LONDON (Reuters) - The government said on Friday it planned legislation this year to privatise state-owned postal delivery company Royal Mail, despite opposition from trades unions.
LONDON (Reuters) - A slew of updates from Britain’s biggest retailers next week are expected to show most are coping well in the face of tough trading conditions, but are fearful of the gathering storm of public sector austerity and tax rises.
LONDON (Reuters) - Mayor of London Boris Johnson announced on Friday that he will seek re-election for a second term, setting up a potential conflict with the government over immigration caps and public spending cuts.
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London mayor Boris Johnson to stand again
LONDON (Reuters) - Britain should cut its target for biofuels use by 2020 so that tropical forests are not cut down to make way for biofuel crops, government climate advisors said on Friday.
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Government told to cut 2020 biofuels target
MANCHESTER, England (Reuters) - For most clubs an end-of-season DVD charting the highs and lows would be enough. Manchester City are not most clubs, though, and have splashed out on the full cinema release with gala premiere.
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Year of drama culminates in Manchester City: The Movie
LONDON (Reuters) - Chancellor George Osborne said on Thursday he had chosen Institute for Fiscal Studies chief Robert Chote to lead the independent Office for Budget Responsibility economic policy watchdog.
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Osborne picks IFS’s Chote as fiscal watchdog chief
LONDON (Reuters) - British Muslim activists plan to burn the U.S. flag outside the U.S.
LONDON (Reuters) - The administrator of Connaught’s main social housing unit is seeking to sell its contracts and warned of possible redundancies among the 10,000-strong workforce.
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KPMG seeks to sell stricken Connaught’s contracts
LONDON (Reuters) - The fate of British social housing services firm Connaught is the latest reminder firms dependent on government contracts must be resilient and adaptable to survive austerity.
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Connaught fate: a sign of austerity woes to come?
LONDON (Reuters) - Some British universities may have to abandon research and become purely teaching institutions after imminent cuts in state funding for science to curb a record budget deficit, the business minister said on Wednesday.
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UK may cull "mediocre" university research
LONDON (Reuters) - More than one in four British professional soccer players, coaches and referees polled in an online survey personally know gay footballers currently in the game.
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Culture of secrecy still surrounds gay footballers
KARACHI (Reuters) - Pakistan leg-spinner Danish Kaneria has been cleared by Essex police of betting during an English county match last season, his lawyer said.
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Essex police clear Kaneria over betting allegations
LONDON (Reuters) - Former premier Tony Blair has postponed a party at the Tate Modern art gallery celebrating the launch of his autobiography because of threats from protesters, his office said on Wednesday.
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Blair postpones book party at Tate Modern
LONDON (Reuters) - Prime Minister David Cameron will fly to France on Wednesday to be with his father who has fallen seriously ill while on holiday, Cameron’s office said.
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Cameron flies to France to see ailing father
LONDON (Reuters) - A violin made from a tree in the garden of Scottish author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s childhood home has been handed over to the University of Edinburgh instrument collection and will be used for special charity concerts throughout Scotland.
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"Sherlock Holmes violin" goes on show
BELFAST (Reuters) - The British government’s austerity measures could cut Northern Ireland’s power to spend by a quarter and plunge it into a prolonged recession, First Minister Peter Robinson said on Tuesday.
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Northern Irish "face recession" due to UK cuts
LONDON (Reuters) - HSBC Holdings PLC said on Tuesday its Group chairman Stephen Green is stepping down to become Minister of State for Trade and Investment.
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HSBC confirms Chairman Green to step down
LONDON (Reuters) - Britain promoted one of its top financial crimebusters on Tuesday to help keep experienced staff on board at a watchdog set to be abolished in two years’ time.
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Government promotes financial crimebuster as shake-up looms
LONDON (Reuters) - Two-time Man Booker winner Australian author Peter Carey, Emma Donoghue and Andrea Levy go head to head in a final field of six authors vying for one of the world’s most influential literary prizes.
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Two-time Booker winner Carey tops 2010 shortlist
LONDON (Reuters) - Police said on Sunday they had sought more information about claims that reporters at the News of the World newspaper illegally hacked into voicemail accounts to eavesdrop on people’s phone messages.
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Police seek information on newspaper eavesdropping
LONDON (Reuters) - Public sector job opportunities in IT have fallen markedly since the start of the year, a survey showed Monday, in a sign that the government’s austerity drive is already affecting the labour market.
LONDON (Reuters) - As commuters prepared for travel chaos on Monday at the start of a series of strikes on the London Underground, management and unions traded blows over new safety claims.
