Mr Cameron said that the unemployment figures, and particularly youth unemployment, were a matter of great regret.

BBC: Youth unemployment: Fears over record figures

Mr Smith said "it is a matter of great regret" that some staff are being made compulsory redundant.

BBC: Members' business: Clydesdale Bank debate

"While the inquiry will fix responsibility for any dereliction of duty the fact that this is happening at all is a matter of great regret, " he added.

WSJ: Pakistani Prisoner Dies in India

"While the inquiry will fix responsibility for any dereliction of duty, the fact that this happening at all is a matter of great regret, " he wrote on the micro-blogging site, Twitter.

BBC: Pakistan inmate Sanaullah Ranjay dies in India hospital

He never took a job in government and said his great regret was that he had never written about football.

ECONOMIST: Leo Valiani

"Sadly we do not have the funding necessary to keep employees on, so it is with great regret that we place ourselves in a position where we will have to make redundant later today the vast majority of the workforce, " a representative of administrators PriceWaterhouseCoopers said.

BBC: 'Vast majority' of LDV jobs to go

Five hundred bucks was great for a half hour drive, but he was beginning to regret making the deal with the smooth talking businessman.

NPR: 'Arson' by Nick Lysohir

The UN's relief agency Unrwa said it was "with great regret" that it had been forced to make a difficult decision temporarily to halt aid deliveries.

BBC: UN backs ceasefire call for Gaza

"Unfortunately, efforts to sell the business as a going concern have proved unsuccessful and after much consideration it is with great regret that the board of directors has taken this very difficult decision to close the Fashion and Home business, " he said.

BBC: Midlands Co-op to shut stores threatening 388 jobs

To his great regret, successive governments have failed to curb the prison population, a necessary prerequisite for many of his reforms to work.

BBC: Lord Woolf: Wild about Harry