Cairn Energy fell back last night, trading lower as the London market flirted with levels not seen since November. The oil and gas explorer and producer was 26p behind at 1,871p after Morgan Stanley called time on the valuation, telling clients that its recent strength and the narrowing of the discount between the Cairn share price and that of its India-listed business weighed against the stock.

Kevin Pietersen's choice to replace Peter Moores as England coach was, according to reports in the Australian media last night, Shane Warne, a friend and one-time Hampshire team-mate of the former England captain.

Home Retail Group, the owner of the Homebase home improvement chain, slumped to the bottom of the Footsie last night as the retail sector turned lower amid growing concern about the impact of the flood of discounts on the high street.

A huge explosion at an illegal fireworks factory killed 18 people, including 10 children, and wounded 17 others today in western India, police said.

A surrogate baby born to an Indian mother could end up with no parents after the Japanese couple who paid for her split up.

For Shiv Charan, taking exams is nothing less than a ritual. Every year he enters the examination for school-leavers, every year he fails and every year he vows to come back and try again. At the age of 74, he may be the world's worst student but he is certainly its most persistent.

In the wilds of an Indian nature reserve, a soap opera is gripping the nation. The hero of the drama is a four-year-old male tiger who was flown to the Rajasthan park by wildlife officials and released last week. Yesterday, the heroine, a similarly aged female, was also set free from a holding pen inside the reserve. Now it is up to the two cats to play their parts.

The good news for South Africa is their captain, Graeme Smith, appears to have recovered from the hamstring injury that threatened his participation in Thursday's first Test against England. The bad news is he is horribly out of form.

Dimitri Mascarenhas said yesterday that he had feared his brief spell in the Indian Premier League would jeopardise his one-day future with England.