United Kingdom

LONDON (AP) — The U.K. and the European Union were poised Monday to end years of wrangling and seal a deal to resolve their thorny post-Brexit trade dispute over Northern Ireland.

Striking an agreement at a meeting with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen would be a victory for Prime Minister Rishi Sunak — but not the end of his troubles. Selling the deal to his own Conservative Party and its Northern Ireland allies may be a tougher struggle.

LONDON, Feb 26 (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak will meet European Union chief Ursula von der Leyen on Monday in an effort to finalise a new deal for Northern Ireland's post-Brexit trading arrangements.

More than a year of stop-start and sometimes rancorous negotiations between London and Brussels on an overhaul of part of the 2020 EU exit deal look to be coming to a conclusion although it is unclear whether any agreement will go far enough to satisfy critics in Britain and Northern Ireland.

LONDON, Feb 24 (Reuters) - The World Health Organization is working with Cambodian authorities after two confirmed human cases of H5N1 bird flu were found among one family in the country.

Describing the situation as "worrying" due to the recent rise in cases in birds and mammals, Dr Sylvie Briand, the director of epidemic and pandemic preparedness and prevention, told reporters in a virtual briefing that WHO was reviewing its global risk assessment in light of the recent developments.

LONDON, Feb 24 (Reuters) - Former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev said on Friday that the only way for Moscow to ensure a lasting peace with Ukraine was to push back the borders of hostile states as far as possible, even if that meant the frontiers of NATO member Poland.

Medvedev, who is now deputy chairman of Russia's Security Council, made the comments in a message on his Telegram account exactly a year after Russia sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine in what it called a "special military operation" to protect Russian speakers and ensure its own security.

BELFAST, Feb 23 (Reuters) - Northern Irish police have arrested three men in relation to the attempted murder of a senior detective shot in front of his son in the town of Omagh on Wednesday evening that they suspect was carried out by the New IRA Irish nationalist militant group.

Detective Chief Inspector John Caldwell is in a critical condition having undergone surgery overnight. He was shot a number of times by two gunmen while putting footballs in his car after finishing a coaching session with an under-15 soccer team.

LONDON, Feb 23 (Reuters) - A group of activists poured hundreds of litres of yellow and blue paint onto the road outside the Russian Embassy in London on Thursday to create an enormous Ukrainian flag ahead of the one year anniversary of Moscow's invasion.

The campaign group "Led By Donkeys" halted traffic before spreading more than 300 litres of paint across the road using wheelbarrows and brushes to make the 500 square metre (5382 square feet) flag.

"Ukraine is an independent state and a people with every right to self-determination," the group said in a statement.

LONDON, Feb 23 (Reuters) - Britons may face shortages of salad staples, including tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers, for up to another month, the government said on Thursday.

On Wednesday, Britain's biggest supermarket group Tesco (TSCO.L) followed rivals Asda, Morrisons and Aldi in imposing customer purchase limits on salad items after supplies were hit by disrupted harvests in southern Europe and north Africa due to unseasonal weather.

LONDON, Feb 23 (Reuters) - Yevgeny Prigozhin, founder of Russia's Wagner mercenary force, said on Thursday that much-needed ammunition for his troops had been dispatched, after a public row in which he accused the military leadership of treason.

Prigozhin had on Wednesday published a grisly image of dozens of men who he said had been killed because commanders including Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov had withheld ammunition to spite him. Neither man commented but the ministry rejected the charge.

LONDON, Feb 22 (Reuters) - Russian mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin took a bitter public feud with the top army brass to a new level on Wednesday, publishing a grisly image of dozens of his fighters he said had been killed after being deprived of ammunition.

Prigozhin, founder of the Wagner private military company which is fighting on Moscow's behalf in Ukraine, has this week repeatedly accused the Russian defence ministry of deliberately starving his fighters of munitions in what he has called a treasonous attempt to destroy Wagner.

LONDON, Feb 22 (Reuters) - A British-born woman, who went to Syria as a schoolgirl to join Islamic State, lost her latest appeal against the removal of her British citizenship, but her lawyers vowed to keep fighting and said the case was "nowhere near over".

The British government took away Shamima Begum's citizenship on national security grounds in 2019, shortly after she was found in a detention camp in Syria.