Outlook It would be easy to characterise the size of HSBC's expected $1.8bn (£1.1bn) fine for money-laundering as a small price to pay to settle this sorry affair.

Gangster is shot dead as four-year-olds  practise Christmas carols just yards away

A man wept today after being cleared of murdering a teenager who was stabbed in the middle of Britain's busiest shopping street during the Boxing Day sales.

The recent cases of Abu Hamza and Abu Qatada have put the place of British Muslims in our society front and centre of public debate again. Indeed, we've covered it at length on independentvoices.com. Writing in the Sun today, Trevor Kavanagh, the Australian who for many years was Political Editor of the paper and a reliable indicator of the views of Rupert Murdoch, says that Britain's Muslims urgently need some better PR.

We continue to believe that children involved in gangs are different from us. In describing them as "vermin", "predators" and "criminals", we negate them as a species apart.

Attempted hijackings fell from more than 350 to 233 in the first nine months of this year

Humour, bloodletting and a deadpan style that even Tarantino couldn't match

The number of people being trafficked into the UK is rising, the Government warned today.

Spare a thought for poor Bertie Carvel. One minute, he's a camp brute of a headmistress swinging schoolgirls round by the plaits in the rip-roaring hit of Matilda. The next, he's being brutish – and strangely camp – all over again, this time, though, as a murderous Neapolitan thug in Damned by Despair, a venture that looks set to go down in history as one of the National Theatre's rare turkeys.

At least 26 students were killed when gunmen opened fire in a college residence in the north-eastern Adamawa state.

A raid by police in the north of Naples has seen officers cart off Camorra Mafiosi – many of whom were wearing Al Pacino tee-shirts.

“I’m pushing 40, don’t applaud for me, I’m exhausted,” Nas admits disarmingly on his opening number “No Introduction”, and the articulate, provocative 39-year-old New Yorker is in reflective mood for this exuberant gig in Roman Abramovich’s intimate club.