World News joined 0010

[JohnCenaFan28]

Zara Philips is returning to London after breaking her collarbone at a showjumping competition in France, the event's organisers said.

The Queen's granddaughter fell from her horse, Tsunami II, at a cross country event at Pau, near the French Pyrenees.

The horse tripped at the 15th fence, throwing off Phillips and breaking its neck.

The 27-year-old royal was treated with painkillers by the event's medical staff, but the horse was badly injured and was put down.

Her spokesman said the Royal was "devastated" by the animal's death.

"She has had her for a while and worked with her regularly," she said. She added that Miss Phillips was recovering well from her injury.

"She's obviously very sore and in a bit of pain, but she's been strapped up," she said.

Phillips is expected to take three months to recover from her injury, and will be out of action for the rest of the season.

Julian Seaman, a spokesman for the Etoiles de Pau event described how Phillips fell beneath her horse after it "somersaulted" at the fence, propelling Phillips to the ground.

"The horse tripped as it landed, she went flying through the air," he said. "She was under the horse, she had a strong impact on her shoulder."

-Ananova

[JohnCenaFan28]

Plans to develop a 300-acre former colliery site, creating 1,000 new jobs through the building of over 900 houses and other properties, have been given the green light, it was announced.

UK Coal said the development of the former Prince of Wales pit at Pontefract in West Yorkshire will be one of the largest-ever brownfield regeneration projects.

Prince of Wales was the oldest colliery in Britain when it closed six years ago and the site will now be transformed with houses, retail outlets, restaurants and cafes as well as a medical centre, day nursery, community centre and parkland.

Mining activities on the site, located close to the M1 and A1, date back to the 1860s, but ceased in August 2002.

Local Government Secretary Hazel Blears, through the Government Office for Yorkshire and the Humber, has given the green light to the project, the company announced.

Wakefield Council approved the development project in August, but was required to refer the proposals for government endorsement.

UK Coal Chief Executive Jon Lloyd said: "The decision by the Secretary of State now paves the way for the regeneration of an area with excellent communication links, a versatile and enthusiastic workforce and a community with a desire to move forward."

Development Director Tim Love added: "We look forward to building on the close working relationship and understandings developed with all the interested parties over recent years, and turning the blueprint of a new future into a reality."

Work on removing coal slurry from the site, a scheme approved under an earlier permission, has been under way for some time. The new consent will allow a further 1.5 million tonnes of slurry to be extracted from the former colliery lagoons.

Preparations for site development activities are in hand, though the start date for the housing development will remain under regular review due to the continued fragile state of the housing market, said UK Coal.

-Ananova

[JohnCenaFan28]

Up to 3,000 post offices could be forced to close if Royal Mail loses a £1 billion contract to run the Post Office card account, it was warned.

The group is thought to face competition for the contract from US bank Citigroup and bill payment provider PayPoint, according to the Sunday Express.

A decision on who will run the accounts for the five years from April 2010 is expected to be announced in the coming weeks.

Around three million people currently use the Post Office card account which is run by the Post Office for the Government to enable it to pay benefits electronically. The accounts can only be used to receive benefits, state pensions and tax credits, but no credit checks are carried out on customers who open them.

The Government is competitively tendering the contract to run the accounts to ensure it gets the best value for taxpayers.

It was reported that while the Post Office card account was seen as a success, it had been more expensive to run than the Government had wanted. The current contract is worth around £150 million a year.

A Royal Mail spokeswoman said: "The decision on the card account contract to replace the current Post Office card accounts in April 2010 is of critical importance. This crucial decision is clearly central to the future of the branch network and Post Office Limited has submitted a very competitive bid."

Royal Mail last week reported a doubling its operating profit to £177 million during the first half of its financial year, despite the number of letters it delivered falling by five million a day.

But it warned that it faced "huge pressure" from intensifying competition, its loss making universal postal service and its pensions deficit.

It also revealed that its pension deficit currently stands at £3.4 billion but this is expected to increase "substantially" when the scheme is revalued next spring.

-Ananova

[JohnCenaFan28]

A senior paratrooper described the difficulties of fighting the Taliban, and said British forces had to win the battle for hearts and minds in Afghanistan.

Major Russell Lewis, Commander of B Company in the 2nd Battalion, the Parachute Regiment, said Taliban forces were able to regenerate and British troops could not "just keep having slugging matches with them".

He was speaking as members of 2 Para returned to their base in Colchester having seen some of the fiercest fighting since the war in Afghanistan began following the 9/11 terrorist attacks in 2001.

