Latest UK news

Quicker work permits for overseas students
Overseas students who graduate in the United Kingdom will be able to apply for a work permit without leaving the country. This is one of the measures to be announced by home secretary David Blunkett at the Labour conference in Brighton today to reduce the incentive for illegal immigration into Britain.

Quick cull would have ended foot-and-mouth
The foot-and-mouth crisis would have been over much sooner if the government had introduced a mass slaughter policy earlier, research published today claims. Work by the universities of Edinburgh, Cambridge and Guelph in Canada concludes that a mass cull was the best way of handling the crisis and that vaccination would have had a limited effect.

£15m boost for Scottish colleges
Scotland's further education colleges have won a £15 million cash boost to modernise their facilities and support their recovery plans. Enterprise and lifelong learning minister Wendy Alexander said:  "This new money will help to accelerate the move towards financial health and viability in a number of colleges."