There have been better times to be Japanese. Still battling the unappeased demons of stagnation, bloated national debt, and the sclerotic effects of an ageing population, the authorities now seem paralysed in their efforts to rebuild after the 2011 earthquake. Despite the country's riches and technological know-how.

Tory MP Andrew Bridgen tonight dismissed allegations that he sexually assaulted a woman as "demonstrably and provably false".

A Tory MP was released on bail yesterday after being arrested on suspicion of sexual assault. Andrew Bridgen, the MP for North West Leicestershire, was arrested in relation to allegations of assaulting a 29-year-old woman in central London.

Conservative MP Andrew Bridgen was arrested today on suspicion of sexual assault and released on bail.

The reduction in foreign banks' UK lending threatens a lasting squeeze on families and businesses because backed overseas lenders are practising "financial protectionism", a Bank of England paper warned yesterday.

Outlook The writing is on the wall for tobacco companies. The designs unveiled yesterday by the Australian Government for plain cigarette packaging have to be seen to be believed. Under itsproposals, which could become law within a matter of months, allcompany branding would disappear – instead, the make of thecigarette would appear in a font of standard style and size underneath eye-catching images illustrating the potential effects of smoking on health.

Katharine Birbalsingh is the deputy head whose observations on South London schools in her blog, and at the Conservative Party conference, put her under pressure to resign from a Streatham "Academy". You needn't agree with her views, or how they were publicised, to call this over-reaction. And this fictionalised re-creation – borrowing its title from ER Braithwaite's To Sir, With Love (1959) – will be pored over for political significance.

The Prime Minister used his visit to the World Economic Forum yesterday to launch a new initiative he said he hoped would focus the minds of countries around the world on finally getting a deal from the Doha round of world trade talks.

The world's 60 largest economies have now put the recession behind them and embarked on another phase of the globalisation that has marked the past 20 years, a report published today will say.