Our writer finds in the story of the police horse lent to Rebekah Brooks a Swiftian satire that highlights animal nobility and human awfulness

A new animal disease that causes birth defects and miscarriages in livestock has now been found on 74 farms in England.

The current kerfuffle about "academic" and "non-academic" school subjects – on the difference between "proper" subjects like History and Maths and "soft" or "vocational" ones that lead only to "Mickey Mouse qualifications" – seems hopelessly misguided. Whatever the value or otherwise of their appearance on school league tables, vocational subjects shouldn't be casually dismissed by traditionalists. I want to make the case that almost all subjects (with the usual proviso about incest and folk dancing) are worthy of the concentrated attention of schoolchildren.

A new livestock disease which causes birth deformities in sheep, cattle and goats has been identified in Britain for the first time.

Sydney Harbour is one of the great travel icons – its Opera House and the Harbour Bridge form an enduring shorthand for a fine city. All the more surprising, then, that the harbour's islands are overlooked by most visitors.

The past 20 years have seen a revolution in bread. When I was growing up, the lighter and fluffier the bread, the better. While I still have time for a deliciously crisp baguette with butter and jambon, these days my heart lies with chewy, dense sourdough loaves.

How do you persuade an energetic infant monkey to pause long enough for a photograph? You don't. "I put the camera in front of him, let him do whatever he wanted and tried to capture his natural charm," says Sharon Montrose. "Of course, you do need a lot of patience for that."

The coat

British butchers are heralding the arrival of a new alternative for the roasting dish – goat meat.

He wasn't rattled; instead, George W Bush was attempting to project an aura of calm as he mulled over news that terrorists had flown hijacked aeroplanes into the World Trade Centre in New York.

Ingredients to serve four as a tapas

There's no escaping office politics, even when you're administering global jihad. Intelligence recovered from Osama bin Laden's final hideaway shows senior figures within al-Qa'ida caught up in petty squabbles and back-stabbing.

Slow Italian art cinema might not set the pulse racing, but be patient: with barely a word of dialogue, this gentle drama is beautiful, mysterious and funny