THE SPINE is going to take over from the knee as the favourite area for joint replacement, according to Smith & Nephew, the healthcare company. Aborigines hunted them for food, and kept their numbers in balance. At the same time, Dr Owen was striding out of The Reform Club, the slightly flared back-vents of his new sports-jacket blowing hither and thither in the fierce wind Happily, I managed to hail the first taxi that approached. Profits of pounds 246m are forecast for this year, up from pounds 185.2m, and pounds 282.2m next year.Harrisons & Crosfield, the chemicals to timber group, eased 5p to 125p following a County NatWest sell suggestion. I replied that I would refrain from saying I had told her so. THE MOTHER of identical twin girls told a jury yesterday how she became friends with the nurse accused of murdering one of them and attempting to murder the other.

AFTER two years and 492 matches, the 24 teams for next year's World Cup finals should be known by around 2am tomorrow morning. The dossier of information, which has never been made public before, includes a sworn statement from a former policeman who reported that officers bragged to him about beating the men accused of the Birmingham pub bombings shortly before they denied on oath that violence had been used to obtain confessions. And the blanket coverage of old soldiers' stories combined with the detailed re-creations of the atmosphere and experiences of the time may be seen as little more than symptoms of our compulsive nostalgia and our queasy fascination with the superhuman contingencies of total war. But, this time round, there is something different. If Sir Richard wishes to have the greatest impact, he will try to have his report published in the week beginning Monday 17 October, when the Conservative conference will just have ended and there will still be plenty of time for any Biffens to stand in the Conservatives' annual election.. Last year the United States held two rounds of direct talks with North Korea in which it offered help to rescue the country's collapsing economy and held out the possibility of diplomatic recognition if the North would stop trying to develop nuclear weapons.'They were offered a perfectly decent fall-back,' said the diplomat, 'but they chose to sacrifice a third round of talks which was virtually within their grasp. And there's plenty to do in the evenings, with musical festivals ranging from brass bands at Chepstow to chamber concerts in the Gower churches, and trad and modern jazz at Brecon.As for finding somewhere to stay, we've a selection of the best hotels, bed and breakfasts and self-catering cottages in the country, including a cider mill in Monmouth, a lighthouse near Newport and a blockhouse in Pembrokeshire.NORTH WALES GWYNEDD AND CLWYDDAYS OUTAnglesey Sea Zoo: One of the best examples of its kind, the zoo, at Brynsiencyn on Anglesey, has a wide range of tanks displaying the marine life of the local area.

The most successful of the current offers is the lovely white **Sainsbury's Grechetto dell'Umbria ( pounds 3.69), which is very soft and creamy, with a delicious salty tang and rich, greengagey fruit. Mark Lawson's recent article 'Sins of Transmission' wrongly suggested that the television presenter Michael Barratt had left his wife for co-host Dilys Morgan. A MAN believed to be a Syrian defector is being secretly held in an Israeli jail after he crossed from Syria into the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, causing an alert and surviving heavy Israeli gunfire. Michael Whitaker, who won on Henderson My Messieur (defeating his elder brother, John, on Gammon) said that the fatality had 'soured' the competition.But riders did not condemn the Derby Bank as a dangerous obstacle. Wind-powered generators at Blyth Harbour, Northumberland, which are ready to be connected to the national grid, supplying enough power for 3,000 homes Photograph: Doug Hall (Photograph omitted).

Like his last one, In God's Name, which claims that Pope John Paul I was assassinated, the book will be controversial. Second, in Paris, where a most respected authority said the novel was simply not good enough for such a prize. THE BUILDING materials and cheque-printing company MB-Caradon more than doubled its sales yesterday with the well-flagged acquisition of a large part of Pillar, RTZ's non-core building materials and engineering division. The citadel on Gozo was rebuilt against further onslaughts by the Turks.Nearly 400 years later came the second great siege. But he once told a colleague privately that he was the 'fourth most Euro-sceptic' member of the Cabinet (after Michael Portillo, Lilley and Norman Lamont).