UK News: Questions for King as inflation remains high

STUBBORNLY high inflation is set to trigger another open letter from Bank of England Governor Mervyn King to the Chancellor today when July figures on the cost of living are published.

The Consumer Prices Index is predicted to edge down from 3.2 per cent to 3.1 per cent - still above the 2 per cent target.

Call to change drug laws

THE Government should consider decriminalising drugs because the blanket ban has failed to cut crime or improve health, a leading doctor said today.

Professor Sir Ian Gilmore, former president of the Royal College of Physicians, said he agreed that drug laws should be "reconsidered".

Sunbed lovers blind to danger to their eyesight

SUNBED-lovers are risking their eyesight by failing to wear protective goggles or shades, experts warned today.

UV damage caused by bright sunbed lamps can cause long-term problems and growths in the eyes, according to the College of Optometrists.

Merely closing the eyes while on the sunbed does not offer full protection, with the skin there being so thin it is at risk of burning. The college recommends people wear goggles.

Road risk for poorer kids

CHILDREN living in poor areas are more likely to be road accident victims than those living in richer neighbourhoods, research suggested today.

Youngsters in Preston are more than twice as likely to be injured on the road than the national average, and five times more likely than those in Kensington and Chelsea, the study by research group Road Safety Analysis found.

Prejudice no fun for blondes

Mariella Frostrup has complained that blonde women are still saddled with prejudice.

The broadcaster, 47, said she "would have thought twice" about going blonde at 16 if she'd "known then what my shade of choice suggested to the world".

Sussex: A taxi driver was arrested after he got behind the wheel of an ambulance on an emergency call and moved it to make way for his own vehicle.

The ambulance crew reported their vehicle had been driven away from outside an address in Eastbourne, as they prepared to take a one-month-old baby to hospital.

Kent: Anglers are mourning the death of a five-stone native freshwater fish, believed to be Britain's biggest. Two Tone, a mirror carp which weighed 67lb 14oz, was found floating on the surface of the lake where it lived in Kent.