World Cup: England Pitch 'In Poor Condition'

Images of the pitch on which England will play their first World Cup match have emerged, showing the surface looking brown and worn.

Distinct lines can be seen running across the turf between the sidelines in a picture of Manaus's Amazonia Arena taken on Tuesday - just four days before Roy Hodgson's men face Italy.

An AFP journalist at the scene of Saturday night's game, who has been able to see the grass up close, said it looked in poor condition.

The agency said the playing surface was noticeably dry and particularly bare around one of the goals, "revealing large yellowing areas of turf".

It will concern England fans and management, who have been rigorously training their team to cope with Manaus's high humidity.

When asked about the pitch at a press conference on Wednesday, striker Wayne Rooney said: "At the end of the day it's the same for us and Italy so we'll both have to deal with that."

England are due to kick off their Group D opener at 11pm UK time in a match at the tournament's most remote venue - in the middle of Brazil's hot and steamy rainforest.

The stadium was earlier praised for the progress of construction work

The rest of the stadium appeared to be fully functional, even though it was not completely finished.

Naked power cables could be seen dangling from the walls in and around the changing rooms, according to AFP.

Outside the stadium, where workers were applying a final coat of asphalt, several wrapped security doors could be seen, still waiting to be fitted.

The 46,000-capacity Amazonia Arena was specially constructed for the 2014 World Cup.

The number of England fans who will make the 1,800 mile journey from Rio de Janeiro or Sao Paulo to the game is not known, but it is expected to be several thousand.

Despite criticism of Manaus as a venue, the stadium was earlier held up as a good example, having been one of the first new stadiums in Brazil to break ground.

England have been in Rio de Janeiro since Monday and are due to fly to Manaus on Thursday where they are due to hold two part-open training sessions.

On arrival in Rio, manager Roy Hodgson told Sky Sports News the team were becoming more acclimatised as the days went by.

His comments came despite his team's goalless draw in Honduras - which has a comparable climate - last weekend.

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Black Cab Demo Causes Central London 'Gridlock'

Parts of central London have been left gridlocked after thousands of black cab drivers took industrial action at Trafalgar Square.

Up to 12,000 black cabs headed to the centre of the capital with the intent of causing traffic chaos.

Helicopter footage showed long queues of cabs across Westminster Bridge and along Whitehall to Trafalgar Square.

The traditional cabbies were protesting at Transport for London's (TfL) regulation of rival cab service Uber.

A line of black cabs pictured in Westminster

The Google-backed app allows users to order a car at the touch of a button, and the fare is calculated using GPS tracking.

But traditional cabbies say this is effectively a taxi meter, which only black cabs are legally entitled to use in the capital.

Sky's Ashish Joshi said that Trafalgar Square was "gridlocked" just before the protest officially started at 2pm.

He said: "This is technology against tradition. It's the new Battle of Trafalgar."

The protest is aimed at Transport for London and Uber

One driver with 15 years of experience told Sky News: "It's got to be a level playing field. England are playing Italy on Saturday, what if Italy turn up with 15 men against England?

"We love competition, we thrive on competition in this city, but it's got to be a fair competition."

But Uber general manager Jo Bertram has defended the company's business model, and says the number of app downloads has soared.

She said: "Londoners are voting with their fingers, tapping the app in support of new and innovative services as we see our biggest day of sign-ups in London today since launch two years ago.

Drivers in Spain took part in a similar protest

"In fact, today we're seeing an 850% increase in sign-ups compared to last Wednesday.

"Unsurprisingly, the Licensed Taxi Drivers Association, which is stuck in the dark ages, is intent on holding London to ransom and causing significant economic impact to Londoners today, estimated to be £125m."

Earlier the app goaded black cab drivers by urging them to sign up to their pre-booking app, saying it gave greater "choice for consumers".

But the cabbies dismissed it as a PR stunt.

Similar demonstrations have also taken place today in Paris, Madrid and Barcelona.

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Two Teens Killed In Sixth-Floor Balcony Fall

Two teenagers have died after falling from a balcony while "kissing" and "frolicking" on the sixth floor of a block of flats

Police, who were called just after midnight to Knights Tower, in Deptford, south London, have described the deaths of the 18-year-old man and 19-year-old woman as as "tragic accident".

