The 31-year-old star died on 16 October after falling from the third-floor balcony of a hotel in Buenos Aires.

The hotel’s manager, Gilda Martin, and its receptionist, Esteban Grassi, as well as Payne’s friend Roger Nores have been charged with manslaughter, Argentina’s prosecutor’s office says.

Ezequiel Pereyra – who also worked at the hotel – and Braian Paiz, a waiter, have been charged with supplying drugs.

Under Argentina’s legal system, the prosecutor’s office gathers evidence which it then presents to a judge, who has to decide whether to proceed to trial.

According to a statement released by the prosecutor’s office, Judge Laura Bruniard already took the decision to proceed to the next stage on Friday.

The defendants’ lawyers can appeal against that decision. If their appeals are not successful, the trial phase starts.

In court documents, Judge Bruniard listed the charges against the five suspects, who are referred to by their initials, as is the custom in court documents at this stage of the proceedings.

• Hotel employee EDP is suspected of having sold Liam Payne cocaine on 15 and 16 October
• Waiter BNP is also suspected of having sold cocaine to Liam Payne twice on 14 October
• Payne’s friend RLN is suspected of manslaughter for allegedly “failing to fulfil his duties of care, assistance and help” towards the singer after having “abandoned him to his luck knowing that he was incapable of fending for himself and knowing that he [Payne] suffered from multiple addictions”
• Hotel Manager GAM is suspected of manslaughter for allegedly failing to stop Payne from being taken to his hotel room moments before his death. According to the court papers, given Payne’s state, the room’s balcony posed a “serious threat” and the manager should have ensured Payne was kept in a safe place until medical help arrived
• Chief receptionist ERG is also suspected of manslaughter for allegedly asking three people to “drag” Payne, who could not stand up, to his room, instead of keeping him safe.

Judge Bruniard said that she did not think that Liam Payne’s friend, the hotel manager and the receptionist “had planned or wanted the death of Payne” but that their actions had created a “risk” to his life.

If found guilty, the three could face sentences of between one and five years in prison.

The sentence for supplying drugs is more severe and ranges between four and 15 years in jail.

Judge Bruniard has ordered the two accused of supplying the drugs be remanded in custody.

They have been summoned to appear in court within 24 working hours.

In November, the prosecutor’s office said toxicology tests revealed traces of alcohol, cocaine and a prescription antidepressant in Payne’s body.

A post-mortem examination determined his cause of death as “multiple trauma” and “internal and external haemorrhage”, as a result of the fall from the hotel balcony.

According to the prosecutor’s office, medical reports also suggested Payne may have fallen in a state of semi or total unconsciousness.

The prosecutor’s office said this ruled out the possibility of a conscious or voluntary act by Payne, and they had concluded the singer did not know what he was doing nor have any comprehension of his actions.

Speaking to US celebrity news outlet TMZ after Payne’s death, Roger Nores said he was a “very good friend” of the singer and they had spent time together on the day the star died.

He said Payne “seemed playful and happy” when he left him about an hour before the musician fell from the balcony.

After Payne’s death, police found substances in his hotel room and objects and furniture that had been damaged.

Hotel staff had made two calls to emergency services saying they had a guest who had taken “too many drugs and alcohol”, and was “trashing the entire room”, it was previously reported.

Payne became one of the most recognisable names in pop after appearing on The X Factor and rising to fame with the boyband One Direction in the 2010s before the band went on an indefinite hiatus in January 2016.

The singer’s funeral was held in Amersham, Buckinghamshire, last month.

His former bandmates Harry Styles, Louis Tomlinson, Niall Horan and Zayn Malik were among the mourners, alongside Payne’s girlfriend Kate Cassidy and his former partner Cheryl, with whom he shares a son.

Puerto Rican Bamba won the WBA Gold Cruiserweight title by defeating Mexican Rogelio Medina on 21 December.

