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David Cameron formally asked Queen Elizabeth II to dissolve his country's Parliament on Monday, opening the way for campaigning ahead of the May 7 general election. The procedural step means there are officially no members of Parliament until it reconvenes on May 18 for the swearing-in of members and the official state opening of Parliament on May 27.

Britain is to blame for illegal immigrant problems on the French side of the Channel because of its lack of commitment to the “European project”, the mayor of Calais has claimed. Natacha Bouchart accused the British government of “despising” the native population of Calais and said the UK should be forced to sign up to Europe’s open borders agreement. Miss Bouchart intensified her war of words with Britain as the French port struggles to cope with thousands of illegal immigrants, mainly from African countries, who have gathered in the town to attempt illegal crossings into this country. She repeated previous...

The 'gay cake' controversy could have implications for shop owners with religious beliefs, a court has heard. A barrister for County Antrim firm Ashers Baking Company said if they lost the discrimination case there would be wide-reaching consequences. He said it would mean a Muslim printer could not refuse to print a cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad. The case has been taken by a gay rights activist, Gareth Lee. He placed the order for the cake with Ashers. The barrister for Mr Lee said that businesses needed to make clear in advance what they would and would not do. He...

Alleged death threats made against BBC director general Tony Hall are being investigated by the Met Police. Lord Hall is reported to have received a threatening message after dropping presenter Jeremy Clarkson from Top Gear because he had punched a producer. The Mail on Sunday also reported Lord Hall and his wife were under 24-hour protection from security guards at their Oxfordshire home. …

South Yorkshire Police has covered up abuse on a “massive” scale in the former industrial city turned multicultural melting-pot, a retired veteran police officer has claimed, remarking in an interview the abuse was “bigger than Rotherham”.

Mikhail Ivan Gallatinov, 40 and his fellow male inmate Marc Goodwin, 31, tied the knot in the children's play alcove at their prison's visitor centre

THE FATHER of a jihadi bride schoolgirl who blamed police after his teenage daughter absconded to join ISIS has been unmasked as an apparent radical who marched at an Islamist rally alongside hate preacher Anjem Choudary and Lee Rigby killer Michael Adebolajo.Astonishing video footage has emerged of Abase Hussen, father of 15-year-old Amira Abase, demonstrating with a banned terror group in London in September 2012 with the two Islamist radicals behind a banner reading: "The followers of Mohammed will conquer America." Standing next to him is a man burning an American flag as Mr Hussen chants "Allahu Akbar" (God is...

A major publisher of scholarly medical and science articles has retracted 43 papers because of “fabricated” peer reviews amid signs of a broader fake peer review racket affecting many more publications. The publisher is BioMed Central, based in the United Kingdom, which puts out 277 peer-reviewed journals. A partial list of the retracted articles suggests most of them were written by scholars at universities in China, including China Medical University, Sichuan University, Shandong University and Jiaotong University Medical School. But Jigisha Patel, associate editorial director for research integrity at BioMed Central, said it’s not “a China problem. We get a...

Top News Story Iranmania LONDON, October 16 (IranMania) -Iranian officials said on Sunday they suspected British involvement in a double bomb attack in the ethnic-Arab dominated city of Ahvaz, despite furious denials and condemnation of the attacks from London. Two bombs exploded outside a crowded market late Saturday in Ahvaz, capital of the oil-rich Khuzestan province adjacent to British-occupied southern Iraq. Five people were killed and more than 100 injured, according to the latest official toll. "Since there are British troops present alongside our border, there is a concern over their involvement in the explosions in Ahvaz," Alaeddin Borujerdi,...

The British Ahwazi Friendship Society (BAFS) has launched an Ahwazi Rights Declaration, following a consultation process with the Ahwazi Arab community. It sets out Ahwazi demands for self-determination, human rights, democracy, freedom of association, freedom of worship, women's rights, redistribution of oil wealth and peace in Iran. The Declaration will form the basis of lobbying and advocacy activity for Ahwazi Arab rights. Click here to sign the declaration. Having regard to Article 15 of the Iranian Constitution permitting "the use of regional and tribal languages in the press and mass media, as well as for teaching of their literature in...

