Documents held by Metropolitan police suggest News of the World targeted former deputy prime minister
John Prescott tonight demanded the Metropolitan police reopen its investigation into the News of the World phone-hacking scandal as the Observer revealed that...

Iranian woman facing death for adultery to be whipped despite Times apologising for using picture of another person
Iran has reportedly sentenced Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani – the 43-year-old Iranian woman who faces execution after being convicted of adultery – to 99 lashes in prison for "spreading corruption and indecency" after allowing an unveiled picture of herself to be published in a British newspaper.
The claim, which...

Senior member of the Indian judiciary has alleged that police are allowing links between organised crime and the sport to flourish
South Asian betting rings are channelling millions of pounds into terrorism and drug trafficking with the connivance of police officers, a judge in India has warned.
As Scotland Yard continues its investigation into the alleged

Unison leader warns leadership frontrunner that he must abandon New Labour's strong preference for privatisation
David Miliband, the Labour leadership frontrunner, must ditch his attachment to Blairite policies on privatisation and globalisation if he is to avoid splitting the party, the leader of Britain's biggest public sector union insists today.
Dave Prentis, the general secretary of Unison,...

Climate scientists meeting in Britain this week hope to build a database to predict natural disasters precisely. And records of the voyages of the Bounty and Beagle will assist them in their task
Leading climate scientists will gather in the UK this week to finalise plans for a revolutionary project aimed at transforming their ability to predict meteorological disasters. The...

Trapped for a month in the San Jose mine, Chile, shift leader Luis Urzua has worked heroically to protect his men
About 700 metres underground, in the most traumatic of circumstances, Luis Urzua has no intention of relinquishing command of the 33 men in his care. Urzua, 54, went to work as usual on 5 August as shift foreman for the ill-fated group of Chilean miners who became trapped below the surface of the Atacama desert in the north of the country.

Around 1.4 million taxpayers owe up to £5,000 after computer system finds PAYE underpayments totalling £2bn
Nearly 6 million people in the UK are to be told they have paid the wrong amount of tax, with some facing bills demanding up to £5,000 in extra payments.
Around 1.4 million people will be told they owe an average of £1,400 because of errors in HM Revenue and Customs' calculations of the pay as you earn (PAYE) tax system over the past two years.
The errors were identified by a new computer system that found...

Former prime minister attacked by anti-war protesters in Dublin as he promotes memoirs
Skirmishes broke out between protesters and police at the first public signing for Tony Blair's memoirs, with shoes and eggs hurled at the former prime minister.

Four men were arrested and charged with public order offences for their part in the protest this morning outside Eason's bookshop on O'Connell Street in Dublin, Ireland, which involved anti-war demonstrators and the Continuity...

City's 400,000 residents told to stay indoors overnight to avoid danger of aftershocks after 7.1-magnitude quake
New Zealand police have imposed an overnight curfew in Christchurch following the powerful 7.1 magnitude earthquake that struck the country's South Island last night.

Police said the curfew was intended to protect the city's 400,000 people from falling debris, as the quake caused widespread damage to buildings, although there were...

A British academic has provoked a storm by claiming that the French education system robs its pupils of their self-esteem

A British teacher at one of the leading universities in Paris has produced an extraordinary indictment of France's admired schools, saying they humiliate pupils and could learn much from other countries, including Britain.
In a book to be published this week, Peter Gumbel, a lecturer at the Institute of Political Science – known as Sciences Po – attacks a classroom...

Juliard and Hermínio set out to smuggle themselves into a better life in the US. Three weeks later, the body of one, and the identity card of the other, were found among 72 blindfolded corpses in Mexico
Boston, on the east coast of the United States, was the destination when Hermínio Cardoso dos Santos and his friend, Juliard Aires...

A new book warns that millions face serious health problems caused by the gurus of hormones and dietary fads
The desire to defy age is as ancient as human history, but in the past 10 years a multibillion-dollar industry has sprung up in America promising decades of extra life and good health beyond your 100th birthday.
However, a new book has revealed a disturbing lack of safety regulation, outrageous...

America's tolerance is famed except, it seems, when it comes to the religious centre near Ground Zero
The sign is polite but firm. At the entrance to the small, upstate, New York community of Kiryas Joel, a new notice asks visitors to the village to shun shorts in favour of trousers or long skirts and...

The Barack Obama-backed summit is a long way from the bloody realities of the West Bank
The Israeli taxi driver shook his head and pointed to his kippah when asked to journey across town to an east Jerusalem neighbourhood on the day of the

The White House is floating a new stimulus, though the Fed chief seemed to rule it out. But does he have any other tools?
Everyone was pretty glum about US GDP growth between March and June, when it was thought to be 2.4%. But due to the wonders of statistical revision,

We have an anaemic recovery at best. And the housing market, where this crisis began, remains in terrible shape
Back in January, US vice-president Joe Biden offered up a huge hostage to fortune. Talking to fellow Democrats about the Obama plan for the economy, he promised: "You're going to see, come the spring, net increase in jobs every month." Yesterday figures showed that a net total...

