United Kingdom

LONDON, Feb. 12 (Xinhua) -- The British economy shrunk faster than at any point in 100 years in 2020, as headline gross domestic product (GDP) dropped by 9.9 percent, according to new data from the British Office for National Statistics (ONS) on Friday.

The last quarter of 2020 saw a rise of 1.0 percent in GDP but was sharply down on the 16.1 percent growth seen in the previous three months, said the ONS.

LONDON (Reuters) - The UK Supreme Court on Friday allowed a group of 42,500 Nigerian farmers and fishermen to sue Royal Dutch Shell (RDS) in English courts after years of oil spills in the Niger Delta contaminated land and groundwater.

Senior judges said UK-domiciled Shell, one of the world’s biggest energy companies, did have a common law duty of care, in the latest case to test whether multinationals can be held to account for the acts of overseas subsidiaries.

BRAEMAR, Scotland (Reuters) - Britain recorded the lowest temperature in 26 years on Thursday after a bitingly cold blast of Siberian weather swirled in from Russia, pushing temperatures down to minus 23 Celsius in the Scottish Highlands.

The temperature in the village of Braemar fell to minus 23C (minus 9.4 Fahrenheit) at 0813 GMT, the lowest temperature recorded since 1995, and the lowest February temperature in Britain since 1955 when Winston Churchill was still prime minister.

LONDON (Reuters) - Oil prices fell on Thursday, paring recent gains, as renewed lockdowns and the emergence of new coronavirus variants weighed on the prospects for a swift demand recovery.

Brent crude fell 44 cents, or 0.7%, to $61.03 a barrel by 1321 GMT and U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude lost 42 cents, or 0.7%, to $58.26.

The Brent benchmark had risen in the previous nine sessions, its longest sustained period of gains since January 2019. Wednesday had marked the eighth daily gain for U.S. crude.

LONDON (Reuters) - Scottish support for independence has fallen four percentage points, probably due to divisions among Scottish nationalists, but 47% of Scots still support breaking up the United Kingdom by going it alone, a poll indicated on Thursday.

A Savanta ComRes poll for The Scotsman showed 47% would vote for independence and 42% would vote against, up 4 percentage points, with 10% still undecided.

07 Feb 2021; MEMO: The following is the full text of a letter published and co-signed by over five dozen British academics, rejecting the UK government's adoption of the IHRA's 'working definition of antisemitism'.

LONDON (AP) — When army generals in Myanmar staged a coup last week, they briefly cut internet access in an apparent attempt to stymie protests. In Uganda, residents couldn’t use Facebook, Twitter and other social media for weeks after a recent election. And in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region, the internet has been down for months amid a wider conflict.

LONDON, Feb 10 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Britain will require passengers arriving from countries where worrying coronavirus variants are spreading to pay for 10 days of quarantine in hotels, while rule-breakers will face heavy fines or jail terms, under tighter restrictions from next week.

The new travel rules add to restrictions that already ban travel abroad for holidays. The government said the stronger measures were needed to prevent new variants of the virus from thwarting Britain’s rapid vaccination programme.

10 Feb 2021; MEMO: Amnesty International yesterday welcomed the International Criminal Court (ICC)'s recent declaration that it has jurisdiction over the occupied Palestinian territories.

10 Feb 2021; MEMO: A group of UK lawmakers on Tuesday appealed to the British government to increase pressure on Israel to stop its forced evictions of Palestinian families from their homes in East Jerusalem, Anadolu Agency reported.