Prime Minister Tony Blair said on Monday that he only recently became aware of some specific allegations by the Red Cross that British and American troops had abused Iraqi prisoners. British Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon told Parliament that the Red Cross has raised three issues regarding British forces.
Troubled oil group Shell intends ”to establish a material and enduring presence in Iraq” in an attempt to rebuild the firm’s depleted reserves and foster the long-term future of the country’s energy sector. The vote of confidence from Shell, which is embroiled in controversy over exaggeration of its oil reserves, came after rival BP expressed disillusionment with Iraq’s prospects.
Oil giant BP’s chief executive delivered a serious setback to hopes of rebuilding Iraq when he said that the oil company has no future there. Lord John Browne, one of British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s favourite industrialists, indicated he had given up on Iraq because the political and security situation in the country had deteriorated so much.
Catholics around the world celebrated Vocation Sunday last weekend by focusing on those who commit their working lives to the church. But many prayers were more fervent than usual after renewed predictions that the number of Catholic priests in Britain is set to halve in the next decade.
Brazil has won a landmark victory at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) that could spell the beginning of the end of rich countries’ subsidy payments to their farmers. The WTO, based in Geneva, has ruled that most of the ,5-billion of annual subsidies given by the United States government to its 25 000 cotton farmers are illegal.
If consumers in Warsaw are wary of the impact of the single market on their wallets, should Britain also be wary of the more grandiose visions of a vast trade empire of 450-million people? The population of the EU will increase by about a fifth — but its economic might will increase by somewhere between 4% and 6%.
The torture of Iraqi prisoners by United States and British soldiers is ”not an isolated incident”, the human rights organisation Amnesty International said on Friday. Responding to television pictures showing the abuse of naked Iraqi prisoners in the presence of jeering US soldiers, AI said in a statement: ”It is not enough for the USA to react only once images have hit the television screens.”
US military in torture scandal
<i>The Face</i>, the ultra-cool pop culture magazine that helped shape many trends of the 1980s and 1990s, is being closed because of poor sales, its publishers said on Friday. The British monthly launched in 1980 and stood out with its edgy take on music and fashion.
Shell deliberately misled investors about the financial health of the world’s third-largest oil company, an internal inquiry revealed last week. The Anglo-Dutch oil company sacked chairperson Sir Philip Watts and his exploration director Walter van de Vijver earlier this year after admitting it had overstated the amount of oil and gas reserves it had in the ground by more than 20%.
The family of Britain’s Princess Diana said on Thursday they were ”shocked and sickened” by the United States broadcast of paparazzi images of her dying in a Paris car crash. The fuzzy pictures, aired on Wednesday by CBS, came from a French investigation into the August 1997 crash in Paris.
Reuters, the British news and financial information provider, said on Wednesday it had seen a further improvement in trading conditions in the first quarter but cautioned the pace of recovery would slow. Reuters reported a 10,7% drop in core revenue to 598-million pounds (898-million euros, ,06-billion) in the first three months of the year.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair said on Tuesday he will call a British referendum on the European Union’s Constitution, confirming an abrupt reversal of his previous adamant opposition to such a vote. Blair’s U-turn is the most significant since he came to power in 1997.
Blair suffers first Europe defeat
There is ”little doubt” that significant numbers of big cats such as pumas and lynxes are roaming the British countryside, with more than four sightings of such beasts reported per day, a campaign group said on Tuesday. The British Big Cats Society was set up to compile evidence that such beasts live wild in the country.
The United States will this week lift economic sanctions on Libya, opening the door for US companies to bid for oil contracts. Citing US officials and diplomatic sources, the Financial Times business daily said Washington was to announce as early as Wednesday that it would end the sanctions dating from 1986.
A decorative biscuit tin picturing a couple having sex in bushes during a formal tea party, which a mischievous artist tried to sneak on to British supermarket shelves, is to be sold at auction, it was announced on Friday. The 1970s design was created for British biscuit manufacturers Huntley and Palmer.
