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George Osborne, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, suddenly increased the levy on banks to £2.5 billion a year, to raise an extra £800 million. The London Stock Exchange agreed a merger with its Canadian counterpart. A report by Sir Gus O’Donnell, the Cabinet Secretary, on the release of Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi, the Libyan jailed for the Lockerbie bombing, concluded the last Labour administration’s policy was to do all it could ‘to facilitate an appeal by the Libyans to the Scottish Government for his transfer under the prisoner transfer agreement or release on compassionate grounds’. The incidence of breast cancer in Britain was found to be increasing, with one in eight women developing the illness. A civil partnership ceremony is to be held for two male green parakeets called Joey and Peter at an RSPCA centre in Derby.
The government said it planned to abolish Anti-Social Behaviour Orders and replace them with Criminal Behaviour Orders, attached to criminal convictions, and Crime Prevention Injunctions. Labour said that spending cuts would mean reducing the 143,000-strong police force by 10,190. Jim Devine, a former Labour MP, went on trial on charges of making false claims of £8,745 for expenses. Christine Hemming, the wife of a Birmingham Lib-Dem MP, pleaded not guilty to the theft of a kitten from the home of her husband’s mistress. The Speaker ruled that Michael Gove’s use of the phrase ‘rank hypocrisy’ of Labour MPs was unparliamentary language.
Abroad
Protesters continued to occupy Tahrir Square in Cairo, demanding the resignation of President Hosni Mubarak; Tuesday saw the biggest gathering yet. The Egyptian government, with its new vice-president, General Omar Suleiman, formerly an intelligence chief, held talks with opposition spokesmen, including some from the banned Muslim Brotherhood. Wael Ghonim, a Google executive, was released from police detention after 12 days. A break-in at the national museum in Tahrir Square led to the theft of some antiquities and the breaking of 70 more, including a sculpture of Tutankhamun on a panther. The reopening of the stock exchange was postponed. Somali pirates captured a 105,000-ton Italian tanker. The Chechen Islamist warlord Doku Umarov said that he had ordered the bomb that killed 36 last month at a Moscow airport.
The results of the referendum last month in Southern Sudan showed 98.83 per cent of those who voted favouring its independence from the North. More than a million people were affected by new floods in Sri Lanka, where 300,000 were displaced last month. Dozens of houses on the outskirts of Perth were destroyed by bush fires that raged in Western Australia. AOL agreed a buyout of the Huffington Post online newspaper for $315 million, with Arianna Huffington retaining her editorial role. Amtrak announced a $13.5 billion rail tunnel between New York City and New Jersey. The Adirondack Sports Complex, Queensbury, NY, collapsed under the weight of snow; no one was inside. A match was cancelled at the South African arena that hosted the 2010 World Cup football final because thieves stole cables supplying its electricity.
At a summit of European Union leaders, Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany and President Nicolas Sarkozy of France promoted a scheme for a common consolidated corporate tax base (CCCTB) to set business tax bills centrally. The International Cricket Council banned for five years three Pakistani players accused of bowling deliberate no-balls in the fourth Test against England at Lord’s last August; they face criminal charges in England. The Japan Sumo Association cancelled its grand tournament for the first time since 1946 because of match-fixing allegations. Stefaan Engels, a Belgian, completed 365 marathons, one a day, in seven countries. CSH
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