Free Republic

BARACK OBAMA yesterday told David Cameron that his aggressive stance towards BP over the Gulf of Mexico oil disaster was not motivated by anti-British prejudice. The US president, whose grandfather was allegedly tortured by the British in colonial Kenya, has pointedly referred to the oil giant as “British Petroleum”, although it changed its name nine years ago. British politicians claimed he was exploiting BP’s origins to deflect attention from his failure to manage the crisis. After yesterday’s 30-minute telephone conversation, No 10 issued a carefully worded statement to defuse the growing transatlantic tensions. It stated: “President Obama said to the...

BRITAIN will not yield to acts of "evil", Prime Minister Gordon Brown said on Sunday after three botched car bomb attacks in two days in London and Glasgow. "We will not yield, we will not be intimidated,'' he said in an interview with BBC television, after his government raised the national security level to "critical'' following the attacks. He said terrorism "can never be justified as an act of faith'',

A BRITISH performance artist ate a corgi live on radio overnight in a protest at alleged animal cruelty by the royal family. Mark McGowan, who once ate a swan in a performance art show, said the cooked canine - the Queen's favourite breed of dog - tasted "really, really, really disgusting''. Yoko Ono, who was also a guest on the Bob and Roberta Smith radio program broadcast on London-based arts station 104.4 Resonance FM, tasted the dog but "looked a bit strange'', McGowan said. The corgi, which died at a breeding farm, was minced with apple, onion and seasoning, the...

The two helicopters that crashed in Iraq on Sunday (local time) were British, Defence Secretary Des Browne said. Mr Browne says two troops were killed and one was very seriously injured. He says that the crash appeared to be an accident. The helicopters came down in the early hours of the morning in a rural area south-west of Taji, home to a huge American military base north of Baghdad. "Now that next of kin have been informed, I can confirm that the two helicopters reported this morning as having crashed north of Baghdad earlier today were, in fact, both UK...

THE female British sailor captured and held by Iran has told how her captors stripped her to her panties, lied to her and threatened she might never see her baby again. Meanwhile, the youngest among the 15 Britons held captive by Iran has told another newspaper that he was blindfolded, threatened, and left in solitary confinement for days by the Iranians, who dubbed him "Mr Bean". After the defence ministry relaxed its ban on service personnel striking financial deals with media organisations over the weekend, mother-of-one Faye Turney, 26, told The Sun her interrogators taunted her with threats to her...

A LONG-awaited report into the death of Princess Diana in a Paris car crash due out today is expected to refute theories of a plot by British intelligence targeting her and confirm a French probe that said it was an accident. The report by Lord John Stevens, the former commissioner of London's Metropolitan Police, has concluded that Diana died in a traffic accident after her driver lost control of the car, British newspapers said today. Fleeing paparazzi photographers, Diana, 36, her boyfriend Dodi Fayed, 42, and their chauffeur Henri Paul, 41, were killed in a car crash in a Paris...

US President George W. Bush is more of a threat to world peace than the leaders of North Korea and Iran, and only Osama bin Laden is more feared, a poll of British voters has found. A majority of voters in Britain, Canada and Mexico, all key American allies, also thought US foreign policy had made the world less safe since 2001, the survey published in The Guardian today showed. Three-quarters of Britons said Mr Bush presented a great or moderate threat to peace in the world, bested only by the al-Qaeda leader at 87 per cent. By contrast, North...

THE London Tube bombers plotted to kill the Australian cricket team by spraying sarin gas into their change rooms during last year's Ashes series, a friend of the terrorists claims. Al-Qaida commanders allegedly ordered the suicide bombers to get jobs at Edgbaston Cricket Ground and wipe out the Australian and England players. They were instructed to release sarin gas, a highly toxic nerve agent that is one of the world's most dangerous chemical weapons. But cricket-loving terrorist Shehzad Tanweer apparently objected and instead the terrorist cell perpetrated the July 7 underground Tube and bus bombings that killed 56 people and...

BRITAIN'S Prince Harry will not be allowed to fight on the front line in Afghanistan, The Mail on Sunday newspaper says, citing senior sources in the prince's regiment. Harry, third in line to the throne, reportedly threatened to quit the British Army if he was blocked from active service due to safety fears and any such decision is likely to infuriate the 22-year-old. Although a formal decision has yet to be made, sources in the Household Cavalry told the weekly tabloid they thought it was too dangerous for him to deploy in Afghanistan. The southern Helmand province, where the bulk...

Britain's Conservative Party leader David Cameron, in an effort to "modernize" his party, has embraced gay marriage as a key issue facing the next generation. Cameron hopes to "bury old taboos" of past British generations, according to a report in The Times (U.K.). Among those taboos are gay marriage, single parenting and new house building. Cameron, who is campaigning to replace outgoing Prime Minister Tony Blair in the upcoming U.K. election, has targeted "female-friendly" issues, much like Blair did a decade ago, to broaden his party's base and secure more votes, according to various news reports. In a speech to...

