BMI flights from Manchester Airport to Chicago and Washington DC will operate as normal -- despite Hurricane Ivan wreaking havoc in the Caribbean.

But people who plan to get connecting flights from those two airports to Florida are being advised to contact the BMI reservations centre before they travel to get the latest information regarding their flights.

A FORMER Atherton schoolboy has become the youngest person to be awarded the position of professor in his field.

Professor Jeffrey Robert Forshaw, who attended Hesketh Fletcher High School, is now a professor in theoretical particle physics at the University of Manchester at the age of 36.

After achieving a first class honours degree at Oriel College, Oxford, Prof Forshaw gained a doctorate at Manchester.

He worked at the Rutherford Laboratory in Oxford before returning to Manchester in 1995 as a lecturer.

Prof Forshaw was awarded the Maxwell Medal from the Institute of Physics in 1999 for outstanding contributions to theoretical physics.

He is a scientific associate of the world's largest particle physics laboratory in Switzerland, and has had over 80 papers published.