Latest UK news

Individual learning accounts frozen
Individual learning accounts have been suspended immediately as police are called in to investigate allegations of fraud. They already faced phasing out next month. The Department for Education and Skills said today that the immediate suspension of the accounts is in response to new information.

Post-haste human cloning ban for UK
Emergency legislation to ban human cloning in Britain is being rushed through the House of Lords today, a day after US scientists announced a breakthrough in creating human embryos. The new laws, drawn up to close a legal loophole in Britain after the High Court ruled that cloning humans was not illegal, would not have outlawed the American research.

Scots prosperity linked to academic enterprise
Scottish enterprise minister Wendy Alexander today warned that Scotland’s economic success lay in the links between business and universities. Ms Alexander set out her vision to a conference of business and academics in Glasgow, and said the blueprint carried the full support of Scotland's new First Minister Jack McConnell.

Chatroom freaks not unsociable geeks
The image of the internet user as a geeky loner who meets his friends in a chatroom is completely misplaced, say researchers. People who spend long periods of time at their computer are if anything more community-minded and sociable than average, according to a new study by Andrew Oswald and Jonathan Gardner, from the University of Warwick.