PICHA: ELIZABETH MICHAEL "LULU" AKIWA MAHAKAMANI SIKU YA JUMATATU

Shocks were at a premium as 2014 World Cup qualifying kicked off in Europe Friday but Portugal were given a fright before beating minnows Luxembourg 2-1 in their opener in Group F.

It needed a Cristiano Ronaldo equalizer in the first half to cancel out Daniel Da Mota's 14th minute opener for the hosts.

Helder Postiga hit the winner just before the hour mark as they kept pace with Russia, who earlier beat Northern Ireland 2-0 in Moscow.

Of the big guns, England were the most comprehensive winners, beating Moldova 5-0 in Chisinau with Frank Lampard scoring a first half double and Jermain Defoe adding the other.

James Milner and Leighton Baines were on target after the break as Roy Hodgson's team took an early advantage in Group H with Montenegro and Poland sharing four goals in the other match in the qualifying section.

Germany were made to work hard by the Faroe Islands whose goalkeeper Gunnar Nielsen made a series of fine saves.

The home side only led 1-0 at halftime in Hannover, but a second half double from Real Madrid star Mesut Ozil gave them a more comfortable 3-0 advantage by the final whistle.

Republic of Ireland were the other winners on the night in Group C as two late goals from Robbie Keane, with a penalty, and Kevin Doyle gave them a fortunate 2-1 win in Kazakhstan.

Euro 2012 runners-up Italy were grateful for a 2-2 draw in Bulgaria in Group, falling behind to a long range strike from Stanislav Manolev.

Italy hit back in the Vasil Levski Stadium in Sofia with a pair of goals from their Argentine-born striker Pablo Osvaldo.

But Gerogi Milanov finished off a fine move to give the home side a deserved point.

France made a winning start in the tough looking Group I which also features reigning World and European champions Spain, who sat out the opening round of fixtures.

Didier Deschamps' new charges emerged 1-0 winners in Finland with Abou Diaby first half strike proving the difference.

New Tottenham goalkeeper Hugo Lloris made a fine late save to keep out the hosts.

The Netherlands had Manchester United's Robin van Persie on target as they beat Turkey 2-0 in a heavyweight clash to start Group D.

Group A favorites Belgium, packed with big money English Premier League signings, made a solid start to their campaign with a 2-0 win over Wales, who had James Collins sent off in the first half.

Manchester City captain Vincent Kompany headed them in front before the break with Tottenham's Jan Vertonghen sealing the three points in Cardiff.

Bosnia-Herzegovina secured the biggest win of the night in Liechtenstein as Vedad Ibisevic and Edin Dzeko scored hat-tricks in an 8-1 romp.

Atlanta

The former stepson of singer Usher Raymond has died after more than two weeks in the hospital following a boating accident on a Georgia lake, sources close to the family said Saturday.

Kile Glover, 11, was riding with a 15-year-old girl on an inner tube that was being pulled by a pontoon boat in Lake Lanier July 6 when a personal watercraft crashed into the children, according to an accident report from the Georgia Department of Natural Resources (DNR).

Kile suffered a serious head injury and was flown by helicopter to Children's Healthcare at Egleston in Atlanta.

He died of heart failure Saturday, the sources said, disputing other reports that the child was taken off life support.

Jeffrey Hubbard, a 38-year-old Atlanta man, was driving the personal watercraft, the investigation report said. Investigators concluded that alcohol was not involved in the incident.

CNN Atlanta affiliate WSB, citing the DNR, reported that Hubbard and the children were part of the same group on a lake outing.

The boy's mother, Tameka Raymond, was married to Usher for two years. They have two children together, ages 3 and 4. They divorced in 2009.

Kile's father is Ryan Glover, the president of Bounce TV, a fledgling television network targeting African-American audiences. He is also a former executive with Turner Broadcasting, the parent company of CNN.

Bollywood's "first superstar" Rajesh Khanna has died at the age of 69, his family has said.

The actor had been in and out of hospital in recent weeks. The cause of his health problems was unclear.

Khanna made his name playing the romantic lead in a string of films which were massive hits in the 1960s and 1970s.

The actor starred in more than 160 films, including hits such as Kati Patang, Aaradhana, Anand and Amar Prem.

He had a huge following and was mobbed by fans whenever he appeared in public.

Khanna died at his family home in Mumbai on Wednesday, the Press Trust of India reported. He had been discharged from a hospital in the city on Monday.

Scores of fans gathered outside Aashirwad, his home on Carter Road in Mumbai's Bandra area, following the news of his death, the agency said.

"He has gone to a very nice and heavenly place. We are very happy that he had gone there," his actor son-in-law Akshay Kumar told reporters.

"I hope everybody there, whoever is watching him, can just say a little prayer for him," he said.

Meanwhile, tributes have been pouring in for the superstar on the micro-blogging site, Twitter, where fans have been remembering his best dialogues and songs from his hit films.

PM Manmohan Singh led the tributes with his tweet: "I convey my heartfelt condolences to the members of the bereaved family and countless fans and admirers of Rajesh Khanna."

Wrote actor Anupam Kher: "Rajesh Khanna gave us a crash course in Romance. He introduced us to a special twinkle in the eye that made us feel good about ourselves."

Director Karan Johar tweeted: "The magic... the mannerism... the mania of RAJESH KHANNA is inscribed in every archive of Indian cinema... Forever.... RIP SIR!!!"

Filmmaker Mahesh Bhat wrote: "When we lose a loved one, something within us dies. Our generation loved Rajesh Khanna. Today a bit of us dies with this enigmatic star."

