Highlands hunt for gunman
Police in the Highlands confirmed that a silencer could have been used in two apparently motiveless gun attacks within 48 hours of each other.
Sometime between Wednesday night and Thursday morning shots were fired at a house near Dingwall. Fiona Matheson and her two children woke to find a bullet hole in their living room window. They have gone into hiding, although police believe that the attack may have been a case of mistaken identity.
Shortly afterwards, eight miles away at Balnacraig Cottage, near Alness, Bob Fletcher, a farmer, found two of his horses shot dead and another seriously injured.
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Local residents heard nothing in either case.
Hann arrested
Quinten Hann, 27, the Australian snooker player, was arrested and questioned by Scotland Yard over an alleged assault on a woman. The attack is alleged to have taken place at the player’s flat in Ealing, West London. Mr Hann, was bailed to appear at a London police station in October.
Suspect released
A 19-year-old man arrested over the suspected revenge murders of a killer’s mother and stepfather has been released on bail, police said. Joan and John Stirland were shot dead in their Lincolnshire bungalow on August 8. The teenager was held on Wednesday in Nottingham.
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Boy, 4, hurt in fall
A four-year-old boy suffered suspected spinal injuries when he fell 30ft from a cliff on to a shingle beach in Dorset, coastguards said. The boy and his mother had been walking on a cliff path at East Beach, in West Bay, after stopping on for a break during a trip to the West Country.
River rescue
A six-year-old girl and her father had to be rescued by helicopter from a waterfall after an accident on a family day out. The father slipped as he tried to save the schoolgirl from falling down a slope on the River Tawe, in the Brecon Beacons. Both sustained multiple injuries.
Cash advice
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Gordon Brown is being urged by leading Labour thinkers to raise the top rate of tax to 50 per cent and give back cash to middle-income earners. The Fabian Society proposes a higher rate for earnings above £100,000-a-year while raising the threshold for the 40 per cent band from its present level of £31,400.
Diet pill trial
The results of trials of a new pill which could potentially help the overweight have been announced. Some findings suggested that Rimonabant also worked to improve risk factors associated with the development of heart disease, strokes and diabetes, among the world’s biggest killers.
Beckham baby
David Beckham and his wife, Victoria, are expecting their third child. Their publicist said: “Victoria and David are delighted and hope to have the baby in early March 2005.” The couple have two sons, Brooklyn, five and Romeo, one. The news comes after months of speculation about the couple’s marriage.