Paedophile pop star Gary Glitter was refused entry to Hong Kong tonight after flying there from Thailand, the Foreign Office has confirmed.

Poland and the United States risked igniting a new missile crisis with Russia as their foreign ministers today signed a deal to station part of an American defence shield on Polish soil, manned by US soldiers, 115 miles from the Russian border.

Another lightning Bolt for Jamaica; another unexpected jolt of a medal for Great Britain. Usain Bolt was still posing next to the trackside clock on the infield of the Beijing Bird’s Nest when Tasha Danvers was getting ready to settle into her starting blocks for the women’s 400m hurdles final. The barriers set out in front of her were just ten more to surmount in a career - a season even - that has been strewn with obstacles.

Troubled Newcastle player Joey Barton is being sued by a second victim of his violence, it was revealed today.

It was officially called the 10km open water race but in reality it was the inaugural women's 10km Fight in a Lake. And Britain's Keri-Anne Payne and Cassie Patten can take immense satisfaction from the respective silver and bronze medals they won here at the Shunyi Rowing-Canoeing Park today after an enthralling and historic contest.

West Ham have refused to comment on reports that defender Anton Ferdinand is set to complete a £6m switch to Sunderland in the next 48 hours despite firm indications the fee has been agreed between the two clubs.

When Shanaze Reade crashed and recorded the slowest time in her first seeding race in the women's BMX event today it seemed that the 19-year-old from Crewe might struggle to live up to her status as the favourite.

Paedophile pop star Gary Glitter has left Bangkok on a flight to Hong Kong, Thai police said today.

A coalition of more than 100 presidents and chancellors of universities across the United States is pressing the US Congress to lower the drinking age from 21 to 18. This would reverse a two-decade-old policy under which young adults find themselves old enough to go to war but too young legally to down a beer.

A French plastic surgeon accused of mutilating 96 women with his scalpel over 15 years has been jailed in Madrid, pending extradition to France where he faces a prison term and a hefty fine.

Hopes are fading for a baby whale, abandoned by its mother and starved of vital milk, with experts saying it might have to be put down unless it could be tempted out to sea and paired with another pod.

AC Milan director Silvano Ramaccioni believes Chelsea striker Andriy Shevchenko is on the verge of securing a return to the San Siro.

The first British government minister to visit Georgia since the Russian invasion made a point of meeting opposition leaders as public discontent over Mikheil Saakashvili’s role in the disaster that has befallen the country began to grow.

In becoming the first Briton in 100 years to take three gold medals in a single Olympics Chris Hoy has rocketed to celebrity status with a capital C. But the Scotsman also wants his sport - so long confined to a minority in Great Britain - to remain firmly in the public eye as well.

As a Mac user, I've always hated Internet Explorer. But that may be about to change

In the final event of the evening in Beijing, Jamaica's Melaine Walker won gold in the 400m hurdles in a new Olympic record of 52.64s.

Middleweight James DeGale breezed into the boxing semi-finals tonight to become the third Briton to be guaranteed a bronze medal. But he knows there is a storm lying ahead.

Jamaica's Usain Bolt has become the first man to win the Olympic sprint double for 24 years with his second world record in five days in Beijing.

Having earned Commonwealth, world and now Olympic 400m gold medals at the age of 24, Christine Ohuruogu is faced with a large question: what does she do for an encore?

Kelly Sotherton reacted with dismay today at reports that Lyudmila Blonska, silver medalist here in the heptathlon, is facing a life ban after testing positive for an anabolic steroid.

Thousands of people suspected of sharing music, films and games over the Internet will be pursued through the courts for damages, lawyers for entertainment companies said on Wednesday. London-based law firm Davenport Lyons said it will apply to the High Court to force Internet service providers to release the names and addresses of 7,000 suspected file-sharers.

More than 140 people are feared dead after a Spanair passenger jet crashed on take-off at Madrid airport today. One report said that only 28 of the 172 people on board survived.

James Degale produced one of the finest performances of his career to score a comprehensive 8-3 victory over Kazakhstan's Bakthiyar Artayev and guarantee Great Britain's third boxing medal of the Beijing Games.

The convicted paedophile Gary Glitter has agreed to fly from Thailand to a third country after refusing to return to England, a Thai immigration official said.

