LONDON, Jan 1 (Reuters) – Britain’s ruling Conservatives
should not tack to the right to counter the increasingly popular
anti-European UK Independence Party, and should instead reach
out to new supporters, the party’s chairman said on Tuesday.

Polls this week confirmed the UK Independence Party’s (UKIP)
surge in popularity in 2012, with an Observer newspaper survey
showing its support had shot to 15 percent from 4.5 percent at
the start of the year.

BELFAST/LONDON (Reuters) – British Prime Minister David Cameron said state collusion in the 1989 murder of a Northern Ireland lawyer had been “shocking” after a report on one of the province’s most controversial killings condemned security services and government alike.

Pro-British paramilitaries shot Pat Finucane, who had acted for members of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) guerrilla group at the height of Northern Ireland’s “Troubles”, 14 times in front of his wife and three children at his Belfast home.

BELFAST/LONDON (Reuters) – British Prime Minister David Cameron said state collusion in the 1989 murder of a Northern Ireland lawyer had been “shocking” after a report on one of the province’s most controversial killings condemned security services and government alike.

Pro-British paramilitaries shot Pat Finucane, who had acted for members of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) guerrilla group at the height of Northern Ireland’s “Troubles”, 14 times in front of his wife and three children at his Belfast home.

BELFAST/LONDON, Dec 12 (Reuters) – British Prime Minister
David Cameron said state collusion in the 1989 murder of a
Northern Ireland lawyer had been “shocking” after a report on
one of the province’s most controversial killings condemned
security services and government alike.

Pro-British paramilitaries shot Pat Finucane, who had acted
for members of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) guerrilla group
at the height of Northern Ireland’s “Troubles”, 14 times in
front of his wife and three children at his Belfast home.

LONDON (Reuters) – The government outlined plans on Tuesday to allow gay marriage that have split Prime Minister David Cameron’s Conservatives and raised fears among religious groups they will be forced to hold same-sex weddings.

Gay couples may already have “civil partnerships”, conferring the same legal rights as marriage, but campaigners say the distinction gives the impression that society considers gay relationships inferior.

LONDON (Reuters) – Britain outlined plans on Tuesday to allow gay marriage that have split Prime Minister David Cameron’s Conservatives and raised fears among religious groups they will be forced to hold same-sex weddings.

Gay couples may already have “civil partnerships”, conferring the same legal rights as marriage, but campaigners say the distinction gives the impression that society considers gay relationships inferior.

LONDON (Reuters) – The European Union will look at ways on Monday to press Israel to ditch a plan to build settlements in a highly sensitive area of the occupied West Bank, but hold off on tough action soon despite international outrage over the decision.

Some officials say that options for robust steps against Israel are limited due to a lack of unanimity in the 27-member EU and diplomatic protection of the Jewish state by its cast-iron superpower ally the United States.

LONDON, Nov 24 (Reuters) – Britain and the United Nations
said on Saturday they hoped a conference aimed at trying to ban
nuclear weapons in the Middle East could take place soon after
the United States said it would not happen next month as
originally planned.

If and when it happens, the conference is likely to be
fraught as Iran and Arab states say Israel’s presumed nuclear
arsenal is the main threat to security in the region, while
Israel and the West see Tehran as the main proliferation danger.