Private companies have been invited to bid for the East Coast rail franchise, which has been run in the public sector since 2009.

A former BBC producer who will not face charges over claims of indecent assault says the police's Operation Yewtree inquiry "has gone too far".

A former choirmaster at Chetham's School of Music in Manchester is jailed for indecently assaulting a former pupil.

Theresa May says the UK Border Agency performance "is not good enough" and says it is being split with its work moved back into the Home Office.

A 14-year-old girl is found dead at a house in Greater Manchester where four "out of control" dogs are subsequently put down.

A soldier from the 1st Battalion The Mercian Regiment (Cheshire) has been killed in Afghanistan - the first British fatality for two months.

A post-mortem examination has found Russian tycoon Boris Berezovsky's death to be "consistent with hanging", police say.

Five police officers are killed and 13 people injured as suicide attackers storm a police station in the eastern Afghan city of Jalalabad, police tell the BBC.