John F. Burns & Alan Cowell | London | February 5

NYT - Ending months of dispute that threatened to bring down Northern Ireland’s power-sharing government, the prime ministers of Britain and Ireland on Friday hailed a breakthrough agreement to transfer the province’s police and justice system from Britain to local control on April 12.

Gathering at Hillsborough Castle near Belfast, Prime Ministers Gordon Brown of Britain and Brian Cowen of Ireland met with Northern Ireland’s Protestant and Roman Catholic leaders after a late-night announcement that the main unionist party seeking continued ties to Britain had agreed to the handover — the most important and by far the most contentious of the issues still outstanding in the long-running and still fragile effort to bring peace to the six British-ruled counties of Northern Ireland.

Mehdi Hasan | January 28

Guardian Online - - Did Tony Blair tell the truth about Iraq? Or did he deceive us? As the nation prepares for the former prime minister's testimony at the Iraq inquiry, one ex-adviser to Blair tells the New Statesman this week: "There is a little bit of rhetorical exaggeration in what Tony said at the time, though he always believed that there were WMD in Iraq, as did I, so it was exaggeration rather than lying."

Seven years on from the invasion of Iraq, this myth persists – even amongst critics of the war. It doesn't make sense to call him a liar," Sir Rodric Braithwaite, the former chairman of the Joint Intelligence Committee, tells me. "I think he convinced himself." Blair himself is a keen purveyor of this self-serving and self-deluding nonsense. ""I have never told a lie. No. I don't intend to go telling lies to people. I did not lie over Iraq," he told Sky's Adam Boulton in 2005.

However, to borrow a phrase from the ex-premier himself, I happen to believe the evidence for his mendacity and dissembling on Iraq is "extensive, detailed and authoritative". Here's a sample of 10 such lies, deceptions and half-truths in no particular order. more

London | Jan 27

DPA - The political parties in Northern Ireland were given a 48-hour deadline Wednesday to resolve outstanding devolution issues which have threatened the survival of the power- sharing government.

The ultimatum was spelled out by British Prime Minister Gordon Brown after three days and nights of marathon talks in Belfast failed to secure agreement on the vexed issue of transferring justice and policing powers from London to the regional government of Northern Ireland.

A stern-looking Brown, flanked by Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen, said the two leaders believed that there was a 'realistic prospect of agreement' on the outstanding issues based on proposals hammered out in the talks.

However, if the Northern Ireland parties - mainly the Protestant Democratic Ulster Unionist Party (DUP) and Catholic-Republican Sinn Fein, failed to reach agreement by Friday, the governments in London and Dublin would publish their own proposals for acceptance by the parties.

Shân Ross | January 27

The Scotsman - Tony Blair will stage a dramatic return to the front line of British politics to campaign for Labour in the general election, close ally Lord Mandelson has revealed. The Business Secretary said Mr Blair – who has observed a vow of silence on British politics since quitting Downing Street in 2007 – would be one of a number of faces from the early days of New Labour to return in a bid to secure victory for Gordon Brown.

Although he accepted he would not bet on a Labour win now, Lord Mandelson insisted Tory leader David Cameron could be "in for a shock" at the polls.

Mr Blair is Labour's most successful leader in electoral terms, having won three successive elections, and his presence could give the party a boost.But his appearance on Friday before the Chilcot inquiry will remind voters of his role in the divisive decision to go to war in Iraq, and Conservatives are likely to claim his participation in the campaign as a sign that Labour is stuck in the past.His return would also alarm allies of Mr Brown, who spent years trying to oust Mr Blair.

Frances Gibb | London | January 27

The Times - Ministers’ efforts to combat terrorism were dealt a fresh blow today when the UK’s highest court quashed measures to freeze the assets of terror suspects imposed without the approval of Parliament.

In a landmark ruling, seven justices of the Supreme Court ruled that Ministers had acted without Parliamentary authority in making two orders that placed sweeping financial restrictions on the five suspects.

London | January 24

London Evening Standard - Evidence relating to the death of Government weapons inspector David Kelly is to be kept secret for 70 years, it has been reported.

