United Kingdom

London, Sep 24 (PTI) Members of Parliament from the UK's All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Kashmir have tabled a motion on Human rights in Kashmir for a debate in the House of Commons, drawing a strong reaction from India which said any assertion made in any forum on a subject related to an integral part of the country needs to be duly substantiated with authentic verifiable facts.

LONDON, Sept 22 (Reuters) - Britain wants to make incremental steps on trade with the United States and still believes a bigger free trade deal can be done, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Wednesday, despite little public encouragement from U.S. President Joe Biden.

Johnson's government once touted a trade deal with the United States as one of the big prizes of Brexit, but those hopes have dramatically faded after Biden replaced Donald Trump and pushed all trade negotiations down his list of priorities.

London, Sep 22 (PTI) The UK government on Wednesday added Covishield, the Indian-manufactured Oxford/AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine, to an updated international travel advisory.

The move follows widespread condemnation of the Serum Institute of India manufactured vaccines not being included in a list of eligible COVID-19 vaccines recognised under Britain's reviewed international travel norms, effective from October 4.

LONDON, Sept 21 (Reuters) - The European Court of Human Rights found on Tuesday that Russia was responsible for the assassination of ex-KGB officer Alexander Litvinenko, who died an agonising death in 2006 after being poisoned in London with a rare radioactive substance.

Litvinenko, a defector who had become a vocal critic of the Kremlin, died three weeks after drinking green tea laced with polonium-210 at a plush London hotel.

LONDON, Sept 21 (Reuters) - British police said on Tuesday a third Russian had been charged in absentia with the 2018 Novichok murder attempt on former double agent Sergei Skripal, saying they could also now confirm the three suspects were military intelligence operatives.

The attack on Skripal, who sold Russian secrets to Britain, caused one of the biggest rows between Russia and the West since the Cold War, leading to the tit-for-tat expulsion of dozens of diplomats after Britain pointed the finger of blame at Moscow.

LONDON, Sept. 20 (Xinhua) -- A trial of what has been described as the world's first multi-variant vaccine booster against COVID-19 kicked off in the British city of Manchester on Monday.

A married couple, both in their 60s, became the first participants in the trial, a collaboration between the University of Manchester and a National Health Service (NHS) foundation trust in the city.

LONDON (AP) — Britain’s business secretary will hold emergency talks with industry leaders and consumer groups Monday as the U.K. government looks for ways to support energy companies threatened by soaring natural gas prices.

Kwasi Kwarteng said late Sunday that Britain’s energy regulator would ensure gas and electricity keeps flowing to customers if their energy supplier fails. If necessary, the government will appoint a special administrator to ensure supplies until a company can be rescued or its customers moved to new suppliers, he said.

LONDON, September 19. /TASS/: Details of the AUKUS partnership (Australia, the UK and the US) were discussed at the June G7 summit in Cornwall, but French President Emmanuel Macron was unaware of that, The Sunday Telegraph report says.

According to the report, UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab assisted in the preparation of the agreement despite the warnings that such agreement will harm the relations with Beijing and Paris.

LONDON, Sept. 19 (Xinhua) -- British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Sunday unveiled plans to tackle Britain's long-standing "North-South" divide, appointing former Bank of England chief economist Andy Haldane as chief of a Levelling Up Taskforce.

The British government department in charge of the agenda was also given a new name -- the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities.

LONDON (AP) — British Prime Minister Boris Johnson was travelling to the United States on Sunday with senior Cabinet officials to urge world leaders attending the U.N. General Assembly to take urgent action on climate change ahead of this fall’s COP26 climate summit in Scotland.

Johnson is set to co-host a meeting on climate change with U.N. Secretary General António Guterres on Monday. The two will discuss the need to help developing countries mitigate the impact of climate change.