Two suicide car bombers struck Syrian security compounds in Aleppo, killing 28 people, Syrian officials said, bringing significant violence for the first time to a major city that has largely stood by President Bashar Assad.
An auction house has withdrawn from sale a set of surgical instruments it claimed had belonged to the commandant of a Nazi concentration camp, alleging its staff had received death threats.
European shippers say they are losing millions because a lengthy stretch of the Danube - one of Europe's key waterways - is stuck in the longest freeze in recent memory.
Families setting off on half-term getaways have been warned of "deceptively dangerous" road conditions and sub-zero temperatures as the snow freezes tonight.
Getting young people into work using a tax on bankers' bonuses is a major priority for the Labour Party, leader Ed Miliband said as he launched his local election campaign.
Christians and politicians reacted with dismay as the High Court today outlawed the centuries-old tradition of formal prayers being said at the start of local council meetings up and down the country.
The streets of Rio de Janeiro were calm today, just hours after police officers went on strike
and a week before glittering Carnival celebrations that typically draw 800,000 tourists were due to start.
Three men were jailed today after becoming the first to be convicted of stirring up hatred on the grounds of sexual orientation for handing out a leaflet calling for gay people to be executed.
Banker Nathaniel Rothschild today lost his bid to win substantial libel damages over a Daily Mail story which he said portrayed him as a "puppet-master" who brought together Lord Mandelson and Russian oligarch
Oleg Deripaska.
The overall World Press Photo 2011 prize winner was revealed today to be Spanish photographer Samuel Aranda. He takes the gong for his shot of a Yemeni woman cradling an injured relative in her arms during violent clashes between anti-government demonstrators in Sanaa.
Police have launched a fresh bid to catch the gunmen who killed two soldiers in Northern Ireland, as a terminally ill man convicted of trying to torch their getaway car was told he must serve a minimum of 25
years in jail.
Paid-for sales of The Independent's journalism have reached their highest point in 16 years, according to latest figures compiled by the Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC).
Although must of us put cotton against our skin almost everyday, in the form of socks and T-shirts, the story of cotton is far from everyday, which is why it has been turned into an extensive exhibition at the Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester.
Liberal Democrats made two landslide gains from Tories in the latest council by-elections, suggesting their voting support has not been dented after the resignation from the Government of Chris Huhne.
Russian politicians voiced strong support today for the Kremlin's action to shield Syrian president Bashar Assad's regime from international sanctions over its crackdown on an 11-month old uprising.
Being lonely in old age will propel you to the grave more quickly than smoking, a senior Downing Street adviser said as part of an effort to encourage people to retire later.
Argentina's foreign minister will arrive at the United Nations today to officially protest about Britain's "militarisation" of the seas
around the disputed Falkland Islands.
There's a new kind of girl in Hollywood. She'll steal your happily married high-school sweetheart. She'll vomit over her bridesmaid dress, and then she'll probably beat you up.
Outlook Sir Mervyn King wanders into the computer room at the Bank of England. He stoops to the printer, checking that it is full (very full) of paper. Then he types Control P and hits Return. Another £50bn chugs out of the Bank and into the streets. Hey presto, economy saved.
Alejandra Garcia's most treasured memento of her father is a faded, black-and-white photo from 1984. A handsome 27-year-old, in jeans and a check shirt, he grins contentedly while holding his wife, Nineth, who in turn is cradling their newly born first child.
Medical drama House will not be resuscitated after the current season, Fox said yesterday, which means one thing ? Hugh Laurie will be looking for something unlikely to do.
Manufacturing has sunk backinto recession, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) confirmed yesterday. Output fell by 0.8 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2011, the second consecutive quarter-on-quarter contraction of the sector.
When snow-fuelled chaos forced Heathrow airport boss Colin Matthews to waive his bonus in December 2010, such remunerative restraint was extremely rare. But in recent weeks the single snowflake represented by Mr Matthews has turned into a flurry, as a growing number of company heads feel obliged to give their bonuses a miss as discontent grows about corporate "rewards for failure" among shareholders, politicians and the public.
The best measure of Josh Gifford is that his death yesterday robbed the jump racing community of so cherished a friend that his status as one of its greatest achievers seemed almost incidental. Though a multiple champion jockey, and trainer of one of the most loved Grand National winners, Gifford will be mourned primarily as one whose relish for life and laughter warranted a far broader indulgence than 70 years.
Outlook There'll be good results from Barclays today and warm words from Britain's highest-paid civil servant, chief executive Bob Diamond (don't buy that stuff about Barclays not relying on taxpayer money; it's rot).
When Angelina Jolie arrives in snowbound Berlin at the weekend for the screening of In The Land Of Blood And Honey (her debut feature as a director), the paparazzi will be out in force. She will walk the red carpet. Amid all the fanfare, many will forget quite how grim her film actually is.
Joely Richardson has managed to walk into Carluccio's in Kingston upon Thames at the height of the lunch buzz and sit at a window seat, her voice raised above the hum, without causing fans to clamber or heads to turn. No one has rushed over with a camera phone or a napkin to sign. Perhaps they're being very English and taking furtive glances over their menus instead, though you get the feeling that her low-key presence is a carefully learnt skill which must be perfected if you are a scion of Britain's biggest acting dynasty and want to nip out for a bite to eat.
The cheap supply of antiretroviral drugs to people with Aids across the world could be choked by an "intellectual property" deal, which the European Union will today demand at a high-level international summit, Aids campaigners say.
The bingo hall and casino operator Rank is luring in new customers thanks to some spruced-up properties and an array of supporting websites and phone apps.
Rick Santorum, who this week emerged as the most potent threat yet to Mitt Romney in the race for the Republican presidential nomination, faces questions about his proximity to a billionaire donor from Wyoming with a long record of supporting the Christian right and its causes.
For the modern-day figure in the public eye, it's a regular occurrence. You get into your expensive, secure car with its tinted windows, thinking that it offers you protection from the world. But as you're leaving the driveway, out spring the photographers and press. You can look away, knowing that neither their flash, nor your silence are likely to be flattering, or you can stop and speak to them through the car window.
Vladimir Putin has "exhausted" his potential as Russia's leader, Mikhail Gorbachev said yesterday, warning that the Prime Minister's inability to change the political system might prompt further anti-government protests.
Beanie hat pulled down over her head, kit bag slung across her shoulders, Trecia Smith emerges from Baker Street tube station, past a poster featuring those garish one-eyed Olympic mascots and the message: "Let the Games begin."
The editor-in-chief of the Daily Mail repeatedly refused to withdraw an accusation that Hugh Grant deliberately "lied on oath" to Lord Justice Leveson's public inquiry into media standards and accused the actor of being "obsessed with dragging the Daily Mail into another newspaper's scandal".
The number of children referred into local authority care in England reached a record high last month. For the first time councils made more than 900 applications to seek protection for young people suffering from abuse or neglect.
A six-storey building that collapsed, killing 115 people, in last year's Christchurch earthquake, was made of weak columns and concrete and did not meet minimum standards, the government said yesterday.
SVG, the quoted proxy for the mighty Permira private-equity funds, saw its shares leap more than 8 per cent yesterday, after the firm said its first £50m tender to buy back some of its shares is to be priced at around 315p.
The world appeared powerless to stop the bloodshed as the Syrian regime continued its bombardment of the central opposition stronghold of Homs yesterday, reportedly killing scores more people despite a massive international outcry.
