'Pub boss facing ruin'

A desperate South Yorkshire landlord is handing back the keys to his pub and revealed he is facing financial ruin after racking up £20,000 of debt. Alex Smithyman, who runs The White Swan, at Maltby, fears he may lose his home and that he may have to go bankrupt. He only took on the pub in 2008, and in March this year he also accepted the lease for The St Leger, at Aughton, with his son, who runs it. But since then, Enterprise Inns has called in loans and money Mr Smithyman owed them - and fined him £5,000 for switching beer from his new pub, where it is supplied on a special offer, to the White Swan, to save money - The Star​

A pub landlord gave up the booze for a week to help raise cash for the borough's lifeboats. Tony Shawcross (from the Alum House) was thrown down the gauntlet by his partner Tess during a conversation about alcohol. She claimed he couldn't go a day without a drink, but he was determined to prove her wrong and raised £209 for the RNLI. This will now be added to the £1,304.23 the pub raised through charity box collections and events - The Shields Gazette​

Two men and four teenagers are still being held by police investigating the death of a 51-year-old man who was attacked outside a pub in Hull. David Jones, of Troutsdale Grove, Hull, was attacked after he was involved in a "verbal confrontation" in The Reindeer pub on Southcoates Lane, police said. Mr Jones went home after the incident, between 2330 BST on Sunday and 0120 BST on Monday, but later died. Four 17-year-old males and two men aged 39 and 29 were arrested on Monday - BBC ​

The economy: Alistair Darling's forecasts for recovery were dismissed as over-optimistic by the European Commission, which predicted stagnant growth for Britain next year of 0.1 per cent and warned that unemployment would rise to three million - The Times​