Britain said on Sunday it was hopeful the United Nations Security Council will deliver a resolution against North Korea that includes tougher financial sanctions, after the isolated state’s nuclear test last week.
“There is a genuine world concern, and hopefully a consensus will come from that,” Ann Taylor, British Minister for International Defense and Security, told Reuters in an interview on Sunday on the sidelines of a regional defense conference.

British troops began their formal withdrawal from southern Iraq Tuesday, “marking the beginning of the end of the UK’s six-year combat mission in Iraq,” the Ministry of Defence announced.
The remaining 4,000 or so British troops in the sector will leave by summer, a ministry spokesman told CNN.
The spokesman declined to be named in line with MoD policy.
“You won’t now see hundreds of troops coming out of Iraq every day, (but) this is the start of the end for British forces — a period that will take until the end of …

British officials believe all five Britons kidnapped in Iraq almost two years ago are alive, despite claims by the hostage takers last year that one of them had taken his own life.
The revelation comes after the British embassy in Baghdad received a tape of one of the hostages, the first such video in eight months. The tape was handed over to the Embassy by Iraqi security officials last week, and was purportedly filmed nine days ago. Embassy officials declined to reveal the identity of the hostage, while analysts try to …

China has reacted with indignation over an incident in which a shoe was thrown at its premier, Wen Jiabao.
Foreign ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said the man who disrupted a speech by the premier had exhibited “despicable behaviour”.
China’s reaction was far harsher than when two shoes were thrown at former US President George W Bush.
A 27-year-old man has been charged with committing a public order offence following the incident in the UK.

A number of prominent British Jews have written an open letter calling on the Israeli government to halt its military operations in Gaza immediately.
The letter, published in the Observer, warns the military action, far from improving security, will strengthen extremism and destabilise the region.
The signatories, who declare themselves “passionate supporters of Israel”, include several rabbis.
The first major rally in support of Israel in the UK will take place later.

The conflict between Israel and Hamas can be resolved, former UK prime minister Tony Blair has insisted.
Mr Blair, now a Middle East envoy, said there was a “basis” for an immediate ceasefire if the supply of arms into Gaza from Egypt was halted.
But Mr Blair warned of a “more protracted campaign” if firm action was not taken and said the people of Gaza were living through “hell”.

British troops have taken a step closer to withdrawing from Iraq with the handover of one of its main airports.
Basra International Airport had been used as a UK military base during the conflict but the Iraqis have now resumed full control.
It came as the UN mandate for US and UK troops – put into place after the invasion in March 2003 – expired.
Iraq will now take greater control of its own security, but US and UK forces will remain under a new deal.
The transfer of the airport at Basra, the …

Politicians from across the political divide will today demand an inquiry into the cost, causes and conduct of Britain’s operations in Iraq as Gordon Brown returns home after announcing the final withdrawal of troops from the country by July.
Opposition parties believe Mr Brown may allow the long-delayed inquiry to begin next summer but that it will not report until after the next general election, which could be as late as June 2010. Mr Brown will make a statement on Iraq to Parliament today.

Two British and one Irish security guard have been plucked from the sea by a military helicopter after jumping from a chemical tanker seized by pirates off Somalia.
Their decision to abandon the two dozen crew members still on board attracted some criticism, but their British employer insisted that the three former soldiers were heroes who had resisted a sustained attack by heavily-armed pirates with great courage and would have been killed if they had stayed any longer.

Britain’s intelligence services appear to have been kept in the dark about Saturday’s US missile attack on a house in northwest Pakistan that reportedly killed Rashid Rauf, a top British al-Qaeda suspect.
Although his death will take a few days to be confirmed officially, the strike by a Predator drone, armed with Hellfire missiles and precision-guided bombs, was the first time that the US had targeted a British suspect hiding in the lawless North Waziristan region of Pakistan.