The US chocolate company Hershey is considering an audacious go-it-alone attempt to buy the besieged Cadbury confectionery empire through a takeover offer of at least $17bn (£10.2bn) to edge out Kraft's £9.8bn hostile bid. Sources close to the situation last night said that Hershey has lined up deal ...

Paul and Rachel Chandler make a statement at gunpoint which is broadcast on Channel 4 news The British couple kidnapped by Somali pirates said today they could be killed within a week. Paul and Rachel Chandler were filmed for Channel 4 News on Wednesday and the footage was broadcast tonight. The Chandlers ...

First miracle man. Then the EU president. A famous Belgian Most of Herman Van Rompuy's website, as one might perhaps expect of an upstanding European (and since last night, Europeans don't get much more upstanding than Herman), is in three languages. You can, if you choose, read the soon-to-be-ex-Belgian ...

Rajinder Singh says he supports far-right party's anti-Islam stance A Sikh man who has campaigned for the BNP in support of its anti-Islam stance has been put forward to be the party's first non-white member. Rajinder Singh, who is in his late 70s, has twice lent support to Nick Griffin during the British ...

Welcome, one and all, to the latest edition of Music Weekly. This week's show kicks off with art beast Gonzales, who happens to be in the middle of a residency at London's Pigalle club. Laura Barton met up with the Canadian musician to talk about being "welcomed into the bosom of the French", trying ...

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John Crace reminds us that there's no I in socalsm or totaltaransm John Crace

• 'To replay the match would cause chaos for football' • Richard Williams: Henry let himself and the game down Ireland's hopes of being granted a replay of their controversial World Cup qualifier play-off second leg with France have collapsed after Fifa ruled out the possibility of re-staging the match. ...

The internet is such a huge part of life that Mandelson's plans to cut people off for copyright breach is a clear restriction of liberty At 33 years old I'm more Generation X than Generation X-Box. I'm too old to be one of the new wave of "digital natives" who've never known life without the internet, ...

Chief executive of country's biggest building society warns rising unemployment will hit house prices and attacks regulatory changes Nationwide Building Society today attacked regulatory changes which it warned could impede the mutual sector as it admitted profits in the first half had fallen more than ...