Three men involved in an elaborate confidence trick in which a Christian philanthropist lost £12 million have been jailed.

Giving town halls responsibility for paying council tax benefits to the poorest families while cutting funding by 10% has left them with a "difficult" challenge, it has been suggested.

A chief constable and his deputy who were arrested as part of a corruption investigation began legal proceedings yesterday against three other police forces and the boss of the National Crime Agency (NCA).

A police chief arrested over allegations of corruption is suing the heads of three police forces and the boss of the National Crime Agency (NCA).

Shares in Hargreaves Services, the coal logistics group, plunged by a third yesterday after major problems at its Maltby mine forced it to post a profits warning.

The "dog-thrower" Graham Gooch uses to drill England batsmen has become a regular feature of the team's net sessions, and if Jonny Bairstow keeps his place for the next Test at Edgbaston, he will surely become very familiar with it. Bairstow is a player of much promise and England believe he has the talent and attitude to succeed in Tests. The 22-year-old might prove his supporters right, but first he must work hard to sharpen his technique against the short ball.

There is a "postcode lottery" over foreign exchange, according to consumer group Which?.

A promise to make Britons more active has been hit by funding cuts and the economic downturn

Sometime in my late teens I read, in isolation, a description of a plum, which remained in my mind untethered to anything else. It was only in my twenties that I happened upon a paperback of Still Life and, in an unexpected moment of recognition halfway through the most remarkable novel I've ever read, I recovered the plum's origins.

A vicar who posted foul-mouthed messages on Facebook and complained of going to Church on Sunday is being investigated by senior clergy after a complaint from a parishioner.

Church bosses have launched an investigation into a vicar's online postings after a complaint was made about swearing and comments about having to go to church on Sunday.

It's a diplomatic impasse only the Foreign Secretary can resolve. The 83-year-old daredevil father of William Hague wants to abseil down Europe's tallest building but claims that his ambition is being thwarted by the Qatari owners of the Shard.

The defence firm BAE Systems has won a £1.6bn contract to supply Hawk aircraft to Saudi Arabia.

Joan Wood, 83, died from infection after being left without a feeding tube for 10 days, inquest told