But his references to Britain’s “indigenous people” prompted other members of the panel to challenge him to say he meant white people. Mr Griffin said the colour was “irrelevant” and said Mr Straw would not dare go to New Zealand and tell a Maori he was not “indigenous”. “We are the aborigines here,” he claimed. [...]
Iran is defying Security Council resolutions ordering it to suspend the enrichment of uranium. On 25 September President Obama accused Iran of building a secret second uranium enrichment plant. Iran said it was a pilot plant. The IAEA is to inspect it on 25 October. Iran is now considering an offer to have much of [...]
In another uncanny echo of Enron, Global Crossing now threatens to rattle around the political world. The company was a disproportionately large donor to politicians – during the 2000 US elections, it contributed $2.9m to candidates and parties, more even than the famously well-connected Enron. Global Crossing’s largesse was spread evenly between parties, but was [...]
Montoya’s lawyer said his client hoped his life story would send a message that drug trafficking destroyed everything in its wake. In court documents, Montoya’s defence team traced his progression from a teenager with dreams of becoming a Catholic priest to the man at the helm of a drug-trafficking ring believed to have exported $10bn [...]
There is evidence that the anger is stirring the usually peaceful Sufis to take up arms and fight back against al-Shabab. The umbrella group Ahlu Sunnah Wal Jama (Sufi Sects in Somalia) has condemned the actions of what they call the ideology of modern Wahhabism and the desecrations of graves. They see Wahhabism as foreign [...]
John Nkomo, a senior figure in Mr Mugabe’s Zanu-PF, and chairman of ONHRI, said that “anyone who has broken the law should be put on trial”. But he also argued against a rush to judgment. “Yes, people were killed; yes, people fight; yes, they may still be fighting, but… this nation is going through a [...]
Indian economic analyst Paranjoy Guha Thakurta says the challenge for Mr Singh’s government will be to meet the aspirations of India’s youthful and upwardly mobile middle classes while widening social safety nets for the poor, especially those living in rural areas. But he says the Congress mandate is strong, with the weakening of parties on [...]
secret population of orang-utans has been discovered in the forests of the island of Borneo. Conservationists believe about 2,000 rare apes are living out of sight in a remote lowland region of East Kalimantan. The find, if confirmed, will raise the number of known orang-utans in the world by about 10%. It offers hope of [...]
Whether Air New Zealand and its partners will achieve a first appears uncertain. Virgin Atlantic is planning a UK-based test flight early next year which would also see one engine of a four-engined commercial jet running partially or entirely on a biofuel. A Virgin spokesman told the BBC that ground testing was well underway in [...]
A court in Brazil has cleared one of the country’s main land reform campaigners of murder charges, reversing a 1997 conviction that sparked criticism from human rights groups and governments worldwide. The accused, Jose Rainha, was acquitted in the killing of a farmer and a policeman during a land dispute 11 years ago. Hundreds of [...]
