Topless protesters arrested at Kiev Euro 2012 stadium opening ceremony

Topless women were arrested at the opening ceremony for the Euro 2012 stadium in Kiev after they invaded the pitch as part of a feminist protest.

One woman had to be carried off the pitch by a steward, wearing only a pair of black leggings with two flowers painted over her breasts.

The Ukrainian activists, Femen - who have a history of getting their kit off to promote their causes - believe the tournament will increase sex tourism in their country.






Dressed for impact: A topless Ukrainian feminist is escorted away after her pitch invasion.Final whistle: Stewards carry the blonde protester out of the Olympiyskiy Stadium.Skilful moves: The sex tourism protesters gave stewards at the football stadium the runaround

The demonstrators said in a statement: 'Femen demands that UEFA initiate an explanatory campaign for football fans about the impermissibility of sex tourism and funding the sex industry, and the Ukrainian authorities criminalise the visiting of prostitutes.'

It is believed that four women were arrested after police arrived at the Olympiisky National Sports Complex, which will host some games during next year's tournament.

Their 'Euro without prostitution' protest followed a more modest performance by Colombian pop star Shakira and a whopping 2,000 other artists in front of 60,000 fans.

The group, many of whom are students, have previously stripped in front of Paris Hilton and at the Miss Ukraine beauty contest to show their belief that the beauty industry is a form of prostitution.

Femen also once organised mud wrestling competitions in the capital's main square to protest against what they called the 'dirty' politics of president Viktor Yushchenkos.

Their actions are reminiscent of the controversial feminist 'SlutWalks', in which women dress provocatively for anti-rape demonstrations.

The reconstructed stadium's opening ceremony came as teams from around Europe compete in qualifiers for the competition, which will take place in Ukraine and Poland.

Prostitution in Ukraine is illegal but reports say the country remains one of the main suppliers of prostitutes to Western Europe.

UEFA chief Michel Platini arrived last Monday for an inspection of the 70,000-seat building, and was at yesterday's event alongside the Ukrainian president.

Mr Yanukovich said before the celebrations: 'It's a holiday for the whole of Ukraine.

'The stadium's successful renovation is undoubtedly an exhibition project for Ukraine's image.'

But there was more embarrassment when fireworks set fire to some of the stage props, forcing the evacuation of the two central sectors.

Jodie Marsh credits her bodybuilding career for improving her love life

She stunned fans yesterday when she revealed her new bodybuilding physique.

But now Jodie Marsh has revealed she has her new body to thank for ending her two-year man drought.

The 32-year-old former glamour model insists she feels 'sexier than ever' and says her new career has given her a new lease of life on the man front.

FIFA bribes

Two of football's biggest corporate sponsors have voiced concern over allegations of bribery at Fifa, saying the storm is bad for football.

World Cup sponsor Coca-Cola and German sportswear company Adidas, which have both ploughed millions into the sport, fear the corruption allegations could harm the game.

Last night, Coca-Cola said in a statement: 'The current allegations being raised are distressing and bad for the sport. We have every expectation that Fifa will resolve this situation in an expedient and thorough manner

 Handed back: The cash which fell out of an envelope marked 'Bahamas'

 Fifa: Mohamed Bin Hammam (left) and Jack Warner (right)

Uncontested: Fifa President Sepp Blatter will stand unopposed at tomorrow's election for his role

Meanwhile Adiadas said the negative publicity was 'neither good for football nor Fifa and its partners.'

The concern comes hours after pictures emerged of an envelope full of cash allegedly used to influence Fifa’s presidential election.

Officials from 25 Caribbean associations were said to have each been offered a $40,000 (£24,000) bribe three weeks ago to vote for Mohamed Bin Hammam from Qatar.

At the same time, an email was revealed in which a leading Fifa official hinted that Qatar had ‘bought’ the right to stage the 2022 World Cup.

If the allegations are proven it raises the possibility that the Arab emirate could lose the right to host the competition and there would have to be a ‘re-vote’.

Fifa’s president Sepp Blatter, 75, conceded at a news conference that the organisation’s image had suffered ‘great damage’ but refused to step down and added: ‘We are not in a crisis. We are only in some difficulties which will be solved within our family.’

