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If you're checking the weather forecast for Britain over the next week or so you may be a little surprised by what you see. If you spot that ‘blood rain' is predicted for Halloween you'd be excused in thinking that someone was playing a prank.

However, experts are indeed forecasting that parts of the UK will experience a reddish coloured rain known as ‘blood rain'. Don't worry though, rather than it signalling the end of the world, it is simply a natural phenomena caused when rain picks up sand from deserts.

As a Met Office spokesman explains: "It is a rather grandiose term for fine desert sand particles that are whipped up by winds and mix with the moisture in clouds". Winds then carry the clouds over great distances, before the moisture is deposited from them as red or brown rain (though unfortunately not quite as bright red as the picture above).

In this case, we have the Sahara desert to thank, where storms have mixed huge amounts of sand with the clouds. Particularly strong winds are now in the process of blowing those clouds over towards the UK. However, before they reach us, these warm desert winds are expected to raise temperatures in Britain to as high as 20C (68F) over the next few days.

An amazing new sound recording has been made of a beluga whale making noises that sound eerily similar to human speech. Researches were shocked when they recorded the animal at the National Marine Mammal Foundation in California and even mistook its noises for one of their colleagues.

Previously, dolphins have been taught to mimic the sounds a human voice makes, but never before has an animal done it spontaneously of its own free will. The researchers first discovered it when a diver surfaced from the whale's pool asking, "Who told me to get out?".

At first they couldn't work out where the noises were coming from, but after narrowing down the possibilities, there was only one option left: it was the nine-year-old whale named NOC. After realising this, they were able to train him to perform the noises on command and recorded the results.

Amazingly, it not only lowered its normal calls by several octaves, but it also released them in short bursts with pauses in between- just like a human conversation.

Sam Ridgway, president of the National Marine Mammal Foundation, was left with little doubt: "The sounds we heard were clearly an example of vocal learning by the white whale."

Have a listen for yourself to the astonishing recording below.

TVs are getting better and better so quickly now. Just think, it wasn't so long ago that flat screen TVs were pretty rare and cost A LOT of money. Now you can get huge flat screen, HD, 3D televisions for not all that much.

The technology company LG have found a novel way to advertise their new TV, by convincing people that what they're are seeing is real life. They think that their TVs give the most 'real' picture ever and to prove it they set up a prank on the unsuspecting public. They set up their TVs on the floor of a public lift to then create a terrifying effect whenever anyone entered the lift. 

Well that's what they want you to believe, but YouTube users are a suspicious bunch and reckon it is all a fake. Watch the video above and see what you think.

The true extent of the damage done to London Metropolitan University's international student community over the last few months has been revealed. After the students were told in August that they would not be allowed to study at the university, that decision was then overturned, though more than 55% of the international students have still ended up leaving London Met.

This is just the latest in a string of headlines about London Met's international students over the last few months. The problems started when the UK Border Agency revoked the university's visa licence, meaning that with just a matter of weeks before the start of a new academic year, thousands of non-EU students were left stranded. However, after winning the right to appeal the decision, the university was given a temporary reprieve and its students were given the option to study at the institution until the end the current academic year.

Despite this change of decision, of the 1,385 students who were given the option of staying at the university, only 620 chose to do so. The reasons for this low uptake are numerous.

As the famous home of the British prime minister and chancellor, Downing Street is used to seeing its fair share of disagreements. However, this week has seen one slightly different to your regular political scrap.

Photos have emerged of chancellor George Osborne's cat Freya, attacking David Cameron's Larry (pictured above). Downing Street have even released a statement on it, with the prime minister's spokeswoman claiming the two animals are able to co-exist, but she would not "get into commenting on the adventures of our feline friends".

It is tradition for the prime minister to own a cat at 10, Downing Street, whose main duties are to keep any mice away. Indeed, Larry was ‘hired' last year after a rat was seen scurrying past 10, Downing Street during a live TV broadcast. However, after shirking his duties- preferring a long sleep, George Osborne's Freya has been brought in to help out.