The British Retail Consortium expects 'acceptable' Christmas trading figures, as millions flock to the shops over the pre-holiday weekend.

The Queen is to pay tribute in her Christmas broadcast to the nation's Olympic and Paralympic athletes for inspiring all those who watched their achievements.

The adoption system will be overhauled to make it swifter, more effective and robust, the government says.

Business recovery firm Begbies Traynor says 140 retailers are in a "critical condition" and thousands more are in distress this Christmas.

Northwest Europe's threatened Bewick's swan population boosted by a bumper year for chicks.

Sending Western forces into Syria prematurely could create a power vacuum and a "sudden, uncontrolled state collapse", a retired British general warns.

Republicans will keep working to avoid the so-called "fiscal cliff" of tax rises and spending cuts, House Speaker John Boehner has said.

The Islamist group Ansaru says it kidnapped a French engineer in Nigeria last week, in revenge for France's "stance on Islam".