Blatter will now stand unopposed at the presidential election tomorrow – which critics say should be postponed.

His only challenger, Bin Hammam, withdrew his candidacy hours before he was suspended by Fifa’s ethics committee over the bribery allegations along with another executive committee member, Jack Warner of Trinidad, and two other Caribbean officials.

The pictures of $40,000 in cash were taken by Fred Lunn, vice-president of the Bahamas FA, who attended a special meeting with other members of the Caribbean Football Union on May 10 at the Hyatt Regency Hotel, Trinidad.

According to his affidavit, the 25 football associations had been asked to attend a conference room to pick up a ‘gift’.

He said he was handed a large brown envelope. When he opened it ‘stacks of $100 bills fell out on to the table. I was stunned to see this cash’.

Lunn said he was not authorised to accept such a gift but was urged to do so by a CFU official.

He texted his association’s president Anton Sealey to say that several representatives had accepted the cash.

Sealey called him and said that ‘under no circumstances would the Bahamas FA take such a cash gift’ and he should return it.

Lunn took a picture of the money before he replaced it in the envelope and returned to the conference room to hand it back.

The email which apparently suggested Qatar had bought the World Cup was sent to Jack Warner by Fifa’s secretary-general Jerome Valcke, a Frenchman.

The message, made public by Warner yesterday, alluded to Bin Hammam’s bid for the Fifa presidency and referred to him by his initials.

According to Warner, the email said: ‘For MBH, I never understood why he was running.

‘If really he thought he had a chance or just being an extreme way to express how much he does not like anymore JSB [Joseph Sepp Blatter]. Or he thought you can buy Fifa as they bought the WC [World Cup].

’Valcke confirmed he sent the email to Warner but said he had not meant to suggest ‘unethical’ behaviour.

‘When I refer to the 2022 Fifa World Cup in that email, what I wanted to say is that the winning bid used their financial strength to lobby for support.’

Qatar’s winning bid, announced in December, was hugely controversial. Temperatures there reach 50c (122f) in summer when the tournament will be staged.

The organisers plan to get round this by using solar-powered air conditioning at the stadiums.

They denied that they ‘bought’ the right to stage the tournament and said they were ‘taking legal advice to consider our options’.

At yesterday’s news conference, Sepp Blatter ruled out action against four Fifa executive committee members accused during a British parliamentary hearing this month of corruption relating to England’s bid to host the 2018 World Cup.

Fifa had received a report from Lord Triesman of the FA concerning the allegations against Jack Warner, Ricardo Teixeira of Brazil, Nicolas Leoz of Paraguay and Worawi Makudi of Thailand. But it decided there was no case to answer.

Labour MP Tom Watson suggested that the FA should now try to recoup the costs of its failed bid, while Tory MP Therese Coffey called for tomorrow’s Fifa presidential election to be suspended while corruption claims are investigated.

The reek of bribery swirling around Fifa’s Zurich HQ was condemned yesterday by two of international football’s biggest sponsors.

Ominously for Blatter and his supporters, Coca-Cola and Adidas warned that the allegations were damaging the sport ‘and its partners’.

Camilla mistaken for Princess Diana by Commonwealth Games chief in embarrassing gaffe

The head of the Delhi Commonwealth Games made a massive blunder in front of Prince Charles after saying he was being accompanied to India by Princess Diana.

Suresh Kalmadi, chairman of the organising committee, managed to confuse Diana - who died in a car crash in 1997 - with Camilla.

He thanked the late princess for attending Sunday's opening ceremony when he was quizzed about the empty venues and queues for tickets that have blighted the first days of the games.

Gaffe: The chairman of the Commonwealth Games organising committee in Delhi mistook Camilla for Princess Diana, who died in a car crash in 1997

Mr Kalmadi, who was booed at the opening ceremony because of the shambolic preparations, told a press conference: 'Yes, Princess Diana was there.'

He then corrected himself and added: 'Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall.

'Now they have gone off and they appreciated all the efforts made here.'

Clarence House has not issued a comment.

