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Revealed: Britain to build its own Afghan militia after troops withdraw

Fri, 25 May 2012 23:01:37 GMT

An Afghan security force which has faced corruption allegations is to be doubled in size as the West embarks on its exit path from the war.

Acid attack victims fight to stop release of their film in Pakistan

Fri, 25 May 2012 23:01:16 GMT

Pakistani acid attack victims who were featured in an Oscar-winning documentary are taking legal action to stop the film from being shown in their country, amid fears they may be shunned by their communities.

i Editor's Letter: "Should have gone to Specsavers"

Fri, 25 May 2012 23:00:14 GMT

Cameron aide’s cosy chats with News Corp

Fri, 25 May 2012 23:00:01 GMT

Two of David Cameron’s most senior and trusted advisors were having back door text chats with News Corp’s chief lobbyist at the height of the Milly Dowler scandal, it emerged tonight.

Anthony Hilton: Sorry, but shareholders just don’t have the power

Fri, 25 May 2012 23:00:01 GMT

Executive pay continues to fester.

Anthony Hilton: A financial transactions tax may not be so bad

Fri, 25 May 2012 23:00:01 GMT

It was interesting to hear the Prime Minister come out so forcefully against a financial transactions tax (FTT) when talking to the media after Wednesday's European summit meeting. It was a bad tax which would destroy competitiveness, weaken pension schemes and destroy jobs he declared, and he would do everything he could to block it.

Trinity chairman Gibson makes an early exit

Fri, 25 May 2012 23:00:01 GMT

The exit of Sly Bailey as chief executive of Trinity Mirror looked yesterday as though it could happen sooner than expected, after the troubled newspaper group abruptly replaced its chairman.

So Moorish: Mark Hix offers his own take on classic Moroccan dishes

Fri, 25 May 2012 23:00:01 GMT

Over the past 15 years, there has been a steady rise in the popularity of cooking using evocative, spicy, north African ingredients – think of restaurants such as Moro and Ottolenghi, or of one of the many pockets of London like Golborne Road in W10, which is lined with African street-food traders selling native ingredients and antique shops selling all sorts of artefacts. There is a real buzz on that street and the smells are amazing. So this week I thought I would offer you my own take on classic north African recipes.

Facebook banks under fire after helping bet against float

Fri, 25 May 2012 23:00:01 GMT

Anger over what critics see as the botched flotation of Facebook moved to Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan yesterday, after it emerged that the giant Wall Street banks had been aiding hedge funds to bet that the shares would fall.

Errors & Omissions: Like the disease itself, the 'battle with cancer' can always recur

Fri, 25 May 2012 23:00:01 GMT

This week the radio presenter Jenni Murray, in a terrific article in this newspaper, commented on the cliché that has patients fighting a "battle with cancer". As she and I, and I imagine every other cancer survivor, know perfectly well, there is no "battle". You have an illness; the doctors treat it. With luck you live, or you don't. That's it. Cancer is not an ogre, and you can't do anything to "fight" it.

Alan Oakley: Designer whose Raleigh Chopper bike was a defining image of the 1970s

Fri, 25 May 2012 23:00:01 GMT

It is hardly possible to avoid the term "icon" when referring to the creation of the cycle designer Alan Oakley, for he produced one of the objects which helped define 1970s Britain: the Raleigh Chopper bicycle. It mattered not that some considered the Chopper ungainly and absurd, or that others worried it might be unsafe because it seemed difficult to steer, with a large saddle which sometimes encouraged two kids to clamber aboard. Its shape, at once unorthodox and irresistible, and the cachet that came with it, made it the must-have equipment of its day. It conferred instant cool on its young owners, generating envy among their peers. In effect it was the Apple iPad of its time.

Being Gary Lineker: The clean-cut anchorman is this summer's Mr Sport

Fri, 25 May 2012 23:00:01 GMT

A cold wind blows across the concrete desert of the new BBC TV centre that taxi drivers know as MediaCityUK. On the edge of the Salford Docks, the Corporation has leased three big adjacent buildings – Bridge House, Dock House and Quay House – whose reflective skin of glass, chrome and steel reflect the chilly sunlight with a hard glitter.

Cape profits take £14m hit on disastrous project in Algeria

Fri, 25 May 2012 23:00:01 GMT

Shares in the industrial services group Cape crashed 37 per cent yesterday after it said that a massive energy project it is working on in Algeria will make a loss.

