Forced marriage: 'i can't forgive or forget what they did to me'
An NHS doctor from east London who was held hostage and forced into marriage has spoken for the first time about her four-month ordeal, during which she feared for her life.
Tories accused of hypocrisy as they seek the gay vote
A row over homophobia in politics escalated last night as the Conservative leader, David Cameron, was accused of pushing "Victorian values" on to the 21st-century concept of the family.
Bites: dante gonzales is banging the chicken drumstick for peace
KFC RIP, or so says Dante Gonzales, aka "Dante Fried Chicken", the New York-based "chef and conceptual artist" who reckons that deep-fried drumsticks hold the key to a better world.
Ayatollah's aide accuses iran opposition leader of being us agent
A top aide to Iran's supreme leader has described the country's main opposition leader as a US agent and has called for him to be tried for crimes against the nation.
British troops in final push to clear out insurgents
Hundreds of British soldiers are involved in fierce fighting in the final phase of the latest push to drive the Taliban from Afghanistan's Helmand Province. The new offensive is now reaching a climax and has seen soldiers forced into close-quarters combat by Taliban ambushes and resorting to using hand grenades to flush out enemy fighters.
A man walks through the desert carrying a stone torso. It is all ribs and a swooping concaveness of stomach, a network of veins running web-like across the taut skin.
Lloyd’s names rest easy after court ends threat of personal liability
Thousands of Lloyd’s of London “Names” will sleep easier following a ruling in the High Court that ends the threat of billions of pounds worth of personal liabilities; 34,000 Names faced having to pay billions of pounds to settle asbestos, pollution and health hazard claims from the early 1980s.
For a real taste of lebanon, go back to the land
My first foray into the Lebanese countryside, when I visited last autumn, came in the form of an invitation to the loftily named World Birds Migration Festival held near Anjar.
Showdown as eu and uk battle over banks
The Government is girding itself for a battle royal with the EU over threats that Lloyds Banking Group and RBS will be forced to spin off or sell parts of their businesses.
Driving in europe this summer? check the rules of the road
You're off the aircraft and you're thinking that the most dangerous part of the holiday is behind you. Yet statistics suggest the opposite is true, particularly if you are hiring a car at your destination.
Meinertzhagen to take adviser post at oriel securities
Peter Meinertzhagen, one of the City’s most respected corporate brokers, is returning to the Square Mile as an adviser to Oriel Securities, the fast-growing stock-broking firm.
Further to the reference in the paper on 14 June to Rebekah Wade allegedly hitting her first husband, Ross Kemp, after a "drinking bout" with David Blunkett, Mr Blunkett has been in touch to correct the record: "the alleged 'drinking bout' was a cup of tea at 5.30 in the evening (with witnesses including Rupert Murdoch)... There was no 'drinking bout', I've never been involved in such a 'drinking bout' - with or without Rebekah Wade".
Mushy courgettes with garlic and mint
For me, this is the nicest way to cook courgettes – slowly, with lashings of garlic, olive oil and mint. You can serve it with almost anything: roast chicken, grilled fish or just brown rice flavoured with lemon juice and plenty of parsley. Look for small courgettes with tight, unblemished skin.
Bugs! the critters eating america's forests
America's 4 July bonfires served a dual purpose yesterday. They burned the wood of trees destroyed by a trio of bugs that are devastating parts of the nation's forests.
The wombat: back from the brink
One of the world's most endangered mammals, the northern hairy-nosed wombat, has stepped back from the brink of extinction, with its numbers undergoing the biggest jump for more than two decades.
North korea fires seven missiles to defy the us
North Korea fired seven ballistic missiles off its eastern coast yesterday, according to South Korea, in a violation of UN resolutions and an apparent message of defiance to the US on Independence Day.
Meet the black-belt hardman aiming to lead bulgaria
Since communism collapsed 20 years ago, Bulgarians have been waiting for a saviour to rid the land of its plagues: corruption, nepotism and impunity for the powerful of the day. Today as the country goes to the polls, hopes are now pinned on a bodyguard-turned-politician with cropped hair, a karate black belt and the epaulettes of a general.
Earth tremors alarm world leaders on eve of l'aquila summit
The G8 summit in the Italian earthquake-struck city of L'Aquila this week risks being overshadowed by fears that another disaster could hit the area during the meeting of world leaders.
