Footballers 'Willing Recruits' In Match-Fixing

By Lisa Dowd, Midlands Correspondent

Three former footballers and two other men have gone on trial accused of match-fixing to "engineer a result" to be used in betting in the Far East.

Opening the case at Birmingham Crown Court, Robert Davies said that defendants Krishna Ganeshan and Chann Sankaran were "central figures" who came to the UK with a "plan" to find lower league players to take a bribe to "throw matches".

He said the pair found "willing recruits" in Hakeem Adelakun, Michael Boateng and Moses Swaibu, who played in the Conference North and South Divisions, which are one level below the Conference Premier League.

Mr Davies said it was a "Goldilocks situation" where the pair wanted to use the "minimum level of bribe for the maximum return".

He said the players were paid "a lot less" than those in the Premier League, and there was "far less scrutiny" in the lower leagues.

He told the jury that the motivation was to "engineer a result" to be used in betting in the Far East, for example, Singapore, where betting on the lower leagues is popular.

Mr Davies said "odds are odds" whether it is Barcelona, Manchester United, or lower leagues "it doesn't matter".

The court heard that in November 2013 Ganeshan and Sankaran became the focus of a Daily Telegraph investigation, which later involved the National Crime Agency.

The prosecution claims that Sankaran and Ganeshan requested and accepted 60,000 euros (£48,897) from Telegraph investigators operating under false names who were looking into corruption in football.

It is alleged Boateng and Adelakun received "financial advantage", including 450 euros (£366) in cash from the pair, and Swaibu received £3,000 to "perform their function or activity as professional footballers improperly".

All five deny bribery and conspiracy to commit bribery. The trial is expected to last up to five weeks.

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Woman Killed, Four Children Hurt In Stabbing

Police have launched a murder investigation after a woman was killed and four children injured in a stabbing attack.

Officers called to a domestic incident in Huddersfield found a 37-year-old woman with a "serious stab injury" and a nine-year-old boy outside the property with an injury to his arm.

The woman was taken to hospital after the attack on Sunday evening, but she later died.

The boy was also taken to hospital for treatment to his injury.

Another nine-year-old boy, a boy of 11 and a six-month-old baby girl, who were also at the address in Reinwood Road, were treated for minor injuries.

Det Chief Insp Ady Taylor said: "A 39-year-old man was detained at the scene and is being treated in hospital for serious injuries.

"We are not looking for anyone else in connection with this incident.

"Enquiries are ongoing to establish the full circumstances surrounding the incident and Neighbourhood Policing Team officers are patrolling the area, offering support and reassurance to local residents."

:: Anyone with information is asked to contact Protective Services Crime on the non emergency number 101 or Crimestoppers in confidence on 0800 555 111.

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Dad Throws Child Into Pool 'To Teach Her Lesson'

A man has been charged with child abuse after he allegedly threw his 23-month-old daughter into a swimming pool to teach her a lesson.

Surveillance footage shows the toddler being tossed into a swimming pool in Phoenix, Arizona, as a woman rushes to her rescue.

Corey McCarthy has been charged

Police allege Corey McCarthy threw his daughter in the water after she had dropped a five-week-old puppy in the pool and it died, AZFamily.com reported.

It quoted the child's mother, Samantha, as saying she was "very angry" and "very hurt" by McCarthy.

She added: "What people don't know is also in the beginning of the video, he hoses her down with a water hose to kind of torture her that way."

The child's mother Samantha said she was "very angry"

The couple reportedly have two children.

Police said the act violates Arizona's law stating that discipline must be reasonable and not put a child in danger.

AZFamily reported that McCarthy has been beaten up in jail.

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Van Gaal 'Has Big Ambitions' As Man Utd Boss

Can Van Gaal Follow The Irreplaceable One?

Updated: 4:14pm UK, Monday 19 May 2014

By Paul Kelso, Sports Correspondent

Sir Alex Ferguson may be irreplaceable, but on the evidence of the last week, Louis van Gaal is going to give it a good try.

It remains to be seen what the man currently preparing Holland for the World Cup has planned on the field.

But in his dealings with the media, the second front for any manager, he shows all the signs of being a worthy successor.

British reporters dispatched to try and elicit a comment on United before his formal confirmation as manager found van Gaal by turns charming, evasive, astute, irascible, and downright rude.

In short, many of the qualities that made Ferguson a formidable interviewee, and an even more impressive manager.

Plenty more of this will follow when van Gaal takes up his post later in the summer, though United's owners and fans will be far more interested in his plans for the players than the press corps.

