Sarah Guyard-Guillot was pronounced dead late Saturday night at a hospital after falling about 50 feet from the show's stage.

Witnesses told the Las Vegas Sun (http://bit.ly/14H3Te0 ) that the accident occurred near the end of the production Saturday night at the MGM Grand.

Visitor Dan Mosqueda of Colorado Springs, Colo., said the 31-year-old acrobatic performer was being hoisted up the side of the stage when it appeared that she slipped free of her safety wire and plummeted to an open pit below the stage.

"Initially, a lot of people in the audience thought it was part of the (show)," he told the Sun. "But you could hear screaming, then groaning, and we could hear a female artist crying from the stage."

The show momentarily continued, then stopped. Minutes after the accident, a recorded announcement informed audience members that refunds or vouchers to future shows would be offered, and the crowd was dismissed.

Cirque du Soleil founder Guy Laliberte issued a statement Sunday praising Guyard-Guillot and saying performances of "Ka" have been canceled until further notice.

Guyard-Guillot, a mother of two children, had been with the original cast of "Ka" since 2006, and had been an acrobatic performer for over 20 years.

"I am heartbroken. I wish to extend my sincerest sympathies to the family. We are all completely devastated," Laliberte said. "We are reminded with great humility and respect how extraordinary our artists are each and every night. Our focus now is to support each other as a family."

Cirque officials are working with authorities investigating the accident and have offered their full cooperation, he added.

The Clark County Coroner's Office will rule on the cause of death.

The MGM Grand also issued a statement concerning the accident.

"Our company is deeply saddened by the loss of one of the talented KA artists Saturday night," it reads. "The thoughts and prayers of our employees are with the performer's family, the cast of KA, and the entire Cirque family during this difficult time."

The accident occurred while Cirque's top executives, including president Daniel Lamarre, were in Las Vegas to celebrate the premiere of "Michael Jackson One" at Mandalay Bay.

On Wednesday night, a performer in a preview performance of that show suffered a mild concussion after missing the protective pad below an act and landing on the stage. That artist is expected to return to the show.

___

Information from: Las Vegas Sun, http://www.lasvegassun.com

"Our national interest will be served only if this project does not significantly exacerbate the problem of carbon pollution," he said in a speech on energy policy at Georgetown University. "The net effects of the pipeline's impact on our climate will be absolutely critical to determining whether this project is allowed to go forward."

The Keystone XL pipeline would carry oil from Canada to refineries in Texas.

(Reporting by Mark Felsenthal; editing by Jackie Frank)

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - Discovery's annual "Shark Week" begins Sunday, August 4 and boasts its most new premiere hours this summer over its 26 year run.

This year, the cable network adds a late night show to the mix: "Shark After Dark." The show will air each evening of "Shark Week" with highlights from the days' programming and guests, including shark experts and shark attack survivors.

A highly watched event for Discovery, last year brought in 21.4 million viewers for the week and made it the No. 1 non-scripted cable network among the advertiser-coveted Adults 18-49 demographic.

Here's a rundown of this summer's new "Shark Week" episodes:

"Sharkpocalypse": Following a year of shark encounters closely followed by the media, the program examines the trend of sharks moving in closer to shorelines, and debates whether there is a connection between declining shark populations and the increase in shark attacks.

"Return of Jaws": Shark Cam is a robot submarine that is used to track sharks in a new and exciting way. Return of Jaws includes spectacular footage of Shark Cam following Great White Sharks living and hunting off the shores of Cape Cod. Footage of a 17-foot Great White is seen at close range over a five hour period as the shark hunts seal colonies, comes close to shore in less than four feet of water, and takes a chilling interest in one specific area.

"In Megalodon: The Monster Shark Lives (WT)": Discovery brings SHARK WEEK viewers on a search for a massive killer great white shark responsible for a rash of fatalities off the coast of South Africa. One controversial scientist believes that the shark responsible could be Megalodon, a 60-foot relative of the great white that is one of the largest and most powerful predators in history. Our oceans remain 95% unexplored, and this massive prehistoric predator has always been shrouded in secrecy, but after a rash of newly discovered evidence, authorities are forced to investigate whether this predator, long thought to be extinct, could still be lurking in our deepest oceans.