Return to liberty: america's most famous statue reopens her crown
The Statue of Liberty reopened her crown to the public yesterday for the first time since the 9/11 terrorist attacks eight years ago. The first 10 visitors to pass through the inner sanctum of the 122-year-old statue since it was closed for "safety and security reasons" in 2001 marked the country's 4 July Independence Day celebrations by gazing out through her eyes at the Manhattan skyline.
The saddam files: his final interviews
Achievements
Obama hopes his magic can thaw the frost in moscow
Even before Barack Obama boards Air Force One tonight to attend the first fully fledged summit between the US and Russia since 2002, the diplomatic ether between Moscow and Washington is fairly crackling with the static of both anticipation and latent suspicion.
La fears it will be overwhelmed by jackson fans
There were growing concerns yesterday that Los Angeles could be overwhelmed as hundreds of thousands of fans flock to Michael Jackson's memorial service.
From beyond the grave, saddam reveals all (nearly)
Some of the last, frank thoughts and confessions of President Saddam Hussein of Iraq have been revealed in transcripts of a remarkable series of interviews with the former dictator's interrogators.
Ever more wacko: the world of michael jackson
The mystery of the later life and sudden death of Michael Jackson threatens to go on and on revolving indefinitely, like some fairground carousel driven by perpetual motion. In the past week, enough material has surfaced about his death to keep conspiracy theorists, lawyers, fans, crystal-users, moon-worshippers and ley-line-mappers going for generations. Virtually all of it is so far outside the pale of normality that today, if a website reported that Jackson talked sense, ate three meals a day and took pills only when he felt ill, it would be a sensation.
Foot-shooting season opens in alaska
About the only thing political junkies were able to agree on, after Sarah Palin's bombshell announcement that she is quitting as governor of Alaska, was that anticipation of her memoirs next year just went through the roof.
5,000 days in captivity: the world's most famous political prisoner and a dismal landmark
Today, like most days, Aung San Suu Kyi will sit and wait. She will spend the day with the two women she has been detained with since 2003. That she is being held in a "guesthouse" in the grounds of Rangoon's Insein jail, as opposed to her lakeside house where she has spent the past six years, makes little difference; she has no television, radio or phone. But today is special, and for the most dismal of reasons. It is the 5,000th day of her incarceration.
Why i love: avoiding overuse of the word 'love'
Often when people say "I love this," they mean they've experienced something and it wasn't entirely unpleasant. You often get people saying, "I love chips" or T-shirts saying, "I love Faliraki." So when you want to express how you feel, saying "I love you" isn't adequate any more.
The youth of today: hoodied thugs standing threateningly on street corners... and making rhymes. Which is exactly the urban sub-culture of poetry and beats that first-time film-maker and hip-hop artist Teddy Nygh has spent the past three years documenting in Britain and further afield.
Alice cooper: is it time for rock's oldest shocker to give up the gore?
"There are one or two subjects I have to ask you not to raise with Alice Cooper," his publicist warns me. "I hope you'll understand."
Outliers: the story of success, by malcolm gladwell
I'm surprised that Gladwell considers race (the effects of slave history) as a matter that has an effect on success, as well as nationality (whether you're American-Irish or American-Italian, for instance) and class (being poor, funnily enough, lessens your chances too), but omits gender: apparently, being female rather than male doesn't make a difference. A stunning omission, in my opinion.
Ox-tales: earth, air, fire and water, various authors
To raise money for its charities and celebrate the impending world domination of its second-hand bookshops, it seems appropriate that Oxfam has published this collection of four books of short stories. Not because they draw attention to Oxfam’s good work - mostly, they ignore it. But because one comes away from them as one comes away from a good second-hand bookshop: baffled by riches and with a ballooning reading list.
Parties: grayson perry zigs and bill nighy zags at tate britain's summer party
Guests ummed and ahhed as they wound themselves around Eva Rothschild's giant, room-encompassing zig-zag of a sculpture that was the centrepiece for Tate Britain's summer party on Monday.
