Some of the issuers of store-branded credit cards may be unable to collect debts run up by some of their defaulting card holders, following a ruling by a county court judge.

A Labour peer is suspended from the party after accusations he called for a £10m bounty for the capture of President Obama and President Bush.

The first United Nations monitors arrive in Syria, as part of a peace deal aimed at ending over a year of violence, UN officials say.

Civil servants - rather than elected ministers - are dominating government policy, an outspoken Tory MP says.

Official drought zones are declared in a further 17 English counties, as a warning comes that water shortages could last until Christmas.

The UK may have avoided a double-dip recession, but the economy will stall for the rest of the year, an independent forecasting group says.

A neurologist based at Glasgow University is leading the world's biggest research study into the cause of Parkinson's disease.

Child benefit should be docked if parents fail to pay fines for persistent truancy by their children, a government adviser says.