And yesterday, Prince Charles was pictured surrounded by empty chairs as he sat in the sparsely filled swimming complex, which had been specially renovated for the games.

There were similar problems with other arenas, with athletes forced to compete in front of dozens rather than thousands of spectators.

One diplomatic source said: 'India fought hard to get the games here for the first time.

'It has been such a shambles, the Indians have voted with their feet and are keeping away.'

The Prince and Camilla are on a five-day trip to India.

After opening the games, Charles is promoting British business and discussing plans to tackle climate change.

Today he and the duchess were visiting an air force base in Jodhpur before meeting the Maharaja and Maharani of Jodhpur.

Charles treated the villagers in Tolasar as he danced a jig in his silver suit and spun his little Indian umbrella.

Where is everyone? Prince Charles during the women's 200m individual medley at the aquatics complex in Delhi

Feeling the strain: Suresh Kalmadi covers his eyes during questions from journalists. The games have been plagued by construction problems and empty stadiums

Visit: Prince Charles does a rain dance with villagers in Tolasar during his five-day trip to India

Charles' visit was intended in part to understand the water conservation efforts in the village, near Jodhpur

Error: Mr Kalmadi quickly corrected his error as he was asked about the empty stadiums

A tale of two games exposes China-India gulf

The emerging Asian giants of China and India may be locked in a battle for economic supremacy, but on the sporting front at least, China has sprinted well ahead of its southern rival.

In an illustration of some of their relative strengths and weaknesses in tackling complex infrastructure and policy-making challenges for big events, China’s slick preparations for the Asian Games in Guangzhou have contrasted sharply with India’s chaotic Commonwealth Games preparations in New Delhi.

Children of labourers play on a roadside in front of a poster promoting the Commonwealth Games in New Delhi September 27, 2010.






Some of the problems plaguing India’s Games, such as poor governance and shoddy infrastructure, carry poignant lessons as the country strives to prove itself against an aggressive, entrepreneurial and powerful competitor to the north.

While India was racing to finish venues, scrub clean an athletes’ village and restore battered public confidence in the four-yearly Commonwealth Games, the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou was finishing preparations for the Asian Games, second in size to the Olympics, with 50 days to go.

“We’ve made comprehensive preparations,” said an organiser, Hua Shan, during a tour of the Asian Games Town sprinkled with lakes, apartments for athletes and stadia built in about two years.

“We’ve seen the reports from India and are confident we’ll do much better,” she added. “Our government is fully behind this and we’ve had experience of putting on these big events before.”

Over the past nine years, China has hosted at least six major sporting events including the 2008 summer Olympics and two East Asian Games, leading some liberal commentators to dub China’s president Hu Jintao a national pride-seeking “sports fanatic”.

“Sport is the new arena for asserting China’s soft power,” said Jean-Pierre Cabestan, a Hong Kong-based political scientist.

Besides China’s urban infrastructure and deep budgets to bankroll such spectacles, inter-regional rivalries have also played a role in ensuring smooth and safe implementation.

“(Guangzhou) is clearly the third city in China after Beijing and Shanghai and they want to have their share of the cake and their share of fame, both domestically and on the international stage,” added Cabestan, of Hong Kong’s Baptist University.

SOCIAL PRICE

For India, meanwhile, images of a collapsed footbridge by a main stadium and other shoddy construction have thrown the spotlight on its infrastructure problems. While now Asia’s third largest economy, for competitiveness, India is ranked just 51st overall globally by the World Economic Forum.

“India has a deficit and public debt has increased. It’s a little bit difficult to mobilise resources and focus on infrastructure and it’s more decentralised so I think there are some striking differences (with China),” said Jong-Wha Lee, chief economist of the Asian Development Bank.

Besides logistics problems, India’s Games have been marred by security worries, including a suspected militant attack on tourists and the possibility of religious violence flaring. China’s showcase events, however, have come at a social cost in many cases including mass evictions, media censorship and the silencing of dissidents as seen for the 2008 Beijing Olympics and the Shanghai Expo.

In Guangzhou, hundreds of villagers in older urban areas have clashed with riot police as bulldozers razed homes in a blitz of development ahead of the Games, fuelled in part by soaring real estate prices.

