National / International News

Also: English town may ban apostrophes on street signs; feminist romance novels; and Marie Ponsot wins the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize.

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Retiring Michael Owen leaves memories to savour

UK combat operations are effectively over, Mark Urban hears

The Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico will face off in tonight's championship game. Both teams distinguished themselves throughout the tournament, not only with great baseball, but great fun-loving, hip-swaying and plantain-waving passion, as well.

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The upcoming David Bowie exhibition at London's V&A museum is the fastest-selling in the museum's history.

Twenty-four hours of news photos: 19 March

Pope Francis inaugurates his papacy at a Mass in Rome, calling on global leaders and all people of the world to defend the poor and the weak.

NHS Dumfries and Galloway confirms a "single isolated case" of tuberculosis in a school pupil from the region.

National newspapers take "high-level legal advice" on whether to co-operate with a new press watchdog established by royal charter and backed by law.

A rock crushed under the Curiosity Mars rover's wheels has dazzled mission scientists with its brilliant white interior.

The US is flying nuclear-capable B-52 bombers over South Korea, in what it says is a response to escalating North Korean rhetoric.

BBC Worldwide, the commercial arm of the BBC, is to sell travel guide business Lonely Planet to US media company NC2, at a loss of nearly £80m.

Office staff of Lord Hanningfield spent about £70,000 on Essex County Council credit cards in his last two-and-half years there.

Comedian Steve Coogan has welcomed a deal to create a new press watchdog as a 'solid first step' to 'standing up to the school bullies'.

Newsnight's David Grossman tries to make sense of how a new press regulation regime will apply to the internet and news-based websites.

Time Warner teams up with Roku for streaming cable:

If you can't beat 'em, join 'em. Time Warner may be taking that adage to heart with its new partnership with Roku, the Internet streaming entertainment box.

Now Time Warner is offering its paying customers the ability to watch their cable via a Roku instead of a clunky set top box.

Molly Wood, executive editor at CNET, sees this as the future of television, or at least a step in the right direction.

"It does sort of start to creep us toward the wonderful future where I can just subscribe to only the channels I want," says Wood.

So why would Time Warner open itself up to Roku and risk losing control?

"By releasing this app, [they] provide a kind of bridge solution," says Wood, who notes that the new model could help address the growing problem of cord cutters.

Google Drive outage disrupts service for individuals, businesses:

Google's file storage and sharing service, Google Drive, went down for some users yesterday. Though web outages are not uncommon, the disruption may harm Google's reputation.

"It is a big deal because Google is trying to make in-roads into the corporate environment," says Wood. "They need to be able to convince people that they are as trustworthy as a plain old harddrive or as Microsoft."

To hear more about Google's Drive outage, click on the audio player above.

The new pope pledged to "embrace with tender affection the whole of humanity, especially the poorest, the weakest, the least important."

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What exactly does a pope's job entail?

Cyprus deal looks like mistake, says Stephanie Flanders

The new Chief Constable of Avon and Somerset Police is to consider giving PCSOs the power of arrest.