Brown stepping down as Labour leader

LONDON: British Prime Minister Gordon Brown announced Monday he intended to stand down as Labour leader and his party would hold formal talks on a possible power-sharing deal with the Liberal Democrats.

Brown said he intended to “ask the Labour party to set in train the processes needed for its own leadership contest” but he would “play no part”.

In the same statement, Brown said Labour was to hold formal talks with the Liberal Democrats — who are already talking to the Conservatives — on forming a government after Thursday”s general election ended in stalemate.

Iran can”t continue ”mad” nuclear race: Sarkozy

WASHINGTON: Iran cannot continue its “mad race” to try to complete its suspect nuclear program, French President Nicolas Sarkozy said Tuesday after talks with his US counterpart Barack Obama.

“The time has come to take decisions. Iran cannot continue its mad race,” Sarkozy told a joint White House press conference.

He said that together with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, “we will make all necessary efforts to ensure that Europe as a whole engages in the sanctions regime.”

The United States has led a new drive at the United Nations to impose a fourth set of sanctions on the Islamic republic for its continued refusal to rein in its suspect nuclear enrichment program.

The West suspects Tehran is trying to acquire a nuclear bomb, charges which the Iranian leadership has hotly denied saying the atomic program is for peaceful purposes only.

China Showed No Sign Of Throwing Its Support Behind Sanctions Against Iran

BEIJING: China showed no sign Tuesday of throwing its support behind new sanctions against Iran following talks with Britain’s foreign minister, who had hoped to persuade Beijing to join a growing international consensus for more stringent measures.

Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi maintained that sanctions weren’t the solution to disagreements over Iran’s nuclear program and that more talks were the way forward.

“Sanctions do not provide a fundamental solution to the Iranian nuclear issue. Ultimately, this issue has to be appropriately resolved through peaceful negotiations,” Yang said at a joint news conference with Britain’s David Miliband following their discussions in Beijing.

With Russia appearing to move closer to supporting new sanctions, China — which depends on Iran for much of its energy needs — would be the only one of five veto-wielding permanent U.N. Security Council members opposed to the measures.

Further punishment of Iran is among a host of issues dividing the nations, whose relations deteriorated badly last December after China ignored personal appeals from British Prime Minister Gordon Brown not to execute 53-year-old Akmal Shaikh for drug smuggling.

Shaikh’s family said he was mentally unstable and was lured to China from a life on the street in Poland by men playing on his dreams to record a pop song for world peace.

Brown said he was “appalled” by the execution — China’s first of a European citizen in nearly 60 years — prompting a warning from Beijing that such comments threatened to damage ties.

Even before that exchange, the two had clashed over who was to blame for the failure to reach a binding agreement on emissions reductions at December’s U.N.-sponsored Copenhagen climate talks.

Neither Yang or Miliband offered indications of a clear improvement in ties following the discussions.

However, a state television report about Miliband’s courtesy call on Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao was somewhat more upbeat.

China “highly values” relations with Britain and invites British companies to explore opportunities in the booming Chinese economy, CCTV quoted Wen as telling Miliband.

Miliband said rights dialogue was a part of Britain’s “strategic partnership” with China and indicated Beijing’s diplomatic disputes with Europe were not seen as part of a larger rivalry.

“I don’t believe China is a political competitor of the European Union,” he said.

On Iran, Miliband said international concern was rising over its nuclear intentions, citing Iran’s refusal to agree to stop processing uranium and instead accept shipments of nuclear fuel processed overseas and the U.N.’s inability to exclude the possibility of military dimensions to the Iranian nuclear program.

Without mentioning sanctions directly, Miliband said China and other nations remained united behind the goal of ensuring Iran does not become a nuclear weapons state.

“The fact that we have a shared goal leads me to believe that we can find the tactics to achieve it,” Miliband said.

Gordon Brown Says Iraq War Was “Right”

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown was greeted with shouts from protesters accusing him of being a war criminal when he arrived at the public inquiry into Britain’s role in the Iraq war.
Brown insisted that he was provided with all details by his predecessor Tony Blair on the effects and consequences of the Iraq war.
Brown added that his own intelligence briefings had convinced him that Iraq was a threat that “had to be dealt with”.
Brown reminded that if the international community could not act together over Iraq, Mr Brown said, he feared the “new world order we were trying to create would be put at risk”.

British Journalist killed in Afghan Blast

British Journalist killed in Afghan Blast, A British journalist and a US marine have been killed in a roadside bomb explosion.
Rupert Hamer was accompanying troops in Nawa district in Helmand province when the vehicle he was travelling in hit a roadside bomb. He is the first British journalist to die in Afghanistan since 2001. On the other hand, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said he was “deeply saddened.

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British Journalist killed in Afghan Blast was first posted on January 11, 2010 at 4:07 pm.

