Government borrowing figures were worse than expected in November, casting doubts over whether the chancellor will meet forecasts for this financial year. Borrowing for the month was £14.2bn, up by £1.3bn compared with November 2014. The Offfice for National Statistics (ONS) said last November’s figure was boosted by a one-off gain of £1.1bn in fines for foreign exchange rigging. Total ...

Outer London continues to outperform inner London in terms of house price growth, with Merton leading the way as the capital’s fastest rising borough… Wimbledon village, one of south-west London’s most exclusive enclaves,  is located in the borough of  Merton. House prices have shot up by almost 30 per cent in Merton this year. The south-west London borough, home to ...

Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s granddaughter Tulip Siddiq has arrived on her first visit to Bangladesh after being elected a British MP. The daughter of Sheikh Rehana, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s sister, was elected a Labour Party MP in UK’s parliamentary elections in May this year from the Hampstead and Kilburn constituency. The Biman Bangladesh flight carrying her landed at Dhaka’s ...

Ansar Ahmed Ullah ::   A reception on the occasion of Bangladesh’s Victory Day and Christmas was hosted by Nadeem Qadir, Minister (Press), Bangladesh High Commission on the evening of 15 Dec at Kiplings restaurant, North London. Nadeem Qadir shared his memory of Bangladesh War of Liberation. He said while the Victory Day is a joyous occasion it also brings ...

An Air France flight from Mauritius diverted and made an emergency landing at Kenya’s port city of Mombasa after a suspicious device was found in a toilet, Kenya’s head of police and the airline said on Sunday. Police Inspector General Joseph Boinnet said on his Twitter account that the Boeing 777 aircraft headed to Paris with 459 passengers and 14 ...

Ansar Ahmed Ullah :: A demo was held against Global Coal Resources Management (GCM) during its Annual General Meeting on 18 Dec London time 10:30am outside Hamilton Place, Central London to protest against open pit mine project. The London-based AIM-listed multinational company GCM announced its AGM to discuss implementing a massive open-pit coal mine by forcibly displacing 130,000 families of ...

Pope Francis has recognised a second miracle attributed to Mother Teresa, clearing the way for the Roman Catholic nun to be made a saint next year. The miracle involved the healing of a Brazilian man with several brain tumours in 2008, the Vatican said. Mother Teresa died in 1997 and was beatified – the first step towards sainthood – in ...

David Cameron has signalled that the UK will stage its referendum on membership of the European Union in 2016 and made clear that continued membership was vital not just to economic security but to the fight against international terrorism. His remarks, at the close of a two-day EU summit in Brussels, suggest that the prime minister knows he is not ...

Energy firm Npower is to pay £26m after it sent out inaccurate bills and failed to deal with complaints correctly, Ofgem has said. The energy watchdog said Npower was to pay the record settlement “for failing to treat customers fairly”. Npower’s billing issues affected more than 500,000 customers between September 2013 and December 2014. Ofgem said the £26m would be ...

Ansar Ahmed Ullah ::   44 Victory Day of Bangladesh was marked by raising Bangladesh’s flag by High Commissioner Md Abdul Hannan at London’s Bangladesh High Commission building on 16 Dec, 10.30am London time. Messages were read out from Bangladesh’s President, Prime Minister and Foreign Minister. The High Commissioner paid respect to those who responded to Bangabandhu’s call for freedom, ...