Daily News Channel
The person who leaked British lawmakers’ controversial expense claims earlier this year, triggering a national scandal, was motivated by outrage at apparent equipment shortages for British troops, a newspaper said Friday.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown refused to press Libya to pay compensation to the victims of IRA bombings, rejecting the pleas of a top human rights lawyer, previously secret letters released Sunday by Brown’s office show. “Libya has made it clear to us that they consider this matter closed,” Brown wrote in October 2008 to Jason McCue, who represents victims of bombings by the Irish Republican Army.
An oil deal and trade concerns with Libya were at one point considered as factors in the Lockerbie bomber’s release, Justice Secretary Jack Straw said in an interview published Saturday. Ultimately, convicted bomber Abdelbeset Ali Mohmed al Megrahi was released on compassionate grounds because he is dying of cancer, a decision that Scottish, British and Libyan officials have said was not linked to oil or trade
Iraqi authorities have sent additional national police brigades to the border with Syria amid heightened tensions between the two nations, Ministry of Information officials said Saturday.
British police will investigate the alleged misuse of parliamentary expenses by "a small number" of lawmakers.
Anti-secrecy campaigners have criticized a decision by UK lawmakers to censor a report on their expenses claims, some of which was leaked earlier amid huge public outcry. The online publication on Thursday is the result of a newspaper filing a freedom of information request to see the claims by MPs, but some of the information is blacked out. The redaction prompted criticism from campaigners seeking transparancy.
Like the swarms of snapping paparazzi that constantly surround them, stars of all shades are irresistibly drawn (or contractually obliged) to show face at Cannes — quite simply, when the world’s most prestigious film festival turns the wattage up to full, there’s nowhere more glamorous. The subject of Speaker Michael Martin’s speech wasn’t clear.
Britain’s justice minister became the latest politician ensnared in an escalating parliamentary expenses scandal when he decided Friday to step down. Shahid Malik will remain a member of Parliament but is stepping down from his justice minister role pending an inquiry into his controversial expense claims, the prime minister’s office said
Twenty-two people were killed and 58 others injured in a fireworks factory fire in western India, police said Saturday. The e-mails, which made a number of innuendo-laden suggestions about the private lives of politicians, including Conservative Party leader David Cameron, ended up in the hands of a well known political blogger, the Telegraph reported
A British-owned cargo ship on Monday became the latest vessel to be seized by Somali pirates in the Gulf of Aden. The 32,000-tonne Malaspina Castle was taken early on Monday and was believed to be heading towards Somalia’s pirate-infested coast, the European Union’s Horn of Africa maritime security center said. “Few details are known at this stage, but the mixed-nationality crew is believed to be safe,” a statement on the London-based organization’s Web site said