Woman charged with killing children
A mother has been charged with the murder of her son and daughter, who were stabbed to death at home.
Sasikala Navaneethan, 36, is accused of killing five-year-old Shanjayan and four-year-old Sharani.
She was also charged with the attempted murder of her six-month-old baby daughter at the family's house in Carshalton, south London, in May.
Mrs Navaneethan and her 40-year-old husband, who are thought to be from the Tamil area of Sri Lanka, were arrested.
He was later released but she was detained under the Mental Health Act.
She will appear before magistrates in Sutton.
Paramedics were called to the detached house in a quiet suburb on May 30.
Neighbours reported seeing the children, covered in blood, carried from the house late at night.
The two older children were taken to hospital but both died within 90 minutes of the police call.
The baby girl was taken to hospital with serious stab wounds and given life-saving treatment.
-Ananova
Husband's grief over floods tragedy
A British man has spoken of his grief at the loss of his wife and one of his twin daughters who died after being swept away by floods in Spain.
Mark Cullen, 49, said his wife Lorraine, 47, and daughter Lauren, 14, lost their footing as they tried to cross a swollen river with fellow twin Samantha, 14 and the girls' Spanish friend Gemma, 14.
The pair were trying to cross the River Clariano to get to their home in L'Olleria, near Valencia, but were carried off by the current. Their bodies were retrieved on Friday morning.
Mr Cullen, from Brighton, said: "My wife went to pick up Samantha from the town centre. When they drove back the water was up high over the bridge. They got out of the car, all held hands and started to walk across the river.
"It was only up to their knees, but one of them slipped and the others came crashing down. It carried them across the edge.
"My daughter Sam is quite strong and managed to grab hold of a tree and climb up. She saw Gemma and grabbed her, but Lorraine and Lauren were gone."
Mr Cullen flew out to Valencia on Thursday with his sons Daniel, 22, and Darren, 19, to be with his surviving daughter as she was treated at a local hospital.
He said: "When I saw Sam, she was absolutely covered in bruises. Nothing is broken but her body's a mess, I've never seen anything like it. It's a blur, you don't expect to lose two members of your family in one hit."
Mr Cullen said he and Lorraine had just celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary.
He said: "My priority is to see my wife and daughter and bring them back home. That's all I can do."
-Ananova
We must unite to beat crisis - Bush
The financial turmoil is a "serious global crisis that requires a serious global response", President George Bush said.
Mr Bush was speaking after a rare meeting with international finance ministers, including chancellor Alistair Darling, at the White House.
The crisis talks came after the US government announced it would buy stock in troubled financial institutions in a bid to stabilise the global markets.
"As our nations carry out this plan we must ensure the actions of one country do not contradict or undermine the actions of another," Mr Bush said.
"In our interconnected world no nation will gain by driving down the fortunes of another. We're in this together, we will come through it together."
The president said that while nations must confront the challenges unique to their individual financial systems, they must also ensure their actions were "co-ordinated". He said the joint interest rate cut earlier this week was a good example of this collaboration.
"I'm confident that the world's major economies can overcome the challenges we face," Mr Bush said.
"There have been moments of crisis in the past when powerful nations turned themselves against each other, started to wall themselves off from the world. This time is different."
Speaking with the G7 finance ministers - from the UK, the US, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and Canada - standing behind him in the White House Rose Garden, Mr Bush went on: "The leaders gathered in Washington this weekend are all working toward the same goals.
"We will do what it takes to resolve this crisis and the world's economy will emerge stronger as a result."
-Ananova
Pensions at risk from shares plunge
Millions of people with pension schemes that invest primarily in shares may not be aware of the risks to their retirement nest egg, a non-profit organisation warned.
Some five million workers are paying into defined contribution schemes - and if they opted for the default fund, all their investments could be in shares, The Pensions Advisory Service (TPAS) said.
With such schemes, also known as "money purchase" plans, amounts paid out at retirement depend on the performance of shares.
Malcolm McLean, of the TPAS, told BBC Radio 5 Live: "My concern is people think the default fund has been recommended to them and that it's appropriate for them personally, which it may not be, because it may be 100% invested in shares.
"But they may actually be taking more risk than they know about and are comfortable with."
