UK News
-
New report urges energy-saving boosts for leasehold flats
A new report from London Councils highlights the need for greater cooperation between leaseholders and local authorities, as well as potential legal reforms, to help residents in leasehold flatsRead More... -
DoorDash proposes $3.6 billion buyout of Deliveroo
Deliveroo announced on Friday that it received a buyout proposal from U.S.-based DoorDash on April 5, valuing the British food delivery company at £2.7 billion ($3.6 billion).Read More... -
UK bans video game controllers to stop Russian drone pilots
The UK announced Thursday that it is banning the export of video game controllers to Russia, aiming to prevent their use in piloting drones on the battlefield in Ukraine.Read More... -
King and Queen to host VE Day tea party honoring war veterans
King Charles and Queen Camilla will welcome war veterans to a special tea party at Buckingham Palace as part of the nationwide events marking the 80th anniversary of VE Day — the end ofRead More... -
Police accountability reforms head to Parliament
The government is introducing reforms to strengthen police accountability while giving officers more confidence in their duties. A key amendment to the Crime and Policing Bill, expected to beRead More...
Culture
-
British Library set for £1.1 billion expansion
The British Library, the largest in the UK, is set for a major transformation with a £1.1 billion expansion project now approved.Read More... -
Export bars placed on two 18th century Agostino Brunias paintings
Two paintings by the 18th-century Italian artist Agostino Brunias, both depicting scenes from the Caribbean island of St Vincent, have been placed under temporary export bars to give UKRead More... -
Pope recognizes Antoni Gaudí's "heroic virtues," puts him on path to sainthood
The Vatican has taken a significant step toward making renowned Spanish architect Antoni Gaudí a saint, officially recognizing his "heroic virtues." Often referred to as "God's architect,"Read More... -
Britain’s oldest Indian restaurant faces closure amid Central London lease dispute
Veeraswamy, the UK's oldest Indian restaurant, is facing the threat of closure just before reaching its centenary, due to a lease disagreement with the Crown Estate.Read More... -
Communities invited to nominate beloved UK traditions for National Heritage List
This summer, communities across the UK will be able to nominate their favourite traditions—from iconic celebrations like Notting Hill Carnival and Hogmanay to time-honoured crafts likeRead More... -
£20m museum renewal fund opens for England’s civic museums
Civic museums across England can now apply for a share of the new £20 million Museum Renewal Fund, aimed at boosting access to collections, enhancing educational programmes, andRead More... -
The underrated UK city that was England’s first capital — 1,000 years before London
Tucked away in Essex lies a city that predates London as England's capital by over a millennium. Rich in Roman and medieval history, Colchester only officially became a city in 2022 as part ofRead More... -
Universal Studios to open first UK theme park in Bedford by 2031, creating 28,000 jobs
The UK is officially getting its first Universal Studios theme park, with a grand opening set for 2031. The landmark project, backed by the UK government, is expected to bring in a staggeringRead More... -
MI5 lifts the veil on 115 years of secrets in new exhibition
For the first time in its 115-year history, MI5 is pulling back the curtain on its shadowy past. A new exhibition at the National Archives in London, MI5: Official Secrets, offers the public anRead More... -
Tourist tax could help revive London’s arts and culture scene
A growing number of voices are calling on the government to allow London to introduce a tourist tax, similar to those already in place in many popular European cities. The Centre for LondonRead More... -
£1bn Chinese ceramics gift to British Museum approved
The Charity Commission has officially approved the largest donation in the British Museum’s history—a collection of Chinese ceramics valued at around £1 billion.Read More... -
UK to return Nazi-looted painting to Jewish family
A 17th-century painting stolen by the Nazis in 1940 from a Jewish art collector in Belgium is set to be returned to the collector’s descendants, the British government announced on Saturday,Read More... -
Queen Camilla launches new Reading Medal to celebrate literary champions
Queen Camilla has unveiled The Queen’s Reading Room Medal, a new honor recognizing individuals who have made significant contributions to promoting books, reading, and literature in theirRead More...
British Queen celebrates
Most Read
- Teen held after US woman killed in London stabbings
- Heave-ho Harry! Prince prepares to join the walking wounded in ice trek to North Pole
- Football: Farhad Moshiri adamant Everton deal above board
- "Master of English Style". Interview with Designer Lydia Dart
- Letter to the Financial Times from Lord Mayor Alderman Michael Bear
World News
German airline Lufthansa said Monday it has cancelled most of its domestic, European and long-haul flights at six German airports due to strike action by ground personnel and some cabin crew.
