Tag Archives: Britain

Briton accused of terrorism offences posted picture of Prince George: court

LONDON (Reuters) – A British man posted a picture of Prince George, 4, and the address of his London school as part of a series of possible targets for Islamist militants, a court heard on Wednesday.

Husnain Rashid, 31, is accused of posting information on the Telegram messaging service to encourage jihadis to carry out attacks along with information to help them with possible targets such as stadia.

Prosecutor Rebecca Mundy told London’s Westminster Magistrates Court that this included posting a picture of Prince George, son of Queen Elizabeth’s grandson Prince William and Kate and destined to be the future king, next to a silhouette of a jihadi fighter.

The post included the address of his school in southwest London which he started attending in September and was accompanied with the caption “even the royal family will not be left alone”, the court heard.

Rashid, from Nelson in Lancashire, northern England, is charged with preparing terrorism acts, which involved plans to travel to Syria to engage in fighting, and preparing to assist others to commit terrorist acts.

He did not apply for bail and indicated he would plead not guilty to the charges. He was remanded in custody until Dec. 20 when he will appear at London’s Old Bailey central criminal court.

(Reporting by Michael Holden; editing by Stephen Addison)

Britain preparing to transfer 400 million pounds to Iran – Telegraph newspaper

Britain preparing to transfer 400 million pounds to Iran - Telegraph newspaper

LONDON (Reuters) – Britain is preparing to transfer over 400 million pounds ($527 million) to Iran as it seeks the release of a jailed Iranian-British aid worker, The Telegraph newspaper reported, citing unidentified British sources.

Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a project manager with the Thomson Reuters Foundation, was sentenced to five years after being convicted by an Iranian court of plotting to overthrow the clerical establishment. She denies the charges.

Britain has sought legal advice over whether it could transfer the funds which it owes as a result of a disputed arms deal in the 1970s. Diplomats told the newspaper that any payment should not be linked to the fate of Zaghari-Ratcliffe.

The Thomson Reuters Foundation is a charity organization that is independent of Thomson Reuters. It operates independently of Reuters News.

A spokesman for Britain’s Foreign Office could not be reached for comment out of normal business hours.

(Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge; editing by Kate Holton)

Britain, Russia clash over Syria at chemical weapons body

Britain, Russia clash over Syria at chemical weapons body

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) – Britain accused Russia on Thursday of carrying out a “thinly veiled political attack” against the head of the world’s chemical weapons watchdog, escalating a row over the body’s investigation into toxic attacks in Syria.

The comments, made during a session at the Hague-based Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), were the latest sign of deep political division at the body over the Syrian conflict.

In an Oct. 26 report the U.N.-OPCW investigation team blamed the Syrian government for an April 4 attack using the banned nerve agent sarin in the opposition-held town of Khan Sheikhoun, killing around 80 people. The Syrian government has denied using chemical weapons and Moscow rejected the findings.

The mechanism was established in 2015 by the U.N. Security Council to identify individuals, organizations or governments responsible for chemical attacks in Syria. Its mandate expires on Nov. 17, but its work is incomplete.

Moscow is poised to veto efforts by Britain, France, Germany and the United States to extend the mandate.

A draft Russian-Iranian proposal circulated at the OPCW and seen by Reuters called for a new investigation, to be based on samples taken from the attack site. The Syrian government itself has already presented samples from the scene to the investigation team, which tested positive for sarin.

“It is a thinly veiled political attack on the professional integrity of the director general,” the British delegation said in a statement, referring to the OPCW’s outgoing Turkish head, Ahmet Uzumcu. “It seeks to undermine the capability and competence of the (OPCW).”

The Russian delegation at the OPCW could not be reached for comment.

Syria joined the OPCW after a sarin attack on Aug. 21, 2013, killed hundreds of people in Ghouta, a district on the outskirts of Damascus. It has said it declared and destroyed all its chemical stockpile, but chemical attacks continue in the country’s civil war [L4N1L24LP].

(Reporting by Anthony Deutsch; Editing by Gareth Jones)

Iran displays missile, thousands march in marking 1979 U.S. embassy takeover

Iran's national flags are seen on a square in Tehran February 10, 2012, a day before the anniversary of the Islamic Revolution.