"I Escaped Jaws": Program features yet another SHARK WEEK first as we utilize for the first time real shark attack footage captured by eyewitnesses. Viewers experience harrowing first-hand accounts from everyday people who stared into the jaws of a shark and survived. Some used their wits; some relied on experience, and all lived to share their chilling stories.

"Voodoo Sharks": A lesser-known shark "hot spot" is explored in Voodoo Sharks, where Bull Shark populations have moved beyond oceans and U.S. coasts to the bayous of Louisiana. Nicknamed Voodoo Sharks' by local shrimp fishermen, these Bull Sharks have the extraordinary ability to live in both salt and fresh water environments. They show up by the hundreds in the bayous of Louisiana and create more than just confusion for those who encounter them for the first time.

"Great White Serial Killer": Natural history producer Jeff Kurr returns to SHARK WEEK after 2011's Emmy-nominated Ultimate Air Jaws and 2012's Air Jaws Apocalypse. In Great White Serial Killer, Kurr sets out to examine two fatal shark attacks near Vandenberg Air force base in California, using evidence found at both sites to try to determine if one shark was responsible for both attacks.

"Air Jaws: Beyond the Breach": Air Jaws programming has pushed and expanded our understanding of Great Whites sharks, becoming one of the iconic SHARK WEEK programs. In Air Jaws: Beyond the Breach, a documentary crew goes behind the scenes to see how Air Jaws has changed what we know about these incredible creatures, and gives viewers a sneak peek into the next Air Jaws special, Finding Colossus, which will air during SHARK WEEK 2014.

"Spawn of Jaws": Program follows a scientist on the brink of a breakthrough as he reveals the life cycle of the Great White Shark for the first time, including mating and pupping.

"The Great White Gauntlet (WT)": Program explores the dangers of abalone diving, which can be both lucrative and dangerous as it happens in one of the deadliest shark feeding grounds in the world - one that is regularly frequented by Great White Sharks.

"Sharks Behaving Badly (WT)": Program is a humorous look at fishermen, surfers, and bathers who have encountered sharks and lived to laugh about it. We'll take a close look at the multiple shark encounter videos on YouTube, using forensic analysis and other elements to demonstrate the best behaviors when encountering a shark.

"Top 10 Sharkdown": Program updates the international shark attack files for the 21st century, taking a closer look at the sharks you don't want to meet this summer -- and the ones you're most likely to encounter.

"Alien Monster Sharks": Program follows American and Japanese scientists as they descend into the deepest and darkest unexplored oceans on earth in search of some of the more incredible and bizarre sharks on the planet, from the Goblin shark to the elusive, giant Megamouth shark.

Parkinson, 78, who interviewed Muhammad Ali, Marlon Brando, Fred Astaire and Orson Welles in a career spanning 50 years, said he was diagnosed with the disease in May, was undergoing radiotherapy and suffering no side effects or pain.

"I'm 78 and I have had a good life," said Parkinson, who announced his retirement from television in 2007. "I shall be around for a while yet, to the delight of my friends and the dismay of my enemies."

(Reporting by Belinda Goldsmith; editing by Tom Pfeiffer)

Other markets have improved a day after the military pushed the country's Muslim Brotherhood president out of power, including the stock market, whose main index shot up by 7.3 percent.

The pound had earlier strengthened marginally on the official market after a central bank auction, its first such increase since a currency crisis in December.

Traders said prices of Egypt's international bonds were quoted sharply higher, by several cents on the dollar.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks ended slightly higher in a volatile half-day session on Wednesday as traders squared positions before the holiday and Friday's job market data.

The three major U.S. stock indexes seesawed on thin trading volume, with some market participants already away before Thursday's Independence Day holiday. The U.S. stock market closed at 1 p.m. (1700 GMT) on Wednesday. It will reopen on Friday for a full session.

Mixed U.S. data on Wednesday failed to give the market solid direction. Private-sector employers stepped up hiring in June and weekly jobless claims fell, but the growth rate in the services sector slowed in June and the U.S. trade deficit widened on a drop in exports.

