LONDON (Reuters) - The government will not extend a deal requiring banks to meet fixed lending targets to businesses, a Treasury source said, scrapping a scheme designed to revive ailing credit markets, which have been a barrier to economic recovery. Since the 2077/08 financial crisis, many smaller firms unable to raise …

A man has been released from prison by mistake.

Some Christians and politicians reacted with dismay as the High Court outlawed the centuries-old tradition of formal prayers being said at the start of local council meetings up and down the country.

Getting young people into work using a tax on bankers' bonuses is a major priority for Labour, leader Ed Miliband has said at the launch of the party's local election campaign.

A hand-written letter revealing Diana, Princess of Wales's joy at "slipping" in and out of Sandringham the Christmas before she married the Prince of Wales is to go under the hammer, an auctioneer said.

Families setting off on half-term getaways have been warned of "deceptively dangerous" road conditions and sub-zero temperatures as the snow freezes.

Twin car bombs targeting security posts in Syria's second city of Aleppo killed at least 28 people on Friday, state media said, as rebels accused the regime of carrying out the attacks as a diversion.

(Reuters) - President Barack Obama, in an abrupt policy shift aimed at quelling an election-year firestorm, announced on Friday that religious employers would not be required to offer free birth control to workers and that the onus would instead be put on insurers. The compromise sought to accommodate religious organizations, …

Thousands rallied outside Egypt's defence ministry on Friday demanding the military rulers' ouster on the eve of a planned civil disobedience campaign marking Hosni Mubarak's overthrow a year ago.

Twin car bomb attacks have struck Syria's second city of Aleppo, according to state TV, as up to 10,000 troops are reported to be massing on the outskirts of the besieged city of Homs.

Greece's ruling coalition was headed for an emergency reshuffle on Friday with the country gripped by a two-day general strike and violent protests in Athens as a chaotic debt default looms closer.

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - A Kosovo-Albanian man who killed two U.S. airmen and wounded two others in a gun attack at Frankfurt airport last March was sentenced to life in prison by German court Friday. Arid Uka, a 22-year-old who was raised in Germany, had confessed to the attack and said he acted after seeing a video apparently …