Actress Shabana Azmi tweeted: "He was the SUPERSTAR like no other. Did 10 films with him. Met him last at Apsara awards. Pale shadow of himself but smile as winsome."

Popularly called "Kaka" by his fans, the actor won a host of industry awards during his long career, although he was only recently seen in his first television commercial.

During the peak of his popularity, there were reports of his female fans marrying his photographs.

The head of private security giant G4S has agreed under questioning by British lawmakers that the firm's failure to provide enough security guards for the Olympics was "a humiliating shambles".

Nick Buckles, chief executive of G4S, said on Tuesday he expected the company would eventually be able to supply 7,000 of the 10,000 staff it had promised. An extra 3,500 troops have already been drafted in by the British government to plug the gap.

But he insisted that he would not resign over the scandal and said that G4S, one of the world's biggest security firms, would still claim its $88m management fee for the Olympics contract.

Asked by one member of parliament's Home Affairs Select Committee whether it was a "humiliating shambles" for G4S, with the Olympics just 10 days away, Buckles replied "I cannot disagree with you".

He also admitted that the firm had taken on the Olympics contract to boost its reputation rather than for profit, but agreed when the committee suggested that reputation was now "in tatters".

Amid mounting pressure for him to quit his job, Buckles insisted he was the best person to see the contract through.

The staffing shortfall only came to his attention on July 3, Buckles said, adding: "Day by day we started to realise that the pipeline and the people we thought we were going to be able to deliver we couldn't."

He said G4S only raised it with the government on July 11 when it was sure it would not be able to fulfil the contract.

'Manpower shortage'

"We have a significant manpower shortage against the plan. Clearly that shortage is going to manifest itself from this day forward until the Games," he said.

Buckles said G4S currently had 4,200 people working and that the "minimum we can deliver" by the start of the Games on July 27 was 7,000. But when asked whether he could guarantee they would all turn up he said "I can't, no".

G4S shares slid 1.85 per cent in early morning trade on Tuesday, after suffering heavy falls on Monday.

It emerged Monday that in addition to the military support at least eight police forces have had to deploy extra officers at Olympic venues across Britain - reportedly after employees of G4S failed to turn up to work.

The company, which is set to lose up to $78m for failing to meet the obligations of its $443m Olympics contract, has insisted that extra police should only be needed for a few days.

Britain's interior minister Theresa May denied on Monday that ministers knew last year that there would be a shortfall.
The extra troops pledged by the government last week brings to 17,000 the total number of military personnel lined up for Games security.

The government came under further pressure Tuesday as a report said that the Border Agency, which has been under fire in recent weeks over hours-long immigration queues at London's Heathrow airport, has cut too many employees.

Over 1,000 staff more than initially planned have lost their jobs in the last year and the country's border agency has now been forced to hire extra people to deal with the workload, the UK national audit office said.

The first athletes and Games visitors began arriving at Heathrow on Monday and the Olympic Village opened in Stratford, east London.

Meanwhile, nearly half of the British population believe their country is inadequately prepared for the Olympics while many have concerns over security at the Games, a poll suggested.

Of the 2,000 people questioned, 45 per cent said they felt that Britain seemed poorly prepared for the Olympics while almost 40 per cent said the fact that the government had been forced to provide extra troops made them more concerned about spectator safety.

London's mayor Boris Johnson admitted on Tuesday that there would be "imperfections and things going wrong" in the coming weeks, adding that it was a "ginormous" task to stage the Games.

Singer George Michael has revealed he has a five-week gap in his memory from when he was battling pneumonia late last year.

The star told BBC Radio 2's Chris Evans that it was "touch and go" whether he would survive his time in hospital.

Michael said he had to learn to walk after the illness, which left him fighting for his life, as his muscles had wasted away.

The 48-year-old said: "It's like I just dodged a bullet."

Michael was forced to cancel a string of shows while he was treated in the Austrian capital Vienna, where he said medics "downplayed" his condition to avoid a "death watch kind of thing".

The true extent of his illness did not become public until after his release from hospital.

The singer admitted the severity of his condition could have been avoided if he had followed advice to get checked out, when a temperature forced him to pull out of a show at the Royal Albert Hall a few weeks earlier.

"I took it for granted that I'd just fought off flu," the former Wham star told Evans.

"I went and played for another three weeks in Europe. And then one afternoon I was having lunch and suddenly felt really odd and said to everyone that I had to go and lay down for half an hour on my own," he added.

"And that's the last thing I remember for five weeks. It was three weeks of them trying to save my life and two weeks awake."

The star has written new single White Light about his near death experiences.

Kate Moss features in the video, more than 20 years after missing out on starring in his supermodel-filled promo for his single Freedom.

Michael told Evans in an interview for his breakfast show that he was "very close" to death on several occasions, and still found it upsetting to talk about.

"When something like that happens in such a random fashion, I think it takes a while to think that life is safe again."

He continued: "I literally had to learn to walk again and weird stuff, because when they keep you sedated for that long your muscles literally atrophy at an incredible rate. And I just woke up like this feeble old man."

In March this year Michael announced rescheduled dates for The Symphonica tour, starting on 4 September with a newly-added date in Vienna.

He said he would donate 1,000 tickets to the medical staff in the city who had looked after him.

Michael also confirmed to Evans that he is scheduled to perform at the Olympics closing ceremony in August.

"That's the plan yes," he said. "I'll be playing a couple of songs to kick off the concert at the end."