The Select Committees are stronger than ever and the post-2010, post-expenses scandal, intake is less deferential, especially on the Tory side

Letter to the PM

Plans to soften the blow from withdrawing child benefit from higher-rate taxpayers will be announced in the Budget later this month.

Exasperated with a primary process as protracted as it has been vicious, Republican Party grandees are looking to see if Mitt Romney can at last regain an aura of inevitability in tomorrow's "Super Tuesday" contests across 10 states.

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin rolled to victory in Russia's presidential election today, according to exit polls cited by state television, but the vote was tainted by claims of violations, including "carousel voting" in which voters were bused around to cast several ballots.

Ever since 24 September last year, we have known the name of the winner of today's Russian presidential vote. That was the day when Vladimir Putin ended long-running speculation and instead of allowing his protégé, Dmitry Medvedev, a second term in the Kremlin, announced to Russia and the world that he would return himself.

The funeral of the comedian Frank Carson took place yesterday in his home city of Belfast. Showbusiness figures from Britain and Ireland attended the requiem mass at St Patrick's Church.

It has been a black week for Nicolas Sarkozy. At a pivotal time in the presidential election campaign, he has suffered what one French newspaper described as “une semaine horribilis”.

President Barack Obama warned he should be taken seriously when he says he would consider military action to stop Iran getting a nuclear weapon.

An MP suspended from the Labour Party after being charged with assault has said he will stand down from Parliament at the next general election, it was reported today.

Britain secured a number of key demands at the European Union to boost jobs and growth across the continent, Prime Minister David Cameron said today.

David Cameron was last night accused of deploying "smoke and mirrors" to avoid imposing an immediate ban on wild animals in travelling circuses.

For eight decades it has brought a bit of Britain into the homes of listeners from America to Zanzibar. Peter Popham hears its birthday broadcast