Day 285

British Embassy, Tehran

British Embassy Employees

According to a senior Iranian cleric,  the employees of the British Embassy in Tehran who were arrested after the election protests will be tried for acting against Iran's national security.  

Eight or nine employees of the embassy's political section were arrested last weekend. All but three have been released, according to Iranian state media.

European Union nations summoned Iranian ambassadors today to complain about the arrests in a coordinated response, news agencies reported.

EU nations are weighing the possibility of pulling all 27 member nations' ambassadors from Tehran and imposing a travel ban on Iranian officials to protest the arrests, but want to wait for Iran's next move regarding the embassy employees, European news media reported. 

Day 242

British Pound Weakens

The British pound was under pressure on Thursday after Standard & Poor's cut its U.K. credit-rating outlook, sending the recently high-flying currency in the opposite direction.

The British pound fell as low as $1.5515, before recently trading at $1.5699, though still down from $1.5736 on Wednesday, following the move by Standard & Poor's to lower the credit-rating outlook on the U.K.

Day 192

One man died today at the G20 protest in London.  

G20

Protesters rain on the streets of London during the G20 summit. Approximately 4,000 demonstrators were present.  Bankers in the area were advised not to invite clients for meetings and to dress down as to look less like "bankers".

Binyam Mohamed

Binyam Mohamed, four year prisoner of Guantanamo Bay, returned to the UK today.  Here's a quote from the article:

"Before this ordeal, torture was an abstract word to me. I could never have imagined that I would be its victim. It is still difficult for me to believe that I was abducted, hauled from one country to the next, and tortured in medieval ways – all orchestrated by the United States government."

What have we done? How was this allowed to happen? I am truly ashamed. 

No End in Sight

I went to Trafalgar Square today and took this photo.  It looks so calm but yesterday it was the sight of a protest rally with estimated figures of 60,000 people.