Bomb suspect critical

The terror suspect fighting for his life after the car bomb attack on Glasgow airport is unlikely to survive, a doctor said. An anonymous member of the team that treated Kafeel Ahmed, 27, at the Royal Alexandra Hospital told a news agency: “He has third-degree burns over most of his torso and limbs. Because he has lost so much skin he is vulnerable to infection and won’t be able to fight it.”

Still smoking in Stoke

Smokers in Stoke-on-Trent are still lighting up in public places because the local council has no power to impose fines. Officials failed to complete the legal paperwork by the July 1 deadline, which means smokers cannot be handed £50 on-the-spot fines for breaking the law. The council, named the worst in England by the Audit Commission earlier this year, cannot impose the fines until August 2.

Call to families over body parts inquiry

The man leading the inquiry into whether nuclear establishments illegally retrieved and stored deceased workers’ body parts to test for radioactive contamination has invited families to come forward if they have concerns.

Michael Redfern, QC, said that he was already committed to investigating the 65 cases that emerged after The Times’s disclosure of union claims that harvesting organs without family consent was normal at Sellafield, in Cumbria, but expected more cases to come to light. Speaking in Whitehaven, he revealed that he now had evidence of organ retrieval at several nuclear establishments.

‘High-risk’ prisons

Sex offenders and other high-risk criminals are being put in open jails because of unclear guidance on where they should be held as they near the end of their sentences, Anne Owers, the Chief Inspector of Prisons, has said in a report on Leyhill prison in Gloucestershire. She called for discussions on the issue with the Parole Board. The report also highlighted the effects of overcrowding in prisons.

No rise for nurses

Nurses in England are alone in not having received a pay rise this year after their colleagues in Northern Ireland received the award recommended by a pay review body. Nurses in the Province will receive the 2.5 per cent increase backdated to April 1, as has already been agreed in Scotland and Wales. English nurses have been offered a staged award that works out at 1.9 per cent over the year.

£1m home trashed

A schoolgirl from Harrogate, North Yorkshire, who invited friends to stay in her parents’ £1 million house while she went to Wimbledon with them is counting the cost after the house was trashed. Robert and Elfrida Bowles’s daughter, believed to be called Camilla, 14, arranged for the friends to stay. Police said that “a party began and gate-crashers started arriving”. The damage has been put at £15,000.

Meat dye unsafe

The Food Standards Agency has asked meat processors and traders to stop using Red 2G, a dye used to redden meat in some sausages and burgers sold in Britain that is at the centre of a cancer alert. The request comes after the European Food Safety Authority said that it could no longer guarantee a safe daily limit for consumers to eat meat with the colourant, which is also known as E128.

Five-month hiccup

A man who has suffered with almost incessant hiccups for five months has appealed for help to find a cure. Christopher Sands, 23, from Lincoln, whose life has been adversely affected, suspects the problem is caused by an acid reflux condition caused by a damaged stomach valve, which he has battled since childhood. GPs have been unable to cure Mr Sands who has written about his dilemma on MySpace.

Press criticised over Prince’s girlfriend

A report on the regulation of the press said that the PCC had been “less than impressive in its response” because it was slow to tell the pack of photographers waiting outside her flat daily to leave her alone.

However, despite the criticism, the report by the Commons Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee concluded that the existing self-regulation of the press should continue.

Airport abuse check

Child abuse detectives will target airports to try to stop girls being flown abroad for female genital mutilation during the summer holidays. The Metropolitan Police are offering a £20,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and prosecution of anyone who carries out or arranges mutilation. One girl died last week in Egypt and about 6,600 girls in Britain are at risk each year.

Surveillance society

Britain is fast becoming a “surveillance society” with the routine and systematic recording of everyone’s movements and activities in both public and private, the Information Commissioner cautions today. Richard Thomas says that government departments and private sector organisations such as banks and retailers have failed to protect employees’ and customers’ personal information.

Sceptics dismissed

Variations in the activity of the Sun cannot explain the recent pattern of climate change, according to a study published in Proceedings of the Royal Society. The findings of Mike Lockwood in Oxfordshire and Claus Frölich in Switzerland discredit a main argument of global warming sceptics by suggesting that, on its own, solar influence in the past 20 years would have led to global cooling, not heating.

Skin mole diagnosis

The more skin moles people have the longer they may live, new research suggests. Scientists at King’s College London have discovered that people with many moles age at a slower rate than usual, and could have less chance of developing conditions such as heart disease and osteoporosis. But they have a slightly higher risk of contracting malignant melanoma, the most dangerous form of skin cancer.

First Minister surgery

Rhodri Morgan, the Welsh First Minister, was recovering in hospital after an operation to unblock two arteries. Mr Morgan, 67, fell ill on Sunday and was taken to hospital with what was initially thought to be a stomach problem. But a test showed that he had two partially blocked arteries and required urgent surgery. The procedure was a success, according to his doctors. Kate Middleton, Prince William’s former girlfriend, was not properly protected by the Press Complaints Commission from “clear and persistent harassment” by journalists, MPs will say today (Dan Sabbagh writes).

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