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In the North Sea, off the coast of Norway, Nato has been conducting its largest ever anti-submarine warfare exercise. It is seen as a response to the growing threat from Russian submarines which have stepped up their own patrols in these very same waters. It has also highlighted a gaping hole in Britain's own defences. For now though it is the hunt for U33, not Red October. The German U-boat is acting as the unseen enemy below the waves. 'Important training' U33's commander Kai Nicklesdorf and his 28 crew, who live in cramped conditions, are trying to avoid detection by...

"The world may have a polling problem." That's the headline on a blogpost by Nate Silver, the wunderkind founder of FiveThirthyEight. It was posted on 9:54 ET the night of May 7, as the counting in the British election was continuing in the small hours of May 8 UK Time. That was an hour after the result in the constituency of Nuneaton made it clear that all the pre-election polls were wrong. Nuneaton, in the Midlands just east of Birmingham, was No. 28 on a list of 42 marginal two-party contests. Projections based on pre-election polls were that Labour would...

“BBC under fire after Home Affairs Editor Mark Easton ‘compares extremist preacher Anjem Choudary to Gandhi and Mandela,’” by Steph Cockroft, MailOnline, 14 May 2015: The BBC is under fire after the Home Affairs Editor appeared to compare notorious hate preacher Anjem Choudary to Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela.

UKIP's Nigel Farage has ruled out standing down as leader of the party despite a bitter row over his future. MEP Patrick O'Flynn earlier claimed Mr. Farage had fallen under the influence of "inexperienced" advisers, which was followed by the departure of two aides. However, Mr. Farage told the BBC's Question Time he had a "phenomenal" level of support within the party. Leaving just as the PM was addressed the UK's relationship with the EU would be a "massive mistake", he said...... The UKIP leader stood down after failing to win the Kent seat of Thanet South in the general...

Six men have been arrested in the Republic of Ireland after police discovered bomb making equipment close to where Prince Charles and Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall are due to visit next week. Explosives and weapons were recovered at various locations as Irish police carried out more than 20 raids aimed at disrupting dissident Republican activity.

One thing billionaire George Soros and his 51-year-old son Robert appear to share is an interest in much-younger women. On a flight back from the Venice Biennale to New York on Sunday, Robert was seen making out with his new 29-year-old girlfriend Jamie Singer throughout most of the flight, in front of his soon-to-be ex-wife who was seated just a few rows back, according to the New York Post. Robert's father George Soros, the 84-year-old Hungarian-American business magnate, married a woman exactly half his age in a lavish ceremony two years agoRobert, who serves as the president of the family's...

The British General Election, on May 7th, was an epic in two respects. First, in spite of polls forecasting a hung parliament, David Cameron's Conservative Party was given unexpectedly large support, winning 331 seats, or 51 % for an overall majority of four, and showing once again the failure of left wing parties to make traction in Europe. Second, Nicola Sturgeon's Scottish Nationalists Party (SNP) swept the Labour Party aside in Scotland to achieve an unexpected landslide and rekindle Scottish pressure for independence and, with it, a threat to the continued cohesion of the United Kingdom. Likely there will be...

In 1948, Jewish Agency Chairman David Ben-Gurion proclaimed the State of Israel, establishing the first Jewish state in 2,000 years.

Terror-related arrests in England, Wales and Scotland reached record levels last year, when 338 people were held, Scotland Yard has said. More than half of those arrests were related to Syria, Met Police Assistant Commissioner Mark Rowley added. Police said more than 700 potential terror suspects are now thought to have travelled to Syria. About half of those people - said to be of "significant concern" - are believed to have returned to the UK.

The king of Bahrain has apparently snubbed President Barack Obama to attend a horse show with Queen Elizabeth. According to Reuters, King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa has elected to attend the Royal Windsor Horse Show, which begins Wednesday, at Windsor Castle outside London.

A proposed new law in Denmark could be the first step towards an economic revolution that sees physical currencies and normal bank accounts abolished and gives governments futuristic new tools to fight the cycle of “boom and bust”.... But if notes and coins were abolished and the only way to hold money was through a government-controlled bank, there would be no escape.

