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The gross domestic product of the United Kingdom shrank by 0.5 per cent in the last quarter of 2010 compared with that quarter the previous year, according to initial figures from the Office for National Statistics.
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The gross domestic product of the United Kingdom shrank by 0.5 per cent in the last quarter of 2010 compared with that quarter the previous year, according to initial figures from the Office for National Statistics. Manufacturing was up 1.4 per cent and construction down by 3.3 per cent. Mervyn King, the Governor of the Bank of England, said that living standards would shrink more than at any time since the 1920s. An agreement was delayed between the government and Britain’s biggest banks on the amount they should lend to small businesses; the scheme was known as Project Merlin. Andy Coulson resigned as head of communications at Downing Street because, he said, allegations about phone-hacking at the News of the World when he was its editor had become a distraction. Lord Taylor of Warwick, a former Conservative, was found guilty of false accounting in making parliamentary expenses claims of £11,277. The government made arrangements to replace control orders restricting the movements of security suspects (at present numbering eight) with similar measures going by a different name.
Alan Johnson resigned as shadow chancellor for personal reasons, and a policeman who had been on protection duties was suspended following allegations he had an inappropriate relationship with Mrs Johnson. Ed Balls was made shadow chancellor: his wife Yvette Cooper became shadow home secretary; Douglas Alexander became shadow foreign secretary; Tessa Jowell became shadow cabinet office minister, and shadow work and pensions went to Liam Byrne. A rat was caught on television cameras twice in a week scuttling past the door of 10 Downing Street as reporters stood speaking their dispatches.
Eighteen quangos, out of a bonfire of 192 and mergers of another 118, were reprieved, including the Parole Board and the Sea Fish Licence Tribunal. The Olympic Park Legacy Company pondered bids from Tottenham Hotspur and West Ham to buy the 2012 Olympic stadium; Spurs promised to demolish the £537 million stadium, build their own and give money to Crystal Palace sports centre. Two Sky Sports commentators, Andy Gray and Richard Keys, made remarks about a lineswoman when they thought their microphones were off. ‘Women don’t know the offside rule,’ said Mr Gray. ‘Course they don’t,’ Mr Keys replied. Mr Gray was subsequently sacked.
Abroad
A suicide bomb killed 35 at Domodedovo, Moscow’s busiest airport, 25 miles from the city. Militants from the North Caucasus were immediately suspected. President Dmitry Medvedev blamed poor security and said checks resembling those in America or Israel would be introduced. Two car bombs killed 25 Shia pilgrims in Karbala, Iraq. Two suicide bombs killed 11 Shia pilgrims in Lahore and Karachi, Pakistan. A lake of floodwater 55 miles wide rolled over the Australian state of Victoria. Taipei issued free CDs of the sound of firecrackers in an attempt to reduce pollution from the real things at Chinese New Year on 3 February.
Brian Cowen said he would resign as leader of Fianna Fail after all, four days after winning a party vote of confidence. Alassane Ouattara, widely recognised as the winner of the Ivory Coast presidential elections, has called for a month-long ban on cocoa exports in an attempt to put pressure on Laurent Gbagbo to concede defeat. President Islam Karimov of Uzbekistan visited Brussels for talks with José Manuel Barroso, the President of the European Commission. Hillary Clinton, the US Secretary of State, visited Mexico, the third biggest trading partner of the United States, and said there was ‘no alternative’ to fighting drug cartels; there were 15,273 drug-related murders in Mexico last year. A taxi driver in Buenos Aires narrowly escaped when a woman fell from the 23rd floor of a hotel and crushed his roof, but survived the fall.
Al-Jazeera television leaked what it said were some of 1,600 confidential records of negotiations between the Palestinian authorities and Israel. An Israeli inquiry headed by Jacob Turkel, a retired Supreme Court Justice, reported that the Israeli navy acted lawfully in a raid on a flotilla trying to reach Gaza last May that killed nine Turkish activists. The Prime Minister of Turkey said the inquiry had no credibility. Najib Mikati, a Sunni businessman and the candidate of Hezbollah, became Prime Minister of Lebanon, with the support of the majority of Lebanese MPs, thanks to a change of loyalties by Walid Jumblatt, the Druze leader. Crowds rioted in Cairo in emulation of the revolution in Tunisia. A polar bear was found to have swum 420 miles to a new ice floe without a break. CSH
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