A retired Mossad agent appeared before a London court today in the midst of a battle between two Israeli-Russian tycoons over African diamond profits.

Internet boom leaves Communist Party chiefs fearing they are losing the information war

Two people were killed and 15 others injured in street battles between pro- and anti-Syrian groups in the Lebanese capital overnight as the spiralling conflict in neighbouring Syria spilled across the border.

The sequel to 'Wolf Hall' is a striking account of one of English history's most shocking episodes. But it can be hard to navigate such austere prose

British troops have been banned from transferring suspected Taliban prisoners over to the Afghan authorities because of claims of torture by local forces, it was revealed yesterday.

Where to go and what to know

On the first listen to Born Villain, you notice references to Shakespeare, Baudelaire and the Greek myths. Say what you like about Marilyn Manson: you don't get that stuff from Slipknot.

Osama bin Laden lived in five safe houses while on the run in Pakistan and fathered four children, two of them born in government clinics, his youngest widow told investigators.

Mute continues to explore all corners of the electronica landscape, following up Vince Clarke & Martin Gore's recent album of dance-oriented techno with this more hardcore industrial offering.

The handful of recipes in this intriguing curiosity about "madness, beauty and the food of Rome" includes "a charming description of Vineyard Snails" from 1930 and a seminal recipe for tomato sauce from 1891, but the strangest takes the form of an eight-page interview. "Other ingredients are absolutely not allowed, so we have to take maximum care that it's only flour and water," says David Winner's informant, before explaining the subsequent stages – mixing, pressing, baking, humidification and wrapping – of the process. "We pay a lot of attention to every detail because we know what the wafer will become."

The scrum-half's latest incident and impending RFU job interview add to coach's heavy workload

A Political Life

"The unseen subject of these photographs is power," writes the man who took them, Donald Weber