Scotland Yard wants to fast-track corrupt and badly-behaved officers off the force as it emerged more than 300 fully-paid staff remain suspended or on restricted duties while awaiting the outcome of disciplinary inquiries.
Sir Paul Stephenson, the Metropolitan police commissioner, expressed "deep concerns" over failures in the Worboys inquiry, and pressure grew on Britain's largest police force when it emerged that a second serial sex attacker, Kirk Reid, had raped and sexually assaulted more than 71 women over eight years.
See articleColombia's president, Juan Manuel Santos, sacked General Leonardo Barrero, the head of the armed forces, after it emerged that he had called the prosecution of soldiers for extrajudicial killings "a bunch of crap" in a telephone conversation.
Never a constant force, it would emerge from the mist once every five years, generating excitement at a proportional election but then quickly fading from view as attention returned to Westminster.
It is alleged that he was tortured at the Bagram Air Force base while being questioned by US forces and in February 2010 it emerged that the Metropolitan police was investigating allegations of MI5 complicity in his torture.
David Cameron was forced to intervene after it emerged that more than 360,000 applications are being processed with thousands overdue.
It followed two failed attempts to appoint a chair with the second choice, Fiona Woolf, a City lawyer, forced to quit after it emerged that she had hosted dinner parties for Lord Brittan.
In a further embarrassment, organisers were forced to apologise after it emerged that some of those callers who were unable to get through had been charged for their calls because of a "human-programming error".
Schofield was forced to apologise after it emerged he had "misjudged the camera angle" and the names of several former senior Conservative politicians were visible on a card which he thrust into the hands of the Prime Minister before an audience of around 1.2 million.
Pascal and producer Scott Rudin hwere forced to apologise after it emerged they joked about Barack Obama's race and presumed taste in movies in an email conversation, while five of Sony's upcoming films have been released onto free piracy sites before they have taken a single dollar at the box office.