Samson Oguntayo, 32, an events manager who lives in the neighbouring Cornmill House, said he and his partner Blessing had seen the couple fall.

"They were trying to have sex on the balcony, the guy was lifting the girl and putting her on the bannister, he kept on doing it," he said.

"He was putting her on there - they were going back and forth. You could see they were doing some really dangerous stuff.

Residents said they heard a loud bang

"It is not the first time we have seen people on the balcony acting up.

"At some point friends must have come outside and they got down and came back inside and then came back out again.

"This time they started doing it again. You see people on the balcony doing all sorts of things and I just felt it was one of those things and in a moment they will probably go back inside.

"The last thing I expected was to see them falling down five floors. We just screamed."

Maureen Flynn, 22, a resident of a neighbouring block, said: "I did not see them fall but I saw their friends come out on to the balcony. They were crying, they did not know what had happened.

"I had to tell them 'Your friends are dead'."

The apartments lie on the banks of the River Thames

A resident who lives in the opposite block, and who did not want to be named, said he saw a couple "frolicking" on the balcony last night.

"The occupants were inside, these two were on the balcony," he said.

"We were shutting our blinds when we saw a couple on their balcony frolicking. They were kissing and stuff, she was telling him to get off her. We then shut our balcony."

He said less than 10 minutes later he heard a "bang" and that a neighbour had witnessed the couple fall.

"She saw him lift her up and put her on the edge of the balcony," he said.

"She said she had her arms around his neck and then he was stood against her kissing her. Then she saw his legs stumble backwards - he stumbled backwards and she stumbled the other way. Then they both fell off."

Police are not treating the deaths as suspicious

Shradha Chaturvedi, 31, an auditor and resident of the second floor of Knights Tower, said: "I heard a very, very loud noise and a lady screaming initially - I heard a boom and at first I thought a firework had gone off or something.

"My husband came down and there were two other guys outside who were totally drunk. They said 'Don't go out there.' There was a woman out there who was crying."

A police spokesman said officers were not treating the deaths as suspicious.

Inspector Shaun Carre-Brown said: "This appears to be a tragic accident and our thoughts go out to the families and those that knew them.

Witness have been urged to call 101 and ask for the CID at Plumstead police station. Those wishing to remain anonymous can call Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.

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Army Cuts A 'Significant Risk' Govt Warned

Army cuts mean there is a "significant risk" the force will not be able to do its job properly, a damning report has warned.

The Government's plan to cut 20,000 full-time soldiers and replace them with reservists is six years behind schedule, according to the National Audit Office.

While it is on schedule to slash regular forces from 102,000 to 82,000 by 2018, it has failed to recruit the reservists, formerly known as the Territorial Army, to replace them.

The report by the Government's spending watchdog points out the shortfall in new reserves "will put pressure on regular units".

It warns the cuts will "significantly affect the Army's ability to achieve its objectives and value for money".

Defence Minister Philip Hammond has been under significant pressure over the Army 2020 project and managed to fight off rebellion in the Commons over the plans.

Under the restructuring programme, which will see the Army reduced to its lowest levels since the Napoleonic Wars, the reservist force must grow from 19,000 to 30,000 by 2018 to make up for the cut in the full-time force.

However, in the year to April just 170 more reservists had been recruited - far short of the 2,750 a year the Government must recruit to hit the target.

Defence Minister Philip Hammond

The project has now been put on the Government's list of troubled projects and only days ago it was disclosed the head of Major Projects Authority John Manzoni wrote to Chief Secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander and Cabinet Minister Francis Maude to warn Army 2020 was at risk of failing.

The NAO report said the programme of cutting regular forces and replacing them with reservists had been authorised without any feasibility tests being carried out.

The recruitment process has been plagued by IT problems, most notably with the website through which people could sign up to be in the reserves.

Margaret Hodge, chairwoman of the Commons public accounts committee, said the £1 million a month being spent to cover "incompetence" in the reservist recruitment process was "scandalous".