It was probably only a matter of time before "Smell-vertising" became a reality and it looks like fast-food spud specialists McCain is the first major company to get in on the act.
Spain's best-known judge, Baltasar Garzón, suffered an abrupt and dramatic end to his legal career when he was banned from his profession for 11 years for authorising illicit recordings of lawyers' conversations during a massive political corruption case. The ruling is not subject to appeal.
The make-up of the England backline that saw out the final, victorious minutes in Scotland last weekend could not have been less familiar if a load of players' names had been tossed in a cloth bag and pulled out randomly in some kind of rugby Scrabble. For all the new-broom methodology of the Six Nations champions, it smacked of near-madness to witness Chris Ashton and Ben Foden as the nominal grey hairs of the piece, but that was the case with their 40 caps between ? 30 more than their fellow finishers Lee Dickson, Owen Farrell, Jordan Turner-Hall, Dave Strettle and Mike Brown put together.
The Greek Godot finally arrived. After an interminable wait, the deal has, at last, been done. The government of Prime Minister Lucas Papademos will make further budgets cuts, equal to 1.5 per cent of GDP this year. This opens the way for the Greek private-sector bondholders to accept their "haircut", giving Athens around ?100 billion in debt relief. This shared public- and private-sector sacrifice will unlock the ?130bn aid package for Athens from the European Union and the International Monetary Fund. Now Greece should be able to make its ?14.4bn bond redemption payment on 20 March. The risk of a disorderly default next month, which could set off a broader financial cataclysm, has receded.
News that a not-so-little chap called Chun Chun ? born last Saturday in China's Henan province at a staggering 15.5 lbs ? has set the record as the country's heaviest baby, begs the question: what does the big blighter weigh the same as? Well, he weighs the same as seven bags of sugar ? or just over 11 iPads ? and is twice the weight of the average domestic cat.
Catlin, operator of the biggest syndicate at Lloyd's of London, has seen profits slump by 80 per cent as it paid out catastrophe-related claims of nearly $1bn (£630m).
Moves to reintroduce more setting and streaming in UK state schools are fuelling a ?vicious cycle? of underperformance, particularly amongst disadvantaged youngsters, a top-level international study warned yesterday.
One of the world's most successful parfumiers apologised in court yesterday for making "imbecilic" and "old fashioned" remarks about black people on French television.
Unusually for Fabio Capello, a man who owns some highly valued pieces of art but is not given to too many flights of poetic fancy, he once said that he had a dream. It was right at the start of his England reign and it was that he would lead his team into the final of the World Cup in Johannesburg.
The ousted leader of the Maldives called on the international community to support democracy in his country as it emerged yesterday that a court had issued a warrant for his arrest. Mohamed Nasheed, who claims he was forced from office at gunpoint during a coup led by security forces on Tuesday, said he feared he could be sent to jail any time.
Marge Carey started her working life checking football pools coupons for Vernons in Liverpool but her rise to prominence in the Labour and trade union movement owed more to hard work than luck. After many years as a shop steward representing low-paid workers she rose to become both one of the few women officials in a union where the senior posts were dominated by men, and one of the leading figures in the Labour Party. The former Prime Minister Tony Blair said of her, "She was a wonderful woman full of strongly expressed common sense, goodwill and good judgement."
A young engaged couple have received the perfect wedding gift: a EuroMillions lottery jackpot of £45.1m. Cassey Carrington and Matt Topham, both 22 and from Stapleford in Nottingham, are due to be married in September.
The grand emancipation of America's popular performing orcas has been postponed, thanks to the not-so-startling conclusion of a district court judge in San Diego that, on balance, whales and humans are not the same thing.
Greece yesterday unveiled a political deal over budget cuts that should unlock a ?130bn (£109m) aid package and enable Athens to avoid a potentially catastrophic default next month. After a week of fraught negotiations between the three parties that make up Lucas Papademos' coalition government, the Prime Minister's office yesterday confirmed that agreement on ?3.3bn of new spending cuts had been secured.
Josh Gifford, who died yesterday of a heart attack at the age of 70, will be forever remembered for training Aldaniti to victory in the Grand National in 1981, a win which famously came after his jockey, Bob Champion, had recovered from cancer. After a successful career as a jockey himself, both in National Hunt and on the Flat, Gifford went on to train more than 1,500 winners. He was champion jockey on four occasions and finished second in the 1967 Grand National on Honey End behind the legendary winner Foinavon.
A security company that has faced hundreds of complaints over its treatment of failed asylum-seekers is set to get the go-ahead to find housing for refugees.
Repossessions hit a four-year low of 36,200 last year, as record low interest rates and a lenient stance from lenders helped keep people in their homes, the Council of Mortgage Lenders said, but job losses and inflation pressures are likely to see a 25 per cent rise in repossessions to 45,000 in 2012.
America's biggest banks will pay $25bn (£16bn) to alleviate the nation's housing crisis in an unprecedented legal settlement which, although formally only a punishment for specific abuses in the foreclosure process, was being hailed last night as reparations for their role in the boom and bust that triggered the financial crisis.
Eleven years after police beat scores of peaceful campaigners at a G8 summit in Genoa, the Italian government is expected to announce within days a six-figure compensation payment to one of the British victims of the violence.
Home, as historian Witold Rybczynski puts it in his book Home, brings together the "meanings of house and of household, of dwelling and of refuge, of ownership and of affection". Somewhere, this vision turned into a two-bed edge-of-town starter box: but nonetheless, the noble sentiment stands. As a campaigning exhibition at RIBA in London confirms, Britain has led the way in home-ownership and, to an extent, in good quality mass residential architecture.
Zalman King's stylish erotica includes the TV-friendly Red Shoe Diaries, introduced by a pre-X-Files David Duchovny, and 91/2 Weeks but he began his career as a dramatic actor and continued to make occasional forays into non-erotic cinema. Zalman Lefkowitz changed his name when he began acting, starting as a gang member in Harland Ellison's autobiographical "Memo from Purgatory" (1964), an episode of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour.
The French President, Nicolas Sarkozy, said time was running out to avoid a military intervention in Iran as he appealed to China and Russia to support new sanctions to force Tehran to negotiate over its nuclear programme.
Steve Jobs was a tyrannical boss and a callous boyfriend, prone to distorting the truth to get what he wanted, but he was always charming to the neighbours. In other words: suitable material for a government job.
Midday on Saturday at a restaurant in London. Two lunchers, both men in their twenties, sit in the back corner. The starters are on the table. One is fiddling with an iPhone, giggling at the screen. The non-fiddler leans forward. Bent across the table, he points a fork, complete with prawn, at the iPhone, making threats as to its continued well-being if it continues to enlighten and amuse.
Claims by a leading sports-clothing company, Speedo, to have invented a swimsuit fabric that emulates the surface properties of shark?s skin are not supported by experiments with real shark skin, scientists said.
Nicklas Bendtner and Lee Cattermole have been charged with criminal damage, after cars were allegedly vandalised close to the home of their arch rivals.
Anyone invested in the pub subsector for a while probably has the sort of hangover you could only get from drinking a vat of sour Guinness. However, Enterprise Inns cheered the City yesterday by predicting it could raise up to £200m through selling pubs this year, which will help with its debt burden. But it still described the outlook as "challenging".