A highly unusual ruling by Lord Hutton, who chaired the inquiry into Dr Kelly's death, means medical records including the post-mortem report will remain classified until after all those with a direct interest in the case are dead, the Mail on Sunday reported.

And a 30-year secrecy order has been placed on written records provided to Lord Hutton's inquiry which were not produced in evidence.

The Ministry of Justice said decisions on the evidence were a matter for Lord Hutton. But Liberal Democrat MP Norman Baker, who has conducted his own investigations into Dr Kelly's death, described the order as "astonishing".

Jan 23

NZH - Britain has raised its terror threat alert to the second-highest level, meaning an attack is "highly likely". It is one of several recent moves the country has made to increase vigilance against international terrorists after a Christmas Day bombing attempt on a Europe-US flight. The threat level was raised from "substantial" - where it had stood since July to indicate a strong possibility of a terrorist attack - to "severe," meaning such an attack is considered highly likely.

In making the announcement, Home Secretary Alan Johnson said the raised security level means that Britain is heightening its vigilance. But he stressed that there was no intelligence suggesting an attack is imminent.

CIA non specific advice notwithstanding ~ graham

Dan Roberts | Jan 19

Guardian.UK - Cadbury will accept defeat in its battle to stay independent today by recommending a £12bn takeover from US rival Kraft that threatens to reignite a fierce debate about the vulnerability of British industry.

The 186-year-old chocolate maker decided to throw in the towel late last night after a large foreign shareholder joined hedge funds in indicating it would accept an improved offer from Kraft, and the prospect of a rival bid from Hershey faded. Cadbury's board, led by chairman Roger Carr, will announce its decision to recommend the revised 850p-a-share bid to all shareholders through a statement to the stock exchange this morning, according to sources close to the company.

Jan 17

BBC - Adults in Scotland are drinking the equivalent of 46 bottles of vodka each in a year, a study has suggested.

The research was based on industry sales data analysed by NHS Health Scotland.

It said sales for the year to September 2009 averaged 12.2 litres of pure alcohol per person over the age of 18.

The Scottish government said the figure, which had remained static since 2005, was the equivalent of 537 pints or 130 bottles of wine per person.

The new figures come as the Scottish government pushes for a minimum price for alcohol to tackle the country's drink-related problems.

Robert Marquand | Paris | Jan 9

CSM - Bus engine oil is freezing in Norway, and Ireland is reporting its lowest temps in 50 years. In Britain, which looks like a baby Greenland on satellite images, Prime Minister Gordon Brown is turning into the nation's weather comforter-in-chief.

After three years sans snow, Paris got hit twice this week. The city doesn’t do snow plows, and the novelty of icicles on the Eiffel is wearing off. Even city birds seem to be shivering. “Global warming I care about, but look outside,” offered a denizen of the 8th District.

“Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow,” is fine at Christmas. But in post-holiday Europe, bus engine oil is freezing in Norway. Ireland reports the lowest temperature in 50 years. In Britain, the Army got called out to tow drivers caught in snow drifts, amid possible government gas rationing and fireside chats by Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who is turning into the nation’s weather comforter-in-chief.

Satellite imagery shows the UK swathed entirely in snow, looking like a baby Greenland.

“Snowfall is expected to be heavy,” warned the French meterological service today, “even exceptional” -- as 600 trucks waited for a major artery to be cleared.

Europeans are adjusting to stymied access to work, closed schools, downed power lines, road diversions, salt shortages, canceled sports events, and life indoors – where media weather reports also include the plummeting mercury in the US, concern for the Indian River citrus crop in Florida, and passenger trains in China being dug out of snow drifts as cities like Beijing are recording unusual amounts of the white stuff.

Matt Dickinson | Jan 6

The Independent - British members of a humanitarian convoy trying to take aid to Gaza were among dozens of people injured during clashes with Egyptian police, one of the activists said today.

Around 520 people were travelling with the 150 trucks full of supplies and clashes broke out last night at the port city of El Arish, near Gaza.

One of the members, Alexandra Lort-Phillips, 37, who works for Enfield Youth Offending Service in north London, said: "I have 42 people in my team, and out of those three Britons have been injured. There are head injuries, cuts.