Many villagers voiced anger at perceived official corruption and collusion with developers with billions ploughed into public works and as the pressure to force evictions with minimal compensation grows.

“The Asian Games have led to a tightening of freedoms,” said Zhu Jianguo, a political commentator in nearby Shenzhen.

“That’s the main aim of these games, to demonstrate the country’s prosperity and the legitimacy of the ruling party. It also brings power and opportunities for corruption.”

Now a SECOND deadly snake hits Commonwealth Games: Cobra captured at tennis stadium

This is the deadly cobra snake workers discovered slithering down a drain in Dehli's new tennis stadium just days before the Commonwealth Games are due to start.

The 4ft-long reptile was captured by an expert from animal rescue organisation Wildlife SOS as workers rushed to complete preparations for Sunday's opening ceremony.

It is the second snake to be discovered near Games' facilities after one was found in a South African athlete's room yesterday.

A wildlife activist displays a 4ft-long cobra that was found at the Commonwealth Games tennis stadium in New Delhi today

The swelled banks of the Yamuna river in New Delhi, caused by the monsoon rains, are believed to have driven the snakes towards the athletes' village and the Games venues

And in another embarrassment for organisers, an Indian boxer fell through his bed in the athletes village.

But Delhi's chief minister today said put a gloss on progress and insisted she was confident they would complete the job.

Members of the English team who had been forced to check themselves into a hotel because preparations were so far behind schedule, moved into the games village.

'The facilities are fine, and right now they are enjoying their lunch,' said a spokeswoman.

India has faced harsh criticism for the state of the athletes' village - including complaints about filthy conditions - infrastructure problems and even a snake found in the room of a South African competitor over the weekend.

The games village was supposed to be ready last week, but many teams have delayed moving in because cleaning and repair work have not been finished.

Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, who took charge of the work last week, has been seen travelling around the village in a golf cart in recent days to personally inspect the work.

'We inherited a very difficult situation, but it's improving almost by the hour,' she said. 'We are racing against time, no doubt about it, but we will perform.'

Some of the buildings had leaks in them, there was still water in some basements and some elevators were not yet working, she said.

Team officials and athletes said conditions in the village had improved dramatically.

'A lot of work has taken place over the last few days. I am relatively satisfied,' said Mike Summers, head of the Falkland Islands delegation.

His 15-member team will arrive in the city and move in to the village tomorrow, he said.

Juliet Acon, a Ugandan official, said her delegation had been forced to live in hotels for a few days until their rooms were ready on Saturday.

'So far, so good,' she said.

Alistair Whittingham, an archer from Scotland, said conditions were better than he had expected.

'I have stayed in much, much worse accommodation during tournaments elsewhere in the world,' he said.

The games bring together nearly 7,000 athletes and officials from 71 countries and territories.

They were meant to help cement India's reputation as a growing regional power. Instead, its image has been battered by negative publicity about its frantic last-minute efforts to get ready for an event it knew it was hosting seven years ago.

The collapse of a pedestrian bridge leading to the main stadium and the recent shooting of two tourists outside one of New Delhi's top attractions added to organisers' woes.

Montek Singh Ahluwalia, one of India's key economic policymakers, brushed off concerns that the bad publicity could scare off potential investors in India.

'If you are talking about investors, people who are planning to invest significant sums of money in India, (they will do so) based on overall assessment of the economy and the economic policy and so on,' he said.

'I don't think this will become an opportunity for people ... to reverse their opinion of how the Indian economy is performing.'

Nevertheless, the bad publicity has continued, with Australian cyclist Travis Meyer and table tennis player Stephanie Sang announcing yesterday they would pull out of the competition - following a string of other athletes who have decided to stay away, either because of health and security concerns or injuries.

Workers make final preparations at the Main Press Centre ahead of the Delhi 2010 Commonwealth Games

High spirits: Members of the Scotland team arrive at the Indira Gandhi International Stadium ahead of the Commonwealth Game

Langur monkeys sit on the bicycles of their handlers in front of the Commonwealth Games HQ. Langurs are used in parts of New Delhi to scare away other monkeys who create a menace around the venues