Dallas Star Larry Hagman Dies

Larry Hagman, who starred in the hit TV series Dallas as the scheming oil baron J R Ewing, has died.

His family said in a statement that the 81-year-old died in a Dallas hospital following complications from his battle with cancer.

He had suffered from liver cancer and cirrhosis of the liver in the 1990s after decades of drinking.

Dallas, which made its premiere on the CBS network in 1978, made Hagman a superstar.

The show quickly became one of the network's top-rated programmes, built an international following and inspired a spin-off, imitators and a revival in 2012.

"Larry was back in his beloved hometown of Dallas, re-enacting the iconic role he loved the most," his family said in a statement. "Larry's family and closest friends had joined him in Dallas for the Thanksgiving holiday."

Hagman with his co-stars Patrick Duffy and Linda Gray

The popularity of Dallas made Hagman one of the best-paid actors in television and earned him a fortune. He lost some of it, however, in bad oil investments before turning to real estate.

Fans and celebrities took to Twitter to pay tribute to him.

Linda Gray, who played J R's wife, Sue Ellen, and was at his bedside when he died, said: "Larry Hagman was my best friend for 35 years. He was the Pied Piper of life and brought joy to everyone he knew. He was creative, funny, loving and talented, and I will miss him enormously."

Larry King said: "Larry Hagman was a dear man who had an incredible career. He helped me to stop smoking. He was a very special person."

Actor William Shatner said: "My thoughts and prayers go out to the family of Larry Hagman. My best, Bill".

Hagman with Barbara Eden at the I Dream Of Jeannie DVD launch

In July 1995, he was diagnosed with liver cancer, which led him to quit smoking, and a month later he underwent a liver transplant.

Hagman said he quit drinking the moment doctors told him he had cirrhosis of the liver and could die within six months.

Hagman was born in Weatherford, Texas, and his father was a lawyer who dealt with the Texas oil barons Hagman would later come to portray.

His mother was stage and movie star Mary Martin and he became a star himself in 1965 on I Dream of Jeannie, a popular television sitcom.

Barbara Eden, who starred alongside him in I Dream of Jeannie, tweeted: "Larry Hagman not just a great actor, not just a television icon, but an element of pure Americana. I'll miss him."

Hagman and his wife Maj

Hagman started his acting career in theatre in New York where he married Maj Axelsson in 1954 while they were in a production of South Pacific. They have two children, Heidi and Preston.

He served in the Air Force, spending five years in Europe as the director of USO shows.

In his later years, Hagman became an advocate for organ transplants and an anti-smoking campaigner.

He also was devoted to solar energy, telling the New York Times he had a $750,000 solar panel system at his Ojai estate, and made a commercial in which he portrayed a J R Ewing who had forsaken oil for solar power.

He was also a longtime member of the Peace and Freedom Party, a minor leftist organisation in California.

Hagman had a eccentric streak. When he first met actress Lauren Bacall, he licked her arm because he had been told she did not like to be touched and he was known for leading parades on the Malibu beach and showing up at a grocery store in a gorilla suit.

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Doomsday Cults Banned From French Village

The mayor of a sleepy village in southwest France is stepping up security because of fears of an invasion of people who think the end of the world is nigh.

An ancient prophecy based on the Mayan calendar has led to internet speculation that Bugarach, which is near the Pyrenees, will be the only place left after the apocalypse, which some are predicting will happen on December 21 this year.

Followers believe a nearby mountain has magic powers and are convinced UFOs will rescue them and take them to safety.

French authorities have insisted the scenario is ridiculous, but they are taking the situation seriously.

Most villagers seem unconcerned about the claims of impending doom

Mayor Jean-Pierre Lord says over a hundred gendarmes are to seal off the village from December 19-23 to keep out any Doomsday groups.

"My message is very simple. I am telling people don't come here to Bugarach for a simple reason there will be nothing to see here. So I insist don't come here, especially as there will mainly be the police here," he said.

In the nearby ancient town of Carcassone, officials say they are planning for every eventuality.

