United Kingdom

LONDON (AP) — British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he was ready to take “bold decisions” to rebuild the economy after the coronavirus pandemic as his Conservative Party meets Sunday for its first annual conference since 2019.

LONDON, Oct 2 (Reuters) - The world's attention will be focused on Scotland for next month's climate summit, Queen Elizabeth told Scottish lawmakers on Saturday, adding that they would have an important role making a better, healthier world.

The queen opened the Scottish parliament on Saturday with fond remarks, four months after an election that returned a pro-independence majority pledging to hold a new referendum on whether to leave the United Kingdom.

LONDON (AP) — The British government has extended an emergency visa program for truck drivers as fuel shortages showed few signs of abating Saturday, particularly in London and the southeast of England.

In an announcement late Friday, the Conservative government said temporary visas for nearly 5,000 foreign truck drivers it hopes to recruit would run until the end of February instead of expire on Christmas Eve as originally planned.

The short duration of the program announced last week drew widespread criticism for not being attractive enough to entice foreign drivers.

LONDON, Oct 1 (NNN-AGENCIES) — British troops will begin training to help deliver petrol supplies as Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he was making preparations to deal with potential problems until “Christmas and beyond.”

The prime minister said the situation on the filling station forecourts is “stabilizing” as he urged motorists to go about their business in the normal way.

30 Sep 2021; MEMO: Saudi Arabia's controversial bid to take over Newcastle United Football Club could be sanctioned on the condition that the government in Riyadh is not involved as a director in any way. A final decision is not expected until early next year when arbitration proceedings between the club and the English Premier League will decide whether the blocked buyout can proceed.

LONDON, Sept 29 (Reuters) - Britain ordered soldiers on Wednesday tostart driving fuel tankers to replenish empty pumps, as motorists remained mired in queues after nearly a week of shortages, despite Prime Minister Boris Johnson saying the situation was improving.

Britain has been gripped by a rush of panic buying that has left pumps dry across major cities, after oil companies warned they did not have enough tanker drivers to move petrol and diesel from refineries to filling stations.

LONDON (AP) — A prosecutor argued Wednesday that a serving London police officer handcuffed a woman on the pretext of breaking COVID-19 lockdown rules before he kidnapped and killed her.

Wayne Couzens, 48, appeared at London’s Central Criminal Court charged with the kidnap, rape and murder of 33-year-old Sarah Everard, who disappeared while walking home from visiting a friend in south London on March 3.

Couzens has pleaded guilty to the charges. He sat in court with his head bowed as members of Everard’s family listened to prosecutor Tom Little open his case.

LONDON, Sept. 27 (Xinhua) -- Britain's main opposition Labour Party on Monday passed an emergency motion that described the new security pact among the United States, Britain and Australia, known as AUKUS, as a "dangerous move that will undermine world peace."

During the party's annual conference, delegates passed the emergency motion by 70.35 percent to 29.65 percent.

"AUKUS is starting a new nuclear arms race and cold war. We must keep speaking out against it," said former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn on Twitter on Monday.

BRIGHTON, England, Sept 27 (Reuters) - The opposition Labour Party would make rebuilding Britain's ties with the European Union its top trade priority, putting the bloc above U.S and Indo-Pacific deals in the post-Brexit era, its trade policy chief Emily Thornberry said on Monday,

Conservative Prime Minister Boris Johnson is only two years into a possible five-year term, but Labour is using its annual conference in southern England to bill itself as a credible alternative government with Britain beset by fuel shortages, empty shelves and soaring energy prices.

LONDON (AP) — Google is heading to a top European Union court Monday to appeal a record EU antitrust penalty imposed for stifling competition through the dominance of its Android operating system.

The company is fighting a 2018 decision from the EU’s executive Commission, the bloc’s top antitrust enforcer, that resulted in the 4.34 billion-euro ($5 billion) fine — still the biggest ever fine Brussels has imposed for anticompetitive behavior.