South Korea's president visits islands also claimed by Japan, media reports say, in a move set to raise diplomatic tensions.

Mel Stuart, the director of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, dies at his Beverly Hills home.

A UK-wide consultation on government plans to introduce mandatory plain packaging for tobacco, which attracted strong public interest, will close later.

A robot that mimics the movements and softness of a worm is built by engineers using funds from the Pentagon's research lab.

Petitions signed by 500,000 people calling for action by governments to combat global hunger will be handed into Downing Street later.

China's export and import growth slowed sharply in July, raising fears about the strength of the world's second-largest economy.

Four Chinese policemen are to go on trial accused of covering up the murder of Briton Neil Heywood, a day after the wife of a politician was tried for the killing.

Foreign Secretary William Hague announces the UK will commit an extra £5 million worth of non-lethal equipment to the Free Syrian Army.