Mark Thomas

The couple left Townsville in their 4WD, with a caravan in tow, on Sunday morning and were heading south along the Bruce Highway when they collided with the bus at Gumlu, in northern Queensland , at about 11am.

The nest, which was perched high a cliffs of a defunct quarry in southern Scotland, seemed to be a good spot to start investigating international organised crime. It belonged to a female peregrine falcon, one of Britain's most protected species, whose attempts to breed there were mysteriously ended in failure. When falcon specialist George Smith and PC Gavin Ross examined the nest, they discovered two of the four reddish-brown eggs they had noticed that the bird had been sitting on had vanished. As the guys began to leave, they discovered a footprint that wasn't related to either of them. Someone else had taken a different route up to the nest.

The bedbugs are on the march. Experts in France's unprecedented outbreak of the blood-sucking parasites has warned that it was only a matter of time before they made their way to the United Kingdom. The situation in France has deteriorated from bad to worse. Schools have been forced to close due to infestations, while Marseille people have been dumping mattresses on the streets in a desperate attempt to get rid of the creatures. To counter the threat, even sniffer dogs have been sent.