Facebook's first public investors sent its value to $105bn in New York yesterday but there was disappointment that the shares failed to go much higher than their opening price of $38.

Facebook is officially the biggest internet flotation of all time, after the social network priced its shares last night at the top of its expected range and set a value for the company of $104bn (£66bn).

US study says nerve agent causes Colony Collapse Disorder

Liverpool have announced plans for a pre-season tour of North America which will include a glamour friendly against Roma in Boston.

I arrived back in Blighty this morning to find the wires full of the news that my boss at Dartmouth College, Dr Jim Yong Kim, whom I know pretty well, had been nominated by President Obama to replace Robert Zoellick as president of the World Bank.

Dmitri Nabokov, the son of the Russian novelist Vladimir Nabokov, tried to escape the shadow of his father's legacy, pursuing interests as diverse as opera singing and racing-car driving. But it was to the translation, preservation and championing of his father's work that he returned time and again.

Claims by a leading sports-clothing company, Speedo, to have invented a swimsuit fabric that emulates the surface properties of shark’s skin are not supported by experiments with real shark skin, scientists said.

What is expected to be the largest technology flotation in history was last night generating the kind of investor frenzy not seen since the days of the dotcom bubble.

Nicotine patches are no better than willpower alone in helping smokers quit their habit, a study has found.

As the US finally sealed its debt-ceiling deal and received the blessing of a major credit-rating agency, any hope of a relief rally in financial markets was snuffed out.

Literature

'My Father's Fortune' by Michael Frayn, Faber & Faber, £15.99

Winner of last week's PEN prize, Michael Frayn's atmospheric memoir traces his family lineage, from his grandparents through to his father, a builders' commercial traveller and perennial odd one out. Rich in domestic detail, the work is beautifully crafted and elegantly written.

Olympic rowing twins Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss have signalled the possible end to their long-running dispute with Facebook and its founder Mark Zuckerberg.

Yvette Cooper is one of the most powerful women in British politics and was once tipped to become Labour's first female prime minister.