Top makes of cellphones have a serious security flaw allowing unauthorised downloading of contacts, diary details and stored pictures, Britain’s Times reported on Wednesday. The newspaper said it had been given demonstrations of a technique for stealing the information, known as Bluesnarfing, which experts predict could have a devastating effect on Nokia and Sony Ericsson.
As the European Union prepares to open its new extension it might care to look at the cracks in the front wall. Countries across the eurozone are struggling with their public finances, high unemployment and voters who are unwilling to accept painful structural reforms of their social welfare networks and labour markets designed to make their economies more flexible.
Ghana-based mining firm Ashanti Goldfields on Thursday announced that its shareholders have voted overwhelmingly in favour of the group’s merger with South African-owned AngloGold.
The squirrel on which author Beatrix Potter based her Squirrel Nutkin a century ago is facing extinction in its home in the English Lake District, scientists studying the red squirrel said on Wednesday. Peter Lurz of Newcastle University said fewer than 1 000 of the rare Cumbrian red still survive.
On the face of it, taking the dog for a walk appears entirely unrelated to affairs of the human heart. Wearing muddy wellies and carrying a poo bag isn’t the most obvious of conditions in which to employ your skills of seduction. But a spot of flirtation adds a certain frisson to any dog walk.
British and United States intelligence agents on Tuesday claimed to have foiled a chemical terrorist attack in Britain, news reports said on Tuesday. According to the BBC, the agents believe that the people behind the plot are sympathisers of Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda terrorist network.
The BBC announced on Monday that it will phase out ties between its popular children’s television characters and fatty or sugary snack foods. Teletubbies chocolate bars, Tweenies chocolate krispies and Fimbles shortcake are to be shunned in favour of more healthy themed products.
Hopes of a breakthrough in the stalled global trade talks were dealt a blow last Friday when a leaked letter from Europe’s trade commissioner highlighted the determination of Brussels to continue its -billion- a-year support for farmers.
British music group EMI announced on Wednesday plans to outsource manufacturing of music and movie discs in Europe and the United States and remove artists from its global roster, resulting in the loss of 1 500 jobs. The world’s third-biggest music group said it would cut its artist roster by about 20%.
Eight people were arrested under Britain’s anti-terrorist laws on Tuesday in police raids in and around London. The raids also netted half a tonne of a fertiliser that could be used to make a bomb. London has been on guard against a potential attack since the Madrid train bombings.
Alistair Cooke, a broadcasting legend in his native Britain and adopted United States, has died, less than a month after he recorded his final Letter from America, BBC radio said on Tuesday. Cooke passed away at about midnight local time on Monday at his home in New York.
Major oil companies are still making secret payments to repressive regimes, one year after British Prime Minister Tony Blair put his personal authority behind a British-led voluntary disclosure code for the industry, according to a new report from London-based lobby group Global Witness published last week.
Waiting for the first shards of light to break through the night sky, the two inflatable speedboats were running without navigation lights. The lead boat flashed a torch twice, and the two ribs powered up and began cutting through the swell of the English Channel.
First it was the fridge mountain, then it was the tyre mountain. Now discarded computers have got environmentalists worried. According to a new study, the world’s relentless appetite for buying new computers — and the ease with which we throw out old ones — is having a major impact on the environment.
Oil prices fell on Tuesday as investors rushed to cash in a day after prices spurted to a post-Iraq war high when OPEC indicated it would shun importers’ calls to scrap a planned cut in output. The price of reference North Sea crude oil for April delivery lost 40c to .40 per barrel in early deals here.
The hungrier you are the more sensitive the taste of sweet and salty food, scientists say. Simply skipping breakfast is enough to make the brain more sensitive to sweet and salty tastes — and could explain why dieting is so difficult.
The blasts in Spain that killed nearly 200 people could illustrate a trend towards "spectacular" attacks, with terrorist groups adopting tactics proven to cause mass casualties, British experts said on Friday.
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