Thirteen soldiers, who were either members of 2 Para or were attached to the unit, have been killed since the battalion left for a six-month tour of duty in Helmand Province.

Major Lewis said the soldiers under his command were the finest generation of paratroops in the history of the Parachute Regiment.

He said they had risen to every challenge and had seen "the best and worst" of soldiering.

-Ananova

[JohnCenaFan28]

Gordon Brown defended his strategy of higher borrowing to shore up the economy as the "responsible" thing to do.

Despite criticism of the Government's plan to spend its way out of the downturn, the Prime Minister indicated he would not try to reduce debt until tax revenues recover.

His comments came as Chancellor Alistair Darling was preparing to replace Mr Brown's fiscal rules with new targets on public borrowing to accommodate the new economic climate.

The Tories went on the offensive, accusing the premier of borrowing out of necessity rather than for the good of the country. But, speaking to business leaders at Imperial College London, Mr Brown insisted Britain had to make the necessary long-term investments to benefit from the "new global age".

Now was the wrong time to slash investment in areas like education, training, energy efficiency or tax cuts for hard-pressed families, he said.

"That means that the responsible course of government is to invest at this time to speed up the economic activity," the Prime Minister said.

"As economic activity rises, as tax revenues recover, then you would want borrowing to be a lower share of your national income. But the responsible course at the moment is to use the investments that are necessary, and to continue them, and to help people through very difficult times. I think that's a very fundamental part of what we are doing."

During a question-and-answer session, the Prime Minister also fuelled speculation that interest rates could be set to fall again soon.

Responding to Mr Brown's remarks, shadow chancellor George Osborne said: "What they are talking about is borrowing out of necessity, not out of virtue. Gordon Brown is a man with an overdraft, not a man with a plan.

"He is being forced into this borrowing. He presents it as a strategy but it is actually a consequence of his great failure that borrowing is already out of control before we even get into the worst of the economic circumstances that we are in."

-Ananova

[JohnCenaFan28]

George Osborne attempted to draw a line under the Tory donation furore by admitting he had made "a mistake".

In his first public comments for nearly a week, the shadow chancellor acknowledged his involvement in discussions of a gift from Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska "did not look very good".

"I neither asked for money nor received any and I didn't break any rules but I think I did make a mistake," he told BBC Radio 4's The World at One.

The admission came as the European Commission again knocked back calls for a probe into Peter Mandelson's contacts with the billionaire. Officials in Brussels said there was still "no evidence" suggesting the new Business Secretary had breached rules on conflicts of interest during his four-year stint as trade commissioner.

The decision - despite Lord Mandelson revealing that his contacts with Mr Deripaska stretch back two years further than previously known - threatened to return the spotlight to Mr Osborne's summer holiday activities.

But Mr Osborne tried to head off further damage by announcing that he would no longer take part in any discussions about individual donations to the party. "I think in politics it is not just what you say or what you do, it's how things look," he said. "If I am absolutely honest this didn't look very good and I regret that."

The row erupted last week when an old friend of the shadow chancellor from Oxford, banking heir Nat Rothschild, accused him of trying to "solicit" a loan from Mr Deripaska.

In a series of claim and counter-claim, Mr Osborne has admitted meeting the billionaire on his yacht, which was moored near Mr Rothschild's villa on the Greek island of Corfu.

He has also confirmed he was present when Mr Rothschild discussed the possibility of the Russian making a donation with Tory Party chief executive and fundraiser Andrew Feldman. Their conversation included a discussion about whether Mr Deripaska - who, as a foreigner, is banned from making individual donations - could make a contribution through his British-based company, Leyland DAF.

However, the Tories insist the matter was never discussed directly with Mr Deripaska, and no donation was ever made. Mr Rothschild spoke out after apparently blaming Mr Osborne for leaks of private conversations with Lord Mandelson - who was also holidaying with them on Corfu.

-Ananova

[JohnCenaFan28]

Jonathan Ross and Russell Brand are to apologise personally to veteran actor Andrew Sachs over the offensive calls they made to him during a radio show, sources said.

The pair left answerphone messages for the 78-year-old Fawlty Towers star in which they told him Brand had slept with his granddaughter, 23-year-old Georgina Baillie, an aspiring model.

The presenters joked that the actor might kill himself as a result.

A source said Ross had already sent his apology and Brand was in the process of putting one together.

The BBC apologised earlier and also sent a response personally to Sachs.

