The man who saved the life of British tycoon Richard Branson on a round-the-world balloon attempt a year ago has died in a London hospital.
Alex Ritchie (52), was seriously injured in a sky-diving accident in Morocco in January and had spent the last three months in intensive care before succumbing to an infection on Sunday. Branson paid tribute to a "brilliant father and a brilliant engineer". He dedicated his next round-the-world balloon attempt, planned for this winter, to Ritchie's memory.
"It is never easy losing a friend, even if one has had some time to prepare for it," Virgin boss Branson said.
Ritchie, who was born in the Scottish town of Carluke, Lanarkshire, leaves a wife and two sons.
Sir Ian MacGregor, the businessman who took on Arthur Scargill's striking miners as chairman of the National Coal Board, died yesterday aged 85.
The Scots-born industrialist, who led the NCB during the 1984-85 miners' strike, and earned Margaret Thatcher's admiration for his hard-line stance, suffered a heart attack while staying with friends in Somerset. Denounced by his enemies as a butcher of jobs and livelihoods, and lauded by the Conservative government as a saviour of British industry, Sir Ian was one of the most high profile British business figures of the 1980s.
Comedian Michael Barrymore has ended an eight-year rift with his 83-year-old mother Margaret. He rang her from his mobile phone on a motorway journey home just before Mother's Day. "I was more nervous dialling her number than I've been performing in front of the Royal Family," he told the Sun. The couple had not spoken following a family rift.
His mother, who still lives in the London flat where he was born and is slightly hard of hearing, admitted that she had not recognised his voice at first.
Former Tunisian Prime Minister Bahi Ladgham died yesterday aged 85. Ladgham was one of the lieutenants of Tunisian leader Habib Bourguiba during the country's fight for independence from France, and was prime minister from 1969-70.