Fighting in Syria has marred the first day of a ceasefire over the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha.

The worst incident of violence was a bombing in the capital that killed five people and injured at least 30.

Fighting also continued in the town of Haram, and witnesses just across the border in Turkey reported hearing machine-gun fire and the sound of shelling.

Syrian state TV says several people were killed and dozens wounded by a car bomb in the capital, Damascus.

The bomb exploded near a temporary playground set up for the holiday period and children are among the casualties.

Outspoken Australian fly half Quade Cooper has been charged with bringing the game into disrepute for his critical comments of the Wallabies and coach Robbie Deans.

The disgruntled star made headlines last month when he lashed out at the Wallabies set-up, saying the environment within the Australian team was "destroying" him.

The Queensland Reds playmaker, currently sidelined with a knee injury, reiterated his grievances on Fox Sports' The Rugby Club less than a week after first making his feelings known via social media.

Cooper is due to appear at a code-of-conduct hearing on Wednesday in Sydney.

An Australian Rugby Union spokesman said Saturday the ARU would not be making any official comment at this stage.

In interviews Cooper, 24, had expressed frustration about the defensive style of play favoured by Deans and said that he did not want to be involved with the Wallabies under the current regime.

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Former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi has condemned being sentenced to one year in jail after being convicted of tax fraud, calling it "incredible and intolerable".

The media mogul and former Italian leader was sentenced to four years' jail, immediately reduced to one, after being convicted of tax fraud over the purchase of film rights for his media empire.

Despite finding the former prime minister guilty, the court immediately cut the sentence to one year under an amnesty law approved by the then centre-left government in 2006 to reduce the overcrowding of Italian prisons.

And the controversial 76-year-old is unlikely ever to serve time in jail, as he promoted legislation while prime minister that means anyone over 70 cannot be sent to prison.

His lawyers said late on Friday (local time) they would appeal by November 10, according to reports, automatically suspending the application of the sentence.

China has moved quickly to announce the start of a formal criminal probe into disgraced former senior politician Bo Xilai, hours after expelling him from the largely rubber stamp parliament and so removing his immunity from prosecution.

The announcements on Friday (local time) pave the way for Mr Bo, once a contender for top leadership in the world's second largest economy, to face trial and likely a long jail sentence on accusations of corruption and abuse of power.

A brief report by the state-run Xinhua news agency said state prosecutors had "decided to put Bo Xilai under investigation for alleged criminal offences".

It added that they had "imposed coercive measures on him in accordance with the law", likely a reference that he was now officially in detention.

Mr Bo's wife, Gu Kailai, and his former police chief, Wang Lijun, have both been jailed over a scandal that stems from the murder of British businessman Neil Heywood while Mr Bo was Communist Party chief of the south-western city of Chongqing.

The government last month accused Mr Bo of corruption and of bending the law to hush up the murder.