The Agonist - United Kingdom

Muslims feel like 'Jews of Europe'

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 17:52:04 -0700

Cahal Milmo | July 4

Independent -

Britain's first Muslim minister has attacked the growing culture of hostility against Muslims in the United Kingdom, saying that many feel targeted like "the Jews of Europe".

Shahid Malik, who was appointed as a minister in the Department for International Development (Dfid) by Gordon Brown last summer, said it has become legitimate to target Muslims in the media and society at large in a way that would be unacceptable for any other minority.

Mr Malik made clear that he was not equating the situation with the Holocaust but warned that many British Muslims now felt like "aliens in their own country". He said he himself had been the target of a string of racist incidents, including the firebombing of his family car and an attempt to run him down at a petrol station.

"I think most people would agree that if you ask Muslims today what do they feel like, they feel like the Jews of Europe," he said. "I don't mean to equate that with the Holocaust but in the way that it was legitimate almost – and still is in some parts – to target Jews, many Muslims would say that we feel the exact same way.

Signs of the times: hard facts from two business giants

Wed, 02 Jul 2008 00:53:18 -0700

Russell Lynch & Matt Dickinson, PA | July 2

The Independent - Two major announcements - from retail giant Marks & Spencer and Britian's biggest house builder Taylor Wimpey - raised fears today that the UK is heading for full-blown recession.

M&S has been bucking the downward trend, but warned today that consumer confidence "deteriorated markedly" in the first three months of its financial year.

And embattled housebuilder Taylor Wimpey today confirmed it was axing 900 jobs to help cope with a "significant downturn" in business.

Both saw their share prices fall, with M&S seeing an early 17pc drop and Taylor Wimpey plummeting about 50 per cent.

US removes its nuclear arms from Britain

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 05:00:48 -0700

Julian Borger | June 26

The Guardian - The US has removed its nuclear weapons from Britain, ending a contentious presence spanning more than half a century, a report will say today. According to the study by the Federation of American Scientists, the last 110 American nuclear weapons on UK soil were withdrawn from RAF Lakenheath in Suffolk on the orders of President George Bush.

The report's author, Hans Kristensen, one of the leading experts on Washington's nuclear arsenal, said the move had happened in the past few years, but had only come to light yesterday.

He described the withdrawal of the B-61 "freefall", or "gravity", bombs as part of a general strategic shift since the end of the cold war.

"The northern front is not very relevant any more for these deployments. The US nuclear posture is almost entirely focused on the southern region, in Incirlik [in Turkey] and Aviano [in Italy]."

Kristensen's report is posted today here.

From arms deals in Africa to oil speculation in China - the mercenary world of Mark Thatcher

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 20:49:18 -0700

Kim Sengupta | June 26

Independent - Mark Thatcher, say those who know him, has always liked two things: the limelight and wealth. But in the recent past the former prime minister's son has been remarkably elusive, hiding his money-making activities from the public eye, keeping away from the minor celebrity events which were once his regular haunts.

Perhaps it is not surprising. He is on the run from Equatorial Guinea and the safest place for him at the moment is Spain's Costa del Sol – the infamous bolthole of Englishmen who have issues with the law.

But The Independent has established that his new-found reticence has not stopped Sir Mark from staying in the oil business, a venture, he declares, he finds hugely lucrative. Like most enterprises he has taken part in the exact details of what he does are rather hazy: "Oil futures", he would say airily when someone asks. "..

Official warning: Measles 'endemic' in Britain

Sat, 21 Jun 2008 06:25:55 -0700

Jeremy Laurance | June 21

Independent - Measles has become endemic in Britain, 14 years after its spread was halted in the resident population, the country's public health watchdog says.

The Health Protection Agency (HPA) warned that the number of unvaccinated children was now large enough to sustain the "continuous spread" of the potentially lethal virus in the community. It blamed a failure by parents over the past 10 years to give their children the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine.

