United Kingdom

LONDON, Sept. 19 (Xinhua) -- More than 1,000 officers of the Metropolitan Police (Met) have been dismissed, suspended, or placed on restricted duties amid what the force referred to as "the strongest doubling down on standards in 50 years."

According to the Met, 100 police officers have been dismissed for gross misconduct in the last 12 months.

LONDON, Sept 14 (Reuters) - Russia said on Thursday it was expelling two U.S. diplomats whom it accused of working with a Russian national charged with collaborating with a foreign state.

The Foreign Ministry said in a statement it had summoned U.S. envoy Lynne Tracy and told her that embassy First Secretary Jeffrey Sillin and Second Secretary David Bernstein must leave Russia within seven days.

The U.S. embassy confirmed the expulsions. There was no immediate comment from the State Department in Washington.

LONDON, Sep 12 (APP): Foreign Minister of Rwanda Dr Abdallah Utumatwishima on Tuesday met Interim Foreign Minister Jalil Abbas Jilani, on the sidelines of the 10th Commonwealth Youth Ministerial Meeting.

In the meeting, the two foreign ministers exchanged views on bilateral cooperation and exploration of new avenues for the uplift of youth.

The two leaders also agreed to promote bilateral cooperation in multiple spheres.

LONDON, Sept 9 (Reuters) - Britain recorded its hottest day of 2023 so far on Saturday, with provisional data showing a high of 33.2 degrees Celsius (91.8 degrees Fahrenheit) at London's Kew Gardens.

This year's previous high was 32.6 C, reached on Thursday.

Britain's national weather service said Saturday was also the sixth day in a row the country has recorded a temperature above 30 C, well above average for the time of year.

LONDON (AP) — A former British soldier facing terrorism charges who snuck out of a London prison on a food delivery truck was captured Saturday, police said.

Daniel Abed Khalife was nabbed while riding a bicycle along a canal path west of London after a four-day manhunt.

Khalife escaped from the Wandsworth Prison kitchen Wednesday and got outside the gates by strapping himself to the bottom of a catering truck.

LONDON, Sept 7 (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak faces another difficult vote to fill a vacant seat in parliament after a lawmaker who was given an eight-week suspension for groping two men at a London club last year announced he plans to resign.

Chris Pincher, who now sits as an independent, announced on Thursday he would leave the House of Commons more than a year after he was suspended from the ruling Conservative Party by then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson last year.

LONDON, Sept. 7 (Xinhua) -- Average house prices in the United Kingdom (UK) fell by 4.6 percent year-on-year in August, the biggest yearly drop since 2009, as the "impact of higher rates flows through," UK mortgage lender Halifax said on Thursday.

On a monthly basis, the average house price fell by 1.9 percent in August, the largest monthly fall since November 2022, marking the fifth consecutive month of decreasing house prices.

LONDON (AP) — British police hunted across the country on Thursday and put ports and airports on alert for a former soldier who escaped from a London prison while awaiting trial on terrorism charges.

Opposition politicians demanded to know how Daniel Abed Khalife managed to slip out of medium-security Wandsworth Prison and why he was not being held at a maximum-security facility.

Khalife, 21, is accused of planting fake bombs at a military base and of violating Britain’s Official Secrets Act by gathering information “that could be useful to an enemy.”

LONDON (AP) — Britain is rejoining the European Union’s $100 billion science-sharing program Horizon Europe, the two sides announced Thursday, more than two years after the country’s membership became a casualty of Brexit.

British scientists expressed relief at the decision, the latest sign of thawing relations between the EU and its former member nation.

LONDON, September 5. /TASS/: The destruction of the UK-made Challenger 2 tank near Rabotino in the Zaporozhye area is the first such incident in the last 30 years these tanks have been used in battle, The Guardian reported citing military experts.

The Guardian points out that only one such tank, which entered combat in 1994, was hit in 2003 in Iraq, but that tank was destroyed in a friendly fire incident, not an enemy attack. Meanwhile, the report points out that such statistics can be explained by the small number of tanks produced and their infrequent deployment.