goes out
Defending champion Andy Murray moved into the quarter-finals of the Shanghai Masters, as Rafael Nadal went out.
Murray beat Stanislas Wawrinka 6-4 3-6 6-3, while top seed Nadal lost 7-6 (7-5) 6-3 to German Florian Mayer.
The British number one next faces Australian Matthew Ebden, who is ranked 124th in the world and beat Frenchman Gilles Simon 6-2 2-6 7-6 (10-8).
Victory over Wawrinka of Switzerland means the second-seeded Murray has now won 22 of his past 23 matches.
He served impressively to take the first set, but his opponent broke in the eighth game of the second to level.
Murray went 5-0 ahead in the final set and although Wawrinka staged a late rally by taking the next three games, the Scot held on to book an encounter against Ebden on Friday.
It was Murray's first match in the tournament after a bye and a walkover.
He said: "The first set I was up 3-0, two breaks, pretty quickly, and I went up 5-0 in the third set. Both sets got a little bit closer than maybe they needed to be."
French Open champion Nadal, outplayed by world number 23 Mayer, suffered a third-round defeat in Shanghai for the second successive year.
It is only the second time in 16 tournaments this year that the Spaniard has failed to make the quarter-finals. He lost in the second round of the Canadian Open to Croatia's Ivan Dodig in August.
Nadal staved off two break points in the first set with some stunning defensive play to take it to a tie-break, but Mayer raised his game again to take it.
The German then broke twice in the second to secure a quarter-final against Spain's Feliciano Lopez, who beat sixth seed Tomas Berdych 6-4 6-4.
Nadal's defeat means Novak Djokovic will finish the year as the world number one.
Third seed David Ferrer overcame an early onslaught from Spanish compatriot Juan Carlos Ferrero to win in three sets.
Ferrer is the fifth player to make sure of his place at the season-ending ATP World Tour Finals in London. World number one Novak Djokovic, Nadal, Roger Federer and Murray are the others.
Andy Roddick, Alexandr Dolgopolov and Kei Nishikori also won on Thursday.
Source:BBC