:
UK: RINGS OF STEEL (5#) -

# Hundreds of high-profile destinations, ranging from airports to shopping centres, will be subject to "ring of steel" security measures as part of a huge crackdown. [TiL]

# The so-called Father of the Taliban, Maulana Samiul-Haq, has been denied a visa by the British High Commission in Islamabad upon his application to attend a conference in London this month. Photo included! [adnki]

# Christopher Hitchens comments that the car bombs were intended to kill women. He also notes a startling statistic about birth defects and inbreeding. [slate]

# IN SCOTLAND: "Mothers continued to give birth, doctors studied X-rays and surgeons conducted operations. But the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Paisley was anything but normal yesterday." [scots]

# And doctors are quizzed. [scots]

...