Politics

Lord Hattersley, the former deputy leader of the Labour party, has said Tony Blair should stand down as British Prime Minister in September. He said the party would be damaged if Mr Blair remained in Downing Street after this year's Labour conference, which will be held in Manchester in two months' time. "The Prime Minister ought not to announce he's going at party conference - he ought to go at party conference," he told GMTV's Sunday Programme. "The longer he stays on, the more damaging it is for him as well as the party in my view." The

Seven Canadians were killed, and six others were in critical condition, after an Israeli raid in Lebanon on Sunday, Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay announced. The deaths were believed to be the first recent casualties in Lebanon from any G8 country. Associated Press reports anonymous Lebanese officials saying the family of Canadians were killed at their home in the town of Aitaroun. Many Lebanese citizens have emigrated to Canada and often return to spend their summers in the south of Lebanon. Sixteen thousand Canadians have

The Royal Navy aircraft carrier HMS Illustrious and landing ship HMS Bulwark have been ordered to 'make ready' to sail to Lebanon. It is reported that UK ministers are considering plans to evacuate UK citizens who are trapped there due to the Israeli naval blocade of Lebanese ports and the closure of Beirut airport on 13th July after Israeli airstrikes. It is also reported that they will help any New Zealand citizens as New Zealand does not have an embassy. HMS Bulwark is currently off the coast of Spain and HMS Illustrious is in Gibraltar. T

The US President George W. Bush agreed to sign a bill that would allow for a limited judicial review of the National Security Agency's controversial eavesdropping program, said the Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter (R). A White House spokeswoman also confirmed the same. Sen. Specter said that the bill will clear the way for a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) court to "consider the program as a whole and to make a decision on it." Under the "Terrorist Surveillance Program", NSA conducts surveillance on interna

A controversial defamation court case is continuing today in Edinburgh after hearing fresh allegations against one of Scotland's most influential politicians. Tommy Sheridan, a Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) and convener of the Scottish Socialist Party, is pressing ahead with the case despite claims of orgies and other sexual acts by tabloid newspaper The News of the World. Since the case began over a week ago, the courtroom has heard allegations from several journalists, MSPs and colleagues of Mr Sheridan, with witnesses telling of s

The Agni III missile launch was not completely successful. The missile developed a snag and fell into the Bay of Bengal sea without hitting the target. Scientists said that they would analyse the scientific data and refire the missile at a later stage. The Indian Defence Minister, Pranab Mukherjee told the Times of India newspaper, "The take-off was successful but there were some problems later," India's most sophisticated Intermediate Range Ballistic Missile (IRBM) to date, the Agni III was test-fired off the Orissa coast earlier today. The

India's most sophisticated Intermediate Range Ballistic Missile (IRBM) to date, the Agni III was test-fired off the Orissa coast earlier today. The missile took off from a fixed platform at the Integrated Test Range at Wheeler Island at 11:05 IST (05:35 GMT) in the presence of Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee and his scientific advisor M. Natarajan. The missile took off vertically into space before re-entering the atmosphere and splashing down near Nicobar Island in the Bay of Bengal. Three sophisticated radars, six electro-optical tracking

The Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said today that immunity from prosecution granted to coalition troops in Iraq has encouraged atrocities. "We believe that the immunity given to members of coalition forces encouraged them to commit such crimes in cold blood (and) that makes it necessary to review it," al-Maliki said during a visit to Kuwait. He called for either a joint investigation or an independent Iraqi investigation into the March 12 rape and murder of an Iraqi girl, allegedly by US soldiers. The mother, father and 5 year old s

Yesterday saw Thailand's Attorney General file charges of election fraud with the country's Constitutional court. According to Sondhi Limthongkul's ThaiDay, the action seeking the dissolution of five parties was delivered by truck and consisted of over 120,000 pages of legal citations. Both the Thai Rak Thai party making up the caretaker government and the main opposition Democrats are named. The allegations centre on claims that Thai Rak Thai paid minor parties to participate where seats would otherwise be unopposed, and that the Democrats

Facing criticism, potential 2008 presidential candidate and current Federal Senator Joe Biden has been forced to explain his recent remark that "you cannot go to a 7-Eleven or a Dunkin' Donuts unless you have a slight Indian accent." On a recent edition of the C-SPAN series "Road to the White House," the Delaware senator is shown shaking hands with a man and boasting about his support among Indian-Americans. "I've had a great relationship. In Delaware, the largest growth in population is Indian-Americans moving from India. You cannot go to a

Presidential candidate Felipe Calderón was declared the winner of a close race on Thursday in the Mexican general election. The leading rival candidate, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, did not concede and said that he would mobilize public rallies and seek to contest the results in court. Both leading Mexican presidential candidates earlier proclaimed victory in the Mexican presidential race despite notice from Mexico's Federal Electoral Institute (IFE) that the numbers were too close to determine the winner. Poll workers began a recount of vote

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper met with President George W. Bush at the White House today. The meeting was a short one and focused primarily on global security, particularly bilateral security issues addressing the two countries. One of the larger issues was the pending U.S. law that would require everyone crossing the Canada-U.S. border to have a passport or a special identification card. Prime Minister Harper said; "if the fight for security ends up meaning that the United States becomes more closed to its friends, then the