England

LONDON, June 29 (Xinhua) -- British Education Secretary Gavin Williamson on Tuesday called for a ban on cellphones in school classrooms as part of a drive to improve student behavior.

The Department for Education (DfE) announced a plan to ask teachers and school leaders for views on managing good behavior, including on the use of cellphones in the school day.

Williamson's call came ahead of plans to update government guidance later this year on behavior and discipline in schools, as well as student suspensions and permanent exclusions.

LONDON, June 27 (Reuters) - Britain's government will investigate how footage of former minister Matt Hancock kissing his aide found its way into the media and forced his resignation, in the latest scandal to hit Prime Minister Boris Johnson's government.

After first rejecting calls for Hancock to be sacked or resign as health minister after pictures were published of him embracing a woman he had appointed to a taxpayer-funded role, Johnson accepted his decision to step down on Saturday.

LONDON, June 27 (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia has released two women's rights activists detained nearly three years ago after they had served their time, London-based Saudi rights group ALQST said on Sunday.

Samar Badawi and Nassima al-Sadah were detained in July 2018, along with more than a dozen other activists, on suspicion of harming Saudi interests, a move that drew international condemnation.

LONDON, June 27 (Reuters) - Classified documents from Britain's defence ministry containing details about a British warship and Russia's potential reaction to its passage through the Black Sea have been found at a bus stop in southern England, the BBC reported on Sunday.

The BBC said the documents, almost 50 pages in all, were found "in a soggy heap behind a bus stop in Kent early on Tuesday morning" by a member of the public, who wanted to remain anonymous.

LONDON (AP) — U.K. Health Secretary Matt Hancock, who has led the country’s response to the coronavirus, resigned Saturday, a day after apologizing for breaching social distancing rules with an aide with whom he was allegedly having an affair.

LONDON, June 26 (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Boris Johnson was under mounting pressure on Saturday to fire his health secretary after the admission that he broke COVID-19 guidelines by kissing an employee sparked accusations of blatant hypocrisy.

Matt Hancock, 42, has been at the centre of the government's fight against the pandemic, routinely telling people to follow strict rules and even welcoming the resignation last year of a senior scientist who broke restrictions in a similar manner.

LONDON (AP) — Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party formally endorsed Jeffrey Donaldson as its new leader on Saturday, a position that will likely see him become the country’s first minister.

Donaldson received 32 votes of the party’s 36-strong electoral college, which is made up of the party’s 28 lawmakers in the Northern Ireland assembly and its eight members of parliament in London.

LONDON, June 25 (Reuters) - British Health Secretary Matt Hancock apologised on Friday for breaching social distancing guidelines after pictures appeared of him embracing his top aide, and the prime minister said he believed the matter was now closed.

Photographs published on the front page of the Sun showed Hancock kissing the woman - a friend hired for a taxpayer-funded role - in his office.

"I accept that I breached the social distancing guidance in these circumstances," Hancock said.

LONDON (AP) — U.K. regulators said on Friday that they’re investigating Google and Amazon over concerns the online giants aren’t doing enough to stop fake reviews of products and services on their platforms.

The Competition and Markets Authority said it opened a formal investigation into whether the two companies broke U.K. consumer law by failing to protect shoppers. The watchdog started looking into phony reviews on some big websites last year - without identifying any specific ones - amid the pandemic-fueled boom in online shopping.

LONDON, June 24 (Reuters) - Britain is getting some positive indications from the European Union that they accept the need for a compromise over the import of British sausages to the British province of Northern Ireland, Environment Secretary George Eustice said on Thursday.

"I think we're getting some positive indications and it's always our view that it's better if we can reach agreement with the European Union on these things," Eustice said when asked about the so called "sausage war".