Now, for a GOOD NEWS STORY fromJPost.com May. 5, 2006, by ASSOCIATED PRESS, LONDON :
British Prime Minister Tony Blair chose a new foreign secretary Friday and fired his home secretary in a wide-ranging Cabinet reshuffle after his party suffered a heavy defeat in local authority elections.
...Blair removed Jack Straw as foreign secretary, replacing him with Margaret Beckett, who had headed the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.
There had long been rumors of tension between Straw and Blair - some reports said the outgoing foreign secretary had privately expressed doubts about the Iraq war, and he publicly took a different stance on Iran than Blair did.
Straw described military action against Tehran as "inconceivable" and alleged US contingency plans for a tactical nuclear strike as "nuts," something neither the prime minister nor US leaders would say.
Beckett's appointment as foreign secretary, the government's most internationally visible post after prime minister, came as a surprise. She is an experienced politician and loyal to Blair but has little experience in foreign affairs beyond her participation in international climate change talks....
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