Britons are going to the polls today in the closest general election for decades after 38 days of heavy political campaigning. And The Guardian predicts “it couldn’t be closer” as latest opinion polls show Labour managed to gain three percentage points to match the Tories’ 35 per cent. Analysts says the rise of the Scottish National Party and the defection of Conservative and Labour voters to “fringe” parties such as UKIP and the Greens, means neither Prime Minister David Cameron nor Labour’s Ed Milliband is likely to win outright. The paper says both parties are preparing for coalition talks behind the scenes.

The Jerusalem Post announces Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has struck a deal to form a new coalition government shortly before the deadline expired. His agreement, with the ultra-nationalist Bayit Yehudi or Jewish Home Party, guarantees him a parliamentary majority of one in the 120-seat Knesset. Bayit Yehudi, which advocates expanding settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories, gets the powerful Justice Ministry.

Business Insider reports conflicts and violence around the world have displaced a record 38 million people inside their own countries in what has been described as “the worst figures for forced displacement in a generation”. A report by the Geneva-based Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre says nearly one third of them — 11 million people — were displaced last year alone. According to the latest available UN statistics, there were some 16.7 million refugees in the world at the end of 2013, meaning the total number of displaced people is well above 50 million.

Ansa quotes Italian Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni saying Italy has presented European members of the UN Security Council with a draft proposal for ways to combat migrant traffickers. He said the proposal aim to obtain a “legal framework allowing us to strike at migrant traffickers”. Also, European High Foreign Representative Federica Mogherini will present a May 18 council of EU foreign ministers with various security and defence options against migrant traffickers’ boats.

Meanwhile, AGI says the President of the Italian Red Cross Francesco Rocca said migrants should not be labelled as “illegal” because they are victims, not criminals. Meanwhile, he warned that traffickers were finding more routes to smuggle humans for profit. Since the start of this year, more than 35,000 people from North Africa and the Middle East have attempted the perilous journey across the Mediterranean seeking protection in Europe. More than 160,000 have been rescued but 1,800 died in the process.

The Globe & Mail reports lawmakers in Canada have approved a law giving the security services broad new powers to combat terrorism. The Anti-Terrorism Act gives police new powers of preventive arrest, allows spy agencies new abilities to “disrupt” threats, and broadens the scope of the no-fly list that bars some travellers from boarding planes.

Baltic Times says Lithuania has launched a military exercise to simulate an attack on its new gas terminal – a move its strongly anti-Moscow President Dalia Grybauskaite said was intended to show the Kremlin that the tiny country would defend itself. Some 3,000 troops will be involved in this week’s exercise, simulating a response to armed groups seizing local government buildings, weapons stockpiles and airports to form a separatist government, as happened last year in Crimea and other parts of Ukraine.

Bahamas Post announces the death of Errol Brown, whose funky numbers with Hot Chocolate such as “You Sexy Thing” became sensations in the disco era. He was 71.

Florida Post reports a woman helped save herself and her children by sending a message in an online pizza order that asked employees to call 911 because she was being held hostage. The Pizza Hut employees spotted what Cheryl Treadway wrote in the comment section of her online order. Employees recognised Treadway as a regular customer and called the sheriff’s office. When deputies went to the home, Treadway told them her boyfriend was inside the home, armed with a knife. Her other two children were also inside. Treadway and the child were escorted to safety.

Real Madrid is the world’s most valuable football club for a third straight year, according to a new Forbes poll that showed the average value of the top 20 teams has risen 11 per cent over last year. The Spanish club’s value fell five per cent to $4 billion but their $936.5 million in revenue, the highest of any sports team in the world, was enough to keep them top of the list, Forbes said in a statement. Barcelona ($3.97 billion), Manchester United ($3.89 billion), German champions Bayern Munich ($2.95 billion) and Manchester City ($1.7 billion)