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David Cameron, the Prime Minister, stood outside 10 Downing Street and commented on events in Libya. ‘This has not been our revolution,’ he said, ‘but we can be proud that we have played our part.’ He had broken off his holiday in Cornwall for a meeting of the National Security Council. He had only just resumed his holiday after having previously flown home from Tuscany for the riots in England. Of the 1,400 people to have appeared in court in connection with the riots, 157 were convicted, 327 bailed and almost 800 remanded in custody. Birmingham police released footage of some of the 11 shots fired at them during the riots. ‘The big cause’ of the riots, according to Tony Blair, the former Prime Minister, in an article in the Observer, was ‘the group of alienated, disaffected youth who are outside the social mainstream and who live in a culture at odds with any canons of proper behaviour.’ England beat India by an innings and eight runs at the Oval, winning the Test series 4-0 and securing ICC rankings as first in the world.
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The FTSE rallied by more than 1 percentage point on news from Libya, the 12th biggest oil-producing country. More than 10 per cent of town and city-centre shops were vacant at the end of May, according to the British Retail Consortium. Greg Clark, the planning minister, conducted a public argument with the National Trust and the Campaign to Protect Rural England about proposed changes to the planning system. The government hatched a scheme whereby councils would be able to charge utility companies money if they dug up roads during peak hours.
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The RAF is to receive 14 new Chinook helicopters from 2013 in a £1 billion contract with the American company Boeing, bringing its total force of Chinooks to 60. A Hawk T1 plane crashed during a Red Arrows display, killing the pilot. A pub in Godshill in the Isle of Wight stopped serving rook pie after being advised by police that even legally shot rooks may not be sold for human consumption.
ABROAD
Forces loyal to the National Transitional Council moved suddenly into Tripoli, met by scenes of jubilation in Green Square by night. Fighting continued in the capital, with tanks emerging by morning from Colonel Gaddafi’s compound, and confusion ensued. Colonel Gaddafi’s second son, Saif al-Islam, was said to have been captured, but he soon appeared at the head of a group resisting government forces at his father’s compound, which was later overrun. Colonel Gaddafi sent a message from an unknown refuge vowing ‘victory or martyrdom’.
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Calling on Bashar Assad to resign as President of Syria, President Barack Obama of the United States barred investment in Syria and exports to it. Two American hikers arrested two years ago on the Iranian border were sentenced in Tehran to eight years in prison. Eight Israelis were killed in an attack near the Egyptian border; it was blamed on a group called the Popular Resistance Committees, based in Gaza. At least seven of the attackers were killed by Israeli soldiers, as were five members of the Egyptian security forces close by. Israel bombed the Gaza Strip, killing 15; rockets from Gaza killed an Israeli in Beersheva. Turkish aeroplanes bombed bases in northern Iraq used by the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). Young Murle men attacked Lou Nuer settlements in Jonglei state, Southern Sudan, killing hundreds, abducting 200 people, mostly children, and taking 40,000 cattle.
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Eurozone stock markets fluctuated alarmingly in the face of anxieties about the debt crisis. European bank shares had fallen by 20 per cent in August. The Spanish government and opposition agreed to pass a constitutional amendment setting limits on public sector borrowing. Hewlett Packard agreed to pay $11 billion for Autonomy, Britain’s biggest software concern; its shares then fell by a quarter of their value. Vice-President Joe Biden of America on a visit to China tried to allay its fears about the $10,000 billion of US debt it holds by saying in a speech: ‘The United States has never defaulted and never will default.’
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President Kim Jong-il of North Korea visited Russia for the first time since 2002. A New York judge dismissed the charges of sexual assault brought in May against Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the French former director of the International Monetary Fund. The most powerful earthquake since 1944 struck the east coast of the United States. Sir Richard Branson’s house on Necker Island in the British Virgin Islands was struck by lightning and burnt to the ground.
CSH
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