Brazil's Former Presidential Chief-of-Staff to Stand Trial A federal judge on Tuesday accepted the charges filed against Brazil's former presidential chief of staff for his alleged involvement in a massive corruption scheme at state-owned oil company Petrobras. The federal prosecutor's office said Jose Dirceu will face trial on the corruption, racketeering and money laundering charges filed earlier this month. Fourteen other people will also be tried, including Joao Vaccari Neto, the former treasurer of Brazil's governing Workers' Party and Renato de Souza Duque, Petrobras' former head of corporate services.
Dirceu is the most senior member of the ruling Workers' Party to be taken into custody in connection with the scheme. Dirceu served as former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's chief of staff between 2003 and 2005. He was arrested early August in his home, where he already was under house arrest serving an 11-year sentence for his involvement in a cash-for-votes scheme in Congress more than 10 years ago. Prosecutors have said that Dirceu masterminded the kickback scheme at Petrobras, accepted bribes while in office and continued to receive payments from contractors after he was jailed in late 2013 for the vote-buying scandal.
According to prosecutors, the scheme at Petrobras involved roughly $2 billion in bribes and other illegal funds. Some of that money was allegedly funneled back to campaign coffers of the ruling party and its allies. It also allegedly included the payment of bribes to Petrobras executives in return for inflated contracts. 'Miraculous' recovery for Peshawar massacre schoolboy A teenager paralysed after being shot four times in Pakistan's deadliest terror attack has made a "miraculous" recovery following treatment in the UK. Muhammad Ibrahim Khan, 13, had been told by doctors in Pakistan that he would never walk again.
At least 140 people, mostly children, were killed when gunmen stormed Peshawar's Army Public School last December. Muhammad, who arrived in London last month for surgery, is being discharged from hospital later. Exactly nine months ago, on an ordinary Tuesday morning, Muhammad sat in his first aid class listening to his teachers intently. At the same time seven gunmen disguised in security uniforms were entering the Army Public School. They were strapped with explosives and had one simple mission in mind: Kill every man, woman and child they came across. "I can't forget what happened that day," Muhammad says with a severe stare.
We were sitting in the auditorium, we were asking questions... and then we heard heavy gunfire outside. The terrorists moved inside and they started killing - our teacher was burned alive. Muhammad described pulling four other pupils out of the auditorium as the carnage unfolded. He said he then heard his friend, Hamza calling to him. He said, 'oh brother save me'. I held his hand. That's when I was shot in the back, and he was shot in the head. Most of the people killed in the attack were pupils Hamza died in Muhammad's arms. Muhammad recalled blacking out after that, and the next thing he knew he was in a hospital bed, paralysed from the waist down.
Doctors in Peshawar in northern Pakistan, and then Rawalpindi, close to the capital, told his family there was no treatment, and he would never walk again. "Seeing him I felt like my soul had left my body," says Muhammad's father, Sher Khan Those nine months were the hardest in my life. But Mr Khan and his wife, Sherbano, refused to believe that their cricket-mad son would never be able to use his legs again. They campaigned, and appealed for help on Pakistani TV, gaining the support of high profile people such as cricketer turned politician Imran Khan.
Finally, they were able to raise the funds to bring Muhammad to the UK and provide him with treatment at London's private Harley Street Clinic. Consultant neurosurgeon Irfan Malik described Muhammad as "terrified" when he first arrived at the hospital. "He'd spent the last [few] months lying on a bed, unable to move side to side," says Mr Malik. He was weak, he had a pressure sore on his back. He wasn't in great shape. A vertebra at the base of Muhammad's spine was destroyed Muhammad was shot in his shoulder, his hip, and his back during the attack, damaging his lower spine - leading to paralysis.
But during six hours of surgery, Mr Malik and his team were able to reattach nerve endings and reconstruct the damaged part of the spine. Even Mr Malik was surprised at what happened next. Exactly one week after the surgery Muhammad stood up and started taking steps and walking. We were not expecting to get that sort of excellent result. That was miraculous," he says. Less than two weeks after his operation, Muhammad is ready to leave hospital and start the long road to recovery. Muhammad has defied the odds and started to walk again He says he wants to build his strength and continue his education in the UK. But he says he is determined to return to Pakistan, join the army and help fight terrorism.