"We started getting pelted with stones by people in plain clothes, then the police started moving in, using tear gas and batons.

"People were quite severely beaten."

She said seven or eight of the convoy members had to be treated in hospital, and blamed "heavy-handed" policing of their group.

Protests reportedly broke out when Egyptian authorities at El Arish ordered some lorries to use an Israeli-controlled checkpoint.

The activists would prefer the goods to be transported via Egypt's Rafah crossing.

British MP George Galloway, leading the convoy, said Israel was likely to prevent it entering Gaza.

He told Sky News: "It is completely unconscionable that 25 per cent of our convoy should go to Israel and never arrive in Gaza."

Andrew Woodcock | January 1

The Independent - Britain's growing culture of heavy drinking is placing an "unsustainable burden" on the healthcare system, costing the NHS £2.7 billion a year, according to a report released today.

The report, from the NHS Confederation and Royal College of Physicians, said the cost to the NHS of excessive drinking has doubled in the past five years.

London | Dec 29

Reuters - Iran summoned the British ambassador in Tehran on Tuesday, with Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki threatening Britain with a "slap in the mouth" if it did not stop interfering in Iranian affairs.

Britain's Foreign Office said the ambassador would respond "robustly" to any criticism of a British government statement calling on Tehran to respect the human rights of Iranian citizens.

Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards earlier said Iran's opposition was linked to the country's foreign enemies.

Mottaki told a news conference that the ambassador had been summoned over Britain's interference in Iran's domestic affairs. "If Britain does not stop talking nonsense it will get a slap in the mouth," he said.

On Monday British Foreign Secretary David Miliband criticised the Tehran regime after at least eight people were killed in anti-government protests.

Miliband said the deaths were "yet another reminder of how the Iranian regime deals with protest" and praised the courage of protesters.

Robert Verkaik | Dec 29

The Independent - Government accused of driving women on to the streets by cracking down on high-class escort agencies, reports Robert Verkaik

Theirs is a world away from grubby net curtains and phone box calling cards. They offer dinner dates, online credit card bookings, intelligent conversation and companionship – and perhaps an illicit rendezvous in a stylish apartment for those so minded.

But high-class escort agencies are being targeted by police in a wider clampdown on online prostitution linked to money-laundering and people trafficking. The move, supported by ministers, opens up a new front in the war against sex workers who are estimated to earn £1bn a year in untaxed revenues.

Critics of the crackdown complain that the police operations are heavy-handed and end in escorts being forced on to the streets or into brothels where they are at risk of violence and exploitation.

Jonathan Watts/Beijing & Will Woodward | Dec 29

The Guardian - Gordon Brown, ministers and the opposition condemn regime's treatment of Briton said to have been mentally ill

Chinese government criticised by MPs and human rights groups after executing 53-year-old Briton for drug smuggling Link to this video

Gordon Brown and other senior British politicians have angrily condemned China for executing a British man said to have had mental problems. Akmal Shaikh, 53, was killed early this morning by lethal injection after being convicted of drug smuggling.

Despite frantic appeals by the Foreign Office for clemency, Shaikh was executed at 10.30am local time (2.30am British time) in Urumqi. Campaigners believe he is the first European in 58 years put to death in China.

Shaikh, a father of three from Kentish Town, north London, was found with 4kg of heroin in his suitcase in September 2007. His supporters say he had suffered a breakdown, was delusional and was tricked into carrying the drugs.

Shaikh learned only yesterday that he would be killed today. He was informed by two cousins, who flew to China seeking a reprieve.

The two men said they were "astonished" that the Chinese authorities refused to investigate their cousin's mental health on the grounds that the defendant ought to have provided evidence of his own fragile state of mind.

"We find it ludicrous that any mentally ill person should be expected to provide this, especially when this was apparently bipolar disorder, in which we understand the sufferer has a distorted view of the world, including his own condition."

Larry Elliot | Dec 22

Guardian.UK - The Office for National Statistics released data showing that Labour's attempts to boost growth had taken the edge off the recession in the third quarter but were not enough to prevent the slump extending into a record-breaking sixth quarter.

