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Moazzam Begg, a former Guantanamo detainee who won substantial compensation after suing the British government, was arrested in Birmingham on suspicion of terrorism offences relating to Syria. John Downey, accused of killing four soldiers in the IRA Hyde Park bombing in 1982, will not be prosecuted, because he was given, in error, a guarantee he would not face trial; an Old Bailey judge ruled it was in the public interest to make state officials keep their promises. Harriet Harman, the deputy leader of the opposition, said she had ‘regrets’ that the Paedophile Information Exchange continued to be affiliated to the National Council for Civil Liberties during her time as its legal officer from 1978 to 1982; she said that the Daily Mail, which had criticised her, Jack Dromey her husband, and Patricia Hewitt, was making a politically motivated smear. Dave Lee Travis, the former disc jockey, found innocent on 12 charges of indecent assault, is to face a retrial on two other charges. A 14-year-old boy was charged with raping his mother in Blackpool. A couple were married in a Scientology chapel in London after the Supreme Court ruled that it was a ‘place of meeting for religious worship’.
David Cameron, the Prime Minister, chaired a meeting of the British cabinet in Aberdeen, while Alex Salmond, the First Minister of Scotland, chaired a meeting of the Scottish cabinet at Portlethen nearby. The stunts coincided with a recommendation by Sir Ian Wood, appointed by the British government to inquire into declining oil resources, to appoint a regulator for the North Sea oil and gas industry. The Queen is to name the Royal Navy’s new aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth on 4 July at the Rosyth dockyard in Fife.
Nigel Farage, the leader of Ukip, accepted an invitation to a debate about the European Union with Nick Clegg, the Liberal Democrat Deputy Prime Minister.

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