LONDON (Reuters) – Prime Minister David Cameron will unveil a new tax break on Tuesday to help working parents with their childcare costs from 2015, the government said, seeking to placate families squeezed by austerity, a stagnant economy and weak wage growth.

The announcement comes a day before Chancellor George Osborne is due to reject calls to abandon the coalition government’s deficit reduction programme when he delivers his budget statement to parliament.

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – European Union governments on Friday rejected Franco-British efforts to lift an EU arms embargo to allow weapons supplies to Syrian rebels, saying this could spark an arms race and worsen regional instability.

France and Britain found little support for their proposal at an EU summit in Brussels, diplomats said, but EU foreign ministers will consider the issue again next week.

LONDON (Reuters) – One of Britain’s most celebrated authors has launched a withering attack on the Duchess of Cambridge, Kate Middleton, branding her a “shop-window mannequin” with a plastic smile whose only role in life is to breed.

In an unusually scathing public attack on a royal, Hilary Mantel said the princess had no personality, a “perfect plastic smile” and appears to have been designed by a committee.

LONDON (Reuters) – One of Britain’s most celebrated authors has launched a withering attack on Britain’s Duchess of Cambridge, Kate Middleton, branding her a “shop-window mannequin” with a plastic smile whose only role in life is to breed.

In an unusually scathing public attack on a British royal, Hilary Mantel said the princess had no personality, a “perfect plastic smile” and appears to have been designed by a committee.

LONDON (Reuters) – Only a third of Britons would vote to stay in the European Union in a proposed referendum, a poll showed on Monday, underlining the scale of Prime Minister David Cameron’s task in persuading voters to back his flagship EU policy.

In one of the biggest gambles of his premiership, Cameron promised last month to win back powers from Brussels and hold a vote on Britain’s 40-year EU membership.

LONDON (Reuters) – The longer Syria’s conflict goes on, the greater the risk it will breed a new generation of battle-hardened militants who will pose a threat to Britain and other countries in Europe, British Foreign Secretary William Hague said on Thursday.

Hague aimed his comments at Russia, which has had its own problems with attacks by Islamist militants, and has along with China repeatedly blocked U.N. Security Council action against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

LONDON (Reuters) – Prime Minister David Cameron’s promise of a vote on Britain’s EU membership is a gamble he must take to end the bitter arguments that have poisoned British politics for decades, a predecessor who was seriously undermined by those rows said on Thursday.

John Major, a Conservative prime minister whose seven years in office were dogged by party infighting over Europe, said the referendum could “heal old sores”.

LONDON (Reuters) – Prime Minister David Cameron’s promise of a vote on Britain’s EU membership is a gamble he must take to end the bitter arguments that have poisoned British politics for decades, a predecessor who was seriously undermined by those rows said on Thursday.

John Major, a Conservative prime minister whose seven years in office were dogged by party infighting over Europe, said the referendum could “heal old sores”.

LONDON (Reuters) – Britain is justified in sharing intelligence with countries suspected of human rights abuses to protect itself, Foreign Secretary William Hague will say on Thursday, despite concerns over the torture of suspects and costly court cases.

Since the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, Britain has been wrestling with how to uphold its opposition to all forms of torture whilst ensuring it could gather information about planned attacks by militants, some of which might have been obtained through ill-treatment of suspects.

LONDON (Reuters) – An Italian magazine said on Tuesday it will publish pictures of a pregnant Duchess of Cambridge wearing a bikini on holiday in the Caribbean, angering the British royal family and reigniting a debate over privacy and freedom of the press.

Photographs of the former Kate Middleton, walking with her husband Prince William on a beach on the island of Mustique are expected to be published in the Italian gossip magazine Chi on Wednesday.