In the 1970s, you could hardly open a magazine or pass a billboard without seeing the advertisement for Virginia Slims cigarettes that said, "You've come a long way, baby." It usually featured a flowing-haired, liberated modern woman alongside some drudge of a generation or two earlier, pegging out laundry. The implication (as well as that smoking was good for you) was that women had revolutionised their lives in unprecedented ways over a few decades, and that a great broad path of such freedoms still lay ahead, along with some fab new haircuts.

A Muslim teenager was kidnapped, imprisoned and had her hair cut off after her siblings saw her kiss a white man, a court has heard.

Collapse of £30m corruption trial under fresh scrutiny

An all-woman team have completed a crossing of the Atlantic Ocean, storming into the record books along the way, organisers said today.

My name is Brandon, and I'm addicted to sex. But enough about me...

Juliet is one of the most coveted roles at the Royal Ballet. Melissa Hamilton, a light, fleet soloist with a sweeping sense of movement, made a promising debut. She's still feeling her way into the drama of Kenneth MacMillan's ballet, with her most touching moments coming through the dancing. When Hamilton arches back over her Romeo's arm, her lavish backbend gives the moment eagerness and ardour.

Accused demand inquiry into collapse of corruption case as their 23-year living hell goes on

A documentary about two 69-year-old sisters has scandalised Holland. It's because they're prostitutes, says Geoffrey Macnab

Growing numbers of university and A-level students are turning to prostitution or working as escorts to fund their education, the National Union of Students said yesterday.

David Guterson's 1994 debut, Snow Falling on Cedars, was set on a desolate island in the Puget Sound and told the story of a Japanese-American fisherman on trial for murder. It was a subdued morality tale, later turned into a successful film. The author's latest novel, Ed King might have been written by someone else entirely. A mid-life crisis of a novel, this re-telling of the Oedipus myth is a nihilistic romp that this week found itself the winner of the Bad Sex Award.

A Texas parolee now linked to a deadly Craigslist robbery scheme was in a jail in the state of Ohio and poised to stay there but was released after Texas officials said they only wanted him extradited if he were convicted on a drug charge, according to court records and a sheriff's office.

Officers cleared of perverting course of justice over men wrongly convicted of 1988 murder

Prostitutes in the German city of Bonn must carry a ticket purchased from a new parking meter-like machine while working the streets or face hefty fines from tax authorities in a scheme launched on last Monday.

About 1,000 women are working as prostitutes in Ireland every day, an agency which supports those in the sex trade said.