World News joined 0011

[JohnCenaFan28]

Gordon Brown has called for an international conference before the end of the year to reshape the financial world order.

The Prime Minister said the post-war financial system shaped by the Bretton Woods conference 64 years ago - which included setting up the International Monetary Fund (IMF) - was no longer fit for purpose.

Mr Brown, architect of a British bail-out plan now being adopted across Europe to counter the financial crisis, tabled proposals at an EU summit for what he called "stage two" of the project which has won him unlikely hero status.

The document calls for tougher supervision of banks, a global "early warning system" for swift identification of future financial wobbles and agreement on a world trade deal to banish international protectionism.

It would all restore public confidence in the financial system, said Mr Brown, who added: "We have to respond to unique times and unpredictable circumstances and think in unconventional ways about what to do."

Closer supervision of banks would include "colleges of supervisors" to be set up within months to monitor 30 of the world's biggest financial institutions and the wholesale reform of the IMF to ready it for global markets and a global economy.

The seven-page Brown blueprint was produced as the summit in Brussels started amid continued plaudits for Mr Brown due to his lead in delivering a credible bail-out plan.

Mr Brown came to the rescue last Sunday, urging the EU's 15 "euro-zone" countries to adopt the UK's three-pronged formula to prop up banks. Within days, other European governments had mimicked the UK measures in a 2,000 billion euro (£1,579 billion) bail-out which has seen markets respond.

At the summit, the Brown "bounce" continued, with the Prime Minister holding centre-stage with the comprehensive longer-term plan he wants adopted before the meeting ends on Thursday afternoon.

The Bretton Woods-style conference would need full US backing, he acknowledged, and a world trade deal - which eluded Peter Mandelson as EU trade Commissioner last summer - was a vital piece of the jigsaw to end "beggar thy neighbour" protectionist policies across the world.

-Ananova

[JohnCenaFan28]

Consumers hit by the credit crunch had something to smile about at last when petrol dipped below the £1 a litre mark for the first time this year.

There was more cheer for travellers when two major UK airlines - British Airways and Virgin Atlantic - announced a reduction in fuel surcharges.

The welcome reduction in pump prices came when oil giant BP and supermarket chains Asda and Morrisons all cut the price of a litre of unleaded petrol to 99.9p, with BP saying the new price would apply "at a number" of its outlets.

Asda, whose petrol price had previously been 104.9p a litre, also reduced the cost of diesel from £116.9p a litre to 110.9p. A litre of diesel at Morrisons was cut to 111.9p, as was a litre of BP diesel.

In addition, supermarket Sainsbury's said: "We are planning a price cut and will continue to monitor prices daily."

This is the first time since last autumn that petrol has been under £1 in the UK, with unleaded going over 120p a litre and diesel over 130p during the worst of this year's price rises.

The price of oil on world markets has fallen from a high of around 147 US dollars a barrel earlier this year to a 14-month low of around 75 dollars today.

Damien Cox, senior analyst at energy adviser John Hall Associates, predicted further falls as the outlook for the worsening economies becomes clearer over the coming months.

He said: "With the economic situation looking the way it is, I don't think we have seen the bottom yet. There's still a little bit to come out of this over the next few months."

In September last year, unleaded cost an average 95.2p per litre, with diesel averaging at 96.9p.

-Ananova

[JohnCenaFan28]

A vulnerable Muslim convert has admitted attempting to kill dozens of people in a suicide nail bomb attack on a busy family restaurant.

Nicky Reilly, 22, pleaded guilty at the Old Bailey to attempted murder and preparing a terrorist attack at the Giraffe restaurant in Exeter. Police said he was encouraged and helped by at least two untraced Islamic extremists who contacted him via his YouTube webpage.

But the attack failed when child-like Reilly could not open the door of a restaurant toilet cubicle in the seconds after he set the bomb to explode. The court heard he intended to run out into the packed dining area clutching the caustic soda bottle bomb to his stomach.

But the delay caused the volatile nail-filled device to detonate in his hands, leaving him badly injured. Reilly, of King Street, Plymouth, converted to Islam about five years ago and appeared in court under the name Mohammad Rashid Saeed Alim. Police said Reilly began to plan the attack earlier this year as his interest in Islam became an obsession.

His mother Kim watched from the court's public gallery as Reilly appeared via video link from high security Belmarsh Prison in London. She told the BBC he was "brainwashed" by others who were left to walk free after he did their work.

Officers said he also used the internet to research how to make bombs using caustic soda, kerosene and nails. Police recovered pictures of the bombs taken by Reilly before he packed them in a rucksack and travelled by bus to Exeter. One senior investigator said he worshipped Osama bin Laden and quoted the al Qaida leader in a suicide note left at his home.

