U.K. News - AFP

LONDON (AFP) - The government urged both Thailand and Cambodia to exercise restraint on Wednesday after the two countries exchanged gunfire along their border.

NEW YORK (AFP) - Pop megastar Madonna and her British film director husband Guy Ritchie have agreed to divorce after seven and half years of marriage, a spokeswoman for the singer told AFP on Wednesday.

LONDON (AFP) - Oxfam launched an urgent appeal to mark UN World Food Day Thursday, saying the financial crisis had sent food costs soaring and the global total of people in hunger to nearly one billion people.

LONDON (AFP) - A British soldier serving with NATO-led troops in Afghanistan died in an explosion Wednesday, the defence ministry said.

LONDON (AFP) - The FTSE 100 index of shares closed down steeply Wednesday as weak economic data reignited fears of a world recession and dampened the mood of optimism which had prevailed earlier in the week.

ROME (AFP) - The managing director of British Airways on reiterated his company's interest in a partnership with Alitalia, Italian news agencies reported Wednesday.

MINSK (AFP) - Wayne Rooney hailed England's perfect start to their World Cup qualifying campaign as reward for the work ethic instilled in the side by manager Fabio Capello.

BELFAST (AFP) - Northern Ireland cruised to a 4-0 victory over San Marino at Windsor Park on Wednesday, after Rangers pair Kyle Lafferty and Steven Davis ensured the team got a crucial boost in World Cup qualifying Group Three.

PARIS (AFP) - "Tonight: Franz Ferdinand", the Scottish rock group's third album, is to be released worldwide January 26, the band's record company Pias said Wednesday.

LONDON (AFP) - British security forces are monitoring "another great plot" as they try to manage the "huge" threat posed by violent extremists, counter-terrorism minister Lord Alan West warned Tuesday.

LONDON (AFP) - Annual inflation surged to a 16-year high point of 5.2 percent in September owing to soaring energy bills, official data showed on Tuesday but analysts said it would plunge in the coming months.

LONDON (AFP) - Indian writer Aravind Adiga on Tuesday won the 2008 Booker Prize, one of the world's most prestigious literary awards, for his debut novel "The White Tiger", the judges announced.

LONDON (AFP) - Britain welcomed Tuesday the jailing in Cambodia of four former Khmer Rouge guerrillas over the kidnapping and murder of a British mine clearer and his translator in 1996.

PARIS (AFP) - The rail tunnel linking Britain and France should reopen completely next February when the work to repair the damage it sustained in a fire last month is completed, operator Eurotunnel said Tuesday.

LONDON (AFP) - Prime Minister Gordon Brown has won praise at home and abroad for taking a lead in tackling the global financial crisis, reversing his image from doomed ditherer to would-be saviour in weeks.

LONDON (AFP) - The FTSE 100 index of shares closed with solid gains for a second straight day Tuesday on sustained investor confidence in government efforts to snuff out a global credit crisis.

MINSK (AFP) - Rio Ferdinand has described the 'WAG' culture that surrounded England in the days before Fabio Capello took charge as a "circus" and admitted that it was central to the squad's recent failures.

MANCHESTER, England (AFP) - Nicol David, arguably the most honoured squash player of all time, found herself on an outside court while starting her bid to regain the World Open title on Tuesday.

LONDON (AFP) - Newcastle manager Joe Kinnear, whose recent swearing at a press conference put him in the spotlight, has been warned by the Football Association that a future outburst could bring disciplinary action.

LONDON (AFP) - The government said on Monday it would inject up to 37 billion pounds of public money into three ailing banks, urging other countries to take similar radical steps to prop up the global financial system.

LONDON (AFP) - The British government on Monday withdrew a plan to extend the time suspected violent extremists can be held without charge after the House of Lords voted against it.

LONDON (AFP) - Former prime minister Tony Blair faces a probe into claims he misled parliament over how Formula One racing was exempted from a tobacco advertising ban, the House of Commons Speaker said Monday.

LONDON (AFP) - A top British policeman is under investigation after he admitted tampering with his notes about the killing of an innocent Brazilian man who police mistook for a failed suicide bomber, a watchdog said Monday.

LONDON (AFP) - The government pledged Tuesday to review the cases of hundreds of former Gurkha soldiers from Nepal before the end of this year, after a High Court ruling in their favour.

LONDON (AFP) - The government is to provide a short-term loan of up to 100 million pounds to a stricken Icelandic bank to help repay cash to British savers, Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling said Monday.

LONDON (AFP) - French artist Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster has transformed the vast turbine hall at London's Tate Modern museum into a refuge from futuristic climate chaos, with beds laid out under oversized works of art.

NOTTINGHAM (AFP) - England all-rounder Samit Patel agreed a contract extension on Monday that will keep him with Nottinghamshire until the end of the 2010 campaign.

LONDON (AFP) - West Ham United stopper Robert Green on Monday pulled out of England's squad for Wednesday's World Cup qualifier against Belarus.