British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Wednesday announced his government's decision to lift all the additional restrictions imposed to contain the spread of Omicron, including the mandatory wearing of face masks anywhere, from next Thursday after analysis showed that the new variant of Covid-19 has now most likely peaked in the country.
Embattled businessman Vijay Mallya on Tuesday lost a legal battle to hold on to his plush London home after a British court refused to grant him a stay of enforcement in a long-running dispute with Swiss bank UBS. The 18/19 Cornwall Terrace luxury apartment overlooking Regent's Park in London, described in court as an "extraordinarily valuable property worth many tens of millions of pounds", is currently being occupied by Mallya's 95-year-old mother Lalitha. Delivering his judgment virtually for the Chancery Division of the High Court, Deputy Master Matthew Marsh concluded there were no grounds for him to grant further time for the Mallya family to repay a 20.4-million loan to UBS - the claimant in the case.
As Boris Johnson's "partygate" troubles mount and members of his own Conservative Party demand he step down as the British prime minister, one name is doing the rounds as a frontrunner to take charge -- his Indian-origin chancellor and Downing Street neighbour Rishi Sunak.
Sanjay Bhandari, an accused arms dealer wanted in India on money laundering and tax evasion charges, is pursuing a separate legal battle of his own in France over an alleged unpaid cut from a large Indian defence contract dating back over 10 years, according to a UK media report.
The researchers believe their findings provide a blueprint for a second-generation, universal vaccine that could prevent infection from current and future SARS-CoV-2 variants, including Omicron.
The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) analysis showed that around three months after the third jab, protection against hospitalisation among those aged 65 and over remains at about 90 per cent.
The UK government has asked for specific numbers over a period to drill-down on the use of the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act by the Indian government around funding licences of non-governmental organisations, the House of Lords was informed during a debate.
The reduced severity of Omicron is good news for now, but it is the result of an "evolutionary mistake" as Covid-19 is transmitting very efficiently and there is no reason for it to become milder, indicating that the next variant could be more virulent, a leading Indian-origin scientist from the University of Cambridge has warned.
The reduced severity of the Omicron variant is good news for now, but it is the result of an 'evolutionary mistake' and does not indicate that the virus which causes COVID-19 is becoming less virulent, a leading Indian-origin scientist from the University of Cambridge warned on Thursday.
The UK cabinet is on Monday holding talks to consider options for tougher lockdown restrictions as the country recorded another daily high of Omicron cases at 12,133.
The UK reported 93,045 cases of coronavirus on Friday, another record high for daily infections for the third consecutive day, as Omicron overtook Delta to become the dominant variant in London and Scotland.
The High Court in London on Tuesday began hearing Nirav Modi's appeal on the grounds of his mental health against extradition to India to face charges of fraud and money laundering, amounting to an estimated $2 billion in the Punjab National Bank (PNB) loan scam case. Lord Justice Jeremy Stuart-Smith and Justice Robert Jay presided over the hearing at the Royal Courts of Justice to determine whether District Judge Sam Goozee's February ruling in favour of extradition was incorrect to overlook the diamond merchant's "high risk of suicide". The court heard of an additional assurance from the Indian authorities on November 13, which reiterates previous commitments of adequate specialist medical care and an ambulance at hand were Nirav to be extradited to Mumbai.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Monday confirmed the UK's first death from the Omicron variant of coronavirus, the first known fatality from the highly transmissible variant of Covid-19 in the world.
Long queues were seen outside walk-in vaccination centres across the UK on Monday as people queued for their booster vaccine doses, even as the government's work from home guidance came in force as part of measures to tackle the "tidal wave" of the Omicron variant of COVID-19.
There are around 7.5 million people aged 30 to 39, and 3.5 million of those are eligible for boosters from Monday, NHS England said.
'This will not be the last time a virus threatens our lives and our livelihoods'
The UK's medicines regulator on Thursday approved a new antibody treatment against COVID-19, which it believes will also be effective against new variants such as Omicron.
China, Russia, Iran and international terrorism form the 'big four' set of security threats in an era of dramatic change, Britain's chief spy said in a rare public speech on Tuesday.
Six cases of the new COVID-19 Omicron variant have been identified in Scotland on Monday, taking the UK's total to nine following three cases detected in England earlier.
The move came soon after Belgium confirmed a case of the B.1.1.529 variant in someone who had travelled back from Egypt earlier this month, with the European Union (EU) member states agreeing to a snap travel ban on seven African nations.
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