Van Gaal's record over two decades at some of Europe's leading clubs suggest he has the personality to succeed in a job which, as David Moyes found, can cow even the most confident individual.

He is a manager who expects to wield total authority and is seldom troubled by self-doubt.

Uli Hoeness, the former president of Bayern Munich, where van Gaal spent two seasons from 2009, said he thinks of himself as "God's very own father".

Hoeness, since jailed for tax evasion, may not be the best character witness, but there is no doubting Van Gaal's self-confidence.

It is built on two decades of success at the highest level.

He's won the league at every club he has managed, and shown himself capable of dealing with the world's best players.

Van Gaal's coaching career began at Ajax, where he oversaw perhaps the last great team to emerge from the Dutch giants.

The side that won the 1995 European Cup included Edwin van de Sar, Frank and Ronald  De Boer, Frank Rijkaard, Edgar Davids, Clarence Seedorf, Marc Overmars and had Patrick Kluivert on the bench,

It is perhaps the finest crop of young players produced at any single club in the last 20 years, United's Class of '92 included.

From there he went to Barcelona, where in his first spell he twice won La Liga, but left under a cloud after falling out with, you guessed, the media.

His first spell as Dutch national coach proved his biggest failure to date.

The team did not qualify for the 2002 World Cup, unthinkable in Holland, and a disastrous second spell at Barcelona followed, after which he retreated home to rebuild his career at AZ Alkmaar before joining Bayern.

There he won the Bundesliga but that feat has been eclipsed by the achievements of the managers who followed him, Juup Heynckes and Pep Guardiola.

Van Gaal has said he serves credit for laying the foundations of Bayern's current domination. Deserved or not, no-one at United will complain if he does something similar at Old Trafford.

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Harris 'Wanted To Be First To Tongue Kiss Girl'

By Nick Pisa, Sky News Reporter

Rolf Harris kissed a girl of 11 or 12 while she was off school "so he could be her first," a court has heard.

The woman, who is now in her fifties and cannot be named for legal reasons, said she was left "frozen" and "repulsed" by what happened.

She added that as a result she still felt "frazzled" whenever she was kissed, saying it caused her "panic attacks".

The woman, from the Northern Territory, was the first Australian witness to give evidence on day six of the trial at Southwark Crown Court.

There is no charge against entertainer Harris, 84, regarding the woman and her evidence is being used to support the prosecution's case.

The woman told the court she was assaulted in 1969 and was staying with friends when she woke up, came downstairs in her pyjamas and found Harris polishing wood.

She told the court: "He asked me how old I was and he said he wanted to be the first one to introduce me to a tongue kiss.

"I stood there. I didn't think anything. I just froze. I didn't think he was being serious. Then he walked up towards me."

Rolf Harris denies 12 counts of indecent assault

She said Harris ran his hands up her body, bent down and kissed her.

"I was scared. It seemed to last forever but it must have been very quick. He put his tongue inside my mouth," she said.

When asked how she felt afterwards the woman replied: "I was quite repulsed, absolutely. He just stopped and then said 'look at what I have been doing'."

The woman, who has been married three times, told the court the alleged incident had repercussions in her adult life as she found it difficult to tongue kiss.

She said she went to police after reports of the investigation against him emerged.

Meanwhile, a woman allegedly groped by Harris broke down in tears as she described how Harris molested her on a dance floor.

The witness, who is in her fifties and cannot be named, said he put his hand up her skirt during a wine launch event in New Zealand's North Island in 1970 or 1971 when she was 16 or 17 years old.

Sobbing heavily the woman told the court: ''I saw the dark side of a man who I thought could be trusted. It was in a public place."

She said the day after the alleged incident she told her mother what happened and described Harris as a ''disgusting, vile, repulsive man, who had taken away any trust in the fact that he was a celebrity.''

She added: ''He violated my trust, I never thought he was somebody who could not be trusted.''

Harris, from Bray, Berkshire, listened to proceedings from the glass-fronted dock, dressed in a black suit, striped shirt and tie.

His wife Alwen was in the public gallery along with other friends and relatives.

Harris denies 12 counts of indecent assault allegedly carried out between 1968 and 1986. The trial continues.

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Pamela Anderson Was 'Gang-Raped' As Teenager

Former Baywatch star Pamela Anderson has revealed she was sexually assaulted by a female babysitter and gang-raped as a child.

Speaking at the launch of her new conservation foundation at the Cannes Film Festival, she described a number of traumatic experiences in her youth, including how she was "molested" by the babysitter from the age of six.

The 46-year-old said she was raped by a 25-year-old when she was just 12.

