RIO DE JANEIRO - FAMILIES of the 228 people who died when an Air France plane crashed off Brazil's northeast coast in June are to hold a memorial service in Rio de Janeiro this weekend, officials said.

European relatives of those who perished on flight AF 447 as it was flying from Rio to Paris were to arrive on Friday on a chartered Air France plane.

LONDON - THE chief drugs advisor sacked for criticising government policy said on Wednesday he will help to set up an alternative body unless experts are allowed to speak freely about the scientific evidence on the impact of drugs.

David Nutt said he had received offers of money to set up independently and that other members of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) would join him if the dispute was not resolved.

LONDON - BRITISH lawmakers will be banned from claiming for home loan repayments and employing family members under new rules unveiled on Wednesday after an expenses scandal which has rocked parliament.

A standards watchdog proposed overhauling the system after a newspaper published weeks of damaging revelations that MPs had claimed thousands of pounds for everything from a duck house to cleaning the moat at a country home.