United Kingdom

The number of countries with a top-notch sovereign credit rating fell to the lowest level in 13 years last year, the international rating agency Fitch said on Feb. 9.

"The number of Fitch-rated sovereigns with 'AAA' ratings is at its lowest level since 2003 and is expected to remain unchanged over the next two years," Fitch said in a statement.     

British travel group Thomas Cook said on Feb. 9 that demand for holidays in Egypt is picking up again, after unrest in the North African nation had pushed holidaymakers into choosing rival sun spots.

According to UK government sources, twice as many Albanians have been caught as stowaways at UK ports than any other nationality.
Approximately 981 Albanian illegal immigrants were arrested at UK ports from 2008 until mid-2016.
This information was released to the newspaper The Guardian by the Home Office statistics under the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act.

A majority of Europeans want a ban on immigration from Muslim-majority countries, a poll has revealed.
An average of 55 per cent of people across the 10 European countries surveyed wanted to stop all future immigration from mainly Muslim countries.

A Pew research showed that Greeks were the people that considered their religious faith an integral part of their national identity. To the question “Being a Christian is very important for being truly a (country/nationality)”, 54% Greeks responded that their religion was tied to their country/nationality, with the Poles coming a distant second with 34%.

Russia has imposed a temporary ban on poultry imports from 15 European countries, including Bulgaria, over risk of bird flu.

Serbia and Kosovo should swap territories in order to achieve a lasting peace, the former British ambassador to Yugoslavia, Sir Ivor Roberts, said on Tuesday at the launch in London's LSE of his book "Conversations with Milosevic".

Donald Trump’s possible choice for US ambassador to the EU, Ted Malloch, is in favor of a Greek exit from the eurozone, which he believes is something that will happen at Athens’s request in a year or a year-and-a-half from now.

The talks between the Greek and Turkish sides in Cyprus have come to such a stage that it is time for the United Nations to resume shuttle diplomacy, according to Mustafa Akıncı, the president of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.

United Nations special envoy for Cyprus Espen Barth Eide was in Ankara on Feb. 7 to hold talks with Turkish officials over the ongoing peace talks to bring a lasting solution to the eastern Mediterranean island. 

Eide first held talks with Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu on Feb. 7. He was later scheduled to meet Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım.