LONDON (Reuters) – One of Rupert Murdoch’s most senior newspaper executives was given a retired police horse to ride at her country house, police said on Tuesday, one of the more unusual disclosures in a phone-hacking scandal that has shaken the British media.

The London force said it had loaned the horse to Rebekah Brooks — a Murdoch favourite who ran his UK newspaper arm and edited two of his bestselling tabloids.

LONDON, Feb 28 (Reuters) – One of Rupert Murdoch’s
most senior newspaper executives was given a retired police
horse to ride at her country house, police said on Tuesday, one
of the more unusual disclosures in a phone-hacking scandal that
has shaken the British media.

The London force said it had loaned the horse to Rebekah
Brooks — a Murdoch favourite who ran his UK newspaper arm and
edited two of his bestselling tabloids.

LONDON (Reuters) – The Commonwealth suspended the Maldives from its democracy and human rights watchdog on Wednesday and called for elections before the end of the year after the island state’s president was forced from power at gunpoint earlier this month.

Commonwealth officials meeting in London stopped short of suspending the Indian Ocean country from the 54-member group of nations, predominantly ex-British colonies.

LONDON (Reuters) – A radical cleric once described as “Osama bin Laden’s right-hand man in Europe” was freed from a British prison to live under virtual house arrest on Monday after a court ruled that his detention without trial was unlawful.

The Jordanian preacher known as Abu Qatada must wear an electronic tag to allow the police to keep track of him, spend 22 hours a day at his family home and is banned from using the Internet and mobile phones.

LONDON, Feb 10 (Reuters) – British financier Nathaniel
Rothschild lost a libel case on Friday against a newspaper that
depicted him as a “puppet master” who used his friendship with a
European trade chief to impress a Russian oligarch and help
close a business deal.

Rothschild sued the Daily Mail in London over a story that
gave a rare insight into the world of super-rich businessmen who
cross continents in private jets, dine in top restaurants and
relax together in saunas.

LONDON (Reuters) – A breakdown of relations between the police and public, record youth unemployment and poverty were behind the violence in a deprived London district that led to Britain’s worst rioting in decades, a community-led inquiry found on Tuesday.

The report said those factors inflamed public anger sparked by the police shooting last August of a 29-year-old local man in Tottenham, northeast London six months ago.

LONDON, Feb 3 (Reuters) – Former UBS AG
trader Kweku Adoboli, who is accused of unauthorised deals that
cost the Swiss bank $2.3 billion, was refused bail by a London
court on Friday less than an hour after regulators stepped up
their probe into the scandal.

The Financial Services Authority (FSA) and the Swiss
Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) said they were
launching enforcement investigations, which depending on their
findings can be a prelude to actions such as fines or court
proceedings.

LONDON (Reuters) – A Libyan militia leader has begun legal action against a former senior British intelligence chief whom he accuses of playing a key role in illegally returning him to Libya to be jailed and tortured under Muammar Gaddafi, his London-based lawyers said.

Abdel Hakim Belhadj, who commands one of Libya’s most powerful militias, is seeking damages from Mark Allen, who was director of counter-terrorism at MI6, Britain’s foreign intelligence agency.

LONDON (Reuters) – Former UBS trader Kweku Adoboli will stand trial in September after pleading not guilty on Monday to charges related to the loss of more than $2 billion on trades the Swiss bank says were unauthorized.

The trial, which is likely to shine a searching light on the adequacy of the bank’s management and risk controls, could land Adoboli with a maximum 10-year jail sentence if convicted of the two counts of fraud and two of false accounting.

LONDON (Reuters) – Receiving an honor from Britain’s Queen Elizabeth marks the pinnacle of many careers. But for more than 250 people named in a once-secret official document, the idea was so unappealing that they turned down the monarch’s offer.

Artist Lucian Freud, sculptor Henry Moore and “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” author Roald Dahl all rejected honors, according to papers released by the British government on Thursday.