United Kingdom

GlaxoSmithKline posts stronger Q3 earnings and sales

GlaxoSmithKline posts stronger Q3 earnings and sales London - British pharmaceuticals concern GlaxoSmithKline reported Wednesday that it managed to boost profits and sales in the third quarter despite the challenge posed by generic drugs.

GlaxoSmithKline said it earned 25.2 pence per share in the quarter, up from 23.7 pence in the corresponding period last year. Sales gained 7 per cent to 5.88 billion pounds.

The company said the weaker pound sterling had helped boost sales, in turn lessening the effects of the challenge posed by cheaper generic drugs.

Britain's Brown says UK recession likely

gorden brownLondon - British Prime Minister Gordon Brown on Wednesday, for the first time, acknowledged that Britain faces a recession.

"We must now take action on the global financial recession which is likely to cause recession in America, France, Italy, Germany, Japan and, because no country can insulate itself from it, Britain too," said before parliament.

Mohamed al-Fayed "questioned over sex assault case"

Mohamed al-FayedLondon - The Egyptian millionaire owner of the Harrods department store in London, Mohamed al-Fayed, has been questioned by police over allegations of sexual assault, British media reports said Wednesday.

They said the 75-year-old father of the late Princess Diana's friend, Dodi, had voluntarily subjected himself to questioning over reported claims that a 15-year-old girl was sexually assaulted at business premises in central London last May.

The reports said al-Fayed had not been detained. They quoted police as confirming that a man had been questioned in the case, but the police declined to identify him.

Firefighters free naked burglar, hunt runaway hamster in Britain

UK FlagLondon- Firefighters in Britain had a couple of interesting encounters on Wednesday: a naked burglar stuck in a chimney and a runaway hamster.

The burglar had to be freed from a chimney at a supermarket in Wigan near Manchester in northern England.

The 22-year-old suspect, who had lost his clothes trying to squeeze his own way out, was treated in hospital, reports said.

Enrique’s plane forced to make emergency landing

London, October 22 : Enrique Iglesias, who was onboard a private plane, had to make an emergency pit stop owing to the plane’s engine trouble.

The Spanish singer, who was his way to Europe for the promotion of his ‘Greatest Hits’ album, reportedly had an air-scare when the jet’s engine ran into trouble and had to make an emergency landing at the Luton Airport in the UK.

The pop icon’s spokesperson reassured fans with an official statement ensuring the safety of the star and others on board.

“Yesterday Enrique Iglesias’s plane made an emergency landing at Luton Airport in the UK,” the Mirror quoted him as saying.

Britain's Atheist Bus Campaign beats funding target

London  - Britain's first atheist advertising campaign has beaten its fundraising target in its first day, media reports said Wednesday.

The campaign, which was launched by the Guardian newspaper and supported by the British Humanist Association and atheist campaigner Professor Richard Dawkins, had received pledges worth more than 28,000 pounds (46,000 dollars) by Tuesday, five times the 5,500-pound target, the Guardian and Daily Telegraph dailies reported.

The money is to be used to advertise on buses in response to a similar campaign by fundamentalist Christians in June that featured a website which said all non-Christians would burn in Hell for eternity, according to the British Humanist Association's website.

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