Racial Relations England

Police fought to restore order in the northern British city of Bradford after hours of race riots that left 80 officers injured by a hail of bricks, bottles and gasoline bombs. Five civilians were hospitalized--two with stab wounds--after violence erupted between white and South Asian youths in Bradford, where a scheduled far-right parade had been banned by police.

Police arrested nearly 50 people, 31 of them whites, in this Midlands town Sunday after another round of racial violence hit inner-city Britain. A police spokeswoman said the unrest may have been sparked by a rumor that members of the ultra-rightist British National Party planned to march through the city. "A group of more than 100 Asian men gathered in Waterloo Road in Cobridge and a group of police was sent to deal with the crowd," she said.

Demonstrators fought running battles with riot police and pelted them with stones Saturday after Britain's biggest anti-racist demonstration in 15 years was hijacked by violent troublemakers. Police said the street clashes, the worst since 1990 riots over the unpopular local "poll tax," were caused by an extremist minority. March organizers said police attracted trouble by stressing the possibility of violence.

Police fought to restore order in the northern British city of Bradford after hours of race riots that left 80 officers injured by a hail of bricks, bottles and gasoline bombs. Five civilians were hospitalized--two with stab wounds--after violence erupted between white and South Asian youths in Bradford, where a scheduled far-right parade had been banned by police.

While Queen Elizabeth II sent Christmas greetings paying tribute to those seeking peace in Northern Ireland, Jesse Jackson created a controversy here Sunday with his alternative holiday message in which he compared the Conservative government and party with racism and fascism. The speeches by the queen and by Jackson, a civil rights leader and onetime American presidential candidate, aired at the same time, on separate television channels.

Britain's government Wednesday promised to overhaul the country's race laws after releasing a scathing report on the 1993 slaying of a black teenager that blames police "racism and incompetence" for failing to bring his killers to justice. The murder case is Britain's Jasper, Texas, and Rodney G.

Stephen Lawrence and a friend, both black and 18, were waiting for a bus home in a rough part of southeast London on the night of April 22, 1993, when a group of white youths attacked them, punching, kicking and yelling racial epithets. Passersby remember a scuffle. The white youths ran one way. The victims tried to run the other. But Lawrence was bleeding too heavily to go far. He died, of two stab wounds, before an ambulance arrived.

In this hardscrabble former mill town, they were sweeping broken glass and piling heaps of shattered bricks Monday, cleaning up after Britain's worst outbreak of racial violence in years. Harder to rebuild, community leaders say, will be the harmony they insist that Oldham--a onetime textile center of about 220,000 people on the outskirts of the northwestern city of Manchester--once enjoyed.

Police arrested nearly 50 people, 31 of them whites, in this Midlands town Sunday after another round of racial violence hit inner-city Britain. A police spokeswoman said the unrest may have been sparked by a rumor that members of the ultra-rightist British National Party planned to march through the city. "A group of more than 100 Asian men gathered in Waterloo Road in Cobridge and a group of police was sent to deal with the crowd," she said.

Riot police restored calm to the town of Burnley in northwestern England early today after a flare-up of racial tensions between whites and Asians. Several cars and two buildings were set on fire. The police, backed by a helicopter, were deployed to keep groups of white and Asian youths apart in the town, 20 miles northwest of Oldham--scene last month of Britain's worst race riots in a decade.

Riot police restored calm to the town of Burnley in northwestern England early today after a flare-up of racial tensions between whites and Asians. Several cars and two buildings were set on fire. The police, backed by a helicopter, were deployed to keep groups of white and Asian youths apart in the town, 20 miles northwest of Oldham--scene last month of Britain's worst race riots in a decade.

The shattered windows of the Live and Let Live pub have been boarded up. The burned-out automobile carcasses and police barricades have been removed since Britain's worst race riots in decades broke out last weekend. But the rage that fueled two nights of pitched street battles between police officers and Pakistani and Bangladeshi youths is still simmering. The wounds inflicted on all sectors of this deeply segregated town on the outskirts of Manchester are open. "We are a part of this country.

In this hardscrabble former mill town, they were sweeping broken glass and piling heaps of shattered bricks Monday, cleaning up after Britain's worst outbreak of racial violence in years. Harder to rebuild, community leaders say, will be the harmony they insist that Oldham--a onetime textile center of about 220,000 people on the outskirts of the northwestern city of Manchester--once enjoyed.

Britain's government Wednesday promised to overhaul the country's race laws after releasing a scathing report on the 1993 slaying of a black teenager that blames police "racism and incompetence" for failing to bring his killers to justice. The murder case is Britain's Jasper, Texas, and Rodney G.

Stephen Lawrence and a friend, both black and 18, were waiting for a bus home in a rough part of southeast London on the night of April 22, 1993, when a group of white youths attacked them, punching, kicking and yelling racial epithets. Passersby remember a scuffle. The white youths ran one way. The victims tried to run the other. But Lawrence was bleeding too heavily to go far. He died, of two stab wounds, before an ambulance arrived.

The Empire came home to Britain on a cold June morning in 1948. Docking in London, the S.S. Empire Windrush delivered 500 passengers from Jamaica, black men in suits carrying British passports and hungry for waiting jobs. For the first time, large numbers of people who weren't white had arrived to live and work among the British at home. Fast forward to 1998.

Business was booming the other day at Rocky's, a greasy street-corner sandwich shop in the heart of one of London's worst ghettos. But few customers were there for the chicken and fries that Abdul the proprietor offered at his caged luncheon counter. Most had come for the drugs. Marijuana and hashish, mostly, sold in small quantities by the dozen or so young men who spend their days in and around Rocky's.

Conservative Member of Parliament Winston Churchill, grandson and namesake of Britain's wartime prime minister, set off a public outcry Saturday by calling for an urgent halt to the "relentless flow" of immigrants into Britain. Addressing a Conservative Party gathering in northern England, Churchill said that the British way of life and liberal democracy are threatened by immigration, particularly from the Indian subcontinent.

While Queen Elizabeth II sent Christmas greetings paying tribute to those seeking peace in Northern Ireland, Jesse Jackson created a controversy here Sunday with his alternative holiday message in which he compared the Conservative government and party with racism and fascism. The speeches by the queen and by Jackson, a civil rights leader and onetime American presidential candidate, aired at the same time, on separate television channels.