Hundreds of public bodies in the United Kingdom are to be given the power to access details of everyone’s personal SMS, email and internet use.
The BBC is about to take the reality game show format to a new low – by asking the public to vote on whether individual asylum seekers should be thrown out of the country, reports Alan Travis.
British Home Secretary Charles Clarke on Wednesday broadened Britain’s response to the 7/7 bombings in London with plans to allow him to exclude or deport from Britain Islamist militants whose inflammatory language or behaviour is judged to foment or provoke terrorism. His announcement immediately preceded another wave of attacks on London transport.
Afghanistan is on the verge of becoming a ”narcotic state” with its biggest annual crop of opium since the overthrow of the Taliban, the United Nations drug control board warned last week. The increase is a blow to British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who said in 2000 that the war against the Taliban was an opportunity to eradicate the poppy harvest, which is the source of three-quarters of all the world’s heroin.
The Eurosceptic United Kingdom Independence Party (Ukip) vote looks set to become a permanent feature of the British political landscape but is likely to lead to a third-term Labour victory by default, according to a Guardian/ICM poll. The poll confirms that Ukip did the most damage to the Tory vote in the Euro elections.
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/ 27 February 2004
South Africa this week emerged as the second African country with which the United Kingdom’s Home Office has started talks to take failed asylum seekers from Britain as part of a concerted drive to step up immigration removals and deportations.
A fresh exodus of Afghan refugees could be triggered as early as next month if the United Nations agency assisting in their resettlement runs out of funds and is forced to suspend its aid programme, Western donor nations are being warned.