Pop goes the iPod: Battery explosion causes lockdown in New Hampshire high school

The lengths some kids will go to get out of taking a test. New Hampshire students trying to complete final exams Tuesday morning were interrupted when an iPod battery exploded in a classroom at Farmington High.

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Royal WEDDING 2011: The UK might seem moth-eaten but no-one does a royal show better

The Royal Family can take just pride in the fact that, on Friday, it will achieve something no other institution could match: it will make Britain the focus of the world.

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London 2012 Olympics ticekts: Get set for 2nd seats sprint

The race for the remaining Olympics tickets starts at 6am tomorrow, with competition expected to be fierce and 100,000 seats gone by 7am.

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Cat killer claims more than 9 lives: Neighbours hire security guard to hunt poisoner

All that is known about the culprit in the Essex village of Runwell is that he or she poisons the victims using anti-freeze, which causes kidney failure.

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Gas price rises 30%: Winter of power bills discontent on the way

Scottish Power recently announced a 19 per cent increase in gas tariffs and a 10 per cent jump in electricity, adding around �185 to an annual dual fuel bill.

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AV referendum: Senior Tory attacks Lib Dems as row between coalition deepens

Lib Dems Chris Huhne and Simon Hughes were slapped down on three sides for threatening to sue David Cameron and the No campaign.

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Ready to blow, Ed Balls was like an All Black just before the haka

Ed Miliband again caused David Cameron inconvenience by raising tricky details concerning a beyond-reproach matter. Last week it was cancer patients, this week it was rape.

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1,000 head teachers' salaries on over �100k a year 'should be named and shamed'

Union leader Chris Keates said: ‘Why should head teachers be exempt from chief executives in the public sector that have to have their salaries published?’

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UK fears migrant influx as EU bids to break down border controls

Brussels bosses want to tear up European Union immigration rules, leaving Britain vulnerable to a new influx of migrants.

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Parents threatened with debt collectors after racking up bills for their children's school dinners

Despite a debt collection agency branding the threat as ridiculous', the school head in Liverpool said 'there comes a point when you have to be ruthless'.

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Tesco stampede over '24 cans of lager for �4' price blunder on beer

Shoppers were supposed to save �4 on big lager brands which normally sell for a total of �20. But a blunder at the till meant shoppers were actually only charged that amount.

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Libya: Liam Fox warns Gaddafi, 'Give up now or we'll kill you'

Today Dr Fox will hold talks with Pentagon chiefs to discuss increasing the number of targets that Nato aircraft can hit, possibly to include regime leaders.

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Christine Blower pay rise: 10% increase for teachers' union chief

NUT leader Christine Blower was accused of 'breathtaking insensitivity' for taking the rise while her own members brace themselves for a pay freeze.

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Taxpayer funds �400 guided tours of the supermarket for fat families

Obese families in Manchester will be given guided tours of supermarkets as part of a �400 course to teach them how to buy healthier food.

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Mega-rich prosper in austerity Britain where there are now 500,000 'dollar millionaires'

The mega-wealthy people, such as Sir Richard Branson, have plenty of liquid cash on top of their valuable property and pensions, according to the World Wealth Report.

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Syria protests: UK sanctions on the table as Bashir al-Assad sends in tanks

Activists claimed Damascus had ‘launched war’ on its own people, as at least 18 people were killed in a security forces assault on Daraa.

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'Richest divorcee in history' declares herself bankrupt

Society hostess Patricia Kluge, who had entertained royalty and celebrities at her sprawling Virginia estate in the 1980s, filed for personal bankruptcy protection with her third husband.

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White ram and 37 white ewes produce flock of entirely BLACK lambs

Farmers Sally and Jacob Du Toit have helped deliver 60 black lambs from their flock of white sheep in the past month at their smallholding near Royston, Herts.

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iPhone5: Apple to launch new smartphone in September

The model is likely to include a faster computer chip and a more advanced camera.

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Pervert teacher dubbed 'touchy feely Walker' is jailed for string of sex offences against pupils

Disgraced ex-deputy head Philip Walker, 61, used his position at two secondary schools in Somerset to befriend, groom and abuse boys and girls over a 20-year period.

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�Costa del Crime� gang who conned pensioners out of �20million to fund lavish lifestyles

Dean Hamilton, left, and George Abrue, right, were part of the gang that funded lavish lifestyles by persuading vulnerable victims to part with their lifelong savings.

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Britain's most luxurious old people's home: With its own cinema, spa and hair salon

As these illustrations show, the palatial accommodation in Girton, Cambridgeshire, will also include a fine dining restaurant and clubhouse. It will be completed in 2012.

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Glastonbury weather: Wellies and winter coats for 2011 festival

Rain-hardy fans battled through the drizzle and mud to get to the campsites on 900-acre Worthy Farm for the start of Britain's biggest and best-loved music festival.

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500 Taliban prisoners on loose after insurgents dig 1,000ft tunnel INTO jail

Security forces have caught 65 Taliban prisoners who escaped during an audacious jail break in Kandahar. The breach has seriously weakened faith in the local government.

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The sheepdog that's afraid of sheep

His owner Jane Lippington says four-year-old Ci, whose name is Welsh for dog, has been intimidated by sheep ever since he was introduced to them as a pup.