She said: "The Ministry of Defence focused heavily on cutting costs rather than on recruiting, training and integrating a substantially increased number of reserves, something the Army is already failing to do.

"The MoD went ahead with plans to reduce the number of regular soldiers and increase the number of reservists from 19,000 to 30,000 by 2019, without even investigating whether it was possible to do this by that time, or even whether it had 19,000 trained reservists to start with.

"Given this, it comes as no surprise to me that just one third of the reservists have been recruited in 2013-14 and the size of the Army Reserve has not increased since 2012."

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Passport Pile-Up: PM Says Backlog Is 30,000

David Cameron has admitted around 30,000 passport applications have been delayed - after the Government earlier denied a backlog.

The Prime Minister told the House of Commons there had been 300,000 more applications than normal at this time of year and that 10% of these had been delayed.

He said emergency plans were being put in place to ensure families who want to go on holiday get their passports in time.

In an angry exchange at Prime Minister's Questions in the House of Commons, Labour leader Ed Miliband said the Government needed to "get a grip" on the unfolding crisis.

He said the row between Theresa May and Education Secretary Michael Gove had distracted the Home Secretary from her job.

"The truth of the picture of this Government is we have the Home Secretary fighting with the Education Secretary but not paying attention to the business of government," he said.

"The truth is that is tens of thousands of people are finding that their holidays are being cancelled because they are not actually getting a passport."

Those British citizens living abroad are being hit

However, Mr Cameron said the Home Office had been on top of the situation since the beginning of the year.

Earlier on Wednesday the Government denied there had been a pile-up of applications after unions claimed a 12-year high in applications and cuts in staffing had lead to a 500,000 backlog.

Mr Cameron and Mrs May said 250 staff had been redeployed to tackle the problem, working seven days a week around the clock to make sure people got their documents.

Meanwhile, Sky has seen a letter sent to the UK Visas and Immigration Department saying 72 of their staff will start training next week on how to process passport applications with a view to being redeployed.

The increase in passport applications started in January and coincides with the closures of regional application offices across the world in an attempt to cut costs.

Applications in the Liverpool passport office

British citizens living abroad now have to apply in the UK and many of those are now reporting significant delays.

The increase has also been blamed on the number of people feeling they can now afford holidays with the economic recovery.

Pictures taken by a disillusioned worker in the Liverpool passport office show tens of thousands of applications waiting to be dealt with.

One MP said thousands of families face having their summer holiday plans ruined because documents were not being prepared in anything like the normal time.

Some families who want to make sure their documents are returned in time face paying extra for a faster service - up to £55.50 on top of the £72.50 standard fee.

Families are frantic to get their passports

Three million passports have already been issued this year, with officials processing an average of 18,000 applications a day over the last two months. 

Mike Jones, from the PCS Union said: "There are half a million applications that are waiting within the Passport Office at the moment.

"That figure is raised steeply over a number of months. The Home Office and the Passport Office used to have strategies in place for when the figure reached 150,000. They would put contingency plans in to deal with those amounts."

He told Radio 4's Today programme: "Now we have seen the figures are up to 500,000 and rising at the moment. Even all the contingencies that they are trying to put in place, we are still seeing that figure rising, so there is clearly a crisis going on within the Home Office and the Passport Office as well."

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Egypt President Sorry Over 'Worst' Sex Attack

By Sherine Tadros, Middle East Correspondent

Egypt's new president has apologised to a woman who was attacked during the celebrations to mark his inauguration at the weekend.

Abdel Fattah al Sisi visited the woman at a Cairo hospital and told her: "I have come to tell you and every Egyptian woman that I am sorry. I am apologising to every Egyptian woman."

It comes after he ordered a crackdown on sex crimes following the emergence of a video, which has been circulated on social media, showing a woman being assaulted in Cairo's Tahrir Square.

The blurry, two-minute clip, which was allegedly filmed during Sunday's inaugural festivities, shows a woman completely naked and bruised with hordes of men around as she is carried into a vehicle.

Dozens of women say they have been attacked in Tahrir Square in the past two years but many said this was the worst they had heard of.

