People
Tetra Pak heir on run from police
Hans Kristian Rausing, the heir to the £5.4bn Tetra Pak fortune who is on bail for alleged possession of crack cocaine and heroin, is on the run from the police. The 45-year-old became a fugitive on Sunday when officers turned up at his £5m Chelsea home to... [continued]
Simon Mann goes on trial for Guinea coup
The Old Etonian and former SAS officer Simon Mann (pictured) finally went on trial in Equatorial Guinea on Tuesday, charged with taking part in a 2004 coup to overthrow
President Obiang. Accepting that he was an 'instrument' in the plot, rather than its architect, prosecutors downgraded their earlier call for... [continued]
In pictures: the descent of Mann 
Mann names Calil and Thatcher in coup plot
In Town Last Night: summer ball at the Royal Academy
With foliage and flowers at every turn, the Royal Academy was in full bloom last night for its triennial fundraiser the Summer Ball. The Piccadilly gallery invited the glamorous, wealthy and
successful - including M&S boss Stuart Rose and architect Zaha Hadid - round for a... [continued]
More pictures
Slimmed down Voigt returns to play Ariadne
Four years ago Deborah Voigt (pictured), the American opera singer, was fired from the Royal Opera House's production of Richard Strauss's Ariadne auf Naxos for
being too fat. Last night, having lost 135lbs in weight, she returned to the Covent Garden stage to rapturous applause to perform... [continued]
Video: see Voigt in 'The Return of the Little Black Dress'
Vatican bans filming of new Dan Brown movie
The filming of a Dan Brown thriller – the prequel to his best-selling The Da Vinci Code called Angels and Demons - has run into problems. The Vatican, no doubt with the full support of the Pope, has forbidden the producers of the movie, which again stars... [continued]
In brief: Dusty wins Mojo award
Duffy (pictured), the 'Welsh Dusty Springfield', has received the Mojo award for best song for her single Mercy; veteran heavy metal band Motorhead won the hero award… Simon Mann, the Old Etonian British mercenary, goes on trial today in Equatorial Guinea to answer the charge that he... [continued]
Pregnant Piper tones down racy call-girl role in new series
Age, impending motherhood, and perhaps marrying into one of Britain's most distinguished theatrical dynasties, appear to have mellowed Billie Piper. The 25-year-old actress has
apparently asked the producers of the ITV's Secret Diary of a Call Girl, based on the infamous Belle du Jour blog, to tame... [continued]
Billie Piper up for porn prize
Lady and the toad: butler has day in court
They don't make them like Lady Jacqueline Killearn anymore. The 98-year-old aristocrat has been accused by her butler, who is suing her for £200,000 for unfair dismissal, of committing all manner of unspeakable things to him while he was in her service, among them charging him to... [continued]
Oligarch accuses BP boss of ‘Nazi’ tactics
British Petroleum's chairman, Peter Sutherland (pictured), has been accused by the Russian oligarch Mikhail Fridman of using Nazi-style tactics in order to gain the upper hand in the bitter duel to control TNK-BP, the Siberian oil joint venture owned 50-50 by BP and the Russian consortium founded by Fridman, AAR... [continued]
Persaud confesses to book plagiarism
Dr Raj Persaud, the TV psychiatrist, broadcaster and best-selling author, has admitted copying the work of other academics for his book, The Edge of the Couch, as well as plagiarising articles written for newspapers and scientific journals. Persaud, 45, made his confession yesterday before the General Medical... [continued]