"Taking into account the huge media interest this affair has created we have to take into account all security concerns and be prepared for all outcomes whether there are 300 people or 3,000," said security chief Eric Freysselinard.

Villagers appear not to be too concerned about claims of impending doom.

Many said they were doubtful that extra-terrestrials would be coming to pluck survivors to safety.

"I think it's a big load of nonsense. I don't think there are UFOs within the Bugarach mountain," said local rubbish collector Jean-Luc Billard.

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McAfee's Dogs Could Be Key To Murder Riddle

Police hunting the anti-virus pioneer John McAfee think the millionaire's dogs could hold the key to solving the murder of his neighbour.

Mr McAfee shot dead his pets after they were poisoned two days before Gregory Faull, a retired American builder, was killed.

Officers have dug up the animals' remains, which were buried in the grounds of Mr McAfee's home in Belize, to examine the bullets used to kill them.

Forensic officers are now comparing the bullets to the single casing found by the body of Mr Faull to determine if there is a match.

Police spokesman Raphael Martinez said: "The dogs were exhumed and the slugs were taken out indeed and basically it's just to match the slug that was found in Mr Faull."

The 52-year-old was found dead in his home on the island of Ambergris Cave on November 11. He had a gunshot wound to the head.

Police officers carrying the corpse of Gregory Faull

Mr McAfee has denied he was responsible for the murder and says he went into hiding only because the Belize authorities have a vendetta against him. He believes he was the intended victim of the shooting, not Mr Faull.

Since going on the run he has started a blog, which he promotes on Twitter, and regularly updates.

In it he has given details of how he has disguised himself as a beggar, a salesman and a drunken German tourist to watch police search his home seven times.

In a post about the exhumation of his dogs, Mr McAfee wrote: "Then I watched the police dig up my four dogs that had been poisoned and buried. They cut off the heads and re-buried the bodies. I found this curious."

Mr McAfee amassed a $100m (£63m) fortune from his software business but said he lost all but $4m of it in the financial crisis. He moved to Belize in 2008.

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Egypt Judges Condemn President's 'Attack'

Egyptian judges have condemned a decree granting President Mohamed Morsi sweeping new powers, as angry protesters clashed with police for a second day.

A handful of rock-throwing activists battled riot police in the streets near Tahrir Square, where several thousand protesters massed on Friday to demonstrate against a decree, which effectively prevents Mr Morsi's decisions from being challenged.

The move also removed powers from the judiciary and allows the president to take any measures to protect national security.

The Supreme Judicial Council, the country's highest judicial authority, said the decree was an "unprecedented attack" on their independence, the state news agency reported.

Judges in the coastal city of Alexandria said all work at courts and prosecution offices would be suspended until the measures were reversed.

Some protesters are staging a sit-in in Tahrir Square

A number of opposition parties have called for an open-ended sit-in with the aim of "toppling" the decree which has also drawn criticism from the US, the UN and the European Union.

A mass protest has also been called for Tuesday.

"We are facing a historic moment in which we either complete our revolution or we abandon it to become prey for a group that has put its narrow party interests above the national interest," the liberal Dustour Party said in a statement.

Mr Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood party also called its supporters out onto the streets of Cairo on Tuesday for a counter-demonstration to show support for the move.

On Friday, the president addressed his supporters at a rally outside the presidential palace telling them he would press forward and that he was on the path to "freedom and democracy".

He said that the new powers were designed to stop "weevils" from the regime of ousted former president Hosni Mubarak blocking progress.

The decree reflects the concerns in the Muslim Brotherhood-led government that sections of the judiciary remain unreformed following the overthrown of Mubarak.

"It aims to sideline Mursi's enemies in the judiciary and ultimately to impose and head off any legal challenges to the constitution," said Elijah Zarwan, a fellow with The European Council on Foreign Relations.

"We are in a situation now where both sides are escalating and its getting harder and harder to see how either side can gracefully climb down."

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Boxer Hector Camacho Taken Off Life Support

Boxer Hector "Macho" Camacho has died after being taken off life support, doctors say.

The 50-year-old was declared clinically brain dead on Thursday after being shot in his hometown of Bayamon in Puerto Rico earlier in the week.

