London’s buses and underground trains will remain vulnerable to terrorist attacks for a long time, the city’s transport chiefs said. Those working to protect the British capital’s transport network "have not found the magic formula any more than Madrid, New York, Tel Aviv or Paris", said Tim O’Toole, managing director of London Underground.
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Portuguese winger Cristiano Ronaldo, criticised for his role in Wayne Rooney’s sending off at the World Cup, won’t be back at Manchester United and can expect payback from the star England striker in the future. Quoting an unnamed source, The Sun newspaper reported on Monday that Rooney threatened to ”split him in two” when the two next meet.
The second week of Wimbledon will be a virtually American-free zone after Andy Roddick and Venus Williams joined Andre Agassi in crashing out before the halfway stage. The unexpectedly early demise of defending champion Williams and Roddick, a beaten finalist in the last two years, left the unheralded Shenay Perry to fly the Stars and Stripes on her own.
It will be cheaper to make love in Britain from Saturday thanks to a reduction in sales tax on condoms announced by the Treasury on Friday. Value-added tax on condoms and other non-prescription contraceptive products will be 5%, rather than the standard 17,5%, "leading to immediate reductions in the prices paid by consumers", it said in a statement.
Roger Federer was left with a clear run to a fourth successive Wimbledon final on Friday when danger men David Nalbandian and James Blake both crashed out in the third round. Argentinian fourth seed Nalbandian, one of just four men to have beaten Federer since the start of 2005, was dismissed by Spanish 28th seed Fernando Verdasco 7-6 (11/9), 7-6 (11/9), 6-2.
Lleyton Hewitt breathed a huge sigh of relief on Friday after keeping his Wimbledon campaign alive by completing a marathon five-set victory over South Korea’s Lee Hyung-Taik. In total, the Australian was on court for five minutes short of four hours — far from ideal preparation for Saturday’s third-round meeting with Belgian Olivier Rochus.
Andre Agassi and Maria Sharapova showed why they have the right to call themselves Wimbledon champions as they cruised into the last 32 of the men’s and women’s singles on Thursday. Veteran showman Agassi, taking his final bow at the All England Club, looked far less rusty than he had done in a laboured first-round win over Boris Pashanski.
Last week, the Virtual Global Taskforce, formed by police agencies around the world, secured its first conviction in the United Kingdom. Lee Costi, a 21-year-old student from Surrey, was found guilty of raping two underage girls and sentenced to nine years in prison. He was caught after a Nottinghamshire mother alerted police to online conversations he was having with her 14-year-old daughter.
A 31-year-old woman who wounded a British soldier with her stiletto heel after he tried to break up a row was ordered on Wednesday to pay him £170 in compensation. Mark McCay (23) was taken to hospital with a bloody cut after he was hit on the head by Lisa Ashworth’s shoe in the early hours of July 1 2004.
With a punnet of strawberries in one hand and a glass of Pimms in the other, tennis-mad tourists from as far away as Japan, China and even Australia are out in force at Wimbledon this week. The foreign supporters, who also include a strong United States contingent, cheer on their fellow countrymen and women, while soaking up the atmosphere.
Maria Sharapova and Venus Williams cruised through to the Wimbledon second round on Wednesday with such ease that their argument for equal prize money was left looking decidedly unconvincing. Russian pin-up Sharapova, the 2004 champion, took only 51 minutes to see off Israeli veteran Anna Smashnova 6-2, 6-0.
Margaret Beckett, Britain’s first female Foreign Secretary, revealed on Wednesday that she uttered a rather undiplomatic swear word when Prime Minister Tony Blair offered her the job last month. Pressed on whether the word began with "f" or "s", she admitted it was an "f".
Martina Hingis breezed to victory on Tuesday in her first match back at Wimbledon, five years after her last appearance here and nine years on since the Swiss star won the title as a 16-year-old. Despite the 6-2, 6-2 margin, the 12th seed was made to work hard by Ukrainian Olga Savchuk in the rain-disrupted match, which was carried over from Monday.
Roger Federer’s bid for a fourth successive Wimbledon title got off to a whirlwind start on Monday only to be stalled by the fickle London weather. Only 35 minutes of play were possible on centre court while none of the 64 scheduled first-round matches were completed.
Author JK Rowling said two characters will die in the last instalment of her boy wizard series, and she hinted Harry Potter might not survive either. ”I have never been tempted to kill him off before the final because I’ve always planned seven books, and I want to finish on seven books,” Rowling said in an interview on Monday.
