The head of Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd. said Wednesday he has every intention of completing the acquisition of BlackBerry, despite doubts that the $4.7 billion deal for the troubled smartphone maker will go through.

BlackBerry announced earlier this week that Fairfax signed a letter of intent that "contemplates" buying BlackBerry for $9 a share. Fairfax, BlackBerry's largest shareholder, is trying to attract other investors.

"No more Hiroshimas!" ''No more Fukushimas!" Those slogans are chanted together at rallies by Japanese who want both an end to nuclear power in the island nation and an end to nuclear weapons around the world. But many in this city, where the world's first atomic-bomb attack killed tens of thousands, are distressed by efforts to connect their suffering to the tsunami-triggered meltdowns at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant.

Like the bomb the United States dropped on Hiroshima Aug. 6, 1945, the March 2011 Fukushima disaster unleashed radiation that will affect the region's health for decades. Hiroshima medical experts, the world's most renowned on radiation-related sicknesses, are being called on for advice on how the meltdowns may have harmed people who lived near the power plant along the northeastern coast of Japan.

Title holder Bayern Munich got two goals from Thomas Mueller to cruise past Hannover 4-1 in the second round of the German Cup on Wednesday.

But last season's runner-up, Stuttgart, crashed out in Freiburg. Matthias Ginter and Mike Hanke scored in the second half for Freiburg, while Vedad Ibisevic cut the deficit late in the match.

Roma maintained its perfect start to the Serie A season with a 2-0 win at Sampdoria on Wednesday and took sole lead of the table after Napoli was surprisingly held to a 1-1 draw at home to Sassuolo.

Two-time defending champion Juventus' abject start to the season continued as it had to come from behind for a controversial 2-1 win at Chievo Verona, while AC Milan again scored twice in the dying minutes to draw 3-3 at Bologna.

Cristiano Ronaldo scored twice in the second half to give Real Madrid a hard-fought 2-1 away win at Elche in the Spanish league Wednesday.

In a lackluster, strategic match, Elche defender Eduardo Albacar struck a free kick that David Lomban back-headed toward goal, forcing an athletic save from goalkeeper Diego Lopez in the 10th minute.

Manchester United ruined Luis Suarez's long-awaited return from a 10-match ban for biting by beating Liverpool 1-0 in the third round of the League Cup on Wednesday, relieving some early-season pressure on manager David Moyes.

Javier Hernandez showed a poacher's instinct to volley home deftly 39 seconds into the second half, as United advanced despite fielding a largely second-string team against its fierce rival at Old Trafford.

An anti-war theater troupe traveling from Northern Ireland to Bosnia says four of its members were arrested at a Belfast airport after security officials found bullets inside a costume.

The cast and crew of "The Conquest of Happiness" were trying to fly to Sarajevo for a performance of their anti-war play when security officers detected 12 live rounds sewn into a denim jacket used by an actor who portrays a war correspondent.

Pressure is building on fractious Republicans in Congress over legislation to prevent a partial U.S. government shutdown, as the Democratic-led Senate is expected to strip a tea party-backed plan to defund President Barack Obama's health care reforms from the bill.

As the Senate telegraphed its moves, House Republicans deliberated an array of imperfect options on both a temporary spending bill required to avert a shutdown and a separate measure to permit the government to borrow almost $1 trillion to keep paying its bills.

A Soyuz capsule carrying three astronauts successfully docked with the International Space Station early Thursday, bringing the size of the crew at the orbiting outpost to six.

Michael Hopkins of the United States and Russians Oleg Kotov and Sergei Ryazansky traveled six hours in the capsule from the Russian-leased launch pad in Kazakhstan before linking up with the space station's Russian Poisk research module at 6.45 a.m. Moscow time (0245GMT).

The United Nations gave a grim warning Wednesday that Lebanon faces an explosion of social tensions unless the international community helps to handle hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees.

President Michel Suleiman told foreign ministers from the world's leading nations that his country faces an "existential crisis" because of the influx fleeing the war between President Bashar Assad and opposition rebels.