The Labour party plunged into new crisis on Wednesday when one of its newly-elected MPs was charged over parliamentary expenses claims.
Eric Illsley, who represents Barnsley Central, has been charged with making false claims over three years for expenses on his second home in London. He has been charged for dishonestly claiming expenses for council tax, maintenance, insurance and utilities at his second home between May 2005 and April 2008.
“Having thoroughly reviewed a file of evidence we received from the Metropolitan police on 13 March this year, we concluded that there is sufficient evidence and it is in the public interest to bring criminal charges against Eric Illsley MP. Mr Illsley faces three charges under section 17 of the Theft Act 1968 for false accounting,” Keir Starmer QC, director of public prosecutions, said. The Labour party, which lost the general election, suspended Mr Illsley on Wednesday.
The party, which is struggling in the aftermath of the defeat and resignation of former Prime Minister Gordon Brown, will elect a new party leader by September. Nominations will open next week and the winner will be announced on 25 September, at the start of Labour’s annual conference.
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Mesoamerica ancient tomb unearthed
Mexico City : A 2,700-year-old multiple burial site was found in Mexico in what constitutes the oldest-known example of the use of pyramids as funerary enclosures in Mesoamerica. The find took place in the archaeological zone of Chiapa de Corzo, in the southern state of Chiapas.
According to archaeologists, given the characteristics of the ceramics, it was preliminarily determined that the tomb dates from the Middle Preclassic period, between 700 and 500 BC, which places it as the most ancient of the Mesoamerican region.
—Prensa Latina