"The only explanation that there is to the volatility is that the volume's really light, so any sudden moves in sentiment, whether it's buy or sell, reflects itself in the volatility because there's not a lot of liquidity," said Jason Weisberg, managing director at Seaport Securities Corp in New York.

About 3.37 billion shares exchanged hands on the New York Stock Exchange, the Nasdaq and NYSE MKT. The full trading-day average volume has been about 6.4 billion so far this year.

"There's position squaring ahead of the holiday and in front of (the payrolls report) Friday," said Paul Mendelsohn, chief investment strategist at Windham Financial Services in Charlotte, Vermont.

Nonfarm payrolls for June are expected to have gained 165,000 last month, according to a Reuters survey of economists.

Equities in Europe and Asia were pressured by signs of slowing growth in China and deepening political turmoil in Portugal, where talks over the government's future threatened to reignite the euro-zone crisis.

The Dow Jones industrial averagerose 56.14 points or 0.38 percent, to end at 14,988.55. The S&P 500gained 1.33 points or 0.08 percent, to finish at 1,615.41. The Nasdaq Compositeadded 10.27 points or 0.30 percent, to close at 3,443.67.

The S&P 500 is down 3.2 percent from its May 21 record closing high of 1,669.16. The benchmark index has been unable to close above its 50-day moving average since June 20.

Large-cap tech stocks were among the strongest of the day, helping the Nasdaq. Cisco Systemsrose 1.1 percent to $24.59 while Oracle Corpgained 2 percent to $30.70.

U.S. crude oil prices rose 1.6 percent to $101.18 a barrel after hitting a 14-month high above $102 a barrel on a sharp decline in crude stockpiles in the United States and political unrest in Egypt. The S&P energy sector indexended flat.

Health providers were in focus after the Obama administration said it wouldn't require employers to provide health insurance for their workers until 2015, delaying a key provision of the healthcare reform law by a year.

Tenet Healthcarefell 4.3 percent to $43.64. Universal Health Servicesdropped 3.5 percent to $65.82.

On the NYSE, decliners beat advancers by a ratio of about 3 to 2. On the Nasdaq, the trend was the opposite, with nearly seven stocks rising for every five that fell.

(Editing by Jan Paschal)

Spanish doctor Eufemiano Fuentes, the central figure in the trial that followed a probe into a doping ring in cycling, was given a one-year prison term last month for endangering public health.

The judge ordered the destruction of evidence including bags of blood possibly belonging to athletes from sports other than cycling.

The decision disappointed sports and anti-doping bodies, denting hopes that the case would unmask other athletes involved in illegal doping, and prompted widespread condemnation.

"The UCI can confirm that it will appeal the decision...not to release to the UCI and other anti-doping organisations the more than 200 bags of blood and other evidence gathered in police raids in 2006, which were presented in the trial of Spanish doctor Eufemiano Fuentes," the UCI said in a statement.

The Spanish Anti-Doping organisation (AEA) has already decided to appeal against the decision, while the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) has until May 17 to make a decision.

Fuentes, who protested his innocence, said in his opening testimony that he had clients in sports including soccer, tennis, athletics and boxing. (Writing by Gregory Blachier; Editing by Clare Fallon)

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - A senior Catholic cleric arrested in a plot to smuggle tens of millions of dollars into Italy controlled vast amounts of money and felt he could act with impunity because of his connections to the Vatican bank, according to a judge's investigative document.

In the latest blow to the Vatican's image, Monsignor Nunzio Scarano, 61, was arrested on Friday along with an Italian secret service agent and a financial broker.

The three had plotted to smuggle 20 million euros ($26 million) into Italy from Switzerland for a members of a family of ship-owners in southern Italy, an investigating magistrate told reporters on Friday.

The magistrate said the pivotal protagonist was Scarano, who worked until recently as a senior accountant in the Vatican's financial administration, and that he owned numerous pieces of property and had accounts in the Vatican bank.

A 48-page document in which Judge Barbara Callari approves magistrates' requests for the arrests, and which was obtained by Reuters, contains transcripts or summaries of wiretaps, emails, letters, checks and other results of police investigations.

