England

LONDON, Jan. 30 (Xinhua) -- Amid continuing public concerns over uncertainties, Britain is set to leave the European Union (EU) on Friday after its Prime Minister Boris Johnson's Brexit deal was given final seal of approval in the European Parliament Wednesday.

There were emotional scenes in the European Parliament as MEPs voted by 621 to 49 in favour of the Withdrawal Agreement and linked hands to sing a final chorus of Auld Lang Syne.

LONDON (AP) — Britain begins the day as a member of the European Union. Its status at the end of the day — as a proud nation that has reclaimed its sovereignty, or a diminished presence in Europe and the world — will still be up for debate.

Britain officially departs the EU at 11 p.m. local time Friday, midnight in Brussels (2300 GMT, 6 p.m. EST). The departure comes 3½ years after the country voted by a margin of 52%-48% to walk away from the club that it had joined in 1973.

LONDON, Jan 29 (APP): British members of Parliament (MPs) and other speakers here at a seminar on Tuesday night asked India to stop genocide, gross human right violations, and atrocities on the defenceless people of Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IOK) and give them their inalienable right of self-determination.

An overwhelming support and solidarity with the Kashmiri people was witnessed among the audience of the seminar on ‘Kashmir Human Rights’ organized by the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Third World Solidarity here at the British Parliament.

LONDON (Reuters) - The United States on Wednesday urged Britain to look again at its decision to allow China’s Huawei a limited role in 5G networks, cautioning that American information should only pass across trusted networks.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson granted Huawei a limited role in Britain’s 5G mobile network on Tuesday, frustrating a global attempt by the United States to exclude the Chinese telecoms giant from the West’s next-generation communications.

LONDON (Reuters) - Insurers in Europe may need to put aside money to protect their policyholders should they become insolvent, and regulators should be able to be shut them down swiftly without the need for taxpayer bailouts, a top EU official said on Wednesday.

However the European insurance industry body said it opposed such moves, saying there were already safeguards in place and that the new requirements could hit the sector’s global competitiveness.

LONDON (Reuters) - Oil prices rose for a second day on Wednesday, recouping some losses after a five-day rout, on talk that OPEC could extend oil output cuts if a new coronavirus hurts demand and data showing a decline in U.S. stockpiles.

Brent crude LCOc1 rose 47 cents, or 0.8%, to $59.98 a barrel by 1350 GMT. U.S. crude was up 36 cents, or 0.7%, at $53.84.

Financial markets that have been hit by the spread of the virus out of China are trying to assess the economic fallout, with the death toll rising to 132 and airlines reducing flights to China.

28 January 2020; AFP: With just days to go before Brexit, European diplomats are already hard at work for the next phase: negotiations to hammer out a future with Britain after its EU divorce.

In the words of EU negotiator Michel Barnier, during the next phase of Brexit, Brussels and London will "have to rebuild everything".

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain will allow Chinese telecoms giant Huawei [HWT.UL] a limited role in building its 5G networks, the government said on Tuesday.

It said high-risk vendors would be excluded from the sensitive core of networks, and there would a 35% cap on their involvement in the non-sensitive parts.

The United States wanted Prime Minister Boris Johnson to ban Huawei completely, arguing that Beijing could use the company’s equipment to steal Western secrets. Huawei has denied any involvement in espionage.

26 January 2020; AFP: The curtain comes down on Britain's membership of the European Union on January 31 after more than three and a half years of disagreements and delays.

Here are the milestones in the rocky process.

- Leave wins -

(Reuters) - British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is mulling to use the threat of high tariffs to raise pressure on the European Union, the United States and other nations to strike trade deals with Britain, The Times newspaper reported on Saturday.

Johnson and his cabinet ministers discussed using tariffs as “leverage” in an effort to accelerate trade talks at a meeting this week which could result in taxes of 30% on some types of French cheese and 10% on German cars, the newspaper reported.