A British man arrested in Morocco in connection with Britain’s biggest-ever cash robbery is a well-known cage fighter with his own website, police said on Monday. Lee ”Lightning” Murray (26) from Sidcup in south London was detained in the Moroccan capital Rabat on Sunday over the daring heist four months ago at a Securitas warehouse in Tonbridge.
Venus Williams admitted on Sunday that it will be a strange experience when she opens her title defence at Wimbledon this year without sister Serena by her side. Serena is absent with a knee injury and has played just four matches since last year’s US Open, three of them at the Australian Open in January.
Roger Federer insisted on Sunday that a fourth successive title rather than breaking records is motivating him ahead of Wimbledon. Swiss ace Federer (24) can become only the third player in the open era to win Wimbledon four times in a row if he triumphs again at the All England club championships, which start on Monday.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair is to try to push poverty reduction back onto the group of eight (G8) agenda in a speech on Monday, warning it will take "hard work for years to come" to tackle extreme poverty in Africa. Blair was expected to restate his commitment to the aims set out last year at the G8 summit in Gleneagles, Scotland.
A London hospital that holds the copyright to Peter Pan has questioned the appropriateness of a series of books that portrays the character Wendy exploring her sexuality. The works, Lost Girls, by graphic novellist Alan Moore, are about three world-famous girl characters.
Pro-hunting campaigners lost their latest legal bid to overturn the ban on hunting with dogs in England and Wales on Friday. They had asked the Court of Appeal to rule that the ban infringed European Union trading and employment regulations and breached the European Convention on Human Rights.
The rand fell on Friday to the lowest point against the United States dollar since January 2004, a day after the South African government announced a multi-year record deficit for the country’s current account. In European trade in London, the rand fell as low as $0,1328 — a level last seen on January 16 2004. By early afternoon in London, it stood at $0,1331.
Feeling more happy than usual this particular Friday? You should be, according to a scholar in seasonal disorders at a British university. Cliff Arnall has analysed such factors as outdoor activities, nature, social interaction, childhood memories, temperature and holidays — data gathered over a period of 15 years in interviews with 3Â 000 people around the world.
Britain’s Office of Fair Trading (OFT) said on Thursday it was investigating ”alleged price coordination” related to the imposition of fuel surcharges within the airline sector and that it had visited British Airways (BA) as part of the probe. BA earlier announced that the OFT and the United States Department of Justice were investigating alleged cartel activity involving it and other airlines.
Chelsea face a tough opening to their bid for a hat-trick of Premiership titles after being handed three potentially tricky fixtures for the start of the 2006-07 season. Flying starts have been a feature of Chelsea’s last two successful campaigns. Last season, Jose Mourinho’s side began with nine straight wins and did not concede a goal in their first six.
Apparently more at ease with patrol than petrol, blundering London police officers filled up their vehicles with the wrong fuel 150 times last year, the Metropolitan Police Authority said on Tuesday. The gaffes were revealed in its latest figures on driving safety.
Baboons at a British safari park are making a monkey of England World Cup fans by stealing the flags from their cars, the park’s bosses said on Wednesday. The animals have amassed a huge collection of the red-on-white St George’s cross flags at Knowsley Safari Park near Liverpool, north-west England.
The United States Central Intelligence Agency warned the British government in 2003 about one of the suicide bombers who launched attacks in London two years later, according to a new book by a US intelligence specialist. The CIA warned that Mohammed Sidique Khan was that year planning attacks on synagogues on the East Coast of the United States.
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England’s newspapers shrugged off concerns about the national side’s lacklustre World Cup form on Friday as they celebrated qualification for the second round and Wayne Rooney’s return to action. Rooney played only a marginal role in England’s late, late 2-0 win over minnows Trinidad and Tobago in Nuremberg on Thursday.
The British government said on Thursday that it was willing to jail former Liberian president Charles Taylor if he is convicted of war crimes. Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett said that the decision, which breaks an impasse that has stalled Taylor’s trial, demonstrated ”through concrete action the United Kingdom’s commitment to international justice”.
Amicus, one of Britain’s biggest trade unions, is offering workers tips about how to take time off work to watch World Cup football without damaging their employment prospects. ”So you want to watch the World Cup, but you are meant to be at work when it’s on: can you play away or is the risk of permanent relegation from your job too high?” Amicus said on its website.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said on Tuesday he has given a green light to a transfer of weapons to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s personal security force so it can tackle Hamas. The light weapons, from Jordan, are to enable Abbas "to cope with Hamas", the hard-line Islamist group that leads the Palestinian government, Olmert said.