Australian Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd resigned Wednesday, his office said, amid speculation that he might mount a leadership challenge to Prime Minister Julia Gillard. The Australian media have been abuzz in recent days with reports that Rudd is considering contesting Gillard’s leadership of the governing Labor Party. Observers predicted a showdown could take place next [...]
Officials with the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency begin a second round of talks Monday with Iranian officials over the country’s nuclear program, a day after Tehran cut off crude exports to British and French companies in retaliation for a new round of sanctions imposed on the regime. The two days of talks come amid heightened [...]
You might be interested in some highlights from a debate last night, called “What hope for the economy? Capitalism in crisis”. The event, organised by Intelligence Squared, included a section on the eurozone crisis. Stephen King, group chief economist at HSBC, claimed Germany suffered from “a degree of economic illiteracy” for believing that the world [...]
Not long after Russia’s foreign minister touted the Syrian president’s “commitment” to ending violence, at least 47 people were killed in bloodshed Wednesday, an opposition activist group said. Government forces stormed three homes in a Homs neighborhood, killing three “unarmed” families — a total of 20 people, the opposition Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. [...]
Greece appeared intent on taking make-or-break talks over a €130bn (£108bn) rescue programme for the debt-choked country down to the wire tonight as officials announced that the discussions would be delayed. Confounding market expectation and European hopes, the government said agreement over the conditions attached to further aid could not be reached as a meeting [...]
Thousands of Syrians waving Russian flags cheered Russia’s foreign minister as he arrived in Damascus Tuesday for talks with embattled President Bashar Assad on the country’s escalating violence. Sergey Lavrov’s visit comes days after Syrian allies Russia and China vetoed a Western- and Arab-backed resolution at the United Nations that would have condemned the Assad [...]
Iran’s oil minister called on the European Union to review its decision to impose sanctions on the Islamic state’s oil exports and said that the international oil market was balanced. “Unfortunately the EU has succumbed to America’s pressure. I hope they would review their decision on sanctioning Iran’s oil exports … the oil market is [...]
He has been described as everything from Messianic visionary to terrorist, courageous battler for government accountability to sexual abuser. So why not chatshow host? That is the latest surprise incarnation announced by Julian Assange, who last week revealed his next step, after 13 months on bail fighting extradition to Sweden over sex assault accusations, would [...]
European Union leaders agreed Monday to strengthen a financial firewall and most members of the 27-nation group will sign a new fiscal compact. But the first summit of the year ended without new solutions for the debt crisis in Greece. The leaders of all but two members the 27-nation EU agreed to sign a [...]
Dozens of Occupy London protesters have been evicted from a disused office block in the City of London, criticising police and bailiffs for what they called heavy-handed and “utterly irresponsible” tactics. Around 50 protesters were evicted peacefully from the UBS-owned building they had turned into an educational hub called the Bank of Ideas, shortly after [...]