Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has threatened to retaliate against companies from Britain and the United States if the two Western powers persist with sanctions that he described as "harassment." Mugabe's comments on Sunday follow scrutiny from outside observers of his re-election in a July vote that rival Morgan Tsvangirai denounced as a "coup by ballot" which involved alleged widespread vote-rigging.

Ministers are to send serving Muslim soldiers into schools around the country to counter Islamaphobia in the wake of the killing of Lee Rigby, The Independent has learnt. Muslim servicemen and women will be asked to address school assemblies alongside their Christian colleagues in parts of the country that have seen a significant rise in religious hate crimes. They are likely to include past and present Muslim soldiers who have served in Afghanistan and Iraq, as well as some who were injured.

Britain runs a secret internet-monitoring station in the Middle East to intercept and process vast quantities of emails, telephone calls and web traffic on behalf of Western intelligence agencies, The Independent has learnt. The station is able to tap into and extract data from the underwater fibre-optic cables passing through the region. The information is then processed for intelligence and passed to GCHQ in Cheltenham and shared with the National Security Agency (NSA) in the United States.

Criticising cuts to arts budgets in Britain, Karl Jenkins said increased public funding was needed to invest in the “cultural future” of a country. Describing Government cuts to the creative sector as “tragic”, the 69-year-old Welsh composer, whose works include Adiemus and The Armed Man, said: "In Germany it's just the opposite - increasing funding.”

Britain and Spain are supposed to be NATO and EU allies. You wouldn’t think so now, as a petty dispute over concrete blocks planted in the sea off Gibraltar to protect marine life morphs into a serious cause of friction. Far from fizzling out, as former spats over Gibraltar did usually, this conflict is in danger of escalating to the point of no return.

Even after 18 years, I never really knew where I stood with the English. Why did they keep apologizing? (Were they truly sorry?) Why were they so unenthusiastic about enthusiasm? Why was their Parliament full of classically educated grown-ups masquerading as unruly schoolchildren? Why did rain surprise them? Why were they still obsessed by the Nazis? Why were they so rude about Scotland and Wales, when they all belonged to the same, very small country?

Have you ever tried teaching classic literature to language learners? Teacher trainer Chris Lima explains how 19th century language and culture are less of a hindrance in relating literature – and Jane Austen specifically – to language students than one might assume. I suppose most teachers’ first reaction towards working with Jane Austen in the English language classroom is not very different from the reactions we have when people mention Shakespeare or Dickens, or literature in general.

It’s a classic image of England, but “classic English” isn’t what I’ve come looking for today. Quite the opposite, in fact. I’m here in Bristol to explore a side of this historic port city that hasn’t always been smiled upon by the establishment, including the local police. I’m here to see graffiti. Walls and walls of graffiti.