A US Roman Catholic deacon spoke yesterday of how the agonising pain he had suffered from a spinal disorder disappeared after praying to the revered English Cardinal John Henry Newman.

Pope Benedict XVI is to come to the UK next year in the first official visit by a pontiff, it was reported today.

Public funding is addictive, and the withdrawal symptoms are painful. But everyone would gain from a system that puts students first so that university becomes an education again, not merely something to fill three years of your life. The model to strive for is varied institutions charging varied fees