Q&A: Bird flu
James Sturcke and David Batty explain the background to the virus and how Britain is responding to the threat of a pandemic.
Push … then nip and tuck
'Mummy jobs', in which cosmetic surgeons set out to erase all evidence of childbirth from a woman's body, are already big business in the US. Now they are catching on here. Viv Groskop reports on a disturbing trend - and asks three mothers how they really feel about their post-baby bodies
At least this Christmas we’ll know officially how drunk we mustn’t be
AL Kennedy: With boozier booze and bigger glasses, the odds are increasingly stacked against women surviving the season health intact
‘We’d built the business up, we’d brought the children up, so when Pauline turned 50 she said, “Right, I’m going to do something for me for once – I’m going to have my thighs done.”‘ Within 48 hours of the liposuction, she was dead
This week a poster claiming cosmetic surgery 'just got easy' was banned. The truth is, even a quick nip and tuck can kill. Jenny Kleeman reports
Judgmental arrogance
Dear Mariella: 'My atheist friend wants her son baptised as a Catholic to secure a school place. She's asked me to be godmother, but I don't think it's right to manipulate the system'
Sucked in …
A new study reveals that teenagers start smoking out of curiosity rather than because they think it's cool. And they are more likely to pick up the habit from their parents than their peers. Deborah Cohen reports
Health watchdog warns of UK sexual health crisis
The UK has one of the highest rates of HIV infection in Europe largely due to a growing epidemic of the disease in the black African community and among gay men, researchers warned today
UN lowers estimate of worldwide HIV/Aids cases by 6m
· Change mainly due to better data from India
· Scale of pandemic remains vast and is still growing