A £1m prize - named after the Queen - will be awarded for exceptional advances in engineering.

New cigarette safety standards are being introduced to try to cut the number of people killed in house fires.

Ministers order a crackdown on the 250,000 people "languishing unnecessarily" on hospital waiting lists for more than the 18-week target.

Virgin Money is buying Northern Rock for £747m, the government announces. It says there will be no compulsory redundancies.

The executive has committed itself to creating more than 25,000 jobs over the next four years as part of its new programme for government.

Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov says the situation in Syria resembles civil war, after defecting soldiers attacked a government base.

Business Secretary Vince Cable says the UK will not "fall for" any plan to introduce a financial transactions tax only in Europe.

The government could borrow £100bn more than it planned up to 2015, according to claims by Labour based on its comparison of economic forecasts.