London, Britain - The UK government has announced plans to reform the Consumer Credit Act (CCA) which is expected to benefit the Islamic finance industry. The proposed reform aims to encourage innovation, enhance credit accessibility, and strengthen consumer protections in the credit sector.  Dr Samir Alamad, a leading expert in...

Paris, France - The world's wealthiest nations must urgently prepare for the impact of an imminent "AI revolution" that will change jobs, create new ones and make others disappear, the OECD said Tuesday. The rapid development of artificial intelligence -- with tools that can generate essays, create images and even pass...

Thames Water, which supplies 15 million homes and businesses in London and elsewhere in southern England, has debts of almost £14 billion.

The new British sanctions regime will expand existing penalties imposed by creating new criteria under which individuals and entities can be hit. They include any Iranian activities "undermining peace, stability and security in the Middle East and internationally", and the "use and spread of weapons technologies from Iran".

Gerry Murphy is new chairperson of Britain's biggest retailer.

Exhibitions are also scheduled to take place on Saturday in the north and center of the Gaza Strip, where people are normally forbidden to approach and photograph military sites.

On Wednesday, Iran took Canada to the Hague-based International Court of Justice, the UN's top tribunal, accusing Ottawa of allowing victims of alleged terror attacks to claim damages from Tehran. Tehran's case claims that Ottawa, which listed the Islamic Republic as a sponsor of terrorism in 2012, had violated Iran's...

London, Britain - In Britain to attend London Climate Action Week 2023, COP28 President-Designate, Dr. Sultan Al Jaber, urged investors to fund climate technology and also consulted with youth climate advocates to help shape the COP28 agenda. Dr Al Jaber also collaborated with the UK Government on policies which enable greater...

Responding to reports of a possible renationalization, a government statement said Thames Water's present situation was "a matter for the company and its shareholders".

PARIS, FRANCE- Common standards unveiled on Monday for companies to report their greenhouse gas emissions could curb misleading climate claims in the corporate world, the chair of the body that wrote the norms told AFP. Currently, most large companies report how many tons of carbon they emit into the atmosphere each...

The balti -- a curry of spices, coriander, onions, tomatoes and green peppers with meat or fish -- was created by Pakistani migrants to feed hungry customers from nearby pubs.

A landmark deal in 2015, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), gave Iran sanctions relief in exchange for curbs on its nuclear program to guarantee that Tehran could not develop a nuclear weapon -- something it has always denied wanting to do.

LONDON, UK - Greenpeace slammed Britain's power grid operator on Monday after it requested the reactivation of a coal-fired power station to meet electricity demand during a heatwave. National Grid ESO has asked energy firm Uniper to fire up a coal unit of its power station in Ratcliffe-on-Soar, central England, according...

GENEVA, SWITZERLAND - The world's nuclear powers, and China in particular, increased investment in their arsenals for a third consecutive year in 2022 amid swelling geopolitical tensions, two reports showed Monday. The world's nine nuclear-armed states jointly spent $82.9 billion on their arsenals last year, with the United States accounting for...

The Iraqi presidency said the duchess delivered a written message from King Charles III -- who had himself visited Iraq in 2004. The last time a British royal visited Iraq was in 2006 when the late Prince Philip visited a base for British troops deployed to Iraq as part of...

Doha, Qatar -  Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) will invest up to GBP 10 billion ($12.4 billion) in the UK economy over 2022-2027, the CEO, Mansoor Bin Ebrahim Al Mahmoud said on Tuesday.  The investment pledge was made during a meeting with the UK Secretary of State for Business and Trade, Kemi...

The IMF said the 2023 upgrade reflected "higher-than-expected resilience" in both demand and supply, alongside improved confidence in reduced post-Brexit uncertainty as well as lower energy costs.

Meta had purchased Giphy in May 2020 for $315 million.

Vienna, Austria - Austria said on Wednesday it will ban TikTok on federal employees' work phones, joining a growing list of Western nations cracking down on the Chinese-owned social media platform due to security concerns. The decision followed advice from Austria's intelligence services and several ministry experts. Similar measures have recently...

The Saudi company posts net profit of $31.9bn, down 19.25 percent from a year earlier.

To prevent a damaging oil spill in the Red Sea, the UN Development Programme in March took the unprecedented step of purchasing its own supertanker to remove more than a million barrels of oil from the beleaguered FSO Safer. The 47-year-old ship has not been serviced since Yemen's civil war...

The UK's Competition and Markets Authority prevented the deal "over concerns... (it) would alter the future of the fast-growing cloud gaming market, leading to reduced innovation and less choice for UK gamers over the years to come", the CMA said in a final decision on its long-running probe.

London, United Kingdom - Britain on Thursday warned against the threat of protectionism as it slammed the United States for leading a "distortive" green energy subsidy race. Finance Minister Jeremy Hunt's remarks came as his government updated its energy security plan to ramp up renewable and nuclear power. The Conservative government...

