British Army

LONDON - Defense Secretary Geoff Hoon told Parliament yesterday that the British military had acted swiftly to investigate alleged mistreatment of prisoners by its forces in Iraq and that the military was close to bringing charges in two cases of brutality by British soldiers. Hoon also revealed that in September, in response to complaints raised last summer by the International Committee of the Red Cross, the British army had stopped its practice of putting hoods on Iraqi prisoners. When one lawmaker pointed out that the British army had forsworn the use of hoods for years and then asked, "When did the policy change?"

Bombs falling on Arab neighborhoods ... Homes demolished ... Civilians killed or wounded ... Soldiers shooting at anything that moves. That may sound like a description of the past week's violence between Israel and Palestinians in Gaza. But in fact, it comes from the letters and diary of a Baltimore teacher who volunteered to spend a year at a Quaker school in British-ruled Palestine in 1938-1939, only to find herself in the middle of a war between Arab terrorists and the British army.

All James Blunt wanted to do was make an album. For himself. The singer-songwriter-musician says he didn't care whether anyone else heard it. So when his January 2005 debut, Back to Bedlam, rocketed to No. 1 on both sides of the Atlantic, selling more than 2 million copies, he was ecstatic but overwhelmed. Seemingly overnight, the former British army officer was touring the globe playing to packed houses and performing on Saturday Night Live and Oprah. "I drink a lot more now, but I'm surviving," says Blunt, 32. "It's been a mad experience, but we're having a great time."

Roxanne Guy and Stephen M. Milner are the two faces of plastic surgery. In Melbourne, Fla., Guy performs tummy tucks, face-lifts, Botox and breast augmentations. Miller, who heads the burn unit at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center, honed his skills as a plastic surgeon with the British army in the first Persian Gulf war. They will meet with colleagues from around the country in Baltimore this weekend as the American Society of Plastic Surgeons begins its five-day annual convention here.

WHEN THE BRITISH hand over Hong Kong to China on July 1, the soldiers of one of history's most legendary and respected fighting forces won't be around for the ceremony. They bade farewell to the colony last year, when members of the unit dismantled the garrison, stacked their arms and started the long march home to an uncertain future, many as out-of-work civilians.But home is not the lush tranquillity of the British countryside. Home to most of these proud soldiers is the rugged foothills of the towering Himalayas, which includes formidable Mount Everest.

HONG KONG -- From the battles for India in the 19th century to the recovery of the Falklands in the 1980s, Gurkhas have been synonymous with Britain's glory days. So it is little wonder that many Gurkhas -- the fierce soldiers of Nepal -- are finding it tough to leave Hong Kong, preferring to stay on even as Britain leaves its last Asian colony."This is the second home for the Gurkhas," says Man Bahadur Gurung, a retired British army major. "Although we've been to Malaysia, Singapore -- so many places -- well.

C.H. Sisson, 89, a British poet, novelist and critic who explored the human condition and the melancholy of growing older, died Friday. Born in Bristol, Mr. Sisson graduated from Bristol University before joining the Ministry of Labor in 1936. During World War II, he served with the British army on India's northwest frontier. Upon his return, he worked in the civil service until retiring in 1972. His first anthology, The London Zoo, was published in 1961. But Mr. Sisson did not become well known for his poetry until The Trojan Ditch was published in 1974.

Margaret Mary "Pat" Lowman, a retired electronics assembly worker who served in the British Army during World War II, died of ovarian cancer Sunday at Hospice of the Chesapeake. The Ferndale resident was 76. Born and raised in Dublin, Ireland, the former Margaret Mary Coleman borrowed an older sister's birth certificate to enlist in the British Army in 1941. She was stationed in London during the war years, working as an enemy-aircraft spotter. When the war ended, she was sent to Berlin as part of the British occupation forces, and it was there that she met and married Melville W. Lowman, a U.S. Army sergeant, in 1946.

Michael Peters 46, who won a Tony award for choreographing the Broadway musical "Dreamgirls" and helped to create Michael Jackson's "Thriller" video, died Saturday of AIDS in Los Angeles. won two Emmy awards for choreographing the TV specials "Liberty Weekend Closing Ceremonies" and "The Jacksons: An American Dream."Harry Rosenblatt, 101, a volunteer in the British Army's Jewish Legion, which fought in Egypt and Palestine during World War I, died Wednesday in New York. He was born in 1893 in Russia and emigrated to the United States in 1910.

Bernadette Devlin McAliskey, longtime Northern Ireland political activist, says the only organization she belongs to has a membership of one."I'm a political dissident in every sense of the word," Ms. McAliskey told a friendly audience of about 150 Friday evening at St. Peter the Apostle Roman Catholic Church in West Baltimore.But while she refuses to join any political groups, Ms. McAliskey aligns herself with the nationalist Sinn Fein party and its demand for the British army to end its occupation of Northern Ireland.

