The Queen has appointed the Duchess of Cornwall to the highest female rank in the Royal Victorian Order, Buckingham Palace said today.

The University of Manchester became champions of University Challenge for the third time in just seven years.

Favoured by our top style icons, this season's shade says nostalgia and nods at austerity too

Olivia Poulet – best known as Emma in 'The Thick of It', and as Benedict Cumberbatch's ex – tells Matilda Battersby about her harrowing and disturbing new stage role

Olivia Poulet – best known as Emma in The Thick of It, and as Benedict Cumberbatch's ex – talks about her harrowing and disturbing new stage role

Will a contest to find a Diamond Jubilee favourite delight Her Majesty?

Joey Barton's love of Bram Stoker's Dracula and Paul Scharner's recommendation of The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas stand out in a list of Premier League footballers' favoured reads. The recommendations – which cover a children's book as well as a read for adults, leading Theo Walcott to recommend T.J. and the Hat-Trick, by... Theo Walcott – have been made as part of the Premier League Reading Stars programme.

The Duke of Edinburgh's grandchildren brought him some Christmas cheer as he prepared to spend a third night in hospital after treatment for a blocked coronary artery.

The Duchess of Cornwall has closed a £5bn deal in the City as part of a global charity event expected to raise millions. The Icap 19th annual global charity day saw Camilla and celebrities including Lewis Hamilton, Rod Stewart and Rupert Everett join hundreds of brokers sporting fancy dress to raise funds for more than 200 charities.

Icap, the inter-dealer broker, attracted a host of celebrities to its annual charity day yesterday, with all revenues donated to charity.

Who knew that if Sharon Stone's house were to catch fire, the first thing she would save would be her Aga? Who, indeed, knew that Sharon Stone had an Aga? Unlike a pair of knickers, which she sometimes doesn't have, depending on her most basic instinct on any given day, few people can surely know that she owns a vast, cast iron four-wheel drive of a cooking machine, which comes in all sorts of colours from heather through aubergine to duck-egg blue.

A final day of celebrations dedicated to the nation's servicemen and women is under way.

Five-time champion Venus Williams rallied from a set down to beat Japan's Kimiko Date-Krumm in a match of breathtaking drama under the roof on Wimbledon's Centre Court.

Rain held up play at the start of day three at Wimbledon and was expected to affect matches for much of the afternoon.