Wendy perriam: how grief drove the author to writing a new collection of haunting short stories
We're perched in a coffee shop in central London waiting for the photographer, who has just phoned to say he is five minutes away. "Don't you think we ought to buy something?" Wendy Perriam asks, glancing nervously towards the staff at the counter. "They might not like us taking up their seats and not buying anything." It is a line that one of her characters could so easily have spoken. For the past quarter of a century, Perriam has been humorously chronicling the lives and inhibitions of those who habitually feel anxious, disappointed, sidelined or embittered. After 15 novels, including Cuckoo, Born of a Woman and Bird Inside, the woman who used to describe herself as "Surbiton's only living writer" (it finally got too much even for her and she has now decamped to a flat in central London) has turned her attention to short stories and is this month publishing her sixth collection, The Queen's Margarine.
This dish works best when it is cooked on a barbecue. Season the meat the day before so that it is deeply flavourful, warm, spicy and rich. Harissa is a good match, its flavour punchy and hot.
The storyteller, by rabih alameddine
Alameddine, his name apparently a derivative of Aladdin, rejoices in the ability to spin a story that lasts for 1,001 nights, while simultaneously describing the effects of Israeli attacks on his homeland, Lebanon, over the past 30 years. With enviable ease, he weaves in the magic of the Arabian nights, the loss of his childhood home so many years ago, and his visit to his slowly dying father, to create something that feels both postmodern and traditional at the same time.
Of the 385 restaurants I have reviewed over the past eight years for these pages, one in four no longer exists. They burst upon the scene with high hopes, big dreams and enormous overheads, get a blaze of publicity, a fistful of reviews, and then... disappear. So I'm not falling for that one again. This being my final column, I want to review something that will be here today and here tomorrow too.
The prince, by niccolo machiavelli, trs tim parks
This is an excellent translation of The Prince by Parks, accessible and gripping without diluting Machiavelli's message one iota. His sense of this masterpiece as an essentially psychological work, one that looks at the effects of power of the mind, infuses his translation, and he never forgets its origins as a letter, as a means of conveying a message to a new ruler.
City of thieves, by david benioff sceptre £7.99
Benioff is a Hollywood screenwriter and the narrative efficiency such a job requires is much in evidence here in this tale of the siege of Leningrad, which zips along at a fair pace – remarkable when the setting is a city gripped tight by its Nazi oppressors.
'the eagle has landed': a space geek remembers the moon shot
The first sign of trouble came when the Eagle was five minutes into its descent, 33,500ft above the Moon's surface. A shrill alarm rang through the cramped, seatless cabin in which two astronauts stood facing the stars. An error message flashed up on their primitive computer's tiny read-out: "1202". Neither Neil Armstrong nor Buzz Aldrin knew what it meant. It was left to Steve Bales, a 26-year-old technician at Mission Control in Houston to decide they should keep going. The error, he was fairly sure, would fix itself, and he repeatedly called "Go!" as the alarm sounded four more times.
The hamburger, by josh ozersky yale
Studying the story of the hamburger is, says food writer Josh Ozersky, "one way of studying the country that invented it, and then reinvented it again and again".
How we met: sir ian mckellen&jonathan hyde
Sir Ian McKellen CBE, 70, is an award-winning actor known for his film roles in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, The Da Vinci Code and Gods and Monsters. His extensive theatre career includes Trevor Nunn's recent productions of King Lear and The Seagull. He lives in east London
Fashion: chiffon takes on a new toughness with autumn's transparency trend
Spotted at Glastonbury: Lily Allen's pants. Not that they were easily missed, mind you, with the young singer wandering around in the most transparent of sheer slips. It actually looks a bit like it was drawn on to her later by an injurious censor, so clear were her matching undies beneath its gauzy netting.
Forgotten authors no.37: kathleen winsor
Authors are prone to notoriety. Any printed display of opinion is bound to raise questions, and then there's the matter of censorship. In this case, censorship in America – something Kathleen Winsor (1919-2003) discovered the hard way. Winsor was a smart, energetic sports columnist who subsequently became fascinated by the Restoration period. After years of research, she produced a sprawling fifth draft of a novel around 2,500 pages long. Her publishers hacked it down to a more manageable size, just under 1,000 pages, and it appeared in 1944 as Forever Amber. The epic was a love letter to London, a bodice-ripping romp through plague and fire, taking in the society chatter and politics of the times. There were a few mildly titillating passages, and the book was generally well received by critics, who saw parallels between the enduring Restoration wives and their wartime counterparts. It didn't hurt that the attractive author, then 24, was seductively photographed for her press releases.
