Cameron To Fight 'Enemies Of Enterprise'

Ruth Barnett, political reporter

David Cameron has vowed to fight the "enemies of enterprise" in an effort to drag the UK economy out of the doldrums.

The Prime Minister told the Conservatives' spring forum he wants to make it easier for people to start their own business and will get rid of some of the rules and regulations that stand in the way.

He blamed Labour for suppressing enterprise since 1997, joking that even his baby daughter Florence knew that "tax and regulation" was holding the country back.

"Someone joked to me the other day that the biggest growth industry in Britain this past decade has been the people writing the rules," Mr Cameron said.

"But actually it's no joke.

"Every regulator, every official, every bureaucrat in government has got to understand that we cannot afford to keep loading costs onto business because frankly they cannot take it any more.

The enterprise culture is alive and well. Now we just need an enterprise government to go with it.

David Cameron

"And if I have to pull these people into my office to argue this out myself and get them off the backs of business then believe me, I'll do it."

Among his proposals is a plan to encourage government departments to award more contracts to small and medium-sized firms.

"There is no shortage of enterprise in this country," he told delegates in Cardiff.

"I see it in the ideas and energy of all the entrepreneurs I meet - British people selling curries to India and fashion to France.

"The enterprise culture is alive and well. Now, we just need an enterprise government to go with it," he added.

Mr Cameron added that he would also be watching the banks "like a hawk" to make sure they fulfilled lending commitments to small businesses.

His coalition has come under pressure to demonstrate it does have a plan for encouraging growth and creating jobs.

I suspect the Tory rank and file care more passionately about the threat to their party from AV than some senior politicians.

Sky's political correspondent Jon Craig

At the end of last year, the economy shrank by 0.6%, raising fears the economic recovery had stalled.

Labour has accused the Government of implementing spending cuts that are too fast and too deep.

But Mr Cameron also defended these, saying not to cut would be "cowardly".

He also used the speech to call again for Libya's Colonel Gaddafi to step down, saying the Conservatives would continue to "intensify pressure" on his regime.

Chancellor George Osborne has also insisted he has implemented the right policies for the UK economy and has no plans to change course.

He told Sky News he had a "credible" policy that has been endorsed by "almost every international organisation you can think of".

"What we’ve bought for ourselves, with the very large mess in the public finances I’ve inherited, is breathing space, stability - the things that Ireland and Greece don’t enjoy," he said.

Libya: 'Eight SAS Soldiers Freed By Rebels'

8:52pm UK, Sunday March 06, 2011

Mike Bradbury, Sky News Online

Eight SAS soldiers who had been detained by Libyan rebels near Benghazi have left the country aboard HMS Cumberland, according to Sky News sources.

According to reports the group had been taken to Benghazi after being apprehended near the city.

A British diplomat who was with the unit was said to have been involved in negotiations for their release.

The Foreign Secretary William Hague has confirmed that a British diplomatic team who had been detained by Libyan rebels had been freed and had left the country.

"The team went to Libya to initiate contacts with the opposition," said Mr Hague.

He added "They experienced difficulties which have now been satisfactorily resolved."

The Foreign Secretary said other diplomats would be sent to Libya to "strengthen dialogue" with rebel leaders.

The rebels had earlier been reported as saying the soldiers were being well treated and the issue would soon be resolved.

Conversation between ambassador and rebel leader

Defence Secretary Liam Fox earlier confirmed that a "small diplomatic team" had been in Benghazi to talk to Libyan rebels.

Mr Fox declined to comment on reports the SAS unit guarding the team had been detained.

"We are in touch with them but it would be inappropriate for me to comment further on that" he told the Andrew Marr show.

According to the Sky sources the eight SAS members were among a group of around 22 soldiers and one diplomat believed to have been dropped by helicopter in an area south of the Benghazi.

Sir Menzies Campbell On Libyan Developments

Audio of a telephone conversation between the UK's ambassador to Libya, Richard Northern, and a senior rebel leader was later leaked.

In it Mr Northern suggested the SAS team had been detained due to a "misunderstanding".

The rebel leader responded: "They made a big mistake, coming with a helicopter in an open area."

Mr Northern said: "I didn't know how they were coming."

The SAS's intervention allegedly angered Libyan opposition figures who ordered the armed and plain-clothes soldiers to be locked up on a military base.

Google map highlighting the city of Benghazi

Opponents of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's feared he could use any evidence of western military interference to rally patriotic support for his regime.

The Geneva-based Human Rights Solidarity group says the soldiers were caught when they were at a location 6 miles (10km) from Benghazi's airport at Benina.

:: Libyan warplanes are reported to have launched airstrikes on rebels advancing on Colonel Muammar Gaddafi's stronghold of Sirte 350 miles (560km) west of Benghazi.

