9am Briefing: Funeral for children found dead in home

FRIENDS and family of three children found dead in their Edinburgh home will gather to remember the siblings at their funeral today.

Eight-year-old twins Austin and Luke Riggi and their five-year-old sister Cecilia were discovered in an Edinburgh townhouse on August 4 following reports of an explosion.

Their mother Theresa Riggi, 46, who is being treated in hospital after apparently falling from a second-floor balcony, has been charged with their murder.

Prayers will be said for the children at St Mary's Cathedral in Aberdeen where they lived until shortly before their deaths.

Relatives will address mourners during the 90-minute service which will be followed by a private memorial at the city's crematorium.

Thief cut free from recycling bin

A BUNGLING thief had to be cut free from a recycling bin after his alleged accomplices made off with second-hand clothes and left him locked inside.

The Lithuanian man was found inside the large bin by ambulance crews following a tip-off that he had been locked inside and they contacted the fire brigade to cut him free.

He had apparently been unable to escape after passing the clothes out of the skip in the car park of Haldanes store, in East Mains Industrial Estate in Broxburn, in the early hours of Tuesday morning.

Tilting train blunder

NEW tilting trains set to be introduced between Edinburgh and London will not be able to tilt and could require a 100 million track upgrade.

Industry sources reportedly claim that the Pendolinos would not be able to use their tilting mechanism to accelerate to a maximum of 125mph on sections of the 393-mile route because supporting track-side infrastructure is not in place.

Government-owned East Coast announced last week it was in discussions to introduce a Pendolino train for a nine-month trial next July. A spokesman for East Coast said it was still at the discussion stage on testing, driver training and the cost of upgrading track.