Two mothers in three 'fear stares if they breastfeed'
It is as near to the elixir of life as a liquid can get, especially for a newborn baby. But children are still being denied breastmilk by new mums who are too self-conscious to nurse on the go for fear of attracting the opprobrium of a "bottle-fed" nation, according to a new survey that deals a fresh blow to Britain's attempts to improve its pitiful track record on breastfeeding.
Toby young: no victories please – we're british
One of the few compensations of growing old is that you are less likely to be disappointed by Britain's sporting defeats. Indeed, it is possible to come up with a new version of Shakespeare's seven ages of man to reflect this fact.
Max lawson: italy's record on foreign aid is immoral
Like Gordon Brown before him, Silvio Berlusconi will be hoping for a boost to his poll ratings when he hosts world leaders in L'Aquila this week. Brown's performance at the G20 summit in London gave him respite from day-to-day political difficulties. Mr Berlusconi, meanwhile, is looking to turn the attention of his electorate back to politics. But the bad news for the Italian president is that, from where Oxfam is standing at least, the summit already looks mired in difficulties.
Public enemies, michael mann, 140 mins, (15)
There's arguably no theme in cinema quite as fundamental, as primal, as Cops and Robbers – the genre that Michael Mann has always returned to. Mann loves gangsters, but not as Martin Scorsese does: for Mann, criminal and cop are inseparable, yin and yang, neither truly functioning unless both are edging towards their big showdown.
Jeff koons, serpentine gallery, london
I'm looking at a splashy, white-framed painting called Moustache Lobsters, its background a scribbled cityscape, its picture plane overlaid with red toy lobsters and a cartoon moustache.
Head to the north of england for an affordable seaside home
If you want to live by the sea, the best advice seems to be to move north. A Halifax survey into the most affordable seaside towns in England and Wales found the lowest house price-to-incomes ratio exists north of the line between the Wash and the Severn estuary.
'emerging' art can produce dividends but don't forget that not everyone loves 'radical'
Investing in fine art has always been associated with the wealthy, but turbulent financial markets are tempting others with less cash into the field. "Investing in emerging and 'debut' artists can reap astonishing rewards.
Short-term ip kicks in when ill health keeps you off work
Companies struggling to survive, mass redundancies and increased stress. We're all seeing the symptoms of recession, but few have the cash during tough economic times to pay out for insurance that would protect from loss of income.
Tenants left homeless by defaulting landlords
Tenants may like to think themselves immune to the property crash, but substantial increases in the number of landlords in arrears has put more renters at risk of losing their homes too.
Consumer rights: trying to wriggle out of debt could cost you
I got back to my car at the weekend to find a flyer on my windscreen for a debt firm. It says they can help you get "debt free" and that "your credit agreements may not be enforceable". I'm not in trouble but I have quite a lot of loans and cards. Are these companies reliable? SC, Cardiff
'the challenge is not to save newspapers, but journalism'
More than three weeks after Iran's disputed presidential election, at least 33 journalists are behind bars this weekend. Iran now has more journalists in prison than any country in the world, says the charity Reporters Sans Frontiers. Dozens of foreign journalists were booted out of the country or arrested following the election, and the entire editorial staff of one Iranian newspaper was incarcerated.
The feral beast: who's that dandy?
Evening Standard editor Geordie Greig has been a big hit with The Big Issue, which has a highly favourable interview under the headline "Raising Standards" (what would Veronica Wadley make of that?)
Julian knight: come on, mr cameron, let's have some answers
Unless there is the political comeback to end them all, Labour is heading out of office and David Cameron's Conservatives in. Previous political seismic shifts have been preceded by the opposition coming up with a clear ideology.
Safe haven or marketing gimmick?
It sounds like a no-brainer. You put money into the stock market and if it goes up in value you get a return or a regular income. On the other hand, if the stock market falls during the term of your investment – usually three or five years – with some provisos you get your original capital back. You win on the upside and don't lose on the downside: that's the theory behind guaranteed return products.
