UK news

The Scottish government sacked US presidential hopeful Donald Trump as a business ambassador and a university revoked his honorary degree on Wednesday after he called for a ban on Muslims entering the United States.

A petition to bar the Republican frontrunner from Britain reached more than 358,000 signatures amid an outcry over comments by the tycoon, who owns golf courses in Scotland and has family links to the country.

"Mr Trump's recent remarks have shown that he is no longer fit to be a business ambassador for Scotland," a spokesman for the regional government said as he was dropped as a "GlobalScot" ambassador, a position he took up in 2006.

Trump had called for a "total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country's representatives can figure out what is going on" following a shooting last week that left 14 people dead in California.

Published: 10 December 2015

Read more ...

A man who appeared in court Monday charged with attempted murder after a stabbing at London Underground train station was allegedly found with pictures associated with the Islamic State group on his phone.

Muhaydin Mire, 29, from east London, is accused of attempting to murder a 56-year-old man at Leytonstone station on Saturday night.

He was driven to court in a police van escorted by other vehicles which went into the court building through a back entrance and appeared at the Old Bailey wearing a light grey T-shirt and tracksuit trousers.

During a brief hearing, he spoke only to confirm his name, date of birth and address.

Mire was remanded in custody until Friday when he will again appear at the Old Bailey in London, the Central Criminal Court of England and Wales.

Prosecutors allege that Mire punched his victim to the ground and repeatedly kicked him before taking hold of the victim's head and cutting a 12-centimetre wound in his neck.

The victim, referred to in court as Male A, was in surgery for five hours after the attack, the prosecution said.

Prosecutors also allege that images and flags associated with IS jihadists were subsequently found on Mire's mobile phone.

- Increased patrols -

Police have increased patrols at transport hubs following the incident at Leytonstone station, a suburban stop on the Central Line, one of London Underground's busiest.

"The safety of the travelling public remains our top priority," said transport police spokesman Mark Newton.

Patrols "involve both uniformed and plain-clothed officers, supported by other resources, such as armed officers, police dogs, a network of CCTV cameras, and the thousands of rail staff we work alongside.

"We ask the public to remain calm and carry on using public transport as normal."

Britain's official national threat level from international terrorism was raised in August 2014 to severe, the second highest of five levels, meaning an attack is considered highly likely.

Published: 09 December 2015

Read more ...

British opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn passed a key electoral test on Friday when his Labour party won its first parliamentary seat since he took the helm in September.

The win bolsters the embattled leader of Britain's main opposition amid mounting talk of a leadership challenge, and as the anti-European Union UK Independence Party (UKIP) targets voters in former Labour strongholds.

"It shows the way we've driven the Tories back on tax credits, on police cuts, on their whole austerity agenda and narrative," Corbyn said on a visit to Oldham in northern England with winning by-election candidate Jim McMahon.

"It shows just how strong, how deep-rooted and how broad our party, the Labour Party, is for the whole of Britain," he said.

McMahon won the ballot for the Oldham West and Royton constituency with a majority of 10,835, down from a majority of almost 15,000 enjoyed by the last lawmaker to hold the seat, Labour's Michael Meacher.

Published: 04 December 2015

Read more ...

Britain will join the US-led bombing campaign against Islamic State (IS) jihadists in Syria after a decisive parliamentary vote, with fighter jets launching their first air strike as early as Thursday.

Prime Minister David Cameron's government was backed by 397 lawmakers compared to 223 who opposed the bombing, giving him at 174 the strong mandate he said was essential for military action.

Royal Air Force planes based at RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus are already helping to bomb targets in Iraq and government sources indicated that they could start flying missions over Syria imminently.

Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said the first strikes could come as early as Thursday night.

Cameron welcomed the result of the House of Commons vote, writing on Twitter: "I believe the house has taken the right decision to keep the UK safe -- military action in Syria as one part of a broader strategy."

It was also immediately hailed by US President Barack Obama, who said the US would "look forward to having British forces flying with the coalition over Syria".

But during the debate, a wide range of MPs from all parties including main opposition Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn spoke out against air strikes.

Some 2,000 anti-war protesters also held a "die-in" outside parliament ahead of the vote during their second consecutive night of protest.

Corbyn condemned Cameron's "ill thought-out rush to war" and said his proposals "simply do not stack up".

However, Labour was also deeply split on the issue. Some 67 of its 231 MPs reportedly voted in favour of bombing, including 11 members of Corbyn's frontbench team.

Published: 03 December 2015

Read more ...

Chelsea have submitted a planning application to build a new 60,000-seat stadium on the site of their Stamford Bridge ground, the Premier League champions announced on Tuesday.

"A planning application for a new stadium at Stamford Bridge with an expanded seating capacity has been submitted," the club said in a statement.

"This follows a successful consultation process during which we received very helpful feedback."

The plans involve the demolition of the current stadium at Stamford Bridge, where Chelsea have played since 1905, and the construction of a new arena featuring a club shop and museum, plus restaurants and cafes.

Stamford Bridge, in west London, last underwent major renovation in the late 1990s when the stadium's West Stand was rebuilt.