BRITISH Prime Minister Tony Blair has urged his party in an emotional farewell speech to put aside squabbles over who succeeds him and focus on winning Britain's next election. Mr Blair defended the centrist policies he has followed in nine years in power but said the party had to face up to global challenges such as climate change and terrorism as he gave his last address as leader to the Labour Party's annual conference. He called for a healing of divisions that rocked the party this month when a rebellion by Labour legislators forced him to pledge to step down...

THREE animal rights activists were jailed for 12 years each and a fourth imprisoned for four years for a terror campaign against an English guinea pig farm that culminated in a grave robbing. John Ablewhite, Kerry Whitburn and John Smith were today each handed 12-year prison terms at Nottingham Crown Court in central England after pleading guilty to a charge of conspiring to blackmail the farm owners. Josephine Mayo was jailed for four years after admitting a lesser part in the six-year campaign against the Hall family who own a farm in Staffordshire, central England, which bred the rodents for...

AN Indian-born beer baron whose beer has become the toast of curry houses across Britain was appointed to the country's unelected upper chamber of parliament, the House of Lords overnight. Entrepreneur Karan Bilimoria, 45, is best known in Britain for "Cobra" beer, the lager he began selling from the back of his car 17 years ago and which is now sold in more than 5,000 Indian restaurants up and down the country. The son of an Indian army general who rejected an accountancy career for brewing, his tipple is now sold in more than 35 countries, for an annual turnover...

SCANDAL and crisis engulfed British Prime Minister Tony Blair's Government yesterday as three of his most senior ministers came under growing personal and political pressure on Labour's blackest day since it came to power in 1997. Newspapers gave a damning verdict on the Government's woes, which climaxed in a sex scandal starring the Deputy Prime Minister, a crime blunder by the interior minister and a snub by nurses for the Health Secretary. Home Secretary Charles Clarke was fighting to stay in his job after admitting that 288 foreign prisoners were released without consideration of deportation even after he learnt of...

Scotland Yard has been called in to investigate Britain's Labour Party after allegations that Prime Minister Tony Blair organised multi-million-dollar loans and then rewarded those lending the money with peerages. For a week, Mr Blair has been caught up in the 'loans for Lordships' scandal after revelations he arranged loans to the Labour Party totalling $34 million. The loans were kept secret and shortly afterwards Mr Blair recommended some of those big party lenders for peerages. Most of the party, including the Chancellor Gordon Brown and senior leaders in the Parliamentary wing, were kept in the dark. Mr Blair has...

BRITAIN'S ban on the word "bloody" in Australia's new tourism campaign showed that the nation was "slightly humourless", federal Health Minister Tony Abbott said. Britain's Broadcast Advertising Clearance Centre has objected to Tourism Australia's $180 million campaign, which features the tag line: "So where the bloody hell are you?". Mr Abbott said he thought the British should have a laugh. "I think it is slightly humourless on the part of the poms," he said Sydney. "Nevertheless, I can understand how some people of a more fastidious disposition possibly would like a different slogan." Asked of he liked it personally, Mr...

BRITAIN planned to pull out nearly all its soldiers from Iraq by the middle of 2008, with the first withdrawals within weeks, a top military commander said in an interview published today. Lieutenant General Nick Houghton, Britain's most senior officer in Iraq, outlined a phased two-year withdrawal plan in an interview with The Daily Telegraph newspaper. "There is a fine line between staying too long and leaving too soon," he was quoted as saying. "A military transition over two years has a reasonable chance of avoiding the pitfalls of overstaying our welcome but gives us the best opportunity of consolidating...

A LESBIAN couple has become the first in the British army to tie the knot under the country's new civil partnership laws. Sonya Gould, 19, and Vanessa Haydock, 18, both privates in the Royal Logistics Corps, exchanged vows before friends and family at the register office in Chippenham, Wiltshire in the west of England, The Sun newspaper reported today. "It was wonderful to get married and being the first was the icing on the cake. We want to be together forever," said Haydock, pictured in The Sun kissing Gould in uniform – albeit not smack on the lips. While they...

BRITISH Prime Minister Tony Blair was defeated today when parts of his government's plans to ban incitement to religious hatred were voted down in the House of Commons. Amendments put forward by the House of Lords were accepted by narrow majorities of 10 and one, although the government has a theoretical majority of 65 over the opposition parties. The legislation had attracted criticism as muzzling free speech. It would have made incitement to religious hatred punishable by a jail term of up to seven years. Junior Home Office minister Paul Goggins told the Commons: ``We are seeking to close a...

A CLUMSY museum visitor tripped on a shoelace and shattered a set of priceless 300-year-old Chinese vases. The three Qing vases had survived on a windowsill at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, England, for more than 40 years. A witness said: "He was still sitting there stunned when staff appeared. He kept pointing to his shoelace, saying: `There it is, that's the culprit'." A museum spokeswoman said: "They are in very, very small pieces but we are determined to put them back together."