Desperate providers in dash for easy-access business
Competition is heating up in the easy-access savings account market, according to price comparison website Moneysupermarket. com. A host of new launches has improved the accounts on offer to savers.
Car choice: heavens above! a micra could be the answer to your prayers
Sandy Williams is 60, and from September her new, part-time post as a Methodist minister means she will be responsible for several rural chapels in south Gloucestershire. She will use her car to go round the churches, visit people in homes and hospitals, and sometimes return in the evenings for meetings. Sandy wants the least expensive, but most reliable car, which is cheap to insure and run. Oh yes, it must also be as green as possible and she has a budget of about £2,000.
Dj taylor: picking at the carrion
After the corpse, inevitably, the carrion. With the fall-out from Michael Jackson's death continuing gently to descend, some enlightened professional body ought to award a prize for the most amusing article written about it.
It's 29 degrees in the shade as I write this. All the windows are open and the family hounds are flaked out. But we British love the sun, presumably because we see less of it than more southerly-based Europeans who are more sensible than us about staying in the shade.
Forbidden broadway, menier chocolate factory, londonashes, queen elizabeth hall, london
Actors have always poked fun at the foibles of commercial theatre. No doubt it helps them through those gruelling eight shows a week.
Ice age 3, carlos saldanha, 96 mins, (u)am i black enough for you, goran hugo olsson, 87 mins, (12a)
I can't believe that many eight-year-olds worry about how good they'll be as parents, or if they'll lose touch with their friends once they have families of their own.
Simply and effectively staged by Elaine Kidd, Opera Holland Park's La Bohème puts right what went wrong in Jonathan Miller's lavish English National Opera staging.
Gay icons, national portrait gallery, london
As anyone familiar with the work of the lazy journalist will know, "icon" has become one of the most devalued words in the English lexicon – not least in its gay variety.
Spinal tap, wembley arena, londontake that, old trafford cricket ground, manchester
There can't be a rock band anywhere who haven't had a copy of This Is Spinal Tap on the tour bus. Not only is Rob Reiner's tale of a gormless heavy metal act neck-and-neck with Airplane! as the funniest film ever made. It's also so uncannily true to life that, ever since its 1985 release, actual rock dinosaurs have been squabbling over who is the real-life inspiration.
The competition Don't miss your chance to enter this year's IoS / Insight Guides travel photography competition. Take a photo on the theme of "fire" to win a commission to photograph a future Insight Guide. Go to independent.co.uk/travel or insightguides.co.uk
Imagine: david hockney, bbc1the conspiracy files: 7/7, bbc2
With his owlish specs, straw-thatch hair, red bow tie and camp northern vowels, David Hockney was always going to be a national treasure.
Beyond belief, radio 4night waves, radio 3
Nietzsche was wrong. God's not dead; he's just been having a bit of a kip. Now he's up and about again and bestriding the land in his various guises.
Katy holland: for long-haul family holidays, we’ve never had it so good.
If you've always wanted to take the kids to a far-flung corner of the globe and back, now's the time to do it. One good thing in these recessionary times is the fact that the cost of long-haul travel and holidays has fallen to an all-time low: many prices have been cut by more than 30 per cent, so there's some exceptional value to be found at the moment.
Peace and quiet are a stone's throw from the coast
West Penwith, the most westerly part of Cornwall, claims to have a higher concentration of Celtic and megalithic monuments and menhirs than any other comparable area of Europe, including Brittany. Some of the most striking can be found in the hinterland, as the north and south coasts converge at Land's End.
Follow these trails over hills and dales
What's on Head for the Doncaster Cultural Festival (doncaster voluntary arts.net) at The Arts Park on 12 July. There'll be free displays from Chinese and Indian dancers, fire-eaters, sword fighters and more.
Stay the night: the compleat angler, marlow, bucks
The Thames Valley's riverside towns come into their own in the summer, as the locals hang out the bunting for regatta season. The Henley Regatta reaches its climax today.
Dame clara faces shareholder opposition to l&g chairmanship
Leading shareholders in Legal&General are trying to derail the appointment of Dame Clara Furse, the former chief executive of the London Stock Exchange, as chairman of the insurer, a role for which she has been heavily touted.
Lonzim meeting fails to ease relations with rebel shareholder amb capital
The board of LonZim, the Aim-listed investor of assets in Zimbabwe, has met with rebel shareholder AMB Capital in a failed attempt to improve relations between the embattled parties.
