The chief executives of General Motors and Ford expressed remorse for having to beg the American taxpayer for a $34 billion ($£23 billion) handout and insisted that they were learning from their mistakes.

Interest rates tumbled across Europe and the world yesterday as leading central banks moved to try to limit the ravages of a looming global recession.

Woolworths will hold its biggest sale today after Theo Paphitis, the Dragons' Den entrepreneur, walked away from a bid for the collapsed retail chain.

Visitors who had paid up to £30 each for tickets to a “Christmas Wonderland” in the New Forest were turned away yesterday by a woman shrieking: “Santa's dead.”

Cash-strapped Americans flocked to Wal-Mart to kick off their Christmas buying last month, shunning many other stores amid the worst shopping season for 28 years.

Banks and building societies will be required to hold tens of billions of pounds more in highly liquid government bonds to ensure they are better equipped to withstand future panics by depositors.

A leading UK law firm has paid its partners £12 million in profits ahead of schedule because it believes that the money will be safer in private rather than corporate bank accounts.

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The economy is plunging deeper into recession despite emergency tax cuts and the multibillion-pound bank bailout, the Bank of England said yesterday.

The Army was mobilised yesterday to rescue stricken drivers as heavy snow and high winds wreaked havoc on motorways, cut power to 15,000 homes and caused more than 300 schools to close across Scotland and northern England.

The economy is plunging deeper into recession despite emergency tax cuts and the multibillion-pound bank bailout, the Bank of England said yesterday.

A restless Prince who is confused about his purpose in life seeks fulfillment in the military only to find that his commanding officers refuse to let him anywhere near the fighting.

What hope is there for Shannon Matthews and the broken children of Dewsbury Moor? To jaded observers of life on this most bleak and wind-swept of northern council estates, the path to adult dysfunction seems soul-deadeningly inevitable.

Jack Clark used to go poaching in the fields that are now occupied by the world’s busiest international airport.

Crossrail, the scheme to build main line rail tunnels under Central London, edged closer to construction yesterday when the City of London pledged £250 million towards the £16 billion cost.

The first sign of a government retreat on airport expansion came yesterday with the announcement that a decision on whether to build a new runway at Heathrow would be delayed until the end of January.

A culture of gambling, moonlighting and drinking exists in the Metropolitan police squad responsible for protecting the Queen, according to court documents filed by a former royal protection officer.

Derwentwater The rare netted carpet moth has been re-established at a site after nine years, with a little help from some cows, the National Trust said. The moth is entirely dependent on a scarce plant, touch-me-not balsam, and the trust is working with a local farmer to introduce controlled winter grazing, which reduces the balsam’s competitors. The cows also help to transmit balsam seeds on their hooves. “As a result, the moth population is now more robust and able to weather natural fluctuations,” a trust official said. The technique was first used successfully at Coniston Water, and carpet moth larvae have been brought in from there.

London Patients are being encouraged to post candid online reviews of the successes and failings of NHS care in an attempt to improve standards. The Government has asked Sir Michael Parkinson, the chat-show host, to act as an ambassador for its “dignity in care” campaign to establish how well hospitals throughout England look after patients, in particular elderly people. Ministers say they want to know if patients were treated with dignity and respect, about cleanliness and the nature of staff teamwork. Comments should be posted on the NHS Choices website, www.nhs.uk.

Shannon Matthews was kidnapped after social workers dropped her from the child protection register because they decided that she was no longer at risk of harm.

J. K. Rowling has returned to sprinkle much-needed magic over Christmas book sales. Year-on-year book sales registered a decline for the first time in seven years last week and a report from the Booksellers Association in November cautioned that its British members were locked in a “vicious circle” of discounting, shrinking growth and smaller profits.

London Jewellery that belonged to the Hollywood star Deborah Kerr sold for £50,160 at auction yesterday.

As the largest ocean liner in the world, with 13 decks of luxury facilities and a ticket to exotic destinations, life aboard the Queen Mary 2 was never going to be plain sailing.

For more than 50 years the film studios have sweated over how to bring the silver screen to the viewing public in three dimensions.

Anglican archbishops will hold an emergency meeting with the Archbishop of Canterbury today to discuss the unfolding schism in the Church in America.

Something fishy is going on down at the chip shop. Almost an eighth of the customers who order cod and chips end up eating haddock.

The economy is plunging deeper into recession despite emergency tax cuts and the multibillion-pound bank bailout, the Bank of England said yesterday.

A risk consultancy with close ties to the Lloyd’s insurance market is offering the world’s first insurance policy for shipowners covering potential ransom payouts on crew members who have been kidnapped.

Michael O’Leary, the famously anti-trade union chief executive of Ryanair, has said that he will recognise Aer Lingus’s unions if he is allowed to buy the Irish flag carrier.