Explaining the prosecution case, Mr Justice Calvert-Smith said Reilly decided to target "ordinary citizens". He said: "He bought more than necessary equipment over those months to construct two types of improvised devices, one using caustic soda and the other kerosene. He appears to have tried to increase the potential for injury and death both to himself and others by putting chemicals in glass bottles and filling those bottles with a total of around 500 nails."

When Reilly arrived at the Giraffe restaurant at lunchtime on May 22 there were 24 customers and 11 members of staff inside. He was captured on CCTV as he purchased a drink and sat at a bar before entering the toilet at the back of the store. Footage from the restaurant shows customers fleeing in terror after three loud bangs were heard.

Prosecutor Stuart Baker said: "His recollection now is that he was unable to open the lock of the cubicle door and come out, by which time the first device had already exploded." Assistant Chief Constable Debbie Simpson said inquiries to trace his extremist contacts continued and declined to comment on rumours they may be in Pakistan.

Ms Simpson said: "There is no doubt that his intention was to kill and seriously injure many innocent members of the public in the Giraffe restaurant in Exeter. This was a criminal act, calculated to cause harm and spread panic. The two improvised explosive devices found in his rucksack contained a combination of explosive chemicals and nails with which he intended to kill many people. The incident in Exeter shows that terrorism remains a real and serious threat to all communities across the UK, and not just our major cities." Reilly will be sentenced at the Old Bailey on Friday November 21.

-Ananova

[JohnCenaFan28]

A 15-year-old boy has been charged with the murder of two-year-old Demi Leigh Mahon.

The little girl was found with serious head injuries at an address in Liverpool Road, Salford, Greater Manchester, on July 15.

She died in hospital two days later.

A post mortem examination found she died as a result of a serious head injury.

The 15-year-old boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons, will appear at Salford Youth Court.

A 53-year-old man arrested on suspicion of assault has been released without charge.

-Ananova

[JohnCenaFan28]

Seven friends who were on holiday with Kate and Gerry McCann when their daughter Madeleine vanished are to receive a "substantial" libel payout from a newspaper group, a source has said.

It is understood that Express Newspapers are to print apologies to the so-called 'Tapas Seven' and agree to pay them a total of £375,000 in damages in a High Court hearing.

The friends will donate the money to the official Madeleine's Fund, set up to help look for the missing child.

Apologies will be published in the Daily Express and the Daily Star and in the Sunday Express at the weekend, the source said.

The seven are couples Jane Tanner and Russell O'Brien, Rachael and Matthew Oldfield, Fiona and David Payne, and Mrs Payne's mother Dianne Webster.

With the McCanns, they made up the party staying in Praia da Luz in the Algarve in May last year when Madeleine disappeared nine days before her fourth birthday.

Despite a huge police investigation and massive coverage in the Portuguese and British media, the little girl has not been found.

The nickname for the group comes from the tapas restaurant where all nine adults were dining when Madeleine went missing from her family's holiday apartment nearby.

Express Newspapers paid Mr and Mrs McCann £550,000 in damages in March after alleging that the couple were responsible for the death of their daughter in a series of articles.

And in July four newspaper groups agreed a libel settlement worth at least £800,000 with Robert Murat, at one point an "arguido", or formal suspect, in Madeleine's disappearance, and two of his associates.

-Ananova

[JohnCenaFan28]

A businesswoman crashed her partner's Jaguar in to a young couple at 113mph before telling police she had "killed someone", a court has heard.

Mary Butres, 47, was driving John Nichols' Jaguar XJ8 when it hit surface water, skidded and crashed into Mark Crompton, 20, and his 19-year-old girlfriend Jodie Brown, Nottingham Crown Court heard.

A jury was told the couple were phoning for help after their Ford Fiesta broke down in the A1's central reservation at Great Ponton, Lincolnshire, when the crash happened in May last year, killing them both.

Nichols, 58, was a front seat passenger in the car. The Jaguar's computer recorded that it was travelling at 113mph at the moment of the crash, the court heard earlier.

PC David Gordon was one of the first officers on the scene.

He said: "I went to where the Jaguar was. They didn't have any injuries and she (Butres) was saying 'Oh my God, I've just killed someone'."

Pc Stuart Jeffs interviewed Butres after the crash in his police car. He said: "She (Butres) smelt of alcohol. She said: 'All I could see was the car coming towards my lane. I reacted to that and swerved. I was travelling within the speed limit and I was not overtaking. I saw the car in the central reservation. I don't think it was my fault'."

Pc Jeffs said that initially Butres was unable to give a breath test at the side of the road because she was in shock but she was later tested at Grantham police station.

That test showed Butres, a boss at a packaging firm, was one and a half times the legal limit, the court heard.

Butres, of Stamford, Lincs, and Nichols, of Carlby, Lincs, both deny two counts of causing death by dangerous driving.

-Ananova