Greenland gold mine sells for a tiny fraction of last year's $30m asking price
Angus&Ross, the Aim-listed natural resources company, has bought a gold mine for just 5 per cent of its asking price last year.
Centrica set to make £1bn hostile bid for rival venture production
British Gas owner Centrica is expected to make a hostile £1bn-plus bid for Venture Production, the oil and gas production company.
Severn trent pushes for radical water-supply rethink
Severn Trent, the Ftse 100 utility, is pushing parliament and the Conservative opposition into a radical rethink over water supply.
Cosmen is key to future of national express
Jorge Cosmen, the deputy chairman at beleaguered transport group National Express, is set to play kingmaker as rival FirstGroup continues to push for an all-share merger that would create a £2.2bn giant.
Thirty contestants, only one winner in the iraqi oil licence gameshow
The auction of Iraqi oil production licences last week was truly historic – not least because it was the first such exercise ever to be broadcast live on TV.
Margareta pagano: is bullingdon man the perfect city reformer?
The other day I had lunch (okay, a sandwich) with someone who was close to Gordon Brown and Tony Blair at the beginning of their reign, and she remembers that even then they would discuss their future after politics.
Hamish mcrae: adapt and survive: making a brand new start of it in old new york
I love being in New York, and not just for all the usual tourist things, fine as they are. It is more because I like the people and always seem to have the kind of interesting conversations I could not have anywhere else.
The trainspotter now arriving in the uae is the late golden boy
Richard Branson's right-hand man. One of Tony Blair's favourite mandarins. Saviour of Britain's crumbling 3,500 secondary-schools estate. FTSE 100 chief executive. Coveted by Boris Johnson as his deputy mayor.
Marks&Spencer has asked for the corporate governance code to clarify its rules on a chief executive becoming chairman – the key issue on which it faces a shareholder revolt this week.
How very moorish: spice girl skye gyngell hots things up for summer
These dishes are loosely based on the cuisine of North Africa – their flavours are warm and spicy, with slightly sweet undertones. Ground whole spices are used in abundance, as are plenty of fresh herbs – especially coriander and mint – plus fresh and dried chillies and perhaps a little lemon.
Who's frank?: an east london community project is making a horticultural hullabaloo of unsung heroes
"So, who is Frank Whipple?" asks yet another puzzled passer-by in Bethnal Green's Victoria Park Gardens in east London, and the gardeners exchange wry smiles over the elaborate flowerbed that spells out his name. Bethnal Green is a hotbed of old-fashioned Britishness these days: the youngest, hippest WI in Britain holds its knitting and sewing meetings there, as "the Shoreditch Sisters"; and now, carpet-bedding is making a comeback in the borough, thanks to the impetus provided by local art project Create.
To heaven by water, by justin cartwright
The Cross family are falling apart. They have lost their cornerstone, mother Nancy, who died of cancer nearly a year before. Cartwright's 10th fictional outing (leaving aside some earlier work he no longer cares to admit to) traces with trademark satirical sharpness the family's confused attempts to adapt to her absence.
Cad files: sam west turns supervillain in a new play about the collapse of energy titan enron
What must it be like to have achieved all one's ambitions? Sam West has just turned 43 and discovered he has done everything he thought he had wanted: "I've played Hamlet, been in Doctor Who and read the shipping forecast. I'm having to draw up a new list." Luckily, there is plenty he still wants to do (including the shipping forecast on Radio 4 proper, as his first go was only in a play).
