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In London more than 2,000 had so far been arrested in connection with the August riots, of whom 1,135 had been charged. Nationally, 70 per cent of those who appeared in court were remanded in custody for trial. In more than half of Britain’s postcode areas, the Royal Mail failed to meet its aim of delivering 91.5 per cent of first-class letters the next day, between March and June. BT was given planning permission to remove disused dish-shaped aerials from high up on the BT Tower before they fell off. Scratched depictions of reindeer made more than 12,000 years ago were found in a cave in the Gower peninsula. NF Simpson, the author of One Way Pendulum, died, aged 92. Sally Bercow, the wife of the Speaker of the House of Commons, having joined the Celebrity Big Brother television show, was the first housemate to be voted out. Children walking to school in Kent were made to wear high-visibility clothing.
John Cridland, the director general of the Confederation of British Industry, called steps to separate high-street from investment banking during a slowdown in the economy ‘barking mad’. Vince Cable, the Business Secretary, called the response ‘disingenuous in the extreme’. Andrew Mitchell, the International Development Secretary, was photographed holding a memorandum saying that Britain should ‘publicly and privately’ welcome the decision by President Hamid Karzai not to seek another term in 2014, as it would improve the country’s prospects ‘very significantly’. This summer was found to have been the coolest since 1993. At the Notting Hill carnival, only one man was seriously stabbed.
Essex police investigating claims that Chris Huhne, the Energy Secretary, tried to evade punishment for speeding resubmitted their file to the Crown Prosecution Service. Alex Salmond, the First Minister of Scotland, said of the man released in 2009 from prison, where he was serving a sentence for his part in the Lockerbie bombing, that ‘it might be time as far as Mr Megrahi is concerned to draw a line under that part of the Lockerbie issue and perhaps allow this man now to die in peace’. The Queen sought a new gardener at Balmoral; applications close on 23 September.
Abroad
In Libya, Colonel Ahmed Omar Bani, the spokesman for anti-Gaddafi forces, said that about 10,000 prisoners of the regime had been released, but perhaps 50,000 were missing, and there were fears many might have been killed or left to die. As Ramadan ended, the rebel forces moved in on Sirte and gave forces there loyal to Gaddafi until 3 September to surrender. Algeria gave hospitality to Colonel Gaddafi’s wife Safia, a daughter Aisha and two of his sons Mohammad and Hannibal. The United Nations agreed to release $1.5 billion of frozen funds to the Transitional National Council, after South Africa lifted its objections. Avian influenza has recently spread to Israel and the Palestinian Territories, Bulgaria, Romania, Nepal and Mongolia, according to the World Health Organisation.
In Syria more demonstrators were shot dead, including six at Deraa, after crowds left mosques for Eid al-Fitr. Yoshihiko Noda became Japan’s sixth prime minister in five years. Warren Jeffs, the polygamous leader of a Mormon sect, who had been sentenced to life imprisonment for sexual assault on underage followers, was sedated after falling ill through an extended fast. Anna Hazare, aged 74, ended his 12-day fast after his anti-corruption proposals received support from Indian MPs. India’s economic rate of growth fell a little to 7.7 per cent. Rosneft signed a deal with ExxonMobil to expand operations in the Arctic, cutting out BP, whose offices in Moscow were raided by bailiffs. Huang Nubo, a Chinese tycoon, has offered to buy a huge plot of land in Iceland equivalent to one three-hundredth of its area.
The Mayor of New York ordered the evacuation of 370,000 people in the path of tropical storm Irene. Transport systems were shut down and airports closed. In the event, the storm passed without great damage and about 40 people were killed over a few days. But three million were left without electricity and flooding was extensive on the east coast of the United States and Canada. In Nigeria, at least 20 died in floods around Ibadan and thousands were made homeless. In Abuja, the Nigerian capital, a suicide bomber from Boko Haram, the Islamist terrorists, killed 23 and wounded 81 in an attack on the UN headquarters there. Turkish officials said its air strikes on Kurdish separatists had killed 160. Besse Cooper, of Monroe, Georgia, the world’s oldest person, celebrated her 115th birthday.
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