England

LONDON (Reuters) - Oil prices extended gains on Tuesday on expectations that central banks are likely to enact financial stimulus to offset the impacts of the coronavirus outbreak and growing optimism that OPEC will order deeper output cuts this week.

Brent crude LCOc1 rose $1.40 per barrel, or 2.7%, to $53.30 per barrel by 0940 GMT. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) CLc1 rose $1.48 cents, or 3.2%, to $48.23 a barrel.

Both futures contracts rose by more than 3% earlier in the session.

(Reuters) - UK’s Treasury Committee said on Monday it will question outgoing Bank of England Governor Mark Carney alongside members of the monetary policy committee on Tuesday.

The lawmakers will hold an evidence session with Andrew Bailey on Wednesday on his appointment as the new governor of the BOE, the committee said on Twitter bit.ly/3csIA9B.

LONDON, March 2 (Xinhua) -- Britain and the United States are set to begin transatlantic trade talks, the Department for International Trade (DIT) announced here Monday.

The British government published its negotiating objectives for the post-Brexit free trade agreement with its largest bilateral trading partner, saying it would deliver a 3.4-billion-pound (4.36-billion-U.S. dollar) boost to the British economy.

LONDON, Mar 01 (APP): The United Kingdom (UK) has welcomed the United States (US) deal with the Taliban and called for Afghan leaders to seize opportunity to end decades of conflict.

In a statement issued by the Foreign and Commonwealth office today, the UK Foreign Secretary, Rt Hon Dominic Raab MP placeholder said the United Kingdom has welcomed the United States’ Joint Declaration with the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, and the United States’ agreement with the Taliban, which paved the way for a meaningful peace process and an end to decades of conflict in Afghanistan.

LONDON (Reuters) - Former British finance minister Sajid Javid said he would have cut income tax cut if he had not resigned this month after a clash with Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

Javid told The Times newspaper the centerpiece of next month’s budget would have been a cut from April in the basic rate of income tax to 18 pence in the pound, from 20 pence, and he had plans to reduce the basic rate to 15 pence from 2025.

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain’s top government official in the ministry responsible for policing and counter-terrorism resigned on Saturday, saying there had been an orchestrated campaign to remove him.

Philip Rutnam quit after reports of tensions between him and Home Secretary Priti Patel, including allegations she mistreated officials. Patel has denied the allegations against her.

Rutnam, who has worked the government for 33 years, took the unusual step of making a statement outside his home alleging Patel was behind the campaign to oust him.

LONDON (Reuters) - London’s Court of Appeal ruled on Friday that two judgments in the legal battle between Dubai’s ruler, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, and his former wife over the wardship of their two children should be made public.

Mohammed had said that the judgments of Andrew McFarlane, president of London’s High Court Family Division, in the case involving Princess Haya bint al-Hussein, half-sister of Jordan’s King Abdullah, were wrong in law and should not be publicized.

BRISTOL, England (Reuters) - Greta Thunberg denounced politicians and the media on Friday for failing her generation, saying the world is on fire but they are ignoring a looming climate cataclysm.

Several thousand people attended a rally in the southwestern English city of Bristol to see Thunberg, the teenage activist who has reprimanded governments across the world over climate change.

Known simply as Greta, 17-year-old Thunberg has captured the imagination of many young people with impassioned demands for world leaders to take urgent action.

LONDON (Reuters) - Three former Barclays (BARC.L) executives were acquitted in London on Friday of charges they helped funnel 322 million pounds ($418 million) in secret fees to Qatar during the credit crisis, in return for rescue funding.

In a blow to the UK’s taxpayer-funded Serious Fraud Office (SFO), which prosecuted the case, a jury cleared Roger Jenkins, Tom Kalaris, and Richard Boath of fraud.

The men, aged between 61 and 64, all denied any wrongdoing. Qatar, which is still a significant Barclays shareholder, was neither investigated nor accused of wrongdoing.

LONDON (Reuters) - Oil prices fell nearly 3% on Thursday, plunging for a fifth day to their lowest since January 2019 as a rise in new coronavirus cases outside China fuelled fears of a pandemic that could slow the global economy and dent demand for crude.

Brent crude LCOc1 was down $1.55, or 2.9%, at $51.88 a barrel at 1315 GMT. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures CLc1 fell by $1.41 cents, or 2.9%, to $47.32 a barrel.