Tesco yesterday announced it was making £100m of price cuts - slashing up to 50 per cent off thousands of items. The group said 3,500 products would be cut in price today in the latest round of store wars.

Tesco claims it is now the cheapest supermarket in Britain on a selection of 10,000 products, saying it is eight per cent cheaper than Sainsbury's and 0.1 per cent below Asda.

But its rivals were not taking the comparisons lying down. A spokeswoman for Asda said: "I think publicising a 0.1 per cent price difference with us just shows how envious Tesco is of Asda's value position."

Prescribing

the leech again

Doctors may resurrect the lowly leech as a recognised treatment for pain and inflammation.

For many hundreds of years, leeches were used as pain killers as well as for blood letting. Now dramatic results from a pilot study of patients suffering from osteoarthritis suggests that the leech could make a comeback.

Doctors administered leech therapy to ten patients with an average age of 68 who had been troubled by persistent knee pain for more than six months. German researchers found that leech treatment produced rapid pain relief after three days.

Cannabis shop bid man freed

A campaigner for the legalisation of cannabis, who was arrested after attempting to open Britain's first Dutch-style cafe, was yesterday released by police without charge.

Colin Davies, 44, was questioned by detectives on suspicion of possessing cannabis with intent to supply following his arrest on Saturday at The Dutch Experience cafe, in Stockport, Greater Manchester.

Mr Davies, who lives in Stockport and who has smoked the drug to relieve pain since he broke his spine four years ago, was involved in scuffles with uniformed officers before being led away by undercover detectives.

Unfit poultry to be stained

A proposed action plan aimed at tightening existing laws stopping unfit poultry entering the human food chain has been announced by the Food Standards Agency.

The move to introduce the package of measures follows the conviction of seven people last year at Hull Crown Court of conspiracy to defraud by selling more than 1,000 tonnes of poultry by-products for human consumption when they were destined for pet food.

The plan proposes introducing a requirement to stain "high risk" unfit poultry meat, and establishing a task force to examine what further measures may be needed to control the annual disposal of 754,000 tonnes of poultry waste.

New pressure to cut car fumes

Ministers are to put pressure on local councils in a bid to reduce cancer-causing chemicals in vehicle exhaust fumes.

Environment Minister Michael Meacher announced the tough new targets which aim to produce cleaner air in the next ten years, after advice from health experts. "We are asking people to use their cars only when they have to."

He said the Government has been warned that breathing in particles over a long period, which can be caused by traffic and industry, can lead to premature death.