By Babak Dehghanpisheh

BEIRUT (Reuters) – Iran put a ballistic missile on display as thousands marched on Saturday to mark the anniversary of the 1979 seizure of the U.S. embassy, with a senior official accusing President Donald Trump of a “crazy” return to confrontation with Tehran.

Turnout for the annual Iranian street rallies commemorating the embassy takeover, a pivotal event of the Islamic Revolution, appeared higher than in recent years when Trump’s predecessor Barack Obama pursued detente with Tehran.

Last month, Trump broke ranks with European allies, Russia and China by refusing to re-certify Iran’s compliance with its 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, reached during Obama’s tenure. Under that deal, most international sanctions on Iran were lifted in exchange for Tehran curbing nuclear activity seen to pose a risk of being put to developing atomic bombs.

Iran has reaffirmed its commitment to the deal and U.N. inspectors have verified Tehran is complying with its terms, but Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has threatened to “shred” the pact if the United States pulls out.

“All the governments confirm that the American president is a crazy individual who is taking others toward the direction of suicide,” Ali Shamkhani, secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, told a rally in Tehran, state media reported.

“Trump’s policies against the people of Iran have brought them out into the streets today,” Shamkhani said.

He did not identify the governments he had in mind. The other parties to the nuclear deal – Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany – have voiced disquiet at Trump’s opposition to it, fearing this could stir new Middle East instability.

But the Europeans share U.S. concern over Iran’s ballistic missile program and “destabilizing” regional behavior.

 

NOT NEGOTIABLE

Senior Iranian officials have repeatedly said that the Islamic Republic’s missile program is solely defensive in nature and is not negotiable.

In a sign of defiance, a Ghadr ballistic missile with a range of 2,000 km (1,240 miles) was put on display near the ex-U.S. embassy in Tehran, now a cultural center, during Saturday’s street demonstration, Tasnim news agency said.

“That America thinks Iran is going to put aside its military power is a childish dream,” said Brigadier General Hossein Salami, deputy head of its elite Revolutionary Guards which oversees the missile development, according to Tasnim.

Fars news agency posted pictures of demonstrators nearby burning an effigy of Trump and holding up signs saying “Death to America”.

Iran and the United States severed diplomatic relations soon after the 1979 revolution, during which hardline students seized the embassy and took 52 Americans hostage for 444 days.

Shamkhani spoke a few days after Khamenei said the United States was the “number one enemy” of the Islamic Republic.

U.S.-Iranian tensions have risen anew at a time when Tehran has been improving political and military ties with Russia.

Russian President Vladimir Putin visited Tehran on Wednesday. Khamenei told him that Tehran and Moscow must step up cooperation to isolate the United States and help defuse conflict in the Middle East.

Iran and Russia are both fighting on the side of Syrian President Bashar al Assad against rebels, some of them U.S.-backed, and Islamist militants trying to overthrow him.

 

(Reporting by Babak Dehghanpisheh; editing by Mark Heinrich)

 

Supreme Leader Khamenei says U.S. is Iran’s ‘number one enemy’

Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei waves as he arrives to deliver a speech in Tehran, Iran, November 2, 2017. Leader.ir/Handout via REUTERS

By Parisa Hafezi

ANKARA (Reuters) – The United States is Iran’s “number one enemy” and Tehran will never succumb to Washington’s pressure over a multinational nuclear deal, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said in a televised speech on Thursday.

U.S. President Donald Trump broke ranks with other major powers last month by refusing to formally certify Iran’s compliance with the nuclear deal. Under that deal, most sanctions on Iran were lifted in exchange for Tehran curbing its nuclear work.

“The American president’s foolish remarks against our people show the depth of America’s hostility towards the entire Iranian nation,” Iran’s top authority Khamenei told a group of students.

“America is the number one enemy of our nation.”

Since the deal was reached in 2015, Khamenei has continued to denounce the United States publicly, suggesting that antagonism between the two countries since the 1979 Islamic revolution in Tehran would not abate because of the accord.

Iran and the United States severed diplomatic ties shortly after the revolution, when hardline students took 52 Americans hostage for 444 days. Iran will mark the anniversary of the American embassy seizure on Saturday.

Trump has called the nuclear agreement, which was reached under his predecessor Barack Obama, “the worst deal ever negotiated” and has adopted a harsh approach to Iran over its nuclear and ballistic missile programs.

