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HARARE (Reuters) - The case against a senior official in Zimbabwe's MDC party is based on false evidence, his lawyers said on Monday in a trial which has raised tensions within the fragile unity government.

    The Movement for Democratic Change has called Roy Bennett's trial political persecution. His lawyers said investigators had failed to produce evidence implicating the politician, who could face the death penalty.

    "The entire summary of your evidence in the state's case includes information you know is false," Bennett's lawyer, Beatrice Mtetwa, told the High Court in Harare.

    Bennett, an ally of Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, was arrested in February and is accused of illegal possession of weapons for terrorism, banditry and insurgency.

    Tsvangirai's MDC last month briefly stopped cooperating in a government with President Robert Mugabe over a dispute over their power-sharing deal. The trial against Bennett, the party's treasurer-general, remains a major cause of friction. 

    Mtetwa said that the first state witness, a senior police officer who investigated the matter, had failed to link Bennett to a plot against Mugabe's government in 2006.

    Sipho Makone, a chief superintendent in the police, had said police found evidence that Bennett paid licensed Zimbabwean arms dealer Peter Hitschmann to buy weapons to assassinate senior government officials.

    Hitschmann was acquitted of terrorism charges in 2006 but served jail time for possessing dangerous weapons -- including six sub-machine guns and two machine guns -- which have also been produced in Bennett's trial.

    But Mtetwa said the police had failed to establish a link between Bennett and Hitschmann, including charges that the MDC's treasurer-general paid $5,000 into a bank account held by the arms dealer in Mozambique to purchase weapons.

    Makone said Hitschmann had an account in Mozambique but the prosecution had yet to establish that Bennett had deposited any money.

    "You have no evidence whatsoever that the accused was being implicated by Histchmann," Mtetwa said.

    Makone has told the court that Histchmann confessed in 2006, in a 2006 video recording made by army and intelligence officers, and in an affidavit, that Bennett was part of the plot.

    The evidence was never used in the trial of Hitschmann, who has disowned the confessions, saying he was tortured into making them. Hitschmann has now written to the attorney-general saying he has no evidence to give against Bennett.

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DUBAI (Reuters) - A flawless round of 66 by Lee Westwood, and late mistakes by his young Race to Dubai rival Rory McIlroy, gave the Englishman a considerable advantage with one round to go in the Dubai World Championship.                                        

    Westwood, the 2000 European number one, goes into Sunday's final day with a five-stroke lead over McIlroy, the player who heads him on the order of merit, the Race to Dubai.                                       

    Although Westwood was caught by McIlroy twice, the second time on the 15th, the 36-year-old Englishman's six-under return in another absorbing day's tussle took him to 15-under-par 201.                                       

    He leads by two strokes from his fellow Englishman and third-round playing partner Ross McGowan, who also got a 66.                                        

    McIlroy bogeyed the last three holes of the Earth course at Jumeirah Estates to slump to a 69 and share third place with triple major champion Padraig Harrington (69) and Sweden's Alex Noren (67).                                        

    The unheralded McGowan, who completed a maiden tour victory in last month's Madrid Masters, took charge of the first nine holes with five birdies, inspiring Westwood to his best.                                        

    "The way Ross played I knew I needed to be right on top of my game and it certainly helps when you feed off each other like we did today," Westwood said after completing a card containing six birdies.                                        

    Confidence, which has come with a return to the winner's podium recently in the Portugal Masters, and experience gained over the years should stand him in good stead in the final round, he said.                                       

    "I'll just keep to my game plan; people slip up when they try to do things differently," Westwood added. "I finish tournaments off better than most and looking at the leaderboard there aren't many on there that have won 30 times."                                        

    Northern Irishman McIlroy, who started the tournament 128,173 euro ahead of Westwood in the money list, pushed his more experienced Race to Dubai opponent all the way until the closing three holes.                                        

    On the 16th he overshot the green and chipped long from the water's edge. He three-putted the short 17th and hit his third shot into the hazard on the last.                                        

    "I'd got myself just where I wanted to be and then it went wrong," said McIlroy, 20. "You can either dwell on it or fight back. If I birdie the first three holes tomorrow all the damage is forgotten."

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    MADRID (Reuters) - Real Madrid replaced Barcelona at the top of La Liga on Saturday after they beat Racing Santander 1-0 at home and the champions were held 1-1 at Athletic Bilbao.

    Manuel Pellegrini's side head into next Sunday's 'clasico' at the Nou Camp with 28 points from 11 games, one ahead of Barca, after Gonzalo Higuain got the only goal at the Bernabeu.

    Daniel Alves gave Barca the lead just after the break at San Mames but the Basques battled back with substitute Gaizka Toquero racing through to level just past the hour mark.