His agent, Meg Poole, confirmed she had received the apology and was forwarding it to him.

She said: "They did send a perfectly nice apology."

Ms Poole had emailed and written to the BBC to formally complain about the calls.

"We have received a letter of a complaint from Mr Sachs' agent and would like to sincerely apologise to Mr Sachs for the offence caused," a BBC spokeswoman said. "We recognise that some of the content broadcast was unacceptable and offensive.

"We are reviewing how this came about and are responding to Mr Sachs personally. We also apologise to listeners for any offence caused."

-Ananova

[JohnCenaFan28]

A man has appeared in court charged with the murder of two Chinese graduates.

Xi Zhou and her boyfriend, Zhen Xing Yang, both 25, were found mutilated in their ground-floor flat in Croydon Road, Newcastle, in August.

Guang Hui Cao, 30, of Castle Place, Morpeth, Northumberland, was at Newcastle Crown Court for a 10-minute hearing.

The balding, stocky defendant, spoke through an interpreter to confirm his name and age.

Northumbria Police made an application, which was granted by the magistrate, to detain £4,565 which was seized at his home.

The money can be held by the force for three months to allow investigations to be carried out.

Guang was remanded in custody to appear before Newcastle Crown Court on November 10 for a preliminary hearing.

No pleas were entered, and no application for bail was made.

The Chinese couple graduated from Newcastle University, where they met, and she worked as a waitress in a city centre noodle bar.

After his death, it came to light that Mr Zhen may have been involved in an international football betting scam.

-Ananova

[JohnCenaFan28]

Two former lovers suspected of killing Leeds University student Meredith Kercher should remain behind bars until any trial takes place, the prosecutor said.

Judge Paolo Micheli will decide on Tuesday whether Amanda Knox, 21, and Raffaele Sollecito, 24, should be formally charged for the murder of the 21-year-old exchange student on her year abroad in Perugia, Italy, last November.

But prosecutor Giuliano Mignini advised against placing them under house arrest before a trial, suggesting fears they may flee.

The body of Miss Kercher, from Coulsdon, Surrey, was found on November 2 in her room in the house she was sharing with Knox and others. She was semi-naked and her throat had been slit.

American Knox and Italian Sollecito have been accused of killing her in a bungled sex game, alongside third suspect Rudy Hermann Guede, 21.

Lawyers for all three suspects are confident their clients will be cleared on Tuesday, they told reporters outside court.

But Knox's lawyer Carlo Dalla Vedova said in the case of a trial he had requested Knox be placed under house arrest at San Fatucchio - a supervised community and farm for recovering drug addicts and young offenders in rural Umbria, run by Catholic charity Caritas.

Mr Vedova said: "Amanda has faith and can't wait for this nightmare to be over. She's been in jail for a year and she doesn't even know why."

Prosecutors allege that Knox stabbed Kercher in the throat, while Sollecito held her down and Guede tried to sexually assault her.

The three suspects were in court in Perugia on Monday, where the prosecutors gave their response to the defences presented last week.

-Ananova

[JohnCenaFan28]

A police marksman was accused of "grossly exaggerating" his evidence to justify his decision to shoot dead Jean Charles de Menezes.

The highly-trained firearms officer insisted he shouted "armed police" before opening fire on the Brazilian in a London Underground train.

But other police officers and all the public in the carriage made no reference in their statements to him saying this prior to the shooting, the inquest into Mr de Menezes's death heard.

The 27-year-old was shot seven times in the head at point-blank range inside Stockwell Tube station on July 22 2005 after being mistaken for one of the men who attacked London a day earlier.

The police marksman, identified by the code name C12, has told the inquest he killed Mr de Menezes fearing he was a suicide bomber about to detonate his device.

Michael Mansfield QC, for the Menezes family, alleged C12 "embellished" his account to explain why he was so certain the innocent Brazilian posed a deadly threat.

The barrister put it to C12: "I am going to make it plain that what you did when it came to making a statement the following day was to grossly exaggerate what you saw in order to, as it were, convince people that he had been a terrorist about to explode a bomb, in your mind. Is there any possibility you did that?"

The officer replied: "Absolutely none whatsoever."

C12 said he only fired on Mr de Menezes after raising his gun and calling out "armed police". But Mr Mansfield alleged the other witnesses' statements proved the officer did not give the Brazilian any verbal warning before shooting him.

C12, a member of Scotland Yard's elite CO19 specialist firearms unit, earlier admitted that a series of misunderstandings and mistakes led to Mr de Menezes's death.

-Ananova