The 31 January self-assessment deadline is rapidly approaching – but anyone seeking last-minute help from HM Revenue & Customs could be tricked into paying out for free information.

It was a Friday morning, almost a quarter of a century ago, and my clerk had sent me to a far-flung Crown Court. I'd been on my professional feet only a matter of weeks; my wig was still dazzlingly white.

Coach steers clear of media and cannot persuade team to care enough about Tests

It doesn't really come under the heading of a good day to bury bad news. However, Education Secretary Michael Gove's spat with the exams regulator Ofqual over his planned GCSE reforms escaped the oxygen of too much publicity – emerging as it did on the day Chancellor George Osborne delivered his pre-budget statement.

Smiths News, Britain's biggest distributor of magazines and newspapers, has signed a five-year deal with media giant IPC, worth £154m a year in revenues until 2019.

Outlook Spare a thought for Paul Tucker, who had every reason to think he was a shoo-in to replace Sir Merv at the helm of the Bank of England, an institution he understands as well as anyone.

Who gets your vote for sexiest man alive? Ryan Gosling? Johnny Depp? What about George Clooney? Well, The Onion went with the less chiselled, but more powerful, Kim Jong Un, dictator of North Korea. "Kim made this newspaper's editorial board swoon with his impeccable fashion sense, chic short hairstyle, and, that famous smile," read the article.

The objectivity of the Leveson Inquiry was questioned in articles across 12 pages of the Daily Mail, with one of the inquiry's assessors, Sir David Bell, accused of belonging to an "incestuous network" involving left-wing political, business and financial links that are backing statutory control of Britain's press.

President François Hollande attempted to re-launch his struggling presidency last night by promising to re-build a strong France for a "new generation" and a "new world".

The right wing media have hijacked France's proud secularist tradition and turned it into an attack on muslims

Cash-strapped councils are cutting library services without sufficient regard for their legal duty to maintain “comprehensive and efficient” provision, a cross-party group of MPs has warned.

Lord Justice Leveson faces a televised grilling by critical MPs when he publishes his report into press regulation.

Rupert Murdoch experienced the dangers of tweeting in haste for the second time in 24 hours yesterday, issuing an apology to Hugh Grant for a liverish message questioning the actor's commitment to his daughter.