Britain News

An Opinium Research survey has found that only one out of five Britons knows that William Shakespeare wrote Hamlet. One in nine Britons had not read a book in the past year and nearly half of them read just before they go to sleep. One in ten men and one out of 30 women read books while in the toilet.

Former US secretary of state Hilary Clinton was handed a £80-fine for not buying a £3.30 ticket required to park her Mercedes on St James' Square in Central London. "I'm sure she will understand that we have to be fair to everyone, regardless of their status on the world stage," said Daniel Astaire, an elected member of Westminster City Council.

Three senior journalists at the Rupert Murdoch-owned News of the World have pleaded guilty to illegally spying on voicemails on Wednesday, as their long awaited hacking-trial opened. In 2011, it was revealed that employees at the newspaper eavesdropped on the phone voicemails in search of exclusive stories. Murdoch was forced to shut the 168-year-old newspaper as the scandal surfaced.

The controversial 3,000-pound "security bond" for some "high-risk" foreign visitors to the UK, including those from India, is to be scrapped, the Home Office has confirmed. The visa scheme, announced by Home Secretary Theresa May in June, was to come into force this month.

Police have rescued three "highly traumatized" women from a house in south London where they were allegedly held as slaves for more than 30 years. Officers arrested two people as part of an ongoing investigation. Police said they were contacted in October by the Freedom charity, which works to protect the human rights of those at risk of modern slavery.

A British court Friday imprisoned a Pakistan International Airlines pilot, Irfan Faiz, for nine months after he was caught with thrice the legal amount of alcohol in his blood. The security staff raised an alarm after they smelled alcohol and found Faiz unsteady on his feet, when he was due to fly a plane with 156 people aboard to Islamabad.

The National Survey of Sexual Attitudes and Lifestyles, which quizzed more than 15,000 Britons about their sex lives, found that nearly 8% of women had sex with female partners, compared to just 1.8% in 1990. The number of British women having lesbian encounters has quadrupled in the last 20 years, according to the survey that was published on Tuesday.

To attract more Indian students to the UK, the GREAT Britain Campaign on Monday announced its largest ever (worth about Rs 100 million) scholarship programme for India. Also, the students can continue to stay in England and can get visa to work for three years with a minimum salary of 20,000 pounds a year.

Nearly 90 people were injured on Thursday when part of the ceiling collapsed suddenly during a performance at a packed London's Apollo theatre. About 720 people including many families were watching the hugely popular play "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time," when the incidence happened. The police has not been able to figure out the reason yet.