TV chef Heston Blumenthal has shut his gourmet London restaurant after it was hit by an outbreak of the same vomiting virus which forced him to close the Fat Duck five years ago.

China’s richest man, property developer Wang Jianlin, raised the curtain on a planned 50bn yuan (€6bn) “motion- picture city” which he described as the biggest-ever single investment in the movie and television industry.

At least 18 people have been killed and 100 seriously injured in election violence in Congo, with most of the deaths caused by troops loyal to President Joseph Kabila, Human Rights Watch said today.

MEMBERS of the US Congress and the Bush administration are at odds over whether security is compromised by an Arab company’s takeover of operations at six major American seaports.

Pharmaceuticals giant AstraZeneca saw its share price fall sharply today after it emerged that a key drug in its portfolio did not boost the survival chances of some patients.