Bootmaker Timberland is to be bought by the owner of the Wrangler, Nautica and North Face clothing brands, in a $2bn (€1.4bn) deal unveiled today.

PIRATES chased and shot at a US cruise liner with more than 1,000 people on board but failed to hijack the vessel as it sailed along a corridor patrolled by international warships, a maritime official has said.

Pirates near Somalia chased and shot at a US cruise liner with more than 1,000 people on board but failed to hijack the vessel, a maritime official said today.

Fashion brand Ben Sherman - whose shirts became a style trademark of the Mod movement of the 1960s - was sold today in an £80m (€120m) deal.