Prime Minister Gordon Brown will seek to regain the political initiative with a legislative programme for the coming year designed to show the Government is "on the side of the British people".

Chancellor Alistair Darling has announced £2.7 billion worth of help for low and middle income workers hit by the scrapping of the 10p income tax rate.

Police are questioning two men in connection with the murder of a man fatally stabbed in Oxford Street.

Patients believe cleanliness levels in NHS hospitals are not improving, the health watchdog has said.

"Shameless"-style parenting is becoming the norm in many parts of Britain, Conservatives will warn.

Police investigating the murder of 16-year-old "gentle giant" Jimmy Mizen have arrested a man.

Travel companies and British officials are continuing to try to contact UK tourists still unaccounted for after the devastating earthquake in China.

The Armed Forces are unable to meet the Government's "readiness" target for mounting further military missions due to the continuing pressure of operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Ministry of Defence has warned.

Police stop and search teams are to be deployed in the capital in an effort to reduce knife crime after the "horrific events" of the last 48 hours.

Ministry of Defence staff recorded sightings of alien craft over Wallasey Town Hall and a saucer-shaped Unidentified Flying Object (UFO) hovering over Waterloo Bridge, it has been revealed.

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