She then recalled how her first boyfriend when she was 15 or 16 "decided it would be funny to gang rape me (with six of his friends)".

 The actress told guests at the beach event on the French Riviera that the events partly explained how she came to love animals so much.

Anderson confessed that she "just wanted off this earth" and formed an "affinity" with animals.

Anderson has always campaigned for animal welfare

"My parents tried to keep me safe - but to me - the world was not a safe place - my dad an alcoholic - my mom worked two jobs waitressing," she said.

She admitted she did not tell her mother what she went through because she didn't want to "break her heart".

"My affinity with animals saved me, they came to me naturally. The trees spoke to me, I wasn't sure why I was alive.

"A burning question, a quest. My loyalty remained with animal kingdom. I vowed to protect them and only them. I prayed to the whales with my feet in the ocean, my only real friends until I had children", the long-time animal rights campaigner said.

Anderson is married to Rick Saloman and has two sons with her former husband Tommy Lee.

The activist said she realised early on in her career that her place in the spotlight provided her with a voice. 

"We have changed animal welfare laws all over the world and over the last 20 years I have spoken to parliament, kings, queens. I've had the ear and admiration of people like Castro and crazy enough, Putin. There must be a way to use this for good."

Anderson's speech can be read in full here.

Cannes is currently hosting its annual film festival that draws in movie stars and fans from around the world. 

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Missing Yachtsmen: 'Give Sailors Another Chance'

The father of one of four yachtsmen missing in the Atlantic Ocean has pleaded for the search for them to be resumed saying the sailors needed to be "given a chance".

David Bridge told Sky News he was "devastated" to hear the US Coastguard had called off the rescue mission on Sunday due to treacherous weather conditions.

It suspended its air and sea search after 53 hours, having given the men an estimated survival time of 20 hours.

Mr Bridge said the crew had set off a personal locator beacon suggesting the group were in a life raft.

Contact with Andrew Bridge, 21, James Male, 23, Steve Warren, 52, and Paul Goslin, 56, was lost in the early hours of Friday while they were diverting to the Azores.

The overturned hull of a yacht matching the description of the Cheeki Rafiki was spotted and photographed by a cargo vessel assisting the search.

The yacht reportedly capsized on the way back from the Caribbean

It reported there were no signs of life on board and no life raft, however no one from the Greek-registered 1,000ft container ship Maersk Kure tried to climb down to the yacht to check if anyone was trapped alive inside.

The crew was returning from Antigua Sailing Week in the 40ft yacht when it ran into difficulties 620 miles east of Cape Cod, Massachusetts.

Mr Bridge had been told in conference calls with the American authorities that they felt "they have done enough" after searching more than 4,000 square miles of the ocean for pings from the vessel's personal locator beacons over two days.

But speaking from Farnham, Surrey, Mr Bridge told Sky News: "They need to go out there and carry on searching.They should give them another chance."

Mr Warren's sister, Kay Coombes, said she and their mother, Margaret Warren, were convinced he was still alive.

The 46-year-old said: "It's an utter nightmare, we are grateful for the US and Canadian coast guards for what they have done so far but it's stopped too soon after two days, it's not long enough, we believe they are still alive."

A petition has gathered 25,000 signatures pressing for a continuation of the search.

Cressida Goslin, whose husband Paul was among the crew, said: "We don't want to leave any stone unturned, it is a very short window of opportunity - we are realistic."

L-R: Andrew Bridge, Steve Warren, James Male, Paul Goslin

Round-the-world record-breaking yachtswoman, Tracy Edwards, told Sky News: "I understand there has been some nasty weather, but I think it's inexcusable that the search has been called off completely."

She added: "There has to be a limit but you can't search 4,000 square miles of ocean in two days. That's impossible."

The US Coastguard said it cancelled the search, involving American and Canadian aircraft and three merchant vessels after failing to receive any transmissions from the locator beacons.

A spokesman also defended the actions of the crew of the cargo vessel which spotted what was thought to be the yacht, saying it did not the capabilities to search or pick up the Cheeki Rafiki.

The Coastguard said the search could resume if an independent vessel reported something of interest - but their own resources are not currently active.

A Foreign Office spokesman said: "The US Coastguard has given us assurances that they have conducted a fully exhaustive search."

Before running into trouble on their way back to Southampton, the crew joked on social media about their lengthening beards and the food they were eating.

A blog posted to Facebook on Tuesday, one of their last, said: "We are already thinking of home and the ones we love and miss, you know who you are!"

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Police Search For 'Vulnerable' Missing Colleague

Police have issued an appeal in an attempt to trace a "vulnerable" sergeant who has been missing since Thursday.

