Britain, France and the United States on Tuesday condemned Russia's arms sales to Syria which they said was fueling President Bashar al-Assad's deadly crackdown on protests.

Britain's U.N. ambassador Mark Lyall-Grant called the Russian weapons sales "irresponsible," at a Security Council debate on the Middle East.

Britain's state borrowing fell by more than expected last month but not by enough to prevent its net debt from reaching a record high £1.0 trillion ($1.55 trillion), official data showed Tuesday.

Public sector net borrowing excluding the government's interventions in the financial sector hit £13.7 billion in December, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said in a statement.

A U.S. drone strike killed a Lebanese-British al-Qaida official fighting alongside insurgents in Somalia in a three-missile attack, officials said.

Three missiles fired from an unmanned aerial vehicle hit Bilal al-Berjawi's car on the outskirts of Mogadishu, according to a statement from the insurgent al-Kataib media foundation late Saturday. Berjawi was a Lebanese and British citizen who grew up in West London and fought in Afghanistan before going to Somalia in 2006.

Western nations have no immediate plans for military action to stop the repression of protests in Syria or to halt Iran's nuclear program, British Foreign Secretary William Hague said Sunday.

Asked if there was a possibility of a no-fly zone in Syria like the one imposed over Libya last year, Hague said there was "no serious prospect" of a U.N. resolution on the subject.

British police say a man was arrested close to the home of singer Kate Bush, amid media reports a fan broke into her home in England and attempted to propose marriage.

Devon and Cornwall Police confirmed Saturday that a 32-year-old man was detained on Dec. 26 and later deported, following a report of damaged property at Bush's home in Devon, southwestern England.

Iran is looking at "punishing" those behind the assassination of one of its nuclear scientists, a senior military official said on Saturday, pointing the finger at the United States, Israel and Britain.

"We consider committing a terrorist act of killing a scientist to be a threat to the nation... We are looking at punishing those who were behind the scenes of the martyrdom (assassination) of Mostafa Ahmedi Roshan," the deputy chief of Iran's joint armed forces, Masoud Jazayeri, was quoted as saying by several media.

Thieves spent six months digging a tunnel to steal money from an automatic teller machine -- but probably only got away with £6,000 ($9,200, 7,200 euros), British officials said Saturday.

The gang excavated the 30-meter long tunnel under a car park and part of a video shop in Manchester, northwest England, in order to raid the cash machine inside the building, police said.

British Prime Minister David Cameron held talks with Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz al-Saud in Riyadh on Friday, as tensions soar between the West and Tehran, the oil-rich kingdom's arch-rival in the Gulf.

The two leaders "discussed the importance of the UK-Saudi bilateral relationship and agreed to strengthen cooperation in a range of areas," Cameron's office said in a statement.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will on Sunday begin a week-long European tour to Britain, Germany and Russia, his spokesman said on Thursday.

"Abbas will go on Sunday to London, and meet with Prime Minister David Cameron and other British officials on Monday and will brief them on the latest political developments in the region," Nabil Abu Rudeina to Agence France Presse.

Britain's government on Tuesday approved the construction of a high speed rail network linking London with cities in central and northern England from 2026 at a cost of almost £33 billion.

Supporters of High Speed 2, which will see journey times between London and Britain's second biggest city Birmingham slashed to 49 minutes from around 1.5 hours now, say it will boost Britain's economy in both the short and long term.