London

British Prime Minister Tony Blair said Britain would urge the European Union to impose tougher sanctions on Zimbabwe, describing the situation there as ”appalling, disgraceful and utterly tragic”. ”We will press the EU to widen the political sanctions that were introduced in 2002 …,” Blair told Parliament during his weekly question-and-answer session.

Ten members of the Movement for Democratic Change were arrested on Wednesday after staging a sit-in protest at the Zimbabwean embassy in London, the Metropolitan Police said. ”There have been a total of 10 arrests for trespass on a diplomatic premises: seven men and three women,” a spokesman said.

Fast food giant McDonald’s is set to begin a campaign to redefine "McJob" entries in British dictionaries, which it believes are both incorrect and insulting to its workers, the <i>Financial Times</i> reported on Tuesday. "We believe that it is out of date, out of touch with reality and, most importantly, it is insulting …," wrote David Fairhurst, the company’s chief people officer in northern Europe.

Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe is using ”hit squads” to crack down on opposition politicians and activists, Movement for Democratic Change leader Morgan Tsvangirai said in an interview. ”Mugabe is a violent man and he doesn’t hide it, especially where his power is threatened … No excuses, no regrets, the defiance epitomises his attitude,” said Tsvangirai.

Aston Villa held Liverpool to a 0-0 draw on Sunday in the Premier League and Charlton improved their chances of avoiding relegation with a 2-0 victory over Newcastle. Fourth-placed Liverpool nearly earned all three points at Villa Park but goalkeeper Thomas Sorensen pushed substitute Robbie Fowler’s header around the post in the 88th minuted.

A passenger in first class woke up to a shock when he found himself sitting near a corpse on a British Airways flight, British newspapers reported. Paul Trinder (54) said cabin crew moved the body of the woman from the economy section where she had died after take-off, the Mirror and Sun tabloids said.

David Beckham insists he’s going to Major League Soccer to increase the game’s popularity in the United States. ”I know it’s never going to be as big as American football, basketball or baseball, but I believe I can help take it to a higher level,” Beckham was quoted as saying in Friday’s edition of Sport magazine.

The international community should take a "far tougher line" against Sudan over atrocities in Darfur to prevent extremism spreading across Africa, British Prime Minister Tony Blair said on Thursday. In an interview on Sky News television, Blair offered a robust defence of his views on combating radicalism and said countries need to act to prevent future security threats.

Prime Minister Tony Blair’s likely successor will not reverse a decision to replace Britain’s nuclear deterrent, despite dissent in the governing Labour Party, a senior party official said on Thursday. A parliamentary vote on the issue on Wednesday saw 87 Labour lawmakers vote against government plans to renew the submarine-based Trident missile system.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair said on Wednesday he was ”sorry” for his country’s role in the slave trade. Blair has previously expressed ”deep sorrow” for slavery, abolished within the British empire 200 years ago, but has been criticised by black rights organisations for not going further.

A fund to help Africa overcome obstacles to trade and investment is set to launch its first projects in East Africa after strong backing from corporate donors, officials said on Tuesday. The Investment Climate Facility (ICF) said latest contributors to the fund included Microsoft and South Africa’s Standard Bank.

Five members of a British embassy group missing for two weeks in a remote part of Ethiopia have been released and are safe and well, British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett said on Tuesday.

The English Football Association announced on Monday that it would not be taking any action against Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho after he called referee Mike Riley a ”son of a whore”. Television cameras picked up Mourinho telling Riley he was a ”filho da puta” during an altercation at half-time in Chelsea’s 3-3 draw with Tottenham in the FA Cup quarterfinal on Sunday.

Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho found himself engulfed by controversy once again on Monday after television microphones apparently caught him calling referee Mike Riley a ”son of a whore” in Portuguese during Sunday’s FA Cup tie against Tottenham Hotspur.

FW De Klerk, in an interview with Britain’s Sunday Telegraph newspaper, said that non-black people in South Africa feel like ”second-class” citizens. ”… affirmative action has led to a substantial percentage of not only Afrikaners, but of all whites and coloureds and Indians feeling that their groups are being reduced to a sort of second-class citizenship,” he told the paper.

An English police force faced a civil lawsuit on Thursday from a young woman who was punched five times by a police officer as he arrested her during a scuffle outside a nightclub last year. The South Yorkshire Police in northern England defended the conduct of the officer.

The British Ministry of Defence said on Wednesday it would investigate claims of racist behaviour towards black Commonwealth soldiers serving in the British Army. The move comes as Belize-born Marlon Clancy announced he was setting up an independent union for 6 000 Commonwealth soldiers in the army to help them deal with racism.

British police are probing whether a key aide to Prime Minister Tony Blair tried to ”shape evidence” in a cash-for-honours investigation clouding his last months in office, a report said on Tuesday. The Guardian newspaper report came despite efforts to gag the media from reporting the contents of an alleged email thought to be central to the inquiry.