United Kingdom News

The Government has announced a 270 million loan guarantee to car giant General Motors to help secure its Vauxhall operations in Britain.

Strictly Come Dancing star Ricky Whittle will face trial for dangerous driving in April, a court has decided.

A Western Australian taxi driver named the state's favorite cabbie in an online contest has won the right to take 22 passengers on a 4,000-mile ride.

A gang who kidnapped and tortured a 16-year-old boy have been jailed for 40 years.

Three Labour MPs and a Tory peer accused of expenses fraud said they would plead not guilty when they appeared in court for the first time.

New sentencing guidelines could create an overcrowding crisis in prisons, Britain's leading criminal judges have warned.

They are concerned that the newly formed Sentencing Council, will increase judges' use of custody rather than curb it.

The council, which comes into force next month, is intended to bring more consistency to sentences.

But the Council of Circuit Judges, which represents 600 judges in England and Wales, fears that Freedom to fit the punishment to the crime will be diminished.

Judge Keith Cutler, vice-president of the Council of Circuit Judges, said that the Sentencing Council requires that judges "must follow" guidelines, rather than "take account" of them.

He said: "We fear that the requirement 'must follow' will erode judicial discretion and that will lead to heavier sentences.The hope was that the existence of the council would reduce the use of custody. But in the present climate it is unlikely to issue guidelines that are more lenient. Imagine the public outcry."

Figures show that average sentences are already getting longer. Last year 33 per cent of jail terms were for at least six months, against only 15 per cent in the previous year.

The prison population stood at 84,073 last week, less than 2,400 below capacity.

The Sentencing Council, chaired by Lord Justice Leveson, will issue guidelines and monitor the impact of sentencing and of new justice legislation.

'British Fritzl' case: how the abuse unfolded over decades

1975: Abuse by the father of his two daughters and son begins at the family home in Sheffield.

1978: The three children are put on an at-risk register as six allegations of neglect and physical abuse are made.

1982: A further five claims of abuse are made, and seven child protection conferences are held amid evidence of "escalating violence", but the authorities fail to take the children into care.

1988: The family moves to Lincolnshire briefly before returning to Sheffield, and the girls start to become pregnant as a result of sexual abuse by their father. By 2002 they had been made pregnant 16 times.

1992: Family moves permanently to a succession of locations in Lincolnshire and the abusive father's wife leaves him after suffering domestic violence. Their 15 year-old son, who developed mental health problems, also escapes.

1997: By this stage the daughters had lost nine babies because of genetic disorders known to be caused by incest, but health professionals felt they had no evidence to act. Their brother told police about the sex abuse but they took no action.

1998: One of the daughters rang ChildLine but hung up when she was told that she may not be allowed to keep her children.

2004: One of the daughters moves back to Sheffield with her own children. The following year her sister moved back to the area, along with their father who continued to abuse them. Authorities focus on their disabled children and ignore suspicions of incest.

2005: It is estimated that the daughters had been asked 23 times by this stage about who the fathers were of their children.

2008: The girls reveal the abuse they have suffered since their childhood and tell authorities who the father of their children is. Later in the year their father was given 25 life sentences after admitting rape.

March 11 -- Bloomberg's John Cookson reports on the Cruft's dog show in Birmingham, England.

Plans for a high-speed rail network featuring 250mph trains will be announced by the Government.

The mother and stepfather of a seven-year-old girl who starved to death will be sentenced.

Housing affordability has remained at a seven-year high, despite the cost of property rising during 2009, research showed.

Crushed to death: Scott Williams was killed when the commercial wheelie bin he was in was transferred to the dump by a dustcart A coroner warned of the dangers of climbing into commercial wheelie bins today after a teacher was found dead among rubbish at a waste transfer site after a night out drinking in a seaside city.

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Blue comic Roy 'Chubby' Brown hit a 21-year-old woman in the face during a foul-mouthed dispute in a supermarket car park, a court has been told.

Northern Ireland lawmakers voted overwhelmingly Tuesday in favor of taking the next key step in making their Catholic-Protestant government work, creating a Justice Department to oversee law and order.

The British National Party has been accused of "indirectly" discriminating against black and Asian people even though the party no longer bars them from joining.

Kent Police have traced and interviewed the man recently named as the alleged killer of a schoolgirl murdered 17 years ago. Claire was on her way to see a friend when she was stabbed 40 times and left for dead in an alleyway close to her home in Woodward Terrace. Several suspects have been linked with the teenager's death but no-one has yet been prosecuted.

A prisoner detained under mental health laws for slitting the throat of a butcher is being hunted by police after escaping from hospital.

The experienced broadcaster Libby Purves, who presents Midweek on Radio 4, said there had been failures of "nerve and taste" and an "obsession" to avoid offending anyone. The licence fee makes the BBC "more emotionally insecure about ratings than its rivals", which means it "sometimes scrabbles for audience before excellence", she said, arguing for it to define its function as a national resource.

She added: "The word 'quality' gets twisted to mean elitism, snobbery, worthy droning for posh gits and stroppy minorities. Yet it just means doing everything brilliantly. Not just news and documentaries."

A tiny Japanese insect called Aphalara itadori could help Europeans fight against an aggressive Asian weed and has been cleared for trials in England. This is the first time that biocontrol has been used in the EU to fight a spreading weed that damages ecosystems.

Wildlife Minister Huw Irranca-Davies said: "These tiny insects, which naturally prey on Japanese Knotweed, will help free local authorities and industry from the huge cost of treating and killing this devastating plant."