The Bridget Jones star, 36, married Chesney, 37, on a beach in May, having met four months earlier at a benefit for tsunami victims.

In court papers Zellweger listed “fraud” as the reason for the break-up but did not elaborate.

Chesney is one of the biggest country music stars in the US.

He was named of the year at the US Academy of Country Music awards in May, with hits including Me and You and She Thinks My Tractor’s Sexy.

Zellweger won a best supporting actress Oscar for Cold Mountain in 2004, and was also nominated for her roles in Chicago and Bridget Jones’s Diary.

It was the first marriage for both Zellweger and Chesney.

Marriage ‘invalid’

In US law, an annulment is a decree that a marriage was invalid from its outset.

Anyone seeking an annulment on the grounds of “fraud” must prove that their partner misrepresented some matter that was vital to the marriage.

This may include the concealment of a fact such as an existing spouse, permanent impotence or a criminal history.

If either party was under the influence of drugs or alcohol when the marriage took place, it may also be grounds for its annulment.

However, Zellweger’s lawyer and her spokeswoman Nanci Ryder declined to give any details regarding the “fraud” claim in this case.

In her court submission, Zellweger also demanded that the court rule out the of spousal financial support for Chesney.

The pair first met at the Concert of Hope tsunami relief benefit in January, where Chesney was singing and Zellweger was answering telephones.

Some of us might even know that there are two types of diabetes - the insulin dependent form where people need to have injections, and the other one which needs to be controlled through diet and drugs.

But what most people don’t know is that diabetes can lead to blindness, strokes, leads to and even death.

This is why the government in Britain has funded - through the Medical Research Council - a number of epidemiological studies which are designed to answer some basic questions.

In fact, Britain has benefited from a unique source of information in this area.

Between the two world wars, health visitors in Hertfordshire recorded the birth weight and conditions of thousands of new born babies born in the county.

This was prompted in part by the discovery during the first world war that so many of the nations young adults were not fit for military duty.

Fast forward to the 1980s, and a group of were able to follow up many of these babies - known as the Hertfordshire Cohort - and discover what had happened to them.

They discovered that those who had a lower than normal weight at birth were more likely to develop disease, , and diabetes.

Diet and obesity

One of the leading researchers - professor David Barker put forward a theory, that that if the mother is malnourished so the child is likely to be.

But not only would that have an immediate effect - on low weight at birth - but it would also have an effect in later life - making the adult more susceptible to things like cardiac disease and diabetes

But delving deeper it has now been discovered that those babies who grew rapidly during their first year of life were more likely to develop diabetes.

This has prompted a whole series of studies.

The Southampton Women’s Study looks at what is happening to the children in the womb and has recruited several thousand young women to take part.

They been able to scan 1,700 babies so far and take the medical histories of their mothers and even their grandmothers.

Their findings seem to confirm the Barker theory that diet is an area of concern.

As well as looking at growth in the womb, we mustn’t ignore what happens once the child has been born.

In Plymouth Professor Terry Wilkin is running the Early Bird Study in which 300 children form the age of five are being tracked.

Over the past few years their blood has been regularly tested, their metabolic rate measured, the level of sugar in their blood assessed, and their bone density, weight and growth checked.

The results are still being collated, but it’s clear that diet and obesity are key factors.

How fast a child grows in its first few years of life seems to be very significant in terms of developing diabetes.

One striking fact the study has found is that children will be as active as they want to be, no matter how much or how little activity is put into their school day curriculum.

High priority

But what is the normal level of diabetes in the community, and is it increasing?

To answer that question the MRC set up the Ely Study. Tracking more than 1,100 people from the Cambridgeshire market town over 10 years the researchers found that 4% of those who took part had developed diabetes but didn’t know it.

It has also revealed that obesity is a clear risk factor - while activity clearly protects against the condition.

More research into diet and activity levels are under way.

But with prediction that by the year 2030 more than 360m people around the world will be diagnosed with diabetes a condition , and the corollary complications such as heart failure, blindness, impotence and amputated limbs its no wonder why for finding a way to prevent diabetes is for policy makers a high priority.

‘Building a Healthier Britain: Diabetes’ presented by Richard Hannaford is broadcast on Radio Four on Tuesday 1st November at 9.30pm.

Scott Currie, who caused the death of three pensioners in a car crash, hanged himself in a staff-only toilet at prison, Inverness, in 2004.

Sheriff Principal Steven Young said Currie, 31, was solely responsible.

But his mother, Carloyn Currie, said they had contacted the prison with concerns over his state of mind.

A Fatal Accident Inquiry in June heard that Currie had previously talked about hanging himself with a belt.

The was jailed for four years after crashing head-on into a car on the A96 and killing Kenneth Thomson, 66, from Bucksburn, Aberdeen, and his sisters Mabel, 76, and Dorothy, 81.

They had been travelling from Inverness to Aberdeen on their way home from a family funeral.

The for Mr Currie’s death lay, not with them (prison staff), but with Mr Currie himself Steven Young Sheriff Principal

At the FAI, Currie’s wife Sarah gave evidence that her husband had been contemplating suicide which she had reported to prison authorities and raised with local MP David Stewart.

Currie was on the prison’s suicide management programme at the time.

On the night before his death on 20 September, he also had a telephone conversation with his wife in which she told her husband how she was struggling to cope on her own.

