British Foreign Secretary William Hague told his US counterpart on Saturday that there was no evidence linking the release of the Lockerbie bomber last year to a BP oil deal, amid mounting US concern.
In a letter to US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Hague confirmed that Britain’s new coalition government believed it had been a “mistake” to free Abdelbaset Ali Mohmet al-Megrahi in August last year.
But he insisted that the devolved Scottish authorities who took the decision had acted properly — and rejected claims in the US that oil giant BP had urged Megrahi’s release to protect a lucrative oil deal with Libya.
“There is no evidence that corroborates in any way the allegations of BP involvement in the Scottish Executive’s decision to release Megrahi on compassionate grounds in 2009, nor any suggestion that the Scottish Executive decided to release Megrahi in order to facilitate oil deals for BP,” Hague wrote to Clinton, in a letter released by the British Foreign Office.
Megrahi, the only person convicted of the 1988 bombing of a US jet over the Scottish town of Lockerbie in which 270 people were killed, was freed because he was thought to have just months to live. He is still alive in Libya.
His release sparked outrage in the US, where most of the Lockerbie victims were from, and this has been renewed by the claims about BP, which is already under fire over the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.
A top US Senate committee said this week it would hold a hearing into events leading up to Megrahi’s release, and Hague copied his letter to Clinton to committee chairman Senator John Kerry.
He also said he had asked British ambassador to Washington Nigel Sheinwald to “stay in close touch” with the panel to help with its investigations.
Sheinwald had revealed earlier this week that British Prime Minister David Cameron’s new government, which took power in May, had opposed Megrahi’s release.
Hague repeated this in his letter, saying: “Firstly, I must emphasize my own concern and regret at the continuing anguish that the release has caused the families of Megrahi’s victims in the United States, as well as here in the UK. I would like to make clear that this administration believes that the release of Megrahi was a mistake.”
The letter was sent the day after Clinton raised the Lockerbie issue with Hague during a phone call to prepare for Cameron’s visit to the White House next week.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of
RSS