Singer Ne-Yo, who signed Bamba to his management company in November, confirmed the news in a joint-statement alongside Bamba’s family on Instagram.

“It is with profound sorrow that we announce the passing of beloved son, brother, friend and boxing champion Paul Bamba, whose light and love touched countless lives,” the statement read.

“He was a fierce yet confident competitor with an unrelenting ambition to achieve greatness.

“But more than anything, he was a tremendous individual that inspired many with his exceptional drive and determination.

“We are heartbroken by his passing and kindly ask for privacy and understanding during this difficult time as we collectively navigate our grief.”

Bamba won each of his 14 fights in 2024 by knockout, culminating in his world title win against Medina in New Jersey.

Following that win last week Bamba posted on his Instagram: “This year I set out with a goal. I did just that. Wasn’t easy, there were many obstacles that I adapted to overcome and kept on the path we set regardless of extenuating circumstances.

He added: “If you’ve got what some might call an outlandish goal, go chase it. Anyone who thinks that isn’t as brave as you, prove people wrong.”

In all Bamba recorded 19 wins in 22 career bouts and earned 18 of those victories by knockout.

Jake Paul, who Bamba had called out for a future fight, posted on X: “RIP Paul Bamba.”

Authorities discovered the skeletal remains in 11 graves in Ascension, about 180km (110 miles) west of Ciudad Juarez, near the border with the United States, the state prosecutor’s office said in a statement on Thursday.

The investigators started exploring the desolate site on December 18, and in subsequent days, they expanded the search area.

They eventually found 11 separate shallow pits into which a dozen bodies had been dumped.

The remains were taken to state forensic laboratories for possible identification and to determine, if possible, the causes of death.

Chihuahua has been hit for years by violence linked to organised crime as a route for drug trafficking and the smuggling of migrants to the US.

The state has recorded 3,927 missing persons since 1952, according to official figures.

Across Mexico, about 120,000 people are considered missing amid years of violence and instability.

The relatives of most of those missing people are largely left to look for their loved ones by themselves, and they frequently form volunteer search groups that go out into the desert looking for clandestine graves.

It was not known if any of those volunteer groups had helped authorities in locating the graves in Ascencion.

Brazilian businessman Luiz Claudio Galeazzi, who was piloting the plane, was killed in the crash alongside his wife, three daughters and other family members, a statement from his company said.

The small plane reportedly hit the chimney of a building, as well as a house and a shop as it fell.Local authorities say 17 people on the ground were injured in the accident, including two in a serious condition.

Mr Galeazzi, 61, was taking his family on a trip to Jundiaí, in the São Paulo state, according to reports in Brazilian media.

All 10 victims of the crash were members of Mr Galeazzi’s family, Rio Grande do Sul state governor Eduardo Leite told a press conference. He added that the plane had taken off in unfavourable weather conditions.

The plane reportedly flew for 3km (1.8 miles) before falling into the urban area of the city just minutes after take-off on Sunday morning.

“At the time, it was revving up. You could see that it was accelerating a lot,” an eyewitness, Nadia Hansen, told Reuters news agency.

“Then there was a bang as it hit the building and then it passed close to my house and then it fell, and I thought it had dropped in front of the house,” she said.

Pictures from the scene show emergency workers attending to the smoking wreckage among debris from badly damaged buildings.

Mr Galeazzi was the chief executive of Galeazzi & Associados, a corporate restructuring and crisis management firm based in São Paulo.

The company issued a statement on LinkedIn, paying tribute to the 61-year-old.

“Luiz Galeazzi will be eternally remembered for his dedication to his family and for his remarkable career as the leader of Galeazzi & Associados,” the statement said.

“We also sympathize with all those affected by the accident in the region,” it said, adding that it would co-operate with investigations into the accident.

The plane crashed near the centre of Gramado, hitting a house, a furniture store and a hotel, according to Brazilian media.

State governor Mr Leite said the cause of the accident was being investigated by the Aeronautical Accident Investigation and Prevention Center (Cenipa).

