News in brief

Adele thrills at top of the charts

Music: Adele has sent more records tumbling after her album 21 outsold Michael Jackson's Thriller, becoming the fifth biggest-selling album of all time in Britain.

Sales figures from the Official Charts Company show the Rolling In The Deep singer's second album has sold 4,274,300 copies - 500 more than the landmark Michael Jackson album - and is continuing to sell an average of 20,000 a week.

"To add to her many landmark records, Adele's achievement in overtaking Thriller in the all-time sales list is truly remarkable," said the Official Charts Company's managing director Martin Talbot.

Asparagus festival shuts due to flood

Entertainment: Rain and flooding has forced organisers of the annual British Asparagus Festival to cancel the event - because of a lack of asparagus.

Organisers said that, after an unusually warm March, flooding caused by heavy rain and cool temperatures in April had left the seasonal vegetable "almost completely dormant."

And flood waters have left the venue for the festival, which was due to take place this weekend in the Vale of Evesham, Worcestershire, under several inches of water after the River Avon burst its banks.

Border agency IT system collapses

Travel: The UK Border Agency's IT system has collapsed under the volume of applications being made, a partner at one of Britain's top law firms said today.

Andrew Tingley, an immigration lawyer at Kingsley Napley, said it was "beyond farcical" that new rules requiring foreign nationals from outside the EU to have a biometric residents permit had left the IT system unable to cope.

"The system that was introduced was not fit for purpose," he said, warning that senior executives and foreign investors were being forced to consider taking their business elsewhere.