15/03/2012 Newsround

Hello. We are live. It is just after 5pm on Thursday afternoon.

You are with Nel and Joe. Stick with us because we have a jam-

packed show. Could this be the best cartoon character of all time? And

School Report takes over the news room.

First up, we are talking about horse racing. This week the

country's top jockeys have been competing in one of the biggest

events - the Cheltenham Festival. This year horses have been making

the headlines for the wrong reasons. Five horses have been killed so far,

injured in the races. Across four days, more than 200,000 people will

come to cheer on their favourite horses at Cheltenham. High drama is

not unusual. This year has been especially tragic. Five horses died

this week. They were injured when they fell during races and had to

be put down. The events this week have fuelled a row over whether the

risks involved make the sport too cruel. New health and safety

measures have been taken at Cheltenham at nine horses died back

in 2006. Some groups say that is not enough. Here, at this

rehabilitation centre, injured racehorses are looked after while

they recover. Nicky who looks after the horses says she doesn't think

the sport is cruel. The British Horseracing Boarbroodd authority

and other bodies are working hard to ensure that facilities are

improving all the time. The people in charge of racing in Britain told

us that like all competitive sports, The Cheltenham Festival has been

going on for more than 200 years. The authorities say they will look

into what went wrong here to try and make the sport safer in the

future. Moving on and thousands of refugees have been fleeing violence

in Sirry yafplt over the past 24 -- Syria. Over the past 24 hours many

people have arrived at camps. The UN says 8,000 people have been

killed during the conflict. More than 200,000 have been forced to

flee their homes. The BBC's Jonathan Head is in Hatay, at one

of the refugee camps, where they are running out of space. There are

people here who have arrived recently, all telling the sorry

that their villages were surrounded, they were fired on for days. The

villagersed and left. -- villagers upped and left. Many more are

making their way across. Have you got what it takes to do this job?

Well, it turns out, yes! Thousands of you have turned into journalists

to take part in BBC sport reports. You have filmed, edited and

reported on subjects you think are important.

For days, these guys have been kept megabusy, from grilling David

Cameron. Mr Cameron, if Scotland votes no to independence, what

further powers would you be prepared to give to the Scottish

Parliament? It is a discussion to have with the Scottish people.

Getting exclusives from top children's author Michael Morpurgo.

Are you writing a book at the moment? What is it about? Yes. I

have just finished one. It is a Medal for Leroy. Even getting to

grips with being on telly. Some joins me early this morning. What

have you taken from this whole experience? Well, when you come on

this journey you learn a lot. have all worked hard. OK, so it is

not all about television today. These guys at the BBC's studio have

been preparing and doing sport bulletins all day. We have joipls

and Anya here. -- James and Anya here. I thought it would be nice to

see what it is like to work in media. I thought, "Get your words

right." It went OK in the end. But it does not stop here. Once

today is over, you won't have to wait until next year to get

involved. With big events like the Olympics and the Queen's Diamond

Jubilee there are lots of chances to get in on the action. Check out

the School Report website. You can see yourself on screen by the

summer. Next up, last night Wales went to sleep with five cities,

today it woke up to find out it had number six. St Asaph will join

Cardiff, Newport, Bangor and St David's as having city status. Two

more were announced. They are Perth in Scotland... You

can join in tomorrow for our report. It has 3,400 people.

Sticking the jubilee celebrations. Over the past week we have seen

Prince Harry run a marathon and get down to the beat in Brazil. Now the

royal in Rio has been giving an interview about what party he and

the other royal grandkids might give their gran. When we get back,

we as a group of grandchildren will be able to have a dinner and maybe

take her out on the town. I don't know. Does the Queen go out on the

town? I don't know. Does yours? if you are a cartoon character,

then tonight is a very big night. The British Animation Awards will

be rewarding the winners of the awards for Britain's favourite

cartoon character. Will it be Wallace and Gromit, Peppa Pig,

Postman Pat, Shaun The Sheep and Charlie and Lola?

Well, we have been asking you to pick your favourite on the website.

Here are some of the comments you He goes on to say they teach his

little sister how to be a good one. Anna says:

I would have to agree. My favourite would be, have you ever watched Hey

Arnold? Yes. Next One Direction have been talking about conquering

America. Their album is number one on the US iTunes chart. Justin

Bieber took to Twitter to congratulate them. The band say

their success feels in-- incredible. There were 5,000 people at the book

signing. I said, "Can you believe all these people have turned up for

us?" you get moments that make you grateful for what you are doing. We

would love the album to go number one. We are hoping for the best

really. It is amazing to be in the charts out here. We are grateful.

They are doing really well, our boys, aren't they? As if they could