Prime Minister Gordon Brown will seek to regain the political initiative with a legislative programme for the coming year designed to show the Government is "on the side of the British people".

Economic experts are questioning the impact of Chancellor Alistair Darling's surprise announcement of £2.7 billion to compensate people who lost out from the abolition of the 10p income tax rate.

Proposals to scrap the Government's controversial plans to detain terror suspects for up to 42 days have been published by MPs and peers.

Police are questioning two men in connection with the murder of a man fatally stabbed in Oxford Street.

Sainsbury's has crowned a three-year turnaround plan by ringing up bumper annual profits of £488 million.

Mortgage bank Bradford & Bingley has asked shareholders for £300 million in a bid to bolster its balance sheet.

Patients believe cleanliness levels in NHS hospitals are not improving, the health watchdog has said.

A man is being questioned by police investigating the murder of 16-year-old "gentle giant" Jimmy Mizen.

A life-size Lucian Freud painting of a naked Jobcentre supervisor sleeping broke the world auction record for a work by a living artist when it sold for more than £17 million, Christie's said.

"Shameless"-style parenting is becoming the norm in many parts of Britain, Conservatives will warn.

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