Night in

More than 30 people are still missing in Quebec town after huge explosion caused by runaway oil train crash

Five confirmed dead but 'toll will grow' as clean-up operation begins

Up to 1,000 people evacuated and around 30 buildings destroyed

Christopher Knight, who has become known as the North Pond Hermit, reportedly spent 27 years in the woods of Maine

Christopher Knight, 47, was arrested last week after triggering a motion sensor set up by a game warden

A something that comes from nothing

A zumba instructor has admitted using her dance studio as a front for a prostitution ring that involved scores of men. The plea means that Alexis Wright will avoid a trial, as will her clients who might have been called as witnesses.

Former US president George H.W. Bush has been admitted to a hospital intensive care unit “following a series of setbacks including a persistent fever”, but he is alert and talking to medical staff, his spokesman said.

If you're yet to dig out the decade-old string of fairy lights that are coiled around a clutch of gaudy baubles and haven't got round to stringing up the sparkly icicles along the guttering, why not take inspiration from this illuminating lot?

It's the city that never stands still, but Simon Calder finds that the bright lights remain as warm as ever

President Barack Obama was declared the winner of Florida's 29 electoral votes today, ending a four-day count with a razor-thin margin that narrowly avoided an automatic recount that would have brought back memories of the 2000 election.

Some of the triumphalism over Barack Obama's re-election has been overdone. There has been extravagant talk of the end of the Republican Party, heading for extinction as a result of "demographics". America, it is pointed out, is becoming more diverse, more socially liberal and more accepting of the case for active government.

Liberal states support plans to recognise same-sex unions and recreational drug use