The solar eclipse occurs when the moon passes before the sun, casting a huge shadow on Earth.

CNN: HE GODS WERE DRINKING

The chancellor's recent U-turn on fuel duty provoked many claims to fatherhood, from Conservative backbenchers to The Sun newspaper via the shadow chancellor and Plaid Cymru.

BBC: Regimental reprieve: politicians race to claim credit

Just as Major League Baseball is moving to shake off its steroid cloud under the warmth of spring-training sun, one of its biggest former stars continues to cast a shadow over the sport.

FORBES: Clemens Case Goes To Justice Department

The woodcutters and gold prospectors may be long gone, but travellers can still relive this fascinating historic era through a series of forest walking trails that evoke the vanished world of the woodcutters, winding beneath the canopy along rust-coloured streams dappled with sun and shadow.

BBC: Step back in time in South Africa��s Garden Route

This morning the shadow chancellor called for the duty to be frozen in an article in The Sun and on Radio 4's Today programme.

BBC: Chancellor responds to pressure over fuel duty

The sun's path across the sky varies with the seasons, so the shadow cast by such a gnomon varies, too.

ECONOMIST: Gnomonic possession

Shadow chancellor Ed Balls, who had called for the rise to be scrapped in an article for the Sun newspaper, described the move as a U-turn, but said he welcomed it.

BBC: Osborne postpones 3p fuel duty rise due in August

Santa Rosa is a sun-dappled gem of a city, which served as the main location for 1943's Shadow of a Doubt.

BBC: For the birds: Hitchcock��s California