A ban on the international trade in caviar was imposed yesterday because of "rampant" poaching of sturgeon on the brink of extinction in the Caspian and Black Seas.

The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) dropped a New Year bombshell by refusing to approve 2006 export quotas for ...   more »

I do like these corporate own goal stories - they provide a balance to the marketing spiel we are so used to hearing. In this particular story the AA's breakdown service refused to respond after a driver collapsed at the wheel because his death meant his membership had lapsed.

An ...   more »

In May, a 19-year-old Northumberland woman briefly achieved national celebrity because of an unflattering resemblance to Vicky Pollard, the socially excluded, inarticulate teenager from the television programme Little Britain. The "real Vicky Pollard", as the press labelled Kerry McLaughlin of North Tyneside, shared the television character's tracksuit, lack of erudition ...   more »