“The entire state is mobilized here to provide the necessary assistance,” he told reporters at the scene.

Gramado is a popular tourist destination, known for hosting events during the festive period.

The region was severely hit in May this year by unprecedented flooding, which claimed dozens of lives and displaced around 150,000 people from their homes.

The global lender said risks related to the adoption of the world’s largest cryptocurrency had eased now that businesses will be allowed to decide whether or not to accept bitcoin.

In 2021, El Salvador became the first country in the world to make bitcoin legal tender.

This week, the cryptocurrency briefly hit a fresh record high of more than $108,000.

“Legal reforms will make acceptance of Bitcoin by the private sector voluntary. For the public sector, engagement in Bitcoin-related economic activities and transactions in and purchases of Bitcoin will be confined.”

The deal, which is aimed to help support El Salvador’s economy, still needs to approved by the IMF’s executive board.

The IMF had opposed the Salvadorean President Nayib Bukele’s crypto-friendly policies, warning they could become an obstacle to it offering financial assistance.

Still, Bukele celebrated on social media as bitcoin rallied after Donald Trump’s US election victory in November.

Earlier this month, as the price of bitcoin topped $100,000 for the first time, Bukele said in a social media post that his country’s holdings in the cryptocurrency had more than doubled in value.

He also blamed his political opponents for causing many Salvadorans to miss out on bitcoin’s rise.The cryptocurrency has rallied since Donald Trump’s election victory on the 5 November.

The incoming Trump administration is seen as being far more friendly towards cryptocurrencies than President Joe Biden’s White House.

On Thursday, the cryptocurrency retreated along with global stock markets after the US Federal Reserve signalled a slower pace of interest rate cuts next year.Bitcoin is currently trading at around $100,000.

Osiel Cárdenas Guillén, 57, led Los Zetas until 2003, when he was cornered by Mexican soldiers near his hometown of Matamoros.

Under his leadership, the group became one of the most powerful and brutal hit squads in the Mexican drug wars.US immigration officials handed Cárdenas over to Mexican police at the Otay border crossing, where he was quickly re-arrested and taken to El Altiplano maximum security jail in Mexico state.

Mexican prosecutors said he had been arrested on charges of murder and organised crime dating back to his time as one of the most powerful drug lords in Mexico.

Cárdenas Guillén made his criminal career in the Gulf drugs cartel in the 1990s, reportedly not shying away from having his allies killed to rise to the top, a practice which earned him the nickname of “Mata Amigos” (Spanish for “killer of friends”).

But what he became infamous for was recruiting members of Mexico’s elite special forces and using them as hitmen and enforcers for the Gulf cartel.

The law enforcers-turned-contract killers became known as Los Zetas.

The brutal methods they used, such as decapitating and dismembering their victims, quickly spread terror through the north-eastern part of Mexico which was their stronghold.

By the early 2000s, Cárdenas Guillén was one of the most wanted men in Mexico.Mexican security forces managed to apprehend him in his home state of Tamaulipas in 2003 after a bloody gun battle.

Aware of the power the gang leader wielded in the area, the security forces quickly flew him to the capital, Mexico City, were he was put into pre-trial detention.

In 2007, he was extradited to the US.There, he was charged not just with trafficking tonnes of cocaine into the US but also with threatening to assault and murder federal agents.

He pleaded guilty in 2010 and was sentenced to 25 years in jail.Having served a large part of his sentence, he was released in August of 2024 from federal prison in Terre Haute, Indiana, and handed over to US Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

This paved the way for his deportation to Mexico on Monday.

Mexican prosecutors said there were seven federal cases still open against Cárdenas Guillén and that he could be sentenced to a total of more than 700 years in prison if found guilty on all charges.

Canserbero, who had been named best Spanish-language rapper by Rolling Stone magazine, was drugged and stabbed to death by his manager, Natalia Améstica.

