United Kingdom News

A deaf girl of 10 was trafficked into the UK, repeatedly raped, kept in a cellar and treated as a virtual slave for almost a decade, a court heard today.

The orphaned youngster from Pakistan, who is profoundly deaf and has no speech, was locked in a cellar each night where she would sleep on a concrete floor and by day was forced to work for no money and was sexually assaulted, Minshull Street Crown Court in Manchester was told.

Her alleged abusers were Ilyas Ashar, 83, and his wife, Tallat Ashar, 66, who deny charges of false imprisonment, human trafficking, sexual offences, violence and benefit fraud. If their alleged victim displeased them she would be forced into their cellar where the girl would "sit there for hours crying and locked in", the court heard.

A British judge on Thursday sent nine men to prison for al-Qaida inspired plots to bomb the London Stock Exchange and set up a terrorist training camp.

A FIRE badly damaged a bedroom in a semi-detached home following a street disturbance in a quiet suburban close.

A man who has been on the run for 19 years after a A 1 million raid on a security van has been arrested in America.

Areas of the UK could be blanketed by up to 3in of snow as the country continues to shiver in the Arctic freeze.

An increase in the number of Scottish men taking their own lives has led to a widening gap in suicide rates between Scotland and England and Wales, a study has suggested.

Traveller William Loveridge, 48, who claimed to run J&L Roofing Contractors, from 64 Redearth Road, Darwen, was due to face trial charged with defrauding pensioners Vincent Cheetham, 72, and Alwyn Charlton, 81, in separate incidents.

There is a vast amount of flesh - clear and smooth or wrinkled and mottled - on display in the latest show at Britain's National Portrait Gallery, a retrospective of the work of Lucian Freud.

This photo of May 22, 2011 shows comedian Steve Coogan who received a settlement of 40,000 pounds from Rupert Murdoch's UK newspaper company over phone hacking.

The extravagant Updown Court, set in 58 acres in Windlesham in Surrey, is Britain's biggest repossession, having 27 bedrooms it is larger than Buckingham Palace but far less elegant. The new owner, an unnamed Middle Eastern businessman who paid £36 million, will inhabit a space embellished with five acres of marble and 24-carat gold mosaics. Whilst on the market the mansion was imaginatively hired out as a film set.

The Mallard Pub in Worksop has been nominated North Notts CAMRA's Pub of the Year.

Mother Karin and daughter Madelon are the first of the animals to be imported to the UK for 24 years, the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland said.

She accused British Prime Minister David Cameron of militarizing their nations' dispute over sovereignty of the South Atlantic archipelago, which Argentines say the British stole from them nearly 180 years ago.

Florence Green died in her sleep at Briar House care home in King's Lynn on Saturday.

Sir Paul McCartney and Sir Elton John will be performing in June for the woman who knighted them.

A British online store has pledged to stop selling baby clothes bearing the words, "Help, I'm being kidnapped.

A school has paid tribute to a 10-year-old boy who died after collapsing while out playing in the snow.

Sitting on rugs on the lawn like ordinary folks, the British royal family poses for a picture during a holiday at Balmoral, Scotland in September, 1960.

The former Northern Ireland First Minister was admitted to the Ulster Hospital in Dundonald on the eastern outskirts of Belfast.

One in seven shops on the UK's high streets stood empty in 2011 and further closures are expected this year as more people shop online and in out-of-town centres.