News In Brief

Key British ports closed in strike tied to mine issue

Authorities said key British ports were shut down Tuesday as dockworkers began a nationwide strike, their first in 12 years, in a dispute linked to the 17-week-old walkout by coal miners.

London, Liverpool, Manchester, Southampton, Bristol, Cardiff, Glasgow, and most of the country's smaller ports were at a standstill after leaders of the Transport and General Workers Union ordered the union's 35,000 longshoremen off the docks.

Authorities at the English Channel ports of Dover and Folkestone reported that passenger and vehicle ferries, crowded during the summer with holiday traffic, were running normally so far.