Months of searing headaches, a violent, blistering rash – the peculiar agony of shingles took Robert Chesshyre by surprise

An air-and-sea-rescue search for a ferry passenger who is believed to be missing overboard was suspended last night after five hours.

Calls to identify sperm donors

A lawyer warned today that hundreds of jobs could go in the Channel Islands after a High Court judge gave Chancellor George Osborne the go-ahead to disrupt exports of tax-free goods by closing a “loophole”.

The Channel Islands are urgently challenging the legality of proposals they fear could "devastate" a thriving internet trade in VAT-exempt goods, including CDs and DVDs.

It is depressing to read that the British ambassador to the United Nations has given the Secretary General on our behalf a rather obviously selective account of the history of the Falkland Islands and British claims to sovereignty (report, 4 February).

The remains of the first HMS Victory are to be raised from the sea bed nearly 300 years after it sank, it was reported today.

British teenager Heather Watson was knocked out of the Moorilla Hobart International in the first round today by Bulgaria's Tsvetana Pironkova.

The Government is to close a loophole that cost it an estimated £100m in lost taxes and allowed retailers to ship CDs and DVDs to the UK without paying VAT.

A loophole that exempts DVDs and other cheap goods dispatched from the Channel Islands from VAT is being closed, ministers have announced.

They are firm friends but British tennis will be hoping they also become big rivals. Laura Robson and Heather Watson, who have both won junior Grand Slam titles, met on the court for the first time yesterday in what could become a long-running battle for supremacy between the British teenagers. Robson, the 2008 Wimbledon junior champion, beat Watson, the 2009 US Open junior champion, 6-1, 3-6, 6-3 to reach the quarter-finals of the Aegon GB Pro-Series tournament in Barnstaple, Devon.

Online beauty retailer Feelunique.com has beat its own financial targets for the first half of the year, reporting like-for-like sales in the six months to the end of September had risen by 57 per cent to £10.4m.