What is it about veg boxes that they are positively prospering in the recession while supermarket sales of organic greengroceries have plunged? Is it loyalty to an ethical supplier, a determination to maintain green credentials as the planet heats relentlessly, or merely the surprise of not knowing whether a stick of black salsify or a handsome pale blue squash will turn up among the carrots, swedes and spuds to help brighten a winter supper?
The Blackpool chairman, Karl Oyston, and two of his companies were yesterday fined more than £40,000 for illegally dumping waste from the building of the club's Jimmy Armfield Stand.
The blue-chip index is stuck in a rut. Indecision among punters means the FTSE 100 has barely moved this week, with a mere 20 points between its highest and lowest closing levels. Yesterday was no different as the benchmark index rose just 19.54 points to 5,895.47 despite Greek politicians finally reaching an austerity deal.
After eight years of diagnosing some of the world's rarest diseases, Hugh Laurie is to hang up his stethoscope. The current season of House will be his last, the producers have revealed.
Vinegar is hardly the most alluring ingredient in the kitchen cupboard. In terms of glamour, vinegar is on par with things like corned beef and custard. It carries with it connotations of grandmothers and rationing; household cleaning, even. However, in some quarters, vinegar has been quietly having a bit of a makeover. Not only is it steadily overtaking olive oil as the foodies' new favourite, something for them to obsess over and spend increasingly frightening sums on, there are also ever expanding new varieties. You just need to take a peek at the selection on offer in supermarkets to understand vinegar's new culinary status: balsamic, apple, red wine, white wine, rice, sherry, malt, onion, Asian, the list goes on.
Two suicide car bombers struck Syrian security compounds in Aleppo, killing 28 people, Syrian officials said, bringing significant violence for the first time to a major city that has largely stood by President Bashar Assad.
Argentine Foreign Minister Hector Timerman is meeting UN chief Ban Ki-moon to discuss his country's concerns over Britain's "militarisation" of the seas around the disputed Falkland Islands.
European shippers say they are losing millions because a lengthy stretch of the Danube - one of Europe's key waterways - is stuck in the longest freeze in recent memory.
The streets of Rio de Janeiro were calm today, just hours after police officers went on strike
and a week before glittering Carnival celebrations that typically draw 800,000 tourists were due to start.
Russian politicians voiced strong support today for the Kremlin's action to shield Syrian president Bashar Assad's regime from international sanctions over its crackdown on an 11-month old uprising.
A six-storey building that collapsed, killing 115 people, in last year's Christchurch earthquake, was made of weak columns and concrete and did not meet minimum standards, the government said yesterday.
The French President, Nicolas Sarkozy, said time was running out to avoid a military intervention in Iran as he appealed to China and Russia to support new sanctions to force Tehran to negotiate over its nuclear programme.
Britain will be pressing for governments everywhere to adopt "green accounting", formally putting a value on environmental assets such as forests as much as on economic output, at a major world conference on sustainable development to be held in Brazil in June.
The cheap supply of antiretroviral drugs to people with Aids across the world could be choked by an "intellectual property" deal, which the European Union will today demand at a high-level international summit, Aids campaigners say.
Vladimir Putin has "exhausted" his potential as Russia's leader, Mikhail Gorbachev said yesterday, warning that the Prime Minister's inability to change the political system might prompt further anti-government protests.
Spain's best-known judge, Baltasar Garzón, suffered an abrupt and dramatic end to his legal career when he was banned from his profession for 11 years for authorising illicit recordings of lawyers' conversations during a massive political corruption case. The ruling is not subject to appeal.
The world appeared powerless to stop the bloodshed as the Syrian regime continued its bombardment of the central opposition stronghold of Homs yesterday, reportedly killing scores more people despite a massive international outcry.
One of the world's most successful parfumiers apologised in court yesterday for making "imbecilic" and "old fashioned" remarks about black people on French television.
Rick Santorum, who this week emerged as the most potent threat yet to Mitt Romney in the race for the Republican presidential nomination, faces questions about his proximity to a billionaire donor from Wyoming with a long record of supporting the Christian right and its causes.
Greece yesterday unveiled a political deal over budget cuts that should unlock a ?130bn (£109m) aid package and enable Athens to avoid a potentially catastrophic default next month. After a week of fraught negotiations between the three parties that make up Lucas Papademos' coalition government, the Prime Minister's office yesterday confirmed that agreement on ?3.3bn of new spending cuts had been secured.
Eleven years after police beat scores of peaceful campaigners at a G8 summit in Genoa, the Italian government is expected to announce within days a six-figure compensation payment to one of the British victims of the violence.
Animal rights activists have criticised Dustin Hoffman's new television drama about horse-racing ? Luck ? after two of its equine performers had to be put down when they were injured on set.
The grand emancipation of America's popular performing orcas has been postponed, thanks to the not-so-startling conclusion of a district court judge in San Diego that, on balance, whales and humans are not the same thing.
News that a not-so-little chap called Chun Chun ? born last Saturday in China's Henan province at a staggering 15.5 lbs ? has set the record as the country's heaviest baby, begs the question: what does the big blighter weigh the same as? Well, he weighs the same as seven bags of sugar ? or just over 11 iPads ? and is twice the weight of the average domestic cat.
Alejandra Garcia's most treasured memento of her father is a faded, black-and-white photo from 1984. A handsome 27-year-old, in jeans and a check shirt, he grins contentedly while holding his wife, Nineth, who in turn is cradling their newly born first child.
The ousted leader of the Maldives called on the international community to support democracy in his country as it emerged yesterday that a court had issued a warrant for his arrest. Mohamed Nasheed, who claims he was forced from office at gunpoint during a coup led by security forces on Tuesday, said he feared he could be sent to jail any time.
America's biggest banks will pay $25bn (£16bn) to alleviate the nation's housing crisis in an unprecedented legal settlement which, although formally only a punishment for specific abuses in the foreclosure process, was being hailed last night as reparations for their role in the boom and bust that triggered the financial crisis.
Steve Jobs was a tyrannical boss and a callous boyfriend, prone to distorting the truth to get what he wanted, but he was always charming to the neighbours. In other words: suitable material for a government job.
Syrian forces fired mortars and rockets that killed scores of people in the rebellious city of Homs, activists said, the latest strike in a week-long assault as President Bashar Assad's regime tries to crush increasingly militarized pockets of dissent.
Taking negotiations to the eleventh hour, Greece has announced an agreement on new austerity cuts demanded by its international creditors to release a ?130 billion (£109 billion) bailout, shortly before a crucial meeting of finance ministers in Brussels.
A Maldives court issued an arrest warrant for former President Mohamed Nasheed,
one day after his supporters rampaged in the capital and his claim of being ousted by a coup left unclear the stability of the fledging Indian
Ocean democracy.
A law which outlaws "homosexual propaganda" has been approved by parliamentarians in St Petersburg ? a move that has outraged rights activists in Russia and across the world.
Finance ministers in the euro have scheduled an emergency meeting in Brussels tonight in a move giving rise to hopes a deal can be struck on the Greek rescue talks.
A teenager who confessed to strangling, cutting and stabbing a nine-year-old neighbour because she wanted to know how it felt to kill someone was sentenced to life in prison yesterday.