Washington has imposed new sanctions on Iran over its missile activity, calling on Tehran not to develop missiles capable of delivering nuclear bombs. Iran says it has no such plans and its missile program is solely for defense purposes.

The deal’s other signatories, Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China, and the European Union say Washington cannot unilaterally cancel an international accord enshrined by a U.N. resolution.

Iranian officials have repeatedly said that Tehran would stick to the nuclear accord as long as the other signatories respected it. But it has warned about the consequences if the deal falls apart.

“We will never accept their bullying over the nuclear deal … Americans are using all the wickedness to damage the result of the nuclear talks,” Khamenei said to chants of “Death to America” by students.

“Any retreat by Iran will make America more blatant and impudent … Resistance is the only option.”

Trump also accuses Iran of supporting terrorism in the Middle East. Iran rejects that and in turn blames the growth of militant groups such as Islamic State on the policies of the United States and its regional allies.

Shi’ite-dominated Iran and its regional arch-rival, U.S.-backed Sunni Saudi Arabia, are involved in proxy wars across the region, backing opposite sides in Syria, Yemen, Iraq and Lebanon.

 

(Writing by Parisa Hafezi; Editing by Catherine Evans)

 

Britain’s May urges EU to break deadlock in Brexit talks

Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May (C) attends the EU summit in Brussels, Belgium October 19, 2017. REUTERS/Yves Herman

By Elizabeth Piper and Alastair Macdonald

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Prime Minister Theresa May urged the European Union on Thursday to break the deadlock and move forward with Brexit talks, asking the bloc’s leaders to respond with “urgency” on easing the fears of their citizens living in Britain.

Arriving at a two-day summit in Brussels with other EU leaders, May sought to lower any remaining expectation that she could win a breakthrough in the talks to unravel more than 40 years of union. Instead, she turned the focus to making progress in the coming weeks, particularly on citizens’ rights.

Weakened by losing her Conservative Party’s majority in a June election and failing to rally support at an ill-fated party conference, May cannot move on the EU’s insistence on increasing her pay offer for the divorce agreement.

She is hamstrung by demands in her own party for her to walk away unless the EU agrees to moving the talks forward to discuss trade, and Germany which does not want to be left with a large bill when Britain leaves the bloc in March 2019.

“We’ll … be looking at the concrete progress that has been made in our exit negotiations and setting out ambitious plans for the weeks ahead. I particularly, for example, want to see an urgency in reaching an agreement on citizens’ rights,” May told reporters.

But she avoided questions about increasing the amount Britain is willing to pay when it leaves the EU, instead referring back to a speech last month in Italy when she outlined an offer of around 20 billion euros ($24 billion) to try to improve the tone.

“That speech … set out that ambitious vision and I look forward to us being able to progress that in the weeks ahead,” she said.

Without a new offer on the money, May has attempted to change the focus by offering concessions on the protection of the rights of around 3 million EU citizens living in Britain, promising to make it as easy as possible for them to stay.

On her Facebook page, May wrote that “we are in touching distance of agreement” and asked the EU to show the “flexibility and creativity” to secure a deal in the coming weeks.

While welcome, this is unlikely to alter the outcome of the Brussels summit, where on Friday morning, when May has left, the bloc is expected to say the Brexit talks had not yet made enough progress for them to open the post-Brexit trade negotiations.

CHANGE OF TACK

That lack of movement has increased the pressure on May from her own party, particularly a small number of Brexit campaigners who have long said that the prime minister should walk away from the talks if the EU did not move them forward.

In an open letter to May on Thursday, pro-Brexit lawmakers and business people said that unless the talks moved to trade, Britain should signal it is ready to be subject to World Trade Organization (WTO) rules from March 30, 2019, when Brexit takes effect.

The government says it does not want to crash out of the EU and is working to secure a deal. But comments that ministers are planning for the possibility of a no deal have been pounced on by the Britain’s main opposition Labour Party.

Jeremy Corbyn, whose party has matched and sometimes beats May’s Conservatives in the opinion polls, arrived in Brussels on Thursday to meet EU lawmakers to try to break “the Brexit logjam” created by what he called government “bungling”.

Seen as having little chance of becoming prime minister last year, Corbyn is now being listened to in Brussels and was due to meet the bloc’s chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, and other officials on Thursday.