Out of nearly 1,800 planned flights on Monday, "we will operate 20 short and medium-range flights and 12 long-distance services," a spokesman told AFP.
At Lufthansa's main hub in Frankfurt, Germany's biggest and Europe's third-biggest airport, just six out of a total 50 flights would go ahead, and three from 17 at Munich.
Services union Verdi called the strike after three rounds of pay talks with management ended without any agreement.
Verdi is demanding a 5.2-percent pay increase for 33,000 Lufthansa ground staff, plus employees of various subsidiaries as well as cabin crew members who are Verdi members.
North Korea has suggested to Russia that it should consider evacuating its embassy in Pyongyang due to the upsurge of tensions on the Korean peninsula, a Russian diplomat said Friday.
"A representative of the North Korean foreign ministry suggested that the Russian side examine the question of evacuating the employees of the Russian embassy," embassy spokesman Denis Samsonov told Russian news agencies.
He said the mission had taken note of the information and was working normally. "We are currently in the process of taking the decision," said Samsonov, adding that the current situation in Pyongyang was "absolutely peaceful".
The spokesman said he believed that a similar suggestion had also been made to other diplomatic missions in the capital.
At 93, Nikolai Vasenin, a former Red Army soldier and Gulag prisoner who fought for the French Resistance in World War II, is searching for the love he says he lost 60 years ago in France.
"Her name was Jeanne.... A brunette, nothing special. But I must find her at any cost," he says.
"I am 93, there is no reason to wait any longer."
Vasenin's extraordinary nine decades of life have seen him captured by the Nazis, escape from German captivity, join the French resistance and then be arrested on his return to the Soviet Union.
It is believed that Jeanne -- the daughter of a top Resistance commander -- is still alive but so far Vasenin has been unable to realise his final life's mission of meeting her.
Born in 1919, Vasenin was conscripted into the Red Army soon after Hitler invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941.
Pakistan's former military ruler Pervez Musharraf was flying home on Sunday after more than four years in exile, defying a Taliban death threat to contest historic general elections.
The 69-year-old ex-dictator says he is prepared to risk any danger to stand for election on May 11, billed to mark the first democratic transition of power in the history of a nuclear-armed country dominated by periods of military rule.
He seized power in a bloodless coup as army chief of staff in 1999 and left the country after stepping down in August 2008, when Asif Ali Zardari was elected president after the murder of his wife, former prime minister Benazir Bhutto.
Dressed in an off-white shalwa kameez, the traditional dress in Pakistan, Musharraf told reporters before heading to Dubai airport, that he was "not feeling nervous" but admitted to some concerns.
"I am feeling concerned about the unknown... there are a lot of unknown factors of terrorism and extremism, unknown factors of legal issue, unknown factors of how much I will be able to perform (in the elections)," he said.
His official Facebook and Twitter accounts provided live commentary, posting messages and photographs of him boarding the aircraft and sitting in his seat.
His scheduled Emirates flight to Karachi later took off around 10:15 local time (0615 GMT) with supporters on board shouting "long life to Musharraf", annoying some of the regular passengers, said an AFP reporter.
Musharraf is expected to land at the heavily secured airport at around 1:00 pm where he will address a rally, forced to scrap original plans to gather at the tomb of Pakistan's founding father Mohammad Ali Jinnah because of security fears.
The Pakistani Taliban threatened to dispatch a squad of suicide bombers to assassinate Musharraf and police withdrew permission for the rally.
Karachi, a city of 18 million, is already in the throes of record political and ethnic violence. On March 3, a huge car bomb killed 50 people in a mainly Shiite Muslim area of the city, the worst single attack in the city for years.
Just hours before Musharraf's planned homecoming, a suicide bomber killed 17 Pakistani soldiers by ramming a water tanker packed with explosives into a check post in the notorious tribal district of North Waziristan.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but North Waziristan is a known stronghold of the Taliban and Al-Qaeda-linked operatives. Pakistani troops have been fighting homegrown insurgents in the tribal belt for years.
Musharraf told Der Spiegel he wanted to put Pakistan "on the road to prosperity and free it from terrorism" when he returned.
The top US military commander in Europe has said that several Nato countries are working on contingency plans for possible military action to end the two-year civil war in Syria.
The claim came as President Bashar Assad's regime accused US-backed Syrian rebels of using chemical weapons.
The Obama administration rejected the Assad claim as a sign of desperation by a besieged government intent on drawing attention from its war atrocities - some 70,000 dead, more than a million refugees and 2.5 million people internally displaced.
