United Kingdom

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UK to Tax Bank Bonuses 50%
 UK to Tax Bank Bonuses 50% 
Dec 9, 2009 1:52 PM CST

UK to Tax Bank Bonuses 50%

Any bonus over $40K subject to one-time charge

(Newser) - Britain will levy a 50% tax on bank bonuses over $40,800 this year, in an attempt to shore up the nation's finances—and appease angry voters—ahead of the coming election. Alistair Darling slammed banks who paid out hefty bonuses even as Britain remains in recession: "Their priority...

Bin Laden's Not Here: Pakistan PM
 Bin Laden's Not 
 Here: Pakistan PM 
take that, gordon brown
Dec 3, 2009 1:27 PM CST

Bin Laden's Not Here: Pakistan PM

Gilani contradicts Brown, says there's no 'credible' intelligence

(Newser) - Gordon Brown can talk all he wants about Pakistan not doing enough to capture Osama bin Laden—the Al-Qaeda leader isn’t in the country, its prime minister says. Yousaf Raza Gilani says he has not been provided with any “credible or actionable intelligence” to suggest otherwise, and he...

Obama Issues Orders for More Afghan Troops

Briefed military last night, will reveal number and other details tomorrow

(Newser) - After weeks of deliberation, President Obama has settled on a new strategy for the war in Afghanistan and ordered the military to carry it out. The exact size of the troop escalation has not been announced, but sources put the number in the neighborhood of 30,000 more troops. The...

Iran Seizes 5 British Yacht Crew Members

Vessel nabbed en route from Bahrain to race in Dubai

(Newser) - Iran is holding five British sailors after stopping their racing yacht in the Persian Gulf, the British government said today. The yacht, owned by Sail Bahrain, was stopped on its way from the tiny island country to Dubai on Wednesday when it "may have strayed inadvertently into Iranian waters,...

Boyle Debut Fastest-Selling Ever in UK

With 410K copies sold, I Dreamed a Dream tops Brit charts

(Newser) - Susan Boyle’s I Dreamed a Dream has nabbed the record for best first-week sales of a debut album in UK chart history. The breakthrough Britain’s Got Talent singer’s record sold 410,000 copies last week, easily topping big draws like Rihanna and Lady Gaga and becoming the...

British Treasure Find Worth $5.4M

Anglo-Saxon gold unearthed by jobless searcher this summer

(Newser) - An amateur British treasure hunter and the owner of the field where he struck gold are in for a big payday: His find turns out to be a 7th-century Anglo-Saxon cache of the precious metal. The collection is worth about $5.4 million, British Museum tells the AP . The treasure—...

Blair Knew Iraq Had No WMD 10 Days Before War Began

Intelligence ignored, British panel told

(Newser) - Prime Minister Tony Blair was told Iraq possessed no weapons of mass destruction 10 days before ordering British troops into the country in 2003, but Blair pushed ahead anyway, a panel investigating the war was told today. But, said a key intelligence official, the information didn’t weaken the case...

P&G Recalls Contaminated Vicks Nasal Spray

Lots affected by bacteria were sold in US, UK, Germany

(Newser) - Procter & Gamble has voluntarily recalled batches of its Vicks nasal spray contaminated with bacteria. Though the bacteria are likely harmless to healthy people, CNN reports, the contamination could prove disastrous for those with compromised immune systems. The product is in the Vicks Sinex line in the US and UK,...

Lea & Perrins Original Recipe Discovered

Find sheds light on Worcestershire's long-secret flavors

(Newser) - What looks to be the original and long-secret recipe for Lea and Perrins legendary Worcestershire Sauce has been found. A woman in England discovered it among her late father's leather-bound notebooks. He worked as an accountant for Lea and Perrins and found the 19th-century document in the trash at the...

