British Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott was plunged into fresh controversy after disclosing that he had seven meetings with a US gambling tycoon bidding to set up a super casino in London.
The revelation on Tuesday prompted the threat of an investigation by the parliamentary standards watchdog just weeks before Prescott takes over responsibility for running the country while Prime Minister Tony Blair goes on holiday.
Blair's office was forced to declare that Blair retained "full confidence" in his deputy.
The furore brok after Prescott wrote to the main opposition Conservatives to confirm that his meetings with Philip Anschutz took place over a three-year period, culminating in a visit to the tycoon's Colorado ranch last July.
But he strongly denied that they had discussed the sale of the Millennium Dome in Greenwich -- acquired by the Anschutz Entertainment Group in 2002 -- or the award of casino licenses.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
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Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese