Other UK News In Brief

Hospital 'Killed' Patient

A hospital in Essex where a severely disabled man died has admitted breaching health and safety law. Kyle Flack, 20, from Stanford-le-Hope, who had severe cerebral palsy, was found dead at Basildon University Hospital, on 12 October 2006. His head had become trapped in the rails around his bed, an inquest heard. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) brought the prosecution, accusing the hospital of failing to ensure the patient's safety.

Murdered Man 'Was MI5 Agent'

As was initially suspected, dissident republican terrorists were behind the brutal murder of a man they claim was an informer for the Security Service (MI5). The Real IRA said it murdered a man who was found shot dead, stripped and bound in Londonderry on Wednesday. The illegal organisation said it had killed Kieran Doherty, 31, a former republican prisoner from the Brandywell area whose bound and stripped body was found on Braehead Road, near the Irish border. In November 2009 Mr Doherty gave an interview to the Derry Journal newspaper in which he claimed he had been approached by the security service MI5 while trying to set up a cigarette manufacturing company. According to the paper, he was repeatedly turned down for a licence by Revenue and Customs and had then been approached by an MI5 agent.

Chef Disappearance Probed

Police investigating the disappearance of missing chef Claudia Lawrence are following a "potentially significant lead" after a television appeal. North Yorkshire Police said it had received more than 30 calls after the BBC's Crimewatch programme on Thursday. New CCTV footage of the 35-year-old from York was shown and an appeal made. Family and friends of Miss Lawrence, who has been missing for nearly a year, are holding an awareness day in York, on the eve of her birthday. Miss Lawrence was last seen near her home in Heworth on 18 March, 2008, and failed to arrive for work the following morning.

Port Eglinton Bridge Phase Completed

The first phase of one of the biggest civil engineering operations in Scotland has now finished. The westbound launch of the Port Eglinton Viaduct is part of the work going on to complete the missing link between the end of the existing M74 at Fullarton Road and the M8 south of the Kingston Bridge. The launch involved jacking a 200 metre long section of the bridge a distance of 166 metres across the West Coast Main Line railway, a number of local rail lines, and across Kilbirnie Street and Eglinton Street. The beams that have been launched will carry the westbound carriageway of the new motorway.

Greenwich Council Homes Underway

Greenwich Council is the first local authority in London to start construction work on new Council homes for rent, funded through the Government's £500 million Local Authority New Build Programme. Councillors were on site for the launch of the scheme at Woodlands Park Road, Greenwich, which will see six semi-detached houses built for rent to local families in need of housing. The house-building programme, totalling 63 homes in all, is one of the largest in London to be funded through the Local Authority New Build Programme, which is being administered on behalf of the Government by the Homes and Communities Agency.

(BMcC/GK)