Aircraft carriers, unmanned drones and tanker aircraft among possible projects considered for Anglo-French co-operationThe defence secretary, Liam Fox, today spoke of the prospect of close military co-operation with France, a country he called Britain's "natural" partner in Europe.Fox described France as Britain's major western ally, along with

Former home secretary might advise Theresa May to launch investigation into Metropolitan police's conduct over News of the World phone-hacking allegationsThe former home secretary, Alan Johnson, has said there "may now be a case" for a review of the police investigation into allegations of phone hacking at the News of the World.His comments come

Comments came as cricketers Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir were being questioned by policeThe head of the International Cricket Council's anti-corruption unit denied today that the ICC was failing to identify corruption within the sport, as the three Pakistan cricketers at the centre of an alleged betting scam were being questioned b

Sofia Coppola returns to the daddy-daughter theme but audiences are likely to be left bemused or exasperatedLike Monet returning to his lilies, though with perhaps diminishing effect, filmmaker Sofia Coppola has returned to the daddy-daughter theme and to the world of flat, blank, affectless movie actors in flat, blank, affectless hotel rooms.Weird

Greg Downing imprisoned after writing about imagined attack on children's author he had been forbidden to contactA stalker was jailed today after writing a blog about raping and murdering a woman he had been harassing in real life for two years.Greg Downing, 40, detailed the imagined attack on children's author Katharine Quarmby in an online nove

Two officers investigated after impounded Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution is written offTwo police officers face investigation after they stopped a suspected drink-driver, then wrote off his sports car by crashing through a garden wall.The high-powered Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution was driven across a grass verge, then across the garden of one luxury hom

Former deputy prime minister says police refused to tell him whether his phone was hacked by News of the World journalistsJohn Prescott today called for a judicial review of the conduct of the Metropolitan police force in relation to the allegations of phone hacking against the News of the World.The former deputy prime minister was speaking after t

• City inquired about Milan forward just before transfer deadline• Italy international has joined Roma on loanThe Italy forward Marco Borriello came close to signing for Manchester City earlier this week, his agent has claimed.The Milan player was loaned to Roma on the final day of the transfer window after turning down a loan switch to Juventu

If your Championship team don't have a game tomorrow why not make the most of Fifa's scheduling and take a trip further down the food chainEngland's first Euro 2012 qualifier will be played today, after Fifa decided that some of the club sides who so detest being deprived of their top talent on such occasions might be mildly appeased if they got

Daniel Taylor on whether Billy Davies can survive at Forest and Simon Burnton previews Non-League Day

Click here to have the Fiver sent to your inbox every weekday evening, or if your usual copy has stopped arrivingSTART YOUR ENGINESThe global post-World Cup trend for culling wizened old pros from international squads and replacing them with sprightly young tyros can perhaps be explained by the scheduling of the first competitive fixtures of this n

Bash F5 or hit the auto-update for the latest posts, email gregg.roughley@guardian.co.uk and view the live scores here51 min: "Any chance of Robbie making a Spurs comeback especially after he scores a hat trick in the second half today?" asks Paul the Octopus, sorry, Natasha Casey. Erm, yes. Erm, no. Erm, maybe.49 min: Kilbane throws himself to

Tickets to see Arsenal v SC Braga in the Uefa Champions League could be yours

• Paula Carragher to visit stadium for only second time• Defender leads Liverpool XI v Everton to mark 14-year careerJamie Carragher may have played 634 times for Liverpool in his 14-year professional career but the most significant appearance among the gallery of stars present at Anfield for his testimonial tomorrow will be his mother's.Paula

Last season's third place cannot conceal the fracturing relationship between Nottingham Forest's manager and chairman, Billy Davies and Nigel DoughtyIn football, nostalgia has always been the file that smooths the rough edges off the good old days. Supporters of certain clubs will always hark back to the past, very often because they don't parti

• Manager says midfielder initially wanted to go to World Cup• 'In the evening he said yes, and in the morning he said no'Fabio Capello has revealed that Paul Scholes initially agreed to play for England at the World Cup before changing his mind the following morning.Scholes was approached by Franco Baldini, Capello's assistant, about the po

• Frank Lampard says Chelsea have moved on from last season• 'Older you get, more you appreciate what you have got'Frank Lampard has hit back at critics who claim Chelsea's squad are past it – and declared there is more to come from the Premier League champions.Carlo Ancelotti's men have started the new campaign the way they finished the

Key party figure of the 1970s and 80s passes away aged 82The veteran Liberal politician Sir Cyril Smith died today aged 82.Smith served as the Liberal and later Liberal Democrat MP for Rochdale from 1972 until retiring in 1992.He became one of his party's heavyweight political figures in the 1970s and 80s, his famously rotund stature and larger th

I'm glad to see alcohol consumption fall – but how about some pro-sobriety messages instead of the usual anti-drink nagging?I stopped drinking almost 20 years ago, and I sometimes think that my real life began on that day in 1991. Getting sober was one of the best things I ever did, and, strangely, one of the most liberating. Drinking was one of

Sofia Coppola returns to the daddy-daughter theme but audiences are likely to be left bemused or exasperatedLike Monet returning to his lilies, though with perhaps diminishing effect, filmmaker Sofia Coppola has returned to the daddy-daughter theme and to the world of flat, blank, affectless movie actors in flat, blank, affectless hotel rooms.Weird

For a unique take on the world of fashion, sign up to the Guardian's fashion email and get all the latest news delivered straight to your inboxFASHION DILEMMAWhat does it take to get a fashion advert banned?It was only a few weeks ago that Julianne Moore found herself shamefully cast into our Fashion Graveyard for her Bulgari advertising campaign.

