The swimmer who brought this year's Oxford-Cambridge Boat Race to a dramatic halt has denied causing a public nuisance.

A vivid memoir about a writer's association with another who revealed loneliness and friendship

Extra charging points and new technology make it easier for motorists to go green

A plastics worker is lucky to be alive after a large blaze broke out at a factory.

Where are you now and what can you see?

David Cameron's own constituents believe he is too close to Rupert Murdoch and his media empire.

More localised flooding could hit parts of southern and eastern England and Wales as another band of heavy rain sweeps in, the Environment Agency has warned.

Last year Fleet in Hampshire topped a national quality of life survey, now a new study might explain why: its residents spend more money on sex toys than anywhere else.

Before the Woodstock film brought him iconic status, Richie Havens was a distinctive presence on the Greenwich Village folk scene.

David Walter was a direct descendant of John Walter, founder of The Times, in a family that had produced more than one MP, while his mother was a cousin of Willie Whitelaw. So politics and the media were in his blood and it came as no surprise to his many friends that he spent his life in these fields. But though politicians and political journalists inhabit the same world, they are very different tribes, so it was highly unusual that he was able to operate at the highest level among both.

The fashion chain Zara plans to open a record fifth store on London's Oxford Street, reinforcing the buoyant demand for prime retail property in the capital.

Today we are going to conduct a thought experiment. Let's imagine a giant multinational company in the field of, say, aviation – let's call it British Airways – has spent years thieving private information from people in the public domain. Somehow unnoticed by the police, whose top officers BA happens to be granting favours too, the company starts to illegally invade the privacy of the Royal Family, a serving Prime Minister of Great Britain, terrorist informers, the Governor of the Bank of England, and footballers aplenty.

Last week, Whitehall whispers suggested that David Cameron would delay his first major cabinet reshuffle until the autumn so he could promote Jeremy Hunt, who could not be moved until after the London Olympics.