Most of Detroit's public schools are closed for the day after the teaching union urged members to call in sick following a weekend announcement that the district will not be able to pay school staff from this summer.

The city of Detroit is being allowed to shed billions in debt in the largest public bankruptcy in US history.

The city of Detroit has gone to court in an attempt to be declared bankrupt, despite protests from workers and pension funds.

Detroit, once the symbol of American industrial might, has become the biggest US city to file for bankruptcy, its finances ravaged and its neighbourhoods hollowed out by a long, slow decline in population and car making.