For an epidemic to be under control, each case needs to infect an average of less than one other farm. The average at the moment is 0.7.Professor King’s scientific advisory committee on the disease met vets and farmers’ leaders yesterday to explain why vaccination would limit the cull, but would not halt the spread of the virus.The Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food said that parts of Northamptonshire and Leicestershire that had been “infected areas” were no longer designated in that way.. A highly esteemed but overworked museum director drowned himself in the sea after drinking a bottle of whisky and filling his pockets with sand, an inquest was told yesterday. A highly esteemed but overworked museum director drowned himself in the sea after drinking a bottle of whisky and filling his pockets with sand, an inquest was told yesterday.
Sir Richard Foster, the director of the National Museums and Galleries on Merseyside, took his life because he was unhappy with his work, despite the acclaim his achievements had received.His widow told Bournemouth coroner’s court that Sir Richard, who was knighted last year for his achievements during a 35-year-career, had a great sense of public service but “always thought he should do better”.She said her 59-year-old husband had appeared relaxed and sociable at a meeting they both attended in London last March but when he failed to return to their home in the Wirral she told police.They discovered that Sir Richard drove a hire car from London to Swanage in Dorset where, according to police who found his body on North Beach at dawn on 8 March, he sat on the steps of a hotel overlooking the sea, drank a bottle of whisky and then in an “act of desperation” weighed himself down by filling his pockets with sand.In a suicide note addressed to “My Lovely Mary”, Sir Richard thanked his wife of 36 years and his three children for their love and support.

But he also raised concerns about his leadership ability as head of eight Merseyside museums.Recording a verdict of suicide, the Bournemouth coroner, Sheriff Payne, said: “The early part of the note shows that he thought there was a weakness in the leadership he had been carrying out in his duties.”The rest of the note, two thirds of it, is praise for the support and love given to him by his wife and family.”Speaking after the verdict, Sir Richard’s widow said: “Richard was a special person with a strong sense of public service. His achievements were enormous to the rest of us but not to him. He was a very modest man who worked far too hard and always thought he should do better.”She told the inquest that her husband, who had planned to retire from his £80,000-a-year post next year, had seemed stressed during a telephone conversation shortly before he took his life on 7 March.She told the hearing: “He was desperately overworked, he was worried that he was not in control of everything that he should have been.”The inquest was told that Sir Richard, who was not a heavy drinker, had 20 units of alcohol in his blood when he died ­ four times the drink-driving limit.During his career Sir Richard was asked by the former environment secretary Michael Heseltine to help to revive the Merseyside area by combining the assortment of separate museums and galleries into a coherent group.As director of National Museums and Galleries on Merseyside he also helped to rejuvenate the Albert Dock area. He won a £25m grant for the area and in 1997 created the Conservation Centre that won the European Museum of the Year award.. The British government planned to use a secret weapon ­ hot tea ­ to help victims in the event of a nuclear bomb attack in the Fifties. The British government planned to use a secret weapon ­ hot tea ­ to help victims in the event of a nuclear bomb attack in the Fifties.The plan was revealed in a file released by the Public Record Office yesterday, Atomic Bomb Target Studies ­ London, which considers the aftermath of a nuclear attack on east London in 1953.The Ministry of Food study highlighted expected problems faced by emergency services after an attack.

The “top secret” study was written as if a bomb had already struck Dalston.The report begins: “The dust and dirt have settled and it is now possible to get a general idea of the devastation. In the 2,000ft circle around Ground Zero [the impact crater] there is complete devastation.”Homelessness was identified as a major issue, with an estimated 218,000 people out on the streets. The Government’s solution to the “extensive” problem was to provide 12 rest centres for survivors. A “food flying squad” of vans, carrying insulated tea urns and water tanks, was to be created to feed and refresh refugees. Huge temporary cookers, including brick ovens cooking “100 portions of stew or a somewhat larger number of cups of tea”, were suggested.The fire service was advised thatit should contain the blaze with “a ring of firefighting appliances”. The authors of the report even designed signs and flags for emergency buildings and vehicles.One of the first recipients of the report was not impressed by its contents.