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The government was defeated in the Lords by 252 to 237 on an amendment by the Rt Rev John Packer, Bishop of Ripon and Leeds, to the Welfare Reform Bill, removing child benefit from the proposed welfare cap of £26,000 a year per household. Vince Cable, the Business Secretary, said in the Commons that he wanted to see legislation to give shareholders a binding (rather than the current advisory) vote on executive pay. MPs heard that the clock tower that houses Big Ben was leaning by 0.26 degrees to the north-west, which was just visible, but that it would not become unstable for more than 4,000 years.
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The Royal Navy frigate Argyll joined US and French ships in passing through the Strait of Hormuz in response to an Iranian threat to close it as the European Union adopted a boycott of Iranian oil in an attempt to force the country to stop its development of nuclear arms. Britain’s public debt rose above £1,000 billion for the first time. Britain will have to pay a European Union financial transaction tax even if it keeps outside the scheme, but will receive none of the proceeds, Algirdas Semeta, the European Commissioner for Taxation, said. Petroplus, the Swiss owner of the Coryton oil refinery in Essex, which employs 1,000, filed for bankruptcy. China Investment Corporation, the country’s sovereign wealth fund, bought an 8.68 per cent holding in Thames Water. A burst water main in Oxford Street, London, caused £1 million of damage.
With apparent disregard for the presumption of innocence, Nick Clegg, the Deputy Prime Minister, said that he and David Cameron would have to ‘take a view’ if the Crown Prosecution Service proceeded with charges over claims that Chris Huhne, the Energy Secretary, persuaded Vicky Pryce, his wife at the time, to take speeding points on his behalf. Asil Nadir, the former chief executive of Polly Peck International, went on trial at the Old Bailey charged with 13 counts of theft; the prosecution said he had taken £150 million between 1987 and 1990. The aurora borealis was visible as far south as Saltburn, Yorkshire, the effect of a solar flare.
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Abroad
Several bombs set off by the Islamist terror group Boko Haram killed at least 186 people in the northern Nigerian city of Kano. At the end of Egypt’s six-week election process, the Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party ended up with 235 seats out of 498, with the Salafists’ Nour party winning 121. Fighters aligned to Al-Qa’eda in the Arabian Peninsula looted weapons and broke open a prison in Radaa, 100 miles from the Yemeni capital, Sanaa. The parliament in Yemen approved the immunity from prosecution that President Ali Abdullah Saleh had demanded before he would step down next month. In Somalia, pro-government forces have launched an offensive from Mogadishu to seize territory from al-Shabab, the Islamist militants.
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Syria rejected a proposal from the Arab League for President Bashar al-Assad to hand over power to his deputy in a government of national unity. In response, Gulf states withdrew from the Arab League observer mission in Syria. In Libya, Abdel Hafiz Ghoga resigned as deputy leader of the National Transitional Council after a crowd stormed its headquarters in Benghazi. Supporters of the ousted ruler Colonel Gaddafi were said to have taken control of the town of Bani Walid. During a visit by President Nicolas Sarkozy to French Guiana, nine gold prospectors died in a shootout.
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No agreement with private creditors of Greece was reached in time for a summit of eurozone finance ministers. Another attempt was planned before a summit of European leaders on 30 January. The hope was to avoid a complete default on 20 March when a €14.4 billion loan is due. The International Monetary Fund said the world economy was ‘deep in the danger zone’ because of risks from the eurozone. A defeat for Mitt Romney in the South Carolina primary brought Newt Gingrich into contention for the Republican presidential nomination. Both men published their tax returns; Mr Romney had paid $3 million in taxes in 2010, 13.9 per cent of his income, and in two years had given $4.1 million to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and Mr Gingrich had paid nearly $1 million in tax last year, a rate of about 31 per cent. President Obama again called for higher taxes on the wealthy in his State of the Union address. Maize cobs were dug up on the coast of Peru by archaeologists who said that they indicated popcorn was eaten there in 4700 bc.
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