England

LONDON, Nov 27 (Reuters) - At least two people died and tens of thousands were left without power as Storm Arwen brought strong winds across many parts of the United Kingdom, with gusts of up to 100 miles per hour (160 kph).

One man died in Northern Ireland's County Antrim when his car was struck by a falling tree on Friday evening, police said in a statement. Local media reported the man was the principal of a primary school.

Another man was killed in Cumbria in the northwest of England when he was hit by a falling tree, police said.

LONDON, Nov 26 (Reuters) - Central London shops and businesses hoping to receive a much-needed boost from Black Friday sales were hit by disruption to the tube network as drivers held their biggest strike since 2018.

The 24-hour strike, which started at 0430 GMT, led to the suspension of the Piccadilly, and Waterloo and City lines, and delays on the Jubilee, Central, Victoria and Northern lines.

Transport for London (TfL) said it was running 58% of its usual services.

LONDON/GENEVA, Nov 26 (Reuters) - Global authorities reacted with alarm on Friday to a new coronavirus variant detected in South Africa, with the EU and Britain among those tightening border controls as researchers sought to find out if the mutation was vaccine-resistant.

Hours after Britain banned flights from South Africa and neighbouring countries and asked travellers returning from there to quarantine, the World Health Organization (WHO) cautioned against hasty travel bans.

The head of the UN World Tourism Organisation called for a quick decision.

LONDON, Nov. 25 (Xinhua) -- More than 10 million coronavirus cases have been recorded in Britain since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to official figures released Thursday.

The country reported another 47,240 coronavirus cases in the latest 24-hour period, bringing the total number of coronavirus cases in the country to 10,021,497.

LONDON (AP) — The bars are shut in Vienna, and the Christmas market is empty in Munich, as several European nations tighten up or even lock down to combat a spike in coronavirus infections.

Meanwhile in London, couples sip mulled wine at a seasonal market near the River Thames, full-capacity audiences fill the seats at the nearby National Theatre, and friends huddle over pints in pubs throughout the city.

Not for the first time in the pandemic, Britain is out of step with many of its neighbors. But this time, it’s happy to be different.

LONDON (AP) — The British government is investigating whether built-in racial bias in some medical devices led to Black and Asian people getting sick and dying disproportionately from COVID-19.

Health Secretary Sajid Javid said Sunday that the pandemic had highlighted health disparities along race and gender lines. He said that a third of intensive care admissions in Britain at the height of the pandemic were people from Black and ethnic minority backgrounds, more than double their share of the population.

LONDON, Nov 20 (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has ordered a cross-government review into the migrant crisis as he is “exasperated” by a failure to stem the number of crossings from France, The Times reported on Saturday.

British frustration at the number of migrants illegally crossing the English Channel from French shores has resurfaced in recent days after more than 1,000 refugees reached southern England in a single day last week. Some 22,000 migrants have made the crossing this year.

LONDON, Nov 19 (Reuters) - Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has said it was "absolutely possible" his forces had helped migrants cross into Poland but denied they had been invited, the BBC reported.

"I think that's absolutely possible. We're Slavs. We have hearts. Our troops know the migrants are going to Germany," Lukashenko told the BBC in an interview. "Maybe someone helped them. I won't even look into this."

But Lukashenko denied inviting thousands in to provoke a border crisis, the BBC said.

LONDON (AP) — The British government said Friday that it intends to ban the Palestinian militant group Hamas as a terrorist organization.

The military wing of Hamas has been outlawed in the U.K. since 2001 but the organization as a whole is not proscribed.

Home Secretary Priti Patel, who is in charge of law and order issues, said on Twitter that she had “acted to proscribe Hamas in its entirety.”

She said the group “has significant terrorist capability, including access to extensive and sophisticated weaponry, as well as terrorist training facilities.”

LONDON, Nov 18 (NNN-AGENCIES) – G7 foreign ministers urged Belarus Thursday to end a migrant crisis on its border with Poland, accusing it of callously engineering the stand-off and putting lives at risk.

  “We call on the regime to cease immediately its aggressive and exploitative campaign,” Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States said in a joint statement.

They charged that President Alexander Lukashenko’s regime orchestrated irregular migration across its borders.