Manchester United's Wayne Rooney and Chelsea's Didier Drogba are just two of more than 40 players and managers of soccer's English Premier League to have drawn self-portraits for a charity auction.
The portraits - mostly stick-men - might suggest more time spent in front of the locker room chalkboard than considering fine art at the Royal Academy, but the felt-tip pen drawings are considered rare pieces of football memorabilia, according to a statement from the Premier League.
The portraits will be offered in a leather-bound book entitled The Art of Football that will be auctioned in aid of the British music charity Nordoff Robbins tomorrow. (Reuters)
Cameron told to let wife put her feet up
David Cameron was told to let pregnant wife Samantha "put her feet up" yesterday when he visited a maternity unit on the campaign trail.
The Tory leader asked midwives at Kingston Hospital in southwest London what was the best advice for his wife - who he is deploying as a 'secret weapon' for the general election.
"Put her feet up and make you do all the work," he was told by Mariama Goodman - prompting him to joke the cameras should have been off for that comment.
Mr Cameron also swapped baby tales with a couple whose first child had been born less than five hours before.
He told Caroline and John-Jo O'Driscoll their as yet unnamed daughter was "really sweet" and hinted he might prefer another girl this time.
"They are much easier," he whispered to the couple. (PA)
Missing US coal miners found dead
Four missing West Virginia coal miners were found dead early yesterday, nearly five days after an explosion killed 25 others in the worst US mining disaster in nearly four decades.
The bodies were found in an area of the Massey Energy mine briefly searched after the blast on Monday but were missed by rescuers amid heavy smoke, Kevin Stricklin of the US Mine Safety and Health Administration told reporters.
Rescue teams found the miners on their fourth attempt after earlier efforts were thwarted by thick smoke, fire and an explosive build-up of methane, carbon monoxide and hydrogen.
Rescuers had hoped the miners made it to a refuge chamber stocked with food, water and oxygen at the Upper Big Branch mine, 30 miles south of the state capital Charleston.
With a death toll of 29, the West Virginia disaster is the deadliest US mine accident in nearly 40 years. (Reuters)
Pakistan troops kill 54 militants
Pakistani troops killed 54 suspected insurgents in overnight air strikes on a strategic northwest checkpoint, an official said.
The bloodshed underscored the intensity of an army offensive aimed at mopping up Pakistani Taliban fighters in Orakzai.
The area is a part of Pakistan's tribal belt near the Afghan border where many insurgents are believed to have fled to avoid a military operation further south.
The US has endorsed Pakistan's efforts to eliminate militants using its tribal areas to wage attacks against Islamabad as well as Western troops across the border in Afghanistan.
The latest strikes followed the killing of 18 suspected militants in the Baizoti town area on Friday, local official Samiullah Khan said.
Pakistan began the operation in Orakzai in mid-March and so far about 350 militants have been killed. (PA)
Brazil landslides death toll reaches 184
The death toll from floods and landslides around the Rio de Janeiro area has reached 184 and was expected to rise as searchers continued looking for bodies yesterday.
Morning rain threatened to set off new slides even as emergency crews used excavating equipment to search for victims at the most devastated site - a slum built on a rubbish dump that was buried by a landslide.
Crews have pulled 17 bodies from the debris so far at the site in Niteroi, next to Rio.
Authorities fear the death toll from the Niteroi slide alone could be as many as 200, though it is not clear exactly how many people were buried beneath the mud.
The latest confirmed death toll of 184 was released by the fire department. A statement from firefighters added that 161 people have been injured. (PA)