United Kingdom

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Brits Launch Classroom 'Terror Watch'

Teachers asked to watch out for extremist students

(Newser) - British teachers will be asked to monitor student behavior and report any suspected extremists to police under new government guidelines, the Guardian reports. A "tool kit" for teachers sets out how they should conduct classroom debates to smoke out any possible Islamic extremist  or far-right racist views across all...

UK Buys Up Bank Shares in Radical Bailout

Cost of drastic rescue package could top $800B

(Newser) - The British government will become part owner of the nation's biggest banks with a mammoth $88-billion rescue package for the troubled institutions, the Wall Street Journal reports. Under the plan, swiftly assembled after UK bank stocks plummeted in trading yesterday, the government will purchase non-voting shares in eight of the...

Cannibal Chef Cooked Gay Lover: Cops

Former Mr. Gay accused of killing, eating victim

(Newser) - A British chef is on trial for killing, cooking and eating part of a man after having sex with him, the Independent reports. The one-time winner of the Mr. Gay UK contest stabbed the man to death, cut flesh from his thigh, seasoned and cooked it, and tried to eat...

Brown Appoints Archrival to Rejoin Cabinet

Blair ally returns to British government in surprise move

(Newser) - Gordon Brown shocked the British political establishment by reappointing one of his long-time enemies to his Cabinet. Peter Mandelson, who with Brown and Tony Blair was an architect of New Labour, will be made a lord and become the new business secretary. The return of Mandelson, currently serving in Brussels...

Bad News for Banks Is Great News for Brown

British PM gets poll boost in crisis, silencing critics

(Newser) - In America the financial crisis has dealt yet another blow to an already unpopular President Bush. But in Britain, collapsing banks and volatile markets are the best thing to happen to Gordon Brown in recent months. In reasserting his global economic know-how, the prime minister, who is reportedly preparing an...

German Gamer Admits to Brutal Murder

Knifes UK man to death, was in love with victim's girlfriend

(Newser) - A German man has confessed to stabbing to death a Brit he met through an online war game, the Guardian reports. The 20-year-old victim ran a forum for fans of the game. Detectives had initially believed that the slaying stemmed from an online feud but it later emerged that the...

Britain to Ax Ban on Catholic Monarchs

Female heirs will also have the same rights as male counterparts

(Newser) - The British government is planning a royal shake-up of the laws governing who can become king or queen, the Guardian reports. The 300-year-old law currently in place bars Catholics or their spouses from taking the throne, and gives male heirs priority over women; both are targeted for change. Critics say...

Stranded Brits Expected Home on Schedule

Up to 85K were overseas when holiday firm went bust

(Newser) - The  sudden collapse of XL Airways left as many as 85,000 passengers marooned in foreign lands, but they're now expected to get home on schedule, or at least only a little late, the Times of London reports. Aviation authorities plan a vast airlift to take home the stranded, but...

Dad Saves Toddler Sucked Into Storm Drain

Girl was carried 230 feet through pipe into river swollen with floodwater

(Newser) - Emergency workers are praising the "incredibly quick thinking" of a British man who saved his 3-year-old daughter from drowning yesterday after she was sucked into a storm drain with her dog, the Guardian reports. Royal Air Force sergeant Mark Baxter raced to a river just in time to save...

Prof Argues for Looser Spelling

English-speaking pupils hamstrung by non-phonetic words, apostrophes

(Newser) - A British academic argues that English-speaking schoolchildren waste time learning the peculiarities of spelling, and should be given more freedom to spell phonetically, the Times of London reports. Children studying in languages with more phonetic writing systems, like Finnish or Italian, don’t need to waste classroom time on spelling,...

UK Millionaire Set Fire After Killing Family

Footage shows Foster blocking exits before murder/suicide

(Newser) - Police have found the body of a UK millionaire inside the charred remains of his mansion, the Guardian reports. Authorities now believe Christopher Foster fatally shot his wife and teenage daughter, along with three family horses and four dogs, early on Aug. 26 before setting the house ablaze and turning...

Pound Plunges to Record Low Against Euro

Gloomy economic outlook sends British currency tumbling

(Newser) - The British pound has sunk to its lowest level ever against the euro since the European currency was introduced in 1999, the Financial Times reports. The fall follows Chancellor Alistair Darling's dire warning that the outlook for the British economy is the worst in 60 years. The pound dropped to...

UK Cops Hunt Millionaire Family in Arson Attack

Failed businessman 'not to be trusted,' according to judge

(Newser) - British police have issued an "all-ports" alert for a family whose mansion was mysteriously gutted by arson this week, the Independent reports. The charred remains of  the home are still unsafe to enter and police are unsure if the bodies of Christopher Foster, his wife and their teenage daughter...

UK Banks 'Milk Borrowers' to Pay for Credit Crunch

Banks hike mortgage payments despite interest rate cuts

(Newser) - Britain's big banks are being accused of hoisting nearly £3 billion in interest payments on customers to make up for bad bank investments, the Daily Mail reports. Seeking to recoup huge losses from assets linked to subprime US mortgages, the banks have hiked mortgage rates and fees despite interest...

UK Moves Near Recession as Growth Hits Zero

Economy stagnates, sends dollar soaring against pound

(Newser) - The British economy has ground to a halt, according to official figures, ending the longest period of growth in over a century. The nation's statistics office revised its estimate for first-quarter growth from 0.2 percent to zero—the first time it's been flat since 1992—sending the pound falling...

Fest Cops Ban Doherty's Band
 Fest Cops Ban Doherty's Band
Aug 20, 2008 12:20 PM CDT

Fest Cops Ban Doherty's Band

Fans get 'geed up' and fight, they say

(Newser) - Police have banned Pete Doherty's band Babyshambles from headlining a UK music festival, citing the group's rowdy stage antics, NME reports. After "an analysis of what Pete Doherty and his band does," police determined they "speed up and then slow down the music" to incite violence. Moonfest...

Britain to Test Car Satellite Toll

Controversial plan will charge up to $2.40 per mile for British autos

(Newser) - Britain plans to test a toll system that tracks drivers by satellite and charges them by the mile, the Daily Telegraph reports. Dubbed "spy in the sky," the controversial plan was floated by the Labour government and was considered dead under PM Gordon Brown. "It seems that...

UK Weighs Taking Fat Kids From Parents

Dangerously chubby children may end up in social service system

(Newser) - Local government leaders in Britain warn that they may need to take drastic action to protect the health of dangerously overweight children—including taking them away from their parents, the Independent reports. They predict that a million British children will be clinically obese within four years, and that the social...

Trawler Dumps Endangered Fish, Sparking Eco-Outrage

Vessel jettisoned 80% of its catch to comply with EU rules

(Newser) - Film of a British trawler dumping 10,000 pounds of dead fish caught in Norwegian waters back into the sea has outraged Norway as well as environmentalists, the Guardian reports. The boat dumped nearly 80% of its catch, including cod and other endangered fish, to comply with EU quotas. Conservationists...

Leaked Blair Memo Blasts Brown 'Vacuity'

Leadership challenge gains steam as ex-PM slams successor

(Newser) - Gordon Brown took further lashed from his own party over the weekend as allies of Tony Blair leaked an old memo from the former prime minister bashing Brown's tenure. In the memo, written last year after Brown called off a mooted snap election, Blair accuses his successor of "hubris...

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