Around the World: United Kingdom
Brown has tears on retina
Gordon Brown has two minor tears in his retina, the British prime minister's office said on Saturday.
But 10, Downing Street said in a statement that there has been no further deterioration and no change in his eyesight. Brown's doctors have decided against further operations. Brown lost the use of one eye in a sporting accident when he was a teenager.
The news on Brown's eyesight comes only weeks after he was forced in a US television interview to deny that he was slowly going blind. NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams questioned Brown over reports that he was using larger and larger text sizes as his remaining vision declined.
'Iraq decision was 51-49'
The wife of former British premier Tony Blair said the decision to invade Iraq was a close call however convincingly he might have presented it otherwise, The Independent on Sunday newspaper reported.
The decision was likely "51-49" in favor of joining the 2003 US-led invasion, though her husband would have been very adept at making it seem "70-30", Cherie Blair was quoted as saying on Saturday during an appearance at the Cheltenham Literary Festival in southwest England.
"A lot of the time these choices are not clear cut," Cherie Blair said. "They are not black and white. Instead of being 80-20, many of them are actually more like 51-49. I think it (the invasion of Iraq) was one of those 51-49 questions."
(China Daily 10/12/2009 page8)