Cameron shows his murky side in portrait

The portrait is remarkable for its depiction of a party leader, standing in an open-necked shirt with both hands in his pockets

Peer’s plan to halt libel abuse

The leading human rights barrister is drawing up a defamation reform bil which would prevent lawyers pocketing excessive fees

Whitehall hid evidence on Heathrow expansion

Secret email exchanges show how government officials and BAA colluded to skew evidence in favour of expanding the airport

'British troops will start to leave Helmand'

The PM said he would map out an exit strategy from the country at an international conference to be held in London in January

Don’t worry, Cockermouth can take it

Locals in the devastated town are determined to clean up and move on in a spirit that recalls the blitz

Too much maternity leave hurts careers

Study across three continents shows the more family-friendly a country tries to be, the less its women succeed in the workplace

Speed mentors hasten women to the top

Rapid-encounter evenings have been devised for aspiring career women who can pick up tips from those who have made it

alMegrahi linked to Libya’s chemical weapons

The man convicted of the Lockerbie bombing is implicated in the purchase and development of chemical weapons by Libya

Climate change data dumped

Scientists have admitted throwing away much of the raw temperature data on which their predictions of global warming are based

UK news in brief

MPs defy order to repay cash | Mother and daughter die in house fire | FSA to investigate if banks are mis-selling current accounts

Anger at banks’ probate ‘rip-off’

Banks are accused of ripping off bereaved relatives by imposing high charges on the estates of customers when they die

Golden payoff for EU chiefs

Thirteen outgoing European commissioners are to receive golden goodbyes amounting to £4.5m, an average of nearly £350,000 each

Meat created in laboratory

The advent of 'in-vitro' meat could reduce the billions of tons of greenhouse gases emitted each year by farm animals

Speculators cash in on the Go Go Hamster

The toy is competing with the puppets of Aleksandr, the insurance advertising meerkat, to top the Christmas toy charts

Taxman targets exiles who keep UK toehold

A new HM Revenue & Customs unit is to probe the lifestyles of those who claim to have moved to tax havens

Clouds created by jets cut out UK sunshine

The worst affected areas include London, which lies under the Heathrow flight paths, northern England and western Scotland

Moonlighting detective profits from Harry Potter

Paul Gaughan was so busy working for Warner Bros that he held a terrorism prevention meeting on board a boat on the Thames

Pay hike for boss at failing NHS hospital

The boss of a hospital that has been criticised for excessive patient deaths and dirty equipment has received an 11% pay rise in the past year

Beware, iPod zombie cyclists are on the rise

Traffic campaigners say that riders distracted by music are causing a growing number of cycling injuries and deaths

Two bodies found after fire in London flat

Mother and daughter feared dead after firefighters tackled blaze at three-storey block in Earlsfield, southwest London