An environmental health officer saw a cockroach eating a chip in one of the busiest branches of Kentucky Fried Chicken in Britain, only four months after the chain was warned to improve its hygiene.

Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) was ordered to pay out almost £19,000 today after a cockroach was found eating a chip in one of the busiest branches in Britain.

Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) today admitted breaching hygiene rules at one of the busiest branches in Britain

A weekly look at the world

Kentucky Fried Chicken employs some bright folks in its marketing department. How best to launch its "fiery wings" meal, they wondered, before noticing reports about town councils across the US being short of funds to install new fire hydrants. Enter KFC, which is paying for the hydrants on the condition it gets to advertise its fiery wings on them.

As a new BBC sitcom, The Persuasionists, lifts the lid on advertising, Gerard Gilbert asks why few TV writers have seen the potential for satire in the industry – and if this attempt is a missed opportunity

Plans to redevelop the ground are exciting but there are fears the debt could compromise the MCC's position

After a mixed week for the BBC on the courage-under-fire front (see George Alagiah, below), a rousing thank the Lord for Alan Yentob.

Here we go again. Every four or five years, without fail, the prospect of a live, televised election scrap between the party leaders is tantalisingly raised, and this time it might even happen. Peter Mandelson has green-lit it already, of course, and where the Senior Prime Minister has led, Gordon may just follow in desperation for a last-minute game-changer. Some find the idea unappealing but, as anyone who watched the Obama vs McCain trilogy may agree, these debates are far the most reliable guides to judgement and temperament.

"If you strike me down, I shall become more powerful than you could possibly imagine," said Obi-Wan Kenobi in Star Wars – and the same appears to be true of Jade Goody. In the pipeline so far are two rival biographies, a coffee-table book, a two-part television retrospective and, the trustees of her estate suggest, a fully fledged biopic.

More than 20,000 red-shirted protesters ringed the Thai prime minister's office today, demanding the government resign and scoffing at its handout of cheques to millions of low-income workers as a buy off.

It's cheap. It's tasty. It's full of fat. Junk food is back on the menu – but what's really behind the country's craving for burgers, fries and meatball subs? Simon Usborne joins the queues

Buckets of chicken, pizza and burgers now dominate the menu for Britain's penny-watching consumers as the recession proves the UK is still a fast food nation.

Britain's employment map transformed as recession-hit consumers trade down