New Culture Secretary for the U.K.

LONDON, June 28: Gordon Brown, the new British Prime
Minister, has appointed James Purnell as Secretary of State for Culture, Media
and Sport, succeeding Tessa Jowell.

Jowell, meanwhile, has retained responsibilities for the
2012 Olympics in London.

Purnell spent two years at the BBC in the mid-90s as head of
corporate planning, before becoming a special adviser on culture, media and
sport for then PM Tony Blair. He become an MP in 2001, and in 2005 became
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Department for Culture, Media and
Sport, before being named Minister of State for Pensions Reform at the
Department of Work and Pensions.