Mr al Sisi has described sexual harassment as "unacceptable"

It has been covered widely by Egyptian media, with one newspaper demanding the perpetrators be executed.

In one of his first public statements, Mr Sisi called it an "unacceptable form of conduct, alien to the best principles of Egyptian culture".

It comes as a global summit to stop sexual violence in war zones, co-hosted by Angelina Jolie, continues in London.

On Tuesday, the actress told the summit: "We must send a message across the world that there's no disgrace in being a survivor of sexual violence. The shame is on the aggressor."

Part of the problem in Egypt has been an absence of laws protecting women against sexual harassment, allowing attackers to act with complete impunity.

Jolie co-hosted the London summit with Foreign Secretary William Hague

A decree issued last week made it a criminal act for the first time, with offenders warned they could face up to five years in prison.

Importantly, it defines harassment as including the making of obscene gestures "in any manner", recognising it does not have to be of a physical nature.

A study conducted last year by the UN showed 99.3% of Egyptian women have experienced some form of harassment, with around half (47%) claiming they are harassed daily.

It has become so prevalent and widespread in Egypt that many women have simply grown to accept it.

Men often stare and shout obscene comments at women as they walk along the street.

At times, it is seen as acceptable for women to feel shame and humiliation, as if something about how they dress or walk is to blame. 

It is an endemic problem and has become part of Egyptian culture - a dysfunctional yet accepted norm.

Farah Shash, of the Nadeem Centre for the Rehabilitation of Victims of Violence, said: "The culture here when it comes to sexual harassment is to blame the victim."

She said authorities in Egypt have never seen women's rights as a priority and women are reluctant to report incidents because the police are so unsympathetic.

Journalist Hania Moheeb, who was gang raped in Tahrir Square last January and is attending this week's summit, said: "The denial this society has been living in for over two decades is something that has to end."

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Phone Hacking Jury Retires To Consider Verdicts

The jury in the trial of ex-News of the World bosses accused of plotting to hack phones has retired to consider its verdicts.

Former editors Rebekah Brooks and Andy Coulson, along with the retired managing editor Stuart Kuttner, are accused of being part of a conspiracy from 2000 to 2006.

Coulson, 46, is also accused of two counts of conspiring with former NOTW royal editor Clive Goodman to commit misconduct in a public office by paying police officers for two royal directories.

Brooks faces the same charge over approving payments to a Sun journalist's military contact between 2004 and 2012.

The former News International chief executive is also accused of plotting with her former personal assistant Cheryl Carter, 50, to pervert the course of justice by removing seven boxes from the company archive shortly before she was arrested three years ago.

Brooks, 46, along with husband Charlie and NI director of security Mark Hanna, 51, is further charged with perverting the course of justice by hiding potential evidence from police in July 2011.

The jury of eight women and three men was sent out shortly after 3.30pm and the 11 jurors were told to "act according to your oath" by Mr Justice Saunders.

He said: "You have to reach true verdicts according to the evidence. That evidence you have heard in court. Put out of your head anything you have heard outside court."

He added: "On behalf of all of us, I think it has been a privilege to work with all of you."

Coulson, of Charing, Kent, the Brooks, of Churchill, Oxfordshire, Hanna of Buckingham, Carter of Chelmsford, Essex, Goodman of Addlestone, Surrey, and 74-year-old Kuttner, of Woodford Green, Essex, deny the charges.

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Rik Mayall: Number 1 Bid For World Cup Song

A campaign has been launched to pay tribute to dead comedian Rik Mayall by sending a World Cup song he wrote to number one.

The former Young Ones star recorded a track called Noble England in the run up to the last World Cup in South Africa in 2010.

The sudden death of Mayall, which appeared to have come after he suffered a seizure, was announced on Monday.

His wife Barbara told the Daily Mirror his body was found at their home in Barnes, southwest London, but that she would have to wait for the coroner's report before she knew any more.

Now a Facebook page has been set up to encourage people to buy Noble England as a way of marking his passing.

Jon Morter, Jason McGuire and Steevi Diamond set up the page with a link to the song's iTunes preview in a bid to get it to chart.

