Mark Thomas

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.

EXCLUSIVE: A sobbing schoolgirl was pulled from the wreckage of a bus accident that killed a 14-year-old and the coach's guide. At 8.30 a.m. today, the haunting sight welcomed emergency services after a bus carrying schoolchildren crashed with a bus and flipped onto its side in Hooton, Cheshire. In Merseyside, the coach was taking students from West Kirby all-girls grammar and Calday Grange all-boys grammar school. In a press conference this afternoon, thirteen children are in hospital, two of whom are critically wounded, according to police. Both children were taken straight from the scene to Alder Hey Children's Hospital. A paramedic who arrived quickly to the hospital said he'd come across one girl who was weeping in the aftermath, who said the incident was'very scary' and 'I thought I was going to die'.