Will this not put a spanner in the works?Not according to Adams, who reckons it will be regarded as a spur to get moving sooner rather than later, especially among those leaving London who might well be adapting to life on one instead of two incomes. Another key factor, he reckons, is the growing realisation that interest rates have reached their lowest point. "People couldn't put off decisions involving schools or job relocation any longer and, at the same time, sellers believed prices to have settled at 10 to 15 per cent lower than last year." Although he expects to see small increases of one and two per cent, he doesn't see those as marking the start of more meteoric rises - "they will still be a good 8 per cent and 13 per cent lower that 12 months ago". Prices did not collapse, so bargain hunters cannot afford to hang around much longer, while it has dawned on sellers that realistic pricing is the only way their property is going to shift.David Adams, central regional director of Hamptons International, believes July was the turning point. Activity - the volume of transactions, which is bread and butter to estate agents - is not the same as price rises and has to be set against a pretty miserable six months, particularly in the South-east.What seems to have happened is that buyers and sellers both believe that they have been through the worst. In the prime London market, FPDSavills Residential Research is seeing the first signs of real improvement after two years of mild recession, while Hamptons International predicts a busy three months - "the best opportunity this year to achieve a premium price", is how they put it. On past experience, that kind of statement has led everyone to add a satisying nought or two to the value of their homes, but this time we should not be so hasty.

Not only is the economy as a whole predicted to be on the road to recovery, but activity in the housing market has suddenly taken a turn for the better. There is a new, upbeat sentiment about the property market that should embolden all those who have been hiding from uncertainty. It said full compliance with the directive could lead to "a collapse of acute hospital services" with "profound implications for .. safe acute hospital services".. Britain's doctor shortage is among the worst in Europe and the Royal College of Physicians warned that there would need to be a 50 to 100 per cent increase in the number of doctors to meet the new limit. The court decided that a doctor on call at a hospital was "subject to appreciably greater constraints than a doctor on stand-by".The decision is a blow to ministers' hopes of overturning Simap's ruling. Meeting it was made much more difficult by a ruling of the European Court in 2000, known as the Simap (Systeme d'Information pour les Marches Publics) judgment, which said junior doctors sleeping overnight in a hospital must be counted as on duty.The ruling was tested by Dr Jaeger, after his employer only counted the time he was awake as full working hours. Hopes of avoiding a staffing crisis in Britain's hospitals next year were dashed yesterday when the European Court ruled that the time junior doctors spend on call at their place of work should count as standard working time - even when they are asleep. The ruling, in a case brought by a German casualty doctor, Norbert Jaeger, means the NHS cannot escape the full impact of the European working time directive which comes into force in August 2004.The rule sets a maximum average working week of 58 hours for junior doctors.

They were encouraged to exercise five days a week for 40 to 60 minutes and most chose walking as their favoured physical activity. There was no significant difference in the amount of weight lost or in the level of fitness gained between the moderate group who walked normally and the vigorous group who made themselves sweat.Another study in the same issue of the journal suggests that exercise also has a protective effect against breast cancer.. A walk to the bus stop is as good as an intense workout for women trying to lose weight, American researchers say. The study by John Jakicic and colleagues from the University of Pittsburgh, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, monitored 200 overweight but otherwise healthy women aged 21 to 45 who were put on a diet and assigned to different exercise regimes.The women lost an average of 25lb (11kg) over six months and kept the weight off for the rest of the year, regardless of how much exercise they did. You don't need to go for the burn to shed pounds. Overall the breakdown is 16 forwards and 14 backs.SCOTLAND SQUADBACKS: G Beveridge (Glasgow), M Blair (Edinburgh), A Craig (Orrell), S Danielli (Bath), A Henderson (Glasgow), B Hinshelwood (Worcester), K Logan (Wasps), J McLaren (Aviron Bayonnais), G Metcalfe (Glasgow), C Paterson (Edinburgh), B Redpath (Sale, capt), G Ross (Leeds), G Townsend (Borders), N Walker (Borders).FORWARDS: R Beattie (Gwent), G Bulloch (Glasgow), B Douglas (Borders), S Grimes (Newcastle), D Hall (Edinburgh), N Hines (Edinburgh), G Kerr (Leeds), M Leslie (Edinburgh), G McIlwham (unattached), A Mower (Newcastle), S Murray (Edinburgh), J Petrie (Glasgow), R Russell (Saracens), T Smith (Northampton), S Taylor (Edinburgh), J White (Sale).. From the reports we have received, his defensive work has improved."Walker comes in at the expense of the full-back Simon Webster and Rory Kerr There was relief for the fly-half Gregor Townsend. He made the cut, as did four props, Tom Smith, Bruce Douglas, Gavin Kerr and Gordon McIlwham, and three hookers, Gordon Bulloch, Rob Russell and Dougie Hall.