The Metropolitan Police has brought all its ongoing historical child sex abuse investigations under the control of one team, Scotland Yard announces.

Lord Ashcroft, the co-author of a controversial biography of David Cameron, misses the book's launch party after suffering from liver and kidney failure.

Lord Warner, the former Labour health minister, has resigned the party whip in protest at leader Jeremy Corbyn.

South African Olympic and Paralympic athlete Oscar Pistorius is released under house arrest nearly one year after he was jailed for killing his girlfriend, prison officials say.

Tata Steel is set to announce later that 1,200 jobs will go in Scunthorpe and Lanarkshire, as the industry struggles with collapsing prices.

China's President Xi Jinping will address MPs and Lords and attend a banquet with the Queen, on the first full day of his state visit to the UK.

The number of plastic bags handed out by supermarkets in Scotland falls by 147 million - the first figures since a 5p charge was introduced.

Some police forces in England and Wales may not be able to withstand further cuts because they are not efficient enough, the police watchdog warns.