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.

Kelner's View

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.

The insurance takeover specialist Resolution is to close its offices in Manchester and Basingstoke, affecting 295 jobs, as it integrates the three acquisitions it has made since it launched in 2008.

Cenkos

Those of us long-sufferers who regularly rely on Britain's benighted railway network to get from A to B, preferably not via C, let alone with buses laid on from D to E, all have our pet irritations. One of my latest is the failure, more often than you'd believe possible, of the seat reservation service.

The Orchestra of the Academia Nazionale Di Santa Cecilia, Rome, brought a little something home grown on this their fleeting UK tour. While their counterparts at the Royal Opera in London were tracing out the ethereal opening measures of the Prelude to Verdi’s Aida, over at the Anvil in Basingstoke the self same music was about to spring a sizeable surprise.

Millions of Vodafone customers in southern England lost services today when burglars smashed their way into a building and stole vital network equipment.

A prince marrying a commoner, with time off for the serfs; two posh blokes and a squeaky-voiced footballer pleading for England to be allowed to host the 2018 World Cup; who says this country doesn't know how to present a bold modern face to the world? Me for one, and I'm still squirming with embarrassment when I think of the antiquated, snobbish and indeed delusional image the English (not the Scots or the Welsh, obviously) have projected in recent months.