    Real were all over Racing from the outset and had hit the woodwork twice before Higuain hooked in from close range in the 21st minute.

    Real had been whistled off the pitch in their last home game, after being knocked out of the King's Cup by third-tier Alcorcon, and the Bernabeu became restless as their team continued to dominate but without adding to the score.

    Karim Benzema had a wonderful backheel ruled out for offside after the break and Racing, with new coach Miguel Angel Portugal at the helm, almost snatched a point when Sergio Canales had a goal harshly disallowed for offside at the other end.

    "The game wasn't as tight as the scoreline suggests. On another day, playing worse, we would probably have scored more goals," Pellegrini said.

    Bilbao chased shadows for most of the first half but made life difficult for Barca until Xavi played the overlapping Alves into the area and the Brazilian fired inside the far post.

    LLORENTE FLICK-ON

    Home coach Joaquin Caparros immediately threw on another striker and was rewarded when Fernando Llorente flicked the ball on for Toquero to burst through the centre and equalise in the 62nd minute.

    Bilbao, who lost 4-1 to Barca in last season's King's Cup final, ran themselves into the ground to keep their out-of-sorts visitors at bay.
                                        
    "We are playing as well as we usually do, creating chances, but struggling to score goals," Alves told television station La Sexta. I hope normal service will be restored from next Sunday."
                                        
    Earlier, Sevilla beat promoted Tenerife 2-1 away with well-taken goals in each half from Diego Perotti and Renato.
                                        
    Manolo Jimenez's side held on to third place with 25 points, three ahead of Deportivo Coruna, who climbed to fourth after a hotly-disputed injury-time penalty gave them a 2-1 victory over visiting Atletico Madrid.

    Sergio Aguero poached an early goal for Atletico but Argentine compatriot Diego Colotto levelled for Depor with a back post header in the 20th.

    Mexico's Andres Guardado netted the spot kick at the end after Pablo Ibanez was penalised for bringing down Alberto Lopo.

    Struggling Atletico remain in the relegation zone with seven points, behind 17th-placed Racing on goal difference.

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HEGANG, China (Reuters) - Relatives of miners killed by a gas blast at a coal pit in northeast China scuffled with police and demanded answers from the owners on Monday as the toll hit 104 and hopes faded that any more survivors would be found.

    The protest came a day after another 11 miners were killed in a blast at a pit in the southern province of Hunan, the official Xinhua agency said. China's stability-obsessed government is nervous about protests, and keen to control discontent.

    China has the world's deadliest coal-mining industry with more than 3,000 people killed in mine floods, explosions, collapses and other accidents in 2008 alone.

    Saturday's explosion at the mine in Hegang in the frigid province of Heilongjiang came as more than 500 miners were underground, though most were rescued.

    Mine operators were at fault because they failed to evacuate workers fast enough after dangerously high gas levels were detected in the mine, said Luo Lin, head of the country's safety watchdog, the State Administration of Work Safety (SAWS).

    Nearly an hour before the explosion, a gas detector showed levels five times the trigger for an evacuation, Xinhua said. An official said the mine was too big for workers to escape in time.

    Four miners were still unaccounted for on Sunday with almost no hope for survival, but even as smoke drifted out of the mine mouth near the site of the explosion, other miners were heading into undamaged parts of the pit to start the evening's shift.

    A dozen women, relatives of the dead, had braved the freezing temperatures on Monday morning to take their complaints about a lack of information to the mine's entrance, where they argued and scuffled with police and mine security.

    "None of the officials have died, all of the dead are the workers," one shouted. "Not one of those officials has even been down into that mine."

    Some of the women were taken inside the mine compound, while others were put into a large white van. Men who declined to identify themselves tried to stop reporters speaking to the women, putting their hands in front of cameras.

    SUFFERING FAMILIES

    Anxious families were also milling around the hospital where 54 miners, six of them seriously injured, are being treated. Hospital staff were trying to calm tensions.

    "When the patients see their families going through this suffering, they become very emotional, overemotional, and they can become restless," said Wang Jun, Director of the surgical department at Hegang mining hospital.

    In 2007, after more than 180 miners died in a flooded coal mine in the northern province of Shandong, relatives stormed the offices of the company that operated the mine, smashing windows and accusing managers of not telling families what was happening.

    Compared with other manual jobs, Chinese coal miners can earn relatively high wages, tempting workers and farmers into rickety and poorly ventilated shafts.

    The Xinxing mine in Hegang lies near China's border with Russia and produced more than a million tonnes of coal in the first 10 months of this year, local reports said.

    It is owned by the Heilongjiang Longmei Mining Holding Group, making it larger than most operations where accidents occur.

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