Rick Santorum, the social conservative who roared back to snatch three states from the supposed front-runner, Mitt Romney, in the race for the Republican presidential nomination on Tuesday night, said his campaign had raised a quarter of a million dollars online within a few hours of his wins and was quickly gaining speed.
The former police chief of a major Chinese city has disappeared from sight amid rumours he is seeking US asylum following a quarrel with one of China's most powerful local politicians.
The ousted president of the Maldives claimed yesterday he had been forced out at gun-point and said he would fight to regain his position. He accused the vice president ? the man who sworn in to replace him ? of helping plot the coup that overthrew him.
In the coffee plantations on the escarpment of the Great Rift Valley, farmers have started to sleep in fields to protect their crops. Beyond the Kakamega rainforest, near the border with Uganda, villagers have waged bloody battles with gangs ready to murder to get their hands on coffee cherries. In towns across the country, storage depots have installed closed-circuit television systems and placed armed guards to protect the dried beans.
There is no proof that Bashar al-Assad's regime is using its heavy weapons to bombard Homs, the Russian Foreign Minister is said to have declared yesterday. Sergei Lavrov's comments on the besieged city came during a telephone conversation with the Foreign Secretary, William Hague, as the Syrian opposition reported dozens more dead and injured.
Bashar al-Assad's bloody siege of Homs intensified yesterday as clear evidence emerged that his indiscriminate shelling of the restive town had started claiming innocent victims, including at least 18 premature babies and three entire families. The evidence came as civilians in the besieged city endured a fifth day of incessant shellfire ? the worst yet, according to eyewitnesses ? with dozens of other people being killed as the brutal assault continued. Last night, news footage was broadcast purporting to show a military convoy making its way to Homs.
Dutch troops were racing yesterday to prepare iced-over canals and waterways for a legendary 125-mile ice-skating race that could be staged for the first time in 15 years.
There are cities where people are used to power cuts, and bear them with a grumble before lighting fires or turning on generators. Damascus is not one of them.
In Communist East Germany she was nicknamed "the purple witch" because of her striking violet hair rinse and leadership style which led to the children of regime critics being forcibly adopted by the state.
Egypt's military-backed prime minister said today his country will not halt its crackdown on foreign-funded nonprofit groups despite what he called threats by Western and Arab countries to cut off aid, further deepening a bitter dispute that has strained ties with the United States.
The US Supreme Court today added another wrinkle to Ohio's debate over how strictly the state's lethal injection procedures should be followed, refusing to allow the execution of a condemned killer of an elderly couple to proceed.
Foreign Secretary William Hague spoke to his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov today amid continuing anger at Moscow's decision to block a United Nations Security Council resolution on Syria.
Footage of Iceland?s answer to the Loch Ness monster, otherwise known as the Lagarfljot river worm, slithering through icy water, has been captured by an amateur cameraman.
The European Union will impose harsher sanctions on Syria, a senior EU official said today, as Russia tried to broker talks between the vice president and the opposition to calm violence. Activists reported at least 50 killed in military assaults targeting government opponents.
Greek coalition leaders are studying a draft deal on further cuts demanded to secure a new bailout that will allow the country to avoid bankruptcy next month.
Downing Street today rejected Argentine claims that Britain is creating a risk to international security by "militarising" the long-running dispute over the Falkland Islands.
A stunning mutiny by evangelical and conservative Republicans punctured the tyres of the supposed frontrunner Mitt Romney in last night?s trio of nomination contests and instead gave a sudden and barely expected jolt of adrenalin to the staunch social conservative in the race, Rick Santorum.
China vowed yesterday to crack down on unrest in Tibetan areas and accused overseas activist groups and the Dalai Lama of orchestrating the recent violence.
Russia thrust itself to the centre of faltering diplomatic efforts to curb the bloodshed in Syria yesterday, with its Foreign Minister insisting during a trip to Damascus that the regime was committed to stopping the violence even as the shells continued to rain down on the restive city of Homs.
Ministers from Iraq's Sunni-backed bloc ended their boycott of the cabinet yesterday ? a move that could restore some stability to the war-ravaged nation.
President Mohamed Nasheed, the man who earned a broad international profile for helping secure democracy in the Maldives and highlighting the threat to his country from climate change, has been forced to step down after weeks of opposition protests culminated in a mutiny by police. Supporters of the President said he was the victim of what amounted to a coup.
Iranian buyers have defaulted on payments for about 200,000 tonnes of rice from India in a sign of the mounting pressure on Tehran from a new wave of Western sanctions.
Bashar al-Assad was advised before appearing on American TV to admit to some policing "mistakes", but to argue that Wall Street protesters were also being "suppressed" by police beatings, and to exploit anti-Obama sentiment in the US.
An MP who first tried to introduce anti-gay legislation carrying the death penalty for some homosexual acts reintroduced the bill yesterday, raising concerns among rights activists who have been fighting it.
For one activist in shell-shattered Homs, it was only when the artillery fire finally stopped that he really began to worry. "The tanks went silent two hours ago," said Mahmoud Araby yesterday afternoon. "That's how we knew the Syrian army was about to enter the area."
Testimony at an inquest into the death of one of Zimbabwe's most powerful men has ended with the court refusing appeals from his family for his body to be exhumed. The retired General Solomon Mujuru died in a fire at his home last year but a court hearing into his death has done little to lift suspicions that he was murdered by political rivals.
Vladimir Putin has vowed to cut traffic privileges for officials who bypass Moscow's traffic jams by ignoring basic rules of the road and even driving into oncoming lanes.
Britain categorically ruled out military intervention by the West in Syria yesterday despite the intensification of the crackdown on dissidents by President Bashar al-Assad's forces.
A South African man who claims to be a famous Zulu folk singer returned from the dead after being held captive by zombies for the past two years has been detained on suspicion of fraud.
Embarrassed it might have taken blood-tainted money, Barack Obama's re-election campaign said it was returning donations of $200,000 (£125,000) from two American supporters after learning that they have a brother known as the "Casino Czar" in Mexico linked to corruption and political violence there.
Mitt Romney is facing fresh turbulence on what is meant to be a glide-path to the Republican Party nomination amid signs of a revitalised challenge from social conservative Rick Santorum and new questions about his strategy to unseat Barack Obama.
That's enough, we can't take it anymore." That was the popular chant coming from protesters in Athens yesterday during the latest 24-hour general strike against the country's austerity measures. Teachers and doctors joined bank employees to demonstrate against a new round of expected cuts as the cash-strapped country continued to negotiate new reductions in spending to help keep the economy afloat.
All the staff at a school where two teachers were arrested on suspicion of child abuse have been suspended while education officials investigate the claims.
Everything is bigger in Texas. Including, it seems, the degree of influence which the anti-abortion lobby is able to exert over both lawmakers and members of the judiciary.
The government of Argentina has played an unlikely card in the escalating dispute over the Falkland Islands: re-naming its domestic football league after the General Belgrano, the warship controversially sunk during the last military conflict there.
The bioterrorism expert responsible for censoring scientific research which could lead to the creation of a devastating pandemic has admitted the information "is going to get out" eventually.
A federal appeals court has declared California's same-sex marriage ban to be unconstitutional, putting the bitterly contested, voter-approved law on track for likely consideration by the US Supreme Court.
A federal appeals court has declared California's same-sex marriage ban to be unconstitutional, paving the way for a likely US Supreme Court showdown on the voter-approved law.