Dr Ernesto Torres said Camacho went into cardiac arrest in the early hours of Saturday. He was then taken off life support and died shortly after.

His mother Maria Matias had indicated he would be allowed to die after three of his sons had arrived in Puerto Rico to see him for a final time.

"I lost my son three days ago. He's alive only because of a machine. My son is not alive. My son is only alive for the people who love him," she had said.

However, his eldest son, Hector Jr, said he wanted to keep his father alive.

The former world champion was shot as he sat in a car with a friend, 49-year-old Adrian Mojica Moreno, who was killed in the attack.

Police spokesman Alex Diaz said officers found nine small bags of cocaine in the friend's pocket and a 10th bag open inside the car.

Police reported no arrests and said investigators continued to interview potential witnesses.

Camacho fought some of boxing's biggest stars

Preparations had already begun for a memorial and a funeral Mass.

Camacho fought professionally for three decades, from his humble debut against David Brown at New York's Felt Forum in 1980 to an equally forgettable swansong against Sal Duran in Kissimmee, Florida, in 2010.

In between, he fought some of the sport's biggest stars, including Sugar Ray Leonard, Felix Trinidad, Oscar De La Hoya and Roberto Duran.

After his career reached its prime, Camacho was plagued by drug, alcohol and other problems.

In 2007 he was sentenced to seven years in prison for the burglary of a computer store in Mississippi. While arresting him on the burglary charge in January 2005, police also found the drug ecstasy.

A judge eventually suspended all but one year of the sentence and gave Camacho probation but he ended up serving two weeks in jail after violating that probation.

Camacho's ex-wife, Amy, obtained a restraining order against him in 1998, alleging he threatened her and one of their children. The couple, who had two children at the time, later divorced.

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Seven Gunned Down In Guatemalan Clinic 'Hit'

Gunmen dressed as policemen shot dead seven people in a medical clinic in Guatemala City in an apparent attack on an alleged drug dealer.

The hit-squad killed bodyguards and people guarding the clinic, in an upper class area of the city, but missed their intended target.

The country's interior minister, Mauriciao Lopez, said the group of men entered the clinic looking for the alleged Guatemalan drugs baron, Jairo Orellana, who was a regular client there.

When they were turned away by guards they opened fire with AK47 rifles, shooting four people on the ground floor, one on the stairs and two more on the second floor.

Police officers stand next to the body of a man outside the clinic.

Six men died at the scene and a seventh, who has been named as Trinidad Mendez Chacon, an employee of a private bodyguard company, died later in hospital.

After the attack, the men fled in five vehicles.

Mr Lopez told reporters: "The attack in the capital could be the product of a power struggle between drug traffickers. It was directed at Jairo Orellana."

Officials said one of the victims was from a rural province where the government has suspended constitutional rights in an attempt to remove it from the stranglehold of Los Zetas, the Mexican drug cartel.

The Mexican cartels are reaching further into Central America in an expansion of their cocaine-smuggling empires.

In May last year, Los Zetas beheaded 27 innocent farm workers in the northern border region of Peten in a dispute with the farm's owner over drug trafficking routes.

General Otto Perez, the Guatemalan president, has vowed to crack down on violent drug gangs.

Guatemala is one of the most violent countries on Earth, with 39 people out of every 100,000 murdered.

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Spurs Fan Stabbed In Rome Speaks Of Fear

The Tottenham Hotspur fan brutally attacked by masked hooligans in Italy says his assailants "came out of nowhere" and pulled him along the ground after beating and stabbing him.

Ashley Mills spoke of his fear after he was nearly killed in the attack on a popular tourist pub in downtown Rome.

"They came out of nowhere," said the 25-year-old builder from Brentwood, Essex, who was in the Italian capital to watch Spurs take on Lazio in the Europa League on Thursday night.

"I didn't see the guy that stabbed me, there were too many of them."

Mr Mills was drinking with a group of Spurs fans late on Wednesday night at The Drunken Ship pub in Rome's famed Campo de Fiori piazza when a mob of about 50 assailants, armed with sticks, iron bars and paving stones, launched a frenzied assault on the drinkers.

