Britain summons Iran’s ambassador over Khamenei’s comments

Britain’s Foreign Office is summoning Iran’s ambassador over the comments made Friday by Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, a Foreign Office spokesman said. The ambassador is expected to meet with the Foreign Office’s political director sometime Friday afternoon, said the spokesman, who would not be named in line with policy. Khamenei addressed a crowd at Tehran University in a sermon during Friday prayers

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Anti-war campaigners slam ‘secret’ Iraq probe

Anti-war protesters have criticized a decision by the UK government to hold an investigation into Britain’s involvement in the Iraq war behind closed doors. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown told the House of Commons on Monday the inquiry into the war would hear evidence in private so witnesses can be “as candid as possible.” He added that it would be held along the lines of the Franks inquiry into Britain’s war with Argentina over the Falkland Islands in the early 1980s.

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UK’s Brown suffers first defeat — on Gurkhas

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown suffered a stinging defeat in Parliament Wednesday, losing a vote over the right of Ghurkha veterans to settle in the United Kingdom. It was the first time Brown has lost a vote in parliament since he became prime minister in 2007

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British PM’s aide quits over ‘smear’ e-mails row

A key aide to British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has resigned after e-mails reportedly smearing top political opponents were leaked, British media said Sunday. The e-mails, which made a number of innuendo-laden suggestions about the private lives of politicians, including Conservative Party leader David Cameron, ended up in the hands of a well known political blogger, it was reported Saturday. According to The Observer, Damian McBride, a special adviser to Brown, discussed setting up a Web site to publish “scurrilous allegations about opponents” with former Labour party adviser Derek Draper

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Celebrity chef Oliver to cook for G-20 leaders

Budget-conscious celebrity chef Jamie Oliver has been hired to cook for G-20 leaders in London next week, nearly a year after they provoked outrage by eating an eight-course meal while discussing the global food crisis. Oliver’s company will feed the leader’s at Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s residence, 10 Downing Street. Leaders at last July’s G-8 meeting drew heavy criticism for enjoying an eight-course meal featuring 19 dishes while they were meant to be discussing how to ease global food shortages

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UK PM issues Iran sanctions warning

Iran faces a "clear choice" between between international cooperation over its plans to develop nuclear energy or tougher sanctions, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown warned at a conference in London on Tuesday. Brown said Iran had an “absolute right” to develop nuclear energy for peaceful purposes but said it was a test case in helping all nations secure civil nuclear power without nuclear proliferation. “We have to create a new international system to help non-nuclear states acquire the new sources of energy they need because — whether we like it or not — we will not meet the challenges of climate change without the far wider use of civil nuclear power,” Brown said.

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Anger over Northern Ireland ‘reconciliation’

Protesters disrupted the launch of a report Wednesday that focuses on dealing with the legacy of the Northern Ireland Troubles. Bereaved relatives — of both republican and loyalist paramilitaries — stood head-to-head pointing fingers at one another and trading accusations over the deaths of their loved ones, the British Press Association said. The clashes took place as officials and relatives gathered in Belfast for the launch

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Police fear ‘summer of rage’ over recession

British police warned on Monday that officers were preparing for a "summer of rage" as protests mount across Europe against the economic crisis. David Hartshorn, who heads the Metropolitan Police’s public order branch, said growing unemployment, failing companies and the recession could spark a “mass protest.” Until now, Superintendent Hartshorn said, there were insufficient numbers of activists to carry out large-scale demonstrations, but he told the Guardian: “Obviously the downturn in the economy, unemployment, repossessions, changes that. Suddenly there is the opportunity for people to mass protest.” Hartshorn said April’s G-20 economic summit could lead to unrest as leaders of the world’s richest nations head to London

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