News in brief

A Banksy mural at the centre of a controversial auction has been withdrawn from sale at the 11th hour, the council campaigning for its return to Britain revealed today.

Haringey Council said the sale of the artwork, known as Slave Labour, had been halted at the last minute with no explanation given from the auction house in Miami.

It disappeared from the side of the Poundland store last weekend and was due to be auctioned for an estimated £459,288.

A million British men 'Roman descendants'

Around one million men in Britain can claim to be direct descendants of the Romans, scientists revealed today.

The Roman army invaded Britain in 43 AD and left around 400 years later, in the early 5th century, but historians and scientists say that the legions left behind their legacy in the genes of many Britons.

PM's ancestors 'had slave pay-out'

David Cameron's ancestors were among thousands of slave owners paid the modern equivalent of billions of pounds in reparations following the trade's abolition.

When slave ownership was abolished in Britain in 1833, the government paid out £20 million - the equivalent of £16.5 billion in today's money - to compensate around 3,000 families.