UK News: Murdoch abandons £8bn bid for BSkyB

MPs were to decide today whether to summon News International chief Rebekah Brooks to appear before them over the phone-hacking scandal.

Cancer rates on the rise

RISING cancer rates mean that more than four in ten Britons will be diagnosed with the disease at some point in their lives.

New figures obtained by Macmillan Cancer Support show that 42 per cent of Britons who die have had cancer - compared to around 35 per cent 10 years ago.

1000 civil servants to be awarded 20k bonuses

BONUSES of up to 20,000 will be awarded to more than 1000 civil servants, it was reported today.

Senior Whitehall officials across several departments are expected to share 10 million worth of payments.

Ministers reportedly tried to persuade staff to give up the performance-related payments but were told the rewards were a contractual right.

The Cabinet Office said payments, covering the 2010/11 financial year, will be finalised over the next few weeks.

Dead man on first 'lads' trip

A FORMER England football mascot stabbed to death during an altercation with two Greek taxi drivers on Zakynthos was enjoying his first "lads" holiday abroad, his family has revealed.

Robert Sebbage, 18, from Hampshire, died in the early hours of yesterday after the incident at the island's popular Lagana resort. The two Greek drivers have been arrested and detained, local police said.

Sugar chooses final four

LORD Sugar has chosen the four finalists who will battle it out to become his new business partner and attract a quarter of a million pounds of investment in BBC1's The Apprentice.

Susan Ma, Jim Eastwood, Helen Milligan and Tom Pellereau face the grilling of a lifetime.

Cornwall: Detectives investigating the disappearance of two men in Cornwall have arrested a man on suspicion of their double murder. The suspect, 28, was detained yesterday before police revealed they believed that missing father-of-three David Griffiths and Brett Flournoy, last seen on June 16, had been killed..

Yorkshire: Very poor staff-prisoner relationships and a failure to act on security reports threatened a prison's ability to hold prisoners safely shortly before three nights of disturbances, inspectors said today. Moorland prison suffered a series of riots in November last year.