The Herald

Anger of Parents After Mysterious Tragedy

THE effort of remembering the day she gave birth was too much for Hannah Kariuku. As the words dried up, her husband explained why they believed their child was one of the babies sold to childless couples abroad. "I feel bitter in my heart. The hospital . . . told me the baby passed away, but I could never find the staff on duty at the time to explain how a healthy baby could die like that," said Kariuki Kamau, a market trader.

Probation for Woman Over Mother's Heroin Death

A YOUNG woman who killed her mother by injecting her with heroin was put on probation for three years at the High Court in Edinburgh yesterday. Kerry Greenhill, 24, of Woodstock Avenue, Galashiels, pled guilty to culpable homicide on October 30, 2002, at an earlier court appearance.

Inquiry After Lorry Driver Is Killed

Car Bomb Injures Troops

A car bomb exploded in the northern city of Mosul as a US military convoy was passing, wounding six American soldiers, the military said yesterday. Witnesses said the attack, on Tuesday, wrecked an American vehicle and that US troops had sealed off the area.

War On Bird Flu 'Must Be Won by Winter'

VIJAY JOSHI BANGKOK Thailand declared war on bird flu yesterday as Asia's death toll in the epidemic rose to 30.

Leaked Report Shows Invasion Was Premature

THE US-led coalition launched an ill-prepared invasion of Iraq 16 days early and before its supply chain was in place, according to a leaked US army staff college study. The study, the most detailed so far, was drawn up after examination of 119,000 documents and action reports and more than 2300 interviews with soldiers. Its concludes that the operation succeeded more because of individual determination and improvisation than solid military planning.

Paper Says Uk Helped Plan Invasion in 2002

Britain was involved in planning for war in Iraq for at least nine months before MPs approved military action, according to a document apparently leaked from the Pentagon. Details from the briefing paper, published in the Evening Standard in London, suggest that military commanders took part in a war planning conference with US counterparts as early as June 2002.

Beware of Laid-Back Texans, Gore Warns

Al Gore has warned John Kerry he is in for the toughest test of his career tonight when he meets George W Bush in their first televised debate. Gore, the Democrat challenger who lost to Bush in 2000 by the slimmest of margins, told Kerry not to believe the hype about the president's laid-back approach.

Truce Called in Delta Oil Wars

The Nigerian government and a rebel militia fighting in the Niger delta have agreed a truce for talks on rebel demands for autonomy, a rebel leader said yesterday. Mujahid Dokubo-Asari, speaking after talks with Olusegun Obasanjo, the president, repeated his warning to foreign oil workers to leave the region, which pumps almost all of Nigeria's output of 2.3 million barrels per day, until a final deal was achieved.

Those Tiny Smiles That; Abortion Is Back On the Agenda, Thanks to a Series of Images From the Womb and a New Film. So Should the Time Limit for Terminations Be Reduced? Beth Pearson Examines a Complex, Emotional Issue

ABORTION is a debate that has no end. If controversy over cloning and embryo experimentation appeared to have side-tracked the issue over the past few years, a series of recent events have placed it firmly back on the agenda. On October 20, Mike Leigh's new film, Vera Drake, will open the Times bfi London Film Festival. It is a story of parallel lives: a well-off girl who has a legal abortion and a poor girl who has a backstreet abortion. Leigh has said that in making the film, he intended no...

The Diary

Bombing Brazil FORMER Scotland star Alan Brazil, pictured, now a TalkSport breakfast show host, is probably regretting interrupting the station's news bulletin yesterday.

When Stars Go in Search of a Higher Calling

Madonna in Jerusalem: it has a certain feel to it. Yet the lady who sings and swings - crucifix flying and diamond-studded bodice gleaming - and then stands at the holy city's Wailing Wall, is no virgin mother. Not only that, she now announces herself to the world under the Hebrew name Ha-Malkah Esther - Queen Esther. Meanwhile, back at the supposed site of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, monks are brawling and swopping punches. Welcome to the city of dreams, the city of nightmares. Too many...

