Revealed: the hospitals you should avoid

Twelve NHS hospital trusts have been identified as ?significantly underperforming? on a range of safety measures according to new research which has ranked every general hospital in England.

Moonlighting detective made thousands from Harry Potter

A MOONLIGHTING Scotland Yard chief inspector has made tens of thousands of pounds from hiring out boats for a Harry Potter film, a Sunday Times investigation has found.

Clouds created by jets cut out Britain?s sunshine

CLOUDS generated by a single jet aircraft can reduce sunshine levels over thousands of square miles, researchers have found.

Speculators cash in on the Go Go Hamster

A TOY hamster that scampers across the floor and squeaks when you prod its nose has become the hot Christmas gift, with speculators exploiting scarce supplies by selling them on the internet for more than four times their official price.

UK news in brief

MPs defy order to repay cash

Quiet Paul from accounts in £3m secret life of fast cars and call girls

AT first sight you would never imagine that Paul Hopes had embezzled £3.7m and blown most of it on fast living and loose women.

Golden payoff for EU chiefs

THIRTEEN outgoing European commissioners are to receive golden goodbyes amounting to £4.5m, an average of nearly £350,000 each. The payouts follow the appointment of a new set of 27 commissioners last Friday by Jose Manuel Barroso, president of the commission.

Lord Lester's plan to halt libel abuse

REFORMS designed to end abuses of the libel laws which jeopardise freedom of speech could be on the statute book within months under a plan which is attracting cross-party support.

Please help: maimed children of war want their lives back

FOUR-YEAR-OLD Ali al-Janabi and his little brother Hussein watched excitedly as a crowd bustled around the al-Karkh market in Baghdad. They could just see their father, Ghassan, moving from stall to stall, buying fruit and vegetables.

Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed alMegrahi linked to Libya?s chemical weapons

THE man convicted of the Lockerbie bombing was implicated in the purchase and development of chemical weapons by Libya, according to documents produced by the American government.

Locked-in syndrome: Unlocking the cruellest prison

The man who was a ghost for seven years is legendary at the Royal Hospital for Neurodisability in Putney, south London. Though the man ? let?s call him John ? could see, hear and think, nobody knew he was there.

Just a tick: speed mentors hasten women to the top

FIRST there was speed dating. Now some of America?s most powerful women have come up with what they call minute mentoring ? rapid-encounter evenings for aspiring career women who can pick up tips from those who have made it.