Blair urges Labour not to back Corbyn
LONDON • Britain's Labour Party faces annihilation if it elects hard-left lawmaker Jeremy Corbyn as its next leader, former prime minister Tony Blair said yesterday, urging party members not to back "policies from the past".
Voting begins today in a four-way leadership contest triggered by a crushing election defeat in May.
Opinion polls show that Mr Corbyn, who wants to steer the party sharply back towards its socialist roots, has a large lead over his rivals.
REUTERS
UN official sacked over peacekeeper 'abuse'
NEW YORK • United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon announced on Wednesday he had fired the mission chief in the Central African Republic, after a string of allegations of child sex abuse by peacekeepers.
Mr Babacar Gaye of Senegal "tendered his resignation at my request", Mr Ban said, following fresh accusations that a peacekeeper from the Minusca force had raped a 12-year-old girl, months after similar claims were made against Moroccan and Burundian troops in the unit.
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Foreigners' property buys 'to be tracked'
OTTAWA • Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper pledged on Wednesday to track and possibly limit foreign purchases of Canadian real estate if the Conservatives return to power in the Oct 19 vote. The move hones in on fears in Vancouver that foreign money - mostly from China - is driving rapidly rising housing prices.
REUTERS
