EFFORTS TO trace those responsible for Saturday’s bomb in Brixton, south London, have been hampered because crucial closed-circuit television film was obscured by a broken-down bus. Police sources confirmed to The Independent that footage taken from a number of cameras was obscured at 5pm – the time that detectives believe the bomb was left at a bus stop just yards from where it exploded half- an-hour later.
Despite receiving a call from a person purporting to be a member of the far-right group Combat 18 claiming responsibility for the bombing, police so far have no clear lead. They were hoping that the film footage would provide that.Officially, police refused to confirm the setback. Last night a spokesman for the Metropolitan Police’s anti-terrorist unit said: “Officers are still analysing footage. It would be inappropriate to comment at this time.”Last night, the 23-month-old boy who had surgery to remove a four-inch nail from the bomb embedded in his head left Great Ormond Street hospital in high spirits.

There was still concern for the eyesight of two of the bomb victims being treated at King’s College Hospital.. WOMEN SMOKERS are more at risk from lung cancer because they are genetically more susceptible to tobacco carcinogens, according to new research. The findings, published today in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, showwomen are more likely to contract the main types of lung cancer than men at every level of exposure to cigarette smoke. “This gender difference cannot be explained by differences in baseline exposure, smoking history or body size; it is likely due to women’s higher susceptibility to tobacco carcinogens,” said the co-author of the study, Dr Stephen Lam, of the University of British Columbia, Canada.
Smoking causes about 120,000 deaths in the UK every year – or one in five of all deaths. The latest government figures show that in 1996 nearly 36,000 people died from lung cancer caused by smoking. The number of women dying this way has more than doubled in the past 23 years, from 6,961 in 1973 to 13,062 in 1996. There has been a decrease in male victims during the same period, from 29,463 to 22,852.Previous British research has shown that nearly twice as many women as men under 65 are diagnosed with small-cell lung cancer, the most dangerous form of the disease.

Experts believed that the differences between men and women could be explained by women smoking in a different way to men, taking shorter, sharper inhalations or inhaling more deeply because they are more likely to buy “light” cigarettes. However, the new research shows the outer lung cells of women are more susceptible to tobacco carcinogens.Dr Mike Pearson, a spokesman for the British Thoracic Society, said: “This is another step to understanding the gender differences. There is definitely a genetic factor involved because only a proportion of men and women who smoke are susceptible to cancer. It is perfectly possible this genetic factor can also explain some of the differences between the sexes. Women’s lungs are also smaller, which means they get more particle deposits.”The study of 400 men and women who had been smoking a pack a day for 20 years also found that the traditional way lung cancer is detected, by measuring breathing difficulty, was not suitable for women. The findings showed women developed more cancers in the outer parts of the lung, which does not have such an effect on breathing ability, while men were more likely to develop cancer in the large central airways.t Scientists have solved one of the dilemmas in treating prostate cancer: when to operate. Researchers from Stanford University have devised a method of predicting which patients are likely to respond well to surgery and which ones are better off seeking alternative treatments..

THE HEARTLANDS of manufacturing in Britain face a jobs crisis, the Trades Union Congress warns in a report today, with the constituencies of the Prime Minister and Chancellor of the Exchequer among the hardest hit. The North-east as a whole has seen the biggest increase in claimant unemployment in the past six months. Within the region, the Prime Minister’s constituency, Sedgefield, has seen the largest rise, amounting to 6 per cent in the past year. In Scotland, Gordon Brown’s seat, Dunfermline East, has suffered the biggest jump in joblessness – a rise of 14 per cent, according to the TUC analysis.
The warning from the unions comes on a day when official figures are expected to show an increase in the jobless total for last month The total rose by 4,300 to just over 1.3m in February. The regional breakdown of the figures by the TUC shows a manufacturing divide with rising unemployment in the North.

Constituencies across the services-dominated south of England have not suffered any increase in unemployment.John Monks, TUC general secretary, said: “Britain is now a two-speed, two-nation economy. Manufacturing is moving into recession and the service sector continuing to expand.”. TODAY, THE best-selling author Jessica Stirling could make history by winning the Romantic Novel of the Year award. She – or rather he – hopes to become the first man to win the coveted award. Hugh C Rae from Glasgow has spent 25 years in his back bedroom smoking cigarettes and creating historical sagas that have sold 2 million copies.
Banned for decades from revealing his literary identity or speaking to the press, Mr Rae, 63, has been shortlisted for The Wind From The Hills, a passionate drama chronicling the lives of two sisters on the Scottish island of Mull in the 1890s. It would be a popular win for a writer whose books are consistently in the top 100 borrowed from libraries and who writes five hours every day, producing a “Jessica” novel every seven months.The Wind From The Hills is Mr Rae’s 21st appearance on the bookstands as Jessica Stirling and contains such sizzling lines as: “He pulled the little buttons from her blouse and, tearing at the silk, parted her bodice and lifted her shift.”Mr Rae is not the only man writing under a female pseudonym, but the device is more commonly used by male pornographers.