Beyoncé’s father Matthew Knowles is suing The Sun for defamation over claims the paper “knowingly and maliciously” misrepresented his relationship with his daughter, whom he managed until 2011.

Exclusive: claim is one of six cases being brought in California

Willie Smith Ward had five previous felonies and four convictions for misdemeanours

Over the course of the two weeks the agency attempted to identify 5,600 users who were responsible for sharing photographs of children being abused

The businessman Alexander Lebedev told a Russian court that he did not understand the accusations against him of “hooliganism motivated by political hatred” that could see him jailed for up to five years.

A British poker champion has been sentenced to 20 years in jail for the murder of his wife in America 16 years ago.

The US Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday appealed a court order directing the agency to make "morning-after" emergency contraception pills available without a prescription to all girls of reproductive age.

Countrywide Financial, the US mortgage giant rescued by Bank of America at the height of the credit crisis, has settled a mortgage-backed securities lawsuit with its investors, led by the Iowa Public Employees' Retirement System, for $500m (£328m).

Cricketer was in a coma following incident outside a bar

New Zealand cricketer Jesse Ryder has emerged from an induced coma and spoken with family members two days after being seriously injured in a brutal attack outside a Christchurch bar. Ryder was also breathing without the aid of the respirator which helped keep him alive after he suffered a collapsed lung during the late-night attack.

Nicola Furlong's murderer treated as a minor by court so could walk free in five years

Has the term 'bullying' become an unhelpful catch-all? In the New York Times, Emily Bazelon suggests so.

This wasn't an environment where intelligence counted

An American musician denied murdering Irish exchange student Nicola Furlong on the first day of his trial in Tokyo today. Richard Hinds, 19, a keyboard player for several top R&B acts, is accused of drugging Ms Furlong, 21, and strangling her in an upmarket Tokyo hotel last year.