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Terence Blacker: Cars may be necessary to everyday life, but they are no longer a force for good

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Tuesday, 19 July 2011| Home

Phone hacking scandal:

Murdochs in the dock

Ian Burrell: The phone hacking scandal reaches a critical juncture today with a moment of high drama to rival anything that the British media has produced before, either in real life or fiction.

And now for our sketch about the Taliban

Yasmeen Khan: For years Asian comedians – and audiences – were a novelty on the circuit. Not any more.

More Comedy Articles

Spelman fires starting gun on badger cull

Michael McCarthy: Pilot scheme will begin in the West Country, where nearly a quarter of all cattle farms were hit by tuberculosis infections last year.

The Archbishop of Canterbury with George Pitcher (left)

Who will rid us of this turbulent PR man?

Jerome Taylor: Many Church insiders will be glad to see the back of the Archbishop's spin doctor.

Reservists to take frontline roles as more troops are cut

Richard Hall: Military shake-up will bring professional troop numbers to their lowest level since the Boer War.

Taliban video shows 16 men executed by firing squad

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Sean Hoare, a former showbusiness reporter, alleged that Andy Coulson encouraged phone hacking at the News of the World

Hacking whistleblower found dead at his home

A former News of the World reporter who blew the whistle on widespread phone hacking at the title has been found dead.

Julia Gillard on the phone during a visit to a steel mill as she tries to win support for her carbon tax proposals

Carbon tax makes Gillard Australia's least wanted

Her green agenda has made the nation's PM its least popular leader in decades. In Sydney, Roger Maynard reports on the backlash

Fabregas suffered as Arsenal's season faded away once more after promising so much

Barcelona confident £35m bid will prompt Fabregas return this week

Barcelona are expected to make an offer to Arsenal of around £35m for Cesc Fabregas this week, their third bid of the summer, which it is anticpated will finally prompt the endgame of the long-running transfer saga around the club's captain.

The Hour: Past imperfect

When The Hour begins tonight, armchair historians will be ready to pounce on the merest whiff of inaccuracy. Do period dramas have a duty to be entirely accurate? Or are we too hung up on total authenticity?

John Yates: How the wrong company caught up with a high-flier

Almost from the moment that John Yates joined Scotland Yard in 1981, many of his colleagues in Britain's largest police force believed it was only a matter of time before he became Commissioner.

Value of News Corp plunges as investors take fright at scandal

The gathering scale of the crisis surrounding Rupert Murdoch's media empire alarmed investors and sent News Corporation shares sliding yesterday, as the media mogul prepped for a Parliamentary select committee grilling that could determine his future at the helm of the company.

Letter from the editor: The weakest link

BBC Parliament (504 on Sky, 81 on Freeview) is likely to garner record viewing figures at 2.30pm today when a reluctant Rupert and James Murdoch will appear before the Commons Culture, Media and Sport committee, to be followed at 3.30pm by their ex-CEO Rebekah Brooks.

Now cuckoos migrating from Britain reach Sahara

Two of the five cuckoos being tracked by British researchers on their migration back to Africa have started to cross the Sahara desert, it became clear yesterday.

Our moment to change the course of history

'I began to starve myself...'

For 25 years, Ian Sockett had anorexia – until a life-threatening infection gave him the wake-up call he needed. He describes how he fought back from the illness that's affecting growing numbers of men

50 best food websites

For tasty recipes, fine produce and the latest culinary trends, Kate Watson-Smyth asks the experts for their top bookmarks.

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Passive smoking linked to DNA damage and birth defects

Passive smoking can cause genetic damage to sperm cells that may result in birth defects, miscarriages and other reproductive problems which make it difficult to father a healthy child, scientists have found.

More than 37 per cent of students at Trinity College graduate with a first-class degree

First-class arts and humanities students help Trinity to top place in Cambridge league table

Trinity College, Cambridge University's biggest college, has swept back to the top of a league table for undergraduate degree results.

Cambridge Results 2011 - Tompkins Table

Partners in crime: Bordaberry, left, parades with his dictatorial counterpart, General Augusto Pinochet of Chile, in Montevideo in 1976

Juan Maria Bordaberry: Uruguayan politician whose concessions to the military led to a 30-year sentence for human rights abuses

Although he was the elected civilian president of Uruguay in the 1970s, Juan María Bordaberry bowed to pressure from the military and agreed to what South Americans call an autogolpe, a self-imposed coup d'état against his own government, turning himself overnight into a dictator.