Irish police puzzled by latest in series of bizarre thefts of religious artefacts from churches

The creator of the quintessentially English stiff-upper-lipped hero, The Saint, was half-Chinese, born in Singapore in 1907.

Rowers dressed as Father Christmas escort a gondola ferrying a live nativity scene from St Mark's Basilica to the island of San Giorgio in Venice yesterday.

Rangers manager Ally McCoist insists he has no fears about being able to raise his players for next week's Old Firm game despite their dreadful preparation for the clash against Celtic.

The Belgian city of Liege was left asking itself "why?" today in the wake of the random Christmas market gun and grenade attack that left three dead.

Released to complement the National Gallery's Leonardo Da Vinci exhibition, this anthology offers a one-stop selection of great Renaissance choral masterworks, performed by some of the most gifted performers of the past four decades, ranging chronologically from Palestrina's "Missa Papae Marcelli" to Allegri's "Miserere".

With 200 singers and massed choirs of period brass, Berlioz's 1837 Grande Messe has rarely sounded so thrilling or transparent.

Facing a sceptical public that still has questions about whether their faith is a religion or a cult, the Mormon Church is turning to one of its least stereotypical adherents to win them over: Brandon Flowers, the lead singer of the rock band The Killers.

It's a bit odd to have a country's national holidays determined by when bank clerks are permitted to frolic. But then bank holidays well demonstrate the practical if incoherent evolution of most British institutions.

Wigan Warriors 18 St Helens 12

The American polygamist sect leader, Warren Jeffs, has made a third appeal for the removal of the Texas judge overseeing his child-sex assault case, this time claiming God himself demands the change.

Leeds lost for the third match in a row and slipped to eighth in Super League after a 38-18 defeat at Catalan Dragons.