Britain

In voting to legalize same-sex marriage, Britain's House of Commons has proved that a tradition-conscious society can also adapt to social change. Enactment of the legislation, which is also expected to pass the House of Lords after some additional action in the Commons, would put to shame politicians here in Britain's most powerful former colony who continue to resist the legalization of civil marriage for gay and lesbian couples. But it also demonstrates that support for marriage equality is compatible with conservative views on other issues, a reality Republicans in the United States should ponder.

LONDON - For David Cameron, the worst-case scenario for Britain's future looks something like this: It's 2018, and he's in his second term as prime minister. Against his advice, his country has just ripped up its membership card in the European Union, alienating its biggest trading partner and closest neighbors. That prompts Washington to seek a new ally to advocate U.S. interests across the Atlantic; suddenly, the Anglo-American "special relationship" is a little less special. Great Britain is also a little less great.

The long-awaited BlackBerry Z10 won't be available in the U.S. until March, but it's already out in other countries and sales are hot, according to the maker. BlackBerry's Z10 touch-screen smartphone has gotten off to a better start in Britain than any of its previous models, the company said. To be precise, the Z10 is "selling almost three times better" than previous BlackBerry models have in their first week, according to a Bloomberg report that cites BlackBerry Chief Executive Thorsten Heins as the source.

The horse meat scandal in Europe continues to spread as investigators find more tainted beef products and consumers are roiling with shock and disgust. Food safety authorities there say beef lasagna products that contained more than 60% horse meat have been recalled from stores in Britain, the Associated Press reports. Sweden also has recalled packaged lasagna suspected to contain horse meat. The lasagna was tested as part of a continuing investigation into mislabeled meat. Last month the Food Safety Authority of Ireland said it had discovered horse and pig DNA in burgers sold to stores and restaurants -- including Britain's largest supermarket chain Tesco and fast food giant Burger King -- in Ireland and the United Kingdom.

LONDON -- Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani teenager shot by the Taliban in October for defying the group's ban on girls' education, was discharged from Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham on Friday after cranial reconstruction and a cochlear implant to restore hearing in her left ear. Malala was discharged “after making a good recovery from her surgery last weekend,” a hospital statement said. Malala had undergone other treatment at the hospital before being temporarily discharged in early January.

LONDON - A growing food-contamination scandal in Britain widened into a criminal investigation Friday, with consumers worried about finding horse meat in their burgers or lasagna. What began as the discovery of traces of horse meat in uncooked burgers labeled as beef last month escalated this week with the announcement that thousands of packages of frozen beef lasagna were being pulled from supermarket shelves because they were potentially tainted as well. Britain's Food Standards Agency said the Findus company found at least 60% horse meat in 11 of 18 lasagna products that it tested; the meat in at least one of those was entirely horse.

The new BlackBerry Z10 won't come to the U.S. until March, but it's already out in other countries and sales are hot, according to the maker. BlackBerry's new Z10 touch screen smartphone has gotten off to a better start in Britain than any of the company's previous models, it said. To be precise, the Z10 is "selling almost three times better" than previous BlackBerry models have in their first week, according to a Bloomberg report that cites company Chief Executive Thorsten Heins as the source.

LONDON - In 2011, the London riots created chaos across the capital as disgruntled youth burned down buildings, looted shops and rampaged in the streets. A recent exhibition in Tottenham, the epicenter of the riots, looked at the reasons why. However, it was not the government that raised funds to set up the exhibit but a couple of dozen ordinary people whose lives had been caught up in the mayhem. "After the Riots - Happiness in Tottenham" is one of more than a hundred projects hosted on an innovative crowd-funding website that is starting to make waves across the United Kingdom.

LONDON --Two Australian disc jockeys who called a London hospital impersonating members of the royal family as a hoax three days before a nurse's suicide will not face any charges, British prosecutors said Friday. Prosecutors said there were no grounds for charges of manslaughter against Mel Greig and Michael Christian in the death of nurse Jacintha Saldanha, who was found hanged Dec. 7. The Crown Prosecution Service said in a statement “that there is no evidence to support a charge of manslaughter and that although there is some evidence to warrant further investigation under the Data Protection Act and the Malicious Communications Act ... any potential prosecution would not be in the public interest.” The CPS said there was no possibility of extradition from Australia for the potential offenses and that the original intent of the call was “a harmless prank” even though “the consequences were very sad.” Greig and Christian phoned the King Edward VII hospital Dec. 4 asking about the pregnant Catherine, the duchess of Cambridge.

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa - The images almost shimmer with beauty: a lush green landscape in South Sudan, a Kenyan market abundant with ripe vegetables, a luminous lake sunset in Mali, a misty forest in Liberia. The pictures could grace a travel brochure. But the advertising campaign, launched in Britain in late December, is aimed at raising funds for an Oxfam anti-hunger drive titled "Food for All. " "Let's make Africa famous for its epic landscapes, not hunger," says the ad's slogan, found on billboards and in print and digital formats.