Thieves who broke into a museum to steal Chinese treasures worth £2m were in and out in less than two minutes, according to police.

Police released photographs tonight of two men wanted in connection with a well-planned raid on a museum in which treasures worth more than £2 million were stolen.

Durham yesterday confirmed that the Australia fast bowler Mitchell Johnson will be their second overseas player for the Friends Life t20, which takes place in June and July. The 30-year-old said: "I've heard brilliant things about Durham from Paul Collingwood when he played over in Perth."

Parents of a man whose body was returned from Greece with the wrong kidney have demanded answers eight months after the authorities put them through the horror of an exhumation.

On a grim day for English cricket, Mervyn Westfield, a former Essex player, was sent to prison at the Old Bailey yesterday for corruption. The 23-year-old, who was sentenced to four months for spot-fixing in a county match, is the first English player to be jailed for such an offence.

Russ Thorne discovers what brought two successful scholarship applicants to the Durham Business School

English cricketers were last night granted a three-month amnesty to report corruption in the game. The offer was made by the England and Wales Cricket Board after the former Essex fast bowler Mervyn Westfield pleaded guilty to accepting a bribe to bowl badly during a match in 2009.

A taxi belonging to Peterlee killer Michael Atherton has been vandalised outside the home where he murdered three people then shot himself.

Former Labour MP Frank Cook, who spent 27 years in the House of Commons, has died at the age of 76.

As first-footings go, three winners at Catterick on New Year's Day was the most cheering of thresholds for one of the unluckiest jockeys of 2011. Last June, Wilson Renwick was concussed in a fall at Hexham. By the time he returned, his principal patron had reacted to a four-year disqualification – on various welfare charges – by retiring altogether. Luckily, as things turned out, auld acquaintance would not be forgotten.

Durham police under scrutiny for decision after family member raised concerns

A man who shot himself after killing three women on New Year's Day was a licensed holder of firearms, it has emerged.

A council has been criticised for awarding a multi-million-pound wheelie bin contract to a German firm despite a British company coming in with a quote which was £250,000 cheaper.

In 1992, Barry Unsworth's fast-flowing epic of the slave trade and resistance to it, Sacred Hunger, jointly won the Booker Prize. It has taken almost 20 years for a sequel to sail into port from Britain's master-builder of historical fiction. The Quality of Mercy acts as coda and retrospect for the earlier story, at the same time as it sets a new course. Although the book can stand alone, a prior reading of Sacred Hunger will sharpen your appreciation.