United Kingdom

Media mogul Murdoch praises Obama

Julien — Fri, 30 May 2008 18:04:17 +0200

The world’s most powerful media mogul and owner of Fox News and the Wall Street Journal, the hard-line conservative Rupert Murdoch last night admitted he had told one of his publications to back Democratic candidate Barack Obama. Could this be the start of a home run for Obama? A political communication analyst tells us why he should be wary.

CEO and chairman of News Corporation, Rupert Murdoch has a huge stake in the world press, including dozens of newspapers, magazines, television channels and websites. He has been criticised for a biased and overbearing influence, especially coming from his American news channel Fox News. In the UK, he owns almost all of the conservative written press and is thought by many to be the reason behind Tony Blair’s landslide victory in 1997. Last night, speaking at a technology conference supported by the Wall Street Journal, the media tycoon praised Barack Obama, calling him a “star”.

Facing deportation for researching al Qaeda

Sophie — Wed, 28 May 2008 10:45:02 +0200

The book is on sale on Amazon.com

A university administrator in the UK is facing deportation after printing out an al Qaeda training manual for a student studying Islamic extremism. Here, his friends say that the Algerian national, who has lived in England for 13 years, has been targeted because he's Muslim.

The Nottingham University worker, Hicham Yezza, 30, was asked to print out the document by a masters degree student researching Islamic extremism. A university worker reported the incident to the police and both Hicham and the student, Rizwaan Sabir, 22, were arrested on campus on May 14 under the Terrorism Act 2000. After six days in detention the pair were released without charge. However, immediately after, Hicham was rearrested and served with a deportation order because of a problem with his application for UK residency. Despite huge criticism from politicians and the British press, who believe that the order is a smokescreen for the original police blunder, Hicham could be deported back to Algeria as early as Sunday if the order is not repealed.

The video clip filmed entirely by cctv cameras... or so we thought

Sophie — Sat, 17 May 2008 00:10:29 +0200

Desperately seeking fame in Europe's music capital, Britpop band The Get Out Clause decided to use their country's obsession with closed-circuit television to create a video that looked as though it was all filmed on surveillance cameras. However, despite the trick initially sending the unsigned group straight to fame for their apparent penny-saving ingenuity, they were soon slated when it was discovered that most of the footage was fake. Here, the band's guitarist responds the attacks.

The farewell video of a terrorist

Julien — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 13:29:38 +0200

Mohammad Siddique Khan is one of the terrorists responsible for the July 2005 London train bombings. A few months before the attacks, while in training in Pakistan, the young man made this video to explain to his six-year-old daughter why he had to go fight.

The video below includes two movies shot by Khan. In the first clip, dated November 2004, Khan considers heading to Pakistan to fight the Americans. He explains to his daughter that he must carry out the Jihad, but that he will miss her. At some point after making these videos, he was redirected to London a few months later to plan the July 2005 suicide bombing that killed 52 people. In the second clip, at the end of this video, Khan introduces his “uncles” to his daughter. One of these men, Waheed Ali, is one of suspects currently on trial in the English capital.

"Putting out the flame is really going to upset the Chinese people"

Julien — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 16:29:07 +0200

The Olympic flame had to be put out for half an hour during its tour around Paris because of havoc wreaked by mainly pro-Tibetan protesters. ChinaWolf, who set up a YouTube channel to "defend the Chinese reputation", explains to us why he thinks the protests were unacceptable.

Britons praise Carla Bruni-Sarkozy's French chic

Julien — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 15:43:45 +0100

The British public was wowed by Carla Sarkozy's elegance and beauty yesterday when she met the Queen. And they didn't miss out on the chance to compare the French president's wife with that of Prince Charles, Camilla Parker-Bowles, who rarely enjoys any praise. We listen to the view of a British "appearance management" consultant on each woman's choice of style.

Odd looking photographer? Must be a terrorist

Julien — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 11:16:28 +0100

The London Metropolitan police have just issued new measures in the fight against terrorism. During a five week campaign police officers are expected to stop and search more “odd” looking people and the public are being warned to report anything “suspicious”. But after just two weeks since its launch the public are starting to question whether it’s infringing on civil liberties. Photographers in particular are sick of being questioned by policemen and being told to move on. To voice their complaints, artists are creating their own versions of the campaign’s posters.

If you can hear this you’re a public nuisance

Julien — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 11:11:11 +0100

The use of a high-pitched alarm to drive British teenagers away from public places is under dispute on the blogosphere after a campaign against the alarms was launched by the Children's Commissioner for England yesterday. The ‘mosquito' alarm which is so high-pitched that only young ears are able to pick it up has been installed by 3,500 shopkeepers and supermarkets in the UK since it was invented in 2005. Now, the ‘Buzz off' campaign says that the £500 product should be prohibited from use.

No thanks Tony, we don’t want you as president of Europe

Julien — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 18:39:05 +0100

Bristol, UK. Posted by 'Dr Dog' on flickr, 6 February 2006

When the idea of Tony Blair as president of the Council of Europe emerged, so did an online petition against the idea. The European Tribune blog launched the ‘Stop Blair' petition on Tuesday. Already signed by 3600 people, the whole blogosphere is talking about it. Here we publish commentary from Jérôme Guillet, one of the campaign's organisers, and the reaction of a British blogger specialised in European issues, for who Blair ‘would have been a good spokesman for the EU ten years ago'.

Thanks go to Carl Konigel, our Observer in Holland, who alerted us to the petition. See his blog.

“They close the British Council, but buy houses in London"

Julien — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 19:11:13 +0100

'Until now, Iran and Burma were the only countries to ban the British Council'.

Russians react to the closure of the British Council by the Russian authorities. One of them remembers when it was closed down once before in the past. That was in 1947, and it marked the beginning of the Cold War. Another says that the Russian authorities are becoming schizophrenic: "They close the British Council, but buy houses in London."