Ainslie out of medals after row

World Sailing Championships

• Venue: Perth, Australia
• Date: December 3-18
• Coverage: Latest updates on www.perth2011.com; video highlights, interviews and reports on the BBC Sport website

Ainslie had held the overall lead by eight points going into the final race

Triple Olympic champion Ben Ainslie has been disqualified from two Finn races at the World Championships in Australia and can no longer win a medal.

The 34-year-old had been involved in an altercation with officials on a media boat after he felt he was impeded by the wash the boat had created.

He attended a protest hearing and was disqualified from races nine and 10 for "gross misconduct".

"I felt my performance was hindered," Ainslie said in a statement.

"I'm very thankful that everyone involved has taken it how it was - as something which was blown out of proportion in terms of what actually happened."

The disqualifications meant it was the first time in the regatta the veteran had not finished in the top three. He will now finish in 11th and will not feature in the final race on Sunday.

Olympic history

• 2008 - gold (Finn)
• 2004 - gold (Finn)
• 2000 - gold (Laser)
• 1996 - silver (Laser)

Ainslie added: "We've all apologised to each other and are looking forward to moving on.

"I'm very sorry that the jury decided to react the way they did over something which really wasn't as big as it was blown up to be. It's very disappointing that the Championship has been decided this way."

However, Royal Yachting Association Olympic Manager Stephen Park criticised the treatment of Ainslie after his disqualifications were announced.

"Clearly this is a disappointing position for Ben and of course for the team. It's particularly disappointing bearing in mind that all parties that spoke at the hearing all effectively said exactly the same thing.

"Everyone accepted that there was fault on both the side of the television production crew and indeed on Ben's side."

He added: "At the moment the sport seems to be fumbling its way into trying to make the sport more appealing for television but surely there is a better way than trialling new race formats, rule regulations and specifically in this case media initiatives than trialling them at the World Championship which is arguably the most important event in the Olympic cycle outside of the Games themselves."

In September, Ainslie was named in the Great Britain squad for the 2012 Olympics, where he will be aiming to win a fourth gold medal.

Fellow Britons Giles Scott, Ed Wright and Andrew Mills will be among the 10 boats to go in Sunday's concluding medal race.

Scott heads into the final day in pole position and defending world title-holder Ed Wright in third.

Luke Patience and Stuart Bithell are well poised to become Great Britain's first medallists in Fremantle as they head into the 470 men's medal race second overall behind Australian defending champions Mat Belcher and Malcolm Page.

Bryony Shaw is out of contention for a podium sport in the RS:X event, while Alison Young will be Team GBR's representative in the Laser Radial final.

Women's match racing trio Lucy Macgregor, Annie Lush and Kate Macgregor won four of their five repechage matches as they bid to reach the quarter-finals of the event.

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Airport worker fired after refusing to load dog

Brain drain reverses course, flows away from America: http://t.co/C0xesEYQ

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Couple badly injured after bodybuilder attack

Brain drain reverses course, flows away from America: http://t.co/C0xesEYQ

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Lauren Scruggs Tragedy: Parents Speak Out After Model's Propeller Accident

The parents of model and fashion blogger Lauren Scruggs said today that their daughter is responsive and making a slow recovery after she suffered severe injuries from accidentally walking into the propeller of a small plane.

Scruggs, from Plano, Texas, edits an online fashion magazine and had also worked in the wardrobe department of the TV show "Gossip Girl." The 23-year-old suffered horrific injuries including the loss of her hand Saturday night after had just finished riding in a single-engine plane to get an aerial view of Christmas lights with a friend.

The pilot had landed at a private airport north of Dallas when Scruggs exited the plane and walked directly into its propeller. The blades sliced the left side of her face and shoulder and severed her left hand. She is now stable at Parkland Hospital in Dallas.

"Yesterday was a good day, there was a lot of really positive progress," Jeff Scruggs, Lauren's father, said on "Good Morning America" Tuesday. "They took out her tube in the afternoon. She didn't speak right away … I said Lauren will you say 'hi' to Daddy, and she goes, 'hi.' Later she told one of Cheryl's sisters that she loves her. It's so encouraging to us. She's really uncomfortable as you can imagine."

Lauren underwent several surgeries over the weekend and is now in stable condition. The extent of her brain injury is still not known, family spokesperson Janee Harrell told ABCNews.com.

Scruggs, who started a fashion website Lolo, was not drinking at the time of the accident, according to her parents. While it was dark out, investigators aren't sure why Scruggs didn't see the propeller. Her family thinks she may have turned back to thank the pilot when she walked right into it.