This has resulted in vaccine rates falling below the level necessary to prevent the disease becoming established in the general population.

UK tops world table of weapons sales

Sat, 21 Jun 2008 02:51:12 -0700

Rob Evans & Richard Norton-Taylor | June 21

The Guardian - A controversial deal with Saudi Arabia catapulted Britain to the top of the world arms export league last year, as UK firms won a record £10bn in orders from overseas, official figures show.

The figure amounts to a third of all worldwide export orders for military equipment, ministers and arms companies reported. An essentially political, government-to-government contract - the sale of 72 Eurofighter/Typhoon aircraft, for £4.4bn, to the Saudis - accounted for Britain's number one position, the figures make clear.

The Ministry of Defence says the terms of the contract - called Salam, Arabic for peace - and the total expenditure involved are confidential. But officials make it clear that when upkeep, spares and training were included, the deal could amount to £20bn spread over many years. The figures last year were also boosted by orders placed by Oman and Trinidad and Tobago for patrol boats.

** Britain's deadly business

EU says no agreement on new Iran sanctions

Mon, 16 Jun 2008 07:22:51 -0700

Luxembourg | June 16

Reuters - The European Union said on Monday it had [not agreed to] new sanctions on Iran over its nuclear programme, apparently contradicting British statements announcing new measures on its financial and energy sectors.

Speaking after talks with President George W. Bush in London, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown earlier announced EU moves to freeze the overseas assets of the biggest bank in Iran and to launch action against Iran's oil and gas industries.

A British diplomat said the measures had been agreed by EU foreign ministers meeting in Luxembourg on Monday and would be implemented within days, but an EU spokeswoman said ministers had not even discussed sanctions.

"There was no discussion of sanctions today. I know nothing about that," said Cristina Gallach, spokeswoman for EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana who this weekend presented Iran with an updated offer of incentives by major world powers to halt enrichment.

Follow in the footsteps of Dylan Thomas

Sun, 15 Jun 2008 16:56:39 -0700

David Atkinson | June 15 | The Observer

As a major film about the tempestuous private life of the legendary Welsh poet opens, David Atkinson picks up the literary trail from the pubs of Swansea to his home in Laugharne, the 'beguiling island of a town' that inspired his verse masterpiece

Thursday night in Swansea and it's a full house. Outside, it's the kind of night that Dylan Thomas would have described as 'starless and Bible black'. Inside, text-messaging teenagers and polite pensioners count the seconds to the interval and the ritual stampede for ice-cream as the Swansea Little Theatre Company trots through another performance of Thomas's signature work, Under Milk Wood. They stage the play here each year for the annual Dylan Thomas Festival and pack out the tiny waterfront theatre - Thomas himself trod the boards for the company in the early 1930s.

Every autumn the festival, which runs from 27 October to 9 November, his birthday and the day he died respectively, celebrates the gritty, wild-boy poetry of Wales's most famous errant genius. The focus is Swansea, where Thomas was born in 1914 and a place he famously described as an 'ugly lovely town'.

But last year's festival had an added dimension: a frisson of Hollywood glamour. The Edge of Love, a £5m movie starring Keira Knightley, Sienna Miller and Matthew Rhys, had been shooting at locations around South Wales. The film, which opens in the UK this week, focuses on the poet's tempestuous private life, with the scenery that inspired his work as a backdrop.

UK: New batch of terror files left on train

Sun, 15 Jun 2008 03:48:12 -0700

Simon Evans & Margareta Pagano | June 15

The Independent - Secret government documents detailing the UK's policies towards fighting global terrorist funding, drugs trafficking and money laundering have been found on a London-bound train and handed to 'The Independent on Sunday'.

The government papers, left on a train destined for Waterloo station, on Wednesday, contain criticism of countries such as Iran that are signed up to the global Financial Action Task Force (FATF), an inter-governmental body created to combat financial crime and the financing of terrorism.

