Unexplained HRT drought hurts women

Manchester bombing trial told of evil email address

WOMEN are being harmed by an unexplained shortage of hormone replacement therapy, experts say.

The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists and the British Menopause Society said the cause of shortages – which “seem unique to the UK” – is unclear.

The organisations, along with the Faculty of Sexual and Reproductive Healthcare, have written to Health Secretary Matt Hancock.

RCOG president Dr Edward Morris said: “The lack of transparency is extremely frustrating.”

It also emerged that poor access to some contraceptives is risking a rise in unplanned pregnancies.

THE Manchester Arena suicide bomber and his brother were linked to a sinister email address used to buy a key ingredient in homemade explosives, a court has heard.

The address – bedab7jeana@ gmail.com – means “To slaughter we have come”.

It was activated two months before Salman Abedi, 22, detonated a suicide bomb on May 22, 2017, killing 22 people leaving an Ariana Grande concert.

Explaining the meaning of the email account’s name, prosecutor Duncan Penny QC told the jury: “It is Arabic. Translated it means ‘to slaughter we have come’ or ‘we have come to slaughter’.”

Mr Penny said a phone used by the bomber’s brother, Hashem, who is accused of helping plan the attack, was near a public wi-fi point on the day the service was used to open the account.

The address was later used to order 30 litres of hydrogen peroxide, one of the three ingredients of explosive TATP.

After the attack, it was found written “on torn-up pieces of paper” at the brothers’ home in Manchester, the prosecution said.

The jury at the Old Bailey also heard how five days after the account was opened, 6kg of nails and 2,000 screws were bought from a trade supplier in the city.

A day later, a bank card in the name of the Abedis’ mother was used to buy tools, including a saw and a claw hammer, it is alleged.

Mr Penny said: “It appears equipment which could be deployed to construct the device was being acquired.”

Hashem’s fingerprints were allegedly later found on bags of screws and nails in a Nissan Micra linked to the brothers. In the boot were more than ten litres of sulphuric acid, another component of TATP, the court heard.

Prosecutors claim Hashem asked friends to buy some of the chemical for him.

Two months before the attack ten litres were ordered through the Amazon account of Mohammed Younis Soliman, who was allegedly linked to the Abedis.

The court heard on April 15 the brothers flew to Libya with their parents, who had visited the UK.

On May 18, Salman returned to finalise his plans, the court heard.

Hashem Abedi, of Manchester, denies murder, attempted murder and conspiracy to cause explosions. The trial continues.