Two children were taken to hospital and a search has been launched for another child and an adult missing after an incident at a weir, West Midlands Ambulance Service said.

From studying toads to liberating beavers, these enthusiasts show the human face of 'biophilia' in Britain

A midwife who dropped a baby on to the floor of a maternity unit and used an electric monitor in a birthing pool was today found guilty of a lack of competence and misconduct.

Two disgraced peers who made false expenses claims will be allowed to return to the Lords after Easter, even though they have served prison sentences.

Sound wave

A woman and her partner have been remanded in custody after appearing in court charged with the murder of her four-year-old son.

Having hitherto been so weirdly indulged, the jumps schedule was finally menaced by frost overnight.

A midwifery leader has expressed concern about the "commercialisation" of pregnancy and the growing trend for expectant mothers to hold "foetus parties".

It began with dark mutterings in the local pub, that a strange beast might be stalking the woods around the little village of Woodchester, savaging the local wildlife and frightening local dog walkers.

Many were unmistakably of the view that a mere hair of the dog could scarcely suffice; still more formed enormous, sallow queues for carbohydrate relief. One way or another, resolutions of abstinence seemed largely to have been deferred among the large crowds here yesterday. In one, hugely popular case, however, the turning over of a new leaf represented the end, not of feasting, but of famine.

Lovely little girl..." said Zillah Clift's mum fondly, looking at an old photograph of her daughter as a three-year-old. "And then they grow up," she added meaningfully, though in Zillah's case there wasn't a lot of up about it. Now an adult, with a husband of her own, Zillah is still only four foot two inches high, and still obliged to shop for her shoes in the toddler section. Zillah's taste runs to buzz cuts, piercings and black leather – not a look much catered for in under-fives footwear. She pretty much has a choice of pink, pink, glittery pink or pink.

One of the questions you might ask about Life's Too Short, the new comedy from Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, is how it would have worked if its central character wasn't a dwarf.

Lord Taylor, once one of the most promising Tory politicians of his generation, was jailed for a year yesterday for defrauding the taxpayer of more than £11,000.