United Kingdom

BIRMINGHAM, England (AP) — The holy month of Ramadan is underway, and the Central Jamia Mosque Ghamkol Sharif in Birmingham should be full of worshippers. But this year, the main arrivals are the dead.

While the mosque in the central England city has been closed in response to the coronavirus pandemic, its parking lot has been transformed into a temporary morgue with room for 150 bodies.

LONDON, April 27 (NNN-AGENCIES) — British Prime Minister Boris Johnson returns to work on Monday more than three weeks after being hospitalised for the coronavirus and spending three days in intensive care.

Johnson, one of the highest-profile people to have contracted the virus, returned to 10 Downing Street on Sunday evening and will chair a meeting on Monday morning of the coronavirus “war cabinet”, his colleagues confirmed.

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain’s stand-in leader resisted pressure on Sunday to explain how the government plans to ease a coronavirus lockdown that has been in place for a month, warning that hasty action could result in a second peak of infections.

Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab, deputising for Prime Minister Boris Johnson as he recovers from COVID-19, said the government was working privately on how to move out of the lockdown but it would be irresponsible to speculate in public.

LONDON, April 25 (Xinhua) -- British Prime Minister Boris Johnson will be back at work in Downing Street on Monday, about two weeks after leaving a London hospital in his fight against the novel coronavirus, British media reported Saturday night.

Johnson told his cabinet colleagues that he will be back to his normal schedule following his treatment in St. Thomas' Hospital in London for COVID-19.

LONDON, Apr 25 (APP): The United Kingdom (UK) has announced nine (9) more chartered flights from Pakistan to return thousands of stranded
Britishers.

A UK Government statement issued here today said that these will include the first UK chartered flight from Karachi, which will depart on April 30, in addition to further departures from Islamabad and Lahore.

The Foreign and Commonwealth (FCO) statement said that almost 5,000 British travellers in Pakistan are to be brought home to the UK following the announcement today of a further nine Government-chartered flights.

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain passed the grim milestone of over 20,000 COVID-19 deaths on Saturday, as the daily toll rose 813 to 20,319 people who tested positive for the illness and died in hospital.

Back in mid-March the government’s chief scientific adviser said that keeping the death toll below 20,000 would be a “good outcome”.

The government is facing growing criticism over its response to the new coronavirus pandemic as the death toll rises. Britain was slower to impose a lockdown than European peers and is struggling to raise its testing capacity.

LONDON, Apr 25 (NNN-AGENCIES) – Another 684 people died in hospitals, as of Thursday afternoon, bringing the total number of COVID-19-related deaths to 19,506, the Department of Health and Social Care said Friday.

As of Friday morning, 143,464 people have tested positive for COVID-19, marking a daily increase of 5,386, said the department.

Health Secretary, Matt Hancock, said that from Friday, “any essential workers who need a test will be able to book an appointment on GOV.UK directly. This applies for people in essential workers’ households too.”

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain said on Friday Iran’s launch of a military satellite using ballistic missile technology this week was “of significant concern” and inconsistent with a United Nations Security Council resolution.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called on Wednesday for Iran to be held accountable for the launch, and said he believed it defied the Security Council resolution.

LONDON, April 23 (Xinhua) -- Another 616 people who tested positive for COVID-19 have died in hospitals in Britain as of Wednesday afternoon, bringing the total number of coronavirus-related deaths to 18,738, the Department of Health and Social Care said Thursday.

As of Thursday morning, 138,078 people have tested positive for COVID-19, marking a daily increase of 4,583, said the department.

LONDON/TOKYO (Reuters) - Global economic activity all but ground to a halt this month as government-imposed lockdowns due to the coronavirus pandemic took a particularly heavy toll on the world’s service industry, surveys showed on Thursday.

The outbreak, which has infected more than 2.6 million people and killed more than 180,000 globally, has also crippled manufacturing, shutting factories and upending supply chains.