theSun | FRIDAY MAY 15 2009 9

news without borders

British sleaze row claims

LONDON: Britain’s ruling
Labour party suspended a
senior lawmaker and a top briefs
aide to the opposition leader
stepped down yesterday in a
widening sleaze scandal that Australian scientist says swine
is alienating voters.

first political casualties

Prime Minister Gordon
Brown and his Conserva-
tive rival David Cameron
are under pressure to crack
down on excessive expense
claims in their parties after
a series of damaging leaks
that threaten to overshadow
European and local elections
next month.
Conservative legislator
Andrew Mackay resigned
as senior political adviser to
Cameron after a review of his
expenses revealed an “unac-
ceptable situation”, a spokes-
man for Cameron said.
Brown said later that his
party had suspended Elliot
Morley, a former agriculture
minister reported to have
filed £16,000 (RM85,760) of
expense claims for a mort-
gage he had already paid off.
They are the first politi-
cians to be disciplined in the
row over political perks that
analysts say may either put
voters off taking part in the
June 4 polls or encourage
them to choose fringe groups
like the far-right British Na-
tional Party.
In a separate scandal, a
parliamentary watchdog said
two Labour members of the
upper House of Lords should
be suspended for six months
after a newspaper alleged
they were prepared to take
large sums of money for try-
ing to get laws amended.
The Sunday Times news-
paper, which sent reporters
posing as lobbyists to talk to
two Labour Lords, Thomas
Taylor and former energy
minister Peter Truscott, al-
leged they asked for as much
as £120,000 to get a law on
business taxes amended.
The upper house will vote
on the watchdog’s recommen-
dation next week. – Reuters
flu created in lab accident
SYDNEY: A Canberra researcher reckons the swine
flu virus could have been created inadvertently by
scientists working with eggs to grow new viruses
and test new vaccines. Retired Australian National
University virologist Adrian Gibbs was quoted yes-
terday by the website ScienceInsider as suggesting
that a laboratory accident may have created the
Abiding virus now sweeping the world.
Times: Influenza specialists at the World Health Organi-
sation are examining the theory that swine flu - a
Sorry, but mix of genetic material from pigs, birds and human
it was a beings – is an escapee from a research laboratory.
black day “I bumped into an advertisement for an influ-
enza vaccine for pigs that contained three different
pg 13 viruses,” Gibbs told ScienceInsider.
“Not killing off the virus could explain the whole
thing very neatly, but it’s only one of several pos-
sibilities.” – dpa

Obama reverses decision on abuse photos
WASHINGTON: President Barack
Obama on Wednesday reversed a
decision to release photos showing
abuse of “war on terror” detainees,
saying he feared it would cause a
backlash against US troops abroad.
The about-face came after the
administration announced last
month it had agreed to release hun-
dreds of photos from US-run prisons
in Iraq and elsewhere in response to
a long-running lawsuit brought by
the American Civil Liberties Union.
It remained unclear why Obama
had changed his stance but the Pen-
tagon said US military commanders
had issued stern warnings that the
photos could be used as a recruiting
tool for extremists and jeopardise
the safety of US troops. The photos
were used as evidence in criminal
investigations of US soldiers ac-
cused of abusing detainees during
president George W. Bush’s admin-
istration. Federal courts have ruled
against the government in a series of
decisions but Obama had instructed
administration lawyers to try a new
argument that the photos could put
troops in Iraq and Afghanistan at risk,
the White House said.
Obama said issuing the photos
would “inflame anti-American opin-
ion and put our troops in greater
danger” without shedding any new
light on past abuses under the previ-
ous administration. He told reporters
“that the publication of these photos
would not add any additional ben-
efits to our understanding of what
was carried out in the past by a small
number of individuals.”
He said the “these photos that
were requested in this case are not
particularly sensational, especially
when compared to the painful im-
ages that we remember from Abu
Ghraib.” – AFP
Quarantined hotel
reopens after flu lock-in
HONGKONG: A hotel quarantined for seven
days with nearly 300 guests and staff inside
after a Mexican visitor tested positive for swine
flu was preparing yesterday to reopen.
The Metropark Hotel in the city’s Wan
Chai district was offering reduced rates and
free nights for guests who book three nights
when it reopens to the public Friday after this
month’s quarantine. The hotel was sealed off
May 1-8 by the Hongkong government after a
25-year-old Mexican guest was confirmed to
have the H1N1 virus. – dpa