Middle East, Britain | featured news

Foreign ministers from the G8 group of rich countries failed to patch up deep divisions over Syria or come up with a plan on North Korea during a meeting in London on Thursday.

An air of cautious optimism hung over Almaty, Kazakstan, on Friday as Western and Iranian negotiators began another round of nuclear talks. The six powers – the United States, Russia, China, France, Britain and Germany – met Iranian officials with the aim of settling a decade-long tussle over Tehran's nuclear program.

British soldiers in Afghanistan are being forced to act as bait in an attempt to draw the Taliban into opening fire, a serving platoon commander has alleged. Soldiers are risking their lives to get round strict rules of engagement that allow them to shoot only if they are being attacked or are in "imminent danger".

New York’s top banking regulator had charged the British bank with laundering $250 billion in tainted money for Iranian clients.

Standard Chartered won some help from Britain's central bank governor on Wednesday in its fightback against the New York banking regulator's allegations that it had hidden $250 billion of transactions with Iran.

Iran has stopped selling crude to British and French companies, the oil ministry said on Sunday.

The last of Britain's military forces have withdrawn from Iraq after more than eight years of fighting militants and training security forces.

Iran said on Monday that Germany, Britain and the United Arab Emirates were refusing to provide fuel to Iranian passenger planes following unilateral U.S. sanctions on the Islamic state, the ISNA news agency reported.

The United States, Russia, Britain, France and China on Wednesday voiced support for making the Middle East a nuclear-arms-free zone, which would mean Israel would have to scrap any atomic bombs it has.

British hostage Peter Moore has been freed after being held captive in Iraq since May 2007, British Foreign Secretary David Miliband announced Wednesday.