Aviva, the insurer formed out of brands including Norwich Union and Commercial Union, has turned down a £5bn offer from one of its rivals for its general insurance unit, it emerged yesterday.

It seems our political destiny lies in the hands of Motorway Man. Everyone else, though, is obsessed with Cheryl and Ashley, or Alan Partridge

Fraudster Anne Darwin faces 30 months in jail if she does not repay the sum of nearly £600,000 she made from the faked death scam she carried out with her husband, a judge ruled today.

The boss of Britain's biggest insurance company and his lover warned yesterday that they were prepared to go to the courts to guard their privacy after their affair was made public.

Some 805,000 customers of Aviva will share in a £470m payout from next month, the insurer said today. Most will receive tax-free payouts of between £214 and £1,230 after voting to relinquish any future claims to the profits generated by the funds that hold their investments.

The High Court today rejected attempts to block a scheme under which insurance group Aviva is offering policyholders £500 million in exchange for giving up their rights in a fund worth £1.2 billion.

Q: We moved house in July last year. Nationwide redeemed our existing tracker mortgage against our wishes.

The Norwich Union name will disappear after more than 200 years on Monday.

Household burglaries could escalate by 50 per cent as the year draws out, according to Norwich Union. In 2008, More than 280,000 burglaries were reported, according to Home Office statistics, but the insurer predicts that will increase by more than 140,000.

I look at the pension supplements piling up next to my sofa and I feel sick

Shares in the parent company of Southampton Football Club were suspended today after the business failed to secure additional funds ahead of a 31 March deadline.

Insurers given green light to plunder inherited estates

It's the way of the world we live in. The man leading the inquiry into bankers' bonuses turns out to have been the chairman of a bank – and to have received bonuses. The people running an investigation into why the House of Commons is composed of such a narrow section of the population – predominately white, male and middle class – just happen to be MPs.

Talks to continue with customers over distribution of inherited estate