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London Tube commuters braced for travel chaos
CARDIFF (Reuters) - Pakistan test opener Yasir Hameed said Sunday he had been duped into making statements reported in the British newspaper The News of the World alleging widespread match-fixing by his team mates.
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Hameed says he was duped by newspaper
AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - The Dutch painter Corneille, co-founder of the avant-garde Cobra movement, died on Sunday at the age of 88, the Dutch Cobra museum said on Sunday.
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Dutch painter and Cobra co-founder Corneille dies
LONDON (Reuters) - Entrepreneur Richard Caring is considering a counter-bid for British cafe and restaurant chain Carluccio’s, British newspaper the Mail on Sunday reported.
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Caring mulls counter-bid for Carluccio’s - report
CARDIFF (Reuters) - The first Twenty20 international between England and Pakistan was set to go ahead as planned on Sunday despite the latest allegations in the fixing controversy, Pakistan manager Yawar Saeed said.
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England v Pakistan series to go ahead - team manager
LONDON (Reuters) - Two people died after a mid-air collision by two light planes during an air race over the Isle of Wight, police said on Saturday.
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Two die in mid-air light aircraft collision
DUBLIN (Reuters) - Three people were arrested after protesters threw eggs and shoes at former British Prime Minister Tony Blair when he arrived to sign copies of his memoir at a bookshop in Dublin on Saturday, national broadcaster RTE said.
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Blair pelted with eggs at Dublin book signing
LONDON (Reuters) - Nearly six million people are to be told they have paid the wrong amount of tax, and authorities will demand about 2 billion pounds more from hundreds of thousands of taxpayers, HM Revenue and Customs said on Saturday.
LONDON (Reuters) - The cost of car insurance has risen by almost a third in the past year, its biggest ever increase, as insurers seek to offset a sharp rise in claims expenses driven in part by fraud, AA Insurance said.
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Car insurance premiums jump 31 percent - AA
LONDON (Reuters) - The identity of “The Stig,” the mystery test car driver on the popular BBC TV motoring show “Top Gear” was revealed on Wednesday after the broadcaster lost a legal battle to keep his name secret.
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Top Gear’s Stig finally unmasked
LONDON (Reuters) - British hedge fund company Man Group Plc named GLG head Emmanuel Roman as its chief operating officer on Wednesday, to help Man Group integrate its recent acquisition of the GLG business.
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GLG’s Roman named Man Group chief operating officer
LONDON (Reuters) - Shares in Spice Plc, Britain’s biggest installer of water meters, rose strongly on Wednesday in anticipation of a bidding war as the company revealed it was in talks with a second potential bidder.
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New bidder emerges for UK’s Spice
LONDON (Reuters) - Adam Sandler’s new comedy “Grown Ups” has knocked Sylvester Stallone’s latest mercenary action movie off the UK box office top spot after just one week, according to Screen International on Wednesday.
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Adam Sandler’s "Grown Ups" knocks Stallone off top spot
LONDON (Reuters) - An intact Roman lantern made of bronze, believed by experts to be the only one of its kind in Britain, has been unearthed in a field by a metal-detecting enthusiast.
LONDON (Reuters) - British customs officials have arrested three people in London as part of an investigation into money-laundering following a police inquiry into allegations of corruption within the Pakistan cricket team.
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Three arrested in money-laundering inquiry
LONDON (Reuters) - Protesters from environmental group Greenpeace boarded a drilling rig operated by UK oil explorer Cairn Energy on Monday to try to stall development of what the oil industry hopes will become a major new producing centre.
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Protesters board Cairn oil rig off Greenland
LONDON (Reuters) - Official statistics place too much weight on a standard European Union inflation measure at the expense of a national index more suited to wage negotiations, experts said in a letter published on Tuesday.
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Top statisticians criticise CPI inflation measure
LONDON (Reuters) - British customs officials said on Tuesday they had had arrested three people as part of an investigation into money laundering.
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Three arrested in money laundering investigation
EDINBURGH (Reuters) - Britain’s top annual comedy prize, the Foster’s Edinburgh Comedy Award, went to England’s Russell Kane at an Edinburgh Fringe festival ceremony on the weekend for his show “Smokescreens and Castles.”
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Comedian Russell Kane takes Foster’s award
EDINBURGH (Reuters) - The Edinburgh Fringe Festival reported ticket sales of almost two million during the three-week run of the world’s biggest annual artistic gathering of seasoned performers and complete newcomers in the fields of comedy, dance, theatre and song.
