Tuesday, August 04, 2009 LONDON: The House of Commons has awarded large pay rises to its most senior officials, some of whom oversaw the MPs’ expenses scandal. Accounts released show that the Clerk to the House, Malcolm Jack, received a pay rise of about 11 per cent, taking his salary from £175,000 to £195,000 – more than that received by the Prime Minister. Andrew Walker, who ran the Fees Office, which administered the expenses, received a rise of about 8 per cent, taking his salary into the £125,000-£130,000 band. Joan Miller, the head of information technology, was awarded the biggest rise, from £95,000 to £110,000 – up 15 per cent. A senior pay panel reportedly approved the pay rises as others in the public sector see their annual salary rises restricted to about 2 per cent. It is unclear whether the rises were agreed under the Commons speaker Michael Martin, who stepped down after the expenses row, or more recently.
BAGHDAD: Nearly 500 U.S. Army combat engineers who specialize in clearing roads of explosives started shifting to southern Afghanistan."We are probably going to be the beginning of the influx you are going to see to Afghanistan," Lt. Col. Kevin Landers, commander of the Fort Carson, Colo.-based 4th Engineer Battalion, said as crews packed crates and cleaned vehicles for the flight to Kandahar.Obama has ordered 17,000 more U.S. soldiers and Marines to Afghanistan to bolster the 38,000 American troops already battling the resurgent Taliban."We are going to take this footprint out of Iraq," said Landers, whose battalion received word of its reassignment last month just after taking command of clearing roads in Baghdad of bombs and debris.
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