Lazio "Ultras" - fanatical supporters - were initially suspected of the raid, but two fans of cross-town rivals Roma have now been arrested and charged with attempted murder.

Suspicions are mounting among Italian investigators that the aggressors were far-right sympathisers drawn from both fan groups.

Mills bled profusely from his thigh stab wound

Mr Mills said the Spurs fans had been taken by complete surprise.

"There was a good atmosphere in the bar," he said. "Everyone from back home having a few drinks, we were having fun. And then the atmosphere changed really quickly.

"I was standing outside the bar drinking, and the next thing I know there are loads of them. It happened very quickly, I don't remember much. I remember being pulled out, along the ground, after I had been stabbed.

"I am not scared now, I was scared at the time."

Mr Mills received head wounds when he was beaten and a knife wound to the top of his right thigh, causing profuse bleeding.

The next thing he remembers is waking up at Rome's San Camillo hospital, where his groin wound, considered life-threatening by doctors, was operated on, while his head wound was treated with stitches.

Doctors said he would remain in hospital on Friday.

"The pain in the groin can be intense - I think I may have been stabbed there more than once," said Mills, adding that the pain had kept him awake on Thursday night.

He said he is not sure when he can leave the hospital, but has been cheered up by three friends who have travelled to Rome to see him.

"The doctors do not speak English so I cannot find out much. They have looked after me really well, but I would like to know how long I will be here."

Mr Mills, who grew up in Tottenham, north London, had travelled to the game with his brother Bradley Mills, a 30-year-old interior designer who was in the bar and was also injured.

His trip to Rome was his first to see Spurs play abroad. "I am a lifetime fan and I have never seen trouble before - I would not have come if I knew this was going to happen," he said.

But, he added, he was determined to travel abroad again to see his team.

"It's a one-off, and now I want to get out of here as soon as possible and put this behind me."

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Eurozone Crisis: Cyprus Poised For Bailout

Discussions between Cyprus and European officials are ongoing, as the island negotiates the terms of a sovereign bailout.

Cyprus' government officials said they had agreed on a package with the European Union (EU) and International Monetary Fund (IMF).

But the European Commission (EC) denied that a deal had been struck, adding that discussions are ongoing.

"Discussions are expected to continue from respective headquarters with a view to making further progress toward a potential program," a a joint statement from the EU, IMF and EC said.

If the deal is approved, it would make the Mediterranean island the fourth country in the eurozone to request a sovereign bailout, as the region struggles to contain its debt crisis. 

Cyprus requested a bailout - which could be worth as much as £17.5bn, or its total GDP - after its banks failed to cope with their exposure to Greece.

"The deadline that was set by the European Central Bank for the recapitalisation of the banks expired, so we had to enter the rescue mechanism," spokesman Stefanos Stefanou said.

He added: "The bailout deal includes unpleasant measures."

Greece, Ireland and Portugal have already received bailouts to help manage their debt levels, while Spain received a 100bn euro (£80.8bn) aid package to bolster its banking industry. 

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Gaza: Israeli Soldiers Shoot Dead Man At Border

Israeli troops have shot and killed a Palestinian man and wounded at least 15 others after crowds surged towards Gaza's border fence with Israel.

The shooting did not appear to pose an immediate threat to the ceasefire declared on Wednesday night, which called for an end to Gaza rocket fire on Israel and Israeli airstrikes on Gaza.

It appeared unlikely Hamas would retaliate for the shooting because that could jeopardise the militant group's potential gains from the ceasefire deal, such as an easing of restrictions on movement in and out of the Palestinian territory.

Ismail Haniyeh, the Hamas prime minister in Gaza, has urged militant factions to respect the ceasefire.

But Nafez Azzam, a spokesman for Gaza's Islamic Jihad, said the shooting was a violation of the truce and added that Egypt had been informed.

It is believed hundreds of Palestinians approached Israel's border fence in several locations in southern Gaza.

In the past, Israel's military has barred Palestinians from getting close to the fence, and soldiers opened fire routinely to enforce a no-go zone meant to prevent infiltrations into Israel.

