British interior minister resigns; UK to close 19 diplomatic missions
Pakistan Times Foreign Desk Report

LONDON (UK): British Home Secretary David Blunkett, one of Prime Minister Tony Blair's closest allies, resigned on Wednesday after admitting his office had fast-tracked a visa application for his ex-lover's Filipina nanny.

In an emotional statement, the interior minister, blind from birth, insisted he had not been told that officials were writing to the immigration department over the case of nanny Leoncia Casalme.

"However, whether or not I asked for any action to be taken is irrelevant to the inference that can be drawn," Blunkett said, announcing he had left one of the top jobs in Blair's government with immediate effect.

Charles Clarke takes-over

Downing Street announced late Wednesday that Education Minister Charles Clarke had been appointed to replace Blunkett at the head of the Home Office.

An earlier report had said that the British Home Secretary David Blunkett was "in the process of resigning", following allegations of abuses of office connected to a visa for his ex-lover's nanny.

"He is resigning. He is in the process of resigning," an official spokesman had hinted.

Blunkett is accused of wrongly intervening to fast-track a British visa for his then-lover's Filipina nanny, a charge he has thus far rejected.

Britain to close 19 diplomatic missions across World

Britain is to close 19 of its diplomatic missions abroad, including nine embassies and high commissions, by the end of 2006 in a cost-cutting drive, the Foreign Office said Wednesday.

In a statement, it said the estimated 100 million pounds (145 million euros, 193 million dollars) in saved funds will be redirected into other key areas, such as "counter-proliferation, counter-terrorism, energy and climate change".

"Some of the savings will also be redeployed to strategic priority work within certain regions where we are closing posts, it said.

"In Africa, for instance, we plan to create new jobs to cover these issues across the region, with a new post in Nairobi to help support our work on climate change, one in Nigeria to cover energy and one in Pretoria to cover regional issues more generally as well as covering Maseru and Mbabane."

Details

The embassies and high commissions to be closed are;

AFRICA: Maseru, Lesotho; Mbabane, Swaziland; Antananarivo, Madagascar.

ASIA-PACIFIC: Port Vila, Vanuatu; Nuku'alofa, Tonga; Dili, East Timor, Tarawa, Kiribati.

SOUTH AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN: Ascuncion, Paraguy; Nassau, Bahamas.

Consulates

Nine consulates plus a trade office will also be closed in:
ASIA-PACIFIC: Fukuoka, Japan; Vientiane (trade office), Laos.

AFRICA: Douala, Cameroon. -- NORTH AMERICA: Phoenix, Arizona; Dallas, Texas; San Juan, Puerto Rico.

EUROPE: Frankfurt, Leipzig and Stuttgart, Germany; Oporto, Portugal.
Several other consulates will be downgraded and staffed by local personnel, including consulates in;

Brisbane and Perth, Australia; Auckland, New Zealand; Bordeaux and Lyon in France; Palma and Bilbao in Spain; Munich and Hamburg in Germany; and Seattle, Washington and Miami, Florida in the United States.●