Already a subscriber? Log in
Mr Tony Blair, the former prime minister, said he would give the advance, reported to be £4 million, and the royalties for his forthcoming book, A Journey, to the Royal British Legion for a centre for wounded soldiers. Mr Andrew Lansley, the Secretary of State for Health, said that hospitals would be fined if they did not put an end to mixed-sex wards. Mr Eric Pickles, the Secretary of State for Local Government, abolished the Audit Commission, with its 2,000 staff, to save £50 million a year. The Disasters Emergency Committee of aid agencies in Britain received donations of £15 million to help those affected by the floods in Pakistan, and the government offered £31 million. Mr Clegg said: ‘The response from the international community as a whole, I have to say, has been lamentable.’ Three children were injured by a bomb apparently intended to kill police at Lurgan, County Armagh. Twenty-one were injured, one seriously, after a train hit a sewage tanker on a level-crossing at Little Cornard near Sudbury, Suffolk. Lord Pearson of Rannoch said he would resign as leader of the UK Independence Party because he was ‘not much good’ at party politics. Dozens of hens at Highgrove belonging to the Prince of Wales were killed by foxes.
Mr Ban Ki-moon, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, visited Pakistan, where, he said, nearly 20 million were affected by floods. Only a third of the £294 million needed for immediate aid was forthcoming. The World Bank arranged to lend Pakistan £574 million. Half the 15 million population of Niger was said to be in desperate need of food after floods followed drought. The Rapaport Group said it would expel members of its diamond-trading network if they sold diamonds from Zimbabwe. Anthrax killed 83 hippopotamuses in the Queen Elizabeth National Park, Uganda. China beat Japan into third place for gross domestic product in the second quarter of 2010. A new record for the biggest human domino chain was set by 10,276 people in Inner Mongolia.
A suicide bomber in a queue outside an army recruitment centre in Baghdad killed at least 59 and wounded more than 100. General David Petraeus, the commander of Nato forces in Afghanistan, said that he reserved the right to tell President Obama of the United States whether it was too early to withdraw troops from Afghanistan in 2011. But Mr Robert Gates, the US Defence Secretary, said: ‘There is no question in anybody’s mind that we are going to begin drawing down troops in July of 2011.’ Mr Gates said separately that it would be logical for him to leave office in 2011. Mr Obama defended the right of developers, ‘in accordance with local laws and ordinances’, to build a mosque and Islamic cultural centre two blocks from the site of the World Trade Center destroyed in 2001. Five hundred Orthodox Christians attended the liturgy at the ancient Sumela monastery in north-east Turkey where religious services had been banned for 88 years. A single polar bear was seen to eat 1,000 barnacle goose eggs at a sitting at a nesting colony on the Arctic island of Svalbard. CSH
Also in Society
Also by The Spectator
Latest
Comments
Join the debate for just $5 for 3 months
Be part of the conversation with other Spectator readers by getting your first three months for $5.
UNLOCK ACCESS Just $5 for 3 monthsAlready a subscriber? Log in