"It was a really horrible accident," Jeff Scruggs said on "GMA." "I've been told she got out of the plane afterwards. And I'm guessing she went up to thank the pilot. She would have been grateful for him taking her up to see the Christmas lights around Dallas."

Cheryl Scruggs, Lauren's mother, told "GMA" that she was at the small airport at the time of the accident.

"I was inside, and someone came in and told me she had gotten hit," she said, holding back tears. "I was there until the care flight got there. I was just able to hold her and … that's the toughest part of it all, just seeing her waiting there and waiting for the help. All I could do was tell her that I love her."

ABC News aviation consultant John Nance said incidents such as Scruggs' are extremely rare and underscore the need for pilots to be especially clear in issuing safety directions.

"It sounds like this is a combination of a bad procedure by the pilot and the passenger not properly realizing her proximity," Nance said. "One of the things I'd have to look at is why in the world a pilot permitted a passenger to board or deboard while a propeller was turning."

For her fashion blog, Scruggs has interviewed celebrities and taken her followers behind the scenes of "Gossip Girl." Her family says they believe will only be a matter of time before this young communications major is back doing what she loves.

"They're telling us it's going to be a long recovery," Jeff Scruggs said. "Obviously she's had a lot of trauma to her head, and she lost her left hand and her left eye is questionable. We're praying she'll regain her sight."

"What she'd tell you is her relationship with Jesus Christ is the most important thing in her life. Even though she cannot talk I know she's relying on Jesus right now."

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Karzai flies home after bombings

6 December 2011 Last updated at 13:47 ET

Mr Karzai was in Germany to attend the international conference on his country

Afghan President Hamid Karzai has cancelled a visit to the UK to return to Afghanistan, after Tuesday's deadly attacks in the capital, Kabul, and in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif.

The twin attacks apparently targeting Shia Muslims killed at least 58 people.

A suicide bomb struck a Kabul shrine, killing at least 54, while the other blast struck near a Shia mosque in Mazar-i-Sharif at about the same time.

The attacks seemed to be sectarian, raising fears of new violence.

Mr Karzai was in Germany on Tuesday evening after attending the international conference on his country in Bonn, and was later due to travel to the UK for talks with UK Prime Minister David Cameron on Wednesday.

He said earlier it was "the first time that on such an important religious day in Afghanistan terrorism of that horrible nature is taking place".

The blasts coincided with the Shia Muslim festival of Ashura - the most important day in the Shia calendar which is marked with a public holiday in Afghanistan.

Ashura is the climax of Muharram, the month of mourning for the martyrdom of the Prophet Muhammad's grandson.

Though tensions exist between Afghanistan's Sunni and minority Shia Muslims, most attacks in Afghanistan in recent years have targeted government officials or international forces, correspondents say.

Violence of the type seen in Pakistan or Iraq is rare, the BBC's Quentin Sommerville in Kabul says.

Pakistan boycotted the Bonn conference after a Nato attack killed 24 of its troops at a checkpoint near the Afghan border last month.

Afghan security officials held their breath during the conference, our correspondent says, fearing there might an attack in Kabul to divert attention.

'Unprecedented'

The near-simultaneous explosions happened at about midday (07:30 GMT).

In Kabul, the bomb went off near a gathering of hundreds of Shias singing at the Abu Fazal shrine, killing 54 people and injuring 150.

No-one had claimed to have carried out the attacks, said Mohammad Zahir, head of Kabul's criminal investigation department.

A Taliban statement said the group had not been behind either incident.

Mohammad Bakir Shaikzada, the top Shia cleric in Kabul, said he could not remember a similar attack on such a scale.

Police said they foiled another attack elsewhere in the capital.

The bomb which exploded near the main mosque in Mazar-i-Sharif was apparently strapped to a bicycle, and went off shortly after the Kabul blast.

Four people were killed and 17 injured in that attack.

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Australian gets $100,000 after shampoo found clean

DARWIN, Australia (AP) — Authorities have compensated an Australian man $100,000 after he was wrongly accused of trying to smuggle drugs into the country in bottles of shampoo.

Neil Parry of Darwin spent three days in jail last year after he was arrested at Darwin Airport and accused of trafficking liquid ecstasy. His boat and two friends' houses were searched.

But his two bottles of Pantene Pro-V shampoo and conditioner contained exactly what the labels said.

Australian Customs and Border Protection said in a statement Monday that there were "mistakes made during the presumptive testing of Mr. Parry's goods" and additional procedures have been introduced when conducting drug tests.

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