Fist-sized fireball likely to be formed from debris from Halley's Comet

Britain's second toll motorway is to be given the go-ahead by George Osborne later this year as part of a multi-billion pound road-building programme to stimulate the economy, The Independent has learnt.

Test kits are swabbed with sputum or urine to show patients' suitability for certain drugs

As the 200th anniversary of 'Pride and Prejudice' is celebrated, a new biography reveals there was nothing pious or prim about Jane Austen

North-South divide reflected in changes to property values, Halifax survey shows

Josh Goodall suffered the disappointment of becoming the first British player to exit Wimbledon this year as he slipped to a first-round defeat against Grega Zemlja.

Before it went truly intergalactic – before the squillion-selling "trilogy" of five books, before the comics, the computer games, the endless quoting, the TV series and the (decent) film version – Douglas Adams's wry sci-fi opus The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy started out as a fairly low-key Radio 4 series.

The coastguard warned tourists to take care on potentially treacherous cliff paths today after a holidaymaker plunged to his death.

A man and a dog died today when the car they were travelling in became completely submerged in "5ft of fast-flowing water" as it drove across a ford.

Almost half the stores run by collapsed retailer Game are to be closed this week, administrators said today, triggering 2,104 job losses.

The US private-equity firm Carlyle is set to almost double its money by selling UK cash systems and automatic teller machines business Talaris to a Japanese rival in a deal worth £650m.

Prisons to defence giant Serco is to chop 500 UK jobs as part of a shake-up in the way it provides back-office services to public and private sector organisations worldwide.

More than 100 firefighters from three counties tackled a large blaze on an industrial estate early today.

London is fast becoming a hub for Chinese businesses looking to expand globally.