Psychologists told bishops from around the world today that priests who rape and molest children lie when confronted with an accusation, and
that the church should listen first to victims since they usually tell the truth and need to be believed in order to heal.
Syrian forces renewed their assault on the flashpoint city of Homs today as Russia's foreign minister stressed the need for reform and dialogue during talks in Damascus with President Bashar Assad about the country's escalating violence.
Greek party leaders will meet today to seek a long-delayed agreement on harsh cutbacks demanded to avoid looming bankruptcy, amid intense pressure from its bailout creditors to reach a deal, a general strike disrupting public services and thousands of protesters taking to the streets of Athens.
The president of the island nation of Maldives, who became the country's first democratically elected leader in three decades, resigned today following weeks of sometimes violent public protests over his controversial order to arrest a senior judge.
Anders Behring Breivik, who admits killing 77 people in the worst peacetime massacre Norway has ever seen, told a court yesterday that he deserved a medal for the bloodshed.
Britain and the US rounded on the Syrian government yesterday, recalling embassy staff and issuing stern warnings to the regime to end its fierce crackdown on dissent. The move came as a renewed assault on the opposition stronghold of Homs was reported to have left dozens more people dead.
Rescue workers struggled to reach dozens of survivors trapped in the rubble of a factory that collapsed in Lahore yesterday, killing at least nine people.
Hear it from the US Defence Department or the White House, and the war in Afghanistan is a success story allowing America to cease combat operations there a year early. Listen, however, to Lieutenant-Colonel Daniel Davis, veteran of two tours on the Afghan frontlines, and the 11-year conflict is a failure bordering a disaster that those in power have deliberately concealed from Congress and the American people.
The German Chancellor is not supporting anyone in the French presidential election ? but Angela Merkel, the leader of the German Christian Democratic party, is throwing her weight behind Nicolas Sarkozy.
The leaders of Fatah and Hamas yesterday agreed that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas could head an interim "unity" cabinet to pave the way for fresh future elections in Gaza and the West Bank.
An elections panel has affirmed Aung San Suu Kyi's candidacy for parliament in another step towards political openness in a country emerging from nearly half a century of iron-fisted military rule.
Repossessions hit a four-year low of 36,200 last year, as record low interest rates and a lenient stance from lenders helped keep people in their homes, the Council of Mortgage Lenders said, but job losses and inflation pressures are likely to see a 25 per cent rise in repossessions to 45,000 in 2012.
Greece yesterday unveiled a political deal over budget cuts that should unlock a ?130bn (£109m) aid package and enable Athens to avoid a potentially catastrophic default next month. After a week of fraught negotiations between the three parties that make up Lucas Papademos' coalition government, the Prime Minister's office yesterday confirmed that agreement on ?3.3bn of new spending cuts had been secured.
Anyone invested in the pub subsector for a while probably has the sort of hangover you could only get from drinking a vat of sour Guinness. However, Enterprise Inns cheered the City yesterday by predicting it could raise up to £200m through selling pubs this year, which will help with its debt burden. But it still described the outlook as "challenging".
The blue-chip index is stuck in a rut. Indecision among punters means the FTSE 100 has barely moved this week, with a mere 20 points between its highest and lowest closing levels. Yesterday was no different as the benchmark index rose just 19.54 points to 5,895.47 despite Greek politicians finally reaching an austerity deal.
The Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee yesterday announced plans to inject a further £50bn into the ailing British economy over the next three months. Explaining its decision to increase the size of the asset purchase programme from £275bn to £325bn, the MPC conceded that business surveys since the turn of the year have shown an unexpectedly healthy economic picture, but warned that the "weak outlook for near-term growth means that a significant margin of economic slack is likely to persist".
When snow-fuelled chaos forced Heathrow airport boss Colin Matthews to waive his bonus in December 2010, such remunerative restraint was extremely rare. But in recent weeks the single snowflake represented by Mr Matthews has turned into a flurry, as a growing number of company heads feel obliged to give their bonuses a miss as discontent grows about corporate "rewards for failure" among shareholders, politicians and the public.
Manufacturing has sunk backinto recession, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) confirmed yesterday. Output fell by 0.8 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2011, the second consecutive quarter-on-quarter contraction of the sector.
America's biggest banks will pay $25bn (£16bn) to alleviate the nation's housing crisis in an unprecedented legal settlement which, although formally only a punishment for specific abuses in the foreclosure process, was being hailed last night as reparations for their role in the boom and bust that triggered the financial crisis.
Outlook Sir Mervyn King wanders into the computer room at the Bank of England. He stoops to the printer, checking that it is full (very full) of paper. Then he types Control P and hits Return. Another £50bn chugs out of the Bank and into the streets. Hey presto, economy saved.
The bingo hall and casino operator Rank is luring in new customers thanks to some spruced-up properties and an array of supporting websites and phone apps.
SVG, the quoted proxy for the mighty Permira private-equity funds, saw its shares leap more than 8 per cent yesterday, after the firm said its first £50m tender to buy back some of its shares is to be priced at around 315p.
Outlook There'll be good results from Barclays today and warm words from Britain's highest-paid civil servant, chief executive Bob Diamond (don't buy that stuff about Barclays not relying on taxpayer money; it's rot).
Catlin, operator of the biggest syndicate at Lloyd's of London, has seen profits slump by 80 per cent as it paid out catastrophe-related claims of nearly $1bn (£630m).
A dispute involving workers who clean Eurostar trains ended today when their union announced a pay deal which will see staff earning a minimum rate of £8 an hour by the autumn.
Ongoing investigations surrounding the closure of the News of the
World cost News Corporation $87m (£55m) in the final three months of last year, the media giant has revealed.
Drinks giant Diageo today said sales in the UK were falling behind its continental neighbours - although Britons are still lapping up vodka and Baileys.
EasyJet said yesterday that the Association of British Insurers (ABI) and the shareholder advisory group ISS Proxy Services was in its corner over the executive pay spat that has arisen between the budget airline's board and its biggest shareholder.
His Chelsea team has not exactly been at the top of its game recently, and yesterday another of Roman Abramovich's investments found itself under pressure. Evraz ? the steelmaker which is part-owned by the Russian oligarch ? was on the slide amid fears a lack of short-term demand for the metal will blow the whistle on its recent rally.
SuperGroup, the fashion retailer, disappointed investors yesterday by warning on lower profits again after it blamed fierce discounting by rivals for a sharp slowdown in underlying sales in January.
Businesses and pensioners are at loggerheads over the merits of further monetary stimulus by the Bank of England. The British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) said yesterday that another £50bn of quantitative easing by the Bank's Monetary Policy Committee today is necessary to support the ailing UK economy. David Kern, the chief economist of the BCC, said: "Though many of the benefits of QE feel intangible on the ground, it remains a critical bulwark for the UK financial system and the wider economy."
Stephen Hester admitted yesterday that he considered quitting as chief executive of taxpayer-owned Royal Bank of Scotland when the row over his £963,000 bonus was at its most "depressing".
Reckitt Benckiser's new boss, Rakesh Kapoor, took a gamble on emerging markets yesterday as the consumer goods giant wrestles against sluggish growth and fierce competition in the West.
Anyone eating in Pizza Hut on Oxford Street in London after 5pm on a weekday may have been served by a rather studious-looking Dutchman in his mid-forties. That man is Jens Hofma, the managing director of Pizza Hut UK & Ireland, who spends four hours serving tables every other week to help keep him close to customers and staff.
