World report

Jack Straw

Tony Blair

British PM, ministers were ready to quit

LONDON (AFP) ­ British Prime Minister Tony Blair and senior ministers were braced to resign if a key vote in parliament last month on the Iraq war went against the government, British newspapers reported last Saturday.
In an interview with The Times, Foreign Secretary Jack Straw indicated that had a record revolt by MPs from the ruling Labour party in the House of Commons on 18 March been much bigger it would have been the end for both him and Blair.

In such a siutuation, British troops might have been left on the borders of Iraq, unavailable for use by the United States in the battle to topple Saddam Hussein, Straw suggested.

US Army Secretary Thomas White resigns

WASHINGTON (AFP) ­ Secretary of the Army Thomas White, a former executive of the collapsed Enron energy firm accused of playing havoc with Californian energy supplies, resigned last Friday, the Defense Department announced.

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld "expressed his appreciation to Secretary White for his long and able service to the country," a department statement said.

White was confirmed as Army Secretary on 24 May, 2001, and although he was a high executive of the energy trading firm while in the private sector, he always denied any knowledge of manipulation of Californian electricity markets by the corporation.

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