Britain's most senior family judge called last night for urgent action over a crisis in the family courts fuelled by increasing delays in child abuse cases and lack of funds.
Children as young as eight are being brought into hospitals unconscious after getting drunk on cheap cider, spirits and alcopops such is the ease of access to cut-price alcohol, according to doctors.
Hospitals and ambulance services reported a sharp rise yesterday in emergency calls for people with breathing difficulties and chest pain brought on by the heat.
Thousands of US Marines stormed into the Helmand river valley under cover of night yesterday, the opening phase of Barack Obama's new high-risk strategy in Afghanistan.
More than 100,000 swine flu cases could be diagnosed every day by the end of next month, the Health Secretary has warned. Britain has moved past the stage of trying to contain the spread of the virus and into the "treatment phase", Andy Burnham told the House of Commons.
Senior judges rewrote the divorce laws yesterday to give resounding backing to prenuptial contracts and bring England into line with the rest of Europe. One of Germany's richest women secured victory in the Court of Appeal in enforcing a prenuptial agreement with her former husband.
