9am Briefing: Man says he was victim of car fire attack

Jamie Bishop said he now feared for his life after his car was set ablaze less than two weeks after it was returned to him by police following the murder of Nattalie Muir.

Mr Bishop’s upstairs neighbour, Robert Weir, 69, collapsed minutes after the car exploded outside his home in Breich, West Lothian, on Sunday night, and later died at St John’s Hospital in Livingston.

* Police failed to tell the family of a suicide victim about the tragedy for 12 days.

The body of 43-year-old Colin Buckley was found at his home in the Capital on October 17, but his family were not informed until October 29 after the police apparently “forgot” to break the news to them.

Colin took his own life days after the anniversary of the murder of his brother Richard, who was stabbed to death at a house in East Calder, West Lothian, during a weekend-long siege in October 2007.

His sister Jackie, 44, from Juniper Green, posted a message of Facebook which read: “My brother Colin hanged himself and was found on October 17. But police only told us a few hours ago. I’m in bits. Totally devastated.”

* Heriot-Watt University has won a major international tender to set up a new campus in Malaysia, one of the world’s fastest growing economies.

The £20m new campus, which follows the establishment of Heriot-Watt’s Dubai campus in 2005, will house 4000 undergraduate and postgraduate students and it will offer a range of courses in science, engineering, business, mathematics and design, with a view to gaining a UK-recognised degree.

The announcement was set to be made today at a high-profile event in Putrajaya, attended by Heriot-Watt’s principal Steve Chapman and Education Secretary Michael Russell.