DUBLIN, Ireland -- Sinn Fein, the main Catholic republican party in Northern Ireland, voted yesterday to endorse the police force in the divided province, opening the way toward restoring local rule through a government shared by Protestants and Catholics. Sinn Fein's leaders, Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness, won approval to support a police force that would move over the next 15 years from being a Protestant-dominated body to one where Catholics and Protestants are represented in proportion to the makeup of the province's population.

All James Blunt wanted to do was make an album. For himself. The singer-songwriter-musician says he didn't care whether anyone else heard it. So when his January 2005 debut, Back to Bedlam, rocketed to No. 1 on both sides of the Atlantic, selling more than 2 million copies, he was ecstatic but overwhelmed. Seemingly overnight, the former British army officer was touring the globe playing to packed houses and performing on Saturday Night Live and Oprah. "I drink a lot more now, but I'm surviving," says Blunt, 32. "It's been a mad experience, but we're having a great time."

LONDON - The British public awoke yesterday to graphic photographs in national newspapers apparently showing their troops abusing Iraqi prisoners in scenes reminiscent of the Abu Ghraib images that shocked the world last year. Released in connection with the courts-martial in Germany of three soldiers with the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers, the series of 22 pictures set off a round of anguished statements by national leaders denouncing the apparent abuse but defending in general the honor and integrity of the 9,000 British troops in Iraq.

LONDON - Defense Secretary Geoff Hoon told Parliament yesterday that the British military had acted swiftly to investigate alleged mistreatment of prisoners by its forces in Iraq and that the military was close to bringing charges in two cases of brutality by British soldiers. Hoon also revealed that in September, in response to complaints raised last summer by the International Committee of the Red Cross, the British army had stopped its practice of putting hoods on Iraqi prisoners. When one lawmaker pointed out that the British army had forsworn the use of hoods for years and then asked, "When did the policy change?"

C.H. Sisson, 89, a British poet, novelist and critic who explored the human condition and the melancholy of growing older, died Friday. Born in Bristol, Mr. Sisson graduated from Bristol University before joining the Ministry of Labor in 1936. During World War II, he served with the British army on India's northwest frontier. Upon his return, he worked in the civil service until retiring in 1972. His first anthology, The London Zoo, was published in 1961. But Mr. Sisson did not become well known for his poetry until The Trojan Ditch was published in 1974.

Margaret Mary "Pat" Lowman, a retired electronics assembly worker who served in the British Army during World War II, died of ovarian cancer Sunday at Hospice of the Chesapeake. The Ferndale resident was 76. Born and raised in Dublin, Ireland, the former Margaret Mary Coleman borrowed an older sister's birth certificate to enlist in the British Army in 1941. She was stationed in London during the war years, working as an enemy-aircraft spotter. When the war ended, she was sent to Berlin as part of the British occupation forces, and it was there that she met and married Melville W. Lowman, a U.S. Army sergeant, in 1946.

Dallas Bower, 92, a pioneer television producer who also worked in early radio and cinema, died Monday in London. Mr. Bower began sound recording in radio when broadcasting was a novelty. He moved to cinema and then to television, where he became the first producer of drama and opera for the British Broadcasting Corp. One of his first jobs was to record the soundtrack for Alfred Hitchcock's 1929 film "Blackmail."Stanley L. Dritz, 88, who popularized the zipper and other sewing products as part of his family's business, died Saturday in White Plains, N.Y. As president of John Dritz & Sons, Mr. Dritz raised the consumer appeal of a hookless fastener he had first seen in England.

* Aaron Weintraub, one of the last survivors of the Jewish Legion, died on Wednesday at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City. He was 97 years old and lived in New York City. He died of heart failure, the family said. Born in Warsaw, Weintraub came to the United States in 1912 and worked for many years as a designer and production manager in the garment industry. In 1916, he enlisted as a member of the 38th Battalion of the City of London Regiment of Royal Fusiliers. The 38th was one of three battalions in the Jewish Legion, which fought for the British army in World War I in hopes of gaining a homeland in Palestine.

Dallas Bower, 92, a pioneer television producer who also worked in early radio and cinema, died Monday in London. Mr. Bower began sound recording in radio when broadcasting was a novelty. He moved to cinema and then to television, where he became the first producer of drama and opera for the British Broadcasting Corp. One of his first jobs was to record the soundtrack for Alfred Hitchcock's 1929 film "Blackmail."Stanley L. Dritz, 88, who popularized the zipper and other sewing products as part of his family's business, died Saturday in White Plains, N.Y. As president of John Dritz & Sons, Mr. Dritz raised the consumer appeal of a hookless fastener he had first seen in England.