Prime Minister Gordon Brown's government was in crisis on Wednesday on the eve of local elections and a key EU vote after four ministers in 24 hours indicated they would step down. Communities Secretary Hazel Blears came out publicly to say she was quitting so she could "return to the grassroots" and "help the Labour Party reconnect with the British people". Her bombshell came after Home Secretary Jacqui Smith's aides briefed reporters on Tuesday she would step down in Brown's next cabinet... Read Full Story
A cabinet minister pledged to repay thousands of pounds of property tax in the latest fall-out of an expenses row that Prime Minister Gordon Brown said must be met with "extreme" action. Communities Secretary Hazel Blears said she would pay 13,332 pounds (about 20,000 dollars, 15,000 euros) in tax that leaked expenses claims suggested she should have already paid when she sold her London flat in August 2004. Her decision came after a fifth day of newspaper revelations about MPs' lavish... Read Full Story
A British cabinet minister pledged to repay thousands of pounds of property tax in the latest fall-out of an expenses row that Prime Minister Gordon Brown said must be met with "extreme" action. Communities Secretary Hazel Blears said she would pay 13,332 pounds (about 20,000 dollars, 15,000 euros) in tax that leaked expenses claims suggested she should have already paid when she sold her London flat in August 2004. Her decision came after a fifth day of newspaper revelations about MPs... Read Full Story
A 33-year-old man has been sentenced to eight years in prison for raping a teenager and engaging in a series of webcam-related sex crimes involving 60 girls. * Girl, 14, gang raped on internet date (20 Aug 09) * Woman, 32, found guilty of raping woman (7 Aug 09) * Preschools warned of paedophile blogger (6 Aug 09) The man was sentenced by Uppsala district court for a list of 65 charges of sexual offences including aggravated child exploitation through sexual posing, child rape, and sexual... Read Full Story
A man who used public phone boxes to groom young girls and persuade them to perform sexual acts has been sentenced to 12 years in prison. Derek Hindmarch, 46, from Humberside would lie in wait near telephone boxes and choose a victim from among the girls who walked near by. When they reached the phone box he would attract their attention by ringing the telephone. Once he had established contact with the girl he would begin grooming them and encourage them to create indecent images of... Read Full Story
A Bavarian spiritual guru known as Oliver Shanti went on trial in Munich on Wednesday for 314 charges of sexual assault against children. The accused was shut off from the rest of the court in a glass box because of an antibiotic-resistant staph infection. The illness is highly contagious and could cause a life-threatening reaction in other people. The singer, born Ulrich Schultz in Hamburg, is also suffering from Lymphoma. Shanti has denied the charges brought against him, which allegedly... Read Full Story
HARRY Potter star Daniel Radcliffe has confessed in a frank interview to a gay magazine - he is a Liberal Democrat.
The handsome actor - who turned 20 yesterday - appears on the latest cover of Attitude and inside reveals his true political feelings.
He tells of his deep dislike for Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Tory leader David Cameron. The multi-millionaire also tells how he grew up surrounded by his parents’ gay pals and hates anyone with a homophobic attitude.
* Vote yellow... Read Full Story
Prime Minister Gordon Brown has announced an independent inquiry into the Iraq war but is facing claims of a cover-up after saying it would take evidence in private. Six years after predecessor Tony Blair controversially backed the US-led invasion, Brown said the "unprecedented" inquiry would cover the eight years from the campaign's run-up to the pullout of British troops next month. But he said it would be held in private for "national security" reasons, infuriating many MPs and anti-war... Read Full Story
The Leader of the Liberal Democrats, Nick Clegg told the BBC earlier today that the panel had been set up to examine Liberal Democrat MPs’ expenses had “so far” not found any of the Lib Dem MPs guilty of similar things to those from the other parties.
“If any Lib Dem MP is discovered to have done some of the things other parties’ MPs have done - not paying capital gains tax, flipping second homes, claiming for mortgages that did not exist - we would refer them to the independent Standards... Read Full Story
Liberal Democrat Leader Nick Clegg today called on Gordon Brown to waste no more time in organising a meeting of the three main party leaders to tackle the problem of MPs’ expenses. Copies of Nick Clegg’s own proposals for reforming the system were published on his website last week and have been sent to both of the other party leaders.
The plan would see the end of expenses being used to buy second homes, with MPs only allowed to claim for the rent on a second home, utility bills and... Read Full Story