Terrorism Remains ‘Real’ Global Threat: Brown

LONDON: Britain Prime Minister Gordon Brown warned that the failed Detroit plane bombing showed that terrorism remains a “very real” global threat as the world enters a new year.
“The new year is starting as the last began — with a climate of fear,” he wrote in the UK national website, saying the failed bombing had “exposed an evolving terrorist threat” and highlighted “a major new base for terrorism.” He said that Yemen has been emerged as the new extremists’ stronghold and called upon the world leaders to urgently tighten security at airports and on aircrafts. “The failed attack in Detroit on Christmas Day reminds us of a deeper reality: that almost 10 years after September 11th international terrorism is still a very real threat,” he added. The Detroit attack, which has led to a major review of security procedures and the coordination of airline and other watch-lists, had thrown the spotlight onto the threat posed by militants based in Yemen, he said. Brown stressed that Britain could not rely only on a “fortress Britain strategy” — but must take the fight to where extremists are based, “in Afghanistan, Pakistan and all around the world.”

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Terrorism Remains ‘Real’ Global Threat: Brown was first posted on January 1, 2010 at 12:37 pm.

Britain Says China Carried out Execution of Briton

URUMQI, China: China on Tuesday executed a British man convicted of drug smuggling in its first execution of a European citizen in half a century, drawing a strong condemnation from Britain’s prime minister.

Britain’s Foreign Office confirmed the execution of Akmal Shaikh, whose relatives say was mentally unstable and was unwittingly lured into the crime.

“I condemn the execution of Akmal Shaikh in the strongest terms, and am appalled and disappointed that our persistent requests for clemency have not been granted. I am particularly concerned that no mental health assessment was undertaken,” British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said in a statement issued by the Foreign Office.

Shaikh, 53, was the first European citizen to be executed in China in five decades.

Shaikh first learned of his death sentence Monday from his visiting cousins, who made a last-minute plea for his life. They say he is mentally unstable and was lured to China from a life on the street in Poland by men playing on his dreams to record a pop song for world peace.

Brown had spoken personally to China’s prime minister about his case.

Shaikh was arrested in 2007 for carrying a suitcase with almost 9 pounds (4 kilograms) of heroin into China on a flight from Tajikistan. He told Chinese officials he didn’t know about the drugs and that the suitcase wasn’t his, according to Reprieve, a London-based prisoner advocacy that helped with his case.

He was convicted in 2008 after a half-hour trial. In one court appearance during his trial and appeal process, the judges reportedly laughed at his rambling remarks.

It was not known how Shaikh, who is of Pakistani descent, was executed.

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Britain Says China Carried out Execution of Briton was first posted on December 29, 2009 at 2:01 pm.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown Call For Pakistan To Step Up Against Al Qaeda

TrendPK.com British Prime Minister Gordon Brown Call For Pakistan To Step Up Against Al Qaeda: has called on Pakistan to take tougher action against al Qaeda and step up its efforts to track down the group’s leader Osama bin Laden. Brown said the efforts of British and coalition forces in Afghanistan to

TrendPK.com British Prime Minister Gordon Brown Call For Pakistan To Step Up Against Al Qaeda: has called on Pakistan to take tougher action against al Qaeda and step up its efforts to track down the group’s leader Osama bin Laden.
Brown said the efforts of British and coalition forces in Afghanistan to [...]

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown Call For Pakistan To Step Up Against Al Qaeda

TrendPK.com British Prime Minister Gordon Brown Call For Pakistan To Step Up Against Al Qaeda: has called on Pakistan to take tougher action against al Qaeda and step up its efforts to track down the group’s leader Osama bin Laden. Brown said the efforts of British and coalition forces in Afghanistan to

TrendPK.com British Prime Minister Gordon Brown Call For Pakistan To Step Up Against Al Qaeda: has called on Pakistan to take tougher action against al Qaeda and step up its efforts to track down the group’s leader Osama bin Laden.
Brown said the efforts of British and coalition forces in Afghanistan to [...]

Brandon Spikes Eye Gouging Video

Brandon Spikes Eye Gouging Video, When the Florida Gators took Georgia on a football game at the College over the weekend was not the end result that everyone is talking. Oh no, was the incident between the rise in the eyes of Brandon Spikes and Washaun Florida Georgia Ealey. The incident appears to have caused a stir among the college football world, especially after hearing the punishment he has received Spikes.

Brandon Spikes Eye Gouging Video, When the Florida Gators took Georgia on a football game at the College over the weekend was not the end result that everyone is talking. Oh no, was the incident between the rise in the eyes of Brandon Spikes and Washaun Florida Georgia Ealey.

The incident appears to have caused a stir among the college football world, especially after hearing the punishment he has received Spikes. As seen in the video below, opening the eyes of Brandon appears to be intentional.

Ealey peaks apparently revenge for an earlier incident in which Georgia tried to draw the player Spikes helmet and allegedly had tried to do exactly the same to him and gouge his eyes.

If it was a case of getting back or not, does not justify the inexcusable behavior Spikes. And what comes as a shock, is the fact that punishment is having to sit Spikes half against Vanderbilt next week.

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Brandon Spikes Eye Gouging Video was first posted on November 3, 2009 at 2:55 pm.

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