Sex Offender Held in UK Facebook Murder

32-year-old posed as teenager, led police to body

(Newser) - British police are holding a convicted sex offender after he confessed to murdering a 17-year-old girl he met on Facebook, posing as a fellow teenager. The 32-year-old blurted out "I've killed a girl" after being picked up for a car insurance violation. He then led police to a field...

How Australia Dodged the Recession

How one country ducked the economic downturn

(Newser) - Australia has weathered the financial crisis better than any other developed country. Last week its central bank raised interest rates, indicating its primary concern is now inflation, not growth. What were the keys? Phil Dobbie of BNET explains:
  • Befriending China: Australia used to export much of what it made to
...

UK Gags Guardian, but Twitter Airs Suppressed Story

Social media site explodes with toxic waste scandal

(Newser) - The Guardian has been slapped with an unprecedented gag order forbidding it from reporting on a question in the British parliament, as well as who asked the question and why it's being gagged. The paper says constitutional rights are being infringed upon and it's already suing—but meanwhile, the suppressed...

Asia, UK Challenge US Supremacy in Higher Ed

US still has more universities in THE's top 200 than any other country—for now

(Newser) - The United States is home to more top-level universities than any other country in the world, this year’s survey by Times Higher Education confirms, but its advantage may not last forever. Although 54 of the top 200 schools are in the US, Asia is making remarkable progress: Japan has...

Historical Novel Wolf Hall Captures Booker Prize

Hilary Mantel's story set in Henry VIII's court was favorite for prestigious award

(Newser) - A novel set in the court of King Henry VIII won this year’s Man Booker Prize, Britain’s top literary honor. Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall was a heavy favorite, and the book drew praise from the panel of judges as “a thoroughly modern novel set in the...

Pregnant Woman Turned Down at UK Cheese Counter

Customer lies to get cheddar clerk said was bad for moms-to-be

(Newser) - In a move many husbands might say verges on suicide, a British supermarket clerk refused to sell a pregnant woman cheese, saying she wasn’t allowed the unpasteurized cheddar for health reasons. Janet Lehain, 31, had to promise the female employee behind the Sainsbury’s deli counter she wouldn’t...

UK Court Serves Injunction Over Twitter

Conservative blogger uses tweet to notify impersonator of injunction

(Newser) - In a micro-blogging first, the UK’s High Court has ruled that a court order may be served via Tweet. The case concerns an anonymous wag who has been impersonating right-wing blogger Donal Blaney on Twitter, sending out tweets under his name with “mildly objectionable” content, the BBC reports....

Brown, Labour Fuming After Murdoch Backs Conservatives

(Newser) - Gordon Brown is livid and his colleagues in the Labour Party are ripping up copies of the Sun in public after Rupert Murdoch ended 12 years of support and backed Conservative David Cameron this week. “We don't need an Australian-American coming to our country with a paper that has...

'Most Unlikely' HPV Shot Killed UK Teen

Health officials cite 'serious underlying condition,' though girl's school disputes it

(Newser) - The British teen who died after being vaccinated against human papillomavirus had “a serious underlying medical condition,” health officials said today, and it is “most unlikely” that the shot, intended to prevent cervical cancer, killed 14-year-old Natalie Morton. An official at Morton’s school is skeptical. “...

UK Teen Dies After HPV Vaccination

14-year-old has 'rare but extreme reaction'; batch quarantined after others report trouble

(Newser) - A 14-year-old British girl died yesterday after receiving the vaccine against human papillomavirus, and the National Health Service has quarantined the batch after three other girls reported unpleasant side effects. Her school is telling parents the girl had a “rare but extreme reaction” to the shot, which is commonly...

UK Gives Liquid Bomb Plotters Life in Prison

(Newser) - The three men convicted of plotting to smuggle liquid bombs onto trans-Atlantic flights all received life sentences in British court today, with minimum terms ranging between 32 and 40 years, the BBC reports. The judge said the attack aspired to “stand alongside” the 9/11 attacks, calling it “the...

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