Theresa Villiers has written a furious letter to Michael Gove for turning down a Barnet school’s application to become an academy Photograph: Simon Dawson/Landov/PA A Tory minister has publicly attacked the education secretary over his beleaguered academies expansion plans, it emerged... 

People wait at an employment help centre in Miami, Florida. Photograph: Joe Raedle/Getty Images The Obama administration got a brief respite from the recent slew of gloomy economic news as US unemployment claims fell more than expected. The US government said 473,000 new claims for unemployment... 

Slovenia’s capital, Ljubljana. The country’s PM said its biggest bank would fail the EU stress tests. Photograph: Bob Krist/Corbis Slovenia admitted today that its largest bank would fail the Europe-wide stress tests amid frenzied speculation about the results of the health checks... 

Cut here: a fall in public expenditure on services such as the NHS is likely to lead to lower standards rather than increased productivity. Photograph: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images The danger of premature action to reduce budget deficits while we are still recovering from the recession...