Politics

• Saturday, June 6th 2009 - 14:14 UTC

  Right wing British National Party wins several county council seats

  

  Right wing British National Party has won its first county council seats in Lancashire and Leicestershire as Labour was humiliated in local elections across England. Elsewhere, Peter Davies of the English Democrats celebrated victory in Doncaster's mayoral election and Labour lost its four remaining county councils to the Tories.

• Saturday, June 6th 2009 - 14:07 UTC

  Chinalco “disappointed” with Rio Tinto’s decision to scrap deal

  

  Aluminium Corp. of China, or Chinalco, confirmed Friday that Australian mining firm Rio Tinto has scrapped the proposed 19.5 billion US dollars of investment by Chinalco, and Rio Tinto would pay a break fee of 195 million U.S. dollars to the Chinese aluminium maker.

• Saturday, June 6th 2009 - 14:01 UTC

  Rio Tinto decision was not “political” Australia assures Beijing

  

  The Australian government reassured China on Saturday that miner Rio Tinto's decision to walk away from a 19.5 billion US dollars by investment by Beijing was not a political move.

• Saturday, June 6th 2009 - 13:52 UTC

  PM Brown and reshuffled cabinet cling on

  

  British Prime Minister Gordon Brown unveiled Friday a reshuffled cabinet and vowed to “fight on” with his “resilient” team to rescue the economy and clean up politics. He admitted Labour had suffered “a painful defeat” in Thursday's polls but added: “I will not waver. I will not walk away. I will get on with the job.” And he unveiled Glenys Kinnock as Europe minister in a surprise move.

• Friday, June 5th 2009 - 13:35 UTC

  Air France crash mystery deepens

  

  The mystery surrounding the crash of an Air France plane off the coast of Brazil deepened after Brazilian officials said items they had pulled from the sea were not in fact debris from the downed Airbus.

• Friday, June 5th 2009 - 13:16 UTC

  Falkland Islands: Weekly Penguin News Update

  

  Headlines: ‘A step back for the West’ - SAAS is forced to drop Fox Bay from its schedule; Will Falklands Landholdings split up its farms?; Shackleton joins Ross and Fitzroy at school; Islander abroad honoured.

• Friday, June 5th 2009 - 13:08 UTC

  Raul Castro removes architect of the “convertible peso”

  

  The head of Cuba's central bank Francisco Soberón has resigned after holding the job for fifteen years. He was replaced by Ernesto Medina who heads Banco Financiero Internacional, one of Cuba's biggest banks, according to an official announcement read on Thursday evening news.

• Friday, June 5th 2009 - 08:21 UTC

  The noose tightens: another ministerial shove for PM Brown to step down

  

  British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has been put under further pressure to step down as Work and Pensions Secretary James Purnell dramatically announced he was quitting the Cabinet as polls closed in crunch elections.

• Friday, June 5th 2009 - 08:13 UTC

  Argentina’s spat with Uruguay not exclusive, say diplomats

  

  The diplomatic spat to which Uruguay is being exposed by Argentina over the Botnia pulp mill conflict is not exclusive or an isolated case, it was revealed during a recent meeting of Uruguayan ambassadors that returned to Montevideo to address trade issues.

• Friday, June 5th 2009 - 05:29 UTC

  US not contemplating the end of the embargo on Cuba

  

  The United States government said it was satisfied with the resolution which revoked OAS sanctions on Cuba, but warned that it’s “not contemplating” for the moment talking about an end on the half century embargo on the Havana regime.