9am Briefing: Clean-up begins after floods hit Capital

Areas of Morningside and Stockbridge were worst hit as rain lashed Edinburgh throughout most of the day yesterday and this morning.

The unexpected deluge forced some rail cancellations, while those living near to the Water of Leith in Canonmills and Stockbridge needed sandbags to keep the rising water levels from entering their houses.

* AN official report into former defence secretary Liam Fox’s links with his self-styled adviser Adam Werritty is expected to find that he breached the Ministerial Code of Conduct.

The findings of Cabinet Secretary Sir Gus O’Donnell - who is believed to have delivered his report to David Cameron - will be published today.

The country’s most senior civil servant will deliver a “damning” verdict on Dr Fox’s conduct - while accepting that he had not personally gained financially from his relationship with Mr Werritty, it was being reported today.

More questions over Mr Werrity were also raised today, with reports that Israeli officials shared sensitive intelligence on Iran with him because they believed he was an official adviser.

* FIRST Minister Alex Salmond has been told by a former army chief he has to come up with a defence strategy for independence.

General Sir Richard Dannatt criticised Mr Salmond for only examining the country’s armed forces approach once independence had been achieved, it was reported today.

He said without a proper strategy, voters in an independence referendum would be unable to make an informed choice.

* PEOPLE with weak immune systems or underlying medical conditions are at increased risk of infection from controversial fish pedicures, experts have warned.

Questions have been raised in recent months over the beauty craze which sees customers place their feet in tanks of water containing dozens of tiny Garra Rufa fish which nibble on dead skin.

The Health Protection Agency (HPA) issued new guidance after a panel found fish tank water contained a number of micro-organisms and that infections could be transmitted either from fish to person, during the nibbling process, water to person, from the bacteria which can multiply in water, or person to person, via water, surrounding surfaces and the fish.