According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, lightning kills about 24,000 people worldwide each year. Apocalyptic thunderstorms occur when the gods were angry, or so it was thought; only during them do we mortals perceive electricity directly. Some fish, however, have no such difficulty; they not only sense the mysterious energy, but use it to locate prey.

A Turkish prosecutor accused two men of causing death of a British girl and asked a court today to sentence them up to 15 years in prison, an attorney said.

Nikolay Davydenko was probably the only person inside Roland Garros who was delighted to see the rain come lashing down just after 11am on Monday.

A SPECIAL team of gardaí have joined forces with the Competition Authority to combat price-fixers who are ripping off consumers by more than 600m euro a year.