The claimants allege that the dye caused arachnoiditis - inflammation of the arachnoid membrane - which covers the brain and spine. They alleged that Glaxo Laboratories, the manufacturer of Myodil, had failed to properly research, test and develop Myodil and continued to market the dye after it knew or ought to have known that it was likely to cause injury.Myodil was used widely in the Sixties and Seventies but was withdrawn in 1987, with Glaxo saying there was a lack of demand. But the out-of-court settlement was condemned as outrageous by activists who now want the case to go to the European courts.More than 400 patients claimed they suffered from backpain after a dye, Myodil, had been injected into their spines as part of a diagnostic back scan. CELIA HALL Medical Editor A pounds 7m settlement yesterday ended one of the largest personal injury actions to be heard in the English courts. They suggest:t The ob hormone is unable to work in fat people because it fails to bind with its receptor protein, which triggers the anti-obesity measures observed in the mouse, such as lower appetite and higher metabolism.t The hormone is present in large quantities in fat people but is somehow degraded before it has time to act.t The hormone is not itself a regulator of body fat but signals the release of another, yet unidentified, hormone which is defective in fat people.The scientists emphasise that these possibilities rely on the ob protein being involved in controlling the human appetite.in some way.. But even if this were the case, they postulate three possibilities for why it does not seem to work in obese people. Because obese people have significantly higher levels of the ob hormone in their bodies than slim people, they suggest the ''defect in human obesity lies elsewhere''.They said it has yet to be proved that the ob protein in humans influences appetite.

Last week, when details of three investigations into the ob hormone in mice were leaked to Wall Street, shares in Amgen rose by 10 per cent.Amgen has a $20m (pounds 12.5m) licence to exploit the technology from Rockefeller University in New York, which last week said that the mice research into the ob hormone showed that it regulated weight by acting as a signal for the amount of body fat.However, this is not what scientists at the Thomas Jefferson University in Pennsylvania have found. This suggests that the hormone could not be working to rid the body of fat, as was shown to be the case in research on mice carrying a specific defect in the ob gene. The new research, published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, runs directly counter to claims made by Amgen, a California biotechnology company, that genetically engineered versions of the ob hormone could be used as a treatment for obesity within four years. A clinical study of obese and slim volunteers found that fat people had more than 70 per cent more anti-obesity or ''ob'' hormone than thin people. The first research on humans into an ''anti-obesity'' hormone that makes mice lose weight indicates that it fails to work on people, contrary to expectations that led to shares in one biotechnology company to soar last week. Innings closed: 5.48pm.ENGLAND WON BY SIX WICKETSMan of the match: D G Cork.Umpires: H D Bird and C J Mitchley TV replay umpire: J C Balderstone..

Russell Grant and I meet for a Diet Coke and a lobster salad lunch in one of the astrologer's favourite London restaurants. Russell is an Aquarius with Libra rising and much of our conversation is about what is - as he explains it - the Libran in Russell, the identities he presents to the world. These include: the repertory actor turned ebullient star- man on breakfast TV; the tabloid astrology columnist; and the author of books, including Your Love Signs, Your Sun Signs and Russell Grant's Dream Dictionary, a 300-page detail-by-detail guide to analysing your sleeping visions. "You'd better get ready to go on a trip if you dream of doughnuts," Russell writes. "A difficult choice is about to present itself if a hedgehog features." "Rhubarb, if it's growing, is a sign of new friends." An illustrated version of the dictionary will be published in the autumn.

But we talk, too, about Russell's Aquarian aspect, the creative part of him that fewer people see. This is the Russell who is Patron of the Association of British Counties - an apolitical pressure group for the retention of traditional county borders and identities - and the author of a guide to the county borders of Great Britain. This is the Russell who is President of the Federation of Middlesex Sports, an avid follower of minor-league cricket in that region (the county he grew up in) and an annual contributor to Wisden on this topic. When we meet, he is wearing, against a crisp white shirt, the tie of the Middlesex Schools Football Association, minor-league local football being another obsession, when it's in season. And this is Russell the practising Spiritualist, who was once a platform medium in the Spiritualist churches of Middlesex. These are some of the things that Russell thinks about when he's off the telly and at home in Lytham St Anne's, where he lives in George Formby's old house with his chocolate-coloured Labrador, Owen (a Taurus). He will lay a reassuring hand on your arm as he tells you all about it and he closes his fluent paragraphs with a pert smile and a little nod of complicity.Things may be said to have changed fairly radically for Russell at the age of 15, when he visited a clairvoyant called Doris.

"I'd had an experience with my grandfather on the night of his funeral I heard his cough But my grandmother was very pragmatic. She said, 'No, no - Percy is gone.'" Russell sought a second opinion."My grandfather came 'through' and gave me more evidence Doris was shown a medal - an angel with a leaf 'It's coming to you,' she said 'It's being given to you.'" There was more "'Ooh,' she said. 'I've got lollipop trees and I can see lots of animals around you I think it's men wearing heads. But you're not.' I thought, 'That's odd.' She said, 'I'm now getting Ivor Novello's music coming through.' "Russell leans forward. "Within a week, my grandmother had given me a medal belonging to my grandfather, depicting an angel and a leaf. That summer I got an audition for a show at the Victoria Palace - The Rupert Bear Show - and everyone was in animal masks except me.