Recognising May’s position at home, EU leaders are expected to make a “gesture” by telling EU staff to prepare for talks on a transition period needed to ease uncertainty for business. But they warn there is still a lot to be done.

“We have to work really hard between October and December to finalise this so-called first phase and to start negotiating on our future relationship with the UK,” Donald Tusk, the chairman of EU leaders, said on Wednesday.

($1 = 0.8454 euros)

(additional reporting by William James and Estelle Shirbon in London, Philip Blenkinsop and Gabriela Baczynska in Brussels; Editing by Alison Williams)

‘They have to pay’, EU’s Juncker says of Britain

President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker listens at a news conference during the European Union Tallinn Digital Summit in Tallinn, Estonia, September 29, 2017. REUTERS/Ints Kalnins

LUXEMBOURG (Reuters) – Britain must commit to paying what it owes to the European Union before talks can begin about a future relationship with the bloc after Brexit, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said on Friday.

“The British are discovering, as we are, day after day new problems. That’s the reason why this process will take longer than initially thought,” Juncker said in a speech to students in his native Luxembourg.

“We cannot find for the time being a real compromise as far as the remaining financial commitments of the UK are concerned. As we are not able to do this we will not be able to say in the European Council in October that now we can move to the second phase of negotiations,” Juncker said.

“They have to pay, they have to pay, not in an impossible way. I’m not in a revenge mood. I’m not hating the British.”

The EU has told Britain that a summit next week will conclude that insufficient progress has been made in talks for Brussels to open negotiations on a future trade deal. London has been hoping and pressing for this to happen at the summit.

(Reporting by Philip Blenkinsop in Brussels; Editing by Alastair Macdonald)

EU lawmakers give tentative nod to Brexit clearing law that could clobber Britain

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker addresses the European Parliament during a debate on The State of the European Union in Strasbourg, France, September 13, 2017. REUTERS/Christian Hartmann

By Huw Jones

LONDON (Reuters) – European Union lawmakers on Tuesday gave broad support to a law that could end the City of London’s global dominance in clearing euro-denominated financial contracts after Brexit.

The plan has raised hackles in Britain, where it threatens both job losses and tax revenues.

The draft EU law proposes that a foreign clearing house — which stands between two sides of a transaction to ensure its smooth completion — must be subject to more intense supervision by the bloc’s regulators if it wants to serve customers in the EU.

But if a clearing house is systemically important to the euro zone, then euro-denominated business with EU based customers must move to the bloc.

The draft law is anathema to Britain, which voted to leave the EU in a referendum last year.

It is home to LCH, an arm of the London Stock Exchange that clears most euro-denominated swaps in Europe. Financial services represent Britain’s biggest tax earning sector and the LSE has warned that thousands of jobs could leave the UK if euro clearing was forced out.

In the first debate in the European Parliament on Tuesday, lawmakers from the two biggest parties, the center right European People’s Party and the center-left Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats, gave broad backing to the draft law, but called for some changes.

“It’s a good proposal from the European Commission,” Polish center-right MEP Danuta Huebner told parliament’s economic affairs committee.

“In principle, I support the proposal, which I find necessary,” added Roberto Gualtieri, an Italian center-left lawmaker who chairs the committee.

The European Parliament and EU states have final say on the reform, with changes expected during the approval process.

No timetable has been agreed for approving the law and, separately, there has been scant agreement on any new relationship between the EU and Britain.

That means LCH’s European customers don’t know at the moment if they can continue using the London clearer after Brexit.

Exploit this uncertainty, Frankfurt-based Eurex unveiled a “Brexit-proof” package of sweeteners on Monday to woo LCH customers.

BREXIT PROTECTIONISM

Huebner said parts of the draft law were too complex, creating uncertainty over how exactly EU regulators and the European Central Bank would decide when euro clearing conducted outside the bloc must move to the EU.

“We have to do everything to avoid potential inconsistency in decision-making,” Huebner said. “We must not politicize the whole process.”

Gualtieri said there was a need to “upgrade” EU supervision of clearing, but lawmakers should be “very cautious, reflective and in a listening mood” given the potential consequences.

Others said there was need to avoid protectionism or using clearing as a stick to beat Britain given that the UK was already “fighting with itself”.

Kay Swinburne, a British center-right lawmaker, a lone voice in outright opposition, said a regional restriction on a global currency is the wrong approach.

