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LONDON (AFP) - Close allies of British Prime Minister Tony Blair are set to be charged in the "cash for honours" row that has tainted his final year in office, newspapers said Saturday. Police investigating the allegations on Friday handed a 216-page file to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), which will now decide whether anyone should face criminal proceedings in the case. The 13-month inquiry was launched amid claims that political parties, mainly Blair's governing Labour Party, had illegally offered their financial supporters seats in parliament's unelected upper House of Lords. Blair was interviewed twice as a witness in the...

LONDON (AFP) - A key aide to Prime Minister Tony Blair insisted Tuesday he had done nothing wrong over a cash-for-honours row clouding the British leader's last months in office, as fresh allegations emerged. Lord Michael Levy, Blair's Middle East envoy and the governing Labour Party's chief fundraiser, criticised "inaccurate" reporting of the affair, in a statement issued through his lawyers. "Lord Levy categorically denies any wrong-doing whatsoever, as he has throughout this lengthy police investigation. "The current round of articles in the media, which are said to be based on leaked material under consideration by the police, are partial,...

LONDON (AFP) - The BBC on Friday said it had been prevented from broadcasting a news item about allegations of corruption in party political funding after losing an emergency hearing at London's High Court. The broadcaster said its lawyers had been locked in legal argument with representatives of the government's most senior legal advisor, Attorney General Lord Peter Goldsmith, for about two hours about the right to air the item. But Goldsmith was successful in obtaining an injunction. The BBC said in a statement that their reporting of the so-called "cash for honours" affair was an "legitimate matter of public...

LONDON (AFP) - British Prime Minister Tony Blair will be questioned by police within weeks as part of the investigation into alleged "cash for honours", the Daily Mail newspaper reports. The report comes after British media said that Ruth Turner, a senior aide in Blair's Downing Street office, was questioned as part of the same inquiry. Officers are probing claims that wealthy individuals were nominated for seats in the House of Lords, Britain's unelected upper chamber of parliament, after offering financial backing for the ruling Labour Party's 2005 general election campaign. The main opposition Conservatives and third party Liberal Democrats...