Prime Minister Tony Blair’s spin doctors mounted a novel defence on Tuesday after schoolchildren appeared to boo the premier on a pre-election visit, explaining they were actually chanting "boom", an arcane term of approval in British youth slang. Slang expert Tony Thorne said "boom" is a term signifying "approval or delight".
Britain’s state-owned postal service has found a novel cure for rampant absenteeism among staff, according to a report on Tuesday — tempting malingerers back with the chance of winning a car. Since the Royal Mail started the incentive scheme six months ago, attendance levels have risen by more than 10%.
Chelsea will have to wait at least till Saturday’s match with Bolton to claim their first title in 50 years after a Jose-Antonio Reyes goal gave Arsenal a 1-0 victory over North London rivals Spurs on Monday. It leaves Arsenal with a mathematical chance of overhauling Chelsea, but they have to win their last four matches and hope Chelsea lose all theirs.
Britain’s Prince Harry was put ”at risk” by photographers who pursued him and a girlfriend as they travelled in a jeep while on safari in Botswana, royal officials said on Monday. Aides to the 20-year-old prince have raised the issue with Britain’s Press Complaints Commission.
British campaigners are to mark a global anti-television week in novel fashion, they announced on Monday — sending out a stream of activists armed with gadgets that switch off any sets within a 7m radius. The campaign is to remove television "pollution" from public areas such as pubs and bars.
In a new twist in the debate over outsourcing, about half a million exam papers from Britain’s main secondary school leaving certificate are to be graded in India to save money. The Daily Telegraph said that the wages paid in India to the people who marked the exam papers were a fifth of what would have been paid in Britain.
British soccer ace David Beckham and his popstar wife Victoria are considering taking legal action over a newspaper story about their marriage, a spokesperson for the couple said on Sunday. The Beckhams failed late on Saturday to win a court order barring the News of the World from publishing allegations by the pair’s former nanny, Abbie Gibson.
Wayne Rooney scored to help Manchester United to a 2-1 win over Newcastle in the Premier League on Sunday — their second win over the Magpies in as many weeks. In Sunday’s other match, Lomano LuaLua scored twice in five minutes as Portsmouth beat Southampton 4-1 to keep their local rival bottom of the standings.
Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho insists he does not want to win the title just yet, despite his side moving to within one result of the Premiership crown following Staurday’s 3-1 win against Fulham. Everton earned a 1-1 draw at home to Birmingham, while city rivals Liverpool slumped to a dismal 1-0 defeat at Crystal Palace.
Pernod Ricard launched a much-anticipated takeover for its larger British rival Allied Domecq on Friday in a 7,4-billion pound deal that will make the combined entity the second-largest liquor company and a more serious challenger to world leader Diageo.
Patients are mimicking the illnesses suffered by their favourite soap and television stars, a British survey suggested on Thursday. More than nine out of 10 doctors claimed to have seen patients reporting symptoms based on what they had seen on TV or read in newspapers, the research claimed.
The parents of a critically ill baby on Thursday lost their battle to overturn a British court order allowing her to die if her condition seriously worsens and her breathing stops. High Court Justice Sir Mark Hedley upheld an earlier ruling giving doctors permission not to resuscitate Charlotte Wyatt, now 18 months old, in such circumstances.
Defending champions Arsenal slowed Chelsea’s charge to their first league title for 50 years with a 0-0 tie at Stamford Bridge on Wednesday. Other results included Liverpool winning 2-1 at Portsmouth; Norwich beating Newcastle 2-1; Aston Villa and Charlton tied 0-0; and Blackburn edging Crystal Palace 1-0.
Bankrupt British carmaker MG Rover, which last week axed 5 000 jobs at its central England car factory, more than doubled its financial losses during 2004, The Times newspaper said on Wednesday, quoting administration sources. The losses related to the group’s car-making and engine divisions, the daily said.
A photograph allegedly of Britain’s worst serial killer in the nude is up for grabs on internet auction site eBay, where it had attracted bids of up to £850 (about R10 000) by Tuesday. The picture shows family doctor Harold Shipman — also known as "Doctor Death" — lying down naked, claims the seller.
Southampton climbed out of the bottom three, albeit on goal difference, after Kevin Phillips scored in a 1-1 Premier League draw away to Bolton on Tuesday that frustrated the hosts’ Champions League ambitions. In Tuesday’s other match, FA Cup final referee Rob Styles was at the centre of controversy.
