Deadly piranhas were the unlikely cause of a badly backed-up English sewer, according to water company inspectors.

The UK Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) is to start giving its official stamp of approval to Master's courses, effectively creating the first certified degrees for spies.

A British sniper in Afghanistan killed six insurgents with a single bullet after hitting the trigger switch of a suicide bomber whose device then exploded.

The Tate has been ordered to return a valuable Constable painting and criticised for failing to adequately research its background after it emerged the work was looted during the Second World War.

They are seven simple words we all take for granted. But as Joanne Milne heard her doctor recite the days of the week, she was overwhelmed with emotion, fighting back tears and gasping to catch her breath.

Ewan McDonald cops a serve in Detective Inspector Rebus' favourite watering-hole.

David Cameron played a "nukes on the loose" war game with Barack Obama, Angela Merkel and other world leaders to see how they would cope with a terrorist nuclear attack, it has emerged.

Peter Oakley, who has died aged 86, shrugged off the expectations of old age to become an Internet sensation through his wistful, heartfelt video diary on YouTube.

The son of a double agent is appealing to the Government to force intelligence chiefs to reveal the files it holds on his father, as he believes his mother married him on the orders of MI5.

The bodies of thousands of aborted and miscarried babies were incinerated as clinical waste, with some used to heat Britain's hospitals, an investigation has found.

How much does it cost UK police to change a lightbulb? It sounds like it should be a joke, but the answer won't have British taxpayers laughing.

When Neil Trotter rang former partner Kirstine to tell her of his EuroMillions prize, her response was a remarkably good-natured: "That's typical of you, Trotter".

A British woman held in a Pakistani jail with her baby was yesterday sentenced to life imprisonment for trying to smuggle heroin worth £3.2m (NZD$6m) out of the country.

A busy road had to be closed by police as they searched for the severed penis of the man, who was found severely injured in the early hours of the morning.

The late Princess Diana leaked a royal phone directory to the now defunct News of the World tabloid, its former royal editor has told Britain's phone-hacking trial.

A century after the Welsh poet's birth, Kevin Pilley wonders what Dylan Thomas would make of his old boozer.

British Prime Minister David Cameron's stock image-esque photo of himself on the phone to US President Barack Obama has been lampooned by Twitter heroes.

A 12-year-old boy who raped his seven-year-old sister after watching porn online has walked free after a judge ruled he is not a danger to society.

The man branded Britain's most violent prisoner has abandoned his sketch pad in protest after prison guards banned him from sending drawings to friends.

When police tried to interview John Downey in his cell about the Hyde Park bombing following his arrest last year, he put a pillow over his face and refused to say anything.

Police have seized a family dog after the sudden death of six-day-old Eliza-Mae Mullane at a home in South Wales.