LONDON (Reuters) – Politicians asked the British government on Thursday about rumours that a businessman whose murder sparked political upheaval in China may have been a spy and demanded to know why it took so long for ministers to be told of suspicions about his death.

Police in China initially attributed the death of Neil Heywood, 41, in a hotel room in the southwest Chinese city of Chongqing last November to cardiac arrest due to over-consumption of alcohol.

LONDON (Reuters) – Lawmakers asked the British government on Thursday about rumors that a businessman whose murder sparked political upheaval in China may have been a spy and demanded to know why it took so long for ministers to be told of suspicions about his death.

Police in China initially attributed the death of Neil Heywood, 41, in a hotel room in the southwest Chinese city of Chongqing last November to cardiac arrest due to over-consumption of alcohol.

LONDON (Reuters) – Britain repeatedly pressed for an investigation into the death of a British businessman, whose murder sparked political upheaval in China, before Beijing agreed to look into the case, the foreign minister said on Tuesday.

A British diplomat first asked Chinese officials to investigate the death of Neil Heywood on February 15 but it was not until April 10 that the Chinese authorities informed Britain that an investigation was under way, Foreign Secretary William Hague said.

LONDON (Reuters) – Prime Minister David Cameron is expected to discuss the murder of British businessman Neil Heywood in China with a visiting senior Chinese official, an aide said on Monday, as the government faced questions over its handling of the affair.

“It’s likely to come up,” a spokeswoman for Cameron said when asked about the prime minister’s talks on Tuesday with Li Changchun, China’s propaganda chief and a member of China’s most powerful leadership body, the nine-member Politburo Standing Committee.

LONDON (Reuters) – Prime Minister David Cameron is expected to discuss the murder of British businessman Neil Heywood in China with a visiting senior Chinese official, an aide said on Monday, as the British government faced questions over its handling of the affair.

“It’s likely to come up,” a spokeswoman for Cameron said when asked about the prime minister’s talks on Tuesday with Li Changchun, China’s propaganda chief and a member of China’s most powerful leadership body, the nine-member Politburo Standing Committee.

LONDON, April 4 (Reuters) – The European Union may lift some
sanctions on Myanmar after Sunday’s elections but will keep up
pressure for the release of remaining political prisoners,
British Foreign Secretary William Hague said on Wednesday.

Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for
Democracy won 43 of 45 seats contested, sending a clear message
to a ruling party created by the former military junta that kept
her locked up for 15 years.

LONDON, April 1 (Reuters) – Thirty years after Britain and
Argentina went to war over the Falklands, relations are at their
chilliest in years as Buenos Aires launches a multi-pronged
diplomatic offensive to assert its claim to sovereignty over the
South Atlantic islands.

While a new military conflict is seen as highly unlikely,
the dispute could jeopardise Britain’s drive for closer economic
and trade ties with emerging Latin America powers such as Brazil
that it hopes will kickstart the stagnating British economy.

LONDON, March 29 (Reuters) – Iran should not doubt major
powers’ determination to stop it getting a nuclear bomb, British
Foreign Secretary William Hague said on Thursday, but he also
hinted that sanctions could be eased if Iran gave ground in a
long-running nuclear dispute.

In a major foreign policy speech, Hague also warned Syrian
President Bashar al-Assad and his allies, engaged in a bloody
crackdown on a year-long revolt, that they faced more punitive
sanctions, international isolation and possible prosecution
unless they allowed a democratic transition to unfold.

LONDON (Reuters) – Syrian athletes will be able to take part in the London Olympics this summer but any of the country’s officials covered by a European Union travel ban will not be welcome at the Games, British Prime Minister David Cameron said on Wednesday.

The presence of the Syrian delegation at the London Games starting in July is set to be controversial after more than a year of protests against President Bashar al-Assad’s rule led to violence that the United Nations says has killed 9,000 people.

LONDON, March 28 (Reuters) – Syrian athletes will be able to
take part in the London Olympics this summer but any of the
country’s officials covered by a European Union travel ban will
not be welcome at the Games, British Prime Minister David
Cameron said on Wednesday.

The presence of the Syrian delegation at the London Games
starting in July is set to be controversial after more than a
year of protests against President Bashar al-Assad’s rule led to
violence that the United Nations says has killed 9,000 people.