A driver in Britain suffered a broken nose on Monday after a frozen sausage was thrown through an open window of his car, an ambulance official said. The 46-year-old man was driving near his home in south-east England, when the "bizarre incident" occurred, said a spokesperson for the Essex ambulance service.
British voters opposed to the occupation of Iraq, the privatisation of public services and the shameful inequality of Britain in 2005 face a problem at next month’s election. Who should they vote for? In most constituencies, they will have no one to vote for because none of the three main parties will be offering a meaningful alternative on what are central issues in political and social life.
Ashley Cole’s future at Arsenal is still in doubt after the England left-back, already involved in an approach to Chelsea, refused to commit himself to Arsenal for next season. ”It’s just hard for me to say at the moment,” he said after Arsenal’s FA Cup semifinal victory over Blackburn in Cardiff.
Jonny Wilkinson has vowed to make the British Lions tour of New Zealand in June. ”I’ll be there,” he told The Daily Mail on Monday. Lions coach Clive Woodward has put the England flyhalf, who has not played international rugby since his drop goal gave England World Cup glory 17 months ago, on stand-by.
Less than three months before the vote, the five cities vying for the 2012 Summer Games are getting a chance to make their pitches to a big Olympic audience. Paris, London, New York, Madrid and Moscow are sending high-level delegations to a conference in Berlin this weekend to present their bids to Olympic sports federations leaders.
A British grandmother scared a burglar away by hurling a garden gnome at the intruder who was consequently arrested by police, reports said on Friday. Sixty-nine-year-old Jean Collop was woken early on Tuesday morning by the sound of an intruder on the roof of her home in Wadebridge, Cornwall.
BP was forced to defend its environmental policy last week after it admitted its production of greenhouse gases increased last year. The world’s second-biggest quoted oil producer produced more than 85-million tonnes of greenhouse gases in 2004, up from 83,4-million tonnes in the previous year, according to the company’s green report published last week.
Rich countries need to increase the amount of aid given to poor nations even though the level reached last year was a record high, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development said this week. At the same time, the World Bank and International Monetary Fund have called on rich nations to act boldly this year if global poverty is to be reduced, especially in sub-Saharan Africa.
As hopes that the next pope will come from Africa were increasingly dismissed as unlikely last week, and Nigeria’s Cardinal Francis Arinze was criticised as not being a strong enough contender, a dark-horse candidate, capable of bridging the divide between the Europeans and the Latin American Roman Catholic cardinals, appeared to be emerging in the shape of the Patriarch of Portugal, Jose da Cruz Policarpo.
Saddam Hussein’s effigy was pulled down again in Baghdad’s Firdos Square last weekend. But unlike the made-for-TV event when United States troops first entered the Iraqi capital, the toppling of Hussein on the occupation’s second anniversary was different. 300 000 Iraqis were on hand, and they threw down effigies of US President George W Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair as well.
Attention this weekend turns to the FA Cup and the battle for survival in the Premiership. With Chelsea 11 points clear with six games to go, Arsenal, who take on Blackburn, and Manchester United, who face Newcastle, know that the Cup offers them their only remaining chance of silverware this season.
It was one of those heartwarming Lassie moments. Lacey the golden Labrador survived a 30m fall down a cliff when her friend Sheena, a black Labrador, raised the alarm, coast guards in Wales said on Tuesday. Lacey became trapped after slipping down a rocky slope near South Stack, in Holyhead, north Wales, on Monday.
Margaret Thatcher, the former British prime minister, has made a rare public appearance for her beloved Conservative Party — at a glitzy London lap-dancing club. Thatcher (79), toting her trademark handbag, turned up on Sunday at Stringfellow’s for a Tory fund-raising event ahead of the May 5 general election.
Britain has imposed a year-long ban on delivering first-time visas to Nigerians aged 18 to 30, citing a backlog of applications, most of which are rejected. From Monday, Nigerians seeking to travel to Britain for the first time will be asked to ”postpone their plans until 2006”, the British Foreign Office said.
Tim Cahill scored two goals on Sunday to lead fourth-place Everton over Crystal Palace 4-0 and help West Bromwich Albion move out of the Premier League’s relegation zone for the first time in five months. Cahill scored in the 47th and 55th minutes at Goodison Park. He first sent a rising volley into the net and later headed in another goal.
The ceremony went smoothly, the guests were all smiles and the couple’s jitters seemed sweetly endearing. As Prince Charles and his bride, now Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, began their married life Sunday on a Scottish honeymoon, even Britain’s hypercritical press stopped carping long enough to join in the good will.