Britney Spears and Take That both release an album called Circus on Monday - but which is best? There's only one way to find out.

The Pakistan army says it has retaken a key settlement in the troubled north-west, held by militants for nearly three months.

Palestinian reinforcements are deployed in Hebron in an attempt by the Palestinian leader to boost West Bank security.

Poetry written and recited by Osama Bin Laden, al-Qaeda chief and the world's most-wanted man, offers revealing insights into his politics and personality, a US academic tells the BBC.

Kenneth Branagh receives rave reviews for Ivanov, the first play in the Donmar Warehouse's year-long West End season.

John McCain speaks at the Republican conv 2130 BBC North America editor Justin Webb:A strange part of th speech now where he’s talking about changing Washington – does he think President Bush has been a good thing or a bad thing? It’s one of the questions he’s going to have to address in the speec. It’s almost as if the enemy has been in power in Washington for the last eight years. ention.

Barack Obama promises to keep the American dream alive as he accepts his historic Democratic nomination for the White House.

A running commentary on the Barack Obama's speech at the Democratic Party convention in Denver.

The conflict in Georgia has awoken fears of a new Cold War between Russia and its allies and the West, nearly 20 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall. But will the animosity come back to haunt Western imaginations as it once did?

BBC Scotland political reporter John Knox looks at attempts to bring a "cultural revolution" to the Scottish Labour Party.

Max Deveson reports on presumptive Republican nominee, John McCain, on the campaign trail in the swing state of Pennsylvania.

Botswana's new president, Seretse Khama Ian Khama, is a man who likes to fly high, writes Letlhogile Lucas.

It's 30 years since Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy made its debut on BBC radio, but its most famous mystery is still waiting to be resolved.

The Royal Shakespeare Company wants Shakespeare's work to be given a new lease of life but is he still relevant to today's children?

The BBC's Kevin Connolly says journalists won't learn a lesson from New Hampshire in predicting the next primaries and caucuses.

France's President Sarkozy says his relationship with a former model is "serious", even hinting at a wedding.

Thousands of tiny china clay flowers are laid to mark the opening of a new artistic collaboration at the Eden Project in Cornwall.

From penniless obscurity to recognition 250 years after his birth as one of the greatest Britons, how did a mystical outsider like William Blake win a place in our hearts?

From symbol of mediaeval majesty to magnet for mass tourism, Prague's Charles Bridge has a special place in Czech hearts.

From 18th Century London squalor to primetime television 250 years later, satire has a long and dishonourable British tradition. You might know your Hislops from your Bremners, but the daddy of them all was William Hogarth.