Rebekah Brooks, the former chief executive of News International, and Andy Coulson...have lost a last ditch attempt to get their prosecution over alleged phone hacking dropped. The court of appeal...made the ruling after Coulson sought to have the hacking case against him removed on the grounds that the law did not extend to voicemails that had already been listened to. The case was brought by Coulson, but the four other defendants in the Operation Weeting trial were joined in the judgment because it would affect all cases, the court of appeal ruled...They are all due to stand trial in September for alleged phone hacking and all five pleaded not guilty to the charges earlier this month.