A teenager has died after taking fake ecstasy tablets – the seventh reported death linked to the pills.

Stephen Donald, the outside-half from New Zealand who kicked the All Blacks to a first world title in almost a quarter of a century before flying halfway round the planet for a lucrative stint in Premiership rugby with Bath, has had enough of life in these parts. He is about to leave the Recreation Ground with a season still left on his very expensive contract and take up employment in Japan, where the weekly demands on mind and body are somewhat less severe.

A Wiltshire aristocrat has been acquitted of assaulting one of his family estate's trustees.

Anglo American has agreed to sell a stake in its coveted south central Chile properties to Chilean rival Codelco for $1.7bn (£1.1bn), a discount to the $2.8bn market price, ending a bruising 10-month battle between the mining titans.

Organisers have cancelled this year's Mitsubishi Motors Badminton Horse Trials after they accepted there was "no chance" of the ground drying out in time.

A mother described today how she was "traumatised" when thieves stole her performance car with her five-year-old son still inside.

The Australian airline Qantas is to cut up to 1,000 jobs as part of a major shake-up of its international business that will include the launch of a new Asia-based airline.

Rio Tinto and Mitsubishi have offered to buy out the smaller shareholders in Australia's Coal & Allied Industries for A$1.5bn (£948m) in the latest sign of consolidation in the international mining sector.

A Europe-wide survey conducted by the consulting firm Deloitte points to widespread interest in electric vehicles (EVs), but also suggests that only a minority think that they may be in the first wave of customers for the technology themselves.

I'm glad Lord Young has gone, but not for his "never had it so good" gaffe.

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