Outlook How many sticks of dynamite would have to explode between Stephen Hester's ears for the fog to clear? Hearing him talk yesterday was to again be reminded that most chief executives and nearly all bankers live on a planet far far away.
Outlook "Global stocks have hit a fresh six-month high", read the story, "as hopes for a worldwide economic recovery outweigh the sentiment-sapping impact of the lingering eurozone fiscal crisis".
The furniture and soft furnishings retailer Dunelm has appointed another man to the boardroom despite asking its headhunters to prioritise finding suitably qualified women.
it is funny how moods shift, isn't it? There has of course been the rise in general optimism demonstrated by the strong equity and commodity market performance pretty much everywhere ? a rise notwithstanding the continuing discord in the Middle East and the rising worries about the European economy and the euro.
The owner of British Airways, IAG, yesterday set out plans for a joint venture with Japan Airlines (JAL), which could potentially lead to more flights and routes between Europe and Japan.
Viscount Rothermere, Daily Mail chairman, warned yesterday that fresh regulation stemming from the Leveson inquiry into the phone-hacking scandal at the News of the World must not be allowed to "castrate" the newspaper industry by restricting freedom of speech.
Finance ministers in the euro have scheduled an emergency meeting in Brussels tonight in a move giving rise to hopes a deal can be struck on the Greek rescue talks.
The struggle at tour operator Thomas Cook was laid bare today as the beleaguered company revealed heavier losses - but offered some hope with robust summer bookings.
George Osborne called last night for an end to the political furore over City bonuses and pay, warning that it threatened to create an "anti-business culture" that could cost jobs.
That's enough, we can't take it anymore." That was the popular chant coming from protesters in Athens yesterday during the latest 24-hour general strike against the country's austerity measures. Teachers and doctors joined bank employees to demonstrate against a new round of expected cuts as the cash-strapped country continued to negotiate new reductions in spending to help keep the economy afloat.
Stephen Hester, the chief executive of Royal Bank of Scotland, has come out fighting to protect his and the taxpayer-owned bank's reputation as the political and public furore over City bonuses continued.
Outlook Will the marriage of Xstrata and Glencore ever be consummated? Not if Standard Life and Schroders get their way. The mega-deal between the two resources giants might have the City beside itself with excitement but it didn't stop the latter two from playing party-poopers yesterday. They're not at all happy with the dowry for Xstrata, the bride.
It was enough to take the edge off an otherwise sweet day. After seven years of courtship, the mining and commodity giants Xstrata and Glencore announced they were finally getting hitched ? only for a couple of their best mates to cry foul on the nuptials.
Outlook BP is back on the right path, at least in the view of American chief executive Bob Dudley, who had the City gushing over his figures like he hopes the 12 new exploration wells BP will dig this year will be gushing with oil.
Outlook The writers of the Simpsons once used a fondness for extended warranties to illustrate their anti-hero Homer's stupidity. And yet despite the things being about as useful a car without wheels, people are still buying. To such an extent that the Office of Fair Trading takes a close interest.
Hundreds more banking jobs could be at risk after National Australia Bank (NAB) said it was taking a much more pessimistic view of the UK economy and was launching a strategic review of its wholly owned Clydesdale Bank.
Sir John Parker is one of Britain's foremost industrialists who has run many of our biggest companies and is the former chairman of energy giant National Grid and the chairman of mining colossus, Anglo-American.
Misys has reached an agreement in principle to merge with its Swiss rival, Temenos, in a deal that will create one of the world's largest financial software businesses.
Profits tumbled at the Lloyd's of London insurer Beazley last year, but its chief executive Andrew Horton still reckons it was a "strong performance in the worst year on record for insured natural catastrophes".
Carsten Kengeter, head of investment banking at UBS, has given up his bonus for last year after the Swiss bank lost more than $2bn (£1.3bn) following alleged fraud by the London trader Kweku Adoboli.
The Indonesian shareholders of the London-listed Bumi are confident they can shake up the miner's board and remove co-chairman Nat Rothschild before creating the world's biggest coal firm, one major investor, Samin Tan, said yesterday.
Bellway's chief executive John Watson gave the housebuilder a "5/10" for its recent performance as the company warned that recent rapid progress on boosting profit margins was set to slow.
Takeover talk was circling Inmarsat again last night, as the return of vague bid rumours sent the satellite telecoms group into orbit. A frequent subject of speculation, the latest revival prompted a late spurt that saw the company close 15.2p better off at 437.2p ? a new, two-month high.
A multibillion-pound tie-up set to create the world's fourth largest natural resources firm met instant criticism today as two major UK investors said they would vote against the move.
Mining heavyweights Glencore and Xstrata have unveiled a deal to create the world's fourth largest natural resources firm worth 90 billion US dollars (£57 billion).
The Government will come under fresh pressure today to end Britain's "bonus culture" despite a climbdown by Network Rail bosses over plans for them to land huge salary top-ups.
Smith & Nephew, the FTSE 100 maker of artificial hips and knees, funnelled £6m through shell companies in the UK to pay bribes to Greek doctors over more than a decade, it was revealed last night.
Senior civil servants are being sent back to school to brush up their management skills as part of a Government overhaul intended to shave £40bn off the cost of forthcoming "major projects".
Greek deadlines are flying past like missiles over a barricade. Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy insist that time is running out. And yet nothing seems to come out of Athens except stasis and delay. So what exactly is the subject of the negotiations? And why the hold-up?
Plunging temperatures and a supply squeeze sent UK wholesale gas prices soaring to their highest level in nearly six years yesterday, as Europe shivered in the grip of the big freeze.
Is Britain anti-business? That is a view that is being loudly expressed in corporate circles as the debate over executive pay rages. The City and the wider business community feels unloved and this was apparently expressed to David Cameron at a meeting of his business advisory group yesterday.
The chief executive of the London-listed Arab investment bank EFG-Hermes has been prevented from leaving Egypt amid allegations that he could have helped to incite the football riot which killed 74 people last week.
The mobile phone giant Vodafone has taken a major step towards a possible £10bn stock market float for its Vodafone India subsidiary, VIL, as former co-owner Essar completed its exit from the business yesterday.
Adele is at the forefront of a new British revival in the album charts with home-grown artists recording their best sales since the mid-1990s when Oasis and the Spice Girls ruled.
Bin Weevils, the online game and children's website, is launching a range of toys and merchandising, after signing a multi-year licensing deal with the toy manufacturer Character Group.
China's soaring growth rate could be cut in half this year if Europe's debt crisis worsens significantly, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) warned yesterday.
BT has said it disagrees with price cuts ordered by the telecoms regulator yesterday. Ofcom said BT should cut the price it charges rivals to use a broadband line by about 4.5 per cent to increase competition.
Retailers suffered a fall in underlying sales last month and the second-worst January of trading since the mid-1990s, hitting them with a "sobering" start to what is expected to be another "tough year".
During the bull market of the 1990s it seemed any fool could make money. There were, as ever, ups and downs, but the stock market moved in one general direction, which was upwards.
Don't put your money on the bookies, was the advice being given out to punters yesterday. William Hill was left near the back of the pack after it and its rivals were attacked for giving worse odds to gamblers in their shops than those who choose to make their wagers online.
