Britain's Army commander said in an interview published Monday that political pressure from the United States delayed the British withdrawal from the southern Iraqi city of Basra for five months.

British troops today completed their withdrawal from a base in the southern Iraqi city of Al-Basrah. An Iraqi commander, Major-General Mohan Hafedh Fahad al-Firaiji, announced that the British military handed control of the Al-Basrah Palace base to Iraqi Army troops early today.

A memorial service will take place at Guards' Chapel in London Friday to mark the tenth anniversary of the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, who died in a car crash in Paris August 30-31, 1997.

Two Russians who allegedly met with Alexander Litvinenko on the day of his poisoning will field questions at a Wednesday news conference organized by RIA Novosti and a Moscow radio station.

British authorities are testing for the outbreak of another possible case of foot and mouth disease, several kilometers from where two outbreaks were found in cattle last week.

A Moscow court has issued a new arrest warrant for a London-based Russian billionaire at the center of a diplomatic dispute between Russia and Britain.

Britain's chief vet says another suspected case of foot and mouth disease has been reported near the site of the original outbreak and a new cull of about 50 cattle has therefore been ordered.

Russia's veterinary watchdog has suspended imports of meat products from Britain as of August 6 due to the outbreak of foot and mouth disease in the country, a news release said.

The United States and Britain have circulated a new draft resolution to UN Security Council members that calls for the UN to expand its activities in Iraq to help promote political reconciliation.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and U.S. President George W. Bush concluded their talks with a brief news conference at which they pledged they will both help Iraq become stable and asserted that the relationship between their two countries will remain strong.

More than 120 actors, writers and directors have signed a letter in The Times protesting against plans to close Britain's oldest working theatre, the Bristol Old Vic, for 18 months.

Russian prosecutors have pressed new charges against billionaire and Kremlin critic Boris Berezovsky. Berezovsky, who is wanted in Russia on several other fraud charges, is now also accused of embezzling $13 million from the Russian bank SBS-Agro in 1997 to buy property on the French Riviera.