European and US shares mostly firmed Thursday despite another drop in oil prices ahead of Friday's eagerly anticipated US jobs report for January.

Stocks in London outperformed other bourses, rising 1.1 percent after the Bank of England slashed its economic forecast, kept ultra-low interest rates in place and hinted at a slower time-frame for lifting rates.

In the US, the S&P 500 finished up 0.2 percent despite veering into negative territory a couple of times in a choppy session, as oil prices closed lower and US data showed a drop in fourth-quarter productivity and a rise in weekly jobless claims.

"Things are mixed but the stock market is actually performing surprisingly well, given the downbeat economic news we received this morning," said Jack Ablin, chief investment officer at BMO Private Bank.

"The market seems pretty resilient."

Investors were looking ahead to Friday's US employment report, which is expected to show the US economy added 188,000 jobs, down from a December surge of 292,000. A weak report will be seen as further denting the prospects for the Federal Reserve to lift interest rates.

Published: 05 February 2016

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The British government announced £1.2 billion (1.6 million euros, $1.74 billion) in aid for war-torn Syria and its neighbours on Thursday, ahead of a donors' conference in London.

"More money is needed to tackle this crisis and it is needed now," Prime Minister David Cameron said in a statement announcing the pledge, which will fund education, jobs and humanitarian relief in Syria, Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey.

The promise amounts to an extra £1.2 billion, to be spent between 2016 and 2020, to address "the world's biggest humanitarian crisis", Cameron's office said. Britain has already agreed to spend £1.12 billion on the region.

It comes as world leaders are due to gather in London to try to raise $9 billion for the millions of Syrians affected by five years of civil war and to address an acute refugee crisis.

Published: 04 February 2016

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A paramedic treating an elderly man who had fallen over on a London street received a shock when former Manchester United star David Beckham stopped by with tea and coffee.

Ms Catherine Maynard said that she had been waiting for an ambulance with the man when Beckham walked past, before returning 10 minutes later with hot beverages for the pair.

"I was waiting with my patient for an ambulance to transfer him to hospital and although I was keeping him warm, it was very cold outside," she told the Evening Standard newspaper.

Published: 02 February 2016

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No deal was reached between British Prime Minister David Cameron and European Union President Donald Tusk Sunday in talks to agree changes to Britain's membership of the bloc ahead of an in-or-out referendum.

No deal yet. Intensive work in next 24 (hours) crucial," Tusk wrote on Twitter following a working dinner of salmon, beef and vegetables in Cameron's Downing Street office in London.

Cameron is pushing to exclude European Union migrants from benefits such as income top-ups for low-paid workers until they have paid into the British system under a so-called "emergency brake" system.

A spokeswoman for Cameron said that "much progress" had been made since a Friday meeting with European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker.

The Commission has indicated that Britain's "circumstances meet the criteria for triggering the emergency brake" -- which would require countries to argue that their welfare system was under strain.

"This is a significant breakthrough, meaning the prime minister can deliver on his commitment to restrict in-work benefits to EU migrants for four years," the spokeswoman said.

Published: 01 February 2016

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Prime Minister David Cameron was to meet EU president Donald Tusk at Downing Street on Sunday as negotiations reach a decisive point ahead of a referendum on whether Britain should leave the bloc.

The working dinner comes with Tusk expected to publish draft proposals early this week for how to reform Britain's relationship with the EU, which Cameron can then use to campaign against a so-called "Brexit".

British officials hope that a final deal can be nailed down at a Brussels summit being held on February 18 and 19. That could then open the door to a referendum in June.

But Cameron insists he is willing to hold out for as long as it takes to secure the right package of reforms, if necessary delaying the referendum to September or even next year.

Opinion polls currently suggest that Britons would vote to leave the EU by a small margin.

Tusk's visit comes after Cameron held a hastily-arranged meeting with European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker on Friday to try to resolve the British leader's main concern -- reducing the number of EU migrants coming to Britain.

Tusk arrived in London on Sunday afternoon accompanied by his full negotiation team, an EU source told AFP.

"I don't expect Tusk to offer future treaty change on free movement" of people, the source said.

Published: 31 January 2016

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Moscow dismissed as a "joke" a British inquiry's findings that Russian President Vladimir Putin "probably approved" the killing of ex-spy Alexander Litvinenko a decade ago in London.

Litvinenko, a prominent Kremlin critic, died of radiation poisoning in 2006 aged 43, three weeks after drinking tea laced with radioactive polonium at an upmarket London hotel.

The inquiry said that Andrei Lugovoi and Dmitri Kovtun, two Russians identified as prime suspects by British police, were likely to have carried out the poisoning on the instructions of the Russian security services, but Lugovoi quickly dismissed the allegations as "nonsense".

Although Prime Minister David Cameron called it a "state-sponsored action", his government did not announce sanctions in response, instead summoning Moscow's ambassador to London for talks lasting less than an hour.

Russia was sharply dismissive of the conclusions.