Saudi Arabia imposes ban on all protests

Saudi officials are aware of protests - sometimes focused at their country - building across the region

All protests and marches are to be banned in Saudi Arabia, the interior ministry has announced on state TV.

Its statement said security forces would use all measures to prevent any attempt to disrupt public order.

The announcement follows a series of protests by the kingdom's Shia minority in the oil-producing eastern province.

Last month, King Abdullah unveiled a series of benefits in an apparent bid to protect the kingdom from the revolts spreading throughout many Arab states.

"Regulations in the kingdom forbid categorically all sorts of demonstrations, marches and sit-ins, as they contradict Islamic Sharia law and the values and traditions of Saudi society," the Saudi interior ministry statement said.

It added that police were "authorised by law to take all measures needed against those who try to break the law".

The protests in the Eastern Province - where much of the country's crude oil is sourced - have been demanding the release of prisoners who demonstrators say have been held without trial.

The announcement of the crackdown on protests follows the return, last week, of King Abdullah to the capital after an absence of several months due to illness.

He unveiled an additional $37bn (£22.7bn) in benefits for citizens, including a 15% pay rise for state employees, as well as extra funds for housing, studying abroad and social security.

China security tight after new protest calls

Police in Beijing shut the underground and mobile phone networks, and helicopters were deployed

China has mounted a huge security operation in the capital in response to renewed online calls for protests.

Anonymous postings had urged people to stroll silently in areas of major cities, as a way of calling for change.

The BBC's Damian Grammaticas in Beijing says crowds of shoppers were out but it was not clear if any were protesters.

The massive police deployments are being seen as a sign of the Communist Party's nervousness at the civil unrest and revolutions across the Arab world.

The security blanket thrown over the parts of Beijing on Sunday afternoon was extraordinary, our correspondent says.

This was the third week of calls for protests and the anonymous posts urged people to take a walk through Xidan, a busy shopping area.

At Xidan and another shopping area, Wangfujing, there were hundreds of uniformed police; men posted every few yards. Reporters were banned from filming or interviewing anyone.

Data signals on mobile phones were blocked and everywhere were huge numbers of plain clothes security men; wearing ear pieces, watching everything, our correspondent reports.

Grammaticas in China

Despite the booming economic growth there are millions who feel shut out, angry at official corruption, at inequalities that are rising, at land grabs.

That's why the government is so concerned about the possibilities for unrest.

He says uniformed police politely checked his identity documents - in contrast to the previous weekend when the BBC team was taken away violently by plain clothes officers.

In Zhongguancun near Peking University, police also closed down the subway and mobile phone networks, and police helicopters were reported hovering overhead.

Online messages said there may have been a planned gathering of students there.

'The wrong idea'

Meanwhile, in a more hardline interpretation of current reporting rules, officials said that foreign reporters must seek government permission to conduct interviews in Beijing.

At a news conference, Li Honghai, vice-director of Beijing's Foreign Affairs Office, said reporters must apply for government permission before carrying out any news gathering in the city centre.

Beijing officials at the briefing denounced the protest calls as an attempt to undermine China's stability.

"All clear-minded people will know that these people have chosen the wrong place and have the wrong idea.

"The things they want to see take place have not and cannot occur in Beijing," said city government spokeswoman Wang Hui.

China's government is aware there are many possible reasons for popular discontent.

In his speech at the opening of the annual National People's Congress on Saturday, Premier Wen Jiabao said there were still fundamental issues the government must solve, which he said the masses felt strongly about.

Among the issues he listed were inflation, exorbitant house prices, land appropriations and house demolitions by the government and rampant corruption.

"We must make improving the people's lives a pivot linking reform, development and stability... and make sure people are content with their lives and jobs, society is tranquil and orderly and the country enjoys long-term peace and stability," Mr Wen said.

He made no mention of the unrest in the Middle East.

Japan Foreign Minister Seiji Maehara resigns

Mr Maehara has been seen as a potential successor to the prime minister

Maehara has resigned after being criticised for accepting a political donation from a foreign national.

Japanese law bans the practise, if done intentionally, and the opposition had called on him to quit.

The move is seen as a blow to Prime Minister Naoto Kan, who has been struggling to get budget bills through parliament and keep onto his own job.

Mr Maehara had been seen as a potential successor to Mr Kan.

On Friday, he admitted taking a 50,000 yen ($610) political donation from a South Korean national resident in Japan.

PM under pressure

The sum is small but Japanese law bars politicians from accepting money from outsiders to prevent foreign powers having influence on domestic politics.

The opposition said Mr Maehara's position was untenable.

"I apologise to the Japanese people for stepping down after only six months and provoking distrust over a problem with my political funding, although I have sought to pursue a clean style of politics," Mr Maehara said announcing his decision to step down.

