Sending children as young as 9 overseas for six months is a growing trend in the UK, where it's seen as one of the best ways to learn a second language.

No one from the UK arm of Bernard Madoff's fraudulent investment business will face prosecution, the Serious Fraud Office has decided.

Stevie Wonder and Muse are to headline this year's Glastonbury Festival.

Mercedes-Benz is adhering to a high-quality production process with the SLS AMG super-coupe.

Steven Tyler has reportedly moved to block his fellow members of Aerosmith from holding auditions to replace him as their singer.

Most adults lack an 'effective level of literacy'.

The almost indestructible, iconic French tumblers are boucing back into global domination.

The 3Ds have returned to reclaim their legend as the loudest goofiest pop band to have sprung from these shores.

Nick Warren visits the Austrian Alps and finds a centuries-old pagan tradition still thriving in modern times.

Fashion blogger Isaac Hindin Miller files from the Paris Haute Couture shows.

A 76-year-old Polish beekeeper has been discovered alive as he was about to be buried.

Signs of family breakdown emerge in the wake of Iceland's financial crash.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has been presented with more damaging evidence.

Marina Endicott witnessed a two-car collision that provided the starting point for Good to a Fault, winner of the Commonwealth Writers' Prize in the Canada and Caribbean region.

Asked to select a best-loved dress for a collectable tome, designers came up with some surprising choices.

Fashion blogger Isaac Hindin-Miller files from Paris Fashion Week.

Both are loving mothers, who after years of devoted care to their disabled children felt they had no choice but to take the law into their own hands but while one was allowed to walk free from court yesterday the other will go to jail.

Is feminism to blame for the number of women who find themselves single? The Independent's Liz Hoggard delves into the issue.

George Clooney's Hope for Haiti Now telethon has raised US$57 million (NZ$79 million) so far.

Fashion blogger Isaac Hindin-Miller files from Paris Fashion Week.

Western food manufacturers are buying so little sustainable palm oil that the system set up to limit damage to tropical forests caused by the world's cheapest vegetable oil is in danger of collapse.

In the United Kingdom, calls are growing by opposition politicians and the public that the full report of the review of the case of two brothers who savagely attacked a pair of boys in Edlington, South Yorkshire, should be made public.

Fashion blogger Isaac Hindin-Miller files from Paris Fashion Week.

An extreme sports enthusiast from Austria looks set to break the speed of sound as he attempts the world's highest ever parachute jump.

What do Fiat, Hyundai and Mitsubishi have in common?