"I feel like I have a second chance at life," he says as he shows off pictures he's drawn of guns scribbled out next to school books and pens Muhammad grows physically stronger every day but the psychological trauma he continues to endure is unimaginable. "My anger is not diminishing" he says. In my school little kids were killed. What was their crime? His mother, wiping a tear from her eye, caressed his head and said: "I can see my son walking again." He'll be able to get on with his normal life. 'Super Voice' 4G service from Three offers better signal Three is making use of a lower frequency 4G spectrum that can travel more widely
Mobile phone provider Three has launched a UK service it says will improve reception inside buildings and in rural black spots. Its 4G Super Voice enables customers to make calls and send texts using a lower frequency spectrum. Other networks are looking into introducing the technology, known as Voice Over Long-Term Evolution (VoLTE). It currently works on only the Samsung Galaxy S5, but recent iPhone handsets will be added in the coming months. Three said up to 5.5 million customers would have access to the service by 2017.
Chief technology officer Bryn Jones said: "By the end of the year, one million of our customers will have access to better indoor coverage and be able to use their phones in more places than ever before." Stars prepare for panto season Pantomime season is big business for theatres up and down the UK, with many getting ready for this year's season now. Some of the biggest names in showbusiness now take part in the yuletide theatre. Matthew Kelly and Hayley Mills will be appearing in Cinderella - one as an ugly sister, the other as fairy godmother. They reveal their panto secrets to BBC Breakfast. Steven Wilson: 'If I don't do anything, I feel this creeping guilt'
Steven Wilson was recently the big winner at the Progressive Music Awards Steven Wilson is often dubbed the hardest working musician in the world of progressive rock. The multi-talented musician won three prizes at this month's Progressive Music Awards in London, including album of the year for Hand. The Guardian's five-star review called it "a smart, soulful and immersive work of art." Since the 1980s, Wilson has been the driving force in a number of musical projects, the best known of which is the rock band Porcupine Tree. Now, ahead of two sell-out shows at the Royal Albert Hall, Wilson is releasing a vinyl-only double LP, Transience, to showcase the "more accessible" side of his solo output.
He tells the BBC about his love of vinyl, his busy schedule and explains how comic actor Matt Berry came to be his support act. What does vinyl mean to you? I grew up at the very tail end of the vinyl era, and at the time, I remember, we couldn't wait for CD to come along because vinyl was so frustrating. You would buy the record, take it home, and it would have a scratch, and you would have to take it back again. I love CDs, and for some kinds of music - classical for example - it is better than vinyl. But the problem with the CD and digital downloads is that there's nothing you can really cherish or treasure. Owning vinyl is like having a beautiful painting hanging in your living room.
It's something you can hold, pore over the lyrics and immerse yourself in the art work. I thought it was just a nostalgic thing, but it can't be if kids too young to remember vinyl are enjoying that kind of experience. Do you have a piece of vinyl that you treasure? The truth is I got rid of 100% of my vinyl in the 90s. All the vinyl I have is re-bought. I started off from the perspective that I wanted to recreate the collection I had when I was 15, but it's gone beyond that. The first record which I persuaded my parents to buy for me was Electric Light Orchestra's Out of the Blue.
If I still had my original copy, it would have sentimental value, but, alas, it's in a charity shop somewhere. Steven Wilson hopes the album will be a doorway for potential new fans Why release your new compilation Transience on vinyl? It was originally conceived as an idea for Record Store Day, but we missed the boat on that. My record company had suggested I put together some of my shorter, more accessible songs. I got a bit obsessed by the idea to make something like "an introduction to Steven Wilson," and I was committed to it being a vinyl-only release. Anyone who buys the vinyl does also get a high-resolution download.
Do you have a concern that the album won't show your work in a true light?