West 'ignored Russian offer in 2012 to have Syria's Assad step aside' Russia proposed more than three years ago that Syria’s president, Bashar al-Assad, could step down as part of a peace deal, according to a senior negotiator involved in back-channel discussions at the time.
Former Finnish president and Nobel peace prize laureate Martti Ahtisaari said western powers failed to seize on the proposal. Since it was made, in 2012, tens of thousands of people have been killed and millions uprooted, causing the world’s gravest refugee crisis since the second world war. Ahtisaari held talks with envoys from the five permanent members of the UN security council in February 2012.
Labour London Mayor Result: Sadiq Khan Wins Party Nomination For 2016 Election. Jeremy Corbyn's chances of winning the Labour leadership soared today as Sadiq Khan defeated the Blairite Dame Tessa Jowell to win the party's London Mayor nomination.
In a shock victory, the former Shadow Justice Secretary won the nomination after a vote by 114,000 Labour London members. Mr Khan was one of the the 35 Labour MPs to nominate Mr Corbyn for the party leadership. Dame Tessa, a Blairite who served as Culture, Media and Sport Secretary from 2001 to 2007, was predicted to win the race but appears to have suffered from a surge of left-wing activists who joined the party to vote for Mr Corbyn in the leadership race. Mr Khan, one of Ed Miliband’s key supporters during his time as Labour leader, also saw off one of Mr Corbyn’s closest allies, Diane Abbott, and Tottenham MP David Lammy. Sadiq Khan elected as Labour's candidate for mayor of London.
Sadiq Khan, the former shadow justice secretary, has been elected to stand as Labour’s candidate for mayor of London.
Khan beat Tessa Jowell, the Blairite former cabinet minister, who was thought to have been the frontrunner, suggesting a surge in support for the Labour leadership favourite Jeremy Corbyn. The result was announced at an event at the Royal Festival Hall in south-east London. It was thought that the surge in new members to the party since the election benefited Khan, who was endorsed by Ken Livingstone, the former London mayor, who supports Corbyn in the national leadership vote. Khan also beat David Lammy, MP for Tottenham, Diane Abbott, the leftwing MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington, Christian Wolmar, the transport writer and activist, and Gareth Thomas, MP for Harrow West, who wanted to devolve more economic powers to London.
Voting closes in Labour leadership election. Voting for the next Labour leader closed at midday with the candidate expected to come fourth saying that the party must accept the legitimacy of the result.
Liz Kendall, conceded that her own campaign had failed and that Jeremy Corbyn - the man expected to be declared the winner on Saturday - had energised a party crying out for change. Her speech marks the first of what is expected to be many frank self-assessments on the Blairite wing of the party expected in coming days. “Everyone must – and I believe will – accept the result and mandate of the new Leader. They will have won the right to pursue their agenda and must be given the space and scope to do so. “If Jeremy Corbyn wins, it would be a huge mistake not to accept that result as legitimate.
Acknowledging the leftwing MP’s likely victory, she said that Corybn’s campaign had “mobilised and enthused vast numbers of people in a way we haven’t seen for decades. Refugee crisis: Juncker calls for radical overhaul of EU immigration policies. The EU executive has announced a drive aimed at radically overhauling dysfunctional and fragmented immigration policies in Europe, urging a common regime of EU border guards, the opening of legal channels to coordinate arrivals to Europe, as well as binding and permanent systems for absorbing the influx of refugees fairly across the continent.
In a major address to the European parliament in Strasbourg, Jean-Claude Juncker, the president of the European commission, called for root-and-branch reform of disparate immigration policies in the EU. He complained that national governments were failing to observe agreements on asylum procedures, and warned that several could be sanctioned. “I don’t want to get despondent, but Europe is not in good shape,” Juncker said, concentrating his first and lengthy ‘state of the union’ speech on the EU’s biggest postwar migration emergency.
“Today it is Europe that is sought as a place of refuge and exile. MPs Are Going To Debate Whether The UK Should Legalise Cannabis. Eunoia. #politics - Recherche sur Twitter. Comments. Michelle Taylor Well said Nicola!
The Majority of scots dont want Trident on there doorstep! If folk want to believe this country is still some great super power ,house it somewhere else! I think right now with all the cuts the chancellor is very arrogant! - thought there was no money thats why welfare cuts cuts to NHS! Douglas Massey So Sturgeon is not in favour of saving 7000 jobs for her Scottish citizens???. 97 · Yesterday at 6:09am Tommy Dolan Put them on the Themes outside their paedophile palace Westminster, see how fckn keen they are. 72 · Yesterday at 6:16am Richard Coltman She and Holyrood can say what they like. 44 · Yesterday at 6:11am James Gordon This woman and her crew will ruin Scotland, years back they were called tartan Tories, they still are but try to dupe the public, and they have duped a lot of people. 42 · Yesterday at 6:16am Ian Smith Let us English have a referendum on Scottish independence....your get your yes vote then....
Iain Duncan Smith plans changes to benefit assessments - BBC News. Iain Duncan Smith is planning a shake-up of the rules on sickness benefit to encourage more people into work.
The work and pensions secretary says that the current system is too "binary" - with claimants deemed either fit or unfit for work. Instead, claimants should be made to take up any work they can, even if it is just a few hours, he said. Labour leadership: Jeremy Corbyn rejects 'split' claims - BBC News. NHS competition could waste millions says Labour, after Care UK complains. Labour has warned that the NHS could be forced to spend millions on competition lawyers after the UK’s biggest private healthcare provider demanded an immediate investigation into a decision to award an elective care contract to a local health trust.
Care UK has been branded a bad loser after lodging a complaint with the NHS watchdog Monitor over the management of a contract by commissioners in north London. Monitor has now begun an investigation into the decision by four GP-led clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) to award a contract to the Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust.