NEWS FROM AROUND THE WORLD

WORLD/ 2012 OLYMPIC STADIUM "WRAP" TO GO AHEAD: A giant fabric "wrap" covering the outside of the London 2012 Olympic Stadium is to go ahead after being dropped from the plans last year. Public funding for the £7m curtain had been removed as part of the government's Comprehensive Spending Review. The Games organizers are now inviting the private sector to supply the covering. However, Olympic guidelines prohibit branding in venues so there will be no sponsor logos on the wrap during the Games. The 900m long covering is designed to display moving images and to minimise crosswinds inside the stadium.

WORLD/ BAHRAIN TARGETS GAYS WITH ARRESTS: Up to 130 gay men were reportedly arrested last week at a private party in Bahrain. Reports said that the event, at a sports club in Hidd, was a gay wedding and guests were said to have been spotted in make-up and women’s clothes. Police raided the party after a complaint. The men, mostly from Bahrain and Gulf countries, were arrested on the charge of “conduct against public morals”. Police are said to be checking whether any have been arrested for similar offences in the past. Homosexuality and cross-dressing are illegal in Bahrain. Gay sex carries a punishment of up to 10 years in prison, although this is not usually enforced.

WORLD/ SURGE IN EGYPT PROTESTS: Hundreds of thousands of Egyptians have poured into Cairo's Tahrir Square for the latest protest calling for Hosni Mubarak's government to step down. This is reportedly the biggest demonstration since the protests began on January 25. It comes despite the government's announcement of its plans for a peaceful transfer of power when Mubarak steps down. Mubarak has previously said he will stay until elections in September. The crowds began to surge after Mubarek's government announced a series of concessions today. Protesters said that was not enough and want him to step down immediately.

WORLD/ CHECHEN WARLORD ADMITS DOMODEDOVO BOMBING: One of Russia's most wanted men, Chechen warlord Doku Umarov, has said he ordered the deadly bomb attack last month on a Moscow Airport. The suicide attack on the arrivals area of Domodedovo international airport on January 24 left 36 people dead and 180 injured. In a video posted online, Umarov said the attack was a response to "Russian crimes in the Caucasus". Similar suicide attacks would continue, he added, speaking in Russian.

WORLD/ J. PAUL GETTY III DIES AT 54: J. Paul Getty III, a scion of the Getty oil dynasty whose tragedies, mutilation by kidnappers in the early 1970s and an incapacitating, drug-induced stroke in the 1980s, beset his famously wealthy family, has died in Buckinghamshire, England. He was 54. Getty died Saturday after a long illness, according to a statement from his actor-son, Balthazar. Left nearly blind and a quadriplegic after the stroke, Getty was known to the public largely for his misfortunes. A father of 2 and grandfather of 6, he "taught us how to live our lives and overcome obstacles and extreme adversity and we shall miss him dearly," his son said. Getty was the grandson of American oil magnate J. Paul Getty, whose fortune built the J. Paul Getty Museum. A notorious miser who installed a pay phone in his mansion, the elder Getty headed a family that seemed plagued by illnesses, addictions and other disasters. The most sensational event in the family's history was the young Getty's 1973 kidnapping from a Rome piazza when he was 16. Several days after his disappearance, his kidnappers notified a local newspaper that he was being held by the Mafia. His grandfather and father at first believed the kidnapping to be a hoax and refused to pay any of the $3m ransom until incontrovertible evidence was provided: young Getty's severed right ear and photos showing him shorn of the body part. Soon after, the kidnappers provided photographs of Getty minus the ear and wrote that if their demands were ignored they would return the boy "piece by piece." His billionaire grandfather yielded to the demands a short time later. Getty was freed, pictured above, in a small town south of Naples on December 15, 1973, which happened to be his grandfather's 81st birthday. According to some reports, he tried to call his grandfather to thank him for obtaining his release, but the elder Getty refused to come to the phone.

US/ MAN STABBED TO DEATH BY COCKFIGHTING BIRD: A man attending an illegal cockfight in California died after being stabbed in the leg by one of the birds. The cock had a knife attached to its limb to take part in the gambling fight in Tulare County, California. The 35 year old man was declared dead in hospital where he arrived some 2 hours after being injured. The coroner's report said he had suffered an accidental "sharp force injury" to his right calf. The man was reportedly a regular participant in organized cockfights, had already been fined for owning or training an animal for fighting, according to court records.