Two officers investigated after impounded Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution is written offTwo police officers face investigation after they stopped a suspected drink-driver, then wrote off his sports car by crashing through a garden wall.The high-powered Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution was driven across a grass verge, then across the garden of one luxury hom

• Suspended players face life ban if found guilty of corruption• They face interviews by ICC once police have spoken with themThe fate of the three suspended Pakistan players, whose alleged involvement in a betting scam has thrown cricket into crisis, will hang in the balance for months after the International Cricket Council said today it was

Does the points system add anything to reviews? Our new restaurant critic wants to hear from youThis Saturday I'm beginning a stint as the Guardian's restaurant critic - a tough assignment, as we can all agree, but somebody's got to do it. The job is one I've done before, for the Observer between 1992 and 1995. In fact, I was the Observer's fi

About 54,000 jobs lost, far fewer than the 100,000 expected, easing fears of a second US recessionFears that the world's largest economy is spiralling back into recession eased today as US unemployment data came in stronger than expected.Global stock markets rallied in relief as the US government said employers shed almost half as many jobs as mar

With the opening of the Taj Cape Town, will the city prove the broken windows theory of urban decay?The broken windows theory of urban decay first appeared in the magazine The Atlantic in 1982. Social scientists James Q Wilson and George L Kelling proposed that little problems, such as broken windows, can soon become big ones – squatting, vandali

Fears remain as downgraded storm moves northwards from North CarolinaThousands of people abandoned their homes and drilling on oil rigs was suspended today as Hurricane Earl moved along America's Atlantic coastline, but the worst fears were avoided as it was downgraded to a category two storm.North Carolina, the first state in the firing line, esc

Daniel Houghton, 25, offered sensitive information to Dutch agents for £2mAn MI6 worker has been given a 12-month jail sentence after attempting to sell intelligence to the Netherlands.Daniel Houghton, 25, offered sensitive information to Dutch agents for £2m, the Old Bailey heard today.The software engineer had pleaded guilty to two offences und

In the first of a three-part investigation, Rory Carroll reports from the gateway to America, at the epicentre of drug cartel violence that has claimed 28,000 livesThe events which have no name scythe through the valley like invisible reapers. They slice east to west, west to east, a homicidal pendulum. No one sees anything.The pair of human heads

Cambridgeshire force tried to bring German doctor Daniel Ubani back to the UK after he killed a patient on his first UK shiftThe chief constable for Cambridgeshire has sharply criticised extradition rules as the Home Office prepares to announce a review of existing arrangements, including those with the US and EU countries.Julie Spence, whose force

Renewed efforts to name the killer of policewoman Yvonne Fletcher threaten to reignite tensions with Colonel GaddafiAbdelbaset al-Megrahi is a household name in Britain and the US these days – even if he wasn't before being released from his Scottish jail on compassionate grounds amidst international controversy last summer. But is the only man

Iran's president urges Palestinians to continue armed resistance against Israel at al-Quds Day rallyIran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, today launched an angry attack on "doomed" US-brokered Middle East peace talks and urged the Palestinians to continue armed resistance to Israel.Ahmadinejad used the annual al-Quds (Jerusalem) Day rally in T

Lib Dem leader promised in April that if he sold his house he would give all the profit to the public purseThe British public should receive a welcome windfall in the coming months – courtesy of Nick Clegg, it was revealed today.The deputy prime minister is selling his Sheffield home, months after saying that "every single penny" of profit made

New information released through FOI shows the risk Sir John Chilcot is taking if he relies on the Hutton reportHow complacent is the Iraq inquiry chairman, Sir John Chilcot? On the second day of the inquiry's public hearings, he told a Foreign Office witness: "We have a very detailed account in the Hutton inquiry report of the construction of th

Former Labour MP Chris Mullin's diaries offer juicy insights into Gordon Brown's intemperance and paranoia•I shall get round to reading Tony Blair's book simply because, like Everest, it is there. In the meantime I suspect I've been getting more pleasure out of the second volume of Chris Mullin's diaries, Decline And Fall. Like Blair, Mullin

Michael White on the former Rochdale MP whose joviality masked a torn and tormented figureSir Cyril Smith, who died today at the age of 82, was what the Press Association's report calls "a larger than life character" – literally so, because the former MP for Rochdale weighed up to 29 stone on occasion.Large or not, it was not a character that

Tom Watson, MP for West Bromwich East, writes to Sir Paul Stephenson about the News of the World phone-hacking scandal03 September 2010Dear Mr Stephenson,I write as a Member of Parliament, a former cabinet office minister and a member of the culture, media and sport select committee which took evidence last year from Andy Coulson and Les Hinton abo

Here's the start of a report from Regeneration and Renewal:The Department for Transport has ruled out providing a £7 million contribution towards the costs of building a new London Overground station in south London considered key to a proposed 2,000 home development around Millwall's New Den football ground.I'm not precisely sure how symbolic,

The Conservatives' head of communications, Andy Coulson, says he did not know about widespread phone-hacking when editor of the News of the World, but a report in the New York Times suggests otherwise. Should David Cameron sack him?

Key party figure of the 1970s and 80s passes away aged 82The veteran Liberal politician Sir Cyril Smith died today aged 82.Smith served as the Liberal and later Liberal Democrat MP for Rochdale from 1972 until retiring in 1992.He became one of his party's heavyweight political figures in the 1970s and 80s – his famously rotund stature and his l