The ground's current 41,798 capacity restricts Chelsea's ability to maximise match-day revenues.

According to the most recent figures compiled by financial analysts Deloitte, Chelsea generated 85 million euros ($90.1 million) in match-day revenue in the 2013-14 season.

Published: 01 December 2015

Read more ...

Britain's government came under pressure Wednesday to let 16 and 17 year-olds have the vote in a referendum on European Union membership after suffering a defeat in parliament.

The House of Lords voted in favour of the amendment to a law currently being debated which governs how the referendum, to be held by the end of 2017, will be conducted.

The government must now decide whether to try and get the decision reversed in the House of Commons, or whether to agree to let 16 and 17 year olds have the vote as well as over 18s.

Some senior Conservatives currently expect the referendum will take place in September next year but a lengthy parliamentary battle over voting age could delay that.

The scale of the defeat in the unelected upper chamber -- by 293 votes to 211 -- was larger than expected.

Published: 18 November 2015

Read more ...

Prince William and his wife Kate, as well as British Prime Minister David Cameron, signed a book of condolences at the French embassy and ambassador's residence on Tuesday after the Paris attacks.

"To all those who have died and were injured in the heartless attacks in Paris, and to all the people in France: Nos plus sincères condoléances (Our sincerest condolences)," William wrote at the embassy.

Cameron in his message expressed "shock, sadness and grief", signing the book at the west London mansion flanked by French ambassador Sylvie Bermann.

Published: 17 November 2015

Read more ...

British security services have foiled around seven terror plots since June with fighters returning from Syria posing a growing threat, Prime Minister David Cameron said Monday.

"Our security and intelligence services have stopped something like seven attacks in the last six months, albeit attacks planned on a smaller scale" than Friday's attacks in Paris, he told BBC Radio 4 from Turkey.

"We have been aware of these cells operating in Syria that are radicalising people in our own countries, potentially sending people back to carry out attacks," he added.

Security services have spent a "long time" working out how to deal with multiple coordinated attacks on the street, but will have to go "right back to the drawing board" after the Paris attacks, which killed at least 129 people.

"It was the sort of thing we were warned about," said the prime minister.

Cameron added there were "hopeful signs" from Saturday's talks in Vienna on Syria that progress was being made on how to deal with the Islamic State (IS) group.

"You can't deal with so-called Islamic State unless you get a political settlement in Syria that enables you then to permanently degrade and destroy that organisation," he said.

However, he repeated that any settlement must include the removal of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, a sticking point between the West and Russia.

- 'Generational struggle' -

Britain announced Monday it was to recruit an extra 1,900 security and intelligence staff to counter the threat of terrorist violence following the Paris attacks as part of the government's five year defence and security review to be unveiled next week.

Published: 16 November 2015

Read more ...

A treasure trove of 17th century letters in the Netherlands is giving researchers a rare glimpse into the lives of ordinary people, many of them French refugees fleeing turmoil and persecution.

Today's wave of migrants escaping conflict to reach European shores are able to keep in touch with loved ones back home by mobile phone.

But in the mid-1600s the only means of long-distance communication was through the written word.

A former postmaster's trunk stuffed with 2,600 undelivered letters is now helping shed light on what was a turbulent period in European history, when the continent was beset by a series of wars.

"You get a sense of loss, of abandonment," said David van der Linden, one of the experts involved in an international project to transcribe, digitise and translate all the letters.

The leather trunk lined with linen belonged to The Hague's postmaster, Simon de Brienne and his wife Maria Germain. And it was where he kept all the letters he was unable to deliver.

Many of the missives are from Protestant French Huguenot families fleeing persecution under the Catholic monarch Louis XIV.

They are mostly in written in French, although some are also in Dutch, Swedish and Danish and a few in English.

Down through the centuries, the trunk and its contents was eventually passed to the Dutch finance ministry, which bequeathed it to the Museum of Communication in The Hague in 1926.

Although it was brought out for occasional exhibitions, until now no team of researchers has been able to devote time to the painstaking work of examining the contents in depth.

- X-ray scans -

Touchingly, many of the missives are badly written, peppered with spelling errors and grammatical mistakes, indicating "that these were people who were barely literate" but took up a pen they were so still desperate for news from home, Van der Linden told AFP.

Published: 11 November 2015

Read more ...

Prime Minister David Cameron warned Tuesday that Britain could leave the EU if it does not get the reforms it wants before a "once-in-a-generation" referendum to settle its troubled relationship with Europe.

In a major speech outlining Britain's demands for change following pressure from EU leaders, Cameron warned he was ready to "think again" about Britain's membership if he could not strike a deal with Brussels and the bloc's 27 other member states.

But in a sign of the British premier's looming tussle, the European Commission immediately responded, saying it deemed parts of Cameron's EU renegotiation objectives "highly problematic".

Cameron's comments came as he sends a long-awaited letter to EU president Donald Tusk laying out Britain's shopping list for change to avert a "Brexit" in a vote due to be held by 2017 at the latest.

"The referendum... will be a once-in-a-generation choice," Cameron said. "This is a huge decision for our country -- perhaps the biggest we'll make in our lifetime."

Published: 10 November 2015

Read more ...