By Wednesday, the song's midweek position on Itunes was number 14 and number one on Amazon. The Facebook site, meanwhile, had attracted nearly 11,000 'likes'.

Jon, Jason and Steevi wrote: "Sadly on the eve of this year's World Cup we lost Rik, so a few of us thought it would be a nice idea to try and get him in the charts as a tribute to a legend.

"We are just 3 Rik fans hoping to give him a good send off!"

Noble England is one of a number of little-known tracks by the actor and comedian.

He also played a bass player in one of Channel 4's Comic Strip Presents episodes called Bad News, based on the life of a spoof heavy metal band, which came out before This Is Spinal Tap.

Several hundred of those who had registered a 'like' commented on the campaign.

Paul McMonnies wrote: "Raising a pint of Bombardier in memory of Rik - buy your copy of Noble England today!"

Another, Mic Sax, wrote: "Rik Mayall back in the charts sounds like a great send off."

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Iraq: Tikrit Seized As Militants Surge South

Militants from an al Qaeda splinter group have launched a wave of attacks south of captured Mosul a day after more than 500,000 people fled the city.

Iraqi police said Sunni rebels from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) had seized control of Tikrit and freed hundreds of prisoners, AFP news agency reported.

Security sources cited by Reuters said the militants drove more than 60 vehicles into the city, occupying local government buildings and raising ISIL's black flag.

An estimated 500,000 people have fled Mosul and the surrounding area

The city, which is the hometown of former dictator Saddam Hussein, lies roughly halfway between the capital, Baghdad, and Mosul, which was captured on Tuesday.

In northern Baghdad a suicide bomber killed at least 15 people and wounded more than 30 others after detonating explosives inside a tent where local Shi'ite tribal leaders were meeting.

Some 250 guards at Iraq's largest oil refinery in Baiji were also forced to withdraw to another town after ISIL militants sent a delegation of tribal chiefs to persuade them to pull out.

ISIL fighters wave their flag at the Sykes Picot Border. Pic: albaraka_news

Video footage also showed fighting on the outskirts of Kirkuk, close to the Kurdistan region, and there were reports of clashes further south at an entrance to the city of Samarra, which is just 70 miles (110km) north of Baghdad.

A senior official from the Shi'ite-led government said the production of crude oil in Iraq - which produces around 3.5 million barrels of oil per day - could be affected after the attack on Baiji.

In Mosul, gunmen wearing military uniforms and all-black clothing have been guarding banks and government buildings and calling over loudspeakers for government employees to return to work.

Insurgents have struck in Mosul, Baiji, Tikrit and Kirkuk

The militants also seized the Turkish consulate in the second city and reportedly kidnapped the head of the diplomatic mission and 48 staff members, according to police.

Turkey's foreign minister said Ankara will retaliate if any of its citizens are hurt.

Families have made their way into the Kurdistan region, which has its own military force, the Peshmerga.

People celebrate as ISIL fighters occupy Mosul. Pic: albaraka_news

One police officer said: "We need a whole army to drive them out of Mosul. They're like ghosts: they appear, strike and disappear in seconds."

Ninevah province governor Atheel al Nujaifi said authorities had a plan to restore security.

Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki has asked parliament to declare a state of emergency that would grant him additional powers to tackle the crisis.

People queue at a border crossing into the Kurdistan region

He also appealed for help from the international community.

Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said Baghdad will co-operate with Kurdish forces to "flush out these foreign fighters" and said Iraq's leaders have to unite to face a "mortal" threat.

Influential Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al Sadr has called for the formation of militia units to help defend religious sites.

ISIL has made serious gains in Iraq in the last year, seizing control of the city of Falluja and parts of Ramadi.

Led by Abu Bakr al Baghdadi, it was formed after a split with al Qaeda's international leader, Ayman al Zawahiri.

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Search Has Produced 'No New Madeleine Clues'

Scotland Yard says "no evidence relating to Madeleine McCann has been identified" after an eight-day search in Portugal.

But it added: "More activity has been agreed and we expect that to commence shortly."

More follows...

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