Gordon Brown

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Brown Meets With Queen to Dissolve Parliament

Key step starts clock on national election

(Newser) - British Prime Minister Gordon Brown met with Queen Elizabeth this morning to ask her to dissolve parliament to make way for new elections next month. The symbolic action will officially mark the beginning of a general election campaign, leaving Brown to fight for his political life in the Labour Party...

UK Will Go to Polls May 6

PM Gordon Brown's Labour majority under siege

(Newser) - With his Labour Party’s majority under siege, British PM Gordon Brown will call a general election for May 6. Brown must ask Queen Elizabeth to dissolve Parliament, after which he’ll give a speech that paints the vote as “the big choice,” sources tell the BBC , which...

Why David Cameron Will Be Britain's Next PM

A Conservative toff has transformed himself into a consensus builder

(Newser) - Temperament trumps class, Michael Wolff writes in explanation of why David Cameron, a Conservative aristocrat who should be anathema to recession-flattened Brits, is in fact about to beat the pants off of Labour Prime Minister Gordon Brown. Cameron, who worked in PR for 7 years, has managed to reinvent himself...

Gordon Brown Blames US for Blunders in Iraq

UK PM maintains that going to war was the right decision

(Newser) - Gordon Brown says he still believes that going to war in Iraq was “the right decision made for the right reasons,” but he doesn’t think the aftermath was well handled, he told the Chilcot war inquiry today. “It was one of my regrets that I wasn't...

Gordon Brown Staffers Contacted Bullying Hotline

UK PM's employees reached out 3 or 4 times in recent years

(Newser) - A UK bullying hotline has received "three or four" calls from an unexpected source—Gordon Brown's office. The head of the National Bullying Helpline stopped short of calling the famously short-tempered PM a bully, adding, "What we are saying is staff in his office working directly with him...

Gordon Brown Talks Death of Child, Tony Blair

Death of daughter was 'most grief-stricken time' of British PM's life

(Newser) - In an unguarded interview, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown talks frankly about the death of his newborn daughter, his wife's strength, and the deal he made with Tony Blair over Labour Party leadership. “Nobody actually really told us for a week, it just gradually dawned on us that something...

Pope Urges UK Bishops to Fight Gay Equality Bill

Legislation 'violates the natural law,' pontiff contends

(Newser) - Pope Benedict wants English and Welsh bishops to fight proposed human rights legislation with "missionary zeal." The Equality Bill, which is pending in Parliament, is intended to combat discrimination on the basis of sex, race, disability, religion, or sexual orientation, but the pontiff argues that "it actually...

World Powers Mull Afghan Exit
 World Powers Mull Afghan Exit 

World Powers Mull Afghan Exit

But Hamid Karzai thinks it'll be a while before his country's ready

(Newser) - Delegates from about 70 nations met in London today to draft an exit strategy for the Afghanistan conflict, which, consensus has it, would involve handing security responsibilities over to local forces and seducing Taliban fighters with jobs and homes. In attendance were everyone from Hillary Clinton to Ban Ki-Moon to...

Simon Cowell to Produce Single for Haiti

Gordon Brown asks the 'Idol' judge to work on charity project

(Newser) - Simon Cowell says he will produce a charity single within 10 days to benefit victims of the earthquake in Haiti. No word yet on which British stars will perform, but Susan Boyle is a possibility. Prime Minister Gordon Brown asked Cowell to put together the single, which will be exempt...

UK Bans Flights From Yemen
 UK Bans Flights From Yemen 

UK Bans Flights From Yemen

Yemenia flights suspended pending security improvements

(Newser) - The British government yesterday ordered an immediate halt to direct flights from Yemen to the UK as a security precaution. Prime Minister Gordon Brown, describing the country as "both an incubator and potential safe haven for terrorism," also announced the creation of an expanded no-fly list of people...

Gordon Brown Survives Secret Ballot Coup Attempt

Opposition calls for an immediate general election

(Newser) - Gordon Brown narrowly dodged the latest attempt to unseat him yesterday, after two senior members of his party called for a secret ballot on his leadership. Brown came out on top in the vote, but looked weakened, with several members of his cabinet offering only belated, tepid statements of support....

US Denies Brits Warned About Detroit Bomber

Downing Street made a mistake, White House says

(Newser) - The UK government made "a mistake" when it claimed that British intelligence about the Detroit bombing suspect was passed on to US authorities in 2008, says a White House source. Gordon Brown's office also seemed to be backpedaling from yesterday's claim that Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was included on a...

UK Gave US Detroit Suspect Intel: Gordon Brown

Abdulmutallab tried to contact extremists

(Newser) - Gordon Brown is denying allegations the UK failed to share intelligence on Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab with the US. The suspected Detroit plane bomber was included in a dossier of individuals who had made contact with extremists, and that dossier was shared with American intelligence authorities, the UK PM's spokesman said...

Brit Military Bishop 'Admires' Taliban Loyalty

Gordon Brown does not agree

(Newser) - The Taliban's faith and loyalty to one another can be regarded as admirable, according to a British military bishop, who is urging an approach to them that recognizes they're not all bad. The Church of England's bishop to the Armed Forces, Stephen Venner, made his comments as Prime Minister Gordon...

Bin Laden's Not Here: Pakistan PM
 Bin Laden's Not 
 Here: Pakistan PM 
take that, gordon brown

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...

Belgian Named EU Prez After Blair Bid Fails

Center-right leaders want one of their own for European Council

(Newser) - Tony Blair won't be the first president of the European Council. The job went to Belgian PM Herman Van Rompuy today after British PM Gordon Brown withdrew Blair's nomination when it became clear he didn't have enough support. Blair tells the Guardian he isn’t surprised, because the “direction...

Germany Hails Anniversary of Berlin Wall's Fall
 Germany Hails 
 Anniversary of  
 Berlin Wall's Fall  
party like it's 1989

Germany Hails Anniversary of Berlin Wall's Fall

Dominoes, fireworks, music help mark 20 years

(Newser) - Hundreds of foam dominoes will fall today in Berlin, symbolizing the collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe on the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Chancellor Angela Merkel, who has called Nov. 9, 1989, "the happiest day in recent German history," will lead the festivities....

Karzai Took Major Arm-Twisting to OK Runoff

Round 2 of Afghan election no panacea, either

(Newser) - Hamid Karzai's concession yesterday that an election runoff was necessary may have brought Afghanistan back from political paralysis, but another ballot is no sure solution. The potential for fraud—more than a quarter of first round ballots were thrown out—has not abated, the New York Times notes. Today Abdullah...

5 Years Until Climate Disaster, Warns WWF
 5 Years Until Climate 
 Disaster, Warns WWF 
COPENHAGEN SUMMIT

5 Years Until Climate Disaster, Warns WWF

Checking global warming requires 'green revolution'

(Newser) - Disastrous climate change is inevitable unless the world begins cutting carbon emissions within the next five years, the World Wildlife Fund warns in a new report. Ahead of December's clutch Copenhagen summit, meant to forge a successor to the Kyoto Protocol, the fund repeats that global temperature rises could stay...

Britain to Send 500 More Troops to Afghanistan

Expects other NATO countries to follow suit

(Newser) - Britain will send 500 more troops to Afghanistan, Gordon Brown is expected to announce today, defying calls to reduce Britain’s presence there. The men will come with strings attached, however: “The prime minister will want assurances from military chiefs that the extra troops will be properly equipped,”...

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