For three months, six women and one man have been sitting outside the US embassy in London and starving themselves in the cold. The group—who are all middle-aged British residents—are subsisting on nothing but water and sugar lumps to protest against the killing of 52 residents and the alleged kidnapping of seven others at Camp Ashraf, Iraq on September 1.

Canada has sold the John A. Macdonald building, the mansion in London that is home to some of the country's diplomatic activities in the U.K. Canadian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom Gordon Campbell confirmed the sale Thursday of One Grosvenor Square, which went to an Indian developer, Lodha Group, for $530 million. About 250 diplomatic staff based in the Macdonald building will be consolidated in Canada House, which is about half a kilometre away, in a move to save money.

Malala Yousafzai has topped a list of the 101 most powerful British Asians and Asians resident in the UK, knocking Labour MP Keith Vaz off the number one spot he held last year. Yousafzai, who came to Britain from Pakistan after she was shot in the head by the Taliban for campaigning for girls’ education, is the only woman to feature in the top ten.

Hull has been chosen to be the UK's city of culture in 2017, beating three other shortlisted cities for the title. The announcement was made in Westminster by the culture secretary, Maria Miller. "This is brilliant news for Hull and everyone involved in the bid there," she said. She added: "This year's UK city of culture, Derry-Londonderry, demonstrates the huge benefits that the title brings."

Paul Sykes is David Cameron’s worst nightmare: a Ukip supporter with a pile of cash, and ready to spend it. By his own reckoning, this 70-year-old Yorkshire businessman has donated around £6 million to campaigns designed to keep Britain from the clutches of Europe. Now, after a lengthy period avoiding the political limelight, he is again about to dig deep into his own pocket to finance one more effort to sever the UK’s 40-year tie-up with the Continent.

In his memoirs, Sir John Major praised the Commonwealth as an “enchanting institution” whose biennial summits were “by far the friendliest” that a British prime minister could attend. Sadly, enchantment and affection are likely to be in short supply when the Prince of Wales opens the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Sri Lanka’s capital, Colombo, today. Instead, this occasion will be dominated by the controversy over its location.

With a preschooler at home, I don't get out much. I get out to a lot of parks, but art openings or the theater? Unfortunately, never. Still, to be new in Paris, with some of the world's best museums, designer clothes shops, and gallery exhibitions all around me, at least I can partake in a buzzing cultural vibe.

The international rules that define what spending rich countries can count as foreign aid – and which developing countries are eligible to receive aid – are up for grabs for the first time in decades, with potential faultlines being drawn over whether donors should be able spend more aid money on support for private companies overseas.