UK News
Insights from the UK and beyond
from Reuters Investigates:
The Britain Obama won’t see
Security tops the agenda as Barack Obama visits Britain, with a tighter relationship on the cards between the United States and the UK:
"Ours is not just a special relationship, it is an essential relationship - for us and for the world," Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron said.
Wonder how that will go down in places like Alum Rock, Birmingham, where our security correspondent William Maclean discovers the UK's state-backed efforts to deter young Muslim men from embracing jihad are faltering for many reasons -- including a view that the UK and the US are, in the words of one Muslim interviewee, "state sponsors of terrorism".
We also meet "radicaliser" Abu Izzadeen.
from Breakingviews:
BP no longer fighting Macondo battle alone
The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are her own.
By Fiona Maharg Bravo
BP is no longer fighting the Macondo battle alone. For over a year since the tragic explosion on the Deepwater Horizon rig in the Gulf of Mexico, BP's partners in the well have blamed the UK oil major for the accident and refused to pay any bills. Now Mistui, with a 10 percent stake in the well, has agreed to pay BP $1.1 billion. The amount may be small, but the move is significant.
Measuring up the Tartan curtain
Visiting Scotland this week to see Alex Salmond sworn in as first minister, the newspapers were full of talk about “independence lite”. The idea was that an independent Scotland would be free to choose as from a menu, selecting which issues to manage itself and which ones to pool with the rest of Britain.
Listening to Salmond in Holyrood and speaking to him afterwards in his official residence in Bute House, there was little sign of soft-pedalling.
from Jeremy Gaunt:
Can’t blame UK government for inflation now
A fair amount of UK inflation has been self-inflicted. As CPI and core CPI have risen since late 2009, CPIY (which strips out inflation from new taxes and the like) has stayed relatively low -- one reason, perhaps, why the Bank of England has  remained somewhat dovish.
Tax rises, in other words, have been behind a lot of UK inflation.
This is changing however. CPIY is still 150 basis points below CPI, but at 3.0 percent it is some 160 basis points above a low last July. So you can no longer blame the government. Underlying prices are rising anyway.
from FaithWorld:
Heaven is a fairy tale, says British physicist Stephen Hawking
(Theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking speaks at Perimeter Institute For Theoretical Physics in Kitchener, Canada, June 20, 2010/Sheryl Nadler)
Heaven is a fairy story for people afraid of the dark, the eminent British theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking said in an interview published on Monday. Hawking, 69, was expected to die within a few years of being diagnosed with degenerative motor neurone disease at the age of 21, but became one of the world's most famous scientists with the publication of his 1988 book "A Brief History of Time".
from FaithWorld:
UK Catholics urged to shun meat on Fridays
(Fish and chips in London, 31 July 2010/Javier Vte Rejas)
Britain's Catholics have been urged to make more effort to follow religious custom and abstain from eating meat on Fridays, potentially boosting sales of fish.
Church law required Catholics over the centuries to comply with this abstinence as part of Friday penance, the day set aside for special prayer and fasting to mark the day Jesus died. Traditionally Catholics have opted to eat fish instead, though a combination of new church guidance and changing eating habits has eroded this habit.
from Pakistan: Now or Never?:
Questions for the Pakistan liveblog
Our liveblog on Pakistan and what's next for the country after Osama bin Laden's death starts at 10a.m. EST/3 p.m. BST tomorrow (Tuesday, May 10). We've already received some comments and queries for Myra MacDonald. Here is one: Myra, In Pakistan there is a lot of resentment in the relationship with USA and a sense of betrayal. Also, the troubled relations with India, means that Pakistan is besieged by many problems at different fronts at the same time. My concern and also the question to you is, is Pakistan heading towards isolation? given the strategic implications of the OBL raid and killing, will Pakistan manage to control the damage to its credibility and emerge as a normal country?
Please keep sending in your questions by posting them below in the comments section.
More than just an autograph
Frederique Jamolli’s job is to prise the most treasured items from the hands of newly-crowned Olympians.
Her job is to ask sprint champion Usain Bolt for his Jamaican vest or the pair of brightly coloured spikes worn by Cathy Freeman after her 400-metre win at Sydney in 2000.
from Breakingviews:
BP escapes Russian impasse — at a cost
By Jason Bush and Fiona Maharg Bravo
The authors are Reuters Breakingviews columnists. The opinions expressed are their own.
MOSCOW/MADRID -- No compromise is pain free. But BP's peace agreement with its oligarch partners could have been much more costly. The UK oil major seems to have killed their opposition to its Arctic exploration alliance with Russian energy giant Rosneft -- but without resorting to penal concessions.
from FaithWorld:
Archbishop of Canterbury voices unease over bin Laden killing
(Britain's Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, at Lambeth Palace in London September 17, 2010/Chris Ison)
The Archbishop of Canterbury, the spiritual head of the 80-million strong Anglican Communion, has said the killing of an unarmed Osama bin Laden left a "very uncomfortable feeling." Rowan Williams said the different versions of events coming out of the White House "have not done a great deal to help here."
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