British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s office denied on Monday that it had leaked information relating to an investigation into alleged corruption in the political honours system. The Attorney General won an injunction on Friday prohibiting the BBC from publishing details of an email exchange between two of Blair’s closest aides.
Britain’s top law officer gagged a media outlet for a second time from reporting on Monday on an alleged ”bombshell” memo at the heart of a cash-for-honours row threatening Prime Minister Tony Blair. The injunction by Attorney General Lord Goldsmith against the Sun newspaper came after he took similar action against the BBC on Friday.
A preliminary hearing was set on Monday in the inquest into the deaths of Princess Diana and her lover Dodi al-Fayed. Diana (36) and Fayed (42) were killed along with chauffeur Henri Paul when their Mercedes crashed in the Pont d’Alma tunnel in on August 31 1997.
Tottenham scored in the fifth minute of injury time to win 4-3 at West Ham on Sunday and deny the Hammers’ vital points in their fight to avoid relegation. Carlos Tevez had scored his first goal for West Ham and set up two more as the last-place team led 2-0 and then 3-2 in the 85th minute before conceding two late goals.
Manchester United moved closer to the Premier League title with a dramatic 1-0 win at Liverpool on Saturday that left them nine points clear of Chelsea. The champions ground out a 2-0 victory at Portsmouth, with Didier Drogba scoring in the 33rd minute.
Moammar Gadaffi has complained that Western countries have failed to properly compensate Libya for scrapping its nuclear arms programme and as a result countries like Iran and North Korea would not follow his lead. Libya agreed in 2003 to abandon its nuclear arms programme and allow access to international weapons inspectors.
Investigations gathered pace on Thursday into whether contaminated petrol was responsible for a mysterious problem that has damaged the engines of hundreds of cars across Britain. Retailers and suppliers said they were carrying out tests on fuel but had so far found no evidence of any abnormalities.
French drugmaker Sanofi-Aventis has launched a new cheap and easy-to-take combination pill to fight malaria that could help reduce deaths from the killer disease in Africa, it said on Thursday. Sanofi will sell the drug at no profit for less than for adults and 50 cents for children under five years old.
Bowlers have been complaining that cricket is a batsmen’s game for arguably as long as the game has been played. But when it comes to the one-day format they may well have a point. Scores have rocketed in the last few years, with the nine highest totals by a team winning after batting second in limited overs international history all achieved since the turn of the century.
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/ 28 February 2007
Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson’s decision to rest several first-team players was justified as the Premiership challengers narrowly edged past Reading 3-2 to earn themselves a place in the FA Cup quarterfinals, while Middlesbrough booked their place in the next round after a nerve-racking penalty shoot-out win at West Bromwich Albion.
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/ 28 February 2007
An eight-year-old British boy who weighs 90kg will be allowed to stay with his mother after social workers decided against taking him into care on Tuesday. Connor McCreaddie, whose diet is largely made up of junk food such as chips and curry, faced being looked after by North Tyneside Council in north-east England.
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/ 27 February 2007
Arsenal and Chelsea were charged with misconduct on Tuesday over the mass brawl at the end of the League Cup final. Arsenal players Emmanuel Eboue and Emmanuel Adebayor were also separately charged by England’s Football Association for their role in the injury time melee, which marred Chelsea’s 2-1 win on Sunday in Cardiff. Three players were sent off.
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/ 27 February 2007
Tony Blair said on Tuesday he had made no decisions about his future once he quits as British prime minister, amid reports he may leave politics altogether so as not to overshadow his successor. ”It’s been a privilege to represent the people of Sedgefield,” he told his monthly news conference, referring to the constituency in north-east England where he has been an MP since 1983.
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/ 27 February 2007
People think the Anglican church is obsessed with sex in a battle over homosexuality that ”very few really want to be fighting”, Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams said on Monday. The Anglican communion, a loose federation of 38 national churches, has been split between a liberal minority and a conservative majority.
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/ 25 February 2007
Manchester United moved nine points clear of Chelsea at the top of the English Premier League on Saturday after Cristiano Ronaldo scored in the 88th minute to earn a 2-1 win at Fulham. Also on Saturday, Robbie Fowler scored two penalties in Liverpool’s 4-0 win over Sheffield United, and Charlton beat fellow strugglers West Ham 4-0.
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/ 24 February 2007
One person was killed and dozens injured, hospitals said, when a high-speed passenger train derailed on Friday, leaving carriages skidding down an embankment in remote north-west England. The train, thought to be carrying about 180 people, flew off the rails in darkness and foul weather.
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/ 23 February 2007
World oil prices rose above per barrel on Friday, gaining from news of a slide to stocks of United States gasoline and amid tensions in crude producers Iran and Nigeria that may further affect supplies. In London, the price of Brent North Sea crude for April delivery climbed 67 cents to ,29 per barrel in electronic trading.
