When UK-based Jonathan Kydd and Californian-based Andy Street, who writes the incidental music for American Idol, decided to write a musical together they were not deterred by distance.

Each year, approximately 230,000 young people in the UK plan their gap year. If you haven’t travelled abroad for a substantial amount of  time it can be a daunting task.

Skype have unveiled a new addition to their video calling service with the news that Sony’s PS Vita will soon offer Skype video calling capabilities and voice calling on both Wi-Fi and 3G models.

He already has the doe-eyed good looks and an army of female fans called the Mayniacs. Now Conor Maynard can really be called "Britain's Justin Bieber" after the Brighton musical prodigy displaced the Canadian idol from the upper reaches of the chart with his debut single.

You may never have heard of Conor Maynard, but his 'Mayniacs' have. Adam Sherwin on the singer hitting the big time – from his bedroom

A museum chief in Naples has begun torching contemporary works of art in protest at budget cuts that have hit Italy's cultural institutes particularly hard.

Prime Minister vents anger at Lib Dem's public dissent and calls for 'patience' on detail of plans for secret courts

David Cameron will have to resolve a split in the Coalition over a "Big Brother" plan to allow monitoring of everyone's online activity.

Senior police officers have warned of a "gap in the armoury" if plans for greater internet surveillance are dropped following an outcry over a proposal to monitor the online activity of everyone in Britain.

David Cameron has denied that Government proposals to monitor calls, emails, texts and website visits would be a "snoopers' charter".

In a democratic society, there is always a balance to be struck between citizens' safety and their right to privacy. Given the all-too-real threat of indiscriminate terrorist violence, the Government's latest plans to expand the state's powers to snoop on digital communications are understandable. But they tip the scales altogether too far.

Police and intelligence officers are to be handed the power to monitor people's messages online in what has been described as an "attack on the privacy" of vast numbers of Britons.

Police and intelligence officers are to be handed the power to monitor people's messages online in what has been described as an "attack on the privacy" of vast numbers of Britons.

Britain's biggest pharmaceuticals maker, GlaxoSmithKline, has teamed up with Johnson & Johnson and the private equity house Index Ventures to launch a ground-breaking €150m (£125m) fund to discover new drugs.