Hundreds of thousands of 16-year-olds are to be sent on summer camps at a cost to the taxpayer of up to £1,400 a head under an ambitious national citizen service to be launched by David Cameron today, The Times has learnt. The aim of the £50 million scheme is to galvanise a disaffected generation by getting teenagers from mixed social and racial backgrounds together and join in local community activities. A two-month pilot involving 500 teenagers is already under way, run by a charity with strong Tory links and co-founded by Lord Wei, the philanthropist and driving force behind the Big Society project. It includes a three-week course — seven days away taking outdoor challenges, seven days of study at a university campus and the final week at home — and

Former media tycoon Conrad Black has been released from prison on $2 million (£1.3m) bail

Two British soldiers were shot dead yesterday evening while trying to evacuate a wounded colleague during an operation in the usually calm provincial capital of Helmand. Their deaths take to 15 the total number of British servicemen killed