Britain is trying to water down tough new European legislation to boost the uptake of renewable energy, despite a pledge by Gordon Brown last month to launch a "green revolution" based on clean technology.

Food and advertising companies are joining forces with the government to launch the biggest anti-obesity ­marketing campaign seen in Britain, in a move intended to project a more proactive, industry approach to tackling health problems.

Britain's hopes of a best-ever Olympic medal haul at London 2012 have been jeopardised after efforts to raise £100m from the private sector to train elite athletes have come to nothing.

Water is the new oil, says Mr Spork, chief executive of Canadian hedge fund Sextant Capital Management: "Two years ago we were looking for the next big commodity and settled on water. It was underappreciated, mispriced, and growing scarce."

Bill and Melinda Gates announced yesterday that they were joining Michael Bloomberg, the mayor of New York, in a $500m campaign against smoking in the developing world.

Because we are about to see a big step forward in the development of an electronic book that might actually rival the traditional way in which we consume literature. From today Waterstone's is to offer Sony's e-book reader for pre-order from its stores.

Business in the Community is a unique movement of over 750 of the UK's top companies committed to improving their positive impact on society.