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/ 23 February 2007
A primary school caretaker was remanded in custody on Friday on charges that he was behind a three-week spate of letter-bomb attacks that injured eight people in Britain. Banbury Magistrate’s Court, in south-central England, ordered Miles Cooper (27) held by the detention authorities until his next appearance in nearby Oxford Crown Court on March 2.
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/ 22 February 2007
Britain’s Prince Harry is to serve in Iraq with his regiment as the first British royal to see active service for 25 years, the Ministry of Defence said on Thursday. The 22-year-old, who is third in line to the throne, is a second lieutenant in the Blues and Royals regiment, which will deploy to Iraq in May and June for six to seven months. His uncle, Prince Andrew, was the last British royal to be sent to the front line.
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/ 21 February 2007
Former England captain David Beckham insisted on Wednesday that he is still hopeful of playing for his country despite his move to Los Angeles Galaxy this summer. Beckham was dropped by new manager Steve McLaren following last year’s World Cup and has so far not been used during the Euro 2008 qualifying campaign.
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/ 21 February 2007
Prime Minister Tony Blair said on Wednesday that Britain would reduce its troop levels in Iraq by 1 600 over coming months, but its soldiers would stay in the country into 2008 as long as they were wanted. The planned withdrawal comes as British troops hand over responsibility for security in Iraq’s south-eastern region to Iraqi forces.
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/ 21 February 2007
Prime Minister Tony Blair will on Wednesday announce a timetable for the withdrawal of British troops from Iraq just as thousands of additional United States troops are arriving there to try to restore order in Baghdad. Blair will make his announcement on the troop pull-out to Parliament in the afternoon, a government source said.
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/ 21 February 2007
Manchester United’s 1-0 win over Lille on Tuesday in the Champions League was marred by crowd incidents and a contentious goal. Real Madrid, however, helped ease the pressure on its coach by beating Bayern Munich 3-2. Also, PSV Eindhoven beat Arsenal 1-0 and Celtic held AC Milan to a 0-0 in the other first leg matches of the second round.
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/ 20 February 2007
Britain’s Defence Ministry on Sunday launched a rival to online auction site eBay, offering surplus and ex-government military equipment at knock-down prices. Among the items being sold are "his and hers" military uniforms, outdoor gear — mostly in camouflage green — seven light aircraft, three ships and an eight-person rowing boat.
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/ 19 February 2007
British police arrested a man in the eastern English city of Cambridge on Monday in connection with a series of letter-bomb attacks in the past few months. Police made the arrest, which they described as ”very significant” between 3am and 4am local time. They said the man was in his 20s.
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/ 19 February 2007
Robbie Keane and Dimitar Berbatov scored two goals each on Sunday to help Tottenham advance to the FA Cup quarterfinal with a 4-0 win over Fulham. Keane scored in the seventh and 68th minutes and Berbatov added goals in the 77th and 90th. Manchester City also advanced, beating League Championship team Preston 3-1.
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/ 19 February 2007
British actor Ralph Fiennes was a ”10 out of 10”, the Australian flight attendant who had sex with him on a flight to India said in an interview with the Sunday Mirror, but added that Fiennes turned his back on her in the wake of the scandal.
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/ 19 February 2007
A wave of lethal bomb attacks on police stations and other targets in Algeria recently has underscored concerns that al-Qaeda and like-minded Islamist groups are rapidly gaining strength in north Africa. While the terrorists’ immediate fight is with the pro-United States governments of Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco, their longer-term target is Western interests in the Maghreb.
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/ 19 February 2007
A good dose of motherly love may be enough to alter our genetic code, leaving us less fearful and stressed out in later life, researchers have found. The striking claim suggests that rather than our genetic blueprint being fixed before birth our bodies can tweak its biological book of instructions, allowing us to adapt more swiftly to a changing world.
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/ 18 February 2007
Arsene Wenger called for the abolition of FA Cup replays after Arsenal were held to a 0-0 draw by dogged Blackburn. The stalemate on Saturday means the north Londoners must shoe-horn a fifth round replay, on February 28, into an already bloated fixture list, which includes seven matches in the next four weeks.
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/ 16 February 2007
A British university has become the first in the country to offer a degree for funeral directors, it said on Friday. The course at Bath University, in south-west England, will cover everything from bereavement counselling to the disposal of remains. Organisers say it is necessary because traditional funerals are dying out in Britain.
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/ 14 February 2007
The United Kingdom on Wednesday rejected charges it is failing children after the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) ranked the country as the worst among 21 rich countries for children’s well-being. A government spokesperson said much of the data used by Unicef was outdated and failed to reflect recent successes in Britain.