The health secretary has said it is going to be a "great Christmas" as he defended not imposing stricter restrictions to combat the new COVID variant.

New coronavirus restrictions have been announced after two cases of the Omicron variant were discovered on British soil.

A snow and ice weather warning is still in place after Storm Arwen battered the UK over the past 48 hours.

Global concern about the coronavirus pandemic is growing, with a number of countries detecting confirmed cases of the Omicron variant for the first time.

Compulsory PCR tests for everyone arriving in the UK have been described as a "huge blow" for the travel industry.

A young Kurdish woman who drowned on Wednesday in the English Channel didn't tell her fiance she was about to board a boat to make the crossing, until the last minute.

The Northern Ireland Ambulance Service (NIAS) is warning that waiting times have trebled as the country battles the highest COVID infection rate in the UK.

The long-awaited trial of Ghislaine Maxwell, who is facing six sex-trafficking charges, is due to start in New York on Monday.

The home secretary has said there will be "even worse scenes" in the Channel than the capsizing of the small dinghy that killed 27 people on Wednesday if co-operation with Europe can not be improved.

The contestants on I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here! have been removed from Gwrych Castle in the aftermath of Storm Arwen.