The international community is united in condemnation of Robert Mugabe, Gordon Brown said as the G8 backed fresh sanctions against the Zimbabwe president.

Consumer confidence slumped to a new record low during June as a run of bad economic news made people worry about the future.

A report being published next week might clear the way for victims of the collapse of insurance giant Equitable Life to claim billions of pounds worth of compensation from the Government, it was reported.

New powers for English citizens to use petitions to demand action from their local authority are to be outlined by Communities Secretary Hazel Blears.

Most people believe terrorist suspects should be held without trial for no more than four weeks, in opposition to the Government's planned 42 days, according to a new survey.

A jail has been accused of "institutional disrespect" because it is dirty, cells are covered in pornography and inmates are locked up early.

Athlete Dwain Chambers is beginning a race against time to try to clear the way for him to compete at next month's Olympic Games in Beijing.

The NHS is failing patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) by providing inadequate services, according to the Royal College of Physicians (RCP).

Police have been granted more time to question a 33-year-old man over the deaths of two French students.

Ministers were under renewed pressure over prisons policy after figures showed a dramatic increase in the number of cases in which suspects wearing electronic tags breached their curfews.

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