Anti-sleaze reforms could ban peers and stop MPs taking extra work Lord Archer, Lord Black and other peers who have criminal convictions or avoid tax could be expelled from the House of Lords under retrospective legislation being drawn up by justice secretary Jack Straw. The proposal comes after it was claimed in a Sunday Times investigation last week that four Labour peers were willing to table amendments in return for money. Meanwhile, commons leader Harriet Harman is working on reforms which would prohibit MPs from having any outside earnings.
Daniel Hannan: EU can teach Westminster about expenses fiddling 
The Mole: Black and Archer targeted as peers demand right to sack offenders Obama’s brother in drugs arrest US president Barack Obama's half-brother, 26-year-old George Obama, will appear in court in his native Kenya tomorrow after being arrested for posession of a marijuana joint. George Obama, who was taken into custody near his home in a Nairobi slum, disputes the charge. Area police chief Joshua Omokulongolo said: "He is not a drug peddler but... it's a banned substance." Barack Obama has barely met George, the youngest of his father's eight children.
Alexander Cockburn: Obama gambles with bold take on Israel
Rush Limaugh - the man who wants Obama to fail Post Office to be the ‘people’s bank’ The business secretary, Lord Mandelson, is backing a plan to turn the Post Offices into a "people's bank" using the existing UK network of 12,000 branches. Under the plans, post offices would offer a full range of financial services including loans, business services, financial advice and debit cards. It is hoped the suggestion will defuse fierce opposition from rebel Labour MPs and peers towards plans to part-privatise Royal Mail, the Post Office's parent company.
Will Self: the Post Office we hanker after doesn't exist any more Large families ‘irresponsible’ The Government's green adviser, Jonathon Porritt, has warned that couples who have more than two children are being "irresponsible" and create an unbearable burden on the environment. The chair of the Sustainable Development Commission says curbing population growth through contraception and abortion is the "ghost at the table", and should be moved into the heart of policies to stop global warming. Porritt himself has two children.
Malthusian snobs pray for a reduction in human numbers
A reduction in human numbers is inevitable 
Dozens of staff at the Serious Fraud Office were offered early-release pay-offs worth as much as three times their salaries after an unpublished independent Whitehall report found the SFO's work was being damaged by cronyism and incompetence. Opposition MPs are to demand an enquiry after NHS Professionals, set up to reduce the NHS pay bill by cutting out private agencies and employing staff directly, spent more than £1m employing its two chief executives through an outsourcing agency.
The Mole: Johnson, Cooper and a £2bn question The union Unite has demanded an investigation after a BA cabin crew member died and two others became seriously ill from malaria. BA formerly provided free anti-malarials at terminals, but withdrew the scheme in favour of a prescription-only service.  The UK's leading fertility experts are to express serious moral and medical doubts about women freezing their eggs to suit their lifestyles and aspirations, with women in their 20s and 30s undergoing the procedure so they can focus on their careers.
Should fat women be allowed fertility treatment? The Bank of England has been accused of "institutional sexism" after it held a seminar for female staff to advise them on what clothes and make-up to wear, including the advice that ankle chains look "professional, but not the one you want to be associated with".
Peregrine Worsthorne: women can look after themselves
Sarah Palin: a feminist icon who could ruin feminism Up to 6 inches of snow is expected to fall in parts of the UK by tomorrow night, with temperatures expected to sink to 21F (-6C). The Highways Agency has more than 500 gritter lorries on standby to treat motorways and other major roads.
In pictures: Europe under snow 
Thousands of paintings stolen by Hitler's right-hand man, Hermann Goering, are at last being properly documented for a new book. The collection was 700-pictures bigger than thought, and contained a "disproportionate number of nudes".
Hitler the watercolourist wasn't bad A new BBC2 two-hour drama depicts Margaret Thatcher as a heroic victim. Set during her last week as Prime Minister, Margaret portrays Thatcher as let down by a gaggle of scheming, pusillanimous men. The former PM is played by Lindsay Duncan (left).
Why Thatcher's legacy must not be forgotten  A play banned from the British stage during the 1960s has made a comeback as a rock musical. Spring Awakening was adapted from German Frank Wedekind's original play, but dropped by the National Theatre in 1964 after arguments with the censor. 
Former No 10 spin doctor Alistair Campbell (left) is to take part in a reality TV show search to find the UK's best young public speaker.  Liverpudlian comic writer Roger McGough has emerged as a surprise frontrunner to succeed Andrew Motion as poet Laureate. Veteran actress Charlotte Rampling has become an unlikely hiphop star, recording a song with French rapper Joey Starr. "The basic notion that the world is there for us... has produced the devastation of vast areas of the land's surface" - Sir David Attenborough on the negative impact of the biblical book of Genesis. British actress Emily Blunt has been approached about starring opposite Jack Black in a Hollywood film of Gulliver's Travels.  The Greater London Assembly paid £3,950 for a New Year's Eve party at floating pub the Tatershall Castle for Mayor of London Boris Johnson, friends and sponsors. Johanna Sigurdardottir is to be appointed prime minister of Iceland today. She will be the first world's first openly-gay premier. Police are investigating after comedienne Jo Brand joked that since the BNP membership was leaked she now knew "where to send the poo". The BNP's deputy leader has made an official complaint. Topless model Katie Price (left), aka Jordan, has been selected to play in a polo match at the British Open showjumping event.  Despite stating on Friday that "asset prices have hit rock bottom", Richard Branson is considering a £25m Dorset estate. It is rumoured that Baroness Scotland, the UK's first black woman Attorney General, may be the next ambassador to Washington. An unofficial blue plaque has been unveiled in London celebrating the late Who drummer Keith Moon after English Heritage refused the hell-raiser an official one. Satirist Rory Bremner (left) has discovered his father was a Second World War hero. Bremner was just 18 when his father, who didn't talk about his experiences, died.  Briton Sam Davies, currently in fourth position in one of the toughest round-the-world yacht races, has become a heroine in France. Her spirited performance earned her the nickname "la petite Anglaise". 
US swimmer Michael Phelps, who won eight gold medals at the olympics, has been photographed smoking a bong, as usually used for cannabis. Troubled singer Amy Winehouse has signed away her £15m fortune to her parents. Winehouse, currently on a long break in the Caribbean, doesn't trust herself.  Twenty-five-year-old Louise Grant has admitted she has had sex with 200 strangers. The bar manager says she is hooked on internet dating. Viewers have complained to Channel 4 after celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay said 'fuck' a total of 240 times in just one episode of his latest cooking show. Reality TV star Jade Goody, struggling against cervical cancer, has suffered another blow after a cosmetics tycoon she saw as a father figure died
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