Sao Paulo Sweats Ahead Of Big Kick-Off

By Paul Kelso, Sports Correspondent, in Sao Paulo

It is a fact of modern mega-events that the prophesies of doom seldom come to pass.

Athens, Germany, Beijing, South Africa and London all know the routine.

These recent Olympic or World Cup hosts all suffered years of anxieties over preparations which, while honestly reported, never proved quite so debilitating once the actual sport took everyone's mind off it.

That may yet prove to be the case in Brazil.

But with five days to go the hosts still cannot shake off the sense that, for all the assurances that it will be all right on the night, it might not.

There can be few cities as challenging in which to raise the curtain than São Paulo.

A megalopolis of 20 million people, it is never easy to get around.

Throw in a 48-hour Metro strike that left even Fifa's VVIPs crawling for three hours and you wonder how fans without a courtesy Hyundai will manage it.

At the refurbished Arena Corinthians in which Brazil will meet Croatia on Thursday, workers busily tried to make good despite incessant rain.

The PA, being thoroughly tested, played Thunderstruck by AC/DC on a loop, demonstrating either a love of heavy metal or a a sly sense of humour.

Back on the metro, a stand-off between police and demonstrators ended with baton rounds and tear gas fired.

For all Brazil's love of football, its antipathy to Fifa and its World Cup will not be easily forgotten.

Grim Reading For Fifa

Any Fifa delegates browsing a copy of The Economist on a plane bound for the Fifa Congress in Sao Paulo are in for a shock.

Prompted by new allegations of corruption concerning the award of the 2022 World Cup to Qatar, the latest edition savages Fifa's leadership and governance.

"Why is the world's greatest game led by such a group of mediocrities, notably Sepp Blatter?" asks the magazine, before describing Fifa's president as a "dinosaur" who would have been kicked out of any other boardroom in the 1970s.

It is strong stuff but, as one Fifa executive committee member put it privately: "It is hard to argue with a single word of it."

Coming 48 hours after a similar assault in an FT editorial, the Economist's attack is significant.

Like the FT it has international clout, and is not easily dismissed as part of an "English media conspiracy".

(A quick secret about the conspiracy: there isn't one.)

The controversy, set to deepen with more revelations promised by the Sunday Times, is hugely damaging to Fifa's reputation.

Brazilians are not the only ones counting the hours until the football starts.

Brazil Packs Family Appeal

Brazil's final warm-up against Serbia was not much of a game but it was a splendid occasion.

Around 40,000 fans beat the strike to get to the Morumbi Stadium, the majority of them young and many, many of them women and children.

Family groups are an increasingly rare sight in English football, but in Brazil adoration for the Selecao and the yellow shirt starts young, and endures.

Not much unites this vast, unequal country, but in the next month football may do just that.

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Comedian Tracy Morgan Critical After Car Crash

US actor and comedian Tracy Morgan has been left in a critical condition after the limousine he was travelling overturned during a multi-vehicle pileup.

Police said the limousine crashed into five other vehicles on the New Jersey Turnpike at around 1am local time.

The 45-year-old 30 Rock star is being treated at the Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital Centre in New Brunswick, New Jersey.

Sgt Gregory Williams told Sky News that one other passenger in the limousine was killed. 

CCTV footage of emergency vehicles attending the scene (Pic: NBC)

He said their next of kin had been notified.

The condition of the vehicle's five other passengers is currently unknown. 

There is no word on what caused the accident, which also involved two tractor-trailers, a SUV and two cars.

Tracy Morgan found fame on the sketch-comedy show Saturday Night Live in 1996. 

He went on to play Tracy Jordan, a caricature of himself, on the hit show 30 Rock.

It was created by his Saturday Night Live co-star Tina Fey. 

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Russian Leader Joins 'Dance Of Diplomacy'

It had been as carefully choreographed as the D-Day commemorations themselves. But until he showed up there was no way of knowing if Russia's president would join the dance.

The breakthrough came when Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, deftly pirouetted Vladimir Putin and Petro Poroshenko, into meeting face to face.

This was the culmination of a plan hatched at the G7 in Brussels where the world's leaders agreed to one last attempt to persuade Mr Putin to return to the dance of diplomacy - and stop making trouble in his neighbourhood, roughing up the locals and breaking the windows in Ukraine.

A 15-minute chat between Ukraine's president-elect and Mr Putin followed the German introduction, then lunch.

