UK news archive

30.03.2004 A British couple murdered by gunmen in the East African state of Somaliland were the victims of an al-Qaeda cell sent to kill humanitarian workers, the country’s interior minister has claimed, reports The Scotsman.

29.03.2004 NGOs have been lobbying the UK government to commit to choosing the “best candidate regardless of nationality” to replace the IMF’s current managing director Horst Koehler on 2 April. NGOs, including Jubilee Debt Campaign, ActionAid, CAFOD, Oxfam and Save the Children, are calling for an end to the long-standing process of unquestioningly appointing a European head of the IMF while leaving the World Bank top post to an American.

26.03.2004 The Home Office has announced that it plans to begin deportations to Baghdad shortly but Iraqi asylum seekers in the UK believe that the country remains unsafe - a view shared by the United Nations High Commissioner on Refugees. The International Federation of Iraqi Refugees has launched a campaign in protest.

25.03.2004 More than six months after the release of a British man arrested following the fatal shootings of two Afghans, questions continue to surround the decision to let him go under an amnesty ordered by Afghanistan's President Hamed Karzai.