Debenhams, the UK’s second- largest department-store chain, became the first victim of increased holiday discounting by Britain’s retailers as it said profit will drop in the first half of the financial year.

Experts are investigating today why a bus chartered for a Canadian hockey team swerved and rammed a parked tractor-trailer so hard that the bus split in half lengthwise, killing four people and injuring 19.

A British Labour Party backbencher in the Welsh Assembly has condemned the ongoing attacks on Afghanistan, saying they are only being carried out to perpetuate Western imperialism in Third World countries.