London Underground services are likely to be crippled again next month by a fresh strike by Tube workers in a long-running dispute over safety.Members of the Rail Maritime and Transport union will stage a 24-hour walkout from the evening of 2 May, which will hit trains on 3 May. The union said the disruption would last for up to 36 hours and said it might call further strikes.Services were virtually halted last month when the RMT called a strike over safety fears, leading to travel chaos in the capital. Bob Crow, the RMT's assistant general secretary, said no attempt had been made to resolve the dispute since.He said London Underground "should realise the depth of feeling among our members for the safety of the Tube". The union says it fears safety will suffer under the Government's plans to run the Tube through a public-private partnership. Talks were held at Acas, the conciliation service, last month but failed to prevent the strike.Ken Livingstone, the London Mayor, and Robert Kiley, the capital's transport commissioner, have accused the Government of trying to push through its part-privatisation plans before the courts can rule on the issue. Mr Livingstone said the Government's decision to announce the private consortiums chosen to run the network by 2 May ­ ahead of the judicial review proceedings aimed at blocking the scheme, which are due to start on 12 June ­ showed "contempt" for Londoners.A spokesman for the Corporation of London said: "The RMT's plans for yet another strike are really quite intolerable ... The last Tube strike cost London £100m and this one will do the same.".

A leading airline has bought half-a-million inflatable footpads intended to prevent long-haul passengers suffering deep-vein thrombosis (DVT), the fatal condition better known as economy-class syndrome. A leading airline has bought half-a-million inflatable footpads intended to prevent long-haul passengers suffering deep-vein thrombosis (DVT), the fatal condition better known as economy-class syndrome. The air cushions, known as Airogym, have been acquired by Dubai-based Emirates to reduce the chance of blood clots by helping passengers to simulate the effects of walking.Doctors at Ashford Hospital, which serves Heathrow, said recently that an average of one passenger arriving at the airport every six weeks was dying as a result of DVT. Relatives' groups are beginning legal action against airlines for failing to warn of the dangers of poor blood circulation when packed into an aircraft.The Airogym device was developed by a former British Airways pilot, Captain Paul Richards, who first encountered a case of DVT while flying from Hong Kong to Heathrow. A passenger collapsed with a pulmonary embolism, blocking her lungs. The aircraft made an emergency landing at Copenhagen, and she was resuscitated. The pilot began work on the device "to help prevent life-threatening situations such as this from happening in the future".But Emirates, which flies from London, Birmingham and Manchester to Dubai and onwards to the Far East, Sydney and Melbourne, took pains to distance itself from a link between flying and DVT."It's certainly not an admission," said Dr Alasdair Beatton, Emirates' head of medical services.

"There is very little evidence to suggest DVT is exclusive to aircraft or long-haul flights." The airline intends to offer the device to passengers on all flights of five hours or longer, once the aircraft has reached its cruising altitude.Emirates squeezes more seats into its Boeing 777s than other scheduled airlines. The industry standard is nine seats abreast in economy class, but Emirates has installed 10. The airline has no plans to follow the example set by American Airlines of removing seats across its fleet to increase passengers' space.Using the Airogym for five minutes is broadly the same as walking around the aircraft, according to John Scurr, a consultant vascular surgeon who conducted tests on the device. "The Airogym improves blood flow between 25 and 50 per cent," he said.