It describes the development of a plot that reads like a spy novel, involving a private plane that was to collect the cash in Switzerland, burned cell phones, a shady financier and an allegedly corrupt secret service agent who promised to slip the money past customs.

In her report, Callari wrote that Scarano felt safe "thanks to his relations with the Vatican bank". She said the monsignor saw the IOR as "the only safe and rapid instrument for financial and banking operations that could evade - if not outright violate - laws against money laundering and tax evasion".

EMBARRASSMENT FOR POPE

The case came as an embarrassment to Pope Francis who, only two days earlier, set up a commission of inquiry into the scandal-plagued Vatican bank, formally known as the Institute for Works of Religion (IOR).

Scarano was for years a senior accountant APSA, the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See. Through APSA, he had ready access to the IOR and magistrates believe he had at least two personal accounts there.

The Vatican, which has pledged to cooperate with the magistrates, said Scarano was suspended several weeks ago when magistrates in Salerno put him under a separate investigation.

The arrests of Scarano, secret service agent Giovanni Zito and broker Giovanni Carenzio stemmed from a previous money laundering investigation by Rome magistrates into the IOR.

Magistrates have said there was no indication so far that the bank was directly involved in Scarano's attempt to smuggle the money into Italy for his rich friends.

But Italian newspapers speculated that Scarano may have been planning to use the bank to launder at least some of the Swiss money for his friends later.

The judge's report said the cash was in Swiss bank UBS. But it said it never left because Carenzio, the broker, did not carry out his part of the deal even though Zito, the secret service agent, had gone to Locarno in July, 2012 to pick it up.

In her report, Callari wrote that the investigations showed that Scarano had "very vast economic resources" and that "the prelate did not hesitate to use complicated stratagems and to involve many third parties to carry out financial operations without respecting norms against money laundering".

In the Salerno investigation, Scarano has been accused of attempting to launder money by taking 560,000 euros ($727,900) in cash out of his Vatican account and giving various amounts to friends in exchange for checks.

He then deposited the checks into an Italian bank account to pay off a mortgage on a property, his lawyer, Silverio Sica, told Reuters. Sica said well-off friends had donated money to Scarano in order for him to build a home for the terminally ill.

Scarano wanted to use that money to pay off his mortgage so he could sell a property in Salerno and use the proceeds to build the care home, Sica said, adding that Scarano would "clear everything up".

($1 = 0.7693 euros)

(Editing by Mark Heinrich)

The world number one held steady with a final-round two-over-par 74 to finish at eight-under 280 at Sebonack Golf Club in New York.

"I just hope this is not a dream," Park, who earlier this year won the Kraft Nabisco and LPGA championships, told reporters. "I don't want to wake up tomorrow and play the final round again."

Only Mildred (Babe) Didrikson Zaharias has previously won the first three women's majors in a season. She did it in 1950, winning the Titleholders Championship, the Women's Western Open and the U.S. Women's Open.

Fellow South Korean I.K. Kim matched Parks' 74 and took second at four-under 284 but was never able to really challenge Park.

Ryu So-Yeon was third at one-under 287 with Americans Paula Creamer and Angela Stanford and England's Jodi Ewart-Shadoff tied for fourth at one-over 289.

Entering the day with a four-stroke advantage, Park's lead was briefly trimmed to three when Kim birdied the second hole but the runner-up gave a shot right back with a bogey on No. 4.

After bogeying holes No. 6 and No. 7, Park ran off birdies at the ninth and 10th holes to swell her cushion to six shots.

Park has won five times overall this year and three in a row. She took over the top ranking after claiming the Kraft Nabisco Championship in April, then added the LPGA Championship earlier this month.

She will attempt to make it four majors in four tries at the at the Women's British Open in August before competing in September's Evian Masters, which has become the women's fifth major.

"I'm glad that I can give it a try at St. Andrews (for the British Open)," Park said. "That's going to be a great experience. Whether or not I (win it), I'm just a very lucky person."

(Reporting by Jahmal Corner in Los Angeles, Editing by Gene Cherry)