Sources close to a Commonwealth legal panel that investigated Kenya's judiciary last year said that only three of the country's 310 judges were neither corrupt nor incompetent.

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For example, it justifies the retention of Europe's biggest navy, and a plan to construct two giant aircraft-carriers, by stressing Britain's worldwide interests: a trade-oriented economy, with 10m citizens living overseas, 13 dependent territories and close ties to other Commonwealth states.

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But the government, in the form of the Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg, is likely to resist any substantive amendments, because the terms of the bill have had to be worked out in close collaboration with the other Commonwealth countries who have the Queen as their head of state.

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The UK's Foreign and Commonwealth Office confirmed it had been providing "consular assistance" to the three men, and had "been in close contact with Reprieve".

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