Stephen Foley: The nun, the merchant banker and a question of corporate ethics

Fri, 25 May 2012 23:00:01 GMT

US Outlook Nobody mentioned the name Greg Smith, though it is barely two months since the London-based trader quit Goldman Sachs citing a "toxic" culture where clients were regarded as "muppets" to be ripped off wherever possible.

How I wooed the lovelorn shepherdess

Fri, 25 May 2012 23:00:01 GMT

Little Bo Peep had a problem and it had nothing to do with misplacing her sheep. The issue is having stepped on a dirty great nail. It is hardly the stuff of nursery rhymes but it did present the chivalrous opportunity to give Emma Gray, the woman dubbed Britain's loneliest shepherdess, a lift from her remote Northumberland farm back down the four miles of juddering, satnav-bewildering forest tracks for a set of jabs at the local doctors.

The London 2012 Festival: The greatest show of a great year

Fri, 25 May 2012 23:00:01 GMT

You have to hand it to the London 2012 Festival team. When they call it "a once in a lifetime experience", I rather think they mean it. In an "age of austerity", this almighty splurge is not to be sniffed at. More than 25,000 performers and 12,000 events are involved, with every corner of the country, more or less, becoming part of it. Heaps of it is free at the point of use. And if the full programme is... well, a little confusing, perhaps it could scarcely be otherwise, given the sheer scale of the bonanza.

Hodgson will take loss on the chin: Will the nation?

Fri, 25 May 2012 23:00:01 GMT

This is no place for an England manager trying to make his way. At the Ullevaal Stadium, to which the national side return tonight, Ron Greenwood hit the bottom in a defeat to Norway remembered less for the 2-1 scoreline, 31 years ago, than Norwegian broadcaster Bjorge Lillelien's ecstatic audit of the spirits who had been vanquished: Lord Nelson, Lord Beaverbrook, Sir Winston Churchill, Sir Anthony Eden, Clement Attlee, Henry Cooper and Lady Diana. “Maggie Thatcher, your boys took one helluva beating.”

Lindt's trademark hopes felled by lawyers' rabbit punch

Fri, 25 May 2012 23:00:01 GMT

Lindt & Sprüngli, the Swiss confectioner that has produced gold-foiled and be-ribboned chocolate rabbits for the past 60 years, has been dealt a crushing blow by the European Union's Court of Justice.

A dimmer Detroit: Mayor prepares to switch off half of his city's streetlights in attempt to save money

Fri, 25 May 2012 23:00:01 GMT

The parades of broken streetlights in Detroit – darkened by blown bulbs or by thieves who have made off with the wiring – have long been a symbol of the once-great city's long decline. But as the home of Motown and the Mustang is forced to downsize, its leaders have a solution: eliminate almost half of them for good.

Consultant's negligence led to death

Fri, 25 May 2012 23:00:01 GMT

A hospital consultant whose gross negligence led to the death of a mother of two children was "a broken man" yesterday as he was jailed for two years.

Thousands to head for the coast as dreary May turns Mediterranean

Fri, 25 May 2012 23:00:01 GMT

It's the perfect weather for the Jubilee bank holiday – unfortunately it's come a week early.

Top priest testifies in abuse trial

Fri, 25 May 2012 23:00:01 GMT

The child abuse scandal that has rocked the Catholic Church in the United States turned a new page this week as Monsignor William Lynn, of the Philadelphia Archdiocese, below, testified at his trial on charges of child endangerment and conspiracy.

Dr Harry Potter: Expert in overseas rural development

Fri, 25 May 2012 23:00:01 GMT

Dr Harry Potter, who died suddenly from an aortic rupture aged only 69, was a highly experienced development professional who worked for many years in Africa, Asia and South America.

What the Pope's butler saw – aide arrested over Vatican leaks

Fri, 25 May 2012 23:00:01 GMT

Vatican police yesterday seized Pope Benedict's butler in connection with a series of embarrassing leaks on alleged corruption, infighting and mismanagement that have emerged about the Holy See over the past year.

Is Ridley Scott the most macho man in movies?

Fri, 25 May 2012 23:00:01 GMT

Sir Ridley Scott starts his day like a CEO. Wherever he is in the world, he's on the phone at 6am, to his offices in London, Los Angeles, New York and/or Hong Kong. If he's in LA, he talks to London for two hours. If he's in London, say, making a movie, he calls LA for an hour in the morning from the back of his chauffeur-driven car, customised to contain the essential fixtures of an executive suite.