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Pakistan Cricket Board chairperson Nasim Ashraf has denied the Pakistan cricket team were involved in any kind of match fixing or corruption, Sky Sports website reported on Monday, as the Bob Woolmer murder investigation continued. Investigators are studying videos from the hotel in Kingston, Jamaica, where Pakistan coach Woolmer was staying at the time of his murder.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair welcomed a power-sharing deal reached on Monday by Northern Ireland’s main Protestant and Catholic political parties. ”This is a very important day for the people of Northern Ireland … In a sense everything we’ve done in the last 10 years has been a preparation for this moment,” he said.
Anglo-Swiss mining company Xstrata has made a friendly cash bid worth 4,6-billion Canadian dollars for nickel producer LionOre Mining International, the groups said in a joint statement on Monday. The offer for the Canadian group, worth -billion or €3-billion, comes as the price of nickel strikes record high points.
The prospect of a first-ever meeting between rival Northern Irish leaders on Monday raised hopes for a last-ditch power-sharing deal in the province, albeit delayed, hours before a crunch deadline. Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Hain admitted the midnight Monday deadline [local time] could slip by a few weeks.
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Detectives investigating the murder of Pakistan’s cricket coach, Bob Woolmer, say they are actively pursuing the possibility that match-fixing of one or more of the World Cup games may have provided the motive for his killing. Earlier, it emerged that the entire Pakistan team was swabbed for DNA samples on Friday amid concern that the team was being singled out for police attention.
As many countries prepare to change the clocks on Sunday, one British newspaper cheekily suggested we should ditch the idea — and make it GMT everywhere around the world. Greenwich Mean Time is the local time in Britain during the winter and is used across the globe as the time of reference.
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The cricket world was in a state of shock on Friday after it emerged that Pakistan’s coach Bob Woolmer was murdered in his hotel room after the team’s World Cup defeat to Ireland. Jamaican police said that a post-mortem examination established that the former England player had died as a result of ”manual strangulation”.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair on Thursday ratcheted up the pressure on Sudan to halt the bloodshed in Darfur by calling for tough new United Nations sanctions. In a letter to German Chancellor Angela Merkel, whose country currently holds the rotating European Union presidency, Blair said that "enough is enough".
Health experts see a glimmer of hope in the fight against tuberculosis (TB) for the first time since the disease’s spread was declared a global emergency more than a decade ago. But although global TB rates are levelling off, the emergence of drug-resistant versions of the disease is complicating control efforts.
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The widow of late Pakistan cricket coach Bob Woolmer on Thursday said there was a ”possibility” her husband was murdered. In an interview with Britain’s Sky News television from her home in South Africa, Gill Woolmer was asked about claims her husband was murdered after he was found unconscious in a hotel room in Jamaica and later died in hospital.
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.
British Finance Minister Gordon Brown announced on Wednesday that he would cut the basic rate of income tax in Britain from 22% to 20% in April 2008. Brown, outlining what is widely seen as his final budget before becoming prime minister later this year, added that it was "the lowest basic rate for 75 years" in Britain.
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.
Investment fund TCI tried to spark a bidding war for Dutch group ABN Amro on Tuesday, seizing on marriage talks by British bank Barclays with an invitation to other banks to make offers. ABN Amro and Barclays revealed overnight that they were in ”exclusive” talks to create a vast global bank with complementary interests around the world.
Chelsea won 2-1 at Tottenham and Manchester United edged Middlesbrough 1-0 on Monday to reach the FA Cup semifinals. Second-half goals by Andriy Shevchenko and Shaun Wright-Phillips put Chelsea ahead in a quarterfinal replay at White Hart Lane before Robbie Keane replied for Spurs from the penalty spot.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Chelsea beat Manchester City 1-0 on Wednesday to close within six points of English Premier League leaders Manchester United. Frank Lampard converted a penalty in the 28th minute for his 20th goal of the season after winger Salomon Kalou was fouled by defender Micah Richards.
European and Asian stocks dropped on Wednesday after Wall Street chalked its second-biggest point decline in four years and rattled already nervous markets worldwide. The tumble came just as international markets were recovering from sharp declines earlier this month.
Billionaire George Soros pledged -million on Wednesday to fight a deadly strain of tuberculosis in Africa. Since an outbreak of extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis (XDR-TB) was identified in South Africa last year, health experts have repeatedly issued dire warnings about the disease’s spread across the continent.
Manchester United turned David Beckham into an international superstar and on Tuesday he bid an emotional farewell to Old Trafford before he quits European soccer for the United States. Beckham joined United in 1991 at 16, debuted the next year, and transferred in 2003 to Real Madrid.
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.
Ford has agreed to sell its iconic Aston Martin brand for just more than £470-million (R6,65-billion) to a British-led consortium, the United States firm said on Monday. The luxury car maker is famous for its long-running association with the James Bond blockbuster films.
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.