Alistair Darling is so exasperated by the 'moral failure' of banks to help small firms and families that he is poised to toughen the law. The Chancellor is studying legal options to end the 'unacceptable' behaviour of the banks towards companies struggling in the downturn.
More than 10,000 people die needlessly each year because their cancers are not diagnosed in time, a study says.
Towns and villages across England are bracing themselves for 'bombshell' news on the location of hundreds of new and upgraded gipsy and traveller camps.
A boy of 12 collapsed and died after using 'copious' amounts of deodorant in a cramped bathroom, an inquest heard. Daniel Hurley was overcome by solvents in the Lynx Vice spray and his heart began to beat irregularly, the hearing was told. ...read
A row erupted today over claims that teachers were checking pupils' underwear to make sure they comply with a new school uniform policy.
A Cambridge University magazine has caused uproar by printing a raunchy page three picture of a topless student.
This is the double bed base where schoolgirl Shannon Matthews was found hiding when police ended her 24-day ordeal.
It was a scientific breakthrough that could change the future of medicine - but the revolutionary procedure almost failed to take off.
This sepia-tinted portrait of Baby P shows markings to his face that could have alerted the authorities to the ordeal he was suffering at the hands of his abusers.
Blizzards and plunging temperatures will make this weekend feel like deepest winter, weathermen warned today.
A lucky punter collected more than £2million yesterday - the biggest single payout to a British gambler.
A schoolboy who murdered a father-of-three and then filmed himself on a mobile phone as he bragged 'eyes of a killer' has been jailed for life.
The goalkeeper who killed two young boys in a drink-drive smash on the M6 is to become a father, it has been claimed.
Stocks around the world and the price of oil tumbled sharply today as fears of a long, crippling recession took hold. The FTSE was down more than four per cent as oil dropped below $50 a barrel.
Marks & Spencer today fell victim to thousands of shrewd shoppers who returned Christmas presents only to buy them back at sale price.The canny customers swarmed the refund desks in M&S stores across Britain to make the most of its 20 per cent discount day by using the nifty trick. ...read
Scroll through for the most amazing stories from around the globe
HERE KITTY, KITTY: CAT WITH TWO HEADS
GAMBLER WINS £2M ON WEB FRUIT MACHINE
MAN POSTS HIMSELF OUT OF JAIL IN BOX
iPHONE CONFUSED BY BRITISH ACCENTS
AUSTRALIA SEX PARTY LAUNCHED
KAYAKERS RIDE DOWN THE DAM OF DOOM
RESTORED: FIRST PICTURE OF EARTH FROM SPACE
MEET YOUR KANGAROO COUSINS
HERE KITTY, KITTY: CAT WITH TWO HEADS
GAMBLER WINS £2M ON WEB FRUIT MACHINE
Health workers were left stunned when an ambulance outside a hospital clinic was clamped while the driver helped a seriously ill patient inside. Driver Joan George had left the ambulance from London's Royal Free Hospital for just one minute to help the patient into the kidney dialysis clinic. When she returned, the yellow clamp was already being locked to the wheel.
...read
Wales is a nation infamous for binge drinking and violence, a police chief controversially claimed said today.
A grieving mother has told a court how her 13-year-old daughter hung herself with a belt after being 'cyber-bullied' on MySpace.
A multi-millionaire businessman is facing jail for stealing hundreds of pages from rare ancient books worth £500,000 to store in his personal book collection.
When it comes to how happy we feel it seems we're happier than the Germans and on a par with the French and Belgians, a survey has found.
A student hanged himself after joining a controversial alcohol-fuelled university event, an inquest has heard. Gethin Bevan was found hanging from a tree behind a nightclub after he took part in a 'party' night set up by promoters known as Carnage UK.
A GCSE physics exam was thrown into chaos for 120,000 teenagers when all the possible answers to multiple choice questions emerged as wrong. Candidates were issued with a faulty grid to nine multiple choice questions.
A coroner has called for warning signs on beaches after a schoolboy was buried alive under two tons of sand. Craig Owen, 16, was digging a tunnel in a 10ft sand dune when it collapsed.
Police were at the centre of a new storm over data protection today after emailing the personal details of suspected criminals to 150 farmers.
The remains of a billionaire whose family fortune was built on Nazi slave labour have been stolen from an Austrian graveyard.
Scroll through more of the most amazing stories from around the globe
'PREGNANT MAN' IS EXPECTING AGAIN
WANT A FLING? CHECK OUT MEN WITH SCARS
WELCOME BACK 'EXTINCT' PYGMY
ARTISTS CREATE A SEA OF COAL
FIRST IMAGES OF NEW SOLAR SYSTEM
THE MOST REALISTIC ROBOT EVER MADE
MATERNITY UNIT, PHILLIPINES-STYLE
WOMEN'S HIPS MADE US SMART
'PREGNANT MAN' IS EXPECTING AGAIN
WANT A FLING? CHECK OUT MEN WITH SCARS
In any kind of business, it pays to advertise. And in the case of Sister Charlotte, self- styled crystal ball reader and spiritual healer, her promotional leaflets gave a glowing impression of her mystical powers. Depression, bad luck, sorrow, curses, sickness, headaches, jealousy, negative energies around the home and even witchcraft - she could banish them all.
...read
A man of 108 has come forward to claim he is Britain's fourth surviving soldier of the Great War. A man of 108 has come forward to claim he is Britain's fourth surviving soldier of the Great War.
Two World War II comrades meet up 67 years after the one attended the 'funeral' of the other, believing he'd died in a firefight.
A boy of ten was arrested yesterday after a nine-year-old girl was shot in the leg at a primary school.
Doctors carrying out an operation to remove a woman's 'brain tumour' got a surprise - when they came across a live worm instead.
A father died after a single mouthful of curry triggered a nut allergy as he watched television with his family.
icon below an article to save to your favourite stories file