Shuttle lands in Florida

The US Space shuttle Endeavour has landed safely at Florida's Kennedy Space Center, bringing home the crew from the International Space Station (ISS) who have been in space since August.

The shuttle touched down, as planned, at 1255 (1755 GMT) despite a delayed departure from the ISS, when the space station had to be moved to a higher orbit to avoid a possible collision with space debris.

It had been feared that bad weather might delay touchdown, and experts at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa) waited until the last minute before giving the go-ahead to the seven astronauts and cosmonauts on board.

On Mission Control's cue, the shuttle pilots fired the braking rockets, sending Endeavour on a long dive out of orbit.

Endeavour is bringing back the crew of the ISS, Commander Frank Culbertson and cosmonauts Vladimir Dezhurov and Mikhail Tyurin.

The men, who have been in orbit for 129 days, were in space during the 11 September attacks and were able to see smoke rising from the burning twin towers from 250 miles (400 kilometres) up as they orbited over North America.

"We are looking forward to getting home for Christmas, especially Frank and his crew," shuttle commander Dominic Gorie said earlier on Monday.

The families of the three returning ISS crew were at the Kennedy Space Center eagerly awaiting their return.