French President Francois Hollande told a British veteran that he had had to use the D-Day occasion to bring the two sides of the increasingly violent Ukrainian conflict together.

Speaking in French, the British veteran asked: "Was Putin there, was he friendly?"

Mr Hollande replied: "Yes we talked to him and with President Poroshenko, we made Ukraine and Russia talk."

Mr Putin meets Petro Poroshenko and Angela Merkel in France

The veteran then asked: "Is it going to work?"

"It must work, we want this ceremony to be useful to the world. Of course we want to commemorate your fight and your voyage," the French president replied.

We also learned from the dialogue that Britain's Prince Philip had had a word with Mr Putin.

Later, the White House said President Barack Obama had also decided to engage - defrosting relations a little since February when the Russians seized the Crimea and Obama boasted the US could beat Russia in a conventional war.

The importance of the occasion and the modern role of Germany as peacemaker, while eastern Ukraine continues to suffer bloodletting, meant that this was an opportunity not to be missed.

It was a chance to engage with Mr Putin, who has been sulking about Russia's declining power for decades and reassure him that he is an important and welcome player on the international stage.

The Kremlin quickly issued a statement saying Mr Poroshenko and Mr Putin have agreed there should be a de-escalation by the Ukrainian government and "federalists" (pro-Russian militia).

This will be taken in good faith by the West and offers Mr Putin a dignified way to dial down the tension without looking put upon.

He may, though, be bluffing and gambling that none of those leaders he met in Normandy quite have the steel of their ancestors and the nerve to call him on it.

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Protests Grip Sao Paulo Ahead Of World Cup

Police in Brazil have used tear gas and batons to break up protests in the city that will host the first game of the World Cup in less than a week.

A strike by subway workers in Sao Paulo affected millions of commuters and caused massive traffic jams on the night of the national team's final warm-up match before their opening game against Croatia on Thursday.

Across town there was a separate anti-government demonstration in which protesters blocked the street in front of the Central Bank in a protest against the economic policies of President Dilma Rousseff.

Picketing strikers inside one of the subway stations

Police pushed back picketing strikers inside a central station after commuters tried to enter.

Three of the city's five lines were disrupted, causing bumper-to-bumper traffic to stretch as far as 155 miles (251km) as commuters turned to cars or buses.

The strike is set to continue today after the workers' union and their employers failed to reach an agreement on a pay rise.

Union leader Paulo Pereira da Silva said: "Our problem is not with the national team.

The subway strike is set to run for a third day on Saturday

"We will cheer for them. But on October 5 (the date of a presidential election), we will send Dilma Rousseff to hell."

Bus drivers, teachers and police have staged walkouts in other cities recently to demand better pay.

The subway strike caused problems for fans going to Brazil's game against Serbia at the city's Morumbi stadium, which finished 1-0 to the hosts.

There have been numerous protests recently to demand better pay

Parts of the crowd jeered the team as they laboured to victory on the eve of a tournament they are expected to win.

The first game will be played at the city's new Corinthians Arena, which is awaiting safety clearance. 

The subway will be the main link to the stadium for fans, meaning officials are hard-pressed to resolve the strike.

Fifa's executive committee will meet in Sao Paulo today to discuss the unrest, the prospect of several unfinished stadiums and renewed allegations of corruption surrounding Qatar's successful bid for the 2022 tournament.

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Seattle Gunman 'Intended To Kill Many More'

Police have said the suspect in the Seattle university shooting had wanted to kill as many people as possible, before turning the gun on himself.

Seattle Police said 26-year-old Aaran Ybarra had admitted his intentions shortly after his arrest.

Mr Ybarra was denied bail during his first court hearing on Friday after allegedly opening fire on students at Seattle Pacific University.

He is accused of shooting four people, one of whom later died in hospital, before he was disarmed.

Jon Meis, 22, used pepper spray to tackle the suspect as he tried to insert more rounds into his shotgun.

According to police Mr Ybarra, who is not a student at the university, had 50 additional shotgun shells and a hunting knife.

The court heard that he has a long history of mental health problems for which he is being treated and medicated. 

The gunman was known to police

His lawyer, public defender Ramona Brandes, said: "He is cognisant of the suffering of the victims and their families and the entire Seattle Pacific community.

"He is sorry."

Police in the suspect's hometown, the Seattle suburb of Mountlake Terrace, say officers had encountered him behaving strangely on two separate occasions in 2010 and 2012. 