Slipknot; the Abominable Showmen

Sun Oct 3, SECC, Glasgow, 7pm, (pounds) 25, 0870 040 4000 It's a look, you have to grant them that. Nine grotesque masks, each of them more outlandish and unpleasant than the last. If you're being philosophical, the masks embody the ugly truth that lies behind every face you pass in the street. If you're being a little more rational, however, they look . . . well, a bit icky and revolting. Nevertheless, Slipknot fans love the masks as much as they love the gut-churning qualities of the band's...

Sydney Divine; Anne Mccue

Sat Oct 2, 7.30pm, Cabaret Voltaire, 36-38 Blair Street, Edinburgh, (pounds) 7, 0131 226 6176 With Texas and Tennessee apparently breeding musicians like livestock, the Americana scene is bursting at the seams. So there's a certain irony in that the genre's current darling, Anne McCue, should come from . . . Sydney. Having arrived in Los Angeles from a year-long gig playing to tourists in Vietnam, McCue was already being championed by singer- songwriter Lucinda Williams before her latest albu...

Catch

Jazz WARREN VACHE and HOWARD ALDEN Fri Oct 1, 8pm, Adelaide's, Bath Street, Glasgow, (pounds) 10, 01560 322411; Sun 3, 8.30pm, Henry's Jazz Cellar, 8 Morrison Street, Edinburgh, (pounds) 10, 0131 467 5200 Cornettist Warren Vache and guitarist Howard Alden are two of the leading musicians in swing jazz, carrying the melodic mainstream style forward with precision and invention. These gigs (one with Scots bassist Ricky Steele, in Glasgow), promise concert quality music-making in intimate settin...

In Shackles and Behind Bars Ken Bigley Begs for His Life; Blair Promises to 'Respond' to Captors As New Video of Hostage Shocks His Family

SHACKLED and caged, Ken Bigley wept last night as he begged Tony Blair to help save his life, in a new video issued by his kidnappers in Iraq. Mr Bigley was dressed in an orange jumpsuit, similar to those worn by the detainees at Guantanamo Bay, in the tape screened on the Arab TV station, al Jazeera.

Young and Old Will Travel for Free

A HUGE rise in spending by the Scottish Executive over the next three years yesterday included funding for free travel for young and old, but risked forcing up council tax. With the total budget rising above (pounds) 30bn a year, the new budget announced by Andy Kerr, finance minister, will put the annual cost of running the health service in Scotland over (pounds) 10bn, and ease university cash fears with a 30% increase.

Revealed: Secret of the Deep On Why the World Is Humming

IT is a gentle humming noise that has baffled and irritated scientists in equal measure. But researchers yesterday pinpointed this constant deep drone, which is below the range of human hearing, as the product of an Earth "orchestra" consisting of the atmosphere, the oceans and the sea floor. They believe the sound is probably caused by the conversion of storm energy to oceanic waves. This energy is then transferred to the sea floor, interacts with the shape of the ground, and sets up vibrati...

Sample Opportunities; David Hughes

Sat Oct 2, Traverse Theatre, Cambridge Street, Edinburgh, 8pm, (pounds) 11 ((pounds) 4.50-(pounds) 6.50), 0131 228 1404, and touring from late October On paper there's not an obvious link between the following choreographers: Barcelona's Cesc Gelabert (awarded a Herald Archangel at the recent Edinburgh Festival), Javier de Frutos, Pit Fong Loh and Siobhan Davies. Their backgrounds and training are all very different, as are their signature dance styles. The link, as audiences will see on stag...

Reliance Bid Was Cheapest

RELIANCE, the company being paid (pounds) 126m to run Scotland's prisoner escort service, was ranked last on technical abilities, including security and prisoner care, before being awarded the contract, it was revealed yesterday. Of the three firms tendering for the work, Reliance was officially rated third on technical issues, but won the contract after submitting the cheapest bid, the country's auditor general found.