2010-05-11 BBC
BBC News with Iain Purdon.
The British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has announced that he intends to stand down as leader of the Labour Party within months. Mr Brown said he had no desire to stay in his post longer than was needed to form a stable government following last week's inconclusive general election.
"I therefore intend to ask the Labour Party to set in train the processes needed for its own leadership election. I would hope that it would be completed in time for the new leader to be in post by the time of the Labour Party conference. I will play no part in that contest, I will back no individual candidate."
Mr Brown also said the Labour was opening formal talks with the Liberal Democrats, who have been negotiating with the Conservative Party about a possible coalition. The Liberal Democrat Leader Nick Clegg said Mr Brown's announcement could be important for a smooth transition towards a new government.
A leading Conservative William Hague said the Liberal Democrats would be making a great mistake if they tried to construct the government with Labour, because it would not be stable. He said that his party was willing to give ground on a key Liberal Democrat demand and move towards a more representative voting system.
"In the interests of trying to create a stable, secure government, we will go the extra mile, and we will offer to the Liberal Democrats, in a coalition government, the holding of a referendum on the Alternative Vote system, so that the people of this country can decide what the best electoral system is for the future."
More than a hundred people have been killed across Iraq in the bloodiest day of the year so far. The worst violence was in the central town of Hilla where at least 45 people died when three bombs exploded near a clothing factory. Elsewhere seven people were killed by a car bomb in the southern city of Basra and seven security personnel were shot dead in apparently coordinated attacks in Bagdad.
President Obama has nominated his Solicitor-General Elena Kagan for a seat on the US Supreme Court. The court yields enormous power over American lives, as Mark Mardell reports from Washington.
This is a job for life from a court that interprets the American constitution’s impact on the country's law ruling on such hot topics as abortion, guns and freedom of speech. 50-year-old Elena Kagan could influence the shape of America for decades to come. She worked in the Clinton White House and went on to become the very well-respected dean of Harvard Law School. The Senate has to approve this nomination. Elena Kagan is a Liberal replacing a Liberal, but she might get a hard time simply because of the fractious political atmosphere at the moment. Republicans could focus on the fact she’s never been a judge and has a history of opposing the ban on gay people serving in the military.
The oil company BP says it's trying several new ways to stop the huge leak from a blown-out well in the Gulf of Mexico. It said it would try to place a small containment box over the rupture after efforts to install a larger device failed. BP has also been trying to thin the oil spill by using underwater chemical dispersants.
World News from the BBC.
European stock markets have risen sharply after the announcement of a one-trillion-dollar international financial package aimed at defending the euro and stopping the debt crisis in Greece from spreading. There've been fears the crisis could spread to other European economies. Andrew Walker reports.
European stock markets have made large gains, 9% in the case of Paris. Bank shares have risen especially strongly. The European deal to provide loans to Europe countries if they need them is seemed as reducing the risk of those governments defaulting on their debts. The euro has also gained an interest rate on the debts of governments such as Greece and Portugal have fallen. The central banks began to buy those debts in the markets. There's also been an impact outside Europe, where there have been concerns about wider economic effects.
Share prices in the United States have also recovered strongly following the announcement of the package to defend the euro. The Dow Jones Index closed up nearly 4% on Monday following heavy losses last week.
The US-based Carter Center which monitored the elections in Sudan last month has described vote counting as chaotic, non-transparent and vulnerable to manipulation. The organisation headed by the former US president Jimmy Carter said that he was concerned about the accuracy of preliminary results announced by the National Election Commission. The Sudanese authorities have admitted that a video posed on the Internet showing alleged ballot stuffing in last month elections was real and not a fabrication as they’d earlier claimed.
Prosecutors in Taiwan have brought criminal charges against a woman accused of forcing three female Muslim workers to eat pork after she hired them from Indonesia. They said the woman believed the pork would give the Indonesians more stamina for work and had threatened to cut their pay if they didn't obey. Eating pork is forbidden to Muslims for religious reasons. Human rights activists say the abuse of foreign workers remains a serious problem in Taiwan.
BBC News.