Thames Valley Police said they had become increasingly concerned about Louise Gibson.

The High Wycombe-based officer was last seen in her home village of Great Kingshill, Buckinghamshire, by her family at 5.30pm.

The commander of Wycombe police has made a direct appeal to Louise herself, or anyone else with information, to contact them.

Superintendent Ed McLean said: "We are continuing to do everything to locate Louise and I urge anyone who might have seen her to get in touch, as we are getting increasingly concerned for her welfare.

"I can confirm that Louise is a serving police sergeant with Thames Valley Police, stationed at High Wycombe.

"As with any high risk missing person investigation, significant resources are being dedicated to safely locate her.

"Her family is being kept fully updated and is being supported by specially trained officers.

"And Louise - if you see this, I just want to make sure you are safe and well, please contact us."

Louise is described as white, 5ft 7ins tall, of slim build and with long straight blonde hair.

When she was last seen, she was wearing a grey thigh-length jacket with a fur collar, light blue jeans and black boots.

Louise also has links to Macclesfield in Cheshire.

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Twitter User Retweeted Rape Threats To MP

A man retweeted menacing messages threatening to rape an MP after she supported a campaign to feature Jane Austen on the £10 note, a court has heard.

Peter Nunn allegedly bombarded Labour MP Stella Creasy with abuse during a campaign of "hatred", branding her a "witch".

Ms Creasy had backed a high-profile campaign launched by feminist Caroline Criado-Perez to keep a woman on a British bank note, Westminster Magistrates' Court heard.

Alison Morgan, prosecuting, told the court that Nunn "embarked on a campaign of hatred in various different forms towards both women" last summer when the campaign was at the centre of media reports.

The prosecution said he began leaving offensive posts on July 29 - five days after the Bank of England revealed Austen would be the new face of the £10 note.

Stella Creasy (L) and Caroline Criado-Perez

He allegedly retweeted a message sent to Ms Creasy which read: "You better watch your back, I'm going to rape your **** at 8pm and put the video all over."

Ms Morgan said: "It is not alleged that he created the text and the threat, but for whatever reason he chose to retweet it and it is a message that is menacing in character."

Over the next day he sent a barrage of other offensive messages to the London MP using the Twitter account @protectys, it is claimed.

Later that evening he allegedly posted: "If you can't threaten to rape a celebrity, what is the point in having them?"

At 10pm that night, half an hour before Ms Criado-Perez and Ms Creasy were due to appear on the BBC show Newsnight to talk about the Twitter abuse they had endured, Nunn left another tweet branding the MP an "evil witch".

The court also heard that Ms Criado-Perez received a barrage of abuse on Twitter.

Ms Morgan said: "It is right to say that beyond the confines of this particular case, Ms Criado-Perez received a significant number of offensive tweets to her Twitter account from many different users, but including the accounts attributed to this defendant."

Nunn was arrested at his home Emersons Green, Bristol, on August 7 after Ms Creasy and Ms Criado-Perez reported his abuse.

When questioned by police he admitted retweeting messages that were violent, but said he did "to further debate".

He denies sending a message that was grossly offensive or of an indecent, obscene or menacing character by a public electronic network between July 28 and August 5 last year.

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Cyber-Spying Charges Against China Officials

The US has charged five Chinese military officials in Beijing with economic espionage and trade secret theft - allegations that China says are "made up".

The indictment accuses the five hackers of targeting US nuclear power, metals and solar products industries.

Six American companies, including Alcoa and Westinghouse, and one labour union were cited as victims of the hacking attacks.

US Attorney General Eric Holder said the case "represents the first ever charges against a state actor for this type of hacking".

"The range of trade secrets and other sensitive business information stolen in this case is significant and demands an aggressive response," he told a news conference.

Barack Obama and Xi Jinping have discussed cyber-security issues

China's foreign ministry decried the charges, and said the "so-called prosecution" would damage China-US relations.

"China is a staunch defender of network security, and the Chinese government, military and associated personnel have never engaged in online theft of trade secrets," Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said in a statement.

Mr Holder called the indictment a "ground-breaking" step forward in addressing the threat of cyber-security.

"For too long, the Chinese government has blatantly sought to use cyber espionage to obtain economic advantage for its state-owned industries," said FBI Director James Comey.

The US believes China stole military trade secrets costing American businesses billions of dollars a year.

Sky News Correspondent Dominic Waghorn in Washington says the charges are "unprecedented".

Last September, President Barack Obama discussed cyber-security issues with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping when the two met on the sidelines of a summit in St Petersburg, Russia. 

More follows...

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