In brief: Casino arson attack kills 53

Two dozen gunmen burst into a casino, doused it with gasoline and started a fire that trapped gamblers inside, killing 53 people and injuring a dozen more in northern Mexico.

A drug cartel was apparently responsible for yesterday's tragedy at the Casino Royale in Monterrey.

It was one one of the deadliest attacks on an entertainment centre in Mexico since President Felipe Calderon launched an offensive against drug cartels in late 2006.

Calderon tweeted that the attack was "an abhorrent act of terror and barbarism".

Comic Patrick

in TV victory

A budding stand-up comedian was launched into the spotlight after winning a television competition.

Patrick Monahan, who describes himself as the only stand-up of Irish-Iranian descent, won the audience vote after competing against two other finalists in ITV1's Show Me The Funny at the Hammersmith Apollo in London.

He said he was "genuinely shocked" by his victory.

He has won £100,000, a nationwide tour and will have a DVD released.

Plea as shavers waste water

A third of women leave the shower running while shaving their legs, wasting millions of litres of water a year.

One in four people also leaves the tap running while brushing their teeth, a new study of 1,800 people found.

The research, by Thames Water in the UK, has led to renewed calls for people to use water more wisely

More than 90pc of people questioned said they would feel guilty about wasting water.

River is found

under Amazon

A huge underground river appears to be flowing 13,000ft beneath the Amazon River, Brazilian scientists said.

National Observatory Researchers found indications the subterranean river is 3,700 miles long, about the same length as the Amazon on the surface.

The discovery came from studying temperature variations at 241 inactive oil wells drilled in the 1970s and 1980s by Brazil's state-run oil company, Petrobras.