The chief executive and other directors of Network Rail became the latest top bosses to waive lucrative bonuses today when they decided to give the money to safety improvements instead.
The prices consumers pay for broadband and landline telephone services are expected to fall after Ofcom announced plans to reduce the amount BT
can charge rivals to rent lines.
In 2012, governments around the world will need to refinance around $7.6 trillion in debt (see table); $8 trillion if interest is included. A central part of the debate is how much government debt is too much. The unsustainability of sovereign debt levels above 60 per cent ? 90 per cent of a country's gross domestic product proposed by economists Carmen Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff, is accepted wisdom.
The leader of Britain's top employers' body has called on politicians to stop bashing business for fear it is damaging the already-fragile economy. John Cridland, director-general of the Confederation of British Industry, said he thought attacks on top bosses had increased as fears over economic growth had risen.
West Brom boss Roy Hodgson was tight-lipped on whether he would be interested in replacing Fabio Capello as England manager when quizzed on the topic this afternoon.
Aston Villa manager Alex McLeish has come out fighting ahead of a proposed fans' protest before Sunday's home game with Manchester City and insisted: "I'll get it right at this club."
The Football Association have rejected claims they paid £1.5million in compensation to Fabio Capello following the Italian's resignation as England coach.
Chelsea manager Andre Villas-Boas maintains he will not make the same mistake as Manchester City counterpart Roberto Mancini and "underestimate" Everton tomorrow.
Swansea may head into tomorrow's Barclays Premier League meeting with Norwich sitting in the top half of the table, but midfielder Leon Britton has warned his team-mates they cannot afford to let their focus slip between now and the end of the season.
Liverpool manager Kenny Dalglish borrowed a trick from rival Sir Alex Ferguson in attempting to deflect attention away from Luis Suarez ahead of the striker's first meeting with Manchester United since his suspension for racially abusing Patrice Evra.
Go on, make us laugh. What might they be saying? Post your caption to this picture using the comment form below and our favourite will win a bottle of champagne.
Few teams get the better of Manchester United twice in the space of a fortnight and we see nothing to suggest the current Liverpool side will be any different, so take one of the coin-toss quotes about Sir Alex Ferguson's men posting a routine victory over the Merseysiders at Old Trafford on Saturday lunchtime.
Nothing can invigorate belief within a dressing room like coming from behind to win and Blackpool have managed it three times in as many weeks, so it could be worth siding with the Seasiders to put unstable Portsmouth to the sword at Bloomfield Road on Saturday evening.
Five months, five-and-a-half matches or 15 minutes: on what sample do you focus when weighing up the value in the 10/3 quote on bottom-club Chesterfield to to beat leaders Charlton at the B2net Stadium on Saturday?
The best ideas in the world don't count for a great deal if you haven't got players big enough to hold their nerve when the going gets tough, so it's just as well for Northampton that Aidy Boothroyd was able to recruit a couple of new faces before the January window shut.
Harry Redknapp admits he would consider taking the England manager's job but insists he will not be able to combine the role with his current position as Tottenham boss.
Scotland have announced their intention to take on Wales at their own game after requesting the Millennium Stadium roof be closed for Sunday's RBS 6 Nations clash.
Harry Redknapp's Tottenham future may be far from clear but his players are fully focused on maintaining their Barclays Premier League challenge against Newcastle at White Hart Lane tomorrow.
Liverpool manager Kenny Dalglish believes the whole team can share the credit for goalkeeper Jose Reina moving to the top of the pile in terms of Barclays Premier League clean sheets.
Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger believes Ivory Coast forward Gervinho will take confidence from his goal in the African Nations Cup and return a better player for the Gunners.
Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson has played down concerns over the first meeting between Patrice Evra and Liverpool striker Luis Suarez since the Uruguayan's racism ban.
The best measure of Josh Gifford is that his death yesterday robbed the jump racing community of so cherished a friend that his status as one of its greatest achievers seemed almost incidental. Though a multiple champion jockey, and trainer of one of the most loved Grand National winners, Gifford will be mourned primarily as one whose relish for life and laughter warranted a far broader indulgence than 70 years.
The Blackpool chairman, Karl Oyston, and two of his companies were yesterday fined more than £40,000 for illegally dumping waste from the building of the club's Jimmy Armfield Stand.
England will play England Lions in a one-day practice match in Dubai today. It will be conducted under proper regulations with no messing about, have plenty of scope for embarrassment and be of little practical help in the series which starts against Pakistan on Monday.
Aston Villa have failed to extend Robbie Keane's loan period. The Irish striker will return to Los Angeles Galaxy after the match at Wigan on 25 February.
Rory McIlroy kicked off a month which could see him reach the world No 1 ranking by charging into contention on the first day of the Omega Dubai Desert Classic.
The world champion Sarah Stevenson's participation in the Olympics is in doubt after she underwent surgery yesterday to repair cruciate ligament damage sustained at a recent training camp in Mexico.
Beanie hat pulled down over her head, kit bag slung across her shoulders, Trecia Smith emerges from Baker Street tube station, past a poster featuring those garish one-eyed Olympic mascots and the message: "Let the Games begin."
David Bernstein was widely regarded as the safety-first choice when he was selected to succeed Lord Triesman as chairman of the Football Association in late 2010 as the governing body lurched towards the end of another troublesome year.
As if the last week in cycling has not been turbulent enough, with Spanish rider Alberto Contador's ban for two years and a federal investigation into Lance Armstrong's former team being dropped, Germany's 1997 Tour de France winner Jan Ullrich was yesterday given a two-year suspension for blood doping.
Despite a league position which he describes as "not very honourable", Andre Villas-Boas insists he is relaxed about Roman Abramovich's increased attention. The Chelsea owner was at training yesterday and the day before, and went into the dressing room after last Sunday's draw with Manchester United. Dismissing any suggestion of an overbearing presence yesterday, though, Villas-Boas described his relationship with Abramovich as "normal" and "legitimate".
Pakistan are in talks with two countries about returning to tour there. Despite fears about security, the Pakistan Cricket Board claims to have had direct approaches about resuming international cricket this year.
Manchester City's Patrick Vieira has suggested that a sequence of refereeing decisions which have gone against Roberto Mancini's side may reflect football's general bias against the club and a sense that "people don't want us to win the league."
The Scottish influence is usually such that you half-expect Britain's Davis Cup team to go on court wearing kilts, but the two most famous players from north of Hadrian's Wall will be notable by their absence for the tie against Slovakia at the Braehead Arena in Glasgow this weekend.
The make-up of the England backline that saw out the final, victorious minutes in Scotland last weekend could not have been less familiar if a load of players' names had been tossed in a cloth bag and pulled out randomly in some kind of rugby Scrabble. For all the new-broom methodology of the Six Nations champions, it smacked of near-madness to witness Chris Ashton and Ben Foden as the nominal grey hairs of the piece, but that was the case with their 40 caps between ? 30 more than their fellow finishers Lee Dickson, Owen Farrell, Jordan Turner-Hall, Dave Strettle and Mike Brown put together.
David Bernstein, the chairman of the Football Association, accepted yesterday that Fabio Capello's four-year tenure as England manager was expensive but denied it was a mistake.