Even before the scandal, Mr Kan was battling to stave off opposition calls for an early general election, says the BBC's Roland Buerk in Tokyo.

He wants to implement tax reform to cover the costs of Japan's rapidly ageing society and rein in its massive public debt.

But deadlock in parliament means Mr Kan is struggling to pass bills to implement the trillion- dollar budget for the new financial year which begins next month.

The foreign minister had called for closer ties with the US and had been critical of China's military build-up.

Revolts take their toll on Mideast tourism sector

Cancellations are affecting even countries so far spared from fast-spreading uprisings, notably Jordan, Syria.

Middle East Online

By Jocelyne Zablit - BEIRUT

Jordan hit hard Tourism professionals in the Middle East are bracing for fallout from the revolts shaking the region, with cancellations affecting even countries so far spared from the upheavals, notably Jordan and Syria. "Tourists are being influenced by the media coverage and are putting the whole Middle East in one bag, not differentiating between one country and another," Touhama Naboulsi, an official with Jordan's Tourism Board, said. "Some tourists have cancelled trips to all Arab countries and of course this includes Jordan," he added. Several sources in the hotel sector said cancellations have reached a worrying 50 percent, while one tour operator said that for every 3,000 tourists originally booked to travel to Jordan in the coming months 1,200 are cancelling. Tourism revenue in Jordan was estimated at one billion dollars (700 million euros) in 2010, representing 14 percent of the gross domestic product. The country's biggest tourist attraction is the ancient city of Petra, and visitors to Jordan often opt for a package tour that also includes Egypt, itself hit by a sharp drop in tourism following the uprising in February that toppled long-time president Hosni Mubarak. The popular revolt in Egypt followed a similar uprising in Tunisia that led to the downfall of strongman Zine el Abidine Ben Ali. Libya, meanwhile, lying between the two, is in the throes of a rebellion while Yemen, Bahrain and Oman on the Gulf have also experienced unrest. In France, an official with one of the country's top tourism operators, Voyageurs du Monde, described Jordan as a "catastrophe" with cancellations nearing 50 percent. "People are in fact more worried about what may happen in other countries than those that have already had a revolution," said company chairman Jean-Francois Rial. "They're wondering whether Jordan's King Abdullah is going to be toppled, whether the king of Morocco might have trouble and the same even for China's leader." Syria is also nervously watching developments and has lowered its forecast of tourist arrivals. "We don't expect more than an 11 to 12 percent increase in the number of tourists because of the situation," Tourism Minister Saadallah Agha al-Qalaa recently said, adding that annual growth since 2000 had stood at 15 percent. Ghassan Chahine, owner of Naya Tours in Damascus, said his agency had received 35 to 40 percent cancellations for the peak season that runs from March through May and concerns mainly European tourists. "People tend to think that the revolts taking place extend to the entire region even though we are telling them that nothing is happening in Syria," Chahine said. "Not so long ago, we were begging hotels that were fully booked to find us rooms and now they are calling us looking for customers," Chahine said, adding that the downturn will translate into hundreds of thousands of dollars in losses. But despite all the gloom and doom, tourism professionals point to the industry's capacity to rebound quickly. "People's perceptions change very quickly," said Sean Tipton, of the Association of British Tour Operators. He said Egypt is by far the biggest market in the region for British tourists with one million visiting the country every year. "As soon as we saw the scenes (of unrest) in Cairo and other cities it had a very direct impact," Tipton said. "My experience in the travel industry is that the British tourists tend to be fairly resilient and have fairly short memories," he added. "So it doesn't take long for a country to bounce back in the reservations."

Prince Andrew entertained Ben Ali son-in-law

Duke of York held lunch for Sakher el-Materi at Buckingham Palace three months before Tunisian regime collapsed.

Middle East Online

Prince Andrew LONDON - Prince Andrew played host to the son-in-law of ousted Tunisian president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali at Buckingham Palace, just months before he was toppled, the Guardian newspaper reported on Saturday. The Duke of York, who is Queen Elizabeth II's second son, held a lunch for Sakher el-Materi, the 29-year-old son-in-law of Ben Ali, three months before the regime collapsed, the paper said. Andrew, who is also Britain's special representative for international trade and investment, attended the event with more than a dozen executives from multinational companies. "Whatever has happened since, at the time it was a legitimate public engagement," the Guardian quoted a spokesman for the duke as saying. "He was expected to go to Tunis this year as part of a UK Trade and Investment visit and this was a legitimate occasion at which he could meet British business people investing in Tunisia and the vice-chairman of the British-Tunisian chamber of commerce (Materi)." Ben Ali fled the north African country for Saudi Arabia on January 14 after a month-long popular uprising against his rule, which began in 1987. The Middle East and North Africa area has been rocked by unrest since the revolt in Tunisia sparked similar protests in Egypt which ousted president Hosni Mubarak last month.