China’s former deputy national police chief Li Dongsheng has been jailed for 15 years for corruption offences, according to state media. Li had ties to Zhou Yongkang, jailed for life in June in one of China’s biggest ever corruption scandals. The sentence was reported on an official China Central Television social media account. The former deputy security minister stood accused ...

Germany has announced plans to make it easier to throw out foreign criminals and strip sex attackers of refugee status. The decision follows hundreds of sexual assaults and robberies on women in Cologne on New Year’s Eve by men of mainly Arab and North African origin. Justice Minister Heiko Maas said no-one could put themselves above the law. Thousands of ...

A US-led coalition air strike has destroyed a bank used by the Islamic State group in the Iraqi city of Mosul. A US official told the BBC two 900kg bombs had hit the building on Monday. He estimated that millions of dollars earned by IS through oil sales, looting and extortion had been destroyed. Video posted online by IS showed ...

Some 400 people in the besieged Syrian town of Madaya need to be urgently evacuated for medical treatment, says UN humanitarian chief Stephen O’Brien. Mr O’Brien was speaking after the UN Security Council held an urgent meeting to discuss the crisis in the rebel-held town near Damascus. Earlier, an aid convoy brought food to 40,000 town residents who have been ...

At least 10 people, most of them German tourists, have been killed in an explosion in a central area of Istanbul, Turkish officials say. They say a Syrian national carried out a suicide bomb attack in the Sultanahmet district, near the city’s famous Blue Mosque. Fifteen people were wounded, the Istanbul governor’s office said. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey ...

Ansar Ahmed Ullah :: The UK Electoral Commission has   struck off the far right racist British National Party (BNP) as a political party after it failed to renew its registration. Under UK law, all political parties are required to make submission every year detailing their structure, registered address, along with fee to the Electoral Commission. Failure to do that means ...

A fund of over £2.5 million to modernise 11 GP practices has been agreed by Tower Hamlets Council. The money will fund extensive renovations to create additional space that will allow surgeries to offer extra services, treat more patients and provide more appointments. The 11 practices which will be benefiting from the cash boost include: Aberfeldy Practice, Barkantine Health Centre, ...

nsar Ahmed Ullah ::   The UK Minister Priti Patel met with the Mayor of Kolkata Sovan Chatterjee on 8 Jan launching a roadmap to create a low-carbon and climate resilient city in West Bengal. During the launch, Priti Patel spoke about Britain and India’s joint partnership that is leading the world in the fight against climate change, working to ...

Plans to demolish and rebuild some of England’s worst council estates are to be unveiled by the prime minister. David Cameron told the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show that demolishing the estates “where people can feel trapped in poverty” could result in “better houses and more houses” being built. The initiative will be headed by Lord Heseltine, who oversaw regeneration in ...

London’s commuters are likely to be hit by a fresh three days of travel chaos as Tube drivers are set to strike. In an escalation in the long-running dispute over pay and the launch of the Night Tube, drivers are set to decide on Monday whether to press ahead with a walkout which would cripple the capital’s transport network. If ...