Top brass angered by claims of military incompetence after singer's morale-boosting trip to front-line troops is thwarted

Two leading French dieticians will slug it out in court tomorrow for the title of lightweight champion of the world.

The Tiger Mother Amy Chua relentlessly harnessed her daughters to the piano and the violin and willed them into top-rank concert halls, but she may have been a little soft with them. There is no record of her squeezing them into bodices and trying to turn them blonde.

Musicians, caterers and other suppliers are among those still owed tens of thousands of pounds by the organisers of Serenata

Maybe the sociologists are right, perhaps in an anodyne society the need to be tribal and tovent one's frustration is understandable. Sounds a pile of tripe to me

Christmas TV: Straight out of the top drawer

The latest British soldier to die in Afghanistan was named yesterday by the Ministry of Defence as Corporal Steven Dunn of 216 Parachute Signal Squadron, Royal Corps of Signals.

The bromance is back on. After 15 years, Robbie Williams and Gary Barlow are on stage together, hugging and looking into each other's eyes as they sing their new single "Shame" in front of an excitable crowd of 60,000.

Today: A month of free Saturday evening fireworks displays starts on Brighton Pier. The first display rounds off the Brighton Pride parade. For more ideas on what to do in Brighton, see page 16 (visitbrighton.com).

The Welsh singer is the most expensive classical record signing of all time – and she's firmly in control of her multi-million pound empire

Preview of Lloyd Webber's 'Love Never Dies' is postponed just four weeks before premiere

It's been almost five years since Thom Yorke delivered his famous snub to Tony Blair by refusing to meet the then Prime Minister for a discussion on global warming.

The last time J D Salinger made a considered, edited literary statement was in 1965. It was a long and bizarre short story, called "Hapworth 16, 1924". It came out in The New Yorker, but has never been published in permanent form. Since then, until his death the other day, as all the world knows, he stopped publishing altogether.