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Parents of French victim issue plea |
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The parents of murdered French student Gabriel Ferez have appealed to the British people to help police catch their son's killer.
Mr Ferez and his friend Laurent Bonomo, both 23, were bound, stabbed to death and set alight in a bedsit in New Cross, south London, last weekend.
On Saturday, Scotland Yard arrested a 21-year-old man, who remains in custody. |
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'Put them in army', says stepmother |
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Relatives of a 16-year-old knife victim gathered at the spot where he died as his stepmother called for violent teenagers to be forced to join the army.
The stepmother of Shakilus Townsend, who would not be named, spoke out after he was stabbed and beaten with a baseball bat by three teenage boys in Thornton Heath, south London, on Thursday. He died from his injuries a day later.
Slamming British prisons as a "luxury", his 36-year-old stepmother said: "There's no punishment and that's why the children do what they do. |
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G8 may back UK over Zimbabwe regime |
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Gordon Brown is preparing for a crunch G8 summit amid signs that the powerful bloc will hit out at Robert Mugabe.
The White House said it believed leaders would "strongly condemn" the Zimbabwe regime in their official communique.
The prospect will be a boost for the Prime minister, who has led international criticism of violence and vote-rigging during recent elections. |
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Low-key ceremony on 7/7 anniversary |
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Three years after four bombs ripped through London's public transport network, killing 52 innocent people, survivors and relatives of victims are to remember the attacks on Monday.
The third anniversary of the July 7 2005 attacks will be marked with a low-key ceremony at the railway station where the four suicide bombers set out on their mission of terror.
London Mayor Boris Johnson will join Tessa Jowell, the Government minister for the capital, and transport chiefs to lay flowers outside King's Cross station at 8.50am, the time when the first three bombs went off. |
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Church mute over talks with Vatican |
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The Church of England would not confirm or deny a report that senior bishops have held secret talks with Vatican officials over the crisis in the Anglican Communion.
The Church of England bishops met senior advisors of Pope Benedict XVI to discuss the issue of homosexual priests and women bishops, the Sunday Telegraph newspaper reported.
The news of the meeting comes ahead of a crucial vote on Monday at the General Synod, the Church of England's ruling body, on how far to accommodate parishes and clergy who oppose women bishops. |
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Civil Service bonuses under fire |
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The Tories have accused the Government of running a "something for nothing" culture after it was revealed that civil servants banked more than £128 million in bonuses during the last financial year.
Shadow Treasury chief secretary Philip Hammond said taxpayers would be "horrified" at the figures, which showed the average bonus for senior civil servants in most departments was more than £7,000.
Mandarins in the Department for Culture, Media and Sport pocketed average payments of more than £11,000, with senior colleagues in the Home Office and Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) both averaging over £9,000 each. |
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Queues and cost defeat school meals |
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Secondary school pupils are shunning the queues and expense of the school canteen in favour of cheap junk food from local shops, according to new research.
Pupils enjoy the healthy meals introduced by chef Jamie Oliver but are having to pay too much and wait too long to be served inside crowded canteens, they said.
The expense and poor facilities are undermining efforts to overhaul the diet of UK students, the report concluded. |
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Labour MSP in by-election running |
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Labour MSP Margaret Curran has announced she will stand as a candidate for the Glasgow East by-election.
The Glasgow Baillieston MSP added her name to the shortlist for the Westminster seat hours after leading candidate councillor George Ryan officially withdrew from the race, saying it would put too much pressure on his family life.
The July 24 by-election was triggered by long-serving Labour MP David Marshall's resignation on health grounds. |
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Royal sale doubles estimate |
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Hundreds of mementoes that give a unique below stairs insight into the Royal household went under the hammer and fetched hundreds of thousands of pounds.
The collection had been amassed by the late William Tallon, affectionately known as Backstairs Billy for his role as Page of the Backstairs.
At an auction in Colchester, Essex, it sold for the kind of money he could only have dreamed about as a relatively modestly paid royal servant. |
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Call for Turks and Caicos inquiry |
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The Foreign Office was urged by MPs to launch an urgent inquiry into the administration of a far-flung corner of Britain's overseas territories amid lurid allegations of corruption and intimidation.
With their palm-fringed beaches and coral reefs, the Turks and Caicos Islands (TCI) enjoy a reputation as a favoured destination for tourists looking for some Caribbean sunshine.
But beneath the tropical idyll, the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee found "a palpable climate of fear" which could have come straight from the pages of a Graham Greene novel. |
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