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The defence lawyer for Michael Jackson's personal doctor has told a court in Los Angeles that the singer caused his own death. Jackson's doctor Conrad Murray denies involuntary manslaughter. His lawyer Ed Chernoff said that when Doctor Murray was not present, the pop star took a cocktail 1 of sedatives 2 which killed him instantly.

"The science in this case, the pure science, the evidence in this case we believe is going to show you this: despite everything that had gone on in the past, despite anything that had gone on during that day, during the 10 hours on 25 June 2009, while Michael Jackson was frustrated 3 because he could not sleep, frustrated because his doctor refused to give him a drug that he preferred, that he wanted, he did an act without his doctor's knowledge, without his doctor's permission, against his orders; he did an act that caused his own death."

A row between Fifa, the governing body of world football, and Brazil over arrangements for the World Cup in 2014 appears to have worsened. The Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff has asked to meet the head of Fifa, Sepp Blatter, for what she calls a "frank conversation". Here's Alex Capstick.

Fifa has repeatedly warned the Brazilian organisers of the 2014 World Cup about delays to work on the stadiums and infrastructure 4 surrounding the tournament. It now seems those concerns extend to Fifa's legal demands on the host nation.

Football's world governing body expects total control of all aspects of the event, but the Brazilian government is reluctant to accept all the conditions.

Stock markets across the world have risen sharply as hopes increase about a new plan to deal with the eurozone debt crisis.

Frankfurt and Paris were up 5%; shares in New York have also risen. There's speculation 5 that the European bailout fund will be greatly expanded with the help of the European Central Bank. Andrew Walker has this report.

If there is going to be a comprehensive plan to tackle the eurozone crisis, it's likely to include more resources to help cash-strapped  governments. A senior official from the European Central Bank said there are discussions on how to make the existing bailout facility more effective. There have been suggestions that the ECB might be used for that, so his remarks were well received in the markets. No deal has been done, however, so the gains in share prices could easily vanish if there's no firm evidence of progress soon.

German and Greek leaders meeting in Germany have insisted they have a grip on the debt crisis. The Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou told German business leaders that Greece would live up to its promise to cut debt.

BBC News

A court in Saudi Arabia has sentenced a woman to be flogged for breaking the country's ban on female drivers. The woman, Sheima Jastaniah, was found guilty of driving in the city of Jeddah and now faces 10 strokes of the lash 6. A campaign group for women drivers in Saudi Arabia says the woman has lodged 7 an appeal. The human rights organisation 8 Amnesty International condemned 9 the sentence, describing flogging as a cruel punishment.

Syrian opposition 10 activists 11 say there have been clashes in the central city of al-Rastan after the army began an operation against protesters and defectors. Owen Bennett-Jones reports.

There's been a strong opposition presence in al-Rastan for weeks, and activists say that each Friday tens of thousands of people from the city have been out on the streets, demanding the downfall of the government. A resident of the city has told the BBC that defected soldiers are now in al-Rastan fighting the government forces. There are growing signs that some activists now believe peaceful protests will not be enough to bring down the government and that they need to use more force. Army defectors have the training and equipment to do just that.

The United States has described as counterproductive a decision by the Israeli authorities to approve the building of 1,100 homes in occupied East Jerusalem. A US State Department spokeswoman said the decision was deeply disappointing and hindered efforts to resume direct negotiations 12 between the Israelis and the Palestinians.

At least three protesters have been killed in Guinea when security forces broke up an opposition demonstration 13 in the capital. Dozens of police vehicles and paramilitary forces prevented opposition activists from reaching a stadium. The clash took place in the run-up to parliamentary elections due to be held in December. The opposition is accusing President Conde of tampering 14 with the electoral roll to win a majority.