The Wales head coach, Warren Gatland, has spent much of the past few months either fielding teams seriously weakened by the absence of injured front-line personnel or losing the services of brilliant operators in the opening few minutes of major Test matches: think Adam Jones, the sport's best tighthead prop, and Sam Warburton, the form openside flanker in the international game, in the initial stages of last autumn's World Cup semi-final meeting with France. Fortunes changed yesterday when Gatland was able to announce ? ahead of schedule ? the return of two influential forwards for this weekend's Six Nations contest against Scotland at the Millennium Stadium.
Suddenly, Stuart Lancaster is the experienced one ? an unusual situation for a man 80 minutes into his career as an international coach, but true all the same. Joined at the top end of English sport, in a similar caretaker capacity, by Stuart Pearce following the resignation of Fabio Capello as manager of the national football team, Lancaster spent a good deal of yesterday insisting that his colleague in adversity was absolutely the right choice to plot a route through the minefield.
"Let's be a bit realistic here," suggested Trevor Brooking yesterday as England's prospects in this summer's European Championship were discussed, "we have gone 46 years without winning something."
Unusually for Fabio Capello, a man who owns some highly valued pieces of art but is not given to too many flights of poetic fancy, he once said that he had a dream. It was right at the start of his England reign and it was that he would lead his team into the final of the World Cup in Johannesburg.
There are two images of Stuart Pearce. One is the famously twisted face, a roaring expression of relief, pride, guts and above all commitment to his country's cause, after scoring in England's collector's item of a penalty shoot-out triumph against Spain at Euro '96.
When it comes to the governance of English football, even the most consummate politicians at the Football Association can believe that they have all their ducks in a row only to find that at the last minute one has alarmingly floated downstream. So it proved yesterday for the FA in the embarrassing case of Stuart Pearce.
The Football Association yesterday dismissed concerns that it could be open to charges of hypocrisy over the appointment of interim England manager Stuart Pearce, who had to apologise for racially abusing Paul Ince during a Premier League game in 1994.
Nicklas Bendtner and Lee Cattermole have been charged with criminal damage, after cars were allegedly vandalised close to the home of their arch rivals.
Arsene Wenger has defended Fabio Capello's stand over John Terry, insisting the Italian should have had the final say over whether the Chelsea defender remained as England captain or not.
Former Wales captain Ryan Jones will take the place of banned lock Bradley Davies in Sunday's RBS 6 Nations clash against Millennium Stadium visitors Scotland.
Football Association chairman David Bernstein today said the next England manager will ideally be English or British but must above all be "the best person" available.
Chelsea manager Andre Villas-Boas insists his club cannot be blamed for the chain of events which led to Fabio Capello's resignation as England manager.
Fabio Capello's shock resignation leaves the Football Association facing a critical decision over the identity of a new England manager just months before the Euro 2012 finals in Poland and Ukraine.
Football Association chairman David Bernstein today said the next England manager will ideally be English or British but must above all be "the best person" available.
Fabio Capello walked away from the England job last night, bringing an end to four years that started with such optimism, only for it to prove yet another false dawn.
Aston Villa have been unsuccessful in their attempt to extend Robbie Keane's loan period and he will return to the Los Angeles Galaxy after the clash at Wigan on February 25, Press Association Sport understands.
Craig Kieswetter has switched camps, from England Lions back to England, and will tomorrow try to underline his seniority when both teams meet at the Zayed Stadium.
England paceman Chris Tremlett has had back surgery to address the problem which forced him out of the ongoing series against Pakistan in the United Arab Emirates.
West Brom manager Roy Hodgson believes Wolves counterpart Mick McCarthy has been a victim of his own success ahead of Sunday's Black Country derby at Molineux.
Talk of Harry Redknapp leaving Tottenham Hotspur to succeed Fabio Capello as England boss is premature but the manager could have a big decision to make, one of his club's directors said today.
All Black Sonny Bill Williams became a two-sport champion late on Tuesday night when he stopped Clarence Tillman III in Hamilton to claim the New Zealand heavyweight boxing title.
If the Football Association dares only appoint an England manager with an unblemished record in his personal financial dealings then the governing body will note that Harry Redknapp walked out of Southwark Crown Court yesterday without a black mark to his name.
Apparently going out of the FA Cup on penalties is as cruel as it gets; try then, falling to your local rivals from the league above with half a team, seven minutes from the end of extra-time in a replay.
A blustery half-gale blew away almost all hope Mark Cavendish had of claiming a first overall stage-race win here yesterday as the peloton shattered and the reigning World Champion lost nearly a minute on winner Tom Boonen.
The England football manager Fabio Capello resigned last night, just four months before the team play in the finals of the European Championships after a bitter row over alleged racism proved too damaging for either the coach or the sport's governing body to contain.
For a man with a sprawling Tudorbethan mansion in one of the world's priciest property hot spots, and the sort of income that attracts a cumulative £8m tax bill, Harry Redknapp's forceful denials that he could be a "hard-headed businessman" with considerable "business acumen" sit uneasily with the reality of his multimillionaire lifestyle.
The former Force India driver Adrian Sutil will appeal against the 18-month suspended sentence and £167,000 fine he was given by a Munich court last month after being found guilty of causing grievous bodily harm.
Be patient with England ? that's my plea. True, Stuart Lancaster and the boys have just achieved our first win in Scotland for eight years ? a feat that, in the circumstances, I believe was rather remarkable ? but we must be realistic in our hopes. And no, however much we all want it, those hopes shouldn't include a Grand Slam this season.
David Luiz has said that he will take both criticism and praise in his stride as he concentrates on just doing an "honest" day's work at the heart of the Chelsea defence.
So Bradley Davies will miss the rest of the Six Nations Championship. Serves him right. If the Welshman cannot accurately be said to have "tackled" the Irish forward Donnacha Ryan in any form, legal or otherwise, last weekend ? Ryan was nowhere near the ball at the time ? there were so many things wrong with what he did do that it is difficult to know where to start. Suffice to say it was a deliberate act of retribution that might easily have put the victim in a hospital bed. The International Rugby Board is entirely justified in insisting that strong action be taken in this area. But the IRB is also wrong.
Darlington fans yesterday launched a campaign to take community ownership of the Blue Square Bet Premier club. Darlington Supporters United is appealing for financial pledges as it seeks £250,000 to bring the club out of administration and gain majority ownership.
Fabio Capello wouldn't bend and if such a capacity is what you want in the leader of the national team there is a time and a place when it is best expressed.
The two men who hugged in the dock of Court Six yesterday have had their differences ? Milan Mandaric called Harry Redknapp's move from Ports-mouth to Southampton a "bitter divorce" ? but their friendship has remained intact throughout years of suspicion and accusation. At its conclusion the "odd couple", as one defence barrister called them, struck a similar chord. Redknapp's "nightmare" was Mandaric's "horrible dream".
Warren Gatland knew it was bad the moment his second-row forward Bradley Davies grabbed hold of Donnacha Ryan at a ruck during last weekend's Six Nations game in Dublin, manhandled him off his feet and tipped him towards the ground, which Ryan hit head first. Yesterday, the Wales coach ? not to mention Davies ? discovered exactly how bad it was when a disciplinary panel imposed a seven-week ban, thereby ending the Cardiff Blues player's tournament.
Harry Redknapp was dramatically cleared of tax evasion charges yesterday by a unanimous jury verdict, opening the way for the Tottenham Hotspur manager to be appointed as Fabio Capello's successor with England.
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