Submarines
Britain’s defence industry is likely to consolidate further as BAE Systems and Carlyle, the private equity group, are set to bid for a crucial component of the UK’s nuclear submarine industry. In recent weeks, BAE and Carlyle have begun to prepare a bid to purchase the Devonport naval yard in Plymouth, where the Royal Navy’s submarines are refuelled and upgraded.
FT 15th Jan 2007
Iran
Letter from Stephen Pullinger: One foreign policy document that will certainly be at the top of Prime Minister Brown’s first government red box (“Brown has nowhere to go but Europe”, January 9) will be how to deal with Iran’s nuclear weapons ambitions. More acutely, how should Mr Brown respond if Israel decides to leapfrog diplomacy and “solve” the problem through military strikes?
FT 15th Jan 2007
New nukes
Letter in response to Dominic Lawson: Dominic Lawson (“Go nuclear – or gamble national security on the benevolence of Russia’s President”, 12 January) is absolutely right to point out the fragility of Europe’s energy dependence on imported oil, a finite resource that, as it runs out, will increasing be used as a political tool. He is less correct to think that nuclear power can supply a long-term answer, and plain wrong in his criticisms of wind energy.
Independent 15th Jan 2007
North Korea
The leaders of China, Japan and South Korea expressed concern over North Korea’s nuclear test and called for “effective steps” to break a stand off in talks to stop nuclear testing in the Korean peninsula, a joint statement said today.
Belfast Telegraph 14th Jan 2007