A German court has convicted a man who fathered eight children with his stepdaughter of scores of counts of sexual abuse and sentenced him to 14-and-a-half years in prison.

A treasure trove of prehistoric insects preserved in amber has been found in India. Steve Connor takes a peek into the past

Four women have given birth to healthy babies after their eggs were genetically screened using a technique that offers hope to childless couples.

A miasma of smoke from wildfires cloaked the sweltering Russian capital on Friday, turning the city's spires into ominous blurs and grounding flights while glum pedestrians trudged the streets with faces hidden by surgical masks and water-soaked bandanas.

The world's third-most-wanted Nazi suspect, who allegedly participated in the murder of more than 430,000 Jews at the Belzec death camp, was involved in the entire killing process, according to court documents. They claim he participated in taking victims from trains to pushing them into gas chambers to throwing their corpses into mass graves.

The world's smallest water lily, which was found growing in hot springs in Africa, has been brought back from the brink of extinction by experts at the Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew.

Disappointing the outcome of the Copenhagen summit may have been. And chaotic – the word used by Ed Miliband, Secretary of State for Climate Change. But it was disappointing, in part, because expectations were so high, and one reason for the chaos was that so many countries, with such differing requirements and concerns, attended, not to speak of the specialists and NGOs demanding their say from the wings.

Otto Graf Lambsdorff, as he was known, had the distinction of serving as economics minister in Helmut Schmidt's left-of-centre government from 1977 until 1982, and then in Helmut Kohl's right-of-centre coalition until 1984.

We know what happened in the years following the momentous events of 9 November 1989: the birth of a new Europe. But that week, fear mingled with hope – and The Independent's correspondents and photographers were there to capture the moment. In a special report, we present the first draft of history

Since the fall of the Berlin Wall, Germany's landscape has changed dramatically. Foreign correspondent Rupert Cornwell returns to his old stamping ground

Tony Paterson finds out how the old West German capital has coped with its loss of kudos

An ice bridge which held a vast Antarctic ice shelf in place shattered at the weekend and could herald a wider collapse linked to global warming, a leading scientist has warned.

Love's Civil War is a most peculiar record of a long-distance love affair. Elizabeth Bowen met Charles Ritchie at a christening party in 1941. She was 41, a leading light of the Anglo-Irish ascendancy and the celebrated author of The House in Paris and The Death of the Heart. Charming, loquacious, impulsive and confiding, with a gift for witty description and warm friendship, she was a dazzling presence in the literary salons of wartime London.

Bloody return for anti-hero Tompkinson