Paris, France - France on Friday banned public-sector employees from downloading "recreational applications" on their work phones, the public services ministry said, with a ministerial source adding that Chinese-owned TikTok would be among them. Following bans of TikTok in other European countries, "the government has decided from now on to ban...

LONDON, UK-  Six European countries on Saturday called on Israel to stop expanding its settlements in  Palestine's West Bank. Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Poland have also jointly condemned the recent attack on Israeli citizens by Palestinian groups. In a joint statement, they said, "We urge the Israeli government...

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen adopted the deal at a meeting in Windsor, west of London. The deal follows more than a year of tense talks over the "Northern Ireland Protocol", which has unsettled the province 25 years on from a historic peace...

The company employs about 4,000 workers in the UK.

Taking retaliatory action for imposition of sanctions against the Islamic Republic, Iran has slapped 36 individuals and entities from the European Union and Britain with sanctions. According to the Iranian foreign ministry, Tehran has placed the names on its "sanctions list for supporting terrorism and terrorist groups" as well as...

The death toll from an attack blamed on the Islamic State group in Syria has risen to 68, a war monitor said, the deadliest attack in over a year. "A total of 61 civilians and seven soldiers have been killed in the attack," said Rami Abdel Rahman, who heads the...

According to Saeed Shehabi and Moosa Mohammed, Bahrain infected their computers with FinSpy spying software, allowing agents access their data.

Tesco plans to cut about 1,750 management roles.

The EU and Britain on Monday slapped another round of sanctions on Iran which has been rocked by protests since the September 16 death of Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian Kurd who had been arrested for allegedly breaching the country's strict dress code for women. "The move by the European Union...

PARIS, FRANCE -  Iran on Saturday executed two men for killing a paramilitary force member during unprecedented protests sparked by the death in custody of a young woman. The latest hangings double the number of executions to four over the nationwide protests, which escalated since mid-September into calls for an end...

Migrant issue has become a huge political problem for the Conservative government, which has promised to bring down illegal immigration and break the smuggling gangs that carry out the crossings.

In Britain, the average domestic energy bill has roughly doubled over the last 12 months. That has helped push inflation to the highest level in four decades, in turn creating a cost-of-living crisis as wages fail to keep pace, despite the government's partial subsidy for fuel.

TEHRAN, IRAN - Iran's foreign minister said Monday that a summit to take place this week in Jordan will be a "good opportunity" for negotiations aimed at restoring the 2015 nuclear accord. On-off talks to revive the deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), started in April...

The plan reaffirms the UK’s enduring commitment to working with Saudi Arabia on promoting regional security and stability.

Gross domestic product fell 0.6 percent in September after businesses closed for the royal funeral, and Britain's economy shrank by 0.2 percent in the third quarter, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

Payment for settling graft claims against firm in DR Congo.

Britain's Trade Secretary Kemi Badenoch and Ukrainian Economy Minister Yulia Svyrydenko will meet in London to unveil the deal, the government said in a statement. "Trading digitally is particularly important in the current conflict, where damage to Ukrainian infrastructure and warfare makes it much harder to trade physically," the statement...

The EU announced the discovery of a sophisticated US$2.3-billion VAT tax fraud that triggered raids in 14 countries, including France, Germany, Greece and Spain. Over 600 people participated in the scheme, "believed to be the biggest VAT carousel fraud ever investigated in the EU," according to the European Public Prosecutor's...

LONDON, UK - Britain on Tuesday ousted China's nuclear firm CGN from construction of its new Sizewell C nuclear power station, which will now be built with remaining French partner EDF. The announcement came one day after Prime Minister Rishi Sunak warned that the "golden era" of UK-China relations was...

Acquisition will likely close in Q1 2023, Czech firm said.

Even as serious rights violations -- including corruption, human trafficking, racism and discrimination -- persist across Europe and US, Western world opts to focus on Qatar.

“Our job is to create jobs,” UNWTO Secretary-General Zurab Pololikashvili told tourism sector leaders at the World Travel Market.

Offshore wind can be deployed at large scale, in short timeframes and at competitive cost, GOWA said in a statement. Other nations joining Tuesday were Belgium, Colombia, Ireland, Norway and the Netherlands.

A U-turn was hinted at on Tuesday when his spokesman said the decision was "under review" and after reports that Boris Johnson would attend.

Russia suspended its participation in a pact that allowed grain exports from Ukraine, blaming alleged drone attacks on Russian ships in Crimea. Russia made the announcement after its army accused Kyiv earlier Saturday of a "massive" drone attack on its Black Sea fleet, while Britain rejected Moscow's claims its specialists...

Weeks after leaving office, former prime minister Boris Johnson, who returned from a Caribbean holiday, aimed to launch an audacious political comeback. Johnson met with Rishi Sunak to discuss the race, as the feuding pair who once headed Britain's government were poised to battle for the leadership of their fractured...

The crisis-hit PM, elected Conservative leader just six weeks ago on a tax-slashing platform, announced her resignation Thursday. Her budget, peppered with tax cuts and delivered last month, sought to boost growth in Britain's recession-threatened economy and freeze energy prices to ease a cost of living crisis. However, the costly...