Maria Alyokhina forced to appear at parole decision appeal by video link despite hunger strike over right to attend in person

Brit Awards organisers are to launch a new annual honour to celebrate major figures in music with Sir Elton John announced as the first ever recipient.

Having made progress of sorts with 2009's In This Light and on This Evening, Editors here step backwards into the crepuscular netherworld of Eighties new wave from whence they took their original inspiration.

As bands like the Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd and Genesis moved into arenas and stadiums in the 1970s, stage design became an important part of the fan experience.

The heavy rock trailblazers have set a new UK chart record - and beaten Liam Gallagher's Beady Eye

Will.i.am, Ed Sheeran and Mumford & Sons are among the stars who have recorded new versions of celebrated protest songs to highlight issues of global poverty.

Singer Alison Moyet is to be honoured at annual music event the Silver Clef Awards.

Since 2007's Era Vulgaris, Josh Homme has undergone both life-threatening medical emergency and life-affirming parenthood, band break-up and superstar collaboration, all of which made recording this follow-up rather fraught – hence the ironic title.

Hague is determined, sharp of mind and of elbow, keen to cut a deal, eager to please

Thousands of animal welfare supporters took to the streets of central London to protest against the controversial badger-cull policy, which came into effect yesterday. Many of the protesters were dressed in black and white and chanted "Shame on Defra" and "Stop the cull". Some were walking dogs dressed in badger costumes.

The Italian was banned after testing positive for cocaine

A court has denied parole to a member of the Pussy Riot punk group.

The keyboard player and songwriter Ray Manzarek was a founder-member of the Doors, the Los Angeles group who seemed to embody the possibilities, contradictions and limitations of the rock medium more than any other in the late Sixties. The tall, professorial-looking musician exuded a gravitas commensurate with the dark, questing nature of the band's tours de force "The End", "When The Music's Over" and "Riders On The Storm" and with the fate that befell their shamanic frontman Jim Morrison, who died in mysterious circumstances in Paris in July 1971. This added to the mystique around the group, who have sold over 100m albums and been the subject of several documentaries, and Oliver Stone's biopic (Kyle MacLachlan portrayed Manzarek).