Confirmation that the UK is the only G20 nation still in recession sent the pound tumbling to a two-month low against the dollar, with sterling dipping below the $1.60 level after the ONS announcement.

One of the City's leading financiers last night predicted a looming collapse of financial confidence in Britain as Gordon Brown received the twin blow of a fresh warning from a ratings agency over the budget deficit and figures revealing that the slump of the past 18 months is now officially the deepest since the second world war.

Terry Smith, chief executive of money brokers Tullett Prebon, said: "We will have a crisis of confidence in the credit worth of the UK. People won't be willing to buy gilts at anything like the current interest rate, or even possibly in this currency and we'll have an interest rate hike and/or a good, old-fashioned sterling crisis. Possibly both."

Smith's comments on Sky News came just hours after ratings agency Fitch said that the UK – along with France and Spain – needed to "articulate more credible and stronger fiscal consolidation during the course of 2010 to underpin confidence in the sustainability of public finances".

Simon Evans | Dec 21

The Independent - Goldman Sachs has threatened the UK Treasury with plans to move up to 20 per cent of its London-based staff to Spain in a standoff over tax and bonuses.

It's believed that the Wall Street investment bank, which paid more than £2bn to the Exchequer's ailing coffers in corporation tax alone last year, has fired a warning shot across the Government's bows in response to the tax measures unveiled in the pre-Budget report earlier this month.

Goldman Sachs International was the biggest contributor from the financial services sector to Britain's purse last year. Previous reports suggest that in some years the firm's staff have contributed more than £1bn in personal income tax to public coffers.

A City source said: "Goldman could move a relatively large number of people if it wants to. Given how much Goldman and its staff contribute to the tax take, the firm has plenty of leverage. This is a bargaining position more than anything."

One of America’s top intelligence services has flagged up the potential for increasing levels of widespread civil unrest & violence between Left and Right groups in the one of the United States closest allies in the so-called war on terror. Total Intelligence Solutions (TIS) which describes itself as a ‘boutique security firm …… partner of Fortune 500 and international companies, US State and local government agencies, the US Government, and foreign governments’ has identified serious risks in the United Kingdom on its Intel Watch website (www.totalintel.com/content/intel-watch-map).

Ted Newcomen | Nottingham, United Kingdom | 12/7/2009

Op-Ed News - Last weekend a massive police operation successfully contained street demonstrations in Notthingham, England involving the rising English Defense League & their opposition in the UAF (Unite Against Fascism). UK authorities & the mainstream media have been deliberately downplaying the danger of civil unrest in the UK. Clashes between right and left wing groups are the result of organisations exploiting fears about possible terrorist attacks by home-grown Muslim terrorists and calls for the UK to introduce Sharia law. At least one US intelligence organisation has flagged up the threat and has put the issue on its website.

Jonathan Brown | Dec 18

The Independent -

For those few hundred visitors who make the long journey by ship each year to see the hut for themselves, it looks eerily as if the adventurers had just stepped outside. Yet it is nearly a century since Robert Falcon Scott and his men embarked on their doomed march to the South Pole, an episode that was to go down as one of the most vainglorious in the heroic age of exploration.

Today their huts at Cape Evans on Ross Island, complete with preserved jars of Heinz Indian Relish, tins of boiled cabbage and still-edible pats of butter, are undergoing a vital restoration. Here, where Scott's party endured a gruelling Antarctic winter as they planned their assault on the South Pole, conservationists hope to restore for future generations a permanent monument to the bravery of the men who gave up comfortable middle class lives to risk all in the blizzards and sub-zero temperatures.

Nearly £3.5m has been raised to safeguard the quarters which became a microcosm of Edwardian society during the opening stages of the Terra Nova Expedition of 1910-13, Scott's second and final foray on to the frozen continent.

The most urgent work has already begun as experts announced this week that they had uncovered 300 new artefacts belonging to the expedition. But time and the elements are stacked against the future survival of Scott's hut and its 8,000 items of equipment and expedition memorabilia, and it has been declared one of the most endangered sites in the world by the World Monument Fund.

