United Kingdom

19 Feb 2019; DW: Japanese car giant Honda has announced it will close of its only car plant in Britain in 2021. Several carmakers have announced plans to trim UK operations, with concerns that a no-deal Brexit could disrupt supply lines.

Honda will shutter its operations in southwestern England in 2021, the Japanese carmaker announced Tuesday. The move adds to a growing number of car manufacturers scaling down operations in the UK.

LONDON (AP) — Hundreds of passengers throughout Europe have been stranded by the abrupt collapse of the British regional airline Flybmi.

British Midland Regional Limited, which operates as Flybmi, said it’s filing for administration — a British version of bankruptcy — because of higher fuel costs and uncertainty caused by Britain’s upcoming departure from the European Union.

LONDON, February 17. /TASS/. The health of former Russian GRU Colonel Sergei Skripal, who London says was poisoned in an attempted murder last March, has deteriorated, the Sunday Times said.

Citing "a well-informed intelligence source," the daily reported that his condition "has taken a downturn, even though it is not deemed critical" and that Skripal had been receiving medical care at his home.

LONDON, February 18. /TASS/. Russia’s embassy in London labels as a provocation the appearance of a Russian flag on the Salisbury Cathedral, the embassy’s spokesperson said.

"We have no official information on that. Should it be true that a Russian flag was flown on the cathedral, we believe it looks like a well-thought-out provocation," the diplomat said.

LONDON, Feb. 17 (Xinhua) -- British Prime Minister Theresa May on Sunday urged her conservative fellow MPs to unite and back the Brexit deal she agreed with the European Union (EU) amid the current deadlock.

In a letter to the 317 Conservative MPs, May asked them to put aside "personal preferences", saying that "history will judge us all" over the handling of Brexit.

17 Feb 2019; DW: British regional airline Flybmi announced Saturday it has ceased operations and filed for administration, citing among other things uncertainty caused by Brexit.

Parent company British Midland Regional Limited said it had canceled all flights with immediate effect and its 17 airplanes would no longer connect 25 European cities.

LONDON, Feb. 12 (Xinhua) -- British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt on Tuesday asked Europe Union (EU) leaders to compromise on Brexit in order to secure "friendly relations" between Britain and its neighboring Republic of Ireland and to protect peace in Northern Ireland.

The foreign secretary made the remarks before traveling to France and Poland for talks with ministers, raising the threat of a no-deal Brexit or "Brexit paralysis" if the EU and Britain were unable to strike a deal.

LONDON; 12 Feb 2019; AA: Turkey is a center for multiculturalism and it is the precursor of the European Union, a representative for the Catholic congregation in Turkey said.

"I suggest [European countries] to follow the example of Ottomans and Turkey" in multiculturalism, said Rinaldo Marmara, spokesman for Istanbul's Catholic Episcopal Church.

LONDON (AP) — Mounting uncertainty over Brexit is weighing heavily on the British economy, which slowed last year to its weakest growth rate since the aftermath of the global financial crisis, official figures showed Monday.

The Office for National Statistics said that the British economy grew by a quarterly rate of only 0.2 percent during the fourth quarter, down from the 0.6 percent tick recorded in the previous three-month period. Output actually fell in the month of December, by 0.4 percent from November, though monthly data are known to be volatile.

LONDON (AP) — Zookeepers say a group of chimpanzees used branches weakened by a storm to make a ladder and escape from their enclosure at the Belfast Zoo.

Video filmed Saturday by visitors to the Northern Ireland zoo showed several primates scaling a wall and perching atop it, with one walking down a path outside the enclosure.