"Maybe this is a joke," Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. "More likely it can be attributed to fine British humour -- the fact that an open public inquiry is based on the classified data of special services, unnamed special services."

Lugovoi, meanwhile, told the BBC that the inquiry had reached "nonsense conclusions" and said the judge leading it "has clearly gone mad".

"I saw nothing new there," he said. "I am very sorry that 10 years on nothing new has been presented, only invention, supposition, rumours."

- 'Acting for state body' -

At the High Court in London on Thursday, there were cries of "Yes!" as the main findings were read out.

Litvinenko's wife Marina, dressed in black and accompanied by her 21-year-old son Anatoly, embraced supporters afterwards.

She has spent years pushing for a public inquiry and had urged sanctions and a travel ban on Putin.

"I'm very pleased that the words my husband spoke on his deathbed when he accused Mr Putin of his murder have been proved true in an English court," she said.

Judge Robert Owen, the inquiry's chairman, said he was "sure" Lugovoi and Kovtun placed polonium-210 in a teapot at the Millennium Hotel's Pine Bar, where they met Litvinenko on November 1, 2006.

Published: 25 January 2016

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London commuters were left baffled after a rail company blamed delays on "strong sunlight" in the midst of cold and wintry weather this week.

"Apologies we are having issues dispatching trains due to the strong sunshine this morning," Southeastern railway company informed travellers through its Twitter account Tuesday, blaming the "low winter sun".

While delays due to snow or wet leaves on the tracks are familiar to commuters in Britain, many responded to this new reason with humour and disbelief.

"Train delayed due to sunlight!" wrote Twitter user Zuzanna Sojka, telling the train company: "I admire your creativity!"

User Paul Malyon called it "the weakest excuse ever" while others responded to ask whether trains might next be delayed due to "too many clouds" or "moonlight".

Published: 14 January 2016

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The company which operates the Channel Tunnel said on Tuesday Britain's decision to grant asylum to a Sudanese man who walked the passage between France and England was "unfortunate".

Abdul Rahman Haroun, 40, was granted asylum on December 24, after being arrested on suspicion of walking through the 31-mile (50 kilometre) tunnel in August.

"It is unfortunate because it can give bad ideas to certain migrants and encourage them to risk their lives," a spokesman for Eurotunnel told AFP.

The Channel operator has struggled for months with migrants storming their premises to get into the tunnel and attempt to make their way to Britain.

Stepped-up security has significantly slowed the attempts to get through, but in mid-December between 800 and 1,000 migrants made a desperate bid to storm the tunnel, resulting in clashes with security forces.

Local government estimates up to 4,500 people fleeing war and poverty in Asia, the Middle East and Africa are living in notoriously squalid conditions in a makeshift camp in Calais known as the "Jungle".

Published: 06 January 2016

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Twitter's 140 character limit on tweets has long frustrated and challenged its most verbose users.

Now the company could offer a solution, according to tech news website re/code: the 10,000 character tweet, which could be available as soon as March.

Re/code reported Tuesday that Twitter has been studying how to allow users to say more, after restricting them to 140 characters for 10 years.

That limit was based on the capacity of the original messaging software used, and though frustrating for many, unleashed a tidal wave of ultra-concise commentary across the web.

Now more than 300 million regular Twitter users send hundreds of millions of messages every day -- news reports, personal updates, advertisements, political pitches, photos and videos and, most often, just witty and innocuous comments.

Re/code says the company already allows 10,000 characters in a commercial product called Direct Messages, so the technology is no longer a barrier.

The company is testing a version that would still only display 140 characters in a message, but carry much more, and a reader would have to click on the tweet to see the rest.

The move is a part of Twitter's efforts to expand its user base and advertising sales and other sources of income.

Twitter continued to lose money over the first three quarters of last year. In October it reported a third quarter loss of $132 million, on a disappointing 11 percent year-on-year increase in regular users to 320 million.

Published: 06 January 2016

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Britain welcomed in 2016 on Friday with giant fireworks shows in London and Edinburgh as hundreds of thousands of revellers hit the streets to see in the New Year.

Some 12,000 fireworks filled the clear night sky in London, watched by 113,000 ticket-holders lining the banks of the River Thames and thousands of others craning for a view from vantage points around the city.

As Big Ben in the Houses of Parliament's clock tower chimed in the New Year, fireworks exploded around the London Eye ferris wheel on the opposite side of the River Thames.

That kicked off an 11-minute salvo set to music from the likes of David Bowie and Lenny Kravitz.

The smoke from the fireworks drifted downstream, engulfing landmarks like Tower Bridge, Saint Paul's Cathedral, and The Shard, Western Europe's tallest tower.

Boats on the river honked their horns and smaller, back garden fireworks parties could be seen all across the city.

On the main BBC television channel, the fireworks show was bracketed by a live concert from Canadian rocker Bryan Adams, watched by millions at home.

Published: 04 January 2016

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