Fire Minister Brandon Lewis probably had a fair idea what Sir Ken Knight would deliver when he asked him to conduct an "independent" report into fire and rescue services in England.
As LGBT activists worldwide celebrate anti-homophobia day we are reminded of prevailing prejudice
Bradford has seen the launch of a new campaign to battle the sources of child sex exploitation - and combat far-right bids to make it a racial issue
ZIMBABWEAN doctors condemned a government campaign to clear shacks from the cities yesterday, saying that as many as one million people might have been made homeless and expressing particular concern about Aids victims among those affected.
ALVARO Cunhal, who led Portugal's Communist Party for half a century and became a national hero after the overthrow of the country's far-right dictatorship, died yesterday aged 91.
BRITISH Prime Minister Tony Blair won an expression of support from Russian President Vladimir Putin yesterday for his G-8 priorities of African debt relief and stemming climate change.
VENEZUELAN President Hugo Chavez said on Sunday night that free market policies promoted by the United States were to blame for the crisis in Bolivia.
CHINESE authorities are investigating a flash flood and a hotel fire that, together, killed at least 123 people last week, checking to see whether local leaders had been negligent, the government said yesterday.
KEY members of the International Atomic Energy Agency reappointed Mohammed El Baradei for a third term as head of the organisation yesterday.
BURUNDIAN officials have forcibly repatriated 3,600 Rwandan refugees from northern Burundi, the United Nations and the government said yesterday.
PAKISTANI authorities have deployed troops at the largest state-run telecom firm's facilities and detained over 300 staff to block a strike, union leader Shahid Ayub said yesterday.
THE United States has imposed a series of sanctions on Israel's arms industry in recent months over Israeli military sales to China, Israeli officials and media reports said yesterday.
LEADERS of Germany's Party of Democratic Socialism said at the weekend that they backed a possible alliance, before expected autumn elections, with a new party opposed to Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's attack on the welfare state.