Vicki Barker

The flame for the London Olympics, which was ignited by the rays of the sun in the 2,800-year-old Temple of Hera in Greece, arrives in the UK Saturday. It was carried from Olympia in a lantern that flew aboard a gold-painted plane. Vicki Barker has more on the flame's relay race to London.

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RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:

Britain is a nation in shock, following yesterday's announcement that its economy has slipped back into recession. The bad news is raising new questions about the government's unpopular austerity measures.

Vicki Barker has more from London.

VICKI BARKER, BYLINE: The news that Britain's economy has fallen into the dreaded double-dip recession caught everyone off guard - including Prime Minister David Cameron, who was immediately hit by a wave of criticism from parliament.

(SOUNDBITE OF VOICES)

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RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

Today marks the 32nd annual London Marathon. Summer Olympic hopeful, Wilson Kipsang, won the men's race, while fellow Kenyan Mary Keitany won the women's for a second consecutive year. Others, well, Vicki Barker met the event's most seasoned veterans: the so-called Ever-Presents, who've run in all 31 previous marathons. Time is reducing their numbers, she says - but not their enthusiasm.

(SOUNDBITE OF RAIN FALLING)

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RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

The annual Oxford-Cambridge University boat race took place in London yesterday. And reporter Vicki Barker was one of those throwing a party along the race route. For boat race party-throwers and the oarsmen themselves, the day unfolds with military precision - or at least it's supposed to. Vicki Barker has more.

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN #1: The man duck saw that something needed to be done...

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DAVID GREENE, HOST:

Now, one way governments raise money is by issuing bonds: you or your pension fund lend them the money, and they then pay a set amount of interest for a set amount of time, say 10 or 20 years. Well, Britain's finance minister, George Osborne, is reportedly ready to announce that the UK plans to issue a bond that only your great-grandchildren will be able to cash in. It matures in a hundred years.

Vicki Barker has this report from London.

The resignation of the archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, comes at a time of tension within the Anglican Church over issues related to homosexuality as well as women bishops. Vicki Barker has reaction to the news.

In Britain, there's a long waiting list of British animal lovers hoping to take in aging police horses. Once retired, the horses aren't supposed to be ridden again.

Unless, it seems, you're Rebekah Brooks, the former tabloid editor and chief executive of Rupert Murdoch's News International, or David Cameron, the man who would become Britain's prime minister.

The ongoing inquiry into the relationship between the police and news media has uncovered a new scandal: Scotland Yard appears to have loaned Brooks a police horse back in 2008.