By Daniel Martin A TORY peer yesterday provoked fury by launching a stinging attack on 'grubby and drunken' NHS nurses.

By Guy Adams Hunting supporters claimed to have organised a record-breaking day in their sport's history, with more than 300,000 people reported at Boxing Day meets. A total of 314 registered packs of fox, hare and stag hounds met yesterday, more than in any year since records began.

Hundreds of hunts are expected to ride out on Saturday to mark the start of the fox-hunting season in England and Wales, in spite of a ban on hunting with dogs.

LONDON (Reuters) - Hundreds of hunts are expected to ride out across England and Wales on Saturday to mark the start of the fox-hunting season despite the ban on hunting with dogs. Around 200 hunts hope to exploit loopholes in the government's Hunting Act which came into force in February.

DIDMARTON, England - Hunters with gleaming horses and packs of eager hounds took to the muddy fields of England and Wales on Saturday, testing the limits of the government's ban on hunting foxes with dogs, and four men were arrested.