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Govt: 'We are in unchartered waters' with legal highs
Legal highs "are a worldwide problem" with a number of governments in "unchartered waters", a Home Office minister told Daybreak.
Lib Dem Norman Baker said the Government were "looking at a range of options" with legal highs but admitted there was no easy answer to the complex problem.
British bank theft victims 'hoodwinked by emails'
Scotland Yard said a number of bank customers in London and across the UK have been targeted by a £1 million email scam.
– Detective Chief Inspector Jason Tunn, from Scotland Yard's cyber crime unitThe victims have been hoodwinked by malware-carrying emails purporting to be from their banks, and subsequently had money taken from their accounts.
Two women aged 24 and 27 arrested in connection with the investigation have been released on bail.
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CQC: 'We will not tolerate poor and dangerous care'
GPs who are found to keep their practice in a poor condition can have "their registration taken off them", the author of a Care Quality Commission (CQC) report into conditions in doctor's surgeries told Daybreak.
Professor Steve Field said some of the doctors who had run surgeries with rooms so dirty maggots were found, had already "given up practicing in those practices".
"We will not tolerate poor and dangerous care," he added.
Mourners line streets for Mandela funeral cortege
Mourners gathered on the streets of the South African capital Pretoria as the funeral cortege carrying the coffin of former South African President Nelson Mandela was driven through the streets.
South African police outriders escorted the cortege to the Union Buildings from 1 Military Hospital, where the body of the former South African Presdient is held overnight, ahead of his burial on Sunday.
Pair charged over £1m cyber bank theft
Detectives investigating the theft of £1 million from two banks have charged two people after bank customers were targeted with fake emails carrying viruses.
Gediminas Simkus, 31, from East Barnet, north London, and Volodymyr Kurach, 31, from Highbury, north London, will appear at Westminster Magistrates' Court today on suspicion of conspiring to commit fraud by false representation,Scotland Yard said.
The pair also face three other fraud charges.
Raids were carried out by police in north London on Tuesday, when police said they seized £80,000 and a live grenade.
The messages, which appeared to be legitimate emails from the banks, carried malware that allowed £1 million to be taken from the customers' accounts.
Mandela interpreter had 'schizophrenic episode'
The man accused of 'faking' sign language at the Nelson Mandela memorial service has told a South African newspaper he suffered a "schizophrenic episode".
Speaking to IOL, Thamsanqa Jantjie, who stood alongside world leaders and 'signed' at the national service earlier this week, said he doesn’t know whether it was the magnitude of what he was doing or the happiness he felt throughout the day that might have triggered the attack while on stage.
Suddenly he lost concentration, and started hearing voices and hallucinating.
He said: "There was nothing I could do. I was alone in a very dangerous situation. I tried to control myself and not show the world what was going on. I am very sorry, it’s the situation I found myself in.”
Jantjie said that although the episode impaired his ability to hear well and interpret what was being said, he couldn’t leave, so he stayed on and continued to sign things that didn’t make sense. He also told the newspaper he takes medication for his schizophrenia.
“Life is unfair. This illness is unfair. Anyone who doesn’t understand this illness will think that I’m just making this up,” he said.
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Dirty GP surgeries 'a small but important problem'
"A very small number" of GPs surgeries were in a state of disrepair and this does not reflect every health centre in the UK, a doctor from Swindon said.
However, GP Dr Peter Swinyard told Daybreak the 0.9% of surgeries which were declared "a serious cause of concern" by inspectors were "a small problem, but a very important one" and urged doctors not to ignore bad practice.
"Where they exist we must work very hard to remedy the situation, or at worst if the doctors and the surgeries won't improve...I am afraid the surgeries must be helped to close down or reprevision their services properly."
Read more: Inspectors find dirt and maggots inside GP surgery
Australia's highest court halts same sex marriage
Australia's highest court has struck down a landmark law allowing the country's first same sex marriages, shattering the dreams of more 20 couples whose marriages will now be annulled, less than a week after their weddings.
The federal government had challenged the validity of the Australian Capital Territory's law that had allowed gay marriages in the nation's capital and its surrounding area, starting last Saturday.
The federal government's lawyer argued that having different marriage laws in various Australian states and territories would create confusion.
The ACT, which passed the law in October, said it should stand because it governs couples outside the federal definition of marriage as being between members of the opposite sex.
The High Court unanimously ruled that the ACT's law could not operate concurrently with the federal Marriage Act, which was amended in 2004 to define marriage as between a man and a woman.
Expert warns legal highs are 'sold in newsagents'
Legal highs are being sold in "newsagents, petrol stations and take-away food shops", according to a charity supporting professionals working in drug and alcohol treatment.
Chief executive of DrugScope, Martin Barnes, welcomed the Governments review, but warned legal highs were a "new and complex drug situation".
– chief executive of DrugScope Martin BarnesIt has been clear for some time that the law has been unable to keep pace with the chemistry when it comes to the production and supply of new drugs.
As DrugScope's recent Street Drug Trends Survey highlighted, in some areas so-called 'legal highs' are not only being sold online and in "headshops", but in outlets such as newsagents, petrol stations and take-away food shops.
This is an attempt by the Home Office to bolster current enforcement efforts and to see what other legislative options could be brought to bear on this new and complex drug situation.
Govt reviews laws and enforcement around legal highs
The Government is to undertake a review of legal highs in a bid to clamp down on potentially fatal drugs, the Home Office has announced.
The review will examine laws and the police's ability to enforce them against new psychoactive substances, also known as legal highs, and if these can be improved.
Legislation could be strengthened so the police have specifically tailored powers should they suspect foul play, the Home Office said.
The move comes as the Government announces that two new groups of psychoactive substances - NBOMe and Benzofury - will become classified as Class A and B drugs respectively.