Améstica and her brother then threw his body from a 10th floor window.

The five people sentenced on Tuesday have been found guilty of helping the siblings stage the crime scene so Canserbero’s murder appeared a suicide.

They have been given jail terms ranging between 15 and 20 years.Natalia Améstica and her brother Guillermo were already sentenced to 25 years in prison back in February for murder.

The death on 19 January 2015 of Canserbero, whose real name was Tirone González, shocked the Venezuelan rap scene.

It was ruled at the time that the 26-year-old star had killed his friend Carlos Molnar in a knife fight before jumping from a window.

But in December 2023, Natalia Améstica confessed to stabbing both Molnar and Canserbero.

In a video statement released by the Venezuelan attorney general last year she recounted what had happened on the night.

Natalia Améstica claims that she was angry with the rapper after she had learned that Canserbero no longer wanted her as his manager.

She described how Canserbero came to her apartment in the Venezuelan city of Maracay on 19 January 2015.

He was accompanied by his friend Carlos Molnar, who was also Natalia Améstica’s long-term boyfriend.

“The chance arose to make them a tea,” she explained in the video, adding that she spiked their beverage with a powerful tranquiliser.

When her drugged partner Carlos Molnar entered the kitchen, she stabbed him in the neck, in the back and in the arm.

Canserbero witnessed Améstica’s attack on her boyfriend but, under the influence of the drugs Améstica had slipped him, he collapsed on the sofa.Améstica then proceeded to stab him twice.

“In desperation, I then called my brother Guillermo to help me resolve the situation,” she said in the video confession.

Her brother arrived with the three officers from Venezuela’s intelligence agency, Sebin, who have now been sentenced.

“They finished arranging the scene in a way to make it look like a murder-suicide,” according to Natalia Améstica.

She said that the officers “stabbed Carlos [Molnar] a few more times, my brother Guillermo stabbed him four times. The rest, the Sebin officials did”.

“Then we were told how to throw him out of the window to complete the murder-suicide scene,” she said in her confession.

Her brother Guillermo said that a forensic detective who arrived at the scene became suspicious, remarking that it appeared “manipulated”.

According to Guillermo Améstica, the forensic expert asked for a bribe of $10,000 (£7,880) in exchange for helping the siblings cover up the crime and to make it look like Canserbero had attacked Molnar before jumping out of the window.

The fifth man sentenced on Tuesday is Marcos Pratolongo, a music impresario who provided security at some of Canserbero’s concerts.

At the time of his arrest, Venezuela’s attorney general had said that Pratolongo was in possession of the keys to Canserbero’s apartment, from which important evidence had disappeared.

The attorney general posted on social media on Tuesday that Pratolongo had been found guilty of complicity in Canserbero’s murder but did not provide further details of his role in the crime.

Judge Edmundo Román Pinzón Judge Edmundo Román Pinzón was hit by at least four bullets as he was driving out of the courthouse car park on Wednesday afternoon, local time.

He was a senior judge who had been president of the highest court in the state of Guerrero, where Acapulco is located.

The murder comes amid a surge in deadly attacks on officials in the violence-wracked southern state.

Police have been speaking to witnesses and been gathering CCTV footage from the murder scene, but so far no arrests have been made in connection with the case.

The security forces have also stepped up their activities in the resort town in order to catch those responsible.

According to local paper El Sol de Acapulco, the judge had been in charge of the court which dealt with murders, kidnappings and car thefts.

It is not yet known what the possible motive behind the murder may have been.The governor of Guerrero state said the crime demanded “immediate justice”.

The killing of the judge is the latest in a string of extremely violent attacks in Guerrero over the past weeks.

Last month, the bodies of 11 people, including two children, were found inside a vehicle in the town of Chilpancingo, 100km (62 miles) north of Acapulco.

Acapulco, once a popular beach resort, has not been spared, with rival gangs battling for control of the city’s drugs market – and at times leaving mutilated bodies on beaches.