UK news: Boris Johnson under fire over housing benefit vow

BORIS Johnson faced calls to apologise for "appalling" comments about housing benefit reforms today.

The outspoken Conservative tried to calm anger at Number 10 yesterday, claiming his vow not to accept "Kosovo-style social cleansing" in the UK capital had been taken out of context.

New police tricks a tweet

DETECTIVES will be taught how to track down killers and other criminals on Facebook, Twitter and other social networks, police leaders said today.

Sweeping changes have been made to training for thousands of student investigators to bring their work into the 21st century.

Mandatory life sentences for murder 'lack support'

THERE is no evidence of widespread support for mandatory life sentences for murder, research showed today.

Fewer than one person in five believed that sentencing cases of murder was "about right", the study found.

The report authors said serious consideration should be given to using mandatory life sentence for "particularly serious cases" only.

Mandatory life sentences for all murders were introduced in 1965, when the death penalty was abolished.

Cuts were 'lost chance'

THE government's strategic defence review was a lost opportunity for a radical reassessment of the UK's role in the world, a poll suggested today.

The Royal United Services Institute think-tank asked 2000 defence and security experts their views on the austerity cuts. Around 68 per cent said the review was a lost opportunity for a more challenging rethink of the UK's role.

Comedy pair go to war

TWO of the stars of cult comedy The Inbetweeners are to appear in a new sitcom set in the First World War.

Simon Bird and Joe Thomas have co-written and will star in Chickens as young men left behind while their contemporaries are fighting on the Western Front.

Liverpool: An internal police investigation was under way today after CCTV footage emerged which appeared to show officers repeatedly punching a stab victim.

Darren Grace, 31, claims he was assaulted by officers as he was being treated for knife wounds in a park last August. The CCTV footage appears to show Mr Grace bleeding heavily and resisting treatment.

Sussex: A third man arrested over the murder of a farmer believed to have died in a botched robbery was being questioned today. Julian Gardner, 53, died after apparently disturbing crooks earlier this month.