The first official image of a Russian-European manned spacecraft has been unveiled. It is designed to replace the Soyuz vehicle currently in use by Russia and will allow Europe to participate directly in crew transportation.

The magic of the dusty secondhand bookshop where treasures lie waiting to be discovered, is in danger of vanishing forever. Since 2001, the number of secondhand bookshops in the UK and Ireland has halved.

A head teacher, who banned more than 100 pupils from a Basingstoke school after they went on strike, told their parents by sending a text message.

Worcester was hit by traffic jams after a man apparently protesting over dirty council homes threatened to jump off the main River Severn bridge. Police closed the city centre bridge while a trained negotiator spoke to the man on Tuesday evening.

Global shares have fallen sharply on fears over the state of the US economy, with the Dow Jones index closing at its lowest level in two years.

The remains of what appear to be four US soldiers who died in 1846 during the Mexican-American war have been found, Mexican officials have said.

In Australia about 3,000 females in a colony of koalas are to be administered contraceptive drugs after eating most of their habitat.

A 16-year-old girl has been unable to find work as she has been told legally she does not exist. Jade Jacobs-Brook has spent most of her life in Harlow, Essex, but was born while her British parents were on holiday in Alicante, Spain.