Beating the stars of Mad Men to an Emmy for her role in The Good Wife was a 'well-received shock', British actor Archie Panjabi says
When Hugh Laurie went home from last Sunday's Emmy awards empty handed, there seemed to be a mass slumping of shoulders among the British press. Laurie has found spectacular success with his portrayal of a grumpy doctor in the TV drama House, but perhaps it's time for him to let another – younger, better-looking...

EU trade commissioner accused of antisemitism after saying Jewish intransigence dooms Middle East talks in Washington
A top European official was accused of antisemitism tonight after declaring that there was little point in engaging in rational argument with Jews and suggesting that the latest Middle East peace talks were doomed because of the power of the Jewish lobby in Washington.
Karel...

• ExxonMobil discussed politics of BP takeover with the White House
• BP's value had once dropped by more than $100bn, since 20 April

BP said today that it was a fortnight away from finally sealing the rogue...

Documents held by Metropolitan police suggest News of the World targeted former deputy prime minister
John Prescott tonight demanded the Metropolitan police reopen its investigation into the News of the World phone-hacking scandal as the Observer revealed that...

Iranian woman facing death for adultery to be whipped despite Times apologising for using picture of another person
Iran has reportedly sentenced Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani – the 43-year-old Iranian woman who faces execution after being convicted of adultery – to 99 lashes in prison for "spreading corruption and indecency" after allowing an unveiled picture of herself to be published in a British newspaper.
The claim, which...

Senior member of the Indian judiciary has alleged that police are allowing links between organised crime and the sport to flourish
South Asian betting rings are channelling millions of pounds into terrorism and drug trafficking with the connivance of police officers, a judge in India has warned.
As Scotland Yard continues its investigation into the alleged

Unison leader warns leadership frontrunner that he must abandon New Labour's strong preference for privatisation
David Miliband, the Labour leadership frontrunner, must ditch his attachment to Blairite policies on privatisation and globalisation if he is to avoid splitting the party, the leader of Britain's biggest public sector union insists today.
Dave Prentis, the general secretary of Unison,...

Climate scientists meeting in Britain this week hope to build a database to predict natural disasters precisely. And records of the voyages of the Bounty and Beagle will assist them in their task
Leading climate scientists will gather in the UK this week to finalise plans for a revolutionary project aimed at transforming their ability to predict meteorological disasters. The...

Trapped for a month in the San Jose mine, Chile, shift leader Luis Urzua has worked heroically to protect his men
About 700 metres underground, in the most traumatic of circumstances, Luis Urzua has no intention of relinquishing command of the 33 men in his care. Urzua, 54, went to work as usual on 5 August as shift foreman for the ill-fated group of Chilean miners who became trapped below the surface of the Atacama desert in the north of the country.

Around 1.4 million taxpayers owe up to £5,000 after computer system finds PAYE underpayments totalling £2bn
Nearly 6 million people in the UK are to be told they have paid the wrong amount of tax, with some facing bills demanding up to £5,000 in extra payments.
Around 1.4 million people will be told they owe an average of £1,400 because of errors in HM Revenue and Customs' calculations of the pay as you earn (PAYE) tax system over the past two years.
The errors were identified by a new computer system that found...

Former prime minister attacked by anti-war protesters in Dublin as he promotes memoirs
Skirmishes broke out between protesters and police at the first public signing for Tony Blair's memoirs, with shoes and eggs hurled at the former prime minister.

Four men were arrested and charged with public order offences for their part in the protest this morning outside Eason's bookshop on O'Connell Street in Dublin, Ireland, which involved anti-war demonstrators and the Continuity...

City's 400,000 residents told to stay indoors overnight to avoid danger of aftershocks after 7.1-magnitude quake
New Zealand police have imposed an overnight curfew in Christchurch following the powerful 7.1 magnitude earthquake that struck the country's South Island last night.

Police said the curfew was intended to protect the city's 400,000 people from falling debris, as the quake caused widespread damage to buildings, although there were...

A British academic has provoked a storm by claiming that the French education system robs its pupils of their self-esteem

A British teacher at one of the leading universities in Paris has produced an extraordinary indictment of France's admired schools, saying they humiliate pupils and could learn much from other countries, including Britain.
In a book to be published this week, Peter Gumbel, a lecturer at the Institute of Political Science – known as Sciences Po – attacks a classroom...