Category: news

Two petrol bombs are thrown at flats in the Cliftonville Avenue area of north Belfast.

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Spanish telecoms firm Telefonica and Chinese operator China Unicom agree to expand their alliance by investing $500m in each other.

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A four-year-old horse is pulled from a swimming pool by rescue crews after becoming stuck.

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Security problems, political instability and natural disasters have all had an impact on businesses.

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A letter reportedly taken from William Wallace when he was captured by English forces should be returned to Scotland, historians have said.

The Scottish government wants the note, granting Wallace passage to visit the Pope in 1300, handed to Scotland’s national archives.

The “safe conduct” letter is one of a small number of documents thought by some to have belonged to Wallace.

However, the National Archives in London maintains that it is a copy.

It said there was no evidence to show that the letter was ever in Wallace’s possession but a a group of historians, convened by the Scottish government, is challenging this claim.

The first meeting of the William Wallace Working Group, set up to examine the paperwork’s history and authenticity, concluded that it was an original.

Minutes from that first meeting read: “The experts are unanimous in judging that the letter itself, far from being a copy, is an original produced in the French royal chancery”.

The letter was reportedly in Wallace’s possession when he was captured in Robroyston in 1305 – eight years after he had led a Scottish army to victory against English forces at the Battle of Stirling Bridge.

It was written by King Philip IV of France to urge the Pope to “hold our loved William le Walois of Scotland, knight, recommended to his favour” during a proposed visit to Italy.

The nature of the business Wallace hoped to discuss with the Pope is unclear, and no surviving evidence exists that Wallace ever made the trip.

The disputed document has been held in England since Wallace was hanged, drawn and quartered on 23 August 1305 after being found guilty of treason.

Many experts favour the theory that the letter was taken from Wallace after his arrest but others suggest that an emissary delivered it – only to be intercepted by English spies.

The Wallace working group is due to meet in the next two months, with its final report not due until at least the end of 2011.

A Scottish government spokesman said: “There has always been tremendous interest in this letter and repeated claims that it should rightfully reside in Scotland’s National Archives.

“However, its origins and precise link to William Wallace is a mystery, one which this expert group is working to solve.

“We look forward to receiving the group’s final report which should help establish the letter’s place in Scottish history and support discussions between Scottish and UK government ministers on the status of the document.”

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A small Palestinian group linked to al-Qaeda was behind the New Year’s Day bomb attack on a church in Alexandria in which 23 people died, Egypt says.

Interior Minister Habib al-Adli said Cairo had “decisive proof” that the Army of Islam carried out the attack in the northern Egyptian city.

The Gaza-based group immediately denied any responsibility for the attack.

Officials in Egypt have so far released very few details how they believe the attack was carried out.

“We have decisive proof of their (Army of Islam’s) heinous involvement in planning and carrying out such a villainous terrorist act,” Mr Adli said in a speech to mark Police Day in Egypt.

President Hosni Mubarak praised police, saying the development would help “set at rest the hearts of all Egyptians”.

The Alexandria attack triggered days of rioting by Egypt’s minority Christians, who accused the government of not doing enough to protect them.

A spokesman for the Army of Islam said on Sunday that the group “has no connection to the church attack in Egypt”.

But he added: “We praise those who did it.”

The Army of Islam has been blamed for kidnappings and other violence inside Gaza.

It is alleged that the group played a part in the kidnapping of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit in 2006.

But there is no record of it operating further afield, the BBC’s Jon Leyne in Cairo reports.

Our correspondent adds that the Egyptian government early on stressed their belief that there was foreign involvement – rather than it just being a sectarian religious attack carried out by Egyptians.

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Two young women have been taken to hospital after their car went over a cliff in Cornwall in the dark.

The women managed to get out of the vehicle and were rescued by a lifeboat following the incident at Pendennis Point at about 2215 GMT on Saturday.

Coastguards said the car was driven off the cliff at the popular beauty spot, which overlooks Falmouth Bay.

The pair were taken to hospital after being rescued. It has not been revealed how the car came to go over the cliff.

Police, fire crews and the ambulance service were also called into action.

Marc Thomas, watch manager at Falmouth Maritime Rescue Co-ordination Centre, said: “The car’s two occupants, both female, have been transferred by lifeboat to the Falmouth lifeboat house where they will then be taken on to the Royal Cornwall Hospital.

“The car is in an upright and intact position but badly damaged and will be recovered in due course.”

In December, the government announced plans to only have Falmouth’s coastguard station manned during daylight hours, as part of a move to cut the number of main coastguard centres from 18 to eight, with only three open 24 hours a day.

Falmouth currently monitors an area totalling 660,000 square miles of the Atlantic Ocean.

A consultation period on the closure plans is still going on.

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Nick Clegg has denied the government has been damaged by the row surrounding the departure of No 10 director of communications Andy Coulson.

Mr Coulson is to step down amid continuing allegations regarding phone hacking at the News of the World.

He has denied knowledge of the practice when he was editor and Mr Clegg said he “had no reason to disbelieve him”.

But Labour’s deputy leader Harriet Harman said David Cameron was “wrong” to employ him in the first place.

The process of finding a replacement for Mr Coulson – who first joined Mr Cameron’s inner circle in 2007 when the Conservatives were in opposition – is under way after he indicated his intention to stand down in the next couple of weeks.

Labour have questioned Mr Cameron’s judgement in retaining Mr Coulson in the high-profile role amid continuing allegations of illegal interception of voice messages by News of the World journalists during Mr Coulson’s time as editor.

Mr Coulson has repeatedly denied any involvement in or knowledge of such activities but said on Friday he would step down as continuing media coverage of the issue “made it difficult for me to give the 110% needed in this role”.

Asked whether Mr Coulson’s departure was a blow for the coalition, the deputy prime minister said he believed the government would not “miss a beat” in pressing ahead with its agenda of securing the economic recovery and public sector and constitutional changes.

And he defended Mr Cameron’s handling of the issue and his decision to appoint Mr Coulson in the first place after he resigned as editor of the newspaper in 2007.

“If you listen to what David Cameron has said,” he told BBC One’s Andrew Marr show, “he said very emphatically that he thought it was right to give Andy Coulson a second chance.

“Andy Coulson has been very clear that he was not in any way responsible for phone hacking and had no knowledge of it. I have no reason to disbelieve him.”

And Mr Clegg said he would have some input into the choice of who would replace Mr Coulson.

“It is primarily a decision for the prime minister, he is the prime minister’s spokesman but he is also responsible for communicating government policy so of course I will play a role as well.”

However, Labour said David Cameron could not escape responsibility for bringing Mr Coulson into his top team when there were unresolved questions about his past.

“I think that David Cameron was wrong to appoint someone to the heart of the government, to the heart of Downing Street, who had actually been editor of a newspaper at a time when criminal activity was going on,” Harriet Harman, the party’s deputy leader, told Sky News.

While acknowledging that Mr Coulson had denied any involvement in phone hacking, she added the issue risked further eroding public confidence in politics.

“For all David Cameron talks about trust in politics, it is fundamental that people obey the criminal law and that is what is at stake here,” she added.

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