American intelligence agencies, including the CIA and the FBI, have won a court ruling allowing them to withhold evidence from British MPs about suspected UK involvement in "extraordinary rendition" – the secret arrests and alleged torture of terror suspects.

Worries over revival's momentum as increase in non-farm payroll is slowest since October

Greek coalition in disarray as European creditors are accused of 'blackmail'

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.

Government agrees to slash budget by €3.3bn but eurozone demands more before releasing bailout

The Nasdaq stock index surged to its highest level in 11 years, after data showed US unemployment fell significantly in January.

The Government is pressing ahead with legislation to enact its controversial public sector pension reform in the new year, even though an agreement has not been reached with unions to end the bitter dispute.

The US unemployment rate fell to a two-and-a-half-year low of 8.6 per cent in November and companies stepped up hiring in further evidence that the US economic recovery is gaining momentum.

It was as difficult to walk through parts of Manchester earlier this month without bumping into a lobbyist as it has been for Liam Fox to visit a foreign capital without meeting up with Adam Werritty. Literally thousands of lobbyists took the trip north for a week's social networking and deal-clinching at the Conservative Party conference. There were more of them there than Tory representatives.

The struggling US economy got an unexpected lift yesterday as new figures showed it created many more jobs than expected last month – estimates of past months' job creation were also raised.

Aung San Suu Kyi, the leader of Burma's democracy movement, has held her first meeting with a government official since she was released last year from seven years under house arrest.

A senior civil servant embroiled in a political row with the Education Secretary Michael Gove contacted the police over fears that his phone had been hacked by journalists.

Bright state-school pupils should be taught in "masterclasses" to prepare them for elite universities, the shadow Education Secretary, Andy Burnham, said yesterday.