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Edinburgh Fringe, Book festivals sign off for 2010
LONDON (Reuters) - The exceptionally dry early summer months in Britain have revealed the ghostly outlines of several hundred previously unknown ancient sites buried in fields across the English countryside.
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Parched English fields reveal ancient sites
LONDON (Reuters) - Mortgage approvals and consumer credit lending rose unexpectedly in July, but total net lending was its weakest since March, Bank of England figures showed on Tuesday.
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July mortgage approvals rise unexpectedly
ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistan will not suspend any players being investigated for alleged corruption without proof of wrongdoing, Pakistan Cricket Board chairman Ijaz Butt says.
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Pakistan will not drop players without proof - PCB
LONDON (Reuters) - Britain and France are getting ready to unveil plans to share aircraft carriers amid pressure on the British military to cut costs, the Times reported on Tuesday.
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Britain, France to share aircraft carriers - paper
LONDON (Reuters) - One in four women who works as a lap dancer in Britain has a university degree and the majority of those involved in the industry enjoy their work, earning up to 48,000 pounds a year, academic research has found.
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Study finds quarter of lap dancers have degrees
LONDON (Reuters) - Planners have given London 2012 Olympic organisers permission to build a temporary water polo centre with an inflatable roof.
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Water polo venue for London 2012 to get inflatable roof
LONDON (Reuters) - House prices in England and Wales rose 0.4 percent on the month and 6.7 percent on the year in July, figures from the Land Registry showed on Friday.
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House prices up 6.7 percent year on year in July
LONDON (Reuters) - British Airways apologised to passengers after an emergency message warning they were about to crash into the sea was played by mistake.
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"We’re about to crash," BA passengers told in error
LONDON (Reuters) - An intimate portrait of Queen Victoria with her hair down — belying her traditional frumpy image — and a painting she commissioned of an American lion tamer form part of an exhibition at the Queen’s Gallery, Buckingham Palace.
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Queen Victoria’s artistic tastes go on show
LONDON (Reuters) - Britain faces a new wave of attacks from poorly trained but highly motivated homegrown militants, as the al Qaeda threat shifts from big, sophisticated bomb plots to acts by individuals, a report said on Friday.
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UK faces new wave of homegrown attacks - report
LONDON (Reuters) - Robbie Williams and his old band Take That plan to tour together next summer after reconciling their differences, but the reunion is likely to be temporary, they said on Thursday.
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Robbie Williams and Take That plan reunion tour
LONDON (Reuters) - Business tycoon Asil Nadir was flying back to Britain on Thursday, 17 years after he fled the country while awaiting trial on theft charges stemming from the collapse of his Polly Peck business empire.
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Fugitive Nadir flies back to UK after 17 years
LONDON (Reuters) - More tests will be carried out on Thursday on the body of a man who worked for Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service MI6 found at a flat near the agency’s headquarters.
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More tests on MI6 worker’s body
LONDON (Reuters) - About 200 Alstom-Metro maintenance workers on London’s underground rail network will strike over pay, the Rail Maritime and Transport union said on Thursday, the second action announced this week by Tube workers.
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Alstom London tube staff to strike over pay - union
DUBLIN (Reuters) - Canadian Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said Ireland had a solid bank plan and was Europe’s leader in fiscal reform, warning not to take rating agency views such as S&P’s downgrade of Ireland this week too seriously.
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Canada finmin defends Irish policy after downgrade
LONDON (Reuters) - Scottish singing sensation Susan Boyle said on Wednesday that performing for Pope Benedict during his visit to Britain next month was “her greatest dream come true.”
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Susan Boyle says singing for Pope is "dream come true"
LONDON (Reuters) - British scientists have created liver cells in a lab for the first time by reprogramming stem cells taken from human skin, paving the way for potential new treatments for liver diseases that kill thousands each year.
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Scientists create liver cells from patients’ skin
LONDON (Reuters) - Prime Minister David Cameron and his wife Samantha have named their newborn daughter Florence Rose Endellion, Downing Street said on Wednesday.
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Cornwall features in name of new Cameron baby girl
LONDON (Reuters) - Pope Benedict will be confronted by posters on London’s famous red buses during his trip to the British capital next month which will call for the ordination of women priests.
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London bus ads to back women priests during pope’s visit
LONDON (Reuters) - The Pension Protection Fund (PPF), which pays corporate pensions when companies go bust, plans to create a funding buffer to help reassure members it can cope with the threat posed by longer life expectancies.