The media elite have a preeminent place in our politics, allegedly with the knowledge to declare what is politically feasible and what is not, including which candidates have a chance at winning and which do not. Before we head into a presidential primary season, it's time to insist that these "experts" don't know any better than the rest of us. And sometimes their biases so heavily shade their predictions as to keep themselves in the dark about reality. Take the elections in Israel in March. The manufactured conventional wisdom and polling predicted a tight race and rough sledding for conservative...

Abandoned pet found on road with broken bones and deep bite marks Thrown from car after being used as bait for blood-thirsty killer dogs Somehow avoided traffic, but still broke leg and punctured lung Rescued by two animal lovers who took £3,000 loan to pay for his surgery Twisted dog-fighters got rid of a whippet used for baiting killer devil dogs by throwing it from a car at 50mph on a packed motorway. The cruel owners tossed the helpless dog out the window and on to the road surface of the M56 in Cheshire after it had already been badly...

David Cameron is to set out a string of new powers to tackle radicalisation, saying the UK has been a "passively tolerant society" for too long. The PM will tell the National Security Council a counter-extremism bill will be in the Queen's Speech on 27 May. The bill will include new immigration rules, powers to close down premises used by extremists and "extremism disruption orders". Mr Cameron will say a "poisonous" extremist ideology must be confronted.

David Cameron is to set out a string of new powers to tackle radicalisation, saying the UK has been a "passively tolerant society" for too long. The PM will tell the National Security Council a counter-extremism bill will be in the Queen's Speech on 27 May. The bill will include new immigration rules, powers to close down premises used by extremists and "extremism disruption orders". Mr Cameron will say a "poisonous" extremist ideology must be confronted. The proposals were first set out by Home Secretary Theresa May before the general election. But the Conservatives were unable to secure the backing...

London (AFP) - British Prime Minister David Cameron was to announce new laws to combat "poisonous Islamist ideology" Wednesday in his first major policy announcement since winning last week's general election. His centre-right Conservative government is to include a new law to "defeat extremism" in its legislative programme which will be announced to parliament by Queen Elizabeth II on May 27. Britain's strategy on Islamist extremism has been in the spotlight for months since Islamic State (IS) executioner "Jihadi John" was identified as Mohammed Emwazi from London and a string of young people left Britain to fight for the IS...

NATO reportedly has moved to expel dozens of suspected Russian spies from its headquarters in Brussels in the latest sign of a renewal of tensions between the western military alliance and Moscow. The Guardian reported that NATO decided last month to mandate that all non-member state delegations reduce their staff to no more than 30 people. The new rule only affected Russia, though estimates of the exact number of Russian delegates vary. The Kremlin says it has only 37 people accredited to work in Brussels. However, a diplomat from a NATO member state told The Guardian that in fact 61...

David Cameron is the most successful Tory Party leader since Margaret Thatcher. Yet history may also record that his success led to the crackup of his country, and Great Britain's secession from the European Union. How did Cameron's Tories capture their majority? First, they compiled a strong record to run on. More critically, they attacked the Labour Party of Ed Miliband as too far left to govern, and warned that a Labour government would be hostage to a secessionist Scottish National Party, without whose votes Miliband could never reach a majority in Parliament. Labour could not shake off the charge,...

BELFAST, Northern Ireland -- "Shocked," "surprised," "stunned" were some of the words used by broadcasters, columnists, political "experts" and pollsters when a Conservative Party victory was forecast by exit polls on election night. Former Liberal Democrat Party leader Paddy Ashdown was so certain the exit polls were wrong that he announced on the BBC he would publicly eat his hat if they were right. British chefs may now be considering whether a traditional bowler or a Carnaby Snap Brim from Christys’ would make the most palatable meal. When the actual results were in -- a Conservative sweep, with the exception...

Big surprises in Thursday's British election. For weeks, the pre-election polls showed a statistical tie in popular votes between Prime Minister David Cameron's Conservative Party and the Labour opposition led by Ed Miliband. It was universally agreed that neither party could reach a 326-vote majority in the House of Commons. A prominent British political website projected that Conservatives would get 280 seats and Labour 274. But the exit poll, released when voting ended at 10 p.m., projected Conservatives with 316 seats and Labour with only 239. It showed the Scottish Nationalist Party sweeping 58 of Scotland's 59 seats and the...