The confidential files outline how the trade and banking systems can be manipulated to finance illicit weapons of mass destruction in Iran. They spell out methods to fund terrorists, and address the potential fraud of commercial websites and international internet payment systems. The files also highlight the weakness of HM Revenue & Customs' (HMRC) IT systems, which track financial fraud.

Coal train ambushed near power station in climate change protest

Fri, 13 Jun 2008 17:13:36 -0700

Martin Wainwright | June 13

The Guardian - Climate change campaigners halted a coal train yesterday outside Drax, Britain's biggest power station, and shovelled its contents on to the only line into the plant.

More than 20 tonnes of coal blocked the tracks as protesters strung ropes between the train and the girders of a river bridge as police watched from a distance. More than 30 protesters swarmed aboard the 21-wagon freight service. Hidden in banks of cow parsley beside the line to Drax, North Yorkshire they struck at 8am after watching two empty trains arrive to collect ash in the previous two hours.

The train had halted after unwittingly obeying an exact copy of railway emergency procedures. Posing as rail staff in fluorescent jackets, a small group of protesters waved red flags in a precise sequence to stop the EWS freight train on an iron girder bridge over the river Aire.

Brown says world needs 1,000 extra nuclear power stations

Fri, 13 Jun 2008 08:53:21 -0700

Colin Brown | June 13

Independent - Gordon Brown has signalled he wants Britain to play a major role in the race to build an extra 1,000 nuclear power stations across the world as part of his vision for ending the global "addiction to oil". The Prime Minister, who will be flying to Saudia Arabia for an emergency oil summit next week, said in spite of the risks of terrorism, Africa could build nuclear power plants to meet growing demands for energy.

The old fraud Blair's face was flawless, almost plastic

Thu, 05 Jun 2008 20:23:25 -0700

a trashy but entertaining look at the new TonyB

MailOnline - Tony Blair's suntan preceded him by a good yard, a halo of burnished prosperity. The former PM had vouchsafed an hour of his (these days plentiful) time to a committee of MPs interested in international development.

Mr Blair is the Middle East representative of the Quartet these days but few of us were there simply to hear his views on Gaza. We wanted to run a measure over the old fraud, see how he was bearing up and listen closely in case he said something unhelpful about Gordon Brown.

Huge increase in wind power planned

Wed, 04 Jun 2008 15:35:56 -0700

Emily Beament | June 4

Independent - A new programme to open up the UK's seas to more wind farms was launched today as part of a bid to increase massively the supply of offshore renewable power.

The Crown Estate, owner of the seabed around Britain, launched round three of its scheme to license companies to build wind farms, which it hopes will speed up the delivery of offshore renewables.

The Estate has earmarked 11 areas which have the potential to be viable offshore wind sites, due to the levels of wind, water depth and potential connection to the grid and taking in shipping and environmental concerns.

Successful bidders will be given exclusive rights to develop farms, and the Crown Estate is planning to co-fund up to 50% of the costs of getting planning consent for the projects.

Scientists rally against creationist 'superstition'

Sun, 01 Jun 2008 07:43:05 -0700

Ian Johnston | London | June 1

The Independent - To mark a double anniversary celebrating Charles Darwin, the father of evolution, his supporters are taking the fight to their opponents

The rise of creationism in Britain to the point where four out of 10 Britons believe it to be the literal truth – as well as the idea being taught in state-approved schools – has spread alarm throughout the scientific community.

Stonehenge Used as Cemetery From the Beginning

Fri, 30 May 2008 05:56:26 -0700

John Noble Wilford | Stonehenge | May 30

NYT - At least part of the mystery of Stonehenge may have now been solved: It was from the beginning a monument to the dead.

New radiocarbon dates from human cremation burials among and around the brooding stones on Salisbury Plain in England indicate that the site was used as a cemetery from 3000 B.C. until after the monuments were erected around 2500 B.C., British archaeologists reported Thursday.