High-speed rail victory

THE Government has claimed victory in a High Court battle over its HS2 high-speed rail scheme, despite a ruling that it conducted a legally flawed consultation process.

A judge rejected nine out of ten grounds of challenge brought in five cases by objectors to the multi-billion-pound project.

But Mr Justice Ouseley, sitting at London's High Court, allowed the tenth challenge and declared consultations on compensation for the owners of properties blighted by the scheme was "so unfair as to be unlawful".

The Government immediately said that the consultation exercise would be re-run and insisted that the setback would not delay the project.

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RIVAL plans for press regulation were set out yesterday ahead of a Commons showdown after David Cameron pulled the plug on cross-party talks.

Labour and the Liberal Democrats joined forces to publish a "strengthened version" of the Prime Minister's proposed royal charter to establish a new watchdog. They signalled they still believed legislation was required to underpin an independent self-regulatory body as recommended by the Leveson Inquiry into phone hacking.

That leaves them firmly at odds with Mr Cameron who believes that would threaten press freedom and make the system unworkable as newspapers would refuse to sign up. MPs will choose between the two approaches in a series of votes on Monday.

PRIME MINISTER David Cameron yesterday said he disagreed with the new pope, Francis I, over the future of the Falkland Islands.

Pope Francis, who is the first Argentinian pontiff and a former Archbishop of Buenos Aires, has previously described the disputed islands as "Argentinian soil" which was "usurped" by Britain. But Mr Cameron urged all world leaders, including the pope, to respect the overwhelming 99.8% vote in this week's Falklands referendum in favour of remaining a British Overseas Territory.