“There is a reason why we have done so much work at the global level, and I really hope that we are not going to throw all of that away to have some protectionism with regards to a Brexit decision,” Swinburne added.

Banks and the LSE have warned that forcing out some clearing would split markets and bump up costs for EU companies who use swaps to insure against adverse moves in borrowing costs, raw material prices, and currency swings.

(Reporting by Huw Jones Editing by Jeremy Gaunt)

UK top court seeks clarity on how to handle EU rulings after Brexit

The Union Flag and European Union flags fly near the Elizabeth Tower, housing the Big Ben bell, during the anti-Brexit 'People's March for Europe', in Parliament Square in central London, Britain September 9, 2017. REUTERS/Tolga Akmen

By Estelle Shirbon

LONDON (Reuters) – Britain’s Supreme Court would like clearer guidance from parliament on how it should deal with European Union court judgments after Brexit, its new president said on Thursday.

The issue of what weight, if any, judgments of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) will have in British law after the United Kingdom leaves the European Union is one of many thorny areas in the Brexit negotiations.

Brenda Hale, who was sworn in as president of the Supreme Court on Monday after serving as one of its justices for 13 years, said she and her colleagues were looking for guidance from parliament on the issue.

“We hope that the European Union Act, when it’s eventually passed, will tell us what we should be doing – giving us the power to take into account, or saying we must take into account, or saying we must ignore,” she told reporters.

“Whatever parliament decides we should do, we would like to be told because then we’ll get on and do it.”

A government policy paper issued in August said Britain wished to leave the “direct jurisdiction” of the ECJ while also recognizing that future civil judicial cooperation would need to take into account “regional legal arrangements” such as the ECJ.

The European Union says that for certain issues, such as the rights of EU citizens in Britain, the ECJ must continue to have its say – a stance strongly rejected by the most ardent advocates of Brexit.

Hale said the government policy papers issued over the summer were “at quite a high level of generality” and described them as aspirational.

But she praised the formulation used by Prime Minister Theresa May in a major speech on Brexit in Florence on Sept. 22. May said that where there was uncertainty around EU law, she wanted UK courts to be able to “take into account” ECJ judgments.

“‘Take account’ is quite useful because it does give one the power to take it into account, but also the power to say ‘for the following good reasons, we think something else,'” said Hale.

Her deputy, Jonathan Mance, said the form of words used in the EU Withdrawal Bill currently going through parliament was “a weaker formula”.

The bill says that British courts “need not have regard to anything done on or after exit day by the European Court … but may do so if it considers it appropriate to do so”.

(Editing by Stephen Addison)

Britain to limit acid sales after steep rise in assaults

Britain's Home Secretary Amber Rudd speaks at the Conservative Party conference in Manchester, October 3, 2017. REUTERS/Hannah McKay

MANCHESTER, England (Reuters) – Britain will limit sales of sulphuric acid and outlaw the sale of such corrosive substances to children after a spate of assaults and its possible use to make bombs, interior minister Amber Rudd said on Tuesday.

Much to public alarm, the number of incidents where assailants have used acid has risen sharply, with police figures suggesting there had been more than 400 corrosive substance attacks in the six months to April this year.

Many victims were left with serious, life-changing injuries as a result.

The proposed new laws will make it illegal to sell the most harmful corrosive substances to under-18s while the carrying of acid in public without good reason will be banned.

“Acid attacks are absolutely revolting,” Home Secretary Rudd told party activists at the Conservative Party Conference in the northern English city of Manchester. “You have all seen the pictures of victims that never fully recover; endless surgeries, lives ruined.”

Rudd said she also intended to “drastically” limit the public sale of sulphuric acid because of its use in making the highly volatile triacetone triperoxide (TATP), known as “mother of Satan”, which is often used as a detonator in home-made explosives.

Police say TATP was used in an attempted bombing on a packed London underground train last month which injured 30 people. The bomb engulfed a carriage in flames but failed to explode fully.

At the moment, businesses that sell sulphuric acid have to tell the police of any theft or loss, but the new law would mean anyone wanting to buy it above a certain concentration would have to have a Home Office license.

Rudd also announced plans to further restrict the online sale of knives to under-18s following a significant increase in the number of stabbings.

(Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge; editing by Stephen Addison)