Darling forced to delay pension boost

Andrew Grice: Blow to Chancellor on day of pre-Budget report as poll shows businessmen remain gloomy on economy

Prince Charles paid back £2,744.34 on 4 December 2007

Excuse me officer, can you lend one £3,000?

Mark Hughes: Royal Family repays Scotland Yard after Prince of Wales's protection officers put 'travel expenses' on Met Police account

The Big Question: What is the Rosetta Stone, and should Britain return it to Egypt?

Help save Christmas

Mark Steel: We have 10 days left to stop X Factor from creating another putrid Christmas number one

More Comment articles

Mark Blanco was trying to convince Pete Doherty, pictured, to go to a play in which he was starring

'Doherty and his cronies were in some way culpable'

Kevin Rawlinson: Sheila Blanco is determined to prove that her son Mark was pushed to his death

More UK News

Critics round on Hague over trip to corrupt isles

Andy McSmith: Shadow Foreign Secretary refuses to disclose reason for his visit to Turks and Caicos

Leading article: The virtues of transparency

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Staff Sergeant Olaf Schmid was killed dismantling an explosive in Sangin province

Widow criticises Army shortages

Wife of Olaf Schmid said her husband was 'too exhausted to go on'

127 dead as bombers aim for heart of government

Five devices including three suicide bombs bring carnage to Baghdad ministries on the day national elections are announced

Michael Owen claims the match ball after his hat-trick in Germany last night

Ferguson hails Owen after famous treble for United

Victory over Wolfsburg takes Red Devils through to last 16 of Champions League as group winners.

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Justine Henin: 'I was alone. I didn't know who I was any more'

In her first interview since deciding to return to the tour, the former world No 1 tells Paul Newman in Limelette that exhaustion drove her away but that her love of tennis – and that missing Wimbledon title – lured her back.

Long road to the big screen

Alex Duval Smith: 'Bokbuster' about Nelson Mandela raises questions of just how far South Africa has come

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Glee: All the right notes
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Bob Diamond: 'Financial capital and human capital are mobile'

Barclays boss warns of exodus of the bankers

The president of Britain's second largest bank has issued a veiled threat that the country's elite financiers could join a mass exodus from the City of London if the Government pushes ahead with a bonus supertax today.

Virgin joins 70-mile-high club with launch of spaceship

Guy Adams joins Sir Richard Branson as he unveils world's first commercial rocket.

The top five security trends of the next decade: hackers to 'resemble drug cartels'

According to new research, the future generation of computer data security companies will have to protect consumers from the industrialisation of hacking, identity theft and an increasing amount of attacks carried out on social networking sites.

Independent Appeal: Whole new world is just a click away for children of Ethiopia

Computer Aid International, one of our appeal charities, is transforming lives in Africa by providing schools with PCs. Paul Vallely reports from Addis Ababa.

Help the girls going to school in the shadow of the bombers

The IoS Christmas Appeal: The Taliban have been driven out of Buner in Pakistan but life is far from normal.

The Taliban are being routed, but at a terrible price

Met Office reveals last decade was the hottest ever recorded

Data show that Earth is not cooling as some sceptics had claimed, but is hotter now than at any point since 1860

Copenhagen is Europe's greenest city

Swine flu damage reaches deep into lungs

Swine flu damages the entire airway, from the trachea to deep in the lungs, just as the viruses that caused the deadly 1918 and 1957 influenza pandemics did, but unlike seasonal flu, a report said Tuesday.

This week's top fashion web sales: Christmas gifts for everyone

Almost all major sample sale sites have added special Christmas sections to their offer now, with some of them -- such as Rue La La -- even posting selections of 'fool-proof' gifts for 'him' and 'her.' As for discounted designer fashion, this week holds sales by Rodarte, Thakoon, and Valentino.

University fees review panel makes first call for evidence

A review of university fees and funding will hold public hearings in the new year, it was announced yesterday.

Wine-tasting club is the toast of top independent girls' school

Maggie Jones: Actress best known for her role as the harridan Blanche Hunt in 'Coronation Street'

Maggie Jones, who has died at the age of 75, was for a decade the foremost British battleaxe of the television soap world as Coronation Street's acid-tongued Blanche Hunt.