Sheriff Young’s findings were:

• Currie’s death was not the result of anything said or done by prison staff
  

• Despite receiving extensive support from a variety of sources in the prison, Currie was determined to take his own life
  

• The telephone conversation the night before Currie’s death was unlikely to be a factor. The decision was either “spur of the moment” or made some days earlier
  

• No-one will ever know why Currie committed suicide that morning.

In a written statement, Sheriff Young said: “I can appreciate the sense of impotence and frustration which was evidently felt by Mrs Currie, and indeed also other adult members of Mr Currie’s family, as they observed his distress in prison.”

The sheriff said he understood that Mrs Currie might have felt let down by the prison authorities, over a lack of action by the prison authorities and her search for “persons at whom the finger of blame for Mr Currie’s death might be pointed”.

Sheriff Young accepted that suicide watch procedures were not always rigidly adhered to by staff at the prison.

The wasn’t even told that Scott had a history of mental health problems and was on medication Carloyn Currie Scott Currie’s mother

However, he added: “I would reiterate that, notwithstanding any shortcomings that there were on their part, the responsibility for Mr Currie’s death lay, not with them, but with Mr Currie himself.”

But Mrs Currie, 55, said she felt helpless and was disappointed with the findings.

“They have posters all over that prison advising relatives to contact staff if they are worried about any of the inmates,” she said.

Mrs Currie said that the family had contacted the prison with their concerns but felt not enough had been done.

The family has contacted local Labour MSP Maureen McMillan, who has raised the matter with Justice Minister Cathy Jamieson.

Mrs Currie said she was waiting to hear back before deciding on her next move.

A spokesman for the Scottish Prison Service (SPS) said: “The SPS welcomes the report, but we do recognise that such events are very, very difficult for the family and close relatives of the individuals involved.”

The condition means having too much iron in the blood.

It is estimated that one in five Irish people carry this gene and one in 86 will go on to develop .

It is with both men and women aged more than 40.

Its symptoms include excessive tiredness, male impotence, liver enlargement, arthritis in the hand and tanning easily.

Researchers at the Mater liver unit in Dublin first identified the strong link between the Celtic gene and the inherited disorder.

Nobody is sure about why or when the Celtic gene suddenly developed or mutated, but researchers at the hospital believe it happened 50 generations ago, about 900 AD.

Professor John Crowe from the Mater’s Liver Unit says the spread of haemochromatosis “around the world is associated with the Irish Diaspora”.

“So, the highest (outside Ireland) are found in eastern Australia, eastern United States, in Great Britain and then to a lesser extent in Scandinavia, northern Spain and northern Italy.”

‘Blood letting’

Elizabeth Cronin from south Dublin found out she had haemochromatosis after she went to her doctor complaining of constant exhaustion and a pain in her liver area.

Blood test results showed she had too much iron.

Like other sufferers she gets the excess iron out of their system by blood letting, removing the blood from her body.

It is estimated that one in five Irish people carry this gene

“I go in on a two-weekly basis to hospital. My iron levels are beginning to decrease and now I’m feeling more energetic,” she says.

“I’m going back to the things I used to enjoy, like walking and playing a bit of tennis.”

Doctors say the condition can be fatal, particularly if too much iron builds up around the heart.

But in the overwhelming majority of cases, it is treatable - though the earlier it is spotted, the better.

Medics also dismiss the notion that the historic Irish fondness for iron-rich cabbage and Guinness are related to the complaint.

With doctors becoming increasingly aware of the condition, they recommend that anyone who has symptoms - such as tiredness or arthritis in the hand - should maybe get a blood test.

After all, it may not be the fault of your lifestyle - and you can always blame it on the ancestors.

The Consumers International lobby group accused drugmakers of using the methods to get doctors to prescribe products and persuade consumers they need them.

It said there was a “shocking” lack of publicity about where the $60bn (33bn) annual marketing spend went.

Drug firms say that they act within strict guidelines.

The Association of the British Industry (ABPI) told the BBC News website that for UK-based firms there was “a stringent and code of practice that goes beyond the requirements of UK law and the industry regulator”.

Sponsorships

Consumers International said it had analysed the selling techniques of many leading companies, including Bayer, GlaxoSmithKline and Johnson & Johnson.

The current regulatory framework is clearly insufficient to prevent systemic violations of marketing regulations Consumers International

Richard Lloyd, the group’s director general, said: “The pharmaceutical industry spends nearly twice as much on marketing as it does on research and development, yet consumers know next to nothing about where this money is going.”

He called for a revision of marketing regulations to achieve “more transparency from drug companies”.

In most Western markets direct advertising to consumers is banned.

But Mr Lloyd said there were other methods drug companies were using to influence opinion.

These include the sponsoring of patient lobby groups, funding disease awareness campaigns and use of hospitality packages for medical experts.

As producers of life-saving medicines it is important that we ensure doctors know full details ABPI

The report cites sponsorships by such firms as Eli Lilly and Pfizer. The latter, the maker of Viagra, sponsored a campaign by the Impotence Association which sported the Pfizer logo.

The report said only one of the firms studied, Orion Pharma, provided specific marketing budget information.

It also pointed to the “large numbers of serious, recent and repeated breaches of marketing codes”.

This showed the “current regulatory framework is clearly insufficient to prevent systemic violations of marketing regulations”.

However, the ABPI said the number of complaints raised showed the system, which had been this year, was working.

It said complaints from drug companies about fellow firms’ activities showed the was effective.

But it also said it was vital for doctors to know about products.

“There is no point having innovative new medicines if they remain unused,” an association spokesman said.