Tottenham are still refusing to compromise on their £30m valuation of Dimitar Berbatov, prompting Manchester United to look elsewhere according to reports.

Google is investing $10 million to produce electricity from underground heat with a breakthrough technology, as the web search leader extends its clout to clean up the environment.

The Tories are now the right party to create a fairer society because the Government has failed to raise the incomes, aspirations and opportunities of Britain's poorest people, George Osborne said today.

Rising violence at one of Britain's top security jails was highlighted in an official report today.

Zimbabwe's main opposition MDC said on Wednesday plans by President Robert Mugabe's government to convene parliament would endanger power-sharing talks between the country's political rivals.

Tropical Storm Fay continued its erratic path today, moving north along the Florida coast but not going out over the Atlantic Ocean, where many had feared it could strengthen and curve back toward the state as a hurricane.

Sunderland are on the verge of completing the loan signing of Djibril Cisse after reaching an "agreement in principle" with Marseille over the transfer of the striker.

Lyudmila Blonska, the Ukrainian athlete who won silver in the women's heptathlon, is facing disciplinary action after failing a drugs test.

Robinho no longer has any chance of joining Chelsea due to Real Madrid's refusal to even discuss a possible deal, according to the Brazilian's advisor.

Online retailer eBay announced moves today to make it easier for entrepreneurs and retailers to list products in bulk at fixed prices. The announcement follows an expansion of the site from its original auction format towards a greater emphasis on fast, fixed price or "buy it now" sales.

I can't really think of a single good reason to keep BAA whole.

The medal charge by Britain's sailors tripped up today, but not before Bryony Shaw had lifted the tally to five when winning a hard-fought bronze in a windsurfer class in which the host country won its first ever sailing gold medal.

The city of Durham offers the best returns to landlords investing in student property with annual yields of nearly 14%, research showed today.

The United States and Poland have raised the stakes in the new Cold War with the signing of a deal for a US missile defence base to be situated in a country bordering Russia.

Gay rights champion Leo Abse has died at the age of 91, a family friend said today.

President Nicolas Sarkozy said on Wednesday he did not regret sending 700 more troops to Afghanistan this year, after insurgents killed 10 French soldiers, the biggest single loss for foreign forces in Afghan combat since 2001.

US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, today stressed the importance of a deal with Poland to build an American missile defense base in the former Soviet satellite nation — a plan that has infuriated Moscow.

Reports suggest Arsenal have joined the race to sign Manchester United's out of favour defender Mikael Silvestre.

Team GB look likely to surpass the five medals they won in both Sydney and Athens with Iain Percy and Andrew Simpson in a solid position in the Star class.

Olympic gold medal favourite Shanaze Reade survived an injury scare in her first seeding race for the semi-finals of tomorrow's BMX.

A double car bombing in Algeria has killed at least 11 people, a day after an attack that killed 43 people at a military academy in the country.

Mortgage lending increased slightly during July but remained well down on the level recorded a year ago, figures showed today.

George Osborne is clever enough to know that this one won't wash. In a heavily pre-sold speech today he is going to have a go at Labour for making Britain "more unfair"

Shamed rock star Gary Glitter remains in limbo today after refusing to board a flight to the UK following his release from a Vietnamese prison.

In a performance full of character and determination, Bryony Shaw took the bronze medal in the women's windsurfer, boosting Britain's sailing medal tally to five, equalling the five won in both Sydney and Athens.

Keri-Anne Payne and Cassie Patten claimed silver and bronze in the 10km open water swimming to get Britain off to a flying start on Day 12 of the Games.

Competition chiefs today signalled the break-up of BAA's UK airport empire by proposing the company cease running two of its three London airports - Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted.

As another dismal summer limps to its soggy close why not cheer yourself up with one of these raincoats?

Click on the image to the right to enter our guide.

This is a year in which Asia has become inexorably embedded in worldwide culture. As the Olympics continue in China's capital, Beijing, and films such as Lust, Caution achieve huge critical acclaim, Asia House has launched its inaugural Festival of Asian Film to promote Eastern cinema to Western audiences.

So, Peaches Geldof has got married. She met a bloke a month ago, she liked him, they probably did it on the sofa, and they thought, "I'll tell you what, let's get hitched". They ran off to Vegas, called their parents, and now they're wedded. Not for life, obviously, but you know, for a bit.

