Recognising a catwalk model is not always easy – and it becomes especially difficult when she's swathed in worker gear and wearing outsize gloves while engaged in a spot of tree-planting. At Lant Street, in Southwark, south-east London this sunny Saturday morning, the whole estate has turned out for a midwinter tree-planting session. In these surroundings, the sight of a skinny blonde girl helping a local estate kid could easily go unnoticed.

Climate change protesters have made plans for a nationwide campaign of direct action against greenhouse gas polluters across the UK. They warn that the campaign is set to become "more urgent" in the face of mounting evidence of growing environmental damage.

Britain's most notorious nuclear installation was plunged into crisis last week, when vital equipment broke down just as it was recovering from an accident that shut it for two years. Sellafield's Thorp reprocessing plant has been closed again, while starting only its second job since the shutdown.

Britain will begin to thaw out today as forecasters predicted the worst of the bad weather was over. But the change will come too late for the 8,000 households still without electricity after gale force winds and snow downed power lines.

A ship's captain suffering spinal injuries and internal bleeding was rescued from his vessel yesterday in a helicopter airlift off the Isles of Scilly.