Since the ceasefire, growing numbers of Gazans have entered the no-go zone.

In footage taken along the border on Friday, a soldier is heard shouting in Hebrew "Go there, before I shoot you," and pointed away from the fence, toward Gaza.

Israeli troops guard the border

The soldier then dropped to one knee, assuming a firing position. Eventually, a burst of automatic fire was heard, but it was not clear whether any of the casualties were from this incident.

Gaza health official Ashraf al Kidra said the victim was a 20-year-old man.

On Thursday Israeli police said 12 rockets were fired from the Gaza Strip but there were no reports of any injuries or damage.

The truce has allowed both Hamas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to step back from the brink of a fully-fledged war.

Over eight days, Israel's aircraft carried out some 1,500 strikes on Hamas-linked targets, while Gaza fighters peppered Israel with roughly the same number of rockets.

The fighting killed 166 Palestinians, including dozens of civilians, and six Israelis.

In Cairo, Egypt is hosting separate talks with Israeli and Hamas envoys on the next phase of the ceasefire - a new border deal for blockaded Gaza.

Hamas demands lifting of all border restrictions, while Israel insists that Hamas must halt weapons smuggling to the territory.

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Egypt Protests: Brotherhood Offices Set Alight

Violent clashes have broken out in cities across Egypt in a day of protest after President Mohamed Morsi granted himself sweeping new powers.

In Alexandria, Egypt's second largest city, protesters stormed the headquarters of Mr Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood party throwing chairs and books into the street and setting them on fire.

Police fired tear gas on crowds gathered in Tahrir Square, in Cairo, the scene of the violent clashes during the overthrow of the former president, Hosni Mubarak.

The Daily News Egypt reported injuries in cities across the country as violent clashes broke out between protesters and Mr Morsi's supporters, who according to reports on Twitter, were being bussed in to counter the dissenters.

Protesters storm the Muslim Brotherhood's headquarters in Alexandria.

Hundreds gathered outside the Muslim Brotherhood's offices in Port Said, pelting it with stones and attempting to storm the building.

There were reports the Muslim Brotherhood's offices in Suez and Ismailiya had also been set on fire.

Mr Morsi addressed his supporters at a rally outside the presidential palace telling them he would press forward and that he was on the path to "freedom and democracy".

He said: "No one can stop our march forward ... I am performing my duty to please God and the nation and I take decisions after I consult with everyone." 

He said that the news powers were designed to stop "weevils" from the former Mubarack regime blocking progress. 

Supporters and opponents of the president clash in Alexandria.

Under the new powers assumed by Mr Morsi, none of his laws or decrees can be cancelled, powers have been removed from the judiciary and he can take any measures necessary to safeguard national security.

The move has come as a blow to the pro-democracy movement that formed before Mubarak was ousted and they raise questions about the gains made in last year's uprising.

Opposition forces have denounced the declaration as a "coup". 

They accused Mr Morsi, an Islamist, of "monopolising all three branches of government" and of overseeing "the total execution of the independence of the judiciary".

The United Nations Human Rights Commissioner, Navi Pillay, has said that Mr Morsi's move raised serious issues.

Mohamed ElBaradei (centre) says the powers are a blow to the revolution

His spokesman, Robert Colville, told a news briefing at the UN in Geneva: "We are very concerned about the possible huge ramifications of this declaration on human rights and the rule of law in Egypt."

The EU has also issued a warning. "It is of utmost importance that democratic process be completed in accordance with the commitments undertaken by the Egyptian leadership," a spokesman for EU foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton, said in a statement.

Nobel laureate and former UN atomic energy agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei had earlier lashed out at the declaration, which would effectively put the president above judicial oversight.

"Morsi today usurped all state powers and appointed himself Egypt's new pharaoh. A major blow to the revolution that could have dire consequences," Mr ElBaradei wrote on his Twitter account.

The head of the influential Judge's Club, Ahmed al-Zind, told a press conference that the judges would hold an emergency meeting on Saturday to decide on their next step, promising "actions, not words".

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