One morning, after achieving four straight hours watching the Olympics, I realised it was time to stop when the commentator said, and these were the exact words: "You have to say, that is a very important moment in the history of Algerian judo."

I firmly believe that you have to look at what a house is before you think about making changes. There's no point trying to make it something that it is not. This Grade II-listed building had a lot of character when we bought it eight months ago. We spent six months doing it up before we actually moved in because we found out that the heating didn't work, and we had to re-plumb and re-light throughout the house. We also put in new bathrooms, and once you start all that, you have to then decorate extensively.

John Christie sits down at the end of another day and takes stock. The floor of his work-in-progress barn conversion in Suffolk is finally taking shape. It's been a two-year labour of love full of trials and tribulations. He's one of a growing number of buyers seeking rural idylls. Last week, Country Life reported that 80 per cent of city dwellers that it had polled want to move to the country. But the DIY route can be a complicated business.

It would be plain silly not to take a summer holiday because of all the activity one would miss in the vegetable garden and the orchard, but I confess that as we hauled the final case into the taxi for the trip to Birmingham airport, my thoughts were not of the forthcoming flight to Nice and long al fresco lunches in the Provencal sunshine, but of bolting Little Gem lettuces and what the squirrels might do to my hazelnuts. Even once we reached the south of France, sadder to report, these concerns did not entirely dissipate. On the beach at Juan-les-Pins, while not two metres from me a topless young French woman stood sensuously rubbing suncream into her female companion's shoulders, courgettes were never far from my mind.

"Thirteen" I muttered. "What did you say?" asked my mate, who had accompanied me by bicycle to Peckham farmers' market on Sunday for my weekly shop. I replied that I had just added up in my head the number of bags I'd saved by going to the farmers' market instead of the supermarket.

Join the wet set

The Mill, Blunham, Bedfordshire. Price: £4m. Agent: Carter Jonas, tel: 01223 368 771

They say: This idyllically situated five-bedroom millhouse, built in 1812, has a separate four-bedroom property. It is all set in nearly seven acres of land, about 25 miles from Cambridge, with extensive river frontage and fishing rights.

We say: Lie back and think of New England – and winning the lottery. The clapboard covering and waterside setting are a long way from traditional Bedfordshire livingand it is basically two houses, albeit both very beautiful. The perfect place for having friends or relatives over.

If you dream of rustic living, exposed beams are an appealing feature. Traditional styles imbue a home with warmth and character, while the modern variety can be sleek, minimal and suit any contemporary environment.

My partner and I are close to buying a property, but we're very confused by the various housing indices reporting different price falls – some say we're 10 per cent lower compared to last year yet others suggest between 6 and 8 per cent. One index suggested last week that prices in London had risen! Why is it so different? TT, Bath

Jamie and Jessica Seaton are the couple behind the hugely successful catalogue Toast, which started out selling pyjamas and blankets, expanded into fashion, and recently launched into the home market with its wonderful mix of bedding, throws and accessories. To look at their catalogue is to desire to live in a rustic farmhouse snuggled up in a pair of cashmere socks under a striped woollen bedcover. And yes, their life is like that.

House hunting is never the fun it should be. We start out with dreams of the perfect overseas pad only to be beaten into a compromise by lack of time, information or availability of decent properties.

The Georgian president was on vacation in Italy. The defence minister and foreign minister were away on holiday too. The world's attention was riveted on the Olympic Games in Beijing, where the preparations for the lavish opening ceremony were in full swing.

Trinny and Susannah might have made the television makeover show a primetime staple, but it appears that their no-nonsense fashion formula is struggling to compete with a new era of fashion TV. The rumour mill is in overdrive this week with talk that ITV may axe the duo after viewing figures for their current show, Undress the Nation, fell sharply; it's been attracting just 2.5 million viewers (11 per cent of the available audience) in recent days.

The most used word on the British mobile-phone network is a quizzical and repeated, "Hello?" Unimaginably important mobile-phone conversations are cut off in their prime, just as they reach a critical stage in the exchange of information. All you know is that the person to whom you were once talking is inaudible; you don't know whether it's the fault of your network, your phone or theirs – and, nor do they.