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Pension lifeboat to boost funding target
LONDON (Reuters) - Former Happy Mondays dancer Bez was jailed for four weeks on Wednesday for assaulting his ex-girlfriend during a row over money.
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Ex-Happy Mondays dancer Bez jailed for assault
LONDON (Reuters) - Singer George Michael admitted on Tuesday that he had been under the influence of cannabis when he crashed his car into a north London shop in July.
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George Michael admits drug-drive charge
LONDON (Reuters) - Britain’s City regulator slapped a $3.51 million fine on the UK branch of Zurich Insurance for data security failings after the loss of a tape in South Africa containing details on 46,000 insurance customers.
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FSA fines Zurich UK $3.5 million over lost data tape
LONDON (Reuters) - British energy services firm Wood Group is gaining confidence on prospects for the next 18 months from a resumption in projects by oil companies, it said on Tuesday after suffering a 24 percent first-half profit drop.
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Wood Group confident on H2 as oil projects restart
MELBOURNE (Reuters) - McLaren driver Lewis Hamilton has been fined A$500 (287 pounds) but avoided conviction for reckless driving outside Melbourne’s Australian Grand Prix circuit in March.
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"Hoon" Hamilton fined for Melbourne street spin
LONDON (Reuters) - The upcoming UK-Dutch electricity interconnector is expected to link Britain to European power markets, which could result in additional supply at the right, but sometimes wrong, times.
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UK-Dutch Britned cable may import power price shocks
LONDON (Reuters) - UK oil explorer Cairn Energy said it had struck gas in Greenland with the first well to be drilled in the Arctic territory in a decade.
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Cairn Energy finds gas in Greenland
LONDON (Reuters) - Britain faces the risk of sliding into recession and the central bank’s growth forecast for this year and next may be too optimistic, a Bank of England policymaker was quoted as saying on Tuesday.
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Bank’s Weale says Britain faces recession risk - report
LONDON (Reuters) - England’s bid for the 2018 World Cup would be unbeatable, Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg told FIFA delegates assessing facilities on Monday.
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Clegg tells FIFA England’s 2018 bid will be unbeatable
Corrects Saturday story in last paragraph to remove reference to NCR.
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CORRECTED - Barclays’ network glitch causes nationwide chaos
LONDON (Reuters) - Britain’s tax authority will introduce reverse value-added tax (VAT) charges relating to carbon emissions trading from November 1, replacing a zero tax rate implemented last year to prevent fraud.
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UK to launch reverse VAT charges for CO2 trading
LONDON (Reuters) - British pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline said on Monday it had started final trials of its new vaccine to prevent shingles, one of the most significant products in its pipeline.
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Glaxo starts final clinical trial of shingles vaccine
BANGALORE (Reuters) - British marine services provider James Fisher and Sons Plc posted a 4 percent rise in first-half pretax profit, driven by growth in its specialist technical unit, and raised its interim dividend by 5 percent.
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James Fisher profit up; raises interim dividend
LONDON (Reuters) - Britain’s largest quoted housing landlord Grainger is eying expansion of its home equity release business after striking a 50:50 joint venture with real estate fund manager Moorfield.
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Grainger unveils residential property JV
LONDON (Reuters) - Natural disasters caused UK insurers Amlin and Hiscox to report a widely-expected slump in half-year profits on Monday, although both companies remained confident over their business models.
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Interim profits slump at insurers Amlin and Hiscox
LONDON (Reuters) - The Royal Navy must urgently expand its fleet to secure vital trade routes, and should order cheaper, more adaptable vessels rather than expensive, specialised ones, a defence thinktank said on Monday.
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Navy needs more and cheaper ships - thinktank
LONDON (Reuters) - The lead singer of pop band Ou Est Le Swimming Pool jumped to his death after playing at a music festival in Belgium, authorities have confirmed.
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Ou Est frontman leaps to death at Belgian music fest
LONDON (Reuters) - The lead singer of a British pop band has fallen to his death after playing at a music festival in Belgium, the Foreign Office confirmed Saturday.
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Singer dies in fall at Belgian music festival
LONDON (Reuters) - Thousands of Barclays customers in Britain were unable to access their bank accounts or withdraw money from cash machines on Saturday after a system crash caused chaos nationwide.
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Barclays’ network glitch causes nationwide chaos
LONDON (Reuters) - The coalition government said on Friday it will introduce temporary bans on legal drugs that could be harmful to users.
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Government eyes temporary ban of "legal high" drugs
LONDON (Reuters) - The average petrol price in Britain fell slightly over the past month due mainly to a fall in the benchmark wholesale market, the Automobile Association (AA) said on Friday.
