9am news briefing

THE Royal Bank of Scotland's £100,000 sponsorship of free festival entertainment in the Royal Mile looks set to come to an end, giving festival chiefs a major headache.

Fringe chief executive Kath Mainland said no deal was in place for street theatre areas in the High Street for next year.

The news has emerged just weeks after the Edinburgh International Festival admitted it was looking for a sponsor for its fireworks finale after the withdrawal of Bank of Scotland's backing.

• A MAN was taken to hospital following a flat fire this morning.

The 29-year-old man suffered smoke inhalation as a result of the fire in a first storey flat in the Cobbinshaw House North high rise in Calder Gardens.

Fire crews were called shortly before 7am this morning, and four firefighters wearing breathing appuratus extinguished the fire with a single hose reel.

The cause of the fire is presently unknown.

• BBC Director General Mark Thompson is expected to deliver a "head-on" challenge to the corporation's critics in a keynote speech tonight.

He is among the great and the good of the broadcasting world gathered for the Media Guardian Edinburgh International Television Festival which starts today.

In an email sent to BBC staff, Mr Thompson promised to use the MacTaggart lecture to lay out his view of the future of television and make the case for the corporation.

He said: "It's time to take on some of the BBC's critics head-on."

Recent years have seen the BBC come under fire from both inside and outside the corporation.

• A VIDEO of the 33 miners trapped deep in a Chilean copper mine has been released – showing them to be healthy and in good spirits.

The men, who have been told it could be Christmas before they are rescued, are seen stripped to the waist, standing arm-in-arm, singing the national anthem and yelling "Long live Chile, and long live the miners!" They made the video with a small camera sent down to them through a small emergency shaft drilled to their emergency shelter in the San Jose mine near Copiapo in northern Chile.

• SENIOR military figures have reportedly called on Downing Street to urgently review security arrangements after the Taliban tried to bring down David Cameron's helicopter in Afghanistan.

An RAF Chinook transporting the Prime Minister during a visit earlier this year was forced into a last-minute diversion amid fears that insurgents were planning an attack.

It is reported that the attempt on June 20 was "much closer than anyone said at the time".