9am Briefing: Fox attack victim 'recovering' after surgery

THE mother of a man whose nose and fingers were bitten off in a suspected fox attack has said he is recovering well following surgery.

Andrew Stewart, 37, was discovered by police in a village cemetery in the early hours of Sunday morning after apparently being mauled by a wild fox which chewed off his nose and two-and-a-half fingers.

It has been reported that Mr Stewart had blacked out in the graveyard of St Michael's Parish Church, Inveresk, having taken an overdose of pills after reportedly becoming depressed.

His mother Lily, 74, said: "Andrew is OK. He's had surgery."

• FIREFIGHTERS spent three hours tackling a blaze at a Midlothian Council refuse depot which ignited five bin lorries in the early hours of this morning.

Nearby heavy goods vehicles within the yard had to be removed to a safe distance after the fire started at the Stobhill Road depot in Newtongrange at around 12.40am.

Nineteen firefighters from stations in Dalkeith, Liberton and Newcraighall helped extinguish the blaze using hose reels and three pumping appliances. The refuse collection vehicles were described as "well alight".

The cause of the blaze is not yet known.

• A LEADING Edinburgh fashion retailer has shut up shop after falling victim to the recession.

Sam Thomas, which had shops in Stafford Street and William Street in the West End, has gone into liquidation after being in business for more than 15 years in the Capital.

Bruce Cartwright, of PricewaterhouseCoopers, which is handling the assets of the company, said the wider economic downturn was behind the closure.

• THE historic heart of Edinburgh has been rated the world's fifth best world heritage site.

Scotland's capital was placed ahead of the Old Towns of Prague, Vienna and Venice, the works of Gaudi in Barcelona and the palace of Westminster in London in a global top ten.

A poll of almost 250,000 world travellers found Edinburgh's Old and New Towns, which won World Heritage status from Unesco in 1995, were the fifth "most recommended" out of nearly 800 special sites.

Tourism website TripAdvisor asked travellers to rate world heritage sites they had visited, in a joint initiative with Unesco.