Actress Daryl Hannah has been arrested in front of the White House along with other environmental protesters opposing a planned oil pipeline from Canada to the US Gulf Coast.

Oscar Pistorius had a night without sleep after achieving his dream of an "A" standard 400m qualifying time for both the World Championships and Olympic Games at a meeting in Lignano, Italy, on Tuesday.

As Hollywood banks on sequels, Warner is planning to make Blade Runner 2. Tom Peck gets a glimpse of the future

Business Insider, the rather scurrilous Wall Street gossip website, is currently running what you might describe as a somewhat unreconstructed feature: the hottest wives on Wall Street. We certainly don't approve, but for the record, the wives of Carl Icahn, David Tepper and Phil Falcone all make the list, along with a string of others. Anyone remember comedian Caroline Aherne asking Debbie McGee what first attracted her to her husband, "the millionaire Paul Daniels"?

'I'm crazy about the New Forest – it's just magical'

My parents were ... I was raised by Mum [a film producer] and my stepfather, Jerry; they're who I think of as my parents. They were just madly in love.

Shades of The Servant and Sleuth flit around this uneven two-hander set in an extravagant Gothic mansion.

Hundreds gathered to pay tribute to Kung Fu actor David Carradine at a sprawling Los Angeles hillside cemetery in a funeral attended by family, former co-stars and other Hollywood friends.

It was fair to say that Oscar Pistorius was in something of a state of shock when he arrived in Manchester yesterday to prepare to follow the Lightning Bolt show. The 22-year-old Paralympian might well have still been reeling from the speedboat crash he suffered three months ago in which he suffered broken ribs and a fractured jaw. It was not so much the moment that his life flashed before his eyes, though, as the moment Usain Bolt flashed down Deansgate last Sunday that was responsible for the South African being somewhat shaken yesterday.

The climactic scene of Blade Runner is the story of a famous building and a key piece of improvisation. Ridley Scott's film was based on the novel by Philip K Dick, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?. William Burroughs also wrote a script called Bladerunner (about a surgeon who illegally sells surgical instruments); Scott brought the script just to use the title.

The "Blade Runner" Oscar Pistorius is set to take his case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport after he was yesterday refused permission to compete in this summer's Olympics.

For weeks we've been exhorting you to spend, spend, spend, but now that the presents have (with any luck) been bought and the preparations are complete, it's time to ponder the deeper meaning of Christmas. We asked our favourite writers to rant, reflect or reminisce on a festive theme. As Ronald Hutton explains, the last thing you should feel at this time of year is guilty, so sit down with a mince pie and enjoy

Wherever you roam in Portugal you'll find a country that's spectacular, unspoilt and hugely inviting, says Eric Almonds

The Gingerbread Man, Broadway, Nottingham (0115-952 6611) 8pm