The value of personal pension funds had dropped by almost a fifth this year as a result of turbulence on the stock market, the TPAS said.
A recent report showed retirement savings have lost in excess of 10% of their value in the last month alone as credit-crunch hit investors attempt to offload their shares.
However, the National Association of Pension Funds said default funds should shift members' money away from shares to safer investments as they approach retirement.
-Ananova
Cancer centre 'could lose £7.5m'
One of the UK's leading cancer treatment centres has revealed it could lose £7.5 million as more casualties of the Icelandic banking system's meltdown emerged.
The Christie NHS Foundation Trust, in Manchester, said the bulk of the money - £6.5 million - was made up of charity donations while the remainder deposited with Kaupthing Singer & Friedlander had come from the NHS.
The money had been put aside to fund research and service improvements in the next five years, the trust said in a statement last night.
The collapse of Iceland's major banks also caught out the Chelsea Building Society, which has some £55 million invested in the troubled country.
Local authorities have around £1 billion tied up, while charities stand to lose more than £120 million.
On Friday, Treasury officials arrived in Reykjavik for talks to try to settle the dispute over the Icelandic government's refusal to guarantee the deposits of British savers.
Caroline Shaw, chief executive of Christie NHS Foundation Trust, said: "I want to reassure everybody that our patients will continue to be treated as normal and we are working extremely hard to ensure that this money is returned to us."
The statement from the trust said: "This is money we have put aside to fund future service developments and research for cancer patients over the next five years.
"We have taken expert legal advice and are working closely with the Financial Services Authority to ensure that we protect these deposits."
More than 100 councils, as well as police forces, fire services and transport authorities, have deposits running into millions of pounds each in the crisis-hit institutions.
-Ananova
Luxury yacht maker to axe 290 jobs
A company which manufactures luxury motor boats and yachts is set to shed more than 290 jobs due to the global economic downturn.
Sealine, which has its headquarters in Kidderminster, Worcestershire, also confirmed that it plans to close its sites in nearby Hartlebury and in Burntwood, south Staffordshire, next year.
The firm, which currently employs around 630 people, stressed that it was entering into a 90-day consultation process with staff and would do everything it could to minimise the number of compulsory redundancies among its office and production workers.
In a statement, Sealine's managing director, Steve Coultate, said: "It is with great regret that we are planning these changes, but they are necessary given the current leisure marine market conditions and economic environment.
"We need to take action to protect the long-term prospects of both our company and our international dealer network."
Mr Coultate added that the action the company was taking would leave it well positioned to respond to a market upturn.
"We will seek to minimise the number of compulsory redundancies by inviting applications for voluntary redundancies and for all of those employees affected we will be providing a full consultation and counselling programme," he said.
-Ananova
Brown urged to freeze fuel duty
Petrol retailers have called for a freeze on fuel duty to help reduce forecourt prices even further.
The cost of petrol is 9% less than three months ago as oil prices plummeted to their lowest level for a year, according to the AA.
This offers consumers a modicum of comfort during the turbulent financial situation, with a 50-litre refill now £5.33 cheaper than when unleaded reached a record high of 119.7p on July 17.
But prices are still over 11p a litre more than this time last year, an equivalent increase of £5.70 for a 50-litre refill.
Ray Holloway, director of the Petrol Retailers Association (PRA), said: "Gordon Brown always has the ability to reduce fuel prices through a fuel tax reduction, but avoids it.
"The price of fuel at the pump is influenced by a range of factors beyond just the price of a barrel of oil but despite this, forecourt retailers have still managed to reduce the cost of fuel to the motorist at the expense of their own profit margin during recent weeks.
"Prices for crude oil and forecourt fuel are obviously linked but they do not move in tandem. Therefore they do not automatically move up or down at the same time."
A PRA spokesman added that oil price changes typically take between six to eight weeks to filter down to forecourts.
Supermarket giant Tesco lowered unleaded and diesel by 3p across its 430 UK forecourts on Friday. It follows a penny cut by rival Asda at the start of this week, and price drops made by a host of retailers last month.
AA spokesman Paul Watters said: "The 3p drop in the price of petrol is very welcome, particularly with another supermarket taking the lead in price reductions. This should cut the cost of filling a tank by £1.50, which will help to offset grocery and domestic energy inflation."
-Ananova
