UK government

As Britain tries to soften up its European partners ahead of the start of tough Brexit negotiations, the UK government is deploying one of its trustiest weapons - the royal family.

A leading conservative newspaper in Britain on Sunday said it had obtained exclusive information from the top levels of the UK government that Russian intelligence was behind a plot to kill the then Montenegrin Prime Minister on election day and derail the country's accession to NATO as its 29th member.

According to UK government sources, twice as many Albanians have been caught as stowaways at UK ports than any other nationality.
Approximately 981 Albanian illegal immigrants were arrested at UK ports from 2008 until mid-2016.
This information was released to the newspaper The Guardian by the Home Office statistics under the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act.

A CIA document has revealed that two nuclear submarines collided in a sea loch just off the west coast of Scotland more than 40 years ago.
The top secret memo, which has just been declassified, tells how a US submarine collided with a Russian vessel near Holy Loch in November 1974.
The cable marked “Secret eyes only” was sent to US secretary of state Henry Kissinger.

Serbian Patriarch Irinej concluded a four-day visit to England on Sunday, which marked the 100th anniversary of a dramatic visit by Serbian clergy to London at the height of World War I that did much to cement Anglo-Serbian friendship.

His visit coincided with - and has been overshadowed by - a more controversial visit to London by the Russian Orthodox Patriarch, however.

Britain will give as a gift 40 Land Rover military vehicles to Bulgaria to help the Balkan country prevent irregular migrants from crossing its territory en route to Western Europe, The Guardian reported on Wednesday.

The UK has delivered to Moscow its assessments regarding the Russian plane crash in Egypt which suggest a terrorist act as a likely cause, Russia's sputniknews.com reported on Monday.

Britain's Conservative government is facing political heavy weather over the sharp rise in immigration recorded over the last year, including a major spike in the numbers of Romanians and Bulgarians coming to the UK.

The European Commission on Tuesday said it stood ready to provide Hungary with emergency EU facilities as Budapest struggles to cope with the record numbers of migrants streaming across its borders.

“We are ready to create a hotspot in Hungary, because this country needs our support,” said Natasha Bertaud, a spokeswoman for the Cmmission.

Iran is actively trying to buy nuclear technology through blacklisted companies, according to a confidential United Nations (UN) report, citing information from the British government.
 
The claims -- which if true would violate UN sanctions -- were made to a UN panel of experts just weeks after world powers reached a framework deal with Iran on curbing its nuclear program.