Assistant police chief Pete Caw said he was severally intoxicated on both occasions and was hospitalised for mental health evaluations.

Memorials have been held for victim Paul Lee

A police report from the 2012 incident said he told officers he wanted a SWAT team "to get him and make him famous" after he was found lying in a roadway.

In a statement, Mr Ybarra's family said they were "crushed" at the amount of pain Thursday's shooting had caused.

Memorial services have been held for 19-year-old victim Paul Lee, while a 20-year-old woman remains in a critical condition.

Meanwhile praise has poured in for the student monitor, who has been credited with preventing further fatalities.

Mr Meis' roommate Matt Garcia wrote on Twitter: "I'm proud of the selfless actions that my roommate, Jon Meis, showed today taking down the shooter.

"He is a hero."

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Hundreds Of Migrant Children Sent To Arizona

A US governor has said she is "disturbed" by reports that hundreds of illegal migrant children will be sent unaccompanied to a detention centre in Arizona this weekend.

In a statement on her website, Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer said she had learned that 432 children were transported from Texas to the facility in the state's southern town of Nogales on Friday. 

She said a further 732 children would be brought there over the course of Saturday and Sunday.

Her spokesman, Andrew Wilder, said the conditions at the facility were so dire federal officials had asked the state urgently to release warehoused medical supplies and ship them to the centre.

They will be joined at the facility by an unspecified number of adults and families who are among tens of thousands of illegal immigrants who have overwhelmed US border authorities in Texas in recent months.

The news comes days after Ms Brewer sent a letter to US President Barack Obama condemning reports that the United States Department of Homeland Security had allowed the release of thousands of illegal immigrants at bus stations in the Arizona cities of Tucson and Phoenix.

Overwhelmed authorities are releasing busloads of immigrants in Arizona

They were told make their own way to a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement office within 15 days. 

Ms Brewer said the latest news was proof that this policy, the existence of which she said he had not been notified of in advance, was ongoing, despite claims it had come to an end.

"I am disturbed and outraged that President Obama's administration continues to implement this dangerous and inhumane policy," she said.

"Not only does the federal government have no plan to stop this disgraceful policy, it also has no plan to deal with the endless waves of illegal aliens once they are released here."

She called on the president to do more to do more to secure US borders.

In a statement on Friday, Homeland Security officials said "appropriate custody determinations will be made on a case-by-case basis" for illegal migrants caught in Texas.

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Tribute To Gareth Huntley Killed In Malaysia

A body found on Malaysia's Tioman Island is that of missing British backpacker Gareth Huntley, police have confirmed.

The 34-year-old, from Hackney, east London, disappeared on May 27 after going on a jungle trek.

His body was found less than 100m from the sea turtle conservation camp where he worked as a volunteer.

Mr Huntley's family said "no words can describe the void he will leave".

Mr Huntley with his mother Janet Southwell

And they thanked "everyone who came together in the last week to do everything in their power to help find Gareth".

Search personnel reportedly discovered the body in a pond close to a kayak storage unit at around 12pm local time on Wednesday.

Zakaria Ahmad, head of crime investigation in the eastern state of Pahang, said DNA tests confirmed the body was that of the Briton.

His girlfriend Kit Natariga also helped with the search

The cause of death has not yet been established.

Mr Huntley disappeared after trying to find a waterfall nearly four miles away from the camp in the jungles of the paradise island.

The backpacker had been volunteering in a turtle sanctuary on the island

He told friends at the turtle project he would be back by 2pm but failed to return.

His mother, Janet Southwell, and girlfriend, Kit Natariga, had travelled to the island off Malaysia's east coast to help with the search effort.

The family statement added: "There are no words that can capture the devastation we feel right now.

"No words that can capture the kindness, warmth and spirit that Gareth exuded; no words that can describe the void he will leave in all of the lives he touched.

"Gareth lived every minute of his life as fully as he could; never without a smile and always with others in his heart. You will never leave our hearts Gareth."

Search teams were backed by paramilitary commandos, multiple helicopters, speedboats and sniffer dogs in the latter days of the hunt following initial criticism of the Malaysian authorities' response.

Prime Minister David Cameron reportedly spoke to Malaysia's prime minister Najib Razak after receiving an open letter from Mrs Southwell in which she urged him to seek more resources for the search.