When Rebecca Adlington won two gold medals in the Beijing Water Cube, it was the culmination of years of toil. Most of it took place in the pool and the gym but, inside a laboratory in Nottingham, white-coated technicians will be sharing in their own celebration after playing a supporting role in "Dame" Rebecca's victory.

Andrew Upton has taken to calling himself "the hand", so frequently does he find himself not quite perfectly cropped out of red carpet photographs of him with his wife, Cate Blanchett. After nearly 11 years of marriage to the Oscar-winning film star variously referred to as the finest actress of her generation and one of the most beautiful women in the world, the 42-year-old playwright has become expert in taking a back seat. "They just look and think, 'he's not interesting, cut him out.' You can almost see the scissors," he roars with laughter.

Character comedian Ruth Bratt snatches defeat from the jaws of victory with an abrupt ending to her show. Having carefully set up her central, linking character and a properly formed premise (a guided tour of Edinburgh, a canny nod to the home crowd), the show finishes suddenly, leaving a denouement hanging.

Chuck Palahniuk lived up to his reputation as an unorthodox speaker when he threw out inflatable dolls to his Book Festival audience. The wheeze was to tie in with his new book, Snuff, set against the backdrop of the porn industry. The American author was asked if he'd had fun making up names for the porn movies mentioned in his book: "People left messages for me for a year after I asked for suggestions. Some of the best ones included cultural spoofs like The Importance of Balling Earnest and Chitty Chitty Gang Bang."

"That's the Edinburgh Fringe for you," said Maximo Park singer Paul Smith at this Edge festival show, while the feedback wail that had dogged "Our Velocity" was sorted out. "We're now doing experimental musical theatre, like a drama school company." To which a woman in the audience helpfully piped up: "Take your top off!" It's not like the Fringe at all, then.

Pavel Haas was a gifted young composer and student of Leoš Janácek whose string quartets are deemed as good as any that have been written. However, Haas was not fated to have a long and industrious career. Deported from then-Czechoslovakia to Auschwitz in 1941, he was killed there in 1944. This young string quartet, formed of violinists Veronika Jaruskova and Maria Fuxova, violist Pavel Nikl and cellist Peter Jarusek, pay tribute to the composer in their music and nomenclature.

First performed posthumously at the Royal Court in 2000, Sarah Kane's 4.48 Psychosis – a highlight of the International Festival's programme – gets right to the heart of the subject of suicidal depression. It takes the audience inside the mind of someone in the grip of a severe illness, spinning through feelings of uselessness towards thoughts only of oblivion.

New York comedy scene darlings and all-round kooky kids Kristen Schaal and Kurt Braunohler serve up an erratic mix of knockabout double-act banter and sketches in Double Down Hearts, to little avail.

"Thank 'eavens for leedul girls/ For leedul girls get beeger every day." The Lerner and Loewe musical Gigi is not going to win any awards for political correctness with its story of a girl being groomed for the family business of high-class prostitution. So you could argue that it's wittily defiant of the Open Air Theatre to stage a revival now. This was the first musical I was taken to see at the cinema as a toddler and no one thought it incongruous. How times have changed.

Slow-moving woodwinds etched out Debussy's "Nuages", the first of his Trois Nocturnes, slowly but surely pulling focus on the festival's opening concert. It's something of a paradox that Debussy's brand of impressionism demands absolute clarity – and the medieval city's handsome concert hall delivers it, blending and delineating to perfection.

Judging from last night's Pedigree Dogs Exposed, the very worst thing you can have stirred into your genetic mix – far more debilitating than a disease-bearing gene – is human self-regard and vanity. Nature, after all, has its ways of getting around defective genes, so that only the fittest survive. But nature has no answer to the inbred self-righteousness of many dog breeders, a species dedicated to the creation and maintenance of canine cartoons. If it's desirable for your particular breed cartoon to have a flat upturned nose, then that's what you'll get, even if – as in the case of many pedigree pugs – half of your soft palate is pushed down your throat as a result. And if the cartoon requires a pertly cute little skull shape, you'll get that, too, and you'll just have to put up with the fact that there's no longer quite enough room for your brain, so that you may end up in twitching agony with a disease called syringomyelia.

Philip Ball is one of the smartest science writers working in Britain. He is prolific, and there is nothing he seems not to know: physics and chemistry are his specialities, but he's no slouch at biology. The Self-Made Tapestry, a masterpiece about pattern formation from 1999, straddles the art/science divide.