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Petrol and diesel prices dip in mid-August
LONDON (Reuters) - Britain may cancel one or both of its planned new aircraft carriers to cut costs but there are no plans to scale back the country’s nuclear deterrent, a senior Ministry of Defence source said on Thursday.
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UK may axe carriers but Trident safe - defence source
LONDON (Reuters) - Six works, including a giant Battenberg cake and a huge cockerel, are in the running to win a place on Trafalgar Square’s vacant Fourth Plinth, one of the most high-profile public art commissions in the UK.
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Cake and cockerel vie for London’s empty plinth
LONDON (Reuters) - A terminally ill Libyan convicted of the 1988 Lockerbie bombing has enjoyed a year of freedom at home in a case that has complicated relations between the new British government and the U.S. administration.
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A year on, Lockerbie bomber casts a long shadow
LONDON (Reuters) - Students performed better than ever in A-level exams, results showed on Thursday, with more than 8 percent achieving the new A-star (A*) grade, but many will still face a struggle to get into university.
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A level results improve, but future bleak for many
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Nelson Mandela charity trustee Jeremy Ractliffe has resigned after admitting to keeping uncut diamonds he received from British supermodel Naomi Campbell in 1997.
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Mandela charity trustee quits over Campbell gems
LONDON (Reuters) - Engineering and environmental consultant Waterman Group said its full-year profit would be at the lower end of expectations after writing off money owed by clients and paying office leases early.
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Waterman hit by concerns over unpaid bills
LONDON (Reuters) - Britain’s PV Crystalox Solar expects demand for its solar cell wafers to remain strong for the rest of the year thanks to increasing shipments to China and Japan.
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PV Crystalox sees strong demand for 2010
LONDON (Reuters) - Poundland, Europe’s largest single price discount retailer, posted soaring year profit but warned consumers face a painful squeeze on their finances this winter as public sector cuts and tax rises start to bite.
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Poundland predicts consumer pain as profits soar
TORONTO (Reuters) - Scientists on Wednesday were set to launch an effort to “virtually raise” the doomed ocean liner Titanic by using 3D video to map the entire wreckage site for the first time.
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Titanic comes to life in 3D
LONDON (Reuters) - A British government minister raised the case of an Iranian woman sentenced to death by stoning and other human rights concerns with Iran’s ambassador to London on Wednesday, the Foreign Office said.
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UK raises human rights concerns with Iran
LONDON (Reuters) - Scientists have found a “genetic signature” in the blood of patients with active tuberculosis (TB) and believe their discovery could help develop better diagnostic tests for the disease, as well as better treatments.
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Genetic signature may lead to better TB diagnosis
Administrators of the video games business founded by the creator of Grand Theft Auto tonight said 185 jobs had been lost at the firm. Related Stories Potash demands ‘big boy price’ as it says no to BHP’s £25bn bid Administrator seeks suitors for Confetti Bank chiefs discussed rate increase EMI cuts losses but warns of debt pressure Video games business Realtime Worlds goes into administration
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185 jobs axed at video games firm
LONDON/AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Li Ka-Shing has emerged as one of the suitors for Britain’s only high-speed rail line, just weeks after the Hong Kong tycoon struck a $9 billion (5.8 billion pound) deal to buy the UK’s biggest electricity distribution network.
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Li Ka-Shing and Goldman vie for rapid rail route
LONDON (Reuters) - Below are highlights from a speech on the economy by Chancellor George Osborne on Tuesday.
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Osborne’s economy speech in London
LONDON (Reuters) - Inflation slowed in July as expected but stayed far above the 2 percent target, forcing Bank of England Governor Mervyn King to explain the overshoot in an open letter to the government for the third time this year.
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Inflation slows and Bank’s King defends overshoot
LONDON (Reuters) - Asda, Britain’s No.2 grocer, said the outlook to the end of 2010 remains challenging with UK families facing the lowest amount of disposable income in the final quarter for two years.
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Asda says UK consumer faces income squeeze
(Reuters) - British public relations and marketing services firm Freshwater UK PLC said its full-year pretax profit would be below market expectations as it was hurt by the government’s policy on the National Health Service (NHS).
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Freshwater warns on FY after NHS cutbacks
LONDON (Reuters) - Union members at AstraZeneca have voted to strike over the proposed closure of the pharmaceutical giant’s final salary pension scheme, the GMB union said on Monday. About 500 manufacturing workers were balloted.