U2 have given away their first album in five years for free to 500 million iTunes customers. The Irish rock band performed live at Apple's iPhone 6 launch in California, where the surprise news about their record was announced.

A Nobel Prize winning economist has warned Scots to be “afraid, be very afraid” if Scotland goes independent, claiming voters have been “badly misled” by Alex Salmond's rhetoric on Scottish currency post-independence. In an opinion piece in The New York ...

1. That's a picture of some straws, sent to me by a Scottish nationalist who thought I was clutching at them. Well, after today's TNS poll, showing Yes and No tied on 50 per cent, I no longer am. My analysis is here. I can still hardly believe it, but I think Scotland ...

African Union soldiers raped and sexually exploited women and girls on their peacekeeping bases in the capital, Mogadishu, Human Rights Watch has claimed. Some African Union troops in Somalia sexually exploited or raped women and girls who are ...

Most arduous household chores have long been labour-free, thanks to technological advances like washing machines and dishwashers. But one task has largely resisted all attempts to remove the need for human effort - vacuuming. The first robotic vacuum ...

Scientists have discovered mushroom-shaped alien-like creatures dredged from the depths of the sea strait between mainland Australia and Tasmania. The two species were called Dendrogramma, after researchers found that they could not be categorised in ...

British vacuum-makers Dyson have unveiled their first ever Roomba-style product: the robotic Dyson 360 Eye, which the company says is no gimmick but a “genuine labour-saving device”. The 360 Eye features tank-style tracks for fluid, continuous movement ...

The hacking of dozens of celebrities' private photos this week has sparked new concerns about the safety of digital back-ups in the cloud, with privacy experts are calling for companies to offer greater protection and education for users. Although Apple has ...

Joan Rivers is still fighting for survival on a life support machine, her daughter Melissa Rivers confirmed Tuesday (2 September). The comedienne has been in a medically induced coma since she suffered from a near-fatal cardiac and respiratory arrest during ...

Roger Federer buried another of last year's ghosts by defeating Roberto Bautista Agut to reach the quarter-finals of the US Open. Twelve months ago, the 17-time grand slam champion was a shadow of himself in a straight-sets loss to Tommy Robredo in the ...

Hundreds of thousands of dead fish have been removed from a lake in the west of Mexico this weekend, amid speculation that high levels of pollution could be to blame. Scores of residents from the Mexican town Tlajomulco de Zúñiga in the Mexico's Jalisco ...

US forces have attacked al-Shabaab militants in Somalia in an operation reportedly targeting the Islamist group's leader. The Pentagon confirmed the strike on Monday but did not confirm its results, saying more information would be given at an “appropriate” ...

Bored with simply serving up search results, Google has started testing a prototype drone delivery system that can shuttle goods to remote areas. The project is being developed at Google X, the company's secretive research and development arm, and has ...

A new government without a natural majority in parliament and little popular support will attempt over the next two years to impose the economic reforms which France has resisted, or skirted, for two decades. Officially, the administration that took office tonight ...

A Liberian doctor taking an experimental anti-Ebola drug has died, according to the country's information minister today. Dr Abraham Borbor, the deputy chief medical doctor in the country's largest hospital, was one of three Liberians taking the experimental ...

Islamist militants have overrun Libya's capital after a battle against Government-funded militias lasting nearly a month. The self-titled Dawn of Libya coalition claimed to have taken control of Tripoli's international airport as well as much of the city by Sunday ...

Bank of America has agreed a record $16.65bn (£10bn) deal with US regulators over the mis-selling of mortgage-backed bonds ahead of the financial crisis. The deal with the Department of Justice and a number of individual state regulators dwarfs those ...

Check out the latest football transfer gossip with our daily video round-up. On Wednesday Manchester United dominated the transfer headlines after the club announced their third signing of the summer: Marcus Rojo from Sporting Lisbon. Rojo joins United for ...

Burnley made a dream start on their return to the Premier League but Chelsea sent a warning message to the rest of the division with an impressive comeback at Turf Moor. Chelsea's defence was uncharacteristically asleep from a corner, allowing Scottish ...

Assisted by two days of US air strikes, Iraqi and Kurdish forces wrested back control of the country's largest dam from Islamic militants on Monday, a military spokesman in Baghdad said as fighting was reported to be under way for the rest of the complex.