United Kingdom

LONDON, Sept 26 (Reuters) - Britain said on Sunday it had collected evidence of multiple ships from various nationalities apparently breaching United Nations sanctions against North Korea which ban the sale of fuel to the country.

British frigate HMS Richmond has been taking part in UN sanctions enforcement operations in the region.

BRIGHTON, England, Sept 26 (Reuters) - Britain's opposition Labour Party hinted on Sunday at new taxes on wealth, identifying landlords and shareholders as possible targets if it won power at the next election.

Labour's would-be finance minister Rachel Reeves used an interview before her speech at the party's annual conference in Brighton to preview what she called "a fair tax system".

BRIGHTON, England, Sept 26 (Reuters) - Transport Minister Grant Shapps on Sunday called on Britons to behave normally when buying petrol, saying there was no shortage of fuel and the government was stepping in to ease a shortage of drivers bringing it to petrol stations.

In recent days long lines of vehicles have formed at petrol stations as motorists waited, some for hours, to fill up with fuel after oil firms reported a lack of drivers was causing transport problems from refineries to forecourts.

LONDON (AP) — Britons are encouraged these days — though in most cases not required — to wear face coverings in crowded indoor spaces. But Prime Minister Boris Johnson regularly appears in the packed, poorly ventilated House of Commons cheek-by-jowl with other maskless Conservative lawmakers.

For critics, that image encapsulates the flaw in the government’s strategy, which has abandoned most pandemic restrictions and is banking on voluntary restraint and a high vaccination rate to curb the spread of the coronavirus.

LONDON, Sept 25 (NNN-AGENCIES) — British climate change protesters on Friday temporarily blocked the Port of Dover, Europe’s busiest trucking port, and police arrested 39 people.

About 40 activists from the environmental group Insulate Britain brought traffic to and from the port, the main artery for trade over the English Channel, to a standstill. Some demonstrators sat on the road until police cleared them.

The port said on Twitter that traffic was moving freely again about three hours after it announced the protest.

LONDON, Sept 25 (Reuters) - Britain is expected to announce plans to issue temporary work visas to truck drivers to ease an acute labour shortage that has led to fuel rationing at hundreds of gas stations and long queues to fill up - with pumps running dry in some places.

As retailers warned of significant disruption in the run-up to Christmas, Prime Minister Boris Johnson's office said it was looking at temporary measures to address the shortage of heavy goods vehicle (HGV) drivers.

London, Sep 24 (PTI) Members of Parliament from the UK's All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Kashmir have tabled a motion on Human rights in Kashmir for a debate in the House of Commons, drawing a strong reaction from India which said any assertion made in any forum on a subject related to an integral part of the country needs to be duly substantiated with authentic verifiable facts.

LONDON, Sept 22 (Reuters) - Britain wants to make incremental steps on trade with the United States and still believes a bigger free trade deal can be done, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Wednesday, despite little public encouragement from U.S. President Joe Biden.

Johnson's government once touted a trade deal with the United States as one of the big prizes of Brexit, but those hopes have dramatically faded after Biden replaced Donald Trump and pushed all trade negotiations down his list of priorities.

London, Sep 22 (PTI) The UK government on Wednesday added Covishield, the Indian-manufactured Oxford/AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine, to an updated international travel advisory.

The move follows widespread condemnation of the Serum Institute of India manufactured vaccines not being included in a list of eligible COVID-19 vaccines recognised under Britain's reviewed international travel norms, effective from October 4.

LONDON, Sept 21 (Reuters) - The European Court of Human Rights found on Tuesday that Russia was responsible for the assassination of ex-KGB officer Alexander Litvinenko, who died an agonising death in 2006 after being poisoned in London with a rare radioactive substance.

Litvinenko, a defector who had become a vocal critic of the Kremlin, died three weeks after drinking green tea laced with polonium-210 at a plush London hotel.