Shoulder of lamb with red pepper, sweet paprika and black olives
1 shoulder of lamb, trimmed of most of its fatSea salt and freshly ground black pepper2 red onions, peeled and chopped1 dried red chilli1 tsp fennel seeds, warmed in a low oven then pounded in a pestle and mortar1 bunch of marjoram, leaves only4 peeled cloves of garlic, pounded3 red peppers, sliced into half-inch slices11/2 tsp sweet Spanish paprika500g/1lb ripe tomatoes, roughly chopped1 bottle dry white wineA handful of good-quality small black olives1 generous bunch of flat-leaf parsley, leaves only, roughly chopped
Dom joly: this cow row is causing a rift in my marriage
It's a tricky thing, living in the country as an ex-townie. I think you're always considered to be one, however long you stay in the sticks. You can, nevertheless, do things to help your case. For instance, it really doesn't help to be scared of cows. Personally, I'm not scared of cows. In fact, I laugh at them with their big sad eyes and awkward, waddling walk. They often appear to be some kind of genetic joke – neither fierce nor cuddly, just there for the milk. My wife, however, is scared of cows. To be fair, she's not scared of cows over a fence – she's scared of "killer cows". She read about the recent tragic death of a vet who was trampled by cows and she is now convinced all bovines are waiting to attack. The kids have absorbed this fear and are also full of "killer cow" facts. "Dad, some cows can move up to eight miles an hour..." or "Dad, cows can work out a pattern to corner you before moving in..."
Peter tatchell: go on, dave. if you're really sorry about gay rights, prove it
David Cameron has done an extraordinary thing. He apologised last week for the homophobia of his own party, singling out Section 28, the Thatcher government's infamous ban on the "promotion" of homosexuality by local authorities.
Ronnie biggs: no remorse, no freedom
He is, after the events of the past week, still the most famous elderly inmate in the British prison system, but Ronnie Biggs is far from the only one. The Great Train Robber's family made much of the fact that Biggs's age and ill health were significant factors in the case for his release. The Parole Board agreed but the Justice Secretary, unimpressed at the old lag's refusal to show remorse for his crime, is not listening.
Alan watkins: so we turn to mr brown's last phase
Old-fashioned biographies of great men used to come out in three volumes. If the fashion were to be revived, which seems unlikely, the first book would be entitled Gordon Brown: The Years of Promise, and would cover the years up to 1997. The second book would be subtitled The Years of Fame, and would take us up to the great non-election of 2007. We are now coming to the end of the last book. It would be called The Last Phase.
From glastonbury to gay icon: sarah tweets her way to stardom
Like the barometer depicting the farmer and his wife, whose appearances alternate according to whether it is stormy or sunny, the fortunes of Gordon and Sarah Brown seem to be polar opposites.
Federer slams murray's grand ambition
Roger Federer, who knows all about winning Grand Slam singles titles and could claim a record 15th at Wimbledon this afternoon, said yesterday that Andy Murray has "put himself in a good position" to win a Slam in the near future. But the Swiss also warned that winning even one of the big four titles is tough and, in a sign that the Scot has maybe got under his skin, Federer stopped short of an enthusiastic endorsement of the British No1.
Nick bollettieri: real spectacle but swiss timing will hit roddick for six
Today's big match: Roger Federer v Andy Roddick
History in the making: federer aims for grand slam no 15
Roger Federer insisted yesterday that "tension always comes back for any Grand Slam final", but as he prepared for a match that could secure his place as the greatest player in tennis history, the Swiss looked as unruffled as the Centre Court grass on Monday morning 13 days ago. Victory over Andy Roddick in today's final would give Federer his 15th Grand Slam title, eclipsing Pete Sampras's all-time record, but when the five-times Wimbledon champion talked about the pressure of the occasion you wondered whether he was simply going through the motions.
O'connell's band of brothers find justice in stirring victory
A dead series it may have been, but in a game electrifyingly alive it was the British and Irish Lions who stormed the most forbidding of all Springbok rugby citadels, equalling their biggest victory in South Africa – the result mirrored that achieved in Pretoria by Willie John McBride's great side of 1974 – and ensuring they would take something home with them from a tour that was never less than compelling and occasionally touched the heights.
Williams duo claim doubles crown on unforgettable day
After the sisters, the twins, and then the sisters again. The Williams' fellow Americans, twins Bob and Mike Bryan, kept them waiting some three hours during a marathon men's doubles final before permitting a return to Centre Court. Where the United States' challenge faltered in defeat by Daniel Nestor and Nenad Zimonjic, however, the sister act revived it by defeating the Australians Sam Stosur and Rennae Stubbs 7-6 6-4 to retain their title.
Younger sibling made the right noises and was hungry for title
Serena wanted this title. She wanted it badly. We know this because she said so, several times, over the past fortnight. We know it because in her semi-final against Elena Dementieva, which she almost lost, she celebrated holding one vital service game by balling her fists and shaking them.