Mr Huntley, who was originally from West Yorkshire, was on a sabbatical from his job in the City.

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Jacob Zuma: 'Exhausted' President In Hospital

South African president Jacob Zuma has been admitted to hospital for tests after being 'exhausted' following a tiring election campaign.

His office said doctors were "satisfied with his condition" and a spokesman added: "There is no cause for concern. It's a case of exhaustion".

On Friday, it was announced Mr Zuma would take a few days off from public appearances but continue performing official duties from home following the May poll.

His office said he had been been advised to rest after "a demanding election and transition programme to the new administration".

The president's spokesman Mac Maharaj said: "It's been a hectic period and there has been a need for some rest."

Two weeks ago, the 72-year-old politician was sworn in for a second time as president.

It came after his ANC party won the election on May 7 with an overwhelming 62% of the vote.

At his swearing-in ceremony, he vowed "economic transformation" would take "centre stage" in his new term in power.

He pledged the economy would be put on an "inclusive growth path" and promised to promote "broad-based black economic empowerment".

There have been concerns that much of the economy remains in the hands of South Africa's white minority.

In his speech to a cheering crowd of thousands, Mr Zuma said his country was "a much better place to live in now than before 1994".

But he added that poverty, unemployment and other problems persisted despite many improvements.

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Ukraine: Poroshenko Promises To Bring Peace

Petro Poroshenko promised the Ukrainian people he would "bring them peace" after being sworn in as the country's fifth president.

Mr Poroshenko told parliament Ukrainians would "never feel the blessing of peace and security until we resolve our relations with Russia".

He pledged an amnesty to any insurgents in the east who had "no blood on their hands" but said he would not open dialogue with "gangsters and killers".

Ukrainian officials say some 200 people have died during troubles in eastern parts of the country.

Mr Poroshenko arrives for his inauguration

And the 48-year-old tycoon - dubbed the "chocolate king" for his popular brand of sweets - stated he would not accept Russia's seizure of Crimea nor attempts to divert his pro-European course.

"Crimea will remain a part of Ukraine," said Mr Poroshenko.

"Ukraine now returns to its natural European condition that so many generations have longed for."

The inauguration was attended by US Vice President Joe Biden and European Council President Herman Van Rompuy.                 

The latter sent this message to Russia: "All neighbours ... need to respect (Ukraine's) sovereign choices, including stronger ties with the European Union and its territorial integrity."

Moscow was represented by its acting ambassador to Kiev, Mikhail Zurabov, who said the pledges "sound reassuring".

Mr Poroshenko met world leaders including Barack Obama in France this week

The Kremlin's only official response to Mr Poroshenko's comments was to call for him to act by "the principles of a democratic society" and release two Russian journalists detained in the east of the country.

Meanwhile, Russian president Vladimir Putin reportedly ordered his Federal Security Service to strengthen protection of the country's border with Ukraine to prevent people crossing illegally.

This came after talks with world leaders in France, where US President Barack Obama urged the Kremlin to cease support for separatists in eastern Ukraine - including stopping arms and materials crossing the border.

Insurgents in both Luhansk and Donetsk responded to Mr Poroshenko's pledge of an amnesty with scepticism.

"I don't believe it," said Valery Bolotov, the insurgent leader in the Luhansk region.                 

Insurgent leader Valery Bolotov

Mr Poroshenko is the first permanent successor to Russia-friendly President Viktor Yanukovych, who fled the country in February after months of street protests against him.

The new incumbent met Mr Putin at D-Day commemoration ceremonies in France on Friday and expressed his satisfaction that dialogue had begun.

Mr Putin added: "I can only welcome Mr Poroshenko's position that the bloodshed in eastern Ukraine must be stopped immediately."

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Women And Children Killed In DRC Massacre

At least 37 people, including 18 women and eight children, have been killed in an attack in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The massacre in the eastern province of South Kivu happened early on Saturday morning.

The victims, said to be ethnic Bafuliru, and including several pregnant women, had been shot, stabbed, or burned alive inside their homes, according to a witness.

Some bodies were seen inside a village church.

South Kivu governor Marcellin Cishambo confirmed the attack, but gave a lower estimate of 27 for the number killed.

He blamed the violence on a dispute over cattle.

"The problem is that everyone in this area carries a weapon," he said.

The Bafuliru people have been in conflict with the Barundi ethnic group for years over property and custom issues.

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