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Skipper Donald Anderson's horror as his first boat The Strathelliot capsizes in North Sea

Donald Anderson, from Keiss near Caithness, was devastated when his vessel, The Strathelliot, sprang a leak and started taking in water.

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An now... the great Euro MPs' expenses scam as secret report reveals fiddling

MEPs channelled �125,000-a-year allowances for secretaries and research assistants into family-owned businesses, foreign bank accounts and ‘front’ companies.

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YouTube to challenge iTunes supremacy with movies on-demand service

The world's largest video sharing site will begin streaming mainstream Hollywood movies as early as this week after having licences granted by major studios

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Pension reform: Only 1 in 7 have company scheme in private sector

Dave Prentis, Unison's general secretary, says he is plotting a 'sustained' campaign of industrial action 'without precedent' that could cripple the country.

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Modern girls are born to plump for pink 'thanks to berry-gathering female ancestors'

Scientists have shown that females are drawn to pinks and reds and men to blues and greens – and they believe the explanation lies our hunter-gatherer past.

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Stockport council's �7.5m recycling bin scheme prompts 60k calls from householders

A plan to introduce cleaner, greener bins to the residents of Stockport has backfired after the local council received nearly 60,000 confused calls about the new �7.5m scheme.

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Heiress Susanne Klatten 'handed over �6.2m to gigolo Helg Sgarbi out of love'

Susanne Klatten, 48, was speaking for the first time of the sensational blackmail plot, which saw her hand over �6.2 million to conman Helg Sgarb after he wooed her in a hotel.

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Shakespeare: Scientists bid to dig up his grave

A team of palaeontologists say they have made a formal application to the Church of England to excavate the playwright's tomb, which lies inside his local parish church in Stratford-upon-Avon.

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Berlusconi and Sarkozy row about North African migrants, refugees mass at Paris gateway

Most are refugees from the recent revolution in Tunisia and the continuing conflict in Libya who have arrived in Europe via Italy.

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Public sector strike chaos 'could go on for four years'

Mark Serwotka, the leader of the civil servants’ union PCS, said mass strikes would ‘grow incrementally’ and they could continue until the next general election in 2015.

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We pay too little to fill top jobs, says BBC boss Mark Thompson (who earns �308,000 a year)

He claimed bosses at the BBC are paid substantially less – said to be between 50 per cent and 80 per cent – than they would be elsewhere in the industry.

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Sleeping beauty: Nurse with rare syndrome nods off for a week at a time

Her story may sound like a familiar fairytale. But for Poppy Shingleton, from Southampton it's a nightmare that means she misses Christmases and holidays.

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Where is she now? American photographer seeks his captivating subject, 50 years on

American documentary photographer Bruce Davidson took the girl's photograph somewhere in London in 1960 and has been haunted by her memory ever since.

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'U-turn row as BBC World Service gets �2.2m reprieve

Foreign Secretary William Hague said that he had agreed to give the BBC World Service �2.2million a year to secure the broadcaster's Arabic Service.

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Farmer's fury after gipsy death threats 999 call results in her legally-held guns being confiscated 'in case she retaliates'

Having confronted travellers cutting down trees on her farm, terminally-ill Tracy St Clair Pearce found herself subjected to a terrifying ordeal.

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Keith Gilbert dragged through courts by yob who trampled his flower beds

Keith Gilbert was cleared of assaulting a schoolboy who trampled on his flower bed in Norfolk. Last night he was celebrating a 'victory over mindless vandalism'.

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Guiseppe and Caterina Massaro murdered in their own bedroom

Churchgoers Guiseppe and Caterina Massaro were murdered in a 'sustained and ferocious' attack with a hammer and knife, police in Wolverhampton believe.

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Alcohol addiction: A glaass of wine a day 'bad for pensioners'

Were you Russian, you might not have to worry about the problem of alcohol misuse in your retirement because you would probably already be dead. The average man born in Russia today cannot expect to live beyond 63, so much vodka is he likely to have consumed by then.

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Human cannonball Matt Cranch plunged to his death on Easter Bank Holiday pictured

Yesterday friends said 24-year-old Matt Cranch was a 'thrill-seeker' who opted out of his promising academic career and his conventional middle-class upbringing.

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Rory McIlroy US Open Champion returns to Holyrood, Belfast

The 22-year-old record-breaking US Open winner said it was fantastic to be among old friends again as he arrived at Holywood Golf Club in County Down with his trophy tucked tightly under his arm.

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Andrew Lansley health reforms: NHS chiefs run up �13m expenses bill

Freedom of Information requests reveal strategic health authority staff are enjoying away days which cost more than a luxury meal at the Ritz.

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Ryan Cleary: 'Hacker' in suicide threat

Rita Cleary said her son Ryan had not set foot outside the family bungalow in Essex since Christmas and had his food left outside his bedroom door.

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PM 'won't rule out' arming Libya rebels amid fears of drawn-out war

The revelations came as Defence Secretary Liam Fox secured new military commitments from the U.S. to finish the dictator once and for all.

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77 per cent of over 65s are now online

Not long ago, it was a world thought to be the preserve of the younger generation. But the image of grandma puzzling over search engine tools and right-click menus is now a false stereotype.

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Chesterfield fan punches Bury goalkeeper Cameron Belford in the face

The group of young thugs invaded the pitch at Chesterfield and attacked Bury's Cameron Belford, 22, after he let in a goal.

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