Iran arrests 20 over bombing blamed on UK By Parisa Hafezi Tue Oct 18, 2005 Iran said on Tuesday it had arrested more than 20 people in connection with deadly weekend bombings in southern Iran which the government has blamed on Britain. Saturday's blasts outside a shopping mall in the city of Ahvaz killed six people and wounded 100 and have prompted calls from Iran's hardline press for Tehran to sever ties with London. The incident has led to a new nadir in relations between Britain and Iran, already strained by London's criticism of Tehran's atomic programme and British accusations...

A BBC radio presenter vented his anger on air after losing his slot on a mid-Morning show because he is engaged to a Conservative MP standing for re-election. John Darvall proposed to Bristol North West MP Charlotte Leslie on Christmas Day, two months after the pair began dating having first met on his show four years ago, the Bath Chronicle reports.Having kept the decision quiet, the twice-divorced presenter revealed his anger during a phone in regarding the BBC’s decision to fire controversial presenter Jeremy Clarkson.

MANCHESTER, UK – House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) and a delegation of senior House lawmakers visited the North of England on Friday to meet with Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne and discuss opportunities to deepen the economic and security ties between the US and the UK. Chancellor Osborne hosted the delegation for a working lunch at Peover Hall, which General George Patton and the Third Army used during World War II to plan and train for the Normandy breakout. There, participants had a fruitful discussion on the state of the British economy, our shared efforts to defeat ISIL, and...

The Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) is pleased to announce the appointment of Captain Denis "Cheech" Beaulieu as the pilot for the 2015 CF-18 Demonstration Team. Flying his specially painted CF-18 Hornet commemorating the 75th anniversary of the Battle of Britain, Captain Beaulieu will wow crowds around the continent during the 2015 air show season. "I am really looking forward to taking the CF-18 all over Canada and the United States,” said Captain Beaulieu, who is a member of 425 “Alouettes” Tactical Fighter Squadron at 3 Wing Bagotville, Quebec. “This job gives me the opportunity to celebrate aviation with audiences...

As they plunged towards their deaths, one of the last things seen by passengers and cabin crew near the front of the Germanwings Airbus A320 was their captain, Patrick Sonderheimer, desperately trying to smash down the door of the cockpit. For several minutes on Tuesday morning the airliner had been inexplicably descending from cruising altitude towards the Alps with its engines idle.

... Two years ago, Colonel John Steed, a former military attache to the British embassy in neighbouring Kenya, began his own personal mission to save those who were dubbed the “forgotten hostages” - the 100-plus sailors who still languished in pirate custody as of 2013. Drawn exclusively from poorer nations, their stories are a dark mirror image of that of Captain Phillips, the hijacked American whose rescue by US Navy seals became a blockbuster movie. Most have spent years in captivity, left to their fate not just by their employers but by their governments, who lack either the will or...

In a development that has largely been missed by mainstream media, the Pentagon last month quietly declassified a Department of Defense top-secret document detailing Israel's nuclear capabilities, a highly covert topic that Israel has never formally announced to avoid a regional nuclear arms race, and which the US until now has respected by remaining silent. But in the declassified document from 1987, which can be viewed here, the US reportedly breached the silent agreement to keep quiet on Israel's nuclear powers for the first time ever, detailing the nuclear program in great depth. The timing of the revelation is highly...

The U.K. has sent extra military support to one of its overseas colonies at the bottom of the world, the Falkland Islands, amid concerns that it is facing increased risk of attack from Argentina, backed by Russia. Two troop-carrying Chinook helicopters and a new surface-to-air missile system have been sent by the U.K. to the remote islands in the South Atlantic, known as Las Malvinas in Argentina. They were the subject of a short-lived war between the U.K. and Argentina in 1982, and lie to the east of Argentina, 8,000 miles away from Britain.

The director of the lead investigating agency said today that they have recovered an audio file from the black box of the downed Germanwings flight but have not found the second black box from the Airbus A320 that crashed in the French Alps. This comes after French Prime Minister Francois Hollande said at an earlier news conference when he said that crews had found the exterior of the black box but not the module that contains the memory equipment, though a the director of the Bureau d’Enquetes et d’Analyses (BEA) went on to deny any such discovery. "We have not...

Britain could be linked with America by road as part of an ambitious project to create the world's longest superhighway spanning half the circumference of the globe. Proposals have been put forward to build the mega route stretching about 12,400 miles from the western edge of Russia to the Bering Strait where the country nudges Alaska.