A Devil worshipper who stabbed a 15-year-old boy to death after a Ouija board spelled out the word "kill" was ordered to be detained indefinitely in Broadmoor.

A formal challenge to the accounts of Hackney Council, the troubled London borough hit by Labour group splits and allegations of fraud and racism, was made yesterday to the district auditor, Chris Koelhi.

Clothing with fake designer labels worth more than pounds 2m was seized yesterday in what is believed to be the biggest ever haul in this country.

A manager at a City subsidiary of a Japanese company yesterday denied it had been racist in failing to promote British workers. Noriaki Nakajima, deputy manager of the British arm of Quick Corporation, a financial information company, told an industrial tribunal in Stratford, east London, that the British staff lacked the "ability and character" to be managers.

Sir: You falsely allege a dirty tricks campaign by me as Leader of Hackney Council (report, 17 May) which I find extremely surprising. The chief executive never advised me that Councillor Linda Hibberd was an inappropriate candidate for mayor this year. That was my political judgement based on all the information available to me, including the telephone conversation I had with the chief executive on 3 May.

Gillian Shephard, the Secretary of State for Education, yesterday announced that there would be 38 new technology and language colleges.

A paedophile accused of murdering nine-year-old Daniel Handley told a jury yesterday he was sexually abused at the age of four while living in a Barnado's home. Brett Tyler, 30, also told the Old Bailey he had sex with a male friend at the age of 12 and had a criminal record for indecency with young boys.

Labour scandal: 'Party within a party' formed policy in private

An Old Bailey judge yesterday warned jurors due to try three men accused of murdering the schoolboy Stephen Lawrence not to be influenced by publicity about the case.

Three young men pleaded not guilty yesterday to the murder of 18-year-old Stephen Lawrence at the start of a private prosecution brought by his parents.

Scores of bright-eyed children descended on theatre-land in London yesterday in search of stardom in the hit musical Tommy.

Sir: You make the mistake of gauging the strength of today's road protest movement by the number of tree-climbers.

Chip-shop worker Sarah Webster won pounds 400 compensation yesterday after being sacked for taking a day off with premenstrual tension (PMT). Ms Webster, 18, called in sick after being hit by monthly pains.

Sir: Brian Appleyard protests too much. An anti-educational culture is one of the most enduring themes of western literature, from Shakespeare's schoolboy "creeping unwillingly to school" to Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn. The sociological literature of the 1950s to the 1970s delineated the issue in classic studies such as Peter Wilmot's Adolescent Boys in East London, Colin Lacy's High Town Grammar, and Paul Willis's Learning to Labour.