Halstead and Essex news, sport and information from the Halstead Gazette

3:10pm Thursday 17th May 2012

The Foreign Office has been accused of putting the Queen in the position of having to dine with despots as the row over a royal lunch with foreign monarchs intensified.

2:48pm Thursday 17th May 2012

A contempt of court case taken against Labour MP Peter Hain over criticisms he made of a judge in Northern Ireland will not proceed, the High Court in Belfast has ruled.

2:39pm Thursday 17th May 2012

News International executives briefed David Cameron on "what to say and how to say it" before he met Rupert Murdoch but he "refused to play ball", the Leveson Inquiry has been told.

2:35pm Thursday 17th May 2012

A contempt of court case taken against Labour MP Peter Hain over criticisms he made of a judge in Northern Ireland will not proceed, the High Court in Belfast has ruled.

1:47pm Thursday 17th May 2012

Police have arrested two people in connection with an attack on a 93-year-old woman who was severely beaten in her own home.

1:32pm Thursday 17th May 2012

A young man who spent more than seven years behind bars for a murder he insists he did not commit has had his conviction quashed by judges.

1:13pm Thursday 17th May 2012

A bronze Chinese dragon statue weighing more than a tonne was among a large haul of suspected stolen objects seized by police during a raid at a scrap metal business, Scotland Yard has said.

12:19pm Thursday 17th May 2012

The Queen has come face-to-face with a rhinoceros as her Diamond Jubilee tour continued.

11:22am Thursday 17th May 2012

David Cameron has issued a call for action from eurozone states and institutions to support weaker economies like Greece or see the single European currency break up.

11:13am Thursday 17th May 2012

Two babies allegedly murdered by their mother were suffocated, an inquest has heard.