A US official said there was no evidence that either Assad forces or the opposition had used chemical weapons in an attack in northern Syria.
As the war enters its third year, the US military, State Department officials and the UN high commissioner for refugees delivered a dire assessment of a deteriorating situation in Syria and the sober view that even if Assad leaves, the Middle East nation could slip into civil strife similar to the Balkans in the 1990s.
Foreign executives who moved their company headquarters to Switzerland to get better tax deals for their firms may find themselves paying the price for it this weekend.
A plan to crack down on excessive corporate pay packages is predicted to pass at the ballot box on Sunday.
If the "Rip-off Initiative" succeeds, shareholders will be given the right to hold a binding vote on a company's compensation of executives and directors. This includes both base salary and bonuses.
It would also ban "golden hellos" and "golden goodbyes" - one-time bonuses that senior managers often receive when joining or leaving a company which can run into millions of pounds.
Finally, the proposal pushes greater corporate transparency, for example by requiring that all loans to executives be declared to shareholders.
Breaching the rules could lead to a fine of up to six annual salaries and up to three years in prison.
The measure targets all Swiss-based companies - homegrown and offshore alike - as long as their shares are publicly traded.
Exit polls show Pier Luigi Bersani's centre left coalition leading in an Italian election that is testing the country's resolve to maintain painful economic reforms.
Sky Italia said Mr Bersani's coalition took 35.5% of the vote for the lower house of parliament, ahead of the centre-right coalition under former premier Silvio Berlusconi with 29%.
The poll by Tecne' has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.5%.
United Airlines said it expected to keep its six Boeing 787s out of service until at least May 12, as the cutting-edge airplane remained grounded worldwide due to battery problems.
United, the only US airline with the 787 Dreamliner, just two days ago announced it would keep them on the ground through March 30.
United has "tentatively" scheduled a 787 on its Denver route to Tokyo's Narita International Airport on May 12, UAL spokeswoman Christen David said in an emailed response to an AFP query.
"We are taking the 787 out of our schedule through June 5, except for Denver-Narita," she said.
A person familiar with the case said the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) investigation of overheated lithium-ion batteries on the 787 was ongoing and schedule adjustments were necessary.
All 50 787s in service around the world have been banned from flight since January 16 after a battery fire on a parked plane and battery smoke on another one forced an emergency landing.
US and foreign investigators have reported progress in the probe of the lithium-ion batteries but have yet to pinpoint the cause of the problems.
Boeing is set to propose temporary fixes to the battery problems to US air-safety regulators Friday and could have them back in the air in two months, The New York Times reported.
The Times, citing industry and federal officials, said Boeing had narrowed down the ways in which the lithium-ion batteries could fail, concluding they would be safe to use after making changes such as adding insulation between the battery cells.
Boeing commercial airplane division chief Raymond Conner will unveil the proposals in a meeting Friday with FAA chief Michael Huerta, according to the Times.
Federal officials told the newspaper the aircraft could be back in the air by April if the fixes are approved.
Pope Benedict XVI may issue a decree bringing forward the conclave tasked with electing his successor and which can theoretically begin before March 15, the Vatican said Wednesday.
Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou stoked up his feud with the airline he founded by vowing to vote against the company at its annual meeting.
The entrepreneur, who with his family holds 36% of easyJet's shares, will oppose the re-election of Sir Mike Rake as non-executive chairman, as well as the board's remuneration report.
The meeting in Luton on February 21 will be another showdown in a long-running protest by Sir Stelios, who is unhappy at the company's plans to place a large order for a fleet of more fuel-efficient aircraft.
Sir Stelios, who failed in attempts to oust Sir Mike at meetings in August and last February, believes the new planes are not necessary and will be acquired at the detriment of shareholders.
He is unhappy that Sir Mike is standing for re-election, when he has already announced he will leave the company in the summer because easyJet's expected promotion to the FTSE 100 Index will conflict with his role as chairman of another blue-chip company, BT Group.
Sir Stelios said: "We do not believe directors who have resigned should be allowed to commit any company to a major programme of capital expenditure that will burden the company for 5-7 years after their departure."
The tycoon, who says he has no favourites about who the next chairman should be, believes Sir Mike's other roles, including as deputy chairman of Barclays, mean he is too busy to do justice to all the jobs.
Easyjet said it was encouraged that advisory service ISS has urged shareholders to vote in favour of all resolutions at the AGM.