Australia's cricketers last night became the first to break rank and withdraw from next month's Champions Trophy in Pakistan. The players of England, New Zealand and South Africa have also expressed severe reservations about visiting the volatile country, and are expected to follow the lead set by Ricky Ponting's team before the end of the week.

South African pace bowler Charl Willoughby took two wickets in five balls to give Somerset the edge of a rain-hit first day in their Championship First Division match at the Rose Bowl.

England hopeful Simon Jones has been ruled out for the rest of the season with a knee injury. The Ashes-winning seamer has been in good form for Worcestershire this summer after recovering from a series of long-term knee injuries.

Steve Ganson will become the first man to referee his home-town club in a Challenge Cup final at Wembley in 10 days' time.

Around half past three yesterday, when two champion thoroughbreds were supposed to be slugging it out up the straight, the wide green horizon of the Knavesmire lay as forlorn and desolate as any ever surveyed by the ancient mariner. Misty curtains of rain swayed across the racecourse, and a flock of seagulls squatted curiously next to one of the lakes that had appeared on the infield.

Rafael Nadal and Ana Ivanovic, both ranked world No 1, have been named top seeds for the US Open, which begins at Flushing Meadows on Monday.

Everton are close to reaching agreement with Juventus to sign the midfielder Tiago Mendes on a season-long loan – with a view to a permanent £8m transfer – but face a familiar problem regarding the Portuguese international. Despite playing for Chelsea for one season, where he was one of Jose Mourinho's first signings, Tiago is not keen on returning to England as Tottenham Hotspur found last January when they negotiated a similar deal to acquire the 27-year-old.

Sunderland's determination to strengthen their squad further this summer has taken them to Fulham's David Healy as well as West Ham's Anton Ferdinand, while Roy Keane may also have activated his year-old interest in his former colleague at Manchester United, Mikaël Silvestre.

The widening gulf between rugby's haves and have-nots, which some fear will saddle the professional club game in England with a self-perpetuating elite along the lines of football's "big four", was put in worrying perspective yesterday by Richard Hill, the outstanding coach of Bristol. Hill tacitly admitted that the West Country club would start the new season more than £1m adrift of the likes of Gloucester and Leicester – or, to put in another way, at least 25 per cent down on spending power.

When Georgia run out at the aptly named Liberty Stadium to play Wales tonight it can only be hoped that the Swansea crowd understand the lengths the opponents have undertaken simply to get to their city. A meaningless friendly to most of the football world perhaps; yet rarely will a match have so much meaning to a visiting team.

Ipswich Town's manager, Jim Magilton, has confirmed that the proposed transfer of the Newcastle United striker Shola Ameobi has been called off because of injury. The two clubs had agreed a fee for the 26-year-old and he underwent a medical at Portman Road on Monday. However, after the detection of a hamstring injury which is unlikely to clear up before the end of the transfer window, Magilton has decided to shelve the transfer. "It's disappointing but you have to be careful with hamstring injuries," the Ipswich manager said. "We don't want a repeat of last season when Shefki Kuqi joined us and suffered a hamstring injury in his first game." Ameobi spent six weeks on loan at Stoke City last season as he struggled to make an impact on the first team at St James' Park. The squad of the Magpies' manager, Kevin Keegan, is in a state of flux following the departures of Peter Ramage, Stephen Carr, James Troisi, David Rozehnal, Lamine Diatta and Abdoulaye Faye this summer. With Alan Smith's future also the subject of speculation, there are concerns that Keegan's resources could be severely stretched, with the strikers Michael Owen and Mark Viduka both missing Sunday's 1-1 draw at Manchester United through injury.

Stephen McManus, Scotland's stand-in captain, is optimistic they can cope without their regular captain Barry Ferguson as he feels midfield is his country's strongest position.

The Republic of Ireland manager Giovanni Trapattoni and his players were today waiting to discover where they will play their opening World Cup qualifier after Fifa ordered a change of venue. Ireland were due to begin their campaign in Georgia on 6 September, but the current political situation in the former Soviet state has prompted the world governing body to order the hosts to find a neutral country in which to play.

Fabio Capello will go into England's World Cup qualification campaign with the same captain as his predecessor Steve McClaren and, virtually, the same team as favoured by Sven-Goran Eriksson.