More than 50 UK paediatricians today launch an unprecedented attack on the General Medical Council, accusing their regulatory body of deterring doctors from speaking out, and arguing that the stance could increase the risk of child abuse.

A £700 million body to streamline police communications and underpin improvements has been launched and the budget is already extremely tight, its head admitted.

A British research team led by the world’s leading heart surgeon has grown part of a human heart from stem cells for the first time. If animal trials scheduled for later this year prove successful, replacement tissue could be used in transplants for the hundreds of thousands of people suffering from heart disease within three years.

More than 200,000 failed asylum seekers may stay in Britain indefinitely because they cannot be traced. Officials have conceded that nearly half of the 450,000 “legacy cases” in which the applicants are left in limbo may never be cleared.

{mosimage}Ministers have flatly ruled out an amnesty and have pledged to remove everyone not entitled to be here within five years. Some “legacy” cases date back 15 years and experts believe the Government will not be able to fulfil its pledge to clear the backlog by July 2011. Officials attending a recent meeting to discuss the legacy policy were told that half of the 450,000 are “untraceable”. They were also told that 18,000 foreign nationals who have committed crimes in Britain were earmarked for deportation, the first time an official figure has been given.

Damian Green, the Conservative immigration spokesman, said: “It is concerning that there may be such a large number of foreign criminals possibly at large and that the Government is admitting defeat by writing off up to 200,000 lost asylum seekers.”

Parents are being asked to stay alert after a batch of potentially fatal prescription drugs shaped like lollipops were stolen. Officers are particularly concerned in case the drugs, stolen from a house on Salisbury Street, Southport, end up in the hands of children.

One of the biggest legal aid providers in London is among a number of law firms that have refused to sign a contract which alters pay by hourly rates to a system of fixed fees.

Social Services chiefs in Leeds have received 114 complaints about home care services provided by private companies. Part of the city’s home care work is contracted out to the private sector and figures presented to councillors show that between April last year and January this year, the council received a total of 114 complaints about services provided by six companies.

The BMA has launched updated guidance on withholding and withdrawing life-prolonging treatment, to take into account the major changes for patients and doctors that will come into force when the Mental Capacity Act is implemented in England and Wales in April and October 2007.

Social services chiefs last night insisted that home care support for thousands of elderly people is not being run down ahead of controversial privatisation plans.