** You wouldn't want this on your toast: 100-year-old pat of butter found at Scott's Antarctic base(pic)

Jamie Doward | Dec 13

The Observer - Mohammed Ezzouek began to pray. He believed his death was imminent and that it would be bloody and brutal. The 23-year-old from west London could hear men talking in Somali. "They were saying: 'You lot are al-Qaida' and laughing," he recalls. "They were saying, 'You lot are going to get it'."

Ezzouek had had little idea what was happening to him as he and 15 or so other men had their hands tied behind their backs and were bundled onto a plane that left the Kenyan capital Nairobi in the dead of night. By the time the plane had landed just after sunrise, Ezzouek had managed to work his blindfold free an inch.

He saw men with rows of "bullets strapped along their chests", carrying "big guns". "I remember seeing through the window some guys lying down on the runway, their eyes blindfolded and their hands tied. It was like a scene in a film where people have already been executed. I thought, 'Oh my gosh, they're going to kill us.' Everyone thought they were going to die so I started praying. There was nothing you could do; there was no point in crying."

Ezzouek wondered whether this country in which they had landed – and in which he thought he was going to die – was Ethiopia or Somalia. He thought of his family back in Britain. He could have been forgiven for wishing he had agreed to the deal the British agents had offered him just days before in Nairobi. On several occasions, they promised him: "Confess to being a terrorist and you can return to the UK."

Dec 13

Independent UK - Labour's ability to force through savings in the public services was cast into doubt last night, after it emerged that a previous Whitehall "efficiency drive" led to more civil servants and bigger departmental budgets.

Gordon Brown last week attempted to convince voters he could reduce Britain's £800bn national debt with a package to save £12bn over four years. The package, unveiled two days before Alistair Darling's pre-Budget report, included plans to "name and shame" overpaid public sector workers and use crime maps and online school reports to cut overheads and halve the budget deficit.

London | December 8

The Guardian - The former chairman of the Joint Intelligence Committee said today that it would have been better to have made clear that the claim that Saddam Hussein had weapons that could be deployed within 45 minutes did not refer to ballistic missiles.

"It would have been much clearer and better, the matter would not have been lost in translation, if it had been spelt out in the dossier that the word was 'munitions' not 'weapons'," Sir John Scarlett told the Chilcot inquiry into the war in Iraq.

But the former JIC chairman said it had never been his intention to mislead.

Steven Morris | Dec 7

The Guardian - They consulted equine experts, farmers and a neighbouring police force, but detectives only solved the mysterious case of the plaited manes when they turned for help to an unusual source – a friendly warlock.

Horse owners in Dorset had become perplexed when they kept finding that the manes of their animals seemed to have been twisted into plaits.

At first some thought that the wind had by chance whipped them into shapes that seemed to have been created by a human hand. Another theory was that thieves were sizing horses up and plaiting the manes of those they wished colleagues to steal at a later date.

But after consulting a warlock, police in Dorset concluded the horses were being used in witch "knot magick".

PC Tim Poole, who has investigated the incidents, said: "We have some very good information from a warlock that this is part of a white magic ritual and is to do with knot magick."

"It would appear that for people of this belief, knot magick is used when they want to cast a spell. Some of the gods they worship have a strong connection to horses so if they have a particular request, plaiting this knot in a horse's mane lends strength to the request. This warlock said it is a benign activity, albeit maybe a bit distressing for the horse owner."

Dec 6

Press Association - Alistair Darling warned that the better-off would have to shoulder more of the cost of economic recovery amid reports he was ready to impose a windfall tax on bankers' bonuses.

Ahead of his Pre-Budget Report on Wednesday, the Chancellor sidestepped questions about the suggested one-off levy and the reversal of plans to raise the inheritance tax threshold.

But he said: "I think people will understand that as we come through a difficult period like this... that we would expect the broadest shoulders to bear the greatest burden."

He indicated there would be no back-tracking on the new higher rate of income tax, of 50p on earnings of more than £150,000, to be introduced from next April.

And, referring to inheritance tax, he went on: "It wouldn't be right to be giving further tax breaks to people at the very top."