Captain fails in bid to escape pirates

Pirate leaders want ransom and are prepared to kill U.S. sea captain if attacked.

Surrounded by books: Martin Amis at his home near Regent's Park

Martin Amis: 'Men are terrible. We can't help it'

Amis has written some of the cleverest novels of the late 20th century. He tells Christina Patterson how he wishes the world was run by women.

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A fight to the death in Westminster

Student says he is starving himself to death outside Parliament in protest at Sri Lankan attacks on Tamils

Andrew Buncombe: The sense of persecution driving the protesters

A woman sits near a coffin of a relative as some 200 coffins are arrayed

Italy mourns L'Aquila quake victims

Weeping relatives gathered today for a state funeral for victims of Italy's worst earthquake in three decades.

Berlusconi offers own homes to quake survivors

New property searched by 'terror plot' police

Pakistan accuses UK of failures in security with regards to foreign students entering the country.

Leading article: A foolish and dangerous mistake

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'The BNP are now a bigger threat than ever'

Labour fears the far right will win its first European seats in June, Harriet Harman tells Andrew Grice

Berlusconi turns adversity into political advantage

The Italian leader's energetic reaction to the disaster has been a PR triumph.

Gerrard was appeared to be carrying an injury in Liverpool's defeat to Chelsea

Gerrard named in Liverpool squad

Rafael Benitez has included Steven Gerrard in Liverpool's squad for their Premier League match with Blackburn this Saturday.

Rates kept on hold as pace of decline shows signs of slowing

Bank keeps interest rates at 0.5% and presses on with 'quantitative easing'

Found, egg that helped give birth to Darwinism

Amazing discovery by Cambridge University volunteer

Cabbage whites under threat

As our hunt gathers pace, more evidence emerges of the predicament facing Britain's native species

Mayor unveils plan to turn London into 'electric car capital of Europe'

'The 18-year-old smoker does not think about dying of lung cancer at 60,' says Professor Le Grand, a health policy expert at the London School of Economics

Action to tackle graduate jobs crisis

28-year-old Anandita Dutta Tamuly smeared its seeds on her eyes before gobbling up 51 fire-hot chilies in two minutes.

Indian woman blazes through chili-eating feat

The "ghost chili," the world's spiciest chili, seems to suit her palate.

'Editors the world over thanked him for his pressure': Porter in 2005

Bill Porter: Publisher and media ethics campaigner

While many retired business executives might take to the golf course or join bridge parties, Bill Porter found his life taking off in an altogether different direction.

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